It's hard out here for a pimp.

Back like they never left!

Netflix and chill on fleek!

Ready to ease on down the road?

Cookie takes us to church!

Watch the premiere of Baggage Claim, tonight at 8P/7C.

Will this turn out the way she wants it to?

The 2023/24 harness pony racing season continued at the National Equestrian Center on Vesey Street. Phillip Correia in the bike of War Machine were double winners on the day in the 1:04 & faster time bar class, Kirista Rabain and Gold Rush were double winners in the 1:14&0 & slower time bar class. Heat 1 […]

The Department of Marine & Ports Services has released the weekly shipping schedule for ship arrivals commencing on Saturday, November 9th. On Sunday the Insignia cruise ship is expected, on Monday the Oleander container ship and the Zuiderdam cruise ship will arrive, and on Tuesday the Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship is scheduled to arrive. On […]

The police issued “538 tickets for various traffic offences during the last two weeks,” and “over 1000 vehicles were stopped during Roadside Sobriety Checkpoint exercises this past weekend.” A police spokesperson said, “With Operation Vega remaining in place, 538 tickets were issued for various traffic offences during the last two weeks. That’s up from 353 […]

Eight people were arrested for DUI offences over the Labour Day holiday weekend, with the highest breathalyzer reading more than twice the legal limit. The police posted online, saying: “There were eight persons arrested for DUI offences over the Labour Day holiday weekend.” The police added, “The highest breathalyzer reading was 197mg of alcohol in 100ml […]

The BOA Gender Diversity & Inclusion Committee will host a weekend celebrating women in sport, starting with a Young Girl’s Symposium on Friday [Nov 8] and culminating in the Women in Sport Leadership Awards on Sunday [Nov 10]. A spokesperson said, “As we approach the BOA Gender Diversity & Inclusion Committee’s highly anticipated weekend dedicated […]

Andrew Armstrong has been named the Rookie of the Week by the Atlantic 10 Conference. The announcement from his University said, “The Atlantic 10 Conference announced their weekly men’s soccer awards and recognized University of Dayton freshman Andrew Armstrong as A-10 Rookie of the Week. “Armstrong scored a pair of goals for the second straight game […]

The Bermuda Cricket Board [BCB] has announced the Athene T20 Senior Men’s Premier and First Division Leagues weekly award winners. A spokesperson said, “The BCB is pleased to announce the full list of weekly Most Runs and Most Wickets winners during the recently concluded Athene T20 Senior Men’s Premier and First Division Leagues of 2024. […]

Myles Darrell will deliver a presentation as part of Roche Science Week activities on February 7th, with the presentation to focus on the preservation and protection of Bermuda’s native and endemic flora. A spokesperson said, “Bermuda’s conservation efforts began more than 400 years ago when legislation was passed to protect her sea turtles. Now, well into […]

The Bermuda Tourism Authority is set to host Restaurant Weeks from January 18 to February 29, with over 45 restaurants offer two-course lunches and three-course dinners, with prices ranging from $25 to $59. A spokesperson said, “Get ready for a unique culinary adventure as the Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] proudly presents Restaurant Weeks, a six-week celebration of […]

“This winter has been a difficult one for many fishermen as windy conditions have limited the number of fishing days,” said the Minister of Home Affairs, Walter Roban, following detailed discussions with technical experts in the department and a review of information on local fisheries, particularly the Hind Grounds, “As such, to assist the fishermen, […]

Unstoried announced the hosting of the first stop on Amazon bestselling author James Weeks’ book tour in Bermuda. A spokesperson said, “Local company Unstoried will host the first stop on Amazon bestselling author James Weeks book tour in Bermuda this Saturday March 9th at 12:00 pm at the Bermuda Society of Arts in City Hall. […]

The Bermuda National Library has invited the public to celebrate National Library Week from April 8th to 12th. A spokesperson said, “Celebrate National Library Week with us from April 8th -12th. Immerse yourself in the enriching world of knowledge and community. Limitless learning at your fingertips all for free with your library card! National Library Outreach […]

The Jamaican Association [Bermuda] will host the Marcus Garvey Symposium at the Bermuda College Lecture Theatre next Thursday [November 14]. The event, which runs from 6 pm to 9 pm, will commemorate the anniversary of Mr Garvey’s 1928 visit to Bermuda. Jamaican Mr Garvey was the leader of the Pan-Africanism movement, which aimed to unite […]

The Bermuda Equestrian Federation announced that “its dynamic Welcome Home Show Committee will be hosting an exciting December horse show at the National Equestrian Center on 9th and 10th December.” A spokesperson said, “You may recall that, under the leadership of McKeisha Smith, the Welcome Home Show [WHS] Committee also successfully organized the equestrian ring […]

Bermuda College Technical Education Instructor Joseph Weeks has been awarded a National Energy Global Award by the international group, Energy Globe Foundation. The award comes as a result of his work and leadership on the College’s solar-powered Aquaponics Greenhouse Project, launched nearly three years ago. The project was among more than 2,500 projects from 180 […]

Following his recent victory in a 5K, Ryan Outerbridge has been named the Male Athlete of the Week by the Northeast-10 Conference. The Bermudian runner competes for Franklin Pierce University, and their report said, “The Northeast-10 Conference released its week one honors Tuesday and senior runner Ryan Outerbridge [Paget, Bermuda] earned Male Athlete of the […]

Joseph Cechini finished 4th in the 2024 Family Weekend Invitational, Kiski School Cross Country Meet. Cechinin, representing Mercersburg Academy, covered the 5K distance with a time of 18:49.8. Related Stories Prunty Claims Victory At AXA Man On The Run Schindel Competes In OFSAA Championships Sean Trott Reflects On NY Marathon Display Nakeno Creighton Memorial XC […]

Speed returned to the Southside Motor Sports Park as the Bermuda Karting Club’s race day 13 took place. Brian Bulhoes won two of the three tag senior class races, with Nathan DeCosta winning the other, while Roman Wilkinson won all three tag junior class races. Scott Barnes took the checkered flag in all three races […]

The final race day of the Bermuda Karting Club’s season took place at the Southside Motor Sports Park. Brian Bulhoes won two of the three tag senior class races, with J’Auza James winning the other, while Roman Wilkinson won two of the three tag junior class races, and Lucas Flood won the other. Jason North […]

The Bermuda Karting Club’s 2024/2025 season continued at the Southside Motorsports Park, delivering a day of high-octane action. Nathan DeCosta demonstrated his mastery in the tag senior class, securing a clean sweep of victories across all three races. His dominance was mirrored by Syah Pedro in the tag junior class, who similarly claimed the top […]

The Bermuda Karting Club’s 2024/2025 race season saw the third race day at the Southside Motor Sports Park. William Dunkley won two of the three tag senior class races, with Jason Correia winning the other, Syah Pedro won all three races in the tag junior class races. Brian Bulhoes won all three L206 class races, […]

Crime Stoppers Bermuda will hold their 7th Annual Weekend Film Experience from February 29 to March 2, 2024. A spokesperson said, “Crime Stoppers Bermuda is thrilled to announce the 7th Annual Weekend Film Experience, its premiere fundraising event, to be held from February 29 to March 2, 2024, at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute [BUEI]. This […]

The B1 Empowerment Weekend on September 20-21, 2024, will feature ‘B1: The Movie’ screenings and discussions with filmmaker Dr. Ric Mathis. A spokesperson said, “On Friday and Saturday, September 20th and 21st, 2024, an empowering weekend has been planned for community engagement featuring a screening of the powerful film, B1:The Movie, and discussions with Atlanta […]

Per the Star Trek On Paramount+ Twitter account, this week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks will feature...

“The policing plan implemented over the just concluded Cup Match holiday weekend, was in the main, successful in preventing any major criminal activity,” the police said, adding that there “were thirty-six arrests for various offences, the majority being for outstanding warrants.” A police spokesperson said, “However of particular concern, among them were ten persons arrested for […]

“This was a heinous and cowardly act of violence directed at our police officers last night,” Minister of National Security Michael Weeks said. Minister Weeks said, “We are grateful that no one was hurt during this dangerous incident. This is a threat to law and order, and we must all do our part to bring the […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Aspiring model Nalia Mitchell had the experience of a lifetime strutting down the catwalk at the recent New York Fashion Week Festival. Mitchell was among a handful of Bermudians who successfully applied for the Model Experience, which allowed participants to walk the runway, connect with brands and designers, share the stage […]

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Owen Darrell recently attended Caribbean Week hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation [CTO] in New York from June 16 – 21, 2024. A Government spokesperson said, “This year’s event at the InterContinental New York Times Square, marked the organisation’s 35th anniversary. It brought together the region’s finest tourism representatives […]

As Bermuda’s second annual Art Month draws to a close, the Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] “encourages both locals and visitors to take advantage of the ongoing exhibitions and remaining events that have made this celebration of Bermuda’s vibrant culture and creativity such a success.” A spokesperson said, “While October is nearly over, the exhibits at […]

Season 2, Act I of "Arcane," the animated series based on the popular multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends, also had a strong debut, taking second place with 6.3M views.

OMG, it happened AGAIN!!! THE SPELLSHOP hit the NYT Bestseller List for the 4th time! At #13 this week! And hit the USA Today list for the 5th week in a row! Thank you all so much for making my dreams come true over and over and over and over again!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2024/08/25/hardcover-fiction/

It happened again. FIVE WEEKS ON THE NYT LIST!!! And on the USA Today list for seven weeks in a row! How is this possible?!? Thank you all so incredibly much for all the love you've shown THE SPELLSHOP. I am grateful beyond my ability to express. 

https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2024/09/08/hardcover-fiction/

Six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list! And eight weeks in a row on the USA Today list! I'm overwhelmed. Thank you so much to everyone who took this story in and allowed it to mingle with your heart! 

https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2024/09/15/hardcover-fiction/

This weekend is another FREE pass to our National Parks.
Matthew Daly in Washington, D.C. Associated Press June 15, 2009

The U.S. National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations at national parks, starting this weekend.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced earlier this month that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments—including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite—will be waived on three weekends this summer. The weekends are June 20 and 21, July 18 and 19, and August 15 and 16.

"During these tough economic times, our national parks provide opportunities for affordable vacations for families," Salazar said at a news conference at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.

"I encourage everyone to visit one of our nation's crown jewels this summer and especially to take advantage of the three free-admission weekends."

Most Americans live less than a day's drive from a national park, Salazar said. Last year national parks attracted more than 275 million visits, generating an estimated U.S. $10.6 billion for local economies and supporting more than 213,000 jobs, he said.

For the Park Service, the free weekends will mean a loss of an estimated half million dollars a day from entrance fees that range from $3 to $25. A total of 147 parks and monuments charge entrance fees. The country's other 244 parks are already free.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokesperson for Salazar, said the lost revenue should be more than offset by an increase in park tourism. Many tour operators, hotels, restaurants, gift shops, and other vendors near national parks will offer other discounts and special promotions on the free-weekend dates, she said.

The waiver applies only to entrance fees and does not affect charges for camping, reservations, tours, or concessions, Salazar said.

Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat representing Montana, applauded the free weekends. Baucus has co-sponsored a bill that would cap park entrance fees at current rates unless approved by Congress. The bill also would limit fees on national forests and other federally managed lands.

"There is nothing better than spending a weekend in Glacier or Yellowstone, and to be able to do it without straining the budget is even better," Baucus said in a statement. "Folks should be able to enjoy our outdoor heritage without going broke."

Kitty Benzar, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, a Colorado-based group that opposes fees on public lands, said Salazar's announcement was an admission that high fees are a deterrent to park visits.

"Twenty, 25 dollars does mean a lot to people," she said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Okay, it's been a while, but I thought I'd finally post about the 2017 Austin Ironman 70.3 race weekend. :-). Like I mentioned in my last post, I felt fairly optimistic -- if anything I was a bit burned out on training.

The big kicker, though, was that the weather was forecast to be 38 degrees race morning, which resulted in a bit of last-minute anxiety, mostly due to the mantra, "Don't do anything different on race day." That is, it is unwise in the extreme to test out new equipment or clothing on race day. Unfortunately, faced with the prospect of a 38 degree swim and bike ride (and the fact that it would warm up quickly), we had to make some last minute adjustments.

The week before the race, I picked up a triathlon jersey that had sleeves, and borrowed some arm warmers from one of my training partners.  Saturday morning, I went for a five mile test ride and realized I needed gloves, which necessitated a trip to Austin Tri-Cyclist, where I was not the only one making such a purchase :-). 

I was still a bit concerned about the swim, but I had a wetsuit, so I figured I'd done all I could do. Still, I was coveting one with sleeves...
I next headed over to the Travis County Expo Center to pick up my swag bag, drop off my bicycle and gear, and check out the transition areas.

Our happy faces before we get out of the car into the cold...

 Next morning, three of us drove out together and arrived in the cold dark of the Travis County Expo. Center at around 5:30. Did I mention that it was cold? Eventually, we got on the bus to take us to the staging area at Walter Long (Decker) Lake. There, we put on wetsuits, met up with our other training partners, and shivered a lot.

Eventually, though, as the sun started to peak above the horizon, we lined up according to our projected swim times and prepared for the start of the race. I was still worried about the swim and the cold -- even though I was wearing socks (to be discarded just before start), my feet were starting to go numb and my arms were not happy either.

But then it was time! I ran into the water and dived in as soon as I could. To my surprise, it was actually pleasant -- the water itself was around 68-72 degrees, so compared to the air temperature, it was balmy.  The only real problem was that fog on the water and the glare of the sun were making it hard to see the buoys. About halfway through the swim I began thinking that the temperature really wasn't bad -- if anything, it was a bit too warm. 

Emerging from the water...

But then I finished the swim and stood and was confronted by the reality of confronting an air temp of around 40 while being soaking wet.  I grabbed my glasses from the special needs table and a nice man helped me get the wetsuit off. (This basically involved lying back on the wet ground, sticking my feet in the air and having him pull. Thank you, sir.). My time was a little slower than I would've liked, but I was fairly happy with it.

I made it to transition, took a big swig of water, swallowed the contents of an energy gel pack, and put on my winter cycling garb. Then I was off!

And it was frickin' cold.

Contemplating that wind chill...

 It was this weird Catch-22 where you want to go as fast as possible (for the race, of course, but also so you warm up), but also kind of are thinking that if you slowed down a touch the wind chill wouldn't be quite so bad.  I ended up spending the next hour shivering until the ambient temperature and I warmed up.
Now, I actually kind of like the bike route -- it's mostly country roads with little traffic, and I rode the route about a half-dozen times in training. The problem with it is that a number of the roads are not exactly well=paved. Bumps and potholes and patches proliferate, especially on Monkey Road. In fact, the dip where it crosses a creek is so bumpy that by the time I got there, there were at least a dozen water bottle scattered on the ground.

There were way too many hills, however :-).

Beyond that, the ride felt fine, although my back began to hurt about halfway through -- I wasn't used to spending that much time in the aero position, so most of the second half of my ride was with hands on the brake hoods. I made sure to stick with my hydration and nutrition plan, so I felt pretty good by the end of it.

Again, my time wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but I was not displeased.

By the time I finished the ride, it was around noon and fairly warm, so I took the time to change from my sleeved singlet to a sleeveless one (Ironman rules require that you wear a shirt). 

Starting to feel the legs...

The run wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although there were again too many hills :-).  I was pleased at the number and size of the aid stations -- water, electrolyte drink (Gatorade, iirc), Clif energy gels, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull were all available.  

I was definitely feeling my legs, but my quads didn't feel like they were going to seize up like they had when I did triathlons in the 90s -- all that training paid off, I guess :-). I managed to make it through without slowing to a walk (other than at aid stations, because I can't drink and run at the same time) and ended up with a run time that was comparable to my stand-alone half-marathon times.

At the finish line!

My final time was 5:50:36, which I'm pretty happy about. My goal had been 6:00:00, although I did think that 5:45:00 was not out of the question. :-).

Finisher photo! And medal!

The gang...

All in all, it was a great experience. I got out of my comfort zone, made some terrific friends, learned how to most efficiently change a bike tube, and never once thought, "I can't believe I'm paying to do this." (Okay, maybe once...).

After the race!

Celebrating the next day with Coach Peri!

Earlier this year, I started working through the online book Ray Tracing In One Weekend (Book 1). I have been following along with it in Common Lisp, and I have been extending it all from 3-dimensional to n-dimensional.

I reproduced 4-dimensional versions of all of the book images which you can see on my weekend-raytracer github page.

Here is the final image. This is a 250-samples-per-pixel, 640x360x10 image plane of three large hyperspheres (one mirrored, one diffuse, one glass) atop a very large, diffuse hypersphere. Also atop this very large hypersphere are a bunch of smaller hyperspheres of varying colors and materials. The image is rendered with some defocus-blur.

Final image of 4-dimensional scene

Caveat: This depends on a patched version of the policy-cond library that is not in the current Quicklisp distribution but should be in the next.

.

 

Open Road Media, which publishes several of my e-books, has announced a one-week reduction in price of Vacuum Flowers. Starting this October 18 and running through October 25, 2024, it will be available for $1.99. That's in the US only.

So if you're an e-book reader and have been curious about my novel... well, there you are.

And if you don't already know . . .

Vacuum Flowers is what used to be called a Grand Tour of the Solar System. Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is operating off of stolen wetware and on the run from very dangerous people. She arrives in the inner system on a cometary orbit, which takes her through a great variety of human and post-human societies, including the most dangerous one of all--Earth.

That bit about the cometary orbit is not incidental. Comets enter the Inner System on either a hyperbolic or a parabolic orbit. The one is open, the other closed. I knew that the book would end with Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark standing in the stardocks with a coffin at her feet. But I didn't know if the person within the coffin would be alive or dead or if REM would someday return to the Inner System or was leaving it forever. I only decided that when I came to write the last page.

*

Fat Bear Week



View Comic!

Tom Brady gave his 3 stars of Week 10 which included Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, Cincinnati Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase and Kansas City Chiefs LB Leo Chenal.

Week 10 of the 2024 NFL season had a few memorable and exciting finishes as several stars showed out! Check out FOX Sports lead NFL analyst Tom Brady to name his latest 3 Stars of The Week.

Check out which players had the top performances in Week 10 of the fantasy football season.