Author: Serkadis

The Samsung news conference will likely have nothing to to do with Windows Mobile, but rather introduce Samsung’s new OS on their Wave handset.

However if you wish to keep an eye on the competition, following the streaming news cast below.

Porsche acaba de anunciar una edición especial del Cayenne denominada como Porsche Cayenne Style Edition. Esta versión especial estará disponible en dos tonos de carrocería, negro y blanco.  Por otra parte, otros elemenots como las molduras laterales y las rejillas serán de un color “Plata Deportivo Mate“. Todas las versiones contarán con cuatro salidas de escape de acero inoxidable.

En cuanto a la motorización, estará disponible con el motor V6 de 3.0 litros diesel que desarrolla 240 CV, en gasolina podremos elegir entre un V6 de 3.6 litros de 290 CV, un V8 de 4.8 litros y 385 CV y por último un V8 de 4.8 litros de 500 CV.

Su precio oficial será de 64.900€ para la versión más básica de la gama.

Related posts:

1. Fotos espía del Porsche Cayenne 2010
2. Porsche Cayanne, nuevas fotos espía
3. Porsche Cayanne Híbrido disponible en 2010

Dresden, Germany | Repositories of Knowledge

In Kurt Vonnegut’s book Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, the main character Billy Pilgram is captured by the Germans and taken to Dresden. In Dresden, Billy is held in an unused slaughterhouse, “Slaughterhouse number 5.” From this location Billy as well as his captors survive the bombing of Dresden, which killed some 25,000 people in the ensuing firestorm.

This fictional account almost perfectly mirrors Vonnegut’s real experience in the war. In WWII Vonnegut was imprisoned in Dresden, was beaten, and made a prisoner in Schlachthof Fünf or Slaughterhouse Five, a real slaughterhouse in Dresden. When Vonnegut emerged from the slaughterhouse he saw what “looked like the surface of the moon” the result of the massive Dresden bombing by the allied forces. In Vonneguts words “There were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Germans sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians’ remains were burned to ashes.” It would be these horrific experiences that inspired Vonnegut’s 1969 book, named after the place that likely saved his life.

Curiously most residents of Dresden couldn’t tell you who Kurt Vonnegut was, let alone where the actual Slaughterhouse Five is. It is, in fact right under their feet. Amazingly the Slaughterhouse Five complex is largely intact and is now protected. Recently it has become possible to visit it with a guided tour. The tour takes about 2 hours, and is still a relatively unknown tourist site in Dresden.

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance

Earlier this month we showed you the wishful renderings of a GTR variant of the McLaren MP4-12C. The car doesn’t exist and no plans have been announced for a motorsports program, but just seeing the car in McLaren racing livery made us hope that the car does end up on the track. Now the same artist, Jon Sibal, has come up with some additional renderings of the car in longtail form.

For those of you not familiar with the term “longtail,” it refers to the second-generation of McLaren F1 GTR race cars that competed in in the 1997 FIA GT championship. The extended bodywork at the front and rear was meant to improve aerodynamics and help the F1 compete with the likes of the Porsche GT1, Nissan R390 GT1 and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. Like the F1 GTR, the MP4-12C Longtail isn’t as pretty as its shorter brother, but it’s impressive nonetheless. You can check them all out in the high-res gallery below.

[Source: JonSibal.com]

McLaren MP4-12C GTR rendered again, this time in Longtail form originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: ClimateGate, Headline Story, Marc Sheppard

By now, Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) should require no introduction, so let’s get right to it. In a BBC Q&A and corresponding interview released Friday, the discredited Climategate conspirator revealed a number of surprising insights into his true climate beliefs, the most shocking of which was that 20th-century global warming may not have been unprecedented. As the entire anthropogenic global warming (AGW) theory is predicated on correlation with rising CO2 levels, this first-such confession from an IPCC senior scientist is nothing short of earth-shattering.

Of course, much will be made of Jones’s claim that the refusal to share raw temperature data was partially based on the fact that it “was not well enough organized.” And rightly so, as the very idea that the major datasets CRU released for use in vital anomaly and temperature reconstructions were based on data not “organized” enough to be made public reeks of fraudulent behavior.

Then there are the statements Jones made regarding relatively recent temperature trends which truly boggle the mind.

Imagine a man who has spent the better part of the past 25 years toiling to convince the world of CO2-forced 20th-century warming now admitting that the difference in warming rates for the periods 1860-1880, 1910-40 and 1975-2009 is statistically insignificant. Jones even acceded that there has been no statistically-significant global warming since 1995; that in fact, global temperatures have been trending to the downside since January of 2002, although he denied the statistical significance of the -0.12C per decade decline.

Click source to read more

Source: americanthinker.com

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Sony’s really going full-tilt with bringing 3D gaming to the PS3. Even Square Enix is starting to warm to the idea, with the company expressing interest in a 3D-supported Final Fantasy XIII. Speaking of Final Fantasy, Square Enix

HTC has always maintained a premium pricing for their smartphones, with even their low cost offerings costing more than many mid-range or high end devices from Acer or Samsung for example.

However in this day and age of increasing competition they may no longer be able to maintain this stance.

The Chinese newspaper Economic Daily News reports that HTC has said they plan to slash prices by 40 percent on phones sold in China, Singapore, and Taiwan.

HTC later denied this, but we have already seen significant price cuts, even in the western market.

Coolsmartphone reports that many HTC handsets have seen steep price drops.

At Devicewire the HTC Touch2  was £275.99 but now it’s only £199.95. The HTC Touch Pro2 was £444.99, now it’s down to £354.94.  The HTC Snap was £275.99, now £219.95 and the HTC Hero was £357.99, but now they’re doing it for just £314.95. The HTC Touch Diamond2 was £321.99, but this is only £274.95.

Of course the price drop may just presage the announcement of new handsets at Mobile World Congress (and therefore give us an idea of which devices are set to be replaced), but the question of whether HTC can maintain its premium level pricing continue to remain.

Do our readers think HTC’s pricing sustainable?  Let us know below.

Source:Techeye.net, CoolSmartphone

Filed under: Etc.

Wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends — whichever best describes your significant other, today’s the day to go do something special. And by that, we mean keep Hallmark in business, overpay for flowers, endure long waits at restaurants that normally don’t have one, and help candy execs earn their annual bonuses. Or maybe, since it falls on a Sunday this year, you and that special person ought just climb into your machine, hit your favorite roads, and take a nice, long drive just to enjoy each other’s company. Whatever your plans, Happy Valentine’s Day from us here at Autoblog. Have fun.

Image: 01Steven | CC BY-NC 2.0

Happy Valentine’s Day from Autoblog originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Polyphony Digital head honcho Kazunori Yamauchi had some rather harsh words for his competitors in a recent interview with Eurogamer.dk. According to the father of the Gran Turismo series, he finds it hard to play other racing

The Dempsey Rolling boxer, Dudley, has long been rumored to be one of the fighters being added to Super Street Fighter IV. A mysterious package sent out by Capcom seems to confirm it.

Filed under: Hatchback, Volkswagen

2010 2010 Volkswagen GTI – Click above for high-res image gallery

Congratulations 2010 Volkswagen Golf GTI: Canada loves you. VW’s lovable little pocket rocket has been named the car of the year by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. AJAC chose the GTI over nine other vehicles in the “best new” category, giving VW’s compact corner-cutter another feather in its cap. The AJAC car of the year award is determined by 70 journalists who judge 20 parameters and a reported total of “46,000 pieces of data in all.”

AJAC Car of the Year Chair Richard Russell seems fairly smitten with how the association chooses the winners of its awards. The AJAC press release quotes Russell as saying “by constantly adjusting the program and testing procedures to reflect what is important to Canadian consumers, we feel we have a more thorough, unbiased and meaningful award than any other.” Big words, those.

John White, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group Canada calls the GTI the “heart and soul of Volkswagen,” and added that the honor “represents the culmination of the hard work on the part of everyone in the Volkswagen Brand around the world.” The GTI won Automobile Car of the Year back in November; the same award the magazine awarded the car back in 2007 with the same powertrain and hard points. Hit the jump to look over the AJAC press release and head over to the association’s website for more winners.

[Source: AJAC]

Continue reading Canadians choose Volkswagen GTI as their Car of the Year

Canadians choose Volkswagen GTI as their Car of the Year originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today’s music video is ‘The Crystal Ship’ from The Doors.

This video was posted to You Tube by HighVoltageSound

Just two days back, Ray Manzarek celebrated his 71st Birthday. It’s hard to believe that the band members of those bands we grew up with are slowly becoming old men. Thank heavens for their music. The mention of Ray Manzarek may not evoke many memories, perhaps some who actually are afficionado’s who do remember, and the mention of John Densmore, and Robbie Krieger probably mean even less, but the mere mention of Jim Morrison, and everyone knows of The Doors, the band who provided some of the music of our lives during the late 60’s and the first year or two of the 70’s.

The Doors formed in 1965, were picked up by Elektra Records in mid 66 and their eponymous first album was released in early 67, the big song from that being ‘Light My Fire’, the first song from Elektra to reach Number One, that single alone selling more than a million copies.

In the four further years up until Morrison died, they produced six studio albums, and one Live album, all going into the Top Ten of Albums Charts, as well as 13 Singles, 2 of those making it to Number One, and two others going into the Top Ten.

Not long after Morrison died, the band disbanded. Since that time however, there have been 40 further Doors albums, all compilations and unrecorded original masters, so the band has retained its popularity in the near forty years since Morrison’s death. So far sales from The Doors albums have totalled more than 33 million albums in the U.S. alone.

Morrison had a troubled career, and his best work was in the studio, as his live performances were only average at best, and sometimes fraught with danger for the band, and especially Morrison himself, due to his renowned unpredictability.

I mentioned Ray Manzarek at the top, and this song, ‘The Crystal Ship’, although well known, was not really one of the band’s hits, and in fact was on the flip side of the ‘Light My Fire’ single. However, it remains one of my favourites from the band because it has this beautiful keyboards section from Manzarek in the middle.

The song was originally one of The Doors long songs with improvisations from both Manzarek on keyboards and Krieger on guitar, but was shortened considerably for the B side and also for the album. It is rumoured to be a love song for Jim Morrison’s first true love and the inspiration is from an oil rig offshore from Sands Beach in Isla Vista California.

The Doors provided part of the soundtrack for the late Baby Boomer era, and is a band that has maintained its popularity for that music.

Filed under: America (USA), Music, Video Tagged: Music, Music Video, The Doors, Video

We have all seen the enigmatic tweet from T-Mobile USA regarding the HTC HD2, and we know the T-Mobile US team will be attending Mobile World Congress, suggesting very strongly they will be unveiling the T-Mobile version of the device on Monday or Tuesday.

Previous dates for the release to consumers have been in the 3rd week of March. Now we have received a tip suggesting it may come much sooner:

I just talked to the store manager at my local store and he said that I missed the HTC rep yesterday, but after the store closed the rep gave some details about the HD2 including an update that surprised him. The rep said to look for the HD2 in the first week of march. Said that T-mobile has gotten great press and lots of requests and have stepped up the pace and will pass the HD2 to stores and online in the first week of march as long as no complications come up!!!!!

Now of course cell phone reps are not the most reliable source for release dates, but so close to launch I am sure its pretty hard to keep a lid on things.

The T-Mobile version is expected to have many features not found in the standard HTC HD2, including a music and e-book store, making it much more competitive with handsets like the iPhone in the US market.

Thanks Reddragon72 for the tip.

BHP Billiton may simply be talking their book, but they don’t seem too worried about iron ore prices during their annual contract negotiations with China.

If anything, BHP sees contracted prices increasing by as much as 100% since spot prices are high and (they believe) will be perceived as sustainable.

Reuters:

“For iron ore, coking coal, the prices that we get today were settled at the depth of the economic crisis so I think there’s probably a good chance that they will go up from where they are today,” Kloppers told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

…

“One must remember what the benchmark price is. Once a year people sit down and they try and discover the forward price for the next 12 months, which is set by the supply and demand that they anticipate for the next 12 months. That’s how it’s always worked,” Kloppers said.

“So as they sit down this time, it’s a difficult job because there’s a lot of volatility, but they have to discover the forward price. But they are in luck. They have this market, the traded market, on which over 70 per cent of the iron ore in China is already traded. And where there is a forward price visible.

“And that price is roughly 100 per cent above where today’s price is.”

Everything BHP says needs to be taken with a grain of salt given that they are in the negotiation process, yet if contracted iron ore prices could deliver according to BHP’s stated expectations, it could mean that Chinese companies remain extremely optimistic in regards to the sustainability of domestic growth they see. Thus keep an eye on this space to get a feel of Chinese sentiment.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Faber: A China Crash Would Destroy Most Commodities
• Long Lines And Cost Inflation Greet Chinese Post-Healthcare Privatization
• China’s Retreat From Risky Bonds Could Be The Straw That Breaks California’s Back

Citi’s Panic/Euphoria sentiment model has given back most of the gains it made during 2009. According to Citi, “the Panic/Euphoria model fell and is parked on the panic border.”:

Whether or not markets are in a true state of ‘panic’ we can debt, yet it’s interesting to see that many sentiment indicators, in aggregate have fallen back substantially.

Citi’s explanation of the model: Components: NYSE short interest ratio, margin debt, Nasdaq daily volume as % of NYSE volume, a composite average of Investors Intelligence and the American Association of Individual Investors bullishness data, retail money funds, the put/call ratio, CRB futures index, gasoline prices and the ratio of price premiums in puts versus calls.

(Via Citi, Pulse Monitor, Tobias Levkovich, 12 Feb 2010)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Why Today’s Market Action Is Anything But Reassuring
• GERMAN SPOKESMAN: GRΣΣK BAILOUT RUMORS ARE "UNFOUNDED"
• Dow Now Up 200 On Greek Bailout

By Cam McGrath CAIRO, Feb 14 (IPS) Not long ago an editorial like the one that appeared in the independent Al- Dustour newspaper this week might never have made it into print.

In his weekly column, entitled 'Fraud for the benefit of Egypt', chief editor Ibrahim Eissa accuses Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of systematically and meticulously rigging elections and referendums to perpetuate his rule. While many Egyptians may suspect this, just a decade ago a journalist would likely have been imprisoned for daring to put it in writing. And Eissa still might.

But Egypt's "free press" has been pushing back the red lines that once kept a tight lid on dissenting views. After decades of state media control, privately owned broadsheets are expressing opinions and exposing issues their government would rather suppress or spin.

"In the 1990s, an entire village could have been wiped out and you would never have heard anything about it because the only media outlets were state-run," says Hossam El-Hamalawy, an editor at the independent Al- Masry Al-Youm newspaper. "Today it would be on the front page of half a dozen newspapers."

Privately owned newspapers are pressing the government on critical issues and exposing malfeasance and corruption. Previously taboo topics such as police torture, democratic reform and presidential succession are now discussed openly and candidly in private newspapers.

Mahmoud Alam Eddin, head of the Journalism Department at Cairo University, sees it as the natural progression of three decades of political and economic transformation. The abolishment of censorship in 1974 and switch to a multi-party system in 1977 opened the field to non-governmental newspapers and magazines.

Over the next 25 years the Egyptian newsstands press comprised state newspapers, opposition mouthpieces and an increasing number of private newspapers licensed abroad with circulation in Egypt. Many of the latter were, in Alam Eddin's estimation, "extremely sensationalist and yellow" tabloids.

A major transformation began in the early 2000s, prompted, some say, by U.S. pressure to further liberalise the press. Since 2004 over a dozen independent newspapers have been granted local licenses including Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Shorouk and Al-Dustour.

The new broadsheets have increased the diversity of Egypt's media landscape, but the state's dominance in print is far from being challenged. Government- run Al-Ahram newspaper, for instance, circulates up to one million copies a day. By contrast, the entire independent press combined puts out less than 200,000 copies a day.

And while red lines have been pushed back, rights groups say President Mubarak has reneged on a promise made in 2004 to abolish custodial sentences for journalists who transgress the country's libel laws. Newspaper editors and journalists have been imprisoned on loosely defined defamation and conduct charges such as "insulting a head of state" or "endangering national interests."

Gamal Eid, Executive Director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), estimates that around 300 libel cases are filed against journalists a year. Some, like the 2007 sentencing of four editors to one-year jail terms (later overturned) for "publishing false information" critical of the President and his senior aides, make headlines. Most do not.

"These prosecutions are to terrorise journalists so no one would dare to criticise officials or expose corruption," Eid says.

Yet journalists have been emboldened by the palpable change in the mood on the street. Restive Egyptians are flaunting decades-old restrictions on labour strikes and public demonstrations, and speaking out against the regime.

"Now you have hundreds of people in downtown Cairo burning Mubarak's posters," says El-Hamalawy. "This never happened in the 1990s, and is (a sign) that the ceiling has lifted on the general atmosphere of the country."

But changes do not take place in a vacuum, he says. Communications technologies such as satellite television, mobile phones and the Internet have allowed journalists working in parallel with bloggers and activists to dig deeper and circulate news faster and further. The government has faced a dilemma: ease restrictions on freedom of speech, or face the consequences of trying to muzzle a dizzying array of backdoor channels.

"Two things started opening outlets for us to disseminate news that the government doesn't want anyone to know about," El-Hamalawy told IPS. "One was the launching of Al-Jazeera and the other was the rise of the Internet, starting from about 2000."

Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based pan-Arab satellite news channel launched in 1996, rose to prominence after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now claims over 50 million viewers. Western and Arab governments have accused the network of sensationalism, but media analysts say it was the first television station to provide independent and often critical analysis of Arab regimes.

"With Al-Jazeera, we started seeing news that was not necessarily handed to us by the state media," says El-Hamalawy. "Love it or hate it, the channel played a revolutionary role in the Arab world. For the first time we started seeing dissidents on TV. Before that, if a dissident or (political activist) showed up on TV, you knew he was a phony."

Television remains the most important source of news in Egypt given the country's high illiteracy rate, estimated at 26 percent. But Internet penetration is growing. More than 15 million Egyptians, or 18 percent of the population, are regular users. And in logging on, they are exposed to uncensored news and views.

"Egyptians are more informed these days about events both inside and outside the country," says newsstand clerk Ahmed Sharkawy. "My father still reads (state-run daily) Al-Gomhurriya, but the younger generation in particular wants a newspaper that exposes the government's lies."

Alam Eddin says a wave of privately owned newspapers is providing "more credible" journalism and becoming increasingly "investigative," but the oft- applied terms "free press" and "independent media" are somewhat misleading.

"There is no 100 percent free or independent media," he warns. "Even if you have freedom from government, you will not have freedom from the publisher, advertisers, international pressure, and (the journalist's) own concepts and ideologies."

By David Cronin BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (IPS) A European Union (EU) aid programme tasked with nurturing the private sector in Africa has become the focus of high-level diplomatic discussions after almost half of its staff were abruptly dismissed.

Seventeen of the 42 people working at the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) in Brussels were removed from their posts in December and told to leave its headquarters without delay. The dismissals, unreported until now, are being challenged by lawyers representing some of the staff concerned, who insist that they have not received an explanation for why they were let go.

However, the CDE's director Maboussou Thiam has stated that the dismissals were necessary to reform the centre, which distributes EU aid to small and medium-sized firms in the 78-country African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc.

Ambassadors representing the ACP governments considered the implications of the dismissals at a meeting Feb 11. A source who attended the meeting said that some ambassadors believed the reforms were "fast and furious" and should have been introduced more gradually, although others had expressed their approval of the measures.

One of the officials dismissed said that his sacking had occurred in a manner that did not respect his rights as a trade union member. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that he had asked Thiam to engage in conciliation talks but this request was refused.

Thiam told IPS that he was not prepared to enter into dialogue with the people dismissed because the 17 posts had been cancelled as part of a restructuring exercise demanded by the CDE's governing board, which includes both EU and ACP representatives.

Before the reforms were introduced, he said, the salaries and other payments to the CDE staff gobbled up 65 percent of its 18 million euros (24.5 million dollars) annual budget. While he said that it was "painful" for him to inform staff that they were being sacked, the decision on who should be made redundant was not made by him. Rather, it was based on the results of an evaluation of each CDE official undertaken by the consulting firm Hudson.

Thiam stated that he was under instructions from the CDE board to carry out the restructuring before the end of 2009. "This was not an easy task but since they asked for it, I had to do it," he said. He also said that all of the staff dismissed had been given severance payments ranging from 150,000 euros to 250,000 euros.

The CDE director since March last year, Thiam had previously worked for the World Bank in his native Senegal. An internal World Bank paper, dated July 2009, stated that a private sector promotion project for which he was responsible was "poorly managed". In July 2008, the bank decided to suspend its support for the project after financial irregularities were detected, including "numerous" cases of unauthorised spending. This project had been allocated a 46 million dollar loan from the Washington-based institution.

Thiam said that the CDE's governing board had scrutinised his previous track record before he became the centre's director. The issues raised by the World Bank had been "judged irrelevant" during that screening process, he added.

Thiam's term in the CDE officially expires at the end of this month but ACP ambassadors have agreed that he should remain until a replacement can be found. He was originally appointed on an interim basis. Under rules covering the centre's activities, the post of director is rotated between the ACP and the European sides. The EU is in charge of nominating the next director but has not yet decided who should have the job.

The CDE is no stranger to controversy. In June 2007, its former director Hamed Sow resigned to become a government minister in Mali. However, his time in Brussels was marred by conflict of interest accusations.

The EU's anti-fraud office, which is known by its French acronym OLAF, investigated the suspected misuse of a 3.7 million euros loan given by the European Investment Bank to Fitina, a Malian company that was establishing a factory to process cotton. Fitina was supposed to buy new equipment with the loan but allegedly used it to buy second-hand equipment at a considerable discount. At the time, Sow enjoyed a 20 percent shareholding in the company and reportedly charged it for his advice.

An OLAF spokeswoman said that a dossier relating to the CDE had been passed on to French judicial authorities. A judicial proceeding is being undertaken in France as a result, the spokeswoman said, declining to comment further.

In August of 2008, in the run up to the Summer Olympic Games, I told the story of Al Oerter in the post at this link. Al won Olympic Gold medals in the Field event, The Discus, at 4 consecutive Games. To win one event is a feat in itself considering you have to go through so much even before being selected to represent your Country, but to do it at 4 consecutive Games was an amazing achievement, especially for a very long strength event such as the Discus is.

Now with the start of the Winter Olympics, I thought I would again reprise the title, which stands for ‘Seize The Day’, and apply it to an event at a Winter Olympic Games, and this post is about the legendary Franz Klammer.

As I mentioned yesterday, Winter Sports in Australia mostly trend to the different codes of football. Because it is warm to hot nearly all year round in most of the Country, traditional Winter Sports that are huge in other Countries around the World virtually do not exist here, mainly because of the heat. Facilities, and venues especially, are thin on the ground, so the ordinary person has virtually no access to what in other parts of the World are sports available to nearly everyone.

To that end, even the televising of those Sports is something quite rare indeed, and virtually the only time some people actually do see these sports is once every four years at the Winter Olympic Games. Even then, the televising of those Winter Games has only become a regular thing in the last couple of decades. Now people avidly seek out the beauty of figure skating, the raw speed of the speed skating events, the luge and bob events, and the Alpine Skiing events, and all the other events from those Games.

One of the first times an Australian Network actually sent a crew to cover the Games was in 1976, and in the main, the coverage was just a matter of taking the feed from other Majors, with some commentary from Australian announcers. More often than not, those broadcasts were rarely live, and mostly entailed highlights packages.

One of the first things I distinctly remember was vision of the Men’s Downhill.

From that time until now, this has always been one of my favourite events.

In this day and age when sporting superstars analyze every part of their discipline in an effort to get the best out of their equipment and their ability, those sporting events have become somewhat clinical, even though they still retain that level of excitement in watching something that as a viewer you would never even think of approaching, let alone to do it at the level these stars do.

Downhill Skiing has become as clinical now as those other sports. Even though the raw and incredibly high speeds these skiiers reach, they always seem to be in almost perfect control of what they are doing. The clinical part of the skill now comes in keeping low, keeping tucked, trying to keep aerodynamically small, and keeping the skis on the snow for as long as is possible. This has become euphemistically explained as being a slider, one who just slides across the snow. It sometimes looks a little dull, but you can’t help but admire the skill it must take to actually be able to do it, and then to do it at this level.

The first slider I really noticed was Bill Johnson, the first American skiier to win the Downhill, at the Sarajevo Games in 1984.

However, what originally took my interest in this sport was at that 1976 Games at Innsbruck.

He was known affectionately in his home Country Austria as ‘The Kaiser’. He was at the absolute zenith of his career in 1976, and even though only 22, he had won numerous Downhills in the three years leading up to the Games. These Games were in his home Country, and he wanted to do well for all his Countrymen who were there on that day in February to watch their hero. He was the favourite to win the event based on his previous history at the event, but he was up against seasoned campaigners already tested at this high pressure discipline at a Games Downhill.

The Downhill is a unique event. You get one chance as there is only the one run, so the slightest error cannot be caught up on a second run. The Swiss skiier Bernhard Russi was the defending Olympic champion and had set an absolutely blistering time, that none had even approached. Klammer was the 15th and last skiier to leave the gate, and Russi’s time was already on the board.

Klammer left the gate and put it all out there. He all but fell at the first turn, and it didn’t get any better. He spent more time trying to stay upright than getting into a technique. What resulted was heart in the mouth stuff. He was hardly ever on the desired line, spending more time in the air and close to the edges of the course as he tried to keep his speed at breakneck levels that no other skiier could maintain. Klammer was behind Russi’s time at the two intermediate time checks, and found something in the last sector. No other skiier at the time could approach the speeds Klammer could maintain, and he always skiied at the very edge of disater, and this run was no different. He ended up beating Russi’s time by 0.33 seconds, and considering he was well behind at the second mark, the speed he managed at the bottom must have been incredibly high for such a huge turn around in times when hundredths of a second are rarely made up.

You get chills just watching it, so to actually do it must have been something else again.

This one Downhill run was one of the first I had seen, and it has stuck with me to this day as one of the greatest sporting achievements I have ever seen. For someone to be so close to absolute disaster and somehow find a way to not only stay upright but to actually speed up was just amazing.

Franz Klammer had one chance on one day on one run, and he seized his chance, put it all out there in a death or glory run, and he achieved the dream that has only been achieved by so very few people.

Filed under: Europe, Heroes, Video Tagged: Downhill Skiing, Franz Klammer, Sporting Heroes, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Sports