A tumblr by Alex Murray, BBC News and Cycling Journalist. It aggregates content from a bunch of my social media presences, including Twitter; flickr; youtube; vimeo; The Chasing Wheels cycling blog and Instagram. All views expressed are my personal views and should be taken as such. They are not the views of my employer and do not represent them in any way.
› : Our Navigation Of The Line Of The Downs - Day 1
20th May 2013.
Today sees the release of our new album. To mark this I shall be setting out this morning on a three day walk along the supposed route of the Harrow Way to the ancient heartland of Stonehenge.
Between the end of the nineteenth century up until the 1960s numerous writers,…
Fausto is very proud of the duck he caught today. Very proud indeed
‘Your Favorite Thing’ by Sugar
Much under-appreciated part of the Sugar oeuvre - Your Favourite Thing
Torrential rain in Matera turns #Giro finish into a river
Fausto is so tired after his walk he’s faceplanted his cushion in his sleepiness
I am a bad man :(
Three weapons, three serial numbers.
These three rifles are Belgian. What’s so important about them? Well, the United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya mentioned them in its latest report, released this month:
73. The Panel requested the Belgian authorities to assist in tracing an FNC assault rifle that was photographed in Libya in 2012.2 The Belgian authorities responded that the rifle (serial No. 025992) bore markings that resembled a rifle that was part of an order exported to the Qatari armed forces in Doha around 1980.
99. In the first tracing request, an FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1514944) was identified by the Belgian manufacturer as being part of an order that was delivered to the Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 1979.
100. In the second tracing request, another FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1731984) was identified as resembling a weapon delivered to the Emirate of Dubai in an order dated 19 April 1991.
The problem? Those rifles were not found in Qatar nor in the UAE. They were found in Libya, in the hands of the men who fought Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
What does it mean? First, that Qatar and the UAE illegally diverted Belgian weapons. Second, that by doing so they breached an UN arms embargo.
Will Belgium change its arms export policy towards those two countries? Given the fact that the Belgian authorities had access to the elements of the report as early as February and June 2012 but, as far as we know, did not use them to suspend their export licenses, the answer will likely be “no”.
What it shows, though, is the importance of thoroughly documenting the tools of war.
Those rifles were not documented by the UN Panel of Experts, but by journalists on the ground. Those journalists then published their photographs and their stories. The Belgian authorities refused to trace those weapons until it was asked from them by the UN.
If you’re in Belgium and can read French, make sure to get a copy of Le Vif/L’Express today (or before next Thursday) for more details. (For those of you who will read the article, forgive the mistakes the photo editor made: the 1st picture is obviously an FNC, and the serial number on the 3rd page belongs to an FN FAL, not to an FNC.)
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Photos 1 and 2: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, February 2012, Damien Spleeters.
Photos 3 and 4: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.
Photo 5 and 6: an FNC assault rifle, with serial number. Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.
(Source: the-trigger)
‘Machineries of Joy’ by British Sea Power is my new jam.
‘Dan Is The Man (In The Van)’ by Mighty Sparrow is my new jam.
‘Sistine Chapel Ceiling’ by Adorable
Somewhat apt
Found this while clearing out stuff at mum’s. Genuine, Thom Yorke signed Radiohead setlist.
Today’s spot the cirneco is tougher than usual
Sleepy dog is sleepy. Fausto has picked his sofa at my mum’s #cirneco
› veloclinic: Alpe d'Huez data suggests 1gm/dL blood doping yields 0.25 watts/kg
this paper
http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/savage/Cycling/LookingAtTheData/AIC.html#XADHzinspired a quick look at this wiki
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpe_d’Huezfor some climbing times over the years
assuming a elevation gain of 1090 m over 13.8 km
at a grade of 7.9 %
…
Fascinating to see an outline of what the the cold hard numbers can suggest when it comes to blood doping.
Fausto has caught ‘a rabbit’. Don’t spoil his moment of glory #cirneco
