Through the post came the new credit cards, ready to be placed in a safe place.  Nowadays the credit card companies take great pains and go to great lengths to ensure that the cards are not intercepted and snatched away before they have been delivered to the rightful owners. 

A number of card companies have taken to hiding the cards in nondescript envelopes and hoping that you will recognise them amongst all the junk mail that we receive.

We Barclaycard have gone one better, putting the cards into a plain white envelope was a good start but then printing "Disguised Mail" on the envelope sort of gave the game away!

This must rank along side the plainly stupid ideas that have been discovered in the past. So if you see post titled "Disguised Mail" you will know that the credit card companies are trying to hide something!

In an interesting article by Adam Davidson on Reuters explains in simple terms why AIG’s trouble is something that is important for us. 

In a turbulent week in the financial markets and at a time when the rest of us are feeling the pinch with increases in fuel and food prices, the idea that CDS’s (Credit default swaps) written by AIG could bring the global economy to something of a standstill is a bit of a worry.

So what is a CDS?

At first glance, a credit default swap seems like a perfectly sensible financial tool. It is, basically, insurance on bonds.

Imagine a large bank buys some bonds issued by General Electric. The bank expects to receive a steady stream of payments from GE over the years. That’s how bonds work: The issuer pays the bondholder some money every six months. But the bank figures there’s a chance that GE might go bankrupt. It’s a small chance, but not zero, and if it happens, the bank doesn’t get any more of those payments.

The bank might decide to buy a CDS, a sort of insurance policy. If GE never goes bankrupt, the bank is out whatever premium it paid for the CDS. If GE goes bankrupt and stops paying its bondholders, the bank gets money from whoever sold the CDS.

The market has exploded in the last few years and CDS’s have helped transform bond trading into a highly leveraged, high-velocity business.  Adam Davidson explains that

Banks and hedge funds found that it was much easier and quicker to just buy and sell CDS contracts rather than buy and sell actual bonds. As of the end of 2007, they had grown to roughly $60 trillion in global business.

The reality is that most banks bought and sold these instruments, but AIG was only on one side of this deal.  Selling CDS’s.  Many CDS’s were sold as insurance to cover those exotic financial instruments that created and spread the subprime housing crisis that we have become familiar with.  AIG wrote cover for more than $440 billion in bonds, but this week we discovered that they do not have the funds to cover the CDS payout.  The world waits to see what it going to happen.  For a better view of this go to Adam’s article here.

The Tango’d Bullet appears at 1:45 into the video. Thanks again to Timmy Mallett for compiling this video.

Here are some of the entrants to the Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix.  In fact here is a video from the BBC which was filmed during the event. (ignore the advert if it plays in front of the event)

The gravity grand prix was an amazing success, with glorious weather and hundreds of spectators. A field of 23 carts assembled at the start for the three races.  Team Tango’d Bullet made up of Porteur Keane, Mike Mather, Simon Johnson and Tim Pottage (with Simon’s daughter Poppy in the kart)

The race format was for a show (trial) run and then two racing runs.  A big push from the start was followed by a secondary push in a flat section with the rest of the course being down to gravity and good steering. 

The team had a good show run with Tim having a fantastic run down the course to lead us off.  Porteur provided the muscle at the top and Simon in the middle section.  It proved that the Kart would hold up and was in with a chance.

In the first race Simon managed to complete the course in 1 min 33 seconds in a respectable 3rd place.  Credit goes to Tim and Clive Lambden for their push in the flats as I had managed to rupture my hamstring pushing the karts in the first run…. (Idiot)

The second run saw Team Jolly post a time of 1.27 with Dill & Dolly tied for second on 1.28.  All I had to do was hold a steady course and we were in with a shot.  Simon got us off to a good start with a solid push and then the middle section saw Porteur chase the kart only to trip and land on his wrist, leaving Tim and Andy to give us the shove we needed. 

The good speed was carried right into widowmakers bend but I seemed to slide the kart a bit too much and lost the edge we needed.  Finishing in 1.31 saw us take 4th - Agghhh the worst position to finish! 

Thank you to all those who sponsored us as we managed to raise about £1900.00 for the Air Ambulance! 

Now it is back to the drawing board for the 2009 event where we want to have independent rear suspension and a much faster kart….

The Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix is two days away and we are ready!  The cart is prepared with the last sponsors logos being applied and the tires pumped.

Tomorrow morning we are doing a test run and test firing of the roman candles.  We expect that this to go really well.  Most importantly there is still a chance to contribute to the Air Ambulance by going to our just giving site by clicking on this link below: 

The Kart is looking good:

Launch control…  The Electronic firing mechanism to be used while driving…

The sponsors and others…

There is a little competition for the kids as well.  How many of the car manufactures logos are represented on the kart.  We have chosen carefully…

The New James Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace, uses 10 brand new fully featured DBS’s.  9 are written off during filming (actually one was ruined on route to the set) and one is kept for promoting the movie.  This is how we were introduced to a visit to the Aston Martin Factory in  Gaydon, Warwickshire.

This is a state of the art facility where the cars are made by hand.  There are only 2 robots involved in the production, one for carrying the tubs (car frame with no bits) onto the correct assembly line and one for bonding panels with some really high tech glue.  The rest of the car is put together by hand!  The badge is only applied once the car has been built, tested and earned it!

The striking thing about the factory is the attention to detail and the passion displayed by those working there.  Even in a short visit it is very obvious.

Below is a picture of the cut-away car that sits in reception.  Yes there are other ones that have all their clothes on but this is more fun…

It struck me that if you are going to spend between £87,000 and £170,000+ on a car it is worth visiting and breathing in some of the history and passion that goes into the construction.  Also, when choosing a colour make sure that you think about where you are going to see the car.  The bright yellow DBS looked fantastic indoors, but out in the rain the colour was not so exciting!

Earlier today scientists fired a beam of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located on the Swiss French border.  And we are here to tell the tail!

Not that I really thought that we were going to be sucked into a black hole or anything!

I love the commentary on this:

Eventually, two proton beams will be steered in opposite directions around the LHC at close to the speed of light, completing about 11,000 laps each second.

At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events.

That is some serious speed! and what are "interesting events"?  I am sure that we will find out in time.

Another interesting fact that emerged related to the LHC’s predecessor, a machine called the Large-Electron Positron Collider, engineers found two beer bottles wedged into the beam pipe - a deliberate, one-off act of sabotage.

The culprits - who were drinking a particular brand that advertising once claimed would "refresh the parts other beers cannot reach" - were never found.

We are getting close to the race and the kart has now been "logo’d-up"

There are three categories:

Sponsors who did because they are cool:

Sponsors who couldn’t because they are BANKRUPT:

Sponsors we were hoping for:

A this point I didn’t manage to get a particularly good set of pictures, but these will do until I can photograph the kart properly.

Here are some of the sponsors we were hoping for……………….

Since this image is rubbish, here are some of the details….

Of course there is still time to have your company represented, simply go to www.justgiving.com/porteurandmike make a contribution and we will add you to the kart.

Yesterday the Cookham Regatta took place under leaden skies more like a November day than the 6th of September! 

This year the Cookham Challenge involved Dragon Boat racing, Canadian Canoe Cats, volleyball, tug of war and the "silly walk" race (4 man skis)

The David Lloyd Vikings were put together Emma Buckland initially from the staff of David Lloyd Health club in Maidenhead, but after a few of the fit crew whimped out, the chaps from the Crawford Arms stepped in. 

There were a number of corporate teams as well as the local groups who were well represented.

The Vikings got off to a fantastic start with a victory in the opening volleyball match (by the skin of our teeth) and followed this up with a comprehensive victory over the team from NEC.  On to the tug of war which seemed to last forever where we scored another victory.

This was followed up by the dragon boat race, where the team took to the water for the very first time.  By the time we had reached the start line the nerves had disappeared and the team was ready for the race.

With a huge cry and a determined pull the boat was away and gliding to a comprehensive victory.  It was fantastic fun, even with a gale blowing and the storm clouds opening to soak us.

Buoyed by this victory the team took to the Canadian Canoe Cats (two Canadian canoes joined together, six paddlers and one person steering). 

This was a disaster.  The paddlers were fantastic, person steering was hopeless.  Oh that was me.  We must have traveled twice the course length and still only just lost.   I was difficult but in truth, I was simply hopeless.

On to the 4 man ski, silly walk.  This event proved to be challenging for us.  With two teams only feet apart, the shouts of left, right, left, right became confusing and we suffered defeat in both our races.

This meant that we had three events to go.  Another dragon boat race, canoe cat and tug-of-war. We needed to win all three!

The dragon boat race was decided without us having to raise a paddle in anger.  The other team had been depleted and could not paddle.  We were gutted, but took the victory.  Instead we turned our focus to the tug-of-war where we again scored a comprehensive victory.