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diesel long: Truth in 24

Truth in 24, an NFL Films production of the 2008 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is an awesome piece of video.

Great camera work, superb narration by Jason Straham, a pumping soundtrack by Dave Robidoux, and the built-in drama of Audio’s long-in-the-tooth R10 diesel machine at a track they’d owned for the better part of a decade combine to make Team Audi seem like underdogs against the faster Peugot side at 2008’s running of the 24 Hours of Lemans.

There may be no better window than this erstwhile Audi puff piece to get one’s first look into the endurance test that is Le Mans. So many things have to go right on the French road course and for no little time. People over machines made the difference in 2008, as one of the winning trio of drivers puts it, particularly a late-race decision in favor of slower ‘intermediate’ tires with rain in the forecast. Yet the machines themselves are a roaring marvel (even if the diesel roar is markedly more mouse-like).

My guess is that both novices to endurance racing (like this reviewer) and Le Mans graybeards alike will feel regret when the 99 minutes of this film have run their course.

Superb.

What a great app, placing as it does a wide assortment of English and other Bible versions into the hands of iPhone readers for free! Sure, some require an online connection. Some do not.

It’s free, agile, mobile, and right *there*.

Backgrounds (iPhone app)

Amazing and ever-changing selection of ‘front page’ wallpaper for your iPhone.

As a college student, this slightly hard-headed reviewer found what he took to be the ‘C.S. Lewis cult’ to be trendy and off-putting, an observation that—for whatever historical accuracy it might have achieved—delayed his introduction into one of the great masters by three years or so.

Recently I became aware that I was avoiding reading John Piper for a similarly faulty motive: the gleam in the eye of the so-called ‘Piper Cubs’—one that from time to time takes on a fanatic bearing—served as a too convenient pretext for sidestepping whatever value might lie in the ruminations of their master. And so, in a spasm of self-denial, I laid aside my shallow reluctance, found a recently re-minted copy of Piper’s first popular work Desiring God, Meditation of a Christian Hedonist, and undertook to ‘take up and read’. Continue Reading »

What’s not to like in more news?

You can always choose not to look it up. But, if you want news *now*–say, on the airport shuttle to the parking lot, there it is. Uncomplicated. Fast. News.

I’ll take it.

If a love for baseball and possession of an iPhone intersect in your life, you just need to get this app. It is certifiably the bodacious portal for quick and mobile access to all things MLB.

A crystal clear interface puts you in touch with stats, standings, results, video, and more. There may be something, somewhere, like it. But I doubt it.

I confess: I didn’t know how may book I owned. My guess would not even have come close.

Worse, from time to time I sold a handful of books used on Amazon, only to find that when an order came through I couldn’t locate the book. In order to provide reasonable service, I ended up refunding the purchaser his money then buying the same book from a third party and sending it to him. Although I reaped the satisfaction of having done the same thing, I also lost money on such deals, which happened more than once. Worse, I realized I couldn’t find a book when I needed to.

Clearly, I needed four things: a decent piece of home-library software, a basic understanding of an organizational system, access to a database that catalogues books I own according to the chosen organizational system, and considerable time to catalogue the books. I began to imagine that I could to this thing. Continue Reading »

Of all my news apps, this is the one I like best. AP Mobile can be tuned so that it delivers you a tailor-made assortment of news according to your own interests. I especially appreciate the ‘breaking news’ feature, which alerts me to truly significant events rather than to every stray cat rescued by firemen. A good news filter.

People who wander the shelves of bookstores wondering aloud to themselves or audibly ‘whether I should buy this book online or right here, right now’ will love this app.

Amazon’s (now) got legs.

Aeroguide Pro allows the inveterate plane-spotter to preview the plane he or she is about to board, now complete with the airline’s livery, in full color.

Curiously, I’m about to fly in a United Airlines 757 as I write this, and have stumbled upon the same missing UA 757 that a previous reviewer noted.