“Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.” – Kyle Chandler

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford

“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” – J.F.K.

When asked what kind of jury she needed, Gaertner responded: “I want worldly men, broad-minded men, men who know what it is to get a bit.” She had a gig in a cabaret when she married William Gaertner, her second husband, in 1917. William was convinced from the start that Belva was being unfaithful to him. They both hired gumshoes, who spent their time mostly spying on each other.

In 1923, Walter Law was found dead in his Nash sedan. Belva was involved with him. Her statement to the police read thus: “gin and guns-either one is bad enough but together they get you in a dickens of a mess, don’t they?” She promised to reunite with William if exonerated and the jury rendered a verdict of “not guilty”. Later, William divorced her, accusing her of homicidal tendencies.

In 1924, Annan was asked out on a date by Harry Kolstedt, a co-worker. They had a fight and he was killed. In her latest version of the events – she proffered a few – Annan insisted that Harry tried to rape her and that she took his life in self-defense. She was found not guilty and promptly divorced her husband.

Annan died of tuberculosis in a hospital bed in 1928, aged 28. Gaertner passed away in 1965 at age 80.

Article by Sam Vaknin

In the bike class the exciting battle between KTM legends Marc Coma and Cyril Despres continued as if uninterrupted from the previous 6 years in which each took 3 wins. Despres took the honors in 2012 but expect Coma not to be happy with his 2nd place and relaunch with a vengeance next year.

Long before Coma and Despres battled it out, Stéphane Peterhansel won 6 Dakars in the motorcycle section and this year racked up his 4th win in the car class, totaling a record-setting 10th Dakar win.

Robbie Gordon delivered some spectacular moments in the powerful Hummer. The ever-controversial NASCAR racer finished the Dakar Rally in 5th position but his final result depends on the outcome of disqualification ruling. Not one to mix his words, an enraged Gordon made his thoughts about the Minis clear: “I just proved that Minis are for girls…” Alas, the Minis took 1st, 2nd and 4th positions.

The two Argentinian Petronelli brothers came in tops again in the Quad bike class where Yamaha occupied the first 6 positions. (Yamaha also finished 3rd and 9th in the bike class, with KTM taking the rest of the top 10 wins.)

Gérard de Rooy and his team took their Iveco to top spot in the truck class in what also was exciting competition.

As the saying goes, “The problem with a year with 12 months is that 11 of them is without the Dakar Rally.”

What does 2012 hold in store? Only the prophets know. Or, to quote Peter Drucker, “”The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Whichever, always be prepared. As W.C. Fields put it:

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.”

The big Yam is, however, a little on the heavy side for technical riding. Weighing in at 538lbs (244kg) dry, the brute can be a handful in tight twisty uphills – although it’s 110 horses willingly pull the 575lbs (261kg) wet weight (plus rider and pillion) with ease. But that output and weight gives it a power-to-weight ratio less than it’s main competitors:

BMW R1200GS: .54:1
Ducati Multistrada: .79:1
Super Tènèrè: .45:1
KTM Adventure: .50:1
Suzuki V-Strom 1000: .47:1

Trust Yamaha to address the problem. Introducing the Yamaha Worldcrosser!

“Fully-equipped with an exclusive range of lightweight chassis components, this high-specification machine is designed for adventurous riders who want a supremely capable motorcycle for the toughest global challenge.”

“By creating the Worldcrosser concept model, Yamaha has underlined the true spirit of the Super Ténéré. With the addition of a few specialist components and the replacement of some of the standard parts, this rugged adventure bike is ready for the most exciting off road adventure.”

Yes, it’s still in concept stage but it looks o-so-near ready for launch. There will be some feathers flying when it roars into life.

While the woes of the economic crash continues, with those bankers who caused it still waddling in what they gained from others’ pain, in 2011 citizens started fighting back, tackling the scoundrels in the streets, the media and the courts.

2011 will also be remember as the year in which the last convoy of US troops pulled out of Iraq (December 18th) after 9 years of crippling involvement. And it is the year in which Kim Jong-iI of North Korea died (December 19th) bringing hope to a better future for many in the region.

And not forgetting our animal friends, best explained in the “Top 10 Animal Stories of 2011″ by TimesFreePress and GlobalPost.

As always, Google Zeitgeist offers a quick look at the year that was.

Trust that you have a great festive season and a FANTASTIC 2012.

This is the time of the year when the guys start winding down – a little less work, a lot more family time. Leave the shopping to the wife. Put up the Christmas tree. It’s not too early to start talking Super Bowl, the Dakar Rally… you know, guy things like great anticipation for the new Pirelli Calendar and AskMen’s Top 99 Women of the year.

Ah! The Top 99 Women! Obviously, in real life there is no such thing as “Top Women” because ALL women are tops. These are the loveable creatures who make the world go around, who care and love and laugh and make our existence count however less-than-perfect we are.

But this time of the year, in the same way that ordinary men most certainly will qualify for the Dakar, we allow ourselves to dream a little about calendar girls. Life is tailor-made for a man with nice dreams.

Talking of which – cars and dreams and calendar girls – the beautiful Taylor Swift is a finalist in AskMen’s Top 99 Women for 2012. To quote them: “There may not be a sweeter girl in show business than this country star.” She is the girl who, in her own words, is “best friends with a guitar and still believes prince charming exists somewhere out there.”

The 2011 Billboard Woman of the Year, award-winning, blue-eyed blonde keeps bringing joy into our lives. And, goodness, she turns only 22 on December 13th.  Certainly, that must mean that the next few decades promises many more sweet dreams. Especially this time of the year.

So it is with great anticipation that the world awaits the introduction of a new Honda 250 dual-sport bike.

Honda is said to contemplate bringing a dual-sport version of their popular CRF250 model into the adventure market. The new bike will resemble the CRF and probably share the frame and some other bits but will use the compact single cylinder engine used in the road-going CBR250R.

Import of the XR250L – the street version of the famous XR250R – to the United States and many other parts of the world was discontinued in 2004, the same year in which Honda announced the CRF250X as replacement for the XR250R. It is not that the Honda 250 dual-sport bike actually has disappeared; they lived on elsewhere in the world as the XR250 Tornado. But they never captured the same excitement as the popular XR250R had.

Honda XR250R - the little legend was produced until 2004

As is tradition with Honda, the street legal 250 will carry the “L” mark and will mostly likely be called the Honda CRF250L.

Honda CRF250L - new small bore adventure bike

The CRF250L is rumored to be introduced in 2012, possibly as an upgrade to the CRF230L which has been around since 2008.

Austrian DS company, KTM, is said to be polishing off their latest power tools as replacements for the iconic KTM 990 series: the KTM 1200 Adventure which will also be available in 1000cc and 800cc formats.

The news was leaked by Dutch motorcycle website Nieuwsmotor. During their recent visit to KTM’s factory in Mattighofen the rumor of a KTM 1200 Adventure was confirmed but the fact that a 1000 and 800 will spice up the adventure line-up in 2012 came as a surprise.

There are no specifications available at the moment but considering the popular ADV classes currently produced by other DS makers (650, 800 and 1200cc) the KTM 1000 might be more asphalt orientated to take on the likes of Suzuki’s V-Strom and Honda’s Crossrunner. The KTM 1200 Adventure and 800 Adventure will probably go head on with BMW’s 800 and 1200GS and the new Triumph 1200 Adventure as all-out Dual-Sport bikes.

The expectation is that KTM will deliver class winners.

So it’s only obvious that a brand as big as Facebook would have a phone. It’s be rumored for some time that there will be a Facebook phone and now it seems closer than ever, under the project code name “Buffy.”

Facebook has teamed up with Taiwan phone maker HTC to produce an Android-based cell phone that is “entirely social.” The models of choice are HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa.

With some 350 million Facebook users accessing their accounts through mobile gadgets and its fastest growing market section being in the areas that also are the fastest growing phone markets (Africa and the East) it was only a matter that Facebook should claim a slice of the lucrative mobile pie. According to AllThingsD, who broke the Facebook Buffy story, “Mobile is critical to Facebook’s future.”

The idea for a Facebook phone is not new. PCMag has a rundown of the history of the Facebook phone.

The Facebook Buffy phone is months away from launch but reaction to the news has been strong, albeit mixed. Forbes’ David Coursey thinks that there are 5 reasons why the Facebook phone will fail. Jared Newman of PCWorld says it is a bad idea because it will lock users in too tightly, citing security issues. Judging from the comments on the mentioned articles and others the reaction by the public is mixed. But, for sure, a phone is an obvious addition to the Facebook brand.