Hi guys. I'm enjoying a few days off work as I use up our bizarre holiday allocation which runs from October to September. You'd think that would mean getting some useful odd jobs done, but no it does seem easier to doss around reading the internet and catching up with rugby highlights (aren't South Africa looking good now!).
I've also been really getting into AC/DC's older stuff, after getting quite drunk at a tribute band's gig on Saturday. What music have you discovered lately, even if it isn't newly-released?
LookingSpiffy has been exploring an alternative option for watching F1 in 2012 without paying the monthly fees for Sky Sports - watch the free foreign channels! Sounds like a lot of hassle to me but if you have the space for the dish it seems worth giving it a try.
Leigh has written his thoughts on the situation at Williams at the moment.
He also found this great video pulling together into a decent narrative all those clips we saw Red Bull film in Austin the other week.
I've got around to writing up my day at the Goodwood Revival, I'd love it if you took a look even if you only gawp at the gorgeous cars. Martin Brundle was there in a Ferrari 250 GTO.
Since I was there I didn't really keep track of the rest of the news in racing, only really that Casey Stoner dominated the MotoGP in Aragon and has essentially got that title wrapped up now, surely.
If you are into IndyCar be sure to follow CEO Randy Bernard on Twitter. As an interesting comparison you can also follow ALMS Race Director Beaux Barfield and COO Scot Elkins.
The entry list for Petit Le Mans is out and has 58 cars on it, only 53 will be allowed to start in a controversial ruling which will affect a couple of domestic ALMS class championships, which might not be allowed to participate. It is good to see Marino Franchitti get a drive in Level 5's new HPD.
Before that though it is the LMS season-closer in Estoril, a fairly weak field since the ILMC competitors will be heading to the US for Petit. Sportscar racing does like to make life more complicated than it needs to be. The LMS in Europe and the ALMS in North America are dying as the money goes into the ILMC, but the latter needs the former to act as feeder series to be able to survive. There's talk IMSA might not renew the ALMS name and will go it alone with cars which are similar, but not quite the same, in 2012. Interesting times for racing falling under ACO rules. I hope it pulls through.
Races this week:
F1 - Singapore (SPC race info)
LMS - Estoril (TV deal largely fell through so could be tough to follow)
NASCAR Cup & Truck - New Hampshire
World Superbike - Imola
Gosh Pat you've been busy with all the writing. Nice daily :D
Several hours to get into the rythym but probably only a couple fo get Goodwood written properly, then 40mins for the Daily but I'd had the tabs loaded for ages which helped :)
And to think, all I did this evening was dig out quiz questions for a post tomorrow
I think I felt bad for going to bed late last night (err early morning) then sleeping until lunchtime, and then doing nothing until evening. :)
I've been having another of my insomnia weeks, I'm so tired, except tonight's twist is not getting to sleep at all instead of waking early
Ah well if you are on holiday why not enjoy it. I also have the same Annual Leave year, hehe could I take next week off?
Is it my imagination or is the font size smaller?
Ah not good. I felt really out of it so I made myself stay up and then just sleep. Easy to do when on holiday of course.
If they are anything like mine they won't let you roll it into the next allocation..
I tried that, got up at 4am this morning, stayed up till past midnight and still can't sleep... betcha come 5am I could
do you have anything planned for the rest of the week?
Smaller in the post than in realtime or dashboard I think
Not really. I should clear out some old tat because I've got so much clutter in the flat and it doesn't need to be here. Haircut maybe. Was going to put some spray paint on the scratches on the car but apparently it might need filler first (no idea).
Lots of odd jobs like that.
Cool at least it's not just an illusion
No specific plan though.
Oh and I was going to try and relearn a database thing for an idea I had for a website but its a ton of work so it might not happen. Might learn iRacing instead if I can find a steering wheel, it sounds less like work.
That's what I tend to do on holiday too, swap one paid job for another job doing the chores
Yeah that's why I want to motivate myself to do it Thursday so that I can spend the rest of the time off doing holiday things like playing games or watching films/TV.
I don't fancy that, I can cope with bits and pieces of html but that's it, it's like a foreign language to me and I'm getting too old to learn new tricks
I used to have a website with a bit of PHP and an SQL database, and I had an idea for a more simple one but which has a lot of data (but no imperative to rush it). Meant to spend a bit of time checking to see nobody else has done it.
well I think I'm going to give this sleeping malarky another go so I'll say goodnight
Ooh that sounds fascinating.
Me too soon, night.
night, hope you sleep well
I'm quite excited by it. :)
But I don't want to be trapped by it and have it turn into a chore or an unpaid job.
Check out this Best Buy flyer from 1996! http://gregarious24.imgur.com/best_buy_flyer_september_1996
Morning all
I was a bit busy last night;
http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/red-bull-powering-around-austin/
...and...
http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/on-the-other-hand/
You were indeed, sir!
133MHz !!
:D
macarena :-)
the only things that did not change much in 15 years are the cordless phones :-)
what will we think 15 years from now about posters from 2011 ....
2GB external hard drive - bah, that's nothing !!
4MB RAM upgrade!
that is nothing today already :-) mine is 2TB ...
That is, of course, what I meant (D'oh!)
They still used disks in 2011?
Webbo says the drivers can pick the track just by listening to an engine note: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/formula_one/15015576.stm
Wow.
I wonder what will be retro in a post-ironic sense in 15 years?
How well do you know your Formula 1 history?
The book That'll be the Day: 365 F1 Stories takes a look at significant moments or quirky happenings on this day in Grand Prix history. Can you guess what event the following describes?
The P34
(Go me)
:)
Hotdog.
Could have swore that was Jacques Laffitte's breakfast?
24 hours from now I will be settling down with beer in hand at Turns 1 - 2 and getting ready for FP1 ...
24 hours from now, I'll be in work swearing at my computer, wondering why my cup of tea has gone stale
Thinking of things from a bygone age...
http://www.tablesoccer.cc/images/subbuteo/sub_pset_box_back800x525.jpg
:D It's funny and sad at the same time.
Moreso the latter to be honest.
:)
So, Lucozade are sponsoring McLaren. The sponsorship drivel I've heard so far this morning is unbelievable.
What else have you heard?
Looks like Lucozade will take Aigo's spot in the overalls. I wonder if Aigo is still a sponsor/partner.
Frankly I have no idea how a company like Aigo managed to afford McLaren sponsorship, seriously ...
looks like Shakira or Linkin Park would require some race action sacrifice as they perform quite far from my seats, so Shaggy and Boy George then ...
Just imagine the most utterly dire corporate speak about how the team and the drink are great partners, followed by Lewis and Jenson warbling on about te great hydration effects of Lucozade.
Dear Lord, I say you couldn't make this stuff up, but some idiot somewhere has !!
Used to love playing that!
Oh my god view is amazing.
Is that where you are watching the race from?
no, we've got seats at turn 3
Sounds like a good spot.
I'll watch the safety car practice tonight from the balcony though and hopefully spot some drivers doing their track walk
You might see Crofty running...
Hmm:
Will he have to pay £400 to do that in 2012?
Indian circuit coming along very well. Nearly complete
http://www.f1katewalker.com/1/post/2011/09/progress-photos-indian-grand-prix.html
Fun time waster:
http://www.drawastickman.com/
Looks okay but hard to tell from those
Interesting post from Stuart on Kimi's future
http://www.stuartcodling.com/2011/09/what-next-for-kimi-raikkonen/
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... now I get it...
I was wondering why all these GP3 drivers were turning up in British F3 this weekend - I forgot they need to compete in at least one F3 race to be eligible for Macau
that reminds it is time to get the tickets sorted out, 2 months to go ...
Awesome. The one about Surtees is great too.
Just got my hands on the McLaren / Lucozade press release. This is priceless in its awfulness.
It continues:
Brilliant considering a few months back Hamilton knocked Red Bull for "only being an energy drinks company".
There might be a post in there somewhere.
Pressdog has a thoughtful post as well, can't link it directly as he's taken to swearing a lot more recently, but look for the one about a sellers market.
Just looking now... no rant from Dylan yet, what a shock.
Oooo this is a 'thing' of mine ATM.... Collab?
Possible. Mine will be something of a rant though.
:)
woohoo i have a gig of data, time to twitpic all i see
Quite a surreal day, my boss took me to the mall in his ferrari and i spent a small fortune on macs for the conference room!
I have spent the rest of the day playing around with them to get them set up
I Love the magic trackpad!
@Pat,
I responded to PDog's post - could you tell me if I'm being an idiot (or more importantly, just plain wrong)?
I think you're spot on
Speaking of...
http://www.grabbagsports.com/2011/09/fond-farewell-for-indycar.html
Does it fit IndyCar’s best interests? To a xenophobe it sure doesn’t, but neither does Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, undisclosed future China race, or street races, or road races, or whatever… but we need to ignore crazy internet people
Sounds like fun :)
I have moved the desk furniture to the balcony as sitting on a swively chair to be nosey is less painful than standing. Plus a table to hold beverages and cameras of course
Ahhh, now I get it!
I wonder if GP3 can somehow nab Macau. It would be a huge boon for them.
Not a chance. Jean Todt just invented a series to go around Macau - it's part of the FIA International F3 Trophy Series. Macau isn't going anywhere.
Besides, GP3 cars would be diabolical at Macau. They are truly the worst sounding cars I've ever heard.
Is that brand-new? What else is in the series?
AGreed!
Inaugural season. This year it was Pau, Hockenheim, Spa, Zandvoort, Macau -- with Korea itching to get onboard.
there isn't much space in the time schedule for another race. they are barely managing to fit in all the events they have now. safety cars and neverending debris clean up do not make that time management any easier :-)
i was actually thinking of GP3 replacing F3 - they are practically competing for the same driver bracket now. given what Leigh said, doesn't look likely though.
I think it might have been in reference to replacing F3. Not going to happen any time soon though.
they would not do that, GP3 is nothing, F3 is a tradition. that would be a big step back for Macau ...
I'm not convinced they are to be honest - GP3's biggest rival right now may be a combination of both F3 and Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup
I should add, from my chats to British F3 drivers recently, the big pull is World Series by Renault and not GP2...
Macau was there for decades before the F3 came to town. Bigger traditions have been broken.
To be fair, there is good reason behind that. F1's main feeder series have never really produced a lot of champions. Well, they've only produced one - Lewis.
That said, most BF3 drivers aim for WSR since GP2 teams get their drivers from GP3 teams now. BF3 drivers rarely get a look in.
World Series by Renault hasn't produced a single champion yet.
Most of the same teams operate across all of the lower formulae, so it hardly matters
yep, but they surely do not want to replace their star event with GP3 ...
Alonso (when it was WS Nissan)
also the WSR budget is smaller
Plus, as with GP2 & GP3, WSR also has several F1 teams with either direct or indirect involvement
True, but even that was long before the World Series. It was only a Spanish national series back then
Vettel?
F3 Euro Series
...which he lost to di Resta in 2006
Vettel?
Funny - I said the same thing. Checking Wiki, he didn't win the title, but he did win on his debut weekend in the series.
Any way folks, I'm off - back later.
Yeah sorry I didn't see that ;)
He would've won it, if Red Bull didn't pluck him out to race in F1
Evening all!
It's heeeeeeeeeere! http://twitpic.com/6osz3h
I have mine too *says nothing more*
Enjoy a little something from the Sidepodcast back catalogue.
- Every Now and Then I Fall Apart
Originally published 18 June 2008.
My first lap as Rubens at Montreal can only be described as more Maldonado.
Actually, more Ide. Much, much, much more Yuji Ide.
Hehe. how is it on the Xbox?
A lot more different to last year from what I was expecting in terms of the handling but reeeeeally enjoying it
Who knew a lap of Montreal could last 4 minutes!
:D
DRS is the hardest bit to get to grips with I found.
With no traction control on it is actually mental. Although I've already found out what happens if you activate it too early following a corner plenty of times
Apparently a day after changing Facebook, Facebook is changing again?
Yep, more copying going on :D
Rubens and Mr.C. have an affinity: http://twitter.com/#!/rubarrichello/status/116936047862087680
:D
Hello everyone!
Finally my iPod Touch has arrived
Wohoo!
Woah.... CERN are reporting they've found particles travelling faster than the speed of light. That could be huge!!
They're gonna have to call them Neweys
Amazing if it's true...
Evening. Any idea what this may be?
@F1Kate: Random #FIA #F1 news... There's a meeting of the #WMSC in Singapore tomorrow morning. Not sure if it's scheduled or extraordinary, though.
Someone probably has a badge stitched on their racesuit in wool instead of cotton or something
I bet it is them damned seagulls again. I have always refused to believe the light speed limit. Maybe I just don't like speed limits. I so hope this is true because it is going to make a lot of very clever people feel really stupid.
Anything that makes people question their fundamental beliefs is a great thing. I just hope they don't try to rush out a quick explanation
News to me
:D
:)
EINSTEIN!!! *shakes fist*
Heheh, and it goes to show that it is dangerous to rely on something as fact in a field like this.
Same here which is why I liked the quotes from the Italian lab which was at the other end of the beam sent from CERN.
"My dream would be that another, independent experiment finds the same thing - then I would be relieved. We are not claiming things, we want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result - because it is crazy".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15017484
I am sure a lot of scientists even though they would deny it would not dare question Einstein even though his findings should be subject to the same scrutiny as anyone else's
I hope this isn't similar to wind tunnel calibration :)
It could be the cold fusion thing all over again and someone has made some minor error and they can't repeat the result.
They are only dealing with particles that spontaneously change their nature so nowhere near as complicated as wind tunnels. It does mean that it should be possible to create a wind tunnel where the air moves faster than the speed of light though which will make the maths a lot more complicated
I just realised the most important implication of CERN's findings. It means Star Trek was right all along and all those physicists who looked down their nose at it were wrong.
IF CERN is correct. They're asking for others to verify.
I really hope they're right. The only thing more exciting than having important theories of science proven right is when they're proven wrong.
They would not go public unless they were certain. They have repeated this hundreds of times. They are only phrasing it the way they are so they have a get out of jail free if it turns out to be like cold fusion and can't be repeated.
I think this is a bit like pilots who saw ufos but wouldn't report them because they thought they would be grounded. They definitely saw them but didn't want to say they saw them.
The beauty of science is everything is hypothesis and people trying to disprove the currently accepted wisdom to gain a better picture. When things become accepted fact and go unchallenged science becomes too much like a religion with tenets that are above question.
Evening folks,
Finally catching Sunday's IndyCar race - poor is the best word for it.
I forgot all about it and didn't watch at all.
Really not missing anything at all.
Am reminded once again just how bloody awful the US commentary team are.
I thought my course would be easier than a day at work. How wrong was I??? This is me just getting in now.
You want an easy day at a course with a company you are leaving.
Today's big news from sidepodscience correspondent Lukeh
http://sidepodcast.com/post/daily-22nd-september-2011/comments#comment-1173029
thank you Steven. I'm standing here outside CERN, where I can confirm that the scientists have indeed ordered a Meat Feast Deep Pan and, despite the concerns of many, a Veggie Surprise Italian Base too. We can only assume these will lead to further scientific discoveries within the next few hours. Back to you Steven.
Why not....!
Thanks Lukeh
And now the weather......
You could have left early
It's September, what did you expect?
#ilovejeremypaxman
:D
Love that clip.
Erm no :( It was a group of 6 of us. They may have noticed.
The one at Motegi?
I honestly watched it for a few minutes live and was thoroughly confused. TV listings said it was Qualifying. But it obviously wasn't qualifying because of the graphics. But it certainly didn't look like a race, either.
Be a maverick and walk out with your jacket swinging over your shoulder
:)
There was no qualifying show, so they put it in the race show. The race (I'm now on lap 39) is awful, but it's made worse by the most unbelievably bad commentary team conceivable.
are you watching the US VS (Versus) crew?
Yep - they do the English language world feed I believe. Just dire....
They were commentating from a studio in Indianapolis, not live in Motegi.
I'm really, REALLY sorry you guys have to hear them.
That is ridiculous. That sort of amateurism belongs in the 70s
They're still garbage on a weekly basis. They actually manage to be worse than Marty Reid and his fellow toads on the NASCAR broadcast.
Bob Jenkins, Wally Dallnbach Jr and Jon Beekhus (sp?) are genuinely the worst commentators I ave ever heard. J Legard is beyond elegant compared to these guys.
But Marty Reid was even worse when he did IndyCar.
I mean, seriously...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad4GVeE3MZc&feature=player_detailpage#t=211s
It doesn't make a lick of difference if they're at the race or in Indy. They're always terrible.
He was a far better pit reporter than commentator
Just for the flyaway. They had Kevin Lee on the ground doing pit reports. Just him, not the usual 2 or 3 reporters. Same as when ESPN sent Jack Arute alone when they did this race.
I haven't watched this race and I don't know if I will.
They have as much panache as a bored tree
:lol:
Speed does this for the F1 coverage, and they're nowhere near as bad as the VS coverage is at all times.
Oh wow that is much worse than usual.
I read a blog post earlier from Allen Wedge and he had a clip of Versus a couple of years ago from Motegi and it was much better.
That is awful. They are hunting for anything to talk about. You could get away with that in the 70s with someone like Murray Walker but now with people who had a personality bypass it just comes off as pathetic
I cannot stand the buddy-buddy thing they have going on. They just rob everything of any essence and vibrancy.
They would make a great race dull.
Now this is much, much better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgYru3uLuoo
:)
Much better
Stuart has a very interesting post on Kimi
http://www.stuartcodling.com/2011/09/what-next-for-kimi-raikkonen/