Author's posts

Sep 26 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 45 stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Spanish matadors slay bulls for last time in Catalonia

By Elodie Cuzin, AFP

18 hrs ago

Spain’s finest matadors will slay their prey in Catalonia’s historic last bullfight Sunday, a spectacle to be played out before 18,000 fans in a sold-out Barcelona arena.

The unequal duel between man and beast on the sands of the century-old Monumental bullring is the final combat before a permanent ban takes effect in the northeastern region from 2012.

A relief to animal rights activists, the ban is a bitter blow to bullfighting enthusiasts.

Sep 25 2011

Fake News

Better than anything you’ll see from the talking heads up their asses.

Sep 25 2011

F1: Singapore

I’m tired of tires, but there’s nothing much else to write about unless you’re willing to join in the premature Vettel celebration.

While Hamilton blames a fueling problem for his unexpected absence from the last laps of Q3, others speculate it was due to his blow out at the end of Q2 which frosted a complete set of Super Softs leaving him with just one new and his qualifying tires.  Other drivers are defensive of the tire saving practices which have parked teams and sucked out the drama.

At Singapore you have to hope for the unexpected like rain or wrecks because the track itself is among the most impossible and boring on the circuit.  Next year is the last in the contract and it may get moved or dropped.  As I noted yesterday it has a history of that so maybe there’s a chance of something interesting happening.

Other than that it is completely…

Well, dictable I guess.  You have only to look at the Starting Grid in the pretty tables below.

Speed coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Repeat at 3 pm.

Sep 25 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features

Featured Essays-

DocuDharma

Sep 25 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 46 stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 German shot dead in Afghanistan: local officials

By Usman Sharifi, AFP

2 hrs 43 mins ago

A German tourist was shot dead by armed motorcyclists while travelling in central Afghanistan Saturday, local officials said.

The man was killed alongside an Afghan companion in the usually stable central Afghan province of Ghor.

The incident came in the same month that two German nationals were found dead after apparently going climbing in mountains north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Sep 24 2011

F1: Singapore Qualifying

So I was watching a digest of the America’s Cup Preliminary series and if you think you can’t have crashes on water you’ve never seen catamarans dump after being rammed from behind.

Flaming chunks of twisted metal.

The problem with unlimited formula racing of some duration is that at a certain point dominant teams tend to… well, dominate and chances for an upset are vanishingly small.  The press part of the Sporting Press is overwhelmed by stories of how Vettel can clinch in Singapore this weekend, but the truth is it’s highly unlikely since even with a victory a top 3 finish by Alonso (who’s had good results at the track) will push the day of reckoning off until Suzuka.

Still you have to have something to write about and the other story line is silly season driver seat speculation with an emphasis on the backlog depth at Renault and Red Bull.  Those of you rooting for Kubica’s return are likely to be disappointed since his rehabilitation is incomplete.

Singapore is a street course run at night entirely under the lights.  It is hot, humid, and long with practically no straight sections to the point that they had some problem finding a suitable place to engage the DRS and you hear disparaging comparisons to Monaco.  It’s also known for parking cars with 5 Safeties in just 3 years.

Exacerbating that problem this year is that they’re having some difficulty keeping the racing curbs down.  These are slightly raised sections designed to keep the cars on the racing line and out of the barriers.  For drivers they’re like rumble strips and they regularly run their wheels over them which is a problem when the sharp, pointy anchor bolts work loose and they start working like tire shredders.

They took 30 minutes off the initial Practice for emergency repairs and were going to be doing some more work before qualifying so this will hopefully be a non-issue except for the time lost refining racing setups.

The tires for this race will be the Softs and Super Softs.  The Super Softs are from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds faster per lap and lose 6 seconds on full fuel.  Both McLarens had some trouble in practice with Button parking 50 minutes early and Hamilton damaging his under car diffuser on the curbing.

Surprises (if any) below.

Sep 24 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features

Featured Essays-

DocuDharma

Sep 24 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 41 stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 G20 assurances fail to convince markets

By Paul Handley, AFP

4 hrs ago

Assurances by the world’s leading powers that they are moving to stabilize the global economy failed to convince Friday, as markets sank again in impatience for more convincing action.

A surprise late-night communique from Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers Thursday recognized the sense of urgency, after a day of intense warnings from leaders around the world, including a number of the elite group’s own members.

But it failed to quell worries that the stumbling US economy and the European debt crisis would return the advanced economies to recession and drag down economic growth around the world.

Sep 23 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 33 stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Recession panic grips global markets

AFP – 11 mins ago

World markets buckled under a frenzied sell-off Thursday as investors panicked the global economy was headed for another slump, one which policymakers may be ill-equipped to prevent.

From New York to Tokyo it was a brutal day for investors as countless billions of dollars were wiped off the value of companies globally.

The 30 firms that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average alone lost $103 billion of their value — or around 3.5 percent — while major indexes in Europe, Asia and Latin America commonly suffered losses of around five percent.

Sep 22 2011

“I never paid for sex.”

Evidently untrue.

Berlusconi boasts of sleeping with eight women in one night

Silvio Berlusconi was at the centre of further sordid revelations about his sex life on Saturday after the Italian leader was caught boasting of having sex with eight women in one night.

By Nick Squires, The Telegraph

8:58PM BST 17 Sep 2011

The taped conversations also suggested for the first time that Mr Berlusconi gave money to the women he allegedly slept with, contradicting his repeated insistence that he has never paid for sex.

In revelations which are set to test Italian tolerance to the limit, the conversations also offered the strongest evidence yet that the scandal-prone billionaire used taxpayers’ money and state-owned aircraft to fly alleged prostitutes around Italy.

Last week Mr Berlusconi pushed through parliament a 54 billion euro austerity package which will hit pensions, public services and retirement ages, sparking violent clashes between riot police and demonstrators outside parliament in Rome.

…

The taped conversations revealed in extraordinary detail how parties involving dozens of young starlets and escort girls were organised for the 74-year-old Italian premier by a middleman, Gianpaolo Tarantini, 36, a convicted cocaine dealer. Mr Tarantini is being investigated for allegedly recruiting young women, and has also been accused of blackmailing the prime minister in exchange for his silence over the alleged prostitution ring.

…

The latest revelations will increase concerns in Italy over whether Mr Berlusconi can concentrate on rescuing Italy from its acute economic problems at a time when the country risks being sucked into the euro zone crisis.

…

Mr Berlusconi already faces four trials on charges ranging from bribery, tax fraud and false accounting to paying for sex with Karima El Mahroug, a teenage exotic dancer who prosecutors claim was working as an underage prostitute.

…

Mr Tarantini is currently in custody for allegedly extorting hundreds of thousands of euros from Mr Berlusconi. The premier says he gave money to Mr Tarantini and his wife, who was also arrested, because he is a generous man who was trying to help a “family in need.”

Brag as he might, Silvio is unlikely to beat the record of Wilt ‘The Stilt’ Chamberlain.

USA.  USA.

Update:

Italy’s tottering prime minister slipping into darkness

How much longer can Silvio Berlusconi go on?

The Economist

9/22/11

Already rocked by thousands of pages of evidence detailing his alleged whoremongering, Italy’s prime minister took a more serious hit on September 20th when Standard & Poor’s, a ratings agency, downgraded Italy and expressed grave doubts about the government’s ability to respond effectively to the crisis in the euro zone. Such views are widely shared in Italy. Most Italians seem to have realised that their prime minister is a liability. His approval rating has slumped below 25%. He lost the unions a long time ago; now employers have lost faith in his right-wing government’s handling of the economy.

Load more