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Sep 26 2010
F1: Singapore
Scuderia Marlboro UPC has an interesing grid, first and last. This is unlikely to move them in the Constructors Championship, but then again both Red Bull and McLaren would have to DNF both their cars for about 3 races to move Marlboro into contention anyway. I’m sure Alonso sees this as an opportunity and Massa is sorely disappointed, it’s been a very bad year for him.
Not as bad as Schumacher’s mind you, though he starts in the top 10 for the first time in what seems like… ever. Lots of speculation that at 41 he’s just too damn old, but I don’t blame the man, it’s his equipment. Brawn/Mercedes has never contended.
Anyway this is the kind of commentary that takes up the boring parts of the race (which is most of it quite frankly) during the silly season as we wind down the races and everyone’s position gets set further in stone. I don’t really find the debates about who’s the best of the worst (none of the new teams has shown much this year) all that fascinating. What I did find a little interesting was talk about rule changes that would allow turbo charging and fatter front tires. The concept is that would eliminate some of the passing problem which is ‘supposedly’ due to spoiled air and lack of boost. I look at Turn Left racing and its emphasis on drafting and say- maybe. Many of the drivers of the not so rich teams are unhappy with the idea and contend instead that it’s the constant rule changes and lack of development time that keep them down.
The track will be damp and stay that way since it’s hot and humid and there’s no sun to dry it out. All the edges are sharp so there will be no recovering, just broken suspensions and flying body parts. Hamilton really, really hates the adjusments they’ve made to the main chicane, but he can’t afford another DNF. Vettel qualified well (again) but the Championship action is all with Webber. Alonso and Scuderia Marlboro UPC think they were born to the throne but truth is without winning out and some mistakes from everyone else it ain’t happening.
The big puzzle is all the electronics failures. Most teams are reporting at least brown outs in telemetry (not so difficult to imagine given the interference from buildings and grand stands), but losing your engine control computer is a race ender.
Nick Heidfeld has replaced Pedro de la Rosa on Sauber, Christian Klien has succeeded Sakon Yamamoto and Karun Chandhok on Hispania. Hulkenberg has a 5 position penalty for replacing his transmission. Race 15 of 19.
My Qualifying Commentary, Speed Channel Racecast, Formula One Official Website.
Starting Grid and Standings below.
Sep 26 2010
Prime Time
Repeats of Series Premiers and College Throwball, Oregon @ Boise. Wasn’t Boise supposed to go straight to the Championship after their first game? What happened to that plan?
Singapore Grand Prix @ 7:30 am, repeat @ 1 pm.
- ABC Family– Liar Liar x 2 (again again, again again)
- AMC– Mad Max 2 and 3 (you’ve already seen it)
- Animal– Cats 101 (new and last week’s), Pit Boss (premier)
- Comedy– American Pie (if you like that sort of thing)
- Disney– Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks (repeats of last night’s premiers)
- E!– Scary Movie
- ESPN– College Throwball, South Carolina @ Auburn
- ESPN2– More Throwball, Oklahoma @ Cincinnati, West Virginia @ LSU
- Food– Chopped marathon
- History– Hell
- Nick– iCarly, Big Time Rush (Nick’s Jonas Brothers), Victorious (premiers)
- Oxygen– Next Friday, Barbershop
- SciFi– Lake Placid 3, Sharktopus (so bad they’re already making fun of it at FDL)
- Speed– Turn Left Trucks, Smith’s Food & Drug Stores 350
- TBS– The Family Man
- Turner Classic– A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams night)
- TNT– 300 (Joey, do you like movies about Gladiators?), 10,000 B.C. (numbers, there are too many of them)
- USA– NCIS marathon
Later-
- ABC Family– Sixteen Candles
- AMC– More Mad Max
- Comedy– American Pie Presents: The Book of Love ], [American Pie (again, in case you haven’t had enough of it yet)
- Disney– Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks (repeats of last night’s premiers, again)
- Lifetime– Project Runway (this week’s)
- Turner Classic– Suddenly, Last Summer
- TNT– Resident Evil: Extinction
- Toon– American Dad (Series Premier repeat)
- USA– The Event (Seriers Premier repeat)
- VH1– Rudy
Saturday Night Live- Amy Poehler, Katy Perry (Season Premier). GitS: SAC– Yes, Machine Desirantes (Episodes 14 & 15).
The human animal is a beast that must die. If he’s got money, he buys and buys and buys everything he can, in the crazy hope one of those things will be life-everlasting, which it can never be.
Sep 26 2010
Evening Edition
Evening Edition is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Extensive work still needed: Commonwealth Games chief
by Giles Hewitt, AFP
19 mins ago
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Extensive work remains to be done on the crisis-hit Delhi Commonwealth Games with barely a week to go, federation chief Mike Fennell said on Saturday, warning of the damage done to India’s image.
While acknowledging that a “massive” effort had been made in recent days to address the multiple problems surrounding the October 3-14 event, Fennell voiced concerns on a wide range of issues including athletes’ safety. “The work left to be done is quite extensive,” said Fennell, who toured the athletes’ village on Friday. |
Sep 25 2010
F1: Singapore Qualifying
What makes the Singapore race unique is that it’s the only F1 race run under the lights. This is actually a nice fit for the island nation since most drivers don’t use their headlights because the streets are so well lit. I have this bit of information from Richard who had a conference there many years ago. The reason they’re an island nation is that the socially dominant Chinese are so fucking racist against native Malay that Malaysia won’t have them.
With 4 races (5 including this one) left to go the commentators are obsessing about engines with teams using Ferrari powerplants in the worst shape (most on their last one already) and those with Renaults in the best (Mark Webber for instance has 2 left).
Since Singapore is a street circuit most teams are re-using their Monte Carlo aero packages. The course is a little over 3 miles and while there are at least 3 areas that are generally considered available for passing it’s not a particularly fast track with lots of turns and short straights, which will save the engines somewhat. The curbs are high and the boundaries concrete Jersey barriers so there isn’t a lot of room to recover from a mistake. Expect many flaming chunks of twisted metal. Indeed the most notable thing about practice was Sutil launching his Force India off a curb in a chicane and wacking his front end clean off (no O’Donnell jokes, please). Monster Jam RULZ!
You might be thinking that the last race at Monza’s surprising results with Hamilton geting punted on the first lap and Alonso going on for the win might have shaken things up a bit in the standings. Not as much as the commentators would have you believe. Lewis is only 5 points behind Webber. Alonso did leap frog Button and Vettel for 3rd, but he’s a dismal 21 points out of the lead and without a few more unexpected DNFs can hardly be considered a contender. In the Constructors Championship Red Bull leads McLaren by a mere 3 points with Scuderia Marlboro UPC huffing and puffing 60 points down.
The weather pattern seems to be heavy rains in the afternoon with the track damp and clean at race time. This will affect grip until the racing line wears in, I would expect Softs to be the tire of choice.
Sep 25 2010
Prime Time
Stephen gave a great performance today. It’s available on CSPAN-3. Keith promised Thurber last night, as much as a full hour. You can watch Rachel’s cheerleading if you want. This is probably the last you will hear, from me at least, about Lawrence O’Donnell’s new show on Monday. A more sold out partisan shill isn’t currently broadcasting; and yes, I’m including Glenn Beck and the rest of the Faux cast of clowns because they occasionally break character and let the truth slip out and Larry never, ever does.
There’s always King of the Hill.
Singapore Qualifying at 10 am tomorrow on Speed. Formula 1 Debrief at 12:30 am. Practice repeat at 1:30 am.
- AMC– Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (confusing and unsatisfying, but fun to watch)
- Disney– Phineas and Ferb (premier), Fish Hooks (Series Premier)
- Discovery– Man, Woman, Wild (Season Finale), Beyond Survival With Les Stroud (premier)
- ESPN– College Throwball, Texas Christian @ Southern Methodist
- ESPN2– High School Throwball, South Carolina- South Pointe @ Spartanburg
- Food– Chopped (Champions, Part 4), Meat and Potatoes (Series Premier)
- FX– When A Stranger Calls (not the good 1979 version. Calling Saxby Chambliss), Prom Night (not the good 1980 version)
- Nick– Are you tired of Fred: The Movie yet?
- Oxygen– Something New
- SciFi– The League of
Calamitous IntentExtraordinary Gentlemen, Haven (premier) - TBS– You are Gumped
- Turner Classics– A Big Hand for the Little Lady (Fonda and Woodward, one of the very best, you owe yourself), The Sting
- TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon (and premier)
- TNT– I am Legend x 2 (Seen Omega Man? Then you’ve seen this.)
- Toon– Sym-Bionic Titan, Generator Rex, Clone Wars (premiers)
- USA– Juno, Legally Blonde
Later-
- AMC– Unbreakable (What a twist!), Fallen
- Bravo– American Pie Presents: Band Camp, Little Miss Sunshine
- SciFi– Warehouse 13 (season penultimate), Haven (this week’s)
- TBS– The Terminal
- Turner Classic– The Cincinnati Kid
- TNT– Executive Decision (really mediocre)
- Toon– American Dad x 2, Childrens Hospital, The Office (the good British version)
- USA– Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
Dave hosts Shia LaBeouf, Brian Regan, and Jimmy Eat World. Alton does Porterhouse Steak.
Forty-six years ago, I started lending money in Larry Bingham’s back room. My first customer was a drover named Penny. He wanted two dollars on a Brindle cow at six percent interest. He said she gave six quarts of milk a day. You know what I made him do? I made him move that cow into my back yard for a whole week. And I watched him milk her every day. Sure enough, she gave an average of six and a half quarts a day, so I gave him the money at six and half percent interest. Not only that, I kept the 60 pounds of manure she left behind. When you show me collateral, madam, you better make sure it’s good collateral. For forty-six years, I’ve been lending money on good, old-fashioned principles. I stand here now to tell you one and all that I’ve never been offered a better piece of collateral that I hold in my hand now!
Sep 25 2010
Evening Edition
Evening Edition is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 DR Congo mass rapes ‘defy belief’: UN
by Hui Min Neo, AFP
Fri Sep 24, 1:15 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – Three groups of armed militia raped at least 303 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over four days, said a UN initial report on the atrocities whose “scale and viciousness… defy belief.”
“At least 303 civilians were raped, in many cases multiple times,” said a statement issued by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the country in a preliminary report outlining the violations which took place between July 30 and August 2. “The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men and three boys,” detailed the probe, following the team’s visit to 13 affected villages in the Walikale region in Nord-Kivu province. |
Sep 24 2010
Right back at’cha Dave
More Fear Factor enthusiasm
As we get closer to the election hardly a day goes by without Institutional Democrats demonstrating another “Profile in Courage” while they piss off anyone who might be inclined to vote for them.
Yesterday we saw the rare Double Axelrod. After half an hour of pleading on a conference call with bloggers, showing all the “Vote for Us or Republicans will eat your babies” finesse we’ve come to expect from Joe Biden and Bill Clinton and Ed Rendell (Rachel Maddow has a little more finesse, but not much), David Axelrod “Political Genius” (firstly, you should hear that like “Wiley Coyote- SUPER Genius” and secondly, that arrogant bastard would be the first one to tell you), finally let Susie Madrak get a word in edgewise-
“Have you ever heard of hippie punching?”
Long pause.
“You want us to help you, the first thing I would suggest is enough of the hippie punching. We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but you won’t be seen with in the light of day.”
David Axelrod, “Political Genius”-
“To the extent that we shouldn’t get involved in intramural skirmishing, I couldn’t agree more. We just can’t afford that. There are big things at stake here.”
Madrak replied that Axelrod was missing the point — that the criticism of the left made it tougher for bloggers like herself to motivate the base. “Don’t make our jobs harder,” she said.
“Right back at’cha. Right back at’cha,” Axelrod replied, a bit testily, an apparent reference to blogospheric criticism of the administration.
Dave, the only thing at stake here is your phony baloney job and the only reason that it is at stake is that you’re a craven cowardly fool.
Case in point (told you it was a Double Axelrod day)-
Democrats have also decided to not deal with the Bush tax cut repeal. Speaker Pelosi couldn’t rally her caucus, mostly because of conservative Democrats worried about midterms. Someone needs to explain what the hell having a majority is if so called Democrats are going to slither away without making the case for middle class tax cuts.
If any Congress deserved to get blown out of Washington it’s the 111th. I know it will usher in ugliness from the Right. However, if Democrats won’t stand on a line to make the case they’ve stood on throughout history, which is standing up for the middle class, then they don’t deserve the majority.
…
Not even bothering to make the fight is the height of political cowardice and malpractice. It’s leaving a move on the board against Republicans un-played that Democrats need and the electorate wants to hear from them. Make the case, drive it home hard, then let the people decide who has their economic back.If Democrats in “difficult” districts can’t make the case against extending Bush tax cuts for the top 2%, while resoundingly raising their voice for middle class tax cuts, then these Democrats deserve to lose, because the district is too red to help the Democratic agenda actually manifest real progress that matters.
And why should we expect any different? It’s only wildly popular, like oh… say, the Public Option as opposed to Individual Mandates to spend 20% of your annual income to buy crappy non-coverage from Insurance Industry leeches.
And yet they bitch and moan about the lack of “independent” support after they did everything possible to fold the Veal Pen organizations into Obama for America and the DNC, screwed over the Unions on EFCA, sold out Women’s Reproductive Rights, and have shown a distinct lack of “fierce advocacy” for the GLBT community.
In 2008 we sent “Democrats” to Washington with filibuster proof majorities and gave them complete control of Congress and the White House and they have whimpered and whined like cowardly babies because they are too lazy and stupid to do their jobs. Well in the real world that gets you fired you pampered privileged pantywaists. I hope you’re all unemployed long enough to use up all your benefits just like every working class Joe you shafted. You’re miserable excuses for human beings and a waste of the air you breathe. Contribute to reducing Global Warming by shutting your big, fat, yaps.
We voted for change and we’ll keep voting until we get it.
Assholes.
Sep 24 2010
Prime Time
All premiers on broadcast, none worth mentioning. Last night this week for Keith and Rachel all night and the Boys.
You can break a man’s skull, you can arrest him, you can throw him into a dungeon. But how do you control what’s up here? How do you fight an idea?
- AMC– Airplane & II x 2
- Bravo– Real Housewives D.C. (premier)
- Comedy– [Futurama ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama marathon
- ESPN– College Throwball, Miami @ Pittsburgh
- ESPN2– High School Throwball, from Florida South Lake @ Apopka
- Food– America’s Best (Alton), Ace of Cakes (premiers)
- FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League (premiers)
- History– The Universe (premier)
- Lifetime– Project Runway (last week’s and new)
- TBS– Rush Hour 3
- Turner Classic– Ben-Hur
- TLC– Sr. v. Jr. (last week’s and new), BBQ Pitmasters (premier)
- Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (100th episode repeat)
Later-
- Turner Classic– Samson and Delilah
- Toon– Delocated, American Dad x 2
- SciFi– WCG Ultimate Gamer (premier)
- USA– Undercovers, Outlaw (Series Premier repeats)
Dave hosts James Franco, Sofia Vergara, and Shakira. Jon has Abdullah II, Stephen Oscar Goodman. Alton does Ginger.
But just remember, my name is ROGER MURDOCK. I’m an airline pilot.
I think you’re the greatest, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don’t even run down court. And that you don’t really try… except during the playoffs.
The hell I don’t! LISTEN KID! I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
Over Macho Grande?
No. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande.
Sep 23 2010
Evening Edition
Evening Edition is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Delhi makes Games ‘progress’ as criticism pours in
by Neha Lall, AFP
1 hr 32 mins ago
NEW DELHI (AFP) – The Commonwealth Games Federation signalled Thursday that Delhi was succeeding in fixing the problems that have brought the event to the brink of disaster, as more athletes announced they were withdrawing.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a crisis meeting with senior ministers late on Thursday and Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit oversaw the deployment of hundreds of staff to clean the athletes’ village. “There has been progress and there is more to do,” Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), told AFP, adding that there had been a “significant” influx of additional resources. |
Sep 23 2010
“When You’re Out of Schlitz, You’re Out of Beer”
Fear Factor enthusiasm
I must admit I share Gregg Levine’s frustration–
In 1976, the Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, WI, was the number two beer maker in the United States, its roughly $600 million in sales almost equal to that of industry leader Anheuser-Busch. But trouble loomed. The growing popularity of name-brand light beers, increased availability of niche and foreign brews, and a change in Schlitz’s brewing process, done to make its namesake beer cheaper to mass-produce, all were taking a toll on the market share of “the most carefully brewed beer in the world.”
So, in the Summer of 1977, an new CEO at Schlitz abandoned their heretofore successful “Go for the Gusto” slogan, and turned to the ad men of Leo Burnett to craft a message that would help increase the brewer’s short-term profits (the time between investment and payback was apparently too long for new management). What the boys from Burnett produced was a campaign that will live in infamy:
At the screening of the new commercials, the Burnett people watched as the boxer told a disembodied voice that he was going to knock him “…down for the count” for even suggesting a switch from the Schlitz label. The outdoorsman in one of the following commercials told his pet mountain lion to calm down after his choice of Schlitz beer was also challenged and snarled back to the animal, “Just a minute, babe. I’ll handle this.”
. . . .
The reactions to the commercials once they went public were almost immediate; people hated them. Burnett officials were appalled at the reaction.
. . . .
Ten weeks after the commercials first began to air, Schlitz management ordered them pulled. Soon after, the Leo Burnett ad agency was fired by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.The short-lived run of commercials would go down in advertising history as “The Drink Schlitz or I’ll Kill You” ad campaign.
…
In 1976, there were fresh choices for beer drinkers, and Schlitz’s reaction was to abandon their core identity as well as their winning formula. They chose to eschew long-term investment for short-term profit, and when threatened by fast-weakening consumer enthusiasm, they decided to threaten their consumers right back. Threatening consumers did not work for Schlitz, and that was in a category where people pretty much understand the immediate benefits of their choices.For Democratic leaders, threatening unenthusiastic voters with vague pictures of doom and gloom, when much of what the voters see right now is already pretty gloomy, is not going to “wake up” very many of the rank and file. Promising little else in terms of benefits if Democrats stay in power-little beyond “there’s more to do”-does not provide enough positive motivation to engender enthusiasm.
You see, I can’t find the lyrics to that song either.
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