The Return Of The Humans (with apologies to Steven DenBeste)
Humans have started hanging out in the back yard of The Pond again. It's a group of about 10, mixed male and female.
Yesterday I fed them a bunch. This morning I didn't see any, but I put out soda and pizza anyway. However, it ended up being ant food instead of human food.
Not totally; about half of it is still there, but it's been picked over pretty fine. Probably end up being food for the local humans, or children, or whatever the heck they're called. Gawky pink humans with brown hair and little round pieces of glass over their eyes. They're really quite unattractive, but I don't have the slightest idea what they are. (Update: I just did some googling, and they're called 'nerds'.)
This area is lousy with humans, but there aren't really all that many kinds. Last year there was a Spaniard in the stream a couple of times, and that was genuinely cool. But what we normally see are Italians, Swedes, those little nerds, us ducks, and Germans. I don't think I've seen a door-to-door salesman since I moved back here. (When I was a kid, I remember door-to-door salesman being everywhere. I wonder what happened to them?)
I'm a little afraid for the field behind The Pond. There are a couple of green tractors trundling back and forth over the whole thing, with the words "John Deere" next to them. Clearly someone is picking corn, and it makes me wonder if the farmers, or someone else, plans on replanting with soybeans.
UPDATE: I'm not expecting to see that Spaniard back again, either. It was standing on top of one of the improvements put in by the local human civil engineers, fishing in the drainage stream behind it. Unfortunately, last winter men from the county came through here and pulled out all the stuff the engineers had put in, the spoil sports. I don't really understand why they did it, either. I thought the stream was a lot neater the way the engineers had it set up.
Of course, for engineers, flooding is a bug, not a feature. That's probably the reason why. Regardless, our creek is no longer inviting territory for Spaniards, so I doubt it will be back.
Our humans aren't redheads. They used to be, though. None of the ones around now have red hair. But some of them have pocket protectors on their shirts; I'm assuming those are geeks.
I'm wondering if my memory has gone bad. I could have sworn the humans were nerds. Of course, one possibility is that the nerds are the winter shift, and the whatever-the-heck-is-out-there-now (geeks?) is the summer detail.
UPDATE: Actually, they might be nerds. It might just be that there are no calculators around. The pocket protectors apparently are for 'math majors'.
During his trip to Japan, Brickmuppet took the time to write in that "That is the actual mascot of a curry house in Yokuska." And, for good measure, he took a photo of the actual statue shown above:
Thanks, Muppet!
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Clean vs Dirty
In the comments for last weekend's F1 UPDATE!, both Vaucaunson's Duck and Steven DenBeste expressed curiosity regarding a reference to "the clean side of the track." Just what does that mean?
Many F1 tracks are used pretty much only for the Grand Prix they were designed for. The Istanbul Autodrom (according to the Legendary Announce Team), in fact, is used just once a year. As a result, these courses get... well, dirty.
Like the dust in the corners of The Pond, detritus will build up on the course. This ranges from dust, to rain residue, to salt (Sepang), to sand (Bahrain). This is magnified if the track isn't used often. Some places, such as Silverstone in England, are used so often that this isn't usually a problem.
Okay, so the track is dirty. Just a little dust, right? Well, not exactly...
more...
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Great explanation! When that question came up, I ran a Google search and found nothing. I knew my explanation was a bit simplistic. This really lays out the why's and how's well.
Posted by: madmike at August 29, 2007 06:04 AM (o+iiH)
2
Hang out down near the wall for a bit during a NASCAR race and when you return to your seat, you'll probably have a few BB sized balls of rubber (and maybe some as big as actual marbles) in your hair. It literally rains rubber on the front few rows during a race.
Posted by: Will at August 29, 2007 06:17 AM (SOx9v)
3
Were I in charge, on race day I'd have the entire track scoured using street sweepers two hours before scheduled start time.
4
Great explanation. (I had to look several time to even find the safety car in that picture.)
:-)
Posted by: Mallory at August 29, 2007 11:09 AM (h9L6l)
5
NASCAR uses giant truck-mounted blowers to push debris off the track and down into the infield. (and they are damned loud)
Because the tracks are so wide in places, you may have 3 or 4 trucks driving in echelon to get everything off the track.
Doing the same would be a bit more tricky with the winding tracks of F1, but still do-able.
Posted by: Will at August 29, 2007 11:56 AM (SOx9v)
6
They also use said blowers to dry the track after a rain. Heresy! Wimps won't drive on a wet track.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 29, 2007 03:34 PM (M7kiy)
7
ChampCar also uses a truck with... believe it or not... some kind of jet/turbine engine in the bed with a directional hood to blow things off the track. You don't want to be standing at the fence when it goes by. Oh yes, and it's godawful loud too.
Posted by: madmike at August 30, 2007 04:03 AM (o+iiH)
F1 UPDATE!: TURKEY!
We here at F1 UPDATE! refuse to agree with those who claim that all of F1 is boring racing.
We will say that today's race from Istanbul (not Constantinople) was dull as dishwater. Let's get to the updatin'!
*CLEAN SIDE GOOD...: ...dirty side bad. When the lights went out, the grid was Ferrari-McLaren-Ferrari-McLaren-BMW-BMW. By the first corner, it was Ferrari-Ferrari-McLaren-BMW-BMW-McLaren. Guess which cars were on the dirty side of the track? The Ferraris looked like they had been launched by an aircraft carrier's catapult, the McLarens like they were imitating the infamous Minardi Chicane. The race was effectively over at that point.
*GREAT TRACK, THOUGH: The race may have been dull, but the Istanbul Autodrom is rapidly climbing our list of favorite F1 tracks, and Quad-8 may very well be THE turn in Formula 1. Eau Rouge might be the only one that can compete with it now that 130-R has fallen off the calendar. (Suzuka R.I.P.)
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: No obvious winners today, so we'll give it to Felipe Massa for his dominating race. Just about as perfect a drive as you can expect to get.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. 1-2 on the podium, and McLaren never really challenged them, though Hamilton hung close during the first stint. Guess maybe that broken wind tunnel really DID have something to do with it?
*MOVE OF THE RACE: None. Oh, Button did have a decent pass on David Coulthard's Chin at Turn 1 early on, but we don't want to give the MOTR to such a pedestrian move.
*MOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: Also None. For once, there really wasn't a flat-out "what were they THINKING?" manuever in the race. Other than the Lap 1, Turn 1 incident when five cars tried to go into a space only large enough for three (which is the norm for the first turn of a F1 race), there's nothing we can point to and say "MOOOOOOO!" So, instead, here's a picture of Lewis Hamiton's tire acting like a S&M Dominatrix:
I loved the LAT with that quote from Coulthard before the season started that it was too soon to bring Lewis Hamilton into the REAL show; he should stay in the farm system a couple of more years. Yeah, right...
Definitely looking forward to Monaza!
Posted by: Mallory at August 27, 2007 12:50 AM (KJzva)
3
This F1 tyro would appreciate an explanation of the dirty vs clean side of the track effect - something to do with marbles, maybe?
Posted by: Vaucanson's duck at August 27, 2007 03:37 AM (oplPK)
5
If I'm correct, the "dirty" side of the track will give you less traction during your start, causing you to lose positions to those on the "clean" side. What causes a clean vs. dirty problem? Tracks located in arid or dusty areas are prone to having dust or sand blown onto the course.
Posted by: madmike at August 28, 2007 10:46 AM (o+iiH)
F1 Quals: Turkey!
Felipe Massa does it again, beating Lewis Hamilton to pole by .05 seconds, just moments after the McLaren driver had grabbed pole by a seemingly insurmountable one-third of a second.
The surprising thing is that Massa didn't really seem to have good lap going. In fact, his third sector was far from the best he'd done in Q3. Very strange, but that's F1 sometimes.
Kimi Raikkonen is third on the grid, having had a fairly quiet day, all told. Fourth was Fernando Alonso, and there's no better sign of the turmoil going down at McLaren than the fact that the team divided their pitcrew into two groups (and two pit stalls) in Q3: one for Hamilton, and the other for Alonso. There's nothing in the rules saying they CAN'T do that in quals (though they can't in the race). It just means that their stops were slower... and it avoids the backstabbing that occurred in Hungary.
Next on the grid are the two BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld... and I've GOT to show you the photos of the two lads that I found the other day:
Maybe there's more to my earlier joking ("Does he like my beard?") than I thought, eh?
The rest of the grid:
7. Heikki Kovalaineninnie Finland Renault 1:28.491
8. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1:28.501
9. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:28.740
10. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Renault 1:29.322
11. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.002
12. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:28.013
13. David Coulthard's Chin Britain Red Bull-Renault 1:28.100
14. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda 1:28.188
15. Jenson Button Britain Honda 1:28.220
16. Alexander Wurz Austria Williams-Toyota 1:28.390
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.798
18. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota 1:28.809
19. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.953
20. Sebastian Vettel Germany Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:29.408
21. Adrian Sutil Germany Spyker-Ferrari 1:29.861
22. Sakon Yamamoto Japan Spyker-Ferrari 1:31.479
Special Bonus Points to SuperAguri's Ant Davidson for finishing 8th in Q1, and barely missing out on Q3. He was 8th in Q2, but three of the last four cars to record hot laps bumped him. It was SO close, and SO heartbreaking for us SA fans. I'm not sure what happened to Takuma Sato in quals; he's just fallen off the screen altogether.
But he still outqualified Sebastian "I Replaced Scott Speed" Vettel... who's yet to outqualify his teammate, Vitantonio Liuzzi, who was outqualified by Speed 7 races to 4.
Friday Practice: Turkey!
"Hello, and welcome to This Old Track. I'm Norm Abrams, and our project for today will be this drain cover. Renault's Heikki Kovaleineneininnie went a little wide out of a turn, and you know what they say about the grip of these F1 tires! He ripped the drain cover straight out of the ground, bolts and all, and left it in the middle of the track.
"Well, to make matters worse, Rubens Barrichello then ran over the cover, blowing one of his rear tires. The FIA decided to throw the red flag, and called us in to fix everything.
"As you can see, there was some damage to our drain cover. It's just not meant to be run over like that... dumb F1 drivers. Now, while Steve walks down the whole drainage system, making sure everything is secure by stomping on every square inch..."
"Wow, this is fun!"
"Yes it is, Steve. Anyway, we'll have to do some heavy-duty wrenching to get this drain cover back into place. But first, using our biscuit cutter, we'll create some grooves in the side of the cover. We fill the grooves with glue, put the biscuits into the grooves, and get the cover centered over the drain.
"Now, this being Istanbul, the bolts are metric-headed, and all we have are imperial sockets. This would be a problem, but we've got a great solution e-mailed to us by a Mr. R. Brawn of Maranello, Italy... thanks for watching!... using a piece of carbon fiber, a chunk of option tire, and a length of coolant pipe. You just put this around this, and put that over the bolt, then we take the socket, and... voila! That's one down, and seven to go."
"(distantly) Wow, that's great, Norm!"
"Shut up, Steve. Well, that's about all the time we have for today's episode of This Old Track. Next time, we'll be repairing the Honda wind tunnel. I'm Norm Abrams, and don't forget, use biscuits. See you!"
1
That was very funny, seemed to be a bit true -- if you remember Japan 2005 -- but you forgot this:
"Before using any homemade appliance, don't forget to always follow shop safety rules and remember to wear these [pointing to glasses], safety glasses."
I always enjoy the F1 recaps, and I am looking forward to this weekend's updates.
Posted by: Kyle Gottfried at August 24, 2007 05:38 PM (fwufi)
As you're aware, I work at the Duck U. Bookstore. Yes, I'm one of those people, squeezing ridiculous amounts of cash out of poor struggling college students, yadda yadda yadda.
Whatever. Don't get me started.
Anyway, it's that time again. Froshducks move in on Saturday. Classes for everyone begin on Wednesday. From today thru end of the month, the Duck U. Bookstore will do roughly 1/3rd of our yearly sales.
Gonna be a little busy... I WILL post coverage of the Turkish GP activites, but I may not get to much else.
Of course, some might say that I don't do much else anyway...
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F1 ON SPEED!
For the Hungarian Grand Prix, F1 on Speed! was pleased to have American Scott Speed as our guest presenter. Since then, however, we unhappily have to report that F1 UPDATE! has severed ties with Mr. Speed. On the advice of our lawyers, we are unable to discuss the reasons for this. On the advice of our doctors, we currently have a bag of frozen peas over our eye.
It's been three weeks since we last had a race. However, the upcoming track makes the delay all worthwhile: Istanbul! This'll only be the third F1 of Turkey, but already "Quad-8" has become one of the great turns... no question that this is Hermann Tilke's best layout. Ferrari should have the advantage here, since they seem to do better on the high speed/low downforce tracks... but we said that about Montreal and Indy, too, and we all know how those turned out.
SPEEDchannel's coverage begins on Friday, from 6a-730a, with Practice 2, live. F1 Debrief'll be shown at 11pm (since we missed the Hungarian GP, we'll probably be watching).
Saturday, "Inside GP" will be shown at 530a. At 6a, until 730a, we'll get live coverage of the QUALS for Turkey... with no repeat, set your VCR!
On Sunday, the puppies of GP2 take to the track at 5am to frolic and scamper around. They're so cute when they're young!
The Big Dogs (I apologize) take over at 630a, however, for the Grand Prix of Turkey! There is no replay, so either get up early or arm your TiVO!
It's been three weeks since the last race... who CARES how good this one'll be? It's F1 RACING, and that's all we need.
1
Speaking of getting punchy, if you didn't see it, it's worth having a look on youtube for footage of the recent NASCAR race at Watkins Glen. Juan-Pablo Montoya knocked a fellow driver off the track (not his fault), and ends up in a fisticuffs situation. It's very amusing due to the slight difference in height between him and the other driver. Ah Juan, how we miss you.
Posted by: flotsky at August 21, 2007 06:25 PM (/n2FK)
2
Why that little...I'll kick Scott in the shins if he ever hits a NASCAR track in this neck of the woods.
Very much looking forward to this weekend's racing.
Further to Flotsky's comment on the JPM-Kevin Harvick dust-up, Kevin is still in a snit nearly two weeks later. During yesterday's (delayed due to rain) NASCAR race, he got on his radio after JPM spun out and made some ill-advised comments that (I hope) will get him into trouble. For his part, JPM has been a grown-up about the incident, but Harvick just can't let go. Big baby.
Posted by: Mallory at August 22, 2007 01:15 AM (KJzva)
No... oh, god, no... make them stop!
Everybody's... um... interested in what the new Evangelion movies are going to look like, yes. But have you heard about Petit Eva?
It appears that Petit Eva, subtitled "Evangelion @ School", is going to be shown via the internet and at conventions. Anime News Network reports:
"The Gainax/Khara franchise spinoff spoofs the psychological science fiction drama by reimagining the characters as classmates in Tokyo-3's Nerv School, headed by Principal Gendō Ikari and Misato-sensei. The student body includes three different Rei 'sisters,' the EVA-01 mobile weapon reimagined as the school bully Evanchō, and the ill-fated Jet Alone robot as JA-ko, a 'hidden character' in the form of a shy android girl."
"I don't want to go on the cart!"
Latest rumor from Offical First Reader Mallory is that American Scott Speed, late of Scuderia Toro Rosso (and on the run from Zsolt, The Bringer Of Death), is almost a shoo-in for a Red Bull sponsored drive in NASCAR next season!
Duuuuuuude!
The rumor is non-specific about which of the NASCAR series he'd be in. Either the Busch league, or the Winston Cup Nextel Cup would be nice, but I know where my heart wants him to go:
Craftsman Trucks.
How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Center Of The Ducks In Anime?
Since the Chiyo-chan Sighting has caused such a kerfluffle, I figured The Pond needs something a little less controversial (and who would have thought Chiyo-chan would be controversial???)...
-Hayate The Combat Butler, episode 10
(yes, I'm running behind. Also, yes, that was a really stupid episode)
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Well, THAT was unexpected... (UPDATED!)
By now, everybody knows that Lucky Star constantly throws references to other anime series into every episode. Just off the top of my head, there was Kanon, Haruhi Suzumiya (a whole frickin' episode), Marimite, Keroro Gunso, Full Metal Panic, and probably two dozen more that I saw, but didn't catch.
That's all well and good, but I didn't expect THIS one, from ep18:
Yep, that's Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh all right...
UPDATE: In an attempt to make the cameo a LITTLE more clear, I'll post an edited version of the above screenshot.
------Chiyo------
1
Bit of a stretch, isn't it? Chiyo specifically didn't get hit in dodgeball (and when she got pegged in volleyball, it was friendly fire on the back of the head, no?)
Posted by: Avatar at August 13, 2007 03:47 AM (LMDdY)
3
Gentlemen, gentlemen... you're putting waaaaay too much thought into this.
LOOK AT THE GIRL ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2007 11:38 AM (M7kiy)
4
The 24 reference had me going for a bit. That damned tick-tock and mulitple frames is going to be with us forever I'm afraid (kinda like bullet-time).
Posted by: Will at August 13, 2007 03:02 PM (olS40)
5
I've never even seen 24, and I knew what it was.
Yup, we're screwed for a loooooong time.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2007 04:02 PM (M7kiy)
7
Right, looks nothing like her. What could I have been thinking?
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2007 05:15 PM (M7kiy)
8
The only thing even vaguely similar is that she has short twintails, but they're not drawn the same, and that's hardly rare anyway. (Kinomoto Sakura also has short twintails.)
9
Steven, with all due respect, I believe you to be incorrect.
Oh, you're right, the twintails aren't exactly right. The drawing style isn't exactly right. Here's news: none of the the other cameos in Lucky Star are exact, either, but there's no question who they are.
I believe the situation to be the same in this case.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 14, 2007 12:53 AM (DMnkh)
10
More like, it can't be a cameo because it's YUTAKA. It's a named character. It's Konata's lil' sickly cousin! ;p
Posted by: Avatar at August 14, 2007 02:44 AM (LMDdY)
11
That could to imagine that?. It does not hope to me that, or it is by chance or by lack of creativity, it got to happen things like these. Although, nevertheless, it is necessary to know clearly that this is one of the many details and particularitities that make interesting not only anime, but to different sorts of programs. That is what I think!
Posted by: Necromancer EXE at August 14, 2007 08:21 AM (Ajjzc)
12More like, it can't be a cameo because it's YUTAKA. It's a named character. It's Konata's lil' sickly cousin! ;p
Yukata has pink hair and green eyes.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 14, 2007 10:07 AM (M7kiy)
13
Last I checked Yutaka's family name was Kobayakawa, not Nakagawa as written on Mystery Girl's shirt. To suggest that KyoAni (peace be upon them) would have gotten that wrong in addition to drawing Yutaka so horribly, horribly off model... well, there are some insults this fanboy won't forgive. *starts sharpening pitchfork*
In all seriousness, it does look a bit like Chiyo-chan would look in the world of Lucky Star, and it's possible that a more obvious cameo would be impossible because of copyright issues. Maybe the storyboard artist was reminded of Azumanga while drawing the scene and this consciously or unconsciously influenced him to include a Chiyo-like girl, but that's about all I can imagine. The scene of Hiyori actually getting beaned isn't in the manga (they only show the before and after), so it isn't outside the realm of possibility.
Posted by: Andrew F. at August 14, 2007 10:38 AM (mIgxz)
14
Well, I'll be damned. You're right, that's not here. Why the heck did I think it was? (Gah, Saimoe has fried m' brain...)
Posted by: Avatar at August 14, 2007 11:31 AM (LMDdY)
15
Take a look at the third picture in this post. Isn't that the same girl?
Greatest. Headline. Ever.THIS has to be the all-time greatest bit of unintentional humor. I can see the hundreds of spit-takes from the unsuspecting readers now.
Mr Headline Writer, thank you for making us feel all warm and tingly... again.
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62 Years
Earlier this week saw the 62nd anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As is always the case, there were the usual gatherings of protester groups around Duckford, deploring the use of Fat Man and Little Boy. Usually I ignore these uninformed people, knowing that they are simply kneejerking to the anti-war sentiments of the Cold War era.
Unfortunately, I went to a grocery store today, and in the parking lot was a small group of noisy protestors. None of them were over 30, I'd guess, and none of them had any grasp of the history of the Pacific War, other than that the US was bad for using nukes.
A moment of insanity later, I found myself in a discussion with them. Unfortunately for them, I could answer any of their claims and provide references, to boot. Why?
I wrote a short paper on this topic a few years back, as part of an argument I was having.
Of course, they weren't really listening to me, one even going so far as to claim that the Japanese military was 'a band of noble warriors'. When I asked them about Unit 731 and Bataan (the first two things that lept to mind), they all gave me blank looks.
In the end, I told them that I agreed with them: nuclear weapons are terrible things, and I hoped they'd never be used again, but I disagreed with them regarding their use in WWII... and that I'd put my paper here on The Pond for them to read.
If any of them are reading this, welcome and click below for OLYMPIC AND TRINITY. If any of my usual readers have gotten this far, I'd enjoy your thoughts!
more...
1
I have a copy of Downfall on my own shelf. Bit thick for everyday reading, but it's just about as exhaustive as you can ask for on the topic...
Posted by: Avatar at August 12, 2007 05:51 AM (LMDdY)
2
A moment of insanity, indeed. One thing living in SF this long has taught me, is that if anyone feels strongly enough about something to go and protest it, there isn't anything anyone can say that would make them change their mind. Or at least admit to their protesting friends that they've changed it.
But your point about the justifications for the use of the bombs is well made. We can deplore their use, as well as deplore the horrible situation that led up to their use. What do these folks protest on Dec 7th?
Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at August 13, 2007 09:36 AM (oplPK)
3Consider also that the USSR had declared war on Japan just days before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My histories put the Soviet declaration of war on Japan as August 8th, two days after and likely in response to the bombing of Hiroshima.
It's also interesting to note that the US ordered something like 500,000 Purple Hearts in preparation for the invasion of Japan. We're supposedly still issuing them today, and still have around 100,000 left.
It's also ironic that other than the nature of the weapon used, there's not much particularly different about Hiroshima and Nagasaki when compared to the rest of the bombing campaign. The results of firebombing a major industrial city aren't particularly nice.
Posted by: Civilis at August 13, 2007 10:09 AM (tGqGf)
4
Civilis, quite right on the date. The point made is still the same. I hadn't heard that Purple Heart story before... wonder if it's true? I can certainly believe it.
And, truth be told, the big firebombing of Tokyo actually killed MORE people and destroyed MORE of that city than either Bomb did. I'm not sure why that doesn't cause more outrage, except for the spectre of nuclear weapons. Well, nobody said the protestors has to be logical.
Vauc, they don't protest ANYthing on December 7th. Why should they, when some revisionist historians think Pearl Harbor was OUR fault? No, not just the stupid "Roosevelt knew!" conspiracy theories (hmmm... sounds kinda familiar), but also that since WE cut Japan's access to scrap metal and oil, by refusing to sell it to them, the Pacific War was the noble Japanese Warrior's reaction to being stabbed in the back.
China? Never mind all that, it wasn't important.
*rolls eyes*
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2007 12:30 PM (M7kiy)
5
Because I don't remember where I heard it, I searched and found the purple heart story at http://hnn.us/articles/1801.html.
Posted by: Civilis at August 13, 2007 02:09 PM (tGqGf)
6
My guess would be that probably they don't know more about the history of World War 2 than what they are regurgitating back as anti-US arguments. My memory of World War 2 as discussed in high school history is that it covered mostly three different areas:
1. The home front and the internment of Japanese Americans.
2. The holocaust.
3. The use of the atomic bomb.
It pains me to say this, but these areas might be more important for the average American to remember than details of the military campaigns of the war, and they provide object lessons for us today. But if you're going to debate modern geopolitics, especially using World War 2 as an example, you really need to know your stuff. Regurgitating anti-American propaganda will not cut it against anyone who knows their history, as the post demonstrates. You were able to demolish the protesters through knowledge of the facts.
Posted by: Civilis at August 14, 2007 11:05 AM (SQ3fK)
SeaBass!
Open-wheel racing in the US took another blow to it's credibility today when Sebastian Bourdais, three-time ChampCar champion, signed with Toro Rosso for the 2008 season.
This means that Toro Rosso will have an all-new driver lineup next year. Scott Speed has already been replaced by Sebastian Vettel, and the signing of Bourdais means that Vitantonio (Fashion Victim) Liuzzi is looking for a drive next year.
I hear there's a slew of openings in ChampCar and IRL... but Minardi doesn't have any slots, what with Robert Doorknob (failed F1 driver) leading the standings these days.
Hey, this means we're gonna have an all-Sebastian lineup for Toro Rosso next year! We needed that, I think, after we've lost both Christi(j)ans this season...
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Something Completely Different.
Thanks to the good offices of Vaucaunson's Duck, I've recently been exposed to the glories and wonders of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie."
1
Oh man I love Fry and Laurie. Fry owns a sort of bookshop/social club called the QI club here in Oxford as well. In fact, you should ask your friend if they've got any episodes of QI, Stephen Fry's quiz show, it's very good.
In some ways they're the natural successors to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Laurie and Moore going off to America to have further success, Fry and Cook, often seen as the funnier and more talented, staying in Britain doing their own little projects.
Fry was also the second person in Britain to own an Apple Mac, with Douglas Adams being the person ahead of him in the queue.
Posted by: flotsky at August 08, 2007 07:49 PM (6T2ID)
2
That was... Pythonesque. And I mean that in a good way.
Posted by: GreyDuck at August 09, 2007 01:18 AM (2Yvi7)
Nope, It's Merde all right...
The rain that was supposed to occur last night actually happened around 1pm today, and it just bucketed. Animals were walking by the Duck U. Bookstore in pairs, though I didn't see an annoyed, long-bearded man in robes anywhere nearby.
Unfortunately, you may have seen something about Duckford on TV yesterday, as we DID get flooding... just not anywhere near the Duck U. campus. It was an area of town that was flooded during last year's Labor Day storm ... That particular day was termed a "100 years' storm"... which puts the past few days in perspective, I suppose.
That area of town hadn't yet recovered from the flooding of last year, now they got it again. Is the Gorebot nearby or something? It must be global warmening! Or coldening. Or, more likely, raininging.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
03:57 PM
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