March 07, 2009

Congratulations, Brickmuppet!

Way to go!!!



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F1 Pr0n: Brawn Racing BGP001


Hello, world...
Well, that's it.  That's the only picture that's been released of the new BGP001, in this case being driven by Jenson Button.  Just noticed that the front wing mounting to the nose is completely different from everybody else's... curious.  I might have to do a post on that, compare and contrast for each team...

I rather like the plain white-with-neon-yellow livery, but there's not a chance in Hades it's gonna stay that way, not if the team wants to last more than one race.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:48 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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March 06, 2009

Six Of One, Half-Dozen Of Another...

So I'm grocery shopping, walking down the bread aisle (rye bread: crack for ducks) and an attractive young woman is walking the other way, towards me.

Much to my surprise, she stops, looks at me, and says "I know you!"

This is good.

Then she says, "You're the weird guy with all the ducks!"

This... this is why people drink heavily.


Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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March 05, 2009

Honda To Make The Grid In Australia! (UPDATED)

Well, actually, not "Honda" but an entity called "Brawn Racing".  Readers of The Pond may remember that Honda withdrew from the F1 grid for financial reasons, and vowed to spend the month of December looking for a buyer.  When that deadline passed, it seemed a lost cause.

Recently, however, a team of Honda F1 management led by team principal Ross Brawn seems to have purchased the racing team.  An official announcement will be coming on Monday, along with the first test of their 2009-spec car at Barcelona. 

A non-official announcement from Nick Fry, former team supervisor and also part of the purchasing group, indicated that the former Honda Racing team will be on the grid for the GP of Australia, and that the drivers will be Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

Which makes sense.  Both are pretty good drivers, though that hasn't shown in the results, and more importantly, both are experienced.  Considering the extreme lack of practice and setup time for the new-spec car, having two drivers who can give solid feedback to the engineers will be a must.

It's a stretch to imagine them being anything other than backmarkers for the season, though with the new rules, who knows?

Still, it means a grid of 20 cars, and even those who don't cheer for Honda will have to be happy to see them show up.  A full grid is always better than a short one.

More details to come!

UPDATE 3/6/09: It's official!  Brawn Racing will be on the grid come Melbourne.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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March 02, 2009

What Is Geek Canon?


In the comments for "Watching The Classics", Avatar relates a story:

You know, I hadn't seen that last one until quite recently. My D&D group was boggled that I wasn't following their "spear and magic hellllllmet!" jokes...

That's actually a good question. What is the geek canon? What are the things which I need to have seen, read, heard, etc. in order to communicate with my fellow geeks?

Steven suggests #1 should be Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  A fine choice... and here's a few more, in no particular order:

The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.  "Do you know where your towel is?"
Star Wars.  "May The Force Be With You."
Spaceballs.  "May the Schwartz Be With You."
Lord Of The Rings, either the books or the movies.  "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them."
Starship Troopers, the book, though most Heinlein novels could be here.  The first appearance of power armor?  Yeah, that's a geek thing...
Blade Runner.  "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.  Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.  I watched C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.  All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain... Time to die."
Snow Crash.  Hiro Protagonist?  The Deliverator?  Raven?  "Poor Impulse Control"?  The Metaverse, which may as well be our next entry...
The Matrix.  "Take the red pill."

It's obvious I have a SF background... but there's gotta be a gazillion others.  Leave your Essential Geek Canon ideas in the comments!

UPDATE: Avatar has his own (soon to be multi-?)post on Geek Canon, too.

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March 01, 2009

Watching The Classics

My stepfather, Ph.Duck, is a good guy.  Every now and again, however, Momzerduck and I trip over the strangest cultural blind-spots.

You see, Ph.Duck was born to a pair of missionaries (one Swedish, one American) in Nepal, and (mostly) raised in India.  He's lived about half of his years there, though not all at one time.  As a result, we'll discover unexpected gaps in his knowledge of American culture, mostly entertainment-based.  For example, up until about five years ago, he'd never seen Star Wars.  Momzerduck and I might go off on a riff from, say, a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, and he'll just look at us like we've gone completely insane.

He's a huge fan of the opera (and classical music in general), and they recently went to see Tristan und Isolde at the Chicago Lyric Opera.  A few days before, I said the only operas I've ever seen were by Warner Brothers.  He gave me a blank look... and I had to explain.  He had never seen some of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons!

So this past Friday, after dinner, we all sat down to watch...

"Leopold!"
Long-Haired Hare.  Ph.Duck chuckled at the Stokowski reference.

Rabbit of Seville.  He laughed a lot during this one (particularly during the "snake charmer" bit, where Bugs makes an electric razor fly after Elmer)... rightfully so, considering that it was voted #12 on the list of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time.

And then, the legendary, the greatest opera of all time:

"Oh, Bwunhilda, you're so wuvvly."
What's Opera, Doc?  Incorrectly voted the greatest cartoon ever (that honor belongs to Duck Amuck, which was voted #2), it was the first cartoon in the National Film Registry.  Ph.Duck seemed amused by the short, but I was hoping for something... well, more.  Laughter.  Amazement.  Something.

So I was downcast because of his lack of reaction, thinking that maybe he saw them as making fun of opera, instead of the more correct honoring the artform through parody.  Until tonight, that is, where Momzerduck mentioned to me that she had heard him singing in the shower... "I'm going to kill the wabbit!"

Mission successful.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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