February 26, 2020
F1 Season Coming Around Again.
I know, right? You think I'm not still watching Formula 1, but I am! Mostly. Kinda. I mean, I know it's there. There's been two thingies to come out of the pre-season testing that are vaguely important... one rules-related, one not so much. Let's start with that last one, shall we?
Toro Rosso is no more. In it's place we find...
ALPHATAURI!
...
Okay, yeah, it's the same Red Bull B-team, just with a spiffy new livery which is, honestly, awfully eye-catching. Damn well should be, AlphaTauri is Red Bull's bespoke fashion line... which to be honest
I think looks either goofy over overpriced. Or both. Really, they look like Carhartt went glam. Wouldn't cost $500 for a jacket then, lemme tell ya.
Gotta make money for the spiffy new livery somehow amirite?
Now for the more serious bit: Mercedes has been clever again. A week ago, they introduced a new steering gimmick. If the driver pulls the steering wheel towards him or pushes it away, it adjusts the "toe" on the front tires... the angle the tires are in relation to the track.
Among other things, the amount of toe-in or -out affects tire heating (and what part of the tire gets heated) and on straight-line top speed... the less the tires scrub against the track, the less drag is generated and the faster you go. It's not a huge amount, but it is a real thing.
Amazingly, this trick is NOT illegal... yet. The FIA has gone on record as saying that it doesn't contravene safety rules and in that way is okay to be used in 2020. However, it's already been, if not outright banned in 2021 and the new tech regs, financially banned for that season. It's a neat idea though, and while I wish it had been any other team that came up with it, Mercedes deserve praise for being clever.
First race is Australia in mid-March. I'll be watching, though who knows if I'll be writing? Or if I did, if anybody would be reading it! It's not like I've been churning out the quality free ice cream of late.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
02:58 PM
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AlphaTauri, huh? I mean I get it, but at the same time I can't help but think it's a terrible way to shorten Alpha Centauri.
Posted by: GreyDuck at February 27, 2020 08:31 AM (rKFiU)
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Nah, it's clever. They left out the centaur of the name.
Posted by: mikeski at February 27, 2020 06:34 PM (P1f+c)
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Did you see that the FIA released a statement that they have reached "a settlement" with Ferrari on last year's PU...which they have very carefully NOT said was or was not within the rules? My eyebrows just about shot off my head on that one.
Posted by: Kathryn at February 29, 2020 08:30 PM (mcr6l)
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I have a vague memory of the Ferrari PU being a concern early last year, but I had forgotten about it. I guess it didn't make that much of a difference in the end, anyway.
Posted by: Ben at March 02, 2020 10:36 AM (osxtX)
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Long story short, several teams suspected Ferrari had found a clever way around the fuel flow rate restrictions. So Red Bull asked the FIA to issue a clarification as to whether it would be legal to get around them, proposing at least one way to do it. The FIA said no, that would not be legal, and Ferrari had a significant drop in speed the next race (which was Austin) and through the rest of the season. (They attributed the drop to running more downforce.)
(Max got in trouble because he was asked to comment on Ferrari's poor pace, and he said, "That's what happens when you stop cheating." Ferrari was Extremely Offended and made a number of pointed remarks in return.)
Posted by: Kathryn at March 02, 2020 11:07 AM (A4dfb)
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February 14, 2020
Valentines Day 2020
I've been playing a lot of Fate Grand Order of late.
Because of that, I've also gone back and done a general Fate franchise anime rewatch... Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works, Fate Apocrypha, El-Melloi II Case Files, as much of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya as I could stand without feeling like a pervert (not much), Fate/Extra Last Encore, Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, of course the ongoing Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, and hopefully culminating in an all-up viewing of the three Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel movies.
I must admit though... Fate/Make Dinner really is my favorite of the bunch.
One thing that's impressed me during this whole rewatch project is just how consistently good it's all been. Even the allegedly lackluster Apocrypha is only so because it gets compared to the best of the other series in the franchise... in comparison to most non-Fate series it's pretty good.
So yeah, Fate Grand Order is fun. If you play already, I'm 264.380.184... add me to get access to a bunch of lvl 40-60 servants! You'll regret it in time, but you'll feel good when you're rollin' in all the friend points I give ya.
I'm just in it for the headpats.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:26 PM
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Another person playing Fate/Grand Order! I played quite a bit and it is entertaining for what it is, and having my favorite servant (Rider Medusa.) is even better. Sadly, I have not drawn any 5 Star Servants yet, although I am pretty close to finishing a lineup of the original F/SN Servants in my collection.
A lot of the recent Fate series tended to leave me underwhelmed (I am not a fan of ufotable's productions in the franchise.) but I do enjoy Today's Menu since it has the greatest concentration of appearances by Mitsuzuri in any of the franchise, with the exception of the Hollow Ataraxia game, which I can not play.
Posted by: cxt217 at February 15, 2020 10:47 PM (LMsTt)
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... if this Symphogear game doesn't pan out (very iffy right now), I will take you up on the FGO friend code thingy.
Posted by: GreyDuck at February 16, 2020 04:24 PM (rKFiU)
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I have gotten extremely lucky on the 5* front: Nero Bride, Hokusai, Jalter, Xuanzang Sanzang, Shuten-Douji, Raiko. Good selection of 4* as well.
Point in fact, the only class I don't have a SR or SSR in is Lancer... though I do have both Cu and Cu Proto as NP5, though. I've got a metric crapton of gold-border Casters.
Posted by: Wonderduck at February 16, 2020 09:36 PM (cTMj+)
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I do not have many 4 star Servants, though Parvati hits like a brick of neutronium and Arturia Alter (Saber) filled a desperate lack of Sabers in my line-up. I would love to get Miyamoto Musashi the next time her event rolls around, and also to make all the tickets and Saint Quartz I used to try and fail to get her the last time she was available.
Posted by: cxt217 at February 17, 2020 10:48 PM (LMsTt)
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Carnival Phantasm... how could you leave the best out of your list?
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at February 23, 2020 09:01 AM (ug1Mc)
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February 01, 2020
Music... From Foreign Lands!
Over the past few months I've been spending time listening to a lot of music I've never experienced before. When you do this, you get a lot of stuff that's... not worth listening to again. Sometimes you get stuff that's... nice, but not anything you're going to go out of your way to hear again. Then there's the small percentage of tunes that make you sit up and pay attention (or even better, make you lean back, close your eyes, and pay attention). That's the category that I'll be inflicting upon you here now. We've got music from such far-flung places as Scandahoovia, India, California, Japan, Sweden, and an odd Irish/Italian thing.
Let's have a listen, won't you?
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
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Post contains 616 words, total size 5 kb.
1
The proto-germanic chanting scared my two smaller dogs out of the room, but my larger dog was hoping around with a waggy tail. I'm not sure what to think about that...
I have several SIDH songs in my generic playlist, Iridium is my favorite, but I prefer the cleaner studio version.
An
antidote to the proto-germanic chanting. It's possible I originally found it here in a post like this one, I'm not sure.
Two of my favorites right now come from youtube's recommendation system, from very different genre's. I don't think
this drumstep one will keep my interest long-term, but it's fun for a while.
This one will have more staying power.
Posted by: David at February 02, 2020 03:32 PM (rweeV)
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Among other things, you've reminded me that I've had a Red Hot Chilli Pipers record in my to-purchase queue for a few months now. Hmm.
Posted by: GreyDuck at February 02, 2020 09:26 PM (rKFiU)
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I happen to like pipes, so we're good. Very good.
Posted by: Mauser at February 03, 2020 09:39 PM (Ix1l6)
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at February 05, 2020 06:26 PM (ug1Mc)
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