"Serious, Not Life-Threatening."

Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber suffered "serious, but not life-threatening" injuries while participating in his charity event, the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge.  During the mountain bike leg of the 250km race (which also includes kayaking, abseiling, whitewater rafting and trekking), Webber was hit head-on by a Nissan X-trail SUV.  He was airlifted from the scene and taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania.

While early reports stated that he had multiple fractures to his arms and legs, it's since been revealed that he had broken both bones in his right leg.  He's already undergone surgery to set the breaks, and it's expected that a rod will be have to inserted in the leg later. 

One of Webber's managers, Geoff Donahue, reported that there are no concerns about the Red Bull driver missing any of the F1 season, which begins in March with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.  "It's unfortunate, but accidents happen.  He's in good spirits and starting the road to recovery.  If any positives come out of this, you'd fully expect him to be ready and willing, not only for his pre-season requirements with Red Bull Racing but also for the Formula 1 season proper."
It doesn't take much imagination to think that Webber will miss quite a bit of off-season training time, and will surely need to go through some intensive rehab just to be able to get the leg into the cockpit.  Until that happens, nobody can be entirely sure just how the injury will affect his driving.

The driver of the X-trail was reportedly given a breath test at the scene, and no charges will be pressed.  Acting Sergeant Jon Ford said there was no way a car could have built up speed along the gravel road. "It's just one of those things," he said.  The road was not closed for the bike race.  The X-trail was not damaged in the incident.

This is just a darn shame.  Webber is one of the good guys in F1, and heir apparent to the title of "The Chin," replacing the recently retired David Coulthard. 
Of course, we'll keep you updated as more information becomes available. 

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F1 Pr0n: Barcelona Testing!

So while the season is done, F1 never really rests.  The past three days have seen the teams congregate in Barcelona, Spain, for the first round of Winter Testing.  Partially this is so the teams can work out prospective new drivers, like Bruno Senna and...

...I'm sorry, I can't restrain myself.  SUPERSATO!!!!!11!eleventy1111!  He's up for a seat with Toro Rosso, one of three going for two drives, and the only one with F1 experience.  If there's any justice in the world, he'll be back in 2009.

But that's not the IMPORTANT news coming out of Barcelona.  Y'see, here's what F1 cars look like now:

more...

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Why NOT A 'Ducks In Anime' Post?

-Hidamari Sketch x365, ep11

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SuperAguri Sighting!

During tonight's episode of Top Gear (Season 12, episode 03, for those reading sometime in the future), the lads were given a challenge: make what is essentially a minivan as quick as a Mitsubishi Evo 10... on a budget of 9000 quid.

After new brakes, a new suspension, removing the roof and windows and replacing them with thin plastic, servicing the engine and putting on new tires (or tyres as they would call them), they were still about eight seconds off the pace of the Evo around the Top Gear track.

Then Jeremy Clarkson said, "Hammond, did you say you bought a spoiler the other day?"

"Well, at a charity auction, yes."

"What type of one?"

"A Formula 1 cars', actually."

Yep.  That's the rear wing off a SuperAguri F1 car.

It added a second to the time.

Seems appropriate, that.

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An Update

My grandmother's stroke occurred deep in the brain, in the area that controls the automatic functions of the body.  While it left such things as heart and lung function more-or-less untouched, it took out most everything else.  For example, you could shine a 5000w spotlight in her eyes, and the pupils wouldn't constrict.  She's unable to swallow.  Her hands are partially clenched.  It goes without saying that she's not regained consciousness since the event.

As she had signed a living will forbidding 'heroic measures', including a feeding tube, upon consultation with Momzerduck and JDuck, she was released from the hospital on Saturday.  She's returned to the nursing home she'd been at for the past couple of months, and is closely attended by Hospice staff, who will keep her comfortable until the end.

She's not expected to make it through the week.

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On Hold

Early Wednesday morning, my elderly maternal grandmother suffered what appears to have been a large stroke.  She's in an intensive care ward here in Duckford, and is unresponsive to most external stimuli.  Any reactions that have been reported have been fleeting, and possibly imaginary.

I'm more concerned about Momzerduck right now.  She says she's relaxed and calm about the possibilities, but it's my job to worry about her.

For some reason, I find I've a distinct lack of motivation in regards to blogging at the moment.  The Pond, therefore is going to take a short break.  It might be a couple of days, or a week, or whatever.  See you then.

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Random Anime Picture #32: She Looks Like I Feel...

-KimiKiss, DVD Special

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What's Wonderduck Watching?: Fall 2008

Okay, we're far enough into the current season for me to have made up my mind as to what I'm sticking with.  Finally.

So, without further ado, the latest season of What's Wonderduck Watching?


more...

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Random Anime Picture #31: Twoferone

-Clannad ~After Story~ ep02

Yes, that IS a book sticking out of Sunohara's face, why do you ask? 

Okay, I know that the lightheartedness of these episodes is going to go away.  Just the title of ~After Story~ implies to anybody who's played the game (or knows what happens) what's heading towards us like a freight train.

But I'll be damned if this doesn't feel exactly right, exactly like the game.  If it stays this way, and I can't imagine it won't (it's not like KyoAni doesn't have experience with Key games after all), the two Clannad series just might force themselves into the rarified air of my "Holy Triumvirate": Azumanga Daioh, Kanon, and the ARIA series.

Besides, how can you NOT like a show that gives us this:

Poor Mei... kancho'd again. 

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A Public Apology

In the past, there has been one actor out there that I have never particularly cared for, despite the general adulation bestowed upon him.  I've seen quite a few of this particular actor's films, and my reaction has always been "meh," or "yech", depending on the role.  It's always seemed to me that all he could do is "ridiculously over the top", much like all Keanu Reeves can do is "laid-back slackmeister".

However, I have just seen a movie that has changed my opinion on this particular actor.

That movie was Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and that actor is Johnny Depp.

I've seen the stage musical a number of times, though I never worked on a production.  I've seen poor Sweenys, acceptable Sweenys, and excellent Sweenys, but none of them "got" Todd the way Depp did.  The amount of effort he had to put into the role impressed the hell out of me; Sweeny Todd is a musical, and Depp is not naturally a singer.  Unfortunately, there's not a heck of a lot anybody can do about that, but yet he pulled it off.  Oh, don't get me wrong, it's hardly Broadway-quality, and indeed, I've heard community theatre singers with more force and grasp of vocal ability, but you can tell that, instinctively, Depp made it right for him.

Depp played the role in a way quite opposite of what I'm used to, in a very still and tightly controlled way.  It's only when the blood begins to flow (and the movie does this right, with lots of it) that Depp's Todd gets to be let free of the emotional chains.

This film single-handedly got the miserable taste of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory AND his Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy out of my mouth.  He got an Academy Award nomination (Best Actor) for this movie, and it was well, well deserved.

So to Johnny Depp, I apologize.  NICE job.

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Hey, Wonderduck... What Ever Happened With That DVD Drive?

Some months ago, I asked for advice regarding a DVD drive that kept ejecting at random times completely on its own. 

Well, reader pxcasey suggested that it was probably just a defective drive.  Guess what?  Defective drive, yep.

Thanks to the untimely demise of Momzerduck's computer*, I now have an exact duplicate of the original DVD drive (just made by LiteOn, instead of a company who's name doesn't even appear on the case).  After an hour's worth of installation struggle, I just gave it a test-run... total and complete success.  No ejecting on its own, no hesitation in reading, no problems of any sort.

...and before you all begin to think I'm a complete incompetent when it comes to installing computer hardware (I heard a lot of you thinking "one hour to install a drive?  The hell?"), one of the bottom corners of the drive was poorly constructed.  When I slid it into the drive bay, the corner actually bent... and I couldn't flatten it without a hammer, which would probably be bad for the drive. But what should have been a quick pop out/pop in thing became a little more complex.  After a quick and dirty bit of case modding involving a screwdriver and one of the install rails, I was eventually able to get the thing installed.  And all is right with Chiyo-chan once again!



*Momzerduck's motherboard kicked the bucket, I think because of a particularly nasty thunderstorm.  It wasn't zorched immediately, but lingered for a couple of weeks.  I troubleshot everything I could, and then it was time to call in the big guns: my uncle, JDuck, who works at Lawrence-Livermore Labs.  He has a collection of diagnostic tools that'd make your head spin, and he was able to confirm the death of the mobo.  Unfortunately, Momzerduck's 'puter used a BTX mobo.  It was actually cheaper for JDuck to buy a slightly used ATX system and install the hard-drive from the dead one in it.  Miracles of miracles, there wasn't even a problem with the system recognizing the old install of Windows, a stroke of luck and a huge saver of time.  Anyway, JDuck sent me the spare DVD drive, and the rest is history.

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Tidbits and Stuff About Hamilton's Championship.

The ratings numbers for various countries' viewing of the Brazilian Grand Prix have come out, and some of them are truly mindblowing.  9 million tellies were tuned into the race in England for a market share of 42%... and towards the end, it was 13.1 million.  In Germany, it was 8.8 million and 31.5%.  France, 5 million, 25% share.  By way of contrast, Super Bowl XLII had a 43% share this past January, with 97 million viewers... in one (large) country.

Lewis Hamilton returned to the McLaren factory today to a raucous welcome by the staff... and a letter of commendation from the Queen:

(Signed) "Elizabeth R."

He's just finished the first year of a five-year contract with McLaren, worth a reported 75 million pounds, or at current exchange rates, $121 million.  That's $24 million a year, or more than every MLB player in 2007 except for Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees.  However, one PR rep thinks that he's set to clear one BILLION pounds over the length of his career, what with endorsements and all.

Not too bad for a 23-year old.

As one might expect, Ferrari is trying to be gracious in defeat... and not quite accomplishing it.  Luca di Montezemelo, president of Ferrari, praised Hamilton by saying "He was a very powerful rival, and his win, close though it was, was well deserved."  He then called for the F1 points system to be changed so that wins are worth more in the championship... in which case, his driver, Felipe Massa would have won.

Stay classy, Ferrari.  Like your driver, Massa, who wants to congratulate Hamilton in person.

UPDATE: This past February, Golf Digest Magazine printed a chart that revealed that Tiger Woods had made around $770 million dollars (in winnings and endorsements) going into the 2008 season, and predicted that he'd break the $1 billion dollar mark by 2010.  Considering that Woods lost most of the season due to injury, tack another year onto that number, so 2011.  He'd have played for 16 years at that point.  Eventually, he'll move to the Seniors League (or whatever it's called), and keep earning money into his 50s or 60s.

Lewis Hamilton's driving career probably won't last more than 15 years or so, but they might conceivably earn similar monies in a similar timespan.  The parallels between the two are intriguing.  I wonder if some (very!) deep-pocketed company will ever cough up the money to have them both appear together to sponsor some item... probably a car of some sort.

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Random Anime Picture #30: Now That The Political Stuff Is Over With...

-Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, ep05

...it's time for some tentacles!!!!

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So...

...was there something going on today?

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1000 Posts?

I had absolutely no idea the F1U! for the Grand Prix of Brazil was going to be The Pond's 1000th post here at Mu.Nu.  None whatsoever.

But it was.  1000 posts in 41 months.  I'll be darned if I thought this place would last that long, or that I'd have readers who'd keep coming back, but whaddya know?  It happened.

Thanks, folks.  Your reward is an amazing anigif Brickmuppet found... it's a little large, so I'm putting it below the fold for those on slower connections.


more...

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F1 UPDATE!: BRAZIL 2008!

One champion crowned, one challenger disappointed.  But who was who?  This is your extended format F1 UPDATE! for the Brazilian Grand Prix!

*SO IT BEGINS: The crowd at Interlagos was in good voice today when the cameras went live for today’s Grand Prix of Brazil, and fervently behind their favorite son, Felipe Massa.  Seven points behind in the Driver’s Championship and needing to win, the Ferrari driver was on pole and protected nicely by his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen. 

His opponent, Lewis Hamilton, was fourth on the grid, on the dirty side of the track, with his biggest threat, HWMNBN, right behind him.  The McLaren driver didn’t need to win the race, however, or even be on the podium.  He just needed to finish 5^th or better and it wouldn’t matter what Massa did: he’d be the Driver’s Champion.  He’d been in this position before, though.  In 2007, he held a seven point lead over Kimi Raikkonen… and peed it down the leg of his firesuit.

On this day, for the premiere Championship in motor sports, nobody else on the grid mattered except how they’d hinder the progress of the two challengers on their way to the checkered flag.

The Gods of Auto Racing, though… they mattered.

more...

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Broadband Is Back, F1 UPDATE! Is Coming Momentarily!

My connection just came back up.  Expect F1U! to be coming soon!

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The Pond's Broadband Is Down.

...and I had a helluva time getting everything to work on dialup again.  How the hell did I stand seven years of these speeds?  Anyway, service went down while I was writing up the F1 Quals: Brazil report, about 9 hours ago, which is why it's taken so long for that to get posted.

Anyway, the powers-that-be at the service desk in Michigan tell me that there was "a problem with a specific bundle of cables", and they've identified said problem as well.  They've been working on fixing it now for about six hours, with no projected time for completion.

Things might be a touch delayed around here...

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F1 Quals: Brazil 2008

What the hell was THAT?

Here's the provisional grid, discussion after:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:11.830	1:11.875	1:12.368
2	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:12.226	1:12.107	1:12.737
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.083	1:11.950	1:12.825
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:12.213	1:11.856	1:12.830
5	Heikki Kovalaininnie	McLaren-Mercedes	1:12.366	1:11.768	1:12.917
6	HWMNBN	Renault	1:12.214	1:12.090	1:12.967
7	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:12.390	1:11.845	1:13.082
8	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:12.371	1:12.026	1:13.297
9	SeaBasss	STR-Ferrari	1:12.498	1:12.075	1:14.105
10	Timo Glockenspiel	Toyota	1:12.223	1:11.909	1:14.230
11	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:12.348	1:12.137
12	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:12.409	1:12.289
13	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:12.381	1:12.300
14	David Coulthard's Chin	Red Bull-Renault	1:12.690	1:12.717
15	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:12.548	1:13.139
16	Kazoo Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:12.800
17	Jenson Button	Honda	1:12.810
18	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:13.002
19	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:13.426
20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:13.50

The Ferraris did exactly what they needed to: Massa on pole, Kimi directly behind him on the grid (which is almost certainly better than being 2nd for this race; it's the clean side of the circuit, and he can protect Massa's back).  But, and here's the question, how are they set up for the rainstorms that are supposed to be headed Sao Paolo's way? 

I have no idea what sort of strategy McLaren is trying, however.  Conventional Wisdom sez "short-fill Hamilton, so he can get on the front row and avoid any kerfluffle that'll form going into Turn 1."  Well, if that's what the plan was, it didn't work for beans.  Not only didn't he make it to the front row, he wound up on the wrong side of the SECOND row, with Jarno freakin' Trulli in front of him.  There's no question that he's set up for a dry track; he was fighting a twitchy car all day.  For some teams, that's a sign of a bad chassis (see: Honda), but for the McLaren, that's just the team cranking off the rear wing and letting the driver run on the very edge of the envelope.  That's where the car is the fastest, but you need a really good driver to do that.  Fortunately, Lewis Hamilton only needs to finish 5th or better to win the driver's championship, but he's pushing it right now.

My guess is that Trulli's Toyota is running on fumes and a prayer, particularly considering the relative performance of teammate Glockenspiel.  Either that, or Toyota decided to split their setups for the weather that's predicted to be coming on Sunday, with Glockenspiel having the wet settings.

Kovaleinninninnie has a problem.  His job is to support his teammate for the championship.  The best way for him to do that is to let Lewis stay ahead of him, but Hamilton is on the dirty side of the track.  In a vacuum, Heikki would just make sure his teammate gets a better start than he does, but though Interlagos may suck, it's not a vacuum.  HWMNBN is next to the junior McLaren, positively drooling over the possibilities of a bad start for either silver car.  So Heikki has to keep the Renault behind him.  As if all of that wasn't enough, McLaren is eleven points behind in the constructor's championship; the team needs a 1-2 finish from their boys to have a legit chance there.  So Heikki has to stay behind his teammate but ahead of HWMNBN, while driving hard for the front of the grid.  Sure, no problem. 

There's no question who the crowd is backing in this matchup: hometown boy Massa.  He's grown up at Interlagos, literally.  He was born, raised, and makes his home in Sao Paolo.  He got his start in racing at the karting track at Interlagos, yadda yadda.  For the Paoloians, a perfect result would be a Massa-Barrichello-Piquet (Brazillians all) podium, with Hamilton finishing 21st.

Well, we'll see what happens on Sunday, the final race of the 2008 season.  See you then!

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F1 Practice: Brazil 2008!

In lieu of there being anything in particular that could be considered interesting on track today, we were instead regaled with the answer to two trivia bits asked here on The Pond recently!

First, regarding Steven's wondering about the pitlane at Interlagos, it turns out that it used to release into Turn 2, right where you would expect it to.  It turns out that it also released cars directly into the racing line, and while I can't find any reference to an accident occurring because of that, it certainly would have happened sooner or later.  I can't figure out exactly when the change took place, but it almost certainly happened in reaction to the events at Imola, 1994, directly or indirectly.

Second, regarding the changing of liveries during a season raised by Pete, the FIA does need to approve alt-liveries, but there's more to it than that.  It turns out that the other teams on the grid ALSO need to approve the change unanimously.  So, for example, if McLaren wanted to remove the Santander logo and replace it with "Ferrari Sucks!", it probably wouldn't be approved.  However, in the case of DC'sC one-off livery, why wouldn't a team approve it?  The same went for RedBull's "innovative" charity livery at Silverstone in 2007.

Y'know, I rather like that color scheme.  It's a lot better than the regular RedBull livery, if you ask me.

And finally, something that I've been wondering about for the entire time I've been a F1 fan.  We've been told that Formula 1 is the pinnacle of technology, that the cars are engineered within an inch of their lives, and there's nothing F1 can't do if they don't put their minds to it.  So why the heck haven't they been able to put a camera on a driver's helmet so we can see what it looks like from the cockpit?

Today, they finally did it.

I guess it's fitting that The Chin, probably the most fan friendly of the drivers, got to debut the tiny camera today.  From what the Legendary Announce Team (and myself) could figure, it appears to have been mounted just below the visor, so it's actually a little lower than the driver's eyes, but still, it gave us a great idea of what the driver goes through.

The buffeting they go through is amazing, as we know from the 5.0Gs figure we get to see when they slam on the brakes, but there's a difference in seeing the g-force gauge move and watching the view of the camera go from the above shot... to one that gives us a great look at the steering wheel as The Chin sank down into the cockpit under braking.  Of course, that might have just been because The Chin itself has a pretty substantial gravitational pull.  Interestingly, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver, talked about that feeling when he swapped cars with Juan Pablo (The Pope) Montoya back in 2003 on SPEED's "Tradin' Paint" program.

Oh, and it was drizzling off and on today, too, with t-storms expected for quals.  Great!  Take the single most important race of the season and make the weather bad so we wind up with a Force India on pole!  Fun!

See ya after Quals.

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