Australia First Practice 2010

Since SPEED doesn't provide coverage of the first Friday practice session, I'm afraid I can't be sure of what's going on, but it seems that Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi is having a bad day.  To whit:

Yes, having your front wing come off in the tight confines of Australia's Albert Park is probably the very definition of "having a bad day."

From what I've been able to find out, earlier in the session he hit a pylon and lost his wing, ending up in the kittylitter (causing a red flag for the session).  The car was returned to the pits , the nose repaired and he went back out... and then the nose fell off on it's own?  That's gotta be a horrible feeling for a driver.

Coverage of P2 will come around sometime Friday evening.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:12 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 139 words, total size 1 kb.

Random Anime Picture #53: Aria Bowling

For a lark, I decided to watch the first episode of Sketchbook ~full color's~ this evening.  I'd forgotten just how much I enjoyed the whole laid-back pace of the show... and then this came across my monitor:

-Sketchbook ~full color's~, Ep01
I nearly fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard.  I completely forgot that was in there!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:04 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

Ga-Rei Zero, Episode 12

Last episode, the Schoolgirl In Black took on The Agency... and won, killing KDad, The Boss, Motive Power Kiri, one of the Nabuus, the HMMWV and a gazillion grunts, turned Mr Laser Weasel into a bowl of pudding, and scarring Isayama along the way.  It looks bad for the Tokyo, and by extension the entire world.  But don't forget that the Schoolgirl in White, Kagura, has taken up the mantel of Byakuei's Master.  It's time for a showdown!

But first, it's time for some red-hot paperwork action!  Actually, Kagura returned to the office, only to find a note from Mr Laser Weasel.  We never get to see what it says, but "I quit" seems to be a good guess.  Maybe "I'm running in abject terror" would work, too.  Isayama, quite sensibly, says that it's better that way; no use in him getting killed because he can't actually bring himself to hurt his former fiancee.  What's left of the Disposal Team is going after the Schoolgirl In Black, even though she just kicked their butts all the way 'round Tokyo, across the Kanto plain and nearly to Hokkaido.

"Take me with you.  Take me...

...to Yomi."  Okay, now it's time for a showdown!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 2863 words, total size 28 kb.

Until It Is Here, Here Is Something Else

I've begun work on the writeup for the final episode of Ga-Rei Zero.  While you're waiting, please enjoy this picture.

-Hatsukoi Limited ED

Unfortunately, she never actually wears that outfit in the show...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 41 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 On SPEED!: Australia 2010!

After the snorefest that was Bahrain two weeks ago, the F1 Carnival heads to Australia this week.  On the whole, the semi-street circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne brings us an entertaining race every year, so we can only hope that this year is more of the same.  Let's take a look at the track map:

The Australian track runs around a man-made lake in a large city park.  For those of us in the US, imagine a racetrack in New York City's Central Park, and you've got the basic idea.  It uses tarmac built specifically to be part of the circuit, parking lots and public roads to create the layout.  Because of this, there are a ton of slippery spots all the way around the track due to the painted lane stripes.  These stripes are what gives it the nickname "God's Slot Car Track."  Due to a resurfacing in 1996, it's pretty smooth and thus easy on tires, though some braking zones have some surprise ripples.  It's not particularly hard on brakes.  The track is wide and forgiving for the most part.  Basically, it's an easy circuit to drive.  But, like most street circuits, there's armco barriers all the way around and very little runoff area where there isn't armco.  You get off-track here, and you've usually broken your car.

The other interesting feature of the race is the start time, 5pm local.  The sun will be in the drivers' eyes all day as they come down the main straight and the run from Turn 2 to Turn 3, getting lower all the while.  That's just gotta be annoying.

Well, the good folks at SPEED will do their darnedest to bring us their usual stellar coverage.  Friday's second practice session comes to us live from 1230am to 210am on Friday morning.  The Quals are Saturday morning from 1am to 230am, more-or-less live.  The Grand Prix of Australia itself is Sunday morning from 1230am to 3am, and there are no replays scheduled that I can find... so either stay up late, record it, or miss it altogether!  All times are Central Pond Time; subtract two hours for San Francisco, add one for Cleveland. 

See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 371 words, total size 2 kb.

Computers, HidaSketch Style

Things like this never fail to amuse me endlessly.  One of the two new characters in Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu, Nori-chan, has a computer in her apartment, something none of the other girls has.

As an aside, I've completely changed my opinion of Nori as a character in the show.  Before, I didn't like either of the two new girls.  While I still dislike Nazuna, who behaves like a scared puppy (minus the carpet wetting, at least on-screen), Nori has shown herself to be just as interesting and charming as the Original Four.  But I digress.

Nori has a computer, and you know that if there's a computer in a slice-of-life show, it's gonna be used sooner or later (Chekhov's Keyboard?), and like as not, we're going to see it booting up.

So do we all, Shaft, so do we all... on a tangental note, HidaSketch might be the first show by Shaft that I've really liked, though they did split credit on G-On Riders!, so that's arguable.  Anywhodles, the boot screen makes me wonder about Nori-chan's uncle, the builder of her computer...

"I've got a Computer Acronyms For Dummies book here, let's just choose some at random."

Though you've got to like the BIOS name and version...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:33 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 210 words, total size 2 kb.

Reliving The Nightmare

It was six months ago today that Momzerduck passed away.  I still find myself wondering why the telephone doesn't ring around 7pm every night.

Wow.  I thought I could write about how I'm feeling, but I find I can't without losing it.  Instead, I'll just leave this here:

I miss her so very much.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:41 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

Midway: The Forgotten Plane

The list of aircraft involved at the Battle of Midway reads like a roll call of legendary planes.  The best fighter in the world in 1942, the A6M Zero.  The Aichi D3A Val and Nakajima B5N Kate, striking arm of Kido Butai.  The F4F Wildcat, sturdy and resilient.  SBD Dauntless, the premiere dive-bomber of WWII.  The hapless Brewster Buffalo.  The tragic TBD Devastator.  The PBY Catalina played a major role in finding the Japanese fleet.  Even the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-26 Marauder and TBF Avenger made small but dramatic appearances in the battlespace.

Oft neglected amongst all these stellar names, though, is a little-known dive-bomber flown from Midway by Marine squadron VMSB-241 known as the SB2U Vindicator. 

Designed to a 1934 US Navy requirement, it entered squadron service three years later.  On the whole, the Vindicator was a bland, inoffensive airframe with no outstanding qualities or drawbacks.  The US Navy's first monoplane dive-bomber, it could carry a 1000lb bombload and was armed with two machine guns, one on a flexible mount for the observer and one firing forward.  Like many planes of the time, the rear fuselage and tail were fabric covered.  Powered by a 825hp Pratt & Whitney engine, it could cruise at 150mph and maxed out at 243mph.  While equipped with dive brakes, these were found to be dangerously ineffective, meaning that pilots were forced to extend the landing gear when performing a steep diving attack.  This limitation was countered somewhat by use of a reversible-pitch propeller.  It also had a habit of shedding fabric from its airframe in a steep dive.

When war broke out in Europe, France was desperate for aircraft of all types and placed an order for 90 V-156 (the export version of the Vindicator), though only 40 were ever delivered to the Aeronavale, and 24 entered squadron service.  Though originally acquired to serve on the CV Bearn, that ship sortied only rarely and never with any V-156s on board.  Thus when the German blitzkrieg rolled into France, the Vindicator operated from land bases only.  Most of the French aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and the rest were quickly worn out from nigh-constant (and mostly ineffectual) use.

The British Fleet Air Arm also used the Vindicator, though they called it the Chesapeake.  Amusingly, their pilots gave the plane the epic nickname of "Cheesecake."  Intended for use on escort carriers for anti-submarine duties by 811 Naval Air Squadron, it was quickly discovered that it was wholly unsuitable for such short flight decks.  Withdrawn from carrier duty, 811 Squadron's Chesapeakes were replaced by the Fairey Swordfish and used for training.

The US Navy put SB2Us on four of its carriers between 1937 and September 1942, the USS Saratoga, Lexington, Wasp and Ranger.  It provided stout service but was quickly phased out of carrier service when the SBD Dauntless became available.  It was around this time that the Vindicator earned its second great nickname when it became known as the "Wind Indicator."  Aboard the Ranger and Wasp, the Vindicator provided cover for multiple Atlantic convoys, while in the Pacific the Navy gained valuable experience in operating dive bombers off of carriers pre-war.  Despite this, no Navy SB2Us ever saw combat. 

It was in service with the US Marine Corps that the Vindicator experienced its first (and last) action.  The Marines were provided with a variant of the SB2U, the -3 with more armor and a much larger fuel tank.  The fuel tank allowed VMSB-241 to fly the 1200 miles from Hawaii and Midway, which was at the time a world record for single-engined planes over water.  The squadron reinforced Midway just before the battle itself.  There were 11 Vindicators in VMSB-241, along with 16 Dauntlesses.  Squadron leader Lofton Henderson put his best pilots in the SBDs, leaving the SB2U-3s, under command of Major Benjamin Norris, to be flown by true rookies, many of whom had never actually executed a dive bombing attack.

On June 4th, 1942, this mixed squadron attacked Kido Butai.  With their higher cruising speed, the Marine SBDs arrived over the Japanese fleet some minutes ahead of the slower Vindicators.  While the Dauntlesses went after the carriers and thus were treated rudely by the Japanese CAP, Major Norris realized that, with his slow planes, his detachment stood no chance of surviving a run at the CVs.  Wisely, he and his rookies executed glide bombing attacks on the nearest Japanese capital ship, the battleship Haruna.  The 11 SB2Us scored a few near misses, which did no damage to the battlewagon, while losing two planes to Zeros, while battle-damaged Vindicators ran out of fuel on the flight back to Midway.  As with the TBF and B-26s, the SB2U-3's main role in the Battle of Midway was to keep Kido Butai busy defending itself from attack, preventing it from launching an attack on the American fleet.

By early 1943, all Vindicators had been withdrawn from mainline duty, reduced to training roles, and subsequently forgotten.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 839 words, total size 6 kb.

St Patrick's Day 2010: The Aftermath

He never could hold his liquor...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:14 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

St Patrick's Day 2010

Sure'n a happy St Patrick's Day to you from all the wee duckies of The Pond!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:27 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

Ducks In Anime: Yuno's One Of Us

So in the newest episode of HidaSketch, Yuno gets locked out of her apartment and ends up spending five nights away, one night with each of the other residents of the complex.  When she finally gets back into her place and discovers that the place smells horrible due to a rancid pot of soup, she stays another night with Miyako.  But what does she grab from her apartment as it airs out?  Her duckie.

-Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu, ep10
And later that night, as she takes a bath in Miyako's tub, she apologizes to her duckie for leaving it alone in the dark for so long.

Of all of the duckie appearances in the HidaSketch franchise, and there are a ton of 'em, this is the one that convinces me that Yuno is, in fact, a duckie fan and not just someone who has a duckie in her bathroom.  Give her a few years and she'll be visiting duckplanet and rubbaducks.com too. 

That's a darn fine duckie.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:07 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 173 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 Update!: Grand Prix of Bahrain 2010!

All the effort in the offseason is done.  The long hours spent designing, fabricating, assembly, testing, retesting, redesigning, and re-retesting are over.  Now it's all for real, and which team, which driver, which car is the best... all the questions are about to begin to be answered.  THIS is your F1 Update! for the first race of the 2010 season, the Grand Prix of Bahrain!

*THINGS LOOK THE SAME:  When the lights went out and the grid began to move, Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel pulled away from his spot on pole and immediately began to assert his dominance over the rest of the thundering herd.  While HWMNBN got past his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa going into Turn 1, neither Red Car was able to hang with the Red Bull driver.  Within a couple of laps the lead was up to two seconds and showed no sign of decreasing anytime soon.  Ominously however, Vettel's teammate Mark Webber showed signs of a mechanical problem going into Turn 2:

Webber's smokescreen caused a kerfluffle that sent both Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil into spins that ruined each drivers' race.  Sutil in particular was in good shape when the lights went out: his was the only car in the Top 10 on hard tires, and if things went the way they had in Practice and Quals, everybody else would find their soft tires failing quickly, leaving Sutil the way clear for a potential podium position.  The spin dropped him down to 18th and killed his tires.  Webber, however, showed no signs of performance loss from whatever it was that caused the smoke.

*FARTHER BACK: Almost as interesting a question as "who's going to win" was "how are the new teams going to do?"  Well, if you had Lap 1 in the "When will one of the new cars fail" pool, you're a winner.  HRT's Karun Chandhok, with only a few laps in the car under his belt, discovered that the new section of the Bahrain International Circuit has some serious bumps hiding in the turns.  Hitting one of those sent him onto a curb, and henceforth into a wall.  The good news for the team was that it wasn't a mechanical failure that ended his day.  The next casualty from the new guys was Virgin's Lucas di Grassi who had to retire with a hydraulics problem on Lap 2.  His teammate, Timo Glockenspiel, followed him into the garage 14 laps later with a bad gearbox.  The other HRT driver, Bruno Senna, lasted 17 laps before something peacefully broke at the rear of the car.  If one considers the Sauber team as "new," you can count them amongst the New Casualties as well, with both cars dying from hydraulic failures by Lap 28.  The last of the new teams, Lotus, had both cars make it to the finish one of their cars finish the race, though two laps down.  The other one broke something in the hydraulic system on Lap 46... so close!

*...AND THEN:  Seb Vettel's lead settled down around five seconds going into the pitstops.  Ferrari had told HWMNBN to push as hard as he possibly could however, and the lead started to drop.  By Lap 32, it was down to 1.2 seconds.  A radio transmission from Red Bull to their driver told the true story, though: "Just keep the gap intact.  He'll burn his tires off."  Everybody seemed confident, and Vettel had surely shown that he could easily keep HWMNBN behind him.  And then Vettel's car broke.  The engine note changed, dropping from a high-pitched scream to a throaty growl, and immediately both Ferraris swept past him with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton doing the same a couple of laps later.  For the next ten laps, the question was how many other cars would get past him.  While Nico Rosberg, Slappy Schumacher and Jenson Button closed right down on Vettel, with Rosberg being only a second behind, none of them were able to get past the crippled car.  Up ahead, HWMNBN and Massa brought home a Ferrari 1-2 with Hamilton joining them on the podium.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE: HWMNBN.  He got past his teammate at the start, drove a solid race, put pressure on Vettel and stayed close enough to the Red Bull to take advantage of its exhaust header failure spark plug failure when it occurred.  He eventually won by 16 seconds.  Yep, that's a pretty good run.

*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari.  In 2009, the Prancing Horse suffered one of their worst seasons ever.  They only had one win (Spa), one of their drivers nearly died, and they had the nightmare of Luca Badoer qualifying and finishing dead last three races in a row.  So a 1-2 finish must be something of a redemption for them, and there is already muttering up and down the paddock that we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the coming months.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  We'll think of one eventually, but right now it looks like the changed rules might have actually made it more difficult to pass.  If so, this is not good.

*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE:  Nico Hulkenberg was having fun early in the race.  Other than having to take evasive action due to the usual first turn hijinks and thus losing a few spots, he was racing with a Toro Rosso and a Sauber for position.  On Lap 3, however, he just flat-out lost the car.  The rear snapped one way, then the other, and then the car just went sliding completely out of control, cutting across two sets of curbs. 

It's just a good thing the Toro Rosso guys wear brown pants.  Welcome to F1, Nico Hulkenberg!  For your unforced error, you're the first 2010 winner of the Moooo-ooOTR!

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:17 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 1283 words, total size 9 kb.

F1 Quals: Bahrain 2010!

So the first qualifying session of the 2010 season is in the books, and while some things have changed, the results sure look the same.  Let's take a look at the grid:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1				Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:55.029				1:53.883	1:54.101
2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:55.313				1:54.331	1:54.242
3	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:54.612				1:54.172	1:54.608
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:55.341				1:54.707	1:55.217
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	1:55.463				1:54.682	1:55.241
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:55.298				1:54.318	1:55.284
7	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	1:55.593				1:55.105	1:55.524
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:55.715				1:55.168	1:55.672
9	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:55.511				1:54.963	1:55.885
10	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.213				1:54.996	1:56.309
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:55.969				1:55.330
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.628				1:55.653
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:56.375				1:55.857
14	Pete Rose	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:56.428				1:56.237
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:56.189				1:56.265
16	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:56.541				1:56.270
17	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:56.167				1:56.619
18	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:57.071
19	Timo Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:59.728
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:59.852
21	Heikki Kovalaininninninnie	Lotus-Cosworth	2:00.313
22	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	2:00.587
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	2:03.240
24	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	2:04.904

A bunch of new rules changes that we need to talk about before we get around to discussing the grid.  First off, all qualifying sessions are now done on low fuel.  Prior to this year, teams had to declare how much gas they'd start with in the race, and carry that in Q3.  Since there's no refuelling in-race now, everybody gets the same amount of gas (more or less).  Another switch is that the cars in Q3 have to start the race on the tires with which they set their fast lap.  In other words, if they used (say) soft tires to qualify, that very same set must be on the car to begin the race.  Finally, teams are limited to 11 sets of dry tires for the entire weekend, and can only use six sets during the race itself, three of each compound. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's look at how the cars'll line up for the race!  No shock at the top of the grid, what with Seb Vettel and Luscious Liz on the pole.  Perhaps a small surprise in Massa beating his teammate, HWMNBN, particularly considering the rumors that Felipe is a little twitchy being back in the cockpit.  No surprise at all is that Nico Rosberg handily beat his teammate, Slappy Schumacher.  Schumi's been unhappy with his car all weekend, and has been right around 8th on the timesheets the whole time.  World Champion Jenson Button must be disappointed to be picking up right where he left off last season with a lukewarm qualifying session.  His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, is probably also disappointed, despite ending up fourth on the grid... he always expects to be on pole when he's got a halfway decent car under him.  And a big 'attaboy' to Force India for their 10th-12th qualys.  I'm amazed, but we might have to consider them halfway serious contenders!

Really, though, we need to give the techies at HRT a round of applause.  Despite a major gearbox problem that prevented Karun Chandhok from getting any track time in the three practice sessions, the team pulled an overnighter to get the car in running order.  Of course, Chandhok ended up 24th, but he got seven laps under his belt, each one faster than the one before it.  His first flying lap was 2:11, and taking six seconds off the time is pretty good.  Okay, yes, he's nearly 11 seconds off the pace, but good job anyways!  None of the new teams could be considered quick, however.  Actually, "quick" isn't in their vocabulary... yet.

So here we go!  The first race is right around the corner, and I can't wait!  See you tomorrow!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 648 words, total size 22 kb.

F1 Practice: Bahrain 2010!

F1 is back, ladies and gentlemen, and today's practice sessions have pointed out something I surely didn't expect: everything's changed, and nobody has a clue what the hell is going on.  It's just that simple... nobody knows which teams are fast, and even the fast teams are being looked at with raised eyebrows right now.

For example, the fast team for the second practice was Mercedes.  Nico Rosberg was fastest of all, and Slappy Schumacher was third, but both drivers had problems dealing with their cars.  In particular, Slappy spun repeatedly in the first session.  Still, they were able to squeeze fast laps out there.  But nobody knows what their fuel loads were... a heavy fuel load now could easily be worth five to 10 seconds a lap.

Lap times at Bahrain have gone through the roof.  Obviously a lot of that has to do with the new section, but when lap times have climbed from 1:30 to 1:56, it's not just because of the longer track.

One thing that we do know, however, is that the new teams are brutally, brutally slow.  Nico Rosberg's fast lap of the second session was 1:55.409.  Bruno Senna, turning the first ever laps for the HRT HRT, maxed out at 2:06.968.  That's right, 11.5 seconds slower.  The fastest of the newbies was Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's Lotus, at 2:00.873.  Six seconds faster than the HRT HRT, but over five seconds slower than the Merc.  Even Minardi was better than that, usually.

Another thing we've discovered today is that all that fuel weight is pure raw hell on the tires.  For this race, Bridgestone has brought the super-soft and medium compounds.  As has been the case in the past, the super-softs are only lasting for a few laps, except instead of "a few" meaning 10 or so, now "a few" means "two, maybe three" before they stop being tires and begin pretending to be wagon wheels.  "Sure," I hear you saying, "but that's the softys.  The mediums must be a lot more durable."  Yes, if you consider six or eight laps to be durable.  Of course a tire change pitstop is only going to take three seconds or so, and Red Bull is claiming that they've gotten it down to 1.8 seconds, but there's still the travel time down the pit lane.  If you have to make three or four stops... *shaking head*.  If Sauber is going to win races this year, this is how it's going to happen, because they are reportedly very easy on their tires... just as BrawnGP was last season.

Finally, it looks like Felipe Massa's recovery from the horrendous "spring upside the helmet" incident last season is complete... but Brazilian reporters are saying that he's seeming rather... tentative behind the wheel.  He isn't as fast as HWMNBN, to be sure.  Is that because of rust?  Or something deeper? 

So, the season is underway, and all is right with the world.  But who's driving?  Click "more" for your official F1 Update! driver list!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:55 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 991 words, total size 8 kb.

Ga-Rei Zero, Episode 11

If my memory serves me correctly, last episode saw the show catch back up to Episode 02, and the Schoolgirl in Black (formerly known as Yomi) kill off half the cast.  Again.  However, she only got one member of the Disposal Team, Kazuki.  At the very end, Kagura's father (KDad) appeared in the nick of time, saving his daughter from joining the ranks of the corpses... and setting up a massive showdown between the two strongest Spirit Beasts, Ranguren and Byakuei.  So who's power reigns supreme?  We are set... let's get it on!

Cue two different staredowns and posturing.  Of course.  It's an anime fight scene, there has to be a staredown.

And if that wasn't enough, throw in some trash talking by the Schoolgirl in Black.  If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was a pro wrestling match.  Instead of, y'know, a fight that will likely end with the death of one of the two of them... and the destruction of half of the city of Tokyo.

Bang a gong, we are on! 

Ga-Rei Zero, Episode 11: The Awesoming!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:07 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 3047 words, total size 28 kb.

Let Sleeping Ducks In Anime Lie

-Railgun Ep21

Oh, what the heck, let's make it a Twofer Tuesday!

-Railgun Ep21

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:58 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 On SPEED!: Bahrain 2010!

The FIA tells us that the 2010 Formula 1 season officially opens with Friday's first practice session.  But I have come amongst you, brethren and sistren, to tell you different.  For I have heard the holy wail of St Fangio the Quick's blessed V10, and it tells me that here at The Pond, the season begins...

...now.

And things will be different this season.  We no longer have refueling, so pitstops now are for tires only, and in testing were running sub-three-seconds.  We've got three brand new teams, running nearly five seconds behind the frontrunners.  We have six drivers that weren't on the grid last year, from rookies Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov to some guy nicknamed "Slappy."  There's a new points system.  There's no KERS anymore.  And there's a new location for the first race of the season, cutting in front of Australia. 

And even THAT'S new, because the people who run the Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain have realized that maybe, just maybe, Hermann Tilke doesn't have the slightest idea how to design a successful racetrack.  Let's take a look at the new layout:

Well, that's a rather serious change.  Everything from Turn 5 to Turn 15 (which is a reprofiled Turn 7 on the old layout) is new, as you can see if you compare the layout to last year's map.  While the old circuit design may have been the best of Tilke tracks as far as passing went, it sure wasn't what anybody would've called conducive to overtaking.  The new bit, which adds nearly a kilometer to the overall length, is supposed to facilitate passing by throwing in new braking zones for drivers to take advantage of.  At least from looking at the map, I'd say Turns 11, 16 and 18 will be the new hot spots, with brave pilots maybe trying Turn 13 as well.  Of course, nobody really knows because the teams haven't turned a wheel on it yet.  It's worth mentioning that Renault's Robert Kubica doesn't think the new section will add any new passing opportunities.

Just another advantage of building a circuit in the desert, 12 miles away from the nearest city.  Bahrain is probably the safest track in F1, complete with built-in sandtraps, runoff areas that you could build small suburbs on and the most modern infield medical complex in the series.  And there's no neighbors to annoy when you update the complex, to boot! 

It's pretty safe to assume that it won't be raining for the race, though there is always a chance for sandstorms.  The organizers even thought of that, however, as they spray an adhesive over the sand around the complex before race weekend.  Even with that though, the track should permanently be considered "dirty," with a thin layer of sand off the racing line.

We'll get our first look at the Bahrain "Endurance" Circuit, as it's called, on Friday March 12th, with SPEED's live coverage of the day's 2nd Practice session from 5am to 640am.  Saturday brings us the first Quals session of the year, plausibly live from 5am to 630am.

Sunday, of course, is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, so remember to shift your clocks ahead one hour at 2am!  That way, when you set your VCR for the race, which will be coming to us live from 630am to 9am, you'll actually get the race.  There'll also be replays at 1230pm to 3pm on Sunday and another from 1130am to 2pm on Monday.

Of course, the F1 Update! crew will be providing our usual post-race writeup.  F1 is back, and it promises to be one heckuva season!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 608 words, total size 4 kb.

Ducks In Anime By The Book

-Read Or Die TV, ep01

I hadn't watched ROD TV in a few years, but I really liked it the first time through.  I didn't feel like catching up on Railgun (I'm two episodes behind) or watching Summer Wars (not enough time), so I figured what the heck, why not?

And there it was.  I don't remember it being there the first time I watched the show, but with hardsubbing, it might have been covered up.  I'll freely admit to being amazed. 

First episode is just as fun as I remember it being, too, so that's a bonus.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:14 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.

Yup... It's Spring All Over The Place

It's time to admit that Spring has come to The Pond.  Take a look:

It's raining.

Okay, yes it's only 36 degrees outside, and yes there's still plenty of snow on the ground, and no there's no sign of leaves, buds or any other sign of impending rebirth on the trees, but it's raining.  If it's raining, that means it isn't snowing.  Must mean it's Spring.

Hey, at this time of year around here, you grasp at any straw you can get your hands on.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 92 words, total size 1 kb.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I just finished rewatching Episode 11 of Ga-Rei Zero, screencapping as I went.  Epic, epic episode.  How epic?

Dear god in heaven, I got 172 screencaps in 24 minutes!

I need to eliminate at least half.  Fortunately, there's quite a few repeats-- different facial expressions in the same scene, three pictures where the only difference is the number of speed lines, that sort of thing-- but it still might be difficult to get it down that far without much screaming and tears.

Still: a helluva episode!  It'll be up sometime either Tuesday or Wednesday... Monday, Friday and Saturday are already reserved for F1 coverage, after all.

(damn but that's a lot of pictures to sort through... eep)

UPDATE 343am: Two-and-a-half hours later I'm down to 108, and if I don't go to bed, I'm going to fall asleep at my desk.  Goodnight.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:16 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 148 words, total size 1 kb.