redfiona99

The FIA have pre-empted this post by choosing to go with the halo but I was going to write something about the plans for increasing cockpit safety anyway.

Your fears are formed by what you see.

The two most recent serious F1 accidents have featured something hitting the driver's head while they're seated in their vehicle. Understandably, this has led to calls for fully enclosed cockpits to be used in F1. The first F1 accident I remember was Gerhard Berger's 1989 crash at Imola. Which I swear is where my fear of burning to death comes from. Now, that ended happily, or at least only with minor injuries, but the main reason I don't like the idea of having fighter jet-style canopies is what happens if they fail to release.

The other problem with a full canopy is how it would be cleaned as it got dirty. If the driver is fully sealed, he can't just rip off a tear-off strip the way you can with helmets. Sure, the mechanics could do it during a pit stop. But what if it got dirty in-between times, or if the car in front sprayed oil all over the canopy because of a mechanical failure?

I suspect these problems, or something similar, are the reason why the FIA and the teams haven't even tried anything like a full, sealed canopy.

With a "shield", there aren't the same problems. The driver can get out, and I presume tear-offs can be made for them. On the other hand, objects can still bounce off and in, and something could go over and in to the cockpit. I don't think that you're ever going to be able to make any motorsport 100% safe, but I think the shield is probably the best option. It mixes increasing safety without introducing different risks or just leaving things as is of the solutions so far put forward.

I don't get what the halo is supposed to do. I'm sure I'm missing something, and I'm sure someone with more engineering know-how can explain it to me. It seems to offer very little extra protection while reducing the driver's field of vision. I don't think the central column visibility issues will be as bad as it looks (see also how quickly you can get used to seeing through mesh in a fencing mask). However, I've no idea how it's supposed to prevent objects entering the cockpit. It seems to only be capable of preventing things if they're on a trajectory that crosses over the halo pillars and bars.

The FIA have gone with the halo over the shield. I'm sure they have their reasons. I'm sure they are good reasons. It would be nice to know what those reasons are because from the outside, it looks like a ridiculous decision.

Art:

The blind sculptor who thinks everyone should touch art - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-29837275

History:

Government to 'retire' some of its WW1 debt - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29844961

The interesting bit to me comes later on in the story "The continued existence of the war bond debt illustrates the lasting shadow cast by World War One. According to the UK Treasury there are currently 11,200 registered holders of the bonds. Winston Churchill first issued “4% Consols” in 1927 when he was Chancellor partly to refinance bonds from the First World War. In addition to the war bonds, some of the debt being refinanced by the Treasury dates back to the 18th Century. One of these bonds was issued by William Gladstone in 1853 to consolidate the capital stock of the South Sea Company, which was founded in 1711. The South Sea Company collapsed during the South Sea Bubble financial crisis of 1720, leaving behind it a lot of debt."

Windscale Piles: Cockcroft's Follies avoided nuclear disaster - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-29803990

Language:

This 81-Year-Old Wrote a Dictionary to Save Her Tribe’s Dying Language - http://www.ryot.org/native-america-wukchumni-dictionary-language-extinction/855101 Just ignore the editorialising about the death of English because, horror of horrors, new neologisms are entering the language.

Law and Order:

How Louisiana Became The World's 'Prison Capital' - http://www.npr.org/2012/06/05/154352977/how-louisiana-became-the-worlds-prison-capital

Miscellaneous:

Meet the metal detectorists saving marriages - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29800160 Other people are apparently as bad as I am for losing jewellery. Their's is just more important ;)

The Adventures of the World's Greatest Counterfeiter - http://www.gq.com/long-form/the-great-paper-caper Via @TwistedSifter on twitter.

How to Buy Food: The Psychology of the Supermarket - http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/supermarket-psychology Via @TwistedSifter on twitter.

How Different Groups Spend Their Day - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html?_r=0 The results of the American Time Use survey 2008. Via @TwistedSifter on twitter.

Five Ways to Lie with Charts - http://nautil.us/issue/19/illusions/five-ways-to-lie-with-charts

What lies beneath London? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29566275 From deep-level air raid shelters to the colossal Crossrail construction, beneath London lies a labyrinth of tunnels. BBC News delved underground to visit some of the capital's rarely seen subterranean spots.

Watch a Japanese Kokeshi Doll Emerge From a Spinning Block of Wood - http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/10/watch-a-japanese-kokeshi-doll-emerge-from-a-spinning-block-of-wood/

Baroness Trumpington profile: From Lloyd George to the Lords - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27888144 She has worked at Bletchley Park, served as a headmaster's wife, mayor of Cambridge, a government whip and as a health minister. Besides this, she famously flicked a V-sign to her colleague Tom King during a Lords debate.

Who The Hell Keeps Calling Me? - http://digg.com/2014/when-gamergate-hits-the-wrong-target Or the gamergate idiots can't even dox the right people. Via nwhyte.

Science:

Geneticists tap human knockouts - http://www.nature.com/news/geneticists-tap-human-knockouts-1.16239 - Sequenced genomes reveal mutations that disable single genes and can point to new drugs. Although part of me wants to agree with the commenter on inthepipeline who pointed out that these aren't knockout mutations.

Ebola crisis: A village fights back in Sierra Leone - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29899630 Or, yet more evidence that local knowledge is vital.

Why NASA Blew Up a Rocket Just After Launch - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141030-first-person-rocket-explosion-antares/ A National Geographic staffer's on-scene account of the Antares rocket failure.

Sports:

Two football/free speech articles:

FA made £350,000 from Twitter fines in just three years - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/fa-made-%C2%A3350-000-from-twitter-fines-in-just-three-years-101858229.html

Pornhub sponsored team banned from football league - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/pornhub-sponsored-team-banned-from-football-league-145621037.html#more-id

Football:

Rayo Vallecano fans produce brilliant, Simpsons-themed protest banners - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/rayo-vallecano-fans-produce-brilliant--simpsons-themed-protest-banners-151633262.html#more-id Or, the Rayo Vallecano fans would like for their matches to not always be the Monday night match.

Formula 1:

Formula 1: Where does all the money go? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29905081 Really interesting if you've got even a passing interest in F1, and it explains why the gap between the big teams and the rest never seems to get any smaller. (And when it does, it's because Ferrari have stuffed up, again. Why can you not hire engineers as good as your lawyers, Ferrari?)

Caterham & Marussia struggles highlight need for cost-cutting - FIA - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29841569 We've been saying this for years.

BBC pundit slams ‘disgraceful’ and 'unfair' Formula One - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/motorhead-uk/jordan--formula-one-is--unfair--and--disgrace-165218934.html#more-id

Books/TV:

Game of Thrones: Discover the real Westeros - http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-04-29/game-of-thrones-discover-the-real-westeros Or the Northern Ireland tourism board now has consultant dragons. Link care of nwhyte.

Films:

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan Speculate On Their Characters' Futures 25 Years after 'When Harry Met Sally' - http://www.nerve.com/entertainment/billy-crystal-and-meg-ryan-speculate-their-characters-futures-after-when-harry-met-sally

Science:

The strange case of the 'time travel' murder (and other tales from the UK Forensics service) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26324244

Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27204988 That sound you can hear is lots of scientists going "we've been trying to tell you this for years."

History:

The Man Who Made South Africa's Flag - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27155475

Music/Music Industry:

Cee-Lo Green Originally Recorded 'Happy' (and other could have beens) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27234842

Politics/Economics:

Legal aid row leads to halting of serious fraud trial - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27238201 Where the Prime Minister's brother is on the side of right and good.

UK Cost Of Living Changes Over 10 Years - http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/97214/cost_of_living_.html

Sport:

World's oldest surviving Olympian, and sharp-shooting FBI agent, dies aged 106 - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/olympic-games-worlds-oldest-olympian-sharp-shooting-fbi-112828806--spt.html

Snooker:

World Snooker Championship: How to survive Crucible marathon - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/27048713

Football:

Crystal Palace: How Tony Pulis achieved Premier League survival - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27253266

Footballer Fabrice Muamba launches defibrillator campaign - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27237737

Rodney Marsh cleans Stoke City players' boots after losing online argument - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-27210196

Formula 1:

Senna's death: Hill still full of disbelief 20 years on - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-sennas-death-hill-still-full-disbelief-074615188--f1.html The whole article is worth reading, because Damon Hill is honest and capable of great insight.

Senna's death: The practical joker whose laughter is still missed - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-sennas-death-practical-joker-whos-laughter-074245068--f1.html

Formula 1/Football:

Brazilian footballers pay tribute to Ayrton Senna by wearing helmets - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/brazilian-footballers-honour-ayrton-senna-wearing-yellow-helmets-031717505.html

( Hearing this live is the only plus point to this insomnia episode )

I can live with that one-two-three.

Architecture:

Arms wide open: The story of Rio's Christ the Redeemer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26354918

Science:

Tracking Lydia the Shark - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26514827

Science and Knitting:

An adorable story, basically some Norwegian school children visted CERN, and their teachers have knitted the scientists project-specific jumpers - http://home.web.cern.ch/cern-people/updates/2014/02/particle-physicists-norwegian-knitwear-oh-yes

Photography:

An interview with an F1 photographer - http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/03/capturing-brilliance-formula-one-like-youve-never-seen-it/

Formula 1:

The perpetually adorable Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel explaining the 2014 technical rule changes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFHmYFlbFn8

But we were right to predict woobie!Lauda being a thing.

I am immensely glad no one on the internet can hear me cackling because yes, bwah-ha-ha.

Tour De France - As you might be able to tell from the previous post, I missed a lot of the sport today. Switching my mobile on on the train back, I got a series of texts from L. He mostly wanted to know WTF happened with the Tour stage today. So I was expecting there to have been a real disaster, rather than just a new form of the traditional chaos.

BBC report here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23110998

Basically the Orrica GreenEdge team coach got stuck under the finishing line, they moved the stage finish, then they managed to get it unstuck so they moved the finish back to the original place again. Also, entirely separately, all the of the sprint favourites had crashes. So yeah, to me that's just the expected first day chaos.

Cycling has spoilt me.

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Tennis - In the men's tennis, I'm down to one guy I like left in, and that's Jurgen Melzer who I don't even like but he's Austrian, so I'm kind of obliged, because if he wins I get to point out to my mother that an Austrian has won a Slam more recently than a Brit. Yes, this argument is vital.

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Moto GP - I think Lorenzo might finally have won the hearts and minds. Also Valentino won, and that's always good. This picture - https://twitter.com/calcrutchlow/status/351030040378605568/photo/1 made me smile. A lot.

Now, if only we could get Aleix Espargaro a satellite (or even main team) bike.

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F1

Well yes, Paul Di Resta will go faster if his car is underweight. I love how this is all some huge conspiracy according to some people.

Also, no, dear British press, he was never going to be the Webber replacement, because he's never beaten his team-mate's point total.

The 2011 year where he "smoked" Sutil, he finished with 27 points, compared to 42 points for Sutil. In 2012 he got 46 points compared to Nico Hulkenberg's 63.

Yeah, this year, he's beating Sutil, but that doesn't mean he's being spectacular. Especially not when compared to Ricciardo or Vergne or Kimi-Kimi (not that Vettel is going to let them pick up Kimi-Kimi but never mind). My guess is that it'll be Vergne because of Renault.

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Fanfic Meme - Day 20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Not really. Like sometimes, there'll be a canon event that causes lots of fic, and I try not to do the same thing, not out of peevishness but, well I like the quote opera142 has on her profile page - "You have to be first, best, or different" (from Loretta Lynn). Other people write their own stories better than I could, so my stories have to be mine.

( Other Days )

Did the Allstar/Uhlmann/Leeds Open Part 2/whatever it's really called yesterday. Managed to get knocked out 15-0 by a 15 year old. She's damn good and a lovely girl so it wasn't too bad, but 15-0 :( Actually, the funny thing was, the person that beat her in the final was one of the people I beat in the pool stage. It confuses me greatly.

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F1

Dear Mark Webber, I suggest exorcising the car.

A curse is starting to be the most sensible explanation of his luck.

Other than that, much like the Aussie GP, that's was boring. Any over-taking was due to tyres or the DRS button.

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Fic Writing

I've made a start on my lgbtfest fic. This year's panic is a return to the first year's panic of "does this contain enough lgbt-related content to be suitable?" I think it does, there's just a very long prologue.

To the formula 1 part of this (http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/2012/11/09/) post.

The hypothesis I was talking about in the last post was that the reason the 2012 Formula 1 season's racing was closer was due to the lack of blown diffusers, more particularly, I thought that this was because the diffusers and the way they worked (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_1_2011#Rule_changes) aided smoother drivers, or hindered the less smooth.

Now I admit this was mostly based on a gut feeling that Mark Webber was a much better driver than his 2011 results showed, and that, with the removal of the blown diffusers, his results would be closer to Sebastian Vettel's.

Unfortunately, I can't actually prove my hunch with numbers, because, Webber's average placing in 2012 in races where both drivers finished, was actually slightly lower than his position the year before, in comparison to Vettel (on average he was 1.9 places behind Vettel rather than 1.8 places). I blame being Grosjean'd a few times. However, at the same time, he's finished ahead of Vettel more times this season (five times as opposed to twice). I therefore decided that I needed more evidence to back up my theory. Or, you know, prove it at all. I needed another team where one driver is general regarded as smoother than the other and the drivers haven't change between 2011 and 2012.

Bring on the McLarens.

Thankfully, the McLarens actually do bear out my theory, even with Hamilton's various misfortunes. There's a swing from Hamilton being -0.71 of a position behind in 2011 to being 3.3 of a position ahead in 2012. The other thing screaming at me is that really, McLaren's reliability issues have really hurt them. Both Red Bulls finished 16 times, both McLarens finished 10 times.

Unfortunately, I'd planned to use the difference between the Ferraris as a baseline but it turns out that Massa is less capable of coping with a terrible car than Alonso is.

Re: last rugby post - this is what I meant by Castrogiovanni looking like he was ready to murderise someone - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293739457 So glad I wasn't playing against him.

The French rugby union team continue to be ... themselves. Trying to guess how they'll play is a fool's game, but I think they were paying for not having specialists in their second row. I have no doubt that over a 100 yard dash or bench pressing, the French would win, but in rucking and all the various diabolic arts thereto attached (i.e. the stuff that actually goes on on the pitch), the Italians were going to win every day. See also, the basis for a lot of recent Irish victories against England.

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Formula 1 - The best thing about the new season is Gary Anderson talking about the new cars and the changes from last year's specifications. Of particular interest are his comments about the new Red Bull (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21313453). I also like that he apparently grades on a scale, because he's nice about the Marussia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21335626) and scathing about the Mercedes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula-one/21322248), even though Mercedes will probably finish higher in the end of season standings.

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Fencing:

Guess who is ranked 100th in the country? Boom!!

Now to stay there, despite one of my favourite competitions not being run and me having points to defend from it.

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Some fun links -

A photo gallery of this season's F1 cars - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21261099

ATOS declare Richard III fit for work - http://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/atos-declare-richard-iii-fit-for-work/
Well, it makes a change from the Blackadder jokes and all the locals pointing out exactly how much Richard III owes in parking fines :) (Link care of nwhyte)

Someone else's Castrogiovanni picspam - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293488652/dreezlebub-italy-23-18-france Castro owns an Italian restaurant out in one of the little villages round Leicester, and is apparently beloved by every small child that has ever entered it because he does things like jumping out at them and pretending to eat them.

Sebastian Chabal's comment on France vs Italy - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293336092/mylittlebinky-a-tweet-by-chabal-during-italy-v In his defence, he was really nice about Italy after the match, making it quite clear that they'd won the match rather than France losing it.

A taxonomy of wrestler's names - http://files.sharenator.com/PCL_ProWrestlers_Zoom3-s2000x2659-221663.jpg.html