The Off Topic Topic

[Liep]

Ended up rooting for the Welsh, great performance. Heartbreaking with that last penalty being 5cm too low. Who would've thought Rugby could be this fun?

[jimmy olsen]

Article on Malthus' aunt.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2011/10/margaret_atwood_s_in_other_worlds_sf_and_the_human_imagination_.html

[Ed Anger]

I hate her books.

[DGuller]

Watched another driver get killed live on TV today, during the Indycar finale.  This one is the most senseless death yet, though. 

The race was almost designed to create a huge pileup.  I even had a vision before the race of multiple cars flying into the fence in the Big One with multiple drivers seriously injured.  Truth be told, I was morbidly curious to see how this clusterfuck would unfold, and it unfolded almost exactly like I thought to myself it would.

The most chilling thing about it is that in-car camera view of Dan Wheldon was on TV, and you could see from his cockpit the accident starting to unfold.  The camera cuts away, and 5 seconds later, Wheldon gets a fatal blow to the head from the fence post.

[alfred russel]

Watched another driver get killed live on TV today, during the Indycar finale.  This one is the most senseless death yet, though. 

The race was almost designed to create a huge pileup.  I even had a vision before the race of multiple cars flying into the fence in the Big One with multiple drivers seriously injured.  Truth be told, I was morbidly curious to see how this clusterfuck would unfold, and it unfolded almost exactly like I thought to myself it would.

The most chilling thing about it is that in-car camera view of Dan Wheldon was on TV, and you could see from his cockpit the accident starting to unfold.  The camera cuts away, and 5 seconds later, Wheldon gets a fatal blow to the head from the fence post.

Tell me if I'm off on this:

They put 30+ indycar drivers on a ~1.5 mile oval, meaning:

1. The cars go much faster than in Nascar, on a track about as congested,
2. There are a lot of marginal drivers in the field,
3. Unlike stock cars, open wheel cars spectacularly crash with any contact,
4. Indy cars are very small and don't have the natural protection of stock cars,
5. Indy cars have a lot more variation than stock cars, meaning there would be a lot of fast cars passing slow ones.

[DGuller]

Watched another driver get killed live on TV today, during the Indycar finale.  This one is the most senseless death yet, though. 

The race was almost designed to create a huge pileup.  I even had a vision before the race of multiple cars flying into the fence in the Big One with multiple drivers seriously injured.  Truth be told, I was morbidly curious to see how this clusterfuck would unfold, and it unfolded almost exactly like I thought to myself it would.

The most chilling thing about it is that in-car camera view of Dan Wheldon was on TV, and you could see from his cockpit the accident starting to unfold.  The camera cuts away, and 5 seconds later, Wheldon gets a fatal blow to the head from the fence post.

Tell me if I'm off on this:

They put 30+ indycar drivers on a ~1.5 mile oval, meaning:

1. The cars go much faster than in Nascar, on a track about as congested,
2. There are a lot of marginal drivers in the field,
3. Unlike stock cars, open wheel cars spectacularly crash with any contact,
4. Indy cars are very small and don't have the natural protection of stock cars,
5. Indy cars have a lot more variation than stock cars, meaning there would be a lot of fast cars passing slow ones.

Right on all five. 

You didn't mention the most important point, though:  in a multi-car Indycar crash, cars are guaranteed to fly.  Always happens in the few instances when it does happen.  Flying cars can frequently hit the fence.  Very few drivers who hit the fence in an Indycar walk away under their own power.  Indycars are reasonably safe while they're on the ground, but the danger rises hundredfold once they're flying, and these Dallaras seem to really like flying. 

Ironically, next year, Indycar would move to a safer car that designed to be much less prone to flying, and Dan Wheldon was the primary test driver of it (since he didn't have a regular job this year).  He had just had to make it through one final race in the old death trap.

[Grey Fox]

Open wheel racing shouldn't race on Ovals, it's a travesty more then anything.

Bring back Cart series!

[DGuller]

Open wheel racing shouldn't race on Ovals, it's a travesty more then anything.

Bring back Cart series!

They definitely shouldn't race on high-banked ovals.  Not only is it extremely dangerous, but it's also not challenging at all.

[Razgovory]

I had the strangest dream.  I dreamt that there was a secret government program to breed evil beavers.  Then one escaped.  Fortunately it wasn't very dangerous and the worst thing that happened was that someone were bitten on the hand.  The escaping beaver had help from the outside though, human help.  The beaver had a lover that looked kinda like Jack Black.  He crawled up through a hydroelectic damn to save the beaver but was shot in the head when security saw him.

[Neil]

Why would anyone want to have an F1 race on a NASCAR track?  I mean, I'm always happy when things go wrong in racing, but that's entirely preventable.

[Ed Anger]

I'm shocked Danica Patrick didn't cause that wreck.

[DGuller]

I'm shocked Danica Patrick didn't cause that wreck.

I'm not.  She's no great talent, but she's very competent.

[Ed Anger]

I'm shocked Danica Patrick didn't cause that wreck.

I'm not.  She's no great talent, but she's very competent.

We'll agree to disagree. She is a woman and a inferior driver.

[alfred russel]

Open wheel racing shouldn't race on Ovals, it's a travesty more then anything.

Bring back Cart series!

They definitely shouldn't race on high-banked ovals.  Not only is it extremely dangerous, but it's also not challenging at all.

Is it challenging in Nascar?

[DGuller]

Open wheel racing shouldn't race on Ovals, it's a travesty more then anything.

Bring back Cart series!

They definitely shouldn't race on high-banked ovals.  Not only is it extremely dangerous, but it's also not challenging at all.

Is it challenging in Nascar?

It definitely is challenging in NASCAR, since NASCAR cars handle way, way worse than Indycars.  Once you're past the point when you can make it around the track with throttle fully down, without much effort, the challenge goes away.  In NASCAR, only Daytona and Talladega are such tracks, and these tracks only account for 4 out of 36 races.