Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Longines]

If you are within a second of the driver in front then in the one (or two) designated areas on the track you can flick a switch that modifies the rear wing which makes you faster (DRS = drag reduction system). Introduced a few years back to make overtaking easier and racing more exciting.

[Longines]

I put the TV on this morning just as the Japanese Grand Prix was starting.

I don't know anything about F1 but it's very exciting.

I assume all the cars have to be roughly the  same spec, but how far does it it extend? Does it cover such things as CC, overall weight & size, gear ratios etc?

Yes, yes, yes and no. There are 87 pages of rules like this:

Each competitor must nominate the forward gear ratios (calculated from engine crankshaft to drive shafts) to be employed wi thin their gearbox. These nominations must be declared to the FIA technical delegate at or before the first Event of the Championship. For 2014 only a competitor may renominate these ratios once within the Championship season, in which case the original nomination becomes immediately void
.
Ratio renominations must be declared as a set.
9.6.3
No forward gear ratio pair may be :
a)
Less than 12mm wide when measured across the gear tooth at the root diameter or any point 1mm above or below the root diameter. Above this area each side of the gear teeth may be chamfered by a maximum of 10 ̊. In addition, a chamfer or radius not exceeding 2.0mm may be applied to the sides and the tip of the teeth.
b)Less than 85mm between centres.
c)Less than 600g in weight (excluding any integral shaft or collar). If an integral shaft or collar is to be excluded the mass of this may be shown by calculation assuming the gear to be 12mm wide and the shaft geometry to be the same as that where slide on gears are used

[RED-DOG]

I put the TV on this morning just as the Japanese Grand Prix was starting.

I don't know anything about F1 but it's very exciting.

I assume all the cars have to be roughly the  same spec, but how far does it it extend? Does it cover such things as CC, overall weight & size, gear ratios etc?

Yes, yes, yes and no. There are 87 pages of rules like this:

Each competitor must nominate the forward gear ratios (calculated from engine crankshaft to drive shafts) to be employed wi thin their gearbox. These nominations must be declared to the FIA technical delegate at or before the first Event of the Championship. For 2014 only a competitor may renominate these ratios once within the Championship season, in which case the original nomination becomes immediately void
.
Ratio renominations must be declared as a set.
9.6.3
No forward gear ratio pair may be :
a)
Less than 12mm wide when measured across the gear tooth at the root diameter or any point 1mm above or below the root diameter. Above this area each side of the gear teeth may be chamfered by a maximum of 10 ̊. In addition, a chamfer or radius not exceeding 2.0mm may be applied to the sides and the tip of the teeth.
b)Less than 85mm between centres.
c)Less than 600g in weight (excluding any integral shaft or collar). If an integral shaft or collar is to be excluded the mass of this may be shown by calculation assuming the gear to be 12mm wide and the shaft geometry to be the same as that where slide on gears are used

Blimey! Why wouldn't they allow any ratios? Surely the optimum range would fall within a very narrow band anyway?

[The Camel]

Cliffs from last week.

Before she went for her op, I removed the wedding ring from Mrs Red's finger. It was exactly 36 years to the day since I put it on there.

A few hours later, I put it on again. 


Leicester police had a gun amnesty. "Bring in your illegal firearms, no questions asked" they said, so I did, and they grilled me like a kipper.


I went for some acupuncture. A lady told me to remove my trousers and lie on my belly. Then she stuck 8 needles into my left buttock, brought me a hot drink and left me alone for half an hour. When she returned she said "Oh, you didn't drink your coffee". I was tempted to ask her how the Hell I was supposed to drink coffee while lying on my belly with with 8 needles in my arse, but I thought better of it.

Oooo acupuncture.

Did you feel a prick?

[dik9]

Whilst in Barcelona I went to a fish market and this contraption was being used to sharpen their knives, just thought Red-dog may be interested in this modern technology

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

Hahaha!

That's made my day. I love it.

[dreenie]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

[RED-DOG]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

Hello sweetheart. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hows you?

What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy that's fo sho.

[kinboshi]

This caught my eye this morning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/24355478 - lots of lower case G's.

That's a good article. It's great to see positive stories, they add a bit of balance. Thanks for posting.

PS- Pity they couldn't use an upper-case G for Gypsy though...

Have I missed a gag here? Read the link and there doesn't seem to be any lower case g's!

You coming to Luton this week for any of the gukpt stuff, Tom?

It's been edited.

Yes, it has been edited. Wow! Isn't that wonderful?

I don't ever recollect that happening before post publication.

The BBC tend to do that more and more now. Quite a few articles I've seen recently haveghad inaccuracies and then when I've looked again they've been rectified. Guess they have a battle between expediency and accuracy, and reviewing stuff and amending it after it's gone live must be the way they approach things, especially on the sports pages.

[RED-DOG]

This caught my eye this morning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/24355478 - lots of lower case G's.

That's a good article. It's great to see positive stories, they add a bit of balance. Thanks for posting.

PS- Pity they couldn't use an upper-case G for Gypsy though...

Have I missed a gag here? Read the link and there doesn't seem to be any lower case g's!

You coming to Luton this week for any of the gukpt stuff, Tom?

It's been edited.

Yes, it has been edited. Wow! Isn't that wonderful?

I don't ever recollect that happening before post publication.

The BBC tend to do that more and more now. Quite a few articles I've seen recently haveghad inaccuracies and then when I've looked again they've been rectified. Guess they have a battle between expediency and accuracy, and reviewing stuff and amending it after it's gone live must be the way they approach things, especially on the sports pages.

Damian La'Bas, Gypsy journalist was a contributor to the story. I suspect he had a word in their shell-like.

Kudos to them for listening though.

[Karabiner]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

Hello sweetheart. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hows you?

What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy that's fo sho.

Evilpie (remember him?) should get one of those for Ronnie who allegedly spends his days sleeping although I secretly suspect that he gnaws the odd table/chair-leg when he feels lonesome.

[dreenie]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

Hello sweetheart. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hows you?

What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy that's fo sho.

Cute dog

I'm not too bad, was pretty depressed this week, so haven't done much, managed to get myself out the house this evening to buy lots of chocolate, came back to have a hot date with my sky + planner, but fell asleep by 10pm :/

Still have lot's to catch up on, I'm 3/4 weeks behind on Corrie and about 6 episodes of Chattyman to watch, loads of other stuff too so that will keep me going for the weekend. Then hopefully I feel better I can start playing cash next week and get the lot?! (pigs might appear in the sky soon ).

Anyway no tourney's for me atm, but I'm confident 2014 can't be any worse than 2013, so it can only get better.

Hope you are OK, take care.

Dreenie x

[sovietsong]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

Hello sweetheart. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hows you?

What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy that's fo sho.

Notice how the dog waits until the machine draws back before running. Fantastic, it must stop at some point in the upright position or the dog would make its move earlier!

[RED-DOG]

Bump! How are you Red Dog, what have you been up to?, hope the poker has been treating you well x

Hello sweetheart. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hows you?

What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy that's fo sho.

Cute dog

I'm not too bad, was pretty depressed this week, so haven't done much, managed to get myself out the house this evening to buy lots of chocolate, came back to have a hot date with my sky + planner, but fell asleep by 10pm :/

Still have lot's to catch up on, I'm 3/4 weeks behind on Corrie and about 6 episodes of Chattyman to watch, loads of other stuff too so that will keep me going for the weekend. Then hopefully I feel better I can start playing cash next week and get the lot?! (pigs might appear in the sky soon ).

Anyway no tourney's for me atm, but I'm confident 2014 can't be any worse than 2013, so it can only get better.

Hope you are OK, take care.

Dreenie x

I'm sorry to hear you've been depressed Dreene.

Now, don't mention this to a soul because everyone around here thinks I'm Mr Happy's more optimistic brother, but the truth is, I get a bit down sometimes too.

Being happy is easy for some people. Others, (like me for instance), have to work at it.

If you're interested, I'll tell you about some of the things that help to lift my mood when the old black dog comes to visit. It might be a load of old bollocks, but it works for me most of the time.

[mondatoo]

Interested in what sort of things get you down ?

If it's personal feel free to ignore, just something I'm interested in.

Bewilders me that people always say the same thing when they find out they are ill or have something seriously wrong with them and then recover; ignoring the fact everyone says they never expect it to happen to them which is another story, it's always along the lines of how they used to whinge and moan about meaningless things and now they have a new lease of life because of what's happened to them and don't waste time doing that anymore, seems a pretty short sighted way to live life to me.

Of course things are going to get us down at times, that's a bit different to bitching and moaning about every little thing that goes against us or constantly spending your life stressing about every little thing that in the great scheme of things is pretty pointless.

That said we are all different, not suggesting you do any of the above btw, nor am I saying my way is right or wrong and I know it tilts some people how laid back I can be at times.

But my way is right.