In my inbox today was one of those spam mails which first looks like random text cut-and-pasted in to fool the filters; then it looks like something fed through an auto-translator; then it starts to make some kind of surreal pseudo-sense.
Here's a snippet:
"Jurisprudence is an exact science, when there are two interpretations, almost one is false.. when the two interpretations conflict, almost one is mentally insane."
It also included the following useful phrase:
"It is essential to avoid the indicated contradiction in therms"
I'm guessing that's when I want the heating on and you want the heating off...
Posted by racingsnake
@ 01:04 PM GMT+00:00
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OK - it's time to own up to a guilty pleasure. I've been watching F1 again, even though I said some time ago that I'd had enough of the way in which the sport is governed. I tuned in to the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend; it's a great circuit, and the unpredictability of the Ardennes weather often makes for a very turbulent race. It was here in 1998, for instance, that the Jordan team won its first Grand Prix after a massive wet-weather pile-up at the start.
This year again, things got really interesting when rain intervened within a few laps of the end, turning parts of the 7km circuit into a skating rink. In the last three laps, the fight for first place produced some outstanding driving from both Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, with Hamilton in the lead at the point when Raikkonen finally lost it and went into the barriers. That appeared to be it - except that after the race, the stewards reviewed the result and added a 25-second penalty to Hamilton's time, demoting him to third place. Apparently, their view was that he had gained a place unfairly after leaving the track at the "Bus Stop" chicane... despite the fact that after the incident, he slowed enough to let Raikkonen pass, only then overtaking at the "La Source" hairpin.
One result of the penalty was that Nick Heidfeld rose from third to second - but it's hard to grudge him the result, as he had the quick thinking to switch to wet-weather tyres at the last minute, streaking past half a dozen cars struggling to stay on the track on slicks in those last few laps. What must surely stick in Hamilton's throat, though, is that by default, the win went to Felipe Massa, who (despite qualifying in second place) had not figured at all in the race since being overtaken by his teammate Raikkonen, from fourth on the grid, in the first lap.
It's just one of those mystifying rule-book decisions which seem so arbitrary that they undermine the drivers' attempts to race fiercely but fairly. Yet again, the drivers have done their best, but the sport's administration makes the whole thing look shabby and stage-managed. Disgraceful.
Posted by racingsnake
@ 10:00 AM GMT+00:00
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Comments [7]
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