The Off Season

It’s the off season for Formula One. But I’m sure there’s some news somewhere. How about Scott Speed driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso?  The news was confirmed Tuesday according to a Reuters report.

Why do I think this is purely public relations? I wish Speed well, but I don’t think he has what it takes.

Meta Tag Voodoo

Who really knows if META tags work? 

Do good META tags really translate into improved search engine results?

Who really knows anymore?

Coca-Cola May Enter Formula One

According to this report Coca-Cola may either buy a F1 team or start it’s own.

Another Entry

OK. So I’m here at Panera Bread working on their free wi-fi connection and I must say … It’s GREAT! Really fast compared to my old dial up connection at home.

Rubens Out, Massa In

It looks like Rubens Barriachello has shot himself in the foot by leaving Ferrari.  Does he seriously think he can win a world championship? With any team? Does he think he can get a better deal with another team?

He's a good driver but he's spent too many years as number two at Ferrari. His legacy is being the guy who drove with Schumacher during the Ferrari years of dominance. Barriachello's best days are behind him.  I predict he'll spend a couple of years at a new team and then get let go or retire.

RIP James Stockwell

I just learned that 1992 vice-presidential candidate Admiral James Stockwell has died. Anybody who tells the truth (like Stockwell did) cannot be elected to office (like Stockwell did not).

Turn About

Turn about is fair play.  This bit of news from boingboing.net is delicious!

Following the Supreme Court ruling allowing private companies to seize people's houses and develop the land for business purposes, a private developer has asked the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire "to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road."  That's the address of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter's home.

Fixed

My BMW got a new slave cylinder for the clutch. Charlotte's truck got a whole new engine. Our riding mower got a new tire. Today I patched the inner tube in the other tire on the riding mower. Tomorrow I will be doing oil changes on my car and the International 235 tractor.

Then I need to cut down a tree and mow all the fields. If it doesn't rain all weekend. The work never ends.

BMW Buys Sauber

The rumors are true. BMW is splitting with Williams and has bought Sauber.  This from AFP: "With a team managed by BMW we will, as of next year, take on responsibility for the entire package, which will include the key factors of the chassis, tyres and drivers," said Goschel. Sauber team principal Peter Sauber said:

For Sauber, the partnership with BMW is an ideal solution as it supports the two goals which have always been paramount for me. Firstly, to offer the team the possibility of improving their sporting performance, and secondly, to safeguard the site at Hinwil and the jobs of today's 300-strong workforce.

Sauber said the costs involved in running a Formula One stable were increasingly prohibitive for private teams.

U.S. Grand Prix Fiasco

What can I say about the fiasco that was the United States Grand Prix?

I've never seen anything like it in my whole life.  After much thought and reading many FIA press releases I blame Michelin, and less so, the 6 Michelin teams, for the debacle.

The FIA and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are blameless. I have to agree with the FIA's position that the teams are responsible for bringing the right gear to the race.  If you want to compete, you need to bring the right tires.

I hope this doesn't damage F1 in American too bad.  I'll say, I'm thinking twice about booking a trip to Montreal for next year's Canadian Grand Prix.

Cool Hand Luke

From The Old Farmer's Almanac

Q: How many hard-boiled eggs can a man eat on an empty stomach?

A: One, because after he has eaten it, his stomach will not be empty.

Both Cars Down

The clutch pedal on my BMW 528e failed yesterday. I had to have it towed to a shop for repair. Today, I was driving my wife's Chevy Silverado to work when the water pump failed, the belt slipped off and it overheated.  I had to have it towed to a Chevy dealer for repair.  Boy, does this really suck!

The good news -- we are out of cars to break down.

Bizzare, I Like!

Was not shocked by this Yahoo! headline: Poisonous Caterpillers Close German Schools

Boing Boing

I don't know if I've said this before but I really like the web log called Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things 

 Please go there for all manner of wonderful things.

Deep Throat v. Deep Throat

I just won a bet with my wife that the porn film Deep Throat came out before the Watergate informer Deep Throat. Ha!

Full-length Simpsons Movie

Nancy Cartwright, who is the voice of Bart on The Simpsons, says preliminary production has started on a movie based on the Fox hit TV show. Animation and production is expected to take two years before the movie can be released.

"They are working on hammering out a script, but there's no title or production date or release date," studio spokeswoman Antonia Coffman told E! Online Wednesday.

"We always wanted the show to end first but it just keeps going. Now they've worked out a team to simultaneously do [both the film and show]."

Thanks to Yahoo News for this info.

Sad Irony

I try my best to come up with original text and ideas here. Sometimes though, something I read is too good not to repeat. This excerpt from George H.W. Bush's 1998 book talks about why he didn't go "all the way to Baghdad" during the first Gulf War.

Trying to eliminate Saddam ... would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible ... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq ... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.

Thanks to Reason Magazine's weblog Hit and Run.