Monthly Archives: July 2014

F1 leaves Hungary Full from a Fantastic Race

Budapest – Australians all let us rejoice, for Ricciardo has won! To say that the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix was anything less than racing at its finest would be criminal. The 70 lap grand prix began with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton far from his usual place in the first two rows, as he began the race from the pit lane after a disastrous fire brought his qualifying to a close early on Saturday. With him was the unlucky Dane, Kevin Magnussen, who slid off the rather wet track and into the barriers during Q3.

The grid was set as 1) Rosberg, 2) Vettel, 3) Bottas, 4) Ricciardo, 5) Alonso, 6) Massa, 7) Button, 8) Vergne, 9) Hülkenberg, 10) Kvyat, 11) Sutil, 12) Pérez, 13) Gutierrez, 14) Grosjean, 15) Bianchi, 16) Räikkönen, 17) Kobayashi, 18) Chilton, 19) Ericsson, 20) Maldonado.

All began well, save for Daniil Kvyat whose car shut down as the formation lap was just getting under way. In the first lap of the race, Rosberg was able to break away, holding his lead ahead of Bottas and Alonso, who were able to get around Vettel. Hamilton and Magnussen got their race off to a start from the pit lane, Magnussen quickly making up his unlucky starting place to come into 19th by Lap 4. Hamilton did not have quite as good of a starting lap, spinning off the track at Turn 2, just barely bending part of his front wing out of place.

By Lap 3, Jenson Button had made great pace, rising from 7th to 5th, while his former McLaren teammate at last began to move up the grid, who by Lap 8 had made it up to 13th. At Lap 9, Caterham’s Swedish rookie Marcus Ericsson hit the wall quite hard at Turn 3, leading to the first appearance of the safety car for the day. Thankfully, Ericsson was able to get out of his car and walk away.

The safety car period led to Button, Ricciardo, and Hamilton pitting, putting on dry weather tyres as the rain seemed to be clearing. They were soon followed on Lap 10 by Rosberg, Bottas, Vettel, and Alonso.

The safety car was forced to remain on track for a little while longer than expected, as Lotus’ Romain Grosjean crashed into the barriers at Lap 11 on Turn 3. With the safety car on track, the field was led this time by Ricciardo, Button, Massa, Rosberg, and Magnussen leading. Rosberg had some rear-break issues at this point, and there was some worry that they too might catch fire like his British teammate’s car had done on Saturday.

Thankfully, no such event occurred, and by Lap 14, the safety car was happily returned to the paddock. At that point, the racing recommenced, with Button passing Ricciardo to take the lead. Rosberg’s troubles continued, as he began to lose pace to Toro Rosso’s Jean-Éric Vergne, leaving the German down in 5th. Meanwhile, Hamilton continued to ascend, climbing up to 9th.

At Lap 16, Button pitted, his tyres worn beyond use. Ricciardo retook the lead, followed closely by Felipe Massa in 2nd. At Lap 17, the 10 race scoring streak of Nico Hülkenberg came to a sudden end after, as BBC Sport’s F1 team put it, the German was “punted out of the race by his team-mate Sergio Pérez.”

A collision between Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado and Marussia’s Jules Bianchi on Lap 20 led to both drivers returning to the pits for repairs. Likewise, Sergio Pérez found himself in close proximity with the wall just past the final corner, forcing his retirement from the race, resulting in the return of the safety car to our lives. At the same time, Ricciardo continued to lead the field, followed by Massa, Alonso, and unusually enough, Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso, who from 4th place continued to hold the Mercedes of drivers championship leader Nico Rosberg at bay in 5th.

The safety car remained on the course until Lap 27, at which point, following pit stops by Ricciardo and Massa, the race leaders were Alonso, Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel, and Hamilton. Rosberg and Hamilton continued to have trouble passing their respective Toro Rosso and Red Bull competitors for the next 6 laps. At Lap 33, Rosberg went into the pits, whilst Vettel caught the kerb on the start-finish straight, sending him hurtling into the wall, which due to amazing skill, and a fair amount of luck, the 4-time world champion missed hitting by a hair.

At Lap 34, Hamilton, finally past Vettel, also made a fantastic pass on Vergne, taking second just 5.4 seconds behind Spanish race leader Alonso. At Lap 38, Rosberg passed Valtteri Bottas for 9th, whilst Lewis Hamilton continued to cut Alonso’s lead down quite dramatically. Hamilton took a brief one lap lead from the pitting Alonso, until the Briton also went into the pits for a tyre change on Lap 40. This left the lead with Ricciardo, Massa, and Räikkönen, who also went in to pit, returning to the track to conduct a beautiful pass on Vettel at Lap 42.

At Lap 51, more fuel was added to the rivalry at Mercedes, when Rosberg began to ask the pit-wall why Hamilton wasn’t letting him through, despite the obvious distance between the two Mercedes cars. Soon there after, Hamilton responded to the pit over the radio, “I’m not slowing down for Nico – if he gets closer he can overtake.” At Lap 54, Ricciardo pitted from the lead, as his rear tyres had begun to give way. He rejoined the field in 4th just behind Rosberg. This left Spainard Fernando Alonso once again in the lead at the Hungaroring, with a 2.1 second gap between him and Hamilton in 2nd place. At Lap 56, Hamilton pitted, rejoining the field in 7th with 3 seconds between him and Räikkönen in 6th place.

Rosberg continued to work on getting onto the podium, climbing to 4th with a pass on Massa at Lap 61. At the same time, his teammate was fast being caught by Ricciardo, as the young driver from Western Australia was running only 0.9 seconds behind the Briton. At Lap 62, with 8 laps remaining, the lead was very much still up in the air, as Alonso was only 0.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who in turn was only 0.4 seconds ahead of Ricciardo. At Lap 65, Ricciardo attempted a pass on Hamilton at Turn 2, which did not go the Aussie’s way. At the same time, Rosberg continued to press on the top three, with the pace to catch the leaders by the final lap.

At Lap 67, Ricciardo made the pass, and a brilliant one at that, on Hamilton at Turn 2. One lap later he made a similar move on Alonso at Turn 1, taking the lead of the race. To quote David Coulthard, “There’s just one word for that. Brilliant.” With Ricciardo ahead, Alonso and Hamilton now found themselves with another determined driver on their tails, this time in the form of Hamilton’s German teammate, Nico Rosberg. On Turn 2 of the Lap 70, the final lap, Rosberg attempted a pass on his teammate, but to no avail for the German who had to settle for a 4th place finish.

The results for Hungary stand as follows:

1) Daniel Ricciardo, 2) Fernando Alonso, 3) Lewis Hamilton, 4) Nico Rosberg, 5) Felipe Massa, 6) Kimi Räikkönen, 7) Sebastian Vettel, 8) Valtteri Bottas, 9) Jean-Éric Vergne, 10) Jenson Button

11) Adrian Sutil, 12) Kevin Magnussen, 13) Pastor Maldonado, 14) Daniil Kvyat, 15) Jules Bianchi, 16) Max Chilton.

The following did not finish the race: Esteban Gutierrez, Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Ericssson.

Formula 1 is heading into its mid summer break, which will last for 3 weeks. I will be back with more on the world’s greatest motor sport in 3 weeks time with the beautiful Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

Nico Wins Brilliant Race at Home in Germany

Hockenheim – To say that the 2014 Formula One Santander German Grand Prix was anything less than amazing would be a gross understatement. From the very beginning, the race was bound to be a masterpiece of motor sport.

With four German drivers on the grid: Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg, and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, the home crowd was guaranteed to have quite a few supporters for each of their countrymen, though Vettel and Rosberg did seem to have more supporters than the other two Germans.

The race started with a troublesome situation for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, whose crash at the end of Q1 left him initially starting in 16th place. However, due to the need to change his gear box, Hamilton was handed a 5 spot grid penalty, resulting in the Briton starting at the back of the grid from 21st. Hamilton’s teammate, Rosberg, started the race at pole, with Williams’ flying Finn Valtteri Bottas starting at P2.

The second row of the starting grid was the first to garner the attention of the crowd in person, on television, and on radio, as Williams’ Felipe Massa (P3) appeared to run into McLaren’s rookie Kevin Magnussen (P4) at Turn 1, resulting in Massa’s car flipping upside down before rolling back to its proper upright position. Magnussen left the scene mostly unscathed, despite falling back to 21st position. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo took evasive action, running between the capsized Massa and the wall. The FIA ruled that no further action was “warranted” regarding the incident, as, in their point of view, the offending party had eliminated himself from the race.

At the same time, Lewis Hamilton began his steady ascent up to the front of the pack, by Lap 14 sitting comfortably in 5th place. At this point, Hamilton’s march forward was bogged down, in large part due to the immense skill of the drivers that he was now facing, world champions such as Alonso, Vettel, Button and Räikkönen. 

At Lap 15, the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen fought a magnificent battle, which became a bit of a Kimi-sandwich upon Sebastian Vettel’s reentry onto the track from a pit stop as the German and Spaniard caught the Finn in between them at the hairpin turn. Vettel came out winning fourth, whilst Alonso took fifth and Räikkönen took sixth. Upon being sandwiched, Räikkönen also lost more of his front wing, which had already sustained some damage earlier in the race.

By Lap 20, Nico Rosberg’s lead on Valtteri Bottas (2) was up to 9.2 seconds. From this point on, Rosberg had won Hockenheim. The main bit of racing continued behind him for the second through tenth positions. At Lap 28, Romain Grosjean, the unlucky Frenchman at Lotus was forced to retire at the hairpin, reporting to the pit of some issues with the car’s power unit.

Perhaps one of the more strange incidents from Sunday’s race was the brief contact between Hamilton and his former McLaren teammate Jenson Button, when Hamilton’s front wing was slightly broken upon making contact with Button’s MP4-29. The damage would cost Hamilton a second place finish.

At Lap 47, Toro Rosso’s rookie Daniil Kvyat found himself forced to retire after his car went up in flames. The Russian’s frustration with his poor luck was evident. Following the extensive use of the fire extinguishers, Kvyat’s car’s distinctive Red Bull deep blue was well covered by the whitish foam of the extinguishers.

Likewise, at Lap 52, the only of the Germans to retire this weekend, Sauber’s Adrian Sutil did so in the middle of the track after the car spun and stalled at the last corner. Mercedes called Hamilton back into the pits, perhaps in anticipation of a safety car being deployed whilst the marshals removed the Sauber from the track. Unfortunately this plan did not work so well, as no safety car was deployed. Despite this, Hamilton’s fresher tyres were able to take him past Alonso at Lap 56, leaving the Briton in 3rd.

The final six laps of this 67 lap race featured a fantastic fight for fifth between Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso. Not only did this six lap duel leave the crowd cheering with excitement, it also showcased the excellence in driving that is a hallmark of these two drivers.

By the chequered flag, the order stood as 1) Rosberg, 2) Bottas, 3) Hamilton, 4) Vettel, 5) Alonso, 6) Ricciardo, 7) Hülkenberg, 8) Button, 9) Magnussen, 10) Pérez scoring points. The non-points finishers were 11) Räikkönen, 12) Maldonado, 13) Vergne, 14) Gutierrez, 15) Bianchi, 16) Kobayashi, 17) Chilton, and 18) Ericsson, with Sutil, Kvyat, Grosjean, and Massa in the Did Not Finish category.

This leaves the drivers’ championship with Rosberg with 190 points, leading Hamilton’s 176 points by a margin of 14 points. Behind the two Mercedes past the century mark is Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo with 106 points.

In constructors, with Valtteri Bottas’ fantastic third straight podium finish, Williams currently stands in 3rd with 121 points, behind Red Bull’s 2nd place at 188 points and Mercedes’ dominant 1st place at 366 points. Williams is followed by Ferrari’s 116 points (4th place,) Force India’s 98 points, McLaren’s 96 points, Toro Rosso’s 15 points, Lotus’ 8 points, and Marussia’s 2 points. At the bottom Sauber and Caterham’s general lack of points scored has left both teams concerned for their futures, as they both should be.

Next weekend, the Formula One Circus returns to Budapest, where they will compete in this year’s instalment of the always fascinating, and often scorching hot, Hungarian Grand Prix.

F1 Midweek – Channel Crossings

Kansas City – With this year’s British Grand Prix said and done, the circus has begun its cross-Channel journey to the ancestral home of Britain’s monarchy: Germany. Where Silverstone holds a solid place in the F1 history books, the Hockenheimring’s connections to the sport are about 20 years more recent.

Formula 1 first came to Hockenheim in 1970, following a driver boycott of the ever-perilous Nürburgring. Today, the two competing German circuits alternate hosting the annual German Grand Prix. What could be said most about Germany is that this race will be focused on three drivers in particular: Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, and Nico Hülkenberg. The trio of Germans have all done quite well thus far this season, each of them earning points at multiple races. I have little doubt that Rosberg could take Germany just as Hamilton took Britain.

On the Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry, Lewis Hamilton decided to start goading at his German teammate. In an article published Monday by The Guardian, Hamilton is quoted as having said, “Nico Rosberg is not a real German.” Rosberg responded on Tuesday, according to The Guardian, “describing himself as ‘100% German.'” This entire tit-for-tat seems to be just a simple matter of team rivalry intended for the press to know about.

In the other paddocks, less bickering appears to be going on. For one thing, Caterham has changed ownership in the last week, having been sold by former owner Tony Fernandes to a Swiss and Middle Eastern consortium. Perhaps the biggest question that I have on the matter is whether or not the team will seek a different country’s license than Malaysia? Perhaps with the new ownership, come 2015 we will see Caterham joining Sauber under the Swiss flag. For now though, the new ownership will certainly have an Everest-sized uphill struggle in the attempt to score some points on the drivers’ and constructors’ leaderboards.

Caterham’s rival, Marussia on the other hand seems to be doing something right. Considering that Jules Bianchi has scored a couple of points this season, and that Max Chilton has come very close to doing so as well, the Anglo-Russian team seems to be on the verge of breaking through the lowest glass celling in the sport, that being the one between the non-points scoring teams and the middle of the field teams.

Williams likewise seems to be on the verge of good times. With Valtteri Bottas earning his second career podium this past weekend at Silverstone, and Felipe Massa equally doing quite well when he has the chance, the team from Grove in Oxfordshire could be on the edge of breaking back into the top level of the sport, challenging the Mercedes and Red Bulls. Despite the brevity of her inaugural Formula One drive, Williams test-driver Susie Wolff has shown great talent. I do hope that she gets a seat at one of the teams next season, as she could be fantastic competition. On top of that, her appearance in Free Practise 1 was cut quite short due to an engine failure.

As Formula 1 prepares to return to Germany, there will be much to watch out for. Perhaps soon we will see Williams win their first Grand Prix since Pastor Maldonado’s victory at the 2012 Spanish GP. What will happen with the Mercedes duo is yet to be seen. Equally, will Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull roar back into life? We will all find out on the 20th.

Nature has no straight lines

Kansas City – When I initially had the idea to write this article, I chose not to act upon that thought, figuring that the topic was far too vast for me to finish covering it in one sitting. However, upon sitting in my bed, just beginning my nighttime reading, I realised that the fact that this article would have remained unwritten seemed an unbearable monstrosity.

In our well-ordered world, things are more often than not set upon a grid pattern. Here in the United States, the vast majority of our cities and towns are built on grids. Many of the states borders were drawn upon a vast grid. Likewise, our view of global geography, with latitude and longitude as our most fundamental aid is founded upon a sort of grid. And yet, all of these grids, all of these straight lines that criss-cross the planet are not naturally devised instruments. They are not nature’s mirror, like the motionless water on a lake on a windless night. These grids are mirrors of our own inventiveness, the most elementary mechanism by which we seek to understand things that are far greater than ourselves.

When I observe the stars, what first strikes me is their shape. No star in Space is a square, or a rectangle. They are all spherical in some way or another. Likewise, these celestial spheres move about the Cosmos in elliptical and circular patterns, most certainly not along grids like in Pac-Man. The entirety of natural reality moves in circular motions. It is only those things that we humans have created which move on grid patterns.

So why is this? Why is it that we have chosen the square as the basis of our lifestyles rather than the circle? As silly as this question may sound, it is certainly something for us to consider: if in the earliest days of human history, we had chosen to build our cities and towns in a more circular fashion, with the streets curving and such, how different would we be today?

The bed that I am sitting on writing this on is a rectangle, as is pretty much every bed that I have ever known of. Likewise, all of the walls, doors, and windows in my house are rectangular. Looking in my room, the only things that appear to be circular in nature are 1. the glass of water on my bedside table, 2. the Chicago Blackhawks logo, and 3. the Circle of the Sun on the Celtic Cross on my wall.

It is true that designing and building things with straight lines is quite simpler to do than with curves. Perhaps that is one of the many central reasons for our preference for straight lines in organisation: that as children, we found it much easier to draw squares and rectangles than perfect circles, something which I can attest whole heartedly to. This in turn has developed into a mental reservation against modelling anything terribly important in our means of organisation upon circular designs.

In this sense, Kansas City’s streets more-or-less run on a grid pattern. All one then has to do to know how to get from A to B in the city is to know which named street is east or west of another and how far north or south one has to go to get there. Of course there are one way streets to contend with, but that’s beside the point.

This idea that straight lines are preferred has entered into our views on nature itself. We catalogue peoples, places, and things based upon their place in our ordered, straight-and-narrow view of the world. As a student of history, this comes into play in terms of looking at the course of history itself.

An argument that I have made in the past is that the modern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches are the direct sociopolitical descendants and heirs of the old Roman Empire. The evidence for this largely stems from the observation that in Europe, Africa, and the Near East, the traditionally Latin Christian (Catholic) sphere fell along the same lines as the Western Roman Empire did in 395 CE, when the Empire was split in two. Likewise, the traditionally Greek Christian (Orthodox) sphere fell along the same lines as the Eastern Roman Empire did in 395 CE. Now looking at the modern map this seems a bit odd, as North Africa and the Near East are largely Muslim, whilst Northern Europe today is mostly officially Protestant.

Another issue that I have with this argument comes from ethnicity. My family comes from Ireland, Wales, England, Flanders, Sweden, and Finland. Of those, only the Welsh, English, and Flemish ancestors would have had direct ancestors who lived under Roman rule. In terms of genetic majorities, I have far more genetic connections to Ireland, which the Romans never conquered, than I do to the rest. So, to say that I as a Catholic am a successor to the Romans of antiquity might seem a bit odd. Surely the French, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, and others have more of a claim to that than I do.

And yet, to say that such claims come merely through a direct A to B to C to D line of succession does not necessarily makes sense. There are many unique threads that make up a tapestry, and yet they all come together for a time to weave one common design. From there on after, no matter how far apart those individual threads may go, they will still bare the essence of their fellows from their days as one tapestry.

In one sense, as I have said, Rome’s inheritance is the property of the Church. In another sense, Rome’s inheritance comes to us through its laws, its philosophy, its literature, its engineering, its tactics and its divisions. I find it interesting that to this day in Continental Europe, the borders of the old Roman provinces have remained, only now as the borders of modern countries, provinces, counties, duchies, et cetera.

Rome’s influence is felt here in the United States through our legal system, and through our federal republican government, which in many ways is modelled upon the Roman Republic. In the past I have referred to the United States as Nova Roma, the New Rome. Not only have we modelled our government upon the Romans, but also we continue to repeat many of the same mistakes made by our ancient inspirators. We continue to ignore the grave problems faced by our society, blissfully drowning out the many worries that are on the horizon with more mindless entertainment.

Why worry about the fact that we as a society can actually do something to stop more mass-shootings when we could also keep up with the Kardashians? I think one of the main problems with our society is that we have this concept of working on a grid so very well engrained that now it seems impossible to get anything done by any other means.

It’s time to leave the box, and think, and work, and live as one with the Cosmos. Like what the great inventor Nikola Tesla said, “It is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.” After all, “We are all one.”

Baseball

Kansas City – Like many others here in North America, the dominant sport of my youth was baseball. As a child, I could have easily listed off the starting lineup for the Chicago Cubs, my hometown team, just as easily as I could have told you who was President at the time. Baseball dominated my summers, with the evenings often spent at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas, home of the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent Northern League, and later the American Association.

Today, when I look at baseball often what first come out of my mouth is a sigh. For me, the classic image of baseball is that period between the 1930s and 1960s when some of the greatest classic players took to the field. Even when the Cubs were doing well in 1998 and 2003, my mental image of the national pastime was in black and white, unlike basketball which has always been in colour.

In the intervening years since the Cubbies last nearly made it to the World Series, just under 11 years ago at the time of my writing this editorial, my views on the sport have changed slightly. For one thing, I find that baseball is a bit of an odd duck in the sporting world. To an extent, it appears to try and mimic the game-length of american football, while having very distinct roots in sports such as rounders and cricket, which take far longer to play in their traditional forms.

So, I say why not make the structure of baseball more like cricket? Looking at the structure of the game, each game lasts for 9 innings, unless there’s a tie. In that case you could be there all night. The longest baseball game that I’ve sat through went to the 21st inning, ending at 2.00 am, with the T-Bones losing at the end to Fargo.

Each game is a part of a series, in large part a holdover from past decades when intercity travel in North America was quite a challenge. Each series traditionally lasts for 3 games. So, why not slightly change the way that scores are measured? Instead of going per-game, why not go per-series?

For example, say the Cubs play the Nationals over 4th of July weekend in Washington. The series begins on the afternoon of Friday, 4 July, a game the Cubs win 7-2 over the Nationals. Game 2 is on the evening of Saturday, 5 July, a game which the Nationals win 13-0. Game 3, the final game of the series, takes place at noon on Sunday, 6 July. Game 3 is won by the Nationals with a score of 2-1. Therefore, under my proposed system, the Nationals would win the series 2-1, with the runs standing at 16-8. So, the score would be shown as follows: WSH 2/17 – 1/8 CHC.

The runs would only matter in regards of who wins the series if at the end of 9 innings in Game 3 both teams are tied. So, let’s say that with the Nationals vs Cubs example, at the end of the 9th inning in Game 3 the teams are tied at 1-1. The umpires would then go to the total number of runs from the series, which in this revised scenario would be:

G1: CHC 1/7 – 0/2 WSH

G2: CHC 1/0 – 1/13 WSH

G3: CHC 1/1 – 1/1 WSH =

CHC 1/8 – WSH 2/15.

The Nationals would win the series because they scored more runs over the course of the series. You will notice that in this tie-breaker scenario, Game 3 is not counted under the games won side of the score (Games won / Runs.) This is because neither team technically won Game 3, leaving it uncounted in the overall score.

What would this do for the overall flow of the game? For one thing, it would allow for end-of-series games to end quicker, allowing for the teams to be on the road faster if needs be, while also ensuring for fans with children that their Sunday afternoon baseball wouldn’t keep their sons or daughters out too late on a school night. At the same time, it would give more meaning to the series, which I feel has lost quite a bit of meaning over the years. It could also give more impetus to batters to work on scoring more runs earlier in the series, as that would better insure their team from losing on runs at the series’ end.

On top of that, this system could simplify league standings, eliminating the need for having teams be 1/2 a game back from another team. In this model, the teams’ standings would be shown based upon their overall series performance. Ties on the series record side would be resolved with the number of runs scored. If we use the current Cubs record using the official rules of baseball, they stand as follows:

Team     W     L     PCT     L10     STRK

CHC     38    48   .442       6-4       L2

Now, if we use the same system for this series-based record, the Cubs record stands as:

Team     W     L     PCT     L10     STRK

CHC     12    16   .430       5-5       L1

You will notice that I do not include the “games behind” category in the above charts. If this series method were to be implemented it would include a “series behind” category. I simply did not have time to translate the seasons of all of the teams in the National League Central from the current game based system to my series based system.

In general, this series based system is more of a mild Monday afternoon brain teaser, and what I’d call an interesting exercise to consider. Whether any of the world’s baseball leagues will ever implement such a system is yet to be determined, however I will say that it would add another layer of excitement to the national pastime.

7 July 2014 – Bookshops

A treasure trove of knowledge

can be found within these doors

where for sale sit many volumes

which speak volumes of truth.

How then can one seek

to redeem such wisdom

in a manner unredeemable

to the wise amongst us?

How is it that some

can bypass

these great vaults of beauty

deeming them unworthy

of any further glance?

Bookshops

are the repository of reason

and society’s release valve

from the cares and concerns

of our most stressful world.

British Grand Prix – Hamilton wins at home

Silverstone – To begin, the British Grand Prix is one of my all-time favourite races on the calendar. So it was with great pleasure that I write about today’s nail-biter of a race. After a surprising Q3 result on Saturday, the race began with Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg at pole, with four-time defending world champion Sebastian Vettel next to him starting at second.

The second row consisted of McLaren’s British driver Jenson Button and Force India’s German Nico Hülkenberg, followed by Button’s rookie Danish teammate Kevin Magnussen and the race favourite Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on the third row starting in fifth and sixth.

The fourth row was taken by Force India’s Mexican driver Sergio Pérez and Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. In ninth and tenth position they were followed by Russian Daniil Kvyat and Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso.

Those who were eliminated in Q2 included Frenchmen Romain Grosjean of Lotus (11), and Jules Bianchi of Marussia (12). Bianchi’s Marussia teammate, Briton Max Chilton and Mexican Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber qualified 13th and 14th. However, Chilton received a 5-spot grid penalty for a gearbox change, resulting in his starting from 18th.

Q1 saw the elimination of a number of the unusual suspects, namely the two Ferraris of Spaniard Fernando Alonso (17) and Finn Kimi Räikkönen (19), along with the two Williams of Finn Valtteri Bottas (15) and Brazilian Felipe Massa (16). Alongside these shockers, Sauber’s Adrian Sutil qualified in 15th. The back of the grid was made up of the two Caterhams of Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi (22) and the Swede Marcus Ericsson (21) along with Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado (20) of Venezuela, whose qualification time was disallowed following his running out of fuel on the circuit at the end of Q2.

The race itself began with quite a bang, with Vettel’s Red Bull quickly being outrun by the two McLarens along with Hamilton’s Mercedes. Things came to a standstill when Räikkönen lost control of his car on the Wellington straight, “At Turn 5, I went off the track and while trying to get back on, I must have hit a kerb.” Räikkönen said in a press-release on his Facebook page. Hitting the barriers at 150 mph, Räikkönen hit Massa who was also forced to retire due to damage to the left rear of his car. Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi was quite lucky in avoiding the wreckage, swerving far to the left around Räikkönen into the grass before returning to the track.

The next hour was red flagged, leaving the top three at the race’s recommencement as Rosberg, Button, Magnussen. At the time that the red flag was raised, Chilton decided to reenter the pits in order to have work done on his car. Doing so during a red flag stoppage was an infringement upon the sporting regulations, resulting in his needing to serve a drive-through penalty. It really was too bad for Chilton, who had up to that point been running in 10th.

With the race restarted, Rosberg quickly left the McLarens in the dust. Those two drivers were steadily overtaken over the next few laps by Rosberg’s British teammate Lewis Hamilton, who began his long fight for first.

Another driver to take advantage of the McLarens’ situation was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who quickly passed by Nico Hülkenberg of Force India and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. Also moving up the field was the surviving Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

On Lap 11, Esteban Gutierrez attempted a pass on Pastor Maldonado, which went spectacularly wrong for the latter’s Lotus. Gutierrez’s Sauber ended up hoisting the Lotus up into the air, allowing for its unintended wings to spread in flight. The collision forced the Sauber to slide off into the gravel too damaged to continue, whilst the Lotus did go on in the race.

Nico Rosberg pitted at Lap 19, having a fantastic 2.7 second pit stop. Soon thereafter, once back out on the track, the German began to report gear box troubles. His British teammate, Lewis Hamilton, continued on the track for another 5 laps, pitting at Lap 24. Hamilton had a far worse pit stop, which lasted for 4.1 seconds, a full 1.5 seconds longer than Rosberg. This was largely due to the fickleness of the rear left tyre in it’s installation onto the car. Nonetheless, Hamilton rejoined the race in second, just behind the gearbox-maligned German.

By Lap 29, Lewis Hamilton took the lead from Nico Rosberg, who began to slow down due to that worrisome gear box, which resulted in the German’s retirement at Lap 30. Hamilton kept the lead of the race from there on out, charging on his way to becoming one of a select number of British drivers to have two wins at Silverstone.

By Lap 31, Hamilton’s lead was already by 24 seconds over the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, who after a pit stop at Lap 32 led the rest of the field to the chequered flag.

Perhaps the most dramatic duel of the latter stages of the race was the one between Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. With the British fanbase cheering on the Spaniard, the fight lasted for ten laps from 38-48, with Vettel eventually forcing his way past Alonso, much to both drivers’ dislike as their radio messages to their respective pit walls can tell.

The final fight of the race was between McLaren’s British driver Jenson Button and Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo. In a fashion rather dissimilar to the most recent Ashes, the Briton actually had a shot at catching the Australian, with Button finishing a mere 0.8 seconds behind Ricciardo.

The results from this year’s British Grand Prix leave the championship wide open, as Rosberg’s lead now narrows to a mere 4 points (165 to Hamilton’s 161.)

2 July 2014 – 341

What is in a number?

A set of characters meant on defining abstraction?

What is in a set of numbers

That when brought together can mean

any number of bigger numbers.

Take 341 for example:

It is a number in the third positive century,

It is a set of numbers which combine 3, 4, and 1.

Yet, 3, 4, and 1 can also come out to mean 8

Or perhaps even 12.

Yet again they could mean -2.

All the same they could also mean 0.75

but that’s dividing meanings far to far.

So, what is the purpose of the number 341?

This past weekend it was important to me

In that that very number was on my shirt

as I walked in a 5K.

All the same, for others that number could mean

far less than the sentence

“My poppycock is indefatigable

unless when subjected

to contrafibularitous codswallop.”

So, what’s the purpose of 341,

a mathematician could tell you

but that would involve giving up

more time from your life,

so don’t risk the boredom

and make up a meaning for yourself.

 

29 June – 5 July: “Children in the Cat Bed”

Children in the Cat Bed

The teacher called her class to attention, as the kindergarteners looked up in awe at her. “Good morning, children!” she called out to them.

“Good morning, Miss Williams” they called back.

“Today, children, we are going to talk about roommates. Those of you with brothers and sisters no doubt will have roommates at some point or another.” Some in the class nodded in agreement. “So tell me, who here has a roommate?”

“I do!” shouted one child, a little brown-haired girl.

“Alright, Mary. Who is your roommate?”

“My brother!”

“Your brother and you share a room?”

“Yep! And one other too!”

“O, and who is that?”

“Our cat!”

The teacher laughed for a minute. “So, Mary, you and your brother Jack share a room?”

“Yes, that’s right. We sleep with our cat,” Mary said in a matter-of-fact manner.

“And what is the cat’s name?” the teacher asked, sitting on the edge of her desk.

“Her name is Kitty,” replied Mary to the giggles of her classmates.

“What a good name for a cat,” the teacher said. “So, you, Jack, and Kitty all share a bed. I do hope it is a big bed,” Miss Williams said, quieting the class.

Mary shook her head, “No, it’s the cat’s bed.”

Miss Williams stopped for a minute, puzzled at what she had just heard. “You, you sleep in the cat’s bed?”

“Yes, we say it’s the cat’s bed because the cat was there first,” Mary explained.

“Ah, well that’s nice of you. But it is a regular sized person’s bed,” Miss Williams asked for clarification.

“No, it’s the cat’s bed. It is small, round, and a perfect fit for Kitty,” Mary declared.

Miss Williams became troubled by this, “So, you don’t have your own bed in the house?”

“Not a people-sized bed, we have a cat bed!” Mary shouted.

“There is no need to shout, Mary,” Miss Williams declared.

“Sorry, Miss Williams,” Mary said, her face drooping a bit.

“No matter. I just hope that you and Jack aren’t allergic to cats,” Miss Williams said, her confusion showing.

“O, we are, but we wash our hands and faces every morning when we wake up,” Mary said.

“I see,” Miss Williams replied, wanting to move the conversation on to something else, “Well, children that was fun. Now then, let’s get on with some of your math.”

The children let out a wail en masse as Miss Williams began to draw some numbers onto their chalkboard.

After school was finished for the day, Mary returned home to find her little brother Jack waiting with her parents and grandparents. They had a nice dinner together, at which Mary and Jack entertained the adults with their usual antics. However, when it was just past eight o’clock, with the children and cat fast asleep in their bed upstairs, a knock rang out on the door.

“Who could that be?” Mother asked, as the adults sat about the front room watching the news. The knock rang out again. “I’ll go and see,” she said, standing and going to the front door.

Mother opened the door, peering outside into the winter night. There in front of her stood a younger woman. “Hello, are you Mrs Ingelbot?”asked the young woman.

“Yes, I am. Who are you?” Mrs Ingelbot replied.

“I’m Miss Williams, from Mary’s school. May I come in a minute?”

“O, certainly, Miss Williams, do come inside! It is quite cold out there tonight,” Mrs Ingelbot exclaimed.

“Yes, it is rather,” Miss Williams said, shivering as she crossed the threshold.

Mrs Ingelbot led Miss Williams into the front room, “Allow me to introduce my husband, John Ingelbot, my father-in-law Marmaduke Ingelobt, and my mother-in-law Leopoldiniana Ingelbot.”

“A pleasure to meet you all,” Miss Williams said with a smile.

“How can we help you, Miss Williams,” John asked.

“Well, today we were talking about roommates in class, and Mary said that she and your son Jack sleep in a cat bed. I just wanted to make certain that she wasn’t just telling a story.”

“Heavens no! They’re roommates!” Marmaduke cried, laughing at the thought of the children’s living situation as just a story.

“So, they do sleep in a cat bed?” Miss Williams said.

“Yes, they prefer it,” Leopoldiniana replied, a grin on her face.

“I have to see for myself,” Miss Williams replied, still not accepting what she was hearing.

“Well, go right ahead, they’re just up the stairs,” Mrs Ingelbot said, pointing towards the stairway.

Miss Williams looked up into the dark blackness of the upper floor of that house. Some sort of fear crept into her mind, making her unwilling to go up those stairs to see just how her student slept. On the other hand, her curiosity made it unthinkable to do anything other than mount the steps, one at a time. The creaking caught her off guard, causing her to sweat. At the third step from the bottom a loud creak sounded from the wood under her heels.

“Careful now, you mustn’t wake the kiddies!” called Marmaduke.

Miss Williams took that advice to heart, and made her way up the steps. Upon reaching the top she crossed the carpeted floor, following the sound of little breaths, in and out, in and out, in and out on the far side of the room. As she walked further from the light of the ground floor that shone up the stairway, she felt a sharp pain in her head, as thwack! it smacked into a rafter that held the roof of the house up. Stopping for a minute, Miss Williams rubbed her forehead, bending down low to avoid any other rafters. Finally, she saw the cat bed, sitting on a cabinet under a window in the celling.

Miss Williams approached the bed, ever so careful not to wake the children, or the cat. She at long last made it to where she could properly see the bed and its occupants, only to do a double take. “Where are the children?!” she thought, fear stricken as she beheld before her a cat bed with three small kittens fast asleep within.

She ran silently back out of the upper floor, and back down the stairs. Looking into the front room, she beheld two lions standing where John, and Marmaduke had just been with a lioness on the sofa where Leopoldinina had once sat. Only Mrs Ingelbot appeared to her in human form. She laughed as Miss Williams fled from that house, vowing to never step foot on that street again.

1 July 2014 – We are free

There is something special

about human nature.

It is an all absorbing granter

of the graces which we hold dear.

It is what sets us apart

in our unity as a species.

It is what gives us the hope

that tomorrow will be better than today.

And no matter what one person may say

to limit the freedom of anyone

of our brothers and sisters

those limitations are limited

compared to the power of nature.

No matter what may be said or done

I am free.

Hatred, fear, violence, wrath

these are all tools used to achieve goals.

But compared to compassion, kindness, sincerity

those tools are like useless rusty bits of metal.

No matter what may happen

to me, to you, to our friends

we are all free.

The final question is:

Are we brave enough to embrace that freedom?