February 27, 2005
2005 Chilly Hilly
27 February 2005
Seattle - I did the 2005 edition of Cascade Bicycle Club's Chilly Hilly. 2675 vertical feet in 34 miles (I took a brief detour to the Blackbird Bakery in Winslow), 2 hours 34 minutes, max speed of 44.30 mph.
I managed to snap some photos with my camera phone. Here are a few (you can see the rest at my Flickr Photostream). Captions are beneath the photos.
Waiting for the ferry to show up... It was 20 minutes late because of fog.
Clumping onto the ferry once it showed up.
Waiting for the Ferry to Seattle
Unloading in Seattle
Posted by caropepe at 06:13 PM
February 19, 2005
Why NASCAR is Dead
21 February 2005
Seattle - With Jeff Gordon's recent win at the Daytona 500, I began wondering about the future of the sport. Although there was nothing remarkable about this race, after much thought, I came to this conclusion: NASCAR is dead.
Maybe it's because there was nothing remarkable about this race that I started thinking this way. Once started though, ideas began floating around about the sport as a whole, and it soon became obvious that, despite the TV ratings second only to the NFL and a geographical fan base spreading across the world, NASCAR has jumped the shark.
I didn't always feel this way. My formal history as a fan goes back over 15 years, to when I had my first real job, and my own TV. In the early 90's I would watch Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt battle it out on grainy television broadcasts, complete with clumsy graphics.
During this time I was a complete auto sports fan. I liked racing, no matter the genre. I subscribed to Racer Magazine, and ordered brochures from Skip Barber and Bob Bondurant, waiting for the day I could afford to attend. NASCAR was no better, no bigger, and only slightly different that the other styles of racing I enjoyed.
During the early to mid-1990's I attended the CART race at Laguna Seca, the Atlanta 500 NASCAR race (before they reversed the track), CART and IROC races at Michigan International Speedway, and the inagural Houston CART road race. I also got covered in dust at the Battleground Speedway outside of Houston (Thunder-Bombers, anyone?), and watched the power lines over the start-finish line at historic Selingsrove Speedway whipped into a frenzy as the winged-sprint cars blew past (oftentimes with the front wheels off the ground).
I cashed in my jar of quarters and attended a one-day "get acquanted" session taught by the Team Texas Driving School and held at the old Texas World Speedway in College Station, TX. 150 mph on a 2 1/2 mile oval really gets your attention -- but that's a story for another day.
So, what's wrong with the 2005 version of NASCAR?
Too Many Races
36 races (plus two "all star" races) a year is too many. You hear the drivers talk about it all the time. In a recent Sports Illustrated survey, 37% of current drivers responded that the one thing they would change if they were NASCAR czar for a day is to make the schedule shorter. Rusty Wallace cites it as one of the primary reasons for his retirement.
Let's forget about the drivers for a second, though. Let's talk about us fans. I recently signed up for a digital video recorder (DVR) from my cable company. And, although I'm a gadget freak, one of my primary reasons for getting the DVR is to record races. But even with the help of technology, there is no way that I have 114 hours of my life during the season (38 races, each about three hours long) to devote exclusively to NASCAR.
Technology is Ignored
Even the most basic of passenger cars today boasts technology unheard of even just a few years ago. Things like overhead cams, electronic fuel injection, active suspension, and active drivetrain components (including differential) can all be found in the dealer's showroom, so you think they'd be standard in NASCAR. You would be wrong.
While manufacturers such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge all have the technology to do these things (and much more -- telemetry anyone?), NASCAR does not allow them.
Rather, you get fuel mixed into the intake air via a four barrel carburetor, it's volume constricted by a restrictor plate, sucked through an intake valve controled by pushrods.
Not only does this ignore what's going on in the real word, in some cases it requires a manufacturer to build a product in order to compete in NASCAR that they would never dare try to market to the general public.
Too Few Track Owners
In short - Decisions Based on Profit & Business (not the races)
New tracks....markets.
Too few track owners...
The only thing appealing is if I have an opportunity to get behind the scenes and watch in a way that the normal fan does not. This means reading various blogs or watching the race via NASCAR-in Car...
Posted by caropepe at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
ARMOR GEDDON
12 February 2005
Seattle - Neil Prakash, a Tank Platoon Leader in Fallujah who can write (and write well) has a blog giving some insight to whats going on in Iraq.
Here's a sample:
"It was midnight. We had followed in the dust trails of Avenger Company. Behind my armored platoon, the scout humvees bumped and bounced behind me. Man I love tracks. So smooth. I was on Phase Line Mike, which was the eastern most north-south road in Fallujah. Open desert was on my left. On my right, just meters from my tank were two story houses. Even if the Marines hadn't cut the power to Fallujah, there still wouldn't be electricity in this city. Every power line was lying on the ground or hanging by one end. The artillery strikes and the high profile Bradleys made sure that the wires came down. I looked at the black houses. Everything had a video game feel in the PVS-14s. Besides the fact that everything was green in night vision, the image had a weird magnification to it. It was not unlike looking through pond water and having the image slightly refracted. The dark green houses looked back at me with black windows. Nothing stirred. Even SGT P wasn't picking up anything in the thermal sights of the tank."
These blogs aren't exactly encouraged by the current administration. You can read more at: http://avengerredsix.blogspot.com.
Posted by caropepe at 10:32 PM
February 08, 2005
Are the Great Lakes Being Drained?
8 February 2005
Seattle - A short time ago my good friend Eugene forwarded me an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal that reports "a conservation group" has released a study claiming a hole has been punched in the Great Lakes, and is responsible for "draining" Lake Michigan.
The Georgian Bay Association commissioned a study (.pdf - careful, it's big!) and released a press release claiming a 1962 dredging project in the St. Clair River effectively pulled the plug on the Great Lakes.
After a little poking around I found the US Army Corps of Engineers' take on this same question in a document from 2000 titled, A Geologic Perpective on Lake Michigan Water Levels. As you might expect, the Corps sees no problem with the current levels (as of 2000) and chalks up the low levels seen recently to normal fluctuations.
Additionally, Bucky Smith of St. Joseph, MI reports in saying, since water levels are up slightly, "the Army Corps of Engineers may not have to dredge as much."
Posted by caropepe at 01:44 PM
February 06, 2005
Fun With Images: Art or Not?
6 February 2005
Seattle - I'm playing around with different online image generators. These nifty applications allow you to enter some text, and spit out the results.
The Church Sign Generator provides hours of silly fun:
...While the TypoGenerator is little more serious:
Eoban gets all metaphysical in his article Computer Generated Art - Is it Art?. The Slashdot crowd also chimes in.
Posted by caropepe at 11:57 AM
February 05, 2005
Web Site Redesign
4 February 2005
Seattle - After a lot of tweaking I think I'm finally getting a look for this web site that I like. In the process I'm learning a great deal about the power of Movable Type, the software that powers most aspects of this site. I have also upgraded to the latest version of MT.
The look that I'm going with takes advantage of the blogging capabilites that MT affords. The center section of the page is now going to be used to hold postings and articles.
I made sure not to lose the links that used to be in the main body. You can find all of those links (plus a few more) over there on the right side of the page.
Let me know what you think by posting a comment, or dropping me an email joe@caropepe.com.
Posted by caropepe at 02:38 PM