williamjm

Taking the first 7 wickets in an innings is definitely quite a debut. The ball that bamboozled Stokes was particularly good.

Wales were fifth in this year's six nations so should swap with Scotland in that set-up. I don't think there would be a lot of enthusiasm for a top division lacking Wales. Personally, I wouldn't mind a Six Nations with promotion/relegation, it would make more matches important, but it doesn't look likely to happen.

Artemis was the name of the lunar city where the protagonist lives in the book.

I had missed seeing the trailer before, but I agree it looks good. It was always going to be a tricky book to adapt, but what we see there does make me hopeful. Also good to see James McAvoy back again after Covid meant the Asriel-centric episode was dropped from season 2.

That's twice in two weeks that New Zealand have had a big lead then let the other team catch up, even if last week they did eventually wake up again after Scotland had taken the lead. The Scotland/Argentina match earlier was chaotic with lots of cards being shown and it degenerating into a mass brawl at one stage. Argentina somehow managed to score a try with 12 players on the field against 15 but eventually Scotland managed to take advantage of the numerical advantage provided by the red card to score 8 tries. I do wonder about Gregor Townsend's thoughts when he sees the player he originally left out of the autumn squad being seemingly at the centre of every Scottish attack.

It was a well-deserved first victory for George Russell, he seemed to do everything right in both the sprint and the main race. I think it's likely to be the first of many. I think it's fair to say Perez isn't too happy about what Verstappen did, and Verstappen's refusal to talk about it is definitely odd.

Scotland probably feeling today that they aren't going to get many better opportunities for a first win over the All Blacks after being 9 points up with half an hour to go. Despite the loss it was still a better performance than so far this Autumn, hopefully Russell and Townsend will be able to get on for a while now that he's been restored to the squad. It's also a bit of a blast from the past to have Richie Gray back starting for Scotland again.

I missed today's qualifying session so was a bit surprised to read a preview of tomorrow's sprint race starting off by wondering whether Kevin Magnussen can convert his first pole position. It sounds like it was more due to good strategic timing rather than outright pace but still one of Haas's best moments in F1.

I am considering Eastercon next year, it has been a few years.

That's still fewer changes of name than what is now Alpine.

It looks like it might turn into a pedestrian race after Sainz's early exit but it definitely livened up at the race went on. I'm impressed Alonso was able to keep going and even score some points after that accident. Verstappen clearly the fastest driver on the day (although perhaps not one of his more dominant races), but the pit stop debacle did give him a lot of work to do. It's a pity Vettel also had pit stop problems when he had been driving really well. Hamilton came the closest to a victory he has managed this year but couldn't quite keep up the pace in the last few laps.

The Sarantine Mosaic is a duology, the only other series he's done. Ysabel also has a strong connection to the Fionavar books. Other than that the order of reading isn't too important in terms of plot. I think Lions is a good suggestions for the next book, although the Sarantine Mosaic and A Song for Arbonne could be other good alternatives.

Alex Albon apparently had to be taken into intensive care on Saturday, which sounds alarming although it seems he's making a good recovery now. Hopefully we'll see him back before too long.

I don't think there was much Leclerc could do about Verstappen today. I think to beat them they would either have needed a lot of luck or for Verstappen/Red Bull to make a mistake. I agree DeVries looked good for his first race, particularly given the extremely short notice that he was going to be driving.

Sauber's only win (and 1-2) came during the BMW ownership when Kubica won in Canada with Heidfeld second, Kubica would briefly lead the world championship after that. I think that was definitely the peak of Sauber's long F1 history.

I think in the various fiction categories the winner was either what I had put first or (in most cases) second. Out of the things I've read/seen the results all seem reasonable to me. The full details are here: https://chicon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-Hugo-Award-Details-Final.pdf I see that Martha Wells who had the most nominations for the latest Murderbot story declined the best novella nomination. Elder Race was the replacement on the ballot and ended up finishing second.

I had not known it was a sequel, but now that you've said it, it does make sense since our protagonist bot does make some references back to previous events.

I've filled out the voting form now. I went for: Novel : The Galaxy and the Ground Within, A Desolation Called Peace, A Master of Djinn, Light from Uncommon Stars, She Who Became the Sun. The formatting in the voters packet for Project Hail Mary with the huge watermark was annoying so I didn't read it, although I'll probably get round to it in physical form at some point. Overall probably not the strongest year for the novel category, none of them are bad but they often had some significant weaknesses. Novella: Elder Race, A Psalm for the Well-Built, A Spindle Shattered, The Past is Red, Across the Green Grass Fields, Fireheart Tiger. I thought this was perhaps the strongest of the fiction categories. Novelette: Bots of the Lost Arc, Unseelie Brothers Ltd., That Story Isn't The Story, L'Esprit de L'Escalier, Colors of the Immortal Palette, O2 Arena Short Story: Mr. Death, Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather, Unknown Number, The Sin of America, Tangles, Proof by Induction.

I did like the bit where they showed the podium trio chatting and watching replays before the ceremony and I think it was Hamilton saying in disbelief, "was [Le Clerc] on hard tyres there?", and Verstappen and Russel laughing about it.

It doesn't sound like anything is likely to change for this trip if it's already all planned, but perhaps you can suggest that if a similar opportunity comes up in future then you would be interested in going and feel you could make a good contribution representing your team? I don't think it is petty to think it would have made more sense from a business perspective for you (or someone else from your team) to go

I also wouldn't be too surprised by a sequel, although I haven't hear anything about one. Meanwhile, I see Tchaikovsky has found time to write yet another novel, called City of Lost Chances, coming out in December which will be at least the third this year. This is the blurb:

At the start of the season Mick did seem to be outpace by Magnussen but it's been much more competitive in recent races. It was a good race, with Verstappen leading early on I wondered if he might just stay out front as he did in the sprint race but both Le Clerc and Sainz seemed able to overtake him without too much difficulty, he must have gotten a bit tired of the sight of the Ferraris passing him. It's a pity that Sainz's engine blew up just as he was about to pass Verstappen again, just when his season felt like it was really starting to come together.

Youtube was recommending me this footage of Spa in 1966 (according to the description filmed for the Grand Prix film). It is like a different world in terms of safety with telegraph poles at the side of the road and very occasionally a straw bale and spectators wandering onto the track during the race.

That is a horrible looking accident. In the commentary I think it was Mark Webber who made the point that the impact wasn't really that big by F1 standards so the important thing was the car remaining intact and the driver's head being protected. Webber is something of an expert when it comes to flipping racing cars. And the Halo was brought in partly because of Bianchi's accident.

The last thread is over 20 pages so time for a new one. That was a bit of a crazy race. I don't think I've seen anything like Zhou's accident on the first start with the car jumping over the barrier, it must have been an alarming moment for the spectators in the stand beyond. It's a relief that nobody was hurt, Zhou might be very grateful for the halo and even though it probably wasn't as high speed a crash as (for example) Verstappen last year it's always a bit worrying when the impacts are at unexpected angles. The second attempt at the race was also very eventful. Sainz had a weird day, showing good pace at times but making what could have been a crucial mistake to let Max past and then having the humiliation of having to let his team-mate through but he still came out on top. Definitely a bit of luck there, with Verstappen's two passes being negated by first the red flag then his technical issues and Ferrari's questionable strategy leaving Le Clerc on the slower tyres after the safety car. The battle for the podium positions in the last few laps was very entertaining with all the switches of position. I think this is also the first time this year Mercedes have really looked like challenging for a victory, although ultimately Hamilton couldn't quite live with the pace of Perez's Red Bull.