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5 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

I remember there was this Kyoto thing back in the 90s informing us that we need to get shit done. We could have transitioned away from fossil fuels by now.

But the gas industry has done a great job at undermining the stability of our countries that is definitely true.

I don't know about Austria, but you definitely  don't get Germany over the Winter on wind and photovoltaic. Both fail completely for prolonged periods (a day or longer) several times a year ("Dunkelflaute"). The Powers That Be, led by Merkel, decided that gas was to be the backup. Alternatives would have been coal and nuclear, both of which the Greens (whose votes in the Bundesrat have been necessary for any serious piece of legislation for decades now) heavily opposed.

2 hours ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

Three civilians died while Ukraine severely crippled Putin's Crimean bridge and they called it a terrorist attack. I guess Russia views the indiscriminate bombing of civilians and non-military targets in Ukrainian cities as "fair" retaliation. 

It's Putin's way of throwing a tantrum. Shooting expensive missiles that are hard to replace (if they can do it at all under the sanctions) at targets without military value.

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

what is this bullshit

That's one of the downsides of the safety car. It's supposed to slow down the pack. But drivers will pit, then push to catch up again. Not ideal for safety.

Max Verstappen has cinched his second title as the drivers were awarded full points despite the short race distance.

4 hours ago, Maithanet said:

There was a vote in 1991 on joining Ukraine or remaining part of Russia, and every part of Ukraine voted to join.  Crimea was only like 52 percent, but that's still more than Brexit got, and that was the lowest vote anywhere.  Donbas was like 70 percent, and most of the rest was way higher.

It wasn't about "leaving Russia." These territories had been part of Ukraine all along. It was about independence from the Soviet Union, of which Russia pretends to be the successor, but isn't.

1 hour ago, Relic said:

So, might be an unanswerable question but...how does this end? Assuming Ukraine makes zero concessions and Russia refuses to back down how can this be realistically de-escalated before Putin uses a tactical nuke?

What is that supposed to accomplish? It isn't as if the Ukrainians concentrate 10,000 troops in one place.  

Apparently, Lyman is now encircled. Looking at the figures published by Ukraine, the number of dead Russians increases by 400-500 per day. That's a 9/11 every week. I wonder how much longer Russia can sustain that, mobilisation or not.

1 hour ago, Which Tyler said:

So that's $1.40.5 per litre
Anyone else rather jealous of that price tag?

 

For context, before the pound crashed over the weekend, it was about £1.75 per litre here (having just fallen from about £1.90) - so about $2.00 falling from $2.20; or about $2.50 in the heady days of Boris Johnson's strong, stable and sensible leadership. ($2/l <=> $9/g)

I think you have used the wrong gallons. That's why we have the metric system. Everybody had their own versions of the old units. With 1 gallon =3.785 litres, it's $1.69 /l. And probably not nearly as heavily taxed, if at all. 

7 minutes ago, Gorn said:

I dunno, I'm still doubtful that it was the Russians, it doesn't make sense. The damage to the pipelines is likely permanent, and they could accomplish the same effect simply by cutting the flow at their end with a valve.

Which is what they did to Nordstream 1 weeks ago. They kept Nordstream 2 pressurized, telling the German government "You can have your gas, just authorize Nordsteam 2." That bait is gone now.

1 hour ago, Padraig said:

Serbia can't accept the idea of border change by referendum.  So that's the least surprising country.

And Kazakhstan knows it's next on Putin's list of "fake countries."

Cars lose a lot of value over the first three years, so getting a new one that often would cost you a lot. Which raises the question if the tax of 12 % per year isn't a bit low. There's also the issue of social security. The employer saves a lot on that by not paying a higher salary. The whole thing is of course a big marketing machine for the carmakers. The German premium brands make more than half of their domestic sales this way.

8 hours ago, Mudguard said:

Yeah, Bezos has enough money to keep Blue Origin going for decades.  I'm sure they'll eventually get the New Glenn operational.  Maybe in a couple years or so.

They'd better be a bit faster. ULA relies on those rocket engines for their Vulcan.

Quote

“It’s a bonny thing,” said he. “Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil’s pet baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed.

Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"

15 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Of course. The wealth belongs to the Crown, not to the person wearing it, therefore it is never inherited since the Crown is eternal. Charles just gets to decide what to do with it.

No. This is about the late Queen's personal wealth. You could argue that she held it for the Windsor clan, but definitely not the Crown.

7 hours ago, williamjm said:

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 listened to an interview with Beat Zehnder recently, and he is convinced that BMW Sauber was on track to win a championship when BMW pulled the plug. He blames it on change of leadership. The new CEO didn't like motor racing. I heard a similar story about Toyota. Apparently the car they built for 2010 was a huge improvement over their 2009 car. I guess we'll never know how good it really was, but we do know that Honda pulled the plug just when they finally had a good car, as Brawn's success shows. (Of course it's possible that they had a good car before and the engine sucked.)

26 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

Ignorant me surprised to learn BMW Sauber was once a thing, now Alfa Romeo Sauber too breaking up with Audi's (Volkswagen) announced entry.

BMW actually owned Sauber, and when they pulled the plug the team would have been shut down had Peter Sauber not bought it back. Big car makers and Formula 1 generally hasn't been a good fit so far, despite the recent Mercedes success. Renault keeps entering Formula 1 only to pull out a few years later, dito Honda. Peugeot, Toyota, Ford (Jaguar), BMW - there's quite a list of unsuccessful Formula 1 entries.

As for Sauber, they also have some history with Mercedes and Red Bull.

Apparently the Porsche-Red Bull deal is dead. Marko has stated in a TV interview that Porsche won't become a Red Bull shareholder. That probably means Porsche won't enter Formula 1.

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I'd like to see a race without DRS just once. 

We had that in the late 90s and early 2000s. Casual watchers were complaining about the lack of overtaking but if you were actually watching the championship rather than individual races, there was a lot more suspense. Qualifying speed and strategy were everything and a single messed-up pit stop could decide not just the race but the entire championship. DRS was a workaround for the dirty air problem, which the latest rule changes have supposedly fixed. With the current cars, we'd probably see more interesting races without DRS, especially if they brought back refueling and use of a single type of tyre.

The CRB has ruled in favour of McLaren in the Oscar Piastri case.

Another one falls out of a window in Russia:

https://www.politico.eu/article/chairman-of-russian-oil-producer-lukoil-dies-after-reportedly-falling-out-of-window/

48 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Our German relatives also make heavy use of it. They seemed to be visiting somewhere almost every other day.

And that's the downside. It doesn't move traffic from the road to the railway. It creates extra traffic. People do railway trips for fun on the cheap. The railway (and the commuters using it) have to deal with the extra load.

The launch has been scrubbed for today. Next opportunity is 2 September. If the problem has been sorted out by then.

Well, the grid penalties and tyre degradation certainly shook things up a bit. Red Bull's top speed advantage was brutal. Some interesting radio conversation, like Lando Norris being told "We are still on Plan G." Well, all is going to plan, then.  Leclerc lost a position in an attempt at the fastest lap. Solid performance from Alpine. Aston Martin wasn't so bad either. Disappointing result for McLaren.

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

We had 12 teams as recently as 2012 and 11 as recently as 2014. Having just 10 teams has been a fairly unusual and fairly recent phenomenon.

That was before Liberty Media took over. The new Concorde Agreement has effectively shut the door for new teams.

https://f1i.com/news/383956-formula-1-sets-200m-entry-fee-for-new-teams.html

ETA: Andretti has tried to get into F1 but the teams haven't exactly rolled out a red carpet:

https://the-race.com/formula-1/wolff-puts-cost-of-new-f1-team-at-1bn-amid-andretti-interest/

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's a shame we're not getting a full new team entry from anyone, although Andretti is apparently an outside shout for 2024 or 2025 (though there's also a chance he buys Haas). Having 22 or 24 drivers on the grid would be a lot better for getting fresh talent into the mix.

It would also be more teams to share the TV revenue with, which the existing teams don't like.

On 8/26/2022 at 12:36 PM, Werthead said:

Audi will take over Sauber, or at least buy a controlling interest, and enter as a manufacturer team. That's quite a formidable threat to the existing teams, although I assume it'll take them a few years to get up to speed.

Porsche are likely to enter as an engine supplier, starting with Red Bull, although apparently some at Red Bull Powertrains and Honda are keen to continue their alliance, and Honda may consider carrying on as an engine supplier/advisor in some other fashion (they don't want to lose their foot in the door in F1 and then have to start from scratch a few years later again if they decide to come back).

Porsche is expected to buy a 50 percent share in Red Bull, who are developing their own engine for 2026. Not sure that Porsche can pose as an engine supplier in that setup. Maybe Red Bull Powertrains will be renamed, but it would be a bit lame if there wasn't some genuine input by Porsche, like with Mercedes in the Ilmor days.