nudge

Norwegian are now suing Boeing and seek compensation as they say they “should not have any financial burden for a brand new aircraft that will not to be used". Understandably so, considering that they are already running losses either way and as a low fare carrier they surely can't afford this. The families of the victims of the previous Indonesian crash are also suing Boeing as they apparently knew about the glitch in the plane's anti-stalling system but did not reveal it to pilots/carriers before the accident.

It's true that Monaco race often turns into a procession but one of the main reasons why I love it is the fact that it shifts the focus extremely to the pure skills of the driver, particularly to the ability to drive at the limit with extreme precision and leaves zero margin for errors. The driving has to be very accurate and consistent, the track has a lot of elevation changes and corners and close walls etc. that makes it so unforgiving. Oh and the setting of course is absolutely beautiful.

I still love Monaco.

Boeing 737 Max 8 has been grounded and banned from entering the airspace pretty much everywhere except the US. Two major accidents with massive loss of human life within just a few months, both under very similar circumstances, and numerous reports from other pilots and aviation experts about issues with the anti-stalling software and especially the new complex (and apparently fundamentally broken) MCAS system that the pilots weren't even taught how to operate properly apparently Boeing still refuses to acknowledge that there's a defect, claims it's a "safe airplane" and promises to release a software update some time in April; while Boeing's CEO has personally asked Trump not to ground the 737 Max in the US. I just recently looked for a flight to Europe and was tempted by a relatively cheap one offered by Norwegian; decided against it because of the low price (too good to be true) and the fact that it uses those 737 Max airplanes. Safe to say, after current events and their response to it I will not fly any Boeing plane in the future at all.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) A french fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Luc Besson tells the story of Adèle Blanc-Sec, a journalist and travel writer who seeks to find and revive the mummy of the physician of Ramses the Great in order to save her comatose sister. A lot of comical relief and good-hearted old school adventure. That's what all comic book adaptations should look like. Never even heard about this film before... Positively surprised and thoroughly enjoyed it! Luc Besson meets Indiana Jones kind of movie 8/10

Bavarian Frankfurters for the barbecue? With onions and sauce? wtf Banausen...

We missed a massive solar superstorm by just a few days in 2012. Imagine the chaos the world would break into if the power grids worldwide suddenly blackout and most of the electronics we use were fried in such an event... That's why I think massive EMP attacks would be a much more efficient weapon in modern warfare than any other. Non-lethal and avoids civilian casualties initially, but would neutralise most of military targets and render most of the tech unusable and eventually send the whole bombed area/country spiraling down into chaos.

I'm quite keen to see what he can do in F1 in a half decent car. I accept that pay-drivers are a part of motorsports and having access to money is an absolute must for any racing driver anyway but the whole story of Stroll and Prema in F3 kind of left a bad taste.

They made Jafar too handsome and he doesn't look or sound menacing at all...Like seriously? Also Will Smith as the Genie is meh. I do like the overall look of it though!

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) agreed today to study the possibility of collaborating on international space exploration. As a first step, JAXA and Toyota agreed to further cooperate on and accelerate their ongoing joint study*1 of a manned, pressurized rover*2 that employs fuel cell vehicle technologies. Such a form of mobility is deemed necessary for human exploration activities on the lunar surface. Even with the limited amount of energy that can be transported to the moon, the pressurized rover would have a total lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10,000 km. Love to see more and more private companies collaborating with government agencies to further space exploration and colonisation. Toyota is huge company with a lot of technical know-how and brilliant engineers who can certainly deliver. Their proposed lunar rover will be self-driving and use zero-emission electric fuel cell technology; i.e. instead of using a battery, it will use a fuel cell of oxygen and compressed hydrogen, which react with each other to generate electricity. The zero-emissions technology is already used on Toyota's Mirai (hydrogen fuel cell car). The lunar rover will also have solar panels, which will be useful in lunar daylight, which lasts for two weeks in each month.

Bring back multiple tire suppliers, refueling and gravel pits.

I'm not a fan of the bonus point as for me it's just another stupid gimmick. Just saying it isn't as easy to misuse; if you're already in top 10 you're probably not going to risk it and pit for fresh tires with a few laps left as you might as well end without points that way.

The point for fastest lap is only awarded if the driver finished in top 10!

Now official... Starting with Australian GP, one point will be awarded to the driver who achieved the fastest lap of the race and to the constructor whose car they were driving, providing that the lap time was achieved without incurring a penalty and the driver was in the top 10 positions of the final race classification.

Massive fire for Projekt 1 Porsche in Sebring Test yesterday The driver luckily escaped the car unscathed. https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/massive-fire-for-project-1-porsche-in-sebring-test/

Just got this: Accidentally stumbled upon a few excerpts in an online article today and was completely blown away so had to get the full book... A memoir of a former NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly, who is best known for spending nearly a year on the International Space Station. Very captivating as it traces his journey from his childhood to becoming an astronaut and chronicles daily life and challenges during his year in space as well as the effects it had on his body.

What a finish! Pretty much a repeat of the last year's race as well https://streamable.com/f7kcr Rossi finishing 5th despite starting 14th and also beats Vinales in the process.

First man in space would have been 85 today!

Both Ferrari and Mercedes wanted different terms to the rest of the teams and Netflix producers didn't feel comfortable with that. I can imagine that it's probably because both were in a championship battle so didn't want any additional distractions and were wary that unlimited access could be used to leak sensitive information; I mean they are all properly paranoid there... Or it was just a question of money and level of control. To be fair it's probably for the best though anyway as now we have more focus and insight into other teams instead of the usual Ferrari/Mercedes wankfest.

Will watch it tomorrow... Hope there's enough Sauber in the documentary!

It's also worth noting that Conrad was not a native English speaker and only learned it in his twenties; that's impressive to see how he mastered the language but it also might explain why his style was too heavy on metaphors and felt a bit pretentious overall. I was never a fan of the modernist stream of consciousness style in literature (except Knut Hamsun's Hunger) anyway and my enjoyment of Heart of Darkness suffers a lot from that but at least it's still readable and the plot is interesting and quite fascinating. Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is THE "modern classic" that I just couldn't read - getting through one novel was tough, all seven volumes is nearly impossible.

Started reading the Culture series by Iain M. Banks today... It's a series of novels and short fiction that center around the Culture, a post-scarcity semi-anarchist utopia consisting of various humanoid races and managed by very advanced artificial intelligence. First novel: Heard that Amazon have required rights and are working on making it into a TV show so I want to finally read the books after delaying it for years...