Bridgestone Press Release: Masao Azuma Talks Tropical Temperatures At Sepang

Bridgestone issued their customary press release today, containing a discussion of conditions at Sepang. Big topic of the weekend was of course temperatures, and how they affect the tires:

Malaysian MotoGP™ debrief with Masao Azuma
Tuesday 15 October 2013

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium (Symmetric) & Hard (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Hard (Main) & Soft (Alternative)

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa clinched his third victory of the year in sultry conditions at Sepang ahead of teammate Marc Marquez and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo.

After unsettled weather on Friday and Saturday, conditions on race day were warm and fine with the track temperature reaching 46°C at the start of the race. Softer slicks front and rear were preferred by the twenty-three riders contesting the Malaysian Grand Prix, with only two riders selecting the harder rear slick option, and just five riders opting for the hard compound front tyre. Strong tyre performance at Sepang resulted in new qualifying and race lap records being set and an overall race time eighteen seconds quicker than the previous record.

Q&A with Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

What challenges does the Sepang circuit provide for Bridgestone in terms of tyre development and were you happy with tyre performance last weekend?

“Sepang is only moderately severe circuit on tyres, but in combination with the hot Malaysian climate the venue does present us with some challenges. The high ambient temperatures mean the tyres retain a lot of heat, so to ensure consistent performance and durability we tend to use harder compound here. Also, track conditions at this circuit seem to be deteriorating year-on-year, probably due to the large amount of racing held at the circuit, so our tyres need to also provide a high amount of feel and grip for the riders.

“Our tyre allocation was well suited to the conditions we had at Sepang last weekend and overall performance was good. Many riders complained about the bumps in the braking zones this year, but new qualifying and race lap records were set and the overall race time was also the quickest ever at this circuit. Rider feedback after the race was that the tyres offered strong, consistent performance over race distance so I am happy with this result.”

How does the deteriorating condition of the track surface at Sepang influence tyre choice?

“Last weekend the condition of the circuit was a factor in front tyre selection as in contrast to most other races this year, the majority of riders selected the softer of the two front slick compounds available. Sepang features heavy braking zones and some fast corners which would normally suggest the selection of the harder option tyre for maximum braking and cornering stability. Last year, more than half of the riders had planned to use the hard front tyre for the race if it was dry. This year however, due to greater amount of bumps in the braking zones, the preference this year was for the softer option, medium compound front tyre. This is because most riders felt the more pliable rubber of the softer option was better at absorbing the bumps, giving riders greater control when entering the corners. Curiously, of the five riders that chose the hard compound front slick for the race, four were CRT entries, so depending on machine specification and setup some riders felt the hard option offered an advantage over the soft. Also, after the race some riders commented that the grip level of the track on Sunday wasn’t as good in comparison to Saturday. We think this was due to the overnight rain and this is something we’ve experienced before at this circuit.”

Temperatures were warmer on race day than on Friday and Saturday. Did this have an effect on tyre choice?

“Track temperatures on Sunday for the race were about five degrees warmer than seen in qualifying, which wasn’t a big enough increase to have an effect on tyre choice. As the riders mentioned that on Sunday grip levels were lower than on previous days and also considering the aforementioned bumps, the softer slicks were always going to be the preferred option. Our slick allocation for this race was towards the harder end of the scale and only if track conditions were in the mid-fifty degree range would we have perhaps seen a shift towards the harder slick options.”

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/-XWxOKpw2Uo/bridgestone_press_release_masao_azuma_ta.html
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Russian official rules out Arafat polonium poisoning

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of a Russian forensics agency said on Tuesday that samples from the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had revealed no traces of radioactive polonium, a Russian news agency reported.

However, the government scientific body later denied that it had made any official statement about the research, saying only that it had handed its results to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

If confirmed, the findings would deal a blow to Palestinian suspicions that Arafat was assassinated by Israel - a theory fuelled by a Swiss lab report last year which found unusual amounts of the deadly isotope polonium on his clothes.

A Palestinian medical team took samples from Arafat's corpse in the West Bank last year and gave them to Swiss, French and Russian forensic teams in an attempt to determine whether he was murdered with the hard-to-trace radioactive poison.

"He could not have been poisoned with polonium. The research conducted by Russian experts found no traces of this substance," the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Vladimir Uiba, who heads the Federal Medico-Biological Agency (FMBA), as saying.

Uiba said experts from the FMBA had conducted a detailed study of Arafat's remains.

The agency later sought to distance itself from the comments. "The FMBA of Russia has made no official statement about the results of research on the remains of Yasser Arafat," the FMBA's press service said.

It added that it had completed its tests and given the results to the authorities.

The Russian Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment, but state-run news agency RIA cited a source in the ministry as saying it was up to the Palestinian authorities to release any information about the tests.

Arafat died aged 75 of an unexplained ailment he developed while confined to his Ramallah headquarters by Israeli tanks at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising in 2004.

Palestinians saw the veteran guerrilla as a hero of their national cause. Israel regarded him as a terrorist, though it denied responsibility for his death.

A negative result from the samples may not totally preclude a poisoning, as experts warned last year that his partial exhumation might have occurred too late to detect polonium.

The Lausanne-based hospital which first found the isotope on Arafat's clothing said that eight years would be the limit to detecting it on his remains and questioned whether such a late examination would provide conclusive results.

A spokesman for the hospital said at the time of the exhumation that findings might be reached by early this year.

No explanation has been given for the lengthy delay in presenting the results.

(Reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Noah Browning in Ramallah; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-official-rules-arafat-polonium-poisoning-155017800.html
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'Gravity' eclipses 'Phillips' at box office

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Gravity" won't be held down.

The Warner Bros. astronaut adventure directed by Alfonso Cuaron and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney landed in the top spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Gravity" earned $44.3 million, raising its domestic total to $123.4 million.

"They say what goes up must come down, but that's not really true with 'Gravity,'" said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office tracker Rentrak. "To have opened as big as it did last week and only drop 21 percent, that's really an amazing hold. It's a direct testament to the word of mouth on the movie."

"Gravity" also fared well overseas, making $28 million in 38 territories such as Russia, Australia, Germany and Spain.

Sony's "Captain Phillips" launched in second place with a respectable $26 million. The high seas drama directed by Paul Greengrass stars Tom Hanks as a cargo ship captain who is held captive by Somali pirates.

"We think the success of 'Gravity' will also bode well for 'Captain Phillips,'" said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony Pictures. "This is the extraordinary kind of film that we think audiences will flock to over the next several months moving forward."

The animated Sony movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" gobbled up third place in its third weekend with $14.2 million, bringing its domestic haul to $78 million.

The weekend's only other new release, "Machete Kills," opened in fourth place with $3.8 million. The gun-toting sequel from director Robert Rodriguez and starring Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez is the follow-up to "Machete," which earned $11.4 million when it opened in 2010.

___

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Gravity," $44.3 million ($28 million international).

2. "Captain Phillips," $26 million.

3. "Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs 2," $14.2 million ($9.1 million international).

4. "Machete Kills," $3.8 million ($575,000 international).

5. "Runner Runner," $3.7 million ($5.3 million international).

6. "Prisoners," $3.7 million ($7.4 million international).

7. "Insidious: Chapter 2," $2.6 million ($7.1 million international).

8. "Rush," $2.4 million ($6 million international).

9. "Don Jon," $2.3 million.

10. "Baggage Claim," $2 million.

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Gravity," $28 million.

2. "Stalingrad," $15.5 million.

3. "Despicable Me 2," $10.1 million.

4. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," $9.1 million.

5. "Now You See Me," $8.2 million.

6. "Prisoners," $7.4 million.

7. "Insidious: Chapter 2," $7.1 million.

8. "Planes," $6.2 million.

9. "Rush," $6 million.

9. "Hwayi: A Monster Boy," $6 million.

9. "Young Detective Dee: Rise Sea Dragon," $6 million.

10. "Turbo," $5.4 million.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang .

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gravity-eclipses-phillips-box-office-155530389--finance.html
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Steve Niles Loses 'Just About Everything' in Texas Floods

Ben Templesmith/IDW Publishing

Horror writer Steve Niles, co-creator of 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre and Mystery Society, was amongst many hit by flash floods in the Austin, TX area this weekend -- so badly hit, in fact, that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola posted to Facebook that Niles and his wife Monica "lost just about everything" when their house flooded.

Posting to Tumblr yesterday, Niles admitted that "a lot" was gone, including "a scrapbook full of original art I've kept for 30 years." He wrote that he "woke up at 6am to water rushing into the house. Already ankle deep by the time we saw it. We got as much as we could off the ground and tried to block but there wasn't much we could do." He later updated, "We lost a ton of stuff and who knows how much repairs will be needed but right now we are okay."

STORY: IDW Publishing to Release '30 Days of Night,' 'Kill Shakespeare' Games

Niles and his wife didn't have flood insurance, and fans and friends have rallied to help him pay for the cost of repairs to his house with a Paypal account at HelpSteveNiles@gmail.com. "It’s looking like the house is more or less screwed (I think that’s the technical term) so this help will come in very handy over the next few months," Niles updated today, adding "We are so lucky to have friends like all of you."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/THRComicCon/~3/_Vzyr9rF7ag/story01.htm
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Jack London Believed 'Function Of Man Is To Live, Not To Exist'

Jack London's 1903 The Call of the Wild was a sensation — it sold one million copies and made London the most popular American writer of his generation. He's shown above in 1916, shortly before his death at age 40.

AP

Jack London's 1903 The Call of the Wild was a sensation — it sold one million copies and made London the most popular American writer of his generation. He's shown above in 1916, shortly before his death at age 40.

AP

A literary critic once remarked, "The greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." In his brief life, London sought adventure in the far corners of the world, from the frozen Yukon to the South Pacific, writing gripping tales of survival based on his experiences — including The Call of the Wild, White Fang and The Sea Wolf.

His story is the subject of a new biography, Jack London: An American Life, by Earle Labor, curator of the Jack London Museum in Shreveport, La. Labor wrote his first book about London in 1974, but the 85-year-old scholar says with London, there's always more to write.

"He was a fighter. He was a terrific competitor. He wanted to win whatever he did," says Labor. "He was also a genius. He had terrific personal charm or charisma. Everybody talks about that. At the same time, while he was physically tough, he was emotionally sensitive. He could cry over the death of his favorite animal, or over the tragic episode in a novel."

London was born in San Francisco in 1876 to a poor family. When he was 14, he quit school to work in a cannery — 15 hours a day for 10 cents an hour. By the time he was 18, he had sailed to the Bering Sea on the crew of a sealing schooner and hopped freight trains to Niagara Falls, where he was arrested for vagrancy and spent a month in the Erie County Penitentiary. It was a traumatizing time for London, who was precocious but still an adolescent.

The only known recording of Jack London's voice is a 1915 letter he spoke into an early dictation machine. Dr. Carl Haber at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory restored the scratchy sound from a wax cylinder. On the recording, London says he can scarcely think about the abuse he experienced as a teenager in prison, much less write about it. "What I found there was unprintable, and almost unthinkable," he said.

Radicalized by his experience, London joined the Socialist Party, read voraciously and began to write stories and essays. He spent one semester at the University of California, Berkeley, then quit to join the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897.

After a winter in the Yukon, London returned with only $5 worth of gold, but a priceless lode of stories. London's 1903 novel, The Call of the Wild, tells the story of Buck, a kidnapped ranch dog sold to Gold Rush prospectors, who brutally train him to adapt to his new life:

A dozen times he charged, and as often, the club broke the charge and smashed him down. After a particularly fierce blow, he crawled to his feet, too dazed to rush. He staggered limply about, the blood flowing from nose and mouth and ears, his beautiful coat sprayed and flecked with bloody slaver.

The Call of the Wild was a sensation — it sold one million copies and made London the most popular American writer of his generation. London used his fame and money to embark on new adventures. He went to the Far East as a war correspondent. He sailed the Pacific in his own ship for two years, a trip that included a visit with headhunters and cannibals.

And he wrote about it all. "He encountered a lot of people of different ethnicities, and he was able often to imagine himself inside of that group and see the world from their point of view," says Jeanne Reesman, director of the Jack London Society and a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "To take the point of view of a young slave rebelling against his colonial masters in the South Seas, for example. Most people in America really didn't know anything about those people."

London wrote 1,000 words a day, and he almost never revised what he wrote. Biographer Labor says London needed to publish because he was always broke.

“ He was a dreamer, and a visionary. And his dreams and visions almost always outran his finances. But he wanted the best of everything. ... I think in some ways he was trying to make up for what he was deprived of as a kid.

- Biographer Earle Labor

"He was a dreamer, and a visionary. And his dreams and visions almost always outran his finances," says Labor. "But he wanted the best of everything. He wanted the best barn. He wanted the best home. He wanted the best boat. I think in some ways he was trying to make up for what he was deprived of as a kid."

After years of heavy drinking on and off through his adventures, London's lifestyle caught up with him. On Nov. 22, 1916, he died suddenly from kidney disease at just 40 years old. He left behind 52 books and 200 short stories — work that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Jack Kerouac.

But Labor says London's artistry is only now being recognized by the literary establishment. "I think one reason is that he writes so clearly, that anybody with a good basic education can understand what he's saying. He puts the critics out of business," says Labor.

Though London died young, his legacy and writings speak to a life lived with abandon. A journalist who visited London weeks before he died reported that London said, "I would rather be ashes than dust ... The function of man is to live, not to exist."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/14/230497660/jack-london-believed-function-of-man-is-to-live-not-to-exist?ft=1&f=1032
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Pressure on US as global economy meetings near end

WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance officials prepared to wrap up three days of meetings in Washington, where fretting about the risk of an unprecedented U.S. debt default overshadowed myriad worries about a shaky global economic recovery.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies urged the U.S. on Friday to take urgent action to resolve the political impasse that has partially shut down the government and delayed passage of a bill to raise the debt ceiling.

If Congress does not increase the borrowing limit by Thursday, the U.S. could default on its debt payments and cause serious turmoil in world markets and economies.

With the U.S., Europe and Japan all just emerging from long slumps, finance officials have been predicting a modest recovery in the global economy in the coming year, driven in large part by a strengthening U.S. economy.

But the current budget stalemate, coupled with anticipation that the Federal Reserve will soon start scaling back its massive stimulus program for the economy, have officials worried that the fragile global recovery could be derailed.

In prepared remarks to finance officials released late Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the United States understood the role it played as "the anchor of the international financial system." He said the administration was continuing to push Congress to reopen the government and increase the borrowing limit.

"Prior to the government shutdown, all signs pointed to the strengthening recovery of the U.S. economy," Lew said. "If Congress acts quickly, this will continue to be the case."

The G-20 officials issued their plea for a U.S. resolution on the debt ceiling at the end of two days of discussions held in advance of Saturday meetings of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organization, the World Bank. The Saturday meetings will be the last in three days of high level discussions.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, whose country currently holds the rotating chair of the G-20, told a news conference Friday that the budget stalemate between Congress and the Obama administration was discussed at the meeting.

But "no emergency or extraordinary plans" were made during the meeting in case of a U.S. default, he said.

"In the course of today's meeting, no plans were drawn up," he said. "No worst-case scenario was discussed. We trust the U.S. authorities will find a way out of this complex situation."

A number of the leaders attending the meeting said they saw the risk of default as remote.

In one telling comment, Siluanov offered a glimpse of what a tremendous impact a U.S. debt default would have on Russia's economy and many others like it around the world. Most central banks hold a significant portion of their foreign currency reserves in U.S. Treasury securities — considered the safest investment in the world.

Siluanov said about 45 percent of Russian's foreign exchange reserves are invested in U.S. Treasuries. Nevertheless, he said Russia was not considering reducing the size of its Treasury holdings because they are long-term investments while the debt crisis was a short-term issue.

America will run out of borrowing authority for new debt on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Lew has warned there is expected to be only $30 billion in cash on hand at that time and the U.S. will soon fall short of money to meet all of its obligations, including interest payments on the $16.7 trillion federal debt. That would trigger the first U.S. debt default ever.

____

Associated Press reporters Harry Dunphy and Matthew Pennington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pressure-us-global-economy-meetings-near-end-075017533--finance.html
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JFK and the Dawn of Punitive Liberalism

She thought it robbed his death of any meaning. But a meaning would be quickly manufactured to serve a new politics. First, however, an inconvenient fact — Oswald — had to be expunged from the story. So, just 24 months after the assassination, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the Kennedys’ kept historian, published a thousand-page history of the thousand-day presidency without mentioning the assassin.

The transformation of a murder by a marginal man into a killing by a sick culture began instantly — before Kennedy was buried. The afternoon of the assassination, Chief Justice Earl Warren ascribed Kennedy’s “martyrdom” to “the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots.” The next day, James Reston, the New York Times luminary, wrote in a front-page story that Kennedy was a victim of a “streak of violence in the American character,” noting especially “the violence of the extremists on the right.”

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/10/jfk_and_the_dawn_of_punitive_liberalism_317500.html
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