#flagship car parts

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

 327 goes into… just about everything: Part 8 Bitter CD, 1976. German car maker Biiter used Opel and Holden cars and components to make a range of vehicles. The CD (for coupé Diplomat) was a GT coupé based on the Opel Diplomat and using the same Chevrolet 327ci V8 as Opel's flagship model. Between 1973 and 1979 395 were made

[cognitivejustice]

Paris plants its first "urban forest" on a busy roundabout as part of a plan to turn the French capital into a garden city

The city will plant 478 trees on the Place de Catalogne near the Gare Montparnasse train station as a flagship project in Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo's drive to cut noise, pollution and tackle global warming.

The Place de Catalogne roundabout - designed by the late Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in the 1980s - had for decades been a busy thoroughfare for cars. In recent years it has been transformed into a Dutch-style, bicycle-friendly junction that is also the start of a "voie verte" or greenway bike lane to the southern suburbs.

Paris City Hall aims to have planted 170,000 more trees between 2020 and 2026, and more than 63,000 trees have already been planted, opens new tab since November 2020.

Hidalgo's leftist-green coalition has also reduced the space for cars in the city, increased parking fees and is phasing out diesel cars from the city centre.

The city's latest plan is to drive large sports utility vehicles (SUVs) from its centre

[coimbrabertone]

NASCAR Numerology: How NASCAR's Current Teams Got Their Numbers: Part One.

So this blog has been a bit NASCAR heavy these past few weeks, but my request, I'm going to do one more: NASCAR Numerology: How the Current Teams Got Their Numbers.

To start with, a brief introduction: in European motorsports like Formula One and MotoGP, the norm has become that drivers chose their numbers. Lewis Hamilton, for instance, has chosen the #44 and will take that number from Mercedes to Ferrari when he moves after this season. The exception to this is the #1, which is typically reserved for champions. Max Verstappen (normally #33) and Pecco Bagnaia (normally #63) currently run the #1 plate in F1 and MotoGP, respectively.

Neither of these rules exist in NASCAR. In American racing (NASCAR and Indycar in particular) numbers are associated with the teams, with some teams having run the same number for decades. How these numbers came about various - some were chosen as they were the lowest available number, some to go along with sponsor, others to go along with a numbering convention at a given team. We'll get into these stories here.

We're going to start at the beginning...and the end, with Trackhouse Racing, who run the #1 and #99. Ironically enough, their story begins with the #99, as Trackhouse first entered the sport in 2021 with Daniel Suárez. Trackhouse was, at this point, a one car operation leasing a charter from Spire Motorsports, getting engines from Richard Childress Racing, and running out of a space in the RCR shop. They chose the #99 as a tribute to Carl Edwards, who ran the number from mid-2004 to 2014 as part of Roush Racing.

In a happy coincidence, Daniel Suárez had run the #99 in his very first race in Monterrey, Mexico at the age of seven.

As for the #1, well...for 2022, Trackhouse wanted a more permanent arrangement, so they bought out Chip Ganassi Racing and took control of their two charters. Ganassi had been running the #42 team for Ross Chastain, and the #1 team for Kurt Busch. Busch was off to 23XI anyway, thus the #1 charter was given to the #99 team.

The #42 team meanwhile, with Ross Chastain as driver and the CGR crew behind him, was switched to the #1. Why? Well, for starts #1 and #99 is a good number combo - the first and last numbers available and they add up to 100 - and furthermore, it has history.

Justin Marks and Pitbull are the owners of Trackhouse, but the team is run by Ty Norris. Now, in 1996, Norris was handpicked by Dale Earnhardt to help create the Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) team, with support from Dale's current team, Richard Childress Racing. DEI would go full time in NASCAR in 1998, with driver Steve Park driving the Pennzoil #1 Chevy. Yeah.

Furthermore, the #1, the #8, and the #15 would be DEI's numbers throughout the 2000s. In 2008, DEI would merge with Ginn Racing (formerly MB2 Motorsports) who ran the #01 Army Chevy with Regan Smith and Mark Martin as drivers. As the recession continued, this team would merge again, this time with Chip Ganassi Racing, in time for 2009.

Chip Ganassi at this point ran the #41 Target Dodge for Reed Sorenson and the #42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge for Juan Pablo Montoya.

DEI, meanwhile, had the #01 Principal Finance Chevrolet for Regan Smith, the #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for Martin Truex Jr., the #8 US Army Chevrolet for Mark Martin and Aric Almirola (the #01 had the Army sponsorship originally but the #8 was DEI's flagship car so the sponsorship moved over), and the #15 Menards Chevrolet for Paul Menard.

The 2009 season would essentially be a bloodletting for the team, and come 2010, the merged Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing would run the #1 Bass Pro Shops/McDonalds Chevrolet for Jamie McMurray, and the #42 Target Chevrolet for Juan Pablo Montoya. These are the same numbers that CGR would run when Trackhouse bought them, and the #1, with its lineage going back to 1998, would be reunited with Ty Norris at the Trackhouse team.

And in another move in relation to the Earnhardts, Trackhouse will add the #88 Chevy for Shane van Gisbergen for 2025. The #88 was last run by Hendrick Motorsports, first for Dale Earnhardt Jr. from 2008 to 2017, and then by Alex Bowman from 2018 to 2020. More on that in a bit.

All of that for the #1...now onto #2!

Team Penske has run the #2 since 1991, when they acquired the services of Rusty Wallace and his long-term sponsorship deal with Miller Brewing Company. Rusty had driven for the Blue Max Racing team (and won a championship for them in 1989) but that relationship collapsed in 1990. With a new program and a driver as decorated as Rusty, Roger let him choose the number - Rusty chose the #2, which he had last used in 1985.

That car, with Rusty Wallace from 1990-2005, Kurt Busch from 2006-2010, Brad Keselowski from 2011-2021, and Austin Cindric since 2022, has been the Penske flagship car.

In 2012 with Brad Keselowski behind the wheel, it won its first championship.

Penske's other cars have, typically, mimicked the #2. When Penske took over the Kranefuss car of Jeremy Mayfield for 1998, they renumbered it from #37 to #12, with Mobil 1 sponsorship. Mayfield was fired late in 2001, and Rusty's brother Mike filled out the season, before Ryan Newman and Alltel took over the #12 car for 2002. Newman would leave for Stewart-Haas Racing for 2009, and David Stremme would take over that car.

As mentioned a few weeks ago in my Viceroy rule blogpost, Alltel was bought out by Verizon in 2008, and that caused a problem as NASCAR's title sponsor was Sprint. Alltel was grandfathered in, Verizon was not. Thus, for 2009 and 2010, the #12 would run as a black and red Penske Truck Rentals car that totally wasn't mimicking the Verizon logo.

Anyway, David Stremme would be replaced by Brad Keselowski at the end of the 2009 season, and he'd remain in the #12 for 2010.

In 2011 however, Penske secured a new major sponsor in the form of Shell/Pennzoil, and Shell wanted a flagship entry with a flagship driver. Thus, Kurt Busch was moved from the #2 to the new #22, while Brad's #12 team became the new #2 Miller Lite team. Kurt Busch would essentially have a meltdown in the 2011 season - screaming at his team in multiple races - and would be fired at the end of the season. AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish would fill in for 2012, and for 2013, current driver Joey Logano was hired for the #22.

Meanwhile, the #12 would return to full time competition in 2018 with Ryan Blaney as driver and Menards as the main sponsor.

Logano's #22 would win the championship in 2018 and 2022, while Ryan Blaney would win in 2023. The #2 is Penske's original number, but now, all three have won championships. Furthermore, all three - plus now the Wood Brothers car they prop up - are now locked into the 2024 NASCAR playoffs.

Speaking of, this blog is running long and I'm gonna have to make this into a bit of a series over the next week or so, but while we're on the topic of the Wood Brothers, lets finish off that car real quick.

The Wood Brothers is NASCAR's oldest team and has run the #21 from the beginning. On rare occasions when the Wood Brothers ran multiple cars, back in like the 60s and 70s, it would usually be something that pays homage to the #21 - examples include the #12, the #121, and the #41.

NASCAR's modern era is considered to have started in 1972, and since then, the Wood Brothers has always run the #21 except for a controversial two-year exception in 1985 and 1986 when the team, then fielding Kyle Petty, had a 7Eleven sponsorship and thus ran the #7. They would return to the #21 in 1987, and at the 2024 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, they won their 100th race with driver Harrison Burton.

So yeah, the story of some of NASCAR's current teams' numbers. I'll pick up with RCR tomorrow (spoiler alert: all they have going for them is Earnhardt nostalgia) as this numerology project turns out to be bigger than I expected.

[bookqueenrules]

Looking for Gimple's Easter Egg That's Not an Easter Egg and Season 2 Predictions Coming True

At NYCC yesterday during the DD panel, Gimple was his cryptic self. The biggest take aways were when questions were asked. Gimple said that there is something in the background, not really focused on by the camera, that has to do with the "mythology" of the Walking Dead. Here is link to a clip of it.

So, please be on the lookout eagle-eyed TDers for what he is talking about because I NEED TO KNOW. It was unclear if it is something that has already aired or not.

Spoiler for Episode 4(if you are living under a rock)

I think Zabel's reference in the clip is to Isabelle's death being a nod to Beth's "death". EVERYONE has picked up on that. I am curious to know TDers thoughts on what happens and what doesn't happen to Isabelle's body after her death.

I know how eagle-eyed some of you are!

Which made me think of this post I did a year ago after eagle-eyed @frangipanilove caught the 5x02 license plate on Carol's Mustang in the post credits scene at the end of season 1. In it, I explained how 1x5 and 1x6 were like episodes 5x1 and 5x2 of the flagship and what my plot predictions would be for 2x1 based on it being like 5x03. Here is the link to original again, but I am putting the pertinent part below.

Between 2x1 and 2x2(I didn't account for so much of 2x1 being Carol in Maine), I was pretty accurate. The "disagreement" among Team France was about whether to stay at the nest or not. Isabelle didn't really come around to going to American with Daryl until they took Laurent.

Additionally, at the end of 5x03 Daryl bursts through the woods. We don't see Noah, but he is there. So, I theorized at least one of the characters will have knowledge of Beth being alive even if they don't know the connection between her Daryl. It's hard to know until Beth returns who might have seen her. Perhaps Losang when he went on his pilgrimage.

Another possibility occurred to me after Gimple's comment. What if it was the car and the man named Grady's role in 2x1 as the nod to Beth being alive? If your interested in the cars of 2x1 theory, check out @frangipanilove's post here.

I am tagging some of you eagle-eyed TDers. I am hoping one of you will catch to what Gimple is referring.

[drdemonprince]

what made you choose a deer for your fursona?

It's a long story that I am all too happy to tell!

I first attended Midwest Furfest in 2018, after years of being curious about it. My boyfriend at the time was a member of the Neo-Futurists Theater, and the Neo's had a longstanding relationship with the MFF community. They perform their flagship show (Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, later rebranded as The Infinite Whale) there every year, and when the theater company's former founder attempted to steal their show name/copyright following his ousting due to sexual assault allegations, MFF really came through to offer considerable moral support.

There was lots of goodhearted joking about the furry community within that theater space, and I'd always been curious about furries and a supporter of them in heart if not in fact, and so I finally decided one year to tag along, see my boyfriend performing there, and walk around the convention floor and visit the dealer's den during my down time.

I absolutely LOVED IT. I was completely blown away by the artistry of the suits and the playful spirit of the suiters. I ran into a few friends there, outing them as furries to me, and we grew closer. I also took notice of some teal, sparkly resin antlers while I was in the Dealer's Den:

I snapped those things up and put them on immediately. Some stranger started to pet me right away (which is technically a convention consent violation, and should *not* be done, but I personally was the opposite of troubled by being treated in this way) and I was hooked.

I had always had a "thing" for antlers and horns since playing the PS2 game Ico back in the early 2000's. The young male protagonists horns representing an unwanted appendage and a visible "curse" was very appealing to me... as a boy who had been saddled with two very unwanted appendages of my own. (trangsender). I also have had many very magical encounters with deer in Ohio and Pennsylvania where I grew up. As a skiddish bottomy freak whose caused a lot of car accidents, a prey animal that also has the power to kill people in vehicles seemed plenty apt. So when I found some antlers to wear, it seemed like a natural enough fit for a potential fursona.

Then my friend @jettvector designed my fursona, using the teal antlers as a jumping off point. (this art has his old watermark on it, but he goes by jettvector now. commission him!):

Now that I had a friend-assigned fursona and was officially a furry, I ran with it, and began commissioning some art that further refined my image of the character:

this is from 9inko on Instagram

this one is from @heresvix, who specializes in deer

and this one is from @murgzt . I am currently having a partial fursuit of this iteration of the character made by Daring Duck Designs!! :0

A few things that I love about my sona's design: I love that his ears are big and really stick out, as my ears do the same, I love that he has a spot reflecting my monroe piercing, I love that deers are spotted in general, which can allow me to recast my own bacne scars in a more positive light, and i love that his greenish teal skin reflects my own olive complection (which I used to get a lot of weird comments about as a kid and felt self conscious about).

I also accumulated some gear in the meantime that allowed me to better embody my deersona, who I now call DD (which stands for Deer Devon, Docile Deer, Devon Dawn, my former DD tits, or any numer of potential things haha)

Hood by Miss Kinky Latex UK, photo by @photopotamus.

I have become a little bit more of a furry with each passing year, and it wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and creativity of so many people within the fandom, many of whom are beloved friends. <3 That's part of what makes it so special. Thanks for asking!

[vestaignis]

Заброшенное судно-отель на Ко Чанге.

Abandoned ship-hotel on Koh Chang.

На побережье острова Ко Чанг, входящего в состав морского национального парка Таиланда расположен крупный туристический комплекс «Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort» (60 гектар), изюминкой которого был круизный лайнер The Galaxy (Aunchaleena)  в качестве главного здан��я отеля. Это стометровое судно, перестроенное в гостиницу с 7-мью этажами. Что бы отбуксировать судно-донор для отеля вглубь территории парка, пришлось рыть канал, который потом засыпали. На огромной площади курорта тогда появились фантастической красоты пруды с лотосами, тропические парки, кокосовые рощи, гигантские статуи слонов, водопады и великолепный пляж с белым песочком. На данный же момент комплекс пришел в упадок, но туристов продолжает манить заброшенный лайнер — отель, он даже стал своеобразной достопримечательностью острова, для любителей отдыха в необычных местах. Причины угасания популярности этого места просты: проблемы с транспортной доступностью (придется взять на прокат машину и отправиться вглубь острова) и с самой инфраструктурой на Ко Чанге. А также есть версия, что морской курорт попросту закрыли из-за отсутствия разрешительных документов на строительство в заповедной зоне.

В настоящее время прогуливаясь вдоль пляжа, можно увидеть колоритные лодки-шале и оригинальный административный корпус, расположенный в заросшей лагуне. Несмотря на то, что главный отель курорта совсем в плачевном состоянии, ходят слухи, что часть корпуса еще функционирует, там сдаются номера по бросовой цене. Также сдаются номера в кораблях-шале, правда, былой роскоши там уже нет, но провести несколько ночей любители экзотики и экономии тоже могут. Мало вероятно что "флагман" курорта когда-нибудь восстановят, это слишком нерентабельно.

On the coast of the island of Koh Chang, which is part of the marine national park of Thailand, there is a large tourist complex “Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort” (60 hectares), the highlight of which was the cruise ship The Galaxy (Aunchaleena) as the main hotel building. This is a hundred-meter ship, converted into a hotel with 7 floors. In order to tow the donor ship for the hotel deep into the park, they had to dig a canal, which was then filled in. The huge area of ​​the resort then featured fantastically beautiful lotus ponds, tropical parks, coconut groves, giant elephant statues, waterfalls and a magnificent white sand beach.

At the moment, the complex has fallen into disrepair, but tourists continue to be attracted by the abandoned liner - a hotel; it has even become a kind of landmark of the island for those who like to relax in unusual places. The reasons for the fading popularity of this place are simple: problems with transport accessibility (you will have to rent a car and go deep into the island) and with the infrastructure on Koh Chang itself. There is also a version that the seaside resort was simply closed due to the lack of permits for construction in a protected area.

Nowadays, walking along the beach, you can see colorful chalet boats and the original administrative building located in an overgrown lagoon. Despite the fact that the main hotel of the resort is in a very deplorable state, there are rumors that part of the building is still functioning and rooms are being rented out there at a bargain price. Rooms are also available for rent in chalet ships, however, the former luxury is no longer there, but lovers of exoticism and economy can also spend a few nights. It is unlikely that the “flagship” of the resort will ever be restored; it is too unprofitable.

Источник:https://t.me/+hAtkre-p-zI3Njdi, /satang.ru/otel-prizrak, /novate.ru/blogs/030521/58646/,/tursputnik.com/2021/08/zabroshennoe-sudno-otel-v-tayskih-dzhunglyah.html, /www.ixbt.com/live/travel/kak-poddelnyy-kruiznyy-layner-okazalsya-v-dzhunglyah-tailanda.html.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1969-71 Continental Mark III

Iacocca’s Lincoln: The Inside Story of the 1969-71 Continental Mark III

Lee Iacocca is remembered as the father of the Ford Mustang and the Chrysler Minivan, but there was another Iacocca vehicle that changed the Motor City: the Lincoln Continental Mark III. 

In auto industry lore, the design studio guys hate it when the people from upper management start fooling around with their work. Nothing good can come from that, or so the story goes. But there’s at least one instance that cuts against the grain of that familiar Motor City tale. It was Ford senior executive Lee Iacocca who originated the two signature styling features of the Lincoln Continental Mark III: the classic stand-up grille and the faux tire bustle in the deck lid.

It’s no exaggeration to note that these visual features created a design theme and defined the Lincoln Mark Series brand for decades. Years later, lead designer L. David Ash would recall that neither he nor Styling VP Gene Bordinat had conceived these two now-famous design gadgets; no, in fact it was all Iacocca. “Neither one of us would have done it on our own, I’m sure,” Ash remembered. “I have to give Lee credit for that.”

As vice president of the Ford Motor Company’s car and truck group—top product boss, among other duties—Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca had at least two problems on his plate in the autumn of 1965. First, sales of the Ford Thunderbird had flattened out after a promising start years earlier. Meanwhile, Ford’s flagship Lincoln division wasn’t setting the world on fire, either. While the Elwood Engel-designed 1961 Lincoln was a style maker of the decade, it was nearing the end of its product cycle. Actually, Lincoln was a perennial problem for Ford senior management. According to Bordinat, it had never turned an actual profit since Henry and Edsel Ford acquired the company from the Lelands in 1922.

So a plan was hatched to build a new, small Lincoln on the same platform as the Thunderbird, which was switching to body-on-frame construction for 1967 (in part due to limited production volume). This would help the Thunderbird fill out production capacity at the Wixom, Michigan plant, and it would give Lincoln an entry in the rapidly expanding personal-luxury category, joining the Buick Riviera, Cadillac Eldorado, Olds Toronado, et alia.

The original body design by Ash and his staff, at one point named the Lancelot, was clean and elegant but lacked visual punch, one could argue. Iacocca’s fake-Rolls grille shell and spare-tire bump fixed that, creating a distinctive and memorable look. It was said that the chrome grille shell was the most expensive such piece in the industry, with a unit cost nearing $200. Ash and crew completed the theme by hiking up the rear quarters and deck lid two inches, scrunching the roof down into the body for a classic ’30s profile.

From its exterior appearance, you might never know that the finished design shared its greenhouse with the Thunderbird coupe, or its floorpan, black metal, and 117.2-inch wheelbase with the T-Bird four-door. When Henry Ford II saw the clay model in the studio, he reportedly said, “I’d like to drive that home.” With the Ford family’s seal of approval secured, the new car was christened the Continental Mark III, establishing its lineage with Edsel Ford’s original 1939 Continental and the Continental Mark II of 1956-57. At that point the previous Mark III, IV and V models of 1958-60 were conveniently forgotten—today it would be called a reboot.

Introduced in April 1968 as a 1969 model, technically (Lincoln division downplayed model year designations, trying to present the car as “timeless”) the Mark III was panned by the critics but embraced by the car-buying public. “The buffs may not like it but the people with money will,” Bordinat wisely predicted. The Mark wasn’t big for an American luxury car at just over 216 inches long and 4,800 lbs, but it was big enough, with solid road manners and a comfortable ride. Interior specialist Herman Brunn covered the seats with rich, pre-creased leather, like the easy chairs in a men’s club. Noteworthy technical features included an all-new 460 CID V8 and Sure-Track, an early form of antilock braking developed by Kelsey-Hayes.

With a base price of $6,758 compared to $4,807 for its Thunderbird cousin, the Mark III was quite a moneymaker for the Motor Company, spawning an even more popular and profitable successor, the Mark IV (shown with Iacocca below). The Mark series, which comfortably outsold the Eldorado and effectively doubled the Lincoln division’s volume at times, continued on all the way to 1998 and the Mark VIII, and Iacocca would to on to further glories, including the Chrysler Minivan.

[mystieris]

Urban Gods Worship System

(I'm terrible at posting information about this project xD; )

So in the world of Urban Gods, it's basically the world of the myths, they just have cars and Instagram (btw, I'm open to suggestions on how to make "Instagram" a Greek mythology pun xD), and I wanted to come up with a replacement for animal sacrifices since that's no longer really a thing in our modern day society. While it is common to use altar worship, item and food offerings and prayers of a lot of modern worshippers in our world, since this is a world where gods are also active members of society, there's another, far more popular method - patronizing establishments owned by the gods themselves.

Several major gods own restaurants, hotels, chain stores and other establishments, while more minor gods, as well as nymphs, satyrs, and other benign creatures, will often be employed there. The following is a master list of establishments I have plotted out so far, and who owns and works for them...

Hades - Inferis - A subterranian casino resort in Athens; Charon, the Furies and the Keres will cycle working the different security posts, Thanatos works as waitstaff in the bar/restaurant areas, Hypnos works the front desk on the hotel side, Hecate appears to work some sort of upper management position, and Minthe works as the casino host at the beginning of the story, eventually being replaced by Persephone. Hermes frequently works as a bartender, and all other positions are often filled by unnamed nymphs, gorgons, and other Underworld creatures.

Zeus - Vronti - A luxury hotel chain, with the flagship location in Athens, overlooking the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Thetis works as the concierge, Hermes will work odd jobs throughout the whole building, Hephaestus leads the maintenance crew, and Hera appears to have some sort of job there, but it's somewhat unclear exactly what as through most of the story she and Zeus are hovering between their good terms and their bad terms xD

Poseidon - Atlantis - A small chain of beach tiki bars with "hidden" drug den areas. I haven't quite worked out where the flagship location is, but most of the time the location seen is the one in Athens. And yes... Athena hates that he has a location in Athens, which Poseidon denies being because of his grudge. Claims, "Well, my brothers have their flagship locations here, mortals would ask questions if I didn't, too...!" Pretty much all positions are filled by different sea nymphs and creatures and aren't individually identified yet.

Demeter and Dionysus - A farm/vineyard in Sicily with a shop attached. Basically it's an enormous farm property that different parts are run by Demeter or Dionysus, Persephone basically runs the shop, Plutus offers financial consulting, Triptolemus cares for the animals on site, and various nymphs and satyrs assist in other areas. Additionally, Dionysus also works as the drink master for all three of the kings' establishments.

Athena - A university in Athens. Not much else is developed about it so far as the only scene written involving it is a brief shot of a classroom and just exposits how the gods are "technically not related" according to my world, but Athena is the dean as well as teaching classes.

Hephaestus - Has no direct stores or anything, but is basically the diving force behind mortals developing computers and robotics.

Ares - Basically runs the this world's equivalent to the UFC, which, because it's run by Ares is a mite more violent than in our world. He also has a gym he operates in Sparta that Phobos and Deimos can often be seen working as personal trainers ar.

Aphrodite - A chain of adult toy stores that are franchised to Eros and the rest of her and Ares' kids, while she'll also offer love advice for a fee at the flagship location in Sparta (somewhere within walking distance to Ares' gym).

Apollo - Works as a pop idol, beyond that I don't really have much developed.

Artemis - Like Apollo, not very developed yet, but the idea that she runs a popular hunting blog.

Hestia - Owns a spa resort known for its luxurious food and services.

More will be edited in as I develop more/remember things as I was sick from stress at the original time of posting this. Follow me for more updates on this project and incorrect quotes! :)

[carboardserpent]

Next gen headcanons? 🤔

Like, Jackson, Cruz, Tim, Danny, Chase, and Ryan?

Oh boy, that's a few characters. Alright, strap in then. Probably also gonna throw in Bubba because he's my favourite non-main next gen <3

(Humanised, as always)

(Quick disclaimer for this one, none of these are supposed to reflect on the irl racers that gave their names and voices to them - I'm treating these characters as though they're entirely fictional and not based on/inspired by real people. I make my HCs literally just based on Vibes (and RPs))

Jackson Storm:

6'1 and fit AF. Clearly spends a lot of time in the gym toning his body and muscles. He is male model levels of gorgeous. Physically flawless black man <3

Short black dreadlocks dyed blue at the ends.

Aromantic (female-leaning)bisexual.

Autistic.

Ray knew he was autistic before Jackson even knew himself, and is the reason he even got diagnosed in the first place.

One of his most common complaints is still about the reflections of the sun glinting in his eyes. The loud noise of the track still gets to him occasionally, but he has special earplugs to help him deal with it.

Can usually be seen drinking a can of IGNTR's flagship energy drink before a race. It helps him calm down and focus in. His sponsors love it, for obvious reasons.

Any time he's on camera, he acts calm and cool but internally he's freaking out. If they ask something he doesn't expect, he visibly tenses up and flounders for a second as he tries to figure out what to say, even if it was a simple question.

Doesn't do fan meets or signings unless he absolutely has to. Even then he tries everything he can to get out of them.

His physical attractiveness makes his already poor attitude even worse. Doesn't know how to talk to people, but gets all the praise and attention he could ever want online.

Yes, he posts photos of himself on various social media. He wasn't sure at first, but Ray convinced him to start shortly after his debut race, hoping that it would help reassure him and give him a bit of a confidence boost. Naturally, it went a little TOO well...

He's a gamer through and through. In any downtime he gets, he's still topping the leaderboards on just about every popular racing game you can play online. He also enjoys the occasional game of CoD and will verbally rip anyone to shreds if they try to come at him.

DUBSTEP. He loves it. If his skull isn't rattling from absolutely filthy, grimy bass, he's not interested.

So, of course, he has to have an incredible sound system that's probably worth more than the average person's car.

He doesn't watch anime. (Stop asking him if he does) Most of his entertainment comes from Twitch streams.

He streams himself playing Super Corsa 4 any chance he gets. Which isn't often with the packed NASCAR schedule, but he tries his best. His user is UrStormChasing

Still doesn't get along with Tim after their rivalry in training and isn't very good at pretending he does either. Their crew chiefs have to make deliberate efforts to stop them from running into each other before they get into their cars.

Cruz Ramirez:

5'5 with an athletic build. She is a Latina woman with visible abs and she deserves them gdi.

Side-parted brown hair a little shorter than jaw length, perpetually kinda wild looking.

Chaotic lesbian hours!

ADHD

Literally cannot sleep at night without a big, milky mug of coffee.

It's not normal to wake up and go for a run before even having breakfast?

She's teaching Lightning to use social media more regularly (for better or for worse). His homework is to send her a funny meme or video that he found that week.

The result of this can sometimes be catastrophic. She'll never be able to unhear him uncertainly attempting to use outdated slang.

Almost every race, there's someone complaining about how she doesn't weigh enough and it's unfair to the rest of them. So she forces them to watch as race officials put extra weights in her car.

Has cussed Danny out in Spanish across Pit Road and will do it again if he carries on-

Is probably the only person on Team Dinoco that is actually nice to Cal and doesn't try to tease him. They get along well.

Tim Treadless:

6'0 with a broad frame and light muscle tone.

Tanned skin and tousled brown hair.

Straight ally.

Just call him Mr. Charismatic, everyone loves him.

Everyone except Jackson, that is. Jackson is the only person who brings out his anger to the point of wanting to throw hands.

Has a wife and a baby, bc of course he does.

One of those guys some people hate for being irritatingly perfect. Usually people that don't actually know him.

Has type 1 diabetes and a bad nut allergy.

Was pulled out of a race at the last minute when he went into anaphylactic shock - the entire race was almost stopped when people started to whisper that it was foul play. The race went on, but the only reason for Treadless' absence was that he had to be pulled for "unforseen medical issues".

Some of the other racers still blame Jackson, who actually had nothing to do with it.

Danny Swervez:

5'10 and fairly slender. Not a lot of bulk to him.

Tanned skin (he's Latino) and short black hair.

Cishet male.

This man is FULL of himself. What an attitude.

Genuinely a good racer, but not many people like him.

He's not a good guy. He's given Cruz some trouble for being a woman, though after she embarrassed him by publicly cussing him out in Spanish, he's learned to keep his unpopular opinions on her to himself.

Isn't exactly what we would call "faithful".

But hey, at least he doesn't cheat on the track (smh)

Has just as little respect for the older racers as Jackson, but is less vocal about it.

Is very bitter about Jackson and Tim being more popular than him, yet still does nothing to change himself for the better.

Has at least attempted to physically fight with other drivers that messed with him on the track several times.

Chase Racelott:

5'9 with a build somewhere between Danny and Tim.

Pale skin and dirty-blonde hair.

Straight ally.

Generally a pretty likeable guy. Not as well-loved as Tim, but he has a good amount of pretty dedicated fans.

Makes jokes about being single/available.

Has pretty average performance on the track, not great, but not poor.

Fairly high energy, he gets along well with Cruz.

Probably one of the best with kids. Has a lot of younger fans because of how he interacts with them during meets and signings.

One of the few who will try not to leave until he's spoken to every fan who wanted to meet him, no matter how long it takes.

Often seen hanging around with Ryan - the two of them cause some pretty good natured trouble together, often involving pranks on the other racers.

Ryan "Inside" Laney:

5'11 with a broad build similar to Tim.

Mixed race (¾ Caucasian, ¼ African American), with short black hair.

Closeted bisexual.

Friendly, but not really a standout character as far as the fans are concerned.

Kind of cocky, but in a cool way.

Has a girlfriend who travels with him.

Agent of chaos when he spends too much time with Chase. Don't turn your back on him.

Bubba Wheelhouse

Absolutely massive 6'2 gentle giant

Another gorgeous black man (fight me), his skin tone isn't quite as dark as Jackson's

Closeted homosexual

Has a fake relationship with a lesbian woman who's actually just his best friend (the racing world is scary and the US South probably wouldn't love an openly gay driver)

Kids ADORE him. Him and Chase are the drivers with the most kid fans.

Throws a football around with fans over the catch fence during rain delays (this one is based on the real Bubba Wallace bc its wholesome af)

Gets asked all the weird gay questions by everyone in the friend group. (Ex. "Is it gay if...?" "What is X actually like?")

Legit just trying to mind his own business, he doesn't want any part of drama or rivalries.

Occasionally finds himself roped into girl talk if the guys have their S/Os around. They're very excited to include him. He's too polite to decline.

[jacksprostate]

Before Project Mayhem, before fight club, before Marla, before Tyler — there is still one sad sack of shit.

.

.

The hard part about work trips isn't making the plane or seeing another family of five burnt into their leather seats. It's missing support groups.

See, if you're lucky, the company will send you out to a major city. Cities are great. A little advanced work to find a slightly below average church or library, you're set each night you're there.

It's a bit of novelty, getting to be a new face all at once. People assume you've just been diagnosed. It's never the failed treatments, the degradation of their life and everyone in it, the continuous experience of knowingly dying — none of those things are the worst thing that happens to you.

It's finding out they will.

So people cry. They crowd around, I sob like I've been told I've got stage four colon cancer and three weeks to live. We all cry. I sleep soundly on the plane back or in the nice, four star hotel my company provides me.

Flying out to a small town, though. I'll be awake enough to be hallucinating by the time I get back for Remaining Men Together. The only mercy is that the next time I show for all the groups I missed, I can see who thought I died. I get to be resurrected.

The other part about small towns, you have to take a second, shitter plane to a local airfield, or you have to take a rental car. One of the most popular rental cars available right now, it'll light itself on fire if you use the cruise control at the wrong time. I know this because I sat next to another guy with my job, who worked for a different company, and he said I'll show you mine if you show me yours. So I told him about the faulty airbags, and he told me about the overheating switch.

I prefer to avoid driving.

All the rental place at the airport has left for me, it's one of those flaming cars. I use cruise control. If I don't, one of my narcoleptic spells will send me into the Jersey barrier.

When you drive into these small towns, you have to try to pay attention, or you'll end up a county over talking about the wrong wreck. They're otherwise interchangeable, but the miles on your rental car won't line up and those are the type of records that might get pulled out when the company is finally sued for the big one ten years down the line.

As a result, I see the same decor on the way in every time. Meth lab. Abandoned homes. Garbage fire. Classic Americana. There is no four star hotel here; I sleep the same.

The only reason I've been brought out here is because the poor shithead who drove his truck into the ditch drunk was driving my company's flagship vehicle. It loses power steering if the car jostles the right way going above 55 miles per hour. I've been told to keep track of potential incidents and make sure the company can firmly claim it's not at fault.

We've had this problem for decades, and we will for many more. Sometimes, everything is falling apart.

The job is simple, and I only get tempted by the town's blatant opioid addiction for a day and night. Painkillers would probably make me sleep. The thing about being a recall campaign organizer, though, is like recognizes like. It's not only other Compliance and Liability guys who tell you company secrets while sharing the aisle in business class.

When I'm finally back in my own town, after my own support groups, after crying my eyes out into Bob's meaty middle — I pick up my mail. There's the newest IKEA magazine. Half of it looks like shit. The type of thing you'd only see in some curated art deco, modernist, post-modern traditionalist bohemian minimalist apartment.

I have to have it.

I go to sleep, hard, like God himself tucked me in. I sleep with my wallet net four hundred heavier, because even an IKEA spree tends not to outweigh a work trip. I sleep, with my called in IKEA goods only two short weeks away, my job well done, and I know, my life is complete.

[valtionrautatiet-official]

An introduction to VR passenger carriages, part 1: the blue carriages

In our next series of introducing our rolling stock, we will be looking at passenger carriages. I was actually thinking of doing multiple units next, but @hapotonradio requested I do the blue carriages and a lot of people seemed to like the idea so here we go.

A Dr13-hauled train consisting of blue carriages arriving in Turku Harbour, 1995. Falk1, Wikimedia Commons

I can already hear foreigners (and non-rail enthusiast Finns too) going "what the hell are the blue carriages?" Well, the blue carriages were/are the first Finnish steel-bodied passenger carriages, with over 600 units (depending a bit on what you count as being actual blue carriages) of different types built between 1961 and 1986. Today, almost all of them have been retired. Which is a shame, because they were sexy.

The first 15 blue carriages were built by the West German Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, who also designed them, in 1961. This original batch were equipped with different types of boggies, from which the Minden-Deutz boggie was chosen for the eventual mass-produced series built in-house by the VR Pasila workshop starting from 1964 (Valmet also built a small number of carriages).

A combined 1st and 2nd class carriage as built, 1964. At this point they still had steel covering the underbody from the sides. These hems were later removed to better display the arousing technical bits. Olavi Karasjoki, Suomen rautatiemuseo.

President Kekkonen (the bald dude) visiting the above carriage. Olavi Karasjoki, Suomen rautatiemuseo.

The initial batch consisted of ten 2. class carriages (littera Eit), four combined 1. and 2. class coaches (lit. CEit) and one 1. class coach (lit. Cit). As you can maybe figure out, the -t at the end stood for teräs, steel, to distinguish from the old wood-bodied coaches. In addition to the regular first- and second-class coaches, the blue carriages' base design was adopted for restaurant cars (litteras Rbkt, Rt, Rkt and Rk), combined condutor's and luggage cars (lits. Fot, Efit and Efiti), sleepers (CEmt), aggregate cars to use on non-electrified tracks (Eifet), carriages with children's playrooms (ELht), postal carriages (Pot), military transport (Ems), prisoner transport (Nom), special carriages for the president and cabinet (A), and even a one-off disco carriage. The latter in particular fucked severely. All those sweaty bodies having it on inside a train...

Some sources also list the Eil-class local traffic coaches as blue carriages, but since they had some structural differences and were originally painted red rather than blue, I'm going to cover them in a separate entry.

Interior of a 2nd class carriage. My photo

Over the quarter of a century the blue carriages were in production, numerous improvements were made to the original design; most notably, the original top service speed of 120 km/h was increased first to 140 km/h and then to 160 km/h in some units.

By the time the last blue carriages were delivered in 1986, their star was already waning. In 1988, the first new Intercity carriages (in a white and red IC delivery) were delivered, and Intercity trains replaced the blue-carriaged special express (erikoispikajuna) trains as the flagship product. With the arrival of the Intercity carriages, and the double-decker carriages from 1998 onwards, the blue carriages were phased out.

Blue carriages at the Turku depot, an Eifet aggregate car repainted in the Intercity livery in the 1990s and CEmt sleepers (both carriages visible behind the Eifet; the sleepers have asymmetric window arrangements). My photo

Today, the only blue carriages still in use in the iconic original livery as sleepers in night trains to Lapland, and prison transport carriages. Some restaurant cars, aggregate cars and conductor's carriages still exist, but they have been repainted in the newer liveries. Several blue carriages have also been preserved by different instances and they're relatively commonly seen in heritage/museum trains these days.

[denimbex1986]

'Irish actor Andrew Scott has become one of Netflix’s most celebrated leading men this year with his performance as the titular con man in the platform’s flagship neo-noir miniseries Ripley. Tom Ripley manoeuvres his way in the lives of Dickie Greenleaf and Marge Sherbourne, before assuming the identity of the former and working to conceal a litany of crimes from the latter.

The series is set in various locations across Italy, and so Ripley ends up speaking Italian in several scenes to carry out his theft of Greenleaf’s identity. According to Scott’s own description of the role, “About 15% of it is acting in Italian.”

His Italian-speaking dialogue includes brief and formal conversations with service workers such as the doorman of his apartment building and a bank clerk. But there are other instances in which he has to discuss things at length. For instance, one scene in which Ripley’s landlady, who believes him to be Greenleaf, notices a newspaper article showing that one of his friend’s has been found dead in a car. “Ricardo,” she calls him, before asking him to explain the situation to her.

Scott recently told Jimmy Kimmel that acting in Italian was “genuinely terrifying”, especially because in the case of Tom Ripley, “he would be good at speaking Italian.” He elaborated that the levels of duplicity involved in his character’s behaviour made the task of speaking a foreign language even harder. “I’m also an Irishman playing an American imitating another American speaking Italian,” Scott said. He added that Greenleaf “would probably be less good at speaking Italian, so the way he speaks Italian would also have to differ.”

But could Scott speak Italian anyway?

While interviewing him, Kimmel joked with Scott that no one would be able to tell the difference between the various layers of Italian and American accents he was employing. He suggested to the actor that he must have had an American teach him to speak Italian.

“I had an Italian to teach me Italian,” Scott clarified, as he’d never learnt to speak the language before taking the part. Which explains why he found that aspect of his role so scary.

Nevertheless, he pulled it, with rave reviews from Italian critics and audiences alike complimenting his performance of dialogue in their language as “perfetto”. Scott nailed his impression of an American speaking fairly decent Italian, and many viewers have commented on his accomplished accent.

He won’t have to worry about struggling to get by on future holidays to the country, then. And he’ll likely be able to give his family and friends guided tours of Atrani, Sanremo, Rome and Venice, too. Scott could have done worse than choose a role set in some of Italy’s most beautiful places.'

[coimbrabertone]

Bottlegate and Cola Wars, I Can't Take it Anymore!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blogpost about the Viceroy rule in NASCAR, and one thing I cut from it was a brief discussion of the Cola Wars in NASCAR. This week, I'm tackling that issue, along with its sports drink offshoot: the bottle wars between Gatorade and Powerade.

So, to review from the Viceroy blog, while NASCAR banned sponsors that clashed with series sponsors, it did not ban competing sponsorships among different teams - in fact, it encouraged it. Thus, Pepsico got involved with Hendrick Motorsports quite famously, initially with a number of Jeff Gordon Pepsi cars, and more recently with Mountain Dew cars from the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott.

That came to an end after 2020, and come 2023, Chase Elliott would be scooped up by the competition: the Coca-Cola Family of Drivers.

Peaking in the late 90s/early 2000s, the Coke family once consisted of (circa 2003/2004) Steve Park, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, John Andretti, Kyle Petty, Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Burton.

That's the entire three-car lineup of Dale Earnhardt Inc., both JGR cars, both Petty Enterprises cars, both Yates cars, the Wood Brothers car, Kevin Harvick who succeeded the late Dale Earnhardt at RCR, and 60% of the Roush Racing lineup.

Coke wasn't fucking around.

Unfortunately, Pepsi had Jeff Gordon.

Well, they also sponsored Jeremy Mayfield with Mountain Dew at this time, plus Pepsi/Gatorade had deals with Jeff's Hendrick Motorsports teammates (most prominently Jimmie Johnsons) as well as the other two Roush drivers in the form of Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin, plus Ryan Newman of Penske, but Jeff Gordon is the most relevant one for the first part of this story.

That's because the Cola Wars in NASCAR came to a head at Daytona International Speedway on July 3rd, 2004 for the Pepsi 400.

Coca-Cola was promoting their new Coca-Cola C2 (essentially a soda halfway between Coke and Diet Coke by the sounds of it) brand, and they sponsored an armada of cars in this race:

John Andretti in the DEI #1 Chevy,

Greg Biffle (who won the 2003 Pepsi 400) in the Roush National Guard #16 Ford.

Tony Stewart in the Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot #20 Chevy.

Ricky Rudd in the Wood Brothers #21 Ford.

Kevin Harvick in the RCR GM Goodwrench #29 Chevy.

Kurt Busch in the Roush Sharpie #97 Ford.

Bill Elliott in his self-owned #98 Dodge.

and Jeff Burton in the Roush #99 Ford.

Coke had eight bullets in the gun to steal the thunder right out from Pepsi's flagship race - in what Pepsico pointed out was a blatant marketing stunt - however, like I said...Pepsi had Jeff Gordon.

John Andretti would crash out, Greg Biffle would end up a lap down, Jeff Burton in twenty-sixth, Bill Elliott eighteenth, Ricky Rudd seventeenth, Kevin Harvick fourteenth, while Tony Stewart in fifth and Kurt Busch in fourth were closest to pulling off Coke's marketing upset.

Unfortunately, none of them could stop Jeff Gordon from winning from pole in his DuPont/Pepsi #24 for Hendrick Motorsports.

It was the biggest moment of the Cola Wars, but 2004 had another Pepsi vs. Coke battle going on at the same time: Bottlegate.

You see, despite the Viceroy rule normally stopping this kind of stuff, in 2004, NASCAR decided to have Gatorade (Pepsi) sponsor victory lane, while Powerade (Coke) bottles would be placed on the roof of the winning cars. How the hell was this allowed to happen? Well, despite the France family running both NASCAR and the International Speedway Corporation, at this time, NASCAR had a deal with Coke and ISC had a deal with Pepsi - the same people in the guise of two different companies signed deals with two rival brands. Of course this was going to cause issues.

Pepsi did not want their drivers in their victory lane photographed with bottles of a Coca-cola owned sports drink.

Thus, Bottlegate began.

Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson were all sponsored by Pepsi, thus, as soon as they got out of the car in victory lane, they would punch and/or sweep the bottles off the roof, instantly getting Coke products out of the pictures...which pissed off Coca-cola a lot.

They were paying good money just to see drivers knock over their product!

So, after the Pepsi 400, with the aforementioned embarrassment of Coca-cola, NASCAR made a rule banning drivers from punching the bottles off the cars.

Coke drivers won the next two races with Tony Stewart winning at Chicagoland and Kurt Busch winning at New Hampshire.

But then Pepsi's Jimmie Johnson won at Pocono on August 1st.

Well, instead of punching the bottles, Jimmie calmly got out of the car, received a giant cardboard Lowe's sign from someone on his crew, and placed it in front of the Powerade bottles.

I love this stuff, this is generational pettiness over here, the Coke guys and the Pepsi guys each trying to make the other brand look bad, it's great!

Unfortunately, Coke and NASCAR didn't seem to think so, because Jimmie Johnson was fined $10,000 over the sign incident.

So yeah, this was NASCAR in the 2000s, where corporate money was everywhere and there were enough sponsorships going around that the drivers, the tracks, and the series all had separate deals to have to worry about. Hell, three Roush drivers were with Coke and the other two were with Pepsi - compare that to nowadays where the vending machines at RFK Racing are from Fastenal.

How the hell am I supposed to drink a wrench?

[russellius]

“I feel ready to be world champion,” says George Russell, IWC ambassador, Mercedes driver, and mental health campaigner. “You’ve just got to keep persevering. And sometimes, when you least expect it, that’s when it happens…”

No photoshoot in the history of mankind has ever finished on time. But George Russell’s wrapped up precisely 37 seconds earlier than it needed to. We had two hours with the Mercedes driver in which to do the following: dress him in three rather lovely outfits, get a series of portraits on the streets of Mayfair, shoot a behind-the-scenes video, conduct an in-person interview, travel to Cafe Royal on Piccadilly to host a dinner with IWC Schaffhausen, and conduct a lively panel discussion for 60 devoted Formula One fans. Is there a land speed record for cover shoots? To watch George and his team at work — a multi-part, smoothly-cogged machine of slick synchronicity — is to reach constantly for metaphors: they are like a jaw-droppingly efficient pit crew, perhaps; or the silent, infinitesimally-precise inner-workings of some fine, lovely automatic watch. I’m told that if a falcon watched television, it would assume it was sitting in front of an achingly slow slideshow, such is the processing speed of the bird’s eyes and mind. Before you even get to the on-track heroics — the sheer physical and mental ridiculousness of driving the fastest cars in the world competitively for a living — you sense that George is a falcon on the sofa; eyes profound and heartbeat slow.

It is appropriate that we have been brought together by a watch partner, I say, as we sit across from each other in a quiet room above the IWC flagship on Bond Street. IWC and Mercedes have enjoyed one of the longest heritage partnerships in Formula One, and George says he has been an ardent fan of the ancient, modern marque even before he joined the team in 2022. I comment on how disciplined and millimetric and precise the afternoon has been. Does he think a lot about time? “I’m now recognising how important my own time is, not only on a professional level — racing in an F1 car, where it’s all about the time — but also appreciating how much I value my own time,” he says. “So everything has been planned to the millisecond, which is how I like it.”

It has certainly taken a long time to move this fast. George — 25 years, 4 months, and 22 days old at the time of writing — left school at the age of 14 to pursue his career behind the wheel. All drivers start incredibly young (George was winning karting competitions at seven.) But this must have felt like a bold move in an industry that is precarious at best, brutally competitive throughout, and characterised by sliding-doors moments, quirks of fate, milliseconds that are worth entire careers. Did it feel bold and risky at the time?

“Now I look back at the responsibility it took for [my parents] to make such a bold decision, it couldn’t have been easy,” he says. “I think there are things in school I have missed out on, but there’s also a hell of a lot I’ve learned in life that school couldn’t have taught me. From the ages of 14 to 18, when I was travelling the world racing, I was working with engineers who were thirty or forty years older, and going to dinner with my mechanics who were in their late twenties. That matures you a lot to the world. I feel like I grew up a lot quicker,” he says.

“It also meant I stayed out of trouble. I had people who I grew up at school with who got into a lot of mischief, as a lot of teenagers do, going out partying and drinking. I missed out on that side of social life. Whether that’s a positive or a negative, who knows. But I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.” Either way, at this precise moment, the gamble looks to have paid off. All careers look smoother in hindsight, and George is refreshingly open about the mistakes, stumbling blocks and setbacks that have punctuated the last decade. But the general trend — the Wikipedia trajectory — has been upwards, upwards, upwards: a whistle-stop climb through karting, Renault Formula 2.0, Formula 4, Formula 3, Formula, GP3, Formula 2, and then, finally, the big one.

Again, timing is everything. In 2014, having won the Formula 4 title, a 16-year-old George sent an email to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, humbly asking for a meeting and potential future shot at one of those 20 coveted seats. “I didn’t plan it this way, but I sent that email two days after the championship had finished,” says George. “Timing’s exceptionally important. There was a lot of success and happiness [at that moment]; a relaxed environment. Perhaps if I had sent that email three days earlier, it would have just got caught up in that craziness of the race weekend. And perhaps I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

Does he think those soft skills — the ways of communicating, his clear thoughtfulness, being polite and kind — are useful, in some unsung way, to a driver’s success on the track? “First impressions are very important,” he says. “Maybe if [his first message to Toto] had come across in an arrogant way, I wouldn’t have gotten a reply to that email.” He says the main things he has learned from Wolff and from Lewis Hamilton, his race partner at Mercedes, are all around “being a grounded and humble person,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest of all time, or you’ve never had any success — you need to be a grounded person, be humble, treat everyone with respect. They’re things that will take you far in life.”

But still, he tells me, “there’s a clear distinction between being a nice guy, a polite guy — but also being a ruthless athlete. It’s about having that respect, charisma and humbleness in certain scenarios — but also about having that that fire when the helmet is on. That’s a very important distinction.”

That fire fueled a successful debut year in a Mercedes car for George. In April 2022, at the Australian Grand Prix, he achieved his first Mercedes podium. In July, in Hungary, he earned his first pole position. And then, in November, at Sao Paulo, George claimed his first Grand Prix victory, holding off Max Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen in an impressive performance. This year, he says, the team has had “some bad luck”, though he has been pleased with his own performance in general. We meet on the Wednesday before the British Grand Prix — always a slightly more pressurised and poignant race for homegrown talent — and there is a sense of calm confidence about the task ahead. When things can be improved, George says, it is important to work smarter, not simply harder. “I could be on the simulator five days a week, putting in even more hours on my driving,” he says. “But it wouldn’t make me faster. Having those days when I can step back and think about things with a more open vision is important. We can be so fixated in our job. Sometimes you miss the obvious.”

Are there two Georges, I ask? An on-track George and an off-track George? “When the helmet is on, you turn into this animal with one goal; extremely driven,” he says. “You have tunnel vision. You’re looking through this visor — it’s as tunnel vision as you can get. Nothing else matters.” But it is sometimes tricky, he says, when that on-track intensity is broadcast, often out of context, to an off-track setting. “It’s a bit challenging, because all the radio messages [from the cockpit to the race team] are broadcasted now,” he says. “The things you say under the highest pressures are scrutinised and broadcast to the world. And that’s a challenging place to be when you’re representing a brand like Mercedes, or IWC, or any of the other amazing brands and partners we have on our race car, and the 2000 people who work for the company. You’re representing more than just yourself — you’re representing thousands and thousands of people, and you want to make them proud on track with your performances. But it’s important not to let people down with actions you do in the heat of the moment, but may regret an hour later.”

The job of an F1 driver has always been unthinkably intense. But it feels much harder for drivers now — in the age of 360 observation, 24-hour coverage, and armchair Twitter critics — than perhaps it was even just 20 years ago, say. The helmet is a goldfish bowl as much as a shield. “Well,” George says, with Falcon-like perspective, “I think it’s a much more intense environment for every single individual on earth now. We’re all scrutinised. Everything we say on social media is being judged. Every photograph a teenager is posting on social media is being judged, idolised, criticised. It’s a brutal world, and I think the larger the profile, the harder that is. It sometimes feels like nobody can do right.  You open your mouth and you will upset somebody.”

That’s why, he says, the emergence of Netflix’s gargantuan hit Drive to Survive has been so refreshing. While it has brought some added pressure in that it’s awoken a new, much wider audience for the sport, it has also allowed the season some necessary breathing room; the context and zoomed-out perspective that the live, magnifying-glass coverage of each weekend often misses.

“It’s broadcast a year later, so there isn’t that initial reaction to a crash, or a comment, or something that’s been said ten minutes after a race has finished,” George says. “Whereas when you’re dealing with the on-site, live media, people have views, reactions, emotions straight away. And that’s why you’re also reserved to speak from the heart, because someone’s going to take offence from it, and it’s going to spiral, and it’s going to cause you pain from reading.” Does he read the Twitter comments? “No.”

That scrutiny, that pressure — and the clear empathy George has for other people of his generation, the first to mature almost entirely under the blazing, distorted gaze of social media — is one of the reasons he began working with Meta on a mental health campaign last year. As the editor of a magazine largely for young-ish men, I can attest that the ‘conversation around male mental health’, as it is so often loftily dubbed, can be waffly and buzzword-y and earnest beyond usefulness — sincere without being serious; optics over actual advice. So I ask George for one clear thing he would say to young people of his age.

“Don’t be afraid to fail,” he says without pausing. “There’s a huge amount of scrutiny upon people to not make mistakes; to try and be a perfect individual. But it’s definitely okay to make mistakes, and to learn from them, and I can just speak from my own experience: my mistakes were the toughest times of my career, but they’re what has defined me as a person — not just as a professional driver, but as an individual. As much as I regret all those mistakes, and wish they didn’t happen, I sit here now and know they’re the things that have defined me.”

Earlier, I had asked George whether, if he could click his fingers now and be crowned instant world-champion, he’d take the accolade; or whether he would want to earn it, graft for it. “You don’t want an easy journey,” he says. “Those who have an easy journey with no failures will always get slipped up in the future at some point. Yes, I feel ready to be world champion. I feel like I’m performing at the highest level I’ve performed. I’m going head-to-head with the greatest driver of all time, and last year was a great season for me. On a personal level I feel like I’m doing a good job. I have faith that everybody gets their opportunity,” he says.

“And yes, I wanted to be world champion yesterday. But unfortunately life doesn’t happen that way. You’ve got to keep persevering. And sometimes when you least expect it, that’s when it happens.” George Russell is moving fast. But he is not in a hurry.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

London is a city that has always been deeply uneven, with plenty of cultural treasures to hide the poverty in the Tower Blocks and the underpasses. London is effectively the main of the UK economy, and everything is geared towards it. Hence it retains a degree of economic dynamism that allows a degree of optimism, after all there's always a new restaurant, new exhibition, new flagship store, new play. Sure most workers are dirt poor, living on mashed avocado, and hoping the landlord gets visited by 3 Ghosts at Christmas, but there's the dream of making it in the big city.

Outside the London bubble, large parts of the country are either in despair, or have totally given up. Roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools are crumbling. Police have almost disappeared outside traffic stops. Courts are backlogged, prisons overfilled & well past their designed lifespan. Companies face significant trade barriers with the EU. The water industry is essentially operating on leveraged debt and mostly owned by oversea's pension funds, whilst the infrastructure collapses and raw sewage is being pumped into the rivers/seas. Everyone is underpaid compared to the cost of living, but also compared to many comparable roles in other countries.

In the shires, the more well paid commuter class can still have a nice life, but they are feeling a sharp pinch. Holidays cut. Cars held on to much, much longer than before. Meals out being reduced. Optional extras like music or sports for the kids cancelled. Impulse purchases stopped. All of which sounds like "oh poor Emma can't get her daughter Lucinda piano lessons boo hoo" but think about the economic impact. That is money that would have gone to a piano teacher (usually self employed), to the coffee shop whilst Emma waits, to a music shop for music, perhaps a CD or concert tickets to something Lucinda played at a lesson. Then when Lucinda grows up instead of having a career in arts or entertainment, even at her local bar or church, she doesn't know how to play piano. So society as a whole has lost a musician, and Lucinda as a person flourishes slightly less. The UK arts sector is one of our biggest economic powerhouses, yet it is routinely ignored and hammered by the govt. Art & music are regarded as luxury items, despite contributing £1.6 billion to the annual economy (2021 at 5.6%). That's huge, bigger than the fishing industry which contributes £1.4 billion (2021 at 4%). Yet with rents sky rocketing, and school budgets in utter crisis, arts/music get dropped and creative talent has to switch to more routine jobs to survive. UK Musicians are dropped from EU events following the botched visa system, and international work is increasingly harder for them to get.

Outside the diminishing middle class, the real difficulty and poverty of the UK hits home. People are not sure whether the next rent payment or electricity will quite literally bankrupt them and leave them homeless. Wages are mostly static, with few rises outside a number of key sectors. Some areas have seen wage growth, but that has been concentrated in a small number of jobs (especially finance/management). The population is aging, and the care system is left almost entirely to private companies in a very disjointed, expensive manner. For most people the only credible hope of a financially better life is to inherit or to win the lottery or to commit crime. This is strikingly similar to the pattern seen in many developing world economies.

For example, I have worked in the public sector for 20 years. In that time I have trained, gained professional qualifications, led larger teams, upskilled on IT/project management and become more productive. Since my pay has been capped at a 0.5% rise, it is a real terms wage cut. So I've become more productive yet I'm paid less. Why should I 1) carry on trying to be more productive, & 2) stay in the job? Productivity increases from workers have to be linked to a personal reward, as well as a benefit to an employer or there's no point for the employee. Hence "quiet quitting".

So the UK is in the dire position of poor infrastructure, rampant poverty, and a population that no longer believes hard work or being productive will improve their own lives, only maintain their survival. This is not a recipe for a flourishing economy or nation. The worst thing is that the UK has started to lose hope that things can get better without a magical solution. Without at least some hope, we are doomed.

Saved via reddit from user 'AgeOfVictoriaPodcast' - as an excellent (if depressing!) summary of the UK's economy and society in 2023 / the 2020s / post Brexit

[jeniffercheck]

ignore tenderness (part 1)

shivlina parent-teacher au: karolina is the vice principal of waystar academy, the flagship of the roy dynasty, shiv's daughter is starting first grade there as tomshiv go through a very fun divorce xx

words: 2k

read here or on ao3

It’s different when she walks in.

Well, not different, just not how she remembers, which is to say, that it’s different, all the same.

The school has been renovated in the last ten years—which, more than ten, but she doesn’t need to go there—at the helm of some benevolent benefactors that Dad had begrudgingly accepted.

(The Nan Pierce Center of Art and Communications had been the cause of the big one, she’s sure of it.)

It’s still archaic, in a sense—the hardwood flooring of the grand foyer creaking underneath her feet as she steps on floorboards that she’s certain were just as creaky as when she was a student, the walls still lined in that ornate aging oak that’s excruciatingly reminiscent of the day school out in Dulwich that Mom had shipped her off to that one summer when she was ten and wouldn’t do so much as look in her mother’s direction without picking a pitiful fight (Caroline’s words), and it still smells the same, like lemon-oil and fucking wood, a pyre of austere childhoods waiting to go up in flames before they can amount to anything that even so much as resembles a dream.

But the rest of it—the halls where she sprinted with her friends, spouting hushed giggles as they skipped class during senior year, the windows that were sure to break every time the fall semester rolled right around with hurricane season, even the fireplace that was never on, now both on and electric, burning bright at the center of the entrance—it’s different.

Not that she thought she’d have to see it.

(Tom walked so far up Dad’s ass during Easter dinner last spring that he’d promised Logan they’d be seeing Emma at Waystar Academy for the start of first grade without consulting Shiv first. Logan had been so delighted that they couldn’t renege, and Shiv had been so enraged that she told Tom that she wouldn’t be stepping foot on that campus without it involving a lighter and a canister of gasoline.

That was the start of the end, she thinks.)

Life works in one, very simple way for Shiv Roy. She wants something, and then it doesn’t happen.

She wanted Tom to make good on his promise that if her daughter were to be enrolled in this school, it would be his problem. Enrollment interviews? His problem. Parent-Teacher conferences? His problem. Transportation? His problem. PTA requirements? Most definitely, his problem. And realistically, no, Shiv would’ve have made it to the end of October before the pettiness wore out and she took her rightful spot at the helm of it all, but she thought she had more time, at the very least.

She didn’t think she’d be walking into this school, the birthright that isn’t actually hers, not even a full four days into the term because Tom has a very important meeting that I absolutely cannot miss, Siobhan, unless you’d like to be paying spousal support for the next thirteen years of your daughter’s life so that she doesn’t have to spend fifty-percent of her time in a shoebox in Battery Park and Shiv had wanted to say there’s no way in ripe hell that you’re getting fifty-fucking-percent of anything but she was in a strategy meeting with way too many eyes and just smiled politely and said that’s fine, Tom, we’ll talk about this tonight, and an hour and a half later she was thirty minutes outside of the city, pulling a company car into the parking lot of the one place she never wanted to return to.

Now, she’s standing outside of the Vice Principal’s office—because he can’t even be bothered to see to his own granddaughter, she supposes—waiting to find out why it is that Tom was called into the school during the middle of the day on the first Thursday of the school year.

  —

  Shiv knows within about ten seconds of meeting the Vice Principal that she does not like the woman.

First, she walks into the office to find Emma already there, sulking in one of two big seats across from the Vice Principal’s desk. It swallows her entirely—still small for five-almost-six, though the doctor isn’t concerned, just mildly interested in tracking her growth over the next few months or so—and she cowers into it as Shiv arrives, the dark strawberry blonde trusses of her ponytail catching the leather seat like tv static, and the Vice Principal is kneeling in front of the chair, smiling at her daughter like they share a secret that Shiv could never dream of understanding, and it’s not until Shiv loudly closes the door behind her and clears her throat that either of them even notices she’s walked in at all, and that’s that.

The Vice Principal stands—all dark hair, dark clothing, and sharp eyes, cold and not at all like she’d expected Frank’s replacement to be—and holds out her hand.

“Ms. Roy, I’m Dr. Novotney,” she says, then glances toward Emma, discreetly and briefly. “We were expecting Mr. Wambsgans.”

She doesn’t finish the sentence, not with the question she means, and Shiv glances down as well, Emma focused solely on untying and tying her shoelace with all the concentration that a nervous almost-six-year-old can muster.

(Emma had insisted that she start the first grade with laced shoes and Shiv had insisted that if she wanted to wear them then she better know how to tie them. By the end of the next week, she could do both in under a minute.)

Shiv waits for Emma to finish the new knot before she brushes the top of her head, brushing down the rogue baby hairs with the pad of her thumb.

“Shoes off the chair, Emma,” she says. “You know the rules.”

She looks fine, decidedly, which can only mean so many things, and Emma listens diligently, still not looking up. Shiv returns her gaze to Dr. Novotney, eyes the myriad of framed diplomas sitting proudly behind the desk.

“Tom’s tied up in the city,” Shiv says, smiles politely. “We appreciate you waiting.”

Dr. Novotney—first name, Karolina, as presented on each meticulously spaced-out accolade—returns the smile, short and tight, and moves behind her desk. She gestures to the chair next to Emma’s.

“Please, take a seat.”

  —

  Emma, for whatever she lacks in brute physicality, is certainly Shiv’s daughter.

“What do you mean she pushed him?”

Dr. Novotney, folds her hands calmly on the desk, Shiv’s stiff in her lap. She eyes Emma, still fussing, having moved onto the hem of her skirt.

“Well, Ms. Roy—she pushed him,” Dr. Novotney says, and Shiv holds her breath, bites the inside of her cheek so as to not roll her eyes at the statement, because, yes, they’ve clearly established that her daughter pushed someone.

“And is there more to it than that, or are you trying to tell me that she just walked into school today and felt like pushing someone?”

Emma, still looking away, crosses her arms.

“The teacher on duty reported that there was a—verbal spat in the lunch line,” Dr. Novotney explains. “As you know, the entire school eats lunch together, so, occasionally the older classes are next to the younger classes in line, and this student seemed to know, well—who Emma is.”

“What was the spat about?” Shiv asks. The Vice Principal shifts then, and looks at Emma briefly, Emma looking away, dutifully defiant.

“Um—” Dr. Novotney leans forward. “You know, Ms. Roy—sometimes the children hear things at home, and then they bring those things into the school, and they don’t even know what they’re saying, but they say them anyway—”

“What did he say?” Shiv interrupts. She looks at her daughter. “Emma?”

Emma steals a glance at Dr. Novotney this time, as if looking for permission to repeat the words that had been spoken, and the principal nods at her.

“It’s okay, Emma,” Dr. Novotney says, gently.

Emma looks down and scuffs her shoes together in a way that would have Shiv scolding her in any other situation.

“He said I don’t look like daddy,” she says, and Shiv sees red, just very briefly, and knows she should cut the meeting short, tell Emma that she has permission to push anyone who speaks to her that way, any stupid boy who dares to get in her face and speak with vitriol—to use rumors against her, whether he understands them or not, whether they’re true or not.

(Rumors that, if were true at all, even just a small percent— would make Shiv Roy’s life infinitely easier.)

Emma’s eyes drop under those long lashes that look so, so, much like Tom’s and Shiv curls a fist inward, returning a sharp gaze to Dr. Novotney.

“So, my daughter felt threatened by an older, male, student because he was spreading lies and teasing her about them, and she’s being punished for defending herself?”

The Vice Principal, to her credit, sets her jaw in a way that lets Shiv know that she’s not exactly happy about the arrangement either, but to Shiv’s absolute displeasure, it doesn’t change a damn thing.

“Ms. Roy, as you also know, we have a zero-tolerance policy for violence here at Waystar Academy,” she starts. “Fortunately, Emma was unharmed in the spat, but we can’t say the same for the other student.”

A boy in the third grade with a sprained wrist, courtesy of his falling over after being pushed by a thirty-four-inch tall five-year-old.

“He taunted her—” Shiv says. “A boy is bullying my daughter and the school’s response is to punish her?”

“Ms. Roy—”

“Does my father know about this?”

The Vice Principal takes a deep breath, and Shiv would laugh if she weren’t so enraged. She’s good at this.

“Ms. Roy, we generally like to keep disciplinary action through the Vice Principal’s office unless the situation calls for escalation.”

Shiv nods. She’s not stupid. She can read between the lines. “You asked him already?”

Dr. Novotney diverts her eyes. “I raised it with him,” she confirms. “Seeing as Emma is his granddaughter.”

“And?”

Dr. Novotney looks back at her. “He thought it best that her punishment come from an unbiased party.”

Shiv doesn’t move a muscle. “And what is her proposed punishment?”

Dr. Novotney straightens a stack of papers on her desk, pulling a page out and sliding it to Shiv. “We’ll start with a seven-day restricted play during recess,” Dr. Novotney says. “She’ll still receive outside time with her class, just no recreation during the thirty minutes.”

“And the boy?”

“We’ll ensure that he and his parents are spoken to about this behavior,” Dr. Novotney says, and Shiv can’t help it when she finally laughs, quietly, but she does, at the incredulity of the situation.

“Right,” Shiv says. “Wouldn’t want to have a lawsuit on your hands.”

Dr. Novotney opens her mouth at that, and then smiles, sweet, kind, and turns to Emma. She stands.

“Emma, would you please wait outside?”

Emma, ever caught between all the authority in her surroundings, looks at Shiv. “Go on, honey,” she says, digging her phone out of her pocket. She unlocks it, switches it to Emma’s setting. “Just wait quietly, alright?”

Emma nods and takes the phone, still not quite meeting Shiv’s eye. She leaves her backpack, forgotten on the floor beside the chair. Karolina is silent until Emma disappears behind the door.

“Video games are against school policy,” Dr. Novotney says, watching the door close completely.

“Bullying is against school policy as well, no?”

Dr. Novotney sighs, and Shiv finds it impressive almost, that she still hasn’t cracked under Shiv’s attempts at instigation. “Look, Ms. Roy—” She walks around the desk, stops in front of Shiv, and leans back. “I’m not under the illusion that the actions of the other student were acceptable, but there are policies, yes, and violence is not one that we can let go without punishment.”

“So, you can let other broken policies go without punishment?”

“The other student will receive a recorded verbal warning as stated under our anti-bullying policy,” Dr. Novotney says. “There are three strikes until suspension. That’s all I can do at this moment.”

Shiv shakes her head and stands.

“The lengths this school goes to,” she mutters. “To raise entitled men.”

Something flashes in the Vice Principal’s eyes then, solid but shimmeringly enraged in a way that Shiv knows well, and Shiv can tell she agrees. She also knows it doesn’t mean anything.

“If you have any issues with the solutions discussed today, I’d be more than happy to raise them with the principal.”

Shiv smiles. Just another lackey. Not a thing at this school is any different.

“No need,” Shiv says. “I have him on speed dial.”

“Of course,” Karolina smiles.

“If that’s all?”

“There was one more thing,” Dr. Novotney says, standing up from the desk. She looks nervous, suddenly. “I just wanted to ask—if this sort of behavior, well—Emma’s only been here a few days and there wasn’t anything that stood out in her previous school records, but—is this sort of behavior typical for her?”

Shiv freezes.

“Is my daughter typically violent toward other children?” Shiv asks, squinting her eyes.

“I’d just like to know if there are any accommodations we should be making for her, anything that we missed in the onboarding process,” Dr. Novotney says. “We can work with her if she’s having problems with, you know—regulation.”

Shiv smiles—she thinks. “Yes, well, I appreciate the concern, but she seems to regulate just fine when other kids aren’t standing in the lunch line suggesting that her father isn’t actually her father.”

“Of course,” Dr. Novotney says, quickly. She pauses, bends down, and picks up Emma’s backpack. “It’s just my duty to ask. And—I assure you, we will be having that discussion with the other student.”

She holds it out toward Shiv, and Shiv grabs it, biting her tongue. She nods.

“Please let my office know if you have any questions,” Dr. Novotney says, with a sense of finality. “Send my regards to Mr. Wambsgans.”

“I’ll make sure to send him your very best, Dr. Novotney,” Shiv says, voice dripping in poison. She leaves the office without another glance.

She holds out her hand to Emma. “Let’s go.”

(Tom, later, hushed in the ensuite of the bedroom that he doesn’t sleep in anymore—

“She pushed another kid—and you took her out for ice cream?”)