• frank@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        Massive F1 fan here.

        It’s more of an engineering sport than a driving sport. Don’t get me wrong– the drivers are absolutely top notch and do an incredible job and it’s entertaining to watch. But since it’s sooooo engineering and development based, you cars that perform different on different tracks (cuz of elevation, temperature, track design, surface).

        It’s pretty neat; worth a watch sometime!

        • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          This is like the argument that football is exciting because it’s a highly strategic sport: the most interesting and exciting things about it are happening on the sidelines in the coaches’ heads while 40% of the time nothing is happening on the field.

          So if the most exciting part of the race is the engineering that went into the car, then what’s the point of watching the race? You’d be probably be more interested watching Bill Nye.

          • frank@sopuli.xyz
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            8 months ago

            So much cool matsci!

            The exhaust is no longer titanium (it’s inconel) because they 3D print the complicated bits of it now instead of traditional forming techniques

          • frank@sopuli.xyz
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            8 months ago

            I’m not sure what you’re referring to but not at all! It’s the inverse of a “spec series” (which still benefit greatly from engineering) where you get handed parts to use. Teams can design the vast majority of parts themselves and do

            • uis@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I’m not sure which one, but I think it is F1 where making car too good is banned.

              • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
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                8 months ago

                There are a bunch of restrictions in F1, which largely make it harder to make fast cars. But think of it the other way around: Those restrictions make the engineering harder, and all teams have the same restrictions. That means you have to optimise even more within the limitations you have, because you’re not allowed to make some of the “easy” optimisations like cutting weight by removing the roll cage.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s the difference between a marathon and an obstacle course.

        Nascar has some really crazy shit, like building a twisted car to turn left, canting the engines to perform better in turns, making the car as flat as possible on the right to get better aero when up against the wall. They do some wild stuff with the cars, and stretching the rules or “cheating” was, and probably is, a huge part of the sport.

        When it comes to the racing itself, the track layout is usually designed with top sustained speed in mind, which means that a lot of the driver’s finishing position is determined by their ability to battle it out with the other drivers, instead of their ability to optimize the course. Not to mention, that simple “left turn” is deceptively complex. Drivers account for track conditions, like foreign debris, rubber “marbles”, bank angle, and temperature, atmospheric conditions like air density, car conditions like damage, fuel, tire wear and tire temp, and race conditions like remaining laps, position and proximity to other drivers, when they make that “simple left”. Throw in make-or-break pitstops, where the car gets fuel, tires and repairs in less than 10 seconds, and the fact that almost all of this is happening at 170+ MPH, and you realize that oval racing isn’t just a bunch of hilljacks turning left, but a modern gladiator-style chariot race.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            No hard feelings. I’m not a big Nascar guy either, but I went to ~10 Brickyard 400s when I was younger. Totally agree with your sentiment about mild left turn and car shuffling. If that was all I could see, it would be pretty boring. I have the same feeling about horse racing. Just zero appreciation for the Kentucky derby. Just a bunch of multi-millionaires’ horses running around with some other dude on their backs in my opinion. I’m sure there is a complexity that I’m missing, but I’m happy just not knowing.

  • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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    8 months ago

    Guess I’m post-racism because my first thought was “mosquitoes”.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        After some research prompted by your comment I think my French/ignorance might be showing, as the correct word would be species.

        • BluesF@feddit.uk
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          8 months ago

          Is the word for race & species in French the same? Just trying to understand the mix-up!

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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            8 months ago

            No I don’t even really have that excuse because we do have the word “espèce” which would be the direct translation of species, but I think in every day language people would use them a bit interchangeably. For example also breeds of dogs we call races.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    If I had to choose a race to be eliminated to get the alien tech, I’d go with potato sack. Some people might miss it, but I feel like it’s time to let that one go.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      I agree. The three legged race is too much of a classic. The feeling of flow state when you and your partner get moving quick is too good. Sack races never feel fun. Just painful.

    • BluesF@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      Agree 100% I embarrassed myself thoroughly in the sack race as a child and would like all future examples banned.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Yeah I am not voting.

    If they were really a benevolent species, they wouldn’t play this mind game to begin with.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Well it might make perfect sense from their perspective, there might be a million alien species on the galactic council who all agree they don’t want to deal with a species that won’t purge at least one race.

        It’s unlikely but possible, we have literally no way of knowing or really guessing anything about how an alien race or empire might think. They might be shocked and confused we don’t kill our enemies children, bemused that we ended slavery, disgusted that we don’t torture criminals for sport…

        An even scarier thought is that we might agree with them in a hundred or thousand years, it seems impossible to imagine but to me it seems impossible to imagine slavery was ever a thing or that they put criminals heads on pikes for everyone to see.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Wouldn’t they?

      Maybe shit like that is the kind of wake up call our species would need to finally get us on the path to a post-race society.

      Maybe they know we need a bit of a nudge and they decided they’d be the one to give it to us.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Look if Covid-19 wasn’t an effective enough wake up call, I don’t think anything will be.

        Pretty sure this is just going to start off a race war

        • phx@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          There’d be a 180° and people would start claiming that the political leaders were controlling the aliens rather than the other way around

    • teuast@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      how about the Abu Dhabi Tour? A week-long stage race on the least interesting terrain on the planet. The first stage frequently has a finishing straight that’s 60k long.

  • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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    8 months ago

    Reminds me of that Black Mirror episode when people could post names of people they wanted to be killed and every day the most posted person were killed. After some time, the man behind that killed all of the people who voted for anybody.

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      So in that killer’s mind, wanting someone killed was the morally indefensible crime but actually killing ludicrous numbers of people is not? And he nor anyone else questioned that? 🤔

      • MasterPraetorian@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Bit of context and spoilers - He was making a statement about social media threats/harassment

        The first part - using social media - whoever people vote to be killed, gets killed. Trying to show these actions have consequences. The people voting feel immune to these consequences. They just voted, they didn’t kill anybody.
        He goes through 5 rounds of voting, with more votes every time. After each round, the most voted for is killed.

        Up to this point he’s exposing people trying to use social media to try and harm people Eventually he turns it around, and kills everyone who voted

        The whole thing kicked off because his friend/romantic interest tried to commit suicide from cyber bullying. He’s pushing that these actions have consequences, even if you hide behind a screen.

        The killer himself is a psycho, so the morals aren’t exactly impactful to him. As for anyone else questioning, the definitely do.

        Disclaimer - been a while since I watched the episode. It’s pretty good, definitely need some suspension of disbelief (but that’s most episodes)

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I get that what he’s trying to do, it’s just his actions are self-defeating. The only reason the behavior on social media has violent consequences is because he’s imposing them; no one else in that story is killing people based on meaningless Facebook polls. They only matter because he makes them matter. He causes the problems he thinks he is solving.

          Also he assumes his actions will make people reconsider their choices and change, which they won’t because people for the most part aren’t capable of change. Most people don’t have the ability to do so. Those who do deliberately refuse to because they’re happy the way they are regardless of their true nature’s consequences to other people.

          It’s just a stupid gimmicky show pretending to be deep to get views. That’s all.

          • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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            8 months ago

            This is how every episode of Black Mirror is. Just little interesting “what if” scenarios that make you think. In the same way that fairy tales are contrived and unrealistic these are too.

              • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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                8 months ago

                The fact that there’s some discussion going on about it is evidence of that. It’s similar to the “would you press a button for a million dollars but a random person on earth dies” type of question. “Does voting to kill someone mean your responsible for the murder if they’re going to kill someone anyways?”

                • Nobsi@feddit.de
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                  8 months ago

                  I’m sorry i was just being mean to be mean. I think blackmirror is as thought provoking or interesting as the big bang theory

          • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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            8 months ago

            Behavior on social media can definitely have consequences in real life, even violent. Many shooters vere radicalized by social media groups, for example.

          • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            “What if technology was…(wait for it)…bad sometimes.”

            So thought provoking. I stand by my opinion that the only good episode of Black Mirror is the gay one.

            • jarfil@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              “What if technology was… (wait for it)… just technology, you ape with a gun”

              Technology is neither good nor bad, it’s how you use it. The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology… but of course if you blame technology for your own actions, it doesn’t work.

              • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology

                This is the intent of the vast majority of most science fiction. It doesn’t make Black Mirror’s execution good or insightful. Much of Black Mirror focuses on people “surrendering control” to technology in ways that prove self-destructive or just generally destructive. At their best, many of the stories aren’t really about technology. Technology serves as an aesthetic component, but you could still make the stories work without them. The Orville actually has a better version of Black Mirror’s Season 3, Episode 1 episode “Nosedive.” It actually engages with the underlying themes and ideological basis of a world that operates like that and suggests that the technology isn’t really the problem: it’s how people elect to perceive and judge one another and the ease with which we condemn one another from a distance. It’s not a technological problem, fundamentally, but a cultural one. Technology can facilitate bad behavior or exacerbate negative societal tendencies, but it doesn’t sit at the functional center of them. Because, functionally, it’s just a Salem Witch Trial story with additional technological flavoring on top. This is something that Black Mirror never seems to “get.”

                Which is why, and I will stand by this, the best Black Mirror episode is the gay one.

                • daltotron@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Why the gay one? Are you sure your favorite isn’t the one where miley cirus gets trapped in one of those apple robot dogs from the 2000’s or whatever?

  • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    Aliens would be really disappointed to find out we already have blue checkmarks invented and people don‘t care nearly enough about it.

    • Hank@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Ah you mean racing. For a moment I wanted to argue that it’s more humane to eradicate pugs due to their miserable health problems.