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Rockets To Race Over Wisconsin Skies
Iron Condor writes with a reminder that that the first race of the Rocket Racing League (last mentioned here in April, after its 2005 founding) is set to take place later this month at Oshkosh AirVenture 08. This race, says Iron Condor,
"is exactly what it sounds like: NASCAR 1000m above ground in rocket-propelled airplanes. Created by X-prize founder/CEO Peter Diamandis, this is 'the next evolution of racing' (at least according to the promo video, which is definitely worth watching)..."
I can see where if this sort of thing really took off, the X-Prize interests would dovetail perfectly. If private racing could eventually hold races in low earth orbit, beating governments to the technology, the interest and funding for space could really take off. It's just another way to skin the cat, making money while advancing reasonable interests.
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Uh... It's a quicktime mov. I consider that shit far more irritating than flash. Only thing more irritating than quicktime is realmedia.
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by snowgirl (978879)
p.s. NASCAR is stupid and boring.
Dude, this is Slashdot, not Earnhardt country. And NASCAR does suck. There are much better racing variants available even in the US.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Uhhh... does anyone care about the massive waste of rocket fuel that this is? I mean, that's the number one reason I hate NASCAR. It's just downright wasteful. We could be using that gas, instead of burning it to drive in a circle 500 times.
This whole auto-racing thing is an artifact of a world where energy is plentiful and can be freely squandered.
Speaking as a European, I have, and really no offence, found US cheese to range from bland for the better stuff, to disgusting for the most mass-market ranges. And the thing you call processed cheese is beyond description all together. I'm sorry, I really am - the people of the USA have contributed to culture and science in many, many ways - but your cheese is the foulest thing that anyone has ever had the gaul to pass off as food. I tried pretty much all of it until I found somewhere that imported proper English cheddar which I bought with great relief.
I guess it's just one of those things.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
I'll take the bait. I'm not a huge NASCAR fan, but my roommate is. "How can an otherwise intelligent young man get so much enjoyment out of such a crappy sport?" is what I asked myself. Part of it was certainly his upbringing - his dad was a huge fan. But you know what? Under the surface, it's actually pretty interesting.
The issue is that it's kind of like golf, only the people who tend to watch it are larger, rowdier and smellier. Golf is pretty boring to watch, too, unless you have an eye for the subtleties of a good shot or an appreciation for the difficulty of a particular putt.
If you're watching mostly the track and seeing the cars go 'round to the left, you're going to be bored as hell. If you focus on an individual driver, and watch how he catches a draft off of a passing rival, and you understand that drafting will make both cars go faster (though the guy in front is at full throttle and the guy in back only half), the dynamics of the race become more interesting. In fact, I find the most entertaining part of the race to be how drivers play with the airstream (well, except for the crashes, of course).
I'm not a fan of Nascar by any stretch of the imagination and will never go out of my way to catch a race. If people are watching one where I am, though, I don't have to play the elitist asshole anymore because I understand that the game has some merits.
I agree that F1 is more interesting. Autocross not so much. And don't even get me started on drag racing.
Your brain is not a computer.