Indy 500

Last weekend I went to my first Indy 500.
I am not a big racing fan but I have won my Fantasy NASCAR league.
The track is so much bigger than I had expected, only by walking into the infield do you get a sense of just how big it is. Even then the cars make a lap in about 45 sec at 200mph (they reached 222 mph).

The race started and at first I was a bit disappointed:

Then I found out they do 2 slow laps before they actually start racing:

The sound is very impressive and walking along the wall you get very disoriented as they go by.
Everyone ended up being safe so I can say it was neat to have 2 wrecks right in front of us. It is crazy to think that these drivers survive at 200 mph when the first casualty of a car accident was hit at 4 mph.

As a new type of sporting event for me, the main thing I really enjoyed was being able to bring your own cooler. Rachel's Dad packed some sandwiches and drinks. At first I thought this was a very American, Non Commercial, gesture by racing to let you bring your own stuff but I imagine the logistics of trying to feed 400,000 people would be impossible.

The only downside to racing is despite 400,000 people you feel somewhat isolated. The sounds and earplugs make casual conversation impossible. During a yellow flag when they slow down most people take out their ear plugs and start talking.

The strategy of Indy racing also interested me. From casual NASCAR experience I know teammates like to draft off each other. However in this race the first 2 cars were on the same team and they never drafted each other. In fact after yellow flags the #2 car would drop back quite a bit from the #1 car. I figured this could only be true if the Indy cars were so aerodynamic that drafting was irrelevant. And the #2 car was just trying to keep the #3 car back off the #1 car to prevent him from being passed in a restart.

It was a good day and a must see event like the Kentucky Derby.

Freakonomics - Gas

I am a big fan of the Freakonomics blog I have in my list here.

Not too long ago they had a blog about gas prices and how maybe we should lower the speed limit to save gas.

I disagree. Lowering the speed limit may slightly lower your gas consumption but will cause you to increase everyone else's gas consumption by making traffic worse.

The biggest waste of gas is sitting in traffic. Yahoo had an article a while ago that a distracted driver (cell phone) only needs to slow down 2-3 mph to have a significant impact on the flow of traffic.

Rachel's new car is the first I have ever owned that gives your instantaneous mpg. I love measuring anything, so I pay attention to this. We have fun contests to see who can drive more efficiently (last date night, I was totally about to win until I hit the train in Glendale). On the highway her car gets 30 mpg (great for an SUV). I have yet to see the mpg drop due to increased speed, I'm sure it is true but I have not seen a significant impact (I'll let you know after I test cruise control on our trip to Hocking Hills).

If anything we should all speed up.

Or support as many people as possible to work from home 1 day a week reducing their gas consumption and decreasing everyone else's by having less traffic.

In general, I have to physically be at work to make product (unless the FDA allows a PRL in my basement). However, Thursdays are my day of meetings (all day CPS scheduling meetings). It would be possible for me to call in and net meeting.

Movie Scenes

Sometimes when I am on the computer, Lucy likes to peek in at me even though the door is wide open. It reminds me of the Christopher Walken movie Communion. And the scariest movie scene I ever saw growing up.

Here it is on IMDB

I had no idea this movie only made $2 million in 1989.

Any other scary scenes?

Lucy and Missy

Last weekend, I got to spend the day with Lucy and her sister Missy.
Both are very sweet dogs who love attention.

First Missy gave me a dirty look for being left with me:

Then she asked if she was really stuck with me for a while:

Then Lucy took a nap:

Missy asked for a sip of my Coke:

They asked about their friend Biscuit from Concord:

Lucy asked if we liked her hair long:

Or short:

They laughed about the 2 days with "Henry/Gene/Max":

Then Lucy took a nap:

Yahoo

This will be interesting.
Shareholders potentially suing a company claiming they are taking the side of their employees over shareholders.

*****
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) walked away from its bid to buy Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) on Saturday after the Internet company turned down its offer to raise the price by $5 billion to $47.5 billion.

Microsoft's offer was for $33 a share but Yahoo would not lower its demand below $37, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said. The software company initially bid $31 per share for Yahoo more than three months ago.

Laura Martin, a senior analyst at Soleil Securities, said she expected a number of shareholder lawsuits against Yahoo.

"The Yahoo guys want too much money for their company. We think $33 a share is fair in the context of the weakening economic environment and adverse advertising trends," she said. "They've prioritized employees over shareholders in the hopes that someday they can create more than $8 billion of value, even if they have no track record of doing so," she said.

Analysts say Yahoo has overplayed its hand and they expect the Web pioneer's shares to fall as much as 30 percent to $20 levels when Nasdaq trading resumes on Monday. The stock rose nearly 7 percent to $28.67 on Friday on hopes of an agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Maps

I like Maps.

I have no use for this, but this is an interesting map:

This map concerns me:


This is my favorite:

Map of the US (Streets Only)

How would you do on a test to draw the US by memory?