Formula 1 2025 - United States Grand Prix

The racing at the Grand Prix supports my belief that the US Grand Prix is the best of the US races.

Is it also the only one on a purpose-built track? Yes.

Do I think there's a correlation there? Yes!

The DRS button still kills joy, but hey at least Ferrari came up with a strategy that got one of the cars into the mix to be overtaken by DRS rather than skill.

(Yes, I am bitter)

Leclerc did some excellent defensive driving, and totally deserved driver of the day.

While I understand why the press are focussing on the remarkable gains Verstappen has made in the last couple of races, I'm not sure it's as bad for Piastri as they are painting it. At a circuit that he just did not gel with, he still got 10 points. It's vanishingly unlikely that the rest of the races are going to be that bad for him.

Book Review - The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements by Gail Dixon and Paul Parsons

 The only reason this isn't 5 stars is entirely a me-problem, and I'm trying to be reasonable.

I wanted more science to go along with the pictures.  A couple of elements had two pages of text and I think I would have liked more elements to have got that.

The pictures are amazing and I really like the inclusion of the crystal structure space for each of the solid elements.

LibraryThing Suggestions

1 - Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

2 - Science in Seconds: 200 Key Concepts Explained in an Instant (Knowledge in a Flash) by Hazel Muir

3 - Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

4 - The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore W. Gray

5 - Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

6 - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

7 - The Planets by Brian Cox

8 - Seven Elements that Changed the World: An Adventure of Ingenuity and Discovery by John Browne

9 - Stars and Planets by Jay M. Pasachoff

10 - The Secret Life of the Periodic Table by Ben Still

Not read any of them, but I want to.

Film review - Gemini Man

A mid-level spy film, an interesting sci-fi film and a mediocre action film had a baby.

As did Superman and Lex Luthor.

No, really.

It's a frustrating film because it comes so close to being better but it's also solid for what it is.

You have the conflicted agent working against a conspiracy - and Will Smith can do that easily (and does).

You've got the international espionage angle - it works.

You've got the everyday setting film that turns out to be sci fi and I like that style of sci fi.

I'm going to go through the three films that don't quite mesh together in increasing order of goodness.

Let's begin with the action film part, which is the bit that doesn't really work. I can understand a director choosing this film to try new technology, and unlike say, Cats, where you're there going 'why are you using tech that isn't quite there yet for an adaptation of this beloved piece from another medium?', this at least uses the tech that isn't quite there yet for an original story so the high frame rate not quite working doesn't ruin anything.

Why am I putting the technical detail in the action film section? Because it was in the action scenes where I noticed it. If I notice you are doing something technically different, my escape into the film is damaged.

I understand that, for the film to work (and probably to get the budget to make it), it needed action scenes. But they don't work and there's too much time spent on them, which means that some of the quieter character scenes that the film needs either aren't there, or are too short.

The middling spy film - it does what a lot of Hollywood films do. Get a bunch of British actors to play morally grey. They're cheap and they can do American accents. I'm fine with this, it gives Benedict Wong and Ralph Brown money. All good.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is stuck with the most obvious "oh hell, we haven't got a single woman in this film, stick one in" role I have seen for some time. She does very well in a horribly under-written role. I am not exaggerating about how obviously Zakarewski was added in to give the film a female character. There's one scene where she's being searched for bugs, and the way it is shot is totally just an excuse to get Mary Elizabeth Winstead in her underwear. It would have been filmed completely differently if the character had been male and it's so frustrating. I had hoped we'd moved beyond that.

There's travel and subterfuge in Budapest and you know what, it's middling.

The science fiction bit is the bit that works the best. I think it is, at least in part, because they don't try and explain the how, and just go with the why. Clive Owen is very good in his short screen time, because you can understand a younger Verris meeting Henry Brogan for the first time and seeing his belief that you can bend someone to being a superman by how you bring them up supported by evidence, and how he moved from that to cloning and every idea he's had since. (It's very Lex Luthor and Superman and Superboy/Kon-El)

And of course it ends up in child soldiers, because children are more malleable and aren't as aware of right and wrong, and isn't interesting the Verris starts to turn against Junior when he becomes old enough to develop his own set of ideals.

Junior is why the film has to use the fancy special effects and Will Smith is an excellent choice because the animators have lots of footage of a younger him to help mould how Junior looks. Will Smith is an excellent choice anyway because he sells Junior as well as Henry Brogan - he plays them differently enough that you could probably pick them apart even without the special effects. And the scene where he talks about his father!!! (Plus, as I said, the way it's obviously that story that made Verris choose him as the DNA donor for Junior.)

When the film does slow down for the emotional scenes, it works well. I almost want Ang Lee to have the chance to re-do it and pace it more like the original Day of the Jackal. Or make it a mini-series. There's so much potential in this that they can't get into because of time constraints.

It's not a good film, don't get me wrong, the bits don't fit together and its under-written, but there's potential there.

Formula 1 2025 - Singapore Grand Prix

 I actually managed to watch about half of this live. Right to the point where someone said, "this race is boring, let's go walk the dog." In fairness, the dog walk was more interesting than the race.

I then saw the end on Sky but also listened to the whole thing afterwards on BBC Sounds. It's really interesting that Sky F1 didn't fall for "pit to beat Verstappen" gambit but Sam Bird on BBC did (Harry Benjamin didn't).

Alonso has previous in the "whinging because he can't get past people" stakes - see Petrov. I am so very much team Hadjar anyway, and always team "anything that annoys Alonso" so I am on Hadjar's side in this.

Someone tell Sam Bird that I go off people quickly, particularly when you are mean to Tsunoda.

I do not blame Leclerc going off on one. Please can we get him a car that works. And Hamilton a car that actually, you know, brakes when he presses the brake.

McLaren section:
Crashing into a teammate is never good, nor is losing an end plate, but given the lack of overtaking opportunities at Singapore, it's not a bad place to do it.

Hey! for once McLaren's pit gremlins happened to Piastri

I'm not surprised that it's getting tasty down in McLaren-land because fighting for the title made Rubens Barrichello, the nicest man in motorsport (TM), angry, of course there will be McLaren on McLaren violence.

Saints Ahoy - Game 29 and the 2024 Season to Date

Yes, I am writing this post to try and distract myself from their match against Hull KR in the 2025 play-offs. (No, I have no idea how we got past Leeds.) 

This game, the last of the 2024 regular season, was a narrow loss to Leigh (https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/20/saints-suffer-narrow-defeat-to-leigh/), 18-12. Now we had a try chalked off, but Leigh were the better team for the whole game and all of Saints actual points were scored in the 10 minutes that Leigh were down to 12 men because of yellow card to Leutele for attempted Welsby murder. 

Because it was all in that 10 minutes, the "who played together when Saints scored" matrix chart is ... uninformative.  

So, instead, let's look at the season up to the end of game 29. 

When do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Who is present when Saints score?  

Saints reached the 200 point scoring moments in this game (vs 160 point-conceding moments), so it's a good time to see if there's any players present for more point-scoring moments than point-conceding moments (or vice versa). Percival is one of the players with the greatest differences, he is present for a lot fewer point-conceding moments, but that is because he got substituted at around minute 50. Hurrell and Dodd are also present for relatively fewer point-conceding moments. 

Delaney is the player present for relatively more point-conceding moments, as does Whitley. That I can't explain. There's two clear teams, the most often together (a full match day 17 - Welsby, Blake, Whitley, Bennison, Batchelor, Dodd, Percival, Bell, Hurrell, Mata'utia, Sironen, Lomax, Mbye, Clark, Makinson, Delaney and Lees) and the less often together (12 - Royle, Whitby, Vaughan, Wingfield, Walmsley, Robertson, Burns, Paasi, Knowles, Davies, Stephens and Ritson). 

Oddly, only 10 players are not in the central blob, when you look at the network graph. Looking the point-conceding moments 

This was the third time Saints and Leigh played this season. Leigh 3 are about mid-way up the chart.  

When do the point-conceding moments occur?  

That these aren't in a normal curve makes me happier that the point-scoring moments truly are normally distributed rather than it being some artefact. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

The who is present together when Saints concede matrix now looks like this:  

The equivalent network graph looks like this Again, the matrix and the network graph don't quite match.