Success!

There was success in today's missile defense test.

The test appears to have gone off with out a hitch. It is nice to see it progressing along and having success. It will be interesting to see if the Russians respond to this considering how strongly they are opposed to missile defense bases in Europe.

Wackos of the Year

The guys definitely are in the running for Wackos of the Year. LINK

The Association Against Animal Factories in Austria is trying to get a chimpanzee declared a person. They were thrown out of court but are determined to take it to the Supreme Court if they have to. They are trying to do this because the shelter where the chimp is may close. And if they can succeed in getting the chimp declared a person, then a guardian can be found to take care of it.

This is absolutely crazy!!! A chimp is NOT a person. Plain and simple. There are no exceptions. If this goes through, does that mean the chimp can vote? And if a chimp can be declared a person, can a dog? A Cat? An alligator? I hope logic and commonsense prevail.

WCHA Hockey Poll

The WCHA men's hockey coaches poll is out. The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux top the list with the Minnesota Gophers in second place. Then come the two Colorado schools and Wisconsin with nearly the same amount of points. St. Cloud St., Michigan Tech, Minn.-Duluth, MSU-Mankato, and Alaska-Anchorage round out the list.

Rank-School-Points

1. UND (7) 79
2. Minnesota (3) 74
3. Colorado Coll. 55
4. Denver 53
5. Wisconsin 52
6. St. Cloud St. 43
7. Michigan Tech 41
8. Minn.-Duluth 23
9. MSU-Mankato 19
10. Anchorage 11

Max Mosley's Comments on F1

Mas Mosley has made some comments on Formula One that need to be addressed.

Thanks to Autosport.com for the quotes.

In a letter sent to team principals last week, Mosley said it made 'no sense' for so much of the sport's finances to be spent on improving cars when it added nothing to the sport's spectacle.

Well, is F1 a spectacle, or a race? If it is a race, then it makes sense to spend whatever it takes to win. F1 traditionally has been about racing and winning the race. If you want a spectacle, look to NASCAR or GP2.

His frustrations have been fuelled by the fact that cost-cutting measures introduced by the FIA - including parc ferme restrictions and long-life engines - have done little to dissuade teams from spending money.

It was easily apparent that the long-life engines were not going to save any money. Teams just took the money that used to go to replacing engines and spent it on making them reliable. There used to be engine failures all the time, now it is rare for a team to lose a motor.

"Formula One's vast profits are currently being wasted on pointless exercises for the private entertainment of the teams' engineers," said Mosley in a document that was attached to the letter.

No, I believe they are spending all that money to win races. Races won equals more cars sold for manufactures, and more constructors dollars and sponsorship dollars for everyone.

"It makes absolutely no sense to spend large sums on items which do not add to the entertainment, indeed often detract from it.

The only reason the the "entertainment" is lacking is because of the rules. If wings were mad illegal, cars would have no problem passing. And as for spending large amounts of money, well, is it a race or a show?

"Therefore all items on the cars which are not known, visible and understood by the public should be standardised and manufactured at minimal cost.
"The technical contest should be limited to items which are visible, understood and potentially useful - eg KERS. (emphasis in the original)

KERS stand for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems. How many people understand that? And of those who do, I am pretty sure they would understand most of the current technology that they are not "supposed" to. There are already spec formulas out there, e.g. NASCAR (for the most part), GP2.

All is Fine and Dandy

OK, Kite's North Wind will get some serious attention now. As can be seen, it has not been updated for a while. But having said that, the blog has not died. There will be plenty of posts to come. Thanks everyone.