Science!
Indiana Jones meets Star Wars: archæology-link. Further proof that everything is better with the word "space." (Space pope, space bees... space archæology!)

Science!

Autobahn
This afternoon, I spied a Chevrolet Cruze sporting the vanity plate CRUZE. I'm yet undecided if that's appealingly clever or appallingly dumb.

In unambiguously appealing news, I spied, in the Brutalist concrete structure where I customarily park Lumi the Snow Queen to shade her interior from the death rays of the Accursed Sun, a Fiat 2000 Spider, resplendent in rosso corsa, Italian racing red. The top was down, revealing an easily accessible fire extinguisher & four-point harnesses that lead me to surmise the Spider is a track-day racer, or at least that the owner has pretensions in that direction. The sleek lines & ridiculously low stance of the Spider were rare sights in a muscle-car Mecca like the Vehicle City, & the badges with the script "Pininfarina" added a touch of continental class to these provincial environs. There are a pair of modern Fiat 500s often to be seen in the parking structure, both in unimaginative shades of gray, but after today I'd say the 2000 Spider is the only real Italian automobile I've seen in there. The Spider's vanity plate read FIATALY (an awkward portmonteau, I suppose, of "Fiat" & "Italy").

Another bloke was looking at the 2000 Spider as I approached & took my gander, neither of us sure exactly what we were seeing. (I did not know that what I saw was a 2000 Spider, a Pininfarina-manufactured continuation of the Fiat-produced 124 Sport Spider, until I could consult ye olde interweb, specifically the Wikipedia.) We agreed that neither of us had seen the Spider's like there on campus, though he said there was a sweet Dodge Challenger to be seen on the lowest level & I told him of the Triumph TR6 I've seen tooling around Grand Blanc & an M.G. I've seen parked at my church. He said that the only Triumphs he'd ever heard of were motorcycle, which lead to an unfortunate digression into two-wheeled territory, where my interest does not lie. But we parted on amiable terms after introducing ourselves (his name's Andy) & the sighting of the Fiat was made more enjoyable by the sharing of the experience with the fellow.

This Week in Motorsport
Formula Fun!
The 2012 F.I.A. Formula One World Championships got off to a rip-roaring start with the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Street Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria. The race began with a distinct difference from 2011: Neither of the two Red Bull (Renault-powered) cars started from the from row. Reigning double World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10 & '11) & grizzled Aussie veteran Mark Webber started sixth & fifth, the first time no Red Bull had been in the top four starting positions in over twenty grands prix. Once the race began, though, it became clear that things were not so different this year after all. The McLarens (Mercedes) of '09 World Champion Jenson Button & '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton started from the front row & set the early pace. There was much talk in qualifying & before the race of those Kraut bastards at the Mercedes factory team having finally taken that big step from being the fastest of the midfield teams to being truly able to compete with Red Bull, McLaren, & Ferrari; seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher ('94, '95, 2000, '01, '02, '03, & '04) started fourth, his highest grid position since he came out of retirement for the 2010 season. Once the race began, however, Schumacher's Mercedes was a rolling chicane, a roadblock in front of the Vettel's Red Bull; once the younger German was able to make the pass, his streaked into the distance. Schumacher soon inflicted fatal mechanical damage to his machine & had to retire from the grand prix. Slightly farther back in the running order, the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg held up Webber & the Ferrari of double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06), 'til they were each able to pass & leave the "Silver Arrow" Mercedes far, far behind. Vettel was able to leapfrog Hamilton on the pit stop rotation & made up ground on Button, but didn't quite have an answer to the McLaren's speed. The top five finishers were the top five contenders for the '10 & '11 World Drivers' Championships: Button, Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, & Alonso. F1 is back! Hooray! The next round of the championship will be the Malaysian Grand Prix, coming up this very weekend.

The Lotus Eaters & Farewell to the Virgins: The twelve teams competing in 2012 are the same twelve teams as in each of the last two seasons (several dropped out & several entered the sport 'twixt '09 & '10), though three of them now have different names. The former Renault factory team is no longer majority owned by Renault, & last year called itself Lotus Renault; this year, after settling the dispute with the former Team Lotus, the former Renault team are Lotus (still using Renault power). The brand-new team that entered F1 as Lotus Racing in '10 & became Team Lotus in '11, have relinquished the Lotus name & Chapman heritage & are contesting the '12 campaign as Caterham (Renault). (A further twist is that Caterham is an English sports car manufacturer whose principal product is the Caterham 7, based on Lotus founder Colin Chapman's old Lotus Seven; the Caterham 7 is far closer to Chapman's Lotuses than anything currently manufactured by Lotus Cars, the title sponsor of the former Renault team/current Lotus.) In far less confusing news, the hapless Virgin squad are now called Marussia (Cosworth), title sponsorship having changed from Sir Richard Branson's sprawling Virgin empire to the Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia.

The Pilots: Red Bull (Vettel & Webber), McLaren (Button & Hamilton), Ferrari (Alonso & Felipe Massa), Mercedes (Rosberg & Schumacher), & Sauber (Ferrari) (Kamui Kobayashi & Sergio Pérez) return the same driver lineups as in 2011.

At Force India (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil has been replaced by Nico Hülkenberg (who was a rookie with Williams in 2010), paired with the returning Paul di Resta. At Williams (switched to Renault from Cosworth), Rubens Barrichello has been replaced by Bruno Senna, paired with the returning Pastor Maldonado. At Caterham (last year's Team Lotus), Jarno Trulli has been replaced by Vitaly Petrov, paired with the returning Heikki Kovalainen. At Marussia, Jérôme d'Ambrosio has been replaced by rookie Charles Pic, paired with the returning Timo Glock. At Hispania (Cosworth), Vitantonio Liuzzi has been replaced by Pedro de la Rosa, paired with the returning Narain Karthikeyan (who gave up his seat for half of last year when Red Bull paid Hispania to get then-rookie Daniel Ricciardo some F1 experience).

At Lotus (last year's Lotus Renault), Petrov & Senna have been replaced by '07 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen (returning to F1 after two fruitless reasons in the W.R.C.) & Romain Grosjean (the reigning G.P.2 champion, who was a rookie with Renault in '09 & had been out of F1 since). At Toro Rosso (Ferrari), the Red Bull "B team," Sébastien Buemi & Jaime Alguersuari have been replaced by Ricciardo (who drove for Hispania on loan from Red Bull last year) & rookie Jean-Éric Vergne.

Last year there were no French drivers in Formula One; this year there are trois: the returning (& now much more seasoned) Grosjean & the rookies Vergne & Pic. Oui! Oui! Also, this year there are six World Drivers' Champions on the grid, the most ever to race in a single F1 season, fully one-quarter of the drivers in any given race. In chronological order (& team with which championship[s] was [were] won): Schumacher (Benetton, Ferrari), Alonso (Renault), Räikkönen (Ferrari), Hamilton (McLaren), Button (Brawn), & Vettel (Red Bull).

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
MxPx, "Sad Sad Song" from Secret Weapon (T.L.A.M.)