The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXXVII - The Daigo Fukuryū Maru & the disastrous fallout from the CASTLE BRAVO nuclear test.







The Victors: Project OSPREY
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Wisconsin 65-62 Michigan (№ 3) (O.T.)
21-3, Big Ten 8-3

How on Earth can any basketball club miss that many open layups? We must acquire the ability to win road games against equal opposition lest all this club's glittering potential & overwhelming talent come to naught. We are yet a young club, but that won't matter down the line. The N.C.A.A. Tournament is the most ruthlessly effective sorting mechanism that exists in sport, & if we don't learn to win on the road we will be discarded as chaff instead of advanced as wheat. "Win or go home," at present we look like we will be going home early.

Next: The Murderers' Row finale, at (№ 12) Michigan State on Tuesday. We are 1-2 in the first three games of this Murderers' Row stretch of the season, both losses coming on the road, as is the upcoming duel; panic, pessimism, & predictions of doom will hold sway if the valiant Wolverines do not prevail against the dastardly Spartans.

Go Blue!

This Week in Motorsport
Rally Monkey
World Rally Championship
Round 2
Rally Sweden
Thursday-Sunday, 7-10 February 2013

There is yet no television coverage of the W.R.C., but videos at the wrc.com website have furnished some succor. Sébastien Ogier of Volkswagen was the surprising/not-that-surprising winner of the Rally Sweden. Surprising since this was only V.W.'s second round of the W.R.C., against the tried & tested machinery from Citroën & Ford. Not that surprising since Ogier finished second to reigning nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb ('04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, & '12) of Citroën in the season-opening Rallye de Monte-Carlo, & had seven career W.R.C. victories prior to Sweden, all from his days as "the other Sébastien" at Citroën. The former Ford Finns Mikko Hirvonen, of Citroën, & Jari-Matti Ltvala, of Volkswagen, were well behind the dueling Frenchmen: Hirvonen crashed out on the first day & Latvala finished fourth behind the Ford of Mads Østberg. Ogier became only the second non-Scandinavian to win Rally Sweden since it became a round of the W.R.C. in '73.

Rally Sweden is run entirely on ice & snow, on bespoke spiked tires. The cars rocket through the snow-blanketed forests of Sweden (& Norway, a little bit) at speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour (approximately 125 miles per hour)—on snow & ice. It is one of the truly unique sights in all of motorsport, exotic & bizarre & mad. The W.R.C. is such glorious madness!

Next: Mexico, in a month's time.

Tourists
World Touring Car Championship
Rounds 21 & 22
Race of China
Sunday, 4 November 2012

With the drivers' championship a three-man race 'twist the trio of Chevrolet factory pilots, things took a dramatic turn on the Shanghai International Circuit. In Round 21, Alain Menu started from the poll with reigning triple World Champion Yvan Muller ('08, '10, & '11) in second, & third Chevy man Rob Huff starting from fourth. Muller tried to pass Menu by going the long way 'round a outside, a move the Cruze is able to put on every other car in the W.T.C.C., but which was never going to work against an identical factory Cruze. Muller & Menu collided, sending Muller wide; Huff slotted into second behind Menu, & when Muller got back on the racing line he was tagged from behind first by the B.M.W. of Norbert Michelisz & then by the privateer Cruze of Colin Turkington. Muller had to retire with suspension damage, while Menu & Huff drove home in a Chevy one-two. In Round 22, with the previous race's starting grid reversed, the three works Cruzes were journeying as a train to the front, eventually passing the pole-sitting B.M.W. of Tom Coronel in order, Menu, Muller, & Huff. Muller & Huff had entered the weekend tied atop the championship standings, but Huff had opened up a significant gap with Muller's retirement. Muller made a desperate & ill-advised attempt to pass Menu, sending the Swiss's Cruze skipping sideways & allowing Huff to shoot into the lead of the race. Muller allowed Menu to pass, an attempt to avoid receiving a penalty from the stewards of the meet for causing a collision, but all for naught. The Chevys finished one-two-three, Huff-Menu-Muller, but after the race Muller was given a time penalty that dropped him down to thirteenth, out of the points. Huff finished second & third, while Muller failed to score in either race. Barring disaster in the season-ending duo at Macau, Muller has handed the drivers' crown to Huff.

Next: The Race of Macau, held two weeks later last fall, but to be broadcast only one week later, next weekend. That will draw the winter off-season racing season to a close, with no more races 'til March.

Coming Attractions
{a} the long-delayed relaunch of the successor to "Vote for Kodos" & "Obamboozled"
{b} "Project MERCATOR"
{c} "Project GLOWWORM"

Also, though there are no specific plans, "The Savage Wars of Peace" is long overdue, to address the French intervention in Mali, the continuing & perilous inaction on Syria, & the ballyhoo over "drone war," secret Justice Department memoranda, & the debate over the president's & the Congress's war-making powers.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
The Pogues, "Streams of Whiskey" from The Very Best of The Pogues (T.L.A.M.)

Samstag, 9 Februar
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "Danny's Song" from …Have a Ball (T.L.A.M.)