Dumb Questions Thread

[NotThePrez]

Exactly how does timing and scoring work in Endurance Racing, specifically when it comes to determining the winner?

I showed some friends Ford vs. Ferrari, and they were asking me how Bruce McLaren won even though Ken Miles was leading and the cars finished at the same time. I explained how the difference in space between starting positions were counted, and why the running Le Mans start was terrible, but it also made me wonder how final results are generally counted. I know that generally speaking the winner is determined by who covers the most distance when 24 hours ends, but does it happen the moment 24 hours ends, or when the car crosses the line after the 24 hour period?

I also distinctly remember a running of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring (can't remember the exact year, but it was within the last decade for sure) where a lower-class car stopped before the start/finish line waiting for the clock to run down, before being rear-ended by a GT car and "crossing the line" right before the timer hit zero. What was the lower-class driver trying to accomplish, and how does wrecking out after crossing the line effect the final score?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Exactly how does timing and scoring work in Endurance Racing, specifically when it comes to determining the winner?

I showed some friends Ford vs. Ferrari, and they were asking me how Bruce McLaren won even though Ken Miles was leading and the cars finished at the same time. I explained how the difference in space between starting positions were counted, and why the running Le Mans start was terrible, but it also made me wonder how final results are generally counted. I know that generally speaking the winner is determined by who covers the most distance when 24 hours ends, but does it happen the moment 24 hours ends, or when the car crosses the line after the 24 hour period?

I also distinctly remember a running of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring (can't remember the exact year, but it was within the last decade for sure) where a lower-class car stopped before the start/finish line waiting for the clock to run down, before being rear-ended by a GT car and "crossing the line" right before the timer hit zero. What was the lower-class driver trying to accomplish, and how does wrecking out after crossing the line effect the final score?

If the leader crosses the line before the timer hits the designated duration, they have to do another lap.

 

[Liquid]

Let's say a lap of the Nürburgring takes 9 minutes. If you approach the line with 1 minute to go, you might as well wait for the clock to reach zero and the leader to come round, end the race and then you cross the line in class position because it'll take less time than actually bothering with another racing lap.

You'll do it if you're in no danger of being overtaken like if you're a full lap ahead of the car behind. There are smarter ways of doing it than simply stopping just before the line though; make your last lap very, very slow and cruise the final part of the lap would be the obvious one.

 

[wfooshee]

At the time of the Ken Miles finish, the rules stipulated actual distance when they crossed the line. Since Ken Miles started well ahead of McLaren's car, yet McLaren's car was right with him at the finish line, Bruce was deemed by the organizers to have gone farther within the 24 hours and was thus proclaimed the winner.

That stupid rule no longer applies, it's simply the order of crossing the line.

As for stopping and waiting out the clock, suppose your were seconds ahead of the leader on the track, but actually at least most of a lap behind? If you cross the finish line, you have to complete another lap to finish the race. The leader may cross just a few seconds behind you, but THAT is the point at which cars begin to be classified as they cross the finish line. If something happened on that last lap and you didn't make it to the line, you don't finish the race. Even if you were more than a lap ahead of your competitors, meaning they couldn't exceed your distance, you didn't finish and your position is irrelevant. Dan Gurney famously did something like that at the very first Daytona sports car race, the 3-hour Daytona Continental in 1962. His engine failed, and he coasted to a stop just before the finish line, up against the outside wall, just a few minutes short of the 3 hours time begin completed. As the 3 hours passed, he realeased the brakes and steered left, allowing the car to coast under gravity down the banking and over the line, and actually won the race. Since then, a car must cross under its own power to be classified as a finisher.

 

[Liquid]

I don't know if it was covered in the film but Ford were actually told about an hour before the end that if they tried a photo finish, McLaren/Amon would be declared the winners despite Miles/Hulme clearly being the dominant, lead car. They went ahead and did it anyway, much to Miles' um... annoyance.

So the drivers didn't exactly know about it but the team management certainly did.

 

[McLaren]

Total n00b, "maybe I can make some money off this" question:

With the news of Facebook stock dropping & Zuck losing $7 billion with the current outage, is there any sense in buying a few shares (even at $300+ a piece I think?) right now? Because as concerning as the news is about what Facebook was overlooking, they still don't have any major competition and I'm going to gander that they'll come back online, the news will blow over by next month, and everything (including their stocks) will be back up.

 

[Hayden]

Total n00b, "maybe I can make some money off this" question:

With the news of Facebook stock dropping & Zuck losing $7 billion with the current outage, is there any sense in buying a few shares (even at $300+ a piece I think?) right now? Because as concerning as the news is about what Facebook was overlooking, they still don't have any major competition and I'm going to gander that they'll come back online, the news will blow over by next month, and everything (including their stocks) will be back up.

They're down just under 5% in the course of the day and it's probably safe to say that it will rebound once the sites are back up. Could be worth a punt. It is worth mentioning that it's not far off its lifetime record high and with the unravelling scandal news, it's possible it'll go quite a lot lower in the near future.

 

[DK]

I'm just wondering - does the recent stock market turmoil really matter? It's gained massively over the past 18 months in spite of a bloody pandemic which cost millions their jobs and millions more their lives. It might just be a correction.

Disclaimer: not financial advice.

 

[Exorcet]

I'm just wondering - does the recent stock market turmoil really matter?

In the short term, no one knows. In the long term, no.

 

[Joey D]

I'm just wondering - does the recent stock market turmoil really matter? It's gained massively over the past 18 months in spite of a bloody pandemic which cost millions their jobs and millions more their lives. It might just be a correction.

Disclaimer: not financial advice.

It depends on how long the turmoil lasts. It's not uncommon for someone to have money for their retirement tied up in the stock market and if it sinks too much, it can drastically change your retirement outlook if you're closing in on that age. For someone like me in their mid-30's I'm still 30+ years away from retirement so it's not the end of the world if the market gets wonky in the long term. In the short term though, it's annoying because I do have general stocks that aren't in a retirement account that I'm hoping to make enough gains so I can buy a house.

Market turmoil also has a direct impact on politics in the US too. For whatever reason, a lot of older people associate the stock market with the economy and when the market is doing poorly, they blame the president. Never mind that none of this makes any sense, but it's the perception people have. So when the market is doing well, the current regime will likely get more votes and if it's doing poorly, they have a greater chance of being ousted. It'll depend on your politics whether you think that's good or bad though.

 

[Keef]

I'm just wondering - does the recent stock market turmoil really matter? It's gained massively over the past 18 months in spite of a bloody pandemic which cost millions their jobs and millions more their lives. It might just be a correction.

Disclaimer: not financial advice.

Not really, and the post-Covid rally you mention is part of the reason why. If anything, the rally was the unusual part. If you're young like me then I wouldn't worry about it because we haven't built anything that the market could destroy yet soooo. Anyways, I wouldn't really call it turmoil. I think the turmoil is invented. It is widely known that markets come in and markets go out, and nobody seems to be able to explain it, so the vast majority of the drama people write articles about is completely fabricated. It's like the news media but it might even be worse because they use fancy words that define who is invited to the dramatic fabrication and who isn't.

 

[DK]

Thanks for the responses, I only started investing in stocks because of Gamestop. Over the past month, I've found myself checking on my stocks way too often. I hoped it would get me ahead of inflation, but it hasn't turned out that way. I've gone from 10% up at the end of June to down 8% right now...and that's before I factor in commission. Moderna, Zoom and BioNTecH are my biggest money pits, but I guess I should remind myself that I'm not a day-trader. Maybe I should stick to the traditional Irish methods of investing: paying some crooked stockbroker a 20% commission on any gains or sticking fivers on dumb accumulator bets.

 

[Keef]

Thanks for the responses, I only started investing in stocks because of Gamestop. Over the past month, I've found myself checking on my stocks way too often. I hoped it would get me ahead of inflation, but it hasn't turned out that way. I've gone from 10% up at the end of June to down 8% right now...and that's before I factor in commission. Moderna, Zoom and BioNTecH are my biggest money pits, but I guess I should remind myself that I'm not a day-trader. Maybe I should stick to the traditional Irish methods of investing: paying some crooked stockbroker a 20% commission on any gains or sticking fivers on dumb accumulator bets.

I have a mutual fund account created from an inheritance. It's completely hands-off and just kinda works. I also attempted the self-investing stock thing but quickly realized I only did it out of boredom and even though I literally had all the time in the world at the time, I wasn't prepared to invest all of that time into this one very complicated and time-consuming thing. Plus, I learned that the stock investment rule system is blatantly rigged against poor people so I gave up. Mutual funds and 401Ks don't cost anything to maintain but they work because professionals are managing them somewhere up that ladder. And they have worked for me - because these funds are constantly managing and moving money to find gains, they vastly outperform individual stocks in general.

It's better to just get rid of that stressor and let somebody else do it for you. Unless you are a particularly gifted individual, and like most of us chances are you're not, then betting is almost always a bad financial choice. The pros don't "bet", they study.

 

[DK]

OK, here's another dumb question - what do the WHO do if there's another variant after Omega? Do they loop back around and call it "Alpha-2"? Do they name this new variant after whichever variant it evolved from (e.g. if it evolved from a "Kappa" variant, do they call it "Kappa-2")? Or do they switch to a new alphabet, like Cyrillic or Hebrew?

 

[TexRex]

OK, here's another dumb question - what do the WHO do if there's another variant after Omega? Do they loop back around and call it "Alpha-2"? Do they name this new variant after whichever variant it evolved from (e.g. if it evolved from a "Kappa" variant, do they call it "Kappa-2")? Or do they switch to a new alphabet, like Cyrillic or Hebrew?

Perhaps they get names like tropical storms, alphabetical and alternating gender. We might end up with the Amber variant, followed by Bradley and then Catherine.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

Perhaps they get names like tropical storms, alphabetical and alternating gender. We might end up with the Amber variant, followed by Bradley and then Catherine.

"i got Karen...."

 

[daan]

Perhaps they get names like tropical storms, alphabetical and alternating gender. We might end up with the Amber variant, followed by Bradley and then Catherine.

We could have the arsehole variant, then bastard and then cu, actually no, that's a bad idea.

 

[Liquid]

OK, here's another dumb question - what do the WHO do if there's another variant after Omega? Do they loop back around and call it "Alpha-2"? Do they name this new variant after whichever variant it evolved from (e.g. if it evolved from a "Kappa" variant, do they call it "Kappa-2")? Or do they switch to a new alphabet, like Cyrillic or Hebrew?

Maybe go NATO; Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc.

 

[UKMikey]

Maybe go NATO; Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc.

The India and Quebec variants might cause a bit of a stir...

 

[Liquid]

To be fair, there already has been an "India variant", hasn't there? Can't remember which one.

 

[Joey D]

Maybe go NATO; Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc.

Can't wait for the Mancy variant.

 

[DG_Silva]

Not so much a dumb question, but more of a Explain like I'm 5....

At work, we're really pushing ESG at the moment as part of wider project. I know that ESG stands for Environment, Society and Governance, but in layman's as some who never did business studies, what the hell is it all about?

 

[MIE1992]

If a good-looking woman buys me a glass of chianti at a bar, and then the next week, the same woman buys off my entire bar tab - though it was a tab consisting of only two beers - does this make me a lady-killer?

 

[Roo]

If a good-looking woman buys me a glass of chianti at a bar, and then the next week, the same woman buys off my entire bar tab - though it was a tab consisting of only two beers - does this make me a lady-killer?

Is she still alive?

 

[Blitz24]

If a good-looking woman buys me a glass of chianti at a bar, and then the next week, the same woman buys off my entire bar tab - though it was a tab consisting of only two beers - does this make me a lady-killer?

She's trying to get your attention it seems. Do you have food lodged in your teeth perhaps?

 

[MIE1992]

She's trying to get your attention it seems. Do you have food lodged in your teeth perhaps?

Maybe, but I suppose there's better ways of getting one's attention than spending nearly $30 between someone else's three drinks over two weeks, haha!

 

[wfooshee]

If a good-looking woman buys me a glass of chianti at a bar, and then the next week, the same woman buys off my entire bar tab - though it was a tab consisting of only two beers - does this make me a lady-killer?

Was this from across the room, or actually in person, like close enough to touch and talk to and everything?

 

[MIE1992]

Was this from across the room, or actually in person, like close enough to touch and talk to and everything?

I was sitting next to her when she bought me the glass of chianti, and then she was a bit busy working on the night that she paid my tab. She’s actually the general manager of the bar!

 

[Liquid]

Why are, or were, HIV and AIDS particularly prevelant in homosexuals?

The 'common knowledge' answer is usually "because of promiscuous, unprotected sex" but surely there is more to it and that.

 

[PeterJB]

Why are, or were, HIV and AIDS particularly prevelant in homosexuals?

The 'common knowledge' answer is usually "because of promiscuous, unprotected sex" but surely there is more to it and that.

Relative lack of "sexual overlap", so to speak, between heterosexuals and homosexuals, possibly? So if starts spreading faster through the gay community, it will be for the most part confined to it. Of course, it had already been spreading through the general population Africa for about 20 years before the pandemic started in North America, and the gay Canadian flight attendant known as "Patient Zero" turned out not to have brough the disease to North America. From the very start there will have been more heterosexual AIDS carriers than homosexual as a raw number, but I can definitely see it being proportionally more prevalent in the gay community.