Federer/Nadal

[tay]

If it were a boxing match it could be described as Federer being repeatedly knocked to the canvass and repeatedly coming back for more, often making inspired comebacks on points when it mattered. Again and again he was on his arse - and almost looked out of it - but again the true champion that he is would come back and level the match. He never looked like he could win, but you always thought there was a possibility that he might triumph through experience or stamina, if he could just get ahead somehow despite the constant battering, or that the challenger would grow weary of the man who refuses to stay down. But the champ was to loose and relinquish the crown after having climbed mount improbable and having suffered those terrible injuries for nought.

Miss the F1 racing too? Now that really was exciting.

Just a warning that Timberwolfs post is complete bollox.

[malvolio]

And they kept using French words throughout the match. Speaking of which, the scoring is weird/French too. First of all it goes up in units of 15, for no apparent good Anglo Saxon reason. And just as you're getting used to that, it starts going up in 10's At which point they start using French words again.

Evolution in action. They used to use the quarters of a watch - 15, 30, 45 - but 45 got tedious so they switched to 40. Deuce is a tied game, and you have to win a tie by two clear points, hence advantage. All perfectly sensible (at least, to a Frenchman it is...)

And "Love" is derived from "'l'oeuf" (which as I'm sure you know means egg in French) because that's what a zero looks like, apparently. Except in France they say "Zero"...

Anyway - nought, one, two, three, three-an-a-bit... I mean, where's the romance?

[TimberWolf]

Anyway - nought, one, two, three, three-an-a-bit... I mean, where's the romance?

They use an unromantic numbering system in tie-breaks though

[TimberWolf]

I ignored the tennis & watched the thing about Building 7...

I saw a bit of it. In summary it looked like a bunch of loons frothing at the mouth about some sort of conspiracy, while the scientist types calmly explained that the building was on fire and the steel buckled, behaving exactly as the laws of physics predict?

[TimberWolf]

"Exactly as the laws of physics predict"...

It still seems a little odd... it couldn't have fallen down more neatly if it had tried...

Well, gravity is a downward force. For it not to fall down neatly requires a horizontal force to be found from somewhere. You can make building topple by having a falling part pull down a non-falling part, for example by placing explosives, and the framework resist tensile forces, but it's probably not the most likely behaviour you'd expect from a hot steel, which would be a bit floppy.

[realityhack]

For it not to fall down neatly requires a horizontal force to be found from somewhere.

Plenty of those in a collapsing steel lattice structure. I think Zeity's on about the apparently unhindered, near freefall velocity descent into it's own basement.

[TimberWolf]

Plenty of those in a collapsing steel lattice structure. I think Zeity's on about the apparently unhindered, near freefall velocity descent into it's own basement.

What do you expect except free-fall if a building comes straight down?

[sasguru]

Looks like we have our very own conspiracy theorists and expert structural engineers on CUK. Not to mention global warming experts.
The reaction of one of the chief conspiracy theorists on the program when presented with the evidence against was instructive. It was something like:

"Don't be ******* silly, man".

Anyone who has to deal with any sort of political structure knows that the competence to engineer and maintain silence in a conspiracy is non existent.

[realityhack]

Looks like we have our very own conspiracy theorists...

No no no, I have no conspiracy theories, couldn't care less about if/who/what/why and all that.

It's simply that this:

What do you expect except free-fall if a building comes straight down?

...is highly unlikely to happen in a natural building collapse.

I also don't believe the US govt are competent enough to pull off any 'conspiracy' of this kind.

[sasguru]

...is highly unlikely to happen in a natural building collapse.

.

The guy in charge of the official investigation (which took 2 years) explained exactly why, in this particular building, the collapse happened as it did. I'm no engineer but his explanation seemed highly probable to me.