After a three-week break, the Formula One circus returns home to England for the British Grand Prix at the historic Silverstone Circuit. The big story over the break was what would happen to Mercedes GP over the Pirelli tyre test. It turns out that nothing happened because the FIA is terrible. Well, we move on to Silverstone and I think that Mercedes isn’t the favourite but they’re in better shape than they were before Monaco.
Author: Steve Murray
British Grand Prix Heroes (Infographic)
This weekend is Formula One’s British Grand Prix which is one of the premier races in the sport. To celebrate this week’s big race, our friends at MoneySupermarket asked a group of respected online motorsports writers (and me) who the greatest British Formula One drivers of all-time are. The results of the expert poll have been compiled on this handy infographic.
In case you were wondering, my three picks were Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees.
Wednesday Link-Off: The Story Beyond The Story
It’s the middle of the week which means that it’s time for some links. Are you ready for life without Google Reader? Because starting next Wednesday, the linkdump might be in some trouble while I figure out how to do RSS without Google Reader. In the meantime, normal programming continues. Since Wimbledon is this week, let’s kick off this post with Maria Sharapova.
Ezra Klien and Evan Soltas have an interesting theory about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He doesn’t exist and is actually an NSA creation to distract the press from digging into PRISM. (Wonkblog)
David Gregory thinks Glenn Greenwald should be charged with aiding and abetting Snowden because DG has no respect for journalism. (Freedom of the Press Foundation)
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court axed a key part of the Voter Rights Act. That’s going to allow some serious skewing of electoral districts and may disinfranchise minorities. (The Guardian)
IndyCar – Iowa Indy 250: A Happy Day in Hinchtown
It’s not been a good run for Canadian mayors lately. The Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, is in the middle of a scandal over an alleged video of him smoking crack. Corruption has resulted in a revolving door in the mayor’s offices of Montreal and its suburbs. However, in the lovely city of Hinchtown, all is well this weekend after the mayor, James Hinchcliffe, won his third IndyCar race of the season and first on an oval after dominating the Iowa 250.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Bittersweet Victory
The battle between Audi and Toyota for the overall victory was expected to come down to the difference between Audi’s raw pace and Toyota’s superior range on a tank of fuel. What it came down to, as it so often does at Le Mans, was luck and reliability. The #2 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval had the best luck and speed on the day’s worth of racing and picked up the win in the biggest event in sportscar racing.
Sadly, the win for Audi and the epic battle between Audi and Toyota was overshadowed by the first death in the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1986 when GTE Am Aston Martin of Allan Simonsen died after a crash early in the race.
Sunday Link-Off: Food For Thought
You know, the latter half of the week wasn’t nearly as good as the first half for links. Did the internet decide to shut down from Wednesday onwards? Anyway, we have links but it’ll be a bit shorter than usual. So let’s get started with Canadian model Andi Muise.
Are you habitual caffeine consumer? It could be hampering your creativity. So that’s my problem. (New Yorker)
Trying to expose Lance Armstrong as a drugs cheat was a dangerous occupation for anyone who wanted to make a living or not get sued into oblivion. (Columbia Sports Journalism)
Paula Deen has been dropped by Food Network after she admitted to being racist in the workplace. (Warming Glow)
Caption This: June 15 – 21, 2013
Inspired by the Globe and Mail’s caption writing person, we waste our time writing funny picture captions for some of the more interesting photos we come across when blogging. So here are some of the best pictures from the past week with a funny (-ish) caption. Continue reading
Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe Review: Jump and Gun
Before I got around to playing The Last of Us, I found a fun little sink published by one of new best friends of indie developers everywhere. Adult Swim Games’ move from the flash game market to publishing games on Steam was unexpected but their propensity for getting simple but fun games straight onto Steam without going through the hit-and-miss Greenlight system benefits both the developers and gamers.
Their second release on Steam is another upgrade of an Adult Swim flash game. Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe might be a bit of a misnomer but that doesn’t make Andrew Morrish’s creation any less delightful to play.
Microsoft Does an Xbox 180 on Xbox One DRM
After taking a PR battering over 24-hour online check-in, used games restrictions, contradictory explanations of their policies and seemingly mocking people who didn’t like the Xbox One’s policies, Microsoft is performing an about-face on their established DRM policies.
A post on the Xbox website said that Microsoft was backtracking on the DRM and used games restrictions that nearly derailed the Xbox One in this console generation before it started.
Building a Successful Call of Duty Clone in Three Steps
The most successful video game on the market right now is the Call of Duty series. Say what you will about the game’s lack of innovation and utter disregard for the single-player campaign, this is the most commercially successful game on the market. The last couple of years have seen gross sales of over $1 billion and units sold well in excess of 10 million.
As such, you could understand why everybody is looking to CoD for cues for their upcoming efforts. Just look at the new all-brown colour palette and gritty art style of Dead Rising 3 and EA turning Battlefield into an annual franchise. The thing is that Call of Duty’s success isn’t about how it looks or how often it comes out. It may come as a shock but there’s a simple but largely undiscovered formula that makes CoD a massive success.
The Lowdown 