Friday, May 28, 2021

The BMW M3 and M4 feature a "drift analyzer" that measures and awards stars for your drifting


BMW blog:

The M Drift Analyzer works by actually measuring your drift; the length of time, distance, and even the slip angle; then giving it a score out of five stars. It’s a dangerous tool to use on the road but on a race track (where permitted, not all tracks allow such tomfoolery), it’s probably a hilariously fun tool to use.

Auto Evolution:

Surprisingly similar to what you find in racing games, this feature will analyze your drifts based on distance, time, and angle, rating each one with up to five stars. All the information is displayed on the central infotainment screen, and drift sessions can be stored, compared, and analyzed further when the track day is over.

Autoweek:

“The drift analyzer is more or less designed to help you to improve on your own skills,” said [the BMW spokesman]. “Because actually, what helps you to control the car is the M Traction Control slider, which is a different thing that actually determines the behavior of the car. The drift analyzer itself, it’s just a recording function to show you how you performed your drifting—what was the angle? what was the length of the drift?—in order to give you a hint of what to do better the next time. So it’s not a drift mode in the sense where you push a button and the car starts to drift by itself without you being in charge of controlling it.”

"A new campaign by Spain’s postal service that was intended to condemn racism has backfired and ended up offending many people"

The "equality stamps" were available in different skin tones, and the lighter the tone, the more valuable the stamp.

The postal service said on Twitter that the pricing had aimed to reflect “an unfair and painful reality that should not exist,” and that it had hoped the campaign would “give voice to a generation devoted to equal rights and diversity.”

Man opposing building of skate park withdraws his objection after video of his behavior goes viral

BBC:

A handful of local residents in the affluent seaside community are opposed to the redevelopment of a skate park on the seafront.

Despite the plans being approved by Swansea council, they are calling for a judicial review.

In response, a campaign has been launched on social media encouraging drivers to beep their horns as they drive past the site and the homes of the objectors on Mumbles Road.

...

On Wednesday, a video appeared on social media that showed [the man] and his wife confronting a group of young skateboarders on the small half-pipe ramp on the seafront.

Wales Online:

"Having taken time to reflect on the footage of the altercation that was filmed at the skate park on Wednesday evening, my wife ... and I unreservedly apologise for our actions that evening,"

Today's funny posts




Here's what it was like to accidentally attend "Adrian's Kickback"

Caitlin Schneider wrote up the experience:

~8 p.m. You’ll leave dinner at Duke’s Huntington Beach—awful acoustics, but better than you expected for a tourist spot!!—with your spouse, parents, in-laws, siblings, and siblings-in-law with the intention of walking the iconic pier to show your parents, who have never been to Huntington Beach, a little bit more of what your spouse’s hometown is like. ...

~8:05 p.m. Everyone will comment on how chilly it is. Someone will say that the pier seems busier than normal. Later this will serve as a different kind of chilly: chilly foreshadowing. 

~8:07 p.m. A roar will start to build on one side of the pier. What’s that? It’s teens. They seem to be swirling like a typhoon around a central point. What are they doing? Let’s run through the possibilities: Protesting? No, there are no signs. Dancing? Hmm, no music. Do they seem happy? Mad? It’s impossible to distinguish between the two. In any case, it seems calm enough, but again, why are there so many of them? 

Real-life kaiju photographed?; Blindfolded giraffe; Miura memorial



















About that viral Eric Carle quote going around; Frog figurine; Lord of the Rings print; Murderbot illustration



(Direct link.)