Formula 1 integrates DRS system.

For many many years F1 racing has been a sport in which winning not only meant having a good driver but also having a very technological car to get where he needs to go, the podium. Nowadays, F1 cars have been engineered to have a lot of down force. This pushes the car down to the road to help the cars turn very quickly and get a lot of grip on the track. Some of this down force is generated by fins put on the back of the car at slanted angles. These fins help with going through corners, but hurt a car's speed on a straight-away. The DRS (Drag Reduction System) flattens out the fins during a short period of time on certain straights, allowing for a car to get a boost in speed almost. This allows cars using the system to possibly make passes that would otherwise be impossible. This being the first year of the system's use, not many drivers have started using the system because of the dangers involved. If a driver was to not make a full pass before a sharp bend then said driver could be bumped off course and sent careening into a wall. The system is controversial now, and it has still not been decided whether the system will be used again next season.
-_man(Grayson Norris)

To see original image click here.

Photo courtesy of CARLOS62 on Flickr.

If you really want to get technical, check out this site that breaks down the math of the system.

Opinion Paper Leads for Grayson Norris

Narrative/ Question-

It’s the bottom of the ninth, two outs. Cleavland is down 3-0. They know they wont win, but right now they just want to get somebody on base. With just one more out to go, it was really looking like Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was headed for a perfect game, and achievement that has become extremely rare in Major League Baseball. Jason Donald, the 27th and hopefully last batter of the game, hit a ground ball fielded by the Tigers shortstop and fired to first, it was a simple play, no doubt about it. Galarraga had a perfect game, or so he thought. As the fans, players, and viewers alike all stared in dismay as the first base umpire held up his arms spread wide apart showing the runner was safe at first base. The crowd went wild, and not in a good way. A quick look on the instant replay camera showed that the runner was clearly out, but rules are rules. once an umpire makes a call about whether a runner is safe or not on a play, the call stands. Not even the MLB commissioner, who agreed the call was bogus, could not change the outcome. Galarraga had been stripped of one of the most impressive achievements in baseball. The camera could show that the runner was out, so why base the call just on an umpire if the camera can prove he is wrong? Baseball currently has a strict policy on overturning plays using instant replay, which has caused for many calls that were extremely important to reverse. However, up until this date the only calls that can be overturned are whether home runs were really home runs. As can be seen in the example, MLB baseball needs to keep up with the times and fully integrate an instant replay system similar to that of the NFL.

Compare/ Contrast-

Back in the good old days, umpires would make who knows how many wrong calls and nobody would care. That was that and the only one who would really argue would be the die-hard fan who “swore” that guy was out. But now, times have changed and the stakes have  changed. Umpires have dozens of cameras which can catch their every mistake without fail. And, being human, these umpires will inevitably make mistakes on calls throughout their career. now that the technology is here, we need to adapt the rules of baseball to go with the current. What baseball needs is for the cameras to give help to the umpires instead of just finding their mistakes. The MLB needs to put in a system, similar to the NFL, which instant replays can help calls be overturned.

Direct Address/ Question-

Have you ever been watching some great MLB baseball when a blown call just ruined your week? Yeah, same here. Having to watch the play over and over again on instant replay clearly showing your favorite player being called out when he should have been safe. It has happened many times before and it will happen again. That is unless the rules of the MLB were changed. If a system of instant replay helping to reverse wrong calls would be put into place then that would be the end of whole weeks spent whining about how the game could have gone the other way.

Three Leads

Direct Address Lead:

If you were you looking forward to the 2011-2012 NBA season, well you may be disappointed for the reason that it might be cancelled.

David Stern and the committee has made progress but not enough to guaranty the normal season will start as it was planned.

Thesis:The committee should come to an agreement before they affect the season and disappoint many people such as fans, sponsors, markets etc.

Startling Statement:

By Monday they will have to choice but to cancel the first two weeks of the normal season. Both sides are far apart from arriving at an agreement for most of the conflicts. David Stern said that they were not able to make the progress they were hoping to achieve on Tuesday. The players were the ones that disagreed with the agreement of splitting the profit 50/50.

Thesis: The players should pick a percentage that's reachable for the owners and still be a fair amount for themselves.

Contrast and Compare:

Six months ago we were looking forwards to a great NBA season and wanted to see who would make it to the playoffs this season. A month later a lockout was pronounced and stop all the commotion and began to grow the question of,’Is the season at jeopardy again.’ The last NBA lockout they came to an agreement to late and had to start a season that was shorter than the normal one.

Thesis: They should come to an agreement as quickly as they can so they will not affect the normal season. Kicker14(Noe R)

Descriptive:
                On July the 8^th of 2005 the Olympic committee voted to drop baseball and also softball from the Olympics. This means that baseball will not be in the 2012 Olympics and might not be in the others Olympics that are coming up. The committee did that decision because they wanted to put other sports into the Olympics. There were 26 choices and from those they decide on baseball and on softball. Does sports were replaced by newer sports.

Contrast and compare:

                On 2008 the baseball teams from the countries were playing on the Olympics games in Beijing, China. Now on the Olympics for the 2012 the baseball teams from the countries will not play anymore. Since the IOC drop baseball from the Olympics games, so know the stadiums of baseball from being crowded with fans now it will be empty and quite. The countries that had a baseball will not be able to participate any more.

Descriptive:
     On an American baseball game it is typical for the stadium to fill up almost all the seats. it was the same thing for the Olympics baseball games. In the baseball games there would be hot dogs, nachos and hamburgers, and sodas and lots more. But since baseball was drop from the Olympics now the Stadiums will be empty and there will be no more cheering in baseball in the Olympics. Now the only thing we can do is to watch baseball in the USA. We might still have a chance that baseball might come back for the Olympics in the future.

By H.B

direct leads Juan Jimenez

Question- Why should an F-1 track be built in Austin? The F-1 track should be build because it can bring income to the city. Many people say that its just a waste of money, that nobody will go to it. Other people complain that the track will just cause a lot of traffic which is probably true but I think that its worth getting some income to help the economy.

Startling statement- The F-1 track that is being built in Austin Tx will cause more traffic when there is a race that is coming up. The track could also fail and no one will go to it causing it to be a waste of money.

question- Should a F1 track be built in Austin? The answer is yes, The track in Austin could help small businesses thrive. This could help the economy and attract tourism.

By Juan Jimenez

Andre Johnson injury, Is it a complete loss?

Picture Source

Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson went through a minor medical procedure after Pittsburgh on Sunday. Their quite not sure what happened, but all they saw was Andre go down on the second quarter and never returned into the game. They wanted to increase the speed it took for the hamstring to heal by injecting blood into the muscle. It's estimated that Andre Johnson is scheduled to miss three weeks of the season. They anticipate that he does not miss over those three weeks because he is one of the best wide receivers for the Houston Texans.'You don't replace Andre,'Coach Gary Kubiak said Monday. ''What you do is you've got to pick it up across the board, at other spots.''. Coach Gary Kubiak hopes that Jacoby Jones can fill in the spot while in the absence of the wide receiver as Ben Tate once did for Arian Foster, but Ben and Arian were running backs. Kennard McGuire did not comment on the medical procedure, but said that Andre was doing fine and looks forwards to see his teammate's soon. They hope they can ease him in back into shape before he goes out in the field. For more information over the topic click here.Kicker14 (Noe R.)