Chinese GP Weirdness

I'm sitting here watching the Chinese Formula One GP (God love 12 hour time differences.) and something bizarre just happened. Juan Montoya just ran over a storm drain cover, and apparently it wasn't bolted securely into the ground, because the downforce generated by the car as it went over it sucked the cover up and into the bottom of the car. It pierced the bargeboards and busted the engine's cooling system.

The track itself looks great, the facilities are large and elaborate, teh stands are huge, everything has the appearance of a premier venue. But then the warts start to show during the actual race. It's ridiculous that something like that wasn't bolted down. It seems like a lame plot device from the movie Driven, not something that could happen in real life at the top of the racing sport.

Then again, there were stories of the Beijing government actually painting the grass green in the city before Olympic committee officials visited the city.

It's quite bizarre to witness such an artificial effort to simply build a western-looking modern country rather than letting it evolve at a more natural pace and direction.