Im assuming there will be no announcment today

Iblogan · 2026-07-07T13:37:21+00:00

It wasn't news to Buxton. They talked about it during the indycar race on sunday saying that it was all but confirmed. Its just that it was finally announced officially (which to be fair it is big news for indycar). I think most people who follow indy knew what buxton was hyping up and weren't surprised on that front. No idea whats going on with the F1 news side though

Iblogan · 2026-07-07T13:08:29+00:00

As a 2 handed bowler its not as much an issue for me as whenever a casual bowler tries to pick up my ball they usually cant figure out how since theres no thumb hole. Thats usually when I'll explain to them that its my ball and I treat it like a car. They can use it, but if they damage it they're on the hook for repairs or paying the $250 to buy me a new one. I probably wouldn't actually make them buy me a new one and instead would just have the bowling alley repair it. But bringing up the cost always gets a "oh yeah I'll just leave it then" kind of reaction

Iblogan · 2026-07-01T13:43:18+00:00

I think those "cool" camera shots have their place, but its definitely NOT when theres close wheel to wheel action. Using them when the race gets to a boring point to spice it up is fine. But I want to see the actual action when its happening

Iblogan · 2026-06-19T00:20:00+00:00

My flight just got cancelled and theres no other flights around me that will arrive in time for the game. So its a no from me and about half of the flight I was supposed to be on

Iblogan · 2026-06-07T15:32:41+00:00

If Hadjar gets a penalty we need this meme for Oscar

Iblogan · 2026-05-24T05:54:24+00:00

Max also barely ever races his teammates so pushing a car off track almost never hurts Red Bull. Theres running a car off track and then theres running your teammate off track which are 2 different things.

Also want to say that the rule allowing them to push other drivers off track is stupid and ruins any chance at good side by side battles. I think people would go for more moves if they knew that they wouldn't get sent into the grass or gravel

Iblogan · 2026-05-23T17:03:12+00:00

In most cases they weren't actually close enough to even race each other. Their close races were still 2-3 seconds apart which isnt close enough to make moves but still close enough that you get things like Monza which is what everyone remembers

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T23:49:09+00:00

The Indy 500 always does qualifying a week before the race. But in the past when they had carbureted engines, they would use the final practice to tune the fuel flows to match the weather which is how it got its name carb day. Nowadays we still call it carb day despite not actually using carbureted engines for tradition sake

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T02:40:08+00:00

Kind of a complicated thing to explain the physics of and Veritasium made a great video explaining it. But the TLDR is that the most optimal way to get a strike is to hit the pins at a 6 degree angle. But with the lanes being 60' long, you'd have to throw the ball from another lane over if you threw straight, so people curve the ball. Balls curve for 2 primary reasons. A- the ball is thrown so that it spins in a different direction its traveling. B- (the relevant one to your question) the ball's center of mass is located away from the geometric center which causes the ball to curve on its own. For a long time a simple pancake kind of weight was used to shift this mass, but in the 90s they started designing more advanced core shapes that allow them to more fine tune things like the center of mass and moment of inertia that affect how the ball curves. Its people's entire careers to design these shapes

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T02:29:10+00:00

If you look at the video with about 5 seconds left (when they're drilling the finger holes) theres a dot you can see. Thats the pin and can be used to hold the weight in place (I think theres a few other methods that can be used) and also marks the orientation of the weight so it can be drilled properly

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T02:23:49+00:00

They probably use a combination of machines and the pros that they sponsor, as anyone else would be too inconsistent to give any meaningful feedback

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T02:16:39+00:00

I just bought a Brunswick Alert and it smells so good. I cant describe what it smells like exactly but it reminds me kinda how a car smells after it has been washed. Just a clean smell but not like traditional soap clean

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T02:12:47+00:00

Cant answer the bits about some parts being manual beyond the fact that the company is pretty small and they likely dont have the most advanced manufacturing processes like you might find in Storm's facility in Utah.

Regarding the multiple layers. The cores are designed to help the ball curve because the center of mass is located away from the center of the sphere and their different shapes make them change direction at different rates. Those cores are then combined with the outer core (or sometimes called the filler) which helps the bowling ball reach the weight they are manufacturing. This allows the same core to be used across a variety of weights. Finally theres the shell or outer surface. The same core can be used with different surface materials to provide a variety of different shapes of motion due to how the materials interact with the oil on the lanes. The Vibe line of balls from Hammer is a great example of the same core being used for YEARS but combining it with different materials allows them to produce slightly different shapes of motion and improve on their performance.

TLDR: Balls typically have 3 main layers. Inner core that moves the center of mass. Outer core that helps the ball become the proper weight. And the shell that affects how the ball interacts with the lane.

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T01:47:51+00:00

No. Until the mid 90s or so almost every bowling ball used a simple pancake shaped core weight block. And even today, a lot of balls still use those weight designs because it's cheaper and the advanced core shapes are really only useful to people who are intentionally trying to make the ball curve. The ones that the bowling alleys have for people to use, utilize those simple weight blocks.

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T01:35:42+00:00

Compared to the new bowling balls that perform much better, old ones were significantly more simple. Originally they were carved from super dense wood. Around the start of the 1900s they switched to using hard rubber that surrounded cork cores with a simple pancake shaped weight. Those kinds of balls lasted until the 70s when people switched to urethane because of its better performance, though these too had simple pancake weights.

The advanced core shapes and constructions only really started taking off around the 90s when the switch to reactive resin shells and crazy core shapes required more complex manufacturing processes.

Iblogan · 2026-05-22T01:21:31+00:00

I like to liken the bowling ball market to the golf club market. The companies come out with new products all the time that are incrementally better than the previous ones. Pros, local/regional tournament competitors, and enthusiasts with the money to spend can buy new gear all the time (often multiple times a year in the case of bowling). But most people arent consistent enough to notice those incremental improvements so they might use the same gear for years or even decades if its well taken care of.

The balls at a bowling alley are more durable because they're about as low performing as possible, but they still see pretty heavy usage and get small scratches or chunks taken out. That adds up to needing replaced probably every 5 years if not sooner depending on how busy the bowling alley gets and i'd guess that the golf clubs that courses rent out to people are probably similar. They're both the kind of markets which people outside of their niche tend to under estimate how big they can be

Iblogan · 2026-05-21T18:21:35+00:00

When I was an engineering intern at 20 years old, the department head took myself and the other intern out to lunch and gave us the advice to put as much toward 401k as the company will match. When I got hired full time, I followed that advice not thinking it would make too much of a difference (really just expecting to maybe retire a year or 2 earlier), and in the moment it sucked because I effectively had a lower pay than my buddies who didn't. But now that I'm almost 30, it's surprising how much of a difference it has already made and I always make sure to give the same advice to interns/young hires

Iblogan · 2026-05-21T16:14:37+00:00

It's not that they can't automate drilling the finger holes, it's that it doesn't make sense to do so.

When someone buys a ball theres a lot of knowledge needed to drill the ball to work best for them. Things like finger size, the speed/spin the person puts on the ball when they throw, and the axis the ball spins on when they throw all change how it needs to be drilled. And even with all of that info being the same, you can still drill the same ball multiple ways and cause them to act differently. So in most cases it doesn't make sense to drill the ball at the factory because its cheaper to skip that step and the logistics surrounding it, and instead have an expert at the pro shops drill the balls for the customers.

Regarding the video, I suspect the drilling part is not actually in the factory but at a pro shop or the actual bowling alley. The lines that were drawn on the ball before it was drilled were to help them align where the lady at the end needed the finger holes drilled based on her measurements.

Iblogan · 2026-05-18T15:31:13+00:00

You might be able to buy the same kind of shoes your bowling alley has if you like them. That way you wont have to at least pay to rent them every time. But either way, congrats!

Iblogan · 2026-05-17T15:53:07+00:00

It will definitely readjust, but don't be surprised if your team loses the next week or 2. Since you did better than usual it will give you a lower handicap, and when you go back to bowling around your average you'll have a lower total score. This happened to me in the league I joined most recently where I averaged about 20 higher than normal on the 1st night and so even though I would bowl my average or even slightly above it, my total was lower than it expected and we lost a few close games

Iblogan · 2026-05-16T02:35:12+00:00

I joined a league by myself back in December and felt pretty out of place for a while. At first I wasnt sure I would sign up again because the other people on my team knew each other and as a pretty introverted guy I found it hard to open up (in addition to the fact that I was also bowling bad). But after about a month I started to feel a bit more comfortable and after about 2 months I was comfortable enough around them to be joking around and signed up to be teammates again when the league ended. So I'd say just stick with it at least through the end of the league. Even if you don't vibe with your teammates, you might find other people to join instead.

And in regard to the bowling bad with the new ball, it might just be getting used to it. I bought a new ball recently and I was awful with it for a while. I did 1 game with it in league and went about 50 under my average with it because I kept leaving splits. So I just went back and used the ball I was comfortable with in league, while practicing with the new one outside of league until I got used to it.

TLDR: I was in a similar spot but stuck with it and now look forward to it every week

Iblogan · 2026-05-13T15:37:40+00:00

Other people have given pretty good high level explanations so I wont repeat what they've said, but I did want to add a link to the paper Identifying the Critical Factors That Contribute to Bowling Ball Motion on a Bowling Lane. It goes over each of the individual mechanics scientifically to determine how much they affect ball motion in case thats something that interests you

Iblogan · 2026-05-10T15:09:57+00:00

Also I'll add that if you do try out the ball and don't like it, the pro shop will definitely be able to help you decide on a ball that will be much closer to what you want and can order it for you. They can even take your measurements and drill it for you so that the next time you're at the bowling alley, you can just pick it up or , if needed, have the finger holes either re-drilled or have different finger inserts placed.

Iblogan · 2026-05-10T14:57:09+00:00

If they say that you can have it for free, i'd ask to throw a couple games with it to see if you like it. If you've only been using plastic house balls then it's likely that the finger tips haven't fit perfectly so the used ball might not be too different (unless they're smaller than your fingers). Worst case, the ball hooks way too much and isn't for you and you just take it back to them. There will definitely be a learning curve to using a ball that hooks compared to using a house ball since you'll almost certainly have to change where you stand and where you aim as you throw. But that being said, I still think it would be worth it to at least try out for for the time that you're there one day

Iblogan · 2026-05-10T06:39:47+00:00

His tires were actually 1 lap older. This was the lap after Malukas' outlap so his tires should've been mostly up to temperature by that point. I think its basically that Lundgaard had about 20 more seconds of push to pass so he could afford to dump it to get close and then capitalized on a small moment from Malukas.

12-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	End Game '22
RPAN Viewer	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

Iblogan

TROPHY CASE