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she/her, just a fly on the wall. url courtesy of astronicht's princeps vale au

[outis-the-mule]

Anybody know why 2-3 lanky people in Aspar team kit just zoomed past me on e-scooters in [redacted] Germany?

2-3 you ask? why yes, they were gone in the blink of an eye and I might have halluzinated a third person... at least 2 were definitely there though, my partner saw them too.

[astronicht]

Sachsenring 2026 Lovers and Haters: Pre-race track stats

Yes okay Marc is a sleep paralysis demon here, which is especially funny because it means Pedro Acosta, also ridiculously good at Sachsenring, gets cucked by fate and luck yet again. The breakdown:

Top lover: Marc we all know it's Marc!! But this is actually tied with Aragon for only his third-best track :)

Top lover who is not Marc: Pedro Acosta! Averages a solid P2 here, though of course he has a much shorter career and his best results are all in Moto2 and Moto3; in MotoGP he's had a P7 and last year he was one of half the grid with crash DNFs.

Track hater: Raúl Fernández. He's the only rider who is notably bad here and he averages a P11. It might also be difficult for Diogo, but he's only finished three races here, so hard to tell.

same chart twice to make it small, sorry lol:

With Fermín out with the second Gresini spine injury of the year (STOP), Àlex (first spine injury) is bumped up into the top six riders at Sachsenring. Bez notably a bit mid. Since Luca and Maverick are possibly fighting for a job their respective places are noteworthy, but frankly Maverick wasn't hitting his averages relatively healthy last year. This year, his numbers unfortunately haven't meant much.

Toprak report: I factored in Toprak's Red Bull Rookie Cup results at Sachsenring; this aren't really meant to be taken seriously, especially since they were in 2013-2014, but I was tired of leaving him blank. The last time he raced this track was DNFing in the European Superstock 1000 Championship over ten years ago, but his (ancient) Rookie Cup results were good. This is nice because all the other Yamaha riders have averages outside the top six here.

with apologies I just largely ignored sprints this week. sprints: they happen.

Currently Martín is leading the championship. I would like this to stop, but it's not crazy likely that it'll happen here where Martín is better than everyone but Marc in the leading group. If all of the top six riders in the championship finish at their average position (and ignoring sprints), Bez could get back within 11 points of Martín, and the championship order wouldn't change (though Marc would be projected to narrow his gap again). This isn't meant as a genuine prediction (for one thing, Bez and Ogura can't both finish P7).

Finally, teammate head-to-head:

Ducati: Marc is the stronger rider, averaging P2 to Pecco's P5. Marc additionally doesn't have a brand new baby at home. Pecco you need better parental leave; this is how feminism is a win for everyone.

Gresini: Àlex wins by default because his broken spine is more healed than Fermín's broken spine. Someone buy Nadia a drink.

VR46: Diggia (P6) is narrowly stronger than Franky (P7). Fairly well-matched here.

Aprilia: Martín is the stronger rider at Sachsenring, averaging P4 to Bez's P7. If no one slaps anyone else this weekend it's a win.

Trackhouse: Ai Ogura (P7) is stronger than Raúl (P11), though neither are outstanding here.

KTM: Pedro Acosta (P2) is stronger than Brad Binder (P4), though both are pretty good here.

Tech3: Maverick (P6) is stronger than Enea (P8), but is injured and actively fighting his current employer on tv

Honda: Mir (P4) is mathematically stronger than Marini (P8). However, Mir hasn't actually scored a point here since 2021 and his average is getting inflated by two podiums in the lower classes. Luca is very steady here across all classes, if mid, with one podium in Moto2.

Castrol: Advantage to Diogo by default because I didn't calculate Cal's stats and Zarco is still recovering. Diogo though has only finished three races here and they're a really uneven spread: out of the points (P16+), a P7, and a P4. He crashed last year.

Yamaha: No advantage, Fabio and Rins both average P7 here

Pramac: No idea man. Miller also averages a P7, and Toprak is Toprak.

Full results (listed by points) below cut, plus a bunch of charts ranking riders within each manufacturer:

And raw results:

[366kmph]

i love when german politics on the dash gives me new vocabulary such as um. arbeitsunfähigskeitsbescheinigungen

[yekoc]

Brazil MotoGP race did tarmac breaking up better too

[astronicht]

Jerez 2026: Post-Sprint round-up

Kings of the slip n' slide: only Marc Marquez and Raul Fernandez did better than their personal average at both a wet quali and a deluge-themed sprint. They are respectively the best and worst at Jerez of all current riders; lmao etc.

Luca Marini scored his first sprint point at Jerez of his career

Jack Miller was in some kind of torture nexus that never really made it onscreen; double long lap?? crashed and rejoined?? yamaha??

The Aprilias were bloodthirsty again. Jorge Martin's Aprilia lit his brake disks on fire almost immediately, and Bez did fine until he crashed out, tried to hold on to the handlebars to keep the engine running per the new rules, and got pinned under his wife-bike. Word on the street (reddit) is currently that he said he was okay.

Bez also allegedly had his start fucked up by a tear-off. Princess and the pea meets nervous dog sprint start :((( wife bike was angered and afraid....

Franky podium!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like last year in iirc le mans, Marc managed to save his race lead by crashing out at the best possible moment, pulling, to quote twitter, a cheating homunculus move, and won that shit.

Pecco was getting passed by Diogo Moreira at one point but ended up on the podium. Again he is moving in mysterious ways this weekend.

*as noted after quali, I'm comparing sprint results to average full race results here, which is not like ideal. But im just having fun if im honest, and there are so few datapoints for sprints that there's no point trying to figure out someone's sprint average at any given track. you can compare to previous sprint results listed here

for comedy purposes, the full race direction incident record:

[arrowingon]

He is honestly so brave for not wearing a hat

[astronicht]

COTA 2026: track lovers and haters

Hey, if it weren't for Marc Márquez this might be known as the track of Alex Rins.

Best at COTA: Marc. Barring only 2022, Marc has either crashed out or won every single race in which he's participated since 2013. Notably though, he has not actually won a full race since 2021, though he's won a sprint. (Results shown below are recorded in points scored, not position! A red 0 is a crash DNF)

Worst at COTA: Luca Marini. It's not a catastrophic record but it is the worst of the current riders who have finished more than 3 races. He DID get on the podium with a P2 in 2023, but the rest of his record is pretty mid. (Again, results recorded in points! the next highest score is a P6 -- 10 points)

Best After Marc: Alex Rins has an inexplicable and deep passion for Austin, Texas. He's won it four times, once each in Moto3 and Moto2 and twice in MotoGP, suggesting it's not solely the bike he's on, and averages a P2?????? I don't know how to explain how uncommon an average that high is. He's not one of the riders for whom I have a list of his averages at each track, but I think we can safely assume that this is his favorite in terms of performance.

Also go well here: Maverick, which could be funny if he really is in the process of breaking up with jlo. Interestingly Enea rounds out the top five.

Pecco is ranked 6th best at COTA but won last year and actually has a better sprint record here than his full race record (for what good three datapoints can give anyone).

Joan Mir has crashed out the last three years running. Please stop that Joan.

COTA head-to-head by teammates:

Aprilia: Advantage Martín (average P4) over Bezzechi (av. P6)

Ducati: Advantage Marc, who may however by cursed (av. P1) over Pecco (av. P5)

Honda: Advantage Mir (av. P8) over Marini (P10). Frankly they're both kinda bad here.

KTM: Tentative advantage Acosta* over Binder (av. P8). Binder isn't particularly good here but he at least has finished a race at this track more than 3 times. Pedro has crashed out twice and podiumed twice, including a P2 in MotoGP.

Yamaha: Advantage Rins (av. P2) over Quartararo (av. P7)

Trackhouse: No advantage. Tied at P7 average. I was going to use sprints as a tiebreaker but Ogura has only started one, but Fernandez on the other hand has a total crap sprint record.

Gresini: Tentative advantage Àlex* (av. P7) only because his femur isn't broken and he's finished more than two (2) races here unlike Fermín (2 crash DNFs, a P7, and a P3).

VR46: Advantage Di Giannantonio (av. P6) over Morbidelli (av. P9).

LCR Honda: default advantage to Zarco*; Moreira has only finished 3 races here: crash DNF, P4, P14, and a zero-points finish.

Tech3: Verrry slim advantage to Viñales (av. P4) over Bastianini (av. also P4). Averages are calculated by average points score; both are in the P4 range, but Maverick's average points score is a bit higher. Both do well here.

Pramac: Default advantage to Miller (av. P5) over Razgatlıoğlu, who has never raced here on a MotoGP bike, though he did do some Red Bull Rookie Cup races at COTA.

*Involve a little more personal value judgement on my part.

Full COTA results (by points! Not position!) under cut:

[snailtongue]

[ID: A photo of a donkey standing near a wooden structure and a fence. It's snowing, and the donkey's back and head are covered in snow. The photo is framed by a white border with text on the bottom that reads, “He Could Have Slept In His Hut”.]

[monikahmakes]

January 2026. I'm trying to reestablish a regular sketchbook practice, but in the meantime, I have a lot of Legos, a love of symmetry, and some creative nervous energy to burn off.

[dirtycombatboots]

We've seen fanfiction from Roach POV about her life with Geralt and how she is supposed to help her human because human takes care of her. But what if. Just imagine. Slightly condescending Roach who considers Geralt her pet. Not just a pet, but because Geralt is a witcher and has different biology from humans while still looks like human (Roach can't tell the difference by looks), she thinks her pet is some poor dumb human with development issues. Because normal humans don't talk to horses like Geralt does. Normal humans can't go for so long without food. Normal humans don't drink obviously toxic concoctions. Normal humans ABSOLUTELY don't go hunting monsters. Geralt does all of that. Therefore there is something wrong with him. More specifically, something wrong in his head. Than means Roach has to take care of him. That is what responsible horses do to their pet humans. Especially if their pet humans don't understand that ingesting drowner brains is bad. Basically the same thing as adopting a sick kitten that nobody wanted to adopt from animal shelter. Roach calls herself a proud human mom and coos when he dumb human brings her apples (how adorable, he thinks he is taking care of me, my human is so cute)

Roach to other horses at the stables of some in: You guys are so lucky that your humans know they are supposed to eat every day. My human is so dumb he forgets to do it. *proceeds to rant about managing digestive problems and making sure her pet drops manure regularly*

And yes, all witcher horses think like that about their witchers. They share tips on how to cater to their pets specific needs

[astronicht]

https://www.tu mblr.com/rhincodonsmith/804970111577522176

this art made me think of your fic where alex is a horse (and also kidney bean and her mule friend)

oh my god that's cute as hell!! I don't want to talk over OP's art with my own AUs but trulyyy I'm now picturing horse Alex like this...! the funniest and most fucked up au I've technically done imo lol.

[ladycibia]

chibi witchers at the end of 2025? you betcha ❤️ here's a little 25-page ("""page""") thing (which I actually planned last year...) to wish you a Happy Christmas Eve & Merry Christmas and a very happy holidays season ❤️❤️❤️ thank you for still sticking around

[fabioquartararhoe]

they should use horses instead of bikes

[fabioquartararhoe]

i just wanted to say that i didn’t make this video, motogp media team made it 😭

[kingofthering]

BARCELONA 2025 | Marc Marquez saving a mistake in his last flying lap and going past Alex Marquez.

[uwabbittuwabbit]

It’s race week 🏵️🏵️🏵️

[hedgehog-moss]

One beloved summer ritual I've had for years was taking my various summer guests on the picturesque walk up the hill, through the woods and cow pastures, to go buy a cheese wheel at the small farm on the plateau. But in early June I went by myself and learnt that there would be no cheese this summer; the farm owners just had a baby. Cheesemaking is only part of their activity and as they're understandably very busy now, they've decided to pause this part of the operation for the time being.

I've been re-reading Camus to cope with this. "You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit.” Yes. I've gone on this walk up the hill many times since, because the body remembers the pattern even as the world rescinds its offerings. I climb the hill because I used to. I climb it because unanswered prayer is still prayer. Some part of me knows I shouldn't treat a wheel of cheese like it's the divine Logos withdrawn from the material plane, but I find meaning in continuing the ritual in full awareness of its futility. "The absurd man takes no refuge in the illusions of hope; but he is not resigned. He continues."

“Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent." Same. This is where my absurd condition crystallises. I trudge back down the hill, cheeseless, not deluded, not desperate, but conscious. Then I go up again.

"Nostalgia is stronger here than knowledge. Reason is an instrument of thought and not thought itself. Above all, a man’s thought is his nostalgia." Reason tells me they've had a baby. Nostalgia whispers that the cheese remains. It's not a belief, just the memory of hope in a world emptied of its promise.

“There is so much stubborn hope in a human heart.” I still hope they might start making cheese again in September.

In the meantime, I have tried to convert my summer guests—friends and relatives—to the belief that the rite is sacred because it outlasts meaning; they reacted with varying degrees of metaphysical commitment. When I said we should now walk to the cheese farm not in expectation of cheese, but in lucid confrontation with its absence, my aunt pointed out that there are other farms; a friend accused me of weaponising philosophy against reasonable decision-making again. I understand that you can't convince everyone. You can only climb your hill, and carry your truth. I tried to explain it better to other guests, to say that we do not resign ourselves, or naively hope; we walk past hope then choose to keep walking, not toward meaning but through its ruins. Cousin: "What if I actually want to buy cheese?" Then you are not ready. But you will be. Until then, I will climb for both of us.

Then my best friend brought me a cheese (the "same" cheese) that she'd bought from another farm on her way to my place. It was really nice of her, even though it violated the covenant of absence. We ate some of it, had a sunny picnic in the pasture, and I quietly observed her as she began to perceive the problem. She could taste it. This cheese was philosophically inert. It lived outside the myth, content just to be edible. It was here, it was good, and incapable of signifying.

She told me that her first reaction upon learning about my existential cheese pilgrimage was to think I needed a puzzle feeder, but now she was beginning to see my point—she said this in the weary tone of someone who realises that the bit has, regrettably, achieved structural coherence and now demands to be treated as a belief system. She said, "I'm starting to regret having brought that cheese." That's because you committed an act of metaphysical substitution. "That’s exactly what I thought you’d say." 😔 I just mean you tried to replace the sign with the thing itself. "I brought cheese to a picnic." And it's good cheese! With bad ontology. It's just pure referent. The human spirit craves a cheese that can gesture beyond itself; or else it can't feed anything but hunger.

She admitted that I had a point. Well, to be exact she said this sentence shouldn't exist, but she accepted that she now lived in a world where it is, somehow, true, and she was ready to contemplate its implications. Which meant going up the hill. To the cheeseless farm. "So—you don't want cheese anymore?" No, I want it. That's what makes it absurd.

“The absurd man catches sight of a transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given (except cheese) and beyond which all is collapse and nothingness. He can then decide to accept such a universe and draw from it his strength, his refusal to hope, and the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation.”

She walked up the hill with me, interested in the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation. She was trying to understand. We talked about how Camus said that the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. Friend: "The idol is the baby?" Right; that makes sense. And the parents are the priests. "That's ridiculous but coherent. The cheese is the lamb. Sacrificed to absorb disruption." Exactly. The cheese was the most innocent being in this scenario, the most marginal and voiceless. It had to die. Its makers chose procreation over fermentation (which some would argue produces more lasting cultures.) "So we're sure there won't be cheese at the end of our walk?" Quite certain. "And we're climbing anyway." I saw it—her thoughtful nod. A crack in her worldview where cheese must be the answer rather than the question. She had touched the rind of the absurd.

We reached the farm, but didn't knock at the door. We stood outside near the cheese cellar like Vladimir and Estragon. The cows looked at us peaceably. The wind smelled like fresh hay. The wildflowers buzzed faintly with truth.

"The absurd is born of this confrontation between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world."

Friend: "So we're... visiting the absence of cheese. Of meaning." Yes! "And we accept it?" We don’t just accept it. We follow the contours of meaninglessness until they resemble a path.

"It is during that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn."

[multiseb21]

Fermin Aldeguer is a true man of the people. He never lets anyone suffer alone. Marc crashes at cota? Fermin crashes at cota. Marc crashes at Jerez? Fermin crashes at Jerez. Franky has an embarrassing crash at Le Mans? Fermin has an embarrassing crash at Le Mans.

[multiseb21]

Fermin Aldeguer, true man of the people, strikes again at Silverstone

[multiseb21]

Fermin Aldeguer, true man of the people, strikes again in the Austrian sprint