Materazzi's Talent

Marco Materazzi, the guy on the receiving end of the world's most famous head butt, seems to have a talent for incidents: after scoring a brilliant bicycle kick,

[...] Materazzi got mixed up in an altercation with Messina's coach, who wound up getting ejected after slapping Materazzi in the head. You can't make this stuff up. The best thing about it was watching Messina players basically avoid the fray. Not many people like geting mixed up with crazy people. Materazzi is officially the Dennis Rodman of European soccer.

Soccer By Ives: Materazzi is a maniac

Future is Now

"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet." - William Gibson

Voting and Switchblades

url
Originally uploaded by warrenellis.

"You want to know about voting. I'm here to tell you about voting." - Spider Jerusalem

Making the Camera Lie

Boing Boing: Fake beauty, video about transhuman tricks used on models

Goalkeeping's Not So Greatest Hits

Prompted by the gaffe in England's recent game against Croatia, The Offside links us to Great Goalkeeper Blunders.

I've had my share of goalkeeper related misadventures, though not with Borat looking on. I've had the goalkeeper kick the ball off my shinguard into my own goal. I've also had a backpass to the keeper picked off in an amateur adult league game. Either the pass or the keeper was too slow- probably both.

:edit: added link to Robinson's blunder

Alphabet Soup

Spectrum's Guide to Recent Electronics: Industry Acronyms and Abbreviations (SGTREIAA)

Even electrical engineers can't keep them straight, much less the poor sap figuring out LCoS or DMD (TI calls it DLP) for his or her new rear projection TV.

Yeah, I'm Published, Sort of

See September issue of IEEE Communications Magazine, the article is "3G UMTS Wireless System Physical Layer: Baseband Processing Hardware Implementation Perspective" (subscription only). Yes, I'm a contributor.

Article is also available via IEEE Xplore.

Condescending Motivation

Custom Demotivator
Originally uploaded by microbrew.

Create your own Demotivator: Parody Motivator Generator.

via [Despair: When silent suffering isn't enough]

A Powerpoint Presentation in a Meeting about Meetings

IEEE Spectrum: The "Briefing" - The author apologizes for his role in unleashing Viewgraphs upon the world. He also has a solution - "Bull Hockey", a form of lingo bingo.

And where are these VU graphs and their successors, the Powerpoint presentations unleashed in the most hideous ways? In meetings. 4.34 hours a week of them if you're an average man, according to a recent survey. See Endless Meetings: The Black Holes of the Workday.

William Gibson: SERE

"When I first saw what they were doing, I knew that they’d turned the SERE lessons inside out. That meant that we were using techniques the Koreans had specifically developed in order to prepare prisoners for show trials." - William Gibson

Yep, Willaim Gibson has a blog. He's best known for coining and popularizing the term "cyberspace".

Which Baller are You?

What type of player are you?

The Crazy World of Pick-Up Basketball

Greece, World Beaters

Greece 101, USA 95

Disappointed, but not suprised. I didn't watch any of the games, so I won't comment but you can read what other people wrote. At least there's the consolation prize.

Greece has been on a tear in international sports. They won the 2005 European Basketball Championship and before that, their biggest prize tod date: the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship.

Links:

• 2006 FIBA World Championship


• The Parade of Pundits Dissects the U.S. Demise.


• USA Basketball: Rules
  compares the rules betweem NBA, FIBA and NCAA.

Which NBA player are you?

Apparently, I'm Dwayne Wade.

Take Which NBA player are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

[via True Hoop]

World Cup Withdrawl

Yes, I'm going through World Cup withdrawl. Here's a highlight video of the (in)famous Zidane. He shows off his arsenal of Cruyff turns, stepovers, etc. including his signature double dragback ("la roulette" or 360 move).

2006 World Championship

The FIBA World Championship is coming up, and you can catch the games live from Japan in the wee hours of morning. It's not World Cup (which I stayed up all night for in 2002), but I'll watch (the replays, of course). The main storyline is Team USA of NBA pros. They will be the team everyone wants to beat, but anything short of a top finish will be considered underachieving. Let's say it is a train wreck- now that will be a story. Not to be unpatriotic, but perhaps that will shock the USA basketball establishment into reforms that will make the game better and more global.

Speaking of international basketball, here's a tribute to one of the best: Arvydas Sabonis. Imagine if he came to the NBA earlier, with two good knees.

Also, here's two tributes to NJ Net's Drazen Petrovic: at NBA.com and ESPN Insider (subscription required).

"It’s Hot. Drink Your Wheat."

Nothing quite like a wheat beer on a hot summer day. It goes great with sausages, salads and spicy foods.

It’s Hot. Drink Your Wheat. - New York Times and the accompanying blog post: American Wheat Beers.

I'd also like to mention Apricot Weizen Ale. The combination really works, even chicks dig it. Also not mentioned: Paulaner Hefe-Weizen. Locally, Saranac also makes Belgian White and Hefeweizen.

U2 and President Bush Mashup

[via O'Reilly Radar > Remix: Bush's Sunday Bloody Sunday]

Worldcup Montage set to U2

I found high quality (official?) links to the ABC/ESPN's U2 and World Cup mixes from the producers themselves.

Here's the leadin to the final, a mix with "Where the Streets Have No Name": FIFA World Cup Championship - U2 and here's the World Cup wrap-up montage, a mix with "One": FIFA World Cup Rollout - U2.

At least check out the Rollout!

Edit: 8/7/2006 -
The actual version broadcast is slightly different. Bigpicture has the 4:3 ABC broadcast version, and here's a HD capture on YouTube.

The Future of Cable TV?

Here's a lesson in trying out new technologies, especially one that reaches the consumer:

My brother and I bought my parents a TV with a CableCARD. It's pretty neat: you get digital channels without a seperate cable box and remote, while paying less in fees. However, support for the CableCARD is lacking. Neither the TV manufacturer or cable provider seem to have much experience with it. they squabble and blame each other.

At least my parents were lucky: it was very clear the TV was at fault - the TV software/firmware kept locking up and crashing the TV. Eventually, we returned the TV and got another one from a different manufacturer.

Banana Jr. 6000

whoa02
Originally uploaded by fritzgutten.

Whoa. Brings back memories, as I used to be a big Bloom County fan.

[via MAKE: Blog: Banana Jr 6000 file server]

World Cup Annoucers

Boy, are they a distraction from the game. Part of it is because one half of the lead team doesn't have experience in calling soccer matches. It's not baseball. The pace is much faster and there is rarely extended stoppages in play. The annoucers babble on while they miss a significant play on the field.

Apparently, the annoucing is bad enough that people are watching the game on Univision. Even, I've watched matches on Univision- but only the time delayed that I couldn't watch live while at work (I'm hardly fluent in Spanish).

As a side note: why don't more sports bars have High Definition TVs? Too bad the Univision feed isn't in Hi-Def, either.

The Sins of American Sportscasting
The Official Complain About ESPN/ABC Thread

World Cup 2006

I'm disappointed by the U.S. performance. Maybe I'll do my armchair gaffer impression later.

I've been following the games at work on-line, simultaenously reading the play-by-play at the informative NY Times and the entertaining Guardian. Otherwise, I'm watching the games in high defintion (HD). IMHO, soccer benefits the most from HD; you can see more of the off the ball action.

Best World Cup Blogs:

• worldcup.blogs.nytimes.com
  
• Ives at the World Cup by Ives Galarcep of NorthJersey.com . Also his ESPN columns.
• Soccer Sweep at USA Today
• The Soccer Daily
  
• Deadspin World Cup coverage (a Gawker blog)

Also check out the video highlights at official World Cup website.

Italia Trener

Video of Italy's men's national soccer team's special training. No match fixing or gambling involved, though.



[ via http://dunord.blogspot.com/2006/06/quickly-churned-butter-news.html ]

YouTube - Ronaldinho vs Zidane

The best two players of the last decade. If I were a defender or a goal keeper, I would not want to face these guys one-on-one.

[via http://worldcup.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=91]

It's a Whole New Ball Game

Check out the video at about a quarter in: the locker room ceiling tiles are jumping up and down from the crowd activity in the stands above.

The Tank Man

Food for thought about China.

FRONTLINE: the tank man | PBS

Read Warren Ellis

Read a chapter from Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan. Cryogenically frozen woman is revived and meets an uncaring future.

Link: Warrenellis.com » “Another Cold Morning”

Looking for New Music?

Looking for new music? Well, go and find it at the same place the music industry does: the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. Check out sxsw.com and listen to their music player. While listening, check out the musician profiles and download mp3s.

Finding new stuff to listen to can be a pain: iTunes is useful but hardly does it for me. I find MySpace a big fuckin' mess. So, I'm down to WFMU (a bit TOO eclectic) and Warren Ellis' podcasts.

Links:
south by southwest festivals conferences
Musicians in Search of Discovery

Google Mars

Google Mars

Check out Valles Marineris, a canyon that's more than two thousand miles long.

Human Evolving

Sugars and spice and Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story both report on A Map of Recent Positive Selection in the Human Genome, a genetic study of the three groupings: East Asians (Han Chinese and Japanese), Europeans (northern and western) and Yoruba (of Africa).

The subject is also explored in an episode of African American Lives.

In fact, because as a species we spent the most time in Africa, the greatest amount of genetic variations are currently found among people living on the African continent -- on a genetic level, an individual of East African ancestry may have more in common with a European than with a West African.

More reading on human evolution:
SURVEY: HUMAN EVOLUTION, The proper study of mankind
Guns, Germs and Steel
Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Red Bull Buys NY/NJ Soccer Team

Why do I care? I'm a soccer fan in NJ. $100 million and a corporate rebranding: is this progress for soccer?

Jack Bell, who's the soccer beat writer/editor for the NY Times - see "Red Bull Buys the MetroStars" - also adds more tidbits of info via du Nord, including the horror that is Giorgo Chignalia.

And build that stadium in Harrison, already.

Edit: Red Bull Is New Owner, and Name, of MetroStars says $100 million.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Now I need something to take photographs with.

Joga Bonito

This commercial made me knod and smile.

www.nikesoccer.com

Help Us Love Ads and Soccer Again

We hate ads but we dare you to hate this Nike soccer campaign.

A Truly Monstrous Ale

Go out and get Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyn Monster Ale, a barley wine. Don't chug it, as it's about 11% alcohol.

Supposedly barley wine can be aged; the brewery even has vintages. I'm tempted to buy a case or two and have it sit around.

Wonderful World of Work

Evaluate Motivations Before Job Change

A World of Affordable Choices
Go overseas- because that's where the jobs are going.

"Web 2.0" meets career management and job hunting.


More Jobs Being Found Online, but That Doesn't Mean It's Easy - The bigger the landfill, the more valuable stuff is in it.

And if the whole process seems like bullshit, well because it is: EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news | Say the magic words

The Origin of Today's Holiday

Enjoying Valentine's - er, Horny Werewolf Day?

Beyond E-Mail and Web Browsing

Someone really needs to come up with a better term for the next generation of Internet applications and services. Hopefuly, it's not "Internet Bubble 2.0".

O'Reilly -- What Is Web 2.0

Anyway, what do I think "Web 2.0" is? I'm not sure, but I can list some distinguishing characteristics: for most of the services, the web browser is the client software. What else? Thin clients. Centralized data. Distributed applications. Open Source bias. AJAX. Mobile integration.

Next generation things I use:
Flickr, BitTorrent, Wikipedia, blogging, tagging

Edit: Also read "Web 2.0: Does it Exist, and Why on Earth Should You Care"

Read a Sample of Warren Ellis' Fell

From one of my favorite writers, Warren Ellis:

NEWSARAMA.COM: IMAGE COMICS #1 WEEK: FELL #1

Using an iPod Beyond iTunes

WSJ.com - Personal Technology describes various ways of getting music off your iPod and a few ways of dealing with multiple libraries (except for the writer doesn't mention using multiple user accounts).

There's also gtkpod, hymn, and an iPod hacks collection.

New:
Hack Attack: Get the most out of an old iPod
QuickTime Components for getting QuickTime/iTunes to play Open Source audio/video formats

China's Youth Look to Seoul for Inspiration - New York Times

The Koreans have really arrived. In addition to cell phones and flat panel TVs, Koreans now export pop culture. Consumer electronics, video games and movies come to mind. Especially the video games.

China's Youth Look to Seoul for Inspiration - New York Times

Further Reading:
Samsung Is Now What Sony Once Was
13.05: Seoul Machine