earthli News 3.7 https://www.earthli.com/news/ 2026-03-15T18:15:01+01:00 https://www.earthli.com/news/icons/webcore_png/app/news_100px.png https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6069 2026-03-15T18:15:01+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6036 2026-02-09T21:49:13+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

. It is not easy to make a show for such a huge arena. Bad Bunny put together a giant series of music videos with incredible sets. It was like a mini-musical. The vibe was a plea for love, not hate, but also a call for revolution. It was a call for unity and an obvious call to fight for justice and equality. It was revolutionary in the sense that what it presented was so obviously a better alternative to the hateful, mean, and overarching military face we've seen lately. In a world determined increasingly by hate, preaching love is revolutionary. [image] Big Bunny introduced himself a couple of times throughout by his real name -- Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio -- launching into his quick Spanish rapping as he wandered through a sugar-cane maze on a plantation. I'm not a big fan of this style of rapping but the man oozes charisma. He's an incredible showman. This, despite his Spanish being nearly impenetrable for me. He sang only in Spanish except when he said "God bless the USA". They turned the whole football field into a celebration of Latin culture: there was a giant sugar-cane field, a taqueria, a piragua stand, a bodega (marqueta), a house, living rooms, a dance floor, all through which he wandered, singing and greeting people; there was a separate concert area on top of the bodega, from which Lady Gaga belted out a tune, accompanied by a huge Latin band. Ricky Martin was there. He looked pretty good, if not amazing! It's heartening to think of people reacting viscerally to his oozing machismo and good looks, thinking that he's intent on stealing their wives, and whose wives would absolutely be packing their bags if they didn't know that he's as gay as the day is long. Which, like, 🤯 for just the right kind of benighted son-of-a-bitch. This was a jubilant jab in the eye those sons-of-bitches but only because they're such snowflakes that it has rendered them incapable of acknowledging game. It's only offensive if you hold offensive opinions. This is a lesson in culture: This show is just as American as trucks and country music. It's just as American as Kendrick Lamar and rap music. It's just as American as Prince. None of those cultures are the one I personally know as an American, but it's blindingly obvious that they all belong to the amalgam of America. It's reductionist and racist to fight it. Just stop trying. You won't win in the end. You'll just cause a lot of needless misery to others and, ultimately, to yourself. This was a call to stop the madness. It was anti-ICE without saying it was anti-ICE. It was only anti-ICE because ICE is for hate, not love. It was pro-U.S.-Latin culture, celebrating the details we all recognize. There was a giant truck in a field; there was a bodega; there was a barbershop; there was a dominoes game, a nail salon; there was an actual wedding; there were workers in the cane fields; there were workers on telephone poles; there were probably "a dozen little things" I didn't even notice because it's not my culture. [1] I barely understand Spanish. It didn't matter if you understood Spanish. It was clear that this all said: we are not who they say we are. We eat ice cream and fried foods. We get married. We sing. We dance. We drive trucks. We are you. You are us. We are the same. What the hell are we fighting about? So much dancing. So much joy. Hundreds of joyous dancers and singers parading with all of the flags of South and Central America, with the U.S. flag in the lead, but only one of many, as Bad Bunny recited all of the country names. He holds out a football with "Together we are America" written on it. "The only thing more powerful than hate is love" is emblazoned all over the stadium. He took the opportunity with both hands and ran with it. The exuberance, joy, and revolution was palpable. You'll be able to tell whether someone's a butt-hurt whiner if they start counting American flags, or if they point out that only Lady Gaga sang in English, or any of a dozen things that I am not even equipped to notice because my mind isn't small enough. None of that matters -- especially for someone from a country like Switzerland, where you're expected to understand four languages when watching the Olympics -- what matters is that (A) it was a hell of a show and (B) it was a hell of a message. Even the haters from the other side [2] -- who will complain that Bad Bunny couldn't possibly deliver a revolutionary message from within the constraints of one of the most capitalist celebrations, the Super Bowl -- should sit this one out. Bad Bunny says "toma mi cerveza". Do not listen to them. Listen to this half-time show. Sway to the beat. Feel the joy. Reject the hate. Build your community. Join the revolution. It shouldn't end here. This should be a beginning. [image] [The rest of the game] Back to the game. It's the end of the third quarter. It's still 12--0. Ten seconds left. Quarterback sack of Drake Maye -- the 20th in this postseason, a record -- and ... a fumble, with Seattle recovering. In the fourth quarter, we quickly get the first two touchdowns, one for Seattle, then a quick one for the Patriots. 19--7. Maye makes up for this quick show of competence by throwing an embarrassing interception, which Seattle can't quite capitalize on, but their kicker gets his fifth field goal, cementing, for me, his MVP pick for the game. He has 16 points! It's a Super Bowl record! Maye eats another huge sack but then makes a good, long pass to make up the ground again. Another sack. Fumble. Touchdown Seattle. 26--7 Replay shows that it was actually an interception because the ball never touched the ground. The sacker deflected it, then another guy caught it on the fly and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown. Seven sacks. So far. Another field goal for Seattle at some point. It's now 29--7 with 4:27 left to play. The Patriots have collapsed. They get one more touchdown with a no-look pass by Maye that's so bad that the back catches it with his fingertips, a mere centimeter or two from the turf. The German moderators noted that they've never heard a touchdown celebrated less. 29--13 (they failed to make the two-point conversion, to no-one's surprise). The game peters out, ending largely in a defensive triumph for the Seahawks and a likely 48-hour suicide watch for Drake Maye. Yeesh. The guy had a bad night. To sum it up: "Patriots' Offensive Line Surprised To Learn Super Bowl Was Yesterday" . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Well-played, WSWS! I'm so happy to see that you took the high road and saw what I saw! The article "Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show highlights mass opposition to Trump" by Nick Barrickman writes, "The 2026 halftime show has already entered the record books as the most watched in history, with early figures indicating more than 135 million viewers in the United States alone. The songs were almost entirely in Spanish, with vivid displays of Puerto Rican and Latin American imagery, and a humane sensibility sharply at odds with Trump’s fascistic xenophobia. "That this performance could attract such an audience underscores the highly integrated, multilingual character of the working population and its deep democratic sentiments, even within the framework of “Super Bowl Sunday,” a central ritual of consumerism, nationalism and militarism. Within this thoroughly “all‑American” spectacle, Bad Bunny’s set was, in its own limited way, an artistic response to recent political developments. "[...] The rapper’s halftime show featured a prominent rejection of colonialism and US imperialism." Well, well, well, we are 100% in agreement. [1] The following video does a great job of analyzing the details as well. He had a version with the lyrics translated for some segments and he gave us a glimpse of what "America B" looked like on TP USA's half-time celebration, where they collected the "deadbeat dads" on stage. [media] ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5519 2025-05-24T21:55:26+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5371 2025-02-14T18:22:40+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5235 2024-11-10T21:50:29+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5009 2024-08-18T00:24:23+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

, which is, "[...] an ultramarathon trail race held each year in Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County, Tennessee, United States. The course, which varies from year to year," ... ]]>

, which is, "[...] an ultramarathon trail race held each year in Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County, Tennessee, United States. The course, which varies from year to year, consists of five loops of the 20+ mile, off-trail course for a total of 100 miles." The video is named #17 because he's only the 17th person to have finished the race in its 40-year history. And people aren't necessarily getting better at it: In 2022, for example, no-one finished. [media] People swear that the loops are more like 25 miles long, not 20+ miles. You have to run all five loops in 60 hours or less. There are about 20,000m of incline/decline as well. Also, you run at night and day. Also, you have to run each lap in the opposite direction of the previous one. [image]Also, you can't use a GPS (that's why no-one knows how long the loops are). Also, you have to collect 13 pages from 13 books along the way on each loop. You have to get the right pages. Also, it's cold. Also, it's sometimes hot. Also, you only pay a $1.60 registration fee. If it's your first time, you have to bring a license plate from your home state and/or country. Only 40 people are invited to run each year. Doing only three loops is called the "fun run". There's a longer documentary called "The Barkley Marathons: The race that eats its young" . It used to be on Netflix, but of course it's not there anymore -- because why should you be able to re-watch something on a service like Netflix? Anyway, in this year's race, the winner of the French version of the Barkley, the "Chartreuse Terminorum" , which is also 5 loops, but of 60km each, Sébastien Raichon didn't even make it four loops this year. Beware: even if you can read French, the web site is nearly unnavigable -- probably deliberately so. "Chartreuse Terminorum" has more information, but also only in French, "La course se déroule du vendredi au lundi. Le parcours comporte cinq boucles de 60 km pour un total de 25 000 mètres de dénivelé." It also has books and, like the Barkley, is designed to have as few finishers as possible. It also costs only €3 (1 cent per kilometer). Each entrant must bring, instead of a license plate, a bottle of alcohol from their home region. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Karel is a genuinely genial person. You can watch even more of him in a video of him reclaiming the record for running the Pacific Crest Trail, which he'd set the record on, and then had to reclaim. It's an almost 50-day run. [media] ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4971 2024-02-12T22:08:05+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

writes, "[image]In November, an IOC spokesperson insisted that Russia presented “a unique situation and cannot be compared to any other war or conflict in the world.” The statement beggars belief. Both Russia and Israel are engaged" ... ]]>

writes, "[image]In November, an IOC spokesperson insisted that Russia presented “a unique situation and cannot be compared to any other war or conflict in the world.” The statement beggars belief. Both Russia and Israel are engaged in asymmetrical warfare, attacking civic infrastructure and private residences and leaving a long trail of civilian deaths and casualties." The authors' statements beggar belief. Did they write this with only the NYT as a source? The Russian and Israeli conflicts are not in any way comparable as far as targeting civilians goes. The Russian conflict is grinding and illegal, but it has killed far, far fewer civilians than Israel's conflict in Gaza, which seems to have the intent of killing civilians until the others run away. All wars are horrible, but some wars are worse than others. No invasion is justified, but why is the Russian one invasion the only one that causes people to think about banning the invading country's athletes? Is it because it's easy? "At all costs, IOC president Thomas Bach does not want to offend the United States, which is scheduled to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and is all but certain to host the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City." They write this as if that statement doesn't completely obviate all of the rest of their reasoning about principles. Are they going to mention how ludicrous it is to speak of morals when the U.S. should have never -- at least in my lifetime -- been allowed to participate, by these standards? These are standards that I agree to, by the way! It's just that we always hear about standards in relation to any country that does not run the Empire where the journalist lives. Just to be clear: there are two authors on this article and neither one of them could clean up this dumpster-fire of an article to have a principled through-line. "There is no moral rationale undergirding the IOC’s hypocrisy when it comes to Israel and Russia." AND AMERICA MOST OF ALL. JFC. Blind spot much? The U.S. funds Israel. The U.S. bombing a dozen countries right now, its drones are everywhere, killing indiscriminately. it sanctions dozens more to economic death. It just started a new war on Yemen, actively bombing them itself after funding and arming Saudi Arabia to do it for eight years before that. It's running an $80B-per-year proxy war in Ukraine, and it is actively bombing the three poorest countries in the world. Russia is a piker in comparison. But even these two authors can't bring themselves to say that, should the IOC want to espouse actual principles about only supporting non-warring nations, then its primary funder would never be able to participate. That's why it is, unfortunately, nonsensical to talk about banning countries on principle. Unless the U.S. is included, it would always be banning politically. "More recently, the IOC banned Afghanistan from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because the Taliban barred women from competing in sports." JFC. Just dumping on Afghanistan, as one of the poorest and most-attacked countries on the planet. Living under the Taliban isn't bad enough? Now you also can't compete at the Olympics? "The IOC’s actions raise the question: Is there anything Russia or Israel could do that would get them banned from the Paris Games?" The authors are really irritating me. I guess Nation writers really do work for Empire. While we're on the subject: was France or Great Britain ever punished for having torn Libya to shreds? I expect more of Dave Zirin, to be honest. I wouldn't have expected this kind of tone-deaf take from him. "Zelensky is aware of the IOC’s pivotal role in all this. In February, he said , “The International Olympic Committee needs honesty,” but added, “honesty it has unfortunately lost.”" Now they're citing that idiot like he matters. He's a literal dictator. He has banned elections indefinitely. There are no plans for elections in Ukraine. Most other political parties have been banned. Almost all media organizations have been banned. Ukraine conscrips soldiers into a meat-grinder of a war that they're running terribly. Ukraine bombs its own citizens. His regime is riddled with right-wing extremists, if not outright Nazis. But, sure, let's hear what he has to say about how the IOC is the biggest problem. Let's read how these two fools cite him talking about how other people aren't honest. Honestly, how in the tank can you possibly be for the U.S. regime? Do these two not see that they're trying to get the IOC to be a mouthpiece for Empire? "The IOC, if it acted against Russia, would no doubt be accused of profound hypocrisy. There are many countries over the decades — such as the United States during the Vietnam War or the Iraq War — that deserved sanction and exclusion from the Olympics, but the IOC remained silent. To penalize Russia, they will argue, is nothing more than a double standard: US foreign policy wrapped in Olympic bunting." Finally! Too little, late. And the formulation indicates that they're going to dismiss this statement in the final few paragraphs. "It’s about standing up to Russia and Israel because, whether the Olympic athlete wants it or not, their success would be folded into nationalism and the war effort." Bullshit. It's about writing this article now rather when the U.S. invades. How does that statement not apply to the U.S.? HOW? "We should demand consistency and accountability from the IOC. Now is the time for the group to abide by its own stated standards. Russia, in the name of Ukraine, has no place in the Games. Israel, in the name of Gaza, has no place in the Games." And the U.S. In the name of Yemen. Look, I don't think the IOC should ban athletes from any country. I think we need more places for countries to meet on neutral ground, without judging each and every citizen of the country for the crimes of its government. That's the leeway that the U.S. has had for decades, going on a century. The fans may have something to say, but you should at least let the athletes participate. God knows it's one of the few channels for diplomacy remaining. And these two foolish authors would rather convert it into another weapon to point at the U.S.'s official enemies. The IOC is corrupt from top to bottom. It always has been. There is no use arguing for principles now. The entire article made no sense, but I fear that it got so much knee-jerk support from exactly the crowd it was written for: unthinking, uninformed, quasi-liberal, affluent Biden-voters. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4819 2023-12-30T16:34:36+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

, "It's a shoulder exercise that involves standing against a wall and raising your arms overhead in an arcing motion, much like making a snow angel." [image] OK. I guess there's not much to it. It's a good thing that it's so easy because the video isn't working there either. Then, near the bottom, I see: "Why Do Wall Angels Feel So Hard? "Reaching your arms overhead demands ​a lot​ of upper-back and shoulder mobility. "Think of this mobility as a combination of flexibility, strength and muscular control. And all three of these are things we tend to lack." WTF? Was this written by an AI? Or did I miss a memo? Is raising your arms over your head considered a strenuous activity now? I'm looking at a picture of a very healthy-looking, veiny-armed individual for whom standing up and putting his arms up shouldn't pose too much of a problem. I've not added this to my morning stretching routine. I'm already reaching for the sky anyway. Mission accomplished. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4777 2023-12-29T10:58:01+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

tl;dr: * Use Garmin BaseCamp to view loaded maps. * Back up, then remove some map files (see "below" <#maps> for more details). * Reload in BaseCamp to see which ones are now gone. * Restore them if they were the wrong ones. * Repeat until you have enough space for the maps you actually need right now.. * Add the maps you purchased. [Buying and ... installing. ⛔️] You can buy maps directly from Garmin, but Garmin will not help you in any way to load them onto your device unless your device has enough room for the new maps. If it does not, then you're out of luck, as far as Garmin is concerned. I imagine that their solution would be to either (A) buy a larger device with more storage or (B) just buy a second device for the other country. Problem solved. Thanks Garmin. If you're not willing to upgrade your device and you'd rather just use the damned maps that you've purchased, then read on. [Managing maps for different regions] In my particular case, the European maps use about 10GB. My Garmin Edge 530 has 15GB of space. The North America maps are also about 8GB, so I can't have all of the maps on my device at once. I would like to "manage" my maps, preferring to keep the U.S. map for the time I'm in the States, then going back to the European maps. I would like some idea of how I could know what I'm losing if I were to remove the European West and East maps (which I don't think I need, but I'm not 100% sure). There is no mechanism for identifying which files correspond to which maps. There is no mechanism for archiving maps. [Maps. How do they work?] I've managed to learn that, * All of the maps are located in the /Garmin folder of your device. * Each map has three files: gma, unl, img. * The img file is the largest one -- usually several gigabytes. * There is no good way of discovering which of the several copies of maps for a region contains which levell of detail for which regions. [Available apps] [Garmin Connect] Garmin Connect won't help you, neither the app nor the web site. [Garmin Express] Garmin Express won't help you either. [Garmin MapManager] You can -- sometimes -- use Garmin Map Manager to see which maps are on your device. If the app even shows your device -- which it didn't for me, when I just checked again -- the Reveal in Finder button doesn't actually show the map in the Finder. Instead, it just shows a parent folder that leaves you with no idea which of the map files corresponds to the map you selected in the dialog. You're left with just guessing which files correspond to the maps you want to remove -- and hoping for the best. However, you might be able to stumble toward figuring out which maps you've removed when you reload the Map Manager after having moved some files. This procedure is similar to Garmin BaseCamp, which at least seems to more reliably show the device. [Garmin BaseCamp] [image]Did you know that there's an app called Garmin BaseCamp? It shows you the data that you have stored on your device: maps, activities, etc. It does not let you do anything useful with these, though. It doesn't let you really see which region is covered by a map. It also doesn't help you figure out which degree of detail is covered by which map. For example, there are three maps for Europe: Central, West, and East. They look like they have a ton of overlap. I think I only need the Central one (I mostly ride in Switzerland). I can't see which map does what, though. It looks like all three maps have the main roads for everywhere, but only have fine detail for certain parts? Maybe? It's really, really hard to tell. Still, it will help you at least see which maps you have installed on your device. It will not help you actually see which cryptically named files correspond to which regions, though. So, you remove some map files, reload BaseCamp, see what's missing, adjust until you've got enough space for the maps you need right now. This is tedious, but workable. 🙌 OK. 👌 Is that all clear? Does that sound like fun 🤩 ? Because it totally is 💯. It's utterly incredible that this is where Garmin is at with their support for their navigation and sports devices after a couple of decades of dominating the market. Capitalist optimization FTW. 🙌 ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4742 2023-05-30T22:17:44+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4692 2023-02-18T22:05:19+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

2 Max] Similarly, the VO2-max score is nearly useless. For one, it is nearly impossible to see this value. You can dig through the app on your phone to find it -- More ➡ Performance Stats ➡ VO₂ Max -- but you'll ever see it very fleetingly on your watch. I've only ever seen it after a walk, never after a hike. I think it also appeared after a couple of runs, but I don't run a lot. It has never once appeared after cycling because... why? Isn't cycling an endurance activity for which VO₂ Max (A) could be measured and (B) would be relevant, if not important? If I've only cycled for a while, then Garmin kind of forgets about my VO₂ Max as if there were simply no way to know that figure until I would just do some exercise. The value appears on the watch only for a few seconds immediately after having recorded an activity -- and then never again. There is no way to view this value on your watch, otherwise. Anyway, six months ago, after having had my watch for a good month already, my watch was convinced that my VO₂ Max was about 30. This is a terrible score, even for a 70-year-old man. If you're 70 and only clocking a 30 VO₂ Max, then you should probably see a doctor or take a COVID test, at the very least. You're not absorbing a lot of oxygen, bub. This was, of course, right in the middle of a typically spectacular, long-distance, biking season for me. But the needle didn't move at all until it started to rise all the way to 35 about three months later. Then, over the next two months, it's risen to 45 and stayed there for a couple of weeks now. My app now trumpets that I'm in the top 15% of all athletes my age. Cool, but what am I to believe? What the hell is it actually measuring? And why was it so wrong for so long and now I'm supposed to assume it's right? And why did it make "jumps" in the span of a couple of weeks a couple of times now? It's like it just woke up and realized that I exercise. I mean, it was definitely wrong before. I would have trouble getting up the stairs with a VO₂ Max of 30, so that couldn't have been right. But why would I now believe that 45 is correct? I have no reason for doing so. 👎 VO₂ Max will only ever be approximate. [Fitness Age] You can probably imagine what I think of this value. I've only recently learned about it. You can only find it on the app -- More ➡ Health Stats ➡ Fitness Age -- but not on the watch. I honestly don't even want to hazard a guess as to how this is calculated. I shudder to think of its accuracy. For the first seven months that I owned the watch, I'd never heard of it, then it suddenly told me sometime last week that my fitness age had decreased to 43. Just out of the blue, I got a message on my watch. Congratulations! I have no idea what to make of this. Again, I'm in the slowest part of my fitness year. It's winter and it's even been particularly slow because the weather hasn't been conducive to hiking or skiing and I've been nursing a sore achilles tendon back to health. I had the watch when I was banging out 200km per week on the bike last summer. Apparently, that level of endurance training didn't have any effect on my fitness age. Or maybe it was a software upgrade. Or, maybe... 👎 Fitness Age will only ever be approximate. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4686 2023-02-14T16:58:40+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

KC 7 -- 7 PHI * First-quarter 🕒 * Eagles 🦅 quarterback Hurts starts the second quarter with a long bomb for a touchdown in the first eight seconds. 🏈 KC 7 -- 14 PHI But the Eagles fumble halfway through the second quarter and gift the Chiefs a touchdown. 🏈 KC 14 -- 14 PHI Hurts again: long run on his own to set up 4th and 2 at the 6. Chiefs with illegal motion and it's 1st and goal. Hurts runs it in himself on the first play. 🏈 KC 14 -- 21 PHI * Mahomes makes a poor quarterback run of his own and is tackled on his injured ankle. Philly gets the ball back and makes a run down the field. * Philly settles for a field goal and the first half ends. KC 14 -- PHI 24 * Half-time. 🕕 * Rihanna is high up on a platform. The songs are a mess. It's fifteen minutes long, but feels longer. Lots of fireworks. 🎆 * KC gets a touchdown 🏈 in the first five minutes, then quickly gets the Eagles to cough up a fumble and scores on that, too. It's called back ⛔️ because the received did not have control of the ball, which is a totally bizarre call because it very much looked like he did. The German 🇩🇪 announcers had it 100% right, though. KC 21 -- PHI 24 * Next are a bunch of ⚠️ flags with questioned calls. Philly gets a razor-thin decision on a catch/not-catch, gets the ball back, and KC loses a time-out. * Eagles settle for another field goal. 🏈 KC 21 -- PHI 27 * Fourth quarter begins. 🕤 * Kansas City comes marches up the field quickly for a touchdown, on a nice positioning fake-out for an easy walk-in. 🏈 KC 28 -- PHI 27 KC puts tremendous pressure on Hurts and they're forced to punt. and KC is back on the offense. KC gets another one. 🏈 KC 35 -- PHI 27 A quick drive, a long pass, an unfortunate step out-of-bounds two yards before the end zone, but then a quarterback sneak, a two-point conversion, and it's KC 35 -- PHI 35 * Five minutes left and it's all tied up. 🕚 * KC gets up the field -- with a run from Mahomes -- and gets within TD range. They're a bit early, though. So, they need to waste time before kicking a field goal. The Eagles help them out by holding on a play, giving them a new first down. Chiefs are wasting as much time as they can. It's 3rd and 5 with less than a minute. They're at the 7-yard line. * Field goal KC with 00:08 remaining KC 38 -- PHI 35 * Hail Mary from Hurts goes nowhere, falling harmlessly into the middle of the field. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] The article "Super Bowl LVII: Money, militarism, spectacle … and football" by Kevin Reed described how, * Tickets averaged $5000 * The pilots of the jets were all-female * Rihanna is worth about $1.2B * Etc. [1] See "Anti-War Voices Accuse Super Bowl of 'Hijacking the Pat Tillman Story'" by Brett Wilkins , "However, the army knew in the days immediately following Tillman's death that he had been shot three times in the head from less than 30 feet away by so-called "friendly fire," and that U.S. troops had burned his uniform and body armor in a bid to conceal their fatal error." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4638 2022-12-18T21:55:05+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

for a 3-minute collection of clips of several goals, as well as a few more that you could vote on. There were quite a few gorgeous feats. [A boring interlude] But who cares how great the soccer was! It's the workers in Qatar who should be foremost in our minds. It's always interesting to see what we're made to care about. While workers died in the building of the stadia, it's probably not exactly clear how many, due to the same exact problem we have with all other journalism these days: the loudest voices have the loosest allegiance to reality. I haven't put any time into finding out what the real numbers are, but I know that all reporting about Asia is generally wildly inaccurate. Caveat emptor. Witness the recent revelation that Iran was going to kill 15,000 protesters. It turns out to have been one sentenced to death, and that one because he set a police station on fire. There are a few others on trial where the capital punishment is possible. That may or may not the full information on the situation there -- I neither read Farsi nor do I follow Iran's internal politics -- but it's much closer than the only number people will likely remember, which is at least three orders of magnitude too high. It's interesting, though, that we always hear about boycotts when it's Russia, or China, or Qatar who's hosting. Qatar and China have abysmal labor practices, it's true (or I've heard). But so does the U.S. At the same time that rail workers all over Europe are luxuriating in a single-day strikes that bring them real gains in remuneration and working conditions, the U.S. just squashed a looming railroad strike with an act of Congress, essentially telling them these laborers that they are essential and their lives belong to the corporations that hired them. If they misbehave in any way, the U.S. will take away their savings (in the form of their pensions). And, yet, no-one will ever say one word about boycotting the 2026 world cup because the U.S. is hosting it. If not for the horrific labor practices, then what about the hyper-militarization, both domestically and internationally? Bernie Sanders was just made to retract a bill to stop funding Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen. No problem. Nothing will ever stop the U.S. from funding Israel's war on Palestine. No problem. The U.S. is waging a trade war against Russia and China -- and has done for years. The U.S. is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine -- as well as several other places. All of this weakens the weakest all over the world. Is that not enough violence to warrant a boycott? And not a single word will be said about boycotting that World Cup, when so many, many words were said about boycotting Qatar's. [Back to the action] After the first week, I started watching on the first weekend of the tournament. I actually ended up watching quite a bit, I guess. I watched most of these games while doing something else, but nevertheless, there I was, increasingly rapt at the incredible quality of play. Group Matches Argentina 2 -- 0 Mexico France 2 -- 1 Denmark Morocco 2 -- 0 Belgium (partial) Spain 1 -- 1 Germany Brazil 1 -- 0 Switzerland Portugal 2 -- 0 Uruguay (partial) USA 1 -- 0 Iran Argentina 2 -- 0 Poland Morocco 2 -- 1 Canada Japan 2 -- 1 Spain Switzerland 3 -- 2 Serbia Quarterfinals Argentina 2 -- 1 Australia France 3 -- 1 Poland Japan 1 -- 1 Croatia (1 -- 3 PKs) Morocco 0 -- 0 Spain (3 -- 0 PKs) Croatia 1 -- 1 Brazil (4 -- 2 PKs) Argentina 2 -- 2 Netherlands (4 -- 3 PKs) Morocco 1 -- 0 Portugal England 1 -- 2 France Semifinals Argentina 3 -- 0 Croatia France 2 -- 0 Morocco Small final Croatia 2 -- 1 Morocco Final France 2 -- 2 Argentina The Switzerland -- Serbia match was a cracker. Lots of drama and lots of action. But Switzerland was looking pretty vulnerable at the back. The same for France, although their offensive firepower and ease with which they got through the midfield was absolutely amazing. Argentina just picked up steam the whole way, with Messi playing like a man possessed. Mbappe is also mostly firing on all cylinders. This should be a very interesting final. [Small final] But first, there was the small final, playing for third place. Croatia took care of Morocco in the first half with an early goal which Morocco matched immediately, but Croatia had a beautifully placed shot late in the first that turned out to be the game-winner. Morocco fought hard, but Croatia is amazing as well. They're a country of about 4M people and they've placed second and third in the last two World Cups. Incredible depth for such a small country. [The Final 👏] And oh my God, what an amazing final! Argentina goes up on a Messi PK, then goes up 2--0 on a beautiful goal, to go into halftime with a 2--0 lead. The French finally woke up after the 80th minute, with Mbappe putting away a PK, then cracking in a lovely shot just minutes later to tie it up late in the match. In extra time, things are getting chippy, they're making mistakes, but both are pressing pretty hard -- as hard as you can expect after 100+ minutes of play. Messi puts together some amazing plays and finally puts one away with 10 minutes to go. Incredible! With four minutes to go, Argentina blocks a shot with an elbow in the penalty box and it's Mbappe back at the spot. Goal. 3--3. End-to-end in the extra time, with Martinez blocking a point-block shot for Argentina, then Argentina taking it to the other end for a shot of their own. But it goes to penalties. Mbappe sinks his. Four goals for him. Nothing to complain about there. He's a national here, for sure. Messi's up. He sinks his. Three goals for him. Also did his job. Nice to see champions who act like champions when the chips are down. Incredible work from both of them. Mbappe would end up being the only goal scorer for France as Argentina made their next three while France missed both of theirs. Final 3 -- 3 (4 - 1). With the Copa America from last year and the World Cup this year and holding literally every possible record for league and championship play alone, Messi is the GOAT. But Mbappe is only 23 and delivered a hat trick in a final where he was fighting for his second World Cup. His numbers are spectacular so far -- they're even better than Messi's were, at the same age. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4632 2022-12-10T11:25:06+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4602 2022-11-07T22:46:51+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4581 2022-10-09T18:31:38+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4521 2022-06-21T22:18:52+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4449 2022-02-20T11:35:52+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

or "After a Disturbing Night, Concern Rises for Teenage Skaters" by Juliet Macur because they're so incredibly opinionated -- even though they're not in the opinion section of the newspaper. That absolutely doesn't seem to matter in any way anymore. I'm not sure if it ever did, but I feel like it must have, decades ago. This is how Crouse starts her "article" about the Olympics. "Imagine a dystopian Olympics. Maybe it would have athletes skiing on fake snow down parched slopes. Robots mixing cocktails, making dumplings and disinfecting the air. Events staffed by workers not in sportswear but hazmat suits. Instead of a stadium you are eager to sit in, a bubble you cannot leave. "They’re being staged in a country whose persecution of the Uyghurs has been called a genocide by the Biden administration, and yet China had a smiling Uyghur athlete light the Olympic torch as Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin looked on, two autocrats seated together in the V.I.P. box." Imagine a country that invades whomever the fuck it feels like whenever the fuck it feels like it constantly heaving broadsides against other countries, all the while never once being call on its bullshit or, heaven forfend, even being considered to be banned from hosting or participating in the Olympics because of its monstrous crimes. People won't shut about the slap in the face that is letting China host the Olympics, but no-one ever says anything about the U.S. It doesn't even occur to anyone that they might be applying their principles somewhat unevenly. Or, after a week of relentlessly dumping on Russian skaters, the Times now sends out Macur to write, "Finding a way to protect teenagers inside an authoritarian sports system like Russia’s will be challenging. No doubt girls and women fear speaking out because of possible reprisal against them or their families. Setting up an independent group to provide oversight there is not as easy as it sounds. "This is Russia we’re talking about, the country caught switching out urine samples in a doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Games so its athletes could win." Obviously, America's only concern is for the children. Sure it is. Quit your bullshit, you utter hypocrites and monsters. It's fascinating to watch a country talk about other countries' abusive systems when they just had one of the greatest child-abuse scandals in history in their own women's/girl's gymnastics program. In that case, it was sexual abuse, completely unrelated to the training program. You can argue that a training program shouldn't abusive, but you could pretend to some humility when your own house is shattered glass. It's unsurprising that this kind of bullshit fills the pages of the New York Times. Their agenda has been clear for a while now: provoke war with Russia, by any means possible. I would imagine it's a good trade-off to retain whatever advertising funding that they have remaining. After having predicted an invasion on the 16th of February -- smack-dab in the middle of the Olympics -- the front page on the same day looked like this: [image] No humility, no remorse, no surrender. They have their marching orders from the military-industrial complex. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4388 2021-12-21T12:59:19+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

. With no insult intended to the author, this article feels like it was written by an AI or perhaps had been translated back and forth a few times with DeepL. In case you think I'm being unfair, I'm going to cite the section that "helped" me in full, "Now to get this next step you must pay close attention since it is an important part of the process. First, if your boot clicks on the link, this alone does not mean that the configuration of these links is the most appropriate. As a general rule, the boot could click on the link independently. "[Um, what?] "Therefore, when the boot performs a click, then the metal tab should be between the external and internal hash marks. When we talk about the metal tab we are referring to that tab that you initially raised to move the binding. "[The part above is what actually helped me remember about the tab.] "Therefore, if this tab is in this place, that is, between these marks, and is also blocked, then the starting pressure will be adequate or correct. Now, if the metal tongue is located in the housing of the heel piece, or if it is hanging beyond the mark corresponding to the outer hash, we would be talking that the forward pressure is too much, or too low. "[🤔🤷🏼‍♂️🤔🤷🏼‍♂️🤔🤷🏼‍♂️] "From this point, you must click on the union with the boot to discern the level of forward pressure. To do this, the metal tab should be located on the internal and external marks, but only at the moment when you do not click on the binding boot. This step must be done with considerable care as there are many incorrect positions for this case." I read a lot of tutorials online and this is one of the more inscrutable I've encountered. Cheers to them for reminding me about the metal tab, though. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4276 2021-06-05T22:25:47+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3900 2020-12-19T18:23:07+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

The corresponding workout has been deleted * Go to Garmin Connect manually * There it is * Go back to TacX * Refresh * * The corresponding workout has been deleted * Now it's stuck on loading data and can't show the workout in TacX * Reload the page * Stuck on loading... Garmin is a huge software company with literally a single web site to run. They bought a competitor in February 2019 and, almost two years later, have finally integrated the authentication. They have not managed to integrate the web sites, though. What they did manage was to bring their special "Garmin Cloud-expertise polish" to the TacX site. Unbelievable though it may seem, it's now even worse and more stunted than it used to be. The TacX app itself is unchanged and feels like someone made a desktop app out of an iPad app. It doesn't remember any selections. It takes five clicks to do anything. To end on an upbeat note: you can now only export from TacX to Garmin (Strava export as well "Save TCX" have been removed). However, the sync works as expected and the Garmin activity now takes the name of the TacX activity, by default. I know, right? As if that weren't already enough engineering prowess, they've also changed the default activity type to "Indoor Cycling" (it used to be "Cycling"). It's like a Christmas miracle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] As you can imagine, I was actually ready to start a workout and was delighted to find that I would be delayed in doing so because my devices and software -- for which I had paid money -- had decided that I was not the master of my own schedule and that I would, instead of using my trainer, be doing software maintenance instead. My joy was boundless. [1] Again, apologies to those with more delicate ears, but I feel that it's important to properly capture how angry this type of thing can make users. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4098 2020-12-03T22:33:46+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

recently published new "Community Standards" <>. It's mostly fine, filled with the standard entreaties to avoid "hate speech" (even though that's a legal term that has a different meaning every country they have users in) and singing paeans about being nice to each other. Strava also declares... ]]>

recently published new "Community Standards" <>. It's mostly fine, filled with the standard entreaties to avoid "hate speech" (even though that's a legal term that has a different meaning every country they have users in) and singing paeans about being nice to each other. Strava also declares its right to terminate the account of anyone they consider to have transgressed against what seem like deliberately vaguely defined rules. They probably think they're being precise when they write, "Hate speech is a direct attack based on race, ethnicity, age, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disease, disability, body type, or immigration status." So that's their definition, but there's a lot of wiggle room, as always with these kinds of definitions. What is missing is context and tone, something that never interests censors -- especially digital ones that are completely incapable of detecting sarcasm or wit. [What is heard versus what is meant] There are innumerable examples of something that sounds pretty bad in a transcript -- until you hear the original audio or video and realize that the person being quoted actually said the words in a "yeah right, like we're supposed to believe that" tone. That is, the spoken meaning was the opposite of what it looks like when written down. That's not a rare occurrence, honestly. Almost any discussion about anything of substance can be sliced and diced to distort its meaning. So, for example, I'm not sure if I would get banned for telling one of my oldest friends that he's slower than me on a particular hill because "everyone knows Turks can't climb." I mean, I would be totally kidding and it would be a joke between us (and my account is restricted to only followers), but who knows who else would lean in to take a look and take offense on behalf of all Turkish people at words exchanged between friends and not intended for anyone not privy to the context? [Not what Strava is selling] I, on the other hand, signed up to Strava as a place to upload sports data and share it with friends, who do likewise. Strava is a platform, but now they think they're a cult. Although you would think that their purpose is to provide a sports-data platform, according to these new standards, they have higher goals. To whit, to, "[b]e inclusive and anti-racist "Strava is committed to actively dismantling and eradicating racism and discrimination in all forms. If you use Strava, you’re joining us in this commitment, without exception." If I use Strava, I have to join this commitment? No exceptions? What the actual hell, Strava? I paid you money so I can see my historical data neatly and nicely parsed and now you tell me that, by the way, I've also got to join you on your crusade of anti-racism? In order to use Strava, it's not enough that I am not racist in my thoughts or actions, but I have to don superhero togs and actively fight racism, nay, "dismantl[e] and eradicat[e] racism and discrimination in all forms". Fuck, dude, I've got a day job, OK, Strava? Is it all right with you if I just work there, teach my night-school classes and ride my bike once in a while? Jesus, I didn't think signing up to a sports platform meant I was signing up for a war on racism. A war whose parameters are defined, of course, by a VC-infused, Silicon Valley company, which is where I like to look for moral and ethical guidance. If you're sufficiently woke, then you'll happily swallow this transgression of a paying relationship without a second thought. The list of things that count as "hate speech" won't trigger a single worry that perhaps the net will be cast too widely. [Protecting yourself by hiding yourself] I suppose the answer is to not leave any comments on Strava if you want to stay on the safe side. Another approach is to expose only a stunted, anodyne version of your identity there, which is what many of us end up doing in most relationships. That's probably a good rule of thumb these days for pretty much anything that considers itself to be "social" media -- media that then doesn't really let people "socialize" in the way that they choose. So, sites are policing language and behavior on so-called social sites -- and the state is working hard to make encrypted, private, communication channels open to agents of the state, just to make sure you're not committing crimes. For now, their stated goal is to prevent "human trafficking" and "buying drugs" and all sorts of other nefarious activity that they allege is rising dramatically, if not stratospherically. But how long will it be before policing of hate crimes and forbidden language -- and thoughts -- comes to formerly private conversations? As we've seen with Twitter and Facebook -- and now Strava -- the policing is coming everywhere people gather and interact. If you've nothing to fear, you've nothing to hide, right? ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3963 2020-04-30T22:33:12+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3820 2019-10-16T22:29:48+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3735 2019-04-20T20:20:15+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3594 2018-10-15T21:42:40+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3106 2015-02-03T19:47:40+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

offers a far better analysis of the final offensive play by the Seahawks—the one that led to an interception—than I could ever have hoped to make. Sperber starts off by dissecting Emmitt Smith and Dave Zirin's supposition that foul play must have somehow... ]]>

offers a far better analysis of the final offensive play by the Seahawks—the one that led to an interception—than I could ever have hoped to make. Sperber starts off by dissecting Emmitt Smith and Dave Zirin's supposition that foul play must have somehow been involved. That is, "[t]he theory of foul play of course presupposes that Carroll made not only the wrong call but a completely nonsensical one that could only be attributable to corruption [...]". The NFL is certainly not a shining beacon on the hill and it's very easy to suppose that something shady was going on -- especially when the alternative is to suppose that everyone in the Seahawks organization is a moron and that even a relative tyro like yours truly could have made a more sensible call -- namely, to run the ball with Marshawn Lynch, as Seattle had done on nearly every other play that game. Sperber makes a strong case that passing on that play seemed stupid only to people who weren't actual students of the game. "Seattle had three plays to score a touchdown and, with 26 seconds remaining in the game, lacked the time (with only one timeout) to run on all three plays. The only question was when the Seahawks would pass, and it was entirely correct to pass on second down, as a second down run, assuming it was unsuccessful (as was Lynch’s earlier 3rd and 1 run), would have dictated a third down pass forfeiting any element of surprise. By passing on second down against a Pats’ defense playing run, Seattle had an excellent opportunity to win the game. And the odds were astronomically high that the pass would have ended in either an incompletion (stopping the clock, as they needed to do) or the game-winning touchdown. In fact, this season it has been statistically riskier to run from the one-yard line than to pass." Ok, fine. But he could have chosen a better passing play, couldn't he? That is a valid point, apparently. Here's Sperber addressing the kind of passing play Seattle chose. "Insofar as Carroll should be criticized, it is not that he elected to pass but that he should have called for a relatively safer pass, for instance either to the corner of the end zone or out of a bootleg. Nonetheless, the interception did not result from a coach’s decision but from a weak play on the ball by Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockette and a remarkable (and devastating if he had been wrong) gamble and play by Patriot rookie defender Malcolm Butler [...]" Seattle just got very, very unlucky whereas, at the same time, the Patriots got very, very lucky. Maybe Seattle had just used up all of their luck two plays previous where Kearse managed -- against nearly all the laws of physics -- to keep the ball bouncing only on himself and to finally catch it while lying on the ground. If you want outrage, be outraged that "Seattle’s Jeremy Lane gruesomely broke his arm" and "Patriot receiver Julian Edelman stayed in the game after receiving a vicious and illegal (but not penalized) helmet-to-helmet hit", neither one of which was even mentioned during the broadcast. Instead, the NFL announcers conspicuously drew attention to the concussion that Seattle's Cliff Avril sustained and for which he was removed from the game. Lane and Edelman's injuries weren't obvious, so they were quietly taken away, while Avril was blown across the field, his case could not be ignored and was instead taken as an example of the NFL's focus on safety. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3014 2014-08-05T21:01:03+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3001 2014-06-28T23:34:11+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2964 2014-03-01T23:36:55+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2961 2014-02-20T19:55:22+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

for this month so that I can watch the Olympics on my own schedule. It's pretty sweet, especially for hockey games. [image] Zattoo keeps a 7-day buffer for over 100 channels. You can actually watch for free, but you don't get HD and you have to watch extra,... ]]>

for this month so that I can watch the Olympics on my own schedule. It's pretty sweet, especially for hockey games. [image] Zattoo keeps a 7-day buffer for over 100 channels. You can actually watch for free, but you don't get HD and you have to watch extra, Zattoo-specific commercials. The Olympics coverage is remarkably commercial-free, at least on the Swiss (Swiss-German, German, French and Italian) and Austrian channels. The German channels have more advertisements but mostly between events. They tend to prefer live coverage. BBC2 I've hardly watched at all because they show more interviews and adverts than sports. What did I think of the hockey games? Latvia played with tremendous heart, proving once again that teamwork can be (almost) equal to loading up on raw NHL talent. Canada played hard but seemed to be thinking about the next match already. In the US-Czech game, the US showed off a lot of talent but also benefited from more than its share of lucky bounces. They are to be credited with going at the net, but the 5 goals they got (on 25 shots) included a few ugly ones. The right team definitely moved on, though. The Russians would have loved to have had half the luck of the Americans in their game against Finland. With 38 shots and only 1 goal, it was kind of a sad loss because they, perhaps even more than the US, play an absolutely lovely, balletic passing-style hockey with lots of speed and chances. They dominated the offensive zone for long minutes at a time -- even at 5 on 5 -- but they just couldn't score. The story of the Olympics, at least over here in good ol' Switzerland, is the Swiss women's hockey team, who showed a tremendous will to deliver what I think is the only rally-win of this Olympics. That almost never happens to Swiss teams -- rallying isn't our thing. It was an exciting game with some decent (non-checking) hockey. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2955 2014-02-10T22:39:37+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

is a 55-year--old native Mexican alpine skier who is once again in attendance at the Olympics, his sixth. Whereas in 2006 Mexico declined to send a one-man delegation, in 2014 he got to carry the flag. [The main show] The main show is quite nice, very colorful and whimsical. Kind of reminds me of Miyazaki. Tall, misshapen and bizarre creatures wind their way across the arena, accompanied by giant onion towers that could just as well be mushrooms. The projection technology for the whole arena is really nicely done. In particular, the boat that carries Peter the Great looked great. And then the map of the great wars of the 19th century rolls up over the waves and the ocean to reveal Petersburg. A great effect with a handful of people, very few props and construction and a giant projection system. It's a much softer, more pastel, less powerful and simpler ceremony than Beijing and London. Just people as dancers at a ball, or soldiers in formation (no guns) on a projected background, all out in the middle of a giant arena. During the ball scene, there were giant pillars sticking out of the ground while we all watched ballet and listened to Tchaikovsky that the German commentator her consistently misidentified as Stravinsky [1]. And here we are: the revolution, the Soviet. The red. And yet, still whimsical, in a way. The people are all just cogs in the machine. The focus narrows to a single group, highlighted again in an amazingly CGI way, with a glowing white light in the center, seemingly blowing the workers out away from it, all frozen in the moment. Now they're playing "the troll-lo-lo-lo song" . Totally taking the piss. [The Torch] I predict Putin lights the torch himself. Shirtless. He would totally win the Internets. Alas, twas not to be. But "Karelin" and "Tretiak" were good choices as well. I like how many cosmonauts they invited to the ceremony. Is that to rub US noses in the fact that Russia still has a space program? Ceremony winding down. Over and out. [image][image] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] He would finally be right during the torch-lighting ceremony. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2944 2014-02-03T22:02:02+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2670 2012-06-20T23:29:31+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

sums it up rather well: "What a poor, unimaginative, uninspriational, dour example of English football [...] how many opportunities did we have for sitting at the edge of our seats? [...] I was so bored I made about three cups of coffee during that match...and I didn't miss anything!" Click through to the "rant" because the whole thing's quite funny and relatively well-delivered. [image]For truly inspired goals, look instead to the always exciting Mario Balotelli, who sealed Italy's win against Ireland with a spectacular bicycle-kick goal or to Zlatan Ibrahimoviç, of Sweden, who full-volleyed his goal against France with such perfect timing and precision that there was never any doubt where it was headed. The Polish goal against Russia was an absolute cracker as the boys from Eurosport like to say. Rooney's header was pretty ho-hum compared to those; I only mention it because the German announcer sounded like he needed a couple of minutes alone every time Rooney's goofy-ass Shrek-like mug appeared on screen and one of the local papers splashed said Boo-Radley-like grin all over its cover. [image]I know it sounds like I hate the English team, but it's more like I'm sick of listening to how awesome they are when I've been wholly bored with their pedestrian performance. And especially this love for Rooney, who played terribly in his first game back after five weeks off. He bobbled almost every ball put to him and did nothing of real note. If I was on the English team, I'd secretly be pissed that he got credit for that goal: he hadn't earned it at all. Where the commentators didn't hesitate to chide Italy for their failure to pummel Ireland into the ground -- and they played quite well in the midfield with a lot of possession but little finishing -- they lauded England for an utterly dismal performance against the Ukraine. In fact, the Ukraine played very similarly to Italy: lots of inspired midfield with a lack of finishing, though no lack of shots. Unlike other years, the players of many of these teams have finally figured out where the goal is, putting the ball on goal -- and sometimes into cloying defensive legs or the goaltender -- instead of moonballing it into the audience in an attempt to bend it in an expectation not matched by anything we know about the physical rules of our universe. France, in the first game in particular, seemed to be quite a force for finding the net and made for quite an exciting game, even if they didn't score that much. Some of the set pieces still feature those frustrating rockets that never seem to come down and instead soar harmlessly off over the goal. I'm looking at you, Pirlo. [image]I've been mostly watching the games on ZDF-HD, a German channel, because the announcers on Swiss TV are so damned biased -- both the German- and French-language channels play clear favorites. And the BBC and ITV channels are wall-to-wall orgiastic displays of English-football love. The Swiss newspapers continue their less-than-subtle prejudice against the East Europeans, chiding the Croatian fans for "lighting flares" (something no other fans did, I'm sure) and the Russian fans for being "too martial [milataristic]" and including the picture shown to the right. Are you kidding me? That flag is awesome! It's huge! It's martial because there's an armed Spartan on it? (The text at the bottom is clearly a play on the signature line from the movie 300.) The Swiss media chose instead to laud fans from Ireland and the Netherlands, two proper countries full of people who aren't trying to steal our jobs. And then there are the cameramen of all channels, who never, ever -- ever -- fail to highlight the most attractive young ladies cheering for their side. This roving, peeping-tom camera is such a standard part of football now that it's featured on every channel, regardless of country-of-origin. With those telephoto lenses, they get creepily close, zooming in right on the glistening eyes with their HD lenses. We get it: hot girls are hot. Can we please just see some timely replays now? Especially for those fouls-that-aren't-fouls and dives-that-aren't-dives? The officiating has actually been quite good, with the referees seeming to let the play run a bit more rather than whistling the ball dead at the slightest body contact. Offsides calls have been nothing short of outstanding -- Italy breathes a sigh of relief here [2] -- and the only black mark so far is the uncounted goal by the Ukraine against England. That one was hard to understand, since there was a ref behind the goal, the one on the sideline and the main ref wasn't too far away either. At any rate, goal-line technology inches closer, with even the decrepit Sepp Blatter weighing in in favor yesterday. I'm actually going to be away from television and computers for the semifinal matches -- maybe I can catch a game on a French radio station -- but I'll throw out some predictions: Czech Republic vs. Portugal Portugal: Christiano Ronaldo scored two in the last match and seems to be warming up. Czech Republic has a relatively well-organized side with a good midfield, but they haven't shown a flair for finishing. Portugal's defense will make its usual handful of grievous errors, but it probably won't be enough to tip the balance in the Czech Republic's favor. Germany vs. Greece Germany: Germany has looked good in every game this tournament, with a strong showing from back to middle to front. Greece was lucky to get this far and should not pose too big a problem. Look for a laser-like goal from Podolski; he hasn't gotten one yet. Spain vs. France Spain: France is unlikely to overcome the ridiculous midfield control that Spain has exhibited so far. Italy played Spain to a standstill on Spain's own terms, but France has not exhibited that they possess a similar ability in this tournament. Spain had trouble breaking through with a Croatian team that was strongly focused on defense, so the score might be low. Spain's defense is occasionally porous -- like Portugal's -- but it's unlikely to cost them the game. England vs. Italy Italy: England looked awful against both France and the Ukraine, with both teams swarming all over them the whole match. Their defense is relatively tight -- and it better be, considering the caliber of player they have and the fact that they play a 1-9 formation, with 9 men in their own penalty box for much of the game -- but they scored multiple goals only against Sweden, where they were slightly less lackluster. Italy's always unpredictable but, you know, Balotelli. 'nuf said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] At least it does here, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. [1] Italy in particular has gotten the short end of the stick in the last few world cups, having had several goals called back for offsides that turned out not to have been offsides. Their run-and-gun style at the time seemed to confuse the linesman, I guess. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2433 2010-09-19T20:54:31+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

has sports writing that borders on poetry: "His name is Darrelle Revis and ... [i]t is his fate to be the greatest cornerback, the" ... ]]>

has sports writing that borders on poetry: "His name is Darrelle Revis and ... [i]t is his fate to be the greatest cornerback, the greatest. He is so good that he erases himself. Did you see him during that first game, on Monday Night Football even as the fog lifted? No, you didn’t see him. That’s because his defensive genius negates whatever player he defends. The opposing team simply ignores that side of the field. And so he disappears, pulling all the stars around him down, down, into the quiet place where the opposing passing game goes to die. To Revis Island, where nothing happens." The season is young and hope has not yet died. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2424 2010-07-25T22:54:40+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2409 2010-06-20T12:22:54+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

and "Reddit" told me. A search for videos on "YouTube" turned up several links to... ]]>

and "Reddit" told me. A search for videos on "YouTube" turned up several links to videos showing the goal in question: the play was not offsides and no U.S. player committed a foul (to the contrary, it was the Slovenians who were all over the U.S. players). It seemed quite clear-cut: the U.S. indeed had been robbed of a goal. However, it's not up to the players to question the referees, no matter how badly they think they've called the game. There are, in fact, FIFA rules against this and most players are clever enough to realize that, should they wish to continue playing in the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world, they'd better just keep their opinions to themselves and let others comment on the officiating. If they don't, they run the risk of being barred from further participation and/or fined. There are always those players who simply know when they're right and when they've been wronged. In that case, the rules clearly can't apply to them, since they'll be vindicated by the objective evidence. The blog post, "Why I Hate Landon Donovan" by Ken Silverstein , showed up the next morning, detailing just such a case. It's not the first time that Landon Donovan can't keep his opinions to himself, despite what are probably desperate efforts from team management to get him to do so. As detailed in the article, "Donovan: U.S. victory ‘stolen’ by referee" by Martin Rogers , Donovan didn't accuse the referee of bias, just of incompetence: "They [the officials] stole a goal from us [...] It was a good finish and a good goal. [...] It was the guy’s [Coulibaly’s] first World Cup and maybe he got caught up a bit. This is the World Cup and you can’t just take away a goal from a team like that." On the contrary. They can and do make mistakes. As mentioned above, Donovan is 100% correct about the goal itself -- and video evidence backs this up. However, when he says that "you can’t just take away a goal from a team like that", he is dead wrong because FIFA has never, ever -- not once! -- changed the result of a game after the fact. That is, they can take a goal away because the score will stand at 2--2. There probably isn't even a way to make an appeal. If there was a way to make an appeal, where would it end? Do you go back and pick the game apart, play by play? How can you do this, when one bad call in one place may lead to an opportunity in another? The blog post, "Referee Again in Center of Controversy" by Jeff Z. Klein , notes that exactly this happened. Though one can only find videos of the nullified American goal, the goal was the result of a free kick that resulted from a highly questionable foul granted the U.S. team. "Odder yet, the foul that led to the free kick was the result of a questionable call by Coulibaly. United States striker Jozy Altidore ran into a Slovene defender and fell theatrically, drawing a whistle from Coulibaly. "It is unclear whether Coulibaly waved off the subsequent United States goal as a sort of makeup call for having awarded the Americans a questionable free kick — perhaps the only plausible explanation for the nullified goal." It's highly plausible that Coulibaly granted the free kick and immediately regretted it. In most cases, the referee has nothing to rue -- the free kick leads to nothing spectacular and the game proceeds with the bad call having had no undue effect for either side. However, the U.S. scored a beautiful, powerful goal on it -- after Coulibaly had already blown the play dead. In fact, he seems to have blown the play dead almost as soon as the ball was kicked, which is why many thought he was calling offsides. Perhaps he was making the not-too-far-fetched assumption that the U.S. would commit some fouls in the box while jockeying for position. In that case, even the video replay would have backed him up (though some might have asked how he could possibly have seen the fouls from his field position). Unfortunately for Coulibaly, none of this happened and the U.S. scored a nice, clean goal off of a free kick that they should never have been granted. Would it not then have been the Slovenians' place to be outraged that they'd lost the game to a bad call? The only feasible place to end such questioning is to disallow it completely, as FIFA does. This is not to say that referees are infallible, but that to allow players and coaches to question them based on their own subjective impressions is untenable. There are, however, other, non-subjective solutions. Video replay could be successfully integrated without harming the game: each side gets one replay request per game; if a request results in an overturned call, the requesting team gets another request. Such a system would allow teams to address bad calls, but also keep them from calling for video review too often. FIFA has been adamantly opposed to both video replay and electronically tracking balls to determine whether they actually cross side, end or goal lines -- technology similar to that used so successfully in professional tennis. Some plays -- like offsides and set-pieces -- are notoriously difficult to call correctly [1]. With so few goals and so little between teams at the international level, it's a scandal to decide games on referee weakness. It would be much cooler to remember amazing goals than to remember "that time that one guy got away with breaking a rule". [2] That said, however, I'm forced to agree with Ken Silverstein: "Landon Donovan is an ass." He doesn't understand when sportsmanship and respect for the game trumps being right. These things happen and athletes who have been athletes for as long as Donovan has should know better. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Though bad offsides calls have marred many matches in the last two World Cups, this year has been much better. [1] Like Maradona's hand-of-God goal...or Thierry Henry's. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2406 2010-06-14T21:08:01+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2370 2010-04-22T23:20:53+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

is a tremendously fluffy and stupid article. Did they actually interview people or did they just make this shit up based on gross cultural stereotypes? "It found that a majority of English respondents -- 93 percent -- would give up food for a week" ... ]]>

is a tremendously fluffy and stupid article. Did they actually interview people or did they just make this shit up based on gross cultural stereotypes? "It found that a majority of English respondents -- 93 percent -- would give up food for a week to see England win, while some 70 percent of Italians would give up their job for an Italian victory. "Americans were most willing to sacrifice their homes, while South Koreans were most ready to sacrifice their love life." * First of all, 93% is not just a majority, but an overwhelming majority. It's a near-certainty. * Second off, the classic canard is that English food is utter crap, so of course they'd be willing to give it up for a week. * That 70% of Italians would give up their jobs is also wholly unsurprising -- it's actually surprisingly low -- given their penchant for striking at the drop of a hat. (Again, that's according to the classic canard.) * Since a quarter of American homeowners are underwater -- they owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth -- it's unsurprising that they'd be willing to part with said houses. Reuters, however, forsook the scientific accuracy of a percentage and went with "most" instead. Not only that, but they applied it to that which Americans were willing to give up rather than to the number of respondents. That is, it's possible that only 1% of Americans were willing to give up anything at all -- who cares about soccer in the U.S. anyway? -- but of those, most were willing to give up their house first. * I have nothing amusing to write about the love lives of South Koreans. The astute reader will not that this article of a paltry, few-hundred words had not only a credited author, but an explicitly credited editor as well. Kudos to Reuters for their journalistic acumen. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2343 2010-03-04T21:42:10+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

... ]]>

I didn't see the video because of the blanket NBC hatred for non-US residents and the NBC stranglehold on video content from the Olympics. That does not prevent me from having an opinion, of course. I think the other skater isn't really allowed to say anything one way or the other, even if he wanted to. The judges and video replay have the last word and that's it. If someone could say, yeah, but, regardless of what the video shows, I know I fell on my own, then it open the door to manipulation. In this one particular case, it might be considered justice, but it would open the door to manipulation if a skater's opinion mattered in the outcome of the race. Also, in the heat of the race, it's nearly impossible to accurately remember what really happened -- your mind makes up a lot of stuff to fill in the huge cracks yours senses leave. A skilled questioner could get the "honest" guy to both admit and deny that he fell on his own ... all within a quarter of an hour. That's why the judges and video evidence override everything. That's just sports, man. Ireland's not going to the world cup because Thierry Henry from the French team batted in the tying goal to qualify -- and deny France. The referee didn't see it, though every camera on the planet did. There's no video replay in soccer, so that's that. The call stands ... because that's the rules. Ohno understands the rules because he's a sportsman ... people who care about sports once every two years during the Olympics are not and that's why there's almost always an uproar whenever they perceive something as unfair. The athletes, on the other hand, mostly understand that the system's not perfect and that the ball bounces one way one day and another the next. If it's randomly imperfect, that's fine; as long as it isn't biased. [Closing Ceremonies] It's pretty much a ritual that you first trundle out the organizers of the thing, Rogge closes 'er down, the next city gets the torch (as it were) and the outgoing hosts put on a kitschy show, complete with native talent (again, as it were). Noteworthy was that VANOC CEO John Furlong -- the head of the organizing committee from start to finish, all 14 years worth -- somehow let himself be pressured into speaking French -- for what must have been, like, the first time in his life -- in front of a crowd of dozens of thousands in the stadium, and upward of billions planet-wide. This author, in a recent article ("Englisch wird die Arbeitssprache" ), gave EU commissar Günther Oettinger a pass on his abysmal English. However, the reasoning there was that Herr Oettinger is actually pushing for more English in Germany and so should take the first steps himself, regardless of how poorly he speaks it. It's a complete mystery why Mr. Furlong agreed to humiliate himself by speaking what we will grudgingly admit was French. The reactions were not gentle, as documented in "Closing Ceremonies: The Live Blog" by Andrew Coyne : "National unity set back 30 years. [...] Question: what’s worse? No French, or Furlong French? Moliere dying several more deaths. [...] Tribute to the deceased Georgian luger. Furlong’s Georgian is better than his French." And, in "‘ey, John FurLONG, kest keh yu coll dat, Fran-say, eh?" , which comes out swinging already in the title, but also offers a possible reason for this Francophonic catastrophe: "Probably pressured to include more French in the Closing Ceremonies by the Conservatives trying to get votes in Quebec, as Heritage Minister James Moore tried by speaking out after the Opening Ceremonies (CBC), John could not have faked an English speaker reading French for the first time ever any better. [...] ome francophones have loudly voiced their disappointment at the lack of French at the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Well, I hope they’re happy now. (Emphasis added.)" If you're in the States, you can find the video on NBC's site. The rest of the world can try to find it on YouTube, but it's kind of a moving target. If you speak or even just understand French, it's worth it, though. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2342 2010-02-22T20:36:37+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

is very well put together. All information is available in a fairly easily understandable structure. Go to the figure skating and you can get all the information you could want about a routine: which elements were done, how many points the athlete got and on and on. For timed events, there are all the split times for all of the athletes. Even during the events, the pages all update in near real-time, showing splits during races only seconds after the they show up on TV. Just click the little plus-sign next to an athlete's name in an event and dig through the treasure-trove of statistics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] This is a very Euro-centric view. For those living in a capitalist wonderland, a free-market panacea ... well, how's that working out for you? [1] Head Coach of the Swiss National Hockey Team. [1] Like a weakling. [1] Yeah, Costas, I'm looking at you. [1] Bronze in the downhill; silver in the Super-G; gold in the combined at the time of writing. [1] "Rolling down the windows" as they've taken to calling it. [1] Switzerland owns fourth place. At least it seems that way. It would be worth a statistical analysis to see which country gets the most fourth places per athlete at the games. Maybe we could start a campaign for a leather medal or something, so the Swiss get more. [1] Remember Lipinski? What were they thinking? Or Cohen? C'mon. How does Michelle Kwan never get an Olympic gold? ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2190 2009-07-13T22:40:07+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

, in which stiff-arming has been considerably curtailed for the 2009-2010 NFL season. Marion Barber can proudly and rightly... ]]>

, in which stiff-arming has been considerably curtailed for the 2009-2010 NFL season. Marion Barber can proudly and rightly claim to be almost the sole reason for the change, though he doesn't seem too put out by the upcoming limitation on his technique. "Barber made a habit last year of violently stiff-arming potential tacklers in the kisser. So effective, and so unfair, was the move that the NFL Competition Committee deemed it illegal for the upcoming season. Told of the league's new "Barber Rule," prohibiting him from going for opponents' facemasks, the Barbarian never looked up and immediately growled "What about the throat?"" Nice. Even casual viewers of American football have had to wonder exactly which idiot they have to thank for the regulations governing overtime. As it stands, a coin toss decides which team gets the ball. That team has the opportunity to march the ball into field goal range and take the win. As opposed to the beginning of the game, where settling for a field goal is highly unpalatable, taking a field goal at the beginning of the overtime period is all you need to win. It's almost never a very satisfactory end to a game. Instead, the NFL should consider a rule change, as described in the article "The brilliant NFL overtime silent auction system" . "Each coach writes down the yard-line at which they’d be willing to accept the ball, and they put their bid in a sealed envelope. Both coaches hand the envelopes to an official at midfield, and the coach who’s written down the least advantageous yard-line gets the ball, at the yard-line he's written down." A system like that would include much more strategy and would allow both teams to take the ball, if they have the guts. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2058 2009-01-02T17:03:30+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

is absolutely mind-blowing: [image] "Kerby Brown rides a huge wave in an undisclosed location southwest of Western Australia July 6, 2008, in this picture released November 7, 2008 by the Oakley-Surfing Life Big Wave Awards in Sydney." ]]>

is absolutely mind-blowing: [image] "Kerby Brown rides a huge wave in an undisclosed location southwest of Western Australia July 6, 2008, in this picture released November 7, 2008 by the Oakley-Surfing Life Big Wave Awards in Sydney." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1878 2008-06-18T00:15:17+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1877 2008-06-18T00:02:53+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1873 2008-06-15T22:52:25+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1872 2008-06-14T22:37:20+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1871 2008-06-13T22:48:43+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

if you want to know more. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1869 2008-06-12T22:49:16+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1868 2008-06-11T22:39:45+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1867 2008-06-11T00:11:35+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1866 2008-06-09T23:04:43+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1864 2008-06-08T22:46:04+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1777 2008-04-01T22:09:03+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

brings news of the opening of the new baseball park in Washington DC in a deal that moved the Montreal Expos south to the USA. Apparently, the mainstream media coverage was nothing short of effusive -- gushing, even -- about the new stadium, which was almost... ]]>

brings news of the opening of the new baseball park in Washington DC in a deal that moved the Montreal Expos south to the USA. Apparently, the mainstream media coverage was nothing short of effusive -- gushing, even -- about the new stadium, which was almost wholly financed by taxpayer money. From the article: "$611 million of tax payer money in a city that has become a ground zero of economic segregation and gentrification. $611 million over majority opposition of taxpayers and even the city council. $611 million in a city set to close down a staggering twenty-four public schools. [...] That’s $611 million, a mere five months after a mayor commissioned study found that the District’s poverty rate was the highest it had been in a decade and African-American unemployment was 51 percent." In a fitting cherry on top, president Bush [1] threw out the first pitch on opening night. He would have to have been less-than-oblivious not to notice the booing. Lucky for him... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] This scandal has almost nothing to do with the Bush administration, though. It fits well into the atmosphere created by them, but this type of wholesale corporate welfare occurred before Bush and will occur after him unless we change something essential. Simply electing a president who is not a complete idiot and sitting back in contentment will not do the trick. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1776 2008-04-01T21:55:20+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

. It tells of the "1980 Winter Olympics" , which had the noble goal of turning its Olympic village into a prison afterwards, in order to turn a profit. Couple that with the fact that, according to "Olympics Then & Now" , the village of Lake Placid had only 2,731 people in 1980, and Americans have lost the right to say anything about the Olympics being awarded to backwards countries that aren't ready for them and that run roughshod over the Olympic spirit. Despite protests [1], the 1200-person structure was converted to a prison after the games -- and that was just fine for everyone concerned. Except, of course, for the "young, mostly black and Latino men from the urban centers of New York City and Philadelphia" populating it. Those surprised that the IOC would allow something like this to sully the reputation of the Olympics haven't been paying attention. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] The protests involved other great American traditions, like arresting people for no legal reason to make them stop protesting, then letting them go the same day, after the event they were protesting is over. This clear infringement of first amendment rights was going on over 25 years ago as well -- it didn't just start with the Bush years. The author gives the following piece of advice about laws of ad-hoc protesting in the US: "In a word, what my case determined is that where there is “no obstruction of pedestrian or vehicular traffic” by a single demonstrator (who does) “not threaten or provoke violence,” there is no right to impose the kinds of restrictions allowed on larger, organized gatherings." Though you are within your legal rights to protest where your protest will be seen and heard by those that you are protesting, most police officers have different marching orders and will cart you off to jail, if illegally and only for a little while. Your only recourse will be to sue, but your chance for protest will be past. Such is freedom. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1379 2006-09-21T22:01:10+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

reveals that Barcelona has indeed agreed to emblazon their jerseys with the logo of an international company: Unicef. "It will not be the brand name of a corporation. It will not be a commercial to promote some kind of business. It will be the logo of 'Unicef'. Through Unicef, we, the people of FC Barcelona, the people of 'Barça', are very proud to donate our shirt to the children of the world who are our present, but especially are our future." Mock if you want, but with the donation of "just over £1m to its humanitarian projects each year", Barça is well ahead of any of its rivals in showing that even mega-rich football clubs can be something other than rapacious sharks in the corporate sea. [image] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Soccer for the Americans out there. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1343 2006-07-05T22:54:58+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

... ]]>

tells his story. "There's not a statistic for heart, but Yzerman would be the unquestioned record-holder. Through the years, he's had five knee surgeries and lost all his cartilage in his right knee. He's had a herniated disc, vertebrae fused and a smashed orbital bone. He's had to sit in hyperbaric chambers to speed the healing processes." He's easily the best all-around player (defense/offense) of the last 20 years, and clawed his way up to seventh on the all-time points list with 1755, with 692 goals and tallied 1,063 assists. He will be missed, but he's more than earned his retirement. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1336 2006-06-27T22:48:17+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

comparison, you'll see there have been quite a few yellow cards. A few have been for diving, while others have been for delay of game. These are the things that FIFA is cracking down on these days. The large majority of the cards have been for excessively hard tackles, tackles from behind or tackles that are off the play. Players tend to flop when struck for several reasons: 1. Getting hit hurts sometimes, no matter how much we want to think that each and every player on the pitch is a whining pussy 2. Referees don't call what they don't see; a player who doesn't embellish a legitimate foul and tries to stay on his feet is one who loses the advantage to a foul play 3. They're trying to cheat and get a good free kick or a penalty [image]It's the last accusation that is being thrown at Grosso of Italy, who went down in the box extremely late in extra time against Australia. The replay showed that Grosso probably could have avoided the defender who, having missed the ball neatly dinked around him, sprawled himself in a wild tackle at Grosso (the Italian coach said that he'd already shrugged off one foul at that point, whereas the Austalian coach says no fouls whatsoever occurred). Yeah, an athlete of Grosso's capability should easily be able to avoid getting wiped out by a desperate tackle directly in front of him. True. But that's not exactly his goal, is it? His goal is scoring goals. To that end, he did a sweet little maneuver to deke the last defender and was gearing up to shoot when suddenly the way to the ball is blocked by a wildly sliding Australian. Grosso's goal is not to escape the game without getting hit -- it's to put that ball in the net. Our goal as fans is to see goals get scored, not to see skilled players threatened off the ball by illegal tackles. So Grosso makes no attempt to avoid the "wild assault of Australia midfielder Mark Bresciano" ("Totti kills Oz hopes at death" ) and goes sprawling quite theatrically on the ground. If he'd leapt over Bresciano, avoiding all contact, he'd have been rewarded with nothing for all of his effort -- and wild, unskilled play would have won out. So to those that ask why such a skilled athlete shouldn't be able to avoid such a wild tackle, the question in response is "why should he?" Letting hard tackles and wild play terrorize the best players -- the ones people tune in to watch -- into careful play isn't good for anybody. It leads to the highly defensive, scoreless matches we've been seeing in the last few days. Should out-and-out diving be punished? Yes. And it has been in this tournament. Compared to other years, notorious diving teams like some South American clubs, Italy, Spain and others are doing a lot less of it for fear of yellow cards. Embellishing a legitimate foul is something we're going to have to live with because the alternative is broken games with no flow and "goon squads" á la ice hockey. To be honest, the large majority of replays where it appears a dive took place showed a defender clipping at least a part of a foot or leg or tugging some part of the uniform. That the action causes a healthy, strong player to actually fall down is ridiculous. But without falling down, the referee has no reason to stop play and the defenseman gets away with using dirty play to nullify a scoring play, of which there are precious few of in the first place. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1335 2006-06-26T07:20:18+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

covers a match that looked more like ice hockey on grass than World Cup football. You have to have seen the match to realize just how ironic the quote above is, coming... ]]>

covers a match that looked more like ice hockey on grass than World Cup football. You have to have seen the match to realize just how ironic the quote above is, coming from Luis Figo, who was part of an extremely vicious Portugese side against the Dutch last night. The two sides -- both capable of very fine football -- quickly became more concerned with producing and receiving yellow cards. Maniche of Portugal put in a nice goal to take the lead in the 25th minute and the Dutch spent the rest of the game missing the net completely and barely disturbing Ricardo, the Portugese netminder. A deliberate handball by Costinha (Portugal) got him sent off with a second yellow in extra time in the first half, setting up what should have been steady pressure from the Dutch and desperate defending from Portugal. The Dutch should have equalized on a bizarre non-call in which a Portugese defender came soaring in, leg high, and planted his foot into Dirk Kuijt's chest, knocking him on his ass directly in front of the goalie. Though the referee was looking right at the play, he not only did not call a penalty, he waved the entire play on as if nothing had happened. Then in stepped Luis Figo, sporting a maturity level of the under--17 league -- one which most of his team (but especially Deco) shared. "The spark was provided just before the hour mark by the habitually cool Luis Figo, who -- unseen by Ivanov -- headbutted Mark van Bommel following a foul by Giovanni van Bronckhorst on Barcelona team-mate Deco." [image]Somehow, Figo only got a yellow card for an attack on a player after the whistle was blown. That was the referee Ivanov's seond error: it doesn't matter that Portugal was already down a man and that Figo was the best player in the world for several years -- if he head-butts another player outside of play, he's off. At that point, it would have been a deserved 11--9 players on the field, as the Portugese had been playing much dirtier and more dangerously than the Dutch. Since Figo stayed on, he got to help send off a Dutch player to even things up with his "reaction to what appeared an innocent stray Khalid Boulahrouz arm". He did get elbowed in the face, but it was hard to say it was deliberate (unlike DeRossi of Italy against the USA), but Ivanov responded to Figo's histrionics and sent off the Dutch player, likely thinking he'd settle things down by evening up the players. This was not to be, as the yellow cards kept coming fast and furious and at least twice a brawl almost broke out, due to the annoying habit that the Portugese players had of surrounding fallen Dutch players and exhorting them to get up -- presumably in a language they didn't understand. This swarming behavior earned them no friends on the Dutch team as the Dutch waded in trying to clear their compatriot some breathing room and Ivanov waded in, swinging his yellow card right and left. A simpering, whining Deco set the record by collecting two bookings in six minutes, the second for taking the ball and refusing to give it back for a Dutch free kick. Quality stuff, this. In the end, the Portugese clung to their one-goal lead in a match that was an embarassment for both sides: the Portugese showed the world what we can expect in a match against a notoriously cool-headed English side and the Dutch showed the world that they just can't find the net. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1332 2006-06-22T23:16:47+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

highlights the last match in the 2006 World Cup for the United States, including the critical defensive error by Claudio Reyna that led to the first goal for Ghana and the questionable penalty call in the 3rd minute of extra time in the first half. Questionable?... ]]>

highlights the last match in the 2006 World Cup for the United States, including the critical defensive error by Claudio Reyna that led to the first goal for Ghana and the questionable penalty call in the 3rd minute of extra time in the first half. Questionable? No...that's not it. Ridiculous? That's more like it. Bruce Arena has this to say about it: "I think we'd all agree it wasn't a good call to have that in the 47th minute, after our team worked so hard to get back in the game...To be positioned to have to chase the game on that call is kind of remarkable in a game at this level." [image]That is exceedingly civil -- especially from Bruce Arena, who is not known for pulling punches when talking to the press. All of the replays showed both of Onyewu's arms (US defender) -- and they weren't touching Pimpong, the Ghanan forward. Pimpong went for the header and missed, then fell down. If there was any contact, it was incidental and done with the body. It's not a penalty kick, it's probably not even a penalty and it's certainly not a penalty kick in the last minute of extra time in a tied game that decides who advances in the group when one team just tied the score not four minutes before. Once again, a referee is playing God. Ranting aside, the US needed to win this game in order to advance and the way they played in the second half wasn't going to land them a single goal, so it doesn't really matter that they needed two. As Arena said, it doubtless had an effect on their morale, but their morale has nothing to do with their aim. They approached the Ghanan net several times, but put almost nothing on target -- outside of a McBride header that almost snuck in off a post. Most of their kicks soared over the crossbar, indicating that the MSL should probably standardize their goals to be the same size as those used in international competition so that the Americans have a fighting chance next time. Their passing and trapping game leaves a lot to be desired as well, especially when compared to the tight, crisp passing of nations like Argentina, Holland or Brazil. It's not that they need to make the hundreds and hundreds of passes [1] favored by South American teams, but they need to drop the ball to their feet much faster in order to be able to do something with it. There is altogether too much time wasted in trapping on the third bounce and chasing bad passes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Brazil made a nearly unbelievable 473 short passes in their game against Japan tonight. [Ronaldo] [image]On a completely different note, it was really nice to see Ronaldo return to form tonight against Japan. "Ronaldo still has what it takes" gives more details on his attempt to surpass Gerd Müller's record of 14 World Cup goals. Ronaldo had 12 coming into this tournament (4 in '98 and 8 in '02) and just put up 2 more against Japan. One more and he's got the lead. It's nice to see the 183cm/90kg striker prove all of his critics wrong when they say he's too chubby to get the job done. He still manages to be effective, running with the best of them for 90 minutes (usually). Good for him. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1320 2006-06-17T23:49:53+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

squared off tonight in match that started off with a strong American side attacking into an Italian defense that was simply absorbing everything. The Italy that played Ghana using the midfield was gone and the classic counter-attacking Azurri style was back. Though the Americans... ]]>

squared off tonight in match that started off with a strong American side attacking into an Italian defense that was simply absorbing everything. The Italy that played Ghana using the midfield was gone and the classic counter-attacking Azurri style was back. Though the Americans controlled the run of the play for the first 20 minutes, Italy capitalized on a perfectly executed set play to hammer a headball past star goalkeeper Casey Keller. The US deflated slightly after that, but were suprised to see Italy bang home an own goal to tie things back up for them. [1] [image]That was the start of the circus. De Rossi, an Italian player with a history of discipline problems, targeted Brian McBride with an exceedingly deliberate elbow to the face, for which he was promptly ejected by the referee, who was standing not twenty feet away [2]. At this point, Italy had racked up an own goal and an ejection. Bravo. World class and relatively typical stumbling start to a World Cup for Italy. America was not to be outdone on this front. Shortly before half time, Mastroeni, soon after launching a marvellous shot that almost put the US in the lead, sliced in cleats up and way late on a tackle and gets sent off as well. Again, the referee was not ten feet away from the play! Ten men to ten for those keeping track at home. Soon after both teams returned to the field, Eddie Pope (US), who already had a yellow card from the tenth minute in the first half, tackled Gilardino from behind with almost no chance on the ball and grabbed himself a second yellow card. Hit the showers, Eddie. Incredibly, the US had taken the advantage offered by a disintegrating Italian team and turned the tables on themselves. The rest of the match played out terribly, with the Italians refusing to go on the attack until the last 8 or 9 minutes of the game and the Americans unable to mount much of an attack (though DeMarcus Beasley offered some excitement, the US ended up with zero shots on goal). The US defense was quite solid, but could hardly prove themselves heroic against the sluggish, out-of-sorts offense offered up by the Italians. The US technically has a chance of qualifying, but they play Ghana next, who shut out the number two in the world Czech Republic 2-0 in a game that they dominated from start to finish. The flying Czech Republic of the first game against the US was completely absent and the Ghanans showed the same good form they did against Italy in their first match. [A Plague of Offsides] Italy looked bad, but was dogged once again by incredibly poor officiating by linesmen calling offsides. In several cases, as in the last world cup (see "Refereeing at World Cup" for more information), Italy lost significant breakaway chances to offsides calls that were simply not offsides. The officiating has been relatively solid in this respect in other matches, which indicates either a conspiracy against Italy (read Corriere d'ella Sera tomorrow for the various flavors) or an inability to call the close-to-the-line Italian style accurately. As mentioned in the article above, the only real solution to this is to put a goddamned linesmen in the booth, where he or she has the same God-like perspective we all have watching at home. The referee is already wearing a microphone and earpiece taped to his face -- what's the problem, FIFA? [Questionable Cards] The other country robbed of a goal was Argentina, whose Hernan Crespo also got a yellow card for continuing play after the whistle was blown. Argentina is playing about 100 times better than Italy, so they don't have to care about bad offsides calls -- they got an incredible 6 other goals that game. The yellow card was a tough call as the Argentinian fans are staggeringly loud and the blown whistle wasn't audible to the viewers at home either. Yellow cards are important in the first round, as two cards accumulated over two games results not in ejection, but in missing the next game in group play. Again, Argentina has so much firepower that they wouldn't miss Crespo too badly in their third game, but the referee shouldn't be so fast and loose with yellow cards for non-gameplay fouls. Other useless yellow cards have been issued to Francesco Totti of Italy, in which he tackled a ball in the open field (not in possession) and an American stumbled over his legs afterwards. At worst, this was a free kick, but a yellow card? For what? Drogba, another masterful player, of the Ivory Coast, was similarly punished for coming too close to the goalkeeper. The ball was not in goalkeeper possession until very late, Drogba made only incidental contact with the keeper, the keeper didn't seem to notice, the referee was perfectly positioned and he issued a yellow card to the best playmaker on the Ivory Coast. The first red card of the tournament was given early in the second half to Vladislav Vashchuk of the Ukraine in a match against Spain. Not only did the Swiss referee dole out a red card, but he saw fit to grant Spain a penalty kick as well. Vachchuk was dogging the Spanish attacker, and, in the replay, pulled on his uniform briefly while outside the penalty box. The Spanish player seemed not to notice, taking a well-struck shot that almost passed the Ukrainian keeper before stumbling to the ground several steps later (inside the penalty box). Knowledgable commentators have watched the replay and judged that the call was correct according to FIFA rules. This is utter bullshit. If it's true, then the rules are bullshit. The tugging occurred outside of the penalty box -- and far worse uniform pulling was perpetrated by the US on Italy during their match. Not a single instance was called by the referee -- even for near undressings that occurred in the penalty box itself. There is a consistency problem, as there always is with referees. Ukraine gets to play a man down for 45 minutes against a powerful Spanish team -- all for a foul that is at worst a free kick and at best, simply nonexistent. Red cards should be reserved for plays that impede or bring down a player on a clear breakaway (as in ice hockey, which gives penalty shots), intentional handballs, and dangerous tackles, intentional or not. Intent to injure should be punished with multi-game suspensions and fines. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Those keeping track at home will know that the US has managed to get a point out of this World Cup -- but without scoring a goal of their own! Brilliant! It adds tension to the game we Americans play of guessing not whether the US will win a game (unlikely considering how masterfully Ghana is playing), but whether we exit the tournament with at least a goal under our belts. Fifth in the world? Really? [1] Though commentators on Eurosport have wondered aloud whether there should be varying forms of punishment -- á la ice hockey -- instead of just a red card, the red card for all dangerous offenses is fine. DeRossi, whose attack was intentional and meant to inflinct harm, should (and will, according to commentators more knowledgable than I on Austrian television) be banned from the rest of the tournament and possible games beyond. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1318 2006-06-16T23:15:12+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

for the game show Mexico with 51 losses of possession to Angola's 40. That's just absurd. Anyone who watched the match knows it was way more. The "official statistics" for Argentina--Serbia Montenegro show 38 lost balls to 41 -- this in a match that Argentina played as close to perfectly as you can imagine. The best thing about the game was Angola's incredibly acrobatic goalkeeper. One could argue that he would need to be less acrobatic if he was in position more of the time, but that would be spoiling the party. He was a delight to watch and, when Mexico failed to capitalize on a rare miss by him late in the match [1], I breathed a sigh of relief. He is also apparently not even playing on a team right now, but Angola called him up for the world cup nevertheless. After this performance, he should have a home soon enough. Neither team deserved to win this match and the 0--0 result was the fairest possible. Since Angola came in the clear underdog, they come out on top having earned a draw. Mexico has earned the right to shut the hell up about being a soccer nation. The commentator on Eurosport said after the match: "Angola hold on for a draw and I think I'm going to cry. Amazing result and Mexico booed off the pitch." The French commentator on Swiss TV was laughing too hard to say anything. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Actually, the goaltender missed, two Mexicans whiffed on the ball, it bounced off the crossbar, and an Angolan finally got lucky and cleared it. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1308 2006-06-09T23:30:48+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

brings a sigh of relief to anyone still biting their nails over whether Lance cheated when he won his first Tour de France. The conclusion of this latest bout of shipping 7--year-old samples of Lance's urine around Europe comes not with exoneration of... ]]>

brings a sigh of relief to anyone still biting their nails over whether Lance cheated when he won his first Tour de France. The conclusion of this latest bout of shipping 7--year-old samples of Lance's urine around Europe comes not with exoneration of any wrongdoing, but of the inapplicability of the given evidence. Since it cannot be proved that the samples were not tampered with, they cannot be used as evidence. Furthermore, any results of tests done on the possibly-tainted samples cannot be released to the public. Any student of logic will fail to see how that "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France". It does neither one nor the other. There are just a few facts to consider: 1. The Tour de France is generally about 3500 to 4000 kilometers long. Racers cover this distance in 21 stages, averaging about 180 kilometers per day. 2. The Tour de France is, in general, more difficult than the Giro D'Italia. This year's Giro D'Italia included a single day of cycling that covered 200km and 4500m of climbing. The Tour de France has even more mountains. 3. Because of these inhuman tasks, biking has became notorious for doping. It is widely accepted that anyone who has a modicum of success in this sport dopes to one degree or another. 4. Lance Armstrong raced once per year -- at the Tour de France -- and won seven times in a row in this grueling race. He routinely humiliated his competition and rarely looked to be in trouble at any time during his reign. 5. Only very few riders are caught for doping. It is also generally accepted that most riders are very careful. 6. Use of EPO -- one of the most effective and natural performance enhancers -- is detectable only in "overdosed" quantities. It can be used as an enhancer and cannot be detected as it is a naturally occurring hormone. Tests can simply detect whether the level is unnaturally high. Given all this, what is one to think of Lance Armstrong, who so dominated the sport for seven years? What is the likelihood that he is such a super-athlete that no one in seven years could even come close to him? You want to believe he gritted his way through, with hard work and training. It's not like he has a day job. But neither do any of the other competitors. They all train 200km per day, year round. Regardless of what kind of natural talent he has, it stands to reason that someone with a little less talent, but with a lot more drugs, would have taken away his crown. Granted, he was always blessed with a very good team. But T-Mobile and CSC fielded teams full of stars as well. It just doesn't add up. If you're unfamiliar with the sport or haven't ever watched it closely, you may be fooled into thinking that the riders are human. They're not. They ride 40-50km per hour for hours at a time, drafting off of each other to save energy, but still putting in ferocious paces for hundreds of kilometers that are just unthinkable. The climbs they do are similarly insane, rising at high percentage grades (sometimes 6%, sometimes up to 16%) for a dozen kilometers. Repeat 4 times in one day during a 160km ride. Deep sports massage, pasta dinner, some sleep, then do it again 20 more times. Americans like Lance because he's our kind of guy. He's got a booming cancer foundation, he can interview in passable French (helping fight the ugly American syndrome), he regularly humiliated the French in a sport that they love and we hardly care about and he left his boring old wife for a rock star (who since left him when she realized that he rides 200km every single day and not just three weeks per year). You want to believe he managed all this and did it clean. Maybe he did. Maybe he did. But these latest findings don't prove one thing one way or another. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1246 2006-02-23T23:25:36+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

(Build It, Or Else: The strange, broken economics of publicly-financed sports stadiums.) is about public funding of private gain in an arena other than the military. Sports teams have been playing the "stadium hopping, city-hopping" game for several decades now and its only getting worse. The most recent and egregious instance is Washington D.C. "issuing"... ]]>

(Build It, Or Else: The strange, broken economics of publicly-financed sports stadiums.) is about public funding of private gain in an arena other than the military. Sports teams have been playing the "stadium hopping, city-hopping" game for several decades now and its only getting worse. The most recent and egregious instance is Washington D.C. "issuing $535 million in bonds to build [a] stadium" for the Montreal Expos, which are moving in as soon as it is complete. The article lists a litany of other stadiums, from baseball and football stadiums to basketball arenas, all built with between $200 and $400 million of taxpayer money. We know the arguments that convince enough people to float these bond issues: it will revitalize the local economy, it will bring new jobs to the area, the added prestige will raise property prices. Can't that large a chunk of change benefit the community in other, less abstract ways? The cries of these naysayers and opponents of corporate welfare are lost among the hysterical shrieks of brain-dead politicians who claim that "[t]he ripple effect" of a team's departure "defies our imagination". It reeks of kickback. A recent study of 37 cities with large sports franchises found that "claims of large tangible economic benefits do not withstand scrutiny." This study and others mostly found that the promised increases in consumer spending never occur, as people simply end up spending their money on the sports team instead of other recreational activities. It doesn't spur people to do more recreation; they don't have more time on their hands, after all. So the promised boon to the local economy is, in fact, a "zero-sum endeavor, a shifting around of resources". With the shifting around benefitting the team owner, into whose pockets the money goes (they own the stadium, remember?) and depriving other local businesses. So while it's zero-sum to an economist, it's a minus for local businesses. The promised job boon falls into, at best, the category of a Walmart job boon, which increases minimum wage jobs. At best. On average, however, "[a] city lost on average 1,924 jobs due to the presence of a pro team". All of these newly jobless people also got to continue paying the tax levied to pay for the stadium for the next decade until the bond is paid off. So there's a decrease in jobs, a large chunk of tax money missing and the economy is not improved. What is the point of the whole endeavor? Why do many cities still decide to build large arenas for their privately-owned sports teams? "The main economic effect of publicly-subsidized stadiums is to dramatically increase the value of the teams". The advantage to local politicians ordinarily comes in the form of kickbacks and perks; in other cases, like New York City, one has to wonder how far and wide Mayor Bloomberg's investments are spread. [1] Baseball teams see the most significant gains, where teams that had a new stadium built for them "between 1991 and 1997 ... increased 79 percent" in value; others increased 11 percent. The Financial Times study provided a concrete example: "Here's how it works: B/R Rangers Associates purchased the Texas Rangers in 1989 for $86 million. Threatened with losing the team in the early 1990s, Texas taxpayers forked over $135 million to help build the new Ballpark at Arlington, now called Ameriquest Field. B/R Rangers Associates then sold the team in 1998 for $250 million." Arlington's $135 million investment of public funding translated into a $160 million dollar private profit 9 years later. Social welfare is verboten -- it's socialist claptrap -- but corporate welfare is the stuff of dreams. The residents of Arlington got to pay off the bond with local sales taxes for 17 years. And who used his down-home Texan charm to convince Arlingtonians to vote for the deal and then walked away with a fat piece of the profits? Your president and mine, George W. Bush. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Do they stretch into the coffers of the Jets, for example? He's worth billion and billions of dollars. It's not too hard to believe that he actually has a financial stake in the team for whose welfare he's worked so hard. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1240 2006-02-18T23:08:19+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

Coming only two days after their stunning upset of the world champion Czech Republic, 3-2, the Swiss team shut out the defending Olympic champions in a hard-fought battle. "Japan upsets Canada in women's curling" Curling is ... ]]>

Coming only two days after their stunning upset of the world champion Czech Republic, 3-2, the Swiss team shut out the defending Olympic champions in a hard-fought battle. "Japan upsets Canada in women's curling" Curling is more popular in Canada than hockey, if you can believe that. The women's team is favored to win the Olympics again this year; they lost to Japan today. 'Nuff said. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1234 2006-02-14T22:47:18+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

?). Opinions differ as to how they finished the program. The article, "Turin falls in love with mainland bravehearts" is of the opinion that, "[t]hen the Zhangs [2] nailed everything." I might believe that if I hadn't seen the routine myself. They did a respectable job, but it was clear they were shaken. She stumbled out of a throw later in the program (not touching a hand down, but still a clear stumble), two-footed a landing on a paired jump and they were not synchronized on the spins very late in the program. I was aided very much in noticing these things by the two excellent announcers on Eurosport [3]. Both announcers (experienced judges of the sport), my wife and I (dilettantes who become interested in the sport at least once every 4 years) slotted the brave couple at 4th place. They were clearly going to lose points for the crash, the delay and the other mistakes. [image]The article, "Zhangs deserved medal, say ISU" , defends the silver medalists from Olympics final last night. They said that, "[w]hat they performed on the ice was perfectly all right to justify the marks they received." They did not; quite the opposite, in fact. They scored over 66 points on technical merit, meaning they were 4 points better than everyone else except for Tatiana and Maxim, whose matchless performance was deemed almost matched by the face-planting Zhangs. This is patently ridiculous, as seen in this other angle of the silver medal performer to the left. This is especially sad as the couple that was in second place had performed really well -- without falls -- and their backstory in recent weeks showed no small amount of moxie of their own. Then, here come the figure-skating judges to prove that no ratings system can keep them from their flights of fancy. They trampled all over one couple's fairy tale Olympics to hand-deliver it to another. "[The ISU], however, refused to speculate whether there might have been an official protest if Chinese competitors had not occupied second, third and fourth places in the competition." As my opinion vis-a-vis figure skating is not at all respected [4], I have no qualms in saying that there would have been a huge, f*%$ing uproar. It's only because they're all on the same team that the coach isn't making a big stink about how Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo got steamrolled in the name of teary-eyed sentimentality. At any rate, whereas I'm glad those two got a medal (having clawed their way up from 5th after the short program), I am also sad that they got the short end of the stick from those infuriating figure skating judges. But so is figure skating and so, it seems, it will always be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Two names I'm not embarassed in the least to admit I will never memorize. [1] They are neither married nor related in any way. [1] Who, by the way, are doing an absolutely bang-up job of covering the Olympics -- 24-hour coverage with little to no commercial interruption and coverage of all sports and all competitors. [1] Many would argue to broaden the argument to apply to all subject matters, not just figure skating. [1] Another article I stumbled across, "Chinese pair steals Russia's thunder" , only seemed to see how the Chinese were finally sticking it to those goddamned Russians. Another take on the evening from a very bitter guy. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1002 2004-08-24T22:09:55+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

... ]]>

is a discussion that runs the gamut of complaints about NBC coverage. There are the stories of crass commercialism: * Athletes not allowed to carry or display any brands that are not official sponsors. (notice how all of the water bottles are unmarked?) * "The Nike swoosh on every USA uniform. Must we commercialize everyfuckingthing?" * Massive TV commercial onslaughts, often outweighing time spent on the sport * Nationalism, which, while present in all countries, (Switzerland has extended coverage of the exciting-to-watch sport of women's air pistol) is somewhat exaggerated when "a greater percentage of the total time [is spent] on the playing of the US national anthem than on the match itself" But I said I'd start on a good note, right? * I've heard that other channels, like Bravo, USA and others are broadcasting a wider range of sports for US residents * There's still the CBC in some parts of the country to save us all * Eurosport (all over Europe) shows round-the-clock coverage 1. Commercial breaks come every 15-20 minutes or so and only last 30 seconds to a minute 2. They cover almost everything. Seriously. I've seen badminton, table tennis, shot put, archery, sculling, sailing, canoing, air rifle, volleyball, fencing, dressage, water polo, and all sorts of other stuff I didn't even know existed. 3. You never see the announcers 4. The british announcers are funnier than the german ones. (favorite quote so far: "He's an awful hurdler, but quite fast between them.") 5. There are almost no interviews. When there are interviews, they are in a tiny picture-in-picture box in the top left corner. On-screen, the action continues. * If you don't like Eurosport, you've got 10 other channels to choose from. [Olympic Judging still sucks] I just watched the 2004 Athens men's high bar final. Anyone who watched it knows who actually won the event -- Alexei Nemov. He was mysteriously in 5th place. Apparently, the judges found that 12 medals, over the years, were enough for him. That's how the Olympics works. It sucks. Refreshingly, the crowd booed for 15 minutes before Nemov was able to calm them back down. You'll hear arguments that the judges, with their God-like insight, see things mortals cannot, and judge the routine by more than just flash. Whatever. You should have seen that guy fly. Blew the competition away. Just watching his 30 second routine -- you couldn't breathe. 5th place. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=528 2002-06-22T05:13:50+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

on "Fifa World Cup" ). Brazil puts away the kick in the 87th minute and collects the win. The replay, however, shows that the pulldown occurred at least 2 steps outside of the penalty box and should have been a free kick. In the U.S.-Mexico match, a corner kick in the second half was "... superbly punched clear by O'Brien as Borgetti contested in the air. [Referee] Pereira waved play on as the Mexican's appeals fell on deaf ears." This should have resulted in a penalty kick and even a red card for a deliberate handball. (Source: "USA create history against Mexico" on "Eurosport" ) The team most sorely abused by bad officiating was easily Italy. "Eurosport" again has the article "Maldini: 'It was scandalous'" , which talks about two bad calls in the South Korea-Italy game. The first was: "...when Christian Vieri served Tommasi perfectly in the area before the Roman beat keeper Lee Woon-Jae from close range. Goal Italia? No mister Tomassi you were off-side according to the ref... Certainly not according to the video replays. Even Brazilian TV Globo proved on a World Cup show that the Roman midfielder was 23 centimetres on side." The other call was a red card issued to Francesco Totti for diving in the first overtime period. "Soccer Referees on Run, and They Can't Hide" on the "NY Times" quotes "Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA" as saying "the call made by Referee Byron Moreno of Ecuador against Francesco Totti of Italy on Tuesday should not have been a yellow card, a penalty that resulted in Totti's ejection." "CNN" writes "Livid Italians allege Cup 'plot'" , which provides more coverage of Italy's 2002 cup run: "The Italians had five goals disallowed in three matches and a series of questionable decisions go against them before Tuesday's second round match." Unfortunately, in response to this, the Italians now suspect a conspiracy against them. Specifically in the last match, they say "It seemed as if they just sat around a table and decided to throw us out". The suspicion is that FIFA really wanted to keep one of the hosts in the cup. If that's true, why not just cheat Turkey a little more and keep Japan in the cup? The blatant calls against the Italians aren't a conspiracy theory, they're just bad judgements. Italy lost to Croatia because two goals were called back for offsides when video replay showed that they were both well onsides. The goal against South Korea in overtime was also onsides, as mentioned above. Another article on "Eurosport" , "What the users think of the ref..." fields opinions from people who've written in about the refereeing. One user asks "...when FIFA will have some common sense and put a referee in the stadium with the video, connected with the main referee on the pitch?" I think this is a very valid point as the best linesman FIFA has to offer right now can't call offsides to save their lives. The vantage people at home are offered in the replays is the one the linesman should be watching all the time. When they see offsides, signal the referee on the field. No instant replay necessary, just using technology to call the game better. The Germany-U.S. semifinal contained a non-call of a supposed handball by German defender Frings, but in this case, it seems that referee Hugh Dallas made the right call (Source: "U.S. Tying Goal Only an Inch Away" ): "The key is whether Frings moved his arm to stop the ball or whether the arm was at is side. Replays weren't conclusive, but it looked more likely that he didn't move his arm. ... 'If the ball strikes the defender accidentally, no offense is committed,' soccer rules state." In the other semifinal that day, Brazil-England, Ronaldinho, who put in a wonderful game with an excellent run and pass to Rivaldo for a goal and a great free kick for a goal, was put out of the match in the 57th minute for a "studs-up tackle". "The rise and fall of Ronaldinho" on "Eurosport" says "A foul? Probably. A yellow card? Severe. A red card? Ridiculous..." The replay shows the contact was purely unintentional, having just missed the ball, and calling that 'studs-up' was really stretching the imagination. The referee saw something completely different and issued a red card straight away, even though the play resulted in no injury (feigned or otherwise) and no advantage. So, though Brazil goes through, we are denied seeing another nice game played by Ronaldinho. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=500 2002-06-06T11:15:02+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

is reporting that "Rivaldo fined for fake injury" , which occurred (or didn't, in fact) during Brazil's match against Turkey. Apparently, the fine was assessed in lieu of an outright ban from the tournament, as FIFA is admanant about preventing fakery from dominating soccer. From... ]]>

is reporting that "Rivaldo fined for fake injury" , which occurred (or didn't, in fact) during Brazil's match against Turkey. Apparently, the fine was assessed in lieu of an outright ban from the tournament, as FIFA is admanant about preventing fakery from dominating soccer. From the looks of some matches, this is almost definitely a losing battle, as there has been quite a bit of excess flailing and extreme acrobatics again this year. "Rivaldo admitted after the match that he had deliberately exaggerated an injury, holding his face after Turkish defender Hakan Unsal had kicked the ball at his legs, in a bid to get Unsal sent off. ... He said after Monday's game: "Obviously I exaggerated the incident for the guy to be sent off. ... The ball hit my hand and my leg. It didn't hit me in the face but that kind of attitude (kicking the ball against an opponent) must not be allowed on the pitch. He deserved to have a red card."" The wasn't the only issue in the match, as the officiating in general was called into question; the referee was in charge of his first World Cup match ever. "Turkey's coach Senol Gunes said the result of the game "was a tremendous injustice" because of the refereeing of Kim Young-Joo, the first South Korean to control a World Cup game, who made several debatable calls. ... The 86th-minute penalty decision was also shrouded in controversy. Alpay was clearly outside the penalty area when he started pulling the shirt of Luizao." Unfortunately, with teams becoming better and better, more matches will be decided by a bad penalty call or an improper offsides call. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=496 2002-05-17T12:16:45+02:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

(UK version) has "Zidane wonder-strike clinches Real´s ninth European Cup" , which has the best coverage I could find. "Roberto Carlos sent a speculative" ... ]]>

(UK version) has "Zidane wonder-strike clinches Real´s ninth European Cup" , which has the best coverage I could find. "Roberto Carlos sent a speculative looping cross into the area and the French international midfielder showed wonderful balance and composure to lash an unstoppable volley into the top corner." I didn't find a video, but this is pretty good. It's a long series of still images showing the goal from different angles...almost like a video. You have to go to the article, then click the link under the first paragraph. Click 'next photo' to go through the pictures like a flipbook. Update: That's not the wonder-goal...it's a goal versus Deportivo. That's pretty disengenuous. Update: This goal is really hard to find, but "kavorka" has found a list of video highlights and goals. He says the quality is OK, but it's in RealVideo format. Go to "Madrid win ninth European crown" on "UEFA" 's site, then look on the right, in the second box down to find "Related Interactive". Videos are at the top and include "Highlights" and "Goals" in high and low bandwidth flavors. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=380 2002-02-27T00:20:38+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

). "Mark Morford" reports in "Numerous Mormons On" (Numerous Mormons On Prozac - Also: Premature French, crematorium blues, and Rummy lies about the truth. Try not to be shocked)... ]]>

). "Mark Morford" reports in "Numerous Mormons On Prozac" (Numerous Mormons On Prozac - Also: Premature French, crematorium blues, and Rummy lies about the truth. Try not to be shocked) that Utah has twice the national average in anti-depressant usage. Other states with high antidepressant use were Maine and Oregon. Utah's rate of antidepressant use was twice the rate of California and nearly three times the rates in New York and New Jersey, the study showed. [NBC vs. CBC] Don't get me wrong. I love the Olympics. I haven't missed watching an Olympics in my whole life. Growing up near enough to the Canadian border, I was treated to the noon to midnight Olympics coverage on the CBC, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. If you've never heard of it, you really don't know what you're missing. While NBC, which has exclusive U.S. distribution rights to the next 800 Olympics, is moving increasingly to packaged, videotaped coverage, with long, moving interviews with family and friends, clever promotional tie-ins, and even, if you're quick, the occasional sport occurrence, all sandwiched between 3 or 4 minute long commercial blocks that just keep on coming, the CBC still covers the Olympics mostly as sports. The start, middle and finish of the event are often shown. Athletes from other nations that may or may not win medals, may or may not have had cancer or withstood great odds can be seen. Sure, Canadians get pumped up, but not even close to NBC's outright jingoism. The sports can easily speak for themselves. However, NBC doesn't trust the American attention span and drowns it all out with truck commercials. Yeah, I watched the Olympics on NBC this year again. I have no choice. I don't get the CBC anymore. I was actually in broadcast range for one weekend and revelled in at least 15 glorious hours of live coverage. An "AlterNet" article, "Welcome to the American Olympics" talks about the CBC, the cost of the Olympics and the growing feeling that these are the American Olympics: Part of the appeal of the Olympics is its carefully cultivated image of selfless altruism and global harmony ... But while selling that image, the United States, especially in years when it hosts the games, tends to think it's all about us. ... A sociologist could probably find something compelling in U.S. media's obsession with proving that no matter what we do or who among us does it, America really is #1. It reeks of an insecurity, or immaturity, not befitting a great nation. But the simpler truth is, it's probably what the networks think American audiences want. We grow up with mindless jingoism and "America #1" propaganda from birth ... "Well, Aren't We Proud Of Our Medals?" by Robert Reno in the "New York Newsday" also talks about the crowing of the U.S. and suggests that the reason the U.S. was so successful was simple investment. With $40 million dollars invested into the USOC directly, that comes out to over $1 million per medal. Sandra Baldwin, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said it was "not serendipity" that we seemed to dominate these games. ... "We put a lot of money and a lot of time into these games and we're happy to see it pay off," she said. He also points out that other nations have far better cost/benefit ratios and have much higher medals per capita as well, so perhaps the U.S. should zip it. After all, the Germans got the most medals, 35, on the strength of a gene pool of only 83 million people. If their athletes had had the bad taste to dance around shrieking boasts to being the master race, I suppose we would have just had to put up with it. ... The Norwegians, of whom there are only 4.5 million, won 24 medals. Austria, home to 8 million people, won 16 metals. ... Do your arithmetic and see what were among the more stunning "victories" of these Olympics. Switzerland, with about 7.1 million people, took 11 medals. [Costs] The cost of the Olympics is another issue that gets neatly glossed over. You see, despite the best gouging efforts of local retailers and restauranteurs in Salt Lake City (Durst's "Olympic Winners and Losers" tells of $7 hot dogs and $3.50 Snickers bars), they came up well short of the $1.5 Billion price tag for hosting the Olympics. "Campaign Contributors Go for Gold" tells of the wheeling and dealing that made the Olympics happen (this is all after the whole mess with the "bribes, scholarships and prostitutes" for the IOC). The price tag for taxpayers for the 2002 Olympics is some $1.5 billion, according to a special report in Sports Illustrated by award-winning investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele. That's one-and-a-half-times more than the amount spent by the government on all seven Olympics games in the U.S. since 1904, combined, even after adjusting for inflation. [Environment] "Gold, Silver, Bronze -- But Not Green" (again on "AlterNet" ) tells the story of the environmental situation there. The games were to be very eco-friendly, with rail lines and buses put in, but, in the end, there wasn't time, and tens of millions of dollars were put into the tried and true parking lots, highways and thousands of SUVs. The environment was touted as one of three pillars of the Olympics, along with sports and culture, and cities bidding for the Games had to trot out their green credentials. ... Such considerations, however, have largely been abandoned in Salt Lake, and in the end the region will ... likely [be] left with significant environmental damage from the Olympics. Some of the ongoing issues in the area are covered also in the February National Geographic in "Leap of Faith" (abstract only), over 80% of Utah's population lives in the Salt Lake area, the "Wasatch Front" and the population looks to double in the next 50 years. The water situation is so desperate there that rivers have been moved already, and there are plans to reroute another with a dam, destroying the largest wetlands in the "intermountain West". On to Athens. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=374 2002-02-26T17:34:58+01:00

has another Olympics story, called "Want to Sire an Olympic Hopeful?..." (Want to Sire an Olympic Hopeful? Talk to Gene.), with a humorous look at creating your very own Olympic athlete that you can cheer for in some embarassing way that NBC will be sure to zoom in on way too close and broadcast to the nation for what seems like... ]]>

has another Olympics story, called "Want to Sire an Olympic Hopeful?..." (Want to Sire an Olympic Hopeful? Talk to Gene.), with a humorous look at creating your very own Olympic athlete that you can cheer for in some embarassing way that NBC will be sure to zoom in on way too close and broadcast to the nation for what seems like several painfully long minutes. The Olympic Games depress me, so I am glad they are over. I don't need to be reminded every four winters that I married a woman who comes from a family of oafs, which wasn't capable of producing a gifted athlete, thereby making my children too uncoordinated to win a medal. ... It's not my fault, of course, because I was young and seduced by this woman, never knowing it would end my Olympic dreams. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=370 2002-02-25T16:48:37+01:00

has some nice Olympic recaps. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=361 2002-02-21T22:23:38+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

reports that "Bush Asks Non-U.S. Olympians to Unite..." (Bush Asks Non-U.S. Olympians to Unite Behind America by Finishing Behind America) ... We have a problem because the enemies of justice, the enemies of liberty and prosperity, would like nothing more than to see America's weaknesses exploited. They... ]]>

reports that "Bush Asks Non-U.S. Olympians to Unite..." (Bush Asks Non-U.S. Olympians to Unite Behind America by Finishing Behind America) ... We have a problem because the enemies of justice, the enemies of liberty and prosperity, would like nothing more than to see America's weaknesses exploited. They would like nothing more than to celebrate our humiliation on the international stage that is the Olympics. You must not let this happen. You must help us strike another blow against the forces of tyranny and oppression. Athletes of the world, in these Olympic Games, unite behind America by finishing behind America. ... I see many of you are shaking your heads, and I realize that this campaign requires sacrifice. After all, you have trained your entire lives just to get here. You dream of a gold medal, and honor for your country. Those are worthy dreams. But now is not the time for petty nationalism. A week and a half into the Olympics, it seems the people of the world have united and responded to the President's pleas. Except for the Canadian Women's hockey team, which didn't get with the program. Look for Canada on the short list with rest of the Axis of Evil. Charles Krauthammer of the "New York Newsday" puts forth an opposite proposal in "Time to Throw the Olympics" : Do we really need the men's short-track speedskating gold medal? Can we not live without winning the two-man bobsled? Did we really have to beat the Chinese women's hockey team 12-1? ... Call me a lefty, but I cringe watching NBC's rah-rah coverage of the Olympics. It is worse than usual. A need for some post-Sept. 11 flag-waving? We've already had a fairly substantial outlet for flag-waving. It's called Afghanistan. Salt Lake, on the other hand, is an opportunity to show a bit of graciousness. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=351 2002-02-13T23:33:58+01:00 https://earthli.com/users/marco

has the latest on Simon Ammann in "Gold Again..." (Gold Again: Ammann wins gold in K120 ski jumping). Switzerland has changed gears in the winter Olympics from the ski hills to the ski-jumping hills. Simon Ammann comes out of nowhere to take both of the individual events in the ski-jump, the K90 and the k120. The" (Gold Again: Ammann wins gold in K120 ski jumping)... ]]>

has the latest on Simon Ammann in "Gold Again..." (Gold Again: Ammann wins gold in K120 ski jumping). Switzerland has changed gears in the winter Olympics from the ski hills to the ski-jumping hills. Simon Ammann comes out of nowhere to take both of the individual events in the ski-jump, the K90 and the k120. The 20-year-old Swiss, who looks as if he could pass for 14, joined Finland's Matti Nykanen as the only jumpers to win events on both hills in the same Winter Olympics. Nykanen did it in Calgary in 1988. ... just like he did on the small hill, sticking the final jump of competition to win, Ammann captured the large hill by leaping 436 feet (133 meters) to finish with 281.4 points. Coverage on the k90 jump is at "Jump for joy..." (Jump for Joy: Ammann wins K90 ski jumping gold)" (Jump for Joy: Ammann wins K90 ski jumping gold) ]]>