Category: Personal (Page 20 of 48)

Are these jerseys the new 2011 Sounders kits?  David Falk, from the Seattle Examiner, has reports that they are.  Read his article here for the full story.  Otherwise, what do you think?  Fact or Fallacy?  Cool or meh?

It’s this guy to the right.  David Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director of the American Atheists.

Now, he’s not a jackass for being Atheist.  I support atheism.  I mean it’s really a silly thing to argue about here on earth.  One day we’ll either die and find out atheists are wrong, or we’ll die and won’t be doing anything at all, so what’s the purpose of arguing about it.  To me, it’s the same as if Muslims want to fast during Ramadan.  It doesn’t bother me, so why would we argue about it.

But this where Silverman steps into new territory.  

You see, there’s a stretch of highway in Utah.  And the good people who live in Utah decided they should remember state patrol officers who died in the line of duty by placing white crosses on the highway.  This seems like a nice thing to do, no?

Well apparently folks like Silverman are so insulted by this affront to atheists, that since 2005 — YES 2005 — he’s been going to court to stop this.  

Here’s a guy with apparently so little to do, that he’s going to go out of his way to stop a tribute to honorable people who lost their lives doing an honorable job, just because the memorials are in the shape of a cross.  

Now, if the Utah wanted to call the stretch of road, “Highway to Heaven” or “Ascension Blvd” I might follow the Separation of Church and State argument.  Same if before every Jazz game fans had to recite a pledge to God and remember the 14 dead.  Along those lines if all fast food restaurants in Seattle were closed during daylight hours during Ramadan, or if no one could serve meat of Fridays during Lent, I’d throw a fit.

But really, do we need to protest crosses memorializing fallen officers, especially in a state based on religion?  I say no. And I think it warrants Silverman and his cronies for some sort of jacka$$ award.  So if that gets me kicked out of atheist heaven, so be it.

Xav and I are looking forward to teaching the workshop on Social Media Monday at the School of Visual Concepts.  If you are attending and want to cheat, here’s a list of some of the pages we’ll be talking about.  

www.delicious.com/social3i

See everyone tomorrow.

32 games in.  Everyone has 2 matches under their belt.  A few teams are already thru, a few teams are already out.  So let’s look at how each region has done.

1) Europe

The proud home of former World Cup Champions such as Italy, Germany, France and England.  Plus Spain, Portugal, and others.  The group with the most teams allocated to the tourney – 13.  And they have been an absolute disaster.  Sure, stats wise they may look ok with a combined record of 10-8-8.  But their big guns have all been lackluster.  France has stopped playing, England is asleep, Italy’s effort is unfathomable, and the only team that is unscathed thus far is the Netherlands.  Basically, Europe loses to South America, ties Concacaf, and beats Asia and Africa. Yet still, somehow, almost everyone is still alive, and many will proceed.  They are like watching a really boring movie for 90 minutes because the finale is tremendous.

2) Africa

Poor Africa.  6 teams this year since they are also the host.  And sadly, almost every team has been over matched.  With a record of 1 Win, 4 Draws and 7 Losses, it’s really hard to justify this much African representation.  Especially since the only win came thanks to a penalty.  Quite disappointing since we were all rooting for them.

3) Asia

At 2-3-5 (I’m including New Zealand), this is another group where you have to question why they get so much representation with 5 teams.  Australia’s been unlucky, South Korea crushed Greece, and New Zealand got that tie against Italy.  But really these teams are over-matched.  The only question is why Brazil didn’t run the score up on North Korea.  Maybe Kim Jong Il threatened to test a missile in their direction.  Maybe they paid them.  Maybe Brazil put huge dollars down on 2-1. For whatever reason, the Brazilian team confusingly refused to drub the team like they could have.  Portugal must not have been on the same money line – they crushed North Korea 7-nil.

4) Concacaf

Not a bad showing thus far for our region.  The U.S. has 2 ties vs Europe, and should have a win and a tie. Mexico has a win over France, and their tie came against the host team in the first game.  Unfortunately, Honduras got stuck with Chile and Spain…. Regardless, Concacaf’s 6 points in 6 games is more impressive than Africa’s 7 points in 12 games, or Asia’s 9 points in 10 games.

5) South America

I don’t care who wins the whole thing.  The best soccer/football in the world is coming from South America.  5 teams with 8 WINS, 2 TIES and NO LOSSES.  Africa has 7 points with 6 teams.  South America has 8 WINS.  Unless Paraguay screws it up, all 5 South American teams should advance to the Round of 16.  And remember there was a huge race for 4th, 5th, and 6th place in the qualifying round.  So an extra South American team in the future might not be a bad thing.

So according to the stats form my web host, the more I talk about soccer, the fewer readers I have.  So, I guess every 4 years I’ll just have to deal with a dip in traffic.

For those folks who aren’t International soccer buffs, here’s a quick overview of what has transpired over the first 5 days of the World Cup, and what it means.  (Remember, every one of the 32 teams gets 3 games no matter what.  The top 2 teams in each 4 team division move on to a 16 team single elimination tourney.)

1) Who Exceeded Expectations

• Switzerland (Group H) – No one, and I mean no one, expected Switzerland to beat Spain.  Getting 3 points from that game was gigantic.  You kind of expected that Spain would win all 3 of their games, Honduras would lose all 3 of their games, and the Chile vs Switzerland game would decide second place.  The Swiss win probably puts the most heat on Chile.  This was one of those games where Spain dominated and Switzerland got a pretty lucky goal.  Assuming Switzerland scores against Honduras (no guarantee there) you could see this group end up with 3 teams at 2-1 and Honduras at 0-3.  Then it comes down to Goal Differential.  And so Switzerland is still going to have to find a way to score a goal to advance.
• USA (Group C) – The tie with England was huge for a variety of reasons.  But most importantly, it gives the U.S. a realistic chance of winning the group.  You win Group C, you see Serbia or Ghana in the second round.  You finish 2nd and you see Germany and book your ticket home.  So aside from the whole national pride and an awesome comeback to annoy Englishmen for the next 40 years, this game helped the U.S. with their long shot at winning Group C.
• Ghana (Group D) – Again probably just a slight upset, and it took a stupid penalty to make it happen, but Ghana’s win puts them in nice position.  If they beat Australia, they advance.
• New Zealand (Group F) – New Zealand stinks.  How Slovakia let them get a tie is baffling. 
• Paraguay (Group F) – Italy always under-performs in the opening round.  But Paraguay helped themselves by sneaking out the tie. 
• South Africa (Group A) – Small nod here.  Mexico is not that good, and no host team has ever lost their first game.  But they did get a tie against a team better than them, and put themselves in a spot where no matter what, the 3rd game will matter.
• North Korea (Group G) – They lost to Brazil.  But they only lost 2-1.  I think we were all hoping they would lose 6-0.  

Who Matched Expectations:

• Teams that won who should have: Korea, Argentina, Slovenia, Germany, Netherlands, Japan
• Teams that tied that probably should have: France and Uruguay, Ivory Coast v Portugal
• Teams that lost that you expected to lose: Greece, Nigeria, Algeria, Australia, Denmark, North Korea, Honduras, Cameroon

Who Made the Next Two Games Difficult for Themselves

• France and Mexico – Their fans “expected” them to win their games.  As it stands now, it looks like only the winner of this game will advance.
• England – They *should* beat Slovenia and Algeria.  But if the U.S. does as well, they need to not just win, but win by more goals than the U.S.
• Italy – Typical, but now they can’t mess up.
• Spain – Tough loss since they dominated the game.  But they should still beat Chile and Honduras to advance.
• Serbia – It’s hard to lose your first game, still have Germany on your schedule, and expect to advance.