Report: Soccer Lags Behind Other Sports on Technology

In a report that comes from the same obvious bin that includes stories like "Men Like Sex" and "Ice Cream is Yummy", Discovery News reports that, unlike almost every sport on the face of the planet, soccer has been extremely slow to adopt technology to aid referees in making correct calls.  Feel free to peruse the article and draw your own conclusions, but I wanted to point out my personal favorite quotation from the article:

UEFA president Michel Platini is in complete agreement, arguing that video replays would interrupt the flow of the game.

Umm, excuse me? Would it interrupt the flow more than, say, a grown man writhing in pain after colliding with someone else with the force of two busy workers who rounded the corner of a cubicle too quickly?  Or perhaps a player from some certain African country waiting to be taken off in a stretcher (scroll to 96:45 on) and then walking away (9th paragraph, starting with "At one point") as soon as he crosses the sideline?  Just saying.

Side note: anyone notice the button at the bottom of Youtube videos that looks like a soccer ball?  Try it out.

Sorry for the link confusion regarding the Ghana super dive.  I can't find a video of the performance incident.

oooohhh......YEEEAAAAAHHHH

This is how the world celebrated Landon Donovan's amazing game winner vs. Algeria a few days ago:

More Capitol Hill hijinks

The latest hyperbole uttered in Washington D.C. comes in the wake of the massive oil spill currently having its way with the Gulf of Mexico.  The background: executives from 5 major oil companies were hauled in front of Congress so representatives could flap their wings investigate the situation.  One congressman had some interesting words for BP America Chairman Lamar McKay:

Rep. Joseph Cao (R., La.), who emigrated from Vietnam, said: "In the Asian culture, we do things differently. During the samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask to you commit harakiri."

For those readers who may not be experts in Asian cultures, harakiri is a form of seppuku, which is a ritual suicide, historically performed by samurai.  While it's hard to deny that BP screwed up big time, it might be a little extreme to say they should just pull the plug on one of the largest companies in the world.

However, Mr. Cao's words do have an interesting ring.  According to Wikipedia, "seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies."  Given the fact that the Obama administration is trying to throw its weight around (most notably by blackmailing them into suggesting that they suspend their dividend and contribute $20 billion to a relief fund) with BP, maybe they should fall on their sword rather than become another US government experiment gone awry.

Winnebago Man

Stumbled across this the other day.....thought you might enjoy


http://winnebagoman.com/index.html