Today in the final day of preliminary round group matches at the World Cup. After today’s games, only the top two teams in each group of four will advance to the next round of knockout games. (In the US where we tend to use more violent metaphors, it is called ‘sudden death’.) In Group G, Germany plays the United States while Portugal plays Ghana. From the prior matches Germany and the US each have four points while the other two have one point each.
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I can understand people flying into a murderous rage because of anger or jealousy or a whole range of factors that arouse strong passions in someone who does not have proper self control. I can understand them killing the object of their anger and even themselves. Yes, these things are inexcusable but not beyond the bounds of comprehension.
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I am not a soccer fan, although it is globally the most popular. My interest in the sport, like that of many people in the US, peaks in a strictly quadrennial way, rising briefly during the World Cup tournaments and disappearing soon after. Part of my lack of interest is the lack of a team to root for.
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Thanks to reader Marcus Ranum, I learned that the Washington football team has lost trademark protection for the name ‘Redskins’ because the term is disparaging to American Indians. The decision was handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
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The open-carry movement continues to spawn ridiculous posturing that can easily veer off into tragedy. One recent case involved an elderly white-haired man wearing what looks like pajamas scaring the daylights of people by walking on the sidewalk of a strip mall armed with what looks like some sort of assault rifle and talking about revolution. Several police cars, alerted by several callers expressing alarm at the sight, came and shut down the street and started negotiating with him and finally managed to get him to lay down his weapon.
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Is there any controlling body of a major sport that is not guilty of bribery, extortion, and corruption? It seems like they leverage their fans love of their game to exploit them and their cities and nations to enrich themselves. This is definitely true for the FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, NCAA, NFL, NBA, and MLB, and probably true for other big organizations as well. The national sports bodies in Sri Lanka have historically been riddled with corruption and cronyism and I suspect this is true for other nations too.
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Big corporations usually do not want to get ahead of public opinion because of fears of alienating some customers. So when one promotes a particular point of view, you know that the zeitgeist has shifted. But Verizon still deserves credit for putting out an ad that recognizes and acknowledges an issue that needs to be addressed.
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I have been invited to be one of the speakers at the Pennsylvania state Atheist/Humanist Conference to be held in Pittsburgh from Friday, August 29 to Sunday, August 31 which also happens to be the Labor Day weekend with Monday as a holiday. It looks like it will be a good meeting and I hope that readers of this blog will try to attend and if they do, please introduce yourself to me.
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I love seeing card tricks. As someone whose small motor skills are pretty poor, it delights me to see the dexterity with which these magicians handle cards, making them move around in complex ways using just one hand. The catch with watching videos of card tricks is that you can never be sure that you are not seeing editing tricks instead of actual card tricks. But assuming that there is no such funny business going on here, this is a pretty good one.
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No one who has seen me in real life will ever consider coming to me for fashion advice. But that does not stop me from giving it when I feel strongly about it. And the introduction of the ‘short suit‘ had me rolling my eyes and thinking, “Really? Men are going to wear this in public and maybe even to work?”
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