World Cup final eight teams

This explains everything.  And it's accurate (tilt your head to the left...)

Addendum:  rotated...

(found in the discussion thread at the source)

The etymology of "soccer"

 This will be my only post relevant to this year's World Cup.

"... in its early days, football was a very "posh" sport.  "The people who founded the Football Association in England in 1863 were Oxford graduates who had attended elite public schools," he said.  The game played under Football Association rules became known as "association football", wrote John M Cunningham in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.  The name also helped distinguish it from another popular sport: rugby...

Among wealthy university students in the 1880s and 1890s, there was a habit of shortening words and adding "-er" to the end, creating a kind of slang.  "So instead of saying 'breakfast,' they would say 'brekker'."  Applied to rugby, they would call it "rugger."..

It appears that these inventive students took "soc" from the middle of the word "association" and added "-er," producing "soccer".  "Obviously, no-one knows for certain, but what people are sure about is that it comes from Oxford. There are many documentary sources confirming that it was a word coined by students there."

More information at the source article at the BBC.

"Age is no barrier"

At a time of national and international turmoil, there is a certain comfort that comes from watching senior citizens enjoying bodysurfing.  (A "grommet" is surfing lexicon for a "newbie")

Via Nag on the Lake, where there's always something interesting.  

Luxury ice houses

Fishermen in the Upper Midwest are being advised that it's now time to remove their ice houses from the still-frozen lakes.  Those who have not been in an ice house in decades may be gobsmacked to discover that the old-fashioned "shacks" and "shanties" have in some cases been replaced by luxury accommodations.

The houses have built-in holes in the floor that allow ice fishers to drill holes in the ice and catch a big one without ever stepping outdoors...

One model, the King Castle, has an 8-by-24-foot cabin that comes with a furnace, air conditioner, stereo, kitchen, wooden cabinets, bunk beds, bay window and eight fishing holes. Some customized models have featured retractable wheels and hydraulic lifts. Prices start at $5,900, but can top out at more than $40,000...

For floor plans and features, see the Ice Castle Fish Houses website.   I presume the A/C (and the shower stall seen at the back of the photo) indicate that these units are designed for dual-purpose use as mobile hunting cabins.

Reposted from 2014 to add this photo from the Minnesota Star Tribune.  If you can't afford tens of thousands of dollars for an ice house, you can still fish in comfort from a reclining chair...

"A good pool player is a sign of a misspent youth"

My father used to quote that phrase when we played 8-ball.

I don't know the origin of the aphorism (?Twain, ?W.C. Fields), but I did find this while searching:

"I spent half my money on booze, women, and gambling. The other half i wasted." 

--W C Fields

(Reposted from 2014) 

Minnesota vs. Wisconsin 2025 - battle for the Paul Bunyan's Axe trophy

Posted as memorabilia for me and a few friends and family members.  This is not a "game for the ages" for anyone other than Minnesota Gopher fans.  Highlights at 4:00, 6:25, and 6:50 for those curious and in a hurry.

Watching the World Series... from a hotel bed

"The only hotel in North America to be found in a major league sports and entertainment venue, the Toronto Marriott City Centre has 348 pet-friendly guest rooms, including 68 that look right out into the stadium."

A recent Bloomberg article offered some observations regarding the monetary aspects of baseball'w World Series:

Sam McDadi, a real estate agent and holder of three tickets behind home plate  [will] attend Game 6 himself and bring two friends, despite receiving offers of as much as C$30,000 ($21,415) per seat. But he admitted to being tempted by that amount, especially when he bought his tickets for about C$3,000 each...

For those with smaller budgets, the cheapest available ticket for Friday’s game on the resale site StubHub was around $1,280 as of late Thursday night Toronto time...

Other businesses are also cashing in. The Blue Jays’ home stadium has an unusual feature: a Marriott hotel with 55 field-view rooms. Those went on sale Tuesday morning starting at C$8,500 per night for Games 6 and 7 and sold out immediately, according to a hotel executive. As of Thursday evening, Marriott’s booking site showed rooms available — because of canceled reservations — for around C$12,000 for Friday night...

...financial firms that have corporate boxes at the stadium will use access as a reward system. For anyone lucky enough to get an invitation, “it means you’re a good client, a good customer.”

There are all sorts of lines of commentary I could offer, depending on whether I'm wearing my sports-fan cap or my "elderly grumpy woke person" hat.  With regard to both of those hats, I'll note that every player on the field is not only a millionaire, but earns several million dollars every year, and they are battling to decide who will become the bigger multimillionaires.  

But the big transfer of wealth goes from the general public to the corporate overlords who control the business.  It's generally agreed that everyone is entitled to spend their money any way they please, and if someone chooses the World Series rather than sending funds to World Central Kitchen, they can do so.  But it feels oddly disturbing that this is what our world is evolving into.

Embedded mage and excerpted text from Adventures All Around, where there are more details about these rooms.

Alexis conquers the hurdles

This video has been featured widely on the internet.  I'm going to repost it here because it struck a chord with me on a very personal level, which I'll explain at the end.

This is a remix; the original video (which you can view here) shows an 8th-grade girl named Alexis participating in her first school track event.  The YouTube poster comments "This video is 6yrs old. Alexis did run the hurdles again and didn't fail. She did give me permission to post the video and all of her friends have seen it, while they do find it funny they do support her and her courage."

The remix adds the audio of the Scala and Kolacny Brothers' version of Radiohead's "Creep."

The classically trained Kolacny brothers, Steven (piano) and Stijn (conducting) have turned this Belgian girls’ choir into an international phenomenon, performing imaginatively reworked covers of Radiohead, U2, Rammstein and Nirvana songs...

One can debate whether the lyrics for Radiohead's "Creep" are totally appropriate for the hurdles video, but the rendition by this girls choir is so beautifully executed, and some phrases are so perfect that the remix really "works" for me.  The original hurdles video was time-stretched to match the audio, and the resultant slo-motion effect is quite dramatic.

I've reviewed the comments about the video at 3-4 different websites.  Not surprisingly perhaps, given the shallowness of many websurfers, the dominant theme is that this is a "fail" video.  That the girl is a loser, that she missed a hurdle, that her coaching was dreadful, that this is the funniest LOLs video they've ever seen.

I have a different viewpoint.  And for that I need to tell a story.  In 1952 I contracted polio; after recovering I was left with some residual atrophy of my right quad, so I could ambulate, but couldn't run very fast.  I attended a school where participation in sports was mandatory all three seasons of the school year.  In the spring the school also held an all-school track day in which everyone was required to participate in several events.  I was entered in the discus and the 220 yard run.  For the latter event I can still remember being in the back stretch when the leaders were crossing the finish.  By the time I got to the finish line they were setting up for the next heat.

When I crossed that finish line, the school's track coach came over to me.  Mr. Bettels was a man who knew what impairment was.  He had what I think in retrospect was severe kyphoscoliosis, but he was an inspirational coach and classroom teacher.  He came to me and very quietly and privately congratulated me on finishing the race.  I hadn't viewed my circling of the track as anything heroic; I was just doing what was expected.  He viewed it a bit differently, and it took me some time to fully appreciate the import of his commendation.  In the decades since then I've won a variety of non-athletic honors and have a smattering of trophies and plaques, but those words from Coach are one of the treasured memories of my youth.

So... I offer my congratulations to young Alexis.  I don't find the video to be funny at all - it's inspirational, and it choked me up to watch it.   It's also a good reminder that every day there are children whose bravery and courage goes unrecognized.  We all need to take moments now and then to commend the "losers."

Reposted from 2010 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Radiohead's initial release of this, their debut song.

See also this animated version and Chrissie Hynde's cover of the song.

Reposted from 2012 because t's been thirteen years since I created this post.  It needs to see the light of day again, however briefly.  Lots of courage needed in our current world in the U.S.

Baseball in 1787 !!

Images found in the Houghton Library tumblr.  The book was printed and sold in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1787,

Hiking the Iditarod

"A Minnesotan following a famous sled dog path was the first woman to arrive on foot Saturday night in the human-powered version of the race across interior Alaska.

Pulling a sled packed with 55 pounds of gear, Kari Gibbons hiked into Nome after a little more than 27 days navigating the Alaska wilderness to win the Iditarod Trail Invitational 1000." [1000 miles]

The story continues at the StarTribune [gift link].

Addendum:  Found an artile about bicycling the Iditarod (in winter).  Hot tip:

"The day before the race was spent cutting all the food into bite sizes (you can’t bite into a frozen candy bar and have a pleasant experience), assigning pockets for spare batteries, inhaler, toilet paper, chamois cream, eye drops, and everything that needs to be kept close to your body so it won’t freeze solid, and keeping an eye on the forecast..."

Word for the day: steezy

As defined by the Urban Dictionary:

"A snowboarder term that combines the word "style" with "ease" to create the act of doing a trick with style and ease to make it done with super steez. A rider with steez, such as myself, would be referred to as "steezy" whether it be because of his/her sick tricks, gangster apparel, or watevs."

I was introduced to the word by my grandniece, so I'll illustrate it with her photo from her Facebook feed.  I will grant her some privacy by leaving her anonymous for the present, although her artistic skills were featured in TYWKIWDBI eleven years ago.

Those wishing to dive more deeply into the jargon might wish to explore REI's Snowboarding Glossary or Burton's Debatably Definitive Glossary of Snowboarding Terms and Slang, which says that steeze is "no longer widely used and is not considered "cool” in some circles" (and just when I've learned it...)

CT-scanning packs of baseball cards

"A 2000 Bowman Chrome Tom Brady rookie card as seen through the CT scanner. (Image provided by Industrial Inspection and Consulting)"

Excerpts from an article in The New York Times:

For most of its history, buying and selling packs and boxes of trading cards was a game of chance with neither the buyer nor the seller knowing the results.

“The product is designed to be a mystery,” said Keith Irwin, the general manager of Industrial Inspection and Consulting.

And if it wants to stay that way?

“They’ll need to find new packaging solutions,” he said.

IIC went from a company focusing primarily on industrial X-rays and CT scans within the medical and aerospace fields to potentially taking the cover off the trading card industry without taking the cover off any product at all. And in the process, they say, their company — with no prior connections to the trading card industry — has earned thousands of satisfied customers in the collectibles space. All electing for a sneak peek at their cards before tearing the packs or boxes open, circumventing the mystery that has long been a central element of these products.

The service caters to high-end products manufactured by Topps, Panini and Upper Deck, with the technology best suited to reveal cards in densely packed configurations. Take a 2023 Panini Flawless Football First Off The Line case for instance. Each case comes with two boxes. Each box comes with one pack of 10 cards. At $15,000 a case, it certainly makes economic sense that collectors are willing to pay IIC the going rate of $650 per case of that product to get a CT scan and see whether there’s something inside that they want, or to keep the package sealed and sell it on to someone else.

Salient discussion at the link re the ethics and economics of this practice.  Just the existence of this technology and the possibility that packs have been non-invasively scanned can really crater the asking price for "unopened" packs of cards.

Simone Biles - updated

The one below is a trailer for a Netflix program scheduled to air July 17.  Looks awesome, because she is a very well-spoken young woman.

 

Reposted from six months ago to add the trailer for the second part of the documentary, which I watched last night.  The 4x45 minute parts are now available on Netflix.  This is an absolutely superb presentation of a truly remarkable young woman and her outlook on life; it's not just for "sports people."

A modern athlete

One of the "Photos of the week" from a gallery at The Atlantic, where there are several other pix of athletes in the paralympics.  Image credit Umit Bektas / Reuters.

Iconic photo from the 2024 Olympics

Podium worship by Elsa Garrison (400mm, 1/250th sec, f/3.5, iso 2500)

“To me what makes this picture special is that it embodies the Olympic spirit: athletes supporting and celebrating each other. Throughout the week I had been following Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, the American gymnasts, on social media and in their interviews. They had been singing the praises of the Brazilian gymnast, Rebeca Andrade, so I had a feeling that if Andrade were on the podium they would do something special. My colleagues were photographing the ceremony down on the ‘field of play’, so I went up to the lower bowl and found a spot that was as close to head-on as possible. I chose the lower bowl so that I could still see their faces, but I was also high enough to get a clean background.”

From a gallery of interesting Olympic photos at The Guardian.

Ideal "launch angle" for hitting home runs

In theory an object travels the longest horizontal distance when it is launched at a 45 degree angle.  But very few home runs come off the bat at a 45 degree angle (most such launches would result in a "pop-up."

There are multiple contributing factors (several discussed here), but the simplest to understand was provided in an ELI5 post:

It’s mainly because the air resistance increases in proportion to the square of the velocity. So if something is going twice as fast, it has 4x the air resistance.

The ball leaves the bat going very fast (up to 121 mph), so at the beginning of its flight it slows down quickly because the air resistance is much higher. If we want the ball to go far, it needs to cover more horizontal distance while it’s going fast, so it’s better for it to be moving at an angle shallower than 45 degrees during that time. If it leaves at a 45 degree angle, the horizontal velocity is lost more quickly (edit: more quickly in terms of how far the ball has moved horizontally over a period of time)

Addendum:  FWIW, I would have some doubts about the regression line in the graph.  I'm surprised the r^2 is that small given the scatter, but perhaps some dots represent multiple events. Anyway, the explanation is still valid.

Photography studio logo

The website for Randy Johnson Photography features this logo.  Baseball fans will remember Randy Johnson as the tallest man in the pros (6'10") and as a pitcher with an overpowering fastball.  They will also remember the incident that generated this logo that he uses for his retirement hobby/business.

Good for her

I have pleasant memories of doing this once, decades ago, somewhere in the Boston area.  So glad to see this young woman keeping the sport alive; it's the feel-good story of the day.

More on candlepin bowling.

With a tip of the blogging cap to John Farrier, for finding this gem and posting it at Neatorama.  

Iditarod mushing is way different from other sports

As reported by The Athletic newsletter: 

Dallas Seavey, a record-tying five-time Iditarod winner, told officials with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Monday morning that he was forced to shoot the moose with a handgun out of self-defense, “after the moose became entangled with the dogs and the musher,” a statement from the race said.

Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew he then “gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly.”

According to Iditarod Rule 34, if an edible big game animal — like a moose, caribou or buffalo — is killed in defense of life or property, the musher is required to gut the animal and report it to race officials at the next checkpoint. Mushers who follow must help gut the animal when possible and no teams may pass until the animal is gutted and the musher gutting the animal has proceeded. Any other animal killed in defense of life or property must be reported to a race official but is not required to be gutted. 

Race Marshal Warren Palfrey said officials “are making sure that every attempt is made to utilize and salvage the moose meat,” according to the statement.

Seavey encountered the moose 14 miles outside of the Skwentna checkpoint, roughly 80 miles from the starting point in the 975-mile race. When he reached the next checkpoint at Finger Lake, Seavey dropped off his injured dog who was immediately flown to Anchorage and, as of Monday, was being evaluated by veterinarians there.

On Tuesday, Seavey’s X, formerly known as Twitter, account posted an update saying that the injured dog, Faloo, had surgery and is in critical condition. [other news sources say Faloo is recovering]

Caitlyn Clark's remarkable statistics

This week Iowa's Caitlyn Clark set a new NCAA women's basketball career scoring record.

Clark is a threat pretty much anywhere on the floor. Consider that she entered Thursday as a career-42.4 percent shooter on right wing 3s — the national average from there last season was 30.6 percent, according to CBB Analytics — while also shooting nearly 40 percent on left baseline 2s — just under 10 percent above the national average in 2023. Even around the rim, she’s more prolific than her peers, shooting 66.1 percent in her career heading into Iowa’s most recent victory, compared to the 57.1 percent Division I mark a year ago.

Here is the record-breaking shot - not just a three, but a logo three: