August 2009
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Teeing up for the Olympics
Golf has made it past the first hurdle on its way to becoming an official Olympic sport. It will be deiced in October whether it will make it on the roster of the 2016 games, which could be held in Tokyo, one of the current favourites to host the summer games.
Japan is a golf mad country, well middle-aged Japanese men are nuts about the game. I think most people who would spend hours in pursuit...
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Funny ones
The BBC has published some of the best and worst jokes of the year as judged by a panel at the Edinburgh comedy festival. I like this one from comedian Dan Antopoloski: “I’ve been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I’ve seen it six times and there isn’t.”
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as a matter of fact #17
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, does not have traffic lights. Instead it has pretty female traffic directors to manage the few cars on the streets. Reuters
More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. Around $19bn (£11bn) a year is spent on gym memberships. Time
The UK builds the smallest houses in Europe. The average room in a newly built...
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WatchRight so if you don’t like what appears to be a string of sausages being ripped out from your insides, then look away because this is “Grotesque.” No really it is. That’s the name of the film. It’s just been banned in the UK. The censor said: “The chief pleasure on offer seems to be in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake.”...
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Eating not exercise makes you thin
Time has a lengthy but interesting article on the merits of exercise and diet in the battle to shed weight. According to conventional wisdom exercise is the key to weigth loss - hence the huge boom in gym membership. But, according to Time “the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated.”
The basic problem is that while...
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Sporting events that changed the world
Foreign Policy has an excellent list of 10 sports events that were far more important than the competition itself. In at first place is the 1936 Olypics in Berlin where Hitler was hoping to show off his elite athletes and the superiorty of his regieme. However, nobody told the Fuhrer that Jesse Owen would ruin the party.
In at number two, La Guerra de futbol (aka “Soccer War”): El...
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The future of attention
Michael Erard outlines his vision of attention festivals in the Design Observer. I think I might just take a day pass if these ever materialise.
I imagine attention festivals: week-long multimedia, cross-industry carnivals of readings, installations, and performances, where you go from a tent with 30-second films, guitar solos, 10-minute video games, and haiku to the tent with only Andy Warhol...
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as a matter of fact #16
The amount of money Latin American expatriates send home is expected to drop by 11%, from $69 billion to $62 billion this year according to the Inter-American Development Bank. The Wall Street Journal
Three per cent of the school-age population in the U.S., roughly 1.5 million students, are home-schooled. This figure has doubled in the last decade according to the Department of Education. The...
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What Silvio said...
Don Juan de Silvio Burlseconi has had a swipe at Italy’s media for daring to criticise him. From The Washington Post:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday said it was “unacceptable” for state TV to criticize the government and rebuked a left-leaning newspaper which regularly publishes lurid stories about his sex life.
Berlusconi’s family pretty much own...
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Technology killed the family
The New York Times has a feature on the incursion of technology into the American family. The Gude family from Michigan prefer text messaging over talking:
“The Gudes’ sons sleep with their phones next to their beds, so they start the day with text messages in place of alarm clocks. Mr. Gude, an instructor at Michigan State University, sends texts to his two sons to wake up.
We use...
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golf, rugby or roller sports
On Thurday the chiefs at the International Olympic Committee will decide which two sports will be added to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The money is on golf (super yawn) and rugby (ambivalent) to make the cut. The other sports tabled are: karate, squash, baseball, roller sports and softball. Still no love for Irish dancing.
The venue for the 2016 games will be announced on October 2 and awarded to...
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Bores, Japan and conversation
Stellar advice if you find yourself running out of things to say round white people. From “Stuff White People Like”.
If you find yourself in an awkward silence with white people, just mention how you want to go to Japan. They will immediately begin talking about how their trip to Japan, or their favorite stuff from Japan, but it will be entirely about them. This is useful as you no...
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as a matter of fact #15
According to North Korean news media Kim Jong Il is a renaissance man who has flown fighter aircraft, written operas and shot 11 holes-in-one in his first try at golf. CNN
In June 2009, only 16% of Twitter.com website users were under the age of 25. Nielsen blog
Over a 12 month period Manchester City football club has recruited 12 players from 10 different nations costing the club about £195...
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the wire prequels
Just came across these Wire prequels today. There are three in total and they provide some background on Omar, Propisition Joe, Bunk and McNulty. The three clips never featured in the show. Both Prop Joe and Omar are shown as young ‘uns, while the one with McNulty shows him being introduced to the homicide squad. This one is a bit lame.
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beauty begets more babies
The Times has a science story about how evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain “as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.” Just a catchy intro? This paragraph though is interesting, if a little dubious.
“In a study released last week, Markus Jokela, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, found beautiful women had up to...
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WatchThis mix is for Patrick. He’s the newest arrival on my ma and pa’s lil’ old ranch in Kerry. Patrick was first announced as a girl, but several days later my father noticed that Patrick was missing the vitals to make him a her. It has now been confirmed that Patrick is indeed a male. But you get a lot of Sheehy’s round Kerry anyway. First track kicks harder than a killer...
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July 2009
79 posts
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