soccer

by bevanhouston on June 26, 2010

The next time you hear some pretentious American tries to call soccer “futbol”, feel free to remind him that the majority of the English speaking world calls it soccer. A quick breakdown:

“Soccer” World:

  • USA
  • Canada
  • Ireland
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • South Africa

“Football” world:

  • U.K.
  • Belize
  • Liberia
  • Nigeria
  • Various Caribbean countries

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schadenfreude

by bevanhouston on January 13, 2010

As someone who last week wrote a $365 check to the Town of Luther for a speeding ticket (valid, I was going 65 in a 55) and a ticket for “failing to yield to an emergency vehicle” (completely ridiculous, I didn’t pull over fast enough for Barney Fife) I take a tremendous amount of enjoyment in seeing a police force whose only seeming service is to poach money from highway travelers for a tiny town take such a black eye:

Jerry Pendley had worked for the Luther Police Department for about three weeks before his arrest by Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers on Monday. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Pendley lied on the documents by not noting he had been arrested and charged twice on suspicion of assault and battery.

moral of the story:

  1. stay off Route 66 – take the Turnpike when you’re going between OKC & Tulsa
  2. if you do happen to get a ticket in Luther, don’t go to court with a reasonable request to reduce payment on the meaningless ticket – they won’t do it and the judge will charge you $44 to appear in court
  3. support politicians who strip little towns of the right to issue tickets on highways if their ticket revenue exceeds reasonable limits

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summary of the last decade…

January 4, 2010

Here on the fourth day of 2010, I found one sentence that might do the best job I’ve seen yet at putting the last 10 years into a nutshell (from this NY Times article):
“A dollar is no longer a dollar in this country,” said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, a trade [...]

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great marketing

November 4, 2009

This is kind of brilliant, from a marketing perspective – pitch a retread of an 80’s era sci-fi series as a scathing critique of the Obama administration:
Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it’s also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president’s [...]

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Muhammad bio-pic

November 2, 2009

It will be very interseting to see how you can pull this off:
Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings…
… In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen.

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TED Conference

September 28, 2009

Many people are already aware of the TED conference. If you are not, you should be. It’s the most interesting and engaging thing available online, and best of all – it’s free.
TED is simply a conference where interesting and acclaimed people are invited to come and speak (usually for around 18 minutes) about a topic [...]

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michael vick

August 19, 2009

I’ll leave the debates to other people, my dog Fido and I will be enjoying the NFL while he’s wearing his customized Michael Vick jersey:

You stay classy, NFL Shop.com.

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Link Dump – Cinco de Mayo edition

May 5, 2009

The wonderful Straight Dope column addresses the question “Are pit bulls really that dangerous?”
I love stuff like this: It turns out that autistic children & adults are very good at working with 3-D models: Google Sketch-Up gallery.
Kind of sickening to read about the mass of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size [...]

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what's in your bag

April 29, 2009

I’ve seen a trend on websites like Lifehacker and Flickr where people show off the contents of their bag. Their bag is unloaded and the items are methodically laid out for others to review. (personally, I think 90% of this is designed to show off their Mac toys…)
I’ve decided to play along and show off [...]

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sexting

April 22, 2009

I’m just glad this wasn’t around when I was in school. It just would have been one more thing that I felt like I was missing out on.
By the way, don’t you love it when technology parents don’t understand meets irrational media-fed fears? As if the kind of kids who are sending naked pictures of [...]

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