The FIFA Confederations Cup kicks off this weekend and I’m looking forward to watch my team in action.
FYI, the Confederations Cup serves as a warm up to next year’s World Cup. It’s kind of like a soft opening, lasting only two weeks with eight teams competing. Each of the world’s six Confederations (FIFA subdivisions) send their champions (Japan, Nigeria, Uruguay, Mexico, Tahiti, and Italy), plus the host (Brazil), and the defending world champion (Spain). Since Spain is both European and world champion, Europe sends its runner-up: Italy.
Most of the teams competing are very competitive on the world stage, as can be seen from comparing the market value (in Euros) of their squads. According to Transfermarkt.com, they rank as follows:
Granted, the market value of the team is not a surefire way to evaluate a team’s performance on the field, but it does give you an idea of how good its players are.
Tahiti is the odd man out and will likely lose every game. They represent a Confederation made up mostly of small Pacific Islands like American Samoa, Tuvalu, Fiji, and other minnows. By rule, they must send a representative even though they practically have no chance at winning the tournament.
The rest of these teams are no pushovers. Four of them are former world champions with 12 championships between them, while Japan, Nigeria, and Mexico have upped their game in recent years. Try to catch a game and see what all the fuss is about.
“The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague.” —
Book description of Harve Silvergate’s Three Felonies a Day, a book on how the government can target any one of us, even for a petty offense, anytime it sees fit.
source: Amazon.com via kottke.org
This is a word cloud derived from the titles of the 1,000 most controversial Wikipedia topics. The bigger the word, the more controversy surrounds the topic. It’s interesting to note how the two biggest words are “people” and “war,” which is logical because people warring with each other create these controversies.
In fact, most of the other big words are references to different groups of people clashing over their different points of view. The only exception I can see is the word “Atletico,” which I believe to be a reference to Atletico Madrid, the soccer club. What do you people have against Atletico Madrid, anyway? Now you’ve got me all worked up!
(Source: Wired)
Click on home button to begin.
I’ve reached 500 Tumblr posts!
My first post was this one from 3 September 2010, which also happens to be the very first pic I took when I bought my iPhone. It took me 2 years and nearly 9 months to reach this milestone. I will try my best to publish another 500.
Cheers
“I am no superman, I have no reasons for you
I am no hero, that’s for sure
But I do know one thing
Where you are is where I belong
I do know, where you go, is where I wanna be”
— Dave Matthews Band
“Don’t give in, Tumblr. Yahoo ruins everything it touches!” — Me, on a possible acquisition of Tumblr by Yahoo.
A site called misstravel.com polled 31,000 American women and 13,000 American men to determine the top 10 “sexiest” nationalities according to Gringos. Here are the results.
Brazilians place pretty high on both lists, while Americans, Spaniards, Swedes, and the French make appearances on both lists. I gotta say I agree with my brethren on Colombian women being in first place. Sofia Vergara alone is an epic super mega-babe to the third power who is still all kindsa fine even at 40 with a grown-up son. Sorry Mexicans, in my heart you are #1.
A 7-Minute work out using only a chair, a wall, and your own body weight could be intense enough to equal an hour at the gym according to an article that, according to its authors, is backed up by science.
Each exercise lasts only 30 seconds with 10 seconds to rest between them, but factoring in the fatigue, I’m not so sure I would last the full 7 minutes. I’ll definitely give it a try though.
(Source: The New York Times)