Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
Olympic Planners Hoarding Snow for Sochi Games – ‘Odd winter’ has been warm in Sochi
It’s been a warm winter in Sochi, Russia, and Olympic planners are worried about next year’s Games. So they’re hoarding 450,000 cubic meters of snow in a local mountain range, Reuters reports. “I want to assure all the competitors that there won’t be any shortage of snow next February even if we encounter even warmer temperatures next year,” says Sergei Bachin, the head of a ski resort that will be used in the events.
“We’ve prepared seven separate areas for snow storage high up in the mountains,” and organizers are using a “special thermo seal” to keep it cold, Bachin notes. Some 140,000 cubic meters are likely to “melt away,” he adds, but that leaves more than 300,000 cubic meters. The added storage cost: some $11 million. Typically, the Sochi-area village hosting the Games, Krasnaya Polyana, has too much snow. “This was a very odd winter. Even locals don’t remember when was the last time they had such warm days in the mountains,” Bachin says.
via Olympic Planners Hoarding Snow for Sochi Games – ‘Odd winter’ has been warm in Sochi.
Red Bull’s latest extreme stunt: A giant game of human Mousetrap | Metro.co.uk
The course took 100 builders a total of 17 days to build using 25 tons of materials.
It features athletes including bikers Bryce Menzies and Danny MacAskill, skater Ryan Sheckler and Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones.
Running to almost six minutes long, the course interplays athletes doing their thing with clever tricks using chainsaws, golf balls, ramps and toys to keep the process moving.
via Red Bull’s latest extreme stunt: A giant game of human Mousetrap | Metro.co.uk.
Cartoonishly Evil Rich Guy Spends $50K Crafting a “Revenge” Youth Baseball Team for his 10-Year-Old Son
Sometimes it can be fun to imagine a classic story from the villain’s point of view. To gain new perspective, hear opposing arguments – maybe even shift your sympathies.
This is a story about a man from Long Island.
Robert Sanfilippo had a son—a young boy, of about 10 or 11—who liked to play baseball or, anyway, who played baseball, and his playing of it was liked by his dad.
Robert’s son played for a team called the Long Island Infernos. He spent his weekends criss-crossing Long Island, eating Quaker Oats bars and drinking Capri Suns, and putting the base in the hoop—hole in one—or however baseball is played.
However, while the other boys strolled ‘round the diamond like golden gods—their skinny arms hurling fastballs like meteors, their hand-eye coordination the stuff of legend—Robert’s son struggled.
He had, in the vague euphemism of the New York Post “failed to flourish.”
Perhaps the boy had other talents. Writing or building or videogamery.
But Robert decided his son’s talent was baseball.
Canadian Lingerie Football League quarterback delivers nasty hit to defender’s face (video) | Off the Bench
As noted on this site, the Lingerie Football League expanded to Canada and thanks to that expansion, we got to see hits like this one from Regina Rage quarterback Nikki Johnson.
In a week three match-up against the Toronto Triumph, Johnson had taken a cheap shot from Toronto’s Devin Burton earlier in the game on a botched snap. Later in the action, the Rage were driving for a score as Johnson decided to scramble towards the end zone where she saw Burton waiting to make the tackle at the goal-line.
News from The Associated Press
STOCKHOLM AP — Belarus’ top security agency – the KGB – has summoned a Swedish advertising team for questioning after the group air-dropped hundreds of parachute-wearing teddy bears that carried pro-human rights messages onto the soil of the authoritarian ex-Soviet state. The agency threatens the Swedes with fines or even jail time if they don’t show up in 10 days.The July 4 teddy bear drop by Studio Total infuriated Belarus’ autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko, who fired two generals over it. It also may have added stress to already deteriorating diplomatic relations between Stockholm and Minsk. Earlier this month, Belarus effectively expelled Sweden’s ambassador and ordered the Nordic state to close its embassy.The summons, signed by an investigator named P. Tsernavsky and posted on the KGB’s website Saturday, says the agency is investigating the “criminal case” of the ad group’s “illegal crossing” into Belarusian airspace. The KGB said it wants the Swedes to participate in its “investigative actions” so it can clarify the role each person played and help it decide how to deal with two Belarusian men accused of aiding the Swedes.
Charles Barkley goes for broke, yells to Brandi Chastain: ‘why don’t you take your top off?’ | Off the Bench
Dispatches from the American Century Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe: It’s the middle of the first round today and Charles Barkley is already in championship form. Oh, his game stinks as per usual, but his mouth is in superb shape. He’s in a group with Ray Romano and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office), and as usual Barkley is afforded the latest starting time possible: 11:25 a.m. (PST). Brandi Chastain is also here, and she was with the first group out at 8:25. So she and playing partner Kevin Nealon ran into Barkley & Co. as she was about to tee off on No. 10, and Barkley was at the adjacent No. 1 tee.
Joe Proudman of the Tahoe Daily Tribune was there, and caught this Barkley quote:
“Always looking good Brandi, why don’t you take your top off?”
We’ll keep you posted.
Topless feminist disrupts psychic pig’s feeding time – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
A topless protest by a Ukrainian feminist group livened up feeding time for Ukraine’s Euro 2012 psychic pig Funtik, as soccer fans waited to see who he would choose to win this morning’s quarter-final.
Ukraine’s tournament mascot had been dozing in his pen in Kiev but stirred and got up when he heard the familiar sound of the gate opening for his afternoon meal.
Funtik is given two bowls daily to eat from, each marked with the national flag of two teams playing each other at the finals.
Those who have faith in his psychic powers say the bowl he eats from first will prove to be the winner on the night.
But even before a fan zone steward could bring in his food – a bowlful each for Portugal and the Czech Republic – an activist from feminist group Femen barged into the pen.
Olexandra Nemchinova, 31, threw off her blouse to reveal the words “F… Euro 2012″ on her torso and began shouting slogans denouncing the tournament, being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.
Stewards led Ms Nemchinova out of the pen and handed her over to the local police.
The group carries out topless protests to highlight the growth of the sex industry in Ukraine and has targeted the championship – which it says feeds sex tourism – and UEFA president Michel Platini.
Olympics struggle with ‘policing femininity’ – thestar.com
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA— There are female athletes who will be competing at the Olympic Games this summer after undergoing treatment to make them less masculine.
Still others are being secretly investigated for displaying overly manly characteristics, as sport’s highest medical officials attempt to quantify — and regulate — the hormonal difference between male and female athletes.
Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was so fast and muscular that many suspected she was a man, exploded onto the front pages three years ago. She was considered an outlier, a one-time anomaly.
But similar cases are emerging all over the world, and Semenya, who was banned from competition for 11 months while authorities investigated her sex, is back, vying for gold.
Semenya and other women like her face a complex question: Does a female athlete whose body naturally produces unusually high levels of male hormones, allowing them to put on more muscle mass and recover faster, have an “unfair” advantage?
In a move critics call “policing femininity,” recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of track and field, state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold.
via Olympics struggle with ‘policing femininity’ – thestar.com.
Yep, Segway Polo is a sport, and they just had the world championship | Off the Bench
As if I had to tell you, the Balver Malmmuts beat the Blade Pirates 2-0 to win the gold medal at the Official World Cup of Segway in Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday. We’re talking about Segway polo — a sport invented in 2004 by none other than Apple’s Steve Wozniak, and from 2006 until this year known as the Woz Challenge Cup.
Although invented in the San Francisco Bay Area, Segway Polo is popular in several countries: among them Germany, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Austria, Barbados and yes, Lebanon. Fun fact: New Zealand’s team is called the Pole Blacks.
via Yep, Segway Polo is a sport, and they just had the world championship | Off the Bench.
