- A country being bitter about losing to the United States
in soccer is nothing new. The U.S. is a bottom-rung team in the world of
international soccer and losing to the red, white and blue on the pitch is
typically a reason for embarrassment. However, the reason Costa Rica is bitter
about its 1-0 defeat to the U.S. Friday night in Denver is not because it
believes it is somehow superior and should have won the game. In fact, the
Costa Ricans are last in the six-team CONCACAF region World Cup-qualifying group they share with
the Americans. They almost certainly won't qualify for soccer’s premier event
in Rio de Janeiro next year, but that isn't stopping them from morphing into a
bunch of whiners and filing a protest of their loss because it just so happened
to take place in the middle of a snowstorm. Costa Rican soccer officials have
submitted their protest to FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and demanded that the
World Cup qualifier be replayed. FIFA officials confirmed receiving the
protest and said their administration "will now analyze the content of the letter and
next steps will be determined in due course." The protest hinges on the
argument that the "physical integrity" of players and officials was
affected, "ball movement became impossible" and field markings were
not visible in Friday's match. Costa Rican officials also urged FIFA to punish
match officials, including referee Joel Aguilar of El Salvador, for allowing
the match to proceed. Aguilar spoke with Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto and
U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann in the second half and motioned to stop the game,
but Klinsmann pleaded his case and won. For the protest to succeed, it must meet
specific requirements, including one stating that in the event of an unplayable
field, the protesting team's captain "shall immediately lodge a protest
with the referee in the presence of the captain of the opposing team." The
offended team must also file written protests with the match coordinator within
two hours of the final whistle, and to FIFA's administration by registered
letter within 24 hours, "otherwise they shall be disregarded.” The protest
doesn’t appear to have met all of those requirements, but FIFA has not made a
decision yet. Should the result stand, Costa Rica appears to have little chance
of obtaining one of the top three spots in the group to qualify automatically
or even finishing fourth and having a chance to qualify through a playoff
against New Zealand……….
- Taking the kids for ice cream can be sooooo annoying.
Immature, fidgety little brats demanding that you allow them to get two schools
of moose tracks with sprinkles on top and then crying their eyes out when they
absent-mindedly spill their cone on the sidewalk after two licks make for an
unenjoyable evening. However, spending time around pretentious wine lovers and
seeing them swirl a 1 oz. sample of some $500-a-bottle brew around in their
mouth before spitting it back into a bucket and raving about its full body and
its vintage is almost as unenjoyable. So is there a product out there that can
bridge the gap between these two and find a way to make both experiences more
enjoyable? Maybe….if you happen to
be in Ogden, N.C. Ogden, located near Wilmington, is home to a new business that recently opened on Market Street in its
downtown area. Known as Fermental, this business is giving the people what they
want – as long as what they want is wine ice cream. Fermental is offering the
ice cream for everyone of legal drinking age and owner Steve Gibbs is fired up
about the frozen treat he has acquired from Mercer's, a dairy farm in upstate
New York. "It tastes very good," Gibbs said. "The funny thing
about them is they're a dairy and they make ice cream first and foremost. They
aren't just doing this as a gimmick. They make very good ice cream and this
happens to have wine in it." Fermental has an edge because it’s the only
place in North Carolina where people can go toboth get drunk and indulge their
sweet tooth. The store also has a sour side, selling "hop pickles,"
which are made with Dogfish Head IPA. Oh, and with an on-premise permit,
Fermental shoppers can sip while they shop………
- The quest for world domination has taken a step backward. Even
a technological world takeover must take a step back and admit it made a
mistake every now and then and Google has done as much by announcing that it
will end its
Reader service because of low usage. The service is used to aggregate content
from numerous RSS feeds and given that many Internet users have very little
idea what an RSS platform is, the news of its demise shouldn’t come as a huge
surprise. In the aftermath of the announcement, the few people who have adopted
the service launched several petitions hoping to convince Google to
continue the service. One of the petitions has garnered 150,000 signatures, but
Google has given no indication that it would consider changing its mind. Google
Reader is scheduled to close its metaphorical doors on July 1 and competitors
such as Feedly have already seen users jumping ship. Feedly said it picked up
500,000 users from Reader after Google announced Reader’s impending closure. A
lack of interest remains the primary reason for the closure, but reports
surfaced over the weekend suggesting that Google also terminated the service
rather than commit a full staff to it to ensure that it complied with privacy
laws. The company previously agreed to multi-million dollar settlements with
government agencies over privacy issues and CEO Larry Page has been adding
lawyers, policy experts and others to ensure that his company remains on top of
compliance and privacy issues. Company officials showed no inclination to add
more personnel to the Reader project, which didn't even have a product manager
or a full-time engineer working on it. At least the tech giant can take
solace in knowing that Reader could never been as big of a flop as Google+, its
ill-fated foray into the world of social networking………
- The clock is ticking on former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
A pitched battle is on to see which happens first: him fulfilling his promise
to return to his country and “save” it or the Pakistani Taliban making good on
their promise to put a bullet in his head. Musharraf ended more than four years in self-imposed exile on Sunday
when he touched down in Karachi, where he was immediately whisked away by
security forces as hundreds of supporters greeted him with showers of rose
petals, signs ad flags. Musharraf spent the past four-plus years in self-imposed
exile in London and Dubai and no sooner than news of his return broke, Taliban
spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said his organization would send out a "death
squad" to kill him. Ehsan demanded that the former president surrender
himself, a development that seems unlikely given that Musharraf proclaimed upon
landing, "I'm here to save Pakistan. I'm not scared of anyone but Allah.”
The last time he was seen in Pakistan, Musharraf was resigning his post as
president and fleeing the country. Despite his five years away, 69-year-old remains hated by militants for
backing America after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He rose to power in a 1999
coup and ruled Pakistan between 2001 and 2008. After being whisked away from
the airport Sunday, he tweeted that he was “thrilled to be back home.” Before
arriving, he announced his intention to lead his party, the All Pakistan Muslim
League, in elections in May. Leading would also mean dealing with a sinking
economy, resilient Islamic extremist factions and tensions with the U.S. over
drone strikes and the secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Oh, and there’s
also the matter of legal charges stemming from the probe of the 2007
assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The most terrifying part
of the equation would have to be the prospect of Taliban suicide bombers and
snipers out to kill him, but sometimes that’s the price a hero must pay……….
- For as long as he raps or is a public figure, 50 Cent,
a.k.a. Curtis Jackson, will by synonymous with gun violence. A man who was once
shot nine times and survived just has a tough time escaping the ties to bullets
and handguns, but Jackson wants to make it clear that he is not seeking to
glorify gun violence with his music. Having previously promised that his new
album, “Street King Immortal,” would “not fall short of a classic,” he is now
on the offensive, defending it against critics who say it glorifies gun
violence in a culture where shootings are an increasingly discussed topic and
an omnipresent threat in nearly every part of the country. However, Jackson
said in an interview over the weekend that his songs do not glorify violence
and are merely him retelling his own experiences, making them “art imitating
life.” "I'm flattered actually when they say that [rap music glorifies
violence] to me because it would mean that I'm so, I have such a
strong hold on the youth or people in general that it completely changes their
thought process - the music is that powerful,” Jackson said. He was also
asked about the tired stereotype that rapping is about more than just guns,
drugs and violence. "Yeah, it's a lot more. It's writing. If you were doing
that and didn't actually experience it, I would say you're glorifying it. If
you're drawing from something from your actual experience, isn't art imitating
life?" he asked. The man makes a fair point because to reduce rap to guns,
drugs and violence is overly reductionist. There are also ho’s, hitting the
jewelers to pick up some new ice and buying a third Bentley to rap about. “Street
King Immortal” is set to drop later this year and it will be the follow-up to “Before
I Self-Destruct,” 50 Cent’s last release, four years ago……..
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