late.night.highway.janitor

my people are secure; at least in their ... umm... you know;

2010-02-28T14:28:00.002-05:00

don't stop sandman;

2010-02-18T22:52:00.000-05:00

goal;

2010-02-13T15:51:00.001-05:00

leather;

2010-01-09T20:28:00.001-05:00

a few knives and whole lotta etched leather here: http://www.markevansart.com/though the verbiage is humble. pretty amazing though.

that's when I reach for my revolver;

2010-01-09T14:41:00.002-05:00

The sign on the front door of my office building. I invite you to make your own caption:

do i talk in my sleep?

2010-01-09T14:38:00.002-05:00

if i did it wouldn't be as nearly as amusing as this

groan.palindrome

2010-01-02T21:26:00.000-05:00

01.02.2010

relapse.with.some.breakdancing

2010-01-02T21:20:00.002-05:00

This is from South Korea

They say this is a girl from Novosibirsk (that's in Russia). I say holy s&#%t!

bikers, dude;

2009-10-27T23:02:00.000-04:00

notice the horribly fake pregnant lady

2009-10-25T16:15:00.000-04:00

nephilim / giants on earth;

2009-10-18T14:56:00.002-04:00

how to dive in style; a manual;

2009-10-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

maradona; in style;

2009-10-17T17:33:00.000-04:00

During the press conference following Argentina's qualification into the final stage of WC2010 Aregintine head coach, Diego Maradona, had a few choice words for his critics:

For those who didn't believe, pardon me ladies, you can suck it! Go, give some head! [...] You, Pasman, you have a dick up your ass too!

warhol / jagger talking

2009-10-16T12:02:00.002-04:00

(via mode5.net / @madvibes)

9yr old trick goal

2009-10-15T19:06:00.000-04:00

hook;

2009-10-08T21:59:00.004-04:00

little pig, little pig;

2009-10-07T20:43:00.002-04:00

Ummm. A new trend in pets: micropigs:

they are cute, but it is kinda creepy...

why or WHY will this song not die!? #2

2009-10-07T20:23:00.002-04:00

(via UncleJ)

bat for lashes;

2009-10-05T21:42:00.000-04:00

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a jew;

2009-10-03T22:23:00.003-04:00

Michael Bolton, Kenny G, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What do they have in common? Well, up until yesterday, I woulda said: the first two are Jews that other Jews are embarrassed to admit are of their kind while the latter is anti-Semite that other anti-Semites are embarrassed to be associated with.

Well, actually it may very well be that all three of these douchebags may be Jewish. Yes. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be a Jew. Yes. The President of Iran.

Ha ha hahahahahaha! Buah ahahahahah!!!!! Oh this is the BEST!!!

letterman + extortion;

2009-10-03T13:07:00.002-04:00

blackmail. grand jury. sex with female staffers. big whoop.

now everyone has definitely forgotten about jay leno's new little endeavor at 10p on NBC

arshavin show off;

2009-09-30T00:21:00.001-04:00

notice blatant offside...

new crowd control;

2009-09-28T22:39:00.002-04:00

sonic crowd control used by the military against G20 protesters in Pittsburgh:

this is rock'n'roll!?

2009-09-28T22:35:00.001-04:00

I need a bucket:

puffy steps into it;

2009-09-25T06:39:00.000-04:00

the reunion;

2009-09-23T20:42:00.006-04:00

In the
deep
deep deep
deep deep deep
deep deep deep deep
deep deeper yet obscurity Garry Kasparov & Anatoli Karpov have restarted their feud.

25 years later.

Epic, dude.

Totally.

And here is what the FIDE rule changing 48 game chess awesomeness looked like in 1984, 21 and 33 years old respectively:

the size of the fight in the dog;

2009-09-21T21:28:00.002-04:00

David Goodwillie is a 21 year old football player; he is 5'7." Craig Reid is a 31 year old rugby player; he is 252lb. These two had a fight:

Eighteen-stone hulk Craig Reid, 31, was knocked unconscious after he was punched three or four times in a bust-up, it was claimed last night.

One onlooker said: "He had blood pouring from the back of his head and mouth and was in a bad way.

"He was out cold for four or five minutes - some people thought he was actually dead.

... after being punched three or four times!

What did he say!?

didier drogba's goal against Spurs;

2009-09-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

medicine photos;

2009-09-20T14:50:00.004-04:00

Check out hundreds and hundreds of photographs from the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Photos range from medical anomalies to images of first ambulance vehicles to graphs of medical data to ideal amputation stumps.

On the left is a photograph of a brain with atherosclerosis

Fascinating.

abandoned man-made creations

2009-09-20T14:28:00.007-04:00

Artificial Owl documents man-made structures that have been abandoned and are now littering the planet. The site includes google maps links and other interesting historical information. Here are some ships where once Aral Sea was:

Or how about an entire Mexican village that was buried by lava. All that's left is a church sticking out from the hardened volcanic remnants:

note to self; NHL teams need a new helmet vendor;

2009-09-20T14:18:00.001-04:00

starry night; how beautiful;

2009-09-20T14:02:00.006-04:00

Do you know what this is? A guess? Anyone? Bueller? Well, here is the explanation:

The beautiful trail in the sky looked like a mysterious celestial event. In reality, it was urine.

Some skygazers were treated to the unexpected view of a bright sparkling glow Wednesday night, created when astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery dumped the waste out into space.

The water dump was a scheduled task for STS-128 pilot Kevin Ford, who poured out urine and waste water stored aboard the shuttle in preparation for a landing attempt Thursday. Weather thwarted that try, but astronauts plan another landing attempt Friday at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2148 GMT) in Florida, though rain and high winds are expected again.

The light show Wednesday was aided by an unusually large amount of water being dumped all at once - about 150 pounds (68 kg), said NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem. Discovery had just undocked from the International Space Station the day before, and had not been able to unload waste water during the 10-day visit.

So next time you turn your gaze the beautiful nighttime sky to enjoy the stars...

arshavin nike;

2009-09-19T16:38:00.001-04:00

everybody poops;

2009-09-19T16:31:00.001-04:00

how take a penalty;

2009-09-19T16:27:00.001-04:00

russian premiership... today:

stats;

2009-09-19T16:03:00.004-04:00

In this season Arsenal has ...
played 5 games;
won 3 games;
lost 2 games;
scored 17 goals (more than any other team in EPL);
of which only 2 have been scored the bona fide forwards (v. Persie and Eduardo).

one wonders if Wenger sees this as a problem.

people of walmart have their own blog;

2009-09-19T15:50:00.003-04:00

OMG! I have been missing this entertainment? I must start going to wal*mart.

this is allonzo trier;

2009-09-19T15:40:00.003-04:00

allonzo is in 7th grade.

remember? no?

2009-09-19T15:28:00.005-04:00

Emmanuel Adebayor has no idea why the Arsenal fans are hating him right now... He had no clue why he was taunted and insulted the entire length of the ManCity/Arsenal game. Ummm. Really? Maybe it is because Adebayor blamed Arsenal fans for his departure in the press?

I heard memory can be improved with vitamin E supplements...

trotsky cookies; literally;

2009-09-19T12:56:00.007-04:00

Anarchists have officially lost their minds claiming to have made cookies out of Trotsky's ashes last week:

We broke the lock on [Trotsky's] mausoleum and we expropriate the content inside it: a silver large vase that bears the inscription of his name, wrapped in the red scarf that he carried around the neck, containing the ashes of the corpse inside. We replace with care the lock in the monument with a reproduction that was similar in the appearance and escaped into the night.  

The vase along with its content then was taken far away to a place where the vase was discarded and the content (a combination of ash and bone) were baked in cookies. These cookies then were sent, along with a letter that explains our actions, to newspapers, to organizations of Trotskyists, and to the groups of anarchist around the world.

Unlikely to be true, but nonetheless... warped.

this is alan dzagoev under juande ramos;

2009-09-13T22:32:00.000-04:00

jussayin' at 1:55:

this is scratch perverts;

2009-09-13T21:36:00.002-04:00

this will blow your mind:

eloquence;

2009-09-13T21:20:00.003-04:00

speaking of British Parliament... the pm is getting pwned last march.

fat cats;

2009-09-13T21:09:00.004-04:00

joe wilson yelled "you lie" during obama's healthcare speech. right afterwards to much crazy repooplican moaning and groaning he apologized. but he refused to apologize in front of the congress, so democrats are pushing for Wilson's centure.

what? they have never seen the British Parliament in action!?

demcraps have it entirely too good and getting chubby on it.

its a long way down.

caster semenya;

2009-09-13T14:58:00.008-04:00

oh man... oh woman?.. caster semenya is both. damn, the poor 18 year old runner from South Africa will have to now publicly go through her lot of being intersex.

this... in the 30s: Stella Walsh. but no one knew until Stella Walsh was accidently shot dead decades later. the autopsy revealed that she was not entirely all female.

this is closure in moscow;

2009-09-11T14:52:00.000-04:00

modern prog rock from these young australian kids called closure in moscow. nicely done:

they'll be coming to your town soon. go see them.

auto tune the health reform;

2009-09-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

hello new nano;

2009-09-09T17:52:00.004-04:00

I think it might even do your laundry for you. No, seriously. That think comes with a video camera, a pedometer, a radio receiver (why!?), and other tasty features:

The new iPod nano is available immediately for a suggested price of $149 (US) for the 8GB model and $179 (US) for the 16GB model in silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange and pink through the Apple Store...

Check it out!

nfl season is just about to start;

2009-09-09T17:37:00.001-04:00

so here you go... get ready:

wood;

2009-09-08T20:58:00.001-04:00

Wood + Chainsaw + 8 hours = 10min Japanese YouTube clip:

where is the stress?

2009-09-05T15:59:00.002-04:00

Forbes published a list of the most stressful U.S. Cities. Chicago takes the cake. L.A. and N.Y.C. follow. My current place of residence ranks at #8.

auto tune the news #8;

2009-09-05T15:53:00.000-04:00

this is danny macaskill;

2009-09-05T15:08:00.001-04:00

gael kakuta;

2009-09-04T23:39:00.002-04:00

Here it is. The two year ban, personalized. Gael Kakuta, 18:

how to rob an apple store in 31 seconds

2009-09-03T21:54:00.004-04:00

from new jersey; the segment is kinda campy too:

new google patent;

2009-09-03T21:50:00.002-04:00

oh brother. google's new patent: a search box and two buttons on a web page.

apparently it took 5 years of legal haggling. assholism has no expiration date.

more money;

2009-09-03T21:27:00.004-04:00

this move is called: UEFA wants a lot more abramovich money, a LOT more. If not by fine, then by finance or donation. any way.

solar eclipse the other way around

2009-09-02T22:48:00.002-04:00

so what does a solar eclipse look like from space? that's right just the moon's shadow across the earth:

moonbell; music from above;

2009-09-02T21:14:00.008-04:00

Moonbell is a music generator. It generates music based on lunar topographical data obtained by Japan’s Kaguya (SELENE) explorer between late 2007 to June 2009.

Launch Moonbell
[use IE, if FireFox or Safari do not work]

(via pink tentacle)

uefa benches eduardo for diving;

2009-09-01T17:53:00.000-04:00

Eduardo da Silva had thrown away large amounts of positive vibes that were wafting around his return into the big game after recovering from a broken ankle.

in the return leg of the champoin's league qualification game against Celtic Eduardo faked a foul. he dove in the penalty box, and got what he wanted: a penalty. the penalty was converted into the first goal of the match that eventually ended in a 3:1 Arsenal win.

however, the slow motion repeat revealed the blatant dive. now UEFA disciplinary hearing decided to punish eduardo. He was banned from two forthcoming champion's league games against Liege and Olympiakos.

questions arise: why dive? Arsenal won the first leg in Glasgow 2:0, so the return game was more of a formality than anything. it was hard to imagine that Celtic would win 3:1 or better. has eduardo spent the last 10 years in the woods or another planet? does he not know that anything of that sorts gets repeated in slo-mo on TV a lot? How did he imagine not getting caught? Clearly, he was not thinking...

Idiot of the Game Day award goes to Eduardo.

can we still nuke the world?

2009-08-31T21:51:00.002-04:00

I grew up in the Soviet Union. In the 80s. A nuclear attack was something we were being prepared for in school. There were nuclear shelters around the city, and we all had to take a class or two about what to do in the event of a nuclear war. I remember watching The Day After and being utterly horrified (can you believe it -- they showed it on Soviet TV in the late 80s!?).

So what's up with the atomic bomb now?

Can the world still be destroyed with a push of a button or two?

Evidently, other people think the same paranoid thoughts. The Guardian just regurgitates a timeric graph. This is other than satisfying to the information is beautiful blog, so the folk(s) over there decided to figure out how many nuclear weapons would it take to destroy the world and whether we have enough.

total eclipse of the heart; a cultural study

2009-08-31T10:57:00.009-04:00

I am not sure why, but the stars have aligned and I know more about Total Eclipse of the Heart as performed by Bonnie Tyler than I really want to... so here... I can share...

1. Total Eclipse of the Heart... Flowchart styley (via flowingdata):

2. ... and if this wasn't enough, here it is, literal styley (via Mr Wind):

3. ... and the original (via youtube):

where are the haters at?

2009-08-29T14:56:00.002-04:00

Southern Poverty Law Center tells you where the hate groups are in the United States. Evidently most of them reside in California.

andriy shevchenko is coming home;

2009-08-29T10:42:00.003-04:00

Andriy Shevchenko, the most successful Ukrainian footballer since Oleg Blokhin is coming home to Dynamo Kiev after an utterly unsuccessful three year spell with Chelsea. Just like Alexander Hleb, Shevchenko should have stayed where he was successful. In his case it was AC Milan where he spent an incredible 7 years.

To Roman Abramovich's credit, Chelsea is letting the 33yo footballer go for free.

Here is a little reminder as to what the 2004 European Footballer of the Year was like when he was in top form:

rip joe maneri

2009-08-28T15:34:00.002-04:00

Joe Maneri, the founder of Boston Microtonal Society, has died. Joe Maneri has been a musical innovator in mictrotonal music: from bringing us microtonal improvisation to invention of a 5 octave, 72-tones per octave electronic keyboard that has graced Boston Museum of Science since 1990:

i was extremely lucky to have met and spoken with Joe Maneri about 20th century eastern european literature, of all things! Here he is performing with Club d'Elf at the Knitting Factory in 2002:

Farewell.

Do check out the work of his son, a modern violinist, Mat Maneri.

russia is out of europa league

2009-08-27T15:19:00.001-04:00

Dynamo, Amkar, and Zenit have all been eliminated from the europa league. The only team whose departure is other than embarrassing is Amkar. At least they managed to win a game. Ugh.

bttls;

2009-08-26T22:41:00.000-04:00

My friend Edna just showed this band to me. I am so very enthused by it. Yeah.

awkward; in an awesome kind of way;

2009-08-26T22:28:00.001-04:00

So a coupla dopey fans of FC Amkar dressed up like Death, and greeted Fulham at the aiport. So, like with the "welcome to your grave!" banner illustrated in a mildly inappropriate fashion. Fulham just kinda walked by all that and didn't acknowledge it. Then a Russian sport's publication calls Fulham's PR department and asks them to comment the apology. Riiiiiight. Wait! What apology? So Fulham PR says: "Oh. We hadn't heard the apology yet, but when we do we will certainly accept it."

NICE! This must be the greatest lame-o prank ever!

champion's league; new format; results

2009-08-26T21:49:00.003-04:00

Debreceni VSC (Hungary) has made it into the group stages of Champion's League for the first time.
Andrelecht FC (Belgium) did not;
Macabi Haifa FC (Israel) did; for the second time;
Celtic FC (Scotland) did not;
APOEL (Cypris) did; for the first time;
Sporting (Portugal) did not;

from this round of Champion's League

2009-08-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

Sweet.

kennedy family tree;

2009-08-26T19:00:00.002-04:00

Washington Post has a nice visualization of the Kennedy Family Tree. I consider this in light of its publishing date. Jean Ann is the last of that generation.

umbrella

2009-08-25T23:59:00.002-04:00

why OH WHY does this song not die!?

the pentatonic scale

2009-08-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

everton is getting themselves a russian

2009-08-24T13:18:00.005-04:00

Suprise! Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is in Germany, getting ready for his big move to Everton. The creative midfielder suppose to replace Lescott whose departure to Manchester City is a done deal, apparently.

I can only imagine how the EPL commentators are going to mangle Bilyaletdinov's name.

has the president lived up to his promises

2009-08-24T11:01:00.003-04:00

Here are some
people who claim to know.
The Barack Obama truth-o-meter.
It tells that so far the kept to not-kept ratio is 7:1.

"...animation? please use in moderation..."

2009-08-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

Word:

roman to roma?

2009-08-24T09:59:00.004-04:00

Roman Pavlyuchenko who has lost his spot in the starting eleven for The Spurs might be moving to Roma. I guess he just can't compete with the likes of

Robbie Keane -- who can unseat the captain, albeit a briefly traitorous one?
Jermaine Defoe -- the man is in fantastic form: just look at the double against Netherlands and a hat-trick against Hull City.
Peter Crouch -- Harry Redknapp will give the Big Bird preference over Pavs any day. That's just not a secret.

What? Manchester City doesn't want him?

indoor soccer

2009-08-23T10:39:00.000-04:00

best indoor soccer goal ever:

aerial photos of germany at the end of WWII

2009-08-22T13:46:00.000-04:00

This is what Germany looked like at the end of World War II. My grandparents' generation fought in the war and had been affected by the war termendously. I guess these suppose to make me feel something like a victor (considering me being Jewish too). It makes feel sad and horrified:

homeland security office manipulated terror alert levels to aid bush in 2004 elections

2009-08-21T19:04:00.001-04:00

USNews says that Tom Ridge wrote a book. The book is coming on September 1, 2009. Meanwhile the promotional materials for the book state that Tom Ridge was pressured by Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft to raise terror alert levels in order to help Bush win the 2004 presidential elections (terror Alert level was raised to 'high' from August 1, 2004 until November 10, 2004) :

Ridge was ... pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.

I guess this why he resigned shortly after the elections?

So now everyone, including Washington Post have swarmed all over this, and the "he said; she said" has began. Politico prints a Bush-based denial:

“Under no circumstance was Tom Ridge or anyone else directed to change the threat level,” Townsend said. “It didn’t work that way, and it certainly didn’t work that way in 2004. It was always an apolitical process.”

I am not surprised. I don't understand why this comes as a shock. Politicians often use governmental resources for political reasons. Bush administration did not strike me as the most ethical one.

how do you say 'Martin Šktrel?'

2009-08-21T18:40:00.002-04:00

I was watching Match of the Day the other night, and couldn't figure out who was that new Liverpool center defender that the commentator kept referring to as Skirtle.

Well it was Martin Škrtel, of course. He has been with Liverpool since early 2008. And I should know better because he came into EPL from Zenit St. Petersburg. But why couldn't I get that? Well, that's because the correct pronunciation of his name sounds nothing like Skirtle.

Hey, British commentators (not like you are reading this). Martin's last name is pronounced: Shkrtɛl. Yes, that first letter in his name, 'Š' is pronounced 'sh' as in 'sheep.' And there are no vowels in his name except for the 'e' which is second to last. It is hard to get all those consonants together, but I am sure you can give it a good ol' try. After all: your job is to talk, so you can put some effort into doing it correctly!

barney frank is my hero!

2009-08-21T18:38:00.000-04:00

the simpsons

2009-08-21T18:15:00.001-04:00

The Simpsons are now in Angola. Well, Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie, and Bart are no longer of unnaturally cartoon yellow color. They are now brown skinned; Marge is sporting an afro while Lisa has braids and Maggie has dreads. Those are supposed to be dreads, right?

I just can't wait to see what will happen to the South Park kids.

how do you spend your day?

2009-08-21T09:07:00.000-04:00

New York Times has a nice stacked visualization of how different groups of people spend their day. Of course, the unemployed are the outliers.

abolition of slavery

2009-08-20T23:27:00.001-04:00

Did you know that Iceland abolished slavery in 1117? Or that Peru did not end slavery until 1969? Here, Wikipedia tells us the the timeline of abolition of slavery.

muslim women and boxing in india

2009-08-20T22:30:00.001-04:00

Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about young Muslim women and boxing in India:

Boxing is one of several avenues that have opened up to poor Muslim women across a modernizing India, including careers with nonprofit organizations and in teaching. It reflects the changing role of women within their own communities, particularly in the past decade, says Sabiha Hussain, an associate professor who studies women's issues at Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi.

"They find (boxing) as a way of coming out from conservativeness. They have very limited role -- poor Muslim women -- in the public sphere. So these women, these boxers, they find a way to come out and this is an outlet for them to fight poverty," Ms. Hussain says.

Pretty cool.

russian teams in europa league; ugh.

2009-08-20T17:14:00.011-04:00

Dynamo Moscow could not create anything even remotely interesting in their game against CSKA Sofia. The Bulgarian team wasn't anything special, and evidently neither is Dynamo. 0:0 is the final score, and while the game (and especially the second half) was disappointing, the result isn't exactly horrid.

Amkar had the hardest opponent. The team traveled to England to face Fulham. The Russian team was simply not physically ready to compete. By the time it was the middle of the second half, Amkar footballers were running out of gas. The result was predictable, a 1:3 loss, though to be fair Dimitar Dimitrov's men tried their hardest, and not all is lostwith this result. But with the current state of the team, Amkar is not likely to move into the group stage of Europa League. Might as well wave bye-bye now.

The biggest disappointment came from the 2007/2008 UEFA Cup winners, Zenit St. Petersburg. The team traveled to Portugal to face little known CD Nacional (Cristiano Ronaldo's home and first pro club). Zenit's performance was, once again, marred by wasted opportunities and absolutely horrific defense. With the St. Petersburg's team controlling the flow, the game ended with a 4:3 win for the home side. This certainly gives the Russian team ample opportunity to advance if they do win at home, but with the amount of positional mistakes from the defensive players, and Zenit's chronic inability to put the ball in the back of the net, I am skeptical that Zenit can accomplish anything reasonable this season.

UGH!

EPL quickie

2009-08-20T13:57:00.007-04:00

Manchester United got embarrased by Premiership's newcomer FC Burnley 0:1. After getting beaten by Spurs on Sunday, Liverpool was aggravated enough to deliver a 4:0 beating to Stoke City. Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti is settling into his job at Stamford Bridge. It looks like Chelsea is not all mentally there yet, but their 3:1 win against Sunderland brought the needed result. The game will follow, or Ancelotti will follow his predecessors: Avraam Grant, Jose Mourinho, Big Phil, etc. Meanwhile, in contrast to the last year's early season performance, Spurs demolished Hull City 5:1 with Jermaine Defoe earning a hat-trick. The Spurs are now at the top of the league having scored 7 goals in the first two games of this season.

My Spur-peeps are happy peeps.

champion's league; 4th round; 1st games

2009-08-20T09:20:00.008-04:00

Interesting parts...

In the most boring game of this qualification round so far, Arsenal beat Celtic 2:0. This happens to be only the third champion's league game that Celtic had lost at home. Ever. I dunno. The way the Scottish team had played against Dynamo Moscow and now Arsenal, I think the days of Celtic being a staunchly home team are over.

In more exciting games, Sporting couldn't hold on to a lead in the game against Fiorentina. In this game the former Saturn Ramenskoe striker Simon Vukčević gets The Idiot of the Game Day award. The Montenegro international got himself second yellow card for taking off his shirt celebrating his goal that tied the game for Sporting. He will now miss the important second game, where Sporting must win or have a more productive tie to advance. Fiorentina, on the other hand having been able to field the Alberto Giraldino and Adrian Mutu upfront is in good shape to make the group stage.

It seems like every year poor Andrelecht just cannot avoid an embarrassing beating. If last year it was the tiny Belorus team FC BATE that knocked them out of the competiton, this year FC Lyon delivered a 5:1 beating that the Belgians are not likely to recover from.

Maxi Rodríguez, Diego Forlán, Sergio Agüero, and company showed their teeth to FC Panathinaikos, and took a well-deserved 3:2 vicotry in Greece. This Spanish side is rapidly becoming one of my favorite teams in Europe.

Alexandr Hleb who last week admitted that leaving Arsenal for Barcelona was a mistake, has returned to his pre-Arsenal club, VfB Stuttgart. And it seems like he had never left. In Stuttgart's 2:0 win against the Romanian FC Timisoara, Hleb's goal was a bona fide piece of art:

The other parts were not so interesting.

michael jordan

2009-08-18T04:28:00.002-04:00

I want to be like Mike:

England's Premiership opening weekend

2009-08-17T14:56:00.006-04:00

England's Premiership started up this weekend. Manchester United mustered up a win over Birmingham City. Thank you, Wayne Rooney. In more exciting news, The Spurs managed to cool down Liverpool's ambitions with a 2:1 win at home. The Spurs looked better, and if it weren't were Robbie Keane's bad luck and some fantastic Reina goalkeeping, it might've ended much more poorly for Liverpool.

And finally, in even more exciting news, Everton could not contain Adebayor-less and Kolo Toure-less Arsenal. The Gunners delivered a beating like Everton fans haven't seen at home since the 50s. It was 0:3 at the halftime, and the final score was 1:6. Ouch! Five different players socred for Arsenal. Could it be that Adebayor's departure brought variety into Arsene Wenger's tactical approach in the offense?

Meanwhile Manchester City used both Tevez as a substitute and Adebayor as a starter in their away win against Blackburn Rovers. Adebayor only needed three minutes on the pitch to put one in the net for his new club. On September 12th, Emmanuel Adebayor will get a chance to play against his former teammates in Manchester. But in the spring Manchester City will travel to London, to The Emirates Stadium. The booing of the Togolese striker will be something to witness.

England's soccer talent importation

2009-08-16T22:33:00.002-04:00

BBC Says it is like this.

No surprises.

arnold's japanese filmography, i mean commercial-graphy

2009-08-16T21:05:00.001-04:00

Holy culture shock, Batman:

it is 1970; do you know where your space capsules are?

2009-08-16T20:56:00.004-04:00

A few years ago, as we had found out, Soviet Union had discovered and then returned an Apollo capsule back to NASA.

Awwwww snap!!

who is adrian mutu?

2009-08-16T19:52:00.017-04:00

Adrian Mutu might be coming to Zenit St Petersburg. Fiorentina wants some double digit millions of some currency for him. The money part is not interesting. What's interesting is what Adrian Mutu did before he got to Fiorentina. Because that part makes Zenit's bid for Mutu ... much more interesting.

In 2004 Adrian Mutu failed a drug test. He tested positively for using cocaine. Chelsea fired the man, and filed a breach of contract claim. What it means is that Adrian Mutu probably had a clause in his contract that said "you can't do drugs! if you do drugs you violate the contract. if you violate the contract you have to pay us lots of money." Adrian Mutu was ordered to pay Chelsea a total of £9.6m. And a few weeks ago this number grew to €17m. Which is around £14.5m now. I can hardly believe that he has that kind of cash. He won't be making that kind of cash to spare either: he is 29.

Roman Abramovich owns Chelsea which means by the transitive power of the concept of ownership that Adrian Mutu owes that big hunk of cash to Roman Abramovich. Roman Abramovich is a huge Russian soccer supporter. The fact that Guus Hiddink was named as Russia's national team's headcoach is all Abramovich. Clearly the same goes for the temporary helming of Chelsea by Hiddink this spring: Hiddink had an opportunity to return the favor.

So Adrian Mutu might go and play for Zenit St. Petersburg. Why would he ever agree? Zenit had barely made it into Europa League last year. But the way they have been doing this season, they might not even make any European club competition. If Fiorentina really wanted to dump him and grab all that cash quickly and last minute, then I guess he has no choice. However, one can also hope that his agent can find him a better national club competition than Russian Premier League -- no offense, there messrs Abramovich, Mutko, etc.

Zenit seems like not such a great choice for Adrian Mutu. You don't even hear him complain at the possibility, and Adrian Mutu knows how to complain.

So let's recap: Adrian Mutu owes Abramovich lots of money. Abramovich wants to raise the level of Russian soccer. You think Abramovich might forgive some of that debt if Mutu does a couple of years in Russian exile?

UPDATE: Zenit St. Petersburg PR department says that they are not interested in Mutu. So I guess my ruminations might be ... ummm ... moot.

2009-08-12T22:01:00.000-04:00

The Prodigy promote their concert on real eggs. October 5th Concert at Dynamo Stadium in Moscow.

(via dirty.ru)

happy birthday, alfred hitchcock

2009-08-12T21:54:00.001-04:00

Today is Alfred Hittchcock's 110th birthday.

a major day for maltese football

2009-08-12T11:21:00.027-04:00

a bunch of international games took place today. a smattering of WC2010 qualifiers and a whole slew of friendlies.

as far as the WC2010 qualifiers go, all of those who were supposed to win did so. No surprises other than, perhaps:

Scotland falling apart after Gary Caldwell got himself ejected in their game against Norway in Oslo. Norway took full advantage of the situation and the game ended 4:0.
Mexico defeated USA at home 2:1 which was considerably less humiliating than the last month's trashing of the American B-squad in Gold Cup.

as far as the friendlies go, a few fun and unpredictable results were recorded:

Argentina managed to beat Russia in Moscow 3:2 without exerting themselves too much. Russian national team showed spectacular play, but only during the first 25 minutes of the game. The rest of the game was all Argentina. With Tevez and Messi missing, Lopez, Agüero, and Dátolo were eager to prove their worth to Maradona. And they did.
Predictably, Holland showed spectacular game during the first half of their match against England, but the English managed to tie the game at two a piece after falling 0:2 after the first 45 minutes; the Dutch looked great.
Malta, to everyone's surprise managed a 2:0 win over Georgia. Wow. The Maltese must be going absolutely nuts today because their U21 team managed an away win against Albania 2:1. It is a major day for Maltese football today.
Turkey embarrased Ukraine in Kiev winning 3:0, and scoring all 3 goals in a span of 8 minutes.
Australia defeated Ireland in Dublin 3:0
Spain almost gave its supporters a heart attack by going down 0:2 against Macedonia thanks to Goran Pandev. It took the Spanish 5 minutes to pull the game back: Torres, Piqué, and Riera scored between 51st and 56th minute.

That's all folks. Go Malta!

a chance

2009-08-11T21:54:00.004-04:00

Mark van Bommel had suffered a broken toe during Saturday's season opening game.

He will be out for 4 weeks.

Will Timoschuk be so awesome as to cost van Bommel his starting spot. I sure as hell hope so! (Nothing against van Bommel, but Timoschuk is the man!)

the big friendly game

2009-08-11T21:23:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow Russia will host Argentina in a friendly game. It is a big deal to get to play Argentina, to see Messi, Tevez, Cambiasso.
Wait.
Tevez isn't coming.
Oh no. Messi pulled a leg muscle. Umm. He practiced today, they say.
Well, at least Maradona is bringing a mostly first string team though he is annoyed about having to play Russia:

“I don’t like having to play Russia. We must prepare the team for Brazil, but in the middle we’ve got this match that is of no use,” Maradona told Argentine media last month.

And now Gazeta.ru says that Maradona blew off a press conference. And to put a little warped into this perspective, Russia is now ahead of Argentina in the FIFA Rankings.

Could this whole thing end in trashing of Argentina tomorrow? I sure as hell hope so!