Bojinov? Berbatov? Stoichkov?
Nope.
Boiko Borisov. The nation’s prime minister. Who, at 52, turns out occasionally for a third string Bulgarian league team. Which apparently speaks volumes about the quality of Bulgaria’s football leagues.
He’s been nominated in a novel protest vote in Bulgaria, where the citizens are revolting. Actually, I’m sure they’re quite nice. But they’d like more money spent on football…
I just saw the first Mormon ad to feature high profile league player, and grand final winner with the mighty Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Will Hopoate. Sharp. They’re a great ad for Manly. And, like all the ads in this campaign, are visually appealing and tightly produced.
There was a higher profile League star than Hopoate – Dizzy Izzy Folau. Israel has been out of the spotlight in the last year because he made a big money switch to AFL. To a team that doesn’t exist yet.
Luckily the Mormons didn’t feature Israel in their ads. Because he recently turned his back on the cult, publicly, during this campaign.
And here’s what he had to say… and that, friends, is how to harpoon a campaign.
“I had a personal experience with the holy spirit touching my heart,” Folau told AAP.
“I’ve never felt that before while I was involved in the Mormon church – until I came to the AOG church and accepted Christ.
“It’s been an amazing experience for me personally and I know a lot of people on the outside have been saying stuff about why we left.
“And some people (are) assuming that we left because of money, and all that sort of stuff.
“I know for myself that it wasn’t.
“But I guess at the moment, the people on the outside don’t really know the main reason why we left.”
The 22-year-old instigated the change himself after researching the history of Mormonism, and said the move was easy to make.
Folau’s friends have been understanding and supportive for the most part, but he admits it has been hard on a few of them.
God will play a large role in Folau’s life as he attempts to secure a berth in the Giants’ side for their season opener against Sydney.
One day I will have a robot servant. Even if all he does is play table tennis with me…
And he won’t just one of these boring robots who serves the ball and nothing else…
No. He’ll be a fully functional opponent (this gets impressive at about 2:36… well, it’s impressive the whole way through…)
Whatever way you look at it, Brad Thorn has had a pretty incredible career. He also happens to be guy who loves Jesus, and a friend from church.
He’s the most competitive guy I know – especially, and many people won’t know this, at Goldeneye on the N64.
File this under “sermon illustrations” or if you don’t write sermons, under “funny stories”…
Marathon “runner” Rob Sloan was in a race on the weekend, he piked, caught the bus, and found himself ahead of the pack, so he decided to cross the finish line. He appeared to have taken third place. There was some suspicion at the time. But he flatly denied catching the spectator bus.
He lied.
“When I finished the race I was asked by the fourth person in the race: ‘Did you come third, because I don’t remember you passing us.’
“My words to him were ‘Yeah, I passed you at approximately 18 miles on the damp’, I remember because you don’t pass many people being near the front.”
The BBC has more… and another story from Digital Journey…
Funny stuff.
Cop that Laurie Daley.
Some people make hating Manly into an art form, some people have turned on field success into career longevity in the form of punditry and off field roles. Few have done both the way Laurie Daley has.
Laurie Daley is an idiot. Here is his season prediction for Manly this year: 13th. They’re now in the Grand Final.
He was a selector for the NSW State of Origin team for five years, and while I don’t condone filling wikipedia with biased misinformation the blurb has it about right:
“He was the first person from the disgraced and shamed New South Wales administration to quit after five consecutive series defeats”
Mr Daley tipped the Roosters, the Raiders, and the Titans to make the top six this year, they came 11th, 15th, and 16th. His pre-season predictions were abysmal – the teams that finished the regular season in positions 1 and 2 were tipped to come 11th and 13th respectively.
He spent last week death-riding Manly, suggesting the Broncos were specials to knock off Manly.
The man is an idiot.
Manly should take out next Sunday’s Grand Final, which will be sensational…
Volleyball + Soccer = Sepak Takraw. That’s an equation of awesomeness. Watch this. It’s the gold medal round of the 2006 Asian Games.
Here’s the first bit of the 2010 Gold Medal match. It kicks off at about 2:55.
Chess Boxing looks tough, but it’s too cerebral. What real men want when they turn to pugilistic pursuits is fireworks. Literally.
People were tougher in the past.
Here’s the reworking of a classic old poem for the occasion.
The boy stood in the burning ring
Amidst the flames and flickers.
He ducked and dived, but did not stress,
For he wore asbestos knickers.
Let me open with an arbitrary disclaimer. Only try this at home if your home is being invaded and you can take the criminal by surprise. Even then, you might be better off kicking them in the groin.
Not the hold suggested below.
I don’t know when you’ll need to use this, and I hope you never will, but Craig Schwarze is a seriously tough guy. He doesn’t just watch UFC like the rest of us. He does martial arts stuff. He knows how to do stuff you’ve only seen Chuck Norris do. He blogs about Genesis 1. You don’t get much tougher. You should, by the way, check out his blog. I’ve been reading it pretty much since I started blogging, and his post rate a few years back inspired me to up the ante here.
Here is his guide to taking down said opponent.
1. Position yourself behind the subject
2. Take your right arm, hook it around the subjects neck, and then place your right hand on your left shoulder. At this stage, the subjects neck should be sitting comfortably in the crook of your elbow
3. Take your left hand and slide it behind the subjects head, with the palm facing toward you. Use it to grip your right shoulder. There should still be no pressure on the subjects neck
4. Gently begin to squeeze your elbows toward each other. Don’t press too hard or quickly, or you will “gas” your arms. Just steady pressure together
5. Your forearms would put great pressure on the arteries on either side of the subjects neck. There should be no pressure across the throat. If applied correctly, subject will lose consciousness within a few seconds
6. Check out a quick demonstration (sadly embedding is disabled on this video)
Thanks Craig.
Feel free to submit your own mad skillz via my email address, found in various locations around this page (try the header).
Ronaldo retired this week. The real Ronaldo. Not the Portugese imitation. Check out this video of football tricks featuring Remi Gaillard and Ronaldo.
An economist’s study of the optimal timing of substitutions in football matches (spanning a bunch of 2009/10 leagues) discovered the following:
Dr. Myers analyzed the substitutions and ensuing results of every game played during the 2009-10 season in the top English, Spanish, Italian and German professional leagues, as well as the 2010 Major League Soccer season and the 2010 World Cup. He concluded that if their team is behind, managers should make the first substitution prior to the 58th minute, the second substitution prior to the 73rd minute and the third prior to the 79th minute. Teams that follow these guidelines improve—score at least one goal—roughly 36% of the time. Teams that don’t follow the rule improve about 18.5% of the time. He noted 1,037 instances the rule could have been applied and found that managers abide by it a little less than half the time. He also found that the timing of subs has no effect on the team ahead in the score or if the match is tied.
Via Freakonomics, more at the Wall Street Journal.
Interesting article about the life and times of professional tennis players (and wannabes).
“According to figures compiled by the USTA, the average age of the top 100 men’s tennis players today hovers between 25 and 26. And cracking the top 100 hardly guarantees a livable wage.
It costs roughly $143,000 a year to compete on the pro tour, with travel expenses and coaching fees accounting for the bulk of that.
To simply break even financially, a male tennis pro in 2009 had to be ranked 164th or higher.”