Unlike American football, which has very little to do with the foot meeting the ball, soccer, a.ka. football as the rest of the world knows it, is a simple game played by children all over the world. Even in the poorest corners of the earth children find a way to play, and this group of photos of homemade footballs in Africa shows you how.
Perhaps the Russians need to institute a "Know What's Below" system so they can avoid little snafus like this one:
Yesterday, at approximately 7:22 p.m., local time, the Moscow's Mission Control experienced something you never want to happen when the mission you're controlling is playing out outside the planet: silence. Complete, utter silence. Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, had lost contact with its satellites — all of them. Which meant, as well, that it had lost contact with the International Space Station, and with the cosmonauts who call it home…
But the space-based silence, it turns out, was the result of a very terrestrial accident: While doing repair work on the Shchyolkovsky Highway outside of Moscow, a construction team severed a cable. And it turned out, unfortunately, to be the cable — the one linking Moscow's Mission Control to the nation's extraterrestrial vehicles and workers.
And, yes, the one cable. One cable cut, and a country's ability to communicate with its space infrastructure is severed, as well.
The Russians might want to also consider a system with inherent redundancy, built to withstand disruptions of any one node. That sounds familiar. Ah yes, that whacky thing called the internet.
This is way cool:
I came across the picture above on a BookofJoe post with the headline "This, my friends, is the definition of lazy." Of course in my household that's just the first level of laziness. I recently passed by the bathroom in our house that is most often used by our kids and saw a similar setup AND another roll of toilet paper on the floor in front of the toilet. That, my friends, is the definition of uber-laziness.
Too bad I didn't take a picture.
I'm not sure how to describe this, so I won't. Apparently this is called "time remapping."
This is an open plea for someone, anyone, to provide a copy editor to certain local news organizations. It's articles like this one that will start grammar teachers spinning on their heads:
A judge ordered that the complex be auctioned after, the Cascades Grandview apartment tower defaulted on a $7.2 million loan…
Because of the market for rental property is stronger and there especially appears to be growing demand in the downtown area. There's might be a potential to do something very positive with the apartment complex…
The city says, no matter who owns the building after the auction, the water $74,000 must be paid. You first learned about the issues at this apartment on WFMY News 2, after the air condition went out in July.
Keep in mind that these are just a couple of the errors found in an eight paragraph piece
An interesting quote from the editor of Details in an interview about what he reads:
Once I get into the office and turn on my computer, I actually go to Twitter first thing. I'm not terribly prolific, but I like to see what’s trending. If you go to CNN.com, or any news outlet, they’re controlling what you’re seeing. On Twitter, it’s a worldwide list of what’s trending, and that’s interesting. I hunt and peck by subject—I don’t follow that many people—you can do it sort of mindlessly. If I see a name or subject, I'm curious as to why it's trending, and it’s a guessing game I play with myself before I click through to see what it is. It represents the ultimate water cooler: anything from a sports figure to a political figure to a celebrity to a cause to "I’m a Belieber," whatever it is. That's my first conversation of the day, eavesdropping on this great global discussion.
Guilty of all of these:
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about large companies in certain industries moving towards employing more part-time workers in reaction to provisions of the Affordable Care Act that will kick in in 2014. What's even more interesting is the graphic that shows the percentage of employees (not including professionals and managers) who are covered by employers' health insurance plans by industry. In other words, the percentage of hourly working stiffs whose employers provide health insurance in different industries. Here's the breakdown:
That's a lot of working stiffs who don't have even partial coverage from their employers, and a pretty good indication that "Cadillac benefits" are increasingly rare.
While everyone else is distracted with the not-really-that-important presidential election of 2012, here at the JonLowder.com media center we're concentrating on far more consequential news — the return of 7-Eleven to Forsyth County, and Lewisville in particular. From a somewhat reliable source (the Winston-Salem Journal):
7-Eleven Inc. has returned to Forsyth County and surrounding areas, bringing its Slurpee drinks and Big Bite hot dogs.
The re-entry into the local market after more than 20 years is part of the convenience-store chain’s recent purchase of 13 stores previously operated by Fast Track. Terms of the deal were not disclosed…
Locations of local stores switching to 7-Elevens include 2375 Lewisville Clemmons Road in Clemmons, 1005 S. Main St. in Kernersville, 5076 Styers Ferry Road in Lewisville and 5916 University Parkway in Winston-Salem.
Rebranding of the stores will occur from December through early February.
People, this is far more exciting than the opening of Trader Joe's at Thruway. After all, does TJ have Slurpees? Case closed.
Here's the Lewisville location – I'm sure I'll meet you in line at the grand opening.
Befuddled 