U.S. Women's World Cup

Early this morning the U.S. women's soccer team played Brazil. The number 1 U.S. fell in this semi-final match. But what really needs to be said is something missing in what the news is covering on this (if the news even covers this).

Let's go back to when the men's teams played eachother. One of my first posts was about that game, that I was lucky to see. In the first half the U.S. men's team had an own goal. Nothing special at the time, but now I am rethinking my original hypothesis that, it was not the U.S.'s fault(Onyewu especially) but a sun glare off the large cheshire grin of Brazilian star Ronaldinho.

In the Women's game today there was another own goal by Leslie Osborne. Two own goals from the U.S. against Brazil in less than a month. This seems strange, and I think there must be something going on here larger than Ronaldinho's dientes. There must be some kind of talisman that the Brazilian National Team keeps hidden to throw off the U.S. I say we check Marta' shoes or maybe Kaka was hidding it. Either way there is foul play and I demand an investigation.

Fun with stats.

I watched this in class, it is great. This guy is funny, smart, and has a grand accent. Am I in love?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

China sends troops to Darfur

A little bit of good news, China plans on sending U.N. peace keeping troops to Darfur. This is a huge change for China, and can only be good for the reigon of Darfur. Maybe the U.S. needs to send more, we can't have China one uping us. Maybe this will be the start to a humanitarian Cold War?

Read/Listen for yourself.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14453538

I Want to Ride my Bicycle

Here is a small article from NPR about rental bikes in Pairs. The idea is simple, you pay a small fee and ride a bike rather than driving. This program was started by the mayor of Pairs, along with making more bike and bus lanes. The article even tells of Chicago Mayor Daley checking it out and taking notes. Living in Normal has showed me how much I miss a good bike lane, and the ease of getting from point A to B with out relying on anything motorized.

Read/Listen for yourself
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14429468

Remember to Floss

I was walking to class today and I saw a guy brushing his teeth while driving. It made me smile slightly. All I know is that I hope my life is never so busy that I have to bursh my teeth while driving. I would probably just chew gum on my way out the door, but this little scene reminded me how great my life is, that I have time for dental hygiene. If you had time to brush your teeth today, take a min. and be happy that life is not all torture and downward spirals to death and probably torment in hades.

Gen. Petreaus in favor of "cutting and running"?

Gen Petreaus was on NPR's Morning Edditon today. I encourage you to read the transcript or listen to it yourself. There were some positive things I read, in the begining Petreaus talks about how the surge is working, but then goes on to say there needs to be a reduction in troops by mid-2008. Some will say this proves the surge is woking, but there are some underlying problems that I think should be addressed. After Petreaus said the troops should decrease, Steve Inskeep asked if the military could even hold up troop levels at this rate, and he said he didnt even know. Many analyist say we dont have the man power to keep the surge up. Then Petreaus talked about violence going down, but there still being "pockets" of violence. He spoke as if this now directs where to improve, but I wonder, if more miltary are in one violent are, what stops people from just moving to another area? It seems like keeping an eye on a 3 year old. They will be on their best behavior while you are there, but the moment you leave it is whatever they want to do. How can we assure that wont happen in Iraq? I'm just glad Petreaus seems sensible. He admits when he doesnt know what the hell is going on and talks about what he does. It is good for Bush to have him (i think that puts Bush at 7 pos. attributes and 485 neg. ones). Only time will tell what will/needs to be done, but for now let's all feel good that someone over there is saying we need to bring some troops home. This is good news indeed.

Read/Listen for your self
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14369678

A Better Plan

I just read a small article about Sen. Obama's plan for Iraq. I know tons of people will say that he is "cutting and running" but i still beleive that its better than "staying the course and dying". I am reading this after just recently after seeing video of Gen. Patreas saying he "doesnt know" if what we are doing in Iraq is working. To me that says that something needs to be done. Obama's plan is different, and I like that. He wants to involve the international community, and that is exactly what Iraq and the Iraqi government needs. His plan seems like the safest "do over" possible. I disagree that all the troops will be able to be out by 2008, but i think that idea is just in there to raise some eyebrows, remember this is all still politics not policy, at least not yet

read/listen for yourself:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14359099

Flight of the Conchords

A friend once said that if we picked up women in a bakery it would look like this. He may be on to something...

Soccer

This past Sunday I went to Soldier Field to see the US National Team. Unlike most things national, I was filled with hope. The US was playing multi-world cup winning Brazil, and the team this year may be the best yet. So expectedly I was hoping for a huge upset from the no.17 ranked US over the no. 1 ranked Brazil. I did not get to see a win, but I saw something else.

The score of 4-2 would not spell out a close game, but it was a close game. The US was the first to strike, with a corner resulting in a goal by Bocanegra. The US was of to a good start. Then in the 33rd min. an own goal from the US tied it up. Brazil then scored off a header by Lucio. Then in the 73rd min. Dempsey (one of the US players with the most promis) scored. So in the 73rd min. US and Brazil were tied. I (and the rest of the croud) began chanting "U-S-A" It may have been the most American I have ever felt. This is the true power of sport. Then 2 min. later Ronaldinho scored brining it to 3-2.

This game was tight, the only way Brazil was up was the own goal from the US. Then came stoppage time and in the first min. a terrible call was made by the Mexican ref. (probably sore over the domination the US put on the tri-color). He called a penalty kick for a foul half as bad as the one Brazil gave the US in the 67th min. I was in shock. Of course the goal was good and the story was over there.

The lesson from the story is more than "we lost". It is "we lost, but looked great doing it" This may not seem like much, but after the overhyped and underpreformed team of the 2006 World Cup, it was nice to see a team worth playing internationally. In my mind that game was played more like a 2-2 tie. Either way I have hope that the US will soon be showing the international community that we deserve some respect.