Football after World Cup 2010 can make its case as the World Cup of Sports - the most popular in the world especially if TV ratings are used as a measure of popularity. The 2006 Word Cup Final had an estimated 600++ million TV viewers . North American World Cup 2010 TV...
Forecasting as Larry Summers and the other members of the US Economic team have learned is a very risky business. Eight percent unemployment rate by this time with TARP fund assistance. No worry about a double dip recession. So fearless and without further to-do, here are Takethe5th’s World Cup forecasts for the Semifinals: Netherlands...
The World Cup is providing great TV, Press and Internet coverage and there-in lies the lessons for World Leaders. Great coverage means bad plays as well as good ones get big coverage. Take the tic-tac-toe passing of the top clubs like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands – all 3 teams are semi-finalists. But bad...
The Winter Olympic Closing Ceremonies were such an example of new “I believe” bravado rippling across the Canadian landscape and yet a wonderful opportunity missed. Sorry, USA and the rest of the world – humble, self-effacing, meek and reliable Canadians will for the time being become more like uhhh … ugly American Wall Street...
There is an interesting article in the Sports section of the New York Times. As the Jets pack up for the Season having just failed to be the Arizona Cardinals of this season – the Times Reporters ask what will the team need to make it to the top next season. And the analysis...
I was pleasant surprised by Baseball’s AllStar game this year. First, the dedication to Service in the Country with its honoring of volunteers in the various baseball cities across the country was carried off very well. Second, President Obama proved once again that he is as close to a Natural Born hitter than anyone...
The Times of London Sports Editors Simon Barnes and Neil Harman got Sunday’s Wimbledon story right. Andy Roddick was not just the ragged warrior but also the hero of the match – unfortunately, the tragic hero. For no country is quite like the US in Sports. To finish second is equivalent to finishing thirtieth...
Public Trust, like the air we breathe, is a social commons. No one party can buy or control it. But it can be tainted, polluted, and otherwise damaged by individual and collective actions. Rod Blagojevich sits at the public service tip of the “Pay to Play” disease that is infecting all levels of US...
Its rare that you get to see a real contest of wills, the sheer ebb and flow of best blows taken for minute advantage only to be repulsed, and the sheer extravagance of seeing pounding shot after shot taken that you know to be, from your own dallying in the game, of a sublime...
“baseball” is doing a major cover-up on its doping problems. On Friday, baseball and its players union came to an “agreement” to whitewash all its doping problems – and the major trade press that covers the sport seemed to agree. Lets do nothing , sweep it under the rug, and gosh golly isn’t Bud...
Both fascinating and frustrating reading. The story of Joseph Needham collecting together the history and legacy of China's technological triumph's is utterly fascinating. But frustrating is the failure of Winchester to shed clear light on why a)China did not already have such a hitorical trove in Beijing and b) why did China miss out on the Industrial Revolution while Japan, even more reclusive, did not.
