The Hopp Stop

• Cut the Rope, a very fun iPhone/iPad game, has a free holiday version out. Recommended.
• Marco the Tumblr gets to use an enduring rotary phone with his Verizon FiOS connection.
• Spencer Hall with another hilarious column at Every Day Should Be Saturday, this time centering on the West Virginia hiring of a football coach-in-waiting.
• The Times has been running a series over the last week on the 1960 plane collision over NYC that resulted in a plane crashing in Park Slope. This article on the state of the neighborhood in 1960 is a great read if you’ve seen the vitality of the neighborhood today, or are interested in urban planning and post-war urban decay in US cities. It’s remarkable how much of urban decay was caused by a combination of lending practices (encouraging a move to suburbs by middle-class whites) and racism.
• This post, another in the Park Slope crash series, has a great 1960/2010 matched photo of the wreckage.
• I love the National, so I really enjoyed this Pitchfork interview with Aaron Dressner, one of the musical forces behind the band.

• Published just before this week’s US State Dept. leaks from WikiLeaks, Forbes has an in-depth look at WikiLeaks and the future of data security.
• This NY Times article on port (and the recent decline in consumption) reminds me that it has been too long since I’ve had a nice glass of port after dinner. I used to regularly get a glass at Garçon on 22nd and Guerrero in SF when V and I would pop in for dessert on a weekend evening.
• Carcassone is coming for the iPad this month. This should make Vanessa very happy.
• This is the first detailed story I’ve seen on the Stuxnet virus that someone (the article proposes a consortium of Western intelligence agencies) created and deployed to cripple Iranian centrifuges used in their nuclear program. Fascinating story. Hat tip to Daring Fireball for the link.
• A new life form has been discovered in Mono Lake (by Yosemite) that ”is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible.”
• Via Daring Fireball, a great overview of using Google Voice on the iPhone. I’m still holding back from jumping in with both feet on a move to using my GVoice # as my primary number, in part because there are still advantages to the native apps. Also, I tried to start texting via Google Voice and ran into problems receiving replies.
• Is this a joke? Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup over the US? WTF. Moving beyond my disappointment that the Cup won’t be here in the States, I don’t think I’ll travel to Qatar for the games. 118 degree temps and no social life in the country? Sign me up. I imagine ticket sales will be really strong, given that US fans bought more tickets than anyone outside of South Africa for the most recent Cup. [/sarcasm] Final complaint: in a warming world, how is it socially conscious for FIFA to endorse a plan that makes the oppressive heat tolerable by air-conditioning outdoor stadium?

In photographic form, from Sam Wolson of the Michigan Daily:

In written form, from Spencer Hall of EDSBS fame:

In contrast: Denard Robinson is a barely street legal rally car. There is no backup and there is no guardrail: he rides sliding sideways through defenses never hitting the brakes without a right foot on the gas. He’s covering immense mileage all by his lonesome, more than any other player in FBS football now, leading the nation in rushing with 455 yards and adding 430 yards passing because a one-man play fake leaves wide receivers waving unmolested in empty defensive backfields.

He may suffer for this: unlike [Jeff] Demps [of Florida], he’s got almost no help, and even the stoutest rally car starts to spit parts and rattle down the stretch of a race. Without relief, he’s going to have issues, which is the contemporary word for problems; injury, fatigue, the inability to conjure coverage-snapping runs 15 or 20 times a game.* He’s received no support from Michigan’s running backs. He will face defenses that can hurt people, and when he does they may do what they do so well. This rally car could end up flying roof-first into the forest, just as repeated hits sidelined Pat White for significant playing time late in seasons at WVU.**

*This number is not an exaggeration. Double digits are needed to describe the number of times a three yard run becomes six, or a six yard run becomes twelve, or a twelve yard run ends up as six points and this.

*Robinson is much thicker than White, and will be more durable, but even Tim Tebow got hurt by repeated hits something Michigan fans benefitted greatly from in the 2008 Capital One Bowl. Injury is a given for all quarterbacks.

Thanks to Every Day Should Be Saturday for this hilariously scathing takedown of some football-oriented country crap rock from Kenny Chesney.

A sample paragraph:

He sucks, and most things do, but when he dips his toes across into the realm of football they deserve to be chainsawed off at the nearest convenience. The entire song is supposedly about football, but it’s really about how Kenny Chesney should be bound and gagged, bundled into an uninsulated rocket filled with honey badgers, and shot into the sun. Oddly enough, this is what we think every Kenny Chesney song is about. Hm.

DBag alert!

[Whoops, I've had this post sitting in my draft folder since October 2009. Might as well post it now...]

Why? Because the US tied Costa Rica today in the last minute of their final World Cup qualifier in the North and Central America (CONCACAF) group, which, when combined with Honduras’ victory in their own qualifying match today, means that Honduras has qualified for the World Cup. Big news in a small, soccer-mad country, dealing with the aftermath of a military coup earlier this year. The video below is pretty great; check out the “USA! USA” chants at the end (and a guy in a devil mask wearing a US flag as a cape, on a scooter). HT to Grant Wahl (SI soccer writer) via his Twitter feed.

Hilarious music video. I guess crappy pop music transcends language barriers. If you’re wondering how I stumbled upon this, I provide thanks to Every Day Should Be Saturday.