World's Fastest Flying Human

 

Trompe-l’œil

Trompe l’oeil means ‘trick of the eye’ in French. Julian Beever is an English artist who specializes in creating trompe-l’œil chalk drawings. He uses a projection technique called anamorphosis to create the illusion of three dimensions when viewed from the correct angle. It’s often possible to position a person within the image as if they were interacting with the scene. The effect is so convincing, people will swerve to avoid potholes he’s drawn in the pavement!

Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/107778#ixzz1eRnYn1YD

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Amazing Photos.

5 Point Cafe - The Greatest Night in Baseball

1) The Natural - Prior to last night, Dan Johnson had arguably the most important home run in Tampa Bay baseball history off of the (then) unhittable Papelbon in 2008, which helped propel the "worst to first" Rays to the AL East title. That year Johnson was waived by the A's and spent most of the year in the minors before being an unlikely Setpember callup. 3 years later, Johnson spent most of the year as a disgruntled veteran minor leaguer, only to be called up in September as an extra bat off the bench, performing to the tune of a sub .400 OPS (not sub .400 OBP, a sub .400 OPS, which is really saying something). To call his homerun improbable doesn't do it justice. The fact that he repeated the "greatest homerun in franchise history" trick twice in 3 years is stupefying.

2) Carl Crawford, Double Agent - Just 3 innings later, Evan Longoria's walk-off pushed Johnson down to 2nd and 3rd on the historic franchise home run list. Longoria's HR was as shallow as McGwire's 62nd was, just squeezing over the wall near the left field foul pole, the same area of the field that Carl Crawford patrolled for 8 years before moving on to Boston. Just minutes earlier, Crawford completed an awful season patrolling left field for the Red Sox (his .289 OBP is particularly glaring) by making a diving attempt on Robert Andino's flyball to left. By diving, Crawford gave up any chance to throw out the slow footed Nolan Reimold, allowing the winning run to score without a play at the plate. After averaging over 3 wins above replacement during his time in Tampa, Crawford posted a big 0.0 in WAR this year. If you were to tell me the Rays sent Crawford to the Red Sox as some Cold War spy to submerge their playoff chances, I'd have a hard time disproving that theory, especially given his influence over the last play of the Red Sox season.

3) Fredi Got Fingered - It's been a running joke how badly Fredi Gonzalez has been abusing his young relief corps. Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel and Eric O'Flaherty all rank in the top 5 for relievers in the major leagues. Fredi simply went to the well too many times, and his bullpen imploded. Kimbrel had 4 blown saves down the stretch after being the best reliever in the majors for most of the season. The final game was like a case study for Fredi's inability to manage a baseball game - starting Matt Diaz over Jayson Heyward, batting Martin Prado (and his .302 OBP) second, allowing a SB attempt of third base by Michael Bourn with Dan Uggla at bat (the resulting home run would have been a 3 run shot instead of a 2 run shot had Bourn simply stayed put), not double switching to get a second inning out of Cristhian Martinez at the end of the game. I don't know how any Braves fans could have any faith in Fredi after this debacle.

4) Desmond Jennings Call Up - On August 31st, Desmond Jennings had a slash line of .333/.415/.611 with 8 HRs and 14 SBs in his first 37 games in the major leagues, resulting in the Rays getting criticized for blowing the wild card race by not bringing up Jennings sooner. Over the last month of the season, Jennings dipped to .167/.267/.255, and ended up with overall slash marks very much like what was expected of the talented rookie: .259/.356/.449. The Rays may have actually timed this call up perfectly, not only did they win the wild card and delay Jennings' service time, they also timed the callup for him to gain confidence against some low level competition (Royals, A's, Mariners) before facing some of the tougher pitching staffs in the league.

5) The Buck Stops Here - The Orioles went 11-6 to end the season winning facing playoff caliber competition (Rays, Angels, @Boston, @Detroit, Boston), winning 4 of those series' and tying one (2-2 against the Angels). Remember at the beginning of the season when Buck Showalter famously ripped Theo Epstein, saying "I'd like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll. You got Carl Crawford 'cause you paid more than anyone else, and that's what makes you smarter? That's why I like whipping their butt. It's great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, 'How the hell are they beating us?'" Holy crap was that a prophetic quote, there is probably nothing else in Theo Epstein's head right now other than that very thought.

"I Let You" - New Fleet Foxes Song (Paramount Theater, Seattle)

The Paramount Theater has quickly become a favorite venue here in Seattle. Getting to see the Walkmen open for Fleet Foxes there on back to back nights was radmobile. Here's video of the new Fleet Foxes song, "I Let You."



Fleet Foxes New Song, Paramount Theater, Seatte (9/7) from sportshui on Vimeo.

The Next Tony Hawk

I try not to repost links off of Kottke, but this video is pretty incredible. 

When Kilian Martin was 10 years old, he joined a gymnastics school in Madrid, Spain. At this same time, he also found a passion for surfing, however, with the ocean over 6 hours away, being able to practice everyday was a near impossibility. So,at the age of 16, he started to skate Mini-Ramps and Street. When he turned 21, he decided to move to California, where he set out on a journey to master his skateboarding abilities. Kilian grabbed many of his freestyle tricks and adapted them to street skateboarding. Since then, he has developed his own unique style, and a level of technicality that has set him in a class of his very own.

Antics Roadshow

Banksy is at it again, this time on your tele:

The program, which aired Saturday on TV sets across the UK, is a tongue-in-cheek look at the recent history of public pranks, and its inspiration was simple. Banksy admitted, "Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I've been working back from there."

Click here for a link to watch the entire program.

Be a man

My favorite new comic:

Russell Peters is a Canadian comedian of Indian descent. He was estimated to earn $15 million last year. This is the first I've heard of him. Probably not the last. The bit below perfectly describes negotiating for goods in China.

Move

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Cool Video

Things are getting pretty sparse here on Sports Hui. Let's see if this cool video can liven things up a bit. TV on the Radio has always sounded like Radiohead to me, and this video reminds me of Paranoid Android.

Umami = Pleasure

Interesting article on why we enjoy foods high in calories. Umami is about to become foodie-speak for delicious.
  
"This is fascinating, no? We are so convinced that the tongue is the source of culinary joy — we eat too much ice cream because we want to make our mouth happy — but it’s not. Instead, we eat calorically dense foods because we are also trying to pleasure this secondary pathway, which responds not to the nuances of flavor but to the brute intake of energy. (On a more depressing note, this research also explains why the obesity epidemic is so hard to fix. Let’s imagine, for instance, that some genius invented a reduced calorie bacon product that tasted exactly like bacon, except it had 50 percent fewer calories. It would obviously be a great day for civilization. But this research suggests that such a pseudo-bacon product, even though it tasted identical to real bacon, would actually give us much less pleasure. Why? Because it made us less fat. Because energy is inherently delicious. Because we are programmed to enjoy calories.)" 

Tinariwen on the Radio

Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali, founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who as a child saw a western film in which a cowboy played a guitar. Ag Alhabib built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. The band recorded their new album in the Algerian desert, where TV on the Radio co-leaders Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone joined them to play.

Good Dell Sir!

Roger Goodell's Op-Ed piece in today's WSJ seems like a farce - it's absolutely the wrong audience to try to sell this surface level fluff to given the legal and financial intricacies of the NFL lockout (or whatever the appropriate term is to call it at this point). It reads like it's written by a bully scrambling for reasons as to why he's losing a fight - maybe the NFL Union simply needed intelligent, well-trained leadership to put the owners in their place. Reading the op-ed after Joe Posnaski's rebuke, the only thing that comes to mind in Goodell's defense is if he wrote it not for the general readership of the Wall Street Journal, but for the NFL owners themselves. It's likely that every NFL owner reads the Journal (and certainly many times more likely than an NFL player or the average sports fan) - perhaps Goodell's attempt to promote these lame arguments might awaken the owners to their inability to sell their case to a court, let alone the general public. That's the one ploy I would give Goodell credit for, he's been getting beaten badly (and publicly) by NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith, who has done a fantastic job of winning legal battles while staying out of the media limelight. I suppose that shouldn't really be a surprise given all the success Smith has attained in both the private and public sector versus Goodell, whose only post-college job experience has been within the confines of the NFL home office.

For those not inclined to read Goodell's Op-ed, here's a video summary of his argument to the players:

New Fleet Foxes Streaming on NPR

Fleet Foxes: "Helplessness Blues" Over the past three years, the Fleet Foxes have gone from a sleepy Seattle folk band to having Pitchfork's #1 album. Who knew subdued gentle harmonizing could generate so much excitement? New album streaming now on NPR through May 3.

Vintage Soul: Fitz and the Tantrums

Fitz and the Tantrums might be best described as New American Soul Music. Go ahead and stream the first song, I guarantee you'll keep listening.

Baseball 2011 Season Review (Slogans & Promotions Edition)

Last year's review of major league baseball team slogans remains far and away Sports Hui's most popular contribution to the internet. Now that the 2011 edition is here, it's only a matter of time before AOL comes in with a big offer. Before that happens, here's a roundup of this year's team slogans and the best promotional giveaways, starting out with the AL. As in the past, teams are listed based on my personal predicted order of finish in their divisions.

AL WEST
Texas Rangers
Slogan: "My Texas. My Rangers." In an effort to distance themselves from any bandwagon fans that they picked up in their run to the world series last year, the Rangers have decided to remind everyone that they still play in the one state that will make you hate them. Either that or the marketing department has realized that there is really no reason for anyone not from Texas to visit Arlington.
Promotion: American League Championship Replica Ring. Anyone else picture Nolan Ryan seething over last year's world series loss and crushing one of these to dust with his bare hands? Ryan seems to be getting more ornery watching games in the Texas heat....it's only a matter of time before he puts a bow-tied Ken Rosenthal in a headlock and gives him a Robin Ventura beating after one too many awkward in-game interviews.

Oakland Athletics
Slogan: "Green Collar Baseball" In an effort to ensure that any articles written about the Oakland A's include the words "Billy Beane" and "Moneyball," the A's trot out the same tired slogan from last year. Extra points for only having green collars on the team's 2nd alternate road jersey this year. Well done.
Promotion: The MC Hammer Bobblehead giveaway on 80's Night sounds amazing, though sadly there are no pictures available. In fact, the only bobblehead pictured on the schedule is this one of Ricky Henderson, an admission by the A's front office that even they can no longer name actual players on their own team anymore.



The The Angels Angels of Anaheim
Slogan: "Angles Baseball 50th Anniversary." A team slogan to match the excitement of Anaheim (hint: there's none).  
Promotion: This Kendrys Morales bobblehead comes with both a right and left-handed batting stance to reflect Morales' abilities as a switch hitter. Nice touch. Natural Balance takes advantage of the advertising opportunity by making sure to plaster its brand all over Kendry's broken ankle. Shameless.






Seattle Mariners
Slogan: "Ready to Play." After last year's disastrous "Believe Big" ad campaign, the M's have scaled it down a notch. Part of me wonders if there is a typo with this year's slogan. With Milton Bradley, Jack Cust and Jack Wilson part of the everyday lineup, wouldn't it be more appropriate to replace the "l" with an "r" in that slogan?
Promotion: Ichiro Hit Counter Bobblehead. Love the fact that the Mariners put 4 digits on this one, so we can all count down Ichiro's chase for 3000 hits in the majors (at his current pace, this would happen sometime in 2014). That's a pretty special feat for someone that didn't swing a bat in the big leagues until age 27.




AL CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox
Slogan: "All In." In an effort to capitalize on the soaring popularity of the poker boom, the White Sox are using the card games' most famous catchphrase as this year's slogan. In related news, team owner Jerry Reinsdorf is said to be curious about this new ipod invention, and has also mentioned to insiders that real estate still appears a fail safe investment.
Promotion: Leave it up to Chicago's Southside to have not one, but two Mullet Nights on the schedule. As anyone that has actually witnessed a game at the Cell can attest, mullet night on the Southside is known by the locals as "Friday."