The inaugural Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship were an unqualified success, with competitors from the US, Russia, Japan and beyond converging on Joensuu, Finland to thrash and knit: competitors such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles thrashed to heavy metal music while knitting, for an audience of about 200. The winners were the five-person Japanese team Giga Body Metal. Scottish competitor Heather McLaren (a Ph.D candidate in engineering) told the AP, "When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought 'that’s my niche.'"
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Update: The manufacturer writes, "Sea Gold is NOT for use with swimming goggles. It can irritate the eyes and we would appreciate it if you update it with our Anti-Fog Spray.
For the record, I haven't experienced the irritation, even after more than a month of use.
I am an extremely dedicated swimmer, thanks to a chronic pain condition that is just barely held in check by an hour in the pool every day. I go through a couple pairs of goggles every year: generally the thing that goes first is the elastic or the ratchet for the headband, but sometimes a pair of goggles will get so fog-prone that I just can't swim with them anymore.
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Jimmy Smith (0-1-0) is listed on YouTube as the "worst" boxer of all time, but he is clearly the "best" by any standard worth applying. Read the rest
Superheroically named Infinite Tucker of Texas A&M University won the 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 SEC Track & Field Championships. He clearly wanted the win. Badly.
"...I saw my ma at the finish, and I jumped to give her a hug,” Tucker told ESPN. “That’s all it is.”
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From her clubbing-a-home-invader form to the way she glares off the bovine golf fans encroaching onto her fairway, after nailing them twice, this golfer knows exactly what she's doing. Read the rest
Relaxing, and ever so slightly peculiar, is this footage of an American Freestyle Canoeing master at work.
American Freestyle canoeing is the art of paddling a canoe on flat water with perfect control of its movements. The canoe is usually leaned over to the side to help the boat turn sharply and efficiently and paddle strokes are taken on either side of the canoe depending on the individual move. Balance, paddle placement and turn initiation are a few keys to this control. Since the movements seem dance-like, some practice this art timed to music, which is the ultimate in control.
A redditor on Ornstein's unique abilities:
His backstroke tilted side-turn is probably the best you'll ever see. Not to mention he pretty much invented the inverted wind-slide. He was the first one to ever do it in the late 90s. I know some people are going to laugh, but it really is the most dangerous trick in the sport. People have sustained serious arm injuries and muscle tears attempting it. Sven Englewood almost drowned trying to perform it in the 2009 World Championships.
Anyway, guys like Ornstein are the reason Freestyle Canoeing has grown with such popularity in the last couple decades.
Shhh. Whatever you're about to say: Shhhhhhhh.
Also fits the sartorial-semiotic slot that the British and Chinese plug snooker into. Read the rest
PHOTO: President Donald Trump and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Joshua Roberts/Reuters
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft today got a court date stemming from multiple prostitution charges. Read the rest
Wilson X was the sports manufacturer's entry into the market for smart basketballs, but maintaining the app that made sense of the telemetry from your sensor-equipped roundball was expensive and stupid and so the Wilson X app is no more, and the "B" in "B-ball" stands for "bricked."
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In the matter of Chiyonokuni vs Takanoyama on Day 7 of Hatsu Basho 2013, YouTube commenters note that the winning manoever, a Henka sidestep, is generally considered bad form, but in this case the larger wrestler had earlier disrespected the smaller one, so it's all cool.
The spank really makes it, doesn't it?
Here's another example of a Henka:
Here's a failed Henka (bout begins at 6:20m), though it still puts the wrestler at an advantage and he soon wins the bout:
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An obnoxious gentleman at a Miami Heat game Wednesday who was shouting at people around him didn't take kindly to a couple of police officers coming around to see what the commotion was about.
According to NBC, they tried to talk to the 23-year-old man, who was "behaving in an aggressive manner," and noticed "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage in his breath." They then pulled the man up to escort him away from the crowd when things got a bit physical. Jump to 1:48 to see how the man and the cops suddenly get tangled up with each other and tumble down many rows of seats. Read the rest
Swiss freeskier and filmmaker Nico Vuignier of Centriphone fame, delivers "Heatseeker," an exhilarating night skiing adventure illuminated by fiery shots from a flare gun.
Edited by Nicolas Vuignier & Jules Guarneri; Shot by Jules Guarneri; Riders:
Jeremie Heitz, Nicolas Vuignier, Samuel Anthamatten, Laurent DeMartin, Florian Bruchez, Mathieu Schaer
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Clemson's national championship football team went to the White House on Monday where President Donald Trump hosted them for winning the title. Trump had a bunch of burgers ready for them: Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King. Read the rest
More than 200 runners in last weekend's big Shenzhen Half Marathon were caught cheating by traffic cameras as they snuck through trees, cutting out up to three kilometers from the course. (I did similar things in high school gym class although my motivation was not the competitive spirit but rather laziness.) Other cheaters in Shenzhen wore fake number bibs or ran under others' names. From The Guardian:
Xinhua (news agency) quoted organisers as saying: “We deeply regret the violations that occurred during the event. Marathon running is not simply exercise, it is a metaphor for life, and every runner is responsible for him or herself.”
ther marathon events in China are reported to have started using facial recognition technology to track runners.
Competitors in other marathons are now kitted out with electronic chips that register runners’ progress as they pass over timing mats installed around the course. This provides more accurate times – but it also gives organisers, and anyone who cares to look, a wealth of data to examine for suspicious results.
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Behold the personification of a ritalin pill and an anxiety attack. Sports Illustrated reports on Gritty, the Philadephia Flyers' new mascot.
Philadelphia Flyers fans were in for a bit of a shock today: the Pennsylvania hockey team unveiled their new official mascot to the public. His name is Gritty. He looks like a rejected Muppet creation, a Where the Wild Things Are misfit or a stuffed animal gone seriously, terrifyingly rogue. He’s a bright orange, furry creature of bizarre design.
This video clip shows Gritty's introduction to a group of children. The screams/cheers ratio is worthy of note. Read the rest
“Creating golf holes with pencils is how I pass the time. Maybe one day I'll get to play the game I've only imagined.”
A man who was serving 39 years to life in prison decided to started drawing golf courses. His art was really cool. One thing led to another, and his drawings made their way to Golf Digest, which then wrote about him, realized his conviction sounded dubious, investigated, and guess what.
Valentino Dixon is now free. Read the rest
King County Council was ambushed by a series of surprise amendments to its meeting on Monday that resulted in $135,000,000 being diverted from hotel lodging tax funds earmarked for affordable housing, arts, and tourism boosting, to effect repairs to the Mariners stadium, despite the team being valued at nearly $1.5 billion.
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