Weekly Recap – Feb 18th to 25th
The Blade Runner Can’t Run, The Dash-Cam Meteor, PS4 – Not just Games, and The New Castro all in this week’s Recap
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Money Money Money in (English) Football
With the business end of the various European domestic seasons coming up, the summer transfer window lies in wait just around the corner. From the impending implementation of UEFA’s financial fair play regulation to the new crop of billionaires backing clubs all around the continent, this transfer window is shaping up to be one of the most ridiculous ever. While Manchester United and Manchester City battle through what United manager Alex Ferguson has deemed “squeaky bum time”, the chairman of the top English clubs are preparing their own kind of financial assault on the European theatre. In preparation for the impending summer onslaught, here are two of the most egregious offenders in the English top flight. Bought by the Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group in August of 2008, Manchester City has become a name...
Read MoreUEFA Champions League Quarterfinal Preview
We’re getting to the business end of the European football season now, with the first legs of the quarterfinals of the Champions League starting tomorrow. Here’s how the bracket stacks up: APOEL Nicosia v. Real Madrid Marseille v. Bayern Munich Benfica v. Chelsea AC Milan v. Barcelona APOEL v. Real Madrid APOEL Nicosia have been the underdog story of the season, being the first Cypriot side to qualify for the knockout stages after surprisingly winning a group including European regulars Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Zenit St. Petersburg. In the round of 16, APOEL knocked out Lyon on penalties after two rather pragmatic performances. However, you’ve got to think their luck has just about run out – as they’ve run into one of the joint favorites for the tournament along with Barcelona. APOEL have been underestimated this season,...
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Weighing the Effects of Mass Sporting Events
When first thinking about mass sporting events such as the Olympics or World Cup, what comes to mind is a goldmine with unlimited tourism and buckets of money pouring down the streets of the host country. However, the reality usually pales in comparison to this image. The losses suffered by Greece at the end of the 2004 Olympics held in Athens are said to be a contributing factor to the country’s present financial instability. In addition, the profits made by South Africa for the World Cup were only a fraction of what was initially predicted. Although there are many positives to hosting mass sporting events, many losses and negatives are also to be expected. The number of bids to large-scale sporting events have increased substantially over the past few decades. This is due to the assumption of the huge...
Read MoreBall-Lin’: New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin
As an American-born Chinese (ABC), I remember facing the same stereotypes growing up: “Oh you’re good at math! Do you play piano? Violin?” Others that immediately come to mind are playing tennis, getting good grades, eating rice, the list goes on. Of course any material in this post is by no means an expression for any approval of discrimination. In fact, these bullying issues have come to the forefront of attention, most notably with the suicide of Private Daniel Chen after constant harassment by his peers and supervisors. More recently, however, one classic stereotype has come into contest. American-born Chinese are usually considered shorter and smaller in stature, and thus are considered disadvantaged when playing basketball. Breaking this barrier and concurrently becoming a sports and internet sensation is New York Knick’s (for now) starting point guard, Jeremy Lin. In...
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