Growing times...

These seem to be trying and growing times everywhere. Apparently soccer seems to have a recurring miracle: goals by hand in world cup related matches.

At least American football is willing to try things to make it fairer and more attractive to the public.

Remember when Brady was sacked by the Raiders? The head referee interpreted the rules in such a way that only him and his dog understand. Two years later that rule was modified to avoid another snow-gate.

They use play review in an official fashion.

But "soccer is different". Snake oil.

The same way FIFA changed the rules to make it more attacking minded when soccer's market share was shrinking against other major sports, this time FIFA should be more proactive.

ISB

I hope it is useful!!!

Blue Molasses...

The EU "blue card" is coming.

Simply and politically correct put, it is a good thing but harmless. First, the skilled workers are not coming to Europe in numbers big enough to sustain the policy. Just two British universities are among the top 50 universities (in terms of research and innovation) as The Economist points out year in year out.

That means that to make the measure sustainable, Europe needs to poach those skilled workers from wherever they are (say USA, Australia, China, India) Tough job given the pay scale differences, economic growth differences, job market mobility, etc.

Back to .Net and Visual Studio...

So what was that about?

Again, it is too early to say who is going to be the better of the two (Alonso or Hamilton) but it still makes me wonder what was thought process going through McLaren-Mercedes.

Did they want to create just marketing hype for a year to place Hamilton on the tabloids?

Did they want to make Hamilton champion by bringing home the enemy (Alonso) to fine tune the car and try to control him through the team?

Well, Hamilton is on the tabloids for sure. But he lost the championship because of sheer inexperience.

McLaren is 100+ millions out the money, no championships, the FIA breathing on their necks, a two-time champion leaving the team, and a rookie who pressed the wrong button ruling the roost.

Go figure...

Slipping Cookie...

As I wait for Visual Studio 2008 to download/compare its QA features against DevRiot (it takes a bit to download everything) and work on the context menus of DevRiot, there was this funny piece of news:

Hamilton admitted that his car stalled because he pressed the reset button by mistake.

Go figure, which kind of strategic thinking went through Dennis' head. Back to work...

Crumbling Cookie...

Well, I did not want to say anything until the end. And even now is too early: it will only be known after Alonso and Hamilton retire to compare them.

But which kind of moron spends 30 million euros/year on luring the current world champ to his team, spends another 70 million euros on fines (25% of next year's budget) and bets the farm just on a rookie who already crumbled the previous race? and comes empty handed?

If MB does not fire Dennis, they should force him to be the PS2 or XBox team manager. Beyond belief.

Also, not counting the image/marketing damage (sponsors, any one?) Who would want to drive alongside Hamilton, after the current champ (2 years in a row) put the car in competing conditions is treated like a second class citizen?

Choosing Hamilton was a bet Dennis was entitled to make. But he should also eat the downside of it.