Draft Excluders and Walls in Soccer 2026 Jun 5    allaboutfootball.net
Watching the soccer games, sometimes when there is a free kick the players do weird things such as form a human wall or lie on the ground. Why? This linked article explains in detail.

Atherstone Ball Game 2026 Feb 23    reddit.com
In "barely a sport" world news, last week was the Atherstone Ball Game.

The ball gets thrown from the offices above Mark Webster estate agents at 3pm by a local respected member of the community and from 3pm to 4.30pm, it's for the women/kids to have a try, and it's very tame. When the claxon sounds at 4.30pm, that's when it gets feral. Whoever is holding the ball when the claxon sounds again at 5pm is declared the winner. The prize: being able to say you won it and a free pint at The Stag & Pheasant. All the shops down Long Street are boarded up in preparation. If the game falls during term time, schools close early for it! In the weeks running up to the game, the ball is taken to various places (shops, schools, businesses) for people to sign it.

Hockey Penalty Referee Gestures 2026 Feb 16    hockeymonkey.com
There's gotta be some better guide than this, although I've had trouble finding one.

Disco Demolition Night 2025 May 14    chicagohistory.org
We are a stupid people. Sure, every once in a while we manage something clever like sending someone to the Moon or making microwavable french fries. But these acts of brilliance are balanced out by events like Disco Demolition Night, where, in 1979, 24-year-old Chicago radio shock-jock and avowed hater of disco music Steve Dahl encouraged tens of thousands of his disco-hating listeners to come to a White Sox doubleheader and literally blow up their disco albums. With explosives, in the middle of the field. Why did this sound like a good idea? Why would disco-haters even own disco albums? Were they buying the albums new only to destroy them? I don't know, that's not answered in the linked Chicago History Museum article from last year nor in this rather-more-celebratory 2004 ESPN article.

So the disco-haters showed up in droves, overfilling the stadium and – once the gates closed – climbing over the fences to get in. And Dahl did it. Between games, he blew up a small box of disco albums. Cool. Having witnessed the explosion and found it wanting, the massive crowd of disco-haters were apparently unsatisfied with the level of destruction, and so they started a riot. They stormed the field and damaged the ballpark and chased the players back into the clubhouse, ultimately causing the White Sox to forfeit to the Tigers.

Could this be any stupider? You betcha! Because, also bigotry. Of course there's also bigotry. From the Museum:

Disco was originally connected to Black, Latine, and queer spaces before it saturated the mainstream market and met with backlash, often from white, heterosexual, male rock-music listeners. Ushers at Comiskey Park noted that attendees also brought funk and R&B records—other genres associated with Black artists—to be destroyed.

Dahl insists that that analysis is wrong, missing the point when he says:

The worst thing is people calling Disco Demolition homophobic or racist. It just wasn't. It's really easy to look at it historically, from this perspective, and attach all those things to it. But we weren't thinking like that.

Oh, so the disco-haters just coincidentally hated the music associated with the blacks and gays. Right.

Crowdstrike's impact on aviation 2024 Jul 29    heavymeta.org
When Crowdstrike did a whoopsie a couple weeks back, exactly how many flights were canceled? This guy did the research.

Canopée 2024 Jul 5    ariane.group
The Canopée is the world's first sail-assisted hybrid cargo ship. It moves Ariane 6 rocket parts around the world. It's sails are mounted on four vertical masts, making it 30% less fuel-consuming than were it powered by combustion alone. Perhaps it represents the future of ocean transport.

1939 General Motors Futurliner 2024 Apr 20    thevintagenews.com
In the 1930s GM set out to show Americans what the future looked like, and they did so in a traveling roadshow called Parade of Progress and captained by one of only twelve custom-built art deco megacoaches: The Futurliner. The linked article has a busload of info, and The Drive also has a piece about what they're like behind the wheel.

Santa Justa Lift 2024 Apr 11    en.wikipedia.org
There's a beautiful and fantastical industrial age elevator in Lisbon, Portugal that's still operating, partly as a tourist attraction but also as a real part of the city's public transit network. Imagine if we took such care and interest to pedestrian needs in America.

What's the difference between AWD and 4WD? 2024 Feb 27    edmunds.com
My sporty little crossover has "All Wheel Drive". I used to drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee with "4-Wheel Drive". What's the difference? Well, the linked Edmunds article which was the first search result is long and rambling and repeats itself repeatedly, likely in some attempt to maximize word length like some uninspired high school essay. So allow me to summarize: the difference is whatever the manufacturers make it. HOWEVER, generally speaking, 4WD is an off-roading system that puts the driver in control to allow them to navigate rough conditions, whereas AWD is a traction-control system that lets the car's computer put power to any tire at it's little heart's discretion. If that sounds like two ways of writing the same thing, that's because it kind of is, since as technology improves and cars become increasingly computerized, the technical difference between AWD and 4WD erodes with each iteration.

Fight the Ship 2024 Feb 1    features.propublica.org
What exactly happened on the Arleigh Burke destroyer USS Fitzgerald when it collided with a cargo vessel on June 17, 2017? This long and detailed ProPublica article pulls together a compelling narrative from numerous interviews and intensive research.

Minimum speed variable by highway lane? 2024 Jan 26    thedrive.com
In the early 1960s, Caltrans tested a few stretches of highway flagged with different minimum speeds per lane, with the thought of encouraging slower drivers to move to the right. But turns out that it didn't work – it was too confusing. Unlike today, where everyone simply ignores the speed limit and drives at whatever pace their heart desires.

Door blows out of 737 Max 9 at 10,000ft, just after take-off 2024 Jan 7    npr.org
Ten minute after a 5pm departure from PDX heading to ONT, the door plug at seats 26A and 26B (unoccupied) blew out of the Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9, rapidly depressurizing the cabin. Masks dropped, and At only 10,000 feet up, the plane was able to quickly return to where it left at 5:26pm, and all 171 passengers and 6 crew escaped without serious injuries. The door plus is still missing, and the FAA has responded by grounding all 737 Max 9s until they've completed inspection. Inspection takes 4-8 hours per plane. Southwest and American do not fly the Max 9, but 9% of United's flights today are canceled, and 20% of Alaska's.

Why are cities so full of potholes? 2023 Nov 6    reddit.com
City roads are often frustratingly rough to drive on. Why? This random comment on reddit actually has a good and thorough answer to this question, listing out the difficulties in getting the right materials in, the heavy amount of patching required, the high workload the streets are placed under, and constraints on the installation timelines that prevent proper settling.

Admiral Cloudberg 2023 Jul 4    admiralcloudberg.medium.com
I was lucky enough to have somehow stumbled across Admiral Cloudberg's fascinating and detailed write-ups of aviation disasters back in her early days. I drifted away at some point, but recently saw a new post linked on Hacker News, and much to my delight was pleased to see that not only is she still going, but her posts are stronger than ever. Congratulations!