We Defy Augury

Monday, July 9, 2018

The Premier League's Dominance in the 2018 World Cup

The Independent – "Whether England win or not, the Premier League’s Russian supremacy is driving force behind any World Cup triumph"

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

“Lincolnesque optimism”

New York Times – "Captain America No. 1, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Annotated"

Previously,
Ta-Nehisi Coates to Write Captain America

"JFK personally (in 1962) chose font for “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” on fuselage of Air Force One because it resembled font of early printed version of Declaration of Independence"

Via @BeschlossDC

New England Historical Society – "JFK Redesigns Air Force One"

STUDIOKCA's Whale of Pacific and Atlantic Ocean Plastic

This Is Colossal – "A 38-Foot-Tall Whale Made From 10,000 Pounds of Plastic Waste Surfaces in Bruges"

"The studio, led by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang, wanted to address how cities from across the globe are contributing to the waste that has piled up in our oceans—the discarded plastic that is washing up on our shores and endangering and killing marine life.

Skyscraper contains nearly 4,000-square-feet of plastic waste, which is just a dent in the 150 million tons of plastic that currently circulates in our seas. STUDIOKCA worked with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund to coordinate several beach clean-ups, which is how the team found most of the plastic for the 10,000-pound whale.

“Right now there is 150 million tons of plastic swimming in the ocean, our oceans, the oceans we share,” says Klimoski in a video created about the project. “Pound for pound that is more plastic waste swimming in the ocean than there is whales. So an opportunity like this to show the type of plastic and the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans is really important.”"

Neymar Dives

New Yorker – "World Cup 2018: Neymar Fools Mexico, and Brazil Wins Again"

The End of the Warped Tour and the Continued Growth of Vans

New York Times – "R.I.P. Warped Tour. At Least We Still Have Vans."

"In 2004, when Vans was acquired by VF Corporation — which owns JanSport, Timberland and the North Face — it was making about $325 million in sales a year. This year, Mr. Palladini said, Vans is on track to surpass $3 billion.

The first Vans store, which was known at the time as the Van Doren Rubber Company and opened its doors in Anaheim, Calif., in March 1966, was a much humbler affair. It was founded by Paul and Jim Van Doren, brothers who would take custom orders and manufacture shoes on site. Eventually the shoes’ waffle soles attracted skateboarders, and in 1976, Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta — pro-skaters who were immortalized by Victor Rasuk and John Robinson in the 2005 film “Lords of Dogtown” — designed the Era, a low-top sneaker that became a Vans classic."

...

"A former Lollapalooza stage manager, Mr. Lyman had put together the first Warped Tour in 1995, with bands like Sublime and No Doubt on the original lineup. But he needed financial support to keep it going and was seeking sponsorship.

Steve Van Doren, the son of the Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren, was on a different mission. Separately, he was searching for someone to help him plan an amateur skate contest that would tour across the U.S. and the world. He met with Mr. Lyman, who said Vans would draw more people to skate events if live music were on the lineup.

In “Vans: Off the Wall,” a book about the company, Mr. Van Doren said that a deal was forged between the two men within 15 minutes of their meeting. Thus, the Vans Warped Tour was born."