Today’s footie (and repost)

July 4, 2014 • 4:23 am

You all know the drill: France vs. Germany at 11 a.m. Chicago time and (a corker) Brazil vs. Colombia at 3 p.m. Here’s a video of Colombia’s hero, James Rodríguez, in 2004 at age 10 (he’s now only 23). According to the Spanish description, he’s playing “en el festival Ponyfútbol”:

Just to get everyone in the mood for the quarter finals, I’m putting up my first repost: my chat with football announcer Seamus Malin previously published on Oct. 30, 2012.  Of course everyone will disagree with Seamus’s choices, but the man has experience! I believe Seamus is broadcasting or providing color for some of the games in this cup, too, though I haven’t heard him.

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I’m staying with friends in Cambridge who have another visitor, too: Seamus Malin. You soccer fans might recognize the name, since Seamus was a soccer announcer for 40 years, working at ESPN, ABC, NBC, and CBS.  Altogether he covered soccer in seven World Cups and three Olympic games, and watched or broadcast thousands of games, both live and on television. He’s in the National Soccer Hall of Fame for his broadcasting.

Although I’m a soccer neophyte, I took advantage of Seamus’s presence and affability to ask him, since he’s seen so much soccer, to tell me what he considered the best players, games, and goals.  Here is his list, divided up by category. Players are ranked in order of quality, with the best at the top. For each player I provide a link to his Wikipedia entry and to a YouTube video of his performance. And for each player I give his nationality and the clubs he’s most commonly associated with.

Seamus has seen every one of these guys play.

The seven best nonactive players (again, in descending order of greatness):

Pelé (from Brazil; Santos). Video.

Diego Maradona (from Argentina; Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli). Video.

Bobby Charlton (from England; Manchester United). Video. Seamus was at this game, which he considers Charlton’s greatest day of glory.

Alfredo Di Stéfano (from Argentina; Real Madrid). Video.

Ferenc Puskás (from Hungary; Real Madrid). Video. A rare left-footed player.

(next two added later)

Franz Beckenbauer (from Germany; Bayern Munich). Video. Seamus says he’s the only player in the history of the game to have won World Cups as a captain (not just a player) and later as a coach. Video.

Johan Cruyff (from the Netherlands; Ajax and Barcelona). Video.

As Seamus told me, “Nobody can argue with any of these choices.”

The eleven best active players:

Lionel Messi (From Argentina; Barcelona). Seamus considers him the best player of all time, better than Pelé were the latter to be fast-forwarded to today’s game.  I’m embedding a “best of” video for Messi; this guy is fast!  Note: turn the music off before watching; it’s offensive and I noticed it only much later.

Cristiano Ronaldo (From Portugal; Real Madrid). Video.

Falcao (Radamel Falcao García; from Colombia; Athletico Madrid). Video.

Andrés Iniesta (From Spain; Barcelona). Video.

Xavi Hernandez (From Spain; Barcelona). Video.

Iker Casillas (goalkeeper, Real Madrid). Video.  The only goalkeeper on this list.

Neymar (Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, from Brazil, Santos). Video.

Zlatam Ibrahamovic (From Sweden; Paris St-Germain). Video.

Wayne Rooney (from England; Manchester United). Video.

Andrea Pirlo (from Italy; Juventus). Video.

Robin van Persie (from the Netherlands; Manchester United). Video.

Seamus notes that people may argue with his choice of Pirlo.

Seamus’s “best game”:

Seen live in person, as a fan.  The 1966 World Cup Final in London, which England won 4-2 in overtime against West Germany.  Germany scored in the 90th minute to send the game into overtime. England, however, made a controversial goal (the ball bounced down after it hit the crossbar, and it’s unsure whether it crossed the goal line). And, according to Seamus, existing video isn’t capable of settling the issue. Video of the highlights is here.

Seen live in person, as a broadcaster:  The 1992 gold-medal Olympic game played in Barcelona. Spain beat Poland by a score of  3-2, with the winning goal coming in the 90th minute. According to Seamus, 90,000 people were in the stadium, providing a rousing atmosphere that carried the Polish team to their best.  Further, King Juan Carlos arrived at halftime, which is the first time the Spanish national team had played in hostile Catalonian Barcelona. Seamus was broadcasting the game for NBC, though only the highlights were shown on American television. Some of the highlights are shown on this video.

Viewed on television:  The 1970 World Cup semi-final between West Germany and Italy, played in Mexico, which the Italians won in overtime by a score of 4-3. The score at the end of regulation time was 1-1, but then 5 goals were scored in a thrilling free-for-all overtime. Sadly, Italy went on to lose to Brazil in the final. The video is here.

Best team ever:  The Brazil national team in 1970, which beat Italy 4-1 in the World Cup final. Seamus considers this the benchmark for any cup final game. This video shows some highlights of Brazil’s World Cup performance.

Best individual performance in a game seen live: Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final game against England. (Argentina, which won the game 2-1, went on to win the final.) Maradona made one illegal goal using his hand (the infamous “Hand of God” goal) which wasn’t spotted by the referees, and then made another fantastic and genuine goal dribbling by a half-dozen defenders. Seamus was the NBC studio host of this game, and the studio technology was able to show the illegality of the first goal much more clearly than the referees were able to discern.  This video shows both goals:

Seamus has amended this to add Cruyff’s performance for the Netherlands against Argentina (4-0 for Netherland) in the 1974 World Cup.  Cruyff was brilliant, scoring one goal, setting up the other, and completely dominating the game.  Video highlights are here.

Seamus has also added a special category:

Best performance by a duo seen live:  This occurred in the 1960 European Cup Final, with the final score Real Madrid 7, Eintracht Frankfurt 3.  Puskás scored 4 goals for Real Madrid and Di Stefano scored 3 (see list of top five non-active players).  This combination of talent, according to Seamus, produced one of the most thrilling games he’s ever seen. As Wikipedia notes,  “It is widely regarded as one of the greatest football matches ever played,” and was watched by 125,000 people in the stadium.  The highlights, showing all the goals, are in this video.

Many thanks to Seamus for imparting this information to me. Here’s a photo of him I took yesterday afternoon:

It’s almost unnecessary to add that because I know I have many soccer-loving readers, you’re welcome to agree, disagree, and add your own opinions in the comments. Seamus might weigh in himself if you ask him questions or take issue (politely, I might add!) with his judgments.

Readers’ wildlife photos

July 4, 2014 • 3:45 am

Reader Stephen Barnard sent some bird photos from Idaho.  First a kildeer (Charadrius vociferus). Click to enlarge.

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His notes about the next two pics:

Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) . I’m surprised the mallard hen let the chicks get so close to the heron. They’re vicious and would eat a duckling like a snack.

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Interspecific love?

July 3, 2014 • 2:27 pm

Tomorrow’s a holiday in the U.S.: Independence Day. But Professor Ceiling Cat must polish up his book for submission on July 9, and until then there will be no rest for the professorial felid.

But to get the holiday started on the right foot for those Americans with normal lives, let’s have . . . a CAT.  And a SQUIRREL, too!

What’s going on here?

h/t: Andrzej

A trifecta lightning strike in Chicago

July 3, 2014 • 1:46 pm

We’ve had some bad storms here lately, and I’ve been able to watch the lightning from my balcony. Sometimes the lightning is so heavy that the skies seem lit up almost constantly.

But on June 30 we had a real Midwestern corker, one that yielded an amazing video showing a simultaneous lightning strike on Chicago’s three tallest buildings. The details are given at Colossal:

Even by Chicago standards the weather here in the midwestern U.S. has been bizarre and extreme lately. We’ve seen giant walls of fog caused in part by a bitterly cold winter that chilled Lake Michigan, and numerous lightning storms that last for hours. Local videographer Craig Shimala was filming a timelapse of a derecho from his home this week when he managed to capture a triple lightning strike on Chicago’s three tallest buildings: Willis Tower, Trump Tower and the John Hancock Building. Even more incredibly, he filmed the same occurence almost four years ago to the day back in 2010.

Here’s the time-lapse Vimeo video, which is stunning (go to the original site to see it big):

The photographer’s notes:

Gear used. Canon 7D with 8mm fisheye lens, 50mm lens, 17-40mm and a GoPro Hero2
Music: Ocean Death by Baths (soundcloud.com/anticon/baths-ocean-death)

You can see Shimala’s video of an identical triple strike on June 23, 2010 here.

And here’s a photo of the recent triple strike:

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h/t: George

The heathen parts of Britain, and how Andrew Brown claims them for faith

July 3, 2014 • 12:12 pm

There are some intriguing new interactive maps of the UK by DataShine that show you which cities of the country, and which parts of those cities, are most and least religious, and where in each place the various faiths are more common.

The site is a bit slow today, but you can see places divided up not only by degree of belief in, say, Christianity, but in Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and so on. You can do this for a number of cities (Leeds, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, etc.) and also see the cities divided by language, ethnic group, country of birth, and so on.

Here, for example, are where the Jews of London live, with red being almost none, and the darkest blue being over 3%. I have no idea what this means, for I thought they all lived in Golders Green. (Click to enlarge):

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And here are the Muslims, with read again being almost none, and blue being over 29%:

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I don’t know how to interpret these, though UK readers will have a better understanding, but it’s clear that cities do have enclaves divided by faith.

The Guardian has a separate piece highlighting Britain’s most atheistic cities, which include Brighton, Norwich, Bristol, and Nottingham. And, of course, Andrew Brown has something to say about that at the Guardian in a piece called “Religion is a toxic brand in some UK cities—but it’s not about atheism.”

As usual, it’s barely coherent. He rabbits on, for instance, about how Muslims live in the East End, and British politicians have to take that into account rather than assuming that London is like Islington, with no Muslims and hardly any believers at all.  The point is lost on me.

Brown does, however, take the opportunity to make his usual feints at atheism, to wit (my emphasis):

Oliver O’Brien and James Cheshire’s extraordinary and illuminating heatmaps of Britain’s religious fervour look as if they have a lesson for people interested in religion, and this is that it is fading over large sections of the country. The overall tone is pale pink at best and often completely cyanotic blue.

Looked at more closely, though, and one lesson to emerge is the absolute centrality of religion in today’s politics. The cities where ‘religion’ is the most completely toxic brand – Brighton and Norwich to name two – are also those where green politics are likely to be strongest, and where a strong sense of ethical obligation to the world and to humanity is easiest to appeal to. This may not be theistic, and it certainly isn’t arranged around the worship of one Father God – but it’s not atheist either. A distrust of ‘religion’ often goes alongside a strong belief in ‘spirituality’ and an interest in alternatives.

I barely understood the second paragraph, until I realized that the “most toxic brand of religion” is actually nonbelief.  I’m not sure where he gets his data about cities like Brighton and Norwich being places where ethical obligation is most easily invoked. But what I’m pretty sure of is that he’s simply making stuff up about those least religious places being highly spiritual rather than atheist. Unless I’m mistaken, Brown’s trying to make a virtue out of necessity—the UK’s increasing secularism—and claiming that the secularism is actually spirituality rather than atheism. And he sees “the absolute centrality of religion” because he construes nonbelief as “religion.”

Maybe I’m misinterpreting Brown, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time on his piece (not his blog, but a regular column); for the man is low-hanging fruit. And, if I don’t miss my guess, the low-hanging fruit is rotting.

 

 

h/t: Coel

Today’s footie

July 3, 2014 • 8:59 am

Sadly, there’s none, but there are two big games tomorrow and another two on Saturday:

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Saturday:

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In the meantime, reader Daniel sent me this video of “Neymar vs. Messi.”  Neymar dives whenever he gets a chance; Messi, when tackled, may stumble a bit but keeps on going. He’s not a drama llama.

I hate diving.

Chimps learn to stick grass in their ears—for no good reason

July 3, 2014 • 7:31 am

Hili’s predecessor, the wise but now-deceased tabby cat Pia, used to annoy Andrzej by sticking her whiskers in his ears when he was sleeping. We’ve now discovered that chimps show a related behavior: sticking grass stems in their ears for no good reason.

A new paper in Animal Cognition by Edwin van Leeuwen et al. documents this finding, although its significance is, to me at least, unclear. We already knew that chimps show social imitation of behaviors, like fishing termites from their mounds using a masticated grass stem, or making sponges out of chewed-up leaves to soak up water to drink. The new result here is social learning of a behavior with no clear adaptive significance.

van Leeuwen report this social learning in a captive colony of orphaned chimps in Zambia. In one colony, a chimp named Julie began sticking pieces of grass in her ears for no apparent reason, and then engaging in her normal activities with the grass hanging out of her head. From the paper:

“Grass-in-ear behaviour” (henceforth “GIEB”) was first documented in 2010 when the first author observed one female chimpanzee (Julie) repeatedly putting a stiff, straw-like blade of grass in one or both of her ears. She left the grass hanging out of her ear(s) during subsequent behaviour such as grooming, playing, and resting (Figs. 1, 2 and Online Resource 1); the behaviour served no discernible purpose.

Here are some photos and captions from the paper:

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Julie (the inventor) performing the grass-in-ear behaviour
Grass-in-ear behaviour copied by group members: a Kathy (on the left) and Julie (on the right) are grooming Jack (Julie’s son) while having grass hanging out of their ears, b Val (on the right) is grooming Julie (in the middle) while both have grass hanging out of their ears. Jack (on the left) is also visible with a straw of grass in his hands (Photo b taken by Mylène Désilets, used with permission)
Grass-in-ear behaviour copied by group members: a Kathy (on the left) and Julie (on the right) are grooming Jack (Julie’s son) while having grass hanging out of their ears, b Val (on the right) is grooming Julie (in the middle) while both have grass hanging out of their ears. Jack (on the left) is also visible with a straw of grass in his hands (Photo b taken by Mylène Désilets, used with permission)

Besides this behavior having no known function, it is clearly passed on socially, beginning with one chimp and then spreading to eight of the twelve others in the troop (two of these did it only once). The authors conclude that, because the behavior wasn’t seen in three of the other four isolated troops in the same area (well, it was one time), “ecological factors were not determiners of the prevalence of this behavior.”  Well, that’s true, though perhaps the behavior might have had some connection with ecology (parasite removal?). But I highly doubt that.

The behavior is simply an example, I think, of chimps showing social learning of stupid things. It reminds me of my own youthful behavior when I learned to stick a pair of long soda straws up my nostrils and walk around saying, “Look—I’m a walrus!” Perhaps there’s a decorative element here, and chimps feel that grass hanging out of their ears makes them feel and look attractive, but that’s a stretch. It seems to be simply a spandrel of the social learning that we already know exists in this species.

The authors’ conclusion doesn’t say much, but hey, it’s something you can publish, and is a new result:

Regardless of the precise mechanism underlying the behavioural diffusion, our observations importantly show that chimpanzees spontaneously copy arbitrary behaviour from their group members. In line with Hobaiter and Byrne (2010), we interpret our data as reflecting chimpanzees’ proclivity to actively investigate and learn from group members’ behaviours in order to obtain biologically relevant information. The fact that these behaviours can be arbitrary and outlast the originator speaks to the cultural potential of chimpanzees.

h/t: Ant
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van Leeuwen, E. C., K. Cronin, et al. (2014). “A group-specific arbitrary tradition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).” Animal Cognition DO  – 10.1007/s10071-014-0766-8: 1-5 LA  – English.