Protection is our game

In a repeat of the 2006 world cup, the US Soccer team was eliminated by Ghana in the round of sixteen yesterday. Later today, the most popular soccer team in the US will try to advance to the next round. Mexico will have to beat Argentina, another re-match of a 2006 round of sixteen game.

While ESPN ratings have broken records, and US Soccer made the front pages several times, corporate sponsors are mostly backing El Tri. Budweiser and insurance giant Allstate have created campaigns around the Mexican national team. The above tv commercial features Mexican goalkeeper Memo Ochoa, a cornerstone in their "Protection is our game" campaign.

World Cup Hair

Today, the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicked off in Soccer City in Johannesburg, and the stunning Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. ESPN and ABC will be showing all games in HD and 3D. Five former FIFA World Cup players – Ruud Gullit, Steve McManaman, John Harkes, Alexi Lalas and Efan Ekoku – will serve as match and studio analysts.

Gullit and Lalas analysed the France - Uruguay match. Lalas was of course starring in the 1994 and 1998 world cups, while Gullit starred in 1990 and... No, not in 1994. There's something else these two guys have in common. A common change in hair style?

Contacts

After having waited for a couple of years, Greg's optomologist finally thought he was ready to try contact lenses. Yesterday was the big day to try them on. Four hours for the first day, and two additional hours each subsequent day until he can wear them twelve hours a day. No swimming or sleeping allowed. But Greg did wear his contacts during soccer camp this morning.

A flag with N stars

Mathematician Skip Garibaldi wrote a computer program to figure out all possible configurations of stars on the US flags. To do this, he looked at star patterns of historical flags, and calculated which of the patterns works for any given number of stars.

Chris Wilson of Slate took Garibaldi's algorithm and created an interactive flag calculator based on the six most common historical patterns.