hotShot

Beaten by an octopus again :(.

I'd assume: no yes yes

Just wait and see. Paul the Octopus predicted 6 of 6 games of the german team correctly this WC. Check this thread and see if any of us can say that. He's an english, senior, soccer expert, it's a pity he will be dead when the next big tourney starts.

Are you talking about a contest where: a] everybody has to use the same bidding system described at yyyyyyyy. The majority/expert panel decides what the best bid is. b] everybody uses his favorite bidding system that he publishes prior to the contest. The boards are difficult to bid games/slams/grands that have to be reached or avoided. Getting to the best spot will be rewarded. c] The problems are from various bidding systems, you have to pick from a set of bids with explanations given.

If thats your criterion than every sport is a joke.

You could get EPO from somewhere between 1985 (when it could be produced) and 1989 when it was approved. Doping tests to find EPO are available since 2002, but they only worked within a few days after a big injection. Dopers have learned years ago that if you take EPO in several small doses, even the optimized enhanced tests from today will only get a "positve" result if taken within 4-6 hours after the injection. Drinking a lot of water directly after the injection will reduce the risk of a positive test to almost zero. So for more than 10 years EPO was usable without any risk of discovery, after that some modifications of EPO were available that could not be found and the technique of small doses was used. With the right know how you can pass any doping test there is.

Doping is a common practice in most sports (esp. professional sports), Athletics, Cycling, ...., Soccer and "name your favorite sport here" Dominating a sport where most of your competitors where proved to be doping, raises suspicion.

I'll wait for the Octopus, perhaps I change my vote than.

I hope this was made with some sort of photoshop... http://toniclaro.to.funpic.de/unter_spass/funpics/funpics/cat_footballer.jpg

63) 2 Uruguay - Germany 64) 1 Netherlands - Spain

It works OK in Internet Explorer - but gave me garbled text too in Firefox - despite the fact that Firefox reads pdfs OK normally. Try a different browser. just rename the save file to anythingYouWant.pdf and the Adobe Reader will be able to use it. Seems that it is sent with a wrong mime type.

I have to point out one thing. In the top leagues in Europe wrong decisions like the ones seen at the WC are extremely rare. Unfortunately the top European referees are not allowed in games that involve their team or direct contenders of their teams. So English, Spanish, German, Italian or French Top referees usually have no chance to be allowed to referee games after the group stage. The same applies to the top South American referees. So the quality of the referees at the WC is not as good as it could be.

The Octopus - Oracle favored Spain!

Don't expect more physics from me, didn't you read I tried to compare an incompressible fluid (water) inside a container (human body) with a compressible fluid (air) inside an elastic shell (ball).

I had a good laugh when I ran into it. (I would not have wasted my time to calculate all the averages.)

not really... in fact, not at all. you are trying to compare an incompressible fluid (water) inside a rigid container with a compressible fluid (air) inside an elastic shell. Damn, it was such a memorable lecture.

Yes he did, but I did not. I illustrated that it is a good idea, and legal by the rules of soccer, to protect yourself using your hand. And I suggested that the rules tries to compensate for the fact that no referee can always make the right decision in such a situation. Later I tried to give an example why energy and not momentum is used. I hope that it was conclusive.

Furthermore, why aren't we taking into account size and hardness? Sure a baseball has less energy, but it impacts you on a much smaller area of your body --> greater pressure. Also, it is not inflatable, nor as pliable. So the impulse is much greater as well. You are right these are also factors to determine the damage. Although I would have liked to find data to compare a soccer ball to a boxing glove.

My physics professor, made someone shot a bullet into a beer can filled with water. (For the joy of one student he needed a volunteer to get rid of the beer first...) The can was ripped to pieces and he explained that the water did not have enough time move out of the way so it had to absorb most of the energy. And that energy was used to deform the can. I guess when a projectile hits your face the deformation has to correlate with the energy transfered. But feel free to ask someone who is more competent in physics than me.....

Also the balls weight is between 410 and 450 gr. (when dry) it can reach up to 130 km/h (80 mph). This text explains why a soccer ball hits you harder than a baseball or puck. Projectile weight tops speed m/s Energy J Soccer ball (kick) 430 35,6 270 Baseball (batting) 145 53,3 210 Hockey puck 170 46,7 190 Baseball (pitching) 145 44,4 140 Golf ball 46 71,1 120 Tennis ball 57 62,2 110 If you are standing on the goal line and the ball is flying towards your face or other sensitive parts of your body, you better use your hand to protect yourself. The rules allow that. The rules also state that if you are hit by the ball at your hand, this is no problem. The book by Metin Tolan (Prof. of Physics Univiversity Dortmund Germany) title "So werden wir Weltmeister" subtitle: Die Physik des Fußballspiels explains that the contact time is only 0,008 sec. and that a humans visual processing needs a visual impression of more than 0,05 sec. to see what's actually going on. So the rule contributes to the fact the referee might have gotten a wrong impression of the players intentions.

Tactical fouls are part of many sports. Of cause handball is cheating, but a red card and a penalty are adequate punishment. Every team should have a competent penalty kicker, that way a penalty is almost always a goal.

@tysen2k I have thought about that preempt problem. Do you take opponents entropy into account? While e.g. a weak 2 might increase our own entropy of perfect contract distributions, it could explode opponents entropy. Since you try to minimize our own entropy, high preempts don't look attractive unless they maximize opponents entropy at the same time.

Found this on the net (thanks to Google translate) So within 90 min. the Spanish team scores 1.2 goals while their opps could only score 0.4 goals. The German team scored 2.6 goals in 90 min. while their opps could only score 0.4 goals. The Netherlands scored 1.80, but allowed 0.6. Uruguay scored 1.31, but allowed 0.38.

61) 2 Uruguay - Netherlands 62) 1 Germany - Spain

I would have thought that since Cardozo (who was offside) tried to head the ball the offside call is fine. (Imagine Cardozo wouldn't have been there - surely that would have made things a little easier for the goal keeper?) But I admit I never quite know what passive offside means. Yes perhaps the "passive" player was not passive enough.