Jul 2
seen from South Africa
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Morocco
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from China
seen from Brazil
seen from Iraq
seen from United States
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If only I were she!
I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?
- Rilke
BLROTD for Thursday, 3/30/17
In the spirit of not getting too bogged down in (often dispiriting) political news, I present to you a longread about one of my favorite pastimes: college basketball.
For those of you who don’t follow the sport, this year marked the first time that Northwestern University’s men’s basketball team made the NCAA Tournament. I often call NU my other alma mater (as I did a theater program there in high school and have many friends who attended), so naturally I follow their teams relatively closely. Almost as closely as my real alma mater, which has a pretty decent basketball team, too...
Much like the Cubs in their same city, this year’s Wildcats had a massive chip on their collective shoulder. In the same way nobody thought the Cubs could break their 108-year streak of futility, nobody thought Northwestern - playing in the difficult Big Ten with sky-high academic standards - could make it to the field of 68. It wasn’t even an improbable eventuality, factoring in that sports can be cyclical and anything can happen. People just didn’t think it was possible. If you’re a football fan, imagine the Browns winning a Super Bowl. Yeah, it was like that.
But lo and behold, thanks to the help of a Duke grad (head coach Chris Collins), Northwestern managed to navigate a difficult schedule, beat a few ranked teams, and put itself in position to be announced on Selection Sunday. But before that day came, when the future was all but certain, Nicole Auerbach over at USA Today wrote a very nice feature. In it she touched on those unmistakable Cubs parallels, caught up with a couple famous NU alums, and revealed that Collins was thinking beyond just making the tournament.
Sure enough, sooner than expected, his ambition paid off. After qualifying for the first time ever, Northwestern also won for the first time ever, defeating Vanderbilt 68-66 in their first round 8 vs. 9 matchup.
It was an improbable ending to an improbable season... one that they’d like to start making routine.
Enjoy: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/bigten/2017/02/23/northwestern-pressure-to-make-first-ncaa-tournament/98253176/
PS- Quick update on Tuesday’s longread about the mysterious Mercer family: I listened to that NPR podcast (available here) and BOY is it WEIRD. It turns out the Mercers are into some crazy stuff... like bankrolling scientists to seek eternal life through urine and conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton killing people. Oh, and Robert Mercer thinks nuclear war might be good for humanity. Yeah... you should give it a listen.