Random Thoughts 6/25/13

• Football is a dying sport and that breaks my heart.  It's rules are changing, it's very existence at all levels is being threatened by lawsuits, it may have already peaked in popularity, and it cannot exist in its previous or current form a generation from now.  Participation in football used to be the badge of masculinity (inherited from boxing) and it's appeal was in its danger.  Now that we live in a nanny-state of over-managed maternal protection, football-as-we-knew-it will be punished by lawsuits and cultural shame.  In 2050 we may have a co-ed game of tag (basketball on grass?) played with a football, but it won't teach young men to face real fear of pain and injury and press on.  And our culture will be poorer for it.
• I'm still preparing for fantasy football but I'm worried that as interest in the sport wanes, hobbies like fantasy football will fade away too.
• So, something like 20 people each year are lost overboard on cruise ships.  Wow.  There's your danger.
• The Army is cutting 10 more combat brigades, or about of a quarter of the combat units.  This will affect Fort Riley, Kansas.  The Army has been transitioning from a division (10,000 men) based structure to a brigade (3-4,000 men) based structure.  This may be more effective but if there's not money, it won't matter.  I worry what kind of force young soldiers will be a part of in the next few decades.
• Minecraft 1.6 next Monday.  My boys will be thrilled; horses!
• KU signed a deal to get more coverage locally and nationally, not just for basketball and football but for other sports like volleyball and track (by the way, congrats to the Jayhawk women's track team that won nationals!). 
• I've awoke the last two mornings to a painful ear ache that fades over the course of the day.  That's not fun.