World Cup 2010 Draw

The draw for the 2010 edition of the World Cup in South Africa took place today, and despite Charlize Theron's babbling and the introduction of half the famous people in Africa, the opening round fixtures were finally set.

In what is set to be an epic tilt, the United States of America will face England in the opening game of Group C. The mother country will face the colonists in Rustenburg on Saturday, June 12. Rounding out the group are Slovenia and Algeria, neither of whom the US has faced in world football. The US have to be the favorites to advance behind the English, but I would dearly love to see you limey fucks knocked off your pedestal. Oh you won the World Cup in '66? That's awesome, and 44 years ago. Bring it.

The remaining schedule for the USA: June 18 versus Slovenia in Johannesburg and June 23 versus Algeria in Tshwane/Pretoria. Slovenia qualified by defeating Russia in a 2-leg Euro playoff while Algeria beat Egypt in an African playoff to book their place.

The French, who cheated their way past Ireland to gain entry into the finals, got a very favorable draw with the weak Mexicans being their only semblance of opposition in Group A. Lesson: cheaters are rewarded with an easy group stage.

The 'Group of Death' distinction goes to Group G, which boasts six-time World Cup Champions Brazil, African powerhouse Ivory Coast, and the fancy-boy parade that is the Portuguese national side. North Korea is the fourth squad.

Here's a graphic of the overall draw:

I Cannot Wait for May 7 Because:

Oh Tony Stark, I only have eyes for you.

Iron Man 2 official website place

The Current Top 89 of 2009

Head over to thecurrent.org to vote for the top 89 songs of 2009.

Here's our ballot:

Steuart Padwick Furniture Design

Some furniture from British designer Steuart Padwick. I think I like it because it looks like stuff in Pee-Wee's Playhouse.


via contemporist

The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception

I'm a spy junkie. I grew up thinking Harriet the Spy was pretty fucking cool, spies were all like James Bond, and the CIA was the greatest and most nearly-omnipotent institution on the face of the planet. While my illusions about spies and the CIA are obvious and widely documented, Harriet is still fucking cool.

The CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception is partly a history of the agency's use of...trickery and deception, but more awesomely is a verbatim reproduction of an infamous and supposedly extinct CIA text that was used as a sort of subterfuge manual to train field agents in the arts and crafts of trickery. And deception. My vocabulary appears limited today.

Penned in 1953 by a magician (and you wonder why the CIA has problems) named John Mulholland, the existence of the manual--along with all remaining copies--was supposed to be erased from history in 1973. Supposed to be, but apparently not: authors H. Keith Melton (intelligence historian) and Robert Wallace (CIA officer, ret.) uncovered one last copy in 2007 and used it to write this book.

Below are some illustrations from the book. My personal favorite is the toothpaste gun.


The authors also have a book out called Spycraft, which doesn't have as cool a cover, but seems equally awesome. Both are available at Amazon. The CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception runs a cool $16.49.

via gizmodo