Opponents Want Warriors Stadium Moved to Pier 80

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New Warriors Stadium Rendered

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San Francisco's new Warriors Arena Getting Flushed out

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Oakland's Coliseum City Development Gets an Extension

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Anyone for Quidditch?

In many sports, mastery of the ball is crucial to success. But what happens if the ball disobeys the laws of physics? Researchers at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory and the University of Tokyo are working on just such a device: HoverBall.

HoverBall is a 90-millimeter-wide quadcopter enclosed in a cage a bit bigger than a bocce ball. It is designed to hang in the air, change location and modify its behavior during play. The 10-gram, battery-powered device can fly for five minutes at a time, and although the most recent version relies on a remote control to guide its four rotors, future iterations might be programmed to operate autonomously. HoverBall’s surprise midair maneuvers introduce a new level of spontaneity to game play via “artificial physical laws” that follow “imaginary dynamics,” the researchers said in a study they presented earlier this year at the Augmented Human Conference in Kobe, Japan.

Beyond introducing erratic flight, the Sony team would like the ball to compensate for differences in player abilities and therefore make games more inclusive for children, the elderly and people with physical disabilities, according to Jun Rekimoto, Sony CSL deputy director.

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Warriors Mission Bay Arena (or Toilet Bowl)

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I am sure they need to flush out the design more.

Sacramento Kings Arena Rendering

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Augmented Reality in Sports

Examples of Selection in Sports

Where the Warriors are Moving to now the Water Front Stadium is no More

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New Warriors Stadium Rendering

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First Ever Cyborg Olympics Brought to you by...DARPA

Couple the Defense Research Projects Agency’s major and well-funded interest in prosthetics with the grit shown by amputee veterans to excel in sports and you’ve got a heck of start for building a U.S. team for the first-ever bionic Olympics.

The Cybathlon, an international competition for athletes using advanced prosthetics, is to be held in October 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.

“The competitions are comprised by different disciplines that apply the most modern powered knee prostheses, wearable arm prostheses, powered exoskeletons, powered wheelchairs, electrically stimulated muscles and novel brain-computer interfaces,” according to the games’ official website.


The games are being organized on behalf of the Swiss National Competence Center of Research in Robotics.

DARPA has a number of programs that ultimately, benefit not only the active-duty soldier, but the injured veteran who remains determined live with as few limitations as possible. DARPA has been hot at work on advanced prosthetics – legs, arms, hands – and exoskeletons.

Could hardly be a better opportunity to field test some of these technologies than a kind of Olympics specifically for men and women using them.

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Today's Awesomeness

Avrora on ice.  2 PM (approx) 1/5/13.

More Reworked Warriors Arena Pictures

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Warriors Arena Reworked Again

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Joint Stock Athletes

FEW lines of work are more precarious than the American footballer’s—his average professional career is limited to just 3.2 years. However, for the handful of stars who stay healthy, football can offer a decent living: Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos’ quarterback, has pulled in over $200m.

Given this uncertainty, football players have a strong incentive to lock in a base level of compensation. Other celebrities, most famously the singer David Bowie, have used their income streams to secure debt. But salaries in the National Football League (NFL) are so mercurial they could never be used as collateral. The only way for athletes to share their risk fully is to sell an equity interest in their earnings.

Now shares in athletes may be coming to the masses. On October 17th Fantex, a start-up in San Francisco, registered with the SEC a “convertible tracking stock” whose value would be tied to the brand of Arian Foster, an NFL running back. The company has agreed to pay Mr Foster $10m up front in exchange for 20% of total future earnings related to his brand, including endorsements and broadcasting or coaching jobs. Of that cut, 95% will go into a “tracking stock” for investors, who would profit only after Fantex’s expenses and other liabilities are paid. Buyers would apparently be taking a bet as much on the fortunes of Fantex as on Mr Foster’s career. Buck French, the head of Fantex, says he hopes that owners of the stock will play ball by promoting Mr Foster on social media.

The deal will go through only if the $10m can be raised.

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Bill Supportive of New Warriors Stadium at Piers 30-32 Signed by Gov Brown

Via socketsite.

San Francisco...if the Warriors Have Their Way

They're missing a few buildings that are going up, but...even so.

Pixar Artist Does the NFL

Gotta be a SERIOUS geek.  They even look Spanish.

BOOYAH!

Go USA!

For some reason I've been entranced by the World Cup this year...

Anyways, light on blogging this week. My family is back on Sat and I have a billion things to get wrapped up before then.