[_vega_]

Yeah, I saw it, what a massacre. Spain played so badly though, Casillas was terrible and Torres missed the most obvious opportunity. Still, I LOVED Van Persie's first goal and that last one from Robben.

[sunnykerr]

In terms of the news aspect of the World Cup (as opposed to sports results), do you know how the protests are going?

Did the start of the event put a stop to them?

[canflam]

I don't think it completely did, but they haven't been talking about it on the broadcasts of games at least.

CFL players ratify collective bargaining agreement

This is great news. I try to watch the BC Lions play when I can. The Regular Season starts in 2 weeks.

[_vega_]

The protests are still happening but there is much more officers in the area. I read that they stopped around 200 people trying to reach the Colombia vs Greece game.

[sunnykerr]

Well, that makes sense.

I didn't think the protests had stopped.

But it'll be like Sotchi, right?

The government/police will have a perimeter around the venues so that the protesters can't reach them.

[canflam]

Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn dies

Very sad news. I got to see him play some as a kid. 1 of the best baseball hitter's of all time.

[sunnykerr]

At the same time, there's been good news today as well:

F1 legend Michael Schumacher 'out of coma' F1 champion Michael Schumacher has left hospital in Grenoble and is no longer in a coma, his family says. The 45-year-old has been transferred to Lausanne university hospital in Switzerland, officials there say. Schumacher was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering a severe head injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps on 29 December. His family thanked people who had sent messages of support, saying: "We are sure it helped him." They also praised the "excellent job" of medical staff at the hospital in Grenoble, in south-east France. Doctors had kept the seven-time champion in a coma to help reduce swelling in his brain. "Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore," Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement on behalf of his family on Monday. "For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye," she said, without giving further details. Relatives have previously warned that "it was clear from the start that this will be a long and hard fight for Michael". The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reports that the university hospital in Lausanne is one of Switzerland's most renowned. He will have a team of specialists, and his own private accommodation, and he will be much closer to his family home on the shores of Lake Geneva, our correspondent says. But it is not clear what Schumacher's condition is and his process of recovery is still expected to be a long one, she adds. Monday's statement was the first substantial update since early April when Ms Kehm said the German racing driver was showing "moments of consciousness and awakening." Neurosurgeon Tony Belli told the BBC that rehabilitation from this sort of injury could take months or years. "We know that some people can spend three, four years in rehabilitation," he said. "It depends very much on the severity of the injury, how young and fit they are." Meanwhile, the German football team sent their wishes to the F1 legend from the World Cup in Brazil at the weekend. Lukas Podolski, the Arsenal striker, told a news conference: "I'd like to greet a good friend, who unfortunately is unable to be here. He is Michael Schumacher. "He is just as crazy about football as all of us. We wish his family a lot of strength. If we win the title, that would be something that would make him happy."

There's more of the story, if you click on the link.

But, yeah, almost six months after his accident, he's finally out of Grenoble and probably nearer home.

I hope this means he's on the long road to recovery, but it's obviously impossible to know for sure at this point.

[canflam]

That is terrific. Have you seen him race before?

[sunnykerr]

I have seen him race.

It just so happens that the one year I had marginal interest in F1 was a pretty "good" year for Shumacher.

I don't actually know how his whole career went, though it seems to have gone extremely well on the whole, but that year (whichever one it was) saw him as one of the top racers on the circuit.

Of course, I was cheering for someone else at the time, so it seemed to me liek Shumacher was dangerously aggressive and rather nasty about it as well.

I can easily imagine most racers come off that way to their "opponents." It's an insane sport, isn't it?

And, you know, I did "hate" him then, but that doesn't mean I wish him ill in the least. I didn't wish him ill then either, so I'm not about to start now.

So I'm thrilled to hear he seems to be doing better.

[canflam]

In landmark Decision, U.S. Patent Office Cancels Washington Redskins Trademark Registration

This is good news to me. Hopefully they'll get that team name changed.

[sunnykerr]

I think they need a name change as well, but I'm not entirely sure how the USPTO revoking their trademarks will help the organization move in that direction.

All it means is the trademarks are no longer officially registed in the United States. It doesn't stop them from using them, making profits from them.... or anything, really.

Heck, if someone else uses them, they could still win a lawsuit for unfair competition or unlawful usage of a recognized trademark.

It's a nice, symbolic gesture. But I don't really see what it actually accomplishes.

[canflam]

Well it could stop the team & NFL from profiting off their merchandise if they no longer have the exclusive rights to the name & logo. Of course this has happened before & the NFL won an appeal.

[sunnykerr]

Not really, though.

It can stop them suing people for making knock-offs, but it doesn't prevent them from selling their own merchandise and making the same profit they were making before.

And I can't imagine there weren't knock-offs already.

I mean, I get what you're trying to say, but trademark law only gives negative protection. Meaning that all it does is allow you to sue someone if you think they're using your reputation fraudulently to sell their products.

Heck, because the team's logo is so inherently tied to the team as a result of this whole business about the offensiveness of the name, I would imagine they wouldn't even need to have registered trademarks to sue. The logo, the name, have all been so linked with the organization that it would be a powerful argument, regardless of actual registrations.

Not to mention that the this cancellation has been so public that it has also solidified the fact that the organization successfully registered the rights to those trademarks before.

[canflam]

The Seattle Times are banning the use of name ''Redskins'' in their publication. Some papers have already done that. It is interesting that in the NBA a person can ''own'' a basketball team & then be forced to sell it while in the NFL no one can force some one to change a nickname to 1 of it's franchises. Of course the team & NFL have claimed that the name ''Redskins'' was to honor William ''Lone Star'' Dietz who was their Head Coach. But their have been reports that Dietz was actually a white man masquerading as an Indian & apparently no one knows if if was a real Indian or not. Geez.

[sunnykerr]

Now, to me, it seems like that's way more likely to have an impact on the team than revoking their trademark registrations.

Because it's all about PR, right?

I mean, barring this whole thing turning into the equivalent of how some people think the Confederate Flag is a cool thing, turning the name of the team into a "dirty word" is bound to be impactful.