A chance missed as Stirling Meerkats rebranding blocked

The reason I was on the Daily Record site was that I heard a rumour that Stirling Albion Football Club in Scotland were looking to rename themselves the Stirling Albion Meerkats. The move would be a clever and simples play on the American obsession with naming sports teams after animals, combined with advertising's own Meerkat phenomenon of Comparethemarket.com. The move has been looks like being blocked, which is quite absurd given what the football associations of England and Scotland have allowed to go through in the past.

Normally, I would be against this kind of thing, but the Meerkat thing is funny enough for them to get away with it.

Red Bull builds massive half pipe in the middle of nowhere

This from Budapest-based marketeer eranium's posterous blog.

Respect to Red Bull, they not only pretend to be cool, they actually do some pretty cool shit, which is why they can charge double what rival brands do.

Nike Chalkbot prints inspirational messages for Lance Amstrong

Followers of the Tour de France will have seen the Chalkbot in action. We didn't but we have seen the Livestrong website.

iPhone app puts fitness data on the Internet

A number of people appear to be using Runkeeper as a way of recording where, how far and how fast they have run or cycled with their iphones and posting the results, including a map, on the Internet.

As an aside, the guy who made it successful by giving it away is now trying to work out how to make money. Read about his travails here.

Women's boxing backed for inclusion in Olympics

The debate over whether women should box is sure to intensify after International Olympic Committee president Jacque Rogge backed its inclusion for 2012. But I'm sure we'll get used to the idea.

Parkour - the skill of flying and leaping in urban areas - is engaging young people

Parkour - which comes from the French parc and courir, meaning park running - involves clambering and vaulting across "urban furniture".  The sport is similar to free running, but whereas free running emphasises acrobatics and specific moves, parkour emphasises speed, directness, efficiency.

Now the sport itself has crossed a barrier, making the leap into education.  Westminster Sports Unit has funded coaches at free-jumping group Parkour Generation to provide sessions to 14 schools across the borough, and, now that the sport's trial has been hailed as a crime-busting, education-enhancing success, other local councils are in talks with the group to roll out teaching later this year.

The Guardian, Tuesday 17th March 2009, Lucy Tobin