The second invest of the season, Invest 91, has formed off the coast of South Carolina over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Conditions are good for some development. The steering for the system is weak, but it is currently drifting Southeast.

It is expected to curve back towards the coast in a few days, but is currently considered mainly a rain threat.

The Knockout Round started today with Chile being the first team knocked out. Brazil and Chile were locked in a 1-1 tie through the game and two overtimes, so it came down to penalty shots with Brazil scoring 3 while Chile fell one short.

Update: Brazil will play Colombia in the first Quarter Final game, as Colombia beat Uruguay 2-0.

These are the games:

Brazil v. Chile
Colombia v. Uruguay

France v. Nigeria
Germany v. Algeria

Netherlands v. Mexico
Costa Rica v. Greece

Argentina v. Switzerland
Belgium v. US

The teams in the top four games will supply one of the finalists, while the other will come from the teams in the bottom four games. One loss and you are out.

FIFA has over a half billion dollars in the prize pool and teams get paid for advancing, with the overall winning team making about $35 million to go along with the Cup for the last game.

It turns out that I underplayed what happened to “Jaws” Suarez. The four-month ban is from football, meaning he can’t play for his Liverpool club until November, while they will be paying him millions under his contract. He is banned from 9 international games and FIFA took a ‘bite’ out of his wallet with a 100k Swiss franc fine [$112k US]. Some people think the penalty is too severe, but this is the third time he’s done it. They should make him wear a collar with a current rabies tag and a muzzle on the field.

A man and his wife were shot to death in Sarajevo and that was used as an excuse by the hereditary morons of Europe to plunge the world into war. It was a family affair as most of those morons were first cousins, grandchildren of Victoria of Britain.

To be clear, no one, with the possible/probable exception of his wife and children liked Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but the rules of succession made him the heir to the Empire of Austria-Hungary. His wife, Sophie, was considered a commoner, and his children were not included in the line of succession nor given any titles. He was disliked by the elites and the people. He spent his time wandering the world killing animals to have stuffed and put in his castle.

He was killed as the result of a series of screw-ups. Had he survived it would have been proclaimed a miracle. The half-dozen members of the Serbian Black Hand tasked with killing him were incompetents.

The ABC has a nice article on the man and his death.

Why should people still care about World War I? It not only led to World War II, it was the proximate cause for the Russian Revolution and all of the problems in the Middle East and the Balkans. We are still dealing with the problems caused by World War I. It wasn’t “the war to end wars”, it was the ‘father of all wars’ since.