The latest trend in Super Bowls: award them to a city with a new stadium. The NFL announced today that the 49ers will host the 2016 game, which gave me reason to profile the new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the site that will host the big game. Here’s my Sports Illustrated look at the stadium.
While many of my #timsbit daily notes on Twitter come from articles I write, this may be a first: An editor wanting a story based off a #timsbit. And the best part, I was only getting info for this #timsbit to rib a friend. When I tweeted out a little note about the origin of the word “bandwagon” an editor at SI let me know I should expand on that for him. What resulted was a full-fledged article linking sports and history to the word bandwagon. Check it out in SI’s Extra Mustard section here.
I look at the world of endorsements a bit closer for Sports Illustrated, checking out the efforts of Nike and adidas as the leaders in the sports endorsement world. Check out the story here.
As part of Sports Illustrated’s larger Fortunate 50 business package, I wrote a trio of sidebars, including one that features Drew Brees and his compensation packages, right down to his endorsement deals. Check out the piece, plus my interview with Drew here.
Classic function got a bit artistic in Minnesota when the Vikings revealed their new stadium design, by HKS, on the 13th. I explore the interesting use of fresh angles and new materials for the stadium’s roof for my first stadium piece for Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard site. Check it out here.
My print article on how the new Bay Bridge will shake off earthquakes has now gone live on the Popular Mechanics website. If you haven’t seen the print version, check out the online styling of it here.
Want to know what Nike-sponsored athletes will wear during the French Open in Paris. I have you covered over at SportsLogos.net. Check it out here.
The first new bridge over the Willamette River in 35 years will serve as a transit-only operation. Crews have just started pouring deck for the new light rail bridge in Portland. Learn more at my Engineering News-Record blog here.
When one of my editors at Sports Illustrated contacted me on Thursday looking for a way to get an in on the Kentucky Derby’s famed Mint Julep drink, I thought of the mint. It turns out, after some research, all the derby’s mint is grown right near the track, but that Washington State is actually the world’s top producer of mint. I got a little mint lesson from a farmer in Yakima Valley. Learn about mint in my first Extra Mustard piece for SI here.
The catastrophic collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh points out the struggles of regulation in developing countries. For a Popular Mechanics article this week I explored how forgoing proper engineering can have tragic consequences by taking a look at concrete structures. Read the piece here.
