These are a couple of pics from an old college friend who was recently proposed to in a rather unique way while flying at 3000 feet. Not sure how the guy got all those people on the beach to help out, but it’s a pretty impressive marriage proposal if you ask me.

She said yes.

Height – 2683 feet (818 meters)
Floors – 162
Cost – $800 million
Completion date – December 20, 2009

Ellis Park Stadium | Johannesburg, South Africa | AP photo by Antonio Calanni

The US Soccer team advanced to the finals of the Confederation Cup after a 2-0 upset victory over world #1 Spain earlier this week. The victory came just days after an unlikely series of events that lead to the US team advancing past the first round.

After losing their first two games to Brazil and Italy by a combined score of 6-1, the US team was left for dead in last place of their group and needed an inconceivable series of events to happen in order to advance. Not only did they need to win their last game against Egypt and have Italy lose to Brazil, but they had to make up 6 goals in the process. A 3-0 win over Egypt and Italy’s 3-0 loss to Brazil gave the US team the goals they needed to advance.

Their semi-final matchup against Spain seemed like a formality. Spain hadn’t given up a goal in the tournament and hadn’t lost in 35 games, which was just one game shy of the world record. While the US is a competent team, the have not fared will against elite teams on a world stage as was evident by their earlier losses to Brazil and Italy. Building off the confidence of their win over Egypt, the US found a way to defeat the heavily favored Spaniards.

The US will get a rematch against Brazil in the finals on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET. The Confederation Cup is an 8 team tournament hosted by South Africa as a tune-up for the 2010 World Cup.

Under construction just outside Johannesburg is South Africa’s new Soccer City Stadium which will host several matches for next year’s World Cup. Photo by Denis Farell

Today’s thunderstorms produced a funnel cloud over Daniel Island, directly over the Blackbaud parking lot to be exact. This one was horizontal though, going from cloud to cloud before eventually fizzling out after about 10 minutes. Props to Corey Kinsella for capturing the rare sighting.

Pic by Tony Tutas and Matt Altomare from Clements Ferry Road

Pic by Ryan Glushkoff

The Pittsburgh Penguins were crowned NHL champions last night after a thrilling 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. The last 6 seconds featured two heart-stopping saves from Penguins goalie Marc Andre-Fleury to secure the game 7 victory and the Stanley Cup.

The victory capped off a tumultuous year for the Pens. After losing last year’s finals to Detroit in 6 games, the Penguins struggled early during the regular season dropping to as low as 10th place in the conference and out of a playoff spot. A coaching change was the catalyst the team needed to turn things around. They rallied around the new coach to finish 4th in the conference and eventually march their way back to the finals in a rematch against the Red Wings. The Penguins dropped the first two games of the best of seven series before rallying to win three of the next four, setting up a winner-take-all game 7 in Detroit. A game 7 overwhelmingly favors the home team. In fact, the last team to win a game 7 of the finals on the road in any sport was the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979. Home teams were 18-0 since then. The Penguins were not to be denied this year. Photo by Jim McIsaac – Getty Images

Ben and I training on the beach

On Saturday, June 6, Ben Pogue passed his Shodan test to earn his 1st degree black belt and become the 4th student from the Daniel Island dojo to attain the highly coveted honor.  Ben will officially receive his blackbelt at a ceremony at St. Joseph’s Church in West Ashley on Saturday, June 13 at 11:00 a.m.

Ben has been an exemplary student since he began his training several years ago. His dedication, skills, and willingness to always help others in their training have been an inspiration to many of our students.

In order to achieve the rank of Shodan (1st degree black belt) a student must learn, practice, and be dedicated to the art of karate for about 3-5 years until they are invited to test for their black belt by the senior instructors of Japan Karate Institute. To pass the test, a student must demonstrate proficiency in the three main areas of Wado-Ryu karate. They are kihons (basic techniques), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring). While the test is different and unique for each student, it is always extremely challenging, often pushing students to the brink of their mental and physical abilities.

Congratulations Ben!

Up close with a waterspout near Florida

The two waterspouts that formed in the Charleston area over the last couple of days were part of storms that did not have tornado warnings associated with them, so how can they be considered tornadoes and what exactly is a waterspout then? The easy answer is that a waterspout is a tornado that just happens to form over water, but that isn’t completely correct.

Regular tornadoes are associated with the rotating updraft of a supercell thunderstorm that form from the subduction/adduction interaction between colliding fronts. The Charleston waterspouts, and the storms they were associated with, were non-tornadic (hence the lack of tornado warnings) and were formed from different, less violent, atmospheric conditions than conventional tornadoes. These kind of waterspouts generally rate no higher than an EFO on the Enhanced Fujita scale and generally have winds less than 67 mph. You can have much stronger waterspouts with winds speeds well above hurricane strength as well as tornadic waterspouts, which are tornadoes formed from supercell thunderstorms that are over water.

Vortex2

If you watch the Weather Channel at all, you’ve probably seen them talk about the Vortex2 tornado study which is a 7-week study using over 100 storm chasing vehicles. The team had been largely frustrated over most of the study due to a quiet tornado season, but they caught an epic twister in Goshen County, Wyoming late last week. The video is pretty amazing which includes a few moments where the tornado actually turns slightly horizontal and you can see into it.

Two waterspouts were spotted earlier this week in the Charleston area. The first one was off Edisto beach on Thursday and the second one was spotted over the Cooper River near the Ravenel Bridge yesterday. Pics are from Live5News and their Twitter feed. They also posted some video of the Ravenel Bridge waterspout. And if you were wondering why there were no tornado warnings for these storms, it’s because waterspouts aren’t really tornadoes…sort of.

The Stanley Cup Finals are well underway between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburg Penguins. Game 4 is tonight in Pittsburgh, then the teams will make the short 286 mile drive back to Detroit for Game 5. The short road trip between cities is very welcome at this stage of such a grueling playoff run.

In the ECHL finals, the Charleston Stingrays had a chance to win the Kelly Cup at home with a victory on Saturday night. A raucous crowd and a spirited effort wasn’t enough as the Rays fell 3-2 in overtime. I was there Saturday night, two rows from the ice, and you could see in the players’ faces and their reactions just how devastating a loss it was. To come so close to something you’ve wanted and worked for throughout your entire career only to have it taken away, in literally a second, was brutal to watch. It also sucked because it meant the team would have to make one of the longest road trips in sports for game 6 — a 4,517 mile trek, spanning the entire continent, all the way to Anchorage, Alaska.

Josh Heller does a great job blogging about the epic road trip.  A map of their connecting flights is below. You can actually watch the game live tonight at Centre Point Bar and Grill in North Charleston. Game time is 11:15 p.m. Hopefully the Stingrays can overcome all this adversity and capture the franchises’ third Kelly Cup Championship.

Update :: Stingrays lost 3-2 in game 6. Game 7 is tonight (June 5) for all the marbles

Update 6/7/09 :: The Stingrays won game 7 by a score of 4-2 to capture the franchises third Kelly Cup.

I was up in Greenville this weekend visiting some friends. We heard some strange noises outside and decided to investigate. As we ventured outside and looked up,  we saw about a dozen or so hot air balloons falling out of the sky. Turns out it was a race but they overshot their targeted landing zone and had to call an audible by trying to land in the vacant lots of the neighborhood. Props to kcwaters for taking the pics.