The Roundup – July 10th 2015

The Roundup – July 10th 2015

Welcome to the ‘People are still seriously lighting fireworks?’ edition of The Roundup. Today we’re going to show you your path to a million dollars, day dream about giant robots fighting, and are reminded once again that bears are terrifying.

Last summer there was a basketball tournament. Not all that interesting, right? From pickup hoops to different organized games, tourneys happen all the time. The thing that made The Basketball Tournament (I’m not sure if I love or hate that name yet) different is that there was a cool half million up for grabs, winner take all. The five man team comprised of former Notre Dame players won in 2014. That event had fifty five teams vying for the prize and they’ve upped the ante significantly this time around. Not only with the games leading up to and the final and the culminating game itself be shown on ESPN but ninety seven teams will be facing off in a single elimination event where the winner will come away with one million dollars. Not bad for winning a few games of hoops.

Recently the team of mad scientists at MegaBot put out a video challenging Japan to a giant robot duel. With the size of these monstrous machines, it looks like something out of anime, not something we’d see in real life. The American team had initially asked to do battle with paint guns, but in their response video, the Japanese team has called for melee fighting. I’m sure we’re only a few years away from this being an Olympic sport. You can see both videos below.

Japanese response. 

The Minnesota Zoo has taken all of its brown bears away from viewing as it deals with a recent scare. One of the grizzlies at the Apple Valley facility apparently decided it was tired of its living arrangements and proceeded to pick up a rock “about the size of a basketball and managed to break one of the windows,” said Tony Fisher, a zoo employee. “At no time was there any danger of the bears getting out since there were still four layers of glass, but we’re not going to trust it.” Sure, no danger at all. Let’s just evacuate all the bears as a “precaution”. What’s to stop the bear from doing that four more times? Or what’s more, how scary is it when bears are using weapons? We’re all dead.

I guess while we’re waiting on that inevitable Bearpawcalypse to happen, we all need to be working on our own giant robots. So at least we can look cool before we get taken down. Thanks for joining us on another fun look at what’s going on. 

Until next time,

Keep the conversation interesting.