The Jabulani and the horseshoe vortex

[Bartelby]

Apparently a perfectly round ball at a high altitude is double-trouble, so instead of reducing the effect of altitude the ball they designed magnifies it:

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/news-analysis/world-cup-ball-designers-respond-to-critics/1002930.article

Maybe the engineers among us can interpret the hyperlinked article in the above link.

[SuperFly]

Here's a video of what a horseshoe vortex looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24cqKFuO3cI

Apparently the thin air and the "perfect sphere" of the ball create one of those bad boys, and the vortex causes the ball to spin around. That spin causes the ball to bend and dance in the air.