Nate Silver on Fox's morning show

Nate Silver, of fivethirtyeight.com fame, went on Fox News' morning show, and he had an... interesting experience discussing Barack Obama's falling poll numbers.

He concluded his post, "I've never met people more terrified of what might happen if they actually tried to engage in a rational discussion."

NFL lays down harsh guidelines on Twitter use

Wow.

From the Associated Press:

The NFL said Monday it will allow players to use social media networks this season, but not during games. Players, coaches and football operations personnel can use Twitter, Facebook and other social media up to 90 minutes before kickoff, and after the game following traditional media interviews.

During games, no updates will be permitted by the individual himself or anyone representing him on his personal Twitter, Facebook or any other social media account, the league said.

The use of social media by NFL game officials and officiating department personnel will be prohibited at all times. The league, which has always barred play-by-play descriptions of games in progress, also extended that ban to social media platforms.

The NFL's player who gets the most publicity for using Twitter, Chad Ochocinco, tweeted:

@ProFootballTalk what's the new policy that I am hearing about, need the ins and outs so I can get my tweet team together?

Charlie Villanueva, an NBA player then with the Milwaukee Bucks but who signed with the Detroit Pistons earlier this summer, sent a tweet at halftime of a game against the Boston Celtics this March.

Villanueva wrote:

In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.

The NFL rules seem to be overkill.

Some teams themselves, the AP report notes, have laid down their own Twitter restrictions. And setting the restrictions on Twitter to an hour and a half before the game seems like something that the teams themselves would want to do. But not necessarily the NFL.

And as for the officials, if they want to join a social media network... too bad. It is completely prohibited.

AdAge looks into the future of ESPN -- including holograms

A pretty cool look into what we can expect from the sports media behemoth in the near future from Ad Age. And that includes holograms:

New hologram technology coming to ESPN in the spring, based on Electronic Arts' "Virtual Playbook," will enable anchors to be digitally inserted into shots from remote locations. The idea thrilled Chris Berman and Bob Ley, the two anchors with the longest tenure at the company.

"This is just an example of the cutting-edge technology that will save us so much money on airfare for the World Cup," said Mr. Ley, referencing ESPN's forthcoming coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which will be broadcast from South Africa. Mr. Ley first appeared via green screen from a separate conference room down the hall, only to appear seamlessly on the screen seated between Mr. Berman and Chuck Pagano, ESPN's exec VP-technology.

Mr. Ley looked remarkably more realistic than Will.i.am did during his appearance on CNN last fall, which was precisely the goal. "We looked at that and we said, 'How can we do it better?'" Mr. Pagano said. "How can we extend our internal studio to the outside world?" Although the convenience seems inherent, you can expect many jokes like the one Mr. Berman made in response to Mr. Ley: "You look like Kazoo on 'The Flintstones,' sitting on my shoulder."

The whole piece is interesting, so go take a look.