Many popular web stories start with traditional media, move to blogs

From the New York Times:

For the most part, the traditional news outlets lead and the blogs follow, typically by 2.5 hours, according to a new computer analysis of news articles and commentary on the Web during the last three months of the 2008 presidential campaign.

I wouldn't be surprised if that time between the traditional media reporting on the story and the time it appears on blogs has gone down since Twitter made such huge gains in popularity; nearly every successful blogger and many journalists that I can think of use Twitter to learn about new stories and promote their own stories.

UFC's Fedor problem

Tonight's Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pay-per-view event (UFC 100) is already being called the biggest mixed martial arts event in history so far. Former pro wrestler Brock Lesnar is taking on Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist and MMA veteran Frank Mir for the heavyweight title.

The co-main event is a welterweight battle between Georges St. Pierre (who is arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world) and Thiago Alves. The middleweight bout between Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping could have possibly been a headliner or a co-main event on a different card.

But there is one glaring omission -- not only from tonight's card, but from the UFC as a hwole. And to MMA fans that omission goes by just one name -- Fedor. Fedor Emelianenko is probably the best heavyweight MMA fighter in the world. He's 30-1 and a lot of people will argue that the one loss was a mistake, a poor judges decision during a fight in Japan.

Time magazine took a look at UFC's Fedor problem:

He has won 30 fights in his career and lost just one, a controversial referee's decision in Japan nine years ago. Fedor has already beaten five former UFC champions, two of them twice. He has finished four of them off in the first round.

"He's the best," says Freddie Roach, a famed fight trainer who has worked with boxing greats Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya, Manny Pacquiao and Fedor's last opponent, Andrei Arlovski, whom Fedor knocked out in three minutes in January. "He's so calm. He sees things happening. If you make a mistake, he'll knock you out. That's the mark of a great fighter."

So why does this great fighter, who is fighting against a bunch of heavyweights who no longer fight for the UFC, still fight for second-rate MMA promoters?

Because UFC wants exclusive rights to Fedor:

Fedor says White demanded that he fight exclusively with the UFC. Given his stake in his own promotion company, M-1 Global, that would have been a significant sacrifice. Fedor also insists the UFC would have virtually owned him if he won and would have been able to dump him if he lost. "If I was the UFC champion, I would never be able to leave the UFC," Fedor says. "The contract would just keep extending and extending. But if I lost, they could just kick me out of the UFC."

Further complicating matters, Fedor also specializes in another form of martial arts called sambo. This judo-like sport was developed for the Red Army after World War I and is now a Russian pastime. Under White's dictates, says Fedor, he'd have to stay away from sambo. "That's something I do for the pride of my country and is very important to me," says Fedor.

Still, no one should be crying for the UFC. Tonight's pay-per-view event could possibly be the biggest non-boxing pay-per-view ever, with some analysts saying it will reach 1.3 million buys.

Of course, Dana White, the head of the UFC, said the same thing about UFC 94. But that was headlined by St. Pierre against B.J. Penn -- this time St. Pierre is relegated to a co-main event instead of headlining the card.

"On the last night of the best fishing trip of our lives, Brownie juggled fire"

I'm not much of a fishing fan, but stories like this makes me wish that my friends and I would go on trips like this.

Boxer Arturo Gatti reportedly found dead in Brazilian hotel room

Arturo Gatti will never be considered one of the greatest boxers of all time. Gatti was just 49-9, but he will be remembered for being a warrior.

He was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room. He was with his wife and son, and there were no bullet or knife wounds.

Gatti fought in an epic trilogy against Mickey Ward, two of the fights which were named "Fight of the Year" by Ring Magazine. He had multiple other fights that were Fight of the Year nominees -- usually because the final rounds of a Gatti fight resembled a fight from a Rocky movie.

Blood always seemed to be flowing down Gatti's face in the 12th round, but Gatti continued to stand toe to toe with his opponent, giving as good as he got.

As I said before, he will never be in the same league as the Oscar de la Hoyas for Floyd Mayweathers of the world (two boxers who he lost to), but he was always one of my favorite boxers to watch.

Dead Like Me on Hulu!

I hadn't noticed this before, but the complete series (so far) of Dead Like Me is now on Hulu. I never watched the show when it was on Showtime (we had HBO so we could watch The Wire instead of Showtime) but started watching the show's reruns on SciFi and HD Net.

But if you haven't seen this show, then you need to -- now.

The show follows around George Lass, a dead woman. She died and became a grim reaper. It's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea -- watch the first couple of episodes and you'll be hooked.

Here's the pilot:

Drudge still rules their world

Who would have thought to actually look at the video?

More people believe in global warming than in evolution

From the Associated Press, via @ShaunMcKinnon:

_ The public and scientists did not always see eye-to-eye. For example 87 percent of scientists believed that humans and other living things evolved naturally, compared with 32 percent of the general public. And while 84 percent of scientists say the Earth is getting warmer because of human activities, just 49 percent of the public agreed.

Scientists who study this sort of thing for a living and have expertise in the field believe in evolution and global warming by huge margins. But it is the people who are listening to the anti-science propaganda that had the loudest voice in the last eight years under the George W. Bush administration.

Wouldn't it be better policy to listen to people who are experts on that issue?

BCS official: Everything's fine with the system!

Harvey Perlman, chairman of the BCS oversight committee went onto Mike and Mike in the morning today to say that everything is fine with the BCS, no one should complain, especially not the Utahs and Boise States of the world (teams who went undefeated but never came close to the national championship).

His argument was that the schools from the smaller conferences "have more access" to the big bowls than they ever did before. He is correct, but this doesn't address the criticism.

Utah went undefeated last year, including beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Yet they didn't get to play in the national championship. There is nothing more that Utah could have possibly done, yet they didn't win the national championship.

Perlman said that it is better than it was in the past, but that is, again, missing the point. It shouldn't be said that the current system is better, but rather that the system in the past was even more flawed.

He even criticized college basketball, saying, "even when you're picking 64 teams, you have major controversies about who's numbers 65 through 68." This is different -- getting the NCAAs is the goal for the teams on the bubble. They don't expect to win the national championship.

When the problem is with the number three team, that's a different story.

South African World Cup stadium strike gets violent

Workers who are building the stadiums for the World Cup in South Africa next year have gone on strike. And now some of those on strike are "stoning cars and passers-by" as they ask for more money, the Associated Press reports:

There are fears that a prolonged strike could derail already tight schedules for construction projects supposed to be complete by mid-December. The monthlong 2010 World Cup, beginning in June, is the first on the continent. It is expected to attract up to half a million people and be seen by hundreds of millions worldwide.

South Africa's minimum wage is about $200 a month but the unions complain that some workers earn only about $1.50 an hour and others $5 a week.

If South Africa doesn't get the job done, the U.S. may step in and host -- the U.S. already has dozens of stadiums that can house the World Cup, even on short notice.

Tapes of LeBron James being dunked on confiscated

LeBron James was dunked on by a top high school basketball player at a camp run by Nike. Video of the dunk was confiscated by Nike.

Nike responded to the confiscation:

"Nike has been operating basketball camps for the benefit of young athletes for decades and has long-standing policies as to what events are open and closed to media coverage. Unfortunately, for the first time in four years, two journalists did not respect our no videotaping policy at an after-hours pickup game following the LeBron James Skills Academy," said Nike spokesman Derek Kent on Wednesday.

Tarnishing the image (even a little bit) of their top star (though Tiger Woods would give hima run for his money on that count) probably isn't what Nike envisioned when they held the camp.