These might be a bigger deal if anyone cared about college baseball

College baseball is not a powerhouse like college football or college basketball. Though baseball remains among the the top-three sports (along with football and basketball) on the pro level, college baseball doesn't inspire the same following as the major league version.

Even as I type this, my fingers keep wanting to type "college basketball" instead of "college baseball".

There are a number of reasons. College baseball's premier event, the College World Series is more confusing to follow than in other sports. About.com tells us how it works:

Each team is sent to one of 16 regional sites throughout the country. The teams are seeded 1 through 4 by the selection committee, with No. 1 facing No. 4 and No. 2 facing No. 3 in the first round. The teams then proceed in a double-elimination bracket.

After that round, the remaining 16 teams are then split into eight super regionals, where two teams will face off in a best-of-three series. The super-regional winners advance to the College World Series.

The eight teams that qualify for the College World Series are separated into two four-team, double-elimination brackets, playing the same format as in the first round. The winners of those tournaments will meet in one best-of-three championship series to determine the champion.

Of course, it's still better than the BCS.

Another reason college baseball isn't as popular is because even if a college baseball star is drafted with the first pick of the baseball draft, it could be two or three years before he works his way up the minor leagues to be in the major leagues. Sometimes they never make it there at all.

Also, many of the best players skip college completely and head straight for pro baseball when they graduate high school.

Finally, the draft, which has helped the hype for football and basketball players drafted by their respective teams, is much different in baseball.

Wikipedia:

Unlike most sports drafts, the First-Year Player Draft is held mid-season, in June. Another distinguishing feature of this draft in comparison with those of other North American major professional sports leagues is its sheer size: the 2006 draft lasted 50 rounds and 1,502 players were selected. In contrast, the NBA Draft lasts for only two rounds (60 selections) and the NFL Draft for only seven rounds (256 selections if no picks are forfeited).

So why do I mention this?

Well, there have been two amazing games in the college baseball regionals in consecutive days. Today, Florida State beat Ohio State 37-6, the most lopsided game in college baseball history.

This came just a day after the longest game in NCAA history, 25 innings. One reliever pitched 13 scoreless innings and had 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball.

And I bet that these stories were trumped by some regular season MLB games.

Going viral

Just about every time someone uploads a YouTube clip of themselves up on YouTube, somewhere in the back of their minds is that this might be a clip that goes viral -- that becomes the Next Big Thing on YouTube, a video that will bring them fame if not fortune.

Somewhere around 99.99% of people who upload videos to YouTube never realize this dream. But Brandon Hardesty was one who actually did realize this dream and parlayed his love of certain movies and his acting ability into, well, fame.

The Washington Post Magazine did a 6,000 word article on Hardesty and his videos.

I don't want to give anything away from the article, but go ahead and read it. It's worth it, trust me. I would never lead you wrong.

To the right is an example of one of his earliest videos, a reenactment of a famous scene from the '80s teen angst-fest that was The Breakfast Club.

Time lapse videos of change on Earth

A blog at the Wired magazine website has a series of interesting changes in the earth over the past decade, sometimes for good but usually for, well, not good.

For example, take a look at a time lapse of Lake Powell in Utah and the effects of a drought on the lake over the past ten years:

Southern Utah’s Lake Powell was once teeming with boaters, fishers and vacationers. But from 2000 to 2005 its water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet, due to severe drought. Water levels have rebounded a bit, but are expected to plummet to levels even lower than those of 2005 during the next serious drought.

Fifteen word movie review for Fast and Furious

I saw Fast and Furious at the second run theater. Wasn't worth the two dollars.

Confessions of a non-serial killer

Imagine you're accused of being a serial killer. Specifically, the Zodiac Killer.

But, luckily, not by local authorities. Or the FBI. But by an amateur sleuth.

That's the position Michael O’Hare found himself in, and he shared the amazing story in the Washington Monthly.

I would put a blockquote here of an interesting portion -- but the entire story is interesting, and I highly recommend reading it.

Best sports commercials?

Maybe it's just because I'm such a big sports fan, but I think that sports commercials are consistently among the best on TV. While beer commercials may make you laugh once, they eventually lose their luster on repeated viewings (except for the Dos Equis commercials starring the "Most Interesting Man in the World").

So I had to wonder, what sport has the best commercials?

Here's hockey:



Football:



Basketball:



Baseball:



Soccer:



I think that soccer has the best commercials out of these. But basketball gets special points for their ad coming from the NBA and not a company that is promoting their own product (Nike for soccer, Fox TV for football, Playstation for baseball).

In fact, I couldn't even find a good baseball commercial (just looking around on YouTube) that wasn't a Playstation commercial. But you can decide for yourself.

Ghostbuster the video game

Ghostbusters 3 is still in the early stages of development. Rumors are flying around all over that everyone from the original cast is coming back (which is the only way to do it, really).

As long as Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver are in it and Ivan Reitman directs it, I think it will be fine.

But well before then -- in just about two weeks, actually -- Ghostbusters the video game will come out. And the New York Times has a great profile of the Ghostbusters franchise in advance of the new video game.

So should we be worried about the typical the-video-game-of-the-movie-nearly-always-sucks concerns (the same is true of books based on movies)? From the NY Times article:

Hoping to break with the decades-long litany of slipshod interactive movie tie-ins, Atari, the game’s publisher, has approached Ghostbusters: the Video Game as a major production in its own right. In a reversal of the traditional entertainment food chain, the game, to be released June 16, will come to market even as planning for the long-awaited third “Ghostbusters” film remains in the earliest stages. The expectation is that the game will both revitalize and expand interest in the franchise ahead of a new movie.

If their plan was to "revitalize and expand interest in the franchise ahead of a new movie" they would probably not release it three years ahead of when the movie is actually made.

So how involved were Ramis and Aykroyd (who wrote the first two Ghostbusters movies)? Well... kind of. But not as much as you might hear in the marketing.

“The crassest way I can put it is that they couldn’t have paid us enough to give it the time and attention required to make it as funny as a feature film," Ramis told the New York Times.

It's Manny's birthday

Manny Ramirez turned 37 today. He is currently serving a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. He's probably pretty sad that he doesn't get to play baseball (not to mention the millions that he's missing out on while he's suspended).

So what better birthday present for the Los Angeles Dodgers star? Well, might as well vote for him into the All Star game at the Major League Baseball website.

Because it would be funny.

Atlanta Falcons player free on bond after Facebook fight arrest

A story that people would not have fathomed even five years ago:

Atlanta Falcons player Quinn Ojinnaka free on bond after Facebook fight.

Ojinnaka's wife got mad at him for talking to an old girlfriend on Facebook. She allegedly tried to stab him with a knife and Ojinnaka allegedly "tossed her down some stairs and threw her out of their house in Suwanee late Tuesday."

Ojinnaka was charged with simple battery.

No, Susan Boyle didn't win

No, Susan Boyle didn't win.

And no, I don't care, internet.

U of O ultimate frisbee team suspended for playing nude

One thing stuck out to me in this ESPN Page 2 article about how the University of Oregon ultimate frisbee team was suspended for nudity. Well, besides the fact that, you know, the U of O ultimate frisbee team was suspended for nudity.

It's that the team was "ranked No. 3 in the nation at the time of their suspension."

OK, not even that they were ranked number three. I have no idea what schools are good or bad at ultimate frisbee (though apparently Colorado is a "perennial power").

No, what shocked me is that there are actually national rankings for ultimate frisbee.

Sadly, the University of New Mexico ranks a lowly 100th. At least that's higher than New Mexico State who, apparently, doesn't even have a team.

Will Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online revolutionize online gameplay?

There is an interesting article at Mashable about EA Sports' latest announcement.

From the announcement:

Available this fall, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is an authentic golf simulation experience that is dynamically streamed to a web browser and requires no game installation, no disc, and no additional peripherals. This game is easily accessible and available anywhere, via a web browser and an internet connection.

I can't say that Sony (with the PlayStation3), Microsoft (with the XBox) and Nintendo (with the Wii) will be happy about this. Unless they also offer a version on the PS3, Xbox and Wii online.

This is a serious shot across the bow of the gaming platforms. EA is cutting out a number of middlemen -- instead of needing to package their discs and send them to outlets to sell to gamers who also need to own a PS3, Xbox or Wii, now all that is required is a computer and a broadband internet connection.

No more trips to Best Buy or GameStop to grab the latest title. Instead, people can sit at home and download the latest golf course.

But, Mashable writes:

A big part of EA’s bet here is that they’ll be able to change user behavior. As significant as the advantages of online gameplay might sound, buying the latest version of Madden (and other EA games) is almost a religious experience for many people. Additionally, some EA games have already implemented online features, and will likely continue to do so, making some of the advantages of online-only games less relevant.

Of course, it’s not necessarily an either/or decision between online and console. Diehard gamers might want to play Tiger Woods both on their console at home and online when they’re on-the-go. And EA is likely to continue to offer both options for the foreseeable future, using the Tiger Woods game as a measuring stick for whether they’ll be able to successfully apply the model to some of their other, huge franchises. It all makes sense on paper, but ultimately the gamers will decide.

So perhaps it will lead to this: a stripped-down online version for a tiered-monthly fee. And those who also purchase the physical game for their gaming console (or even PC) will get some extras.

In other words, EA Sports may have founda way to get more milk from the same cow.

Spock:Obama::Kirk:McCain?

In the New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg takes the "Obama=Spock" meme one step further, and says that not only is President Barack Obama analogous to Dr. Spock (the Star Trek one, not the children's health dude), but Captain James T. Kirk is analogous to none other than John McCain.

Kirk is a wise-ass and a troublemaker. He’s reckless and insubordinate. He’s a skirt chaser. He relishes getting into fights. He wrecks cars. He’s a flyboy. He’s rebellious. He doesn’t do things by the book—he’s a maverick.

The latest revelation comes after Hertzberg read a Newsweek article in which Obama said the last movie he saw was Star Trek (I still have yet to see it, making me the last person under the age of 30 in the United States to not have seen the movie yet).

And the last movie you saw?
Now, movies I've been doing OK [with] because it turns out we got this nice theater on the ground floor of my house … So Star Trek, we saw this weekend, which I thought was good. Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out and—[the president makes the Vulcan salute with his hand].

Very good.
Yes, absolutely.

Did you watch that when you were growing up?
I used to love Star Trek. You know, Star Trek was ahead of its time. There was a whole—the special effects weren't real good, but the storylines were always evocative, you know, there was a little commentary and a little pop philosophy for a 10-year-old to absorb.

Torre says Manny should skip All-Star game

Joe Torre (or "That vampire from the Yankees") is saying that his left fielder, Manny Ramirez, should skip the All Star game if he is voted in, according to the Associated Press.

Sure, he was suspended 50 games for using performance enhancing drugs, but should he really be banned from the All Star game if the fans vote him in?

After all, his suspension will be up by the All Star break, so he'll be eligible for it. And New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is leading in the All Star balloting even though he is clearly not the best player at his position in the American League this year (that would be Jason Bartlett).

I keep voting for Manny mainly because it's funny. While the guy at Vote For Manny is doing out of some weird sense that he's going to fix baseball, I think my reasoning is much more entertaining and much more realistic.

Sarah Palin to be on Colbert

Via her Twitter account:

Getting ready to tape shout-out for our awesome US troops serving overseas! Will be on ‘Colbert Report’ next month, broadcast from Iraq…

Colbert vs. Palin on his turf?

Not fair.

The HDNet vs Time Warner fight

High definition cable TV network HDNet is going to be dropped from Time Warner Cable by the end of the month if a deal isn't worked out. Is this like the recently resolved high-profile fight between the NFL Network and Comcast, where the cable company argues that the cable network wants too much money?

Nope.

From the OC Register:

Time Warner confirmed two weeks ago that it is parting ways with the Dallas-based high-definition TV network because the two failed “to reach terms.” Time Warner wouldn’t elaborate on the loss of the channels, which were part of the $5/month “HD Tier.” In their place, Time Warner added the Smithsonian HD Channel and Crime & Investigation HD.

But according to HDNet owner Mark Cuban (yes, he’s also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks), the deal wasn’t about the usual increase in carriage fees, which is the money companies pay per subscriber to offer a network’s TV channels. (Remember the whole Viacom fiasco when Viacom’s fee increase nearly resulted in the loss of Jon Stewart, Sponge Bob and MTV?)

“No, the exact opposite. We cut the fees considerably,” said Cuban, via e-mail.
Interestingly, Cuban says he was trying to get HDNet to become part of Time Warner’s digital basic cable package so that all customers could access the channel. HDNet Movies would remain on the special HD tier. The new deal would be “considerably less than what they were paying to have both on the (HD) tier,” he said.

In other words, Cuban and HDNet wanted to be available to a larger audience than just those who were willing to pay an extra $60 a year to get HD channels. In order to do so, Cuban says they "cut the fees considerably."

And yet Time Warner is all set to cut loose HDNet and HDNet Movies and replace them with the Smithsonian Channel HD and MavTV in most areas.

One day, all channels will be broadcast in high definition. That's just the way TV technology and the TV industry is going. In a few years, people will look back at this battle and wonder what the hell Time Warner was thinking.

NYTimes on teens texting

Apparently constant texting might be bad for teenagers. At least according to a story in the New York Times.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.

The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.

I send a lot of text messages from my phone (a Blackberry Storm). With Verizon, you just need to dial #3282 (#DATA) to see the amount of text messages sent in that billing period.

Mine? Well I've sent 2117 text messages since May 4.

NY turns to celebs to push gay marriage bill

This is a pretty cool story from the New York Times:

State Senator Shirley L. Huntley, a brassy, big-haired Democrat from Queens who opposes same-sex marriage, received a call on Wednesday that left her momentarily stunned.

Maya Angelou was on the line, and she wanted to know if the senator might reconsider her position. Ms. Huntley, hardly the type to be played for a fool, at first thought her staff might be pulling a fast one.

“I said, ‘What?’ ” Ms. Huntley recalled on Thursday, adding that she was not convinced that it was Ms. Angelou until she heard her deep timbre. “I heard the voice, and I said: ‘My God. It is her.’ And that was that.”

The NYTimes also says that former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon (a Google image search tells me that she's the redhead) made calls to state Senators to try to get them to back the bill.

“We think the most effective lobbyists on marriage are actual constituents, not Hollywood stars,” Maggie Gallagher, president of the much-mocked National Organization for Marriage told the Times. “That’s the most effective thing we can do.”

Come on, even I know that Angelou and Tagliabue are anything but "Hollywood celebrities."

Tagliabue has a gay son and Nixon is a lesbian.

Gay marriage is legal and has not caused an unraveling of society in Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Five things you need to know about Madden 10

There are few gaming franchises (if any) that have the type of loyalty that the Madden NFL video game can boast. It has been played on everything from the Apple II to the Playstation 3 and everything in between (I remember playing an old Sega Genesis version and later a N64 version).

And ESPN has a short sneak peak into Madden 10 (the "10" refers to the year 2010, not the tenth edition -- the Madden video game has been around since 1993).

Worth a read if you like football, video games and especially if you like football video games.

Enhanced Cookie Interrogation

From the E&P Pub:

Fascinating piece coming in tomorrow's TIME magazine. Reporter Bobby Ghosh writes, “The most successful interrogation of an al-Qaeda operative by U.S. officials required no sleep deprivation, no slapping or ‘walling’ and no waterboarding. All it took to soften up Abu Jandal, who had been closer to Osama bin Laden than any other terrorist ever captured, was a handful of sugar-free cookies.”

No torture necessary.

Bing vs Wave

So Microsoft's newest new search engine (kind of) dropped today. At least for reviews.

That meant that Google, of course, had to one-up Microsoft and announced Google Wave. If you want to know what Wave is, check out this post from Mashable. It looks really, really good.

According to CNET, Bing is actually pretty good.

While the service doesn't reveal all its riches at once, it rewards exploration and yields pleasant surprises to users who poke around.

Google keeps improving in the area of in-search collation and display as well, but Bing makes Google look complacent, and that's not good for Google. For the moment, Bing's on top in this game. Try this search engine. I do not think you will regret it.

Though Needleman writes a bit like a robot ("I do not think will regret it" is a phrase that wouldn't help him pass the Turing test), he has convinced me that when Bing launches to the general populace, I'll give it a shot.

NBA TV ratings are at record highs

With Kobe Bryant in the Western Conference Finals and Lebron James in the Eastern Conference Finals, the NBA is doing better than ever when it comes to TV ratings.

From Multichannel News:

After ESPN set a record for most-viewed NBA playoff game in cable history Monday night, TNT donned the crowd Tuesday with its coverage of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. TNT's telecast of the Orlando Magic's 116-114 overtime win over Cleveland averaged nearly 10.1 million watchers on May 26. That toppled the 9.88 million ESPN drew the night before for the fourth game of the Western Conference finals when the Denver Nuggets evened the series at two games apiece.

Slam Online notes that the game between the Los Angeles Lakers Denver Nuggets game on Monday "annihilat[ed] ABC’s The Bachelorette and NBC’s Dateline."

Which is made all the more impressive by the fact that the game was on ESPN -- basic cable, not network TV.

And the next night's game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic had even higher ratings, becoming "the most-watched show on cable this year!"

The ratings for last night's Lakers victory over the Nuggets (on ESPN) will be available later today.

Update 4:07

Something else that I thought about: my dad, who has had just about no interest in the NBA since Jordan retired if not before, wanted to see a Lakers/Nuggets game so bad the other day that he resorted to listening to the ESPN radio version of it on his cell phone.

Despite the horrible officiating, it appears that the NBA is as strong as ever, even among casual fans.

Mark Cuban is a very smart guy

Bill Simmons did some podcasting with Dallas Mavericks owner and overall successful entrepreneur Mark Cuban yesterday.

They spoke for about 50 minutes (mp3) about business, basketball and everything in between.

Cuban not only owns the Mavericks, but he also owns HDNet, Landmark Theatres and the search engine Ice Rocket. He also is a blogger, over at Blog Maverick.

He made the Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan.

Sure he can be annoying at times, but he is good at just about everything he puts his fingers on. So listen to what he has to say.

This creeps me out

I'm not exactly sure why, but this creeps me out. Maybe it's the robotic woman's voice which sounds like a voice from Command and Conquer telling you that your base is under attack.

Or maybe it's the fact that I'm scared the Now Network might become self aware and launch a nuclear attack against humanity then start sending Terminators back in time to kill John Connor.

But at least I learned something -- my hair grew five-millionths of an inch in the last second.

Why Sotomayor should be confirmed

Along with the fact that she is very qualified (graduated from Princton summa cum laude, editor of the Yale Law Review, decades in experience, etc.), I think this passage from the New York Times profile on Sotomayor proves why she deserves to be confirmed by the Senate and become our next Associate Justice in the Supreme Court:

At other times, it involved more derring-do: if the firm had a tip from the United States Customs Office about a suspicious shipment, Ms. Sotomayor would often be involved in the risky maneuver of going to the warehouse to have the merchandise seized. One incident that figures largely in firm lore was a seizure in Chinatown, where the counterfeiters ran away, and Ms. Sotomayor got on a motorcycle and gave chase.

She chased counterfeiters on a motorcycle. Can she be on the Supreme Court and star in an action movie at the same time?

You decide

Is the title of this blog (Stuff Matt Read) past tense like the sentence "This is stuff that Matt Read" or in caveman speak?

Some people just hate hugs

I'm not a fan of hugs. Sure, I'll hug my grandmas, my aunts and other family that I am legally required to hug (at least that's what my parents told me when I was a kid).

And apparently some schools are with me on this trend. From the New York Times:

schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching — or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class — have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule.

Parents, who grew up in a generation more likely to use the handshake, the low-five or the high-five, are often baffled by the close physical contact. “It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,” wrote Beth J. Harpaz, the mother of two boys, 11 and 16, and a parenting columnist for The Associated Press, in a new book, “13 Is the New 18.”

I'll be the first to say it: Teenagers are weird.

Rick Reilly is a horrible writer

I have never liked Rick Reilly's writing style. Something about it just annoys me, and I know that many others feel the same way.

It felt weird when I actually thought a couple of his recent columns were actually good -- something was unnatural. There was a disturbance in the force.

But with his latest column about the Denver Nuggets, all balance was replaced in the force.

Just take a look at what passes for cleverness with Reilly:

Moses wandered the desert for 40 years? Pah. That's Club Med compared to us. For 41 years, we've eaten sand and washed it down with tall glasses of bile. At least Moses had manna. All we ever got was crayon jerseys.

So why does he make so much money?

Heinken walk in closet commercial

I first saw this commercial during a Champion's League soccer game earlier this year. But every time I see it, I still think it is funny.



Of course, the version I saw was in English.

Hispanic vs Latino

Via NewMexiKen

Slate looks at the difference between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino."

Now that Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina Supreme Court nominee, the question is getting more play in the media than it normally does.

The war against fair use by the Associated Press

The Associated Press has been waging a war against what they consider copyright infringement. Included is the little blurbs that you see on Google News when you search for a news event.

The Mediashift blog from PBS gave us a brief history of the AP's "Battles with news aggregators."

How Sotomayor saved baseball

I'm a pretty big sports fan, and I follow baseball relatively closely (I can tell you, for example, that Zach Greinke of the Kansas City Royals currently boasts a 0.84 ERA over nine starts). So when President Barack Obama mentioned baseball yesterday in his speech introducing Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court, it caught my attention.

From the transcript of the announcement:

Born in the South Bronx, she was raised in a housing project not far from Yankee Stadium, making her a lifelong Yankee's fan. I hope this will not disqualify her -- (laughter) -- in the eyes of the New Englanders in the Senate. Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball. (Laughter.)

Obama, who hails from Illinois, is a baseball fan and cheers for the White Sox.

And baseball fans should be grateful to her as well. Included in the White House biography of Sotomayor:

In 1995, for example, she issued an injunction against Major League Baseball owners, effectively ending a baseball strike that had become the longest work stoppage in professional sports history and had caused the cancellation of the World Series the previous fall. She was widely lauded for saving baseball. Claude Lewis of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that by saving the season, Judge Sotomayor joined "the ranks of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams."

The New York Times' Sports Business blog says that "bestowing upon her Ruthian status (Babe, not Bader Ginsburg) is a bit hyperbolic." The blog went on to say, however, that "there is no doubt of the importance of her decision."

Donald Fehr, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association said that Sotomayor did not single-handedly stop the work stoppage, but gave owners and players time to get an agreement in place.

"If it hadn’t ended when she ended it, it would have gone on for some time and it would have gotten uglier and uglier," Fehr said.

So there is all of this talk about the effects of what she did. But what did she actually do?

From the Associated Press:

When the National Labor Relations Board went to court that March 27 seeking an injunction forcing owners to restore free agent bidding, salary arbitration and the anti-collusion provisions of an expired collective bargaining agreement, Sotomayor's name came out of the wheel.

For a good overview of salary arbitration see this post from Hardball Times. And colluding on salaries by the owners is pretty obvious -- they wanted to keep the salaries as low as possible.

"This strike has placed the entire concept of collective bargaining on trial," she said in her ruling.

She also was on the U.S. Court of Appeals during a notable case involving the National Football League. Maurice Clarett wanted to come out of college early to play in the NFL.

The NFL Players Union wanted to keep Clarett out of the NFL draft (under the NFL agreement, players must have been out of high school for three years before they can enter the NFL).

Peter King from Sports Illustrated wrote:

That's what unions do every day -- protect people in the union from those not in the union. Why is this case different?''

It wasn't. Clarett lost the case. He was drafted in the third round the next year by the Broncos in what turned out to be a ridiculously bad pick, a total waste by then Denver coach Mike Shanahan.

As a Kansas City Chiefs fan, the fact that the pick was a bust made me happy.

World Series of Poker through the eyes of Doyle Brunson

I am always intrigued by seeing poker on TV. About half of my friends are the types who will talk about the latest developments in the World Series of Poker while the other half can't change the channel fast enough if they change to ESPN2 while the WSOP is on (which seemingly is every day).

ESPN.com has an article on Doyle Brunson "the only legend."

Brunson won two WSOP main event titles, back in the 1970s, and has ten overall bracelets. And he thinks he could have even more.

Focused on cash games, not recognizing the value that would one day be placed on bracelets, Brunson failed to win one from 1979 to 1991, opting only to play in the main event and 2-7 lowball championship each year. "I never did play in many tournaments," Brunson admits. "A guy like Phil Hellmuth has played three times as many tournaments as I have. I have no idea how many bracelets I'd have today, but obviously it would be more. I didn't pick a couple of mine up because I had so many. I'd given a bunch to family members and didn't think it was worth it to go get them."

An interesting read.

The end of Hubble

When the space shuttle Atlantis touched down in California two days ago, it ended a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. Such missions have happened before, and they are always news, but this was especially big news since it was the last mission to repair the world's most famous telescope.

And so when another piece on the Hubble breaks down -- as it inevitably will -- the Hubble will be no more. The telescope that brought us so many incredible images will just be another piece of space junk.

In fact, Discover Magazine (the link above) wrote, "It is likely to be the last time in our lives that human beings go to space to 'fix' an orbiting scientific instrument."

To see some of the great photos taken by the Hubble head over to the Hubble website and search through the amazing pictures taken by the telescope. They are public domain and you can use them as you want -- as long as you credit NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Miles O'Brien took a look at Hubble from the perspective of someone who "cut [his] teeth on the space beat covering the legendary STS-61 mission in December 1993"

So will there ever be another Hubble? As he unfailingly does, Ed Weiler cut to the chase: “Probably not, because there won’t be a shuttle.”

Indeed, Hubble and Shuttle are inextricably linked - both conceived and gestated with each other in mind in the seventies.

“They are like two kids growing up in the same family,” says Weiler. “They impacted each other’s designs.”

In fact, Hubble’s mirror is 2.4 meters in diameter so that it could fit in the Shuttle cargo bay – and it flies in Shuttle striking distance (low earth orbit) even though that is by no means the ideal place to park a space telescope (half the time, Mother Earth proves to Hubble she would be a better door than a window).

With some luck, the Hubble space telescope will continue sending pictures of distant galaxies back to Earth for another decade or so.

And we can keep using their photos (they are public domain as long as you credit NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute) to get tiny glimpses into the universe.

Vote for Manny

Someone came up with a great idea that I wish I had thought of: A blog that urges people to vote for Manny Ramirez to be a starter in the Major League Baseball All-Star game in June.

Manny is my favorite baseball player (and we're apparently on a first-name basis), mainly because he seems so... genuine. There is that whole cheating thing, but, hey if other cheaters are in the Hall of Fame, why not Manny?

And to connect this with a previous post, I have to recommend these two Onion articles:Manny Ramirez: 'Am I In Trouble?' and Manny Ramirez Likes Red Sox's New Blue Uniforms.

The blog, VoteForManny.blogspot.com, says the purpose of the campaign is:

To highlight the silliness that are the MLB rules towards PED users as well as their "head in the sand" approach to this situation. Rather than confront it head-on, MLB is choosing to do nothing and simply hope there are three higher vote getters in the NL OF.

I'm not sure what they're talking about, but if there is any way to legally embarrass Bud Selig, then I'm all for it.

Oh, and Manny is in fourth place right now.

The Onion: Very Funny

Is there anything on the internet that is as consistently good at what they do as The Onion?

I offer this headline: In Attempt To Jump-Start Economy, Obama Declares Tuesdays Ladies' Night

If you want a look into the newsroom at The Onion, you can listen to this episode of This American Life from February of 2008.

What was probably The Onion's finest moment, however, came after 9/11. The newspaper stopped presses for a week after the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. and came back with an issue themed "Holy Fucking Shit: Attack on America."

Articles included American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie and U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We're At War With with which The Onion somehow managed to be funny and capture the thoughts of millions of Americans at that very difficult time.

The American Journalism Review wrote about that edition:

The New York Times' John Schwartz lavishly praised the edition, describing the "Hijackers" story as "searingly brutal" and "cathartic for many readers." "[O]ther articles in the carefully balanced package show a sense of compassion and even grace," he wrote.

Still, some were offended; others just disappointed. Online Journalism Review published a commentary by contributor Steven Zeitchik on October 19 that criticized the issue as preachy, obvious and lacking punch. Zeitchik preceded his complaints with "Normally, I'm one of the many who finds the Onion riotously funny. But when it came to the attacks, something seemed off." The hijackers-in-hell headline, he wrote, is "one of the lazier forms of humor: moral grandstanding. Do we really need to be told what naughty little boys those terrorists were?"

But overall, the response "was pretty overwhelming," says writer Garden. "It was really kind of moving to see how much of an impact it had.... People wrote in and said that this was the first thing they had laughed at. It was really touching to be part of the healing process in a way that I never thought I would be capable of."

TV show remakes?

Bill Simmons at ESPN.com has an interesting idea -- remaking TV shows. Not remaking them as movies as was done with poor results with Get Smart and less-poor results with Mission Impossible, but actually making a new TV series.

His friend and fellow ESPN worker Kevin Wildes actually came up with the idea on Monday's edition of Simmons' podcast, The BS Report (mp3).

And the first idea up? Cheers: Chicago.

Before you cry "blasphemy!" think about it -- it if was a good enough idea and a good enough show, why couldn't they do a remake of it? Wildes and Simmons make the point that we have no problem envisioning an old TV show becoming a movie (Charlie's Angels, Miami Vice, etc. etc.) or of taking a show popular in England and importing it over here (done well with The Office and not so much with Coupling) -- so why not redo a classic TV show as a new TV show?

It's at least worth a listen.

And if you're into the whole Twitter thing, you can follow Simmons (caution: Basketball heavy) at @sportsguy33 and Wildes is at @kevinwildes.

Top ten Champion's League plays

Offered without comment.

Young women love American Idol

I know, I know, it's not exactly breaking news... but according to a poll by the Pew Research Center, the demographic that follows American Idol most closely are young women -- that is women from the age 18-30.

The poll shows that 26 percent of women in this age group follow American Idol "Very" or "Fairly" closely. Me, I didn't know who Adam Lambert was until I was pointed to this video of the Idol runner up massacring "Ring of Fire," the Johnny Cash classic.

The numbers are slowly dropping across the board, a trend that I wholeheartedly support. In fact, I would hope that the numbers accelerate, but that is just me.

Meanwhile, men 18-30 (which is my age group) aren't that enamored with American Idol. Just 13 percent of men in the youngest age group follow American Idol "Very" or "Fairly" closely.

If you take away the number of men who are forced by their girlfriends or wives to watch the show, I would be the number would rapidly approach five percent.

Oh, an 71 percent of people say that they have followed the karaoke competition "Not at all closely."

Americans sweep awards at "Mustache and Beard" championships

USA! USA! USA!

Americans took the top three slots at the biannual World Beard and Mustache Championships.

The winner was this guy, David Traver of Anchorage Alaska:



But really, after seeing all of those pictures, aren't they all winners? And will Alaska Governor Sarah Palin invite him to the governor's mansion to congratulate him? Or maybe not because Traver's epic facial hair would just emasculate the "First Dude" Todd Palin and his facial hair.

Milton Bradley: Umps are out to get me

Baseball hothead and current Chicago Cub Milton Bradley (no, not this Milton Bradley) is in the news again, this time for saying the Major League Baseball umpires are all out to get him.

Or something like that.

From ESPN.com:

Bradley, suspended one game last month after an argument with umpire Larry Vanover, said he thought other umps were getting back at him for the incident.

"Unfortunately, I just think it's a lot of 'Oh, you did this to my colleague,' or 'We're going to get him any time we can," Bradley said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "As soon as he gets two strikes, we're going to call whatever and see what he does. Let's try to ruin Milton Bradley.'

"It's just unfortunate. But I'm going to come out on top. I always do."

Bradley has had some problems with his anger on the field in the past, as I mentioned above. Just look at this 2004 ESPN story.

Friday night links

So you're stuck in at your house on a Friday night, nothing to do? Here are some interesting links for you to look at while you drink your Bud Light Lime by yourself while listening to Coast to Coast AM.

• Lo-fi Sci-Fi
  
  Some of the coolest science fiction covers you'll ever see (example to the right) are from Orion books. And Creative Review took a look at some of them. It's times like this that I wish I had any sort of artistic ability. But, alas, I do not.


• Scientists put psychic's paranormal claims to the test
  
  Via Bad Astronomy... again.
  
  Do you have paranormal abilities? If you do then you can win a million dollars, provided you can prove it in a scientifically viable way. A Guardian article looks at professional medium Patricia Putt trying to win the million dollars from the Randi Educational Foundation.


• Lesser-known poker hands
  
  I have no idea the point of this, but if you like poker than you might enjoy this. Then again, you might not. But the tags on the post ("poker, I hardly know her") reminds of 1) someone I went to college with and 2) This Psych episode.


• Obama welcomes Phillies to Washington
  
  The 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies got to meet the new President in the White House. How much more excited do you think they are to see Obama than they would have been to visit George W. Bush?

Interesting things for a Thursday night

• Visual Illusions
  
  Thanks to Bad Astronomy, I found these illusions that will psych you out. Don't believe me? Check out The Break of the Curveball. I could stare at this for hours. Or at least a few minutes before moving on to the next thing...


• Why Oprah loves Jenny McCarthy
  
  Again via Bad Astronomy, Skeptimedia looks at why Oprah decided that Jenny McCarthy needed her own show to spew her misinformation about vaccines. It also explains why Dr. Phil has a TV show, a mystery that has baffled the world for years.


• Gladwell-Simmons II: Ultimate rematch
  
  It's best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, Outliers, etc.) vs. ESPN's internet king Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy, Boston homer, etc.). Because where else are you going to get discussions about Larry Holmes, the all-time best basketball team made solely out of white guys and why Gladwell ignored Jennifer Anniston's advances? PLUS, it comes in three parts.


• Woot-off!
  
  A woot-off is going on right now! What, you don't know what that is!? Well after reading this you will.


• #GoogleFail…Had Something to Do With Airplanes
  
  Did you get caught up in the epic failing of Google this morning? Well, now we know why. And it had something to do with planes. Or a metaphor with planes. Or something.


• Manny Ramirez: 'Am I In Trouble?'
  
  Finally, a link from American's Finest News Source, The Onion. I don't think I need to explain anything here.

Introduction

So what is this site?

Basically, it's just interesting things I found while surfing the internet. Or, you know, stuff that I read.

I'm a huge fan of sports, of politics and a little bit of geeky web stuff thrown in.

If you have anything that looks interesting and you'd like to pass along, send it onto StuffIReadToday [at] gmail [dot] com -- it doesn't necessarily have to be something you read. It could be a video, a song, a picture... just as long as it is interesting.