Hot soup in my eye

Testing testing

2010-12-07T19:55:00.001-06:00

Mic check one two

I'm obviously on a little hiatus

2010-05-06T18:07:00.000-05:00

I've been working on other things. Maybe I'll get back to this in a month or two.

This hopefully is not true

2010-02-23T21:00:00.002-06:00

"NHTSA officials told investigators that the agency doesn't employ any electrical engineers or software engineers."

I tried not to get swept up in the whole Toyota recall business, but it's sometimes impossible to avoid. But seriously, this is embarrassing and dangerous, and I seriously hope it's not true (or the people who do QC are contractors or something). I know a modern car feels like a simple, gradual upgrade of the cars I grew up with, but that's simply not true. A car nowadays has millions of lines of code, and plenty of electrical components that are prone to a short circuit or some other type of malfunction.

Well, I guess less government is better, and the market will soon speak and give us a safer mode of transportation all by itself very shortly.

It's that time of the year

2010-02-17T18:50:00.002-06:00

Unless you've been living without access to a modern source of information, you know that right now is a very special time in sports. The most graceful, refined athletes on the planet are now switching allegiances in a bizarre power play inspired by the NBA trade deadline.

First, I'm a bit sad that one of my favorite franchises (as of late) has been officially dismantled. If you want a few reasons why they've become my favorite, check out this article. Brendan Haywood, a world-class asshole who could defend any center in the league. Caron Butler, aka Tuff Juice, who chewed straws by the truckload and at one point was certifiably addicted to Mountain Dew. Even DeShawn Stevenson, the worst player of the three, managed to get under Lebron's skin for a playoff series and then promptly drop off the face of the earth.

Then today, the other shoe drops. Jamison is also gone. While he may not be as playfully quirky as the others, he's got style all his own. His game features the most unorthodox shots at the basket, like playing against that old guy at the gym who keeps posting you up and then does some kind of behind-the-head whirling dervish move that surprises you every time and you just can't stop it. The one good thing is that he's headed for Cleveland, so I'll get to watch Antawn in the playoffs again, where he belongs.

Oh, and the Wolves traded our own old-guy-at-the-gym, Brian Cardinal, for a player who has already stated he's not going to play in the NBA next year. Not sure what that really does for us, but we get a free look at a guy who couldn't even get played on a bad Knicks team.

As always when I write, I'm kicking myself for posting without proofreading, and I'm kicking myself for not posting more anyway. Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm still following hoops. Even without cable :(

You talkin' to me?

2010-01-30T18:39:00.002-06:00

I'm working on a few drafts of things (which may or may not be published to this blog), but in the spirit of frequent updates, I present a short yet spot-on article about what goes on in a geek's head during a conversation.

More on Google's China decision

2010-01-13T18:15:00.002-06:00

Writing about business in a foreign nation is impossible. None of the usual rules apply and none of the typical conclusions can be drawn, but there are a few things that should be said about Google's decision to get out of China.

First, this move is definitely a Good Thing. I'm not ready to declare this a principled stand on Google's part, but rather a calculated cost-benefit analysis. Let's not forget that less "controversial" American internet companies Ebay and Amazon are currently staying away from China. What this market is currently offering Google is simply not worth the cost of implementing whatever filters the Chinese government wants. Creating artificial restrictions on search results is not how Google became a search giant - they became popular because their searches were the most relevant! Baidu, on the other hand, is willing to quickly censor results at the request of the government, and is now essentially the major search engine in China (Yahoo and Bing remain little more than afterthoughts).

The reality is that the size and projected growth of China make it a tempting and difficult market to crack. International trade with China has been going well, as long as you're on the purchasing end of the deal. As for parting the populace from their disposable income, I'm unaware of any non-Chinese company that has moved in and made significant money in China, other than perhaps globally-recognized behemoths like Coke and McDonalds. Any other company that thinks they can sell products in China is facing a state-subsidized competitor with unique knowledge of Chinese culture and government and a disregard for IP law. Until the framework for what Americans call "business" is in place, you can safely ignore modern capitalist economic tendencies ("first-mover advantage" being the important one in this story), and accept that they don't apply here.

Despite what one of Google's legal eagles has to say, I doubt China is going to enter negotiations with Google after this public scolding. There won't be any "negotiations for an unfiltered search engine." I expect Google to keep their offices open, and to continue to invest in R&D in China by hiring homegrown Chinese engineers (unless the Chinese government takes an especially strong stance against Google after this incident). Google will still utilize the local knowledge that Chinese engineers can offer, as well as technical skill.

Also remember that Google means something completely different to Americans than it does to Chinese. The series of well-integrated webapps that Google pushes here in the US have no bearing on the reality of internet culture in China. I could be wrong on this, but I don't think people in China are using blogger, picasa, gmail, google docs, etc. on the same scale that we are in the United States. In the US, Google is nearly synonymous with "the internet" while in China there are plenty of other copycat services to fill the void. A website disappearing in China isn't exactly earth-shattering news, though not many Americans could comprehend an internet without YouTube, Facebook, etc. The Chinese internet has places for social networking and sharing videos, of course, but the companies that run them are willing to remove controversial content at the drop of a hat.

In the end, this event is more about espionage than it is about censorship. Google removing the filters from their search results was just their only retaliation. From additional details today, it sounds like some malware was able to access Google's email intercept systems, which are provided to US law enforcement and contain subject lines and dates (and possibly more). Adobe confirms that this malware may have been installed via a zero-day exploit which took advantage of their PDF Reader software. A zero-day exploit is basically an unpatched vulnerability that allow unauthorized code to be executed on your computer; discovery of a new zero-day exploit on a piece of popular software (like Word, or Adobe Reader) can net a hacker upwards of five figures.

Google Reduces Daily Output of Evil

2010-01-12T20:51:00.005-06:00

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Well, this seems to be a bit of a breaking story, so I apologize for the unedited stream-of-consciousness that is to follow.

So Google's Gmail service has been under attack - someone's been attempting to access the email accounts of human rights activists. The attacks were originating in China (probably via botnet), and Google's response was to remove the filters from their search engine at google.cn. According to wikileaks, China had previously requested the same access that US authorities have over results in the United States. The actual wikileaks site is down right now (for fundraising - so donate if you can, please), which makes any actual documents relating to the hacking attempts hard to find.

Of course, upon hearing this story my cynicism-detector went off the charts, but I think I'm a wee bit more rational now. First of all, Google currently has about a quarter of the search engine marketshare in China. They've only been there for 4 years, so that's some pretty serious progress.

I'm most interested to learn how this story is going to be spun by the Chinese government. I haven't heard anything yet, and I don't even want to really speculate on what the response could be.

Reading between the lines a bit on the above post, notice that Google mentions 20 other companies that were targeted in this attack. There aren't any details on who these companies are (if they are Chinese companies or not), but this is a bit of knowledge that google is going to use as a stick to make these companies "do the right thing."

The crazy thing about attacks like this is that they happen all the time. The problem is that the hacked company has no incentive to report it to the authorities. Unless you've got a miracle-working PR team, the bad press will cost you in the short term. Google could not only force these companies to come forward, but they could also use this knowledge to work themselves into some nice cybersecurity-type contracts. That is all speculation on my part, but this event is a perfect example of the lack of transparency that many publicly-traded companies operate under.

Edit: Additional random thought: China has gotten a bad rep (fairly or not) for being a bit...overbearing when it comes to working with foreign companies. State-sponsored hacking is the kind of ham-fisted tactic that won't win you many friends when dealing with a company that survives on it's ability to transport (and mine) data. That a company like Google has the strength to put China between a rock and a hard place is just another example of the increased power non-state actors have over sovereign nations...

Video of the decade

2009-12-30T21:01:00.001-06:00

Estate got this video in just before the new year closed, and I don't think any video released tomorrow will top it.

Good Iverson piece

2009-12-07T22:41:00.001-06:00

I haven't read Free Darko in awhile, but this is a good article on racial awareness and Allen Iverson. Some quality thoughts on the construction of perception...

This was briefly my favorite song when I was 17

2009-12-04T15:18:00.002-06:00

Tiger Woods by Dan Bern.

Stop Making Sense

2009-11-24T16:22:00.001-06:00

Sarah Palin is arguably the biggest rockstar in America at the moment. It might be easier to become a rockstar these days, but that doesn't detract from her accomplishment. This may not be true next month or next year, but the wheels of articles-and-hype continue to churn.

During the end of the 2008 election, when Obama's election appeared imminent, Sarah-as-identity finally eclipsed Sarah-as-politician. I'm not talking about the so-called scandals (shopping sprees, expensive hotels, etc.) - that's par for the course. Instead, our media outlets figured out that more viewers would rather watch Sarah address questions about Bristol and snow machines than discuss foreign policy.

Her heavy-handed foreign policy statements were bullet points compressed into bullet points. It was like launching Powerpoint to display a single slide. She only had a few major points, which fits in nicely with modern news reporting facilities. People still loved her grandstanding rhetoric of hard power, and especially its juxtaposition to Obama's nuanced wonkishness. Obama's oratory skills took on a throwback quality in an age of 140-chars-or-less-plz.

The thing I wish I could figure out is what exactly the point was where everyone's opinion became valid. This development has been (somewhat unfairly) tied to Oprah Winfrey, who underwent a transformation in the mid-90s from a talk show journalist into a feel-good juggernaut. Give the people what they want, and the people were tiring of the cheating spouses, transvestites, and druggie kids. People want uplifting, positive, "I'm a special snowflake" stories that they can take parts of and apply them to their own lives, not cast judgment on the lives of others. This is why I actually kinda like Oprah - who else can inspire soccer moms to read Tolstoy? Positive personal stories became cool again, and Oprah was there to slip our country a much needed Xanax.

Maybe this is a strawman argument, but Palin supporters seem to consider most any attack on Sarah unfair. This is what's wrong - everything can be justified if enough people feel the same way. No one should be forced to fail, and our current state of public discourse demands that coverage be balanced. (That's actually the bizarre development - things were not always this "fair," until Reagan's second-term focus on deregulation [w/r/t media and the FCC] and Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996.)

Palin's campaign was built for signing books. Think about what the act of book-signing entails - a supporter spends 10 dollars for 10 seconds to explain to Sarah why she is wonderful (one bullet point per customer!), then is cast aside, perhaps to be reincarnated as an insightful anecdote in the next book. Joe the Plumber is a special snowflake!

The YouTube videos of her supporters stumbling over their own words - they're entertaining, part of the spectacle - a vain attempt to define "foreign policy." It's little more than a demonstration that we are right, and they are wrong, and that's really all it aspires to. We can't believe "those people" also line up in polling places (let alone bookstores!) to make their voices heard. Our response is little more than passing the link around, and pretending to wonder where these people come from.

I was recently reading an article written a few years ago about Iraq's political climate. The author recalls a discussion with an Iraqi who thought the way American media portrays the conflict was incorrect, referring to the Sunni vs. Shia binary. He said the real problem is city vs. village - the villages and countryside are self-sufficient, distrustful of outsiders, and taken care of by those who naturally rise to power (for context, this of course refers to Saddam's mindset). Politics becomes simply a way to maintain and wield power.

By contrast, cities know less of this tribal loyalty. Living in close proximity and dependent upon outsiders for basic necessities, politics is a way of getting things accomplished. Cooperation and compromise is a requirement to getting things done, a display of collective self-interest, rather than a show of weakness as some would believe.

I'm not sure the Iraqi political conflict is so different from our own. We all expect different things from our leaders, and our leaders have differing thoughts on how they are supposed to act.

Sometimes I feel torn on which group has the least understanding of the human condition - Palin's supporters or her detractors. At least I got in a good laugh while pretending to figure it out.

Brett Favre clips

2009-11-22T19:56:00.002-06:00

Hey, it's a week late, but here's some great footage of Favre from the Vikings-Lions game from last week, where Sidney Rice went for 200+ yards...

Mostly linky with a smattering of original content

2009-11-17T18:14:00.003-06:00

Hey, did you know that an asteroid came within 10K miles of Earth last week? Yeah, neither did anyone else, until a mere 15 hours before it grazed past us.

Here's a quick rundown of the history of the internet.

The Website is Down (home of Sales Guy vs. Web Dude) now has 4 videos up. I haven't watched the latest two yet, but the first two are pee-yer-pants funny, especially if you're in IT.

Courtesy of Lifehacker - homemade remedies, how to make a moss terrarium, how to make a bottle-cap table, and a new TV streaming service called Clicker.

40 Hilarious Print Ads.

Youtube links: Bulls-Knicks, '92. Part of me wishes they still played hoops this way - players were allowed to be physical, but I'm not sure Kobe would sell as many tickets if he was injured for most of the season. I don't think we'll ever find another badass like Charles Oakley. I just ordered the new Simmons book (and several otherbooks - yikes), and am ecstatic about devouring 700+ pages of pure basketball.

Whoa

2009-10-12T20:38:00.002-05:00

We're in serious need of a new post. It's been about a month since my last one, and nothing has really happened on the internet since. UNTIL NOW, FOOLS.

Have you ever wanted to see the pictures sent up as part of the Voyager Golden Record in 1977? Well here they are.

From the cool hacks department, ping-pong ball lights! And a Nintendo emulator made from a cartridge!

This site has movies! This site has live TV!

Great article by Malcolm Gladwell on football, concussions, and dogfighting. It's one of my favorite sports-related articles this year.

Oh, and you already saw the New Yorker's audio slideshow on the gangs of Rio? Great!

Subconcious data mining, anyone?

2009-09-14T21:04:00.003-05:00

After playing Google Monopoly for awhile, I realize that this is the most subtle yet invasive form of data mining that I can think of. But it seems so cool. I just started, obviously.

Seriously, what could you do with the data that you can collect here? The possibilities are almost boundless. Don't get me wrong - this dataset by itself is fairly harmless. But, combined with other forms of similar datasets, much more can be discovered. If you're interested to know more, I'll either write more at some point or you can hire me for a consulting gig!

I could probably go off on this topic, but I'm busy buying properties and contributing to something sinister. Don't worry, I'm pretty stocked on tinfoil.

I love Feynman

2009-09-06T22:24:00.003-05:00

Old school Super Mario Bros.

2009-08-26T20:29:00.001-05:00

It gets good about halfway through, during the interviews with the Game-Play Counselors...host Bill O'Reilly is hilarious at the end, too.

Whoa

2009-08-10T18:21:00.001-05:00

If I had a thousand dollars

2009-08-06T22:09:00.002-05:00

I would definitely buy one of these. A 3D printer for under a thousand bucks?? I'm almost afraid to dig through the spec-sheets on stuff you could build with this, as it will only make my heart ache more...

Also the last two TED talks have been pretty cool - check out a demo on turning dirty water into drinkable water, and another on biomimicry (design based on nature).

A billion tiny links

2009-08-04T17:42:00.002-05:00

Oh man. You are in for a treat, as I have resolved to update my blog today. But I must do it before national night out, so let's jump right in. We'll warm up with some geeky stuff, then slowly progress toward nerdy topics and finish things off with some dorky links.

I just discovered (okay, like a month ago) an awesome show on Revision3 (lots of tech-oriented webcasts) called Hak5. It is awesome. I've learned so many nifty tips, from networking to pentesting to configuring servers and getting some walkthroughs on software. Dig through the archives and you're sure to find an informative way to waste time.

Also, you know that right now you're carrying around some RFID cards, right? They're in everything these days, from credit cards to building access cards to passports, etc. Well some hacker at Defcon set up a little RFID reader to pull data off of those cards, and I guess it spooked the Feds. They don't like it when people tamper with their Fed-stuff. These readers are (relatively) simple to make, and I might try it for an upcoming project, except Deal Extreme is out of lots of their RFID stuff at the moment. Speaking of deals, hit that site up for tons of cheap gadgets, most with free shipping.

Anyway, I'm also considering making an RFID-blocking wallet, like this one for sale.

Neighbors at war. Part Two.

Choose your own apocalypse.

Musicians and their Sesame Street appearances.

Top Ten DIY projects that harness the power of the sun.

Okay, that was a bit shorter than I planned, but that's enough links for now. Keep it soooo soooo real.

It's been awhile

2009-07-07T22:51:00.002-05:00

But our patent system is still in need of serious fixing (FYI, Nesson is facing sanctions for defying a court order regarding the tapings).

Also, escaping from danger, GI Joe style.

Twitstream Underground

2009-06-15T18:31:00.002-05:00

So obviously I should weigh in with something substantive on the Iranian elections, right? Props to twitter for postponing some scheduled downtime, by the way. Or perhaps on the important retrial taking place just blocks away from my work? Nope, not gonna do it, since I've covered all your bases with those links.

If limited characters aren't your thing, there's a few good places to find info. In addition to following the feeds above, I've been reading The Lede at the NYTimes, which has fairly regular updates. I've also been using the CIA World Factbook to compare the demographics and geography of Iran to other countries, which is a bit crude but also enlightening.

As for the RIAA trial, you can find all the filed docs here, and find some good coverage here. Cell phones aren't allowed in the courtroom, so tweets and blog posts are few so far. Sounds like this jury is a bit more tech-savvy than the one 2 years ago - Jammie Thomas also has a new law firm representing her, which seems like a bit of a wild card.

I never really got into or liked twitter until the last couple of days. I still wouldn't say I'm into it, but it's getting easier for me to extrapolate info and separate wheat from chaff in my head.

Also, I turned on the ads again - just testing something. I'll probably turn them off in a few days.

Cyclopath

2009-06-06T15:04:00.003-05:00

Of course we get 5 beautiful weekdays and then it rains on the weekend. It's cool though, rainy days aren't all bad.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to inform you of an awesome resource for Minneapolis bikers - Cyclopath! What an awesome name. Anyway, it's pretty much like Google's driving directions, except it focuses on bikers. It's an ongoing project by a U of MN student. All you do is type in your starting and ending points, and it gives you the best route to bike on.

It makes really great use of tags, as well. Riders can tag certain areas ("bike lane" or "hill" for example) and you can add a bonus or penalty (or eliminate altogether) for certain tags. Make sense? So if you can add weight to roads that have bike lanes or eliminate roads that are closed. I'm really impressed by this project, and highly recommend checking it out. Now I have an awesome route to Grand Old Day tomorrow, assuming it's not going to rain again.

It's here

2009-05-11T17:57:00.003-05:00

Here's the project I promised back in February. It's a mashup of Season 1 of The Wire. I actually finished it awhile ago, but I didn't post it for some reason. I'm working on something even more ambitious and weird for my next work of art!

You're miles from where anyone will find you

2009-04-25T09:42:00.003-05:00

Boy, do I have some things for you. OH YES I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU.

First of all, it's NFL Draft Day. You're excited, right? I didn't think so. I'm hoping the Vikes take Darrius Heyward-Bey, personally. I wouldn't be opposed to trading up for Jeremy Maclin or down for a few more picks/players. Word on the street is that Anquan Boldin can be had on the cheap, so that might be an option as well.

Here are some tips on starting your side business.

Diikembe Mutumbo of the Houston Rockets suffered a career-ending injury. I think he was like 50 years old, so it's not a huge surprise, but it's too bad he has to go out like that. Known mostly for his finger wag after a blocked shot, he's done a lot of good for a lot of people (watch that video too - hilarious!). I mean seriously, who uses their earnings to build a hospital, except one dedicated man. You can read an ESPN analyst's letter to Mutombo here if you promise not to get all weepy.

The Pulitzer as a mirror.

Your video will go viral faster than ever - see what your friends are watching on Youtube in real-time. Yes, you can turn this feature off when you're watching the latest Jonas Brothers video.

Haven't seen one of these in the wild yet, but it's probably only a matter of time - how to detect ATM skimmers.

Recipe Puppy picks meals based on what you have in your kitchen already. via mefi

Useful ways to use Twitter.

The Website is Down, one of the most hilarious videos ever made (especially if you work in IT) has a second video.

After Google previously dropped the ball on social networking (see: orkut), they decided to roll some features into their own "profiles" area. It's supposed to make managing what people see when they google your name easier, though I haven't tried it yet. TechCrunch also has a blurb on it.

Side note without link: the This American Life taping in theaters KICKED ASS. I think the radio version of the episode will air next Sunday. They're also rebroadcasting it in theaters sometime in May - I was surprised that it sold out Block E, considering the price of tix ($20!). Good on them though, it cleared my conscience for not having contributed to TAL in awhile.

Cool way to find new music online, and maybe enhance your indie cred.

Laughing makes you sexy.

Auto-tune the news.

Shaq rules

2009-04-18T11:31:00.001-05:00

He's not in the playoffs this year, but take that, oprah!

It's time to rock some links

2009-03-21T09:27:00.002-05:00

Hello boys and imaginary girls. Welcome to another exciting installment of this blog. Today's blog post is brought to you by the internet.

First up, we've got the precursor to craigslist. I suppose this is how people discovered weird things before the internet. Yeah, there was a time before the internet.

On a serious note, wikileaks is straight-up dying. They're broke. I can't even get to the donation page, but when they do come back online, consider donating. They host all kinds of documents that would not be made public otherwise - it just takes 10 bucks. Here's their twitter feed.

I'm sure you already know about Michelle Obama's new garden. This is a pretty interesting (and long) NYT magazine article on basketball recruiting - I'm interested to follow Trier's progress over the next few years. Last NYTimes link - folks who like replica Star Trek captain's chairs.

MIT unanimously agrees to Open Access policy. Open Access's wiki page.

If you're into retro gaming (and I am, trust me), you can play along with others and post discussions on Chrono Trigger. CT is one of my favorite SNES games of all time.

Here's an article on several libraries' special collections.

Weiner Dog on a Minimoog!

A pile of interesting images.

not quite it

2009-03-05T18:49:00.003-06:00

Okay, this isn't the project I previously promised, but this IS AWESOME. It's mixing YouTube clips together to make a song and you need to see it RIGHT NOW. Way cooler than my project that I haven't posted yet.

Working on something awesome

2009-02-19T22:18:00.002-06:00

I've been working on a fun project. At least it's a learning experience. I hope to have it posted sometime this weekend. Stay tuned!

Obligatory TED post

2009-02-14T11:56:00.002-06:00

TED2009 just finished, so new TED videos will slowly trickle out over the course of the next year. So of course you're wondering which videos are the best, right? Right!

We'll start with Siftables, which are like toy blocks that can actually talk to one another. There are demos of basic math programs, interactive storytelling, and music-making. Interesting way to re-conceptualize data - being able to hold it in your hands (as opposed to viewing and editing on a screen) really changes how we think and interact with everything.

Woody Norris discusses his new device and it's real-world applications. His device does for sound what lasers have done for light, and the result is a "speaker" that can be pinpointed without emitting extraneous sound. You really have to see it (and hear the audience reaction) to believe it.

Tied with the video above for my personal favorite of this batch, Barry Schuler gives us a tutorial on genomics. If we can map and understand the entire genetic sequence of pinot-noir, we've already won the battle, right? Imagine if, instead of taking a mass-produced drug, what if each drug was tailor-made, on the spot, for your own exact personal genome? Amazing stuff.

Last but not least, we've got Bill Gross talking about his innovations in the solar energy field, and Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, on how we view "creative genius". Both are quite interesting.

Also, if you like basketball at all (and even if you don't), you HAVE TO read the NY Times Magazine article on Shane Battier. I'm only about halfway through it, but it delves into some interesting "moneyball" analysis for basketball.

Revealed: THINGS

2009-02-12T10:52:00.002-06:00

First off, I'm totally pissed that I missed the Powderhorn Art Sled Rally. I don't know what I was thinking, but it will never happen again. I would have liked to see a picture of that 20-sided die roll down the hill, but I can't find one.

Second - thank goodness we can finally get some closure on the incident that rocked the sports world this week. That's right, EIGHT PEOPLE have been arrested in the Michael Phelps pot-smoking "case". EIGHT PEOPLE!!! From a house party in November! It's not like a couple of baseball MVPs took steroids and then lied about it or anything - Phelps is a role model! And not to go all Woody Harrelson on you, but here's some interesting stuff on hemp.

Banks are trying to flex and go rogue so they can fail even more spectacularly - though at least their CEOs could be "properly" compensated if they gave the bailout money back.

It's one louder. This one goes to 11.

25 years ago, Irving Louis Horowitz wrote an article for the Virigina Quarterly Review called Printed Words, Computers, and Democratic Societies. I've only read the first half so far, but it's pretty amazing to see someone get the future like he does. VQR just opened their archives through 2003, and had a post with links to some interesting articles.

Yearbook photos of U.S. politicians.

Old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

A tribute to fallen sodas.

I've got a couple more links, but I don't want to bury them here - look for a new post later today or tomorrow.

It can happen no longer

2009-02-10T09:30:00.002-06:00

I will no longer be beaten on the internet. In fact, the one person whom I called out on not posting to her blog enough already has more posts than I do this year. But it's quality, not quantity, that brings you, dear reader, to this blag on the webbernet.

So, what do you think of the new Pepsi redesign? You're elated, right? Well, I've seen an internal document from their "marketing" "team" and it's not pretty. It's pretty funny. It gets more ridiculous as it continues, so read on, I'll be waiting.

Back already? Then I've got a joke for you - what's red and invisible? No tomatoes!

Wikileaks has published a billion dollars worth of government research reports. They're technically public domain documents, but they're only available to members of Congress (who can release them to the public if they so desire). Lots of interesting topics covered here.

The last two XKCD comics have been spot on.

This device works if you enjoy Futurama.

I've been digging the Mental Floss quizzes recently.

More soon.

Blogging

2009-01-24T18:47:00.003-06:00

Gosh, blogging is hard! Well, it's not that hard, but it's hard to maintain. Once you take a day off from it, it's easy to go another day without writing. Then, a day turns into a week, a week turns into another week, and my blog sits empty. Was the last thought I wanted to write about really Tom Gugliotta and the Fun Police?

No. It ends here. It's over, lethargy. You lose.

First order of business (or soon after I post this): it's time to beef up the ol' sidebar! If you call yourself a friend of mine, and once blogged and no longer do, you're nothing but clutter to me. Farewell to Carson, Kelly, and Mary. Kate can stay, Chris can stay, Dani needs to step up her game a bit, but I'm confident she can pull it off. Big welcome to Josh, who gets the nod here despite his propensity for hotlinking.

In addition, we'll be posting a few more links on the right-hand side. Candidates include 3 Quarks Daily, Arts and Letters Daily, and maybe the Virginia Quarterly Review.

Look for a fresh new update tomorrow or the next day. I'm going to post an article that's going to blow your mind.

Fun Police

2008-12-29T17:25:00.002-06:00

More for the b-ball fans - a Bonus Video! Warning: contains Cherokee Parks. Thanks, Sham Sports.

Steve Nash is Hilarious

2008-12-29T17:16:00.000-06:00

Merry Xmas

2008-12-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

We'll return to our normal blogging schedule shortly.

Facebook and Privacy

2008-12-09T15:39:00.003-06:00

Cool article (you got me - I've only read the abstract and intro so far) on Facebook and the effect of social networking on privacy:

This Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of the law and policy of privacy on social network sites, using Facebook as its principal example. It explains how Facebook users socialize on the site, why they misunderstand the risks involved, and how their privacy suffers as a result. Facebook offers a socially compelling platform that also facilitates peer-to-peer privacy violations: users harming each others’ privacy interests. These two facts are inextricably linked; people use Facebook with the goal of sharing some information about themselves. Policymakers cannot make Facebook completely safe, but they can help people use it safely.

The Article makes this case by presenting a rich, factually grounded description of the social dynamics of privacy on Facebook. It then uses that description to evaluate a dozen possible policy interventions. Unhelpful interventions—such as mandatory data portability and bans on underage use—fail because they also fail to engage with key aspects of how and why people use social network sites. The potentially helpful interventions, on the other hand—such as a strengthened public-disclosure tort and a right to opt out completely—succeed because they do engage with these social dynamics.

Obama is sorry

2008-12-09T15:33:00.002-06:00

He is sorry for messing up your game. He didn't realize there were ladies around.

Maybe this is older than the internets, but it's kinda funny.

If Gamers ran the World

2008-12-09T14:59:00.003-06:00

Really interesting article on games and adaptability - it's probably not what you're expecting:

There’s also something very powerful that occurs when you present data in a gamelike way. The way you present data changes the connection that people have to that information. A lot of what gets described as “playful” design is really just about making it clear what the data you can alter is, and providing simple inputs to make that change - it’s all about highlighting those feedback loops.

So a good example of that is the dashboard on a Prius. By making the default readout on the computer screen Miles Per Gallon, rather than Miles Per Hours, driving becomes a game about increasing the efficiency of your fuel consumption, rather than getting from A to B as fast as possible. The car exposes how its power is generated - be it from the engine or from the battery - and then empowers you to change that (by coasting more or charging the battery harder on hills).

The final thing I’d like to consider to day is the notion of failure. Failure is not necessarily something we’re going to face more of in the future; knowing how to deal with it is, however, a useful skill for life, and it’s a skill that gamers are exposed to all the time.

When we learn in games, we learn by failing; we learn whether or not we can really make that jump, or if that enemy really is vulnerable to fire. Part of understanding the complex systems of games is making mistakes. And, as we become more experienced, we learn to discern between something being “possible but not by me (yet)” or “impossible for anyone”. Once you learn that progress comes from failure, you stop seeing failure as an absolute, and more as a step on the path.

via mefi

(oh, and if you didn't read to the end of the article, here's a link to boomshine)

Fry Day Link Day

2008-12-05T11:49:00.003-06:00

Some cool things happened overnight. Google Reader got a facelift. And at the Googleblog, they've got a list of blogs that some of the engineers read - good stuff. Unfortunately, there are no descriptions for these blogs, so I'm going to tackle them myself:

Cute Overload is, well, pictures of cute things, like kittens and caterpillars. meh. I prefer my cute kittens captioned anyway.

Design Milk is focused on design rather than milk. Fun to scroll through the pictures for about 30 seconds. Maybe you'd get more out of it if you designed things for a living.

Dinosaur Comics is drawings of talking dinosaurs. It has lots of words, and is often very funny if you enjoy reading and comprehending words.

Jake and Amir are those two guys from collegehumor.com. It's a bunch of videos of them doing stuff. I haven't watched it, but on a related note, Prank Wars is kinda funny.

Just Bento is all about those little cute Japanese box lunch things. Yep.

La Tartine Gourmande is a gourmet food blog with pretty pictures of food and it looks positively wholesome.

Make Magazine is the greatest magazine ever for geeks and tinkerers. You should check out their "under $20" electronics gift guide, which includes instructions and materials for DIY projects like a USB charger in an altoids tin, a persistence-of-vision kit (you wave it in the air and it spells words), and more. Awxsome.

Popsugar is one of those blogs that's just like TMZ or Perez Hilton or crap like that. OMG, Jennifer Aniston smiled at John Mayer!!!!!1!!

Rock Paper Shotgun is all about video games. It's pretty well-respected by those tho enjoy reading things about video games. If you care about the problems that the PC version of GTA4 is having (of course it's related to their buggy anti-piracy software and their xmas push), I recommend it.

The Big Picture is stories in pictures. The pictures are great, and it appears to update fairly frequently. Bonus usability points awarded for being able to scroll through pictures rather than clicking through one by one.

The Kitchn is a hodgepodge of food and kitchen-related tips. Looks nice, but aimed at a much nicer kitchen than mine.

ThinkGeek is a store with cool gifts for geeks. T-shirts with dorky sayings, weird office supplies, and Princess Leia posters all at one site.

Web Urbanist is, well, art-related. Maybe I'd call it a lifestyle blog. Definitely niche. I'll be spending some time here, I'm sure. I can't really describe it, but I hope it becomes one of my favorites.

Gene patents

2008-12-03T11:32:00.002-06:00

Guess what's a terrible idea? I mean, the market has spoken!

Some babies have seizures. That's pretty bad for anyone, but especially a baby, right? So if you're a doctor, you're probably pretty interested in getting an accurate diagnosis for the cause of these seizures. Unfortunately, the intellectual property rights to this genetic sequence is owned by a company called Genetic Technologies, and they have already threatened to sue hospitals for testing for breast cancer mutations the company claims to "own."

Maybe Barack might consider forcing some of our favorite patent trolls (like drug and biotech companies) to consider patent pools so that we can derive some benefit from all this groundbreaking research.

Fisherman's problem

2008-12-01T11:18:00.001-06:00

So a fisherman is out on a small lake and throws his anchor into the water. Does the water level of the lake rise, fall, or stay the same?

Happy thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T22:36:00.001-06:00

Macrophenomenal Reviewed in the NY Times

2008-11-20T11:44:00.003-06:00

Okay, it's not really reviewed, but you get an interview with all of the authors. And it's the Times so you can feel all highbrow about it. If you hadn't noticed from my other posts, I'm really hoping this book takes off for these guys. If you know any NBA fans who also happen to love great writing (think McSweeneys, whom they also pitched a version of the book to), get this for them.

Which co-author is a fan of Britt Robson? Which of them hung Darius Miles and Bonzi Wells jerseys in their apartment? How does Bernoulli's principle potentially apply to the career of Monta Ellis? Read and find out!

Mark Cuban takes one for the team

2008-11-17T14:14:00.003-06:00

So Mark Cuban is one of my favorite billionaires, right? He owns the Dallas Mavericks, writes a decent blog which I agree with approximately 72.7% of the time, etc. etc. Makes all his money now through investments.

I really shouldn't be too surprised to learn he's being charged with insider trading.

I won't pretend to know anything about this case other than the extremely limited facts that have come forward to this point, but it sounds like he was kinda stuck:

But the SEC is saying that an investment bank recommended to the head of Mamma.com that they invite Mark Cuban to be a private investor in their PIPE investment vehicle.

A PIPE is a Private Investment in a Public Entity. It's a way for a public company to raise money -- fair or not, the view is that a lot of them are done when a company is getting a little desperate for cash, which tends to make the market a little nervous.

The CEO allegedly reached Cuban, told him the call was confidential, and then told him about the PIPE. Cuban didn't like it, and allegedly told the CEO that he was screwed, and now would not be allowed to sell. And, according to the rules of stock trading, that was exactly right. He had insider information and could not sell. But then the record shows he did sell.

Got that? He's a shareholder in this company, right? They call him up and say "You totally can't tell anyone, but we want to you to be a part of our 'special investment vehicle', which is a PIPE loan."

(PIPE financing is when a company really wants money and is willing to sell additional shares at a discount relative to market price. It's kinda desperate, and it dilutes the value of the existing investors' shares. It's generally not a good sign.)

So Cuban is all "oh, snap, this company is borked whether I give them money or not." He sells the stock. That's where the insider trading happened.

Of course, the SEC exists to eliminate or at least reduce the impact of these asymmetric information flows, but it's hard not to sympathize with the guy. They essentially handcuffed Cuban, daring him to either pony up some money for additional shares, or lose money when the company collapsed.

Pie Chart

2008-11-17T10:44:00.003-06:00

Obama Sticking with YouTube

2008-11-14T10:54:00.003-06:00

He's going to put his weekly address on Youtube, since all of us whippersnappers don't have FM receivers anymore.

I am a Title

2008-11-13T10:38:00.002-06:00

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you.

These guys took a lot of time to spoof the NY Times. The "paper" is surprisingly full of content.

Also, become a world-class sprinter! Actually, this flash game is pretty cool (and less frustrating).

Freakin' Weeken'

2008-11-07T10:24:00.002-06:00

What are you going to do? Aside from watching my Vikings play the Packers, I'm going to find and accomplish something from instructables. Don't know what yet - maybe I'll publish a book or make Mac-O-Lanterns (I wish I had seen this one before Halloween!).

Also, here's some pics of Barack watching the election returns, and some before and after his speech.

Hooray!

2008-11-05T16:39:00.002-06:00

By now you all know that Barack Obama will be our next president. HOORAY!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Newsweek does a "Special Election project" which has some interesting stuff that they don't reveal until the campaign is over. From the article: both campaigns were hacked by Russians or Chinese, Palin's shopping spree was for way more than $150K (they hid this from McCain himself), and McCain set some pretty strict rules for his ads.

Thyme to Vote!

2008-11-04T12:16:00.002-06:00

But you already knew that, right? You're gonna vote, right? Great. I had about a 2-hour wait at my polling place, so the sooner the better!

Oh Noes!

2008-10-31T11:34:00.002-05:00

Pirate Coins contain melamine! This is a sad day for pirates everywhere...pirates are advised to find other booty to plunder.

Music Videos

2008-10-29T12:27:00.003-05:00

Okay, this is kinda dumb, but I thought I'd post it anyway, in case you're looking for a music video which has been taken down from youtube. MTV just launched a site. You can find most everything there. Of course, they won't have the indiest of the indie, but it's a massive, sprawling collection. The quality varies depending on the era, but it's always better than youtube. They also appear to have some of the VH1 Pop-Up Videos up for certain artists as well.

Random: Cannonball, Fight For Your Right To Party, Where it's At, Buddy Holly.

15 Talking Heads videos.

What's the highest-rated video, you might ask?

That is all. I was actually really in the mood to see the Beastie Boys Sabotage, but I don't see it up there...

EDIT: Oh, and of course, it's United States of Awesome only. We are not in the business of exporting culture by violating intellectual property agreements.

Also!

2008-10-28T11:02:00.002-05:00

The Free Darko Book has a site. Yes, I have already preordered, but thanks for offering! It reminds me of America: The Book, but for basketball. Just thinking about it makes me giddy.

Some of the stuff only works in Internet Explorer. Bonus hint: if you click #9 on the front page, it's KG.

OH YES

2008-10-27T14:50:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, it is time. The NBA season is upon us. That means basketball. Oh, and if you're into some quality sports-writing (as opposed to ESPN "quality"), there are some old SI articles you should read, compiled by the good citizens at Free Darko.

Many of them are Minnycentric - one on another side of UNC star (and current T'Wolf) Rashad McCants, here's an article from 2004 during the Timberwolves MV3 (KG refused to be on the cover without Sprewell and Cassell), and the rise and fall of Kirby Puckett.

Good Obama Pics

2008-10-24T14:37:00.002-05:00

You have to keep clicking "show more" at the bottom of the screen, but these are nicely done.

Motorcycle 3: Stand Down!

2008-10-24T12:17:00.002-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I posted anything, but just so you all know, Motorcycle 3: Stand Down! is out. What's Motorcycle 3: Stand Down? Oh, fine, I'll just post the entire series (so far). If you don't watch them in order, you won't know what's going on. Actually, you probably won't know what's going on anyway.

New Yorker vs. XKCD

2008-10-16T10:20:00.002-05:00

There are a few pretty awesome web comics out there. But did you know that some comics are printed in newspapers and magazines? Me neither! Anyway, the best webcomic (XKCD) takes on the New Yorker's comics in a cartoon-off. Also, just for fun:

McCain nails it

2008-10-15T11:36:00.002-05:00

I don't agree with John McCain on much, but one thing he gets right - the DMCA is a joke. He's complaining that his video clips are being removed from youtube for copyright violations, while he's claiming that snippets of video spliced into his ads fall under "fair use". Hey, I've been complaining about this for a long time, so it's nice to see McCain finally stand up and take notice.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, John McCain voted FOR the DMCA in 1998 ;)

New laws!

2008-10-14T10:47:00.003-05:00

Stop me if you've heard this one before:

1. Wait for national crisis.

2. Ram through unrelated legislation in hopes that no one notices.

3. ????

4. Profit.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present a new cabinet position - copyright czar! *wild applause*

Okay, just kidding, this is pretty lame. At least they took out the part where the government would have to prosecute copyright infringers rather than the copyright holders themselves. So yes, you will continue to be sued by movie and music studios, don't worry. But at least your hard-earned tax dollars will be spent to bail out banks rather than pay lawyers to sue you.

Also, I haven't read the bill's text all the way through, but apparently there are some new classes of felony copyright infringement, as well as some "civil forfeiture provisions".

Random thought

2008-10-10T16:59:00.003-05:00

Anyone else remember on November 1, 2004 when Bin Laden stated that his goal was to drive this country into bankruptcy? Guess that's another memo we missed...here's a random article about it that I haven't even read yet.

slashdot chimes in on a story of security breaches at the World Bank. You'll need to sign up for a slashdot account to fiddle with the comment threshold, but as I've stated before, it's worth it once you crank it up to 4 or 5.

Phishing attacks on the rise

2008-10-10T11:31:00.005-05:00

More scammers are sending out emails posing as banks. Someone's gotta keep making that money, right? Anyway, if you get any kind of notice from any kind of bank that you think might be legit, there are two simple steps you can make to keep safe - delete the email, and log in through the bank's actual website. Clicking links in emails is what will get you in trouble 99 percent of the time.

And just for fun, here's an anonymous slashdot comment, reproducted in its near entirety:

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
DEAR AMERICAN:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am ministry of the treasury of the republic of america. my country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars us. if you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with mr. phil gram, lobbyist for ubs, who will be my replacement as ministry of the treasury in january. as a senator, you may know him as the leader of the american banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. this transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. we need a blank check. we need the funds as quickly as possible. we cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. my family lawyer advised me that i should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, ira and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov
so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. after i receive that information, i will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours faithfully minister of treasury paulson

More stuff

2008-10-09T14:42:00.003-05:00

ABC News finds whistleblowers who report that the US is eavesdropping on phone calls from citizens abroad.

China energy myth: their technology is outdated. Not so, says MIT.

Sad guys on trading floors.

Fireside Chats

2008-10-09T14:34:00.003-05:00

Here's an archive of the fireside chats of FDR, and here's a very short article on why they were so effective:

In the midst of the Great Depression, America in 1933 was suffering. One-third of its work force was unemployed, every bank had been closed for eight days, and the public was barely surviving through a combination of barter and credit.
On Sunday evening, March 12, a troubled nation sat down by its radio sets to listen to their president. With his calm and reassuring voice, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt explained how the nation was going to recover from the current banking crisis.

Hilarious stories

2008-10-07T13:42:00.002-05:00

I don't know why they're so funny. They're also written in all-caps. There's a ton of them, and I don't really know which example to post here, so here's one at random:

RIGHT SO IT'S KINDERGARTEN AND IT'S SPRING AND EVERYTHING IS THAWING AND MUDDY. AND ALL THE KIDS HAVE THOSE RUBBER BOOTS THAT GO UP TO OUR WAISTS. THE THING TO DO IN THE MORNING BEFORE CLASS STARTS IS TO FIND A BUDDY, GO FIND A NICE SOFT MUDDY SPOT IN THE PLAYGROUND SOMEWHERE, FACE YOUR FRIEND AND START SQUISHING YOUR WAY DOWN IN THE MUD UNTIL IT'S ALMOST UP TO YOUR WAIST.

WE DID THIS BECAUSE IT WAS FUN. SO KYLE AND I ARE FACING EACH OTHER AND BOGGING OUR WAY DOWN IN THIS MUD PUDDLE. WE GET IT ALMOST TO THE POINT WHERE THE MUD WILL START TO SEEP INTO OUR RUBBER BOOTS. I LOOK AT KYLE AND SAY "HEY KYLE, CAN YOU DO THIS?!" AND I TAKE MY FOOT OUT OF THE BOOT, WIGGLE MY LITTLE SOCKED TOES IN THE SPRING AIR FOR A FEW SECONDS, AND PUT MY LEG BACK IN MY BOOT, WHICH IS FIRMLY LODGED IN MUD.

"YES I CAN!!" KYLE SHOUTS BACK AT ME DESPITE ME BEING ONLY A FOOT AWAY FROM HIM. KYLE TAKES HIS FOOT OUT OF HIS BOOT AND IMMEDIATLY FALLS BACKWARDS INTO THE MUD. BECAUSE ONE LEG IS STILL IN THE BOOT HE IS KIND OF PINNED. THE SUCTION FROM THE MUD IS TOO MUCH FOR HIM TO SIT UP, AND HE CAN'T TURN OVER BECAUSE HIS LEG IS STUCK IN THE BOOT.

THE BELL RINGS AND I LEAVE HIM THERE FOR SOME REASON. IT'S MONDAY MORNING SO WE HAVE ASSEMBLY. THE WHOLE SCHOOL SITS IN THE GYM AND WE SING 'OH CANADA'. OUR PRINCIPAL, WHOSE NAME IS HONEST TO GOD 'MRS. HEGGINBOTTOM' SAYS 'GOOD MORNING STUDENTS' AND THEN WE ALL SAY 'GOOD MORNING MRS. HEGGINBOTTOMBOTTOMBOTTOMBOTTOM' BECAUSE NOBODY CAN GET IT IN SYNC AND SOME KIDS SAY IT FASTER THAN OTHERS.

THEN OUR PRINCIPAL IS ABOUT TO GET INTO THE ANNOUNCEMENTS WHEN THE BIG DOUBLE DOORS IN THE BACK OF THE GYM ARE THROWN OPEN AND SMACK AGAINST THE WALLS WITH A GIANT BANG. ENTER MRS. VAIL, SHORT, BUTCHY VICE PRINCIPAL WITH BICEPS LIKE NOTHING YOU'VE EVER SEEN. SHE'S HOLDING KYLE, WHO APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN DRESSED FROM THE LOST AND FOUND. THERE ARE TEARS JUST STREAMING DOWN HIS FACE. WE ALL STARE AT KYLE AND MRS. VAIL LETS HIM GO. HE RUNS TOWARDS ME, SLIPS ON THE GROUND BECAUSE HE'S IN SOCKS FOR SOME REASON, PICKS HIMSELF UP, AND SITS DOWN NEXT TO ME. TOTALLY INCONSOLABLE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. WHEN WE GET HOME HE FINALLY OPENS UP TO ME AND TELLS ME THAT MRS. VAIL PICKED HIM UP OUT OF THE MUD LIKE A DYING SOLDIER AND WASTED NO TIME IN STRIPPING HIM NAKED AND DRESSING HIM UP IN SHORT-SHORTS AND A STRAWBERRY-SHORTCAKE TSHIRT EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS A NINJA TURTLE TSHIRT RIGHT THERE.

Ain't been postin'

2008-10-07T10:41:00.002-05:00

cuz I been readin'! Thanks to the suggestion of a certain user, metafilter (and Ask Metafilter) now have pagination on their all-time favorites pages. What does this mean to you, consumer of the intarblag? Well, you can go here, read the hive-mind's answers to some good questions, then go on to a SECOND page of questions and answers! And a THIRD! Answers to all your burning questions, like What's the best cheese combo for grilled cheese sandwiches, most interesting thing you can buy for $30 - $50, how to build a fort in your bedroom, and a pile of trivia/word games.

Same functionality goes for the general mefi alltime favorites. Awxsome.

Other random things singled out for linkage - a blog dedicated to pictures of Barack holding babies, links to music videos I'm going to watch later (yee a-ha), the latest This American Life episode on the credit crisis,

NYTimes article

2008-10-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

From 1999:

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Interesting letter....

2008-10-01T10:30:00.002-05:00

This bank claims to be maintaining profitability, and has some things to say about the proposed bailout of its competitors.

Those Silly Timberwolves

2008-09-30T16:49:00.001-05:00

This is even more silly than signing Kevin Ollie!

I haven't watched the whole thing yet

2008-09-29T10:03:00.001-05:00

Candidates in Quotes

2008-09-25T10:57:00.001-05:00

I really hate soundbites, and this really only serves to encourage them, but it's still kinda cool.

Okay, I give

2008-09-25T09:21:00.002-05:00

Of course, I do have tons more to write about Italy, but there are a few more pressing issues at the moment related to current events.

The first event is the awesomeness that is the Twins. I went down to the dome last night, where the dollar dome dogs were gone by the first inning. We scored our tix from some shady dude for over half off the face value, so that wasn't bad. Nick Blackburn pitched fairly well, though he did get himself into and out of some serious trouble. I'll also admit that Joe Nathan really is starting to scare me...not in a Boof way where he might somehow give up 17 runs to a single batter, but Joe's ability to consistently strike out batters has waned as of late.

Anyway, pretty excited about tonight's game - first place is just 1/2 game away! Slowey is taking the mound against Floyd - both pitchers are coming off 5 earned run outings on 9/20, so it will be interesting to see who rebounds. Go Twins!

Sorry!

2008-09-21T09:23:00.002-05:00

I've been busy. I promise to post a whole ton of stuff either later tonight or when I get back home. ciao!

Also, I mailed postcards on thursday, so who knows when they will actually arrive...

Back from Rome

2008-09-17T11:49:00.002-05:00

My mom is good at sorting photos.

I wrote down a first draft of almost everything that happened while we were in Rome. I wrote it all on the train back solely so I could remember it sharply later, so it's not grade-A blogger material (and I couldn't remember the exact names of lots of things), but if you're bored, you can skip it - I might add some photos here later too:

Rome Day 1:

We leave Florence and arrive in Rome early – there by 9:30. After some confusion about where the b&b was located, we finally manage to find it, only about 15 minutes late – not too bad! After dropping our stuff off, we turn out left out of the hotel and right onto via Nazionale – we stop a few blocks up to get tickets for the bus so that we can go to St. Peter's later that day.

We turn around and go back down Nazionale, and turn left at a church where some very fancy priests roll in inside a Volvo. We turn around and cross Nazionale and head towards a huge walled building – apparently there is a wedding going on inside, as there are guards and cameras near the entrance. We continue down this street until we reach Quattro something, where there are 4 churches with statues that face each other. We take a left down this street and head for another fountain, then head bak down this street because we need to get to Nazionale so that we can hop on a 64 bus and make it to St. Peters. Grabbed a sandwich.

So we get on the bus, and I have no idea where it's headed, only that it will get us close to St. Peters. I figured that once it crossed this bridge, we would be within 5 blocks and could just walk the rest of the way, as we had been walking all afternoon. So we get off the bus and have to cross a fairly busy street – of course, my mom is worried about this and wants to head back to the bus stop so we can take the bus a little further. I try to convince her that if we just cross this street, we will be able to see the Basilica. No go. We're plenty early for the tour when we got off the bus (30 minutes), so I figured another one would be along soon. After waiting for 15 minutes at the stop, one finally shows and takes us to St. Peters Holy Metro Subway stop, which is still about 5 blocks away from St. Peters Basilica. We hustle across the plaza and meet up with our tour group, only about 5 minutes late.

The tour is quite amazing. And it's not just because of our gorgeous Australian tour guide, though that didn't hurt. Got a pic with me and Bacchius, God of Wine. There were lots of sculptures, paintings, and tapestries – someone told me that if you spend 3 seconds at each one, you'd be there for 12 years!

Anyway, the Sistine Chapel was pretty cool – you're not supposed to talk inside and so they have these guards who say “SHHHHH!!!” every minute or so. So right after he shushes everyone, he sees my mom's Obama pin and ays “Obama!” to us, obviously pleased. The guy didn't speak much English, but conveyed his support and promised to keep his fingers crossed (in the Sistine Chapel, you'd think he would say a prayer or something). Cool.

After the Sistine Chapel is St. Peter's Basilica, which I honestly think was much cooler. I mean, mad props to Michelangelo for painting that entire thing, especially when he had other things to do, but let's keep some perspective. St. Peter's had massive statues, popes covered in wax, and a statue of someone whose foot you could rub to get you out of 7 years purgatory. I can't really use my words to describe how grandiose this place was, but it was pretty awe-inspriring.

So after the tour was over, we walked back across the bridge and towards the rest of town. We don't really have any idea where we are, but eventually I see a 64 bus and we run to catch it, since it's headed in the opposite direction and we need to get back before our feet explode.

We get back and rest up for a bit, the head out to find somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, it's about 6:00 and most real restaurants don't start serving until 7:00 or later. We wander around, looking at menus posted outside of restaurants, until we finally decide on one – Oscar's Wine. We start to sit outside, but the thunderclouds are a-rollin' in, so we head inside.

Appetizers consist of veggies, goat cheese, bread, and 3 different types of olive oil. We split a bottle of recommended wine, the name of which eludes me right now, but it was also pretty good. Dinner for me was a pasta with 6 different types of melted cheese – awesome. Can't remember what my mom had, but after dinner was over, we packed it up and headed back to our room for the night.

Day 2:

The next day we get up plenty early, as have a tour of the Coloseum and Roman Forum at 9:00 a.m. We hike down and take a few pictures, and eventually meet up with our tour group. I'll use this opportunity to highly recommend Angel Tours in Rome – not only were both of our tour guides cute, but they also knew their stuff and kept things lively. Many of the other groups we saw (both at St. Peters and the Coloseum) looked bored to tears, which I had a serious fear of going into these tours.

First up is the Forum, which consists of lots of ruins of ancient Rome, much of it still intact. I'll let the pictures do the talking – there are lots of arches, buildings, and random awesome stuff strewn about. Nice.

After the Forum, we head to the Coloseum. It was nice (and huge – it sat over 70k people at one point). There is not tons to see here, other than the majesty of this stadium. Since we visited the Forum already, we got to skip the massive line for tickets. The coloseum is very cool, here are some pics:

After this we head towards P-something Hill, which we can also get into with our Forum/Coloseum ticket. We walk through Nero's Crypt and check out the House of Augustus, in addition to some amazing views from this hill.

By the time we're done with the hill, it's nearly 1 p.m. so we look for somewhere to eat – we make it a few blocks away from the Forum (and all its touristy restaurants) before finding a place – I get a procuitto and mushroom pizza, and it is excellent, though this could be just because I haven't eaten all day and had a terrible night of sleep the previous night.

After luch we continue down via San Giovanni (?) until we reach Piazza San Clemente, which unfortunately is closed for lunch when we get there. We continue down this street until we reach the Basilica of San Giovanni. It's wonderful inside, probably rivalling St. Peter's. Some pics:

After this, we head north on another street, the only street with trees and shade that we found in Rome. We are looking for St-something off of via Leopardo, but we cannot find it for some reason and continue on to San Magglio instead. Meh. It's the third giant church of the day, and also the least impressive. It gets 2 photos.

We head back to the b&b, nap for an hour, then decide to get a taxi and head for Piazza Navona, where Rick Steves promises us “nightlife.” We find a cab stand and get taken for a wild ride – not only was driving through Italy's narrow alleys harrowing, but the dude also ripped us off by giving us a flat rate to the Piazza (he charged 15 Euro, when the way home cost only 6 – oh well).

Piazza Navona was very nice – we wandered around the square for awhile, taking a picture of this statue which was being restored. Eventually we settled on a restuarant, and I had a Peroni and a plate of noodles stuffed with spinach. My mom had some tea and tiramisu.

Day 3: our last morning in Rome. We're regretting not staying one more day here, but that's okay – we missed a huge section of the city that I wanted to see during the day (namely the Pantheon and surrounding areas). Also, Rome is all about shopping, but since the exchange rate sucks, I don't really feel a need to drop a huge chunk of change on shoes or anything like that. We shall see.

Also, I totally found Napoleon Dynamite:

Florence Day 1 and 2

2008-09-14T04:12:00.002-05:00

More pics here.

Florence! Days 1 and 2

So you want to know about florence, eh? Well, I've got some pics to show you:

First off, no sleep on the plane ride over. Even took a melotonin on the plane. It was about a 8-hour flight (which left at 3 p.m. from the 612), followed by 3.5 hours in the Amsterdam airport, and 2 more hours to get to Florence, where we arrived at the crack of noon. Definitely feeling weird during these photos.

So we get in, we get the driving tour of the city, which is pretty insane what with the zillions of scooters everywhere.

Several hours of sleep is followed by a radtastic meal cooked by my cuz Aimee. Granted, you can cook anything in olive oil and I'll love it, but this was certainly a great start. Wine was consumed and catching up was caught.

Next day the 5 of us (Me, mom, Aimee and her two sons Cyrus and Griffin) go for a walk to check out the city. It's about a 10-minute walk, and it's raining. Apparently it's their first rain in several months, so I feel like this is a great blessing I have bestowed upon the city. May their crops grow so that the people of florence may feel filled with the joy of life!

Okay, just kidding, rain sucks, but it's not pouring or anything. I spent a lot of time talking to Cyrus on our walks. He's pretty into video games, which makes sense because most video games are pretty sweet. His favorite weapons of all time are the missile launcher and the sword. But only the swords that you can actually throw at people. I think he might want to be a bazooka when he grows up, but I haven't pinned this down yet. I'll ask tomorrow. His favorite game Graffiti Kingdom, which looks and smells like a bootleg / homebrew video game, but apparently its very real.

So we go to an open-air market...there's lots of stuff that I am strongly considering not purchasing. I succeed. One of the vendors is selling some sweet wooden weapons. Bows and arrows, swords, and slingshots are all tested before Cyrus decides on a rubber-band shooting gun. Being a few years older than his brother already gives him an unfair advantage, and on top of that, now he's armed. Sensing the road ahead could possibly be fraught with jealousy, my mom springs into action, procuring a similar weapon for the young Griffin. Of course, for the time being, I'm somehow required to keep the weapon from Griffin until the time is right. I finally feel like a gun-loving, god-fearing American once I tuck the piece beneath my XKCD hoodie.

We keep walking until we get to what apparently is a restaurant. Little do I know this is no ordinary restaurant:

That's right, my first real night in Florence and the place I'm going to eat dinner is featuring some unholy alliance between Bob Dylan and the Beatles. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but I'm promised the chef is famous. Unbeknowsnt to me, he actually passes by while we're waiting for Aimee to finish making our reservations:

A warning to younger readers – it is never okay to accept candy from strangers, unless this man happens to be handing out chocolate truffles.

Next up is Madmans Market. There might be approximately 5,000 butchers here, but I don't have any idea what they are selling. It's clearly meat, and the stuff that's laced with the most fat is obviously the most expensive. The kids are attracted to the anything dead that still has recognizable features – whole chickens, pig carcasses, eyeballs. I'm pulled to the air – the stench of butchered meat draws me in like some childhood memory I don't want to turn away from. Unrelated: I have the same problem with the smell of gasoline. What gives? We go upstairs and buy some raspberries, blackberries, and pistachios. There are some cute girls here, but every time one gets close, my mom either makes me pose for a photo or Cyrus tells me that Han Solo is is favorite Lego Indiana Jones character (seriously!). I love the guy, but he's definitely not cut out for the role of wingman.

We head for a huge toy store. I secretly wish I was little again so it would seem even bigger, but its closing in 5 minutes for lunch so I avoid getting wrapped up in this fantasy. Instead, I squeeze a whoopee cushion. It sounds like a fart, and farts are funny!

We get sandwiches for lunch. Mine involves a half-loaf of bread and salami and cheese. Not bad. Note to self: eat more fatty/salty meats. Turkey is served once a year for a reason, and it belongs on sandwiches only during that weekend following Thanksgiving.

We hit up a gelato shop. I'm feeling devious and combine BANANA AND LEMON. You can't say you saw that coming. It's really good, but I'm still not into sweets. The force-feeding will continue until appetite improves.

We trudge back home, as everyone probably needs a break. I take a nap and put on my fancy socks since we're going out to dinner. Aimee's husband Eric is also home now, after returning from leading a small battalion of 6th graders into some Roman mines. Eric is napping and does not seem willing to discuss the total amount of ore extracted, and I don't care enough push the subject.

Dinner is ridiculous! Fa real, son! Off the hook. It's pretty much cafeteria-style – you walk in, grab a table, fill up your own wine glass, and head for this big table which is loaded with a bunch of different antipasto. Right behind this table is the giant kitchen, which you can watch different things being prepared.

Now, the food is phenomenal, but the best part is that every few minutes, the head chef yells out to everyone what is about to be added to the table. Of course, he yells this in Italian, and so I have no idea what he says so I just look around and see how many people drop what they're doing to get this new dish – it doesn't often last long, but since we had so many people at our table I got to try almost everything that was brought out. Clams, pesto pasta, a fairly spicy pasta, etc. You keep eating food and drinking wine and eventually dessert of coffee gelato (and the most awesome chocolate truffle-type things I've ever eaten) shows up, singaling the end of your meal.

Immediately tables are cleared and hauled off, and everyone moves their chairs to face the stage. Yes, this is billed as Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Needless to say, it wasn't very good. I will spare you a scathing review.

First of all, I know that classic Americana is not for me. Some of their bands covered include Cat Stevens, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, the Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.

It's like 2 a.m. local time as I finish writing this anyway, so I really should just go to bed. More soon - arrivederci!

Oh!

2008-09-11T10:39:00.003-05:00

And if I don't have your address, your postcard will probably be severely delayed. Send it to me via email or blog comment or carrier pigeon.

Italy bound

2008-09-09T23:41:00.002-05:00

If you didn't know, I'm headed out to Italy on Thursday. Yes, I am excited. Keep an eye on this spot for some mad blogging (and photo) action. In addition, my mom has started a blog (or a "blogspot" as she adorably calls it). It's called Gophers in Italy - my cousins that we will be staying with (from a nice, albeit inferior state) have an existing blog called Badgers in Italy.

Over 9000 props to Katrina for taking care of Phyllis while I'm away, too!

Today's report

2008-09-05T10:24:00.004-05:00

A simple graphic showing proposed tax cuts under Obama and McCain plans. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure of any of McCain's "plans". I know he's for drilling in ANWAR - is that the only issue that he speaks of which resonates with voters?

EDIT: Of course, Shoals has a new piece up today on the very same line of thought - McCain's rocking his own cult of personality pretty hard to make up for his lack of policy specifics...

Also, here's Amy Goodman's article on her arrest at the RNC protests.

Last thing: here's some nifty insight by Mario Elie into the life of Hakeen Olajuwon. I didn't really realize how religious he was - not even breaking Ramadan during the season...that's getting up at the crack of dawn, eating, working out, then playing a game, and not eating again until sundown.

Best recap

2008-09-04T10:17:00.002-05:00

Missed last night's big speeches due to Serena/Venus or the Twins heartbreaking loss or the desire to not want to gouge your ears out? Yeah, me too. So you're probably thinking you can catch up with a combination of mainstream media and political blogs, right? WRONG. You need to catch up on the greatest basketball blog going:

Great. That woman knows her family's names, is a friend of parents with retarded children, went to high school, is a bitch (sorry, "pitbull with lipstick"), hates a media that's refused to let her write her own script, and hates community organizers. That was Palin's "star is born" turn—one that proved, incidentally, that with enough applause lines, and rabid reaction that turns most of the other lines into applause lines, anyone can give a cohesive speech. Like using your baptism to pass a swim test. Bush is an imbecile, but at least he had a smart father. There's nothing here. A trashy hockey mom and her sidekick, the shell of a major political figure running on his ability to withstand torture. Which, if that's the measure of character, says a hell of a lot about our enemies in the war on terror.

These people are vindictive, small-minded, stupid, arrogant, lazy, and manipulative liars. How they can be so hateful, venomous, and foolhardy, and then blast the Dems for not respecting them, is beyond me. I could give a fuck less about them, no matter how small their towns are, how virtuous they are, or how much they value weaponry (which I am currently stocking up on, thank you very much). Nor do I have any sympathy for someone out a job, or low on gas money, or having problems with insurance, if those speeches didn't repel them.

Geeks only

2008-09-02T09:57:00.004-05:00

There's a new browser. A Google Browser. Here's the comic book explanation. WARNING: VERY LENGTHY. More later.

EDIT: Update - it's full of great ideas. Many of the stability issues that people have with web browsers can be fixed by using the firefox plugin NoScript, which turns off Javascript except for sites you specifically allow...of course, this means you rarely crash or get malware installed, but it also means you miss out on lots of cool stuff on the web! Anyway, Google Chrome isn't available until 1:00 p.m. today (CST), so I'll have to occupy myself until then somehow.

And yes, at first it will be "just a browser" but it really gives developers better flexibility so I expect this to have its greatest impact long-term.

Fantasy Football

2008-08-29T14:36:00.003-05:00

Seriously - these vids by Reebok are awesome (and yes, heavily "edited" if you catch my drift). Here's one of the players I have on my fantasy team, Chris Chambers of the Chargers...it's only 30 seconds long, so just watch it already:

Cutting costs

2008-08-20T16:13:00.001-05:00

Just a pile of list on how to frugalize your life.

Diebold

2008-08-15T09:57:00.003-05:00

It's true - if there is a need for antivirus software on your voting machines...you really need to go back to the drawing board.

Randoms

2008-08-14T14:47:00.004-05:00

Many of these links via mefi:

Cool photography of Afghanistan, 1970s through present.

Cheap things to do in the summer.

Single MST3k episodes can be downloaded from this site.

This day in history...someone was executed. Updated daily.

Yes, pacemakers can be hacked.

Calculate the solar potential of your roof.

This is pretty good at recommending new (mainstreamish) music.

Symmetrical photography from flickr - just click it and see.

This is a cool music idea - you buy songs, and as more people buy it, the "early adopters" get paid. Or something.

Digg

2008-08-11T09:58:00.003-05:00

So I usually check Digg once a day just in case I missed out on some story or conspiracy theory or to find out what Steve Jobs ate for breakfast. But this morning, I found this gem. Who knows why? Fugazi still owns though.

Malls and stealing

2008-08-08T10:39:00.002-05:00

Most links in this post come, directly or indirectly, from bb.

Okay, of course those two words (stealing and malls) are not related, but let's start with the second - stealing. 20 things I've stolen:

1. I took an extra napkin from a Taco Bell for unspecified use “later.”
2. I sat on a bench on a hot day, enjoying the breeze as the man next to me fanned himself.
3. I read the headlines of a newspaper that was for sale in a kiosk box.
4. I divided a single-serving DingDong in two, and had it for dessert on two consecutive days.
5. I listened all the way through to a Metallica song emanating from my neighbor’s radio, but closed my window when the commercial came on.

I personally think the future of malls is pretty interesting - they will either transform or become the abandoned buildings our grandchildren explore.

And I can't link to it due to the intentionally archaic nature of deadmalls.com, but there's some cool stories about closed malls in Minnesota, such as Bandana Square and Knollwood Mall. I guess Knollwood Mall still technically exists, it just doesn't draw like it used to. I can distinctly remember begging my mom to take me to Knollwood for the baseball card shows they had on the weekends, and then getting annoyed when it turned out that she'd rather go to Kohls.

Very Impressive, Mr. Franken

2008-08-05T11:45:00.003-05:00

Whatever you may think of Al Franken, you have to give the man props for drawing the United States freehand at a fundraiser. Check out these three photos (photos under CC-license by KCivey):

I don't get it either

2008-08-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, Senator Ted Stevens was indicted by federal prosecutors for failing to report gifts he had received from an oil company to help him renovate his Alaskan home. The charges were not a surprise, though official Washington mustered its collective, and requisite outrage. Senators Dole and Sununu were quick to return campaign contributions from the now-tainted Stevens. Editorials across the nation were quick to condemn the obvious graft targeted by the government.

But I confess, I don't get it. Not that I don't see the wrong in what Stevens has done. That's obvious. What's not obvious to me is why this wrong is so different from everything else that DC thinks is right.

Quick Notes

2008-07-30T13:11:00.002-05:00

Can you pass a Barack Obama final? (original NYTimes article)

Uncyclopedia can be really really funny.

Great article on sports psychology written in 1965 by Bill Russell. The man has style.

Scrabble sees Scrabulous as a Risk to their Monopoly

2008-07-29T15:45:00.004-05:00

No, I didn't come up with that catchy title, but I wish I had. So there's no more Scrabulous. Sort of. Despite what *think* you may have learned in the past few years, FACEBOOK IS NOT THE INTERNET. (hint: you can play here) Yes, I know playing through Facebook is *so* much easier, and I now really have zero reason to ever visit Facebook again.

So these developers took a 60-year-old game, made a better online version than even Hasbro did, and get sued. You know what I might consider doing if I were Hasbro? Getting these people to develop more web games for you. Or maybe I'd at least agree not to sue them if they shared some of their ad revenue. And especially because your own application happens to completely SUCK. I mean, who would not want Facebook versions of Risk, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Axis and Allies, Clue, etc. That's as close to a gold mine as you're going to get (in terms of online ad impressions, anyway). You're taking a social-networking site where you can already fine-tune your ads, and you're forcing users to visit your page (containing the game) everytime it's their turn. But instead of this, you'd rather just discourage everyone from improving on your game? Good riddance!

I haven't read any legal complaints, but at face value this appears to be a trademark issue, not a copyright issue. You can't copyright a game. Even this NYTimes blog entry is confused (and hence confusing - for example it claims they are suing under the DMCA, though the DMCA does not cover trademark).

Also, this takedown could just be part of a rebranding - scrabulous could come back, just under "new ownership" as part of a settlement.

EDIT: Finally found the actual complaint - more later.

New Simon's Cat!

2008-07-29T15:05:00.001-05:00

TV Dinner

Spam King update

2008-07-25T13:29:00.002-05:00

So, erm, we all remember that story I posted yesterday about the Spam King escaping from minimum security prison right? Well, that story has a pretty sad ending.

Iron Mike's Mansion

2008-07-24T11:40:00.002-05:00

3 posts in one day! What is this, 2007? Not sure if these are real or not, but I really love photos of abandoned stuff - anyway, this appears to be Mike Tyson's mansion...

Knol

2008-07-24T10:27:00.002-05:00

Also, Google launched a "Wikipedia rival" though I don't think it's really that. It's closer to wikihow at this point, and it's called Knol. It just launched, and it looks like most of the articles are health-related, but it has the one thing that Wikipedia doesn't - a rating system! Seriously, I've been waiting for Wikipedia to do something like that for a long time, and it really makes sense considering the volume of traffic...

Spam King on the loose!

2008-07-24T10:23:00.003-05:00

Thank heavens! I hadn't seen any spam in my inbox in months, so I figured something was up. Thank goodness the "Spam King" escaped federal prison. Now the free market can decide who really has the cheapest c14Li5 and v14gr@. He really should be hoping the cops find him before the internet does...it would probably turn out like that scene from "Thank You for Smoking" where they grab him off the street and cover him in nicotine patches in the back of a van.

The decline of the dollar

2008-07-21T10:25:00.002-05:00

Okay, economics has finally bled into sports enough for me to cover this topic. There are some very good players who could definitely play in the NBA, but will be playing in europe this year instead. Why? Cash money (and more playing time). Josh Childress, a player for the Atlanta Hawks, is considering signing a 3-year, $20 million dollar deal (I'm pretty sure that's in U.S. dollars, not 20 million Euros) to play in Greece. The best part - thanks to the NBA's salary cap, there's almost no team that could possibly offer him that much money.

On top of that, tax rules are different for athletes over there, and I believe they actually pay less in taxes than they would in the states.

One of the best high school prospects recently announced he will be playing overseas as well. Brandon Jennings couldn't declare for the NBA draft (high-schoolers are no longer allowed, and he didn't have the SAT scores to get into college), so he signed a contract to play for an Italian squad.

What's this all mean? Unfortunately it's likely that the quality of play will decline in the NBA for the time being. It's the quality role players and glue guys who will most likely get squeezed out rather than the superstars, who will always make boatloads of money. It's too bad, as it's often those guys who set up the amazing plays and contribute the most to winning teams.

A guy like James Posey, for example, will not take the mid-level exception (as he did this year) in a few years. Posey plays great defense, can knock down shots, gets hustle plays and has won 2 championship rings in the last 3 years. In terms of dollars, he makes 1/4 of K.G.'s salary. He probably got some offers to play overseas, but he's staring down the barrel of a wonderful NBA legacy right now.

Alright, gotta split.

Today's Word of the Day

2008-07-14T10:58:00.003-05:00

Moral Hazard

A moral hazard is when something within a market economy acts in a non-rational way because it feels that it is protected from normal risks. For example, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are allowed to be more reckless with their money because they are such large pillars of our housing sector that other sectors of our economy could not afford to see them crash. Since these two do not have to bear responsibility for their poor financial decisions, they are free to make even larger mistakes in the future.

Nice

2008-07-10T09:50:00.000-05:00

octo-pied building by *FilthyLuker on deviant ART

NBA draft

2008-06-26T15:19:00.003-05:00

OH MAN. It's draft time, fools. One of my favorite nights of the year. When new life is blown into the lungs of dying franchises. This year, there are a million rumors flying around. The Wolves have the #3 overall pick, and 2 out of the first four picks in the second round. Those second-round picks are pretty valuable, since players who sign them do not have to sign a contract according to the rookie scale (where place in the first-round determines your salary).

I've really got some high hopes for this draft. Not sure what's going to happen, but this year there are about 35-40 high-quality players, so I'm thinking we'll end up with 1 guy who will definitely make the roster and maybe one or two who might play overseas for a year or two. Heck, we might even trade down in the draft and get an established player as well. Exciting times for an nba fan...

Dead Squirrels

2008-06-24T09:59:00.001-05:00

They smell, especially when they die right outside your window. Die somewhere else next time! I guess I'm lucky I found it though, eh?