Friday, October 12, 2007
Hollywood Tom
This is my friend form High School. HE does have one of the coolest jobs ever, he sits in a folding chair by the dugout, and tackles drunk fools, that run onto Fenway.
Hollywood Tom - Has The Coolest Job Ever
Toilet-Shaped House
Published October 11th, 2007 in Architecture
The Toilet-Shaped House has a very unique design, and was built by Sim Jae-duck, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association, and he hopes his toilet house will highlight the global need for better sanitation.. The Toilet-Shaped house is in fact named Haewoojae, which signifies in Korean “a place of sanctuary where one can solve one’s worries“. Sim Jae-duck will open what is billed as the world’s one and only toilet house on November 11 to mark the launch of his World Toilet Association.
The steel, white concrete and glass house, with a symbolic opening in the roof, will be ready to receive visitors next month, said the World Toilet Association in a statement. The house is a 419sq m structure with two bedrooms, two guestrooms and other rooms, the two-storey house of course features three deluxe toilets. Unlike the giant “toilet” in which they are located, they will not be see-through affairs. If you would like to visit this house you can go to Sim Jae-duck native city of Suweon, 40km south of Seoul.
Sports: Is A-Rod Worth $1 Billion? It Might Not Be As Crazy As It Sounds
Well, that didn't take long. When the New York Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs Monday night, the baseball season, for all intents and purposes, ended.
Forget the battle between Arizona and Colorado, in an NLCS that promises to draw about twelve viewers east of the Rockies. Not to mention those upstart Indians -- who took down the Yanks -- or a Red Sox team that seems the clear favorite to win its second World Series in four seasons.
No, the story in baseball is now all about one man. One agent, to be exact, who seems to believe he is the first in history to represent a deity.
Scott Boras, the high-powered agent for several stars including Yankees third-baseman Alex Rodriguez, is already pushing up his asking price should A-Rod decide to opt out of his contract.
As CNBC's Darren Rovell reported yesterday on his sports business blog, Boras believes A-Rod is worth at least $500 million over the next 10 years. That's almost double his current $252 million deal, which was signed after the 2000 season and remains the most expensive in baseball history.
My initial reaction was that Boras must be out of his mind. But Rovell got him on the phone later in the day and came away impressed by his logic. Basically, he says, team-owned regional sports networks have changed baseball's economic landscape:
Before A-Rod, the YES Network never did better than a 3.2 rating. Since A-Rod came to the team, the network has seen its ratings rise to a record 4.7 this season. Since no significant position player has been acquired since Rodriguez joined the Yankees in 2004, Boras says he can contribute the ratings rise -- as well as the turnstile rise, by the way -- to his client being on the team……YES, which was given an initial value of $850 million upon launch in 2001 is now said to be worth about $3 billion.
While I remain dubious that A-Rod is the sole reason for the network's growth -- afterall, YES had only existed for two seasons when A-Rod arrived in New York -- Boras makes a compelling argument. If one marquee player can have a dramatic impact on an RSN's ratings, then isn't he worth whatever the ratings boost brings in advertising revenues? From a purely economic perspective, I can't say that he's not.
That said, I don't like the implications of Boras' logic. Team-owned regional sports networks should generate revenue to help support a winning team, not the other way around. And despite the potential to grow an RSN, signing A-Rod to an earth-shattering deal isn't the best way to put a successful product on the field.
Just look at the Yankees. They lost because they couldn't pitch; their go-to guy, Chien-Ming Wang, lasted exactly one inning in Monday's season-ending loss. Now consider that the four teams still alive in the playoffs have five pitchers between them who won at least 17 games this season, and that those five guys made a total of $21,054,167 in 2007 -- even less than A-Rod ($27 million) in his current deal. As far as wins and losses go, especially come playoff time, there are clearly better ways for a team to spend its money.
In the end, Scott Boras has always valued the biggest deal over championships. But A-Rod already has the biggest deal in history. If he really wants a ring to cement his place as the Greatest Of All-Time, he should be careful about how high he lets his agent go.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
New, Full Length Golden Compass Trailer!
October 10, 2007
Source: Yahoo
by Alex Billington
By now you've heard about The Golden Compass, but are you excited to see it? This new, full length 3 minute trailer is long, epic, and exciting. It's obvious New Line is going 100% all-out, sparing no expense, hoping this will be the next Lord of the Rings. Like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter before it, The Golden Compass has a fairly strong fan base that will drive its hype more and more leading up to it. What it will all come down to is if the film delivers as much as enjoyment the trailer does. Can filmmaker Chris Weitz pull it off?
I suggest you also watch the previous Golden Compass teaser trailer from May as well. After watching the new trailer below, I'm very excited and definitely looking forward to it. I know it's going to be entertaining and enjoyable completely, I'm just not sure it can live up to Lord of the Rings. That's a very hard one to top in my book.
Please be patient and let the trailer fully load - it's a long trailer and the file size is big!
Watch the trailer for The Golden Compass:
You can also watch the Jimmy Carter Man from Plains trailer in High Definition at Yahoo
The Golden Compass is both written and directed by Chris Weitz, who has only directed Down to Earth and About a Boy previously. The Golden Compass is originally based on a series of books by Philip Pullman. The film will hit screens everywhere this winter on December 7th. The newest poster is featured below as well.
Beefalo
http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=157835&catId=230
Beefalo, a healthy alternative to beef
July 10th, 2007
You might see it on store shelves and think it's a joke. It looks like cattle and tastes similar to beef, but that's only about half the story. Some Northwest ranchers are promoting beefalo as an alternative to what's for dinner. Ed Muir explains
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows
With the fall television schedule in full swing, many of us are back in the habit of plopping down in front of the tube at night to catch the latest installment of our favorite show when it's scheduled to air. That means clearing your schedule to watch the show and then sitting in front of the TV for a whole hour just for 43 minutes' worth of programming. That doesn't seem very productive, does it? Luckily, this viewing season there are more ways than ever to catch the latest episodes of your best-loved shows without becoming a slave to the prime-time television schedule. So forget the fall lineup as you know it, because this year you're going to watch TV on your terms.
1. Stream Your Favorite Shows Over the Internet
Most major US television networks have all embraced full-episode streaming online through embedded flash video players on their homepages. Some of the content requires you to jump through a few network hoops—like commercial interruptions and the like—but these streaming episodes direct from the source provide one of the easiest and quickest ways to find and watch a recent episode of a television show. In fact, ABC is even streaming episodes in HD.The main limitation of streaming episodes is that you're subject to the whims of the network, meaning that not all new shows are streamed and often content isn't available immediately. Once the show you're looking for is made available, though, it's there for you—on demand—whenever you want it (provided you have a high-speed internet connection). You can find the big three networks' shows here:
Additionally, you can always find tons of shows and clips on sites like YouTube or one of several other online sources, but I won't go into much depth on that here—especially since there's enough content there to warrant its own feature.
2. Roll Your Own DVR and Watch TV on Your Time
It's never been easier to turn your current or old computer into a dedicated digital video recorder with which you can schedule, record, and watch your favorite television shows—and none of these methods require any sort of pricey monthly subscription. There are tons of great media center apps, the most popular of which are Windows Media Center (XP or Vista), SageTV, BeyondTV, GBPVR, MediaPortal, and MythTV.We're partial to Windows Media Center and SageTV, and if you're looking to get started in this direction, we can help you out:
Windows Media Center:
SageTV:
3. Find Your Faves on BitTorrent
Whether the show you're looking for isn't available for streaming through your browser, you want files you can watch when you're not connected to the internet, or you're looking for a higher quality, commercial-free experience, you can find just about any show—popular or not—available for download with BitTorrent. If you're new to BitTorrent and don't exactly understand how to get started, we've got you covered. First, check out our Beginner's Guide to BitTorrent. Once you get the basics down, check out our Intermediate Guide.To really streamline your BitTorrent TV downloads so that your BitTorrent client grabs the latest shows as soon as they're available, you can either use your BitTorrent client's built-in RSS downloader or simplify the process with torrent episode downloader (ted) (Windows/Mac/Linux) or TVShows (Mac only).
4. Watch On-Demand Content with Joost
Joost is a cross platform (Windows/Mac), freeware television streaming application. By partnering with different network and cable content providers, Joost provides very high quality, on-demand streams of a wide range of shows, from CSI to Aqua Teen Hunger Force (the list grows regularly). For a closer look, check out our screenshot tour of Joost. Even better, Joost just dropped their invite-only requirement, so if you haven't tried it yet, now's your chance.5. Do It All with Miro
The cross platform, open source video application Miro (previously Democracy) is sort of a mashup of several of the options described above. Not only does Democracy handle BitTorrent downloads (it's pretty good for season-passing your favorite shows), but it also handles video podcasts, YouTube videos, and virtually any video you download to your computer. Miro started off slow but is constantly improving, and is certainly a viable tool for finding, downloading, and watching your favorite shows.6. Tape It Off the Internet
Previously mentioned web site Tape It Off the Internet (TIOTI) is an online television aggregator of sorts, allowing you to search for a show you want to watch and then offering several different options for viewing it. For example, if you're looking for the latest episode of Heroes, TIOTI may provide you with one link to a streaming online video of the episode, another link to a torrent to download the episode, or an additional link to buy it in iTunes—among other helpful information like episode summaries. If you've got a preferred method of streaming or downloading your favorite shows (for example, you really like BitTorrent), TIOTI probably isn't the first place you want to go. But if you've had trouble finding a show using other methods, you might get lucky and find a link that'll take you to the episode you're looking for at TIOTI.Other Resources
I tried to keep the options I listed above in the free realm, but you can, of course, also download shows for a price. iTunes sells tons of shows (that you can only play on your iPod or in iTunes), and Netflixing a season of a show you're into is always a good option. The methods mentioned above are listed no particular order, but they do vary in several ways. For complete ease of use, method one (Stream Your Favorite Shows Over the Internet) probably wins out. In terms of flexibility and complete control, method 2 (roll your own DVR) and method 3 (BitTorrent) are tops. Let's hear your favorite non-traditional way to catch your favorite shows in the comments.Laughing German midget
In case you couldnt tell by the title, this video is of a laughing German midget. This kind of video is exactly why Al Gore invented the internet.
Laughing German Midget - Watch more free videos
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
15 Ridiculously Useful Websites
by Garrett B Santos, Oct 6, 2007
A diverse list of useful websites to make life a little easier.Crossfit
A free fitness website that posts a new "Workout of the Day" every day. The workouts focus on total body fitness. The workouts are used by military personnel, athletes, and normal people. The site also contains an index of the exercises used in the workouts complete with videos and slideshows. They offer a newsletter for those willing to pay. It is an outstanding site for both fitness gurus and average Joes.Lonely Planet
This site offers, among other things, an outstanding resource for anyone researching travel destinations.Retail Me Not
A catalog of online coupons posted and reviewed by users. The coupons vary from sites like Polo to Amazon to Papajohns.Web MD
Provides a reference for anyone looking to diagnose his or her symptoms or research medical issues. It is a good place to visit before making that, oh so expensive, trip to the doctor.Epicurious
A source of cooking information ranging from recipes to techniques to restaurant reviews.E-How
A reference site for just about everything else. Want to k now how to wax snow skis? Make pizza dough? Install a bathtub? This is the place.Kayak
Combines search results from several different travel websites and presents them in a very user-friendly interactive format.Bartleby
One of the better academic research websites I've come across.Monster Jobs
Looking for a job? Need a resume?How Stuff Works
A very cool website that contains explanations of those mysteries in life that you just can't figure out. A few examples are Murphy's Law, Pickpockets, and Light Sabers (Yes, light sabers).Product Wiki
A wikipedia-type product review website. All reviews and articles are written and updated by the site's users.What Should I Read Next
Can't decide what to read next? Simply enter a book title and/or author that you like and the site will recommend a number of books for you.The Universal Packing List
This is a very unique website I found that creates a packing list for you based on information you provide regarding your trip and intentions/plans.Happy Median
Enter your location and a friend's location and this site will tell you where you should meet (Halfway).Musicovery
Seriously, the coolest music-related site I've seen. You choose the mood, intensity, and genres of the music you would like to hear and the site will provide you with a virtual web of music to explore. The web evolves with each choice you make. You can click on any song in the web at anytime.
How fast is Fast?
This video shows how devastating the Bugatti Veyron is compared to the 500,000 dollar 626hp Mercedes SLR one of the top three fastest production cars behind the Veyron.
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