Stained Glass
Monday, October 15, 2007
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
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