Thursday, February 28, 2013

Farts

Interesting study on human flatulence. The main take-away is that women's farts are actually smellier than men's farts but because men are generally larger - they produce more volume of gas. Plus I think guys are programmed to "let er rip" more so than  women.

The study was from 1998. Since then science has come out with activated charcoal underwear.  I guess noise cancelling underwear will be next.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Goats yelling like humans.

I laughed much more than I should have.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Thursday, February 14, 2013

The Making of Pulp Fiction

Excellent history looking back on the making of Pulp Fiction.

It is strange to think of Quentin Tarintino as a functional illiterate who watched a ton of movies but that's almost how he's painted in this article. There's something engrossing to the story of a movie script so great that everyone who reads it is determined to be a part of it.

Worth the read for any movie fan worth his salt.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Yesterday was John Kruk's birthday - which only served as a reminder how one man turned exactly 100 MLB HR and being a slob into a full-time ESPN gig... The surprising origin of high heels... People making the point that AL West teams feasting off the ineptitude of the Astros will really give them a leg up in the Wild Card race. The AL East may have the best teams but that only means probably only the Division Champ will make the playoffs... Inappropriate ad placements...  Brandon Webb just retired. Baseball-reference.com list Tim Lincecum and Cole Hamels as the two most similar pitchers. That should give Giants and Phillies fans something to worry about... Some rules are absolute - yoga pants are for women ONLY!...

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Steroids in Baseball

I've long held the belief that testing for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is not enough. Those programs try to weed out the cheaters which is fine but other than losing the service of those cheaters - the teams that sign them don't suffer at all (they don't even have to pay those players during drug suspensions).

What I'd suggest is simple - while a player is suspended the team also loses his active 25-man roster slot. Make the team play shorthanded. Make them feel some pain. Give them another reason to think twice about signing a player they have suspicions about. Imagine having to go into the World Series down a roster slot to your competition?

Of course this would never happen because the teams don't want to feel that pain and the players association doesn't want to lose that roster spot either.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

A Modest Proposal

The United States is $16 trillion in debt. That is unsustainable but even worse - that number continues to grow. With the news that is now OK for the President to target Americans abroad via drone attacks - why not use this new approval to help solve the debt problem?

The US government could sell television rights for all drone attacks. That could raise millions upon millions of dollars. The winning network could use the exclusive to bolster prime-time viewing. Breaking in with no notice for 15-minute Death from the Skies specials. Viewers would have to keep tuned in to the network as to not miss any live gruesome details.

If the money from the broadcast rights was not enough then the government could run quarterly "auctions" where people could bid on the target of their choice. The winning bid and target would be secret until the mission was complete. The government would have 90-days to complete the hit or have to return half the money. The name of the target would then be made public so they might have incentive to win the next auction (driving up the price and driving down the debt!).

This could also drive all sorts of accompanying business. For instance the folks from Code Pink could rent themselves out as human shields like they did for Saddam Hussein before the first Iraq War.

This idea has potential.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Budweiser Upside-down Clown



My favorite Super Bowl commercial of all-time. It only ran once because it was so disturbing (and funny).

My numbers today are Baltimore 2 and San Fran 5 - which is my way of saying I have no chance to win my pool.

Saturday, February 02, 2013

Dolph Lundgren - Awesome



Dolph Lundgren is awesome in this video. Such a talented guy.

Seriously. Dolph Lundgren - talented guy.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Is it bad that when I heard of the passing of Ed Koch my first thought was that Abe Vigoda had outlived another one... The Geico commercial with the pretty girl interested in going parking with the baby pig is perhaps the most disturbing thing on TV. But as a silver lining at least she wasn't parking with the Geico caveman... Wow - NYC Mayor Ed Koch put Daniel Pearl's last words on his gravestone... Loved the premiere episode of The Americans but I kept confusing Matthew Rhys with James McAvoy who played Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class... This was one of the funniest moments from 30 Rock... The Red Sox picking Ryan Kalish over Josh Reddick isn't exactly like picking Tim Naehring over Jeff Bagwell but it isn't good either... Stop it evolution - you're embarrassing yourself...

Baseball's Groundhog Month

Today may be Groundhog Day but February is Groundhog month as far as baseball is concerned.

Starting around this time of year you can count on 6 weeks of stories concerning Scott Boras talking about mystery teams interested in in remaining free agent clients. So start getting used to stories about Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse and Rafael Soriano having interest from un-named teams. Also get used to stories about 10-year MLB veterans talking about coming to camp in the best shape of their lives.

Every single year.

Groundhog month all over again.

Friday, February 01, 2013

Red Sox Managers as James Bond Actors

I was thinking the other day that if Terry Francona was a James Bond actor he'd be Sean Connery. He's the bar for which all subsequent Boston managers will be measured. Red Sox fans are waiting to see if John Farrell can handle the role as Boston manager as well as a Roger Moore or a Pierce Brosnan or a Daniel Craig handled the Bond role. Everyone hopes he's not going to be a Timothy Dalton (though to be fair to Dalton - I've liked him in everything he's done except Bond movies).

Of course there's no question that Bobby Valentine was the George Lazenby of Red Sox managers. A one year mistake that is best left forgotten.