Star Trek: TNG

Enjoy you weekend! (more here)

Media Circus

I have come to a rather obvious conclusion. The media is out of control on all fronts. This may seem obvious to everyone, but take a look at how they are actually affecting our world. Every once in a while, I've got to let one of these rants fly to try to keep my sanity.

Sports
They have ruined sports by covering every team with 27 reporters 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There just isn't that much news to report, so they just make shit up! Good trades are often ruined because of media leaks. Dissension between owners, players, managers and fans is brewed by talk radio idiots. The constant coverage feeds the egos of athletes and creates embarrassments like TO, Manny and A-Rod. ESPN makes up the news with "Original Programming." Networks buy events and then use their influence to hype said event unfairly. ESPN can influence voters in college football to set up BCS games which they cover.

Politics
They have ruined politics in the exact same way. There is such a frenzy to scoop other reporters and break a story that facts are rarely checked - even on the primetime network nightly news shows - remember Dan Rather? Accusations fly as big headlines and when proven wrong are rarely retracted or corrected. The liberal bias is an added twist. Check out this website about a new documentary named, "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted." Don't buy the DVD or anything, but the trailer alone is scary. It proves with interviews and video what we all suspected during the 2008 election. Scary stuff.

Science
The global warning issue that Kevin brought up set me off today for this post. The media attention to this non-issue is actually driving the science. Actual facts and data are disregarded as conservative propaganda because they don't support the supposedly "obvious" truth that we are creating a global Armegeddon with our greenhouse gases and polar ice-cap melting ways!

Entertainment
The Oscars last week cemented what I had always known deep down inside. Movies are made and rewarded based upon their political message, not the merits of the film or the acting. This is why the same political speeches are uttered at all the lame awards shows. This is why Al Gore and Sean Penn get Oscars. This is why certain actors/actresses get blackballed from the industry or shut out of awards again and again. Think the Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would ever give Frank Langella an Oscar for playing hated GOP president Richard Nixon with some degree of sympathy? No way. Give it to the movie about gay politician who supports gay marriage.

Religion
Another pet peave. You know it was Darwin's 200th birthday last week. CNN published a big story online about the opinions on Darwin today. Read this link and weep. They actually did a very scientific poll through Gallop evaluating people's beliefs concerning Evolution. A quick summary of the results:

• 39% of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution"
• 25% do not believe in evolution
• 36% have no opinion either way

This was last month. An older Gallop poll also cited in the article from 2008 had these gems:

• 14% of Americans believe that humans developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life
  
• 44% believe that God created human beings almost overnight within the past 10,000 years
  
• 36% believe that God guided humans' evolution from animals over a much longer period of time

I weep for our nation.

Waterworld

No, I'm not putting in a post praising the movie (though I did like it). I was reading an article on Yahoo about how Antarctica's Western Glacier is melting and how seas levels are going to rise, and I wanted to do some fact finding. I went online and found the following article about the likelihood and consequences of all the world's ice melting.

It's backed up by sources, and generally does a good job of making fun of people making outrageous claims such as: 1) Scientology is a religion, 2) French people are industrious, 3) Intelligent Design and 4) we're all going to drown in 10 years when the human-caused global warming melts all the Earth's ice and causes flash floods and tsunamis everywhere!

Just a little food for thought, and few cool 'what-if' pictures. Oh, and Ted and Ali, good job getting out of New Orleans. Those of you in DC and Florida, you'd better hope those wackos aren't right!

NFL Draft Inanity

I've been following the NFL combine the past few days thanks to NFL Network HD and I must say, it's a total joke. They make such a huge deal out of 3 hundredths of a second in a 40-yd dash like it's the end of the world, then they show a video with competitors superimposed over one another and there's absolutely no discernible difference between a guy running 4.38 and 4.45. Yet because some a-hole scout or talking head harps about it, those 7 hundredths of a second can determine some kid's entire future - even though it's probably immaterial to his ability to succeed in the NFL.

Let's take a look at two separate combine participants, both DBs - Vontae Davis of Illinois (a highly touted, top-of-the-class prospect heading into the draft) and David Bruton of Notre Dame (best case - good NFL special teams player). Here's what SI.com had to say about Davis after yesterday's DB workouts...

Vontae Davis/CB/Illinois: Davis measured 5-foot-11 and 203 pounds upon arriving at the combine then completed 25 reps on the bench, a big number for a cornerback. He was fast Tuesday and clocked both of his 40-yard-dashes in the mid 4.3-second range [ed: he didn't, see below]. Davis then showed a lot of skill during defensive back drills, displaying the ability to quickly backpedal and flip his hips. NFL scouts still have questions about his character but Davis cemented himself as one of the most physically gifted cornerbacks available in April's draft.

And here's what they had to say about Bruton...

...

Yeah, nothing at all on Bruton. Now let's take a look at how they actually performed in the combine, courtesy of NFL.com (DNP = Did Not Place in NFL.com's top performers list).

40-yd Dash: Bruton 4.46, Davis 4.49
Bench Press: Davis 25, Bruton DNP
Vertical Jump: Bruton 41.5, Davis DNP
Broad Jump: Bruton 11'0", Davis DNP
3-cone Drill: Bruton 6.60, Davis 6.75
20-yd Shuttle: Davis 4.07, Bruton DNP
60-yd Shuttle: Bruton 10.96, Davis DNP

Bruton consistently outperformed Davis and got zero credit. The knock on Bruton is that he's too big (believe it or not) and can't keep up with wide receivers. Yet Bruton's results consistently matched, or were better than, the top wide receiver and tight end participants - the very people he will be going up against on future Sundays.

The NFL combine is a freaking merciless meat market. All your past accolades during actual competition are ignored, which is ridiculous. If you come in with high expectations, people are just looking to tear you down. If you come in with low expectations, you're more than likely to leave with the same. It's a place where reputations are very easily destroyed, but rarely made. And it does a discredit to anyone participating by throwing out years of evidence about their ability to succeed and replacing that with 2 hours of under-the-microscope analysis.

Mashed Potatoes!

Enjoy your weekend!

Ahhhh! Nooooooo!

The following was posted by Trent Reznor at NIN.com yesterday...

In NIN world, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of our first releases. I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while. Last year's "Lights in the Sky" tour was something I'm quite proud of and seems like the culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production. It was also quite difficult to pull off technically and physically night after night and left us all a bit dazed. After some thought, we decided to book a last run of shows across the globe this year. The approach to these shows is quite different from last year - much more raw, spontaneous and less scripted. Fun for us and a different way for you to see us and wave goodbye. I reached out to Jane's to see if they'd want to join us across the US and we all felt it could be a great thing. Will it work? Will it resonate in the marketplace? Who knows. Are there big record label marketing dollars to convince you to attend? Nope.
Does it feel right to us and does it seem like it will be fun for us and you? Yes it does.
Look for tour dates soon and I hope to see you out there.

Trent

I'm an NIN junkie, and any true fan of music should at least appreciate the innovation, quality, and musicianship that Reznor pours into each of his releases. For awhile I've been realizing that a lot of the bands I've grown up with are getting pretty old. When Reznor said it'd been 20 years since PHM I said, "No f&*(ing way...". Then I did the math and became sad. What am I going to do as my NINs, QOTSAs, Radioheads, Weezers, Beastie Boys, Local Hs, and others decide to unstring their guitars? I've seen the watered down horror shows that became of such once-great acts as the Rolling Stones who didn't know when to quit and I just don't want my favorites to go that route.

Anyway, I'm truly hoping that this hiatus that Reznor describes is short-lived. He's been on such an incredible creative streak these past few years that it seems like I've gotten a new NIN fix every few months. I guess I just always expected them to keep their hard-rocking vitality alive through groupies as I slowed down, but, alas, I guess age gets to everyone eventually. Growing up sucks...

That's Some Pretty Big News

Notre Dame football held a press conference last week to announce some coaching changes. Here's the important things that came out...

• Charlie Weis will be the offensive coordinator in 2009 and may call games from the booth.
• Jon Tenuta has been named defensive coordinator and will call all defensive plays in 2009.
• Corwin Brown has been "promoted" to associate head coach.

These three items are, in my opinion, pretty huge deals for Notre Dame football - especially considering how Weis made such a big deal just last year about being a more complete head coach and dropping play-calling duties on offense. Have you ever heard of a head coach even mention voluntarily removing himself from the sideline? Brown being "promoted" by removing his play-calling duties? (Officially he's still co-DC and supposedly will assist in game planning.)

Read into it what you will, but my guess is they liked the formula that proved so successful in Hawaii. Charlie knows he's not a rah-rah guy like Corwin, so Corwin becomes the motivator and mouthpiece on the sideline while Charlie focuses on calling plays. Meanwhile, the hyper-aggressive style that was so successful for Tenuta at Georgia Tech gets implemented without hurting Corwin's feeling.

It's a pretty major shake-up, even more so if Weis does end up calling games from the booth. It also reeks of Weis' desperation in pulling out all the tricks in order to be successful next season and save his job.

Joaquin Phoenix Superstar

I got a tip from an online source yesterday evening that I HAD to watch The Late Show with David Letterman last night. You see, Joaquin Phoenix was the guest and apparently, he had a complete meltdown!

Joaquin Phoenix

Dave has had some classic guest appearances in the past. A few I recall were Andy Kaufman, Farah Fawcett, Paris Hilton, and my personal fav - Crispin Glover. YouTube those interviews for comedy gold!

Anyway, after watching the show live, I was in awe. Letterman tried really hard to be nice and sing Phoenix's praises, but he acted completely clueless. Dave then got fed up and turned on him, and Phoenix started to get really pissed off. Personally, I believe that Phoenix is screwed up ever since he hung out with that robot Jinx in Spacecamp! Now he is quitting acting and starting a career as a "Hip Hop" artist. Whatever! At first, I thought he was stoned. After a second viewing, I now think it was all an act for publicity. Decide for yourselves, but it is still hilarious!

A Victory For Non-Idiots

Geez... I'm on fire with posts lately.

Anyway, here's something that will make Ted happy.

Boom Shaka Laka!

Another US-MX game on US soil, another 2-0 victory for the States. It's getting kinda routing anymore, isn't it. Still, I enjoyed eating more wings than I should have and watching the Mexicans crack under pressure immensely. On to the player ratings...

Tim Howard - 8
A H-U-G-E save in the first three minutes keeps the US in the game. Bonus points for drawing a red card on Dickhole Marquez later in the second half.
Heath Pearce - 5
Good marking. Good job coming forward and supporting Beasley. Horrible job serving crosses.
Carlos Bocanegra - 5
Solid tackling, but still sucks when people run at him. Also can't get on the same page with Onyewu.
Oguchi Onyewu - 4
Slightly less clumsy than past appearances, but still commits more fouls - or, more accurately, puts himself in a position to get whistled for more fouls - than he should. Has no sense of positioning.
Frankie Hejduk - 7
He's just everywhere. Bonus points for an AWESOME two-footed tackle.
DeMarcus Beasley - 6
For once, he got back to help on defense and it made a difference. Seemed tentative to use his speed to run at people.
Michael Bradley - 8
Every offensive pass came through him and he broke up as many on the other end. Oh, and he scored both goals. He's still erratic - for every performance like last night, you get two at the other end of the spectrum - but he showed up last night.
Sacha Kljestan - 3
Did you hear his name mentioned all night, for anything? No, because he did nothing.
Clint Dempsey - 6
He didn't do a ton, but hustled to play both ways, was consistently involved in the offensive buildup, and just makes everything look so easy. By far the best player on the field, he just didn't show it tonight.
Landon Donovan - 7
I usually can't stand him, but the fact that Mexicans hate him raises his stock. He setup both goals and seems to save his best for the Mexico games.
Brian Ching - 3
Pretty much worthless. Falls down a lot for a big point forward. Can't hold on to the ball. Slower than frozen ketchup. I don't know how he continues to earn starts.

Subs...
Jozy Altidore (Ching, 83) - 5
Didn't have much time to show his stuff, but he ran down and held up two balls that Ching probably wouldn't have even bothered chasing and setup the second goal. You could tell the Mexicans were afraid of his size and speed.
Ricardo Clark (Kljestan, 86) - 2
I didn't think it was possible to contribute less than Kljestan, but congratulations, Rico, you proved me wrong. Great, he runs hard and hustles. He also consistently passes to the wrong team and holds the ball way too long.