Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Profiles In How To Hold A Grudge: Brendan Shanahan

From the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger:

Brendan Shanahan tells a story [...] about growing up as a Maple Leafs fan and meeting former Toronto captain Rick Vaive during the summer of 1983.

“When I was 14 years old I was skating in the summertime at a rink in Toronto,” Shahanan recalled. “Rick Vaive happened to be skating at an adjoining rink and we were actually in dressing rooms that were right next to each other.


“I went in when he was sort of settled and asked him for an autograph. I didn’t get the best response from Rick Vaive at that time.”


------

“Fast forward four years later and Rick Vaive is waiting for a meaningless faceoff in Buffalo,” Shanahan said. “He’s now playing for the Sabres. He’s lined up next to some 18-year-old kid from New Jersey. When the puck dropped, I attacked Rick Vaive.


“It was a quiet, uneventful game. He couldn’t believe the rage I had, not only in attacking him, but it took two (linesmen) to restrain me afterwards and throw me in the penalty box.”



via Deadspin

Friday, November 20, 2009

Play Kniceley!

Times West Virginian publisher Andrew Kniceley (left)


. . . oh all right, there is more.

From Poynter:
used his newspaper to apologize for yelling at a football coach because his son played only three plays in a game. "I regret any embarrassment or discomfort that I have caused FSU [Fairmont State University], my newspaper and my family--especially my son Josh," writes the publisher, who is also chairman of the FSU board.

Also:
"I said to him I am not going to talk to you about this as long as you are coming at me like this," Lanham wrote. "He then said to me, 'I will talk to you when I want and where I want to talk to you.' . . . He kept coming at my chest to chest bump me and saying repeatedly, 'You will talk to me now.'"

Thankgiving Dinner

"Off to a good start--with hot spiced tomato soup. And then--for digestion's sake--smoke a Camel right after the soup."

(Click to engrossen).

via MetaFilter

Monday, November 16, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

"What Happened to Yesterday?"

"Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres. Alexander and Ilels original four minute piece appeared March 29, 2008 on NPRs Weekend America. When we stumbled across that piece this past June, Blagden and Isenberg were inspired to create a short animated film around the original audio."

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Pronounced "Marie-sick"

The Stanford Cardinal's Owen Marecic plays both fullback and middle linebacker.

Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback who played with such legendary tough guys as Mike Singletary and Ray Lewis, goes a step further.

"When I was a young football player, that was what I always dreamed of, being a player like him," Harbaugh says. "In 30 years of being around football and football teams, I've never seen a guy like this."







Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Hot Gun

And on a lighter note: Meet People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) pilot Zhou Shuai. (From China Daily)
"In many ways, Zhou is just like many ordinary young people. She is a fan of classical composers and modern pop singers, such as Stefanie Sun, Jay Chou and Fish Leong, and enjoys crime fiction novels and watching Detective Conan, a popular Japanese cartoon.
She also spends the majority of her salary--5,000 yuan ($732) a month--on skincare products, fashion magazines and clothes, which she said she hardly wears as she is usually in uniform on the base."







Photo: courtesy of PLA Air Force

An Army of Lies

Back to the Laser Pants but it's to level some grief at the US Army.

Once again, the Army's proven it's absolutely pathetic at gathering and providing correct information. Things started poorly at the Ft. Hood shootings when they reported that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was dead on the scene; he's not. Now, it seems that the story of how his killing spree was stopped may not be true either: the New York Times is reporting that a witness is saying that it was Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, a civilian police officer, who shot him, not Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley, who was shot by Maj. Hasan when she arrived on the scene.

This might be just the latest in what seems to be an ongoing pattern of completely fucking up reality for the Army. First was the 2003 tale of super soldier Pfc. Jessica Lynch, about whom the Army got pretty much every fact aside from her name wrong. From today's NY Times:
The confusion over what happened and the quickness of the military to label someone a hero seemed reminiscent of the case of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in 2003, when the Army initially reported Private Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-like performance in which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle. It was later learned she had been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush and was being well cared for by the Iraqis.
Even her rescue drew later criticism for being overly dramatic and overblown as a daring commando raid--on a hospital at which there were no Iraqi troops.

Then's there's the really putrid way the Army lied and covered up the 2004 death by friendly fire of Cpl. Pat Tillman. A really disgraceful and disgraceful long-term campaign of lies, cover-ups, and indignities followed which did little to honor a pretty fascinating guy. Jon Krakauer has a new book about Tillman, "Where Men Win Glory."

So what's the deal with the Army? Why can't it get a story straight? Why is getting things wrong still so acceptable? And is the whole Army like this, or just the public relations branch?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Semi-Eternal Bacon


Gizmodo brings news of Tactical Canned Bacon, with a price of $16, a content of about 54 slices of bacon, and a shelf-life of 10 years. Which is more strategic than tactical, isn't it? Who cares, it's a can of bacon with a kick-ass M-4 assault rifle on it.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

BREAKING NEWS


HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!!!!1!! DID YOU SEE THAT SNOOP DOGG WAS AT RAVENS TRAINING CAMP?!?!?!?! HE THREW A BALL OR SOMETHING!!!!1!!
Oh and there's some boring shit about some Mayor getting on a court or something.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Kindlenfreude * **

Kin'-dlen-froy-duh
n.

The shameful joy one feels when one reads another article about how unawesome the Kindle and Kindle Zwei are.

*Term developed with the assistance of Atomic Books. Check out their selection of national media Kindle-hatin' writing here. Or read it on your Kindle! Oh wait you can't. Because it's crap.

**And no complaints on the shitty German from the Teutonic section! I KNOW IT'S WRONG. IT'S HUMOR. Jeez. Here's Jürgen's suggestion: Elektrokindlebuchmaschinenschnitzelfreude. Funny, yes. Short, no.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

What's App-ening: Where To Find The Good iPhone Apps

Here's a brief list of sites that (in my opinion, yours probably sucks) do a good job of reviewing, previewing, pimping, or otherwise noting good and/or decent iPhone applications, commonly known as "apps" or "ptarmigans."

AppCraver
A solid place to start, lots of coverage of lots of apps from games to bidness stuff. Check out their Editor's Picks for a good starter pack.




Gizmodo's The Week in iPhone Apps
Four apps a week, a proper mix of fun, productivity, things that make fart or gun noises, and creative tools.




iLounge
If you (like me) were a stereo dork at a younger age and read Stereophile magazine, you'll recognize iLounge's style. But that's good, because there's some serious thought and criticism here, particularly handy when it comes to looking for an external battery pack to let you use your 3GS for more than five hours at a time.




Pocket Gamer.co.uk
Games! Game news! Game reviews (good ones!) Tips on what's cheap/free this week! You must get Peggle!




What They Play: John's Giant List of iPhone Games
This title ain't lyin': It's a big-ass list of iPhone games by 1UP's John Davidson. Check out the last review (for Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyvale, a game I would have totally ignored, but did not thanks to John) and you'll see John's brilliante Olde Worlde wisdom.
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