August 4, 2007

A solution to the NFLs new media limitation policy

My father-in-law, who one day will be blogging on his own, sent me this article, which really got under my skin.

"In a high-stakes struggle for control of NFL news in cyberspace, the league has prohibited news organizations from airing more than a total of 45 seconds per day of online audio or video of team personnel from its stadiums. The action could foreshadow other major sports leagues imposing similar restrictions."

But I have a way to solve this issue, or at least poke a stick in the eye of teams that enforce this.

What if some slick city council person in, say, Dallas introduced a bill that required teams that received TAX PAYER dollars to build the stadiums they play in, were required to renegotiate a deal with local media outlets for longer windows of time to show audio and video clips.

Sadly, I think I know what would happen.

The same spin a team uses to convince a blindly ignorant city that a new stadium would create thousands of new jobs would be used to convince the city that they really have their best interests at heart.

Still, if I'm D.C. Councilmember David A. Catania -- who opposed the new stadium for the Washington Nationals -- and I heard that Major League Baseball was considering such a policy, putting such a bill into the mix might be a little "screw you" pick me up to get me through my legislative week.

July 2, 2007

Hipsters look homeless when picking up loose change in bars

UPDATE: The girls were not these two

My friend just got back from a cruise, so I filled him in on what he missed. I told him a friend and I went to Game On in Boston to watch the Sox game. Our IM conversation follows:

MY FRIEND: i was sailing through the atlantic
ME: yea but you didn't hear the best beginning of a conversation in a bar ever / there were these two girls at the bar, and there was a nickel on the floor / my friend was intrigued by this nickel, while wearing a suit, and picked it up / the girl said "it would have to be at least a quarter before i went down" / and thus begun our evening at Game on
MY FRIEND: hahaha
ME: I think you have to wear a suit to actually be able to converse with a girl after picking up a nickel
MY FRIEND: hahahaha
ME: hipsters look homeless when picking up loose change in bars
MY FRIEND: yeah

June 28, 2007

LinkedIn question

ME: What's the best email address to send you a linkedIn invite to?

MY (SOBER?) FRIEND: This one is the best email. I am usually sober at work. Usually.

May 15, 2007

Fun with search results

Everyone knows the Internet provides millions of ways to waste time. And while YouTube and other video sites are all the rage, there is still a lot of fun to be had with search.

One of my old favorites is to search job sites for the word "fun." It's really amazing how many crappy jobs people try to pawn off as being "in a fun atmosphere/environment"

Well, I found another fun search today on Jupiter Images: "racial issues"

May 2, 2007

Gliese 581c needs a new name

So last week astronomers got a big jolt of excitement when an Earth-like planet was discovered.

If NASA and others are apparently about to develop a "new generation of space telescopes capable of picking up 'signatures' such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane" as Wired reports, I think the rest of us should do our part as well.

The planet's name, Gliese 581c, just isn't doing it for me. It sounds like a food additive, or a model of car from a company that won't be around much longer.

We can do better. Send me your suggestions!