April 16, 2010
Scott Stapp pens Marlins theme song - posted for valatan's benefit as much as anyone. Sadly, I can't seem to find any old discussion (which I am confident does exist) referencing the excellent prior art in this arena (I'm talking of course about "Our Team, Our Time" and "Get Metsmerized").
April 06, 2010
Curious about the reaction Flip will have to THIS!
March 19, 2010
NCAA Bracket Smacktalk OK Since I have no leg to stand on, success-of-bracket-wise, I'll simply point out that 37.5% of PhD recipients in our sample aren't smart enough to sucessfully complete and hit "Save" on their brackets.
Insert Smack below [more inside]
January 21, 2010
The Saints are gonna wish they still had this guy this weekend!
January 04, 2010
Anyone know where the $65 M in profit goes? In all my hatred of UT's football team, it had never occurred to me that they were making this much money... perhaps I could be less angry of all the hype if the profits were being used for "good".
December 08, 2009
Eddie Would Go - drop-of-a-hat Big Wave surf comp going on now. Only held when the Waimea bay waves are deemed epic enough, which last happened in 2004. If conditions look right, every top surfer and fans from around the world race to Hawaii in hopes the event goes on.
The event is going on this year - it just started, and they're looking at up to 50-foot swells today (Tuesday).
Eddie's story is also interesting -- an awe-inspiring lifeguard and surfer, he perished trying to rescue passengers of a capsized boat.
A 50-foot swell is about three stories tall. Anyone have an estimate for how fast the waves are travelling?
August 02, 2009
Today was the final day of the World Swimming Championships in Rome and the biggest stories were one dude's suit letting him down and Phelps crushing Cavic in the rematch of the 100m fly that you may remember from Beijing 2008. The most interesting sideline, however, has to be the decision by the world swimming authority to ban most of the new high-tech suits starting next year. (Indeed, part of the Phelps/Cavic drama was when Cavic said Phelps should get the newest 100% polyurethane suit if he wanted to win. Guess it doesn't make the difference in every case.) As a result, world records set at this event are expected to stand for a very long time once swimmers lose full body synthetic suits.
This is unprecendented in sports, as far as I know. Too many records have fallen in the last few years and people have started to feel it devalues athetic ability over simply having the newest and greatest suit. But hasn't this been happening in almost every sport? I'm certain that every year sees new shoes, kayaks, bicycles, etc.... will any other sports follow suit (ha!) and ban further innovation? (By the way, I'm sort of for this announcement. It seems weird to me that every world wide swim meet breaks almost every event's record. Shouldn't it be harder to break than that?)
June 16, 2009
It's been a while since we've had a post on fixed gear bicycles (or "fixies") and normally I'd just let it go. However, this video of some sick fixie tricks from 1899 was too much to resist. Not only did I enjoy the hilarious pratfalls, but I admired the ingenuity of the ramp that converts while the rider is up in the loop. Furthermore, I also enjoyed the rider face planting into the ramp. It's a 19th century Jackass/Nitro Circus!
May 31, 2009
Math+Psych = NoFail? Do y'all play poker? Brainpower plus idle time should lead to interesting poker games... When I return to TX Imma try and get some games going. Longhorns in the world championships of power?
April 21, 2009
Donkey Ball is basketball on a donkey, it's a real thing and it's been around for decades. I don't really have anything I can add.
April 02, 2009
Hard Times for Professional Gaming - several leagues have folded forcing the players to go back and get (gulp) real jobs. As a part-time gamer myself, I can say I have only barely heard these leagues existed which is either a comment on their low-profile or my lack of true dedication to the fine art of teabagging virtual people I've taken down. Also, it seems like there is a "season" about to start for Major League Gaming. If you could pick any time of the year for a fundamentally indoor activity, would you pick your season to run through the most pleasant part of the year? Maybe gamers like football and basketball too much.
March 29, 2009
Optimal running pace discovered! I believe mine involves quick bursts from the sofa to the minifridge.
March 28, 2009
March 16, 2009
I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to make my annual coin flip NCAA bracket. That's right, it's March Madness time again. Not Thomas has taken the lead and upgraded our experience to the CBS Sports site and has nebulously offered "great" prizes. He has also begun trash-talking habcous right in the group name. SOOO, will Mrflip have Cornell vs. Texas in the final? Will Zieglerfe ride 14 seed Stephen F. Austin all the way to the finals or will they fall to Texas in the semis? Most importantly, does Not Thomas really think Duke will let UNC beat them a third time this season?
I propose we once again crown 2 champions: first and second-to-last place. So get in there (pwd: boogers) and make those picks by 11AM CST on Thursday! I can already identify the failure modes in my bracket so I'm excited to watch that painfully pan out over the next few weeks!
February 04, 2009
The Smoking Gun roots out the major FBI informant that brought down the whole steroids scandal. A fairly compelling story especially if you (like me) have not been following what has been going on in the MLB steroid scene.
January 15, 2009
December 14, 2008
The NHL is undoubtedly full of fine upstanding individuals who have families and volunteer in their communities and are a pleasure to be around. Sean Avery, recently "let go" by the Dallas Stars, is not one of them. He will probably best be remembered for being in that rarified air of having necessitated a new rule ("The Sean Avery Rule") specifically due to his play. In a playoff game, he spent a whole power play doing nothing but unabashedly trying to block the opposing goalie's view (he didn't even bother facing the puck). After this, the Rangers let him go but Dallas must have decided he was an "outside the box thinker". They were less appreciative when out of the blue he called out an opposing player for dating his "sloppy seconds" (that would be Elisha Cuthbert).
December 02, 2008
Theft on Campus - the Campus Watch articles are always great. But UT'ers will find the robbery reported at Texas Memorial Stadium particularly poignant.
November 22, 2008
Follow Beckto's Ironman progress online! Go to www.ironmanlive.com and enter her name or race # 2102. It goes all day Sunday! If you're a facebook friend, you can check the live updates done in tandem by me and her friend Em via the magic of Facebook mobile on the Blackberry, and a combo of regular telephony and the internet.
November 19, 2008
The contested 4x100 relay in Battle of the Network Stars '76 - Farrah Fawcett, Ho-ward COsell, Opie, Bruce Jenner, Kojak, Kotter, Wonderwoman, and Bill Simmons' scene-by-scene breakdown...
[a celebration of] an impossible-to-fathom era of political incorrectness, egotistical celebs, misguided testosterone and the purest unintentional comedy possible ... only it finishes with a Hall of Fame sports moment
Worth watching for even just the unique cadences of Cosell in his ever-florid prime ("CLEARly controversy has beSET the battle-of-the-network stars").
November 17, 2008
Sidearming knuckleballer becomes first woman drafted into Japanese professional baseball.
November 08, 2008
Dear SplatnikGanglion, please enjoy. [more inside]
September 12, 2008
Two nutjobs going 40+mph in blue suits - friends of pablo's, going by the beards. Skip straight to 2:10 in. [more inside]