Thursday, August 19, 2010
Brett Favre Returns... Again.
I can't wait for October 11, Vikings at Jets. Can't wait for the Jets to pummel Brett Favre.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
NBA Saves Knicks From Themselves
Maybe there is an NBA conspiracy to make the Knicks good (as suspected for the 1985 draft lottery) since the league rejected Isiah Thomas' contract with the Knicks. Phew! Dodged a bullet there!!
Monday, August 09, 2010
I Give Up
Another great Daily Show clip...
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| I Give Up - 9/11 Responders Bill | ||||
| ||||
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Pea Puree
Top Chef Spoilers!!!!
I just saw an episode of this year's Top Chef - Washington DC, and the competition was in the Palm Restaurant. The episode's central controversy was around pea puree. One of the cheftestants, Ed, made a pea puree that didn't make it in transport to the Palm kitchen. He couldn't find it at all. That wouldn't be controversial except Alex, who was generally floundering around in the competition, won the episode using a pea puree. The episode shows that the night before, Alex says he does not know what he is going to make the next day. Kenny tells him that Ed had a nice looking pea puree. The next day, Ed is shown looking around the kitchen for a pea puree. Alex has his already cooked. Alex ends up winning the episode on the merit of the pea puree. He is shown in an interview saying he didn't know that Ed was making a pea puree. Strange.
It's pretty strange - the producers don't have any footage of Alex making the pea puree. They didn't show anything about Ed leaving the peas behind either. Alex's statement that he didn't know about Ed's puree is contradicted directly in the episode which is probably the most suspicious part. Also, Alex hasn't done anything on a winning note thus far, another reason to be slightly suspicious.
It's crazy. I personally think Alex took it - but he'll probably get knocked out before the finale, so the final prize won't be affected.
I just saw an episode of this year's Top Chef - Washington DC, and the competition was in the Palm Restaurant. The episode's central controversy was around pea puree. One of the cheftestants, Ed, made a pea puree that didn't make it in transport to the Palm kitchen. He couldn't find it at all. That wouldn't be controversial except Alex, who was generally floundering around in the competition, won the episode using a pea puree. The episode shows that the night before, Alex says he does not know what he is going to make the next day. Kenny tells him that Ed had a nice looking pea puree. The next day, Ed is shown looking around the kitchen for a pea puree. Alex has his already cooked. Alex ends up winning the episode on the merit of the pea puree. He is shown in an interview saying he didn't know that Ed was making a pea puree. Strange.
It's pretty strange - the producers don't have any footage of Alex making the pea puree. They didn't show anything about Ed leaving the peas behind either. Alex's statement that he didn't know about Ed's puree is contradicted directly in the episode which is probably the most suspicious part. Also, Alex hasn't done anything on a winning note thus far, another reason to be slightly suspicious.
It's crazy. I personally think Alex took it - but he'll probably get knocked out before the finale, so the final prize won't be affected.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Rays No Hitter
If Galaraga's perfect game had counted earlier this year, would the Rays and Tigers be the first pair of teams to have a no hitter against them and for them in the same season?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Baseball
The Yankees played the Royals for a four game set, and watching the KC lineup, it is like watching an old fantasy baseball team from about ten years ago. Scott Podsednik, Jason Kendall, Jose Guillen, Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth and Bruce Chen? All aging stars. I don't think this is the way to have success. Young players who cost less could probably fill the positions just as well and have higher upside.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Inception
Just saw Inception. It was pretty good. Wait a second, Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3 was Juno? I just made that connection.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
RIP - The Boss
Sad to hear about George Steinbrenner's passing this morning. I have little to add to the multitude of stories that are likely to be a part of the news cycle. But does anyone else think it was a little awkward of ESPN to put Dave Winfield on the Baseball Tonight interview with Derek Jeter as Jeter gushed about The Boss?
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Week in Sports
Quite a week in sports. Here's a few things I've been thinking about:
1. LeBron - enough has been written on the subject, so I'm not sure what else I can add. Bill Simmons on ESPN had some nice summaries, as did the NY Times. What is most impressive to me is how a athlete / celebrity can go so quickly from being loved to being reviled without having done anything illegal. I'm with the group of people that thing LeBron is a lot less likable than he was before. One would think that a player of LeBron's status could recruit other players to play with him instead of the other way around. Surprisingly some of the other ESPN columnists have been somewhat supportive of James. Sure, it was within his rights to leave Cleveland but the way he did it was pretty tough. The media, fans, and public have to be a little responsible as well for building up egos to this size.
By the way, absolute must watch TV will be the first game of the Heat back in Cleveland.
2. Bob Sheppard - RIP. Amazing that a PA announcer is so linked with a team. Can you even name another PA announcer? Great move by Derek Jeter a few years ago to record Sheppard's voice so that he could announce him forever.
3. Spain wins World Cup - I was hoping for Netherlands but frankly, I don't really watch soccer. Here in Miami a ton of people reacted in the streets for the Spain win. I didn't know there were so many Spaniards here, or that all the Latinos felt such a connection to Spain.
4. The MLB All-Star game is this weekend. There are 83 named all-stars!
5. The Knicks - The team comes out of the off season in a bit of shambles. Amare Stoudamire is being very overpaid and a huge risk for the team, in my opinion. They didn't get LeBron and signed Stoudamire as a reactionary signing so that they had a marquee attraction. David Lee, a fan favorite, is now gone, and they have two new free agents that are in the mid-level range. Now, there's rumors Isiah Thomas is still linked with the team. That would be as if Barack Obama brought in George W Bush to be a part of his administration.
1. LeBron - enough has been written on the subject, so I'm not sure what else I can add. Bill Simmons on ESPN had some nice summaries, as did the NY Times. What is most impressive to me is how a athlete / celebrity can go so quickly from being loved to being reviled without having done anything illegal. I'm with the group of people that thing LeBron is a lot less likable than he was before. One would think that a player of LeBron's status could recruit other players to play with him instead of the other way around. Surprisingly some of the other ESPN columnists have been somewhat supportive of James. Sure, it was within his rights to leave Cleveland but the way he did it was pretty tough. The media, fans, and public have to be a little responsible as well for building up egos to this size.
By the way, absolute must watch TV will be the first game of the Heat back in Cleveland.
2. Bob Sheppard - RIP. Amazing that a PA announcer is so linked with a team. Can you even name another PA announcer? Great move by Derek Jeter a few years ago to record Sheppard's voice so that he could announce him forever.
3. Spain wins World Cup - I was hoping for Netherlands but frankly, I don't really watch soccer. Here in Miami a ton of people reacted in the streets for the Spain win. I didn't know there were so many Spaniards here, or that all the Latinos felt such a connection to Spain.
4. The MLB All-Star game is this weekend. There are 83 named all-stars!
5. The Knicks - The team comes out of the off season in a bit of shambles. Amare Stoudamire is being very overpaid and a huge risk for the team, in my opinion. They didn't get LeBron and signed Stoudamire as a reactionary signing so that they had a marquee attraction. David Lee, a fan favorite, is now gone, and they have two new free agents that are in the mid-level range. Now, there's rumors Isiah Thomas is still linked with the team. That would be as if Barack Obama brought in George W Bush to be a part of his administration.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Well at least he's good at reading?
Clayton Moore of Fox News calls himself Steve Doocy - twice! For real? Yes. I guess he reads a little too well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/28/fox-news-anchor-calls-him_n_593361.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/28/fox-news-anchor-calls-him_n_593361.html
Sunday, May 02, 2010
New Stats vs Old Stats
This past off-season, the Yankees acquired CF Curtis Granderson from Detroit and sent one of their promising prospects, Austin Jackson, to Detroit. Now Jackson is playing in the majors and had a great April, or perhaps, a lucky April.
By conventional stats, he has done very well. A summary can be found in this ESPN article, where he is hitting with a BA of .356 and has 37 hits (leads the AL).
But we look at things another way, and maybe this is nothing to get too excited about. Of all sports, baseball is one where people always warn about sample size. The Pinstriped Bible pointed this out a few weeks ago with Jackson. Jackson is striking out at a rate of 29%, which is not good, and he's on pace for roughly 200 K's over the year. His BABIP (batting average for balls in play) is .514. The BABIP is the % of balls that are hit that end up as hits and not outs. Jackson's .514 is extremely high (Ichiro has a BABIP of .357 for his career). So we're saying here that Jackson had a very lucky April but not necessarily one that will predict his future.
I like what the new statistical approach is suggesting here. We already know that BA and hits are stats with some limitations. The newer stats also have limitations but I think it will be interesting to see what happens with Jackson the rest of the year in these terms. I'm a little surprised that ESPN.com, which usually posts more in-depth insight, ran the Jackson has a BA of .356, therefore the trade is a bust story.
By conventional stats, he has done very well. A summary can be found in this ESPN article, where he is hitting with a BA of .356 and has 37 hits (leads the AL).
But we look at things another way, and maybe this is nothing to get too excited about. Of all sports, baseball is one where people always warn about sample size. The Pinstriped Bible pointed this out a few weeks ago with Jackson. Jackson is striking out at a rate of 29%, which is not good, and he's on pace for roughly 200 K's over the year. His BABIP (batting average for balls in play) is .514. The BABIP is the % of balls that are hit that end up as hits and not outs. Jackson's .514 is extremely high (Ichiro has a BABIP of .357 for his career). So we're saying here that Jackson had a very lucky April but not necessarily one that will predict his future.
I like what the new statistical approach is suggesting here. We already know that BA and hits are stats with some limitations. The newer stats also have limitations but I think it will be interesting to see what happens with Jackson the rest of the year in these terms. I'm a little surprised that ESPN.com, which usually posts more in-depth insight, ran the Jackson has a BA of .356, therefore the trade is a bust story.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Netflix Instant
Netflix Instant has really been improving, in my opinion. For a while, there wasn't very much that I wanted to watch. But recently I've noticed that the library has really expanded. Now available - all prior seasons of Buffy, Angel, 24, X-Files, Lost, The Office and 30 Rock. My requests, please release Alias and West Wing! Battlestar would be another great release.
The streaming quality is really good over my PS3 - the HD shows look incredible. That's what drew me into Lost in the first place.
The streaming quality is really good over my PS3 - the HD shows look incredible. That's what drew me into Lost in the first place.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Insurance
The government's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs has had me thinking about insurance. After all, Goldman's John Paulson was "betting against" bad mortgages, and one means of doing that is taking out insurance against these bad mortgages.
Doesn't this mean insurance is essentially gambling? Let's look at insurance against bad mortgages. The bank offers a mortgage to someone unlikely to pay (a "bad" mortgage). Then an investor (perhaps the bank itself) takes insurance against the mortgage - if the mortgage fails, the investor gets paid. If the mortgage works out, the bank gets paid. So then, we'll sell the obligation of the mortgage to someone else (or chop it into tiny pieces and bury shares of the obligation into funds all over the place with better investments) and also let other people become beneficiaries of the insurance. So the bank makes the money from unloading the mortgage and the insurance policy.
The thing is, there are theoretically opportunities to take out insurance on anything. Now bankers want to project futures markets on not just stocks but how individual films perform, for example.
Hmm. Does this mean I can offer "Detroit Lions insurance" to NFL fans? They can pay me a fee and every time the team loses, they'll get some small return on the loss. But if the team does better than expected they don't get anything (except the satisfaction of the team doing well). Since some people will think the team will do poorly, they'll buy into my insurance program. But others will think the team will do poorly, so I can sell them the insurance obligations. This is just gambling right? I think the team will do poorly so I put money into insurance. Or I think the team will do well so I'll buy out the insurance policies since I'm sure I won't have to pay anything out.
Of course, then we could package teams from different leagues together to decrease the risk. So you could buy a fund mixed of Lions / Nationals / Knicks insurance! I think we can make derivatives out of this too.
Who needs gambling when you have insurance?
Doesn't this mean insurance is essentially gambling? Let's look at insurance against bad mortgages. The bank offers a mortgage to someone unlikely to pay (a "bad" mortgage). Then an investor (perhaps the bank itself) takes insurance against the mortgage - if the mortgage fails, the investor gets paid. If the mortgage works out, the bank gets paid. So then, we'll sell the obligation of the mortgage to someone else (or chop it into tiny pieces and bury shares of the obligation into funds all over the place with better investments) and also let other people become beneficiaries of the insurance. So the bank makes the money from unloading the mortgage and the insurance policy.
The thing is, there are theoretically opportunities to take out insurance on anything. Now bankers want to project futures markets on not just stocks but how individual films perform, for example.
Hmm. Does this mean I can offer "Detroit Lions insurance" to NFL fans? They can pay me a fee and every time the team loses, they'll get some small return on the loss. But if the team does better than expected they don't get anything (except the satisfaction of the team doing well). Since some people will think the team will do poorly, they'll buy into my insurance program. But others will think the team will do poorly, so I can sell them the insurance obligations. This is just gambling right? I think the team will do poorly so I put money into insurance. Or I think the team will do well so I'll buy out the insurance policies since I'm sure I won't have to pay anything out.
Of course, then we could package teams from different leagues together to decrease the risk. So you could buy a fund mixed of Lions / Nationals / Knicks insurance! I think we can make derivatives out of this too.
Who needs gambling when you have insurance?
Observations
Inglourious Basterds - A pretty good Tarantino film without being too complicated or mysterious but still with his style of dark humor. I don't know why it took Netflix 4 months to get it to me, but it was great.
24 - Considering how hard it is to fire someone from the government, people get fired from CTU a lot!
Hubble 3D - Where is this movie playing??
The Jets - shopping Alan Faneca now? Mike Tannenbaum is the type of GM who gets a lot done but this seems ridiculous. We're trying to win next year, right?
24 - Considering how hard it is to fire someone from the government, people get fired from CTU a lot!
Hubble 3D - Where is this movie playing??
The Jets - shopping Alan Faneca now? Mike Tannenbaum is the type of GM who gets a lot done but this seems ridiculous. We're trying to win next year, right?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Taylor
Even if Jason Taylor helps lead the Jets to a Super Bowl, he'll still always seem like a selfish pretty boy who puts himself before his team to me. He'll really have to have an amazing season - at least 10 sacks in meaningful spots - for me to think that he's actually worth this signing.
The NY Times had a headline, "Taylor Ready to Let Bygones be Bygones with Jets Fans." Oh how gracious of him. He had better be good. Sure, Johnny Damon and Roger Clemens came to the Yankees after success with the Red Sox - but neither of them made ridiculous statements about Jets fans. Taylor says that saying those things just was to help add heat to the rivalry. No, that's not necessary to add passion to the rivalry - to insult the fans. Frankly, I don't remember Taylor ever coming up big for the Dolphins when it mattered, and so that concerns me just as much as the fact that he skipped out on Dolphins' mini camp in order to be on "Dancing with the Stars."
The NY Times had a headline, "Taylor Ready to Let Bygones be Bygones with Jets Fans." Oh how gracious of him. He had better be good. Sure, Johnny Damon and Roger Clemens came to the Yankees after success with the Red Sox - but neither of them made ridiculous statements about Jets fans. Taylor says that saying those things just was to help add heat to the rivalry. No, that's not necessary to add passion to the rivalry - to insult the fans. Frankly, I don't remember Taylor ever coming up big for the Dolphins when it mattered, and so that concerns me just as much as the fact that he skipped out on Dolphins' mini camp in order to be on "Dancing with the Stars."
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
24: Season 8
Well, I finally caved and started watching 24: Season 8. Apparently this is the final season for this show. That's probably a good thing. I'll start off with the spoiler-free review. Granted, I'm only through about 13 episodes of the season so far (roughly 16 have aired) but I'm not sure I can continue.
The cast sounds like it would be pretty good. Kiefer Sutherland returns as Jack Bauer, Mary Lynn Rajskub is back for another go-around as Chloe O'Brian and Cherry Jones returns as President Allison Taylor. New stars added to the CTU team this year include Battlestar's Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Mykelti Williamson. Not a bad lineup. Anil Kapoor from Slumdog Millionaire is also present as a foreign leader. Plus, the show takes place in Manhattan for the first time. You'd think all these things would make for a pretty decent set-up.
Instead, what we get is a total retread of every other 24 season ever performed. If I had the inclination, I'd like to tally up the following scenarios that are now 24 cliches because they've been used so often. I won't even include the usual "hunt for the macguffin" type or "what is character x's allegiance" stuff that goes on. At least this year is fairly free of Presidential drama (although I've heard a certain character from prior years is returning, much to my chagrin).
So with some minor spoilers, this year we've been treated to Jack being forced out of retirement, a scenario where a CTU staff member has serious personal problems that are completely uninteresting yet seem to take up 15 minutes of some episodes, CTU being "taken out," a mole within CTU (that is _so_ unbelievable I may not be able to continue watching), inter-department squabbling between federal law enforcement agencies, and oh yes, nobody trusts Chloe despite her years of experience. I'm waiting for Jack's daughter to get kidnapped but I think she's safely on a cross country plane flight.
I'm glad this show is ending because it was spectacular for about 4 seasons, then horrible for about 2, then so-so for 1 and now back to horrible. If they can't come up with any new elements, it is definitely time to put this to bed.
The cast sounds like it would be pretty good. Kiefer Sutherland returns as Jack Bauer, Mary Lynn Rajskub is back for another go-around as Chloe O'Brian and Cherry Jones returns as President Allison Taylor. New stars added to the CTU team this year include Battlestar's Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Mykelti Williamson. Not a bad lineup. Anil Kapoor from Slumdog Millionaire is also present as a foreign leader. Plus, the show takes place in Manhattan for the first time. You'd think all these things would make for a pretty decent set-up.
Instead, what we get is a total retread of every other 24 season ever performed. If I had the inclination, I'd like to tally up the following scenarios that are now 24 cliches because they've been used so often. I won't even include the usual "hunt for the macguffin" type or "what is character x's allegiance" stuff that goes on. At least this year is fairly free of Presidential drama (although I've heard a certain character from prior years is returning, much to my chagrin).
So with some minor spoilers, this year we've been treated to Jack being forced out of retirement, a scenario where a CTU staff member has serious personal problems that are completely uninteresting yet seem to take up 15 minutes of some episodes, CTU being "taken out," a mole within CTU (that is _so_ unbelievable I may not be able to continue watching), inter-department squabbling between federal law enforcement agencies, and oh yes, nobody trusts Chloe despite her years of experience. I'm waiting for Jack's daughter to get kidnapped but I think she's safely on a cross country plane flight.
I'm glad this show is ending because it was spectacular for about 4 seasons, then horrible for about 2, then so-so for 1 and now back to horrible. If they can't come up with any new elements, it is definitely time to put this to bed.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
World Series Rings
Matsui gets a World Series ring and I swear watching replays of his ovation gave me goosebumps! I need to get my priorities straight.
I follow my workplace's PR dept on Twitter to see what kinds of things they announce. But they just requested to follow my feed. Um, no, you can't follow my feed!! If you do I won't be able to semi-publicly air out frustrations with work!
Friday, April 09, 2010
Netflix Rental Agreement
Netflix signed a deal today delaying new movie releases from FOX and Universal to its customers by 28 days. On the face of it, this would seem like a bad deal. But actually, it's probably a shrewd move by Netflix.
The movie studios are scared that rental services are taking away their sales of DVD's and Blu-Rays, so they want to delay the rental releases a few weeks in hopes more people will buy again. Typical "old media" thinking. With all the digital distribution coming along with iPads, iPhones, and mobile devices, it's only a matter of time before disc based distribution is obsolete and yet here the major companies are, (WB made a similar agreement last month), more concerned about disc sales than figuring out the reason people don't buy discs anymore. Besides the poor economic times, people are hesitant to invest in more disc based media because there are so many streaming options and so many formats available. Nobody wants to re-buy their media multiple times. Thus, sales are lagging.
I think Netflix realizes this and is willing to take the delays on rental privileges because in exchange they were able to get something even more valuable - access to more streaming content for their user base. Down the line, this is going to be more valuable as mobile devices are even more ubiquitous and they try to push their new iPad and soon to come iPhone app. Good move.
The movie studios are scared that rental services are taking away their sales of DVD's and Blu-Rays, so they want to delay the rental releases a few weeks in hopes more people will buy again. Typical "old media" thinking. With all the digital distribution coming along with iPads, iPhones, and mobile devices, it's only a matter of time before disc based distribution is obsolete and yet here the major companies are, (WB made a similar agreement last month), more concerned about disc sales than figuring out the reason people don't buy discs anymore. Besides the poor economic times, people are hesitant to invest in more disc based media because there are so many streaming options and so many formats available. Nobody wants to re-buy their media multiple times. Thus, sales are lagging.
I think Netflix realizes this and is willing to take the delays on rental privileges because in exchange they were able to get something even more valuable - access to more streaming content for their user base. Down the line, this is going to be more valuable as mobile devices are even more ubiquitous and they try to push their new iPad and soon to come iPhone app. Good move.
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