Yo, who got the 411?
This is the first thing that came up in a Google image search for that phrase. Works for me.
- Huh, apparently there is such a thing as open-source underwater robots. I, for one, welcome our new aquatic overlords.
- This is a crazy – MLB teams are increasingly scouting Little League age players, some as young as 11 or 12. It’s kind of telling that one scout basically says, “I have no idea why we’re doing this, but everyone else is, so we have to.
- Not quite ten games into the season, the Cubs don’t have a great record. But, there is reason for optimism.
- I’ve never been a big Kiss fan, but I am a huge Chuck Klosterman fan, so I found this to be a great recap of Kiss’ career, leading up to their induction into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.
- The Rock ‘n Roll HOF induction ceremony was actually last night. The whole event is going to air May 31st on HBO, but here are some highlights.
- Before Kiss, Paul and Gene were in a band called Wicked Lester. I found this YouTube playlist fully expecting to make glorious fun of it. I, uh…I kind of like it.
- Apparently Paul and Gene’s first professional recordings are on background vocals for someone named Lyn Christopher. THAT is some craptastic ’70’s music right there.
- Nirvana was also inducted into the HOF this year, here is a collection of early recordings of the pre-Dave Grohl days in the late 80’s.
- I haven’t written much about the Wizards lately, which is bizarre. This is a team that’s on the way up, making the playoffs for the first time in years and guaranteed to win at least ten more games than last year, but there just seems to be NO enthusiasm about them. Every loss is treated as #SoWizards, while every win seems to elicit a, “Yeah, but we know it won’t last” response. Well, I think it will last, with a dynamic backcourt that could be the best in the NBA sooner, rather than later, a rookie who everyone has written off as a bust, but who I think has a major role to play in the next few years and ownership and management that, as much as they’re loathed in this town, do seem to have a plan. Well, at the very least, it looks like John Wall might be in the conversation for the next Olympic team after all.
- This guy does GIF’s
bettercooler than anyone I’ve seen. Here are a few of the highlights. - Ever feel like building your own solar system? Remember, it’s easier to destroy than it is to build.
- If you’ve been under a rock the last week, you may have missed that news that David Letterman is retiring and that Stephen Colbert is taking his place. That’s the real Stephen Colbert, not the character Stephen Colbert. No word yet on what Comedy Central is going to put on after The Daily Show.
- Speaking of Jon Stewart’s show, he had some choice words for the NCAA. This would be my solution to the “should college athletes get paid” question – all time spent practicing or training for an athletes sport should be treated as an on-campus job (when I went to college on an academic scholarship a paying job was part of the package, I don’t see why the same theory wouldn’t apply here), something around $10/hr. On game days players would get compensation based on some combination of playing time/performance and whether your sport is in the black financially at that college or university; this compensation would go into an interest bearing account of some sort that the student-athlete will receive at the end of their playing career/college graduation. So if you were a key player on a profitable team at your school, when you graduate you would get a nice little nest egg to take out into life. Also, players should get royalties from any merchandise the school sells with that player’s name on it (although this would probably just result in the rapid removal of players names from their jerseys).
- I think I found my new at-bat music.
- We’ve reached that point of the year where the only Saints news is draft speculation.
- On this day in 1981 riots hit the streets of Brixton in south London. Many assume that the Clash wrote “Guns of Brixton” about this event, but that track was actually recorded in 1979, making it a fascinating bit of foreshadowing. It’s also one of my favorite Clash songs, making it an easy choice for the Song of the Week.
