MMA Comes to the Networks

No surprise. Except that it was CBS to take the plunge. (Although that's not a surprise either, since they were testing the waters with Viacom-owned Showtime airing MMA.)

The real question is whether or not this will force ESPN to cover MMA once CBS starts airing it.

Non-Newtonian Fluids

This is what happens when you mix cornstarch with water:

If I was in high school, I think I'd spend the entire summer constructing one of those things in the backyard.

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Sean Salisbury, gone from ESPN. Now, if only they'd dump Stephen A. Smith . . .

When Darth Met Cobra

Occassional Superheroine, the blog of Valerie D'Orazio, is one of my new favorite stops in the morning. Partially because she's very funny, and partially because she gives us pictures like this:

Dr. Jones

Galley Friend M.R. sends us this link to a version of the Indiana Jones IV trailer, cut as though we were still in the '80s.

Call me crazy, but I think I like this better than the real one.

Blame the '85 Bears For This

That about sums it up

"George came up to me on the set one day during my first 'Star Wars' and said something that I never fully understood until after we were done filming. He said, 'As an actor, you have to think of yourself as a ditch digger.'... What he was implying was that on his movie, I needed to think of myself as a ditch digger, because it wasn't the proper arena for actual creative expression. This was his thing. It was all very thought-out in his head, and I needed to show up to make his wants a reality. And so really, what he was saying to me, was: 'Don't let this experience discourage you from what acting can really be about, because that's not what this is.' I just wish I would've figured that out a little sooner."

-Hayden Christensen in the Washington Post on his experiences with director George Lucas.

A Look Into the Mind of the NFL

Remember a while back when EA Sports became the exclusive holders of the permission to make video games using the NFL? Remember how everyone thought this was an example of EA trying to big-foot smaller game makers? Turns out the whole thing was the NFL's idea:

remember it wasn't EA that demanded the exclusive relationship. The NFL requested it and did a research process for exclusive bids and so EA bid, as did other companies, and we were very fortunate to be able to get that exclusive arrangement. So, I want to make that very clear because I think there are some misconceptions sometimes that EA demanded the exclusive licensing for the National Football League and nothing could be further from the case.

I wonder why the NFL would want that.

Update: Incredibly astute Galley Reader J.T. sends in the following thoughts, which seem persuasive to me:

The NFL's desire to have an exclusive game studio producing NFL titles
gives it fewer licensing agreements, in exchange for greater unity of
game play. By having one shop, the NFL can maintain more control over
the product, and should they choose to bring the game development in
house, they only have one organization that they need to absorb.

The NFL Network is a more visible effort of the same strategy. Because
television networks have more perceived control of branding than video
game studios, the effort is more protracted and necessarily slower. I
would expect the NFL to move in the direction of software development
within two to three years. They will still be transitioning to
exclusive NFL Network production of games ten years from now, but the
ultimate goal of the NFL is to get all media in house, to fully
appreciate the benefits of a vertically integrated business model.

That's just my hunch. The NFL has always been much better at marketing
and giving exclusive control of channels to single entities seems a
smarter strategy of developing brand power and maximizing the marginal
revenue within that channel. If my eventual goal was controlling the
means by which consumers consume my product I would familiarize them
first with exclusives (like DirecTV). By requesting an exclusive
partner for game development, the league continues that trend. The
imbroglio surrounding the Pats-Giants regular season game on the NFL
Network was a setback for that strategy, but the game itself was what
the NFL is shooting for. A must see game, under their exclusive control.

Well That Was Fast

I've been really remiss in following the HD DVD meltdown of recent weeks, which came to a spectacular close a couple days ago. I wish I had some insight into what happened, but I don't, really. I'm like the aid to Walter Mondale who, on election night in '84, famously turned to a friend and said, "I don't understand--everyone I know voted for him."

Seriously: I know maybe two-dozen people who've bought hi-def players. Only one of them bought a Blu-Ray. The HD DVD was superior as a set-top box, had a better set-top intalled base, had a better tie-rate with discs, was selling for half or a third of the price of Blu-Ray, and, as of early December, looked to have about equal software support. Oh, and its discs were cheaper than Blu-Ray, too. That was the state of affairs as of December 1, 2007. If I had told you then that Toshiba would be announcing their abandonment of the format 10 weeks later, you would thought I was crazy.

Heck, it really is crazy.

So what happened? Toronto's Globe & Mail has some good reporting on the subject, including a claim that Sony paid Warner Bros. $400 million to switch sides.

(If that figure is correct, I wonder why Sony didn't just lop $200 off the price of the PS3 to start with. That would have had the same effect of ending the format war AND it could have preserved the health of its game division. As things stand now, Sony may have sacrificed this generation of game console to win the hi-def format. I'd be interested to know, from a dollars-and-cents perspective, if that was a good trade off for them. Particularly if digital downloads like Apple TV really are both soon and next. Something I'm not convince of, btw.)

But there must be more to the story than this. The Blu-Ray shift seems to have started with the Christmas shopping season, before WB switched. And the rapidity with which Netflix and Wal-Mart jumped is also kind of startling. Particularly Wal-Mart, a mega-company that isn't accustomed to turning on a dime like that.

I'm sad to see HD DVD go. I was fortunate not to get burned too badly--I only bought it because I needed a new player and if I had bought a Blu-Ray, it would be obsolete already anyway (another fact which amazes me). Yesterday's USA Today carried a story which reported that the Blu-Ray camp was trying to figure out some sort of program to help HD DVD owners switch over. I can't understand what their incentive would be to do that, unless they see the victory over HD DVD as only the first war and are already gearing up to fight digital downloads.

If you see more on this, please drop me a note or leave a comment; it's all very interesting.

P.S.: Galley Friend B.W. says, Je ne regrette rien!

Toshiba's deputy general manager of HD DVD Olivier Van Wynendaele stated that it "wouldn't change anything that it did," and continued on to say that "circumstances saw to it that [Toshiba] had to make the decision not to continue, but that doesn't mean [the company] did anything wrong."

Really? Something tells me that Olivier may find that the culture of Japanese business executives takes a somewhat different view.

Update: CNET has some interesting numbers on disc and player royalties, hinting at how much Sony has to gain from Blu-Ray. So that's a fuzzy look at one side of the picture. Next we'd need some good guestimating at how much the PS3 flop has cost them.

Shaq Terrified of Phoenix Suns

Galley Reader D.H. sends along this excellent piece from the Onion's sports page:

TEMPE, AZ—Claiming he was initially excited at the prospect of playing for a legitimate championship contender, new Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O'Neal admitted Monday that, upon reading about the phenomenon of massive stellar explosions popularly known as supernovas, he is now terrified of the entire organization.

"I have emerged from my astronomical studies a much more educated man, a learned man, and yes—a frightened man. I am now a sage of the supernova," O'Neal said during a combination press conference and PowerPoint presentation at an Arizona State University lecture hall. "If I would have known being a Sun meant being a part of a system where gravity could collapse, causing my radiant celestial body to explode in an event 10 times brighter than an ordinary Phoenix Sun—or worse, dematerialize into a neutron star or possibly a black hole—I would have never agreed to the trade."

"I have a family to think of," continued a visually tense O'Neal, who later stated that, because supernovas occur in our galaxy once every 40 to 50 years, the Suns, having joined the league in 1968, are "due for a big one."

While O'Neal said that simply being a part of the Suns' runaway-nuclear-fusion-reaction style of play would be frightening enough, he added that learning how an aging supergiant star typically ends its life cycle in a violent explosion was a profoundly terrifying experience. The 35-year-old center, who considers himself a super-giant star in the twilight of his career, has refused to go anywhere near his new teammates.

"Like Superman, I receive my energy from the Suns," O'Neal said. "I'm scared I will not be able to flourish in an environment where there is a risk that the Suns' supply of hydrogen could be exhausted, which would cause the core of the Suns to collapse into the center—in this case, me—and create a rise in temperature and pressure that would become great enough to ignite helium and then start a helium-to-carbon fusion cycle."

"Not even electron degeneracy pressure is enough to stop a supernova when that happens to a Sun," O'Neal added. "I don't even know what that means, and I am the Big Astronomer. But it scares me."

There's more . . .

Star Wars Stuff

Galley Friends M.G. and M.C. stumbled across this link, a story (and pictures) about maybe the best collection of Star Wars toys in the world. It's very nearly pornography.

And in the same vein, I stumbled upon a little comic called Tag & Bink over the weekend.

I can't possibly recommend it highly enough. It's basically Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead set in the Star Wars universe. Except, that in addition to being completely grounded in continuity and laugh-out-loud funny, it also performs the function of filling a bunch of Lucas plot holes. In fact, Tag & Bink is so perfectly conceived that I the Star Wars arc doesn't even really make sense any more without it. Enjoy.

Brief Political Aside

So am I the only one who sees some similarities between Obama and Saruman?

Webster's Is the Best

Really, if you're not reading Webster's Is My Bitch, then you're only hurting yourself. Here's a brilliantly funny post on Molly Ringwald:

Molly Ringwald turns 40 years old today, and if that makes you feel old, then you probably are, gramps. In her 40 years on Earth, however, Molly has much to be proud of: She was voted by VH1 the best teen star of all time, she's been on the cover of Time, she's had a great song written about her, she's appeared nude in a film, she's been in a critically adored television series, she's dated Anthony Michael Hall, and, more importantly: She has a beautiful four year old daughter.

Your move, Jennifer Aniston.

So LiLo, John Cena, Floyd Maywweather, and Shane McMahon walk into a bar...

No, seriously. I defy you to explain this picture:

Michael Bay, Celebrity Pitchman

Galley Friend K.N. sends us a link to this new Verizon FIOS spot featuring . . . Michael Bay.

Sure, it's self-parody, but it maybe kindof the self-parody where he's making fun of himself--but not really? You be the judge. I'm not sure it reaches the mad genius of the Wes Anderson Am-Ex spot.

Dept. of Jealousy

We all know that John Chait hates George W. Bush, but is it okay to hate Chait for having the best headline of 2008 (so far)?

PS: I'm not commenting on Chait's piece itself because I can't get to the actual text . . .

"It's Karate Kid, meets Ultimate Fighter!"

Oh yes, it is. Here's the write-up:

Set against the action-packed world of Mixed Martial Arts, NEVER BACK DOWN is the story of Jake Tyler, a tough kid who leads with his fists, and, often, with his heart.

Somewhere, a disgruntled Yale English major is taking his quiet revenge on his employers at Summit Entertainment. Sweep the leg!!!

Website of the Moment

Galley Friend M.L., who is only white on the outside, sends us to Stuff White People Like. It is, I'll admit, pretty excellent. Consider:

#60 Toyota Prius and #59 Natural Medicine.

To which Galley Friend S.B. replies, "Go check out White Whines." Here's a sample:

Complaint #150

“The real problem with ‘A Mighty Wind’ is that Parker Posey is barely in the movie at all!”

-Whine by Alabaster Sanchez

Doctor Jones

Galley Friend M.R. has a nicely formated version of the new Indiana Jones trailer.

Dept. of War Games

My friend Robert Messenger has written a brilliant piece about "The German Way of War." Here's a short excerpt:

The history of the Prussian and German state through 1945 is one in which war is the main outcome of national policy. It was the country's principal export over two centuries. War was more than just "politics by other means"; it was, as the Comte de Mirabeau noted in 1788, "the national industry of Prussia." Though he formulated it most neatly with his quip that: "Where some states possess an army, the Prussian army possesses a state."

The operational excellence of the German and Prussian general staffs is the stuff of hundreds of excellent military histories. But this brilliant style of war, shaped by geographic and historical circumstance, masked an unhealthy strategic shortcoming: an inability to see national war as the last resort, sometimes even an unnecessary one.

But as wonderful as Robert's piece is, I think he overlooks one crucial factor in Germany's attraction to war: their early access to half-price barracks improvements. Its an advantage that practically begs for militarism.