Are NFL kickers getting better, and if so, why?

On Monday night, ’twas a tale of two cities in the NFL — the Baltimore Ravens won (and put themselves in decent position to be a 3, 4, or 6 seed in the AFC Playoffs, depending on what happens with… Continue Reading →

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Think it’s not possible to get executed in broad daylight in America’s biggest city? Meet Brandon Lincoln Woodard.

It’s been a year since one of the most brazen things you’ll ever see: a man executed in broad daylight in a busy area of the biggest city in America. His name was Brandon Lincoln Woodard, and there’s a high… Continue Reading →

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The origins of NORAD’s Santa Tracker

Here’s the NORAD Santa Tracker. Don’t get too excited just yet — it doesn’t really fire up for about six days (only logical). It’s been around since 1955, and from ’55 to about 1996, it was primarily done via a telephone… Continue Reading →

Google Zeitgeist: Paul Walker, Cory Monteith, Aaron Hernandez, Travyon Martin and more confirm we’re really into death and bad things

I’m obsessed with Google Zeitgeist. Think about this: the site may be responsible for 100 billion searches per month. As a result, any snapshot data it gives you on a year has to be somewhat interesting, no? Here’s a good rundown of some… Continue Reading →

Humans are basically powerless when it comes to undercutting corporations

When you have a bad customer service experience, normally you think “Well, that sucked.” Some people also think, “If I complain to the company, or maybe talk about it on Facebook, or maybe tell my friends, then that will hit… Continue Reading →

Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace should be pretty good (damn, I hope)

The Black List, which is an annual (since 2005) list of Hollywood’s best as-of-yet-unproduced screenplays, is now out. There are some good things from some big names — i.e. Leo DiCaprio producing a movie about the creator of Calvin and Hobbes… Continue Reading →

Patrick Roy could be a rageaholic, but the Colorado Avalanche are probably the best story in the NHL right now

Take a look at the teams that made the NHL playoffs last year: in the East, ’twas PIT, MON, WAS, BOS, TOR, NYR, OTT, and NYI. In the West, ’twas CHI, ANA, VAN, STL, LAK, SJS, DET, and MIN. Detroit moved… Continue Reading →

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So grade inflation is probably up. What does that mean?

Lot of stories about grade inflation recently — see here, here and here — so I’ll add one too. Last year, I took a graduate-level business course (the topic of the specific class was mostly micro-economics). The professor used three… Continue Reading →