Custom Hats

Ever wanted your own custom hat? Well, Lids has the tools you need. A few clicks and you can have your own custom cap. Or beanie. Or bucket hat. But not visor. And, yes, they do have monkeys available.

Idiots!

Fools. The NFL and the Player's Association failed to reach an agreement on a new CBA again today. This could lead to an uncapped year in 2007. For a league that seems to never make a wrong move, this is incredibly stupid. Hockey has provided a great case study in labor stupidity by both players and the league. A large part of the popularity of the NFL is based around its labor stability. Serious damage could be done to the league if this isn't figured out. This could be a disaster.

Wonderlicked?

There are rumors floating around that say Vince Young scored a 6 on the Wonderlic test on his first try, but then scored a 16 the second time around. A score of 20 is roughly equivalent to an I of 100, or average intelligence. There are also reports that the initial rumor was false. There are also rumors that Young may fall as far as #7 to the Raiders, though that's pure speculation.

Now, I've taken a Wonderlic test, so I can speak intelligently about it, though I don't know what I scored. You take a fifty-question test in 12 minutes; I'm pretty sure when I took it we were only given ten. Here's some example questions from this FoxSports article, which explains a little about the test:

Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next?
8
4
2
1
1/2
1/4

In printing an article of 48,000 words, a printer decides to use two sizes of type. Using the larger type, a printed page contains 1,800 words. Using the smaller type, a page contains 2,400 words. The article is allotted 21 full pages in a magazine. How many pages must be in smaller type?

None of these are terribly difficult, but when you're rushing to get through them in the alloted time they are difficult enough. You might also notice that there's nothing football-centric about the questions. Apparently there are some that think the test is culturally-biased. I suppose that might be true, if stupidity is one of your cultural values. Let me clear though: I don't think Young actually scored a 6, unless the test was administered wrong or there were other extenuating circumstances. Mostly, I just think it's amusing how people get so worked up over this test when they have no idea what it is.

Uh...Haag?

Be careful, I think Noah can kill you with his mind.

Homeless?

No place to lay your head? Can't afford rent? Does GMC have the solution for you: the GMC Pad. It's like an RV, but "hip" and "modern". Or something. I guess it beats living in a storage unit. Questions as to whether GM could actually sell this thing are pointless since it's not even a true concept, and certainly not a production vehicle. It's the winner of the 2006 Design Challenge. It impressed because of the innovative concept, not necessarily its marketability. But maybe for roadtrips...

Football 101

Joey Harrington is going back to school. He was just enrolled in Professor Martz's class, Football 101. It starts March 6th, two weeks before any other team begins official workouts. Martz wants Harrington to get a head start on the new offensive system. Surely there must be some similarities to the previous West Coast system, right? "None," says Martz. "We're going to coach him like he's in high school." Sounds like fun. Harrington gets one more chance to prove he's the man. Can he come through?

The Big Board

There are already two teams in the fantasy baseball league, so it's time to drum up some more interest. You can see Brandon Funston's Big(ger) board here, a list of his top 100 fantasy baseball players. A preview:

1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Albert Pujols
3. Vladimir Guerrero

You can sign-up here.

Camaro Concept

Did you see Chevy's Camaro concept at the auto show last month? It looks like this:


You can see more on Chevy's official site. Bad news is that because no one in Detroit has any money so it won't be produced for quite a while.

Noah's a pussy

Come on Noah, come get me. I'm hiding in cyberspace. I can say anything I want. Na na na-boo boo.

More on Noah

This guy's a real celebrity! There was an article about him in a Naval Academy publication, which you can check out here.

Disturbing

Now that I'm something like a real engineer, a somewhat troubling thought has occurred to me. All the structures and devices our lifestyles and lives depend on are engineered. At some point in a project, every engineer has to make assumptions and says "Boy, I hope this works." or "I hope this doesn't blow up and kill everyone." These assumptions have varying degrees of validity. I'm becoming familiar with the WAG (wild ass guess). We actually use that as a note on calculating. Sometimes, you have to WAG like a golden retriever on prozac.

Who's surprised?

Noah Gould won the US open Karate tournament last weekend. I'm a bit short on details, but I'm told he won his weight class (Heavy), then beat the other champions to take the whole thing. For those who don't know, Noah made black belt before thanksgiving, having only started his freshman year (he's now a senior). That's fast (normally takes 5+ years).

Quantum Physicists just want to see if we'll actually believe it

"A non-running computer produces fewer errors," Yeah, obvious. The trick is getting answers out of it. They claim they can. Quantum physics, like the duck-billed platypus, is indisputable evidence the God does, in fact, have a sense of humor. And its really weird.

Ready for the draft?

No? Well I'm not quite yet there either, but as the Combine begins today it's time to start talking about it. To warm you up, check out this mock draft from Charles Robinson.

And the starter is...

Joey Harrington. Well, not officially of course. But sort of. The new Detroit coaching staff threw their support behind Harrington yesterday, meaning he will most likely stay in Detroit and they will not use their 1st round draft pick on a QB. The thought is that Martz can work his magic on Harrington and turn him into a Pro Bowl player. Well, maybe just a serviceable starter. Can we get Dre' Bly's opinion on this?

Ill-tempered Rodent

By now, you've probably heard about the altercation between an MSU student and a UM basketball player before the game on Saturday. You may have even seen video on ESPN. Now I don't think Mr. Brock should have been down on the court, which is a violation of the contract for his Izzone tickets, and especially shouldn't have been there drunk. But even so, Ba doesn't get a free pass. Brock could have been seriously injured and Ba had plenty of opportunities to get away from the situation. He looks like he was just trying to prove how tough he was. It's a good thing the stands were empty, because if the Izzone had a legitimate reason to attack a UM player they'd still be scrubbing him out of the concrete. UM guard Daniel Horton said: "We did everything we could to try and prevent it." Well, if "everything" means "nothing", then I'm sure that's an accurate statement. In the end both universities come up looking bad. Good job guys.

Deep Philosophy

Q. What did the Zen Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?
A. "Make me one with everything."

On presenting a $10 bill to the vendor, He asked for his change...the vendor replied "But change comes from within."

Detroit Sports Round-Up

A few interesting stories from the past week in Detroit sports:

-Here's an article about the future of Lions, and another more specifically about Harrington and Martz.

-A note here about how Milicic has no one to blame but himself for his lack of development.

-A story about how Flip Saunders plans to play all four All-Star Pistons at once and how team play might be coming to the NBA. Also has a picture of the AWFUL all-star uniforms. Yuck!

Irked

I haven't posted for a while, mostly because the sports world is largely focused on the Olympics, which I care nothing about. But I finally found something annoying enough to get me to post. It's right here. I know what you're thinking: "But that's only ESPN's NFL front page." Yup. And it annoys me. I'm not even talking about layout or intrusive video and ads. It's the Insider content that bugs me. ESPN has been pushing this paid content for many years, but I think it's gotten worse over the past year or so. It's especially noticeable during the NFL offseason where there's almost nothing you can read for free. It seems to be an attitude ESPN has, and it really irks me. They may be the the "worldwide leader is sports", but there are many other acceptable substitutes online. And if you start talking about fantasy sports, ESPN massive failure with free fantasy football last season put them far down the list. Anyway, I think I'm going to start checking Foxsports.com for my sports news first.

We don't need to stinkin' recoil operated autoloading mechanisms

Go watch this video. In-freakin-sane. Thankfully they run it at one half speed the second time. I can't imagine firing a revolver that fast, much less hitting anything.