Ryan Reynolds has come a long way since Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place. It seems like he is continuing to move towards action star with his upcoming movie Safe House. It sure seems like this movie with Denzel Washington has a lot of potential. Basically Reynolds is a federal agent assigned to a safe house that contains Denzel as a prisoner. The safe house is attacked and Reynolds then has to protect Denzel and himself.
(via Grantland)
Chris and I talk Back to the Future 2. How much of the future scenes did they get right? How close is any of that to reality? Then we re-visit our NFL picks at the midpoint of the season and talk a little Big Ten Football
Guest: Chris http://twitter.com/cmwilliams51
Running Time: About 38 minutes
Jim Margalus of South Side Sox on the White Sox exercising Jason Frasor’s option:
But now he’s not, and now I’m confused, because Frasor figures to be even less important if Addison Reed is the real deal. If the Sox need to cut costs like Kenny Williams has repeatedly suggested, Frasor was one of the first places to start.
I knew Frasor didn’t have a great season but I thought exercising his $3.75 million option was a no brainer, but perhaps I was wrong. Assuming Chris Sale will move to the rotation, the White Sox still return the top four relievers based on appearances (Thornton, Santos, Crain and Ohman). Since Santos, Thornton and Crain are essentially their 7-8-9th inning guys, and Ohman is the LOOGY, the other 2 (?) spots are reserved for a garbage time guy and maybe a long inning man.
Seems like you could have got both of those for far less that $3.75 million.
(Click to view source article)Mark Simon of ESPN.com with 10 facts about Bill Buckner:
4. Buckner was a footnote to another moment in history. He was the Dodgers left fielder who climbed the fence to try to catch Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run on April 8, 1974.
Amazing. I definitely never knew that. The rest of the facts show some other amazing coincidences about this career, as well as some stats that show Buckner was a pretty good player.
(Click to view source article)Rick Schwartz of Grantland on Executive Producers:
Though it sounds more important than its predecessor, this credit is the consolation prize when you don’t get the big one. E.P, as it’s known, often goes to people who put up a lot of the actual financing but wouldn’t know a good movie if Spielberg showed up at their house with a Super 8, Tom Hanks, and a giant robot.
Schwartz’s piece covers (in a somewhat snarky way) the difference between a Producer, Executive Producer, Co-Producer and Associate Producer. If you have ever been curious, it’s definitely worth a peak.
(Click to view source article)Brett Kelly on acronyms vs. initialisms:
An incredibly common mistake is to refer to the following abbreviations as acronymns: FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
These are not acronyms. They’re called initialisms.
I am sure someone told me this once, but I never remember. I actually thought what are initialisms were actually called “abbreviations”, but apparently, according to Kelly, abbreviation is a more general classification that encompasses both initialisms and acronyms.
(Click to view source article)Ben Brooks on how to improve air travel:
My idea: enforce the size limits for carry-ons strictly.
After traveling on a plane recently, I couldn’t me more for this. Now that everyone has some sort of checked-bag fees, 80% of people seem to carry on some sort of rolling bag, plus another bag of some sort. Two things I have noticed, 1) these bags are usually larger than the regulations allow, 2) the 2nd bag is usually too big to fit under the seat. So not only are people putting large bags in the overhead, but they are putting two of them up there.
The worst of all of this is that, as Brooks mentions, these are the people that slow down de-boarding because it takes them time to get their bags down. In a quest to create more revenue, airlines charge checked bag fees, but to avoid these fees more people carry on luggage. The irony is that the airlines then chose not to enforce regulations around carry-on sizes, therefore missing out on revenue.
(Click to view source article)Marco Arment on paying for digital content and still getting ads:
They’re implementation details. I don’t need to know why $4.99 is insufficient to pay for 15 articles on my iPad. I just know that it feels like a premium price for such a relatively small amount of content, and I don’t feel right paying premium prices for ad-subsidized products.
I’ve yet to purchase the digital version of a magazine, and barring an article about me being contained in one, I don’t see myself every buying one. Ads or not, $5 for 15 articles is insane. There is a an unlimited amount of content for free on the internet. The content in these digital magazines is not so superior to the free content to warrant the much of an extra cost, especially when it’s full of ads.
Marco’s article, which a follow-up to this previous one, focuses on the fact that his original argument was from the perspective of a paying customer who felt short-changed. He doesn’t care the reasoning behind it, just that it exists.
Makes sense.
(Click to view source article)I am sure I am not the first person to write this story, but I was curious what it would likely take for Boise St. to end up in the BCS Championship game, and so I did some homework to try and figure it out.
Boise St. is currently one of six unbeaten teams and ranks 5th in the BCS Standings. They will need some help to get to the BCS Championship and here are the teams I think could finish ahead of them.
Definitely a team that controls it’s own destiny. Winning out assures it a spot. (Remaining Games: @Bama, W. Kent., @Miss, Ark, SEC Championship)
See above. These two teams play each other so it can only be one of them. In my opinion, there is virtually zero chance of a rematch of these two teams (LSU, @Miss St, GA Southern, @Auburn, SEC Championship)
Because of where they are in the standings and their remaining schedule, they likely control their own destiny as well, and shouldn’t need any help if they win out. (KS State, @TTech, @Iowa St, OK)
Needs OK St. to lose I would think. I suppose if Stanford blows out remaining opponents and OK St. doesn’t there is a chance it could change. Pac 12 Championship helps. (@OR St, Oregon, Cal, ND, P12 Championship)
The dark horse that I think people are overlooking. Only loss was Week 1 vs. LSU and they have been shellacking people lately. If LSU wins out, Oregon upsets Stanford and wins Pac 12, they will move up and have a case. (@Wash, @Stanford, USC, OR St.)
I feel less confident that the Sooners can get ahead of Boise St., but I think it’s possible. Their ranking is completely dependent on two things, how well do Texas Tech, Texas and Kansas St. close out the season, and how badly do they beat OK St. on the road in the last game. They could easily win their next three games by a combined 150 points, so they are capable of making a statement, but they also lost their starting RB. (TAMU, @Baylor, Iowa St, @OK St)
I know I am starting to sound insane at this point but hear me out. Arkansas is 7th in the BCS and 8th in both polls. They still play South Carolina and to LSU. If Alabama somehow loses twice, Arkansas can win the SEC West. A one-loss SEC champ who beat LSU and South Carolina (possibly twice) is appealing. (S Car, Tenn, Miss St, @LSU, SEC Championship).
Don’t give up reading yet, I am not crazy. South Carolina is ranked 9th in the BCS and 10th in both polls. They still play at Arkansas and home against Florida and Clemson. They control their own destiny in the SEC East and if Clemson has just one loss for that last game, it will be worth something. If they then defeat an undefeated LSU/Bama in the SEC Championship they could take a big leap. (@Ark, Florida, Citadel, Clemson, SEC Championship)
The voters are fickle, and a 1-loss SEC champ, even if it’s South Carolina or Arkansas will garner some high votes. Oklahoma is a big name school that still has an opportunity for a big road win to close out the season. Boise St.’s biggest win is likely behind them, meaning they will need some help. How much help is yet to be determined, but my personal take is that Boise St. needs a lot.
Chris Perez of Unplggd on Siri:
Imagine you’re driving with attention on the road, and suddenly find inspiration or need to take an action requiring the phone. Simple. Just hold down the Home button and beckon Siri to jot down some notes and reminders. Pretty basic, not too demanding. Siri should be able to handle that, right?
I have had my iPhone 4S for a week today. My reviews of Siri are somewhat mixed. When holding the phone near my face and using the built-in microphone it seems to work pretty well. Even in the car, with my Bluetooth receiver, asking it to call a person or play a song seems to work pretty well. But one of the features I was looking to most was the ability to send text messages with my voice in the car. So far, like Chris, I have struggled mightily to get this to be consistently accurate.
I think it’s still early, and I think Siri has some good uses, but it wasn’t the home run that most reviews made it out to be.
(Click to view source article)