This is really good:

In 1998 Viacom Inc. attempted to launch the children's television channel Nickelodeon in Germany, but failed. In order to turn a profit out of the situation, Viacom sold the rights of certain Nickelodeon shows to a local children's channel called Super RTL. One of those shows happened to be the wildly popular SpongeBob Squarepants, although in German it's called SpongeBob Schwammkopf, translated as SpongeBob Spongehead. (HAHAHA!)



Look at how spongey that fuckin' head is!


Now, in the year 2006, Viacom is once again trying to establish Nickelodeon in Germany, but it already sold SpongeBob Spongehead to the more established German competitor Super RTL. So, in an effort to gain viewers, German Nickelodeon is trying to one up Super RTL by showing SpongeBob Spongehead eight times a day, compared to the three episodes a day that Super RTL broadcasts. As a result of this ratings struggle, SpongeBob Spongehead is aired 28 hours a week in Germany.

(I bet my Aunt Mary Ann, who lives in Germany, is having a blast right now watching so much SpongeBob Spongehead. Shit, I don't even get one episode of spongeBob Sponghead a week.)

The NYU golf coach, Jay Donovan, was forced to resign last Wednesday because he was reported to have taken the team to a strip club in Florida and allowed underage drinking.

Here's a link to the article that ran in the Washington Square News:

TEXT

After reading the article, it seems the story is more complex than the tagline my imply. The article makes the golfers sound like a team of spoiled brats, who didn't really give a shit about golf. (Hmm... a division III golf team at one of the countries most expensive schools...couldn't see that one coming.)

Ultimately, Coach Donovan is responsible for his actions as he acknowledges, "I made a very spontaneous decision that night. I didn’t suggest we go, but I was responsible for my actions and I have no problem being held accountable. I did pull the van into the parking lot of that club and never should have.” But do you think he should have been forced to resign?

(Considering the circumstances, I think Coach Donovan should have been punished, but not 'fired.' It sounds like the NYU Golf Program should worry more about golfing and less about the conduct of the links.)

It came to my attention today that some people dislike ska music... and some hate ska music.

What do you think about ska music?

(Look, ska music is good time music. I don't understand how one could hate ska music. It is completely inoffensive besides its catchiness. We all listened to ska music at one point, so quit being a faggot and own up. It's not the best music in the world, but it's entertaining.)

Origins of the Wave

There are two alternative views on the origins of “The Wave,” both of which claim that the wave turned 25 years old this month. Some sources point to a Halloween football game between the University of Washington and Stanford University in 1981. According to legend, Rob Weller, a Washington Huskies cheerleader instructed the Husky fans to stand up and cheer by section, traveling in a full circle around the stadium. The Washington Huskies ended up routing John Elway and Stanford 42-31.

The other version claims that Krazy George Henderson, the self-proclaimed “world’s most famous cheerleader,” invented the wave on October 15th 1981 at an Oakland Athletics-New York Yankees playoff game. Oakland lost the game 4-0.

There are some who say that Krazy George most likely invented the wave, but the fact that the A’s lost their game on October 15th 1981 points to the theory that Krazy George did not make the wave popular. They say that the wave was popularized in the Washington-Stanford game because the Huskies won and went on to win the rose bowl.

Here are links to differing versions of the story:

From ESPN.COM

From the University of Washington

From KRAZYGEORGE.COM




Who do you think invented the wave?

(I believe it was Rob Weller, because Krazy George doesn’t seem intelligent enough to invent the wave. I mean, he can’t even spell his name right. Fucking idiot. He also seems washed up-he’s doing corporate meetings and works as a motivational speakers. Well, I hate motivational speakers.)

There exists, in America, something called "Fantasy-Baseball Camps," in which adults can pay money to play baseball with their favorite retired ball players. (I kind of had a feeling something like this existed, but until now I had now direct proof.)

From the Wall Street Journal:

"The campers, who are mostly affluent middle-aged men, get to wear real uniforms and live out their dreams by playing baseball for a week alongside childhood heroes. (The cost ranges from $3,100 to $8,500, depending on the camp.)"

Here is a funny picture and quote from former pitcher turned fat-man Denny McLain:





These camps seems to good to be true, and the fact that I plan on being an "affluent middle-aged man" someday makes it all the better. ( Just the thought that I could someday play with the 2005 World Champion White Sox is giving me a boner.)

But this whole Fantasy-Baseball camp deal got me thinking...you think if I pay enough money, I could play against active players in real games? Could I buy my way into the Major Leagues? (I hope so, that'd be sick. Like buying your way into space.)

A little something about the eye:

-The retina is located on the back of the eye and it contains all of the photoreceptors that collect light and pass action potentials to the optic nerve. Although the retina is located in the eyeball, it is actually part of the brain so when you are looking deep into someone's eyes, you are actually seeing their brain. Gross!

-In the photoreceptors of the retina, you have cone photoreceptors (cones) and rod photoreceptors (rods). Cones and rods differ in both structure and the photopigment they contain. Rods have long, cylindrical outer segments with membrane discs that contain the photopigment Rhodopsin. Cones have shorter, tapering outer segments with one of three different kinds of photopigments (red, green, or blue). Since rods have more membrane discs, they are over 1000 times more sensitive to light than cones. Thus, rods are activated in lowlight situations, while cones are used to differentiate colors in an abundance of light.


Now the fun part:

-There are two different "schools of thought" in designing car dashboards. One view is that the lights should be a dim blue color in order to take advantage of the rods' light sensitivity. The other thought is to use bright red lights that activate cones in order to leave the rods 'unsaturated' or unused, thus increasing the driver's night vision.


Which kind of dashboard lights would you rather have?

(Personally, I'd like to have bright red dashboard lights because those seem to be more common in expensive cars. So, logically, if my car had bright red lights on the dashboard, then that'd probably mean that it was an expensive car and I enjoy expensive cars.)