Marlon Brando Returns

Since Dara has blogged about Superman more recently than me, I better pick up the slack.

Here is a link to Ain't It Cool News demonstrating the nifty special effects used to re-animate Marlon Brando for Superman Returns. What's really cool is I saw some of these special effects a year ago, because I was in L.A. and I have a friend who works (or at least at the time worked) at Rhythm and Hues. He showed me so early examples of the effects after I promised to not speak of them outside the Rhythm and Hues complex, and they were pretty spiffy.

My First Ever Hockey and Soccer Post

So congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes. I guess. I'm sorry, but I just can't get in to the NHL. I enjoyed the one time I went to see a Washington Capitols game, but I find hockey on tv basically unwatchable.

But I love watching a team hoist the Stanley Cup. I didn't actually watch any of the NHL finals, but I'm always impressed by the pictures of the champions hoisting the cup. The Stanley Cup is pretty damn majestic. Best trophy in all of sports. So I guess the best part of the hockey season for me is after the games are over but the team is still on the ice celebrating.



See, for instance, the World Cup just doesn't compare to the Stanley Cup. Look how small it is! But it does provide a nice segway for me to talk about soccer, and once again link to my favorite sports columnist, King Kaufman.

Today King returns to one of his favorite topics (and mine), lazy use of statistics.

"After Ukraine scored in the fourth minute of its game against Saudi Arabia Monday, ESPN2 flashed a graphic saying that, to that point, teams that had scored first in this World Cup were 20-2-3," King says.

He then goes on to point out the pointlessness of this statement, as ANY goal is important in a low scoring sport such as soccer. Later in the column, he shows that it's really scoring the fourth goal of the game and the sixth goal of the game that have more correlation to victory (but oddly enough, no the fifth).

But King sums it up best....

The message is that in soccer, if you want to win, a good strategy is to try to score a goal. You can't get this kind of analysis just anywhere.

Indeed, you can't.

Best Honda Commercial Ever

Via Joe, this is an awesome commercial.

This Rube-Goldberg contraption is made entirely with Honda car parts.

And to think, I just sold my Honda and bought a Mazda.

Best Quiz Ever

Check out this new quiz.

What Progressive Rock Band Are You?

Nestle Buys Jenny Craig

Here's the link.

And now Nestle begins the strategy sessions, figuring out how to market the binge AND the purge.

Ryan Zimmerman Sends Us Home

Today I went to the best Nationals game I've been to so far this season. Not the best game overall I've been to this season, because I was at this Cardinals game, but this is the best game I've seen at RFK.

Not only did Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk of home run....

A) It was against the Yankees;
B) It was the first walk off home run in the history of the Washington Nationals; and
C) It was in front of the largest crowd in the history of the Washington Nationals, including many thousands of disappointed Yankees fans. Sorry, Dara's dad, but it's true.