Cool Shit 5/11

In the sports journalism world, Bill Simmons leaving ESPN was big news on Friday. Here's a great summary of what most likely happened to cause the split.

I have to believe Glen Beck is simply an entertainer, creating bizarre yet entertaining performance art pieces. I refuse, for my sanity, to believe there are people who sincerely believe things like this:



If you're really into Aphex Twin music, this is for you.

Captain Kidd pirate treasure found?

It's college graduation speech season! What better way to kick it off than with these historic graduation speeches?

These "best" Whose Line Is It Anyway sketches are great, but can't truly be considered the best because none of the British shows are included. I implore you to head over to youtube and watch some of those - the American ones often immediately go for the gag, while the British ones build to the joke. It's fin to see the different nuances between the two. Also, there is no greater host than Clive.

Letterman's last days are upon us... you know, before he became the Carson for the X Generation, Letterman's late night show was just... weird. And different. And something that a lot of people were influenced by. And the feuds he created, or fueled are a little reminder of that weirdness.

It's always good when three influential groups of a creative endeavor can't seemingly agree on how to end that endeavor. Yay, Game of Thrones!

So, Lucas wanted to make episode 7 with a bunch of teenagers. You know, because he did so well with the prequels.

Cool Shit 3/18

Ok, so while a plane going missing is crazy and hard to comprehend, it's also (obviously) not impossible and not unique.

FiveThirtyEight did an unbelievable job with the predicting the presidency. So why not try to accurately predict the NCAA tournament? Of course, it might be slightly harder, dealing with the unpredictable nature of sports. So I wouldn't sink all my money into these results if I were a betting man.

Sure, you know about The French Connection and The Conversation, but the 70s boasted a lot of cool thrillers.

Seriously, did no one think this was going to happen? Martin is notoriously slow with his books, and once the show was proven to be a cash cow of course they were going to fast track it and move it fast. And I'm not thrilled that the notoriously slow author is suggesting strategies about how to slow everything down. At this point, maybe we all just have to wait.

This real look at hot dogs might make you queasy. I think it depends on your love/hate relationship with hot dogs.