TalkingApes

NFL Nickname playoffs: AFC East

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So what is in a nickname? It is something teams focus everything around, from team colors to marketing campaigns; it is the team’s identity. Believe it or not, team nicknames and logos can energize a community or take the life out of a fan base. Remember Bruce the Buccaneer? Now think back to when the Buccaneers changed their logo and color scheme a complete 180 degrees. That is the kind of impact a logo and nickname can have psychologically and monetarily. The Bucs have sold much more merchandise and changed the whole direction of a team just by changing logos and color schemes.

Some teams will never learn, and thus should be punished. Teams like the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins will reap what you they have sewn (although the Packers have one of, if not THE most loyal fan bases in the NFL, their logo and nickname still stink)!

I’m conducting an NFL Nickname Playoff, where a team’s nickname is how they would perform in a fight. First, we’ll figure out who will win a division, then we’ll figure out who wins the conference, then, the AFC winner and NFC winner will square off in the NFL Nickname Championship, and will be awarded the Toughest Nickname in the NFL. Then we’ll proceed to the NBA, MLB and Hockey and eventually crown a Toughest Pro Sports Nickname Champion.

First up, the AFC East

New England Patriots vs. New York Jets

Patriots: Anyone who fights for their country or cause. In this case, we’re talking about patriots from the American Revolutionary War. Their weapons, which eventually defeated the British, were cannons, muskets and bayonets.

Jets: Any airplane that has a jet engine. In the case of the marketing aspect of the NY Jets, they’ve often been associated with commercial airline jets and not fighter jets.

Matchup
In firefights, soldiers will often call in airstrikes to destroy their opponents when ground combat is initiated. These jets, however, are simply jumbo jets that carry cargo and passengers. Horrifyingly, we were reminded of what kind of damage they can inflict when used as a weapon during 9/11. Since a kamakazi effort would lead to the jet’s demise, it really has no other method of attack. Revolutionary War patriots have cannons, guns and bayonetes that they can attack with, but could not fly. Since jets can’t attack anyone and live, patriots win by default. It is possible for patriots to attack a jet with a cannon, so the edge goes to the New England Patriots.

Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills

Dolphins: An aquatic mammal that divers befriend and swim with at Sea World. It’s hard to imagine dolphins fighting, but they’ve been known to drag people under water as well as rescue people in the movies. Dolphins really don’t have a fighting style other than bumping. They can breathe out of water but have no legs.

Bills: Bills, in this case, refer to Buffaloes. The buffaloes of North America were all but wiped out by human predation. They were sources of clothing and food. They are dangerous in herds, as they can trample anything in their paths.

Matchup
On the surface, this seems like an easy matchup, but you have to establish some ground rules. Is this fight on the land or in water? I think the determining factor is that football is played on land, and on land, a dolphin is defenseless and would die without the moisture of the water. A buffalo can swim, but would get tired if forced to swim for a long period of time and would likely drown. If a buffalo is in water fighting a dolphin, the dolphin really doesn’t have any mode of attack. If a dolphin is on land, a buffalo easily tramples or gores him with his horn. Since the matchup is over land, the Buffalo Bills win this matchup.

AFC East Championship: New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills

Matchup
This is an easy one, as it’s already played out historically. Patriots, with their weapons and human intellect, defeated the North American Buffaloes. Granted, a single buffalo could defeat a single human, however, Patriots are defined (by me) as multiple humans with weapons taking on the same number of buffaloes. The New England Patriots win.

Next week: AFC North

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The web is a scary place, dude.

I was talking with my dad on Sunday. He’s worked in corporate security for a number of years and recently retired, electing to go solo and open his own company doing what he did for ‘the man’ for so many years.

He recently attended an internet security conference and came back with some scary information.

(more…)

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Golf, NASCAR are not sports.

Despite what you hear on TV, Golf and NASCAR are not sports.

Sure, they take skill, they compete against one another, but they aren’t sports.

So what is a sport?

My definition of a sport is an athletic contest in which one team (even consisting of 1 player) tries to score, and at the same time another team is trying to defend the act of scoring. Without the aspect of defense, the activity is either a game or an athletic competition. The Olympics, by in large, are athletic competitions.

Golf, Bowling, NASCAR Racing and Billiards all lack the aspect of defenders preventing scoring. Golf, bowling and billiards are games of skill. NASCAR racing is a game of skill with athletic and technological aspects playing a vital role.

Horse racing is more of an athletic competition of the horses.

Without the aspect of “playing defense”, an athletic competition can not be a sport.

THAT, my friends, is the difference.

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CDC: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll – CNN.com

CDC: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll – CNN.com

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

How scary is this?

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Mychal Bell of Jena 6 fame had FOUR previous offenses, ordered to juvenile hall for probation violation

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Britney Spears at the VMA’s. Wow.

It’s amazing how many people have beautiful lives giftwrapped for them and squander it. If you haven’t been following the Briney Spears spiral over the last few years, welcome a) to earth, b) back from your coma.

Last night’s VMA appearance, we won’t call it a performance, was her latest moment of embarrassment.

Poorly lip-synched, poorly choreographed and little effort to perform. It was brutal. Don’t take my word for it. View it online — Britney Spears 2007 VMA appearance, “Gimme More” Live.

The look on her face… was she high? Did she just not care? Or is it that how she acts when she’s embarrassed? Is it possible for Spears to be embarrassed? I think that’s a valid question that needs answering.

I can’t attest to the whole show. I just watched the first 15 minutes. I couldn’t stomach much more than that. Very poorly produced, directed and designed from top to bottom.

Let’s not forget Sarah Silverman either, who blasted Spears directly after her performances. Calling Spears’ children mistakes and continuing to denigrate the woman’s children on LIVE TV shows what little character she has, herself.

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Social Networking sites traffic ranking, trends

I’m interested in social networking sites not named MySpace.com or Bebo.com — two of the largest on the web right now.

My focus is on some of the lesser-known ones: Virb.com, TagWorld.com, yfly.com and wallop.com.

You can see in the traffic graphs posted below that nearly each one had a huge spike that trailed off into a whimper, which generally means that people weren’t that thrilled with the offerings after their initial visit(s).

3 Months

6 Months

1 Year

TagWorld.com had the highest spike, which occurred around August 2006. Since then, it’s seen a gradual decline and now ranks second of the four profiled, finishing behind Virb.com.

Wallop.com also had a lot of initial buzz and a enjoyed a big traffic spike around the end of September last year, but hasn’t generated much traffic since then. My guess is that people didn’t like the big circle thing in the corner and the bugs that riddled the site. I thought it was a cool concept though, and it was my favorite of the four.

virb.com has actually gone up and has enjoyed a traffic boost since March of this year. Will it be the one to challenge MySpace.com?

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The next social networking target: families

People are starting to figure out social networking is a good way to communicate with one another on the web and that it’s not just for teenagers any more.

There have been quite a few social networking sites to crop up lately that are focused on another segment of society: families.

Families share pictures and news, opinions and recipes. These sites aim to be your “social network” for your family:

MyFamily.com
“FREE family web sites for sharing photos, stories, news, and more.”

FamFridge.com
FamFridge isn’t live yet, but you can sign up to take part in their beta testing.
“FamFridge is a startup company aiming to enhance family communication and connectivity through technology.”

Zooof.com (3 o’s)
“With ZOOOF you can discover, expand and maintain your family ties!

* Choose from 35 languages
* Build a contemporary interactive family tree
* Invite family members to a private environment
* Write your biography and immortalize your family history
* Chat, mail and share!
* Discover the ZOOOF Family levels
* Join for free”

Famiva.com
“Welcome to the premier social network for families, a secure and password-protected place for you and your relatives to connect and collaborate. Work together to build the family tree, visualize the extended family network, share photos and stories, stay current with family events and reminders, explore family maps, and much more. Best of all, Famiva is completely free.”

Amiglia.com
$50.00 per year
“# Family tree with photos that you can blog
# Linked albums of related families
# Personal profiles linked to nuclear family
# Family facebook of your entire family
# Family calendar with birthdays and events
# Maps of geolocated photos
# Easy tagging for people, themes, places
# Easy search for family photos
# Elegant slideshows to view, email and blog
# Music uploads to any slideshow
# Intergrated Skype calling and chats
# Riya import
# Interactive photo-based babies’ games
# Easy mass uploading
# Upload by email or with camera phone
# Import from Flickr or Photoshop Album
# Easy GEDCOM imports at signup
# Video clips support (up to 5MB each)
# Advanced privacy, no spam, no ads
# Backup CDs or DVDs at minimal charge
# Email reminders for family birthdays”

I haven’t tried any of these, but I would like to hear about your experiences if you have used them in the past or are presently using them as your family’s social network.

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Does anyone really give a ____ about Paris Hilton?

Honestly? Do you care? Why should I care? Why is this treated as news? I got email blasts. It’s on the top of news sites where things like “Tornado kills 10 people” or some other kind of important breaking news should go. Enough already! We’ve got people nearly being run over by police cars trying to take pictures of her crying being hauled off to jail. We got people taking pictures and video of people nearly being run over by police cars trying to take pictures of her crying being hauled off to jail.

So what is the fascination with Hilton? Is it because she’s stupid? Rich? Was in a porno? Really, I can’t figure out why I’m supposed to care. This is kind of like the Anna Nicole coverage when she died — It was tragic, but I think there was more coverage of her death than there was of Mother Teresa when she died.

And why am I giving it even more legs writing this blog post?

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Thoughts on the new CNN.com Beta

If you haven’t seen it already, you can check out CNN.com’s new Beta site here. It’s a new look for the news site, which looks like a “Cheap-ass blog” according to my friend Donavon. I kind of like what they are trying to do, but there is too much wasted space for my taste.

I like the tech page shown in this thumbnail; more specifically the usage of the photo going across the top. I don’t like that the header goes all the way across and the body doesn’t. It just doesn’t match with the rest of the site. It does have some more personalization features, like local news and weather integration. There’s also a hot topics string of links under the top navigation with the top keywords people have been looking for recently.

IMO, they should have went with a layout like FanNation.com or SI.com, which are very clean but use space wisely. Still, it’s not as bad as USAToday.com’s latest redesign, which many have labelled as a disaster.

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