I always knew Macs were crap

First that little OS snafu where all user files were deleted, and now Apple is shipping defective or broken machines. What the heck is happening at the World Wide Leader of Cute Computers?

Scattered reports around the Web indicate that there may be one or more design flaws with Apple's 27" Core i7-powered iMac. Many users claim that their high-end iMac systems have cracked screens out of the box, and some units are completely dead on arrival. Among the affected are editors at Engadget, who recently received a new i7 model that refused to boot -- though, a different i7 iMac was fine.

Customers have piled into the Apple Support forum to complain about their busted machines, but Apple has yet to determine the root of the problem. It would seem most likely that the cracked displays are a result of insufficient packaging, poor handling -- or both. The DOA machines could also stem from improper shipping practices, though it is less probable.

Is the guy shipping all these Macs Ace Ventura? I mean a few cracked screens is one thing, but widespread cases of that along with dead machines is not a good sign for quality control at Apple.

(Got this from Tech Rave)

Huskies Suck

Since it is Apple Cup Weekend and Casey decided to p-off Washington State fans with his "Cougar jokes" I've decided to turn the table on the lamest team in Div. I. Ahem... here we go.

Oh that's right, the Huskies went 0-12 last year. I mean the Cougars may be terrible, they might have their worst team ever, but at least the beat somebody earlier in the season. UW last year was officially the worst team in the country. Why? Because your First-Round-Bust-In-The-Making had a brain fart in a near victory over BYU. And that pretty much explains the Jack Locker era at the Dub.

You're the Huskies. You wear these Notre Dame wannabe uniforms that would make Charlie Weis blush. You play in Husky Stadium which should be condemned for public safety reasons. Oh and remember when you were ranked in Top 25 earlier this year? Yeah that wasn't an over-f***ing-reaction. Good job. 

And you guys forget... YOU SHOULD OF WON LAST YEAR. And you didn't. In fact you've lost quite a few to the Cougs lately, a true testament how you're college football's doormat now, a far cry from your glory days in the early 90s.

So please, shut the heck up, Oregon is a waaaay better football program anyways.

JustSON Numbers: Looking at Gonzaga's win and Eastern's loss

Okay perhaps nobody in Spokane really noticed that Eastern Washington was playing out in Cheney against old Big Sky opponent Boise State. It ended in a 82-69 loss for the Eags, largely because they got off to a cold start and pulled to within one in the second half after eventually succumbing to the Broncos.

How cold was their start? Well look at this...

TOTAL FG%
1st Half: 11-42 26.2%

Ick. Need to shoot better guys, and don't just try to jack up a bunch of threes all the time.

And now on to the Zag game that I'm sure you all missed. Good win for Gonzaga over a quality Wisconsin team, and it looked like they were in control for most of the game. I think that you have to credit it to the Zags ability to hold the Badgers to just 39 percent shooting as it seemed that they never got it going. Meanwhile, Matt Bouldin actually showed up in a game against a solid opponent, scoring 18 points. 

Lots of college basketball, who's happy we're in season now?

Video Bites: Apple Cup Jokes

More Apple Cup jokes:
http://www.huskyfan.com/wsu.html

Eastern Washington University:
http://www.goeags.com

Gonzaga Basketball:
http://www.gozags.com

Things I'd rather watch than this year's Apple Cup

Boy is this year gonna suck in Seattle for the Apple Cup, where you have a crapalicous WSU Cougars team versus a stinkerpile UW team in the bragging rights for the best football team in the state of Washington. Whoopdedoo, I wan't the Seattle Sonics back.

Now, I'll probably skip the game altogether and end up watching these things.

1. EWU playoff game - Oh wait, better scratch that best football team in state of Washington thing with UW and WSU. I would venture to guess that Eastern and Central Washington are much better football teams regardless.

2. The View - Yes, I would rather watch Starr Jones talk about childhood obesity than Paul Wulff talk about his 120-pound halfback and how much promise he's showing

3. Big 10 Football - You know, they haven't figured out this who "passing" thingy or this whole "scoring more points than your opponent" gimmick, but at least Jim Tressel wears a cool sweater vest.

4. Baseball - Who wants to watch the Arizona Fall League with roughly 20 people in attendance at the games? Oh Goodie! Me!

5. Golden Girls - Hey, it's a good show.

6. Televised Scrabble - Can you imagine the calls? "Oh Good God! That's a double word score! A double word score! Go crazy folks, go crazy!"

7. TCU Football - At least this team in purple is actually good at football.

8. Gonzaga Drinking Games - Sure every student is drunk after two beers, but that's what keeps the Gonzaga Drinking Games ticket prices down. Thank god for preppy students with no alcohol tolerance.

9. ESPN's Latest Game Show "Who's going to get fired next for sleeping with a chubby intern?" - I hear Bill Clinton is on the show.

10. This YouTube Video - ...awesome

See what happens when Brandon doesn't nerd out and buy a new computer?

We've been hearing a lot of good news lately from the tech sector in terms of dollars and cents, however it seems that the PC industry market value will shrink this year.

According to a report released by Gartner today, worldwide PC shipments will grow 2.8% this year -- though, revenue will fall 11%. The firm's preliminary fourth-quarter forecast indicates that global PC shipments will total 298.9 million units in 2009, and may reach 336.6 million units in 2010, a 12.6% increase from this year.

This news comes after less optimistic research in September, which claimed there would be a 2% decline in shipments for 2009. Gartner said the growth is due to higher-than-anticipated sales in the third quarter, but despite that boost, the market value is still expected to decline. The outfit predicts that the market value of global PC shipments will total $217 billion in 2009, 10.7% less than 2008. That figure may increase by 2.6% to $222.9 billion in 2010.

With all things considered, an 11 percent drop seems about on par with the way everything is going. Growth in 2010 looks promising as everyone starts to pull themselves out of this recession.

(This is from Tech Rave)

Epic Photo: Who the heck invited all these Cranes

"Wow, who invited all of us? If I were to guesstimate I would say there's about a thousand of us. Who the hell invited a thousand of us?!?!"

Here's the answer...

Thousands of sandhill cranes, snow geese and other migratory birds gather at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro, N.M., Monday. The refuge wrapped up its 22nd annual Festival of the Cranes on Sunday. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

What the heck got into Vince Young?

The Tennessee Titans are my favorite team in the NFL, and after going a painful 0-6, they've turned it around and have now won four straight. A large part of that turnaround has been Vince Young starting at quarterback... but how? Wasn't he washed up? Wasn't he a headcase? What is going on? Here might be some reasons...

- He stopped drinking tequila... and eating hot pockets (in between snaps).

- He realized that the object of the game is to throw the ball to recievers with preferable the same jersey that he was wearing which was actually a problem in preseason since he was wearing a different red jersey than everyone else so he wouldn't get it. The "Cut Me" sign on the back didn't help either.

- A snuggie awaits the underside of his Christmas tree if he keeps winning.

- He started listening to Fireflies by Owl City. Then the other team started making fun of him. He got quite angry.

- Jeff Fisher said John Madden would eat him if he didn't play better.

So there you have it! Go Titans!

JustSON the Numbers: Gonzaga's Defense

While it's nice for Gonzaga fans that the Bulldogs pulled out the 76-72 win over the Colorado Buffaloes, there are still some question marks that arose from the game. Namely the defense of the men's basketball team since the Buffs shot 53 percent from the field and 46 percent from three point land. Factor in that Colorado only went to the line 18 times means that this team isn't exactly as physical as billed.

Now, I don't want to go all "2012: End of the World" on Zag fans because they won the rebound battle while Steven Gray and Matt Bouldin both had nice games. One thing I've been hearing about this team is how "gritty" their play has been and even though today's game was decidedly sloppy, I heard a lot of good things about the teams effort.

And effort, something that last year's team was lacking until the WCC Tournament, is exactly what the Bulldogs need an influx of.

Video Bites: Dirty Birds

Email: justsouthofnorth@gmail.com

Eastern Washington Eagles football in FCS Playoffs:
http://goeags.com/sports/m-footbl/200...

FCS playoff bracket:
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/ts...

University of Montana tunnel pre-game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YlCEE...

Eastern Washington Eagle volleyball:
http://goeags.com/sports/w-volley/200...

Check out our Twitter pages:
http://twitter.com/CaseyKnopik

http://twitter.com/BrandonwHansen

Further proof that Pittsburgh Steelers fans are douchbags

Michael Vick would be horrified right now. Who the hell in their right mind DOES THIS?

A witness called Bridgeville police at 1:09 p.m. after a suspect, who was supposed to have been walking the dog, was kicking it down the street instead, according to a police affidavit.

Ms. Gielarowski told police her boyfriend kicked the dog because the pup would not walk with them. When the near lifeless dog no longer was able to move, Mr. Woodson walked away from it and his girlfriend, she told police.

"He admitted the dog would not behave prior to the Steelers game and that he became upset at it," according to the affidavit.

Listen, I know west coast sports fans might not be as passionate as their east coat counterparts, but instances like this show you just how screwed up priorities are by meat heads in the Rust Belt cities. I would never want to live in a sports culture like that. Grow up and realize it's just a stinking game.

Are you ready for the Microsoft-Google Clone Wars?

Well this whole Bing-Google search engine war just took an interesting twist. Look for the cannonballs to start flying after Microsoft is in discussions with News Corp to stop indexing their content with Google News. That's the same News Corp that owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The Sun. Uh-oh.

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.

Things just got really, really ugly. We're about to see an all-out brawl. And I think newspapers are really kidding themselves if they think that selling the rights to their stories is going to save the industry. That's like saying a sports league could survive on TV rights sales alone. Not gonna work.

(This is from Tech Rave)

What I want for Christmas

That's soooo awesome...

Justson the Numbers: Rodney Stuckey

I was wondering how EWU great Rodney Stuckey was doing in the NBA these days and had to actually get off my butt and look up stats. However I was pleasantly surprised that he's actually doing pretty well this season. Check out his line:


Rodney Stuckey (Detroit Pistons) 2009-10 Statistics

PPG
17.2
RPG
5.30
APG
3.9

Not too shabby, maybe not Lebron-esque numbers but definitely serviceable. Problem is, the Pistons are 5-9 in the East and currently out of the top eight in the East which would mean no playoffs if the season ended today. Not that it matters though, considering the season is young, but the same could be said about Stuckey's line.

We'll have to check in with him throughout the season to see how he's doing. Lord knows he has a better jump shot than Casey and I.

Reasons why you're still single... Saints fan

I was unaware the Master Chief was a Saints fan.

Gray wolf hunting

I found this on OutdoorNews.com.

Montana is shutting down its first public hunt for gray wolves since their removal from the endangered species list, after state officials said they expected to meet the season's 75-wolf quota by Monday evening.

The order to halt the hunt came after state wildlife officials said the quota had been met across southwestern Montana and was expected to be met in northern Montana.

Wolf hunting in the southeastern portion of the state closed Oct. 26. The quota equaled about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500.

Whether the hunt will be repeated next year is uncertain. A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Now the thing I find strange is that this animal is pending for being put back on the endangered list. Yet, they still killed 75 of them. 425 wolves doesn't seem like a lot for one animal.

Brandon wrote about this back in January of this year.

Epic Video: Man vs. Wild.

Sunday means Man Vs Wild on DVD at my place. Football and Bear Grylls. Can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday.

Eagles in the playoffs

After starting the season with no hopes due to NCAA sanctions, the Eastern Washington Eagles are now in the postseason. How bout them apples?

Hope became a reality for the Eastern Washington University football team as they were selected Sunday (Nov. 22) as one of 16 teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs, and will play at Stephen F. Austin next Saturday (Nov. 28).

Located in Nacogdoches, Texas, SFA is 9-2 and won a share of the Southland Conference title by edging Northwestern State 19-10 last Saturday. The Lumberjacks defeated co-champion McNeese State 16-13 back on Oct. 10 to break the tie and earn them the league's automatic berth.

All I can say is... awesome.

Best EWU Team Ever?

EWU defeated Northern Arizona yesterday, probably punching themselves a ticket to the FCS playoffs and capping a season that started off with no hope and now has plenty of possibilities. There's something about this team - they have IT - not sure what that is but they have that swagger about them.

Think about it, the Eag lose one of the most prolific scorers (Aaron Boyce) in the history of EWU and the team continues to roll even after refs screwed them out of a victory in Montana.

They have a hall-of-fame quarterback Matt Nichols who might go down as the best signal caller the Big Sky has seen. I thought I had seen the best QB in Eagle history with Erik Meyer, but I think Nichols probably holds that crown now but he'll have to cement his legacy with another post-season run.

They have an explosive running back in Taiwan Jones, who's a danger to score every time he touches the ball. A megatron tight end in Nathan Overbay.  Tony Davis, Nicholas Edwards, are just some of solid guys on offense.

I could go on and on, the depth of this team is amazing, the defense is jam-packed with playmakers like Matt Johnson and JC Sherrit. Head coach Beau Baldwin is doing well and has completely erased Paul Wulff in the mind of people at the school.

Best team ever at Eastern?

Reasons why you're still single... emails you send out

The subject line on your emails are the following...

"Little Suzzie needs a new liver and will get one if this is sent out to 1,500 people"

"If I send this email out to 100 people, send the company 20 bucks, I will in turn get 100 bucks"

"150 things you didn't know about me - SUPER SECRET STUFF! You're mentioned in this 40,000 word email"

"FWD:FWD:FWD: Teeeeheeee cute kitty photo"

"FWD:FWD:FWD: A funny religious joke that is also thought-provoking"

"FWD:FWD:FWD: Foward this email or you will die"

"FWD:FWD:FWD: You wont believe this story that was probably made up by the opposing political party anyways"

Outdoor Photo of the Week: Hurricane Ridge

"These pics where taken on our trip up to Hurricane Ridge near Sequim WA. It was an amazing trip, the deer come right up to you and the view was amazing." Photos by Lindsay Z./Covington,Wa.

Click on the photos to make it larger.

Think you've got a great outdoor photo? Want to see it hosted on Just South of North? Send your submissions to justsouthofnorth@gmail.com.

Please include your name, a short caption about the photo (date, location, and what makes it special) and your location.

Check back each Sunday for a new Outdoor Photo of the Week.

Video Bites: New Moon

Here it is! The newest feature at Just South of North! JustSoN Video Bites.

Hope you enjoy.

*I promise they'll get better as the weeks go on. Pinkie promise.



Eastern Washington University men's basketball schedule:
http://goeags.com/sports/m-baskbl/2009-10/schedule

Chicken man story:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/apheadl...

Send your muffin recipes to: justsouthofnorth@gmail.com

Oprah leaving TV:
http://www.oprah.com/index

New Moon Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBF3HKzrmE

Epic Video: Further proof Americans are douchebags

Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Ducks is a nice guy. Tries to throw his stick into the crowd for a gift to someone. Pretty cool huh? Nope, because two guys and a blond woman start fighting over it. Ladies and Gentlemen, America...

I've noticed something about Tim Lincecum

Here's a photo of Tim...

And now...

Yep, he's PeeWee Herman with long hair.

Craigslist: My Dream Job

I'm trying to find some actors to dress like Star Wars characters and maybe reenact a fight a sequence. Anything with emperor a big plus. Would prefer a group who has their own costumes and could reenact the last fight scene between Luke and Vader on the second Death Star. Fight sequences do not need to be fantastic. I have a large space for the actors to perform in. I would only need the performance to be ten to fifteen minutes long. Pay is negotiable. This is for a birthday gift for a big fan of star wars. Looking for a performance this Friday afternoon/evening. Thanks.

You can read the full post here.

Video of Google Chrome OS in action

Here's a video of the Chrome OS, kind of gives you a better idea of whats going on (and you don't have to slog through my writing).

The lowdown on the Google Chrome OS

Google unveiled its plan for its new operating system yesterday and I'm sure nobody is still sure what to expect. Since I'm a huge nerd, and Google actually plays a large part in driving traffic to this website, I had to take a long look at it. Here's the basics about the Chrome OS...

1. Google Chrome OS is essentially a web browser on 'roids - This is something hard to get my brain wrapped around but essentially the Chome OS will be based largely on web applications (meaning no desktop apps) and a tabular navigation system much like the Google Chrome browser already in existence. This may seem weird but considering how much work people already do online and how many applications are online these days, this is just another way to be speedy on the computer (a webpage opens up quicker than a program). However, despite it's browser roots, it still will be able to handle multiple tasks at once, you'll just have to get use to the navigation.

2. It will update and fix itself constantly - Tired of those "Patch Tuesdays" that Microsoft always rolls out? Chrome OS will always be updating itself to the latest version for security and convenience reasons meaning that everybody will have the most up-to-date versions. If it does find some malware or other problem in the operating system, it will basically just re-download the latest version of itself, bug-free.

3. All your data is online - Everything will be stored online, not locally on a hard drive. While this seems scary at first, if your computer is stolen or broken you can just get a new computer and access all your old files. However, if you're not connected online, that's a different story. This is how they'll be able to pull of the constantly updating and re-imaging of the operating system since your files will not be on a hard drive, hence they wont be swept away when you OS refreshes itself.

4. Chrome OS will only work on Google-approved PCs - Google is looking for very specific types of machines for their OS. They're also going to do away with traditional hard drives and move on to "flash" or solid state hard media, meaning no moving parts. This would mean a boot-up time of around seven seconds on the machine.

5. It should work offline, but I'm not sure how well - You might be able to play games, but if you're not connected and can't access files, I could see this being a serious issue.

(This is from Tech Rave. Modified for Just South of North - of course)

Mozille makes a buttload of cash

Mozilla Firefox, better known as the browser you download with IE after you buy your computer because it runs quicker than that slug Microsoft saddles you with, reported some interesting financial numbers for the year 2008. They are another tech company that has seemed to be able to ride out these economic times and grow in profit.

Our revenue and expenses are consistent with 2007, showing steady growth. Mozilla’s consolidated reported revenues (Mozilla Foundation and all subsidiaries) for 2008 were $78.6 million, up approximately 5% from 2007 reported revenues of $75.1 million. The majority of this revenue is generated from the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox from organizations such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, and others.

2008 revenues include a reported loss of $7.8 million in investments in the Foundation’s long-term portfolio (approximately 25%) as a result of economic conditions and investment values at the end of 2008. Excluding investment gains and losses, revenues from operational activity were $86.4 million compared to $73.3 million in 2007, an annual increase of 18%.

With Google Chrome, the latest version of IE grumbling in the background, Opera and Safari - there is a lot of competition out there for Mozilla. Although don't count out the devoted fanbase of Firefox, which seems to be growing all the time.

(This is from Tech Rave)

Epic Photo: I'm sure this would scare children

Santa Claus meets Chyskhaan, Lord of the Cold, in the village of Tomtor in the remote Sakhar region of Russia

Russia is weird as hell.

I might have to become a closet Gonzaga women's basketball fan

Because there's a lot to like about this coach, starting with the coach and going down to all the players. Oh and they're good. They just knocked off Pac-10 opponent USC and made it look fairly easy.

There wasn’t much the Gonzaga women’s basketball team did wrong in its home opener Thursday night, other than letting USC score the final eight points of the game.

But all that did was make the Trojans’ 70-58 loss before 3,206 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center – the fifth-largest crowd for the women – look closer than it was.

“This was a good win,” Bulldogs coach Kelly Graves said. “I was really proud of our team. I thought we played a good basketball game, especially defensively. I thought the first half we did about as well could have done defensively. I loved the energy.

Looks like Spokane is getting behind their team.

Fred is a genius

I'm back! Well kinda. Thank you internet at coffee shops. I don't even drink coffee. So instead I bought a muffin. Mmmm....muffins.

Anyway, sorry for the delay in the new features at JustSON. I'll get them going as soon as I have my own internet.

For now, let's talk about Fred. If you've ever surfed around on Youtube, then I'm sure you've heard of Fred Figglehorn. He is the creation of Lucas Cruikshank. And it was the best idea a kid could have come up with. Sure Fred's voice is annoying and sure his episodes are silly. But people watch. And by people I mean millions. He's the 2nd most subscribed to partner on Youtube and his videos have incredible amounts of hits.

He even came out with his own Christmas album. Here's the video. What do you think? Is Lucas a genius or just catering to a young, easily entertained generation? Either way, he's making "cash money."

Watching movies makes you fat

No seriously, really, really fat. All that popcorn and other wonderful menu items are so packed with calories, you'll have to spend a couple days at the gym just to work it off. Eww.

The real drama in movie theaters these days isn’t happening on screen.

It’s at the concession stand.

When moviegoers plunk down the bucks for snacks at the nation’s theaters they may be putting themselves at greater risk than any character in the flick.

ABCNews.com reports that, according to a new study by the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, the offerings at concession stands contain an alarming amount of sugar fat, and calories. Even the smallest bag of popcorn has 700 calories and three days' worth of saturated fat.

The CSPI report studied concessions sold at the nation’s top three movie theater chains: Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theaters and Cinemark.

“A combo at Regal (meaning a medium popcorn and medium soda) has 1,610 calories,” wrote the study’s authors. “That’s like eating six scrambled eggs with chedder cheese, four bacon strips, and four sausage links before the lights come up.”

Sixteen hundred Calories? That makes McDonalds look like weight watcher. Looks like if I'm going on a diet I won't be watching movies anytime soon...

(This is from Media Chow)

Epic Photo: Football players like pudding

Apparently sports nutrition has come a long ways...

Epic Video: The Microsoft DOS Rap

Wow... computers use to suck.

The guy that Bill Bavasi passed on...

Good thing Mariners fans have their Brandon Morrow bobbleheads because that's all their getting out of him. Since Seattle royally screwed with Morrow's head and development he's turned into the most terrifying force on the mound... for the fans, not the opposing team.

And the guy former Mariners GM passed on to get Morrow? Tim Lincecum just won his second NL Cy Young Award.

NEW YORK -- Giants ace Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday for the second consecutive season to become the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson, emerging from one of the tightest votes in the history of the honor.

Lincecum led the NL with 261 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with four complete games and two shutouts. The wiry right-hander, nicknamed "The Freak" for his giant stride, went 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA.

Only 10 points separated the top three vote-getters. Chris Carpenter was second and St. Louis teammate Adam Wainwright was third, despite getting the most first-place votes.

I don't blame Morrow because it's not his fault Seattle couldn't make up their mind where to put him (see the Joba Chamberlain saga) but can you imagine if Felix and Lince were on the same rotation? My god...

WSU plays against a school I've never heard of

After squeaking by Eastern Washington a few days ago, the Washington State Cougars men's basketball team continue their (cough cough) tough non-conference schedule against...

University of Indiana - Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Huh? Is this school like in five different places at once? I'm so confused.

I understand that WSU plays in the Pac-10 and expects a down-year, so they don't need to nor want to play a tough non-conference schedule but didn't you already play two cupcakes in Eastern and Mississippi Valley State?

Who's up after this game? Central Washington University - Colville Branch?

On second thought, maybe the football team should schedule some of these teams.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 pretty much rules the earth now

Fighting terrorists and other countries apparently ranks high in the minds of people as Modern Warfare 2 has raked in truckloads of cash. In fact, its raked in more cash in a five day period than any game or movie. Ever.

Wow.

Despite a bit of controversy in Russia, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 has taken the video game world by storm, and now it is breaking sales records across the entire entertainment industry. The title reportedly generated $550 million in sales during the first five days available, beating all other video game launches and raking in more cash than any movie in the same timeframe.

By comparison, the current worldwide box-office record-holder is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which earned $394 million in its first five days. The Dark Knight holds the US box-office record with $203.8 million. The title has even successfully trounced Grand Theft Auto IV, which pulled in $500 million over the first five days of sales.

Hear me know, there will be no studying on college campuses for the next three months. (This is from Tech Rave)

Things arent going well for the UFL

Apparently America doesn't have heart for minor-league football. Ticket sales were so bad for the Los Angeles game planned by the UFL between their New York and Las Vegas franchises (here's an idea, the UFL should play in its actual home cities), that they just moved it back to LV. Here's a little snippet about overall ticket sales.

Like a stack of leftover turkey sandwiches, the UFL championship game is set for the Friday after Thanksgiving, also in Las Vegas. The Locos, who have already qualified for it, could have spread the news about this so-called NFL D-league to parts this side of a Carrot Top monologue.

We also could have shown the league that we had the ability to support professional football. Because at the moment, the UFL greatly overestimated its usefulness.

Initial plans were to get about 20,000 fans a game, but its announced crowd counts are closer to 12,500. Those actually in attendance would guess it's closer to less than half of that each game.

Back in 2001, the eight-team XFL in its only season averaged 23,000-plus, and the L.A. Xtreme (the one and only champion) did respectable with a Coliseum turnout. The USFL, during a three-year, springtime run with about 20 teams in some incarnation during the mid-1980s, would regularly get crowds in excess of 25,000, even for the L.A. Express, again at the Coliseum.

The USFL, at least, had some name players. The UFL is far more uneventful.

When the XFL is drawing more people than you, there's some serious issues going on. My guess would be the fact that JP Losman is your best player and your uniforms look like bad FUBU knockoffs.

Epic Photo: This guy is screwed

"Hey whatcha reading in there? Want a sooodaaa? Want your gun? Yeah you're totally f*****"

Ferrell sucks, there I said it

Has Will Ferrell followed the steps of Adam Sandler as being one the most famous people ever, and then crashing back to earth with an incredible flop? You can't really argue with that considering his latest movies which have received critical pans and bombed at the box office. Now Forbes has named him the most overpaid actor in show business.

Looks like "Land of the Lost" has earned star Will Ferrell the dubious distinction of being the most overpaid actor in show business, according to the list makers at Forbes magazine.

Forbes looked at 100 top actors based on their widely released films over the past five years. It factored in the production costs of those movies against how much boxoffice, DVD and other revenue they generated in order to come up with an operating income for each film, which it then compared with the salaries the stars earned.

In Ferrell's case, the actor's films earned just $3.29 for every dollar he was paid. That's a pretty poor contrast to the $160 that Shia LaBeouf's movies returned to the studios for every buck he earned.

That figure, by the way, put LaBeouf -- who starred in "Transformers" in 2007 and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in 2008 -- at the top of Forbes list of Best Actors for the Buck. Also included on that list were Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale and Dennis Quaid.

"Land of the Lost," a boxoffice dud starring Ferrell as an offbeat scientist, racked up about $100 million in production costs, not including marketing, but only returned $65 million at the worldwide boxoffice. His movie "Semi-Pro," which earned $44 million at the worldwide boxoffice, has also dragged down Ferrell's return-on-investment performance lately.

This has always struck me as odd considering that Ferrell himself is still a pretty funny dude, but it just seems like the crap he gets himself into is his downfall. He was also overexposed to the point where you couldn't go to the grocery store without being thrown some sort of Ferrell-ism. That kind of stuff causes your shtick to get old quick, and in the world of comedy, your lifespan in terms of popularity can be pretty dawn short.

But hey, that doesn't mean he's poor or anything...

(Found this on Media Chow)

ESPN says Wulff is on the hot seat

Here's what the ESPN Pac-10 Blog has to say about Paul Wulff being on the hot seat...

The likelihood is the Cougars will go winless in the Pac-10 this year and Wulff's record will stand at 3-22 when his second season concludes. That. Is. Not. Good. Duh. Wulff inherited an empty cupboard of talent. He's had huge injury issues and had to play young players before they were ready. But fans are impatient. It wasn't too long ago that the Cougs were on a run of three consecutive top-10 rankings. Washington State will need to improve next year, which means win a few games. That won't be easy because the Pac-10 looks like it will be even more rugged in 2010 than in 2009.

Seat rating: toasty. 

I think perhaps on the outside it may look like Wulff is about to get shown the door but if you really look at the program and the position that it was in before he got there. Doba had one of the best quarterbacks and wide reciever corps in school history and largely had a .500 team. After he was fired, there was nothing... and I mean nothing left in the cupboard. I can't stress how unathletic WSU looks. Other than a few kids, the marjority of this team doesn't pass the eye test against Eastern Washington, much less the Pac-10. And in that conference, you're just not going to be able to do anything in horrible down swings like this.

Factor in Wulff's contact and the prospect of rebuilding again and it's not likely at all. 

Pontiac Silverdome sells for half a million dollars

They finally sold the Pontiac Silverdome, the former home of the Detroit Lions and standing monument to the complete waste of American sports. How much did it go for?

$583,000

How much did it cost to build?

$55.7 million

Talk about a price drop, holy cow! Ladies and Gentlemen, the Detroit housing market!

A business from Toronto bought the building and they actually plan to turn the place into a palace for soccer.

The company plans to refurbish the Silverdome into a stadium for men's Major League Soccer and women's professional soccer teams, said the auctioneer. While the stadium was the former home of the National Football League's Detroit Lions, it also played host to some of the World Cup games in 1994. Brazil's victory over Italy occurred elsewhere, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Not sure if a MLS team can draw 80,000 fans but it could be a good spot for bigger international matches. I'm still a little miffed that my $1 bid for the building was completely rejected.

The Internet Explorer monster

Even though I use Firefox religiously, Microsoft gearing up for another version of Internet Explorer is big news because I'll have to eventually get a new computer and use this browser to download FF and Chrome.

Microsoft will talk about its plan for upcoming builds of Internet Explorer this week at the Professional Developers Conference
-- though, it will not offer a preview of its next browser, according to CNET. It is also reported that the company is not planning to announce a move to the WebKit engine, despite speculation.

During a presentation today at the conference, chief software architect Ray Ozzie said Microsoft would make Internet Explorer the best Windows
browser, but did not elaborate. Redmond is expected to offer more details during tomorrow's keynote speech, however, which will touch on some "focus areas" for the next version of IE.

One thing that keeps getting me about IE is how darn slow the thing is. While more tests have shown that it's actually a fairly safe browser in terms of viruses and spyware items, it still takes forever to boot up and load pages. So Microsoft... speed things up a bit.

(This is from Tech Rave)

JustSON the Numbers: EWU's win over Whitman last night

So this wasn't pretty.

It was the third game for the Eags in four nights. Their roster was down to seven healthy players. They were just coming off an emotional near-miss against WSU.

In other words, they were spent. And they still managed to pull out a 100-88 victory over Whitman last night, which I'm sure was much more rested. Giving up 88 points to a Div. III school? Yeah they were gassed as a team since defense is purely a hustle aspect of the game. It shows when you dont, and look at these numbers from the game last night.

49 turnovers
56 fouls
79 free thow attempts
30 turnovers by Eastern

In other words, a sloppy, sloppy mess. But all things considered, what would you expect?

The Zags wont be as bad as we all thought

Several questions were answered last night, and despite it being a lost, it looks like the Zags will be a force this year after taking Michigan St. to the limit 75-71. I'll be the first to say that they proved me dead wrong and surprised a lot of other people. This is gonna be the year they falter? They won't win the WCC? They won't win the tournament? Um...

Gonzaga led most of the way and turned back numerous Michigan State rallies. But in the closing minutes, the second-ranked Spartans finally caught and passed the Bulldogs on Durrell Summers’ 3-pointer at the 3-minute mark and went on to claim a 75-71 men’s basketball victory Tuesday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich.


Summers’ 3 – his only 3-point attempt of the game – put Michigan State on top 68-67, its first lead since briefly moving in front 47-45 with 11:50 remaining. Summers created just enough open space after coming around a screen at the top of the circle to hit his clutch shot.

And with Portland looking pretty pedestrian against Eastern Washington, I'm thinking the Bulldogs will be tops in the WCC this year once again. As much as that pains me to say it, I think its true.