the year in lists

it's nearing the end of the year and every site out there puts out some list of some kind to wrap up the year that was. i don't agree with most lists, but who other than the editors fully agree with what's on it. that said, i won't comment or say what i agree or disagree with.

while i was searching for lists when i came across a list of lists, so that makes my job easier. but there are a few lists not on that which i'll include here.

fimoculous.com list of lists

the wild and wacky from baseball
dumbest political quotes of 2007
top 10 celebrity douchebags
comedy wire's top losers list
top 10 web celebrities

tetley tea's sham

the folks over at tetley would like us to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. and not because their tea makes you feel that way, but because they are a big charitable organization (queue the oohs and ahhs). a special issue of their white tea, flavored with raspberry is in support of the canadian breast cancer foundation.

a whole $0.15 from the sale of each specially marked canister is donated to the foundation. how noble of tetley. a truly honorable deed. but not at the expense of their profits. see the picture below? what do you notice?



try looking at the number of bags in each canister. that's right the normal canister has 24, but the special edition one only has 20. that's odd. both retail for the same price of around $4.00, so why am i getting less? how about some simple math. divide $4 by the number of tea bags in the regular canister (24) and you get about $0.16 each bag. now do the same for the 'special' one. that's $0.20 per bag. that means $0.15 goes to charity and an additional $0.65 into the pockets of the tea maker. nice little scam you got going there.

so not only is tetley cheating the consumer, their ivory tower intentions of actually giving to charity is a load of shit. they are covering the cost of the donation and keeping a tidy profit on each unit sold on top of their normal profit. that my friends is real sacrifice and corporate generosity. kudos to you tetley for making us feel like we've made a difference and a job well done on appeasing your own corporate conscience while still filling your coffers even fuller.

the 'mitchell report'

what is one to think when a 400+ page report is compiled naming and detailing some 80+ players allegedly taking performance enhancing drugs? oh wait a second, i seem to have been too fair in assessing an 'allegedly' in there. because george mitchell and the media certainly weren't so fair in what hit the front pages in the last couple days. mitchell for taking the testimony at face value and presenting it aas fact and the media for being so definitive in their accusations and shakedown of the players. particularly roger clemens. i've waited a couple days so i can include some appraisals and admissions in here as well.

i'm not saying this is all a complete load of shit. i do believe there is steroid use, and believe it was quite rampant. what i don't believe is in tarnishing a players name on hersey and saying a player took steroids without hard facts to back that claim up. the article that most closely mirrors my own thoughts on the matter belong to that of jayson stark over at espn.com. the emphasis of his article is to elaborate on the single most glaring omission in this whole debacle - that what was in the mitchell report is mostly devoid of actual fact and credibility.

i'm personally on the fence about whether this whole exercise needed to be conducted in the first place. i don't know if drudging up the past does any particular good. there's certainly a lot of information missing and even if it was to be unearthed, the players can't be punished retroactively anyway. especially for an offence that wasn't technically against the rules anyway. so all this serves is to destroy the names of a number of truly great players and the game as a whole. but i think it was an important illustration of just how pervasive performance enhancers were and the blind eye turned by all sides within baseball. a starting off point for which to change going forward. but we all knew that anyway.

please don't confuse what i'm saying here. i'm not defending steroid users in any way. i think taking steroids is wrong and those who do take them are cheaters. all i want is complete information, and that will never happen. many of these players are heroes to a lot of people and to call them out without hard evidence is unfair to them. i believe that's the definition of slander.

in this situation, there is a big gap in knowledge of what we hear in the media. a lot of people don't know the whole story, all we get is the sensational headlines. yes, steroids are bad, but for instance, human growth hormone is lumped in with them. it's assumed hgh is in the same camp because we don't hear about what these substances are. hgh is not a steroid, nor is it illegal. does anyone hear that? andy pettite came forward and admitted to use of hgh but not steroids. in his statement pettite asserted that he "wasn't looking for an edge, he was looking to heal." that's what hgh does, but to the greater populace, this point gets lost or is understood. they're all just cheaters.

i'm a big fan of baseball and i hope this report works to clean the sport up and bring integrity back to america's pastime. to me the names aren't tarnished because i don't know the whole truth or maybe even any of it. no one does but the players themselves. the game is tarnished and everyone involved at all levels of the game are to blame. the owners, the players, the trainers, the coaches, everyone. they all let this get to the point it is today and are paying the price. i hope the sport can recover and steps are taken to ensure the integrity of the sport is recovered and maintained going forward.

the lost star wars action figures

it's christmas time and who doesn't have a fond childhood memory of finding some action figures under the tree. i stumbled across some star wars action figures that didn't quite make the official catalog back in 1977.

who wouldn't want to recreate the scene where luke returns to find the smoldering remains of his aunt's body. you can't have star wars without the force, so this pack can get you that. and i know many people who think the only good ewok is a dead one.



this product serves to exemplify the ruthlessness of the empire in tarkin's orders to still obliterate alderaan despite leia's revealing of the rebel base, how could it not get made.

this inspired me to make my own theme pack of action figues - a collection of famous body parts thorughout the series.


there's luke's hand from the scene it's revealed that darth vader is actually luke's father. then there's jango fett's head. a pivotal scene in which the bounty hunter's head becomes disassociated with his body by the lpurple lightsaber of mace windu in the geonosis arena. now you can play along with a young boba finding his father's head. and finally, the innards of a tauntaun reminding us of one of the biggest gaffe's in the franchise's history. a non force sensitive can't weild a lightsaber, c'mon now.

flip video

today the fine folks at google sent me quite the nifty little gadget for a holiday gift. yes it's that time of year where the graft pours in, much of which is shite and useless, but there's usually a gem in there. last year it was the ipod nano, and so far this is the front runner.


the gadget in question is the flip video ultra from pure digital technologies. what we have here is an extremely easy to use video/audio capture device (full specs here) that has 30 mins of record time, that you just plug into your comp with it's usb arm or line-out to your tv. it's got a good sized lcd screen, zoom, runs on two AA's and comes with some quick and easy software to make simple edits and easily upload to youtube and can even take frame captures to make into photos.

it sure beats the hell out of the crap quality of a cell phone and is much less worrisome than carrying around your digital camera. it's really a fantastic little device. all for the very reasonable price of $150 bones. i'm ashamed to say it, but i have to side with oprah in her throwing her considerable weight behind the product (consumerly and physically speaking).

i wanted to post a video filmed with said device, but unfortunately my boring-ass life doesn't accommodate me having anything of interest to film and post here. and my rabbits are not ones for on-demand performances so their equally boring-ass lives were not adequate subject material. but now that i'll carry this on me at all times, hopefully i can capture that one moment of gold and share it here.

3 minutes of TSO fuelled goodness on a house

video link for those who can't see it
this may be old to some, heck i first watched it maybe 4 years ago. but it is still awesome to this day. i can watch it repeatedly. they say this little 3 minute piece of pure joy took two months to set up, 25,000 lights and $10,000.

if you didn't know, the soundtrack is the trans-siberian orchestra. if you don't know who that is, do yourself a favor and check it out. it will fundamentally change the way you think of christmas music. no more of that burl ives shit or 50's crooners nonsense.