Bill Simmons ranks the 32 NFL quarterbacks a week before the season starts:

That means Tebow is already 80 percent home. Throw in his marquee value and I believe Jacksonville fans and Buffalo fans will be very bitter by December. Of course, at least one Buffalo fan just read that and said: “Wait a second, I’m bitter every December. Are you saying I’m going to be more bitter than usual? Last December I sucker-punched a Jets fan outside Ralph Wilson Stadium just because he seemed a little too proud of his Sanchez jersey, then I ripped off the jersey and repeatedly drove over it with my snowplow as 150 Buffalo fans cheered me on. I’m going to be more bitter than that?” Yes

Déjà Vu: Genius

On the Beach: Genius

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere: Genius

etc.

Entree: Noel Fielding & Russell Brand on Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2007

Main: Howard putting a move on

Dessert: Jazz Trance

James Bond movie title stills (1962 - 2006)

Oldie but goodie - Pomplamoose covers Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

Here they are 12 months later doing an original with Ben Folds & Nick Hornby (complete with new hair & indie beard). 

Compelling videos created with a simple formula:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

Amongst the hardware refreshes announced by Apple today came a new “social media platform for music”: Ping.

It’s a strange kind of beast at first glance, being a last.fm/twitter hybrid where you can follow artists and friends, and share your musical tastes. All good things - but you can only use it in iTunes, or on an iDevice. No browser client.

That just seems far too limiting for a social media tool. I use iTunes and an iPhone, but I spend a minimal amount of time in the software itself, especially on the PC. I don’t want to have to load up a monolithic piece of software and a huge playlist just to “like” a track. If I’m at work, where a lot of music listening happens, I can’t load my library so can’t share anything.

Wired is saying Ping is “already too big to fail”, but without a web interface I can’t see it taking off. Famous last words no doubt.

Start arguing…now.

This is incredible - goosebumps, wide eyes, and a huge grin. Install Google Chrome just to watch it, if you haven’t already.

Sadly, test cricket appears to be fundamentally rigged. No-balls to order are one thing, entire results another:

Majeed was also videoed telling the undercover reporter: ”Let me tell you the last Test we did. It was the second Test against Australia in Sydney. Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of 10 runs, yeah. And Pakistan had all their wickets remaining. ”The odds for Pakistan to lose that match, for Australia to win that match, were I think 40-1. We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets. ”That one we made £1.3 [million]. But that’s what I mean, you can get up to a million. Tests is where the biggest money is because those situations arise.”

Rugby League too. The Bears would never do that - let them back in!

Terrific article on Dungeon & Dragons, including playing through a module with one E. Gary Gygax. The misogynist stuff doesn’t ring true to me, but the rest is spot on:

Here I am tempted to advance a wild argument. It goes like this: in a society that conditions people to compete, and rewards those who compete successfully, Dungeons & Dragons is countercultural; its project, when you think about it in these terms, is almost utopian. Show people how to have a good time, a mind-blowing, life-changing, all-night-long good time, by cooperating with each other! And perhaps D&D is socially unacceptable because it encourages its players to drop out of the world of competition, in which the popular people win, and to tune in to another world, where things work differently, and everyone wins (or dies) together.