Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Your (Completely Incorrect) 2010 Kentucky Derby Picks

By: Sam, April 30, 2010 in Sports. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
A close finish in a previous Kentucky Derby.

This year's Kentucky Derby won't be nearly as close as this. Read our completely uninformed picks to see which horse will win running away.

Tomorrow is the first Saturday in May, which of course means it’s time for the Kentucky Derby. 2010 marks the 136th running of the race, the premiere event in horse racing, and will air on NBC, with coverage beginning at 4pm eastern (3pm central!) tomorrow. Whether you’re in Kentucky for the race or just watching at home with a mint julep in hand, you’ll probably want some insights into which horses might win. Look no further! Though we have no knowledge whatsoever of Thoroughbred racing, we nevertheless offer you our 2010 Kentucky Derby top 10 picks, based entirely (and exclusively!) on the names of the horses in the event, with no regard whatsoever given to their actual odds. As with all our predictions, we hold fast to Gregg Easterbrook‘s stated Tuesday Morning Quarterback policy of “all predictions wrong or your money back.”

Continue reading ‘Your (Completely Incorrect) 2010 Kentucky Derby Picks’

But What Does Steve Jobs Really Think Of Flash?

By: Sam, April 29, 2010 in Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
The message Adobe displays when you try to load Flash on an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

Get used to this message. Steve Jobs says it's not going anywhere.

Though it’s been simmering for quite a while, things between Apple and Adobe regarding the absence of Flash on Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch began to really boil over following the iPad unveiling, when Steve Jobs slammed Adobe and Flash at an Apple Town Hall meeting. For an encore, Apple effectively banned Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone app converter, which prompted Adobe’s “Flash Evangelist” to respond with a scathing blog post that ended “Go screw yourself Apple.” Next, Adobe’s CEO opined that Apple’s decision to go Flash-less was a business one, rather than a technology decision, and reiterated that Flash would be available for other smartphone platforms in the second half of the year.

Apparently, all this left the ball in Apple’s court, and today Steve Jobs crushed it back with an open letter/essay titled “Thoughts on Flash.” Though he opens with some conciliatory comments on how close Apple and Adobe used to be, he quickly gets to the point that Flash is “closed.” While Jobs admits that Apple’s iPhone OS is also closed, he emphasizes Apple’s support of open standards for the web, pointing out Apple’s support of HTML5, CSS and JavaScript as well as their development of WebKit. Overall, Jobs makes a convincing argument, from a business standpoint, to support Apple’s choice, and he’s right when he says that Adobe’s goal is to help developers write cross-platform apps rather than just to help them make the best possible iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch apps. He’s also probably right that down the road Flash will fall by the wayside as people gravitate to mobile, touch devices that don’t jibe with Flash’s power-hungry nature and mouse-centric paradigm. That said, if Steve ran Adobe instead of Apple, it seems unlikely he’d do things differently, and on the “open” platform front, it’s hard not to see Jobs as throwing stones from his glass house.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that this is shaping up to be an entertaining battle going forward. While we await the next salvo, please enjoy the irony that is “Steve Jobs’s ‘Thoughts on Flash,’ in Flash.”

AHHHH! We All Scream for 31 Cent Ice Cream

By: Sam, April 28, 2010 in Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , .
An ice cream cone from Baskin-Robbins is loaded with chilly dairy goodness.

Sorry, but there's absolutely no way your 31 cent scoop will be this large. It may be this tasty though, just smaller.

If you don’t have any plans for 5pm-10pm this evening, allow us to please suggest you partake in Baskin-Robbins‘ “31 Cent Scoop Night” at your nearest outlet. For five glorious hours a quarter, a nickle and a penny will get you a scoop of ice cream. While it’s not exactly free like our Tax Day Freebies, 31 cents is hard to beat, and with much of the US warming up (thanks, weather.com!) it’s a perfect night to go out for ice cream. Even though these babies are franchised, it seems like Baskin-Robbins outlets everywhere are participating, but as always, if it’s a long trip call beforehand and don’t assume that airport locations will participate. Also, while the Baskin-Robbins site mentions nothing about tax, they do note that there’s a 3 scoop per-person limit, so bring a disguise and go to the back of the line if you want more. Whatever you do though, do not watch this movie for inspiration. You will regret it.

Noah's Ark Found in Turkey! (Next Time Try Juggle First)

By: Sam, April 27, 2010 in News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
The cartoon-y cover art for the 1992 Konami NES release, "Noah's Ark."

This game is hard to find, but a mountain in Turkey? Maybe try eBay first. Wait, you meant the REAL Noah's Ark?!?

The crack journalists at Rupert Murdoch‘s esteemed British tabloid, The Sun, are reporting that a team of “Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers” have found the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey. The explorers, from “Noah’s Ark Ministries International research team” (with a name like that, how could they not find the ark?), claim that carbon dating has put the age of the ruins at about 4,800 years, making them “99.9 percent” sure that they’ve found the actual ark used by Noah. For more pictures (yes, it looks exactly like you’d imagine it does, which makes us suspicious) check out Fox News‘ illuminating slide show.

On hearing this exciting news, we naturally conducted our own search for Noah’s Ark and found an equally valuable treasure trove, of which we are 100 percent certain. Of course the 1999 Jon Voight TV epic Noah’s Ark is at the top of the list. With Mary Steenburgen appearing as Naamah and Amadeus‘s F. Murray Abraham as Lot, it looks to be an instant classic, except for the whole “not really following the Bible story” thing.

Our search also unearthed the 1846 painting, Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks. Though you can’t see it from your couch like the above TV movie, you don’t need to go to Turkey, either, as you can visit the painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There are of course tons more remarkable works of art, literature, film and even logos about the fabled ark, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight our favorite, which is of course Konami‘s 1992, Europe-only NES release of (you guessed it) Noah’s Ark, the video game, wherein the player, as Noah, is tasked with rescuing animals from a flood that slowly rises through each level. Naturally, finding a duck grants Noah different weapons, and some animals attack Noah and he must kill them to advance. Sorry, snails and kangaroos. If you can track down a copy of the game, it may give you something to do while you wait for UNESCO to approve the alleged ark remains as a World Heritage site.

PSA: Woot-Off Happening Now

By: Sam, April 27, 2010 in Internet and Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , .
The distinctive spinning amber light that indicates a Woot-Off.

It's that time again...

We should really try to start predicting these, considering they’ve happened nearly exactly 28 days apart every month since January. We’ll get on that. In the meantime, check out the Woot-Off (and see how woot.com ranks).

Admit It, You've Thought About Living in a Bed Bath & Beyond Too.

By: Sam, April 26, 2010 in Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , .
The towel section of a Bed Bath & Beyond store is stocked floor to ceiling with fluffy towels.

Tell us this doesn't make you want pile these up into a super-soft towel bed.

Between the piles of comfy linens, “As Seen on TV” gizmos, Snuggies and oddly large boxes of candy near the checkout, we can’t be the only ones who have thought about camping out in a Bed Bath & Beyond store. Thanks to the efforts of a Detroit-area teenager, we now know that you’d be on the hook for not only trespassing, but also for larceny. (Eating that candy is stealing! Who knew?) The news accounts from different outlets can’t seem to agree on how many nights the runaway boy spent in the store, but we’re hoping it was four. That seems just about the right amount of time to try out all the bedding, have your fill of candy and load up on 20% off coupons before heading home. The whole incident goes raise an interesting question though: if the kid pushes Mom’s buttons again can she use Bed Bath & Beyond’s notoriously liberal return policy to bring him back?

Welcome to the Neighborhood, Sam Bradford

By: Sam, April 23, 2010 in Sports. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
The Saint Louis Rams' first overal 2010 NFL Draft pick Sam Bradford

Sure, he's smiling now, but he's just joined the worst team with the worst record in the NFL. Everyone in St. Louis hopes he'll still be this happy in the fall.

In a move that shocked precisely no one, the Saint Louis Rams made former Oklahoma quarterback the number one pick of the 2010 NFL Draft. Since the season won’t start until September, Sam’s practically guaranteed to be the most popular non-baseball athlete in the Saint Louis area for at least a few months. Maybe. Regardless, we at Juggle welcome our area’s newest resident, even if we’re already couching our high hopes due to the inevitability of another rough Rams season this fall. Sam just needs to remember that while this whole NFL QB thing might seem fun and easy now, come the fall when the Rams’ porous offensive line and general mediocrity will conspire to send Sam running for his life and have fans averting their eyes and heading for the exits, things might not look so rosey.

All that said, hope springs eternal, and the Rams are sitting in the catbird seat going into tonight’s second round, as they’ve had all day to hear trade offers (of which there should be plenty with Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen and Texas signal-caller Colt McCoy still available) as well as negotiate with any potential picks. Still all of this is fairly speculative, and if there’s one thing you can count on in the Gateway City, it’s baseball. Go Cards!

We Were Totally Right: Google Places = Google Store View

By: Sam, April 22, 2010 in Internet. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .
A messy store aisle is littered with mismatched sandals which are scattered everywhere.

When shoppers see the pictures of your artfully arranged stock and wide selection, they won't be able to stay away!

Back in February we explored the possibility of Google launching a “Store View” feature in Google Maps. It turns out we were (somewhat) right. On Tuesday, Google announced that its “Local Business Center” was becoming Google Places, and yesterday they elaborated on Places’ most interesting feature, images of store interiors on Place Pages. That’s right, Google has a crack team of photographers in 30 cities in the United States, Japan and Australia who will come to your store and take photos of the interior as well as things like “hours, rating decals, accessibility information, credit cards accepted, and posted menus.”

This sounds neat and if it took off could really make Google Maps one-stop shopping for store and restaurant information, which is clearly something Google‘s been after for a long time (see: Google’s aborted acquisition of Yelp). We’re disappointed, though that Google didn’t decide to launch this feature with an impressive, oh-my-gawd-this-is-the-future demonstration of a complete set of interior photos of every store in Manhattan. Have we finally found a task that’s too big even for Google? That all depends on how these Google Places fare, which will hopefully be better than Google Buzz. Remember that?

Meet Your New 100 Dollar Bill

By: Sam, April 21, 2010 in Crime, Finance and Government. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
The redesigned 100 dollar bill features vertical stripe and a big orange inkwell, both of which change from different viewing angles.

It's not your father's $100 bill. At this rate, it may not even be your older brother's $100 bill.

Remember the big deal around the new hundred dollar bill that was unveiled in 1996? It was new and improved and featured a much bigger Ben Franklin. A similar design has over the years trickled down through the fifty, twenty, ten and even five dollar bills in 2007. Well, instead of doing the logical thing and redesigning the two and one dollar bills to make them look like all the others, that wacky U.S. Treasury has gone and announced another new $100 bill today. While the Treasury maintains that this is part of a normal cycle of redesigns, the word on the street is that the new bills are a response to the emergence of”Superdollars,” which are counterfeit hundreds that are actually superior to authentic bills, rumored to be printed by the North Koreans or Iran. (See this New York Times article from 2006.)

All that said, the new note looks pretty cool, if you like money. It’s got a neat stripe right next to Franklin’s head that has little “100s” and bells that appear to move as you rotate the bill, as well as a big old orange inkwell that reveals a bell inside when tilted, both thanks to the amazing (and secret) technologies provided to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing by the folks at Crane & Co. Our only question is what’s with the bells? Is it because Franklin lived in Philadelphia, which in turn is associated with the Liberty Bell? The whole thing seems a bit off, but that probably won’t stop us from enjoying these new Benjamins when they hit the street.

2010 NFL Schedule Announcement

By: Sam, April 20, 2010 in Sports. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
A handsome wall display of mini NFL helmets

Are you ready for some football (schedules)? A Tuesday night (scheduling) party? Only some of our Rowdy Friends will be there.

At 7pm eastern (6 central!) tonight, the National Football League will announce its 2010 schedule on the NFL Network and at NFL.com. For now you can see what this season’s matchups will be (you just can’t see when they’ll go down until tonight). One thing we do know is that in keeping with tradition, the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints will open the NFL season on a Thursday night (September 9th) at home in a marquee matchup (likely against an again-returning Brett Favre the Minnesota Vikings in a rematch of their NFC Championship overtime tilt).

Also in the things-we-know-for-sure category, in an effort to make sure the starters play every week (we’re looking at you, Peyton Manning), the league has decided that the final week of the season will be exclusively division games, which should mean that there’s more to play for. That said, the Colts will probably run away with the AFC South again this year.