I don’t get it. I understand that pro athletes have great abilities: speed, agility, stamina, whatever their particular sport demands. I’m not knocking that ability; I have a great respect for their discipline and determination. But when it comes to professional, televised sports, what’s the big deal? What benefit, besides great entertainment, are they providing to the world? How are their sports playing abilities contributing to a better future for mankind? It’s good entertainment, but I think pro athletes make way too much money for what they do. Why can’t we spend some of that money on medical research or public infrastructure or social services? Because public good isn’t exciting?

Every network TV promo I’ve ever seen included the Eastern and Central time zones. Like, “Tomorrow on NBC at 9, 8 Central.” The 9 of course stands for the Eastern and Pacific time zones. The East Coast and West Coast have separate network feeds, so when it’s 9 pm Eastern time, the people on the West Coast will have to wait three hours to watch the same show. That’s fine and dandy and I can live with that. I can even live with the fact that people living in the Central time zone watch the show off the East Coast feed, which is of course one hour earlier on their clocks. What I don’t like is the way the networks handle the Mountain time zone. Yes, there are people living in that great expanse called “The West.” Sure, we may make up the least populated time zone, but that doesn’t mean they can forget about us. And to make it better sometimes we get the Eastern network feeds and some time we get the Western network feeds, so when the announcer says, “Thursday at 9, 8 Central on NBC.” What he should really say is, “Thursday at 9, 8 Central, 7 or 10 Mountain depending on your local cable or satellite provider.” And I’ll bet the satellite folks could get either.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet: please go see it. It’s not a marvel of cinematic mastery. It does have an agenda, it does have a political view, and Al Gore is longwinded. It’s basically a spruced up version of a multimedia presentation he’s been doing for a long time. He talks too much. It’s not a lot of talking heads, but it is a lot of talking combined with other interesting visuals. But he makes a good point and the movie is not unnecissarily long or unnecissarily longwinded. I never realized until the end of the movie how real and dire the consequences of global warming truly are. And how urgent is the matter.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10011.asp

Presently Google Video seems only to be selling content from large content suppliers: networks, studios, and the like. My company is starting with one show designed specifically for the internet, so how will we sell on Google Video? Will we be forced to sell only directly on our website, losing customers in the process? It’s good for Google that they’re selling ad space in premium content to make it free to the public: I just hope the revenue’s a fair split.

http://www.traffick.com/2006/06/monetizing-google-video.asp

Wexler’s documentary is now available for purchase on DVD. I recommend every production office get a copy.

http://www.whoneedssleep.net/

Pastafarians, unite!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Strategically placed to catch meals, no screen on the window.

I was about to lean out the window, good thing I noticed her.