Recently, the Washington Post had a story about Japan exporting their culture. Well, America still has a pretty good lead in modern times and this site shows why.
Found via:
/. story -> Ad Age Story -> Japander
My favorites so far are this Britney Spears commercial, Kate Beckinsale, and Penelope Cruz.
Basketball and stats - what goes better together? This is a little late in the season for me to take my first look at this site, but every year I like to closely follow College RPI.com. It's not the official RPI, but it is pretty darn close. I don't follow it for my favorite team (Duke) since there hasn't been any doubt of them making the NCAA Tournament since my freshman year there (plus bragging rights over being number 1 in the RPI I don't feel is all that important). My other favorite team, Charlotte or the artist formerly known as UNC Charlotte, is not quite at that level. Last year they underperformed and missed the tourney after a string of making it, but this year they have shown flashes of being pretty special. Hence my surprise that at 6-3 their current RPI is 90.
Though it's cliche, all three loses should have victories (with Rhode Island and Alabama seeming to be overrated at 16 and 13, respectively). What is really disheartening (besides the victory over Syracuse not being worth all that much) is that their strength of schedule is really low. Why you ask? Because state schools as a matter of traditional or respect tend to schedule other in-state schools, and this year both North Carolina A & T and UNC Asheville have been dogs - both winless and ranked 307 and 267, respectively. Admittedly, I don't make a point of tracking these colleges performances, but I thought UNCA would field a better team. Hopefully, Charlotte's conference play will be so exemplary that these low rated teams will not hurt their chances for post-season play. Perhaps these teams will also improve their rankings by winning some games in their conferences. Next year though with the weakening of Conference USA before Charlotte moves to the A-10, they cannot afford to schedule both these games.
I saw an announcement today that one of my favorite films of all-time, Leon, aka The Professional, will have a sequel and Natalie Portman has already signed on for it. Whether making this movie is good or bad, I have not decided.
There are several reasons why the original is a terrific movie (currently #64 on imdb, though that doesn't really matter) - with exceptional acting performances being at the top of the list. Rent / borrow / buy to see for youself.
Portman's performance as a young girl who after losing her family forms a symbiotic relationship with a "cleaner" was remarkable and it would be interesting to see as an actress what she brings to the character a decade later. While I do have a friend (that should be reading this entry) who is delusional over her, I mostly by chance have seen the majority of her movies. Her performances are always enjoyable, but her best was in this one - her first. She seemed a little off-kilter during her interview on Conan a couple of weeks ago, but I don't have a lot of experience going to college full-time and appearing on late night talk shows. I have a big fear that this film will not live up to the original, but I'll be on line to see it.
While I don't know what has kept the other authors from posting, the reason for my recent lack of expositions is that I have taken a job with RiverData Systems, Inc. Our site went live a few days ago with information to be added. What do we do? We are of course changing the paradigm and pushing the envelope - and I'll post a note when we make our first real public announcement. Truthfully, we have so much work to do at the moment that it will probably be a month or two before we update it.