Benoit's Death Posted to Wikipedia 14 Hours Before Bodies Found !!!!!!

An anonymous user operating a computer traced to Stamford, Conn. — home to World Wrestling Entertainment — posted an entry to pro wrestler Chris Benoit's Wikipedia.com biography announcing the death of his wife Nancy more than 14 hours before police in suburban Atlanta said they found her body.

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I haven’t decided whether or not to write anything up about Benoit yet…for those who don’t know, he was my favorite wrestler of all time…but this newest wrinkle coming out following up on the story of his and his family’s death is just…disturbing. Click here to see the wikipedia page in question. Benoit was always seen as the ultimate underdog, but it seems he had far more problems outside of the squared circle than anyone knew. I’ll choose to remember him more as the wrestling icon I grew up with, than what he ultimately became at the end…

AICN EXCLUSIVE! Guess Who’s Shooting His IRON MAN Role Today!! - Sam Jackson - Ultimate Nick Fury!!!

From Aintitcoolnews.com Okay. This is a pretty big tidbit, and as far as I can tell, this is an exclusive. I haven’t seen any mention of this anywhere online, but it’s exciting news, and I have to share it with you guys.

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Have to admit, I love this move, and I’m extremely excited about this actually moving forward. From AICN:

“Okay. This is a pretty big tidbit, and as far as I can tell, this is an exclusive. I haven’t seen any mention of this anywhere online, but it’s exciting news, and I have to share it with you guys.
Right now, if I had to wager on whether or not IRON MAN was going to be one of next summer’s big films, I’d say it will be. It seems like Jon Favreau has done everything right so far, and I’m hearing really exciting things about the action sequences and the casting, and I’ve been sold on Robert Downey Jr. since the moment he was announced.
Today, though, he’s shooting scenes featuring an actor who is a set-up for a larger Marvel continuity, and it’s exciting because I’m hoping this character can start showing up in other films, and we’ll start seeing Marvel Studios creating a larger world, one that exists outside the frames of the individual movies. This is a major step towards making that AVENGERS movie we’ve been hearing about. So who’s the actor? Who’s the character?
Sam Jackson. Nick Fury.
Count on it.”

For those who don’t know:

Nick Fury is the head of SHIELD in the marvel universe...think of it as the CIA/FBI on crack, they basically handle security for the US, especially in Superhuman affairs...well, in the Ultimate Universe, Nick Fury is the one who recruits and creates the Avengers, a superhero team employed and deployed by the government. The Avengers include:

Iron Man (2008 release)
Captain America (2009 release)
The Hulk (2008 release)
Thor (2009 release)
Giant Man (a scientist who creates the technology to grow or shrink)
The Wasp (a mutant who can shrink down to bug size, fly, and zap people).

I heard that they were working up to an Ultimate Avengers movie....this would officially be the first step in that direction.

Lego Millenium Falcon Stop Motion

Animated Lego pieces putting together the Millenium Falcon in stop motion!Required: loads of free time, dedication, planning and ingenuity. Result: Priceless.



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Spurs NBA Champs, How to fix the NBA Playoffs?

Have to admit, I knew San Antonio was a better team, but I didn't think they'd sweep. But, I'm glad they did. Being a huge basketball fan, I watched every game I could even though my beloved Pistons weren't part of the finals, but besides me and some people in San Antonio, I don't think anyone else really watched the Finals. That begs the question, what can the NBA do to make the Playoffs more entertaining and a bigger draw to all the markets?

First, the obvious answer: Reseed the teams in each conference after each round.
The reason they would want to do this is that it would mostly solve the problem of the best two teams in the conference playing each other before the conference finals. Think about it, in the West, after the first round, you had the following seeds playing each other: 3 vs. 2 and 5 vs. 8.
Hence San Antonio's domination in the Conference Finals over a promising Utah team. But, if they reseeded after each round, you would have had the Suns vs. the Warriors (WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO SEE THAT?) and the Spurs vs. Utah, with the promise of Spurs/Suns to come. It would have provided a much larger stage for the league to screw the Suns with, that's for sure. But it also would have helped build things up a bit better. In the East you had 1 vs. 4, and 2 vs. 6. At the very least, a Detroit/New Jersey warmup to the winner of the Bulls/Cavs would have been great, and I'm sure the conference finals would have been much better with the correct buildup. Reseeding each conference after each round would also make the regular season that much more important. The top teams will be beating the crap out of each other that much more to get the easiest path to the conference or NBA finals.

Here's another answer that would never happen, and I'm sure I'll get flamed all over again (see my Pistons wishlist), but it's something that would create instant intrigue in the league because no one else does it:

Do away with the conferences, and reseed after each round.
Think of it...they're trying to get to be a more global league anyway. Do away with Eastern vs. Western Conference. Let everyone play everyone. Playoffs would include the top 16 teams after an 82 game season, regardless of zip code. Sure, it would enrage those in the Eastern conference, just like it would have enraged the Western Conference 15 years ago, but it would definitely add another dimension to the regular season. The Pistons wouldn't be able to slide into the #1 seed winning a paltry 54 games anymore. Also, reseed after each round again...except over the entire playoffs. You wouldn't have two brackets anymore, you'd just have one gigantic bracket. That would guarantee that the best two teams in the league have the easiest path to the Finals. Of course that would make it incredibly difficult for a Cinderella to break through at all, but meh.

Like I said, I don't think that would ever happen, but dang it would be interesting. One things for sure, something needs to be tweaked yet again, so the best two teams in the playoffs (Spurs/Suns or Spurs/Mavs) don't meet in the 2nd round again next year.

Any other ideas that would make the playoffs more exciting? Leave 'em in the comments!

WWE – Vince McMahon and the Wonder of Marketing…

You know, I have no idea how people fall into his trap anymore. For those of you even remotely interested, I’m talking about Vince McMahon, CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. You know, the former WWF of the famous cartoon. I have to admit, I used to watch wrestling. I was a huge huge Benoit fan. Still am to this day, I could watch that dude perform forever. But at some point, with wrestling being on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and PPV Sundays, I realized that perhaps they were demanding a little too much of my time, so I cut it out of my life. Still…it never ceases to amaze me the lengths the WWE will go to to drive their ratings.

Take last Monday Nights’ RAW for instance…

I headed to IMDB Tuesday morning for my daily dose of movie and entertainment news. There actually was a story that police were investigating a car bombing at the site of Monday’s RAW. It seems Vince McMahon’s limo had been car bombed, and blew up during the RAW show…conveniently halting that nights draft lottery, and ending the show. It seems Vince decided to kill off his own character for now on his Ultimate Male Soap Opera. What’s infinitely more interesting than that (besides watching paint dry) is that the police were actually taking this as a serious incident and wasting taxpayer money to investigate.

You’d think they’d be used to this by now. I mean, it’s the friggin WWE! They’ll try anything to get more exposure from using Donald Trump, to letting a documentary be created about screwing over their best star!

Needless to say, IMDB posted a follow up today mentioning that the WWE had applied for and had all the necessary permits for the stunt, that no one was hurt, and that the stunt wasn’t even shown live; it was taped on Saturday night. Well…Thank God for that.

Transformers Stop-Motion Animation

For those of you who didn't know, I love stop motion animation. I think it's great, and it's a timeless effect that I'll love seeing forever. Just to show how great all those super-articulated toys are...here is some Transformers Stop-motion animation!

Athlinks...Myspace for Runners...

I’m back home in MI visiting family, and as usually happens when my Dad and I get together, we start surfing the net. I show him some things he hasn’t seen, and he shows me some pictures he’s gotten put up here and there…

This time I decided to search his name though, just to see what would come up on the Google Search…

Strangely enough, in one of the more serendipitous moments of his life…we stumbled upon Athlinks. You see, my Dad years ago got a fever…and the only prescription…was physical activity. He got into running competitive road races through the local running club. At one point in time, we were running races together all over the state of MI. I lost my drive for it…now preferring running just to run, or focusing on my chi running. He though, found a certain kinship in the people who do it. He runs at least 1 race a weekend, sometimes doing upwards of 3 races ranging anywhere from 2 miles – to Half marathons. Lately, he mentioned that people had been coming up to him, knowing where he had ran the last couple of weeks, and what his times were. He couldn’t figure out how they knew…until now:

Athlinks!

Basically, from what I can tell, Athlinks is like Myspace, except for runners. It’s free to join. In fact, if you have run a timed competitive race in the last 10+ years, you might already be on there. I searched my name, and it came up with the 6 official races I’ve done since ’99. Pretty cool eh?

It gets cooler though, once you sign up, you can add people as your friends. You can create journal entries and add photos for each race you do. You can even add YouTube videos of anything dealing with the races you run! It keeps track of your rivals, a rival being anyone you’ve competed against at least 3 times. Case in point, my Dad had about 300+ rivals. It even lets you compare your mile times with your rivals, so you can see where exactly you need to pick it up. If there’s a race missing, you can add it to your results. It’s a nice easy place to keep track of all your times. It lets you search for upcoming events to run in. Overall, I’d say it’s a very very useful site for runners. Check it out…more importantly, if you know someone who’s been caught up in the wave of racing…tell them about it, and get it out there! This is something more people need to belong to and utilize!

Great Movies to Watch Over and Over and Over Again…

You know, there are always certain comic movies that I would watch at the drop of a hat…or the drop of someone mentioning them. Now, these might not always be the best movies, or the most critically acclaimed movies, or whatever, but these are movies that I hold dear to my heart that I would always watch…just for fun. ^_^

Here now are my Top Ten Movies to Watch at the drop of a Hat:

Sorority Boys – Two Words: Dildo Fight.

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist

SpaceBalls – I know this is sacrilege…but this is the only classic Mel Brooks movie that isn’t too long for me.

Any Jean-Claude Van Damme movie…trust me, they’re comedies ;-)

BaseketBall – Trey Parker, Matt Stone…they created South Park. This is close to their best work though.

White Men Can’t Jump – Wesley Snipes (before he got a big head), and Woody Harrelson are one of the classic underrated comic teams. Plus there are life lessons: “Listen to the woman.”

The Replacements – Something about this group of miscasts coming together as a football team that is just plain hilarious. Plus…Jon Favreau and Orlando Jones are simply awesome.

Grosse Pointe Blank – First John Cusack movie I absolutely adored.

Eurotrip – Crazy, hilarious, and a Matt Damon sighting you won’t believe…

Roadhouse – It’s so bad, it’s good. Plus…it’s got Sam Elliot calling a bar the Double Douche. That’s great.

Got any more you’d like to add to the list? Leave them in the comments!

My Pistons Summer Wishlist….

So, they’re done. If you listen to the pundits, they’re done as a team as we know them. Big changes seem to be in store for the team in the last 5 Eastern Conference Finals, and 2004 NBA Champion, the Detroit Pistons.

So, what do they need to climb that mountain again? What do they need to put them head and shoulders above the Cavs, Heat, and Bulls…all of whom will be better next year than they were this year?

Well…I think they can only go so far without completely blowing everything out of the water. They were exposed for not having enough reliable scorers…and I think they got a little bit out of sorts not following the gameplan thrown out by Flip Saunders…who already has been confirmed to be back.

Here’s who should be back next year:

Chauncey Billups (assuming they resign him)

Rip Hamilton

Tayshaun Prince

That’s your core. I think specifically, they need to work on depth more…specifically more for the playoffs than anything. Rip wasn’t enough to carry the load when Chauncey was covered adequately in the Eastern Conference Finals by Larry Hughes, and Tayshaun was a little tired from covering Lebron James.

Carlos Delfino, Jason Maxiell, Antonio McDyess, will be back. Amir Johnson should be able to at least join the rotation somewhat next year. Plus, the Pistons have two picks in the first round this year…they should be able to at least get one rotation player out of those two picks. Flip Murray has said that he’s probably not going to opt out of his contract, and come back…he can play some minutes a situational backup to Chauncey or Rip.

Notice how I haven’t mentioned Sheed yet. My first thought, after thinking about how the Pistons blew up this year was that either Sheed had to go, or the Pistons have to go after a Coach who can control him. Well…Flip is coming back. I think Sheed needs to go. For what in return though?

Some have asked for Zach Randolph. He probably would be easier to control than Sheed. He would stay near the post instead of flaring out to the 3-point line all the time. Course, he’s got 3 additional years than Sheed on his contract…and with Greg Oden coming to Portland…the Blazers probably won’t want to risk corrupting Oden with Sheed.

How bout some of these trades for Sheed though:

Trade Sheed to New York for Quentin Richardson and Channing Frye.

I have a feeling Isiah feels he needs to for sho make the playoffs this year. Sheed would certainly help that, and Frye had fallen out of favor with him. Richardson would be great as a backup 2 or 3 that could actually make a shot.

Trade Sheed and Lindsey Hunter to the Celtics for Al Jefferson and Theo Ratliff.

Boston could use Sheed’s game to help them rebound big time and possibly make the playoffs. Hunter would probably retire, and they’d have the extra cap space. Jefferson likes to play down low, and if Ratliff can still play, he’d be great on the defensive end. If not, he’d be in the last years of his contract.

Trade Hunter and Nazr Mohammed to the Nuggets for Marcus Camby

Hunter would retire and give the Nuggets the cap space. Mohammed could help man the middle, and at about 12 million dollars less over the life of his contract. Camby would help out at the defensive end, but still allow the Pistons to try and run a little bit more.

Trade Sheed and Hunter to the Suns for Shawn Marion

You put Tayshaun, Marion, and Maxiell – McDyess – Mohammed on the front line? That’s a looooong front line. And active. That’d be good stuff. Sheed could help the Suns walk that edge and give them one last shot to get them to the next level.

How about…you take the above trade…and then also this one:

Trade Nazr Mohammed to the Portland Trailblazers for LaMarcus Aldridge and Sergio Rodriguez?

Aldridge showed a lot late in the year, and he can score down low and defend pretty well.

Then go out in free agency, lure Grant Hill for one last run at a minimum deal, and go after another scorer with your mid-level exception.

All things considered…here’s the trades and free agents I would go for the hardest:

Trade Sheed, Nazr, and one of your first round picks for Randolph, and Aldridge. Sign Grant Hill. Pursue Gerald Wallace HARD, with your mid-level. In the event you can’t sign him, grab up Joe Smith or Austin Croshere.

Your next year’s starting five would be:

Chauncey Billups

Rip Hamilton

Tayshaun Prince

Zach Randolph

Lamarcus Aldridge

Backups:

G – Grant Hill

G – Carlos Delfino

F – Amir Johnson

F – Gerald Wallace or Maxiell

F- Antonio McDyess

You’d get a little younger, and a little better defensively. You’d get more active, and most of all…you’d get more hungry. Which is what was really lacking this year…

Enjoy the Finals.

Spurs in Six!