snap culture: July 2006

  1. is it really that time again? ben, 7/31/2006 0 comments
  2. bow before the internets ben, 7/28/2006 1 comments
  3. FYI William, 7/28/2006 0 comments
  4. The college-bound conundrum William, 7/28/2006 0 comments
  5. Man racks up 31 million frequent-flier miles William, 7/25/2006 0 comments
  6. Sob William, 7/25/2006 3 comments
  7. How do you sleep at night... William, 7/25/2006 0 comments
  8. A copyeditor's worst nightmare? William, 7/24/2006 0 comments
  9. Quite fascinating... William, 7/24/2006 0 comments
  10. Heresy William, 7/24/2006 0 comments
  11. i've been a good boy ben, 7/19/2006 0 comments
  12. How many sweaters was it, Mr. Blair? William, 7/19/2006 0 comments
  13. Life-size (?) Optimus Prime in China William, 7/19/2006 0 comments
  14. The always funny, ever snarky... William, 7/17/2006 0 comments
  15. "Wife Swap" for the Israeli/Palestinian set William, 7/10/2006 0 comments
  16. Is US Mag editor Janice Min just like us? William, 7/05/2006 1 comments
  17. a cause for celebration ben, 7/03/2006 1 comments

7/31/2006 Add a comment

Just as the swallows return to Capistrano every spring, so do I return to my fantasy football scouting websites every fall. My favorite site is Football Diehards. Also, the Sporting News has a PDF draft kit which is unbelievably comprehensive. Of course both are free.

I'm not going to give away all of my methods, but I particularly like picking players based on their team's strength of schedule. For instance, all of the West Coast teams seem to score a lot of points, run more open offenses, etc., so I like drafting as many West Coast players as possible. Snagging Larry Johnson late last year almost got me through my league's playoffs, despite an unconscionable choice of Daunte Culpepper in the first round of our draft. FYI: San Diego and Seattle have the easiest schedules in the league, according to TSN (see the PDF, page 10).

To get you even more in the FF mood, here are recent columns by Chuck Klosterman and Bill Simmons on the topic. Let the scouting begin! ben

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7/28/2006 Add a comment

there were so many great computer games in the 80s and early 90s, and now they're available for free if you know where to look on the internets...

here's a list of a bunch of board games turned into computer games from metafilter, and here are two of my favorite games from growing up,
Railroad Tycoon and Dune II. Both of the websites for those games have many, many more computer games, board games, and all kinds of crazy crap i've never heard of. ben

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  1. Anonymous Anonymous: The link to Dune 2 is broken. I've found an alternative for Dune 2 download 1/19/2016  

7/28/2006 Add a comment

In case you are shocked to see little ads here sometime in the future, I'm exploring ways of selling out. I might even share some with Ben. Though there is a $100 threshold for payouts and I doubt we'll ever cross that. William

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7/28/2006 Add a comment

What are students bringing to college these days? A whole lot more than I ever did. And I even brought things that I never used. William

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7/25/2006 Add a comment

Though the most telling part is that he's on his third wife. William

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7/25/2006 Add a comment

I was just thinking about this: The decline of baseball cards. William

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  1. Blogger ben: Looks like ESPN is getting all weepy over baseball cards too. i wish i could remember what card i got hosed on when i traded nate my '86 topps eric davis card. 7/25/2006  
  2. Blogger William: Except that an `86 Topps Eric Davis card is probably worthless by now. Unless you or he cashed out when you made the trade, it's just like watching the stock market crash. 7/28/2006  
  3. Blogger ben: all those cards that we had are worthless now. The bottom completely fell out of the market. Most of the sets from the mid-80s are worth less than 20 bucks, and I know I spent more than that every summer buying cards. 7/28/2006  

7/25/2006 Add a comment

if Barry Bonds helped line your coffers? An interesting conceptual story about those that profited off of Barry Bonds' steroids era. William

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7/24/2006 Add a comment

The wedding of Ridhima Agarwal and Vikas Aggarwal. William

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7/24/2006 Add a comment

Slate's Middle East Buddy List, showing who gets along with whom. William

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7/24/2006 Add a comment

Someone who doesn't like s'mores. William

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7/19/2006 Add a comment

i spared you, the loyal reader, my rants during the world cup about how i was so sick of the announcers calling zidane "magical," or "wizardry," or, my favorite, a la musberger, "the great zidane," which made him sound like he was doing card tricks at kids' birthday parties.

but now comes this game, which is actually very addictive, just like the website said it would be. i can't resist posting it here.

my high score is 6760. ben

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7/19/2006 Add a comment

Slate's annotated transcript of the Bush-Blair conversation caught by an open microphone at the G-8 summit. Even better, though, were Bush's exchanges on world leaders talking too long, his 8-hour flight back to the U.S., and diet Coke. William

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7/19/2006 Add a comment

and other weird statues from around the world. William

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7/17/2006 Add a comment

Lisa de Moraes blogs about the summer TV press tour. William

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7/10/2006 Add a comment

No joke! William

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7/05/2006 Add a comment

According to this profile, she has a deep understanding of the celebrity game. Britney, Angelina, and Jessica are old standbys nowadays, but people are beginning to tire of them. Nicole Kidman doesn't make the cover because she's a little too old, a little less interesting these days. But Tori Spelling? Her elaborate wedding leads to a divorce a year later, followed by a quickie wedding. Then her father dies and she doesn't get to see him. I smell cover! William

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  1. Blogger Jasin Bibber: play now: best action game for android at minclip 5/03/2018  

7/03/2006 Add a comment

No, not our Independence Day. The Onion is celebrating their 10-year online anniversary with the top stories from each year. Check in every day for the next 10 days for their greatest hits.

Today they started with 1996. I'm amazed that I remember reading most of these. My favorites include:
"Christ Returns to NBA," with the classic line, "Kevin Willis, why hast thou forsaken me?"

"It's not a Crack House, It's a Crack Home"

"Frito-Lay Targets Blacks With New Menthol Doritos"

"'Midwest' Discovered Between East, West Coasts"

And of course,
"Vatican Condemns Wack MCs" ben

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  1. Anonymous Anonymous: Wow... 1997 is good too. I clearly recall Smoove B (someone had posted them all over Mertz). More evidence that the truth is funny (?): "Thousands die in Indonesia again". 7/04/2006