People often think that they’re cool. This video shows that, unless they are Techno Viking, they are wrong.
There’s so much good there. The poor sod who displeases Techno Viking, the minion offering Techno Viking hydration, the brochure that displeases Techno Viking. Then of course just the majesty that is Techno Viking.
Explain something to me, Finnish Olympic hockey selection committee:
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% |
| Jarkko Ruutu | 63 | 10 | 10 | 20 | -2 | 91 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 89 | 11.2 |
| Antti Miettinen | 58 | 16 | 15 | 31 | -4 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 131 | 12.2 |
| Jere Lehtinen | 38 | 3 | 9 | 12 | -7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 54 | 5.6 |
| Niklas Hagman | 62 | 21 | 15 | 36 | -2 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 163 | 12.9 |
All of those forwards are on the Finnish Olympic team. I’m not counting the guys that aren’t playing in the NHL… but they all have comparable stats. Here’s Jokinen’s stats this season.
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% |
| Jussi Jokinen | 60 | 23 | 26 | 49 | 4 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 118 | 19.5 |
Jokinen is not on the Finnish Olympic team. Buh? Something doesn’t add up. Did Jokinen sleep with the wrong person’s sister?
EDIT: I realize this is old news but it got more absurd as the games wound on. Jokinen is on track to have a career season — he’s 6 points off his rookie season career best — and has demonstrably better stats than the majority of Finnish forwards. Simply does not compute.
Thanks to Leo Laporte we now know how the famous “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Old Spice commercial was made. Truly a glorious commercial in every way.
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- I’ve determined that I need the eBook reader/tablet/thingie that is scheduled to be released in about 2015. But I want that one today. #
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Some of it is wonderful. Some of it — like John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” — is ear rape.
There’s plenty of places with information about the ongoing battle between Amazon and Macmillan publishing. I’m not going to delve too deeply into the mire, but I find it amazing how adroitly Amazon is shooting themselves in the dick over the pricing battle. Let me share part of their response.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
It’s hard to ignore some obvious silliness here — a “monopoly over their own titles”? Really? “Poor us, we’ll have to give in to those awful warmongers!” — but that’s not really where I’m going either. I agree with one part, I want to pay less for eBooks than I do for a physical book. I think I should pay less than I do for a physical book since, um, I’m not getting anything physical. The publisher didn’t have to pay to have it constructed out of paper and binding materials nor did it have to pay for it to reach the distributor, the distributor didn’t have to find a place to store it nor did it have to pay for it to go to the bookstore, the bookstore didn’t have to pay for room for shelfspace or employees to take my money for it. There’s considerably less effort and energy and matter involved in getting that “book” to me, therefore in my brain I should pay less. I’ve said this for a while and it’s a big reason why I don’t own an eBook reader. It’s hard for me to want to pay $7.99 for the eBook edition of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem when I can buy the paperback new for $7.19.
I should be on their side… right?
The fact that Amazon wants to charge less should be something I get behind as a consumer. And as far as it goes, I do. I think it’s within reason for Amazon to express their displeasure over Macmillan’s eBook pricing desires by delisting their eBooks. It’s juvenile, yes. But given the argument it seems a logical tactic. But removing the physical books as well? That’s just asinine. Mean-spirited, misguided, and exceedingly hurtful to authors.
It makes me glad of a couple of things. The first is that I’ve always pointed at Barnes & Noble for my “currently reading” section over to the right. I don’t even remember why I did that now but I did and I’m glad. Had I been pointing at Amazon I’d want to change it over this. Yes, it’s that kind of issue for me. Secondly, I don’t have an Amazon Prime account. I thought about it quite seriously this Christmas. I took them up on the trial and liked it and almost kept it. But I canceled the day before my trial ended because I couldn’t really justify at my usage level. Again, I’m glad that turned out. I also don’t own a Kindle for many reasons (ironically pricing of eBooks is one). That’s a Good Thing because I’d be a bit stuck for books now.
A personal stand.
I buy a lot of books. Hell, I buy a lot of shit overall: electronics, games, books. In the past Amazon was typically where I bought them. With this single ill-considered act they’ve lost a customer. I’m sure they don’t much care and memories are short. That tiny blip of people that 1) are cognizant of the issue, 2) fall on the right side of the argument (yes, there are people that are boycotting Macmillan and the authors they publish) and 3) care enough to do anything about it is statistically insignificant.
But it’s significant to me.
