Link roundup

1. One of Bill Simmons's readers had a great idea - - losing team in the NBA all-star game has to wear short shorts in next year's game.

2. Here's a great explanation for why Mubarak will be very reluctant to give up power - - he fears prosecution:

So, how can Mubarak protect himself if he eventually makes an escape from Cairo? He's taking the usual steps now. Start with his decision to install foreign intelligence chief and CIA confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president and constitutional successor. (Mubarak himself came to the presidency through this route; he had been Anwar Sadat's vice president.) This comes close to matching what in the Russian-speaking world is known as the "Putin option," a reference to the exit strategy adopted by a teetering Boris Yeltsin: Fearing possible retribution from opposition figures, Yeltsin opted to surrender power through a transitional period to a wily senior player in the intelligence community. In exchange, Yeltsin is said to have extracted a firm commitment from Putin that the full machinery of the Russian state would be mustered to protect him. There would be no criminal probes or inquiries, and no cooperation with foreigners who undertook the same. Yeltsin would be free to live his final days shuttling between Moscow and the French Riviera. Putin scrupulously kept his end of the bargain.

Via.

3. Here's Consumer Reports' picks for best frozen pizzas. (Presumably they'll have to reevaluate once the pizza/cookie dough combo is released.)

Link roundup

1. An unidentified SEC school complained about Alabama objectifying women to announce its new football recruits.

2. 74 people have been injured by hunters in Italy in the last four months:

The annual bloodletting is a result of the unusual freedom allowed to shooting parties under Italian law. They can go on to private property and fire anywhere not within 50m of a road or 150m of a house.

Via.

3. There's now an official Blogger app for Android.

*Buy Android phones at eBay.

Alabama is using a woman in a cheerleader's uniform...

Alabama has a livefeed showing incoming faxes from football recruits. A woman in a tiny cheerleader's uniform collects the faxes. Keep it classy Alabama. Via.

Phantom Sacks

Watch Jim Everett frighten himself into a sack (35 seconds in). And speaking of that moment, watch Jim Everett attack Jim Rome for making fun of him:



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Link roundup

1. Something Awful reviews the Nintendo 3DS:

Pilotwings Resort - Take the Wii Sports location, add elements from the classic SNES title, and you've got a minimal effort title that will sell like hotcakes among newcomer Wii gamers and nostalgic nerds alike.

2. Camel racing is popular in Dubai, and nowadays camel jockeys are typically robots (instead of children). Dubai police have uncovered a gang that was selling stun guns, which were then placed inside the jockeys to use against the camels. Via.

3. It's Boing Boing's 11th birthday.

*Buy the Nintendo 3DS at Amazon.

This will make you a Clay Matthews fan...

Watch as Aaron Rodgers snubs a female cancer patient, but Clay Matthews stops to sign for her.

*Buy Clay Matthews jerseys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Great photo of a couple kissing in fog.

2. You might have recently seen OK Cupid's report about female attractiveness. Here's the real message to take away from it:

In the marriage market what you want is not so much to increase your attractiveness to the average person but rather to the one person who will cherish your unique features. Thus--conditional on attracting a decent number of suitors from a reasonable pool etc.--what you want to do is accentuate your unique features even if doing so reduces your average ranking.

3. Interesting tale of the time the Philadelphia Flyers played the Red Army team in 1976 - - the Red Army wanted to quit due to the Flyers' violent play, but agreed to continue because they wanted their payday. Via.

Link roundup

1. "Malaysia Defeats Indonesia [in soccer] Thanks to Laser-Shooting Soccer Fans."

2. Comic books are 50% off at the BBTS.

3. Kelly Link's spooky short story collections are available for free download. (I just read her really terrific tale of a camping trip gone awry in a McSweeney's story collection.)

Link roundup

1. "Vimeo Video School is a fun place for anyone to learn how to make better videos." Via.

2. Great Q&A with J.C. Bradbury about baseball, including an explanation for why salary caps don't improve competitive balance. Also, he offers a guess as to what makes Scott Boras different from other agents:

But Boras has also been able to convince his clients not to sign long-run contracts before they hit free agency. Players, who have all their value tied up in a single fragile asset (their bodies), have to fear that an injury might prevent them from collecting a big free-agent payday after their six-year indenture is up. Teams have used this fear to sign young players to long-term deals at below-market rates. Players trade some salary in the future in return for long-run security. For example, Jay Bruce recently agreed to a six-year, $51 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds that buys out two years of would-be free agency, when he would be paid much more than the salary he’ll receive. I have long wondered why Boras is so successful at convincing his players to resist the temptation to sign discounted long-run deals as insurance. I have a theory that Boras sells his own insurance to players by promising players a minimum salary in return for waiting for free agency. This way, players get insurance against injury, more income if they reach free agency in good health, and Boras gets a bigger cut.

Via.

3. Less people are hunting and it's really starting to hurt conservation efforts - - because hunting licenses and other related fees support government efforts to conserve and restore wildlife habitat.

*Buy baseball cards at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Topless Robot describes the good and bad after seeing a screening of Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark. But the "good" is so negative, I never made it to the "bad."

2. Clippers owner Donald Sterling taunts his own players during games.

3. Sounds like Gawker was hacked a month ago and that Gawker staff was very slow to act on warning signs. Via.

Link roundup

1. "CBS Football Experts Were 3-61 In Pick'em Last Week."

2. The estrogen found in the water supply is from animal manure, not birth control pills.

3. "Win a private cake decorating lesson with Duff Goldman and Geof Manthorne of Charm City Cakes" - - bid at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Has Stephon Marbury already been fired by the Chinese basketball team he was playing for?

2. How to make pie fries.

3. Leslie Nielsen at Disneyland's Submarine Ride circa 1961.

*Buy Disneyland posters at eBay.

Video of LeBron James bumping his current and former coaches

Video of LeBron James bumping his current coach (Erik Spoelstra) and former coach (Mike Brown). Via these sites.

*Buy LeBron James toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. I don't think I've ever seen a professional football player give up on a play the way Albert Haynesworth does on this play. Via.

2. "From November 23 to December 7, the full text of Greg Bear’s HULL ZERO THREE will be available for free on the just-launched Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!" "The Starbucks Digital Network offers customers access to premium, free content on the in-store Wi-Fi network. Customers will be able to access the complete text of HULL ZERO THREE on their laptops, tablets, and many smart phones."

3. I read the same message twice yesterday - - we're entering an era of excellence where you will have to be unreasonably talented to stand out.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Andy Reid was an enormous child?

This could be an elaborate joke, or maybe he was significantly older than the other kids in line, but check out young, gigantic Andy Reid at a punt, pass, and kick contest. Via.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Bill Simmons:

Here's a fun story for you: A few weeks after the Clippers fired Mike Dunleavy last winter, someone called me out of the blue asking for help getting their vacant GM job. I had never talked to this person before in my life. I have no idea how he obtained my number. But that didn't stop him from lobbying me for the next 15 minutes as I said things like, "You don't understand, I only do things like that for Daryl Morey." (Just kidding. I did say, "Sorry, I just don't do things like that." Which is true.) Even better, this person was employed by another NBA team at the time. Now, assuming I helped him get the job -- and by the way, that's my favorite part of the story, that anyone thought the notoriously oblivious Clippers could be swayed by an online columnist -- what would I get in return? You guessed it … scoops! Breaking news!

2. The murder of a Palestinian official in Dubai by assassins captured on camera has lead to zero arrests. Via.

3. Free Star Wars digital jigsaw puzzles.

*Buy Super Spy by Matt Kindt at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Cigar Guy has been found and was wearing a costume in the Tiger Woods photograph (a costume that made no sense at all). Via these sites.

2. Super Mario's ready to meet Charon.

3. "A US State Department clerk has been indicted for using her government computer to gather personal information on more than a hundred celebrities and their families." Relatedly, "Pennsylvania Director of Homeland Security James F. Powers resigned in response to the public outcry over the news that his agency had not only been monitoring the activities of law-abiding citizens who oppose natural gas drilling in the state, but passing the information it gathered on to the companies involved in the drilling."

4. "BASKETBALL'S world governing body is considering sexing up the women's game by introducing more revealing uniforms to cash in on the players' athletic bodies."

*Buy Nintendo toys at eBay.

Tryouts for Andrew Bogut's elite fans

As I've mentioned, Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut was disappointed with the enthusiasm of Bucks fans. Instead of complaining, he buys 100 tickets each night and fills a section with boisterous fans. This is the tryout video for a particularly enthusiastic fan. Via.

*Buy NBA bobbleheads at Amazon.

Mike Ditka as a bear

Mike Ditka as a bear t-shirt by David Schwen for Threadless. Click on the voting widget if you'd like the chance to buy it:



Via.

Ben Roethlisberger action figure to come with warning stickers

Three gems courtesy of Deadspin:


Appropriate warning sticker added to Ben Roethlisberger action figure.



The Trentonian gives a shout-out to "dog killer" Michael Vick. Here's videos of some of Vick's incredible highlights from yesterday.



Video of Ohio's Rufus Bobcat repeatedly attacking Ohio State's Brutus Buckeye. The Bobcat has been punished.

*Buy mascot bobbleheads at Amazon.