So, Comcast showed a holiday commercial with a montage of clips from the year during tonights Blackhawks game. Many of the videos featured Sarah Kustok… one I hadn’t seen before.. it appeared to be Sarah skating and about to attempt some sort of jumping spin. I really wish comcast would upload clips to youtube or something, but they probably fight to get as much of their stuff taken off there instead, but that’s a post for another day.

Anyway, I went to Google her and this popped up…

Searching for Sarah Kustok on Google... dating?! really?!?

What a lame commentary on what lonely guys search for when they think nobody is looking. How long before she suffers the same fate as Erin Andrews? Especially with some of the comments I found while looking for her.

I have this minor pet peeve. Yes, I know that there’s no hope in educating the entire world… but I always feel the need to let people know when they say something about this being the end of a decade. Apparently, my efforts 10 years ago with the new millennium didn’t work.

For those that aren’t aware, this isn’t the first year of a new decade, but rather the last year of one.

Yes, I understand the practicality of referring to decades as the 80′s or the 90′s and it seems natural that it would be from 1980 to 1989. And yes, I am aware that our numbering system for years is purely arbitrary.

BUT, consider this: There is no year zero. None. Well, unless you’re an astronomer.

So, this means that the first year was obviously year 1. So, it follows that the first decade is then from the beginning of year 1 to the end of year 10. Obviously, the next decade starts from year 11 until the year 20. Likewise, the first century is from 1 to 100, then 101 to 200. And likewise for millennia  (and there isn’t anything larger then that… unless you go to ages, epochs, eras, or eons… but most of us won’t even be around to see the next century, so meh).

Yes.. this is nitpicking.. but i just wanted to point this out once and for all. And no… I’m not the only person to have noticed this. But still, whenever I hear someone say that… I need to point out that they are wrong!

Wow.. What a crazy day in the sports world. I was stunned twice while I was working on stuff with SportsCenter on in the background after catching the end of the Saints crushing of the Patriots.

First, did you see tonights Thrashers/Panters game!? (That’s Atlanta and Florida, NHL Hockey for the uninitiated) I’ve never seen anything like the brutal hit Keith Ballard put on Tomas Volkun, his own goalkeeper! Brutal. Clearly he was intending to take his frustrations out on the goal post and didn’t even realize his reach would connect with his goalie, square in the head. Early word is that Vokoun is going to be fine and its “just a laceration”.

And second, I don’t think I ever heard someone get publicly torn to shreds like Charlie Weis was today when Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame Athletic Director, held a press conference to announce that he was firing his football coach. At least that’s what I thought when I heard part of the press conference on ESPN.  I wasn’t paying attention and only heard one part:

“I’ve said often in recent days that I’ve never met anyone for whom there was a bigger gulf between perception and reality, and I think that is true of our departing coach.”

Wow… normally you would expect a nice polite “things just were not working out” or a “we have decided to explore other options” sort of things. But after reading the whole story… Perhaps he’s really talking about the media’s perception of how the decision was made with Notre Dame. Either way, I have to remember that insult, even if it was unintended!

So yeah, between those and a vague understanding of the Tiger Woods soap opera… I was entertained enough to write that out… Glad I could waste a few minutes of your time as well!

I really want to know how product recalls work. I want to know how much budget the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission gets every year to spend to “protect” us as consumers. And, if you can put a dollar on it, I’d love to know how much businesses have to spent to comply with needless regulations.

First off, let me say that we all agree that death is tragic, especially the accidental death of a child. But, the world isn’t perfect… horrible things will continue to happen no matter how carefully you live your life.

With that said, you may have heard of the recent product recall of 2.1 million cribs. I expected these to be the equivalent of bag of broken glass (Grr NBC for not allowing classic SNL clips to be on youtube, but that’s a different rant!), but come on. Let me point out some facts about these “death traps”.

• 2.1 Million of these items were sold.
• Only 4 deaths are linked to this crib.
• This Deadly Device was on the market for 17 and a half years before anyone noticed.
• The crib is only harmful when its improperly assembled by adults who don’t follow the clear warnings in the instructions!!

Many of these were used by multiple children within one household, and many were likely sold to other people, so there are MANY more then just 2.1 Million children who used these cribs. So, a conservative estimate with round numbers would be, 4 deaths in 2 Million uses over 17 years. That’s a 0.0002% failure rate with one death every 4.25 years.  Really?! Keep in mind that the chance of being struck by lightning is 0.000357%. So, you’re twice as likely to be struck by lightning then to die in one of these cribs. (Many assumptions in those calculations, but you get the point.)

I have no doubt that the people who are crusading to protect us innocent consumers think that they are doing nobel work, but really!? I mean come on. I’d love to be able to follow the money further to see where their salaries are paid and how they choose what products to go after. A “non-profit” organization was on Chicago’s news coverage of the story… I’d love to find out how much they receive in donations and how much of that goes to pay internal costs, like salaries.

Good to know that our government is busy trying to keep us safe. They even have a twitter account. I really feel sorry for the poor soul that has to do that for a living (and how much are they paid to do that?).