Don’t Skip That Commercial!

EFF:

Television networks are having a busy month trying to stamp out new TV-watching technology, including telling a court that skipping a commercial while watching a recorded show is illegal. Yesterday, Fox, NBC, and CBS all sued Dish Network over its digital video recorder with automatic commercial-skipping. The same networks, plus ABC, Univision, and PBS, are gearing up for a May 30 hearing in their cases against Aereo, a New York startup bringing local broadcast TV to the Internet.  EFF and Public Knowledge filed an amicus brief supporting Aereo this week.

What’s next? Putting a camera on my TV to make sure I don’t leave the room while the commercials are on?

Why Won’t Toronto Fans Get Over Kerry Fraser’s Missed Call?

The celebration of this was yesterday, but I couldn’t not post it.

Sean McIndoe:

For those who don’t follow hockey, or who didn’t follow hockey about two decades ago, or who find themselves wondering why the one Toronto fan in the office has spent all week wearing a black armband and irrationally berating anyone who has nice hair, this Sunday marks the anniversary of one of the most notorious missed calls in hockey. It’s been 19 years since the night Kerry Fraser didn’t call Wayne Gretzky’s high-stick.

Detroit fans have plenty of hate still hanging around for the guy, too. Every time I see him as an analyst on TV I got a little reflexively grumpy.

Remember

Lily Burana for the New York Times:

What brings the tears to my eyes is not just the bereaved young woman, but the Marine who stands behind her. In an earlier photo in the series, we see him building her a little nest of blankets on the air mattress. Sweet Lord, I cry just typing the words, the matter-of-fact tenderness is so overwhelming. So soldierly. But in this photo — the one that lives on and on online — he merely stands next to the coffin, watching over her. It is impossible to be unmoved by the juxtaposition of the eternal stone-faced warrior and the disheveled modern military wife-turned-widow, him rigid in his dress uniform, her on the floor in her blanket nest, wearing glasses and a baggy T-shirt, him nearly concealed by shadow while the pale blue light from the computer screen illuminates her like God’s own grace.

I believe this photo has had such a long viral life not just because it is so honest but also because it is so modern.

For a lot of people, Memorial Day has become something that’s more about a day off work, cooking out, and sales at your favorite stores. It’s yet another thing that we’ve seen fit to over-commercialize until lots of people don’t even know what it really means.

Read the whole thing. Sadly, the Rocky Mountain News is no more, and I wasn’t able to find the original piece on the shell of a website they have left.

UPDATE: My buddy Ken found some related photos in a slideshow at the Times here.

Six K’s Is a Lot of K’s for Me

(And strangely enough, this is not about baseball.)

I posted this in my Twitter feed, but thought I would crosspost it here for my followers: I have registered to run the Cardinals Care 6K here in St. Louis in September. For me, it’s going to be an interesting journey to see if I have the ability and the willpower to really rock it.

I am keeping a separate blog for it so this one isn’t inundated with posts about what I’m eating and how I’m doing with getting ready. If this is the kind of thing you’re interested in, or if you want to make a donation to my entry in the race, head on over to that blog:

http://frommarkelto6k.wordpress.com/

MLB Generations Commercial

It’s designed to pull at you, but the music selection is perfect and the message is one that means a lot to me:

Baseball is something we share with our parents and children—that connects us as family. I love that this commercial isn’t just small kids but older generations as well.