Lost Remote is reporting that NewsBlues is reporting that NBCU has "unofficially won" the Weather Channel bidding war (their primary competition was said to be Time Warner) for a cool (no weather pun intended) $3.5 billion (with a B) dollars.

Landmark, the parent company, had originally sought $5 billion (again, with a B) and so the bid - if final - is a bit lower than what they were looking for.

On a related note, Blog Hero is also for sale for $5 billion (with a B) dollars although Blog Hero's financial team (Sven) will entertain offers for less than $5 billion, or less than $3.5 billion, or even maybe less than $1 billion (with a B.)

Posted by Carl at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know, you are probably wondering how I find this stuff. I obviously can't say as it's a trade secret.

The Sci-Fi channel has an "original movie" airing soon. Here's a screen capture from their site:

In case you missed that bit at the bottom which explains what this movie is about, it reads: "She's an ex-model. He's an elite commando. They're going to solve global warming - by stopping the aliens who are causing it!" There are a couple of take-aways here that you'll want to note:

1. Global warming is real. Never in the description is global warming in doubt.
2. Man is NOT causing global warming. This is a huge relief. We can all go back to our SUVs and air conditioning and flatulating cows now.
3. Aliens exist.
4. Aliens are causing global warming. I have no idea why they would do this but one can assume it's because aliens dislike us, our planet or our flatulating cows.
5. The aliens are no match for an ex-model and an elite commando.

I for one will be rushing out to get TIVO so that I can make sure I don't miss this new Sci-Fi channel documentary.

Posted by Carl at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I confess I don't know what that would be (the sound of a sigh caught in a black hole) but I thought the phrase would make a great blog post title. It seems very deep, like the "sound of one hand clapping" until you think about it and realize that it's completely meaningless. I suppose a sigh caught in a black hole would sound like siiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. There might even be a pfffft! right at the end there when it crosses the event horizon. For more on sighing and black holes and event horizons consult your local wikipedia.

Some of you have wondered why I haven't been posting as regularly as in the past. Some surmised I was in a terrible corn canning accident. Others have suggested that the Japanese Mafia finally caught up with me late one night at Wal-Mart, during an ill-fated Twinkies and Pepsi run. A few inquired about my health, given all of the bionics from poorly waged light saber battles and my diet of Twinkies and Pepsi. All good guesses, of course, but in truth I was on vacation at Disney World for the last six months.*

As proof I offer this photo snapped at EPCOT. It is part of the current Tin Toy exhibit being held in the Japan section of EPCOT, right behind the Japanese Mafia booth - which I carefully circumvented while dressed in my Speed Racer disguise. I think this is a Tin Godzilla, desperately in search of some Tin Japanese Soldiers to stomp on. He had just stomped on the Mach 5, Speed Racer and his box office receipts - but was still hungry.

*Okay, I made that up. I can hardly afford to put gas in my well-made but gas-guzzling SUV let alone vacation at Disney World for six months. But vacation is, after all, just a state of mind.

Posted by Carl at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thanks to everyone (both of you) who left a comment about Christmas stockings. You can see the list here, including an interesting post about giving kids suitcases for Christmas and leading them to believe that was all they got, while the rest of the presents were inside. Classic.

Feel free to leave a comment If you're still inclined to help my research grant. I'd also like suggestions for things to put in stockings, as we're a bit stumped for our son and daughter. I keep coming up with things like iPods, cellphones, Gameboys, gold doubloons, and other things that are small that I would like to get if I was a child. Alert Shopper Tammy, on the other hand, comes up with things like toothpaste and soap and other more practical items.

I have one other holiday item to report, as I sit in our house with the sleet chipping away at the windows, and this is a very sad and disturbing story. Apparently, Rudolph has sold out to the man.

In order to understand how I feel about this, you need to know that I come from the generation that only saw Christmas shows once a year, when they ran on network TV. Back then (he says fondly, while grimacing from the rheumatism) these shows were special because they only appeared briefly, and weren't available the rest of the year on cable, DVD or YouTube. The family would gather around the TV set and tune in that special night.

So imagine my horror when I saw Rudolph selling insurance. I suppose this is a brilliant move on Aflac's part, but when I saw all of the characters from the old cartoon I was stunned. At first I thought it was some sort of parody, but it's the real thing. I suppose it was inevitable, and next year Cindy Lou Who will be hawking home security.

What do you think? Horrible exploitation or brilliant reminiscence?

Posted by Carl at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Heroes' Hiro Nakamura, played by Masi Oka. Photo ©NBC

I haven't blogged about Heroes all season. At least, I don't think I have. Let me check. Okay, I I did once. It was a brief post about time-travel that really didn't solve any of my own personal dilemmas with time-travel. For example, if there will ever be time travel, way far down the road in the future, someone surely would have come back to this time just to talk with me about all of those coffee cans I'm sealing up and burying everywhere. But so far: nothing. Of course, if time-travel gets developed in the future, they probably will also develop some sort of toothpaste that makes you forget everything (and fight tartar) when you brush your teeth, and maybe they visited me and slipped that into my medicine cabinet, which would explain why I can't find my car keys.

Anyway, Heroes is a television show that debuted this season on NBC. The main story revolves around a number of "heroes" that have extraordinary gifts. We'll just call them "super powers" because I know that's what all of you are thinking. So far we've seen an amazing array of super powers: telepathy, the ability to create fire, super healing, flight, walking through walls, and the ability to never completely get written out of the script no matter how final your last scene seems to be. Two of the most annoying powers are precognition (the ability to see the future) and time-travel (the ability to completely muck-up the past, making the guy who saw the future look like a complete idiot for getting it wrong.)

At first I thought to myself: "Self, don't get interested in this show, even if they DO create a guy with heat vision, because all sci-fi shows last two seasons max." So I avoided it like the plague, or like someone who carried the plague, or even like someone who could create super plagues just by thinking about it and leave them on door knobs, toilet seats and the handles of office coffee pots. But co-workers (or, if you prefer, coworkers) at AccuWeather kept hammering me with all sorts of tidbits (Hey! They're going to have a guy with heat vision on tonight!) until I broke down and watched an episode.

Actually, I ended up watching something like 8 episodes right in a row. I won't do the math there on how much time that was in front of the computer, but I went to bed at a ridiculous hour. I was hooked.

The series is remarkable not because of the super powers, although I'm still holding out for someone who can turn themselves into lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals... but it's remarkable because of the writing and acting. What would the world be like if people suddenly started acquiring super powers? This show gives you a good guess, and it's very entertaining.

The season recently concluded so now is a good time to try it out. The most interesting character (IMO) has to be Hiro Nakamura, a former office cubical dweller who has the power to "bend space and time." He's the time traveler who catches a glimpse of a desolate future and takes it upon himself to set things right. His transformation from meek office worker to hero took the length of season one but was a great trip. At the end of the season, Hiro ends up traveling back in time to feudal Japan.

At least, that's one theory. I think he ended up at the World Showcase in Epcot during some sort of show. But now we all have to wait several months to find out.

Jump on board!

*The Blog Hero wishes everyone to know that the title of this post was the result of hours - nay, weeks! - of brainstorming and he's quite proud of it. He's working on his next Heroes blog title but so far isn't coming up with much other than "She sells sea shells down by the seashore right before unleashing her deadly heat vision" which really isn't very good. Suggestions welcome.

Posted by Carl at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was a fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway? when it was on. The most enjoyable parts were the times someone completely lost it on camera, which is one of the dangers of improv I guess. This clip answers that age old riddle, "What sound does an arctic tern make?"

Posted by Carl at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)