Weekly Update.

(WARNING: No naked chicks below, or above, technically.)

– Boxing: This week marks the start of what many think should be a strong closing to the year:

• November 6th has Juan Manuel Lopez versus Rafael “I’m Not Quite Dead Yet” Marquez on Showtime, while HBO will show Zab “Super Jew” Judah fight Lucas Matthysse (at The Rock, if interested).
• November 13th is Pacquiao/Margarita (HBO PPV), with Guillermo Rigondeaux on the undercard (ballin’ ass Cuban).
• November 20th is the rematch of Sergio Martinez vs Paul Williams (HBO, and in Atlantic City).
• November 27th is another good one with Juan Manuel Marquez versus Michael Katsidis (two guys who don’t give a fuck).  Andre Berto (my boy!) fights on the undercard against someone random because no one wants to fight Berto.  On Showtime, you can watch the other Andre (Ward) punch Sakio Bika in the face.
• December 11th seems to be the last good fight scheduled with Amir Khan (Freddie Roached trained) vs Marcos Maidana (hard puncher).

– Climb this, Bardon: It’s the world’s tallest climbing wall. 121 feet of hippie goodness:  (Gizmodo)

– Though good job on this pic: Bardon does take a mean picture:  (Andy Bardon Photography)

– Got a Kindle? Then get ready for 14-day sharing.  You can send your books on to a friend… for 14 days.  During this time period, however, you will not be able to read said book.  Like real sharing!  Only it’ll be called e-sharing.  (Engadget)

– Birth Control: I, uh, don’t know much about it, but they’re trying to replace the pill with a gel.  Rub it on your arms, shoulders, legs, or abdomen daily and you’ll get the same results as the pill, but without the “weight gain, sickness, and dulling of sexual desire.”  I’d bet women would still choose a pill over gel.  Prove me wrong in the comments, though.  Just seems like the ease of taking a pill would trump rubbing yourself sexily everyday.  Plus, bigger tits.  (New Scientist)

– Dekotora: Apparently the Japs love bedazzling their trucks.  It’s called dekotora, and you can read more about it here (whaddup Wiki?).  You can see more crazy pics of that shit here.  And here’s a sample:  (Pink Tentacle)

– New NBA unis: If you’re wondering why the Heat, Nuggets, and Bulls don’t have shiny jerseys anymore, it’s because the NBA has adopted a new material for all teams (actually, except the Bobcats, Hornets, and Magic since pinstripes don’t work on new material).  The new material forced a lot of teams to make minor adjustments (the Knicks and Nets both changed their collars), so it looks like the Warriors are the only ones with full-on new unis (very nice ones, at that):

You can read about all the other changes here.  Once again, Uni Watch doesn’t disappoint.  (Uni Watch)

– Movember: This is the movement, started in Australia, that has guys growing mustaches for a month to support prostate cancer.  Feel free to grow a ‘stache for a good cause.  It gives you an excuse to look like this guy:

Kids want some candy?

Join, or start, a group here, or donate here. You can read more here as well.  I believe this is partly responsible for hipsters having facial hair, just saying. 

– U of A! U of A! This is not me boasting about having the 15th best football team in the country, it’s about how Arizona athletes rank last in the six major conferences for graduation.  A 65% rate is worse than any other team in the Pac-10, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, ACC, and the SEC.  Fun times.

– Oregon: I know Zona has to play Stanford and USC before going up to Eugene, but I just thought these Oregon stats were impressive (these were from last week, so they don’t factor in the 53-32 trumping of USC):  (ESPN’s Pac-10 Blog)

• Oregon’s average time of possession on TD drives this season is 1:40, lowest in the nation. Oregon also has 10 TD drives of 70-plus yards that took less than two minutes, most in the nation.The Ducks have 16 touchdown drives of less than 56 seconds and 22 TD drives of five plays or less.
• Oregon averages over 6.5 yards per carry on first down, fourth best in the nation.
• The success on first down sets up quarterback Darron Thomas, who’s completing 71 percent of his second down passes with six TDs and no interceptions. His passing efficiency on second down is No. 1 in the nation.
• Oregon hasn’t been 8-0 since 1933, when it set a school record for most consecutive wins to start a season.
• Oregon leads the nation in scoring, averaging 55.1 PPG. That’s nearly 7 more points than second-place Oklahoma State (48.3). They have scored 386 points through 7 games and are on pace to score 716 through 13 games, which would tie the FBS record. The 716 points is exactly what 2008 Oklahoma scored in 14 games.
• LaMichael James is tied with Jonathan Stewart for the most 100-yard games in school history with 14. He’s run for at least 100 yards in five of his six games this season. The only sub 100-yard game was a 94-yard performance at Arizona State.
• Oregon is outscoring its opponents 156-23 in the second half and has allowed seven fourth-quarter points this season.
• Oregon leads the nation in turnover margin (+1.71) and takeaways (25) and rank 12^th in scoring defense (15.9 PPG allowed).

– More reasons to end prohibition: Turns out alcohol is worse than heroin, crack, LSD, cocaine, meth, tobacco, and weed when you factor in how detrimental the drug is to your body and society.  At least according to some British scientists.  (Wooten)

– Speaking of legalizing it: What would packaging for legal pot look like?  (Boing Boing)

– Wind turbines of death: For every 1 megawatt generated by a wind turbine, 22 bats die a year (at least according to one study).  Surprisingly, PopSci doesn’t give you the total number of bat deaths.  But this quote is interesting:

“Some wind sites are killing hundreds to thousands of bats in a single fall migration season,” said Paul Cryan, a research biologist with the US Geological Survey. One wind farm in New York is estimated to kill more hoary bats every year than have ever been collected for scientific studies, he said.

Again, would love to tell you the total number, but the article doesn’t say.  And I’m too lazy to Google.  (PopSci)

– Skin printers: Exactly what the name says.  It uses the same tech of that inkjet printer you got for free with your computer, but instead of ink it mixes blood coagulants with skin cells and collagens to create fibrin.  Place that on a gaping wound, and boo-ya.  New skin.  Only available for mice, currently.  (Gizmodo)

– That’s why they’re pink? Flamingos dye themselves pink.  They secrete pink fluid from the stuff they eat and preen it in to attract the ladies.  (New Scientist)

– Gucci wants in on 3D: So you can spend $225 on a pair of glasses.  That you wear indoors.  (Engadget)

– A new traffic intersection: I guess how we handle traffic doesn’t evolve that much over the years, but if you understand this picture:

Then more power to you.  You can read more about it here, including an instructional video on how it works.  (Core77)

– Election day: Here’s what economists think about voting:

Basically that the math means you really shouldn’t vote unless no one else is voting.  Personally I don’t give a fuck what you do, that’s why I believe about 99% of the stuff I believe politically.  So exercise your right to vote by choosing not to.  (Carpe Diem)

– The Marks’ Financial Update:

• MDH – A nice little 21 cent gain for Harter these past two weeks, with a solid 17 cent rise the two days leading up to Cutchogue Couples Retreat plus Blake, Woo, and Buchi (I’m counting ERK! and Finn as a couple).  Harter finished at $2.48 (from $2.27).  I’m not saying these charts are actually tied to these guys, but during the week leading up to our fantasy football draft, Harter went from $1.93 to $2.48, where he stands today.  He’s now 7-1 and the only down week for MDH was the week prior to his only lost.  Worth mentioning.
• MFL – Down 3 cents from $14.21 to $14.18.  He got up to $14.31 on the 25th, but couldn’t hang and slipped down to close the period.  Interestingly enough, he was down the two days prior to said CCR+BWB (lame?).  He actually won in the Moonti league, so there goes any direct correlation.
  
• MAB – Bunk had an interesting two weeks here.  He went from $15.24 down to $14.84 in two days, stayed there for five days, then shot up to $15.18 in one day.  That day was the 28th, but we didn’t hear about the beach house until the 30th.  Was it the 28th, Bunk?  Anyway, he closed at $15.23.  I’m going to say it’s because he finally got around to doing the bubble thing (see banner).