iPod Shuffle

From The Mossberg Solution:

I’ve been testing the new iPod Shuffle for a couple of days, and, in my tests, it fulfilled — and even exceeded — Apple’s claims for convenience, battery life and song capacity. Sound quality is so good you can barely believe the music is coming from something so small.

…

Apple puts the new player’s battery life at 12 hours on a single charge. But, in my testing, it did much better than that, lasting 15 hours and 44 minutes.

Similarly, I found that the iPod Shuffle could hold many more songs than Apple claims. By choosing manual mode to load the player, I was able to cram as many as 188 songs onto my 512-megabyte test model, rather than the 120 Apple claims, without reducing the audio quality of the songs. That’s because Apple’s calculation is based on four-minute songs, but many pop and rock tunes, especially those from the ’60s and ’70s, are actually much shorter than that.

It weighs less than an ounce.

Just shutting up would work for me

More from Tuesday Morning Quarterback:

TMQ gets a lot of email about network announcers, but rarely critiques them; my feeling is these gentlemen are not expected to be Roman orators. I accept that the bobbleheads will contradict themselves. But not in the same minute! Point one: St. Louis 7, Seattle 3, Les Mouflons faced third-and-3. The Dropped Passes Group came out in the dime. Paul Maguire, who had been urging Seattle to blitz, intoned, “With six defensive backs on the field, they have got to bring at least one!” Seattle blitzed two defensive backs, leaving the wide receivers single-covered; easy slant to Torry Holt for the first down. Maguire then huffed, “Any time you leave Holt one-on-one like that, the Rams are going to go to him.” Point two: Minnesota 24, Green Bay 17 in the fourth quarter. Randy Moss was hobbling to the huddle — but Moss is smart, he knows people saw him hobbling and assumed this meant he could not run. How hobbled was Randy, really? Cris Collinsworth declared, “The Packers have got to recognize that Moss cannot go deep. Al Harris can cover Moss one-on-one. He doesn’t need safety help.” Two plays later, Moss was covered one-on-one by Harris during a safety blitz, and caught a 34-yard touchdown pass that iced the game. “Harris really bit on that move,” Collinsworth deadpanned.

NewMexiKen generally has to use the mute when there are three announcers in the booth.

The NFL playoffs

From the Tuesday Morning Quarterback:

Since the current playoff formation was adopted in 1990, home teams in the divisionals are 45-11, an .803 winning figure. The home teams have just finished a bye week and relaxing in hot tubs as their opponents are out in the cold while being pounded. Usually the reason the home teams had byes in the first place is that they are better than the wild-card round teams. Home teams dominate the NFL divisionals, so check-mark them in your office pool. You don’t even need to know which team is playing! Just go for the home team in the divisional round.

A week later at the championship round, the home advantage dissipates. Since 1990, home teams in conference championships are 16-12, a .571 winning figure. That is nearly identical to the rate at which home teams win all games: During the 2004 regular season, home teams went 145-111, a .566 winning figure. At the championship round, nobody’s had the previous week off and the Super Bowl is just one “W” away. Players leave everything on the field at championship contests.

Just One More Tribal Tale of Abuse

Writer Paul VanDevelder writes in the Los Angeles Times that the lobbyist scam of several Indian tribes is just the latest in a long line. He begins with a story as told by Indian elders:

A black man, a white man and an Indian arrived at the Pearly Gates, begins one of their favorite tales. After welcoming them to heaven, St. Peter invites each man to pick the afterlife of his dreams. The black man asks for great music and lots of friends. St. Peter grants his wish and sends him on his way. Up steps the Indian, who asks for beautiful mountain streams, deep forests and plenty of food. “Say no more, chief,” says St. Peter, sending him off. Lastly, he turns to the white man and asks, “What do you want heaven to look like?” And the white man says, “Where did that Indian go?”