The Fall of Kimbo Slice: Good for MMA
The illusion that was Kimbo Slice came crashing down Saturday night. The YouTube phenomenon who made his name on the streets of Miami had a reputation for being one of the toughest men alive and his street fight clips only drove the point home.
Still, when he made his entrance into mixed-martial arts, most of the hardcore fans rolled their eyes. Though Kimbo was, and is, a very big, mean and scary guy, he is a brawler. One thing we learned from the early days of MMA was that brawling is to MMA what the windmill is to boxing. What works on your little brother doesn’t always work in the ring.
But EliteXC did something stupid. Not only did they take Kimbo on as a fighter, but they pushed him as star. Saturday night they paid dearly for that decision as the biggest name of their new promotion, and the headliner of two or their three nationally-televised events, went down in under 15 seconds to a virtual unknown.
Now it isn’t just Kimbo that has to look for a new direction, EliteXC does as well. However, Kimbo’s loss is MMA’s gain. With the specter that is Kimbo removed from the sport, we can now move on and focus on what the sport is supposed to be about, skill, athleticism and strategy. Read more
MailPlane: Not Worth the Price
I have a bit of a saying. If you write good software and charge a fair price for it, people will pay. I routinely buy software for my Mac, including programs that I may or may not use over the long haul.
However, one program I recently started to use, or rather, am starting to use again, has put me in a bit of a bind.
You see, even though Mailplane is a great program that does exactly what it advertises and is very polite with my system resources, I simply cannot justify the expense.
However, I’m not some cheapskate that refuses to buy software. I am a happy customer that just dropped $100 for Screenflow, and $20 for Gyazmail (though I have since stopped using it full-time). I’m the type of customer Mac software vendors love, a small business admin with a decent-sized PayPal account and lots of discretion to buy software I need.
Still, I can’t see myself spending $25 for Mailplane. The reason is that the price point is horribly wrong and $25, though reasonable for other applications, is far too high for this app. Read more
The Logic of Captain Planet
There aren’t that many iconic cartoons from the early 90s. For most, the 80s were the heyday of kids cartoons and by the time Ted Turner had created Captain Planet, most of those series had long since gone the way of the dodo.
However, there is little doubt that Captain Planet was an icon unto himself. In addition to teaching kids about how classy one could look with a green mullet, it had a higher purpose, to teach the youth of the world about the environment and where to put their recyclables.
Today, it is hard to think of a series more routinely lampooned than Captain Planet and the reasons go far beyond the camp and cheese that came with it. No, despite our fond memories of the Captain, this series was pretty inane, even for a 30-minute PSA on the environment. Read more
