The Lantern Blog

Manny Ramirez is currently fourth in MLB All-Star voting, and his position in the voting standings among National League outfielders has Manny’s manager, Joe Torre, commenting on the situation.

Credit: ZDNet Blogs

Torre says that if Manny Ramirez is voted into the All-Star Game, he should skip the game.

And it makes sense.  After all, Man-Ram was suspended earlier on in the season for illegal use of performance enhancing drugs.

Torre made it a point to mention that the All-Star Game should be a showcase of the best first half talent, and not a popularity contest.  However, Major League Baseball has set a double-standard for itself.  While the league wants to get the best players they possibly can into the game, they leave it a majority of the decision to the fans, who get a chance to vote their favorites into the game.

Do you think MLB should modify the way they do the All-Star voting?

Are you familiar with the website, Hulu?  Hulu is a website where anyone can go and watch free episodes of popular TV shows at the mere cost of watching commercial breaks/advertisements.

Many internet savvy individuals were waiting on Hulu to release a brand new application for the online-only service.  Well, today, Hulu released a piece of software that could increase the website’s authority as a go-to source for television episodes.

Hulu’s new piece of software allows the viewer to browse the Hulu website and watch episodes with a remote control.  Therefore, one does not have to be physically sitting at a computer to enjoy the benefits of Hulu.

Techcrunch has an embedded video on their report on this story, so check it out if you are interested in checking out Hulu’s latest creation.  It is sure to revolutionize online television and episode viewing in the near future.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has had a disappointing season to date, has experienced a major change.  His team, Hendrick Motorsports, elected to dismiss crew chief Tony Eury Jr. today.  Lance McGrew will take over in the interim, unless they find another full-time crew chief option.

Credit: Associated Content

Earnhardt Jr., who is 497 points behind the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point leader (teammate Jeff Gordon), has not had impressive results as a whole over the time he has spent with Hendrick Motorsports.  Last season, Earnhardt Jr. finished 12th in the overall point standings—many NASCAR analysts had pinned Earnhardt for a top-ten finish.

McGrew, the replacement crew chief for Earnhardt, has experienced good success in his years in NASCAR.  In 2003, he won a Busch Series championship with a top young driver, Brian Vickers.  He also has assisted rookie driver Brad Keselowski in his transition to the Sprint Cup.  While McGrew has primarily worked with youngsters, it should be interesting to see if Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s results improve as a result of McGrew’s calls in the pits.

Female advocacy groups are active all around the nation, but have you ever heard of a male advocacy group?

Well, that is exactly what a group of students just started up at the University of Chicago, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.  The leader of the group, Steve Saltarelli, created the group basically by accident.  After writing a satirical piece, he received a great deal of interest from other students in creating a mens-advocacy group.  Men in Power was created.

As the group continues to gain steam both on Facebook and on the campus itself, it has raised a bunch of questions among people all around the country.  Do men really need an advocacy group?  In the report, students have questioned whether there is any point to creating such a group.

Do you believe male advocacy groups have a part in student organizations on college campuses?

With the economy in as bad of a shape as it currently is, many people around the country are still experiencing job loss and unemployment.  Applicant.com recently posted charts and visual graphs for each state of the U.S., showing how each state has been affected in its’ own way.  Check your home state out and see how unemployment has affected the citizens in your state.

Unemployment Graphs by State

Well, whoever coined the phrase “Anything is possible” was absolutely right (thanks Kevin Garnett).

Despite being a heavy underdog in the American Idol Finale on Wednesday night, Kris Allen ended up stealing the show from favorite Adam Lambert.  Lambert handled his loss with class, and was respectful of Allen’s victory after the champion was crowned.

Allen, who many have compared to current Top-40 sensation Jason Mraz, is a talented musician who put a different spin on every single song he sang.  Many of his performances featured the acoustic guitar—and along with Scott MacIntyre, Kris was one of the most active dual vocals-instrumentation artists in this year’s competition.

Adam Lambert had an awesome run on the show—establishing himself as the favorite as early as the Top 8 competition, where he performed the song “Mad World.”  There were some studies on search trends, and Lambert came out on top of all of his competitors in most weeks.

Do you believe that Kris Allen is worthy of being named the American Idol?

After doing some personal browsing tonight, I came across a new search engine—Wolfram Alpha—which is a highly interesting website.

If you went out and asked anyone about where they go to do a web search, a significant portion of the group would probably say Google.  But Wolfram Alpha—a new breed of search engine—is a step forward with web search and functionality.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Math majors, as well as other people who love numbers and statistical data, will find Wolfram Alpha very relevant.  Almost anything can be computed through the search engine, and it also delivers statistical data, depending on the input.

For instance, if “Ohio State University” is entered into the search engine, one can get all kinds of interesting information on Ohio State, including location, tuition, number of degrees distributed (annually), as well as other useful, interesting data.

As Wolfram Alpha continues to add more algorithms and information into their rapidly-expanding database, their search engine could become one of the best on the internet—possibly even challenging Google in the future as a viable alternative.

Check out Wolfram Alpha, and let me know your thoughts on one of the most exciting search engine debuts in a while.

If you want additional information on the search engine, check out this article from the Los Angeles Times.

According to a study found on WebMD’s website, THC, the active chemical in marijuana, may actually help to fight brain cancer.

Marijuana was tested in both laboratory rats and humans with brain cancer tumors, and in both studies, the growth of the tumor actually shrank after being exposed to the THC.

The study is a big step in cancer treatment—if THC is continuously tested and proven to help stop the growth of tumors (brain cancer-related or not), it could help save a significant number of lives.  The article states that “new strategies for preventing tumor growth” would be examined.

For individuals involved in the study, the THC did not appear to cause toxic effects, or worsen symptoms of any kind.  Many who have used chemotherapy to treat malignant tumors, and the treatment can have a great number of side effects.  If patients are able to take THC treatment without any significant side effects, it could improve the overall morale of nearly any cancer patient.

What are your thoughts on the use of THC in cancer treatment?

American Idol has finally cut down to their final two contestants, and they are Adam Lambert and…Kris Allen?

Yes, America, Kris Allen will compete in the American Idol Finale against a heavy favorite.  When reflecting upon this season, however, it does not seem that ridiculous.

This season’s show was almost predictable.  Think about it—week to week, it was almost crystal clear on who was going to get the boot.  Adam established himself as an early favorite, and was able to garner a gigantic fanbase that should heavily support him—good performance in the finale or not—all the way to the American Idol championship.

Many people thought that Danny Gokey and Allison Iraheta were going to be in the finale with Lambert, but both of them fell short.  What was left?  Kris Allen—a John Mayer like singer who has played the darkhorse role.

What kind of chance does Allen have to win it all?

In my opinion, slim to none.  Unfortunately for him, Lambert is one of the toughest competitors on the past few seasons of American Idol.  Even with a stellar performance, it may not be enough.

Do you think Kris Allen has a chance to win American Idol this season?

According to a report by Telegraph.co.uk, Google has decided to launch a television campaign promoting their latest web browser to the public.

Google Chrome, the browser, was launched last September, but it has not gained as much steam as the other two main competitors in the browser competition, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

According to Google’s blog, they had originally created the video just for YouTube and other internet video sites to continue to promote their browser creation.  Apparently it gained enough steam through the internet platform that they decided it should go to the television channels.

Personally, I have used Google’s browser very little since its launch.  I downloaded a copy of the browser for my PC at home, but have stuck with Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari browsers as my browsers of choice.

What kind of browser do you use to surf the web?