Hockey fans aren't like other fans

I saw this fantastic commercial from Verizon during Game 1 of the Detroit-Pittsburgh Stanley Cup Finals series. It's yet another example of funny, engaging commercials with a hockey theme. I'm still partial to the Boston Bruins playoff ads, but this one is a very close second.



Verizon is the official wireless provider of the NHL, and were the top ad spender on NBC and Versus broadcasts. But the telecom company appears to be reaping the benefits of those marketing dollars according to a recent Nielsen post. Verizon wireless customers had 44% higher viewership of NHL games during the regular season than the average NHL fan.

Go away Mr. Kutcher

Uh oh, Twitter has gone and done it now. The fast-rising micro-blogging service has annoyed none other than Ashton Kutcher. It was widely reported across the blogosphere earlier this week that Twitter was in talks with a Hollywood studio to produce a TV show based on its popular service. All sorts of theories regarding the content of said TV show were thrown about by alots of people who really were just guessing.

One such theory suggested that the TV show would help fans track, or rather stalk, celebrities. That did not sit to well with Mr. and Mrs. Kutcher/Moore and both of them have threatened to cancel their Twitter accounts as a result. Oh no. What will the world do without the inane drivel streaming forth from the mouth of the the all-too-self-important Ashton Kutcher? Joel Postman asks a similar question on his Socialized blog and his answer is simple - nothing. In other words, no one care because Kutcher has absolutely nothing to say that is worth the five seconds it takes to read. So rather than spending another few minutes ranting, I'll just say - Go Away Kutcher! That is all.

We are all witnesses now

How appropriate is Nike's Lebron James campaign now. After a stunning three pointer at the buzzer to beat the Orlando Magic 96-95 in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, everyone watching suddenly became witnesses to the greatness of King James.

This game had everything that makes sports great. Down the stretch, both teams made shot after shot vying for the lead. Forget the fact that the Cavs blew a huge double digit lead for the second game in a row to put themselves in position to go down 0-2 in the series, the end was worth it. I rate great sporting events by how excited my wife gets as they happen. She hates the state of Ohio more than anyone I know, and even she cheered when James buried the three. It was one of those sports moments that no one will soon forget.

Lost in all of this is how happy Nike must be right now. You can't buy the kind of free advertising the company received at the end of the night as the TNT cameras focused on the giant Lebron sign outside of the arena. "We are all witnesses" it said. Absolutely.

Tweeting from the top of the world

As TechCrunch reports today, Twitter has reached new heights. No, I'm not talking about some other lame celebrity latching on to the microblog so their lackeys can tweet for them. This time the service really has gone higher. Gavin Bate, an Irish mountain climber, has been tweeting his ascent of Mt. Everest this month.

Bate is on Everest for his fourth try at the summit to raise money for his charity, Moving Mountains. Unfortunately, the last update on his Twitter acount was made by his support team at base camp as Bate became ill high on the mountain and had to descend quickly. Evidently extreme cold (is there any other kind at 23,000 feet?) caused his mask to freeze and prevented him from taking oxygen. Without it, he could not continue. He was of course unable to tweet this himself because he was near death and his fingers would have frozen immediately had he removed a glove to type. If you're interested in reading more about Bate and his expedition, you can check out his website My Everest Challenge.

This is a great use of Twitter and one of the most novelu use cases that I've seen. Twitter is the perfect vehicle for expeditions like this in which readers actually care about what the writer is doing and where they are. I could care less who Oprah has on her show or who Ashton Kutcher is punking today, but allowing me access to up to the minute progress of a guy climbing Mt. Everest, and I'm sold. As Twitter becomes more and more mainstream, we're going to see more uses in extreme conditions. In fact, just last week we also saw the first tweet from space.

Hey kid, get out of the way!

All of this talk about Glen "Big Baby" Davis owing some kid in Florida an apology for lightly pushing him in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals is ludicrous. After hitting the game winning shot at the buzzer to knot the series 2-2, Davis runs down the sideline in celebration and brushes the kid sitting in the first row. Other than losing his hat, the kid is completely unscathed. If you haven't seen it, take a look at the video below:



Now this kid's dad has his shorts in a wad and is demanding that Davis apologize for acting like "a raging animal". Gee Mr. Provetti, racist overtone much? This attention seeking media whore is giving press interviews and writing to the NBA front office as if Big Baby stopped in front of the kid and delivered a crushing pile driver before continuing with his celebration. The kid should consider himself lucky because at almost 300 pounds, Davis could have steamrolled him had he been a few inches further out on the court. And yes, you read that right. The kid was on the court. I don't care if you're seated in the front row and are technically out of bounds. That is still in the court of play and you better be ready to get the hell out of the way when large men are in your vicinity.

So Mr. Provetti, your 15 minutes are officially over. If you don't want to be up close and personal with "raging animals", sit in the upper deck.