Hunting Is Not A Sport

Alligator hunting is definitely not a sport. I have no problem with someone going out and killing an animal that they will eat (bonus if they use other parts of the animal – e.g. the hide); that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about defending hunting as a sport. I’m definitely looking at you, ESPN. Why does “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” have a hunting section of their website?

I bring this up because the big news out of the hunting world today is that a hunter set a Texas state record this weekend when he bagged a 12-foot 6-inch, 800-pound alligator. And this hunter happens to be five-years old. Red flags tend to go up when a five-year-old is at the top of your “sport”, so let’s examine how this star athlete got his kill: The hunter and his father set a trap the night before the big kill by baiting a dead armadillo (roadkill, naturally) on a massive hook in a shallow pond. The next morning they discovered that they had a catch and used their truck to haul the baited gator out of the water so that the toddler could shoot the gator, and thus get his heroic kill. Keep in mind that none of these procedures were done for the sake of the five-year-old; this is all standard gator hunting technique. The equivalent in actual sport would be allowing me to run over Floyd Mayweather with my truck and call myself the champ. So to all you sport hunters out there, how about you try a real sport. Like cheerleading.

[Image via: YOUneak]

This Blog Is Curated Asshole

As the long-time chief executive curator and managing editor of Radix Man, I found Alex Williams’ article in today’s New York Times highly offensive. Clearly Mr. Williams has no idea how much effort goes into curating a blog about dudes. This blog is not written, it is curated.

[Image via Vermin Inc]

Fansnap: Never Buy Tickets Anywhere Else

We’ve made great strides in how we search for flights. First with Kayak and now, surprisingly, with Bing. Finally someone has applied the same technology to something we really care about: scalping tickets. At FanSnap, you search for tickets (like you would a flight) and they scour the ticket broker sites to find you the best deals. But it’s the screen that follows where all of the magic happens. The results page shows a Google-like map of the stadium with the locations of available tickets. Then it lets you narrow down the results (and the available places on the map) by price, number of tickets, and section. We’ll never shop for tickets anywhere else.

It’s Also The Hardest Part of Being Radix Man

DreamWorks Refuses To Take My Money

Last night I decided to spend a quiet night at home watching “I Love You, Man” (It’s okay; worth your time, but not incredibly memorable. Jon Favreau plays a great bit-role.). Given my new laptop to tv set-up, I thought I would rent an HD movie via iTunes. Knowing that all movies aren’t necessarily available for rent via iTunes, I was even willing to outright purchase the movie. Basically, I was willing to spend anywhere from $3 to $10 to watch the movie. If only DreamWorks would let me.

To my surprise, the movie was nowhere to be found in the iTunes store. At this point, what choice did I have but to head over to Mininova? Via their torrent search, I had a DVD-rip on my computer, for free, in under 20 minutes. I tried to do the right thing, but movie studios are making it hard on me. And doing the illegal thing is so easy. Certainly I can’t be the only person who would gladly pay for movies if given the choice. cnet has a good rundown of the complicated and incredibly archaic reasoning that movie studios are employing to keep me from giving them my money. Certainly there has to be a better way.

[Image via kxlly]

Find No Fee Apartments In NYC

I’ve lived in New York City for several years and recently celebrated the first time I’ve ever lived in the same apartment for longer than one year. I’m an experienced mover, but I hate moving. Like most New Yorkers, one of the worst parts of moving is the virtually inevitable broker’s fee. Sure Craigslist has plenty of apartments listed in the “No Fee” category, but based on my experience, a solid 90% of listings are traps set by brokers (and I’m being conservative). Enter RentHop. Not only is it much easier to use than Craiglist (the map feature is especially nice), but all of their listings are no fee. The downside is that they don’t really have a secret formula for finding no fee apartments. They’ve simply compiled publicly available information on buildings that tend to rent directly to renters. What does this mean for you? It means that most of their rentals are large door-man buildings and they don’t offer much outside of Manhattan. Still, I like the concept and I look forward to seeing how the site evolves and what this start-up has to offer in the future.

[Image via: TheTruthAbout…]

Details Declares That The Print Magazine Is Not Dead Yet

The September 2009 issue weighs in at 268 pages.

Yes He Can: Leonid Chernovetsky Campaigns For Permanent Mayor Of Dudetown

[Image via: Stuck In Customs]

Saturday’s New York Times has a pretty amazing profile of the Leonid Chernovetsky, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital and largest city, Kiev. Apparently he’s planning to run for president of Ukraine during the next election cycle, but should he ever tire of Ukrainian politics, I’m pretty sure he’s got a permanent position locked up as mayor of dudetown.

Sure he’s a lawyer and a wealthy businessman (he owns one of Ukraine’s largest banks) and, or course, he owns his own soccer team (FC Arsenal Kiev), but his similarities to other major political figures pretty much ends there.

Connect Your Mac To Your TV

Consider this something every man should know how to do. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about how to connect your Mac to your tv, but if you get the right instruction, it’s actually pretty easy. The above video is the best we’ve found. The products you need are all available on Amazon for under $30; mini-VGA to VGA display adapter, VGA monitor cable and stereo cable.

[Video via f0deraro]

UPDATE: Actually if you’ve got an Intel Mac and a TV with an HDMI connection (you probably do), then Mini-DVI to DVI and DVI to HDMI offer a better picture. You’ll still need the same sound adapter and the downside here is that you’ve probably already got your cable or satellite hooked up to your TV’s one HDMI input.

To Jailbreak Or Not To Jailbreak

I’ve been a pretty happy iPhone user for the past year or so. I’ve often considered jailbreaking, but have never done it. I had tethering for a while via a hack that AT&T took away. It was great and it gave me just a little taste of what jailbreaking can do for me. The insanely frustrating inability to send/ receive MMS might just push me over the edge. Above is video from vandam500 showing off his 10 favorite Cydia apps. I could see some use for 3G Unrestrictor, but Backgrounder would finally let me listen to music while playing Scrabble. Who needs a warranty anyway?