Random Thoughts 9/22/08

• The worst thing about the show Heroes is that they gave Peter and Sylar almost unlimited powers. Here they run into the same kind of plot problems that Superman has: if you are omnipotent and unstoppable, where's the drama? Every time the show gives more people more super-powers, it bleeds a little more suspense and drama from an already anemic premise. Oh, well…
  
• Everyone agrees: the Chiefs, Lions, and Rams are the three worse-than-the-worst teams in the NFL. The best football team in the state of Missouri is likely the Tigers. Yikes. Should we start looking at draft choices now?
• The men's college basketball 3-point line will be moved out one foot, from 19' 9" to 20' 9" this year. The old line was equal to the high school distance for 3-pointers. The NBA 3-pt line is further out still, ranging in distance from 22' to 23' 9".
• Here's an A-10 that almost runs over a cameraman.
• The second worst thing about the show Heroes: characters that die don't stay dead. The number of cast members that have come back from the dead is reaching soap-opera proportions. If even death isn't a threat to your characters, the drama becomes more and more difficult to sustain.
• Raphael Peralta, the illegal immigrant turned Marine killed while smothering a grenade in Fallujah, will not receive the Medal of Honor. There seems to be some discrepancy about whether or not the event happened as originally reported. If Peralta smothered a grenade to save his comrades, then he should receive the Medal of Honor. If the events were exagerrated in the context of the trauma and emotion of battle, well… we'll all wish it wasn't and mourn our heroes nevertheless.
• The only American company that has ordered the huge double-decker jumbo jet, the European A380, is ILFC. The ILFC leases aircraft to airlines internationally but may get sold because its parent company is AIG. FedEx and UPS had originally ordered 10 freight versions each but have since cancelled those orders. I love airplanes but I think the A380 is all kinds of ugly, especially compared to the 747 family of aircraft.