Over the next little while, we will see plenty of stories about Amy Winehouse and how tragic her death is. Truly, any time someone is lost so early in life, it is a tragedy. But just like the train coming into the station, this whole event was predictable, on schedule, and pretty much expected by everyone in the room.

The real tragedy of the situation isn’t the death of Amy Winehouse, which has been pretty much a foregone conclusion for ages now, but rather the tragedy is in the system that lets it happen. As a British citizen, I am entirely shamed by the way the courts and legal system in the UK works these days, especially when it relates to the users of hard drugs and the havoc they reek on themselves and the world around them. For me, there is much to be learn by Amy’s death, and much that could have been done to prevent it.

First and foremost, there are the enablers. Two key players in that game were Amy’s ex-husband Blake Civil-Fielder, by many reports the man who introduced Amy to the terror that is is heroin additiction. For a girl who was admittedly depressive, moody, and even prone to self-harm, it was a powerful choice. It was at this period that Amy went from the curvy, well fed, well rounded and powerful singer, slowly contracting into a drug addicted shell of a woman, losing weight, losing her way, and eventually into endless trouble. She married Civil-Fielder, a marriage she later admitted was pretty much entirely based around drug use. She along the way started dating notorious drug fiend Pete Dorherty, who seemed to fuel her drug habit even stronger, and encouraged her in very destructive ways. Between these two people, you have a significant negative influence, both of which should not have been present if the legal system truly worked out.

That for me is key. Both Doherty (known in the British tabloids as Doperty, his drug fueled stupidity so blatant that nobody tried to hide it) and Civil-Fielder proudly told tabloids that he had introduced Amy to crack and heroin. Both of these fine citizens had been before the courts, and until Civil Fielder was locked up for assault in 2008, had never really had any negative implications for his drug use and the like. Doherty has been in front of the courts any number of times, and always gets off. When the legal system, from Police to the courts and to the prisons are unable to deal with these people in a meaningful way, they will be out there in public, encouraging others to join in their destructive ways.

What happened to Amy Winehouse is a tragedy mostly because it reflects how far an entire generation of the UK has slipped, where drug use, binge drinking, and other reckless behavior is not only tolerated, but seemingly encouraged. The tragedy is that nobody in the system wants to deal with the issues, nobody wants to take responsiblity, and nobody wants to make the changes that says “this just isn’t tolerable”. Until that happens, there will be plenty of unknown Amy type girls dying every year from the same horrible combinations of social pressure, addictions, and a wildly permissive society. That is truly tragic.

It’s been sort of funny watching from afar the media coverage of the Caylee Anthony case, the poor child who died too young with a mother who just didn’t seem to know what happened. Casey Anthony was tried and found innocent, a shocking verdict to most people, and probably most shocking to CNN / HLN anchor Nancy Grace.

I can debate Nancy Grace’s position, I can debate her feelings, I can debate her opinion. But that would be meaningless, it’s been done before. Rather, I would rather look at how this particular case, and the particular media frenzy around it have shown that we have reached a point where the media themselves have become more important than the message.

Nancy Grace is just a different flavor of self-important media star, in the same group as Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, and the sainted Rush Limbaugh. They all believe that they are bigger than the stories they cover. They seems to think that they, as the stars, are more important than the news they cover, the stories that they examine, and the opinions of others. There is a huge problem here that we no longer get news from people we trust, we get it from stars. Heck, for the most part we don’t even get news, each and every one of the 5 I have listed are editorialists, opinion piece writers, and self-justifying media whores.

Does anyone remember when HLN was Headline News, and you could actually get news on the channel? I don’t even both to tune in anymore, because what news they do bring is always “with so and so”, indicating to me that the person reading the news is somehow way more important than the news itself. It’s like TV news has turned into a 24 hour per day op-ed page, with the rest of the newspaper thrown away. We no longer get unbiased coverage, we get opinion and slant. Fox News is typically cited as the worst, but MSNBC is quickly pulling up into a solid second place with a programming schedule that is almost all about opinion, and not about news.

I found it funny to find out that this week, local CTV reporter Kai Nagata quit his job with the network, for a whole bunch of reasons. You can read his blog here, safe to say that what he sees in media working in it is pretty similar to what I can see from the outside – it’s all about ratings and low hanging fruit, and no longer about actually providing information to the masses.

RIP Headline News, I truly miss a friend that would tell me what was what 24 hours per day.

I can remember when Hotbot and Lycos were considered the big search players, and I can remember when an AOL hosted website was still considered somewhat cool, as was having a geocities page. I remember when ICQ was that new hot idea that nobody had every seen before, and I can remember what Yahoo was a place you absolutely wanted your sites listed. The truth is that change is always in the cards, it never goes away. Rather, change is the constant that makes the internet what it is.

Facebook has certainly been one of the fast rising stars. While My Space may have been there near the start of the social media revolution, it is Facebook that has truly defined it, as hundreds of millions of people have signed up for accounts, spewing their pictures, their mindless comments, they inner thoughts, and sometimes the stupidest stuff you will ever see. It was a place where university students could meet and plan their lives, and it became a place where older people met back up after years apart, tracking down old school friends, girlfriends, and perhaps making amends with the enemies of our distant pasts.

It was great. Keyword is was, at least for me.

I met back up online with all the people I wanted to meet back up with, and found in many cases there were reasons why we were apart. I found an old girlfriend with 4 kids and knocked up with number five from baby daddy number 3. I saw my high school reunion and discovered there was nobody there I wanted to reunite with. I have some good friends online, and I have chatted with them often and even developed some good friendships. But alas, even those have waned as each of us keep at our busy lives, understanding that we are in this position of not being friends before because we just don’t have the time or desire to maintain the relationship.

Once it is all done, and everyone has said hi, and everyone has caught up, there isn’t much left to talk about. There isn’t much going on. So I, like millions of other people, have gone forward to close out and delete my account from Facebook. Simply put, I am all socialed out. My thoughts are that Facebook is already heading for it’s slow downward spiral, with more and more companies going on Facebook and more and more normal people heading for the exits, turning into perhaps another My Space or whatever you may have. It was cool once, but then again, so were mullets. Thankfully, we have all grown past that point, and we no longer have to go back there.

For those friends I leave behind on Facebook, don’t worry, it isn’t because of you. Well, it is – because Facebook is a wonderful tool that has let me relive my schooldays, and I enjoyed doing it. But I can’t ride that ride every day, and it’s time for me to move along. Perhaps in another 20 years we can all jump into our star trek teleporters and enjoy a coffee in Rome and look back and laugh at Facebook. But for now, don’t laugh too loud, because many people haven’t yet gotten the joke.

As a long time racing fan, you sort of get use to the ebb and flow of racing series. They have good years, and they have bad years. The people running various racing series either make really great decisions, and advance their sport, or they make incredibly stupid decisions that leave their sport in tatters. Just ask the brains that split CART into the IRL and Champ Car, or the brains that ran Trans Am into the ground.

NASCAR faces a significant cross roads. They find themselves on the back side of their meteoric rise from little southern sport to national (and even worldwide) events. They went from running on local TV channels, TBS, and as short clips on ABC’s Wide World of Sports into a property that has 3 major networks tripping over each other to toss money at the door. But the last few years have been painful for NASCAR, with attendance down, sponsorships drying up, field quality suffering, and all that against hugely increased costs to actually run in the series.

2010 was a year where the squeezing turned into pinching, and the pinching turned into pain. Tracks that have historically sold out every race (places like Bristol) now have huge sections of grandstands covered over. California didn’t attract enough unique fans over their two events in 2010, to the point that they will have only one event in 2011, and it will be a shorter race. The 2010 Rookie of the Year didn’t even run all the races, and when he did, and he did only because of a nonsensical top 35 rule that allowed his car owner to cash the checks and let him run around sometimes 10 MPH slower per lap than the rest of the field. Not surprisingly, Raybestos, one of the real long term players in NASCAR, cancelled their commitment to the ROTY program. In 2011, there are apparently no rookies lined up to drive the full season.

The grim news for NASCAR continued on the viewership side of things too, with races often down 10 – 20% in viewership, some even more. Changes to rules, restarts, going from wings back to spoilers, and pretty much every other trick NASCAR could think of didn’t change the trend. Having the same Champion 5 years in a row can be painful for any sport, and having one as incredibly dull and lifeless and Jimmie Johnson doesn’t help. Outside of the NASCAR races, there isn’t anyone in the media lining up to interview this guy, to include him in anything. He has the media profile of an also-ran, while at the same time dominating the series through a rich owner and a crew chief who isn’t scared to push the rules. JJ in the 48 has turned into the sleeping aid so many people need to get a good afternoon nap on a Sunday.

So 2011 comes around, and it’s starting to look like do or die for NASCAR. The last TV deal was signed in 2005, which covered 2007-2014. Basically, the deal was signed at the very top of NASCAR’s game. Now with attendance down, viewership down, and fan interest sinking, NASCAR needs a great 2011 in order to be able to renegotiate in 2012 to continue the TV deals. That deal is 600 or so million per year (4.8 billion for 8 years). If NASCAR isn’t improving in the ratings, continues to show a decline, and continues to show a loss of fan interest, it is likely they will end up on the downside of the marketplace during the next negotiations. That could lead NASCAR back to being a cable only series, as network may be less interested to carry programming.

The costs to the networks are significant. Fox / SPEED have pretty much had to turn their cable channel into a full time NASCAR channel to try to recoup their expenses, and now you see superbowl length pre-game shows for every race event, something I personally think leads to even more fan fatigue. Every practice, every qualifying, every everything is covered, almost all live. Every attempt is made to squeeze every penny out of this, because right now, the networks are probably hurting running NASCAR. If the Networks come back and say “Starting 2015, we will only give you 300 million per year”, NASCAR could find itself no longer to live in the Champagne style they have grown accustom to. It’s only a matter of time before someone has to pay the piper.

NASCAR is trying, at least a bit. Apparently drivers will have to commit to a single series for championship points for the season, hopefully killing the old “busch whacker” mentality that has lead almost all of the champions in the last decade for what is currently the Nationwide series being cup regulars. It doesn’t help that they have won more than half of the Nationwide races in that time frame, and an even higher percentage in the last couple of years (only 1 or 2 races in 2010). The noses of the cup cars have been “improved” again this year, getting rid of the support braces. There is even rumors that fuel injection might replace the ancient carbs that still run on these cars. Some race distances have been cut, and races moved to other tracks. Most fans on chat boards seem to be less than impressed. 2011 will tell the tale, by this time next year, NASCAR could have had it’s palace coup.

This week Wikileaks is once again filling the internet with previously secret, classified, or private documents, mostly having to do with US foreign policy and relations with other countries. This is sort of “classic Wikileaks”, as it gets to the heart of what they are trying to do: Expose everything all the time. While many people laud this as a noble goal, and some suggest this is some sort of great advancement for mankind, I am a little more cautious. For me, Wikileaks crosses a line from useful to dangerous, from informative to destructive.

The internet in general has sort of followed the path of “because we can do it”. Sometimes it is incredibly powerful, from things like Twitter and Youtube, and sometimes it is incredibly dangerous, like how the connectivity of the internet allows previously isolated pedophiles to meet people with similar interests and kinks. We have group to help people with obscure diseases, and on the other hand we have terrorists using the internet as their recruiting platform. The power of communication and the anonymous nature of the internet has pretty much created an open playing field where almost anything seems to exist.

The most aggressive of the “anything goes” movements play a game of hide and seek, locating their servers in various places around the world that are less likely to get them shut down. Some countries have legal systems that either do not function well, or that always fall on the side of those who choose to hide there. The problem is that their internet connection doesn’t stop at the border, which means that the rest of the world is dragged to whatever the lowest level is. Many of the piracy sites play this game, locating servers in places like Russian, Sweden, China, and the Middle East looking for jurisdictions that just don’t appear to have the time or desire to deal with the issues at hand.

It should come as no surprise that Wikileaks finds itself in the same data center that one the largest (and most notorious) pirating site around is hosted at. The Pirate Bay has spent years thumbing it’s nose at IP owners, publicly insulting them and generally holding the entire copyright system in disdain. The owners (although they claim not to be the owners, a brilliantly simplistic legal defense) are now getting tied in legal knots themselves, on the hook for millions of dollars. But this has taken years, and still the site is online.

Wikileaks shares more than a datacenter with The Pirate Bay, it shares an attitude. That attitude is that if you can do it, then you should do it. No consideration for the consequences, not consideration for anyone else, just do it. The posting of confidential, secret, and restricted government documents, especially when it is related to the security of the world is a very, very risky thing to do, tweaking the noses of pretty much the whole world.

Our world works on trust and cooperation. Sometimes countries are forced to deal with people they don’t particularly like or trust, in order to achieve a goal, to maintain a peace, to resolve a political issue, or even to help their own citizens in trouble around the world. The powerful nations of the world often want to obtain concessions or support from various countries and leaders, and have to pretty much horse trade to get it done. In order to build some trust and to get some cooperation, everyone has to give a little in order to get a little.

The documents in question this time around are from the US, and many of the reflect the personal thoughts of officials at various levels when it comes to dealing with various leaders and situations. I don’t think any one of us can say that we haven’t left a business meeting, or maybe from a major financial deal like buying a house or a car, and not said something about someone who was at the meeting. We deal with many people that we don’t like so much, understanding that in order to get what we want (the business, the house, the car… whatever), we sometimes have to work with people we don’t like very much. Much of it comes down to a sort respect for each other, where we realize that the other people probably don’t like us all that much either, but we respect each other and get the deal done.

Most of the western world runs on a legal system that is as much about respect as anything else. We don’t have a policeman on every corner, we don’t have the military in the streets. We manage to tolerate and respect each other enough not to have our system break down. Where there is a lack of respect and a lack of tolerance is where we see issues. In some places, you may have insurgents or terrorists, while most of us are more familiar with street gangs, organized crime, and so on. They all trace back to groups of people being either unwilling to follow the general laws that others follow, or are willfully violating those laws for profit or power.

In more practical terms, consider the idea of driving a car. In most place, we agree to what side of the road we should drive on, we have rules of the road like stop signs, traffic lights, and yes, speed limits. Yet, the cars we drive for the most part are easily capable of breaking all of these rules, we can ignore stop signs, we can run through red lights, and we can easily exceed the speed limits as posted. The good functioning of the roads and the safety of those one them however depend on us understanding that while we can do it, we really shouldn’t do it. Sure, most of us speed, some of us might roll a stop sign, and a few of us might ignore a light, but in the end we all generally work within the laws and the grey areas around them. We could break all the rules, we could tweak noses and drive twice the limit (and some do), but in the end, it is counter productive.

Wikileaks (and The Pirate Bay) are willfully ignoring the rules of the road, ignoring the risks to others on the road to meet their end goal. Just as someone driving very quickly may do it for a thrill, or may do it because they are late for something, the Wikileaks people are willfully ignoring the what we all generally agree to in order to meet their own selfish ends. Maybe they are just looking for a thrill, or maybe they have a political agenda, whatever it is, they are attempting to get there without considering for others.

Just because they can put the information on the internet doesn’t make it right. The Wikileaks people know this, as they hide their serves is tolerant countries, attempt to mirror their servers to avoid getting shut down, and generally just don’t have the guts to come out and do what they do in public. In the same manner that we don’t speed in front of the police, they just don’t have the guts to open a server in the countries they seek to infuriate, and refuse to accept the responsiblity for their actions. This isn’t a powerful act for freedom, it’s a cowardly form of information terrorism, spewed from the virtual versions of a smelly cave.

In the end, it isn’t right. Most of us know it, but fewer seem a ease with that knowledge.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have not been a huge fan of the direction NASCAR has taken in the last few years. A number of moves by NASCAR management (such as creating the chase to the championship), changes to the cars, and an incredibly poor selection of tracks has really dragged the series down. This year, NASCAR attendance and viewership is down in the range of 20% or so, with many tracks hiding grandstands under plastic covers, offering 2 for 1 deals, or otherwise doing whatever they can to put people in the stands.

One of the fixtures of the dull and floundering NASCAR has been Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsport. Johnson is the sort of guy who’s personality just doesn’t shine through, no matter how hard NASCAR and their media partners try to push him. He is the white toast, no butter of racing, a guy without a single memorable quote to his name, with little outward emotions for about 99% of the time. He is sort of like a talented driving robot, not really someone you would want to get to know.

So the finish to the 2010 season should come as no surprise to anyone, as the 48 team once again rolls to a championship, with a second place finish in the race. With that 5th championship in a row, Johnson sets a record and really comes up to be one of the greatest champions in NASCAR history. Sadly, that championship pretty much sums up what ails NASCAR (or as I call it these days, NAPCAR). Here’s what I see:

First and foremost, NASCAR evolves very slowly. Unlike the NFL, MLB, and the NBA, it takes many, many years for things to change on the track and in the series. A reasonable durable driver can make a 25 year career out of NASCAR. Jeff Gordon will be entering his 19th year, Johnson is in his 10th year, and team mate Mark Martin will complete his 30th season next year. What it means is that the players on the field often don’t change much from year to year, and each season becomes a repeat of the previous year. In the last few years, there have been typically been only a handful of changes. The changes are often so minor that sites like Jayski celebrate paint job changes as major events.

In football, players move from team to team, some teams go up, some go down, and so on. Last season, the New Orleans Saints won the superbowl, yet it is very doubtful that you will see any of the lower end NASCAR teams ever reaching for the stars. Those guys who finished around 35th this year (Robby Gordon’s team) will likely be around the same place next year.

NASCAR is also incredibly slow with technology. The cars still run pushrod V8 engines, with carbs, a distributor, 4 speed transmissions, and use truck arm style suspensions in the rear. New model cars? NASCAR is suggesting 2013 or so. Fuel injection? Maybe next year… but then again, maybe 2012 or 2013. 17 inch wheels, lower profile tires, and independant suspensions? Get comfortable, none of that even has a date with possible in the next 5 years.

The chase? Well, it’s despised by many, yet NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France arrogantly suggests that everyone loves the chase, that nobody is complaining. Apparently he doesn’t spend any time listening to fans, reading chat boards, or actually paying attention to the media. The chase is one of many things that fans routinely complain about, and yes, the results of this season’s championship are more proof. Without the chase, Kevin Harvick would have sewn up the championship without issue. Instead, he lands 3rd – meaning the best team didn’t win the championship, just the little playoffs. Brian France doesn’t seem to get that people realize they have been manipulated here.

The tracks are another issue. So many of the tracks are either 1.5 – 2 mile cookie cutter tracks, or are tracks with personality that have been modified and neutered in the last 5 or 6 years in the name of “better racing”. Bristol, which was one of the tracks which sold out 40+ races in a row modified their track with progressive banking to make the racing better, and instead turned the race into a snooze that is chasing the fans away.

Jimmie Johnson’s 5th championship sets a record, and hammers another nail into the NASCAR coffin. It is very unlikely that any changes for the 2011 season will come over the short winter period, and it is very unlikely that NASCAR will offer up anything new and exciting that the lost fans will want to come back for. The same drivers, in the same look alike cars, at the same look alike tracks, repeating the same season they have repeated for the last 5 years, with the same predictable results. Congrats Brian, you have just about killed your family legacy!

PS: A little post script to this story. About 2 hours after the end of the NASCAR season and the championship, I was unable to find NASCAR, Jimmie Johnson, or anything of that nature on Google trends for the US. However, the UFC night from the night before was up there, as was the Philadelphia Marathon Results. It is telling that NASCAR doesn’t even rise up to the level of interesting of the death of Bambi Bembenek (convicted killer from the 90s who died recently).

Larry King has been sinking into irrelevancy for many years now, and he finally agreed to retire from CNN earlier this year. But like a bad smell that just won’t go away, Larry King is lingering on the airwaves until the end of the year, when Piers Morgan will take over, and take the 9PM hour in a new direction, thankfully.

This week, Larry stooped about as low as you can go to get attention to his show, a desperate move from a seemingly desperate host trying to get one more shot of that old adrenaline of being relevant. He interviewed Mel Gibson’s baby momma Oksana Grigorieva. He didn’t just interview her, he gave her an open mike and guided her to make some fairly incredibly statements and to make public accusations as to what Mel Gibson may or may not have done.

All this, of course, in violation of a judge’s order not to discuss the case in public. Larry King and his people knew this, and they did the interview anyway.

The result? Mel Gibson will go to court personally on Monday to claim custody of his 1 year old daughter with Grigorieva, claiming that she isn’t responsible, and isn’t willing to follow a judges orders, be respectful, and do what is best for her daughter. He has a point, and is likely to score well with the judge.

Larry King? Well, his try for one more starring role instead may tip the balance, hurting his guest’s legal challenges, and potentially costing her custody of her daughter.

Go away Larry. Stop hurting people, stop hurting CNN… just quit now and avoid any more embarrassment.

When I heard that TLC was picking up Sarah Palin’s new reality show, I couldn’t help but think the timing was perfect. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, considering commentaries like this one on CNN that shows more than a few people picked up the vibe.

When it comes to playing in the grey areas of politics, Sarah Palin is a pro. The whole Tea Party movement (which appeared to fall flat on it’s face in many areas during the midterm elections) was her baby, but she very carefully made sure she wasn’t running it. Sure, she will turn up and give a speech, but she won’t run anything. She stays away. The TV show? In her own words, “Now there you go again”, Palin takes advantage of wide media coverage without having to commit to anything.

It isn’t surprising coming out of TLC, who’s roster of programs on the channel often reads like a conservative Christian manual, cheering on oversized families, putting people of Christian beliefs front and center on their network. TV shows such as the insane 19 Kids and Counting seems to celebrate old Monty Python “every sperm is sacred” song. What is truly stunning is that the people running TLC either didn’t consider for a second that Palin is very likely using her show to springboard a campaign, or is at least using it to create a more favorable profile to the public, a very controlled image where they can edit out the bloopers, eliminate the ugly phrases, and show Sarah as the tough mom, hardened outdoors person, and just swell gal you want to spend your time with.

Shame on TLC for getting caught on this one. Shame on Sarah Palin too, for being one of the most incredible self-promoting political shills.

I was really surprised to see this article at That’s Racin that quotes ESPN officials as wondering where the ratings have gone for NASCAR. Based on the overnights from the last race in California and all of the other races in the chase, NASCAR has lost 20% or more of it’s audience, and it’s a pretty consistant 2.3/5 rating (with 3.x million households). This is down from over 5 million at the same time last year. The ESPN guys are wondering about start times and such, but I think they miss the boat on this one.

Quite simply, the NASCAR product right now isn’t all that good, a situation that is even more clear when people have many other choices on a Sunday afternoon, courtesy of the NFL. So yes, actually, starting time is a problem, but not the problem. It is just a side note in the whole process.

For me, NASCAR has lost the plot entirely, with look alike cookie cutter cars, look alike cookie cutter tracks, and worst of all, sound alike cookie cutter drivers. There are only a few characters in the series now, and they are being systematically beaten down by the NASCAR corporate shilling system to the point they are neutered. Worse yet, the fans are realizing that they are very likely to get a 5th championship in a row from Jimmie Johnson, possibly the least charismatic driver ever to don a firesuit.

NASCAR and ESPN are trying their damnedest to turn Johnson into a likable sort of a guy, with a major interview / segment on the pre-race show, showing him doing good public deeds and all that, but in the end, he isn’t a very exciting person to deal with, and isn’t much of a public face for NASCAR. His team’s strategies (and his driving style) are about as neutral as it comes, just trying to stay in the lead lap, stay near the front, using the systems in place to negate bad things (such as going a lap down, he almost always gets that lap back through a caution and lucky dog thing). He rarely wins with flash or style, mostly with just a dull, consistent pressure and a drudging march to the front that, while effective, isn’t exactly the makings of pure NASCAR excitement.

It doubles up because Johnson and his team are so good on the “aero” tracks. Hendrick Motorsports cars are at the front of the pack on these tracks consistently, to the point of humor. Eventual winner Tony Stewart drives cars built by Hendrick for his team. At one point, all of the lead cars were Hendrick cars. The aero tracks, usually the 1.5 mile cookie cutters and the 2 mile Michigan / California tracks generate fairly dull events, and with a dull champion dominating those dull tracks, well, it isn’t surprising to see people tuning out.

Let’s not forget the fiendishly stupid “chase to the championship”, a system where 75% of the cars on the track are racing for pride only, and with the ways many of their budgets are going, they are actually racing just to avoid falling out of the top 35 and actually having to qualify in the future. it has created a situation where most of the drivers have nothing wagered, and nothing to gain. Unless they have a truly spectacular car and have a chance at a great finish, they just ride along and pass the time. ESPN doesn’t even cover these drivers anymore unless they are causing a caution period. It is almost like they have to be on fire to get their names mentioned. If your favorite driver is in the 75% that didn’t make the chase, well, enjoy the football game.

So a word of advice for ESPN: Start times aren’t going to make a huge different. California started 2 hours later, and the ratings are about the same. The problem is in the product. NASCAR could do itself some favors by running the races on Saturday night, but at this time of the year, it might not be warm enough in some places to get away with it. Don’t look for miracles in the start times, the answer is in the product, and the leaders of NASCAR don’t seem to understand what it takes to stop being NAPCAR.

Well, it seems that the programming people over at Spike TV woke up and realized that doubling the amount of ads is just not a very good idea. After experimenting with a new format that turned an hour long show into something like an hour and 15 to an hour and 25 minutes (without adding any programming, just commercials), they appear to have tucked tail and given up, as the schedule appears to be back to normal.

Following up on our story of Spike TV extra ads, other stories started to appear, like this one in the LA Times, that shows we aren’t the only ones seeing this stupid trend. Advertising Age ran this story that showed that not only were consumers getting upset, but advertisers as well, as super long breaks mean that up to 20 advertisers are crammed on top of each other in the breaks, which they suggests were long enough to “take a brisk walk around the block” or “brown a chicken”. It is suggested that part of the problem is that Spike overpaid for programming, specifically $600,000 an episode for Entourage, the raunchy HBO hit that has to be severely edited to make it onto basic cable.

It appears that the MTV networks people that run Spike woke up and realized that they were making nobody happy, that they were not helping their bottom line, and so on. Rather than taking their programming mistakes out on consumers, perhaps they should look at themselves and work it out internally. You have to wonder how much this blunder has cost Spike in viewership.