5:30 p.m.

• So there’s this one bowling alley I drive by to and from work. Oh who am I kidding? It’s the ONLY bowling alley I drive by to and from work. Anyway, they just put a new message up on its marquee: “We have the NFL Network.” Uh, it might have been better to get this station DURING the season. Then again, I’m sure when one isn’t knocking pins down or swilling brews the next best thing is to watch some guy run 40 yards really really fast.

• Looks like HD DVDs are the next Beta. Whatever. I’m not interested in next-gen DVDs yet, although I’m sure these things will be the new standard-bearer (no, I don’t frequent TSM threads of a similar nature).

Toshiba may pull the plug on its HD DVD business, the Japanese electronics maker said Monday, in what would signal the almost certain defeat of its next-generation video format to rival Blu-ray technology.

When DVDs took over VHS tapes as the home-movie medium, the better half’s mom, who is afraid of any kind of change, declared this to be “communism” because she wasn’t getting a choice to keep buying movies for her VCR. Of course, shortly after she discover those things called “special features,” she fell in love with this format. She’s even stopped bitching about those “black bars.” Now that genuinely surprised even me.

• Quit fooling around, scientists. Let's get it started.

A team of University of Virginia researchers is working to increase the drought- and disease-resistance of the black-eyed pea, a staple of the diets of roughly 200 million people in west and central Africa.

Sorry.

For what it's worth, I actually like the "started" version of that song than the "retarded" one.