What’s orange and yellow, battery powered, and can deliver three foam darts per second?

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25. Behold the very last word in recreational armament:

This little gem features a single-shot capability for pinpoint annoyance. And when you absolutely, positively need to irritate a room full of people, you can go full-auto and watch the 25 round ammo belt rattle away. And, if you get the value pack, they throw in an extra ammo belt, 25 additional darts and a shoulder strap. So you can free your inner Rambo without any of the messy moral implications.

Nerf has long led the world in foam-based weaponry. Now, they’ve stepped up their game. And for only $40, this could just be the finest dart gun ever made.

I like football. And while the CFL isn’t bad, it lacks the glamour and glitz of its big cousin to the south. So I was excited when I heard the Buffalo Bills would be playing a few exhbition and regular season games in Toronto.

Until I saw the price tag. Tickets are averaging $200 a pop, which is insane. I’d love to see some live NFL football, but I also have to eat and pay rent.

The Globe and Mail breaks this gouging down pretty succinctly:

Rogers paid $78-million for eight Bills home dates (five regular-season and three exhibition games) over a five-year period, requiring them to set an average ticket price above $200 (including VIP seats that include some amenities). By comparison, the NFL’s New England Patriots had the league’s highest average ticket price last season at $91.

The positive side of that price point means that the Toronto games — sold out or not — will reap considerably more revenue than if the games were being held in Buffalo, which has the NFL’s lowest average ticket price at just $51.

So, to review: we are being asked to pay a 400 per cent markup just so a low-budget football franchise can shore up its bottom line. It’s not about fans. It’s about dollars.

All of this would be less galling if we weren’t being asked to shell out for the Buffalo Freakin’ Bills. They have the lowest ticket prices for a reason: they suuuuck. And it’s pre-season Buffalo Bills, before they’ve even sorted which players suck less than the others. Lame!

So, keep your over-priced tickets, Rogers. I’m going to an Argos game.

Growing up as a radical mountain-biking dude (read: an awkward teen who desperately wanted to be a radical, mountian-biking dude), I always though road biking was just a bunch of weird guys with shaved legs, wearing bright colours and grimacing with exertion.

And yes, road biking is all of those things. But when it comes to professional road racing, it is also really, really exciting. Especially this Tour de France business. The last minute sprints to the finish, the grueling climbs, the epic crashes, the profusion of brightly coloured jerseys (polka dots, even!) all denoting various accomplishments…these are all fun. But really makes Le Tour is the narrative of the whole thing. The race is 23 days long and involves some pretty interesting characters, so stories are lurking everywhere. The end result is surprisingly compelling.

Unfortunately, there are only four days left in the tour. But you can still the exciting conclusion. The official website has heaps of coverage, while Bicycling Magazine does a nice round-up. If moving pictures are more your thing, OLN has complete coverage at 8:30-11:30AM and again at 8:00-11:00PM. I recommend the morning coverage- it has better announcers.

So, check it out. Fast-paced, story-filled, shaved-legged action.