Jimmy Kimmel's latest threat to Germany to release Justin Bieber's monkey is pretty funny. So is Kid Rock who comes on at the end (and of course Guillermo in the middle blowing up a German chocolate cake.)

Why is the Voice so much better than American Idol? I think it's because the singers are more talented and memorable and the judges are better and much less scripted. They also have good chemistry with each other. New judges Shakira and Usher are more interesting than either Cee Lo Green or Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton is impossible not to like, and Adam Levine is so....earnest. Even Carson Daly is good in his role as hand-holder to the contestants' families backstage as they watch the performance. Or maybe it's just that the casting directors are better. Whatever, it's a the season is off to a great start. The blind auditions continue tonight.

On a more serious note, Reason TV has a video, "Tortured for Testimony: Anarchists Get Solitary Confinement for Not Snitching" about some young political activists/anarchists put in the hole at Seattle's federal detention center for refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena ordering them to testify. Neither had been charged with a crime.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Early afternoon anyway.

Some investment advice - Louisville (-4) over Michigan, 6 units (+26 units for MM.) Soccer bonus - ManU pick over ManCity.

Open Thread.

There is college basketball today. My interest is purely investment related: Louisville (-10) (3 units), Michigan (-2) (5 units.)

31-23 ATS, +24 units for MM.

Open Thread.

I'll be offline for several hours. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: Forgot to mention, for those disappointed Richie Sambora won't be playing the upcoming leg of the tour with Bon Jovi, Phil X is filling in. He subbed for Richie in 2011 for a few months and is great. Here's a video. Bon Jovi's brother Matthew tweets the TMZ story about a feud is way off. No one has yet explained the "personal issues" involved, other than Sambora is clearly not in rehab. In Calgary, Bon Jovi told the audience he didn't know Richie wouldn't be coming until he got a phone call at 3:30 pm that day. He'll be missed, but it's still well worth keeping your tickets and seeing the show.

Again, this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'll be busy at work the rest of the day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I hope everyone is enjoying Easter Sunday.

You Tube is already in the spirit of April Fools. It has posted a video announcing that at midnight, it will go dark. It will be stop taking uploads for a decade -- the length of time it will take to decide which of the videos uploaded during the past 8 years is the best,

We've been thrilled with all of the diverse, creative entries we've seen so far, and we can't wait to begin the process of selecting the best video. We'll be announcing the winner in 10 years.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The investments:

Louisville -3½ over Duke (4 units), Michigan +2½ over Florida.

Go Gators!

Yesterday, 0-2 ATS, -7 units (29-23, +18 units for MM.)

Happy Easter!

Open Thread.

The investments:

Ohio State -4½ over Wichita State (5 units), Marquette +4 over Syracuse.

Yesterday 2-2 ATS, + 0 units (31-23 ATS, +23 units for MM.)

Open Thread.

The investments today:

Michigan +2 over Kansas, Michigan State +2 over Duke, Louisville -10 over Oregon, and Koch Bros U, aka FGCU +13 over Florida.

Yesterday 4-0 ATS, + 8 units (29-21 ATS, +23 units for MM.)

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

The investments today:

Syracuse +6 over Indiana, Arizona +4½ over Ohio State, Marquette +6 over Miami Florida, Wichita State -4 over La Salle.

Currently 25-21 ATS, +15 units, for March Madness.

Open Thread.

TalkLeft's webmaster and I have spent the entire day working on having the premium content option for our content available on this site, rather than on the new premium site. We are almost done.

We are now working with Media Pass instead of Tiny Pass, which was able to accomplish this. We had an hour and half conference call on joinme, which is pretty cool since we could each show stuff on our computers. Media Pass has incredible customer service.

So, it looks like I spent a week and half designing a site that won't be used at TalkLeft. I'd much rather have spent that time writing blogposts. But, pretty as it is, it is better to keep all TalkLeft's content in one place.

I'll be back to regular blogging soon, this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's close to sundown here, which marks the beginning of Passover. Best wishes to all observing.

I just got back from the grocery store and was really surprised -- there was an entire aisle of Matzoh, from the U.S. and Israel, and all the regular Matzoh was sold out. Only options: Sodium free, gluten-free, etc. Also gone: white horseradish -- they had hundreds of bottles of the red horseradish. They also had an entire case of Kosher meats, but they were from Iowa, and ever since the labor violations of Agriprocessors came to light, I'm not buying meat from Iowa.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.