I know this has absolutely nothing to do with technology or video games or alternative fuels, but there’s no way I’m letting one of the most memorable moments in college sports go unmentioned.

Last night, before the UT vs. Florida men’s basketball game, Lady Vols’ Head Coach, Pat Summitt, came out on the floor dressed as a cheerleader. One of the most respected and feared coaches in all of collegiate sports went out on the court dressed in miniskirt and feathery hat, and sang Rocky Top to a completely packed house at Thompson Boling Arena. She even crowned the top of the cheerleaders’ pyramid at the end.

She did all this in response to men’s Head Coach, Bruce Pearl, who stripped off his shirt and painted his chest orange and white when the ladies played #1 Duke. The two coaches have shown enormous and heartfelt support for each other these last two seasons, and everyone here has benefited from it. Fans, staff, players…everyone.

The men went on to whip Florida solidly, finishing 86-76. The ten point gap belies the margin of victory we carried most of the game, though, as we were ahead by double that at times.

I just want to say that it doesn’t matter who you are - if you’re a fan of college sports, then you’ve got to love this kind of thing. I know I do.

Watch the video, and then it’s back to your regularly scheduled Ectotechnica.

The subject of this commercial came up last night during the Oscars, so I thought I’d post it for you all.

I don’t know much about the ad itself, other than that it was produced in 2005 and directed by international man of mystery, Spike Jonze.

Some of you will laugh. Some will cry. Most will wonder why I bothered putting this on my blog. But that is because you crazy.

The popular news aggregate/social networking site Digg.com reinvented internet interconnectedness when it launched in December of 2004. Since then, the site has spawned numerous like-minded services and has heavily influenced the way news and entertainment migrate across the web.

If you’re unfamiliar with Digg, here’s a quick explanation of how it works:

• 1) Users submit stories they think are interesting to the Digg database
• 2) Other users look at those stories and rate them by choosing to digg or bury the articles
• 3) Based on the number of positive diggs a story receives, submitted articles move up to the top of Digg’s category lists and front page

This system of social sharing and rating gives an almost hive-mind quality to the presentation of news. That which the collective deems most important or interesting survives; the rest is obsolete.

It’s a simple premise, and kudos to (former TechTV host) Kevin Rose for thinking up this billion-dollar idea. But his idea has seen many duplicates rise over the last two years, and nothing survives on the internet’s cutting edge for very long. So in an effort to keep the site evolving, Digg Labs was born.

As part of a collaboration with developer Stamen Design, Digg Labs is presenting the collective hive-mind in new, visually-engaging ways. Each of the services has the same goal: to provide clear visual access to the popularity of submitted stories. But each goes about it in a differenty way.

Click the images below to see Digg stories stacked, swarmed and bigspy-ed. It might take a few minutes to understand exactly what you’re looking at and how to interact with it - but that’s part of the experience.

Get ready to watch the news in a whole different way.

In case you weren’t paying attention (and you probably weren’t), XM and Sirius executives have spent the last couple years consistently denying rumors that the two satellite radio services are secretly in love. According to a Gizmodo article from June of 2006:

[Sirius Radio Chief Executive, Mel] Karmazin continues to say that Sirius is definitely not up for sale and that a merger probably wouldn’t work out. He was quoted saying that the current Sirius business plan does not include making any kind of deals and he also said that he would be gone if any kind of merger happened.

Typical posturing. These celebrity couples always deny their romances even when everybody knows what they’re up to - even after the paparazzi has caught them making out at Hyde and holding hands on their vacation together in Cabo.

Then, on January 11th of this year, the two services announced that they would, in fact, hook up, promising a celebrity couple the likes of which we haven’t seen since Britney and K-Fed. They made the announcement at the North American Auto Show, much to the disbelief of nearly everyone “in the know.”

Not surprisingly, the grouchy old FCC responded within the week, saying that the love affair wasn’t happening - as it would violate federal antitrust laws. It would also violate specific FCC rules that were put in place when the two services first started. FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, said on January 17th in no uncertain terms:

FCC regulations created when the satellite radio service was conceived more than a decade ago clearly state that “two satellite radio operators [must] remain in place,”

An article in MediaWeek added:

…he noted that there is “a prohibition on one entity owning both of those licenses” and he reminded reporters of how the commission rejected the proposal merger between the two satellite television companies to merge in the summer of 2004. In fact, that proposal was rejected by a pro-consolidation oriented panel of commissioners in less than 60 days, a world speed record in Washington regulatory terms.

Even Gizmodo gave up hope for the merger, saying:

After much speculation, it appears that the prophesized (sic) — and hoped for — union of XM and Sirius simply isn’t meant to be. At least, that’s what FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says, posturing that such a merger wouldn’t win approval under the FCC’s current rulebook, given that the regulations that brought both of them into business also forbid them from being owned by a single entity.

But today, flying in the face of every piece of news reporting, posturing and federal regulating, XM and Sirius threw caution to the wind and announced their engagement. They haven’t set a date yet, but both said they’d really love to have a fall wedding.

According to the official press release:

SIRIUS and XM to Combine in $13 Billion Merger of Equals - Provides Consumers with Enhanced Content, Greater Choices and Accelerated Technological Innovation - Enables Satellite Radio to Better Compete in Rapidly Evolving Audio Entertainment Industry - Extraordinary Value Creation for Shareholders - Mel Karmazin to Serve as Chief Executive Officer and Gary Parsons to Serve as Chairman of Combined Company

If you’re not a fan of poorly-constructed press release headlines, you can also get the joyous news from his side or her side.

And don’t worry about that nagging old FCC. Father of the groom-to-be, Karmazin says,

“We would not be announcing this if we did not think that we’d have approval.”

So there it is. It’s love. And you can’t fight love.

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this thing. I have subscribed to both services: XM for about two years, and Sirius since Christmas. Both have great offerings, and in a lot of ways, they are very similar.

According to articles I’ve read, the costs involved in providing satellite radio are high for their respective owners, and the subscriber growth has been fairly slow. In many ways, the very competition that those FCC regulations are in place to protect is hurting both services. They’re constantly fighting rising operating expenses and battling each other for the same audience.

A merger makes sense for the two companies. They’d both be saving money, wouldn’t be undercutting each other for licensing rights and advertisers, and would be able to work cooperatively to provide a better experience for a (hopefully) growing subscriber base.

To me, the chance to have a unified service, likely with expanded programming and savings doesn’t sound like a bad thing. Maybe then I can get the stuff I like from Sirius with XM’s superior satellite antenna reception.

Obviously there are concerns about hardware, channels, subscriptions, and everything else. Do I have to buy another radio? Will I lose the channels I’ve come to love?

Who knows. Right now, I guess I’m optimistic. I’m a big fan of satellite radio, and I’ll be sticking with it regardless.

Oh, and I’ll tell you this: in my opinion, Xirius beats Brangelina any day of the week.

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*UPDATE: Read this article from Wired. It does a good job of putting the realities of this story in perspective.