BREAKING NEWS: Senator Barack Obama has announced he is canceling his run for the White House after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton expelled him into the Phantom Zone (above). His attempts to break free with his hand proved futile. Before disappearing into deep space, Senator Obama was heard yelling, “You have been known to disagree with the Senate before. Yours could become an important voice in the new order, second only to my own! I offer you a chance for greatness, Hillary, take it! Join us!… You will bow down before me, Hillary. I swear it, no matter that it takes an eternity! You will bow down before me! Both you and then one day your heirs!”

Those who have insisted all along that Sony’s PS3 was an unstoppable juggernaut (I’m looking at you, S.B.) have maintaned that Japan was the Sony’s Alamo, a territory where their advantage would be so complete that it would make up for flagging sales elsewhere. Well, it’s the Alamo all right:

Enterbrain’s Hirokazu Hamamura has predicted a price cut for

PlayStation 3 after new figures revealed that the console is being outsold by both Nintendo Wii and PS2 in Japan. According to Media Create, more than 80,000 Wii units were sold in the territory between January 22 and 28. During the same period Sony sold 21,000 PS2 consoles and 20,000 PS3s. Just 7000 Xbox 360 units were shifted as Microsoft continues

its struggle to secure a foothold in the Japanese market.

Wii sales for the entire month of January stood at 400,000 units, while 150,000 PlayStation 3 consoles were sold.

The PS3 launched in Japan on November 11, followed by the Wii on December 2. Since then Sony has sold 614,000 consoles while Wii sales have topped 1.4 million.

Really, this is the dumbest thing any corporate titan has said in a long time:

[Bill] Gates started off the Apple portion of his interview by touting security features in Vista. Providing a robust security foundation was even offered as a reason for having left out many of the features originally planned for Vista.

“We made it way harder for guys to do exploits,” said Mr. Gates. “The number [of exploits] will be way less because we’ve done some dramatic things [to improve security] in the code base. Apple hasn’t done any of those things.”

In another portion of the interview, he added, “Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.”

Unless this is a double head-fake, where Gates really does want Romanian hackers to bust Vista wide open because Microsoft didn’t have the time to do security testing themselves, this seems really, really stupid.

Because at the bus stops, at night, they sometimes show porn.

Joss Whedon has left the WB’s Wonder Woman project.

Last night’s Super Bowl commercials were a mixed bag. The trick is not taking any notes on them and trying to remember any good ones and, even more of a challenge, recalling what products were actually being advertised. I found, for instance, the office-survivor ads to be funny. But was it for Monster.com or some other web-based job firm? Some promos were very short but easily memorable, such as Letterman and Oprah. Kevin Federline was able to self-deprecate for (I think) Nationwide Insurance. Gamers, I am sure, loved the Coke-Grand Theft Auto commercial, turning a criminal into a good Samaritan. And then there is the phrase “Connectile Dysfunction” for, I think, Nextel Sprint. But as one of my colleagues asked, What happens if you’ve been connected for more than four hours?

In terms of collective quality of play, maybe the worst Super Bowl game in my lifetime. The only comparable messes are the Ravens-Giants in 2001 and Bucs-Raiders in 2003.

There have been worse games, I suppose, but not many games where the collective talent on the field was so terrible. The Bears are on the list of worst teams to appear in a Super Bowl since ’82. And name the Super Bowl champs who were worse than the Colt. Again, it’s a short list.

That said, the Prince halftime show was the best I’ve ever seen. To relive the glory, it’s in two parts on YouTube. Part 1 and Part 2.

Update: From Galley Brother B.J.:

This year’s Super Bowl taught me that I actually know nothing about football.

I’d have thought that in bad weather the Bears would want to pressure Manning, take away the short passes, and force him to beat them over the top. I’d never have thought of Lovie Smith’s ingenious strategy of playing every down like it’s 3rd and 15, not pressuring Manning, and giving up a safe 8 to 10 yard pass on every play. (Did Smith think he had a huge lead and could trade yards for time. Or did he just not want to risk getting blown out and was playing to lose while keeping it close-ish?)

I had thought that loose balls were very important and that you want to see your players diving after the ball once it’s fumbled, like Grossman did after his HB fumbled right in front of him. Rather than pulling a Manning and watching the ball hit the ground 5 yards away and then refuse to go near it because there are defensive players running towards it. (How is it that no one called Manning out on this last night?)

I’d say Manning’s performance was nothing even remotely special. He had one touchdown pass because the Bears decided not to cover Wayne and a bunch of yards and a high completion percentage because the Bears weren’t covering anything short. And he refused to risk contact by not going after a loose ball after his HB fumbled near the Bears’ 35. I’m not saying I could have put up those numbers against that Bears defense, but I’m saying Bubby Brister could have.

Of course, most talking heads/experts will disagree with me.

From Blog Crush II:

Did Sheila E ever get 2 lead a glamorous life? Because I think she probably works at Boston Market these days.

Bonus: It’s possible–just possible–that this item, an extended Troy McClure discourse on the history of Super Bowl halftime shows, is the funniest thing ever to run on Blog Crush II:

Hi, I’m Troy McClure! You may remember me from such Super Bowl Halftime Shows as “Down with People, Up with Fish!” and “There Are 100 Michael Jacksons!”

I’m here to talk with you today about the evolution of the Super Bowl Halftime Show and, in accordance with my plea bargain with Miami-Dade prosecutors and the Miami Seaquarium, provide you with my prediction for the game.

The first Super Bowl Halftime Show was held, surprisingly enough, in 1965, years before the first Super Bowl. Initially the term was used by authorities as a code for beating up Vietnam protestors.

Take that, Maynard G. Muskyvote!