Saturday Japanese Cormorants

Good afternoon! I've spent most of my day outside petting dogs and talking to ducks because this is the first time it's been sunny and above 50 degrees up here in forever, but I'm back inside to share some links.

- Cormorants have long been (and still are, in some cases) domesticated for fishing purposes in Asia and Eastern Europe. Japanese cormorants are, as you might expect, used in Japan for ukai fishing. Fisherpeople have them on snare leashes so they can swallow smaller fish, but bigger fish get caught in their throats and spat out back on the boat.

- Our friend Jonathan Fishner got a few choice quotes from Steve Novak at that McDonald's event.

- Here's Raymond Felton trying very, hilariously hard to be cocky without being mean without being cocky without being mean:

Felton was asked if point guard is one area where he thought the Knicks had an advantage against Miami, which had its win streak snapped at 27 games on Wednesday.

"I'm not saying that's a weak point [for the Heat] because [Mario] Chalmers has been great for Miami. He's won a championship there and he's a solid point guard," Felton said. "But I think that's one of the weaknesses of their team. Not saying that Chalmers is a bad player, because he's not. He's great. He's won a championship. A lot of point guards in this league can't say that. He has that. But if you look at LeBron, Bosh and D-Wade and then you look at Chalmers, you're like, 'OK, this is maybe where their weakness is at.'

- Here's Chris Herring's takeaway from the conference call Amar'e Stoudemire did the other night.

- A noble effort at analyzing J.R. Smith's play relative to his sleep habits, using Twitter for measurement.

- Every Carmelo Anthony ad and bit of PR flotsam I've come across in the last week or two has been all about how he BOXES LOOK EVERYBODY HE DOES BOXING. That said, Jared Zwerling's interview with Melo on the subject is worth a look. He traces a lot of his success this season to boxing and the training therein, which is cool.

- Can't say I get any of this, but netw3rk and Steve McPherson are excellent and they recently posted the Eastern Conference edition of their NBA Playoffs-Game of Thrones comparison.

- Here's the most recent "Melo Is Learned and Team-Oriented Now" column, this one by Chris Mannix.

- Pondering the extent of Tyson Chandler's injury and how long it makes sense to rest him.

- The consensus among those who know him-- including the man himself-- is that J.R. Smith has never found a groove quite like the one he's in right now.

- John Schuhmann teases apart the Knicks' success with two-point guard lineups, now with even more Pablo Prigioni!

Those were the links! Have a lovely Saturevening.