20 Oct Today on Dan Abrams’ Sites

Mediaite has video of Shep Smith on “Studio B” getting his groove on (if you will) to the tune of New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan’s “The Rent Is Too Damn High” song. Wow, what a sentence! To borrow Smith’s words, “It’s the truest thing I’ve heard all day.” And I mean, the rent is pretty damn high. Get the clip here.

On Geekosystem today: optical illusions in baseball! The conventional wisdom about curve balls is that they change direction midair, but that’s actually an optical illusion. It’s actually the batter’s switching from central vision to peripheral vision, then back to central vision again, that makes the ball appear to move. For the skeptics, there’s even a demonstration — but be warned, it’s weirdly hypnotizing. To read the full post, click here.

Barf: Styleite has video of demon child Cecilia Cassini, who, at 11 years old, must be one of the youngest fashion designers ever. But unlike the charming Willow Smith or Tavi Gevinson, Cecilia is either a robot or the Antichrist. There’s such a thing as too much precociousness, and Cassini is the very definition of “grating.” I don’t want to be unnecessarily mean to a child, but seriously? Thanks a lot, Nate Berkus. Get the full post and see a clip here.

Well, this is…sweet? Sportsgrid reports that the FCC live-tweeted the Giants/Phillies game for Cablevision customers caught in the middle of a dispute between FOX and Cablevision that caused the game to be unavailable in several cities. The FCC began by suggesting alternate viewing options before resorting to real-time updates on the game. Hats off to the FCC for doing Philadelphians (among others) a solid…or, probably more accurately, hats off to the bored intern helming the agency’s Twitter account. Get the full post here.

On Gossip Cop: Tyra Banks has been granted a restraining order against Marten Williams, Jr., who apparently believes that he killed our 43rd president and that he and Banks are getting married January 8, 2011. Well, that seems like reasonable grounds for a restraining order. I mean, a January wedding? Come on! Hopefully Tyra’s able to model through it! Get the full post here.