Internet TVs and doping and the Joker, oh my!

Televisions were once a reprieve from the outside world, then they became a reprieve from the online world, and now they're turning into just another way to stay connected. In a new study published this week, research firm NPD revealed that 18 percent of consumers across 14 countries, including the U.S. and U.K., access Web-based services and media from their televisions. That figure includes both people connecting to the Web from their televisions, as well as through set-top boxes hooked up to their sets. But enough about that, because Lance Armstrong has announced he will stop fighting a barrage of drug charges from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), putting at risk his unparalleled string of seven Tour de France titles and his legacy as one of the greatest sportsmen in history. Armstrong's declaration last night sets up a likely lifetime ban from the sport and the possibility that he will be stripped of his signature achievement – the extraordinary run of Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005. If he did cheat his way to becoming such a legend, then he made the right choice in coming clean. But if he didn't, then by giving up the fight, the cancer survivor and 7-time Tour winner is just letting himself be trampled on. If it does turn out that his seven Tour victories were all lies, then I'm sure a lot of his fans will be crushed. In other news, the city of Aurora, Colorado is asking residents to weigh in on the future of Century 16, where a gunman killed 12 people last month. I think they should reopen, but that should be a decision best left to the community to make. And many who have shared their comments about the issue on the city's Facebook page have said Century 16 should reopen as a sign of the community's strength. One of them said closing the theatre would represent a victory for Mr. Holmes and inconvenience those who live nearby. Another resident commented that reopening the theatre would be a token of respect and remembrance to the people who lost their lives. Others have suggested converting the screening room where Holmes allegedly opened fire into a memorial (which could mean changing the cinema's name to Century 15) or turning the entire building into a free mental-health clinic. Others say the cinema, which sits in the parking lot of a struggling mall, should be torn down. "Raze it, leave a marker, and maybe build somewhere else," says one such post. "This theater [sic] and nearby mall have long been a blighted, unsafe area of the city."