Around the Web 12.1.08: Microhoo talks denied, Midway stake sold, Mapple mocked on ‘The Simpsons’

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-- NBA teams are using video games to evaluate basketball talent, running virtual players through different offensive sets to see how their virtual teammates react. LAT

-- Sumner Redstone finally unloaded Midway Games, selling his company’s 87% stake in the troubled publisher to a private investor at a heavy loss. WSJ

-- The Times of London story about an alleged $20-billion Yahoo-Microsoft deal is ‘total fiction.’ BoomTown

-- When you ruin journalists’ Saturday on a holiday weekend with an apparently bogus story like that, they’re going to be cranky. Mike Arrington: ‘The Times, first published in 1785, has long been considered the newspaper of record in the UK, but [Saturday] they really stepped in it, and someone has manipulated them badly.’ TechCrunch

-- The Huffington Post raised $25 million in venture funding to promote the liberal media agenda. (Actually, it’s for general growth and acquisitions.) PaidContent.org

-- ‘The Simpsons’ parodies Apple. I mean, Mapple. Engadget

-- When the auto industry gets sick, Silicon Valley chip makers get the chills. Mercury News

-- Can big-screen TV sales give us insight into the economy? NYT

-- Turns out satellite makers placed too much emphasis on quality back in the day; new satellites aren’t selling well because the old ones orbiting the Earth are performing just fine. LAT

-- David Colker reviews some inexpensive GPS units, including the $135 Goodyear GY135. LAT

-- Weak, but not a disaster: E-commerce spending rose 1% on Black Friday, ComScore reports. CNet

-- Facebook is rolling out the next step of its Facebook Connect program, letting Digg, Hulu and others weave its services into their websites. But the social network is moving cautiously. NYT

-- Super Smash Bros. Brawl tops this list of the top five Wii games of 2008. Wired

-- Chris Gaither

‘The Simpsons’ video clip by Silicon Alley Insider via Hulu.