Jake

Will be at the game tomorrow. First Bears game (at Soldier Field, went to Champaign way back when)

Naturalized Americans would be just fine. While I think the system is right to not trust the general public on some things, I think the public can figure out if a guy is American enough. President Schwarzenegger 2016

Gerrymandering and first past the post elections make this make complete sense. The people being jagoffs in this scenario (GOP, particularly the far right of it) are actually improving their personal chances of re-election

I've always wondered about that. Also the 4.1 to 4.2 to 4.3 changes are not that big. I just went from 4.1 to 4.3, and the real most user-facing changes were changes to Sense and not so much related to 4.3

In my town, I've set three different tube TVs next to the curb. Each time they were gone within the hour. Only once did a kid who may have been a high schooler take it (our high school-aged kids like to take TVs and chuck them at stuff)

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 9, 2013 -> 08:46 AM) It's some great circular logic. You get paid a lot because you generate so much value, and we know that you generate so much value because otherwise you wouldn't get paid so much. Labor markets are 100% efficient and meritocratic. You would like the book What Money Can't Buy - The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel, a professor at Harvard. He talks about the ways in which we've let markets into parts of our lives that have long been non-economic and explores the consequences. To some extent it is not really a polemic, but a desire to give us the framework to talk about this problem. His favorite example of market expansion is the line-standing issue: should you be able to pay someone to stand in line for you? This is less true in the USA, but in places like the UK the queue is a borderline sacred institution (friend of mine saw a fistfight interrupt in London over someone cutting the queue to get on the bus). Other interesting debates, from relatively small to larger issues: -Should you be able to sell free tickets to Shakespeare in NYC? -Should you be able to sell tix to a Springsteen concert that have long been discounted for the explicit purpose of letting less wealthy fans come to the show? -Should you be able to pay drug addicted women to sterilize themselves? -Should we pay children to read books? -Should we pay people to lose weight? -Should we allow big game hunters to buy the right to hunt endangered species as a means to fund the ranches that keep those species alive? -Should we be able to bet on the death of celebrities? Buy life insurance on someone other than ourselves? The thing to think about is that market solutions can't take into account the moral consequences of actions. Paying me to lose weight might help me lose weight, but research shows that I am likely to gain it all back when the economic incentive is gone. Why is this? Because I have only related to my weight in terms of money, rather than establishing a healthy relationship to my body. This is also observed with incentives for academic performance; the only success stories are situations where there is a cultural shift in the school. In these cases, increasing the payout doesn't increase academic performance because the money has taken on symbolic rather than financial importance via a mini-PR campaign within the schools. Saving an endangered species by letting people hunt them makes sense from a utilitarian standpoint, but what you have to consider (and this doesn't mean that you have to decide to ban the practice, you just need to talk about it) is the way we relate to animals if we let this happen. The problem with hunting is not so much the loss of animals, but the way we look at and treat animals. It sullies the way we value life. This is similar to the arguments about taking life insurance out on strangers, etc. The Reagan era, which put market ideals very high on the agenda (though Reagan personally was very much a moralist, this part of his agenda didn't really last in the same way on the political center and right) also coincided with a rise in economic study of issues that were not traditionally thought to be economic. There came a belief that we do cost:benefit calculations in all our decisions and, therefore, are choosing to our benefit in all facets of life. This is somewhat true. What came next, though, was economists thought, "why have implicit cost:benefit in non-economic parts of life when we might be able to put a price on those things?" So, you can buy a spot in line. To an economist, this is fair because in economics, we express our desire to do something by our willingness to pay for it. Unfortunately, the lobbyist paying a firm $200 to stand in line for him probably doesn't want to see the Supreme Court hearings as much as the gay high schooler who wants to see how the Supreme Court rules on gay rights. It used to be that this high schooler had a non-economic way of expressing his or her desire, which was by putting time into standing line. The growth of markets into non-economic parts of life means money becomes a requisite for everything. This means those with and without money lead increasingly separate lives. He uses a baseball game as an example. Before skyboxes and the rapid commercialization of baseball, with general admission, the rich and the poor sat amongst each other enjoying the greatest game. Now, they both like baseball, but the low class watches on TV, the middle class watches from the lower level, and the upper class watches in the skybox. When the classes stratify financially, they are now even further stratified in the way they live their lives. It makes it much less likely that we'll ever give a s*** about each other if we don't share any common experiences.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Oct 9, 2013 -> 08:16 AM) Not sure I'll have to deal with that in the neighborhood I live in. If you advertise for it in the newspaper, you might. These people come out of the woodwork

The thing they need to do with the iPad is let it have widgets. It only makes too much sense. People would go bonkers

Just a growing trend in the USA - money as the all-determining factor to the quality of your existence

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 8, 2013 -> 08:17 PM) While true, it's still opinion. I prefer OSX over Windows, and I prefer iOS over Android, but that doesn't mean you have to agree ... nor does that doesn't even matter to me. All that matters is what YOU like using. And whatever it is, use it. There was a time I wouldn't have EVER said that, about preferring Apple to anything. I've been doing this since the early 80's, and through that time, Commodore gave way to Microsoft (I even tried OS/2 and various forms of Linux through the years), which eventually gave way to Apple OSX... and I know from the fact I've already switched 3+ times in my life, that I won't have a problem doing it again when I truly believe someone is doing something I NEED to be a part of. Also, as it stands now, iOS gets the best of both worlds. I get all of Google's apps, and use quite a few of them, and they're often/usually better than their native Android variants. So using Android has little appeal to me, since I already get all of their best apps on iOS, and I get the best of what iOS has to offer, too. Giving that up for an additional half/full inch of screen space just isn't in the cards for me.

I've never been fond of iTunes. I still prefer Mac to Windows, though I really dislike iOS. Believe it or not, one company might be better at one thing and not another

Downloading my 4.3 update on AT&T w/ my HTC One

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 8, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) I wonder if Jake will thank us now... QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 8, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) lol obviously I look good now, but this is exactly why I don't see the point of vetoing a trade. He only had to miss 2 or 3 games to make it a lopsided deal with both performing at a high level, which is always a decent possibility in football

The trend towards part-time and untenured professorships is bad for everyone. Will just lead to only a select few schools having the select few qualified researchers while the schools trying to cut corners will be delivering a crap experience with underprepared and underpaid teachers

f*** Jacquizz Rodgers

I'll have Granderson rather than Ethier at the same price, and I don't think Granderson will cost the same amount

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 6, 2013 -> 03:29 PM) Complete Nexus 5 specs leaked last night. 8 MP OIS camera, 16 and 32 GB storage options on top of everything else that was known (Snapdragon 800, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 5 inch 1080P IPS display, 2300 mAH battery). At a possible >$400 price point for the 32 GB model, this is a must buy for me. While those very well may be the specs, it is somewhat possible that it is some kind of hoax and, at the least, is tentative as the manual had several contradictions about the phone

I think if we entered the season knowing we would start 3-2, that would be fine. The expectation was that this amount of change in the coaching staff would come with some consequences. The real question you have to ask is whether we will continue to improve as the season moves along and the coaching staff can make its mark or if the rest of the league will catch up to our new tricks and we will have a somewhat downward trajectory.

The real question is who would win in a McCown-McCown showdown

We have lost on all the finer points of the game and also have come up empty on turnovers. Not a good recipe, but we were competitive till the end. With improvement, we'll be able to beat teams like this

Close, no cigar

Let's see if Gould has improved his onside kicking

Cutler trying to channel his inner Tebow magic

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 6, 2013 -> 02:48 PM) Bennett dropped two catch-able balls though. The first one was going to be a tough catch, but the second one is going to be caught by at least 90% of NFL wide receivers. Kellen Davis makes that play

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 6, 2013 -> 02:47 PM) Drops happen. I've literally ever seen someone actually jumping offside on those plays. Not even in college. Add that to all of the special teams s***. Bad coaching. Drop me once, shame on luck Drop me twice...you f***ing suck Should have been 6 point game before our defense got back on the field