Balta1701

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 04:40 PM) I am stuck in the first temple. So far I have released three of the monkeys but I don't know where to go with them. "Ooh man I can't wait to eat that monkey." Yes, that is my contribution to this thread. Moving on.

Unless there's something else to this story like this developer having kinda run over one of their dogs (replace the word kinda with the word repeatedly and the word dog with son), I'm afraid I'm going to wind up with Nuke on this one.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 08:33 PM) Sweet. Someone uploaded the entire 1986 Transformers movie to YT. There are 10 parts. Man, I never realized how incredible the list of voices was in this movie. Thanks for the link! Edit: That was quite enjoyable. Still gotta love the dinobots. And suddenly now I get the "Tell me about the rabbits" line.

Just keep digging Rep. Goode. I'm sure you'll get to the magical land of Narnia soon.

Someone in the Giuliani capaign accidentally left a 140 page detailed plan for the next 12 months of his presidential campaign lying around in a hotel room. The NY Daily News was the first paper to get their hands on it.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 09:19 AM) Which you have to believe is exactly what Shapiro is trying to sell to Mulder and his agent... Of course...the only problem with that...Cleveland's asking for an option year/2 year deal as well, when Millwood managed to get a 1 year deal.

I think one of the most fun aspects of the new majority is going to be watching the 2 sides completely flip-flop on everything that involves the power structure in Congress. 2 years ago, Nancy Pelosi wrote a proposal for a "Minority bill of rights" in the House. 24 hours to review bills for all sides, full chance to offer debates and amendments for both sides, etc. Dennis Hastert didn't even bother replying to Mrs. Pelosi's proposal. Now, 3 Republicans are writing a letter to Mrs. Pelosi asking if she'll implement the very same proposal that Dennis Haster pocket-vetoed 2 years ago. Fun times, I tells ya what. Hopefully Pelosi will actually implement this at some point...but I'd still pocket-veto their letter for a few weeks just out of spite.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Dec 31, 2006 -> 12:20 PM) They say the M2 protein has "barely" changed in the past 100 years, but that doesnt mean it will not change. If it does mutate though, wouldnt that put the scientists back to square one, considering this virus would be mutating to get past everything we threw at it? Kind of a scary thought Saying that something has "barely changed" doesn't mean that something has a 0 probability of mutating. Every single protein in every single bacteria/virus has some chance of mutating at any point. In other words, there are probably mutants out there right now who are already immune to this drug. However, right now there is absolutely no selective pressure towards having the mutated variety reproduce ahead of its un-mutated friends, so any potentially beneficial mutation is simply not expressed in a large fraction of the population. What would happen if this drug were to be introduced is probably exactly what has happened with every drug. It would be dynamite at first, doing its job very well. But eventually, as more parents bring kids in and insist that doctors medicate them without caring about whether or not its necessary, and as the anti-viral drug is put in more products, yeah, the incidents of viruses that are immune to this drug would increase, just like every other drug. That's just how it happens when you go up against evolution. In the end, everyone is racing as fast as they can just to stay in the same place.

QUOTE(NUKE @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 11:13 PM) Why would the U.S. seek to delay the execution? The longer that man was allowed to live, the longer he was a thorn in our side and an impediment to Iraq's rebirth. Better to get rid of the bastard now and let whatever reaction, positive or negative, work itself out so people can move on. Because the U.S. wanted the execution to have some semblance of justice and fairness, unlike the trial, so as to try to avoid having executioners shouting "Muqtada" and causing even more riots. They wanted to try to follow the nation's laws, such that executions were prohibited during this holiday period, and executions require signatures from the nation's Prime Minister and both Presidents or whatever the Hell they're called. Talabani wouldn't sign off on his (he appears to genuinely reject the death penalty, and after Living under Saddam it's hard to blame him), neither would the Sunni guy, so the only people who actually were willing to authorize the execution were the Shi'a. Basically Maliki did an end-around where he went to the Shia clerics in Najaf, asked them if it was ok to go around the law, they said it was, so he pushed the execution through without following the procedures in the law. Basically, you've got the Duke prosecutor being told by the Supreme Court that he hadn't met the legal standard to give the kids the chair, and the prosecutor deciding to do the execution anyway because they'd been convicted.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 10:50 PM) My point is, BA and Broadway for Cordero is probably fair value. The problem is, we're not in stocking up for 2007 mode are we, and that's why this deal probably doesn't make a lot of sense. It may be fair value on paper, but it's not a deal I'd ever want to do. Maybe I'm just being conservative, but I look at the innings. A good setup man/potential closer gives you 60-70 innings. A good starting pitcher gives you 200. I can understand maybe dealing a starter who's still hanging around the low levels, or making a move in-season for relief pitching if a hole actually appears. But right now, I see 6, maybe more people who can compete for slots in the 2007 White Sox bullpen, and potentially do a damn good job. 3 or 4 of them could close on most teams in the big leagues, they're all young, they're all cheap, and they're all under our control for several years. I see even dealing Broadway for him straight up as sacrificing some of our starting pitching depth to fix a problem that may not even be a problem mid-season. If we're desperate for a righty reliever at the deadline, I can't imagine the price would possibly be higher, and it might even be lower for someone else other than Cordero.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 10:28 PM) A Michigan win over USC would have gone a ways towards destroying the BCS I actually have less of a problem with the Michigan matter than I do with the potential of an unbeaten team not winning it in favor of a once-beaten team. I mean, one thing that would have driven me nuts...Michigan/OSU rematch, Michigan wins that game...what do you have, OSU winning the Big 10 and Michigan winning the national champiionship? that's F***ed up right there.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 10:32 PM) I could care less how many you find. His random out-of-place cheerleader rant began to overshadow what was happening on the field. BTW, the constant David v. Goliath references got old fast. They weren't 30 point underdogs. Furthemore, i wasn't the first one to bring it up, which means i'm not the only one to "nit pick" this. At least as a person who isn't a fan of Oklahoma and usually roots for the underdogs, I thought Thom was doing a fine job of saying pretty much what I was thinking throughout that whole fourth quarter.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 10:21 PM) That's the douchebag sportswriter in me talking. I just hope I don't have to hear about Boise State deserving #1 votes. They may get them, but they won't deserve them. So, not saying this is going to happen but it's an interesting hypothetical...what happens if Florida wins?

What. A. Game.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 03:33 PM) Now they should REALLY rename the court at IU!!!!!!11!!!1!1!! Posthumously, maybe they'll do it.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 08:05 PM) When are the Muslims NOT having a holy day, week month or celebration? If there was a half green color, I would use it, because I am partly serious in this question. It seems like every damn thing is a holy month, major celebration, etc. Stealing from Wikipedia: I don't think there are a lot more of them than there are in the Western religions, with things like Passover/Lent, Easter, Christmas, days for specific saints honored in certain countries, etc. The issue here might be that this particular holiday was important enough that the Hussein regime itself even forbade executions during this one. I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of problem cropped up fairly commonly in any country where the leadership becomes overly controlled by one particular religion.

Boise. F***ing. State. Booyeah. Like 10 years ago, didn't ESPN run an ad of a sportswriter throwing darts at a billboard to decide who won the National Championship, with the ad ending as Boise State is crowned?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 05:13 PM) The Bears would hand the ball off to their two headed monster all day, and win the game. The Colts are gonna be a really interesting team to watch in the playoffs, because with that defense, Manning is now at the point where he realizes he needs to keep the defense off the field, which is the opposite of what other teams have been doing to them with the running game...keeping manning off the field. So, he's suddenly running a lot more draws and a lot more underneath passing. But the wierd thing about it is...I've thought for 3 years now that the thing Manning needed to do a lot better was focus a lot more on the short passing game. He's something ridiculous like 80% or better on completions on those short, under 10 yard passes to Harrison, Wayne, Clark, and the RB's. Almost every time they lost in 04 and 05, it seemed to be because the other team kicked up the Blitz and Manning still stuck with the slow-developing 5 and 7 step drops, but in the 2nd half he'd start checking off to the underneath routes and suddenly the Colts would start moving the ball. In other words, the Colts crappy defense is forcing Manning to play the exact type of game that Manning needs to play against the teams that have beaten the Colts.

I'm starting to think that aside from dealing with steroids, one of the biggest issues for the new NFL commissioner is going to wind up being a David Stern type crackdown on behavior. The Bengals, Tank Johnson, this, and I'm sure there's a lot of others not coming to mind...people in the NFL just aren't making smart decisions about where to go and who to associate with and the league isn't doing nearly as much about it as they should.

QUOTE(103 mph screwball @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 07:41 PM) If he disrespects veterans, Ozzie would hate him and keep him on the bench. The attitude and the NY prospect hype makes me less than enthusiastic about getting this guy unless he comes cheaply. The other side of the token may be that he is just too arrogant for a guy who hasn't proven anything, which certainly seems to have been a big part of the problem in NY, and the Mets, a team with a lot of veterans who have proven a lot, weren't ready to put up with arrogance. But there are some teams where a little bit of arrogance can be an accepted thing, if you start performing to keep up with the arrogance. It's also possible the NY media has significantly blown up the story and therefore degraded his value below what it should be otherwise. I mean Hell, I'm pretty sure I've read a couple different stories about the team putting Anderson in a dress, but that was basically because he was a rookie. And then there's Buehrle and his legendary shaving cream pies...

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 31, 2006 -> 02:05 PM) I can see anyone regretting signing the best pitcher in baseball to a contract. Injuries and payroll sir, injuries and payroll. When you dump a huge portion of your salary into one person, especialy 1 pitcher (when you need 5 starters), if there's an injury, you don't recover from it.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) So he's basically Garland, Vazquez, Garcia and Buerhle at this point in his career. If that's washed up, KW shouldn't be faulted for rebuilding. Except about 15 years older than them, paid $6-7 million more than each of them, with 100% less cartilage in his knees than any of them, and with 1 more recent back surgery than any of them.

The value of a decent starting pitcher > the value of a good relief pitcher. The value of a decent starting pitcher with 0 years MLB service time >> the value of a good relief pitcher with several years of service time. The value of a hopefully MLB level, solid defensive outfielder with 1 year of Service time and 1 decent starting pitching prospect with 0 years MLB service time >>> the value of a good relief pitcher with several years of service time.

QUOTE(NUKE @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 12:24 PM) It was done successfully........thats all I care about. Trouble is...the people over there keep caring about other things. This cell phone video is starting to look like just the latest gas can thrown on the fire over there. Yeah it's already burning out of control, but do we need to make sure that everything goes up? Link. Supposedly, this piece of video has already become so big in Iraq that while going around trying to interview people about it today, a group at NBC was taken at gunpoint today by Shi'a militia members and forced to give up their video of interviews asking people about the execution. Twice. If we're going to do it, wouldn't the worst possible way we could do it given the current mess be to have him hang while Shi'ite Muslims are taunting him and shouting Muqtada?

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Jan 1, 2007 -> 06:13 PM) There was a lot of talk about Milledge and his relationship with the team and the coaching staff here in the local NY media. There was the incident you mentioned, but other things as well. Reportedly, many players saw him as a prima donna who acted like he was a star even though he was just a prospect. At one point late in the season, some player(s) took everything out of his locker and replaced it with a dress. This fueled some preexisting but unsubstantiated rumors that he is gay. Newsday, back in September. One Mets beat reporter, in November: This team is pretty unhappy with him. Too arrogant. Not getting along well with the veterans. As soon as we hear a rumor about him deciding to give a knee to one of the trainers, or offers up $100 to anyone who hits a home run off of Glavine...we'll know he's one of ours.