Balta1701

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 05:37 PM) 1) That meme was used terribly wrong. Whoever made it should be shot for being so incorrect in their usage of the meme.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 05:34 PM) Its unusual because generally the argument for penalties are that the athletic team got some sort of tangible benefit from the bad behavior. It is also unusual because generally the NCAA does not suspend schools merely for a coaching/administrator breaking the law, in a way that is unrelated to sports (Bobby Petrino Arkansas, etc.) I think there is a legitimate question why the NCAA is involved at all. The only connection to the NCAA is it happened on PSU property. It literally has nothing to do with competition or anything that the NCAA normally governs. I have no idea, Im not even sure a school has ever sued the NCAA. There are probably hundreds of thousands of documents that govern this, Ive seen 0. This is purely theoretical. But there are specific reporting and monitoring requirements that the NCAA requires schools to meet. When a school fails to meet those, the NCAA steps in and that's when the slapdowns occur. Usually you only hear about them when someone is discovered to have done something to gain a monetary/wins advantage, rather than just covering up a crime, but it's all the same in their rules. The big hit for the NCAA usually winds up being whether or not a school was promoting a "Culture of compliance". If a school avoids that, they avoid big penalties (Tennessee snuck away with no major penalties after the Bruce Pearl situation because they convinced the NCAA that they had adequate monitoring in place). Penn State literally sets a new bar for "Failing to promote a culture of compliance". People were scared that if they reported things they saw, they'd be fired.

Actually, only about 12-14% of our oil imports come from Saudi Arabia, our largest non-domestic oil supplier is currently Canada, which supplies nearly 2x as much oil to the U.S. per month as Saudi Arabia. Canada legalized Same Sex Marriage in 2005. Furthermore, the U.S.'s 3rd biggest non-domestic oil supplier is Mexico, which has legalized same sex marriage in Mexico City and at least 1 other province and has the opposite situation of the defense of marriage act, so all states in Mexico must recognize homosexual marriages performed in those states. Thus, buying gasoline supports same sex marriage!

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 05:14 PM) That would be the same argument any client makes as to why they shouldnt settle. The fact is you have to treat each case on its own. The uniqueness of the PSU case raises uncertainty, I never considered the NCAA settling before I typed it in that post. I was just giving reasons for PSU to file, I dont know what their actual plans are. Really, for the NCAA, this case is only unusual in that it involved the most grievous violations of their rules regarding oversight and creating a culture of compliance that anyone has ever seen. Regardless of the fact that there is a criminal case here whereas for example Ohio State and USC didn't have the criminal case, if the NCAA settled, it immediately sets the precedent for any other response to a rules violation.

By the way, would be more than happy to type more geology details here if anyone would really like them. Trying to keep answers as jargon-free as possible.

I can't imagine the NCAA would ever consider having a settlement after a lawsuit was filed in this case. That would effectively add an entire new level of vetoes to every other one of its enforcement actions and make it pretty difficult to enforce any rules at all, because the suspensions would always be delayed for x amount of time while the court appeal went through. If Penn State can force a settlement with the threat of a lawsuit that reduces their suspension or penalty substantially, then why can't Ohio State do it? And we're talking about millions of dollars in revenue associated with bowl appearances and conference titles, so there's plenty of reason to fight those legal cases.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 04:47 PM) Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is the point of this, I've always wondered. The overarching goal of the Mars program is to understand whether Mars once hosted life. The fact that Mars had liquid water on its surface for a substantial time (established beyond any reasonable doubt by the last 2 rovers) shows that you have the most important ingredient, liquid water, in abundance. This mission is effectively an organic chemistry laboratory. It landed in a place with evidence for both the presence of water and changes in the amount/composition of the water over time. Looking at the rocks here will hopefully answer questions about how much water there was, how long it was there, and what kind of interactions it had with the rocks. If the goal is to understand Mars's potential for life, it's in a very good spot. The next step following this, if it ever happens, is hopefully sample return...which has been a goal for the Mars program for decades. The sample you want to bring back is the one that holds the evidence of life, if it was there, and thus you need to have some idea of what rock to go to if you want to find that evidence. MSL should hopefully tell us that. Either way, its going to rewrite everything we know about the martian surface other than "There once was liquid water".

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 04:37 PM) I do not believe that is the same circumstance as a sports team's membership with the NCAA. They were essentially in a lawsuit against their employer. It's clearly not the same circumstance, but they can still file the papers and see if they can get a judge to listen. If it isn't summarily dismissed, then the end result would be very likely to include at least a temporary injunction against some portion of the NCAA's penalties. Whether it was summarily dismissed or not would probably depend a whole lot on the actual agreements that create the NCAA, the rules under which it operates, and even its legal status in multiple states. Whether they might be able to find enough to bring a case that wouldn't be tossed out immediately, I have no idea, but there's a lot of law and likely a whole lot of agreements between Penn State and the NCAA that would have to be reviewed.

(You should link to the hosting article, both for the site and because the backstory is interesting also).

QUOTE (Cali @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 04:40 PM) Rest them when it's opportune yes. Today is NOT that time. They just lost to the Royals again, Detroit is right on their asses, you have a chance to take a series from a team you struggle with with a day off on Thursday. Now if PK is hurt it's fine. But Rios is the team MVP, without him they might not have enough to win... The fact that there's an offday tomorrow means that today really is opportune. Even if the guys get used to pinch hit, you get a double-day rest for each of them effectively.

QUOTE (Cali @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 04:32 PM) Unless they're hurt, you can f***ing rest in November. It's August and you're only up 1/2 game. They need to have the full team out there... There is no way that most of these guys will survive playing the next 53 games in a row, especially the older guys.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 03:07 PM) They've already rejected it. The Freeh report is essentially the same as PSU "self reporting" violations and it was paid for and signed off by their leadership. There is no grounds of appeal for judgements based on a self report. Presumably now there will be some sort of court challenge I'd imagine.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) Or someone that Jose Canseco thinks is cute? He's no Tebow.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 02:54 PM) Another possibility is that the Sox rarely use Olmedo and Hudson both in the same game anyway, so you could cut one of them loose and add a 3rd catcher, or shorten the bullpen by one guy. Santiago hardly ever pitches anyway. Santiago is already in the minors. Probably why you can't remember the last time he pitched.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 02:45 PM) I don't know, but it's only 23 days until September 1, so if not, slam a door on his hand and stick him on the DL. Although that's fun to say...the Players Union is watching out for this a lot more these days. You could see the end result of that with the Sox not DLing Dunn last year.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 02:38 PM) It was the first time and last time in the modern age people had choices...heh (In case you're interested, it seems like there's actually a trend of increasing turnout over the past decade or so, with higher turnout in 2008 than any year since 68).

FBI says the temple gunman took his own life, was not killed by police officer's shots.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 02:24 PM) It's also, very likely, that the Perot campaign got a few million voters to the polls who would not have otherwise voted in 1992 at all. I just checked this number out of curiosity, and man, I'm amazed by how much this is actually true. 1996: 96,456,345 49.1% 1992: 104,405,155 55.1% 1988: 91,594,693 50.1% 1992 was the highest voter turnout since the 1972 election.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 12:26 PM) Get him, Kenny. Send Flowers down for 3 weeks. Does Flowers have an option left?

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:56 AM) Great job by that employee. Some people would have had the passive attitude about it. Re-read article. Actual credit goes to off duty police officer. Employee checked the bag and the potential shooter fooled him.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:51 AM) Oh, no, it's a serious concern. Because like you pointed out, inflation should be way higher than it is...so the only logical explanation is deflationary pressure is holding that number down, which is why it's only 1-3%. I think you misunderstood my use of the word "Should". I was using it in the sense that we should actually want inflation to be higher, not that we should fear it. I.e. the federal reserve should be targeting a higher inflation rate (greater than 4%) until unemployment drops to a reasonable amount.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:50 AM) It appears the weather is republican. Well, that would explain why the 2 times it rained yesterday were the 2 times I was on my bike, but I'm at a loss to see where this came from. Bleeping republican rain (shakes fist).

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:43 AM) Well, honestly there are number of factors...one of them being the sudden rising worth of the USD...since the EZ is crumbling, no matter how long they try to kick that can down the road, the glory era of the Euro is coming to an end...and people are starting to buy up American bills again. I believe at the height of the Euros strength, 1 american dollar was worth about .61 cents of a Euro. Just a year later (or so), it's .81. (actually, thanks for elaborating, couldn't tell if you were making a serious argument about the possibility of deflation or attempting to reference when it actually was a possibility in 2009). If you're really going to note things that could push a deflationary threat, you should include the "Fiscal cliff" as well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:33 AM) I put it in quotes because until yesterday, you denied it even existed. Now that it is convenient, it is a huge problem that accounts for the lack of disparity in the unicorn's you keep screaming about. Please tell me where. I've denied that high inflation was a problem, yes, because it isn't. The inflation rate is running at 1-3%. This is actually a serious problem, with unemployment over 8% it should be much higher.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 10:21 AM) Just like anything you don't like will be explained away as "inflation" or something else you have denied up until this second. Really, inflation is in quotes? You reject the notion that the inflation rate should be taken into account when comparing one year's budget to the next? I'd agree you have to make a small caveat if you use it at the single-state level, but when comparing national numbers/numbers for all 50 states, adjusting for inflation year over year is the most basic, elementary step that must be taken to avoid being completely dishonest. In reality of course, we now have the smallest share of government employees/population that we've had since 1968. Federal spending has remained static relative to inflation, federal employment has started creaking downwards, and state and local governments have cut jobs and spending wholesale. But basic data steps, like "adjusting for inflation" get put in quotes, and "presidential budget submissions" get treated like a real passed budget. Because you know in your heart Obama is a socialist growing government like crazy, and that's the improtant thing.