Balta1701

QUOTE (Cali @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) The Reds have snuck up and grabbed the best record in the bigs... Pretty good for a team I can't really name many players on besides Votto (who's been injured) and Chapman... Since mid June, Ryan Ludwick is hitting .339 with a 1.118 OPS.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 06:15 PM) Like I said, my priest is very accommodating to all groups, welcoming straights, gays, poor, wealthy, all colors, treating them all the same. My specific question to you then is...if you believe this is a positive thing for your church (and you seem to genuinely do so)...what have you done this week to show that the hate dumped at CFA does not stand for you? What has your church done? I get pastors on my news at night supporting CFA. Has yours gone on the news and opposed this kind of hate? Called it out? Has your congregation stepped forwards and publicly showed that they don't speak for you? If not, then no matter how welcoming your congregation is...you're still letting the people in the line at CFA speak for you. Because they are getting out and doing all those things to express their intolerance.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 04:32 PM) I don't know. An epileptic with a gun could be fun. In about 5 years, epileptics will be required to carry handguns by law.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 05:27 PM) Detroit is the worst possible team to claim him IMO. First, they're our only competition for the division this year and Lee would be a difference maker for them. Second, if any AL team can afford to take on that contract it's the Tigers. Not only is Illitch willing to spend, but I don't think they're near the luxury tax threshold and I believe they're receiving revenue sharing money. I don't see any positives from them grabbing him, unless you think he completely breaks down in the next year or two. Claiming Lee would not put them over the tax threshold this year, but it would start making them dangerously close next year. Counting arbitration guys, they're currently sitting at about $135 million committed next year. Add in $25 million for Lee...and now they're at $160 million, with Delmon Young and Jose Valverde free agents this offseason (so, they need a closer at the very least).

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 05:25 PM) Perhaps it is just the pews I have been sitting in, but what is being preached in the churches on Sunday is vastly different than what is being reported in the media. I'm sure in many places it is. But then my challenge to the religious is...if you don't want me to lump you in with the people who went to chick fil a yesterday to revel in how much they hate the gay...do something about it! Change your leaders. Create other public groups. When the bishops and the Vatican try to smack down the nuns for daring to question whether the current tax policy is consistent with Jesus's teachings, do something about the bishops! Jesus preached peace all the time, and we've gone to war in his name more times than I can count. The public policy persona of the Religious in this country is "Hate the gays and stop abortion". If you don't like me saying that...great. It's not my responsibility to change it, it's not the media's responsibility to change it...that's what the people who represent the religious in this country want to focus on...if you want that changed, it's the responsibility of the religious to change it. And it's been like that for all my adult life...to the point where one would think "Hmmm, maybe they don't want to change it".

Phil. Her. Up.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 05:13 PM) He can block trades to all but 8 clubs... I've never figured out if that also means he can block a straight waiver claim. The Phils will have about $123.5 million next year committed to Howard, Lee, Utley, Halladay, Hamels, Papelbon and Rollins. The next year, assuming they pick up Halladay's option, $92.5 million to Hamels, Howard, Lee, and Halladay. I'd let him go.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 02:37 PM) Far greater diversity and exposure to different ideas. Greater scientific knowledge. I think this thread is a great example of why my generation is coming up anti-religious. What do we see religious people getting fired up about? Do we see them getting fired up about helping people? Helping the poor, other things Jesus taught about? Sometimes yes, but take a look at yesterday at Chick Fil A. Probably their best day in business ever. Why? Because they wanted to revel in hatred for the gays. The Catholic church had a group of Nuns who were driving around the country trying to preach the actual things Christ talked about, whether or not policies were helping the poor, helping low income families, and the Catholic Bishops opposed them at the guidance of the Vatican itself, because those aren't the issues that the Catholic church thinks are important...abortion and gay hating. Say what you want about abortion, not trying to thread derail...but this is not how you do outreach to my generation.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 02:03 PM) How long will it be traveling along Mars and how much ground will it cover? QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 02:36 PM) You have to think it is there to stay, until it runs out of juice like the other rovers The "Prime mission" for MSL is set to be 1 Martian year. The goal is to land in a safe area close to a very interesting mountain, named after a late faculty member I have actually met (Mount Sharp), and drive up it. Unlike the other rovers though, this rover isn't solar powered. It's powered by a "Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator" or RTG, which is the same power source that has been used on missions like Cassini and the Voyager missions. If you've followed the news on these...you'll note...despite Cassini being launched nearly 20 years ago and Voyagers being launched in the late 1970's, they still have power. RTG power sources decay very slowly and aren't reliant on the sun. Meaning...if the wheels hold out, there is no reason why MSL cannot be a 10+ year mission, assuming it lands. Unlike the MER rovers, it can operate in the winter, it doesn't need to point itself at the sun for the winter to keep alive. Unlike the MER rovers, it can drive farther and faster, and can even plot its own path to avoid some obstacles to increase daily driving distance. Power will not be an issue for a decade plus, whereas the MER rovers kept needing lucky wind gusts to clean off their dust, otherwise dust could kill them. This device is an absolute marvel.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 02:32 PM) I wish I worked for NASA. Why this big crazy Rube Goldberg landing instead of the airbags they've used before? Weight. The MER rovers were basically the limit of what the airbag system could do. That video should explain that because of Mars's atmosphere, slowing down is a real big problem; there's not enough atmosphere to slow down. If you want to do a big mission, of the sort that could do sample return or, like this mission, send an entire organic chemistry lab, you need more weight than that system can take. Some scientists I know have argued that, especially given how expensive developing this system has been, we'd have been better off doing a couple more MER-style, small rovers, to other interesting sites on the planet, but that doesn't interest/challenge the engineering community, and pushing the engineering to its limits to develop technology is a part of these missions as well.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 02:01 PM) That landing looks crazy, what are the odds that thing makes it? The engineers who built the thing say 100%. They say it has a substantial margin for error beyond anything they could conceive. We wouldn't have built the thing otherwise. This should not be as risky as it looks. And like I said, every one of us will be scared ****less until we get the signal that it's alive.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 01:50 PM) A gigantic nuclear powered space laser. Is there any chance we blow up Mars? No. Even if it crashes, the radioisotope thermoelectric generator is rated to sustain a high velocity impact without exposing anything. It has to be otherwise they'd never allow us to launch the things, since any time you launch, "Crashing back into earth after the rocket explodes" is possible. The gigantic laser is capable of vaporizing a couple millimeters deep into rock each shot. Useful for getting rid of dust coatings, analyzing rocks at a distance, and if we happen to run into an angry Martian, defending the rover.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 11:00 AM) They said that about Rios too They did not say that about Rios when we claimed him, in fact there might have been other teams willing to claim him other than us, and it was possible that Torotno would hold on to him until they let him go. They say that about Rios after his 2011 season.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 01:36 PM) That was awesome. Balta, have they practiced this stuff here on Earth? That seems like an awful lot of stuff to do without much margin for error. How do you define "Practiced"? It's like going to land on the moon. You test every system you can a hundred different ways, but it's seriously impossible to "launch the spacecraft, fly it for 9 months, and then land it going through an atmosphere of Martian density" without actually going to Mars. You can test a lunar module, test every rocket, test every computer system and seal a hundred different ways, but until you actually land on the Moon, you always worry that something will go wrong. Every engineer who has ever worked on this thing loves it and says it'll be great. Every scientist who works on the project is scared s***less because it looks like...the craziest f***ing thing any of us have ever seen. And literally the future of the planetary program rides on this.

I prefer to have our backup OF be able to provide defense, particularly in CF. If we're replacing the guy Olmedo if I even got it right with someone, I'd prefer it to be a guy who can cover infield.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 12:26 PM) Is it wrong that while Im rooting for USA in everything pretty much I actually want Serena to lose? No, I'm trying to beat down having that feeling about the Men's basketball team.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) Sox will have to make a decision on him in off season. This is his third full minor league season after college. Does he just need a 40 man spot? No reason not to give him one of those.

Well, here we go, this thread has been more than a decade in the making. Early Monday Morning, a small metal object will come screaming into the atmosphere of Mars. Not directly involved in this project, but everyone who works in any way for NASA has a lot riding on this. This is the next rover to land on Mars. The thing is a behemoth. Size of a small SUV. More scientific instruments than any of us can count. It will literally drive around Mars firing a gigantic nuclear powered space laser at rocks. Landing is at about 1:30 a.m. early Monday morning, EST. I'll be awake unless the coffee gives out. It'll take about 15 minutes round trip for the message that the rover has landed and is functioning to reach Earth after the actual landing. Can find tons of links about it for watching or updating status beforehand: http://eyes.nasa.gov/index.html Nasa TV live stream: http://www.ustream.tv/nasa"" target="_blank"> http://www.ustream.tv/nasa And of course, if you haven't seen it, the 7 minutes of terror video. The craziest f***ing thing I've ever seen? The Skycrane. Be happy to talk about it more if someone can tell me what to talk about.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 10:33 AM) ...and seriously, that avatar? We deserve it.

There were battles in this area in the middle of the war, haven't seen anything specifically for 150 here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 10:26 AM) Which has been going on in America since before the Republican Party even existed. Pretty impressive, don't you think? Andrew Jackson's wife remains a pipe smoking woman of ill repute.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 10:19 AM) When you have Stewart pushing back against you, it's not a very good start... Reid also has to be careful with this...while you say Mitt can't do it...you have no idea if he can or not. What if this is another Obama birther thing in the making? Where the lefty-loons drone on and on about Mitt's tax returns for months on end, and right before the election he releases them, quashing their entire platform in the process? They'd better have a better game plan than this. I can't imagine that there's any situation where releasing his tax returns in October is some kind of positive October surprise, because at the very least, it'd be a huge reminder of how rich and out of touch Mitt is, which is one of the attacks that worked so well against Kerry. If Mitt didn't have something that would generate a lot of negative press in his previous years returns, there's zero reason to hold them out. Holding them out keeps this an issue. Releasing them makes them a major issue for a few days as everything is chopped through and you get a dozen stories about the different rich-person deductions Mitt has taken that aren't available to us proles. If there's nothing obscene in there though, like a 2% tax rate or taking $10 and turning it into $43 million, then release them and then 3 days later the story is over.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 12:22 AM) Also, while we are obviously in a Technology thread, what are the opinions here on GPS devices? Among the items stolen from my car, my GPS was one of them. I'd really like to get a new one before I head down to school in 2 weeks. I'm thinking Garmin because I've used them before (my aunt always looks to be to show her how to use electronics she buys) and because they have the Lifetime Map Updates thing, which is pretty awesome. I'm obviously going to look in to Tom-Tom, and probably even Mio, which is the brand of the GPS that I owned. Any other brands I should check up on? I'm going to do some research for a few hours. Maybe order one tomorrow or Saturday. Not looking for anything real high end at all. Thinking $150 or less. I don't know that I find a significant difference in quality or performance between any of them. If you're not in a hurry, those devices are always on great black friday sales.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 3, 2012 -> 10:02 AM) When you get Jon Stewart telling you to shut up, you know you've gone too far... This is what Stewart had to say about Reid: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/j...amp;ir=Politics He literally has zero reason to shut up. Yes, his words were unfairly personal, but the only way there's a downside for him is if Mitt Romney releases a decade of tax returns to prove him wrong, which Mitt clearly can't do. It's a swift boat move, but we've proven that's total fair game. People do know why Reid would bring "Mitt Romney's Father" into this right?

Did he say something new today or is this re: his comments the other day?