Balta1701

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 11:46 AM) Both Williams and Carimi had injury concerns when they were drafted so those are big misses in that regard although I think Carimi will be good. But at least last year with Williams...it was his injury that really hurt that line, and that had nothing to do with the back injury that was the concern at the time he was drafted.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 02:05 PM) ChicagoBulls_PR Chicago Bulls PR Updated @AthletiCo injury report:Rose is a game-time decision; Hamilton is out. The Hornets are 4-21 on the season. If there's any question about Rose, sit him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 11:10 AM) When you offer someone based on the reasonable assumption they will not accept the offer, its not really an offer. Now, if KW resigned and JR talked him into staying on, that would be different. In other words, KW's offer was............phony. Based on what evidence are you judging that was a phony offer?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 11:18 AM) ugh What we do with them? Private sales? His statement yesterday (I think) was that public lands should be under the control of the states. (Of course, if one actually reads the constitution, there is this clause which pretty clearly gives the Federal governnment the ability to control land: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States)

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 11:05 AM) Sadly, the Bears keep missing on OL. I'd say they keep having OL get hurt. Does that count as missing?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:58 AM) Understood, but there really aren't any FA tackles available out there,, and there usually aren't. It's rare a player like Nicks is ever on the market, and it's not like the guard play was that good. Then take a tackle with your 1st or 2nd round pick. I know everyone's going to disagree with me, but drafting 3 tackles with 3 straight first round picks, then spending big money on a guard, that's just overkill on one position. Yes, it's an important position the Bears have trouble with, but just take a look at those numbers. If the Bears put the kind of resources into the O-line they have the last 2 years, and don't get a solid improvement this year, then either everyone got hurt again or there's something more fundamentally wrong with the scheme and setup. (They still need at least 1 tackle to replace Omiyale from somewhere).

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:33 AM) I just think you have to build with the draft. I think the load up with free agents and try and win one year stuff never works.If the Bears were to make a super bowl run next year, most people would still look at their roster and say it was largely built through the draft. Urlacher, Forte, Briggs, Tillman, hopefully Williams and Carimi, Conte, and frankly, Cutler (who was obtained via 2 first round picks). Built through the draft doesn't mean you can't find players through Free Agency. No one gives New England any less credit for Welker because he was a free agent, or the Giants last time when they signed Plax as a free agent and won a super bowl with him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:26 AM) They faced the music when things didn't go so well. So, KW's wife should come out and start ripping Ozzie's performance? Actually, I might be kinda into watching that...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:21 AM) If Tebow and Brady can do it Huh?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:17 AM) Heard Hub Arkush talking about Carl Nicks from the Saints last night. With all the big money contracts the Saints have, they probably can't afford him. He's only turning 27, and has been an All-Pro the last two years. He's the only real good OL out there. If the Saints don't keep him, throw a Peppers-type contract at him, and you have a guard spot shore up for the next 7 years or so. Then let Chris/Edwin Williams or Spencer fight for the other spot. I dunno, If the Bears spend money on the O-Line, I'd still much rather have them look at the tackle spot. They definitely need a backup tackle to get Omiyale out of Jay Cutler's nightmares at the very least...if they're looking for a starter, the guy they'd have to look at replacing would be Webb.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 10:02 AM) I never understood why people think rookies need 5 years to become impact players. Victor Cruz wasn't even drafted and caught 82 passes his second year. Clay Matthews had 10 sacks in his first. Aldon Smith had 14. I could go on and on with rookies playing well. I just look at all the teams that have won the Super Bowl the past 5 years and all those teams drafted well and signed a free agent here and there. It's really interesting to look at your list there and note that 2 of the guys you highlighted were top 10 picks and pass rushers. Some positions simply need more time, and some picks simply need more time. The lower you pick, the less likely it is you're going to find a guy who will step in and dominate a position in his first year, and the less playing time you have available for a guy, the less likely he is to develop. Most players shouldn't need 5 years to develop, but 2-3 years for most positions is not unreasonable, and it's really hard to count on guys developing immediately if you're trying to win now and fill a need. Worse, there are some positions that are just particularly troublesome. WR is one of those; typically you see a lot of growth in the 2nd and 3rd seasons for those guys, and it also really helps to have a solid QB.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:54 AM) But there is a good faith debate over the issue. Yes, I believe that human behavior has an effect on the climate of the Earth. Beyond that, there are all kinds of things to debate. What should we do? What is the most cost-effective manner in which to act? How much of what humans are doing is causing the problem and how much are other factors involved? Can we actually cause a dramatic shift in human behavior? If we did, is it too late? What kinds of new businesses/industries would be created/enhanced? And on and on and on... There are a couple different kinds of questions in your list though...a couple of them are economics questions, the bolded one is the science question. We've been putting out answers to that question for > a decade now, and the error bars have been getting narrower and narrower as data gets better and as alternative hyptheses are tested and understood. I can disagree with people who say that there are other solutions, that we should focus more on nuclear, etc., but that is a fundamentally different disagreement from me going after you and NSS, or SS going after the WSJ, for statements about how we don't know what all is involved. That is a question we have answered to within really good margins of error, and everything within the margin of error right now would be "Really bad for hundreds of millions of people".

Rangers hire a new staff assistant to be Hamilton's new accountability guy.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:51 AM) You cant be the Redskins about it but to ignore free agency is also ridiculous.... where would we be without Peppers? There ought to be 1 real worry for the Bears here, and it's that the position that they have the biggest FA need at is the position where you're also the most likely to wind up with a prima donna who quits on downs, WR, and a couple of the guys at the top of the list fit that description to a T. So yeah, it's a gamble playing that market. But the other side is...the Bears have a ton of money to spend here and they have needs at these spots if they want to compete right now. It'd be really hard for them to make themselves worse by playing the FA market hard this year.

Anyone here who wouldn't visit Barry's pot and coke emporium?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:28 AM) Have you been able to accurately predict the speed at which climate change or global warming or agw has affected the polar ice caps and rising water levels? In terms of water levels and temperature, yes. The ocean level predictions are accurate enough that it has taken events like the flooding in Australia last year to push away the ocean level rise increases from the predicted trends. This is in no small part because the ocean rise is currently being dominated by the increase in heat of the oceans and thermal expansion. Polar Ice caps...we're surprisingly close, but there are frictional issues at the base of glaciers that affect their sliding that haven't been worked out yet. The thing is...we can put minimums on there very effectively...we can say "if things get this warm, at least this much melting will happen". And in every case I know of...those minima have been dramatically exceeded. You can see this in the IPCC report...they put in conservative numbers for collapse of the greenland ice cap in the 2003 version, then in 2004-2005 there was an enormous surge in ice output because of decreasing friction at the base of glaciers that was at the time unexpected. And once again, even if the predicted minima happened, they would be very bad. Consistently exceeding the minima put on there...means that things are a whole lot worse.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:21 AM) The bolded is where you have a huge logic flaw in your argument. If I don't have a specific competing theory, that does NOT make skepticism unfounded. One can be skeptical for good reasons that are not necessarily an alternative theory. My reason for skepticism - and mine, again, is only very mild - is the simple reality that the complexity of the system you are studying can't be grasped as completely as you seem to think. Great. Now can you give me some evidence to back this up? What level of system can we understand well and what level of system complexity does our understanding/ability to isolate key variables fail?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:04 AM) Why are you feeding the troll... again? He is obviously trying to get a reaction. It is obvious to him and everyone else what that quote meant. I was seriously asking if it was the person he seemed like he was trying to hire or if there was another one?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:06 AM) NO delegates are awarded. None. Same for MN, and MO (but for different reasons). All three contests were non-binding. All three states actually make their binding selections at a later date. Yeah, but MN and CO will award delegates based on those results so they're at least reportable. MO is fundamentally differennt.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:00 AM) Do 100% of all peer-reviewed scienfitic papers find that 100% of the net global warming is caused by humanity? Every one of them? Of course not. This means that there are true experts in the field (not talking about the screaming ostriches here) who feel that there may ALSO be other factors at play. No, but they typically find that within error, between 75% and 125% of the observed warming can be explained by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and there are zero mechanisms which have stood up to scrutiny other than CO2 emissions which could explain the observed temperature rise. You'll note that I write 125% of the observed warming and I keep doing this...for a reason. It is just as likely that the CO2 warming effect has been damped out by other effects (the solar minimum in the last 5 years, chinese air pollution, the buffering capacity of the ocean), which could be overcome in short order. And you don't get to focus on the low side, the 75%, and say that the remainder is somehow unexplained, without having to note the chance that the emitted CO2 already ought to be doing more than it is. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent trying to come up with any other mechanism that would explain the current warming, and tens of millions more have been spent trying to see if there is any geologic evidence of climate change that isn't linked strongly to CO2. In every case, CO2 keeps winning. That's what I keep saying to you. You keep asserting that the warming is established but the mechanism isn't...but you can't give me another mechanism that I can't shoot down with data. Without that, holding out "Skepticism" is effectively unfounded. You can keep testing stuff if you have a good idea, no one disagrees with that, but without evidence for the skepticism, you're in the boat of relying solely on "But there are error bounds on here, look at the low side, if that side is right then things might not be tremendously horrible".

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 09:01 AM) Santorum was in CO before the FL primary was even over. He saturated there, while Romney and Gingrich barely showed up - because it doesn't count for anything. Why Does Colorado not count for anything?

White Sox over Tigers in MLB Network's baseball IQ:

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 08:47 AM) I'd like to sign re-sign Jennings..what are expectations of Finnegan and Landry? Can't imagine the Skins letting Landry go... There's some talk of franchising Landry, but he's finished the last 2 seasons hurt and the Redskins might not want to risk that. Edit: Oh, and tagging a player would really hurt them if they were shooting for Peyton.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 08:52 AM) Fixed. The consistent winners in the NFL draft the best player available and not based on need. We have holes everywhere, some more glaring than others, but just gimme the best player who slips to our pick. The Bears really need to go into the draft at the very least with their #1 WR, #2 DE, and backup tackle positions filled in free agency. If they don't do that, then they're almost forced to try to fill those needs.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 08:39 AM) Wasn't that fault not discovered until after 1963? There was an Earthquake on it in 1868 that killed about 30 people.