Balta1701

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 11:07 AM) Both wildcards from the same division happened twice in 2007 and once in 2006. It can happen, especially when you have three strong teams in the same division as one really weak team. Dallas is the biggest threat, because the Bears don't play them and don't control the tiebreaker with them. Having already secured wins against Atlanta, Tampa, and Philly makes the scenario more likely, since those teams probably have to get to 11 wins to beat out the Bears, and honestly, I think the Bears and Lions can both win 11 games. Here's the kicker though...if the Bears lose next week to the Lions...that makes the Bears 5-4 on the season. 7 games to play...getting to 11 wins means the Bears need to go 6-1 in their last 7 games, including 1 game on the road at Lambeau. That's do-able against their schedule...but it's ugly. The Bears do not want to be in that boat.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:58 AM) I'd be more upset to see somewhere like NY or Boston, or even Detroit, versus the Cubs or Marlins. Depends on the contract offers, a little. I mean, yeah maybe he doesn't want to play there for a long time, but put him in one of those cities and he massively improves his chances at another title.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:56 AM) I can't be upset with Mark. If the Sox really wanted him, they shouldn't have let him hit the market. Anything that happens after this point is their own damned fault. I dunno, it's actually kinda hard to know what Mark Buehrle's market value is right now, and Mark might well want to know that. The Sox really ought to outbid just about anyone for him though.

Bill Daley appears to be losing some authority in a minor white house staff position shakeup.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:52 AM) It isn't a trick, you don't "own" your pension plan. The others are things that are yours, in some relative level. It's not a "Trick" per se, perhaps the wrong word, but that's the underlying thing being shown by the data.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:39 AM) I wouldn't think so, but then again, now that he is in free agency, what's to say someone won't throw him an obscene amount of money, ala the Nationals, to try to pry him away. Money might not be a primary motivator, but there is also the reality that some dollar amounts you can't walk away from. We saw something similar with Thome and Philly. Because "Throwing an obscene amount of money at a player" is not always the best strategy, especially if you're not 1 year away from being a competitive franchise.

I'd say a much bigger issue if the Bears fail to handle the Lions next week is that it's got to be really hard to have 3 playoff teams from 1 division and 1 each from the other 3. If the Bears have 2 losses to the Lions, they are really counting on none of the other teams sitting around 4-4 to step up and hit a series of wins over the next few weeks (Dallas, for example, has Buffalo, Washington, Arizona, and Miami on its schedule the next 4 weeks, and could easily be sitting at 8-4 after that streak.)

So, the real trick behind the numbers in the previous article are that defined-benefit pension plans seemingly aren't being counted as assets, while 401k or employer-sponsored private investment accounts are. Thus, as time has passed since the mid-80's and defined benefit pension plans have gone away, the "Net worth" of people with some sort of retirement plan has gone up substantially, but this would have zero impact on most young people. As a consequence, every average group in that survey has shown growth in their net worth since the 1980's except for the youth group, because something that was previously not counted as an asset is now being counted.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:13 AM) that's not a big surprise really as people have demanded access to their money instantly all over the world. This can still happen through smaller banks though, if they either partner with a larger ATM network or if they simply pay the ATM fee themselves in order to keep customers around that they want. There's no reason why this "Requires" a certain level of bank size to happen, it's simply one benefit that can be offered to customers who desire that benefit. It's also an interesting one, because "not having to pay the $10 you'd rack up with a couple of roaming ATM charges" is a direct charge that shows up everywhere, but a 0.1% lower interest rate is probably worth more money to a lot of people, but that is a less direct charge and as such people probably evaluate it differently.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 10:07 AM) The amt. of bank options available the past 10 years have precipitously decreased. Yes, there are options, but after Chase, Citi and BofA it becomes hyper regional. There are still ways around this issue though. There are still plenty of local banks and credit unions if a customer is genuinely looking for one of those, and they will usually offer most/all of the services you want. THere are 8430 FDIC insured banks right now in this country. Local businesses might start having issues if they want to grow because of the concentration of banking, but that's not likely to be a huge issue for most people here. The question is whether you are more interested in higher interest rates, better personal service, or more national issues like ATM's in multiple places that you can use for free or branches in multiple cities. The bank has a right to charge whatever fees it thinks are appropriate to its business model, just like customers have the right to move to a different facility if they feel they are being overcharged. The bigger issues are the hidden fees which are hidden from customers and the fact that the combination of banks and investment firms is key to making the investment firm section become "Too big to fail".

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) I agree. I don't see the Sox offering more than 3 years, though. If Mark can get 4 years at $16 million per, good for him. I just really don't want to see him go to Florida, even though it doesn't really matter if he goes to an NL team. 3 years/$48 million would be pushing it for Mark, but that'd still be one of those moments where I'd generally agree with people calling management cheap.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 09:30 AM) Just has to take his time -- anyone not from those areas that isn't acclimated to the elevation should take their time for a few days. Practically anywhere you go in those areas, there is stuff to do/find. This one is completely accurate, I've got a couple dozen other things I've done that would be worth a stop. The things I'd say "Don't miss" in the area are Glacier (driving going-to-the-sun road), the Beartooth pass, Grand Prismatic Spring from above, a hike along the Grand Canyon of the yellowstone, Norris Geyser basin, the Old Faithful inn, some hiking up near the peaks of the Tetons if you take the tram lift, and some backcountry hiking if you can pick a trail. I'd have added Kayaking on yellowstone Lake onto this list had there not been an oil spill.

I'd also highly recommend driving the Beartooth pass if you're in that area. There are some incredible hikes in the Beartooths as well. The hike up to Grasshopper glacier can be described as "Highly recommended" if you have a vehicle that can make the first 1/2 of the drive and you can survive a hike at 11,000 feet.

That depends on how desperate you are for porn.

If you go to grand prismatic spring (and you should), look for a hill across the street. Unless it's been blocked off, there's a trail that can get you to the top of that hill, and an awesome view across the way to that thing.

Beehive is incredible, btw.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 09:13 AM) You disagree with what? I said that seeing Old Faithful takes a few hours...you then say you disagree with that...and then said it takes a few hours. I never told him to not go there, but he may not be the type of person that likes crowds. You said that it takes a few hours because of the number of people. That's the kind of thing that would scare me off if I didn't know better. You get a crowd lined up right around Old Faithful that floods in and out right when that geyser goes off, but otherwise, there's a ton of other stuff to do and 2/3 of the crowd sticks right at old faithful.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 07:28 AM) I think his assignment was Cole, and he looked great. Louis had Babin. I get those two mixed up. Louis pancaked his guy on one play. Webb is starting to come around. Next year Spencer will play center and Carimi will play a position full time. The best thing you can say about Webb's performance last night was that you never noticed him. He wasn't obviously getting beat, he wasn't obviously getting pushed back into Cutler, and Cutler was clean for almost the whole night. You never noticed pressure coming from Cutler's backside.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 08:56 AM) I'm not do committed to Williams at LG Williams was the key guy on all those big Forte runs to the right side that happened in the first half...Williams and either Garza or Spencer were the 2 guys pulling to get out in front of Forte, and Williams has the farthest to go. Webb did a solid job of sealing the back side while Williams pulled to get out front, those plays really took advantage of his mobility.

Really hard to do that using Apple products, they dont' allow porn apps in the app store and they don't use flash.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 09:05 AM) Glacier is pretty far from there. That's like 400+ miles north. If I had a month and I was in that area, there's no way I'd miss Glacier. Easily worth the extra day of driving.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 8, 2011 -> 09:04 AM) Yellow Stone and The Tetons are very close together, so you won't have much of a problem finding things to do between them/around them. If you go to this area in the peak summer times, it'll be absolutely packed, so depending on what your plans are, I'd start making some reservations now so you can get some of the nicer cabins, locations, etc. As for things to do in that area, because of how many people go there, it will easily take a few hours if you want to see Old Faithful. That said, there are a ton of smaller geysers around the area that nobody goes to look at (because they're not called Old Faithful) that you can have some private time at. I would actually disagree with that...it only takes a couple hours to see Old Faithful if you intend to see it a couple times. It gets a crowd, but the parking lots don't fill up, and there's lots of stuff to do right around it. First, the Old Faithful lodge is a gorgeous place to stop and at least take a meal/hit the shops, take a gander at the wooden construction above you while you're doing so, it's incredible. Then you've got the entire upper geyser basin around you to walk through, including Castle and Grand geysers, if you can catch them going they're a big treat also, but they're much more spaced out than Old Faithful. You'll want a few hours in the basin, but you can catch old faithful 2-3 times in a couple hours and still have tons of other stuff to do, not just because of the crowds.

I wonder if this says more that the Giants don't believe they have the funds available to make a legit run at keeping Beltran. Cabrera's a downgrade from Beltran but he's going to be an upgrade over whatever else they have.

Perhaps you should just sell it.

God damn that sounds like heaven. Add Glacier to your list. Get there while there are still glaciers. I could probably come up with a couple dozen things for you to hit, in and out of the parks, since I've done most of them. Can you start off with a little more of an outline?