Balta1701

Who knew that when we started shortening everyone named Rodriguez's name to a letter followed by "Rod", we were paving the way for Twitter?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) I'm pretty sure they were also able to avoid the housing bubble that sank pretty much everyone else. Well yeah...not a whole lot of demand for brand new tract housing in those states even in boom times.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 04:02 PM) Yeah, I got it. It's ok. I was hoping for all levels. Then they might have something. Probably giving it a start to see how popular/profitable it is.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 03:58 PM) NE and SD have been doing relatively well throughout this whole recession iirc. Think about their economies...those are mostly agricultural production states, and despite a moderate blip in 2008, food prices have remained high and government subsidies have remained strong.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 03:56 PM) Seems like a very odd mix there, hard to pin a reason on which states are strong and not. IL and IN are next to each other, but have castly different tactics they have been using lately. MT is a whole different story, and then there is the SE coast. On the strong side, TX and NM, and three plains states? Weird. Which argues to me that the IL tax policy changes probably had some impact on growth, but it's not sending the state on a death spiral.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 03:39 PM) He's going to get way more than that From who? Seriously, how often do teams substantially overbid what fangraphs says a player is worth?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 03:39 PM) That chart has to be fake. Just look at Texas. Of course. Their government has been expanding employment.

On the subject of Illinois, the Philly Fed is out with their state by state "Coincident indices" this month, showing sorta how each state is doing over the last 3 months (basically the time since IL increased its taxes). As you can see, Illinois and Indiana have had similar economic condition changes over the last 3 months, and Michigan has gotten quite a bit weaker.

Nuclear reactor site in VA has supposedly scrammed successfully.

Link

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 03:16 PM) Apparently I need to bring Balta to Iowa if I want to prevent the ultra-rare earthquake. No, see, they actually happen around me, I just never feel them.

Wow, after 2009 when Aaron Hill looked like he'd be a better version of Beckham and Kelly Johnson was getting DFA'd by the Braves, who'da thunk that?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 02:36 PM) So we need to start the pool to guess who is going to be the first to blame the earthquake on God's anger towards someone/thing. The epicenter was right in Eric Cantor's district.

He's announcing that he felt the earthquake.

Up on ESPN now.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 02:42 PM) I was on a conference call with people in NJ and NYC, and they suddenly said the building is shaking, and all jumped off. At first I thought maybe some sort of attack. Sort of odd, a few hours earlier, there was a quake in southern Colorado that was the strongest that state has had in like 40 years. Coincidence? Yes.

Email sent around to the Knoxville campus from coach Pat Summit:

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 02:02 PM) A monster 2.2 earthquake just hit. At first I thought I was dizzy, then I realized things were moving in my office, then I went back to work...then I posted this. Edit: looks like this was from the DC quake? and that magnitude isn't right. By the way, if you actually felt this quake, please take a few minutes and fill out the USGS "Did you feel it" report. It actually helps build up seismic propagation maps when a lot of those reports come in.

I just posted this elsewhere where someone asked why there was an earthquake at a spot like this.

Yeah, so as usual, the actual geologist feels nothing. Sigh.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 02:05 PM) True about the gas station. I just downloaded Gas Buddy on my phone, and it solves that problem. Car comes with a 3 year warranty, i believe. I've had my Diesel for about 1 year, my wife has had hers (audi a3 diesel) for about 2. Runs perfectly. It's probably 3 years/36,000 miles though. If he's doing 50k miles, then that warranty will last him 9 months.

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 02:02 PM) A monster 2.2 earthquake just hit. At first I thought I was dizzy, then I realized things were moving in my office, then I went back to work...then I posted this. See, now I'm excited, so I had to go check some maps. Are you sure that it was the 2.2? I think that was earlier in the day. A legitimate one actually just struck near D.C., Northern Virginia, 15 minutes ago, I'd guess that was actually what you felt. Current estimated magnitude is 5.9.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 01:57 PM) He's going to make some catches that will be top play on SportsCenter, but he's also going to drop some that make you say WTF. Roy Williams is who we thought he was. By the end of the season, I think most will see him as a welcomed addition. If he can't catch at least 1 of those 2 balls last night, then he will not be a welcomed addition. That is 100% why he is needed...to be the big body that helps the Bears move the chains. One stat that was given last night was that the Bears led the league in 3 and outs last year. That happened because the Bears WR's couldn't move the chains on 3rd downs when people knew that a quick throw was coming.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 01:34 PM) 28 teams won't take that contract though. Yankees and Red Sox may take a pass until trade deadline of next year and if Thornton is declining you won't be able to trade him. Too much risk, not enough reward for keeping him past 8/31. I bet you that 25/28 would take that contract.