Balta1701

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:53 PM) Also if I were the Bulls Id keep pitching Bosh that it doesnt matter what Lebron does, if you come to the Bulls things are going to happen. A starting lineup with Rose, Bosh, Noah, and Deng, with Johnson and Gibson and Asik off the bench, could contend for a title right now if the Bulls could pull off a quality shooting guard and some backcourt depth with their remaining FA dollars.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:50 PM) That's a really weird one... it's definitely an officially offered jersey from NBA.com. http://store.nba.com/family/index.jsp?cate...&cp=1421535 Interestingly enough, it's not on the Knicks or Heat pages. What does THE LEAGUE know? That the Bulls had Jerome James on their roster until today?

QUOTE (SHIPPS @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:47 PM) Bosh meeting up again??? Is he signing this time??? Someone give ME ANSWERS! Well, technically he's forbidden from signing anything until July 8, so I can clearly answer "No" on that.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) Just sign Bosh and all will be well. Even better would be to drop Deng at the same time.

The House passed a bill giving the committee investigating the BP Spill subpoena power by a 420-1 margin. That same bill is hung up in the Senate by Sen. DeMint, who has a hold on it.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:34 PM) KC Johnson reporting the meeting was actually just under 2 hours. Oh, that settles it, clearly he's coming to Chicago, and that extra 20 minutes was necessary to start xeroxing contracts.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:26 PM) Oh my, Bucks reportedly close to re-signing Salmons for 5 yr, 39 million per David Aldridge. Seriously? And so on and on the NBA will go complaining about half its teams losing money

Hey, the TWolves signed Milicic last night.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) Wade is done with his meeting with the Bulls. It lasted 90 minutes. Some loyalty. That meeting should have lasted 18 years.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:04 PM) The study I would be interested would be to see how many crimes were prevented due to gun use. Random successful google search result. For a number 2 orders of magnitude higher, you can use this person.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 11:04 AM) Am I crazy when I say Mr. Vladimir Guerrero is a legitimate MVP candidate? The numbers are eye-popping: .339/18/68/.383/.580/.962. Not bad for 5.5 million. And has the Ranger front office done a hell of a job putting together that team or what? A combination of excellent scouting/drafting and two amazingly awesome trades (Hamilton for Volquez/Andrus, Feliz for Tex). You look at their roster and other than Michael Young, who's having a great year, there isn't one bad contract on that team. Texas is set up to own that division for a while. Now stop for a moment and imagine D1 in their rotation and Masset in their bullpen. Anyway...yes, Guerrero is an MVP candidate, in the sense that he should finish in the top 10 if he continues at this pace. But there are 5 guys ahead of him in OPS. Morneau is nearly 100 points higher. He's not even leading his own team right now; Hamilton is. And some of the guys ahead of him, like Hamilton and Cano, play important defensive positions as well. The guys behind him haven't been too shabby with the glove either (Konerko and Beltre).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) Exactly, they will compete, but they may not have the horses to go the whole way and beat that many good teams in the playoffs. But they should be a contender for several years while some of the players in the pipe develop into those serious contributors. If you compare having Niemi in goal to start the year after his playoff performance with having Huet in the goal to start the year last year, does that change the calculation?

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 12:51 PM) Their current team can do one extra year, is that the extra 30 mil? I don't understand why thats an issue unless these guys think they will be out of the league in 4-5 years, just sign another deal when the current one ends. Part of that is consideration of the new CBA. It's likely that there's going to be a severe drop in the max salary levels, so that last year might be worth a lot less. Factor in the possibility of injury, and you're still talking about a possible loss of $10 million if you're healthy and never regress if you don't sign with your current team, and maybe more if you blow out a knee.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 10:07 AM) As is every other fast food joint. Generally where there's a McDonald's there's 2-3 other cheap fast food places. Because they're such a dominant force, they're a remarkably good nationwide proxy for "Fast food in general". The area in black here is the area that is "Dominated" by McDonalds.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 10:04 AM) It would be interesting to know where the largest volume neighborhood stores are. Forget the ones at major tourist destinations, but the neighborhood "my McDs". I'd bet that this is private corporate data.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 09:59 AM) Wouldn't most people with a million dollars think twice before committing those resources in a poor neighborhood? It seems like a risk reward formula. Higher risk with higher potential rewards has a store in a poor neighborhood without competition. Lower risk, with lower rewards, operating in a middle class neighborhood. You're 100% right...which means that the lack of a correlation between numbers of stores and income suggests that a balancing act has come about where there no correlations between number of McDonalds and income, but there is a correlation between number of mcdonalds and obesity and between obesity and poverty.

McClatchey on the Jones Act topic

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 09:51 AM) Balta, number of stores doesn't equal level of sales, or % of diet. With a McDonalds though, it's a decent proxy. They take steps to make sure their franchises don't overgrow demand, like occasionally shuttering stores. There's also a ridiculously high startup franchise fee in the way also (5+ years ago it was >$1 million per store franchise fee).

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 09:49 AM) So the history books, for example, that will be used nationwide will be heavily influenced by Texas and California standards. Also worth noting...California's budgetary state right now is an epic disaster, and as such, the textbook purchases of its schools have been drastically curtailed since the housing bubble burst

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 09:43 AM) And the fast food is a result of economics. People with a couple dollars versus people with ten dollars at meal time.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 09:37 AM) Then in 3 or 4 years, it will be brought to court, again. And its constitutionality will have been decided entirely by whether or not one "Anthony Kennedy" decides to retire while a Democrat is in the White House or while a Republican is there.

Interesting list. The RNC has already chosen Tampa. The only one on the list I'd disagree with is Minny, because they just hosted the RNC. At some level, all 4 are swing state locations.

Actually can't access this paper from here, but there's the abstract

This reminds me of the Tracy McGrady courtship. Hopefully the Bulls don't screw up and take anyone to Wrigley.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 08:00 PM) Barack Obama was/is in charge of the bailout. Don'tcha know, by passing this financial reform, "this will never happen again" ... why don't those evil motherf***ers across the aisle agree with me, myself and I? I never knew that Obama appointed Paulson. Impressive, this man's time travel skills.