Balta1701

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ May 16, 2007 -> 09:08 AM) Moore's point is well made... and will be enforced when the movie comes out. That depends on how loose Mr. Moore plays with his facts in this film compared with his recent work.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ May 16, 2007 -> 08:56 AM) The United States Geological Survey estimates the Cuban deal involves 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Times. The paper said that's enough oil and gas to power the U.S. for a few months. Ugh, I can't stand estimates like this, because they're so bloody misleading. The same thing happens with ANWR. Yes, 4.6 billion barrels of oil would be enough to power the U.S. in its entirety for a few months. But, that is if all of that oil could be pumped out within a few months. Sadly, that simply can't happen. What is a lot more likely is that a lot of money will be spent over the next 10 years developing these fields and overall they'll produce something on the order of a few hundred thousand barrels of oil per day. In reality, this is basically just a drop in the bucket. The output of these fields won't even be enough to offset the decrease in production of Mexico now that mexico's largest oil field in the Gulf has peaked. It won't even be enough to offset the growth of U.S. energy demand over 1 year (depending on how much the price goes up). If you start talking about not drilling here, not drilling in ANWR, and not drilling in the rocky mountain front region, you're talking about sacrificing maybe 1% of the U.S.'s oil consumption. The simple fact is, while these reservoirs sound big, they are microscopic compared with even the growth of U.S. energy demand, let alone the total bulk energy demand.

30 day suspension. Yawn. They'll barely notice.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ May 15, 2007 -> 06:59 PM) Orlando, FL. On a minor league field. And I believe they drew about 1000 more fans than they drew last year for an average game in a Rangers @ Tampa series.

The pistons do not come into the UC and celebrate. End of discussion.

Anderson with a bases loaded infield single.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ May 15, 2007 -> 05:34 PM) Glad he's doing well in AAA, though. 3/3 with 3 RBI now.

Charlotte playing @ Columbus tonight. With a really big guy wearing #25 at DH. Toby Hall 2/2 with a pair of RBi already, Charlotte up 2-1 in the 5th. Gavin Floyd v. Tim Redding. Mississippi @ Birmingham. Egbert vs. Smith. Winston-Salem gets Salem again tonight. Rodriguez vs. Salamida. Kannapolis vs. Savannah. Jacob Rasner on the hill, goes 6 innings, gives up 3 runs.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 15, 2007 -> 05:06 PM) Are there minimum spend numbers you have to meet in order to get the 5%? Also, do you get cash back or points? No minimum, but points. Lotta gift card options that work with it though, usually I cash them in for Foot Locker or Target and it basically works just like cash.

I'm using a Citibank Diamond Preferred Rewards mastercard. 5% back on Grocery, drug store, & convenience store/gas purchases, 1% back on everything else. And yes, I've never held a balance.

So, does it seem to anyone else like Robert Horry just delivered home court advantage to the Spurs? God stuff like that bugs me. Horry commits the foul, and it hurts Phoenix a lot more than SA.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 15, 2007 -> 03:46 PM) I like Gary Matthews Jr.....he would have been a great fit on this team. MLB and the Feds shut down his supplier.

Either way, there really is no way the league is going to come out of this looking like the good guys.

Link

QUOTE(Texsox @ May 15, 2007 -> 12:58 PM) And here is a philosophical conundrum in all this. Does a good person go into a bad situation and try to make it better, or does a good person just avoid it all together and avoid getting that stink on them? Depends on the salary.

QUOTE(Texsox @ May 15, 2007 -> 12:27 PM) IIRC it worked in London, I didn't realize that any US city was looking at it. D.C. was talking about it this week also.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ May 15, 2007 -> 11:30 AM) What about our outfield situations? Well call me crazy but I would put Sweeney out in RF, Anderson out in CF and just sign Erstad to another 1 year cheap deal to play LF. And if Anderson once again sucks it up behind the plate in 2008 just trade for Rowand! Erstad will either be making $6 million with the White Sox or he won't be with the White Sox next year. For the Sox to actually want him back, he'll have to get his 600 or so plate appearances and actually perform in them without getting hurt, at which point his option will increase up to $6 mil. If he gets hurt or his performance drops down to Konerko/Dye levels, then he'd be cheaper, but why would you want him back if he can't stay healthy here?

Sweep the Yankees, take the momentum into the series with the Cubs.

Link. I wouldn't think it would be all that difficult to save on bandwith by simply restricting the rate at which certain pages can transfer. Indiana U did that all the way back in 2000 when Napster first started taking up its bandwith.

The link is so old I can't even find it any more, but a couple years ago, one of the SI guys took a look at ERA's of pitchers who switch between leagues. There was considerable scatter, but overall, moving from the AL to NL was worth about a run improvement in ERA, while the opposite move raised your ERA by about a run. But, there were pitchers on both sides of the distribution. Some pitchers made the switch and improved their ERA by 1.5 runs or so, some pitchers made the switch and worsened by 1.5 runs or more.

I believe CNN on the TV has reported he has died.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ May 15, 2007 -> 10:33 AM) Bloomberg couldn't win. I'd love to see him run though and draw attention to serious issues like energy independence. then and only then would he be successful. Is Mr. Bloomberg actually big on that issue? Heck, which issues is Bloomberg actually even big on? He's been in public service for less time than Obama, he has no national record whatsoever, and I don't even have a clue what he thinks about Iraq, just for starters.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 15, 2007 -> 10:34 AM) Throw Alex Rodriguez into that bunch as well. I would also say on the other side of things if lilly white Mark McGwire was within 10 of the record, he would be getting tons of grief as well. I really believe that is the reason he quit when he did... He saw the writing on the wall. I'll disagree on this one. I think the reason Mac retired when he did was that his body was breaking down after all the years of being pumped up via chemistry. His last 2 years, he had 236 and 299 at bats, respectively. He still hit about 30 home runs each year, but he couldn't stay on the field.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ May 15, 2007 -> 09:07 AM) Agreed. Unless the Sox move Contreras and Garland (along with dumping Buehrle, Dye, and Iguchi) they simply won't have the money to sign an impact free agent. In any case Williams has stated the organization is philosophically opposed to spending on FAs because they don't like the market prices. My prediction: the Sox sign Rowand and that's it for FAs. They've committed to building through young players -- they want to be the Twins. Unfortunately, they don't have the Twins minor league system, manager, or GM. I think that the Sox would have the money to sign an impact FA without dumping Garland if, and this is a big If...Anderson, Fields, Sweeney, and 1 of the rookie pitchers could come up next year and take places. Buehrle's $+ Dye's $ + Crede's $ + Erstad's $ + Podsednik's $ together come to about $25 million next year. If you replace that with 4 guys making the league minimum, then even with the salary increases to guys like Uribe, Thome, and some of the folks in the bullpen, then the Sox still would have something on the order of $20 million left over to make a run at someone. That could be spent on a big name guy to play LF and resigning Iguchi, if that's what we wanted to do. But that all depends on our youth actually showing up.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 15, 2007 -> 09:55 AM) Close your eyes and think back to the sametime in 2005. Do you hear Barrack Obama? I think the best argument for this article being wrong is that it is from the Washington Times. But well, we'll see. It would certainly be interesting to see if someone actually could buy the Presidency.