Balta1701

Um...yeah...DOD...This needs to stop. Right now.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 11:15 AM) I wonder if maybe the Tribe might trade for him at the deadline or something. They have prospects prob trade anyone besides Miller/Sowers/Marte and they should have more than enough to resign him long term. could be the Tribe's lineup mid-season Sizemore Belliard Peralta Hafner V-Mart Clee Michaels Marte Garko/Brousard I don't think the Tribe's question marks will be on offense next year. And I don't know if they could pick up a guy like CLee without giving up a guy like Garko or Marte either.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 11:08 AM) Racist! Well, Whitey is keeping me down....

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 10:07 AM) Turd Blossom. You know what, though, I say go for it. Again, *IF* the President is this 'wrong' on this issue, expose it, distance yourself from it, and run your election. I bet they have a better chance if this really is 'wrong'. That only makes sense as a plan for the Republicans if they're confident that the President will actually have to take some sort of punishment or reprimand over this act. Barring the appointment of a special prosecutor, the fact that the Democrats have no power to subpoena or indict in either house of Congress makes that extremely unlikely. If the Republicans hold together, they know very well that no investigation will go anywhere.

Here's McCain's letter, which I didn't see in full text yet.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 08:07 AM) The headlines will be great, playing off of the Lee/Lee thing. Its so predictable. So, the Cubs will finish 2nd in trying to sign Both guys named Lee. Gotcha.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 7, 2006 -> 06:48 AM) I don't know who saw his pitching clinic and who did not at Soxfest, but he said the reason he was pitching so badly at that point in the season was that his arm angle had faded downwards. Brandon said he is most successful when his arm angle is fully over the top and he is throwing straight downhill. His length makes the pitch gets on the hitter quicker, and all of his pitches come out of the same arm angle, so he also has that deception working for him. He also was throwing like 1-2 changeups a game in his first stint up. He can say all he wants about his arm angle...but if he doesn't throw that changeup, he's a fastball/curveball pitcher, and he won't win like that.

Also don't forget Brandon McCarthy against Texas, right before Brandon McCarthy against Boston. Total, roughly 15 innings...SHUTOUT BALL.

QUOTE(FoxySoxGirl @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 05:13 PM) My thoughts exactly. The Bud light with the guy that steals his friend's beer was a close 3rd. At least there was beer at the party I was at to get through the 2nd half of commercials, and the game for that matter. Was it just me or did most of the funny commercials happen in the 1st 2 quaters?? Um, they always try to do that. The early commercials are worth a lot more than the later ones, because if the game winds up turning into a blowout or a very boring game, people will tune out the 2nd half. That still doesn't explain how the Hell that awful BK spot was the 2nd ad shown during the game.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 05:04 PM) no crack or any of the other childish remarks hold any backing - this was simply made public to appease manny and his agent. That makes a lot more sense than the offer itself.

Happy Birthday to the van-driver!

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 02:58 PM) C Lee is an FA next year correct? If he makes it to that period, I wouldnt be surprised to see him with the flubs. I still expect him to wind up with the Yankees, with Matsui moving to right to take over the position of Sheffield, whose contract ends and who seems like he's approaching retirement age there. Although Anaheim isn't a bad idea for him either, given how bad it looks like Anderson has dropped off. And there's certian to be a few others at the table, just a question of how much they want to pay for a power hitting left fielder.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 02:06 PM) that brings us to 22, not 21. it sounds like ozzie will carry 12, which i frankly dont agree with. Id rather have a 14th position player who can contribute by pinch running late in the game than a 12th pitcher who is only gonna get into 9-1 games. but if i had to guess ozzie is gonna have 12 pitchers, so ill say borchard makes it, unless they trade him. munoz will be out there and i guess baj. Just a guess though...im not sure why we signed grieve...isnt he just gload without as good of contact, and borchard without the power? One of the nice things about picking up a guy like Machowiak to go along with a guy like Pablo is that each of them can play ALL over the diamond, and if we need to pinch run with a guy like Pablo, then we still have Mack and probably another outfielder on the bench. It's also very nice to be in the AL, because you don't deplete your bench early by pinch hitting for the pitcher. So, we're able to run with 12 pitchers, which even if 1 guy just works junk "The game's already lost" innings, keeps more people fresh.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) As for the work itself he essentially demonstrated characteristics of "strong" selection on magnitudes millions of times greater than other mammals. If it comforts you into believing that was a random hapistance resulting from man's history of survival then so be it. This is simply wrong, and there's no way around it being wrong. It is not only wrong, but it is completely wrong. From Prof. Lahn's page: So, for those who haven't a clue what that means, here's some layman's terms. They examined the rate of mutation of certain genes in humans and used rodents as a control group. In both cases, there are some proteins which do not change at all when a mutation occurs in the genes which code for that protein. That gives a background rate of mutation adoption - if there is no change in a protein, then the only thing which governs whether or not a mutation will be adopted is pure random probability. If I have a protein that looks the same if it is coded by sequence A or B, then it's just random chance which one will be adopted. Therefore, this number gives us a background rate at which any random mutation will be adopted. Then, if you look at changes which do affect the proteins and compare that to the background rate, you can get a measure of how strong a selective pressure there is. The more strongly a trait is selected for, the more strongly and more rapidly it will be adopted as the more fit individuals take over a population. First of all...a 50% increase is slightly different from the many thousands of times difference you're claiming. Secondly...yes, humanity is a "priveledged species" in 1 sense...in the sense that humanity evolved in a situation where there was a very strong selective pressure towards the development of a more advanced brain. There is nothing designed about it, nothing religious about it, nothing done by Jesus. The process is exactly the same one we're talking about. Random mutations acted upon by selective pressures. I think that almost anyone here can understand why there might be a selective pressure which would drive the body towards the evolution of a larger brain. The evolution of better tools, the evolution of better communication both come to mind immediately. Prof. Lahn is not saying, despite what you contend, that humanity is special in any sense beyond the fact that we faced a selective driving force towards the large brains that we have today which was not experienced by any other creature currently on earth, which isn't that surprising since, well, there are very few other rodents currently capable of building computers.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) We are living in the computer age. Next comes the cyborg age. Then after that comes the synthetic life age. Selection isn't at work there. We are. Please share your time machine with me when it's available for a moment. I'd love to check on a few stocks next week.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 02:14 PM) obviously the reffing from last night was still fresh in people's minds, because the NBA's reffing is by far the worst...and I'd bet very few of these voters could make a slightly educated judgement on NHL refs. some games are officiated worse than others, but some of the calls people are b****ing about (such as Woody Paige, who's a complete windbag if you ask me) aren't really that inexcusable. in the first replay it was still difficult to tell if anybody got a hand on Hasselbeck, and I still think Darrell Jackson did push off. If you couldn't see the guy getting a hand on hasselbeck, I'm amazed you could see Jackson even touch the DB. Hasselbeck had his shirt clearly grabbed on the way down. I'll grant it was only obvious from 1 angle, but from that angle it was incredibly obvious. Had the refs not overturned that call...that'd have been enough for me to say they were bought off. Because they did overturn it, I just think they stank.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 01:29 PM) If the Brewers manage to swing Carlos for a decent starting pitcher (preferably a lefty) they will win the NL Central next year. Hell, even if they don't trade Carlos I think they have a hell of a chance. This team is really starting to grow on me. I sat here reading your post thinking..."Who out there with some cash could/should be in the market for an outfield bat this year, and do they have pitching to trade"? Immediately, my head spat out: Why not Anaheim? If they want to make a run at that division this year they need another bat, they're pretty close to signing Weaver so they may have an extra arm, and if the Brewers didn't ask for Ervin Santana, they might be able to do something there. The Angels would also have the money to resign CLee if they wanted to.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 01:31 PM) To answer your question here's a good site: http://www.sciencedaily.com/ Given your supposed credentials you should be able to find a source or a link to a source that will either confirm or reject any position. If you are open-minded then you should be capable of finding information serving as pro's on both sides of the issue. Not when there's no information on 1 side to find. I could still probably find 1-2 actual Ph.D's in geology who don't believe in plate tectonics. That doesn't mean they're right, and it doesn't mean they're publishing. Sending me to a science news aggregator is one hell of a pass on my challenge to provide your sources. Do you expect me to look through every research article published today? This week? The last 3 months? The last 5 years?

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 01:34 PM) It wasn't the Democrats who leaked this story, it was an NSA whistleblower. But I'm sure he's a Democrat too. Actually, it was quite a few of them. The NYT held onto that story for months, and heard the same thing over and over again from people who knew the details of the program.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 01:28 PM) Drew Gooden to the Bulls? Here's the article. http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives..._a_gooden_deal/ Well, I can't say I've seen him play, but it probably wouldn't hurt the Bulls to trade some of that backcourt depth for some more strength inside, even though we'd basically be running with 2 power forwards instead of a PF and a Center. And giving up Duhon would mean Gordon would be getting more playing time.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Feb 6, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) Oh, come on. The Democrats and "liberals" did that themselves by disclosing this program if you want to be technical. But I'm sure they're heros for standing up against our DICKtator president, right? Huh? The Democrats in the government conducted an orchestrated, covert plan to engage in illegal propaganda by disclosing the program? Then what the hell happened when Mr. Bush came out the next day, gave more details about the thing, and proudly said yes I'm doing it and FU! (hence, the day that this thread was started and it became something more than a report in the NYT)

ESPN.com finally flipped to cover mainly the officiating. This piece by Bayless hits on the refs, and this Michael Smith piece has been up all morning. But as usual...the interesting stuff is in The Poll Man, saying the NFL has worse officials than the NBA...that's one heck of an insult.

Link with video.