Steff

QUOTE(tonyho7476 @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:22 AM) You said it...The guy's batting average does not warrant that kind of money...and how many teams get f***ed by these long term contracts...see Albert Belle. Ahh.. the universal example. :rolly

QUOTE(WSoxMatt @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:20 AM) No you have to pay those fees and are unrefundable!!! Incorrect. Greg, call and complain. Everyone I know who has, has gotten them credited back.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:19 AM) lol, Jay would fit in so well around here. How many f***ing choke avatars were floating around? How many naysayers that we got screwed on the Lee trade? How many were logged in last season waiting for KW to announce his resignation? Remember the dugout press conference? I'm beginning to think Jay is the ultimate Sox fan. The truth will hurt..

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:14 AM) I thought it was obvious No one really thought he was serious, and that had an relevance to his contract, do they? Naa.. not too many thought he was serious... only about a million people who stood out in the streets of Chicago for 3+ hours.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:08 AM) Tex, Kong is going to get a max deal. And that isnt going to be here. The hometown discount is a myth. The comments he made at the rally were probably just things that were caught up in the moment. His agent is going to shop him around and get the max deal. The Angels after watching Kong destroy them, and them needing a RH bat makes a perfect fit. Moreno will spend the money and is not afraid of making this deal. My money is on the Angels. Or carefully planned.... I'm voting the latter.

By Lisa Myers, Jim Popkin and Robert Windrem NBC News Updated: 11:03 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2005 WASHINGTON - A key figure in al-Qaida’s terror network in Europe is under arrest, U.S. counterterrorism officials tell NBC News. Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say that the alleged terrorist, Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, was recently arrested in Pakistan. Pakistani government officials say they are not aware of any such arrest. Nasar is an expert in explosives and chemicals who trained recruits at al-Qaida terror camps in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, according to counterterror officials and Nasar's wanted poster on the State Department's Rewards for Justice Web site. Nasar was born in Syria but is married to a Spanish woman and has Spanish nationality. He has traveled extensively in Europe and has militant connections in Europe, Pakistan and elsewhere, and security experts believe his arrest could prove to be an intelligence bonanza for the CIA and other U.S. and European counterterrorism agencies. Nasar is known inside the US intelligence world as the “pen jihadist”, a prolific writer whose communiques carry great weight in the militant underworld. He has written extensively on the Internet of his desire to use chemical or biological weapons against the United States, an effort he has described as “dirty bombs for a dirty nation." RELATED STORY Read more about the U.S. hunt for the ‘pen jihadist’ $5 million reward Last year, the U.S. government announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Nasar. In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by a Spanish magistrate for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. Nasar's name has been linked in the press to the July 7 terror bombings in London and to the deadly Madrid bombings in 2004, but US intelligence officials say they are not clear what role, if any, Nasar played in those attacks. The Associated Press reported Thursday morning that a man believed to be Nasar was captured in a raid this week in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. A second suspect, identified as Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani Islamic militant group allegedly linked to al-Qaida, also was arrested and a third suspect, a Saudi named Shaikh Ali Mohammed al-Salim, were shot and killed during the raid, AP reported. Report on arrest said inaccurate But U.S. counterterrorism officials tell NBC News that Nasar was arrested prior to the Quetta raid, and say it is unclear if the Quetta arrests are even connected at all to Nasar's arrest. Nasar's wanted poster on the Rewards for Justice Web site reports: "Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, is an al-Qaida member and former trainer at the Derunta and al-Ghuraba terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1958, Nasar was a member of the radical Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. He fled Syria in the 1980s and traveled widely throughout the Middle East and North Africa, before associating with the Algerian Islamic Group. He settled in Madrid in 1987 and gained Spanish citizenship through marriage. While in Spain, he authored a series of inflammatory essays under the pen name Umar Abd al-Hakim. In 1995 he moved to United Kingdom and served as a European intermediary for al-Qaida. Nasar traveled extensively between Europe and Afghanistan throughout the late 1990s, finally moving his family to Afghanistan in 1998. He attempted to organize his own extremist group prior to September 11, 2001 — but in the wake of the attacks he pledged loyalty to Osama bin Ladin as a member of al-Qaida. While in Afghanistan, Nasar worked closely with Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, to train extremists in poisons and chemicals. Nasar also conducted training at the al-Ghuraba camp in Afghanistan. He is likely in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Recent unconfirmed press reports suggest that he may have had a role in the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombings." More than 700 arrested Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, says it has arrested more than 700 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America, and has handed most of the suspects to the United States. The last reported arrest of a suspected key al-Qaida figure in Pakistan was in May, when Abu Farraj al-Libbi, the alleged mastermind of assassination attempts against Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was nabbed after a shootout in a northwestern town. He was later handed over to the United States

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 10:04 AM) If he wants stability, and we want options, maybe he'd be willing to do a contract that was solid through 5, then had mutual options in 6 and 7, similar to Thomas' contract. Not specific to you NSS, but this cracks me up... A year ago fans were screaming, yelling, and calling for Jerry to sell the Sox because they offered Maggs a deal structured similar.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 09:58 AM) They are going to move Erstad IMO and perhaps Kotchman as well if they can get PK. Kotchman could also be the full-time DH if they get Konerko. Mike Piazza would be a cheaper DH for them..

We're in the middle of selling off a division so they are being extra careful to dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's". It's a pain in the ass because I can't run closing reports until they say all is good to go. They've been here for 4 months.. haven't found 1 mistake.

Search on for violent prison escapers Murderer, kidnapper used garbage truck to break out of S. Carolina prison Updated: 9:18 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2005 COLUMBIA, S.C. - A manhunt was on across South Carolina on Thursday for two violent inmates who escaped a maximum-security prison in the back of a garbage truck. Johnny Brewer, 39, a murderer, and Jimmy Causey, 35, a kidnapper, were both serving life sentences at the time of Tuesday night's escape from the Broad River Correctional Institution in rural Jasper County at the southern tip of the state. Investigators believe the escapees, who were involved with feeding and cleaning up after other inmates, somehow managed to hide in a trash bin. “We won't know for certain how this occurred until we get them back,” said prisons director Jon Ozmint. “We feel fairly good about the theory they escaped in the Dumpster. It didn't take us that long to notice they were missing.” After the escape, state police agents recovered a four-door, champagne-colored 2002 Oldsmobile Alero the two inmates were seen riding in on Interstate 26 in Orangeburg County, about 70 miles north of the prison. Farther north in Richland County, just south of Columbia, a man and a woman were charged with helping the inmates escape and with lying to police. Another woman who was seen in the car was being investigated to see if she was helping the pair or was held against her will. “We're treating her as a victim at this time,” said State Law Enforcement Division inspector Stacey Drakeford. Ozmint said there had been some new developments in the case Wednesday but he refused to elaborate. Brewer was convicted in the 1994 slaying of his sister-in-law. Causey was convicted of holding prominent Columbia attorney Jack Swerling and his family at gunpoint in their home in 2002.

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 09:50 AM) I'm still trying to close FY04 Oye... :headshake

I'm bored waiting for the damn Auditors to get their s*** together and leave so I can close October.

Jurors Reach Verdict in Vioxx Case 3 minutes ago ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Jurors hearing the second liability trial over withdrawn painkiller Vioxx reached a verdict Thursday, which was expected to be announced by about 10:30 a.m. EST. The jurors have been deliberating since Tuesday afternoon over whether Vioxx maker Merck & Co. can be held liable for the Sept. 18, 2001 heart attack suffered by Idaho postal worker Frederick "Mike" Humeston — and whether Merck misled the public about the former blockbuster arthritis drug's cardiovascular risks. The jury deliberated for an hour late Tuesday and for an additional 6 1/2 hours Wednesday. Humeston, 60, of Boise, Idaho, says Merck failed to warn physicians and consumers about risks posed by Vioxx, which the company stopped selling last year because of links to heart attacks and strokes with long-term use. Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee, who presided over the case, told jurors before they began deliberations Tuesday to take their time weighing the evidence. The case, the second Vioxx lawsuit to go to trial, took seven weeks to present and was thick with highly technical medical testimony. Humeston's lawyers presented experts blaming Vioxx for the heart attack, and Merck countered by telling jurors there is no proof the drug harms people who take it less than 18 months. Jurors have been instructed to avoid media accounts of the trial while they are serving on the panel. However, they are not sequestered and are allowed to go home at night. The first question they have to answer is whether Merck failed to adequately warn doctors of risks it either knew or should have known about prior to Humeston's heart attack. If jurors find Merck failed to warn, they would then rule on whether Vioxx contributed to Humeston's heart attack and whether he and his wife should get compensatory damages. If the jury awards compensatory damages, jurors would then hear arguments from Merck and Humeston's lawyers about whether punitive damages should be awarded to punish Merck. If Merck is cleared of failing to warn, the jury still must consider whether Merck committed consumer fraud in marketing Vioxx by giving physicians misleading information or omitting data about its risks. But Merck faces a penalty for that of $30 at most — the amount Humeston paid toward his Vioxx prescriptions. The company, which faces more than 6,500 similar lawsuits, lost its first trial over Vioxx. In that case, a Texas jury found Merck liable in a Vioxx user's death. Damages there will be cut to about one-tenth of the jury's $253 million award due to that state's caps on punitive damages.

Nicotine Vaccine Shows Early Promise Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter Wed Nov 2,11:47 PM ET WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- A nicotine vaccine, a ray of hope for millions of smokers wanting to quit, has come one step closer to reality. Researchers presenting at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Baltimore on Wednesday reported strong safety and efficacy results for NicVAX. "We saw a significant effect," said lead author Dorothy K. Hatsukami, the Forster Family Professor in Cancer Prevention at the University of Minnesota's School of Medicine, in Minneapolis. The effects were significant enough to merit moving on to a full-blown clinical trial, she added. "It's absolutely worth it," Hatsukami stated. "There's a lot of promise for this vaccine, not just because of our study, but also because of other studies." NicVAX is now the frontrunner in the field, most likely to be the first to get results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for possible approval. "They're getting close to phase 3, which is the final step before presenting to the FDA," said Thomas J. Glynn, director of Cancer Science and Trends at the American Cancer Society. "We're still talking a couple of years, but they are pretty far ahead of the other two. It's a serious effort. It's no fly-by-night." The other two nicotine vaccines under development may be as much as four to six years away from market, Glynn added. The market for such a vaccine is huge, with about 50 million people in the United States still smoking. The habit contributes to a host of diseases and is the number one preventable risk factor for cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, causing more deaths than the other five top cancers combined. "This vaccine opens up a world of possibilities," Glynn said. At least two other vaccines are in development. In addition, Varenicline and Rimonabant, which are not vaccines, have reported about 50 percent quit rates at 12 weeks, and may be approved by the FDA within a year. The basic principles across the different vaccines are similar: The vaccine stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies that then attach to the nicotine molecule. In animal studies, this has been shown to slow delivery of nicotine to the brain while also decreasing the amount reaching the brain. The reason? The nicotine/antibody compound is too big to cross the blood-brain barrier. "It's such a novel way of treating an addiction because it's not targeting any part of the brain," Hatsukami said. "It's targeting the molecule itself." The current study, supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, was designed to look at safety, as well as levels of antibodies produced. Sixty-eight smokers were randomly assigned to receive different doses of the vaccine or a placebo. The participants were not recruited because they had expressed an interest in quitting. Although the study was not specifically designed to look at cessation, quit rates were impressive: 38 percent of the participants quit smoking for 30 days. "That's pretty good for people coming in for non-treatment," Hatsukami said. "We didn't even provide counseling unless they asked for it." Higher vaccine doses elicited better antibody responses. Participants receiving the highest dose were more likely to abstain from cigarettes for 30 days. "Far more people quit in the highest dose," Hatsukami said. "It looks like vaccines do have promise in terms of helping people quit smoking." Some participants reported aches and tenderness at the injection site, while some also reported headaches, malaise and muscle pain. Most of these side effects went away within a few days, the researchers said. There were no differences in withdrawal symptoms between those receiving the vaccine and those receiving a placebo. There also appeared to be no "compensatory smoking behavior," meaning vaccine recipients did not puff harder or smoke more cigarettes to compensate for the effect. Several questions still remain, Glynn pointed out: How long will the vaccine be effective? Will smokers need a booster? Will it be a relapse preventer? And is this something that could be given to a 9-year-old to prevent him or her from taking up the habit, much like the measles vaccine prevents measles? "The big question is, is this one of the magic bullets? My heart says yes and my head says no," Glynn said. "[but] it will enable us to start tailoring treatment even more for cessation." More information To learn more about nicotine addiction, visit the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Yikes.. Don't let the trophy hit you on the way out, Theo Ian O'Connor USA TODAY Wed Nov 2,10:10 PM ET Theo Epstein, 31-year-old executive, is acting half his age. He is walking away from his dream job and dream salary and dream season because his mentor stopped kissing his ring for five minutes, leaving poor Theo to pick up his ball and storm all the way home. Boy wonder, big blunder. After Brian Cashman zigged and zagged his way through the Yankee power structure and wisely kept a gig he knows will be the best he'll ever have, Epstein reached for a pacifier and wailed his way out the Fenway Park door. Good riddance, Red Sox fans should shout. Thanks for the historic parade. Don't let the trophy hit you on the way out. At his bizarre and dishonest news conference Wednesday, Epstein revealed himself for what he is: a baby. A kid who needs to grow up. Cashman can weather year after year of George Steinbrenner's storms, fight off all the owner's back-room operatives, and end up with a lavish contract extension and home-field advantage for business once conducted in a hostile Tampa environment. Epstein? Larry Lucchino, his baseball elder, suddenly decides to bounce a ball off Theo's forehead, Great Santini style, and the kid goes down faster than the Red Sox did in the first round. If this is how Epstein was planning to respond when times got tough, really tough, Boston fans should realize they'll be better off without him. Epstein wore a gorilla suit the other day to put the slip on reporters, but he ended up making a monkey out of himself. He said his rejection of a three-year, $4.5 million extension offer had nothing to do with a suspected Lucchino role in a Boston Globe column that painted Epstein in unflattering shades. He said there was no power struggle. No chain-of-command issues. No feelings of burnout. Epstein, the local boy made great, the one who shaped a team that ended an 86-year drought, simply said he could no longer "put my whole heart and soul into it." Epstein refused to identify why, refused to get specific, and this was an immature and irresponsible way to leave his hometown. Boston adored him. Made him the prince of the city. Offered him a free pass from here to eternity for slaying an October legion of demons and doubts. The city deserved better. Boston deserved plenty more than Epstein showing up Wednesday against a backdrop littered with Red Sox and Dunkin' Donuts logos, showing up in an open-collared, powder blue shirt that wouldn't have made David Stern's grade, and telling a depressed village of broken-hearted admirers that he was bailing for, well, no good reason. Epstein allowed that there were "complexities" and "ups and downs" in his relationship with Lucchino, the executive who discovered him and made him an intern. But Epstein maintained, "Larry and I like each other." Lucchino likes Epstein so much he forgot to attend his news conference, an announcement attended by John Henry, the principal owner, and an overflow chorus of computer geeks who served as blind apostles of Epstein's faith. "You have to believe in the people you work with," the departing GM would say. "You have to believe in the whole organization." It was his way of saying he didn't believe in Lucchino. It was Epstein's one candid-camera moment of the day. "Theo is a remarkable young man," Henry said. He's a quitter, too. Speaking in whispers and shedding a few tears over what he called "a great, great loss," Henry came across as a hopelessly detached, charisma-free leader, an owner incapable of stopping Epstein from making an obvious career mistake. Henry's body language suggested weakness and indecision, everything Steinbrenner doesn't stand for. "I hold myself wholly responsible," Henry said. "Maybe I'm not fit to be the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. ... Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would ever happen. ... Did I blow it? Yeah, I feel that way." Epstein didn't just leave Henry; he left Henry after his chief aide, Josh Byrnes, took the GM job in Arizona. Maybe the Diamondbacks will get suckered as well. The scorecard on these ridiculously young preppies who are taking over baseball, one baby step at a time, is starting to look spotty: Paul DePodesta couldn't hack it in L.A., and his buddy couldn't hack it in Boston. "It's the right decision to leave the organization," Epstein said. Not if that decision was based on Lucchino's ego. Every franchise has a Lucchino, a boardroom player, a suit who knows how to work the field. And proteges worldwide end up getting squeezed by insecure mentors who ultimately decide they've taught their students too well. Human nature is what it is. Epstein said last year's World Series title freed him to make this decision, which makes no sense. That championship gave him a free pass to rule in Boston forever. Wednesday, the kid threw that ticket in the trash. When Epstein grows up, he'll regret the day he acted half his age.

Beatle Harrison's concert still aiding Bangladesh By Matt Hurwitz Wed Nov 2, 8:21 AM ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Long before Katrina and tsunami relief, Live 8 and Live AID, former Beatle George Harrison assembled an all-star concert that cast the mold for celebrity charity, and with a new DVD and remixed songs, "The Concert for Bangladesh" is raising money again. The 1971 concert in New York's Madison Square Garden featured Harrison, who died four years ago, and fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Harrison's Indian music mentor. The pair of shows, one afternoon and one evening, benefited UNICEF and raised $250,000 from ticket sales alone. While that may seem a small sum compared to tens of millions raised for Katrina relief or in the Live 8 concerts to raise awareness of poverty in Africa, it was a huge amount at the time. All the performers worked for free to aid refugees from Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan, who fled into India to escape political strife. They suffered from starvation and disease in the process. "I think musicians are selfless," Olivia Harrison, the Beatle's widow told Reuters at a recent event to promote the new DVD. "And they respond to one another, something I've really encountered since George died." The message reached across the community, says former Doors drummer John Densmore. "It was the beginning of conscious giving," he said. "When you get the brass ring, spread it around. Money is like fertilizer -- if you hoard it, it stinks. If you spread it around, stuff grows." THE GIFT STILL GIVES Since the original show, $15 million has been raised from sales of the original concert album (which won a Grammy), CD and videos of the film documenting the historic concert. The new DVD hit retail shelves last month, along with a remixed CD set of the music, and sales will again benefit UNICEF through a new charity, The George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. The 2-disc set also contains a new 45-minute documentary about the concerts with never-before-seen footage, and the companion CD features previously unreleased performances by Dylan and others. Harrison originally organized the concert in response to pleas for help from his friend, Shankar, who is from Varanasi, India. "He and Ravi were great friends, and George just wanted to help," Starr told Reuters. Many of the original musicians who played at the concerts attended the recent party, including Preston, famed session drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Klaus Voormann, as well as Harrison's widow, Olivia and 28-year-old son Dhani. "George once said that, although it was happening to people who were thousands of miles away from him, it was right in front of him in the form of Ravi Shankar," said Olivia Harrison. "Ravi's concern and distress over it was something that he had to respond to." Voormann, former bassist for Manfred Mann and a longtime friend of The Beatles from their days playing in Hamburg, Germany in the early '60s, was living at Harrison's home in England when Shankar visited the Beatle to plea for help. "It was Ravi who was suggesting that he himself should perform a concert, until George said, 'Why don't I do it?,"' Voormann said. FORGOTTEN WORDS, FRENZIED ACTS Harrison performed tracks including "My Sweet Lord," from his top-selling album "All Things Must Pass," while Starr sang his hit single "It Don't Come Easy." In the film, audiences can see both performers forgetting the lyrics to their own songs. "It was before the days of teleprompters. I mean, it was a little nervy," Starr said of his first live outing five years after the Beatles gave their final concert. "But with all the other great artists there, I could do what I do best, just play drums behind them, which was great." Preston performed his current hit, "That's the Way God Planned It," dancing wildly onstage and whipping the crowd into a frenzy that Harrison clearly enjoyed. "It wasn't planned; it was just the spirit of the show," Preston said. The concert not only raised money for relief supplies, it put Bangladesh on the map at a time when few people knew what or where it was. The shows inspired volunteerism among a generation of young people, even if the only help they could provide was buying a concert ticket or an album, said Chip Lyons, president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. "The concert produced resources that UNICEF desperately needed to help during the crisis," said Lyons. Eric Idle, a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python and former Harrison pal, said the Beatle would likely be very proud of all that was accomplished -- and still is being gained -- from the concert. "It's rare for one person to be able to do that out of their own volition, to create something that not only helps one country in crisis ... but makes it possible for the Bonos and (Live AID/Live 8 creator Bob) Geldofs and Eltons to galvanize all of this popular force for good."

US leads way in medical errors By Susan Heavey 1 hour, 3 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Patients in the United States reported higher rates of medical errors and more disorganized doctor visits and out-of-pocket costs than people in Canada, Britain and three other developed countries, according to a survey released on Thursday. Thirty-four percent of U.S. patients received wrong medication, improper treatment or incorrect or delayed test results during the last two years, the Commonwealth Fund found. Thirty percent of Canadian patients reported similar medical errors, followed by 27 percent of those in Australia, 25 percent in New Zealand, 23 percent in Germany and 22 percent in Britain, the health care foundation said. "Driven up by relatively high medication and lab or test errors, at 34 percent, the spread between the United States and the countries with the lowest error rates was wide," Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of Commonwealth Fund, wrote in the journal Health Affairs, which published the study on its Web site. The Commonwealth Fund says its mission is to support independent research on health care issues. Researchers, who conducted the poll between March and June, questioned adults who had experienced some kind of serious condition that required "intense" medical treatment or had been hospitalized for something other than routine pregnancy. "Overall patient experiences often paint a picture of no person or team responsible for ensuring that care is coordinated and continuous, with a focus on patients' needs," Schoen said. Patients in the United States reported the highest rate of disorganized care at doctor's offices -- 33 percent -- followed by Germany with 26 percent, Canada with 24 percent and New Zealand with 21 percent. Patients in Britain and Australia reported 19 percent. U.S. patients also stood out for shouldering more medical expenses than those in the other countries. More than half said they did not take their medicines or see a doctor because of costs. In the United Kingdom, where health care is subsidized by the government, 13 percent of patients polled said they went without care. Overall, "shortfalls were particularly evident for people when discharged from the hospital, and for patients seeing multiple physicians," Schoen said. Between 700 and 750 adults were surveyed by telephone in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and about 1,500 in Britain, Germany and the United States. The poll's error margin was plus or minus 4 percentage points in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, 3 points in Germany and the United States and 2 points in Britain.

QUOTE(Chisoxrd5 @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 08:40 AM) Herniated Disk? do you have any more insight oh wise one? I assume it's due to the disk. Sorry, likely nothing more until I get back from Vegas at the end of the month.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Nov 3, 2005 -> 08:54 AM) steff- i dont agree on the parking lot situation. I went to a Cards game this summer, parked in the garage and was out of there in 5 minutes. It was beautiful. In fact I told my wife as we were leaving "I wish I could do this at US Cellular" Maybe I caught it on a good day? Once, and you don't agree. Yea, you got lucky.

Space Station Marks 5 Years of Residents By PAM EASTON, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 2, 6:16 PM ET HOUSTON - The international space station Wednesday marked five continuous years of people living and working aboard it. But there wasn't much time for celebration. The station's two residents spent the day cleaning air filters, upgrading exercise equipment and doing other maintenance. Astronaut William McArthur Jr. and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, who arrived Oct. 3 for a six-month stay, also prepared for a spacewalk next week. "It's not that we're not feeling celebratory," McArthur said. "The space shuttle isn't flying right now. And we got to figure out how to finish flying the space shuttle in the next four years and to finish building the space station like we promised to." People first began living on the orbiting science lab on Nov. 2, 2000, after 16 countries joined to construct it. "It absolutely calls for celebration," the astronaut said from orbit during a series of broadcast interviews. "We have done things that were absolutely inconceivable 50 years ago." The 15,000-foot space station, about half complete, includes living quarters, an exercise room and a galley and is now the equivalent of a three-bedroom house. Nearly 100 people from 10 countries have visited the station, and 29 have lived aboard, often for six months at a time. NASA partnered with the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in building the station. "It's not the pristine world that you see on Star Trek, where you see the neatly pressed uniforms," McArthur said. "What we have is perhaps, from a storage and organization standpoint, is well-managed chaos." Dr. Paul Cloutier, a Rice University professor of physics and astronomy, said when people first started living in space, many were optimistic, but also naive about the challenges of long-term orbital trips. "Just the fact that it is up there is a major accomplishment," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051103/ap_on_...TdmBHNlYwM3NTM- LUCKNOW, India - This was no one-night stand. Scientists in India say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years. The findings were published in the October edition of the Indian journal "Current Science," which said it was the first time that sexual copulation had been discovered in a fossil state, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. But voyeurs will need a microscope to view the eternal lovers. The fossils are tiny swarm cells, a stage in the development of the fungus myxomycetes, also known as slime molds. The cells reproduce by "fusing," Ranjeet Kar of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow reportedly told PTI. Once the cells fuse, long, threadlike appendages known as flagella, are lost, he said. Finding the fossils in a fused position and with their flagella shed, is evidence that the two cells were having sex, Kar said. "The sexual organs being delicate and the time of conjugation short lived, it is indeed rare to get this stage in the fossil state," the study said. The cells were discovered in a 30-foot deep dry well in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

QUOTE(BamaDoc @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 08:59 PM) Has anyone heard what the plan is for Hermanson? Rest vs surgery? He would be great insurance incase Jenks struggles. Surgery.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 05:27 PM) wtf? lawton? he wasnt in the playoffs and lmao @ this, cubbies just get owned again Yes he was.

Maybe a forum description sticky would help...?

QUOTE(AnthraxFan93 @ Nov 2, 2005 -> 05:06 PM) nice Idea..by them I need to get my Condo now down there before they go up to much in price. You got time... They are moving at a snails place to get final plans ready for submission for 4 new condo developments down there. If you're looking to buy new..