NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 04:04 PM) Looking at this matchups, if they happened today, it looks to me like the B10 wins on the top and bottom, and B12 wins in the middle. Also, didn't NU and ISU just play each other last year? Also, I wonder if ISU and Illinois have ever even played each other. ISU has played lots of schools from the other neighboring states over the years. Nevermind, I found head to head records. LOL, Illinois with an 11-1 games edge on ISU, including the last 9 straight.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 03:28 PM) You know what, it's amazing seeing how much love the Pomeroy rankings get these days. I remember a few years ago, it was just a nerdy blogger thing. Now, a lot more people go by them, including a lot of newspaper people. Anyways, they have: 1) Big Ten 2) Big 12 3) Big East 4) ACC 5) Pac 10 6) SEC The Big 12 and the Big 10 look very comparable this year with the exception of the dregs that are Tech (sorry PHF) and Oklahoma. It'd be neat to see a legit Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge next year. I'd love to see Iowa State schedule both Nebraska and Minnesota next year. It could look like this if you went roughly by the Pomeroy ratings, just going down in order for right now: 1) Kansas vs. Ohio State 2) Baylor vs. Purdue 3) Texas vs. Wisconsin 4) Mizzou vs. Michigan State 5) Texas A&M vs. Illinois 6) Kansas State vs. Nebraska 7) Iowa State vs. Northwestern 8) Oklahoma State vs. Minnesota 9) Texas Tech vs. Michigan 10) Oklahoma vs. Iowa Those would be some neat matchups. Kansas - Ohio State would be a lot of fun to watch, as well as Baylor - Purdue if Baylor cared enough to show up. Mizzou/Michigan State would be a blast, and Iowa State and Northwestern would be of interest to no one outside of Ames and Evanston. Looking at this matchups, if they happened today, it looks to me like the B10 wins on the top and bottom, and B12 wins in the middle. Also, didn't NU and ISU just play each other last year? Also, I wonder if ISU and Illinois have ever even played each other. ISU has played lots of schools from the other neighboring states over the years.

QUOTE (smalls2598 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 03:24 PM) Derrek Lee signed a 1 year deal with the Orioles. Interesting. Heyman saying he's getting around $8M for the one year. Apparently LaRoche was looking for a 3 year deal at $21M, so BAL went to Lee.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) Looking back at the list, I realized that I have had all of them except for the Allagash. For that, I should be ashamed of myself. I'm a fan of Belgian Whites, and I see this beer often. I'll have to rectify that this weekend. I'm looking forward to the honorable mentions. I'm hoping to see some lesser known beers pop up. Same here, a number of my Top 10 are obscure, but awesome.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 10:33 AM) Ok...I suppose I should have typed "this is what I would infer from the data." Would you infer something different? Well to me, the most obvious thing it says is, any person's career road will be much, much harder without a college degree. Not that this is news, I think we all knew that. But the difference is stark. It also tells me that, even in a deep recession, if you have a college degree, your job prospects are still pretty damn good. But I really can't make any sort of qualitative supposition of the sort you did, about WHAT jobs they have, without seeing salary or other job detail data to go with this.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 10:25 AM) See, Kap, this is where one of the philosophical differences come in between us. You look at government spending in the abstract...is there too much (there always is). The only reason why you'd ask this question the way you formatted it is if you think that a person like me looks at high government spending as an end unto itself. We always want higher government spending because we always view higher government spending as a good thing. My counterpoint here is that there's an appetite for more spending, not as an end unto itself, but as a means unto an end. When I see a problem that the private sector is failing to deal with...something like 1/6th of the U.S. being uninsured, or a large terrorist safe-haven in Afghanistan/Pakistan, I can be convinced (but not in every case) that government action is necessary to take care of it. Now if we want to have a disagreement about priorities, that's a fair disagreement. You might prioritize the Afpak part there, I might prioritize the health care part. At some point in every case, additional government spending becomes excessive. We're long past that case in the defense department. We spend way too much on health care esp. without covering everyone. In those cases, spending money more efficiently, like the Affordable Care act does, is a smarter move. What you really ought to note when looking at the federal budget is how small a lot of the numbers we're actually talking about are in some sense. The entire deficit right now is made up of less than 5 percentage points of taxes. That's not a huge, infinite spending is good situation. I'll first say, this is a good post. Not that I agree with every detail in it, but I think you do get at an idea I fully agree with - government spending can't and shouldn't just be looked at from a total spending point of view. But its also true that you have to take into account the risks of debt and deficit spending, and that is a total budget effect. Starting with the 2000-2006 GOP Congress, and continued with the Dems, spending levels versus revenue has not been in the territory of acceptable. And the funny thing is, the GOP doing it during good times was even more inexcuseable that the Dems doing it in a recession. But in both cases, you HAVE to do one or more of three things here: 1. Cut overall spending significantly 2. Raise taxes 3. Take on substantially more risk If you ONLY look at each granular piece to decide what to do, without taking the overall numbers into account, you can really f*** yourself up. So really, it needs to be both.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 10:20 AM) So basically what this is saying is that the college graduates are unable to find enough employment in the jobs they are typically qualified for, and so they have resorted to taking the jobs they are typically over-qualified for, and this has put more non-college grads out of work... Well no, that's your supposition of the details based on higher level data.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 10:02 AM) This is going to be one of the mechanisms that drives the full shutdown of the government in Feb. The incoming House has adopted their budgetary-rules. Not only have they replaced "Paygo" with a much weaker "Cutgo"...they've given Rep. Ryan almost unilateral power to demand cuts in the total federal budget, and proposals by anyone that disagree with Rep. Ryan's decisions are declared out of order. Check the link for the full postmortem on the rules changes. Really, these rules make a shutdown inevitable unless the Obama administration caves on everything. You mean because the Senate will reject such budgets?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 09:39 AM) Wtf? I had no idea this occurred. AJ/Barrett? You don't remember that?

QUOTE (danman31 @ Dec 31, 2010 -> 01:49 AM) According to KenPom, the Big 12 is absolutely f'ing loaded. Only 2 teams outside top 100, rest are in top 75. Six teams in the top 50 with Iowa State on the bubble (Nebraska is in the top 50? WTF). Gonna be a fun and painful conference season. 9 of 12 teams are in the Top 50. So many teams this year with really inconsistent results - beating teams way above them and/or losing to teams way below them. Look at UNI. They beat UNM and ISU, but lost to Missouri State, Iowa and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. How about USC? Beats Texas and Tennessee, loses to Rider by 20 and TCU. WTF? Nebraska beat USC and Creighton, both just barely. Everyone else they have played is pretty much garbage, except Vandy who they lost to and Davidson who they should have beaten. So I'd say, like Iowa State, they are really hard to get a read on. We'll know a lot more when the B12 season starts. KenPom is projected Iowa State to finish 20-11/7-9. Nebraska 20-10/8-8.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 11:58 PM) I think we draft quite a few players using this philosophy... just not in the first round. Now, yes. Its a more recent trend though, we really saw the team get away from the safe pick philosophy starting in 2008. And 2009 was a good class too, but for these injuries. The Sox are getting better at drafting.

Firefly was a fantastic series, we own the DVD's, and I can watch those episodes repeatedly. Too bad it got popular after it went off the air, and now all the actors are all over the place. I doubt that series can be ressurected. And for the record, I like Scott Pilgrim a lot, and I agree with Kalapse that its only intention, really, was to be FUN. Its not supposed to be deep cinema, its just candy. I sort of feel the same way about Fifth Element in the sci-fi realm.

I've never been able to get into Blue Moon. Tastes like beer with a bunch of melted butter.

QUOTE (Real @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 09:19 PM) yeah, and jake's shoulder falls off again in 3 months because his mechanics will most likely be the same which, most here wouldn't argue, caused his injury in the first place Take a look at ptatc's posts on this. Its specifically his drop-down that causes the issue, most likely, and that's easily avoidable.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 11:27 AM) Definitely better than bare-handing it with his glove hand. He's not Jim Abbott.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 01:08 PM) NEW YORK (AP) -- People are starting to buy homes again, lifting a battered industry that is bracing for its worst sales year in more than a decade. Signed contracts to purchase homes rose in November, the fourth increase in five months. That should give the housing market a boost in the first few months of the new year because there's usually a one- to two-month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal. Economists cautioned that a major reason for the jump is that people are buying foreclosed homes, which sell at steep discounts and weigh on the broader market. Another obstacle is the sudden spike in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate, which only weeks ago had fallen a 40-year low. Still many economists expect sales to gradually rise next year as the economy adds more jobs and home prices stabilize. "Sales appear to be picking up and we expect better sales in the next several months," said Patrick Newport, a housing economist at IHS Global Insight. "A lot of that is because the job market is improving." The National Association of Realtors said Thursday its index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes increased 3.5 percent last month from a downwardly revised reading in October. Contract signings were up in the West and Northeast, but down in the South and Midwest. The foreclosures being bought up explains the continuing positive sales trends but decling or bounded prices. This is good overall, for the health of the real estate market. We're getting more distressed properties off the market, while the rate of new foreclosure filiings and late payments is dropping, which is the precise combination we want to see.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) Lightweight. LOL, at this point in my life, yes. I am no longer 22. QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 12:15 PM) Let me clarify. The Coke is to drink while eating the Gyro. The ouzo is the dessert. I would never ruin a good liquor by mixing it with coke. That would be awful. Good to hear.

This reminds me of the debates about whether or not emotions effect play. Of course they do, to say otherwise is silly - these are human beings. Similarly here, I am sure it will have some effect. The real question is, how much of one? On current players or prospective ones? No one can know the answer, but I think we can all say pretty confidently that any effect won't be a positive one. Also... QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 11:35 AM) X2 with ouzo and a Coke Oh my lord. Ouzo by itself is bad enough, but mixed with Coke? I think I'd rather drink vomit.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 10:12 AM) How much of that is the blizzard though? The article I saw about it said they asked someone from the reporting agency about seasonal or other effects, and they felt that there wasn't a significant shortage due to any of that. Hard to say for sure though. We'll see next week.

By the way, the USGS Earthquake center website provides all kinds of cool details on quakes. Here is a heat map of responses they got on the website as to who felt what. And the main link to the main page for all the info on this quake. Maybe Balta can tell us more about what may have caused this one.

North-central, supposedly felt by some in the Chicago area. Anyone feel anything weird at 6:55am? Story

It would make no sense to make Peavy seem MORE likely to be ready. If anything, the opposite. No one knows for sure, but from everything I am seeing, I think Peavy pitches in ST and is ready for Opening Day. That said, I am still not sure they'd want to trade a starter, unless they get another high end reliever to replace Sale's current bullpen slot.

UE claims drop sharply (34k) to 388k, lowest since July 2008, beating expectations. 425k is generally the threshold where job growth begins (below that mark), and 375k is the number for where the gains are enough to bring down unemployment in any measureable way. The single readings (minus an outlier) and moving average have been below 425k for a while now, and it appears we may be approaching the 375k level. BTW the peak in March 2009 was 651k. Pending Home Sales come in at 9am today.

Now that I'll have a Metra commute and can read on the way to work, I've got a stack of books (most I got as B-Day or X-Mas presents this year) that I have up next... Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky Obama's Wars - Bob Woodward Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W. Loewen Crossing Open Ground - Barry Lopez I seem to be on a non-fiction kick.

What I've read or started... 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (ugh, possibly the most overrated book of modern times) 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (couldn't finish it, couldn't get into it) 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Inferno - Dante 87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl Favorite author as a child --- Total of 34. Of those I haven't, most want to read: Confederacy of Dunces, Kite Runner and Catch 22.