NorthSideSox72

That would be a disaster. Awful idea, and near zero chance of it happening.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 07:24 PM) No, I'm officially now the last. I don't know what the hell I was waiting for. BTW, and I'm not going to go back through the 20+ pages to see if this has already been discussed, but has anyone noticed Gotham looks more like Chicago than New York anymore? I know it was filmed in Chicago but there's some things about it that are just unmistakable. Both of the re-do Batman movies (Begins, TDK) are unabashedly Chicago. Also, when was Gotham ever supposed to be New York (in the movies)? Seems to me in the first 4 movies, it was completely unlike any city, then the last two have been clearly chicago.

Hey Jas... if you are having penis trouble, conveniently, I just received a bottle of male enhancement pills that I didn't order and don't need. Want me to send it your way? I'll throw in a free t-shirt. See the Mystery thread in SLaM for details.

This just keeps getting weirder. I received today in the mail, a bottle of some sort of male enhancement supplement (also enclosed was a coupon for 30 minutes of free video online porn). Oh, and seperately, a custom t-shirt that has nothing but an @ sign on the front and the number 00 on the back. WTF? This shmo ordered stuff with my credit card, and had it shipped to me. WHY?!?!?!?! Now I'll probably get on mailing lists for all sorts of "adult" niceties. And no, in case anyone asks, I have never, ever purchased any "adult" stuff on the internet.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 02:41 PM) His principles should be to uphold the duties of secretary of state, not grandstand. It just goes to the base of what is the toxic political environment in Illinois. Everything is done for personal gain, ignoring the law. This whole chapter in Illinois history is a keystone cops episode. There is plenty to be embarrassed about in IL politics right now. But, IMO, White's actions are not among those things. I think he did something right, even if his motivations were likely (at least in part) selfishly motivated.

BTW, we sure hit 9k on the DJIA, and then some. Punched through and now at 9063.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 02:21 PM) Its funny that we just had this discussion... http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/01/m...tum-for-ga.html I figured that was coming. Given the current economic environment, and the previously discussed issues with how to fund economic strength without taking on new debt, and meanwhile trying to change habits that will be dangerous down the road... I wouldn't be opposed to raising gas taxes. Fire away.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) Jessie White can't block the Senate appointment, he doesn't know what he's doing. Kind of like Lisa Madigan's ridiculous attempt to get Blago removed. What a list of incompetent people we running this state. Very sad. White was just taking a stand. Call it political grandstanding, ambition for future office, or (I know, take a deep breath) maybe he really was standing on principle. In any case, I am sure he knew that would at worst just stall things, but he did it anyway to make a point. It doesn't make him incompetent though. In fact, I respect him for doing that.

Also, edited the topic title a bit, for clarity. As originally written, looked like it was talking about how many people the US had killed in Iraq.

There are 8.5 million people in the Chicago metro, and about 100k soldiers in Iraq. Still though, I am very happy to see the levels of violence continuing to fall in Iraq. Makes it that much easier to get out of that place soon.

IL House Speaker Madigan is calling the legislature back into session early, on Wednesday of next week, for a possible Impeachment vote. The committee investigating for the assembly is still doing so, and is due to report something early next week.

Wow, we might see Dow 9000 today the way things are going. Flattening and flirting a bit around 8950 though, so, we could also collapse back pretty quickly.

False, since I made none. The person below me has already broken a 2009 resolution.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 01:11 AM) Well we just wanted to know because she has a child and we really don't know too much based off our own experiences about Bridgeport. If she has a kid, the biggest thing to consider might be schools. In general, the Chicago Public Schools are not great, though there are some that are good.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 2, 2009 -> 07:54 AM) Dont do it. It will take inches off. I don't get that. I mean, its just a layer of skin - what, a quarter of an inch thick?

So, I don't usually post all the bad news that's constantly out there about what climate change is doing in the negative. There is just too much. But sometimes, something comes out that is big enough to warrant notice from everyone. The boreal forests of Canada represent some 7% of the world's forest cover, and provide a significant percentage of the plant-generated oxygen that we need in our atmosphere. They play an important role in our health, cleaning the air for us. At least, until now. A study is now saying that, taken as a whole, the Canadian boreal forests are now probably a net carbon CONTRIBUTOR, or at best are net neutral. This is due to rising temperatures and drier air stressing the trees, pollution increasing the toxic chemicals the trees "breathe", and infestation and disease taking much more forest due to its weakness from the prior mentioned factors. This situation is a downward spiral - the trees get weaker due to climate change, they scrub less carbon from the atmosphere, the atmosphere gets more carbon, the climate changes further. This is a critical tipping point that more forest areas are now surpassing - not good.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 1, 2009 -> 03:39 PM) Sure, why the hell not? This offseason so far couldn't possibly suck any worse than it already has for every team in baseball other than the Yankees, so this can't hurt. Fixed.

List updated. Let us know of any other new signings!

Probably nothing more than idle speculation, but an article on NPB Tracker (follows Japanse players) says a few teams may be vying for Iguchi's services. The author speculates the White Sox might want him back. I'm not sure why, at this point. Seems really unlikely to me. But its slow in here, so I thought I'd put it out there.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 1, 2009 -> 11:16 AM) Volatility actually comes in highest on the down side versus the upside, but anyways... My big point was that elasticity didn't really change (because its the amount of people that will or won't buy a certian product per an increment of price change), but what happened was we had such a ginormous amount of price change, that the very small elasticity of gasoline affected many more people than it usually would have. For example, the theorhetical elasticity of gasoline that I read years ago was about 5, so for every 100% change in price, there would be about a 5% change in behavior. Well we had a 300 to 400% move, so we started to look at a 15-20% change in behavior, which actually could be seen in the changes of demand, I believe. OK, now I see what you were getting at. The bolded makes it clear. That makes sense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 07:32 PM) Vol and elasticity are two completely different monsters. Yes I know. But my interperetation of your post was that the new place on the price curve dictated the increased volatility. Perhaps I misunderstood you.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 02:25 PM) Levine works for ESPN. Some interesting moves by the Cubs. Sullivan was just on The Score, and thinks Miles could lead off for the Cubs, and talked about how well liked and important DeRosa was in the clubhouse. They just removed him from the equation, and brought in a huge wild card in Bradley. The Cubs now have Bradley and Zambrano in the same clubhouse. Consider that for a minute.

Thanks for posting this and all, its good info, but clearly it cannot be discusse without it getting politcal. I'm closing the thread.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 03:41 PM) Frankly, I don't like that health insurance is a for-profit industry. I won't go so far as to say I want socialized insurance (YET, because I haven't become convinced it's the wrong idea yet either), and definitely not full-blown government-run healthcare, but this is somewhere I don't think the pure free market is the answer. I agree, for the simple reason that the motivation is wrong. Profit motivation and quality health care just don't get along. And with consumer choice being a near non-factor in health care (again, due to that triad), that problem is magnified even further.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 03:26 PM) Other countries are able to come shockingly close to that goal while still spending a ton less than us on health care. France is of course the timeless example in that regard. Britain is closer to the rationing end of the scale, but even then, they still produce better overall results than our system does, at a cost significantly less than that of even France. Something a lot of people don't mention in this debate... part of the reason why our costs are so damn high is the prevalence of fully private health insurance AND private health care providers. It introduces all sorts of falsehoods and strange attractors into the economic equations. The usual economic equations are closer to two-sided, or liner in nature, which is also more true in at least some of those European nations (though I don't know them all, or any very well). This privatized triad we have going here is problematic, IMO. I don't really know the answer on this one. Its a huge puzzle.