FlaSoxxJim

This is really very sad to me, what an Icon the State Street store is.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan1022 @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 08:15 PM) Rally Crede Hey i made a animation of the rally Crede. Its nothing special just him jumping up and down Oooh, I like that!

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 12:19 PM) Furthermore, this doesn't even begin to take into account the environmental problems associated with processing oil shale. Because it consumes quite a bit of energy in the refining process, plants that refine the stuff release a huge amount of pollution. On top of that, because the material they're processing hasn't gone through the natural refining step, you wind up with almost every possible impurity showing up in the material you're processing. Something has to be done with these impurities - most notably sulfur, but also nitrogen, sand, etc. When you process this stuff, you release a huge amount of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, other pollutants. And even on top of that, it's basically strip-mining on a massive scale, so you're also destroying a mountain and exposing everything in the mountain to air, which can create further problems. As a stop gap solution, oil shale might be able to buy you a few years after peak oil production arrives. But It's going to cost you a ton to do it, and the environmental impact will be huge. Thanks for the overview. It pretty much confirmed that trying to extract oil from shale on a large scale would be the eco-nightmare I imagined it would be. Sadly, however, there is going to come a time soon when $100-125/barrel is not cost prohibitive anymore. And if they can improve the process just a bit it will look even more favorable to the "it's ours so why shouldn't we use it?" yahoos.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 02:55 PM) This is an instant contender for thread of the year in the Soxtalk awards. This is right up there with the McDonaldland thread, IMO So if the Tribe sweeps us do we ditch Crede and go with Rally Grimace?!?

The peer pressure around here is unbearable! OK Rally Crede, do your thing!!!

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 12:55 PM) I'm feeling intelligent today. In my honors seminar we listened to a developmental psychologist. I thought you were going to say you stayed at a Holliday Inn Express last night.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 11:42 AM) Yep, they skipped U2. I guess they couldn't tell if Bono was a girl's or boy's name But then how would they retire a "name" if they use the Greek alphabet? My assumption is that all the name retiring stuff goes out the window. They've never had to use Greek characters before, so this would be historic.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 20, 2005 -> 11:13 AM) We're running out of hurricane names for 2005. And of the names left, doesn't hurricane Stan and Hurricane Vince sound bad ass? Getting wiped out by Vince sounds tougher than getting wiped out by Tammy, the first hurricane with giant eye makeup. If I couldn't laugh, I would go insane. Do they skip "U"? wino had to remind me that they don't do XYZ, since we never have to worry about getting down that far. I may have to amend my earlier prediction that we would not get into the Greek alphabet. Stay safe, everybody.

I'd seen something on this groups reseearch efforts about a year ago, and it's great to see they are getting somewhere. I hope the can start to get the units into commercial vehicles soon and demonstrate the cost savings to other fleets so they get on board. Yeah, electrolysis as a means of splitting water has been around forever and it sure seems a no-brainer to get a unit into a combustion engine to increase burn efficiency. The interesting thing about the article is William's thoughts on cashing in on Kyoto credits, and it was maybe the singlke biggest reason we should have ambraced Kyoto warts and all. There is a lot of 'low hanging fruit' that our technology and capacity for innovation could have gone after, and now we're leaving it to others to do. The next climate change treaties to come down the pike will be much more stringent aand the low hanging fruit will be long gone, and we'll actually have to do something to curb our industrial emissions.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 17, 2005 -> 11:29 AM) No matter how much you want to produce elsewhere, production simply cannot keep up with the demand for oil in this country. It is actually impossible. The only solution is to work to reduce demand. Balta, I had a question. There's a lot of yahoos talking about heat extraction of oil from oil shale rock finally being technically feasible, if not yet economically so. Of course I hope they never try this on a commercial scale since it will be the beginning of the end of a lot of relatively intact hatural habitat out west. But when the oil yahoos hear stats that note we have like half the world's oil shale deposits, and that there are billions of gallons of oil locked up in the shale (regardles of theimpractibility of extraction), they start to hatch some wild schemes. What's your professional take? Is big energy going to turn more attention to the shale, other than the pilot heat-extraction studies that have been carried out so far?

Just got back from this weekend's Sir Paul show across the state in Tampa. I did not see the last world tour that everybody still raves about, but I did see the two tours in the 90s that were quite excellent. This show blew both of those away hands-down. Get out and see this tour if you can. My wife and i took our 7 and 6 year old kids with us, who mysteriously and unexpectedly have turned out to be big Beatles fans. I was going to be alright with a fairly standard set list for this show because my kids know the big Beatles/Wings/Paul songs and I wanted it to be something special for them even if I would have wanted some more obscure stuff. Turns out, everybody went home happy. I can't say enough about how strong Paul's voice was - whether he was 33, let along 63. He seemed in great spirits and really seemed like he was energized. Probably helped that it was only the second night of the tour, and we'll see how he's doing in a month. The band was also stellar. Keyboardest and musical director "Wix" was the only holdover from the 90s touring bands, but the young guys in this new lineup blow the old lineups away in my opinion. He played for 2 hours and 15 minutes, including seven songs worth of encores. Getting back to the car after the concert I quickly scribbled down the set while it was fresh in my mind. The next morning I looked back over it and was amazed to find out he played an amazing 37(!) songs. For the one or two of you who may care to see the set list (and don't mind spoilers if you're going to see him) here it is in approximate order (based on song groupings played as Paul moved from bass to acoutic guitar to piano to electric guitar, but possible some inverted order withi those mini-sets): Paul on Bass (Hoffner violin, natch): Magical Mystery Tour (was hoping for a Venus and Mars/Rock Show to start off, but it's cool) Flaming Pie Jet I'll Get You (whoaa - an obscure one from the very first Beatles UK LP!) Drive My Car (My 6 year old's favorite Beatles Song, which he sang right along with) Paul on solo acoustic guitar: In Spite of All Danger (the first song John, Paul and George ever recorded together, at a corner studio in Liverpool). I Will (from the White album. Paul flubbed the words in the middle 8 and stopped to joke about it "Hey, I wrote it a LONG TIME AGO. . . But at least you know it's not a tape!" Then he picked up at the bridge again and finished it off) 'Til There Was You (with guitar solo by other guitarist) Paul at grand piano: (Actually a scary moment here, when Paul stepped back and fell into a hole in the middle of the stage where the piano was supposed to have already risen up out of its hidden recess but hadn't yet. He barely missed a beat, and joked about it for much of the night - "I think I'll have them put a little picket fence around that hole tomorrow," but I bet he was a little bruisd up the next morning) Fine Line (single from the new album) Maybe I'm Amazed For No One Fixing A Hole With band on acoustic guitar: I'll Follow the Sun Eleanor Rigby On solo acoustic guitar: Jenny Wren (great song from new album - sound like "Junk" or one of his great old acoustic fingerpicked songs) Blackbird (with an intro talking about how the song evolved from George and him playing a Bach song incorrectly on the guitar years earlier) Paul on electric guitar (orange sunburst Les Paul): Let Me Roll It (one for the Wings fans - the ended with a 30 second or so vanp of the Hendrix "Foxy lady" riff, which I'd like to think was an insider's homage to Jimi based on yesterday being the 35th anniversary of his death). Band on teh Run (More Wings Greatness) Back at the piano: Any Situation (new album) Long and Winding Road English Tea (new album) Back on bass (Unsure of the exact song order here): Got to Get You Into My Life Too Many People (wow!) I've Got a Feeling (w/segue into...) She Came in Through the Bathroom Window Get Back Back in the USSR Penny Lane Good Day Sunshine (with intro talking about him being honored the song was used to wake up the shuttle crew on the last day of the recently completed return to flight mission, including audio of the conversation between Houston and the shuttle crew ) Hey Jude (with 25,000 backing singers handling the Na Na Nas). -- End of Regular Set-- 2 Encores included: (Paul came out for teh encores with a 'No More Landmines' shirt, hilighting the important work wife Heather is doing on that front): Yesterday Please Please Me Live and Let Die (with loud fireworks and pyrotechniques that my exhausted kids managed to sleep through) Helter Skelter Let It Be Sgt. Pepper Reprise (w/Paul on Les Paul), segue into The End (with 2+ minutes of Paul and the two guitarists trading licks in the trio solo section, and Paul holding his own fairly well). And so ended a great, great night. I'm kind of depressed it's over. To paraphrase Paul paraphrasing Twain, "The reports of Pauls' death have been greatly exaggerated."

I fully agree the top of the rotation needs to turn up the intensity and turn down the suck. It was just the "all falls on" Mark, Freddy, and Jon that elicited the response tnat there's plenty of blame to go around. But I agree completely with your assessment that the underwhelming performances by the Big Three in the second half makes for a hard hole to dig out of.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 06:57 PM) Now THAT was funny! I'm seriously thinking about making that wav file my system alert sound. How long would it take before my office mates murdered me?

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 06:55 PM) Hurray! Happy birthday! When I was little my dad told me BB King and Martlin Luther King were the same person. And I believed him. Maybe your dad thought it was true. Maybe your dad is the uncoolest person ever. (Next to Tex and SS I mean. . .)

QUOTE(Mercy! @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 06:06 PM) What’s up these days with the Budweiser Twins? Wouldn’t they have been a better choice to do that photo op at the Astrodome than their grandma, Babs? I thought Jenna (the one that kept getting in trouble, that her name?) was teaching school somewhere?

Ain't nobody here posted a thing about the King of the Blues turning 80 today?!? For shame. Happy Birthday B.B.!!

QUOTE(SoxPhan7 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 05:49 PM) This does remind me of what we really need. THE RALLY PANTIES!!! XXL Rally Panty Time!

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 05:02 PM) You'll also note I'm back on my old Avatar. No way was iPod Stewie to blame for the quasi-collapse. iPod Stewie is Insanely Great.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 05:00 PM) Actually...I kinda meant the beard...but hey whatever floats your boat. Ah, my mistake.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 04:56 PM) The last time I stopped shaving, we went on a 7 game winning streak. Then what are you waiting for, Man. Let that bikini line grow out, baby!

QUOTE(Molto @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 04:44 PM) you do know our rotation has been very mediocre over the last month, right? no position player right now is responsible for the Sox's recent struggles. it all falls on Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland. And Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland made the rest of the team lose all ability to run bases how exactly...?

Never a dull moment with President Shortbus.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Sep 16, 2005 -> 03:17 PM) Thank you, I feel the exact same way when I see this s***ty lineups on a consistent basis. Well, apparently some of you have forgotten the whole point of the game. EVERYBODY GETS TO PLAY. Then we all go out for ice cream, my treat. j/k. The friggin' 'Sunday Lineup' s*** should have ended a month ago.

I wasn't sure where that was going.