MattPie

Fine, I found the post in this thread. I wish I had the gumption to find the one from months ago in the Political thread. I'm calling a spade a spade. Here's a straight question do you believe the actions of jihadists in Paris and other places are indicative of Islam in general? Unrelated: I learned today that since the US has started attacking ISIS, they've launched over 6000 air strikes against ISIS targets. That's more than anyone other country by something like 4 times.

You're correct, I was just thinking of automating the info gathering so it would happen faster. I think a black puck being pushed with sticks with 14 people skating around is a more difficult thing to track than a bright green ball with almost nothing else in the field of play, and only momentarily being in contact with anything. The chip and sensor would seem easy to me in comparison. :)

#1, I think d4rk is referring to "5 eyes", which doesn't include France. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes) Intelligence gathering by necessity is played pretty close to the vest as the more you share, the better chance someone tips your collective hand. It's not hard to believe that France wasn't in the loop until this weekend. #2, if the US goes in and bombs those camps and a bunch of innocents die in the process it's bad news for everyone involved. If France does it now, there's a lot more leeway. The US probably would need to refine things and make sure they minimize casualties, France doesn't have as much restriction now. FWIW, until the last couple weeks (starting with the Russian Airliner) it seemed ISIS as far as a ground-war was contained. They changed tactics and perhaps our intelligence services should have seen that coming. I certainly don't what kind of intelligence they had beforehand, but it's not inconceivable that the US had a pretty good picture of what was on the ground in the Middle East but didn't have sources in France to see the plot unfolding. France may not allow the US to spy on its citizens, which at least some of the terrorists are.

Catching up... Is it worth discussing that the population of Japan and Germany (at least as a stereotype) loves order and hierarchy? I'm not sure the Marshall Plan would work even in the same starting conditions if in the ME. I'm not even sure the Marshall Plan would work in the USA given our pretty hard-core "you can't tell me what to do" streak. Not really, the parallel would be blaming all Americans for mass-shootings in the US (I'm presuming at least some of those guys identified as Christian, so you could go there too). Or blaming all South Carolinians for that kid that shot up the church, or blaming all of WNY for Timothy McVeigh. First line: it may not be explicitly in this thread, but nfreeman has come pretty close in the past. I don't have the post quoted, but upthread he said something like, "you know my stance on this" referring to it. If we change "concert" to "movie theatres and schools" does it make you pause? You've essentially done the equivalent of someone in (for example) Germany claiming all Americans are to blame and are blood-thirsty lunatics for the few people have shot up public places here. The Air Force is trying to because to funnel more money into the F-35. There is some push-back at the political level with Congress passing budgets that prohibit funding A-10 retirement. I'm not sure how that came to be, although it could be Air Force people that don't agree with the official stance whispering to their representatives. The Air Force doesn't like single-role systems, they'd much rather have flexible systems that do an OK job on a lot of roles rather than single-role systems that do a great job. There's logic there, but I'm not sure I entirely buy it. The Quran (in my very rudimentary reading) prohibits the taking of, at the very least, innocent Muslim lives (and is often interpreted as all innocent lives), so apparently not that literal. I think they're making the argument (if there's actually any logic in it) that if you're not ISIS, you're not innocent and therefore fair game. Whack jobs.

You might be onto something. For awhile, my daughter (15 months) called everything "dog!". We're not too worried about though, now that she knows other words she's better about it. :)

Maybe, but not muscle. :)

It's a little different, but also very good. I haven't watched it since the first time though, I'll have to see if I still have it or it got garage-saled.

They make a Stout? Must. Find.

FWIW, I'm only an inch or two from being able to do this. A standard door frame is 80" tall, my wingspan is something like 79". (I'm 6'1", so my arms are a bit ape-y, but not strangely so) Called it! Game: I have to take back my criticism of the NFL app on Verizon, it streamed the game (over my wifi) fairly glitch free and no nagging. Bodes well for the Monday Night game next week. I honestly didn't think the Bills would win (despite drinking a bunch of beer) until the Rambo interception. I've been down that road too many times before.

I didn't watch closely enough to really comment on Zadorov's case, but one person's "not hustling to the puck" is another's "should I be going for that puck or maintaining my position? is the forward going to cover for me if I go after the puck? , too much thinking.". I think we'll need to see how (if) Zadorov comes out of the AHL before we know the answer to that for sure.

The simplest method would probably be to track the puck crossing the line (not that hard to do) and fire off a set of cameras (or grab stills from video feeds) and send them to the war room in Toronto can then signal the on-ice folks if the play was offsides in the event of a goal. You could make the argument that the war room should blow the play dead whether a goal was scored or not, or maybe even signal the linesman to call the play offsides and he can blow it dead if it makes sense (the attacking team is still in possession).

Thanks for the tip, my parents have a place in Clearwater so that's entirely in the realm of possibility.

I thought both were great, just in different styles. The interior of Falling Water is a much more modern look (and materials) that may not be everyone's taste. Kentuck Knob is a more traditional home, that realistically would probably be a better place to live. While you're there, Ohio Pyle, PA (it's just down the road) is a cool little town to get food. It's pretty "granola"; the economy is based around outfitters (canoes, etc.) and bicycles (it's a "major" rail-trail). The river and falls in town is worth a look. There's a cool water chute at the south end of town, tons of water coming down a 8-10 ft cut in the rocks.

My guess: Moms, and the unfortunate Dads that end up watching with their wives.

If I had only ever had black tea from tea bags, I might agree with you. I was a defacto tea drinker after I gave up soda because coffee makes my stomach angry (cold, hot, weak, strong, all the same). Once I started started drinking green and white teas, and using loose tea instead of bags it was a revelation. I'll drink "standard" tea (Lipton, etc.) when I'm out or whatever, but it doesn't hold a candle to the good stuff. Think pizza hut wings vs. any place in Buffalo. I think I understand what you mean there, but I found it funny. "Caffeine, chemicals, corn syrup, all good. Milk? NFW for my kids!!" (No judgement, I'll have an energy drink or two when driving late at night and drink a ton of tea)

I don't know about these #FancyTax plans. :) To sum up (that's a Calculus joke, BTW), the IRS is complex not because of any particular tax rate plan. As long as the area under the curve roughly covers expenses we're good.

I dunno, Andrew Peters is ranting about it on WGR right now, if he's against it, that's a pretty good reason to give it a shot. Also, Ennis' skate was a foot off the ice, anyone who thinks we wasn't offsides has the blinders on, I thought he was offsides watching it live, and I'm usually terrible at seeing stuff like that. I don't love the rule as it is, I'd like to see there be some limit on it. 10 seconds, 30, puck touches a defending player, whatever. But I'd rather see right than "that goal shouldn't have counted, he was offsides".

It's kinda spazzing too, like I'm just learning how to use it. :)

That's actually not that far off from the system that's already in place, before you start deducting. The "standard deduction" for being a person in the US means that much of your income is tax free so the first part is already covered; you're being a lot more generous. The difference is with the current progressive tax, instead of starting at 40% at $20,001, you start at a lower rate and work up. For a simple model, let's say this: 0-20k, 0%, then for $20k to 40k, 10%. 40k to 60K, 20%, 60k to 80k, 30%, and anything over 80k at 40%. Note that you're only taxed at the rate for range, so if you make 21k, you're only paying %5 on 1k, not 5% on $21k. Speaking of 40%, that's almost exactly what the current top bracket is. I like the progressive tax because the curve isn't as steep for middle class. The money guys would have to figure out the break points and numbers, since if you cut middle-class taxes, it has to be made up somewhere. Unless you're a Republican, then you can cut taxes and it'll all just work out somehow. :)

Some heavy stuff in here, I have nothing remotely comparable to complain about.In an effort to cheer people up, here's me playing a snippit of "Iron Man" on a toy piano that makes cat noises (It's a long story as to why this exists). I'm thinking about recording the opening to Metallica's "One" tonight.

Yep, but every few minutes. Often enough that instead of having my phone next to me while I'm working late or something, I just skip it.

Same, it pops up a message or something (it's been awhile since I've watched a game on it, mostly due to the annoyance) asking if you're still there. It's possible that it's watching the accelerometer and wouldn't ask if the phone was subtly moving (as if I was holding it), but I'm not sure the NFL is that smart. I may have to dig out my Construx and build a wobbler if that were the case. :)

If I'm really free to watch, I'll have the Sabres on the TV via the PS3 and the Bills on my phone via the NFL app. With no cable, the phone is the only option for football. Unfortunately, it sucks. You have to poke it every few minutes or it thinks you're not watching. It's impossible that I'd want to put the game on, prop the phone up and just watch, right? Or listen as I do something else and watch when something important happens.

Probably covered in their new line of gigantic pads. :)

That I can agree with, I thought you were somehow tying Rex to EJ. I'd say Rex has been all sizzle, very little steak.