MattPie

I do wonder how many of the countries bidding said, "well, if Canada is bidding they have enough money that we're not going to win" and backed out.

Which wins out: more cups or more money?

It might be tough to say, "I'm going to sign with team X with the realization that I'll probably never win another cup." That may be in the cards anyway for him, but that's a big decision.

I see it as "You've provided me enjoyment in the past, let me buy you a drink so I can provide you some enjoyment."

Second rounders miss more than hit. I don't have the numbers handy, but I'd guess if you take three 2nd rounders, one "should" hit and if you have two of the three hit, you're doing well. If all three hit, go get some lottery tickets.

No goal, face off to Hasek's left.

Or kids.

For Center Ice, I'd tend to agree with you since you already have cable/sat. Gamecenter is stretching the truth more as at least 10% (and more like 20% for the Sabres this year) of a team's games aren't available until 2 days later.

Man, I wish Woods' last two posts were merged. :)

I tried to read a Clockwork Orange in college, but it was mostly written in Brittish slang and I gave up. I should try it again some time. I've read LotR twice, once when I was around 12-13 and again as the movies came out. I have a tough time committing the time to watch the movies, never mind read the books. :) I'm reading Gulliver's Travels right now. It's interesting but it hasn't really hooked me yet.

"Should": perhaps. True that education spending (at least K-12) should be prioritized, but there's a sizable population that don't trust "book learning" (or think schools are filling childrens' mind with wrong ideas) and the ones that control this stuff are sending their kids to private schools. I have a tougher time saying that we should be sending everyone to college. We should either be pushing that education down into high school if it's really required or hiring practices should be adjusted that irrelevant college experience shouldn't count towards a job. There are a lot of jobs around that don't need a college education; requiring employees have gone to college is only to prove they can be taught what they really need to know to do the job. That being said, I certainly want my daughter to go to college, although I'd have a tougher time saying that if she decides to enroll in a course of study that has no particular job prospects at the end. No phone and there's no way they're going to get a job in the current environment, and certainly not going to be able to fit in with their peers at work if they do. If you're really arguing that the $8/mo for Netflix is the difference, I don't know what to say. The car I can agree with, but you'd be surprised at the growing number of kids that are ditching cable (other than internet) and don't have TVs.

I just finished etching the basement floor so I can paint it tomorrow. Additionally, I might put up a couple lights in the house this weekend and do some auto repair. I'm fairly handy; how about some of that pesto?

Yep. If he was smart, he made more money than I will in my lifetime so he can live out the duration in middle-class style.

I picked up "The Martian" after hearing about the movie coming out later this year. It's a fun read. I figured I'd read a chapter or two a night, but consumed it in 2-3 nights as I couldn't put it down. I finished it a few weeks ago, and find myself wanting to read it again already. I highly recommend! Synopsis: If you think about the movie Castaway but on Mars, you wouldn't be too far off. The format one of my favorite types of Sci-fi, "this is how hard space would be". There's no space monsters, malevolent bacteria, or life forces, just storms and stuff breaking down and some reasonable MacGuyvering to stay alive. The book format is mostly reading the astronaut's log about being stuck on Mars alone with several sections of traditional prose with to people at NASA trying to figure out what to do and some with the crew of the ship the astronaut was supposed to be on. The main character comes off as "engineer/scientist with a silly/funny streak"; as in someone that would be interesting to have a beer with and talk science.

Exactly. Once a place a need for two person-weeks of labor, it becomes an advantage to hire three people for 28 hours each than it does for two people for 40.

I'm confused, do you see this as a positive or at least something to aspire to? China is a particularly interesting example, as they have a very heavy handed government (what you seem to oppose) which is part of the reason they're current successful. Their stock market is a disaster lately, but things keep going because the government keeps pushing along. Nah, I know, it just struck me as funny. - Sincerely, Met'yuPirog.

While I completely agree with you, the avatar and username are just too funny paired with this post. I'm not sure Russian Commie Robot is going to convince Wookie.

Can we move this to the Toilet Talk thread?

I'm trying to figure out a nice way to say you're wrong. Diesels don't restrict the intake like a gasoline engine does; instead they vary the amount of fuel squirted into the engine to vary the amount of power it will create. Gas engines use a butterfly valve to restrict the air coming into the engine and squirt the right amount of fuel for the amount of air. When you let off the gas, engine braking happens because the engine is trying to move the same volume of air through a very small intake area. Think trying to suck a milk shake through a cocktail vs. a regular straw. In fact, a "Jake Brake" (when trucks make that loud engine sound when slowing down) is an add-on that turns the engine into a compressor using the trucks momentum as power. The truck slows down since the compressor is offering resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_braking Looks like engine braking is either added by VW to make it feel like a gas car, or the emissions equipment is doing it. All I'll say is: brakes are a lot cheaper and easier to replace than transmissions.

Yeah, the WRX is a bit of a pig. I actually do a few MPG better with the winter tires on it, they're lighter (less rotating mass) 16" where the OEM rims are 17" and wider, but all those holes in the front of the car don't help its mileage.

It is certainly both, but as I understand it the demographics of enlistment says the poorer people enlist more so economics certainly plays a part. I have at least one friend that joined the Army after washing out of college and a series of dead-end jobs. It worked for him, as he's a happy dotcom tech guy now. I did read an article though that it's not sunshine and roses though. The focus of the article was an unhappy army private that was assigned to be a janitor based on his scores on the aptitude tests. There's nothing wrong with good, honest work but he was hoping that he'd get further ahead. That's the downside of military life: you're signing over 6 years (minimum) with almost no say in what you do. It's fine if you test well and get ahead, but you may end up no further ahead at the end or will a set of skills that doesn't translate well to the outside world.

There's plenty of mid and upper level military officers that need to get their fair share of the blame too.

Keep the reports coming over time. A VW diesel is on my future short-list of vehicles when it's time to trade in my WRX. I love Subarus, but I'd like to have something that gets better than 22 MPG (requires premium). Van-dor the Unstoppable gets the same, but at least it's regular gas.

I'd say Cayuga Cruiser from Ithaca too. Sour, but not so sour that it makes you pucker.

Questioning someone's heritage because they have a dwarf as an ancestor isn't cool, man.