MattPie

This is all fascinating to me. A few thoughts: - I had my Sienna parked next to my friend's Suburban and noticed the Sienna is at least as big if you discount that the floor is 6" lower than the Suburban. I just looked and the Sienna is bigger than a Suburban inside based on cargo volume (It truly is gigantic). Unless you need to tow something more than 3500lbs (Sienna rated capacity), there aren't a lot of reasons for the Suburban. The 'burban does have an extra 1.5" of ground clearance (8" vs. 6.5"; I thought it would be more); 8" is slightly less than a Subaru Outback. - I've driven my two Subaru WRXs through some pretty hairy snow storms, and those had 6" of ground clearance. One night, it was me and the tractor trailers, and one pickup that I saw spin off the road in my mirror. I thought about turning back but I saw someone else stop and I'd have to reverse on snowy a highway to help. - The answer is never a Harley. Even if you ascribe to the power == death theory, there are plenty of bikes with reasonable power to weight ratios that can turn. But, I don't believe power is an issue if you have some self-control; most single-motorcycle crashes are caused by a failure to negotiate a corner. I take my chances on a bike that can corner far faster than the street allows than a Harley that can easily reach speeds that it won't be able to corner at. - Speaking of cornering, I had a chance to try the Sienna out on a fairly twisty road on Saturday. As long as you're smooth, it'll corner far faster than most traffic allows. I'm talking 35-40 MPH marked corners at 65 with little drama. Smooth is the key though, it doesn't like sharp steering inputs. I'd have more data, but a fart of Harleys were holding me up and there wasn't a good place to pass. - Built-in Nav systems suck. Not only are smartphone (not to mention bespoke) solutions better these days, but the Toyota system makes using the radio for music a chore. To change the radio I need to look at the stupid thing and hit on-screen buttons. I'm really hoping that there something in the manual to make it easier.

I think you're underestimating people again. :) I look at soceities as people understanding that what's "good for me" might be worse for everyone else, and in the long term worse for me too. Humans seem to natually organize themselves into groups with at least some leadership structure, I think because it's easier than being out for yourself 100% of the time. Sure, it takes away some of my personal freedom, but I don't have to constantly defend myself from everyone else too. Morality is a learned concept, either from religion or soceity in general. I can't deny that I was raised moderately Christian (semi-regular church, etc), but it's not like I'm walking around thinking that God will be mad at me if I do something "bad" to someone else; I treat other people with respect because I want to be a positive aspect in someone else's day. I don't need a book to tell me that. :)

1st para: equating what happened in Russia over the course of the 20th century (and especially Stalin) and the official lack of religion is in my mind questionable. I honestly don't believe that religion or a lack thereof played a part in Stalin's plan other than to be a convenient excuse to get rid of political undesirables (in his eyes, of course). Stalin was plenty of psychopath that he'd have found a reason to execute those people while paying lip-service to being a Christain if required (like most other dictators). I'm not going to call it Utopia, but as an example polling in Sweden reports that 17% of people believe in god (although 45% believe theres a spirit-force of some description) and 34% are atheist. Only 2% in Sweden regularily attend religious services. Norway has similar numbers. Those two countries aren't exactly spiralling into death camps and debauchery. I think saying that people can't rule themselves without religion severly underestimates people.

FWIW, 47% of Russians self-report at Christian.

A couple years ago I mistakenly got an email from Londonberry Dodge in Edmonton about a truck. The Matt that was buying it must have given the wrong email or whatever. Anyways, a couple weeks ago I get another email from them about something or other. I replied: At least I got a chuckle out of it:

It always felt to me that baseball was a bit more plug and play with players since there's a limited number of options the player has to choose from if the ball comes to him. You don't really need to know your second baseman's tendencies and preferences to get the ball to him and force out the runner.

That reminds me: after getting into the accident on Saturday, I got home and went to an underground club called "Spin Cycle". It's a kind of hipster place where you drink and fix a washing machine. At least the beer was good.

Hey-ooooh!

I forgot the other name: Van-dor the Unstoppable. Also: sorry Josie.

I think he's 20+ but top-3. There will probably be enough growing pains that team scoring will be down across the board. If the team gets rolling, I think 30-ish will be right.

Gulp. On Saturday, the family and I drove over to New Jersey to pick our new-to-us certified Toyota Sienna. Now some might consider that a complaint in it's own right, but I kinda like vans and NJ is... well you got me there. So here's the real complaint: I got rear ended while in NJ. By my wife. In the Sienna that we bought an hour before. About a mile from the dealer. No injuries, luckily. Now we're trying to figure out a good name for the car. I don't really use names for my cars, but they usually have one. I tend to tie it to the country of origin (my German bike is Hilda, my two WRXs were Aiko and Beko, etc.), but I can't think of a good Japanese-ish name for a van. I suppose since it's built in Indiana mostly from US parts, I can use American names. Any thoughts on Morrison, Miller, Halen, Der Waals, or Couver?

That's not bad, other than the odd modern addition they put on the one side with really small windows. That looks like it's not even the same building! :)

I think the main issue with taking the Bible at its "word" is it was written/compiled well after the fact (at least 70 year I think for the gospels, and only in it's present form after the council of Nicea (I think, I'm no scholar)). There's a lot of myth and "tall tales" that could have slipped in by then. Plus, the people who wrote it had a vested interest in portraying Jesus in as positive a light as possible. As a parallel there are surely people that believe George Washington cut down a cherry tree (which can't be substantiated) and threw a silver dollar over the Potomac, despite the Potomac being a mile wide where Washington lived.

On one of the prediction threads, I said Leino would have something like 70 points. That may have been the year he was outscored by John Scott.

5 of the 7 are scheduled to be on NBC (not SN), that's pretty awesome for me, since I don't have cable.

To follow up, in 2010 Milwaukee had 8 instances of 3-games-in-3-nights on the schedule (it happened to pop up in the search at the top). the blog post mentioned that AHL teams often pack as many games as possible onto the weekend to get better crowds. http://admiralsroundtable.com/2010/10/21/managing-three-games-in-three-nights/

This post is so good I wish I could lick it.

The AHL also does 2-3-2 format, and I *think*, 3 games in 3 days during the regular season. I have to think that playoff format is cost-related.

Philly City Hall:

I agree. Or at the very least, the ability to completely disable the smarts.

There once was a lady from Nantucket... EDIT: Now that I think about it, this thread should only allow replies that include poems. Ideally, all replies would be in poems. In poems, all replies Filter through my digital window on the world. Bring joy, frustration, and comtemplation to a dreary, rainy day. Some of the people in the machine are closer than my family. Maybe there's a sadness in that. Maybe I should log out.

Indeed you are. I was a unicorn: a person under 40 with a pension from a private company until last year. We still get some of it, but not the "whole" deal we were promised.

Or a garbage plate I've never managed to do a crossover, either on ice or inlines. :)

I now know it feels like when the newbies come here and have no clue what you're talking about.

That is really the secret: smart TVs aren't. Someone figured out they could stuff what amounts to a low-end phone into a TV and make it a selling point. But 6 months after they build it, they stop supporting it so it eventually stops working with online services as they never update the included apps. It's not unlike phones, except that app support on phones generally works for a few years because you're not relying on the phone manufacturer to update it. The main issue is TVs have a longer service life than phones (my current TV was purchased the day before the Winter Classic in Buffalo, 7 years ago).