Let’s start with the obvious. It is generally agreed that 2016 was a Bad Year (not just for the A’s hitters. Or for that matter the A’s pitchers.) It started out kind of blah, continued as if enveloped in a permanent miasma, and ended in disaster both too obvious and too depressing to talk about here.
This state of affairs has proven especially difficult to reconcile with philosophical progressivism, the belief that while individually we are all (in fact) going to die, on the whole the human condition tends to improve over time. The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice; humanity gets healthier, wealthier, less violent, more free. Et cetera. The last year has given many of us pause. Are things falling apart; can the center hold?
One of the basic facts of calculus is that (for an appropriate class of function), when f has a local minimum, f’ is 0; in plain language, even when things have hit bottom and started to get better, they initially do so only at a very slow rate. This essential Truth has also been recognized by artists: “good times are coming, but they sure are coming slow” [Young, 1974]. (But see also “the darkest hour is right before the dawn” [Crosby, 1969; Dylan, 1974]).
We went out to our local tapas bar for an earlyish dinner last night, and were unexpectedly greeted by the presence of the sslingers. The seats next to them opened up within a couple of minutes. So the usual good food and killer (in both good and bad ways) cocktails were enhanced with some camaraderie and conversation. I am taking this happy coincidence as a sign that the Universe has finished hitting rock bottom and is getting its shit together, and that better times are coming (albeit perhaps slowly at first) in the New Year. May that be reflected in all your lives, and in our collective body politic.
Happy 2017 FKers.
Happy FKing New Year!
I’m pinning my hopes on variance, that 2016 was so many standard deviations towards doom that 2017 will surely be less horrible.
Also, I am cautiously optimistic about Matt McGloin.
Does optimistic mean something differnt than I think?
Sorry about that one.
It was great running into you and ms. andeux as well, and if seeing us on NYE is seen as a sign of the pendulum swinging back in a better direction then I’ll take that as a fine compliment. And hey, we even talked a little baseball!
what tapas place? i need a rec. went to berkeley cesar last month and it didn’t wow me like it used to.
…Berkeley César.
There is also La Marcha on San Pablo. I’ve heard good things, but haven’t been.
ha!
They can be a little hit or miss, but that night they were on point. And La Marcha is worth a try if you haven’t been – I’d say the patatas braves are a cut above those at Cesar. And if you ever find yourself in Healdsburg checkout Bravas Tapas, really good especially for happy hour.
i think yeah, off night. bad timing or something. patatas came out last and cold.
i’ll try marcha. especially if the patatas are better. those things are my jam.
I was told there would be no math.
On the plus side, the Niners will be hard pressed to get worse, so they’re on your trajectory.
Politics, however, are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
Who needs an Office of Congressional Ethics anyway?
Party Before Country.
Well…it depends on the country and what they’re serving at the party.
Country in the front, party in the back.
Excellent.
The one thing that gives me hope is that the election brought the House Republican Caucus to the forefront of our politics, in all their venal, immoral stupidity. Voters are not going to dig their act.
Meh. They continue to blame Obama and the Dems for everything. And their constituents will eat it up.
They will indeed do that, and many will indeed eat it up. But most people will hold them responsible for their hideous policy choices now that they have unified control again. Gerrymandering may save them personally, but their stink will hurt the Republican Party writ large now that they can’t just throw bombs from the sideline.
I’m less optimistic. I mean, intellectually, that would seem like a no-brainer. But these are the same people who had no problems voting for someone like Donald. They bought into hard. The dumb based on message and they will believe the story their sold that it’s not the GOP’s fault. The smart based on a desire for power and there’s no reason to think they’ll be willing to give that power up just because their party has failed. The big problem is demographics and population disparity. The significant majority will see through all of this. But they’re largely populated in blue states who’s power is diminished due to “fairness” that allows significantly more representation for small states per person than large states.
To be clear: I am not at all optimistic about anything.
Not even the Raiders had back to back one and done coaches…Lil Jed is getting it done.
You say that as if the Cleveland Browns didn’t exist. I’m not saying the Niners are much better than the Browns, but I’m saying there’s room for further decline.
I’m saying they’re a 2-14 team (thereby dramatically underperforming my 4-12 expectation) but there’s enough “talent” to make them unlikely to get worse.
#2 overall pick, eleventybillion dollars in cap room, some decent young guys on defense, Carlos Hyde
There’s a fair amount to look forward to for SF, especially from a GM standpoint if you consider that Baalke was given 6 years and everybody now says he was horrible.
Thanks, and go As.
At least post-Baalke we won’t use the #2 pick on someone with a missing ligament.
The problem is that I don’t see a Justin Smith level free agent, so I’m not sure how we deal with having one legit star (Hyde) at a less important position and a lot of sub-replacement players elsewhere.
Eh, the ACL picks were fine. Everybody ***LOVED*** the Marcus Lattimore pick. The team was full of veterans in win now mode, they weren’t drafting anybody that was gonna step in and start.
His biggest problem was he sucked at identifying skill players.
Also, I don’t think they NEED a Justin Smith level FA. Well I mean, everybody needs one, but what they really need is a high level pass rusher, they’ve used their last two 1st rounders on DEs, which is why I’m hoping and hoping that they draft Myles Garrett.
Thanks, and go As.
Marcus Lattimore maybe. The rest of ’em, though, were nowhere near the upside at their pick.
And yes, the problem was that he sucked at drafting basically all types of players. Which is why we have very few good players on our team.
What I meant by Justin Smith is that most NFL FAs are either old, headcases, not really that good, or unlikely to keep pressing after they hit the big contracts. JS is one of the very rare exceptions where he had a lot in the tank, worked all out, and was truly excellent. Key to those defenses, IMO.
This country likes to take a flyer on Presidents from time to time. Sometimes it works like Obama and sometimes it doesn’t like Carter. The next four years are likely going to be a chaotic mess but we’ll survive…or we’ll all die. I’d say it’s 50/50.
My current reading from the library is Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency by Charles Rappleye. I’ve just started it but some similarities to the current President-elect are already evident.
Hoover is the comparrison you’d make and his presidency is among the worst. I’d say Hoover was much smarter than Trump but Trump cares more about how he’s perceived.
Or 2017 could just be more of this
i like how the announcer doesn’t seem to know what’s happening until he indignantly asks what the bills are doing.
Derek Carr made his MVP case in Denver yesterday. I’m not sure McGroin could start for KU.
You’re more of a Connor Cook guy?
It’s like choosing between being hanged or shot.
Reports say Raiders don’t think McGloin will be healthy for Saturday. While it’s obviously devastating to have lodt Carr, I thought Cook looked ok and I can see him leading Oakland past Houston. Here’s hoping.
Interesting how both teams are in similar situations with the QB status, but if the rest of the team doesn’t play better then it doesn’t make any difference who’s throwing the ball.
It would be great to see the Raiders get a playoff win, just that the following week’s contest in Foxborough will make you remember the Tuck Rule game fondly.
I made the mistake of checking the news…apparently Mariah Carey bombed Turkey.
Advice to Mariah from someone who’s a few years older than her: you want to keep going with the tight swimsuit type outfits, that’s cool, but it’s time to lay off the cheeseburgers. Your body reacts differently to them than it did a few years ago.
Well, at least I can say I’ve now learned one of the basic facts of calculus.
Ha ha…now they’ll all think I’m smart and not the snapperhead who posts about microwaves.
Don’t worry my vacation ends today so the posting will stop soon.
It may have been U$C vs. State Penn but that was one hell of a Rose Bowl.
And, from my perspective, a heck of a sugar bowl
Boomer Sooner
Yep. Eat it SEC.
Though I was conflicted for the period where Auburn was playing the QB from Last Chance U. Who I like, but looked horrible.
I love watching the big ten fail in epic fashion, especially Iowa.
#6 Mighty Harbaughs LOSE, #5 Nittany Lions LOSE, #3 tOSU SHUT OUT. #8 Wisconsin did beat a directional school from the MAC.
I drove up to Columbus on Sunday to meet a friend for lunch. Town was pretty quiet, probably because all the students were still away on break. But I like to think that it was because no one had to courage to get out of bed.
Soaker, how are you reading this weekend’s storm? I’d been planning on coming up, but don’t want to get stuck.
The tendency for this weekend is for rain up to about highway pass levels or a little above. The rain will be on top of a lot of snow that will fall in the next couple days (and is falling right now; I need to get my ass off the Internet and shovel), so a soggy mess at the lake and ton of snow higher up.
The Open Snow column is updated every morning and gives a decent description of what to expect.
Thanks. I follow that column, and this morning’s does seem to be forecasting more rain on Saturday/Sunday than yesterday’s. So if the snow line is set at 8000-8500 feet, than means it’ll be raining on the Donner Pass on Saturday night and Sunday morning?
That sounds right. For now the forecast sounds like what we had a couple times before Christmas, a little snow at the beginning, then a lot of rain, then change back to snow at the end, the question being whether the cold air at the end arrives earlier than they expect.
Meanwhile today is perfect. That was about 6-7 inches of light fluffy powder I shoveled, the sun is making an effort and the population is down about 80% compared to the last week and a half.
Tentative plan now is to come up Thursday night, enjoy a day in the fresh snow, and head home Friday night before the storm sets in.
This sounds like a fine plan. We had quite a bit of Sierra cement overnight and this morning. Friday looks great but the weekend awful. It has been noted that last weekend was the 20th anniversary of the 1997 floods in similar conditions, cold storms followed by very wet warm storm, which submerged good portions of Reno and Sparks, so maybe we get to see if 20 years worth of preventive measures have done any good.
I’ve gone to Yosemite a whole bunch since ’97, the video in this article reminded me just how massive that flood was. Hope we don’t see a repeat.
Uh oh.
I cleared the decks completely at 4:30, now at 7:30 we have another 4 inches so here I go again. And it’s not fluffy powder, the temp is 33 so it’s reservoir-filling goop. (Not complaining…this is what I moved here for!)
Edit: 80 has been closed for several hours so ptbnl be sure to check on status tomorrow, should be OK by afternoon.
is ultimately good, yeah?
OK – so who broke the site?
Wow, Putin’s hackers did quite a job on this thing.
Either that or nm’s latest update of the keystroke logger was a disaster.
This is special. No idea where the issue came from.
Our host is “migrating” us to a different server. Which undid some of my code. Should be fixed soon.
Is that why we were offline so much of yesterday?
Shouldn’t be.
We were also on WP 4.7 briefly, but are now back to 3.9.
And our precious taglines seem to be gone.
Fangraphs has him at 2 WAR last year. Great move!
bb-ref has him at 0.4 WAR last year. Terrible move!
He brings Postseason Experience which will be very valuable in October.
Packing up lockers and booking tee times and whatnot.
Summery haircuts.
an’t believe you think he won’t get traded in July.
Also, I c
maybe this wouldn’t happen if FK was a slack channel?
Sorry guys. Still trying to find the issue. I’ll get there.
i feels for you.
Test
Should be functioning except for the odd looking edit/delete links. Let me know if unread comments aren’t showing up.
I had unread comments listed on the right but on going to the thread they aren’t highlighted and pressing z doesn’t take me to them.
Mine are highlighted, but no z functionality.
Shift+H is also not working.
Not highlighted, no z functionality, but it did say I had new comments.
and hey gang! Going to try and be around more. I dont know if that is an encouraging or discouraging thing for the new year…
Ok. Will try to figure it out tonight.
Its really unacceptable. i mean, i am thinking about leaving the forum. If this continues overnight, I just might
Seems like an overreaction to 5Aces spending more time here.
And yet it felt so common for me.
sorry. just being honest
you heard me.
BaNnEd!
thanks and go a’s
that’s a bold statement.
Words are just meaningless at this point.
Interesting
saw that after linking to a HBT about the A’s being interested in trumbo.
it appears OBP is over valued.
A lineup with the Davises, Trumbo, and Semien would suggest the A’s agree.
is the only guy that could challenge it. pujols is not going to do better and I don’t think the marginal return after lawyers fees and protracted litigation (and age) make sense for bumgarner posey or kershaw.
sean doolittle, heh, no.
From chat with Fangraphs’ lead prospects guy :(
The snide burn of Semien aside, is it possible the A’s simply gauge Barretto’s D potential differently?
they did like miguel cabrerra’s defense better than all others did
The current look of the site, along with a random paragraph about calculus made me sure this was one of the old spam posts that were always attributed to me.
Hoping I fixed the Z key. Let me know.
Still not working for me.
Same as Colin (on Firefox if that matters). No Z still and cant see whats new and what isnt. Gives me a good chance to reread Bed’s musings.
I’m on chrome, but I do see new comments highlighted in yellow.
chrome. and also not working. sorry about this headach nm, but its nice having you around
Same as the other 2. Also it looks different and I’m scared.
Thanks, and go As.
Yeah, we seem to have lost some of the font specifications. I’m happy to take suggestions on those from those of you with knowledge.
in my experience with themes for WP (now a few years since last used), if you do custom coding on the pages themselves, it gets lost when there is a version update for the theme or other such moments. the way to preserve custom coding through version changes is to make a child theme or to use a theme that has a custom code area (which i believe is up-river from the other areas, so that CSS works).
but, i’m just guessing at preventive cures by looking at symptoms, without knowing what the diagnosis actually is.
what was the name of this theme again?
apparently, all this poop is some kind of revenge.
Yeah, I did a lot of theme hacking but haven’t updated the files. The annoying part is that the host transitioned us from one platform to another without talking to me first, so I don’t really know what they did to screw things up.
It’s also very odd that the comment styles aren’t showing for everyone, because the CSS class identifiers are showing up the same way they did. We are now just down to a javascript issue somewhere that’s wrecking the keypress (at least, I think that’s it).
maybe it’s worth asking in the forum?
https://wordpress.org/support/theme/montezuma
(i hate asking in the forum.)
Font is a lovely (albeit cognitively dissonant) Carolina blue on my Android.
As of yesterday, it was Carolina Blue on Safari but green and gold on Chrome. Now it’s tar heel time on both.
I think that just happens when your browser has style info cached, and isn’t related to the specific browser.
e.g. I just checked on my phone, and it first showed up as green with the banner picture at the top, but as soon as I hit reload it is blue with no picture.
Zed is still dead.
FK having a nervous breakdown at the same time Muni nextbus tracking collapses. Very suspicious.
They were relying on the all the keystrokes harvested here. No backup plan for this drought. We need Bed to go on a bender!
This is a pretty interesting leak. Someone in the AG’s office is not a big fan of Sen. Harris.
slf works at the AGs office. we are not fans. there was shady shit happening in the consumer division to investigate Sanchez as soon as she announced. (like she need it)
SLF was asked to look into something, reported on why the investigation looked politically motivated and they took he off the case, and assigned 4 LA investigators on it, which was an unprecedented amount of resources
It’s definitely embarrassing for Harris, but could be that the leaker is targeting Mnuchin and she is collateral damage. She’s not up for relection until 2022 but he has to face a confirmation hearing very soon.
Possibly, and The Intercept is certainly one to play up the compromised Democrat angle.
However, Harris has been mentioned as a rising star in the party and even a potential presidential candidate. I could see someone wanting to take some air out of her balloon right now (maybe even someone loyal to another rising California Democrat like, say, the incoming AG or the current Lt. Gov.).
one of the prime movers on the memo left. and not the one mentioned in the article. another was passed over for a promotion in favor of an incompetent(not mentioned). Another left for MBA school (in its 50s). three are still kissing ass and being incompetent (although one was disappointed that this was not pursued).
oh shit. i think I know who the leaker is. One of SLF’s friends. they were both flabergasted by another non move by the powers that be.
oh shit oh shit o shit
looking now at the memo and sample complaint. most if the people are busy trying to show how much they weren’t the leak. One name is in trouble but i don’t think is the source.
Hmm … so now all the edit functions (Edit, Unapprove, Spam, Trash, Delete) appear under the poster’s name in each post, but only after the page reloads. Reloading also screws up the tagline formatting.
So, who broke the site? My guess is Ed.
i hope so
Our lovely hosts…
This is really really neat, and also maybe I should go to Salem OR on 8/21/17.
Checking Kayak, there are no hotel rooms in Salem on the night of 8/20 except at one Comfort Inn, which is asking $855 for that night. Your value choice might be the Econo Lodge in Corvallis at just $449.
The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes are playing a morning game so the eclipse will happen during the game.
Nightfall
suddenly remembered a dream from a couple nights back. game 7, 9th inning, world series, and the A’s are up. it’s on TV at a bar that i’m at when i realize the importance, because i hadn’t been paying attention. like all october. all year probably. first out. i’m thinking, holy crap, is that gonna happen? sorta wished i’d payed attention, but still feeling meh-ish. i mean, i don’t know any of the players. ANY. easy popup for out number 2… dropped. really badly. ha! of course. this isn’t gonna happen. it’s the A’s, like doing their 3-1 shuffle or something. then an actual second out. i near the TV. not sure how i should act, like i was there all along? nah. i can’t fully own this one, i’m thinking. unless it’s a giants fan in front of me. then the following days, maybe wear my hat but not necessarily go to the parade. then i woke up. no idea if it ended up happening or not. sorry folks!
The Wild (Pitch) the Innocent (Baserunning Mistake) & the 3-1 Shuffle
Look at the big brain on Canha.
three classes.
whatever slacker
He was really busy at the frat last semester.
meh
You can’t always get what you want….
If this is supposed to make me feel better about Rajai being our starting CF, it didn’t work.
I’m at peace with it because it’s a one year deal and I don’t think the A’s have any hope of being good in 2017.
That’s all true, but the thing that kills me the most when watching a bad team is bad defense. I can forgive a lot of shittiness if you just catch the ball and throw to the right base.
its not like the sun in oakland is bad on the 25 day games they play every year.
also can coco’s option vest still?
yikes
should we alert any possibly unaware locals there on ridge road? for backyard checks and stuff?
Yes, there was a lot of police activity in front of our house yesterday. At the time they couldn’t really tell us anything.
I know the feeling. they didn’t even give us an all clear.
According to the Chron, suspect arrested in Burbank. Seems when they searched the house where the girl was stabbed (near Ashby) they also found a dead body, unidentified. Still don’t know why she was dropped off here and not at a hospital.
whoa!
I am ready for this year’s Storm Of The Century. All batteries fully charged. Should be able to run modem and router if electricity craps out but Charter internet is still running.
In event of extended power failure, grab ice chest, grab shovel. Put contents of refrigerator in ice chest. Go downstairs, put snow previously shoveled off driveway into ice chest. If air temp is below 40, forget ice chest, just line up beers on Bill King Deck.
If the ptbnls followed through on their plan, today was a Chamber of Commerce or Visitors Authority Day, I was out there for hours and it was glorious.
The one-day plan was solo after we cancelled the family weekend, and that then got squashed by last-minute work commitments
Happy New Year FKers!
Thanks for the nice intro, andeux.
Thanks for always mending the site, NM.
Also in the news, so it starts…
They say you haven’t read Breitbart until you’ve read it in the original German.
Heh heh. Sagh.
Z is still not working (PC/Chrome), but on the plus side, the login seems to survive the closing of the tab.
Upon opening the main page just now on my phone (chrome for iPhone), I got a pop up notification informing me that “freekraut.net says hello world”.
EDIT: It is giving this popup on every page reload.
Also, I think unreads are broken. It’s telling me there are six in this thread but there are not.
It told me there were unreads on this thread, and there were indeed some comments that I hadn’t read. But they weren’t highlighted in yellow anymore.
Yeah. Working on it.
I think Conner Cook will do better than Mark Kiger did.
Wherever he is now, Kiger should start warming up.
FIRE MACHA NOW
oooooooooooooook
I think everything is basically working now.
Interested in feedback/lingering bugs.
Yay. Looks good. Unread comments seem to work.
Taglines are still missing. If the old list isn’t saved somewhere, we can just start a new one.
List restored, fixing CSS.
And I’m signing off for now.
yay! thanks
It’s still working the way I want, but the fonts are a mess.
Any of you font nerds have thoughts?
(also, for what it’s worth, an upside to this is we are updated to the newest WP (so probably the hacking annoyances are on pause) and the newest version of our theme)
Now that you say it, upon “reload” the fonts change and all the “EditUnapproveSpamTrashDelete” option appear. Also it inserts “strong” tag at the beginning of what you write, replacing the first word with it.
Sorry, the options are there from the beginning, only fonts change upon reload (PC/Chrome)
I’m not seeing the fonts change. I just noticed the “strong” tag, but I think it’s because it isn’t focusing on the text box (which is a separate problem). Will investigate.
test
You are right, the focus is on the “b” button. Not getting different fonts upon reload anymore. Also, totally irrelevant, but could it be your page encoding changed? (see my signature)
All kinds of things happened. Basically the host switched servers and I lost all my theme customizations (which had been heavy)
you did magnificent, much appreciated work already. i don’t give a dang about the fonts if we’re functional. there is a bug to report though.
on safari, if there are unread comments and I make a reply to anything, 1) the comments box is beneath the whole stack of comments, when I hit post the whole page reloads to show my comment in line with whatever I commented on, but 2) all the unreads disappear.
forgot to mention, that reply box was correctly under your comment I was replying to, but it didn’t have a frame around it. same the one I’m typing in.
am having the same issue and still getting bold
Beautiful, thanks for your work
Everything looks amazing to me. Thanks nevermoor!!!
Cal fires head coach Sonny Dykes.
Thank fking God! Welcome back to (potentially) having a real football program Cal! Will be very curious what the fall out is. I would like to think the administration finally realized having an FCS program was not acceptable, but my guess is there was some other sorta behind the scenes issues.
Kneejerk reaction is, some kind of irreconcilable philosophical difference developed. (Admin: “You need a defense to compete in this conference.” Sonny: NO I DON’T!”)
If he ran that kind of on-the-field program AND left a scandal behind, I want the guy dismembered. Off the field, the team’s academics have improved drastically since the dying days of the Tedford administration, which I why I don’t really think there’s anything scandalous.
My guess is that someone they have been backchanneling with about taking over finally said yes. Because if they don’t have someone lined up at this point, the timing seems crazy.
Among those named, either Spavital or Wilcox would leap at this job. Spavital apparently made quite a splash with the people whose opinion counts, Wilcox certainly would have the West Coast recruiting connections. I’m thinking >90% chance it’s one of them. Ron Rivera 0.1%, Chip Kelly 0.00000001%, The Field the rest (maybe somebody like Hardy Nickerson? but that seems a little Joe Kapp-ish and I was a student during much of the sorry Kapp era).
I actually think Wilcox would be a pretty legit hire. Connection to the West Coast with a reasonably proven track record of success. If he could keep Spavital, then at least until Spavital leaves, the offense would be in good hands.
Ron Rivera would be my top choice, but I agree with your percentages.
I think Jon Wilner (total assclown) tweeted that a source of his indicated the boosters’ contributions were about to dry up and fast if Dykes was not removed. Despite Williams’ comments on removing Dykes because he did not like Dykes’ lack of commitment, I think the timing is such that the Regents finally realized Dykes was not getting hired by the Big 12 avoiding any buyout, so they reluctantly pulled the plug.
It does not hurt (ironically) on the recruiting front given what a terrible recruiting class Sonny lined up. Also, while I think — gasp — Kiffin would have actually done well at Cal, aside from him and PJ Fleck going to Minnesota, I do not think Cal really missed on any coaching candidates based on the timing.
Chip Kelly, come on down.
Thanks, and go As.
The Ryan bros. are also available.
By how much will NE be favored over Houston next week?
That has to be one of the biggest playoff mismatches ever.
If the first 2.5 games of the playoffs are a guide, we’re going to see nothing but one-sided boring games for at least the first two weekends, and maybe right through SB LI.
As much as I hate NE, I hope they win by six touchdowns.
So I never really listened much to Gruden before yesterday. Some things I learned from him yesterday.
1. Somehow, losing a DE in week 3 of the season is equivalent to losing a starting QB (a potential MVP candidate) in week 16.
2. Osweiler is really a great QB. 164 yards passing against a fairly week defense is proof of this.
3. The Texans should be favored to win the SB because of their awesome defense.
I knew there was a reason I don’t watch MNF very much.
Astonishingly sick burn from Jimmy Fallon: “Game of Thrones was nominated… And if you ever wondered what it would have been like if Joffrey was still alive, we’ll find out in 12 days!”
I’m sure I’d find that more cutting if Fallon hadn’t literally stroked Trump’s hair on his show.
Yeah, was thinking about that before the show started today.
One of the reasons why I found the burn astonishing.
test.
Joffrey doesn’t feel like the right analogy for Trump. I’d say he’s more of a Mad King/Robert hybrid, but dumber than both.
DJT Jr. is Joffrey. Or maybe Kushner.
Since he’s going to be the hand of the king, I guess we have to hope Kushner is on the Jon Arryn-Ned-Tyrion spectrum.
Seems unlikely
Indeed. He’s probably a mediocre version of Cersei.
Any of you watching Mr. Robot? I just finished season 1 and I have basically decided in my mind that Tyrell Wellick and the Trump sons are all the same people.
My wife and I watched the first season back in the spring/summer. We were going to start watching the second season but then the election happened and it doesn’t seem as fun anymore.
We’re #14!
That could actually REALLY suck for the US.
Thanks, and go As.
You really think so? Shouldn’t US rather comfortably be one of the Top 14 teams in America?
You underestimate the US’ ability to play down to their opponent.
Also, away matches in CONCACAF are ridiculous.
Just imagine this current scenario happening, where the US drop points in the first 2 games of the hex to Mexico and Costa Rica — but then instead of having Honduras and Trinidad coming up, they have Chile and Colombia.
Should they comfortably be top 14 between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL? Yes. The keyword is should, though.
Thanks, and go As.
even if all 10 concacaf teams qualify ahead of the US, the US would still have 4 slots to play for against conmebol teams. better than the 3.5 current slots.
i’m skeptical though about opening the field so much that they have to change the basic round robin, home/away format concacaf has right now. love that format for this stage of the WC.
That is true. I love the hex.
Thanks, and go As.
maybe i wrote that wrong. i like round robin at the beginning. no seeding, no groups. all minnows and sharks in one pool.
I’m assuming all mentions of “concacaf” in your original comment should be replaced with “conmebol,” and vice versa.
Conmebol’s single-table qualifying tournament is the best show in the game. Better than the actual World Cup tournament, usually.
probably. i always get those 2 conca… conme.. confused.
I don’t think so. We would still qualify just as easily, if not more so, but we would get some more interesting games along the way.
I’ve been concerned about oxidation in my beer when cold-crashing at the end of fermentation to get all the debris to drop out of suspension. The drop in temperature from 70F to 35F means the gas in the fermenter head-space contracts, and even more significantly the solubility of CO2 in the beer goes up dramatically, both of which cause air to be sucked back through the airlock.
This weekend I suddenly realized that my fermenters came with taps. They’re meant to be attached at the base of the fermenter to drain it, but by attaching one to the top I can add a balloon filled with CO2 to act as a suck-back reservoir!
Better yet, when the reservoir is drained (and it will – I’m calculating 1.5 gallons of suck-back!) I just close the tap, remove, refill and replace the balloon, and re-open the tap, all without any air exposure for the precious, precious beer.
mmmmm, beer
Attn sslinger: March 17-19 in a room that holds about 700. Now that’s much more my speed than a humongous festival.
Looks like fun but I’ll be, um, at a humongous festival in Austin that weekend.
In addition to all of the other horrifying shit coming out of this transition, there’s this.
Oh my God.
I’d say I’m surprised, but I’m not. He knows absolutely nothing about how government works. And refuses to listen or ask anyone for advice because he think he’s smart.
ESPN’s Megacast options for Bama-Clemson tonight. Bill Walton might be fun for a few minutes, but I have mostly gone with Coaches’ Film Room the last couple years.
The “Homers Telecast” might be a good hatewatch.
As one who is sensitive to the rest of America’s prejudiced tendency to equate southern accent with stupid, I fear such broadcasts set hopes for open-mindedness back a few decades.
Of course, compared to Jeff Sessions and the Alabama court system I suppose a simple football broadcast doesn’t matter really.
I try to be open minded, but…
If the election results are any guide, then the accents of Michigan Wisconsin and Pennsylvania also equate to stupid.
Coaches’ Film Room is very informative but it became a bit fatiguing, especially when they’re running the clicker back and forth while the play is going on. For a respite I concluded the first half with Sounds of the Game (on the TV through the Chromecast); that’s the diametric opposite, almost too relaxing because there’s none of the energy you have when you’re physically present in the stadium.
Walton’s outfit is something else.
andeux bait
Want to make an outing of it?
Would love to – and it’s also Sour Sunday at Jupiter, which I have always enjoyed. Could be a dangerous double, but manageable with some well-timed food in the middle.
Are either of you still interested in one or both of these events? Anyone else want to jump on board?
Yes to pinball & pints, but it looks like it’s waitlist only now.
I see, that’s too bad. I’ll probably just go to Sour Sunday then. If you decide to join for that let me know.
Probably no for me.
Sounds fun. We went to the expo there a couple months ago. Only drawback for a beer-centric event is that someone has to drive there.
Or we take a cab from/to JLS.
This.
Reasonably exciting finish to this football game
You damn with faint praise, sir, that was a spectacular game (or at least the second half which was all I watched).
I was pretty much rooting for both of them to lose, but aside from that disappointment, it was quite the engaging battle for the neutral viewer. And part of it is the uniqueness of the alternate broadcasts; I went back to the coaches and hung with them for the second half, and they were hollering along with everybody else at the end.
We have some Clemson fans in my wife’s family, and Alabama is the Yankees of college football (plus the SEC must always be shamed whenever possible).
Amazing amazing game.
I only caught the last 8 minutes or so. It was pretty great.
Dabo Swinney is an extremely college football coach name
…
Yep, we elected an anti-vaxxer. Good times.
Was Jenny McCarthy unavailable?
She’s holding out for Surgeon General or CDC Director.
Rant of the morning.
Good stuff.
Waaaay to early heads-up. The guys I play Fantasy baseball with are organizing ST 2018 in Arizona and I’ll probably join. So, perhaps see you there…
We remain at Maximum Muncy.
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These guys have no idea wtf they are doing on the ACA. It’s amazing.
But they have banned any analysis by the CBO of the fiscal impact of whatever they do next, so that’s alright.
Monkey news
Monkey-on-Doe porn, complete with the money shot.
I mean, this was Japan.
Tip o’ the hat to the headline writer.
This is very easy except for 1985 on the stolen base list.
I suck, 30/40. If I’d remembered one guy it would have at least made it 35.
37/40. And I could not remember the ’85 SB leader either. I probably blocked that name out.
I threw up a little.
What does that even mean? I could have thought for a long time and never put “inauguration” and “sensuality” in the same sentence.
You don’t want to know.
Before all this came out, I was thinking Trump and Pence in adjoining clawfoot tubs. Actually that still works.
Hey, dude’s gotta maintain that golden hue somehow.
Official
that’s a tough knockout. hope… iono. …I live to see it? …there’s a world still?
Whoa at the fourth name on the byline. (And at the story.)
Deeper down the rabbit hole we go. Seems like there needs to be some investigation of Comey and why he “felt the need” to make the late announcement about the new Hillary emails on Wieners computer when he apparently ignored, or at the least didn’t see fit to publicly address, such warnings of contact between teams Trump and Putin.
Harry Reid tried to told us.
The amazing part is how unsurprising these revelations are.
All this shit was already out there before the election, at least as rumors, and people voted for him anyway.
True. It’s both astonishing and totally predictable.
Some of the details in the leaked intel seem like they ought to be easy to corroborate or falsify. Trump’s lawyer (the SAYS WHO guy) meeting with Kremlin officials in Prague last summer, for example. If that can be proven, hoo boy.
From an ex-CIA Republican! In September!
McCain!!!!!
How bad would things have to get for a Republican congress to impeach a Republican president? And will they actually get there?
Very bad. Maybe.
If the public, and the republican base in particular turn on Trump, I suspect Republican members of congress would be happy to ditch him in favor of Pence.
I could also imagine that if, in 2018, the Dems retake the Senate and make gains in the house, then Senate Dems might initiate impeachment proceedings and House Republicans might not fight it.
I don’t see it ever happening. Party over country.
This part is also pretty amazing:
The FISA court said no to a warrant request? That is amazing. I believe that almost literally never happens.
.03% rejection rate as of 2013. Maybe they are rejecting more post-Snowden.
Yet another reason to be pissed Obama didn’t use a recess appointment to get Garland on the SC for the next year.
I believe McConnell never actually adjourned the senate so as to prevent that sort of thing. Could be wrong about that.
I met Carl Bernstein once, maybe 1985 or so, in Philly. Maybe I caught him on a bad night but he seemed totally burned out on journalism.
I’m a little worried now that this will turn out like the GWB National Guard thing, where a story that is essentially true ends up getting “discredited” by some of the details (Prague, etc.) being wrong.
sure, sure, but it isn’t about the truth of the matter asserted, its about what actions are taken because of a threat of blackmail.
If there is blackmail, Crimean annexation will be recognized, Assad will reassume power or a whole hose of verifiable policy changes will be enacted. That should be enough for the never trumps to actually investigate next year and severely compromise him enough to get trump to quit/not stand for election, or get primaried.
That might be a way to keep his ~40% of the public onside for now, but it’s not going to help much with the people who can dig in on this and cause him problems (the CIA, a handful of Republican senators, and the responsible press).
Weird.
Well said. I don’t get this. Especially with the glut of mediocre 1b/3b/dh guys on the team. Maybe it’s something of a “sign em all and let god sort them out strategy.”
I dunno about this plan.
So why did we tender Alonso again?
If their goal this offseason was to spend modest sums of money in wildly inefficient ways to poorly fill gaping holes, they’ve certainly succeeded.
But hey, we can get excited about Zito and Tejada bobbleheads coming up!
I would rather see Healy play third and just let 1B/DH be a black hole with Alonso and Plouffe. But I guess this means we should expect Chapman soon?
The morning scene at Chateau Soaker. I’ve been keeping up with the stairs, front deck and driveway but the usual places to throw the stuff are sold out so some creativity is required. The lady on the left has some digging to do just just to get in her front door if she shows up for the weekend.
(note to nm: image tag missing; manual input of regular tag not working)
Holy moly, that is a lot of snow! What’s that trying to peek out from the tall pile on the left?
Heh, that’s actually a large boulder; it’s not 9 feet of snow. Same on the right; there’s a bouldery mound over there. But I would guess we have had about 4 feet here since it started in earnest during the football game Monday night, so with all that pushed off the driveway it does pile up high on the sides.
I was out some this morning and the main local roads are OK. 80 has been closed for >24 hours though and 50 was out of service for quite a while yesterday.
Ahh, gotcha. BTW, ALO is playing one of their Tour D’Amour shows up in Tahoe (Crystal Bay Club), 2/17. If you haven’t seen them yet, check it out, fun band and Lebo is one of the more inventive guitarists out there now.
See that photo above? It’s no coincidence that I’ll be on the Kona Coast on 2/17. I struck out on the String Cheese presale in spite of being on the site at 10:00:30, will try again on that on Friday.
Don’t leave your cabin door open …
As I understood it the snow just barged right through the closer door there. Perhaps it knocked first.
You’re right, I was being facetious – there was a triggered avalanche at Alpine and this was a side-effect.
I hear the booms from Heavenly; didn’t realize that’s what they were trying for. “So, Billy, which houses are we aiming for this morning?” “The green one and the gold one, David, down at the bottom of the street.”
Looks like condition 1
that was hilarious.
2009 A’s: Reassemble
Jack Cust is still available, and only 38 years old (turns 38 next week).
What a collection of washed-up veterans and faceless journeymen this is going to be.
Yuck.
now sonny gray won’t get any wins therefore suppressing his arbitration award.
mad genius, yo
Hey, Jairo might be coming back! Hooray!
Such as $500,000 for not giving up a run in a postseason game?
Pollo Libre!
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Looks like we still have some weird hanging-tag issues.
i can’t “tab” to the “post comment” key.
Welp. Here we are then.
Pretty good Dan Haren interview on the Sam-less Effectively Wild podcast today.
Whoops
Coco has the longest active streak of not getting hit-by-pitch, and it’s not even close
Question I never thought to ask before: Do switch-hitters get hbp’d less on average?
The fangraphs article suggests that they do. HBP rate is 1.07% when hitter and pitcher have the same handedness, 0.74% when they are opposite. It makes intuitive sense too.
Oh, I didn’t even notice you had a link there or I would have rtda. Damn this new wordpress version!
Yeah – is there a way to make links more obvious, NM?
DRAFT DAY FK YEAH!
Thanks, and go As.