2 – noticed yesterday that sadly, Chick O Peas has closed (liked their condiment bar) but this new vegan place looks like it’s getting close to opening.
What is the preferred solution here? The left seems to want a single-payer system like in the UK, while the right seems to want national competition for private insurers. The left seems to hate the current system more than the right does. Is this better handled at the state level? I’ve yet to hear a solution I can really feel enthused about.
You mean the Health and Social Care Bill 2011? I thought that was done to improve the quality of care by replacing bureaucrats at Primary Care Trusts with doctors at Clinical Commissioning Groups as the primary payor decision makers.
Not only that – there’s a long history of using the NHS to subsidize private health (eg. in lab work), but the bill you mention is primarily intended to undermines a central pillar of the NHS by allowing private companies to compete selectively to provide whatever services they choose (ie. the most profitable) while the NHS would still be required to provide all services.
The right used to want Romneycare, before it became Obamacare.
There is no serious policy prescription on the right. They are simply opposed to whatever ever-more-rightward-away-from-single-payer solution the D’s offer.
you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
Public insurance, though not necessarily public doctors, would be a clear improvement over the current situation. The easiest way to get there from here would be to allow people to buy into Medicare.
To really make it sing, though, you’d need to decouple from employment which would be an adjustment.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
This makes sense, but you’d have to show that it would be something close to deficit neutral without death panels. People are apparently opposed to those. I think we’ll eventually get to this. I haven’t heard anything better so far.
There were never any death panels. End of life counseling (i.e. your doctor is paid to sit down and ask what you want) is a great idea.
And “deficit neutral” isn’t really the issue. It’s that people would have to pay into Medicare (either as a fee or a tax), which all conservatives would attack always. Even though they would no longer have to pay a health insurance company.
This. Most of the conservatives that I’ve spoken to are simply opposed to expanding Medicare because it’s “socialized,” without any rational reasoning. These people also are Medicare patients, so the argument confuses me greatly. If you subtract half of the amount of effort that insurance companies put into finding ways to deny care, it’s amazing how much the cost of insurance would go down, or the amount of coverage would go up.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
I think a proponent of this would have to successfully counter the argument that it’s a massive addition to costs. If there were some cost management that would be good. I don’t think the idea of death panels is too far-fetched, if you define those as someone other than you determining whether you as an old sick person is deserving of expensive medical care to prolong your life for probably a few months. This sort of thing can happen, and does happen in some places.
Of course it’s a massive addition to costs to add people to Medicare. That’s why it would be an option to buy in (at a price that globally neutralized costs).
The cost management is that Medicare is FAR FAR more efficient than private insurance, and has the leverage to negotiate better rates.
For that definition of death panels, you’re right. Insurance companies deny care sometimes. Who better to make that decision: someone who’ll get a bigger bonus for saying no or a public servant?
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
I’ve got no problem with the death panels. I just think it’s an unpopular concept. Anyone paying for my health care can feel free to deny it to me when I’m about to die in 6 months anyway.
1) I have no idea but I believe you if you say that it’s more efficient than private insurance
2) I don’t know whether I’d rather have a private insurer or a public servant making the decision. Private insurers want profits but can be sued if they take that too far, while public servants want the approval of their bosses who may have multiple agendas and can’t really be sued. In either case I’d be dead, so I’m probably indifferent.
The issue of claims surfaced recently in California. The state Nurses Association issued a press release saying that data it obtained from the Web site of the state’s Department of Managed Health Care showed that in just the first half of 2009, California’s six largest HMOs had rejected more than 31 million claims — 21 percent of those they had received.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
I’m not sure what it means but I use my insurance a lot and I’ve never been rejected. I found a noticeable decrease in quality of health care when I lived in California, and I didn’t meet anyone who was happy with their HMO there. Nowadays private insurance in California is not within most peoples’ budgets.
Raising the age for Medicare would (1) save the government $148B; (2) reduce tax receipts by $80B; and (3) cost the dis-en-Medicared $220B in private insurance.
Which is to say that dropping the age for Medicare would (1) cost the government money; (2) increase tax receipts; and (3) save others boatloads of money. The numbers would be smaller, because 55 year olds are cheaper to insure than 65 year olds, but here’s my evidence.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
It took me five minutes to figure out how to make my pick(s), because I’m something of a spaz and it’s not posed in the form of a question like the regular season pick interface was.
I’m leaning toward taking Denver and the points, and New York and the points, but I have more research to do before I go all-in on either choice.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’ve locked in Denver, but I’m up in the air as to my NFC pick.
Is there a reliable/free source for offensive and defensive line rankings? That’s the big X factor as to who’s going to win NY/GB.
The other one’s too close to call and my heart’s split in half because I love both cities and like both teams.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’m gonna have to marinate on the NFC one for a few more hours. My inner voice tells me that if I make a pick right now, that team will not succeed against the spread, no matter which of the four I choose.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’m hoping they fall to me, not because I love their chances (I’m scared to death) but because it would further heighten the most exciting football game I’ve had in a decade.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’m thinking that this will be a close game, which means take the Giants and the points.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’d hate for you to get the Saints by default. That would just be wrong.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Unknown to Williams, he had caught the eye of the Boston Red Sox’s general manager, Eddie Collins, while Collins was scouting Bobby Doerr and the shortstop George Myatt in August 1936.[25][26] Collins later explained, “It wasn’t hard to find Ted Williams. He stood out like a brown cow in a field of white cows.”
In December 1937, during the winter meetings, the deal was made between Lane and Collins, sending Williams to the Boston Red Sox and giving Lane $35,000 and two major leaguers, Dom D’Allessandro and Al Niemiec, and two other minor leaguers.
I’m not sure whether Collins was making a racial comment there or not.
I wonder if the kids identified more with the slave owners or with the slaves. For me it would have been the slave owners. I wasn’t thinking “I’m picking fruit and getting beatings.” I was thinking “This is offensive to people who are descended from slaves, but it’s still hilarious in a horrible kinda way.”
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I haven’t seen anything actually detailing the race of the teachers. The more in-depth stories suggest that the pedagogical thought behind it was cross-pollinating social studies/history content across the math program. Seems to me distinctly possible that the teachers writing the contentious math problems could have been black.
you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
Excuse me for steering things towards baseball for a minute, but I’m working on a project and I’d like some communal help establishing the guidelines I’ll use to process the data.
Starting-caliber positions players get 120-110 starts a year. (That level lets me include Catchers as well as the lefty hitting side of any platoon.)
Starting pitchers will make 22-20 starts a season. (This way I can count Justin Duchscherer as a SP.)
Prominent relief pitchers will make 55-50 appearances a year. (This entitles Jerry Blevins to be deemed a legit major league pitcher based on his 2010 performance.)
Here’s the catch.
I don’t care about the quality of performance, merely quantity. And the benchmark I set makes the players bona fide big leaguers regardless of whether or not they maintain their position on the big league roster in following seasons. So if anyone would like to argue that I should set the marks higher I’ll gladly hear you out.
Thanks in advance to anyone who cares enough to reply.
I’m looking for a point that defines starters vs. role players, bench fodder, AAAA fill-in. Why would you have a different reaction depending on the topic?
Because you’re only looking for one season as a starter, and depending on the application of that one season, you may be well served to also look at things like opening-day lineups.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
Tuffy Rhodes says not to trust Opening Day line-ups.
I’m dealing with compressed timeframes so I may only have one season of data to use when looking at a player. Anyone who falls below the guideline gets excluded, unless I find a compelling mitigating circumstance.
I confused you somewhere. Or I’m confused. I only need 1 season of data to rate a player but I’ll look at the entirety of the player’s pro career. Anderson has more than enough data to conclude he’s a big league starter. Tyson Ross, on the other hand, would rate as a fringe player based on his career to date.
Things get tricky when you look at the Sean Gallagher’s of the baseball world.
Because it takes me longer to do the math for PAs in my head.
That and PAs can be inflated by PH and late-inning substitution roles. When a position player starts a game it’s the manager’s way of saying this particular guy is the best choice to help the team for the next 7 innings or so, minimum.
Anyways… thinking on your suggestion some more, I guess 120-110 GS would probably translate to 440-480 PA. sound about right?
Citing the work of one anti-poverty expert, Santorum said, “He found that even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children’s lives.”
But..a father that abandoned his kids is by definition not in his children’s…oh the hell with it.
I guess that’s true to the extent that the jailed fathers might eventually return to the kids’ lives at some point in the future, whereas a non-existent father wouldn’t be able to do that.
He isn’t wrong that numerous studies have highlighted the importance of keeping children connected to parents who may be in prison, but none of them include any actual research on comparisons with same-sex families.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
Eggplant is pretty much my most hated vegetable ever. I’m not a vegetarian, but the missus and many of my vegetarian pals share the complaint that as vegetarians, the option they most often get served is a slab of eggplant, which no matter how its prepared or seasoned still amounts to a slab of eggplant. Yuck.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
They have never eaten my eggplant. I know this because they have never been in my kitchen. But even your average eggplant parmagiana is awesome. I’ve never had the eggplant steak that you describe.
Pretty much gave up on eggplant after watching this:
“After several days of meetings, lectures, and speeches concerning eggplant, I’ve got great news. Eggplant is almost entirely fat free. The bad news is it’s almost entirely protein, carbohydrate, vitamin, and mineral free, too. In other words, eggplant isn’t really very nutritious at all. Sorry.”
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
That sounds good. Also you should do it when youre going to go drinking so that when you wake up the next day hung over and you pee red you think there is something terribly wrong.
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
I had some yesterday (no drinking). I was peeing while my 4 y.o. was brushing his teeth. He remarked how funny my pee looked.
The funny thing is, in the two years I lived in Russia, I never recall having funny colored pee, despite eating borscht and other beet dishes on a frequent basis.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
I make mean parsnips in stews and braises as well as a puree base for fish and Brocolini and Broccoli Rabe is fucking fantastic if done with bacon and shallots.
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
Between the general move toward healthy living and higher costs for food-based substances, I can’t be totally surprised. I’d actually be more surprised if TwinkDongCakes were still available at my high school. I’m guessing more and more schools aren’t even having them as an option.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Yeah, you kinda can’t let a boss like that live very long. Gotta kill ‘im and absorb his sphere of influence and worry about the consequences later.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
In this video responses Esposito mentions that in one scene at his house Gilligan had him bring in pictures of his own kids, which were framed and placed around the set in the background. Esposito hopes Season 5 includes more delving into Gus’s family.
This means we haven’t seen the last of the Gus character, in flashbacks if nothing else, which makes me very happy.
This answer speaks to some of our previous discussions:
“There was never any indication at all that Gus had any homosexual tendencies, other than episode 408. And I personally believe that nothing is ever black and white and I believe Gus had a way of cultivating people, whether chemists, school teachers, or as businessmen. I had long discussions with Vince Gilligan that it shouldn’t be pointed up either way (and he agreed). And the audience should have to decide.”
Best dialogue in the thread:
[–]theloneavenger 82 points 8 hours ago
Please don’t kill me.
permalink
GiancarloEsposito
[–]GiancarloEspositoMr. Giancarlo Esposito (Verified)[S] 223 points 5 hours ago
No promises : )
“I had no idea Gus would become such an intrinsic part of the show in season 3. And I said no I didn’t want to come back because I didn’t have a contract, and they wanted me to come back as a guest star. But I wanted to be a member of the family. They then offered me 7 episodes, and I said no again. And then they offered me 11, and I said yes. Because they only do 13 episodes. And I thought 11 was a good number.”
This video response suggests that perhaps yes, Gus’s background includes time in the Pinochet govt.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Measuring players values in WAR/$M (positive) and $M (negative), and requiring at least 500PAs for position players and 160IP for pitchers, in 2011 who was:
a) the most valuable position player overall?
b) the least valuable position player overall?
c) the most valuable position player for the A’s?
d) the least valuable position player for the A’s?
e) the most valuable pitcher overall?
f) the least valuable pitcher overall?
g) the most valuable pitcher for the A’s? h) the least valuable pitcher for the A’s?
Edit: Change of metric to the much better (4.5*WAR – [Salary-$414K]/$1M), though it doesn’t affect the results so far!
a) excellent guess (12.2 would be 3rd/30.4 would be 5th) but only 466 PAs
b) yes indeed – $26,187,500 for -0.3 WAR!
c) no
d) no
e) no
f) only 53.2 IP
g) no
h) scrapped as inapplicable (only 3 A’s pitchers reached 160 IP)
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
GM’s Burnett guess made me think of Lackey right away. I guess I cheated to the extent I looked to make sure Lackey was a qualifier. Once I saw him at 160 IP I figured that wasn’t a coincidence.
Checking Cot’s for your fun quizzes would be cheating, though.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Weeks DNQ with only 437 PAs, but his 1.6 WAR for (presumably) $414,000 would beat Kemp in WAR/$M – though be waaaay behind Mike Stanton’s 5.7 WAR for $416,000 – but be nowhere near Kemp in the revised [value-above-replacement – cost-above-replacement] metric (8 to 43.31).
Apparently, so was his grandpappy’s, and probably the officer at Ellis Island’s too.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
So here are the distributions of surplus values (defined to be the difference between the dollar value of a player’s wins above replacement and their salary above replacement) for all pitchers and batters:
Summing the surplus values, it looks like the owners are making about $2.2B overall.
So. We have what may be the perfect storm approaching my work.
We currently have a client who is vehemently anti-gay. He’s from Texas and I’m really kind of unsure how it came up, but he’s all about “killing all these faggots dead.” and he is definitely referring to homosexuals and not being dfa ironic.
Well, word just came down that we just took on a transgendered client. So.
Hmmm….I am a fan of grills, especially grills that make there way into the Coliseum Parking Lot on Certain nights….and I know that Chickie is a fan of grills that have been left behind in the Coliseum parking lot…
I had a Weber grill stolen out of the Coli parking lot about 5-6 years ago. Since then I started locking my grill to my truck axle with a chain of bicycle cable locks.
The other tip is to not empty the coals before the game. Let that sucker stay as hot and hard to move as possible. Not that any of you well-seasoned tailgaters need tips.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Does anyone have advice on how to deal with stray cats? My bf’s cat is an adopted stray, and while she is very loving towards both of us, when we go outside, she starts at the least little action.
I’m not used to a cat that is more comfortable inside than outside. Every cat I’ve ever had loves to be around me when I’m out in the garden.
Our old cat was terrified of the outdoors…but he had good reason to be, someone left him in a box all taped up on the doorstep of a Petco in Sacramento and he stayed there overnight until the workers found him in the morning. After we adopted and took him back to the apartment we were living in across from Arco Arena in Sacramento, he ran out the back door onto the patio and jumped down to the ground level and he took off running. He was a big cat and he ran towards the pool and he got stuck in the fence around the pool, we got him out of there and took him back in and he never went near the door again, every time the door opened he would run the other way. So now we only have indoor cats!
Yeah, I guess that some cats are just meant for indoors only, either they haven’t been exposed to the outdoors or they had something traumatic happen to them….Speaking of cats, our new cat is really cool and super loving, she really loves being around people, which is way different than our other cat. Well she loves being around people most of the time, we took her for her first vet visit today and she wasn’t so much loving that, but she was fine once we got home!
Yeah we had a cat when we lived in Sacramento and in Atlanta..His name was Chaplin, but he only liked me, he would let me hold him and play with him, but anybody else and he would run and hide or be mean to…I let Ralph pick out our current cat so we don’t have the same problem…LOL
Did you find the secret warp vortex that connects the two?
Apparently you can get from 14th Street to 14th Street, except our 14th street is disgustingly boring.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Yes they do….LOL..it gets very confusing when someone gives you directions that include a Peachtree Street…lol..I lived on West Peachtree Street NW, right across the street from the Arts Center Marta Station, for anyone who is familiar with Atlanta..
Walkin with my baby she’s got great big feet
Shes long, lean, and lanky and aint had nothing to eat
Shes my baby and I love her just the same
Crazy bout that woman cause Caldonia is her name
Needless to say, with so many of its male residents being reminiscent of aborted pig fetuses, we might also pity the women of New Haven.
SLF is from New Haven
Did the women of New Haven also have similar interests? Horses perhaps? Bulls?
Nah. They all wind up with Yale men.
[checks California public university diploma]
More’s the pity.
Potayto, potahto
Man, you public school types just cannot spell potato.
Relevant, but NSFW.
Cool and cheap
Shoudn’t that be The Adventures of Ãœber-Kraut?
2 – noticed yesterday that sadly, Chick O Peas has closed (liked their condiment bar) but this new vegan place looks like it’s getting close to opening.
Sad about Chick O Peas. Although I felt like the condiments had started to go downhill.
What wait what?! Chick O peas closed? I knew something was up when they introduced that side Mexican menu.
I did not like Chick O Peas much the two times I was dragged there. I found it overpriced, underportioned, and bland.
Krugman pulls a world-class iFSU
also too, many people don’t really have the choice. If your employer only offers one plan, you can’t change.
Right. Which is why private insurance is stupid to begin with. It’s just a patchwork of monopolies.
What is the preferred solution here? The left seems to want a single-payer system like in the UK, while the right seems to want national competition for private insurers. The left seems to hate the current system more than the right does. Is this better handled at the state level? I’ve yet to hear a solution I can really feel enthused about.
My parents enjoy medicare
Before it was gutted/privatized, the NHS was fantastic.
You mean the Health and Social Care Bill 2011? I thought that was done to improve the quality of care by replacing bureaucrats at Primary Care Trusts with doctors at Clinical Commissioning Groups as the primary payor decision makers.
Not only that – there’s a long history of using the NHS to subsidize private health (eg. in lab work), but the bill you mention is primarily intended to undermines a central pillar of the NHS by allowing private companies to compete selectively to provide whatever services they choose (ie. the most profitable) while the NHS would still be required to provide all services.
Who would pay for these profitable services, and what would be examples of those?
The right used to want Romneycare, before it became Obamacare.
There is no serious policy prescription on the right. They are simply opposed to whatever ever-more-rightward-away-from-single-payer solution the D’s offer.
This seems to be true.
Public insurance, though not necessarily public doctors, would be a clear improvement over the current situation. The easiest way to get there from here would be to allow people to buy into Medicare.
To really make it sing, though, you’d need to decouple from employment which would be an adjustment.
This makes sense, but you’d have to show that it would be something close to deficit neutral without death panels. People are apparently opposed to those. I think we’ll eventually get to this. I haven’t heard anything better so far.
There were never any death panels. End of life counseling (i.e. your doctor is paid to sit down and ask what you want) is a great idea.
And “deficit neutral” isn’t really the issue. It’s that people would have to pay into Medicare (either as a fee or a tax), which all conservatives would attack always. Even though they would no longer have to pay a health insurance company.
There’s no doubt whatsoever that Medicare would be cheaper.
This. Most of the conservatives that I’ve spoken to are simply opposed to expanding Medicare because it’s “socialized,” without any rational reasoning. These people also are Medicare patients, so the argument confuses me greatly. If you subtract half of the amount of effort that insurance companies put into finding ways to deny care, it’s amazing how much the cost of insurance would go down, or the amount of coverage would go up.
I think a proponent of this would have to successfully counter the argument that it’s a massive addition to costs. If there were some cost management that would be good. I don’t think the idea of death panels is too far-fetched, if you define those as someone other than you determining whether you as an old sick person is deserving of expensive medical care to prolong your life for probably a few months. This sort of thing can happen, and does happen in some places.
Of course it’s a massive addition to costs to add people to Medicare. That’s why it would be an option to buy in (at a price that globally neutralized costs).
The cost management is that Medicare is FAR FAR more efficient than private insurance, and has the leverage to negotiate better rates.
For that definition of death panels, you’re right. Insurance companies deny care sometimes. Who better to make that decision: someone who’ll get a bigger bonus for saying no or a public servant?
I’ve got no problem with the death panels. I just think it’s an unpopular concept. Anyone paying for my health care can feel free to deny it to me when I’m about to die in 6 months anyway.
That seems to dodge my point above.
Sorry.
1) I have no idea but I believe you if you say that it’s more efficient than private insurance
2) I don’t know whether I’d rather have a private insurer or a public servant making the decision. Private insurers want profits but can be sued if they take that too far, while public servants want the approval of their bosses who may have multiple agendas and can’t really be sued. In either case I’d be dead, so I’m probably indifferent.
2) only if you’re denied.
Makes me happy I don’t use a California HMO
Its the only state that requires reporting so far. Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard.
I’m not sure what it means but I use my insurance a lot and I’ve never been rejected. I found a noticeable decrease in quality of health care when I lived in California, and I didn’t meet anyone who was happy with their HMO there. Nowadays private insurance in California is not within most peoples’ budgets.
Here you go.
Raising the age for Medicare would (1) save the government $148B; (2) reduce tax receipts by $80B; and (3) cost the dis-en-Medicared $220B in private insurance.
Which is to say that dropping the age for Medicare would (1) cost the government money; (2) increase tax receipts; and (3) save others boatloads of money. The numbers would be smaller, because 55 year olds are cheaper to insure than 65 year olds, but here’s my evidence.
I enjoy firing people.
So, SPWC:
What are you thinking on your two playoff picks?
do I have lines yet?
ooh… I do!
It took me five minutes to figure out how to make my pick(s), because I’m something of a spaz and it’s not posed in the form of a question like the regular season pick interface was.
I’m leaning toward taking Denver and the points, and New York and the points, but I have more research to do before I go all-in on either choice.
Fair enough. You’ve got almost a full day to decide, so no rush at all.
It sure is a lot of points for Denver given what they did to the Steelers and the fact the Pats are likely a worse team.
I’ve locked in Denver, but I’m up in the air as to my NFC pick.
Is there a reliable/free source for offensive and defensive line rankings? That’s the big X factor as to who’s going to win NY/GB.
The other one’s too close to call and my heart’s split in half because I love both cities and like both teams.
If not on FootballOutsiders then I don’t know where it would be.
Interesting that you and the next guy took the road teams in the AFC.
yup. Texans and the points was my second choice.
I’m gonna have to marinate on the NFC one for a few more hours. My inner voice tells me that if I make a pick right now, that team will not succeed against the spread, no matter which of the four I choose.
Then you’d better not jinx the Niners!
I’m hoping they fall to me, not because I love their chances (I’m scared to death) but because it would further heighten the most exciting football game I’ve had in a decade.
Or you could hedge and take some of the edge off.
Well, I’m the last player, so I probably don’t get a pick at all, just whatever falls to me.
But in this case I’d rather have the heightened tension over the hedge.
Oh I’m sure he’ll take the edge off no matter which bet he’s forced to take.
Are you talking about me or NM? (hits bong)
oh yeah… NM… duh…
I’m glad the bong hit helped clear that up.
Giants +8.5, final answer Reege.
Interesting. Are you thinking win outright?
I’m thinking that this will be a close game, which means take the Giants and the points.
WOOOOOOOOO!!! They fell.
good. as it should be.
I’d hate for you to get the Saints by default. That would just be wrong.
Suck it Giants/Sox fans.
I guess there is something to be said about reputation.
Makes you wonder why he didn’t sign there. Did Boston offer more money?
he signed in ’36. was at the tail end of his 2nd season and was an MVP candidate.
I bet he took the best offer out of the PCL.
Didn’t the Red Sox just buy his contract from the (PCL) Padres?
maybe, I just looked on B-R
Apparently so. According to Wiki:
I’m not sure whether Collins was making a racial comment there or not.
Good God.
I wonder if the kids identified more with the slave owners or with the slaves. For me it would have been the slave owners. I wasn’t thinking “I’m picking fruit and getting beatings.” I was thinking “This is offensive to people who are descended from slaves, but it’s still hilarious in a horrible kinda way.”
Seriously, those poor white teachers getting lynched down there!!! Reverse racism!!!1
Thass Recess!
asvd
I haven’t seen anything actually detailing the race of the teachers. The more in-depth stories suggest that the pedagogical thought behind it was cross-pollinating social studies/history content across the math program. Seems to me distinctly possible that the teachers writing the contentious math problems could have been black.
I suppose. But its still not ok.
Stupid either way. Just saying we don’t know.
Could be.
Were the teachers white?
No idea, and as MB says maybe not. I just like to hit that note.
Hee
I’m shocked. SHOCKED.
Excuse me for steering things towards baseball for a minute, but I’m working on a project and I’d like some communal help establishing the guidelines I’ll use to process the data.
Starting-caliber positions players get 120-110 starts a year. (That level lets me include Catchers as well as the lefty hitting side of any platoon.)
Starting pitchers will make 22-20 starts a season. (This way I can count Justin Duchscherer as a SP.)
Prominent relief pitchers will make 55-50 appearances a year. (This entitles Jerry Blevins to be deemed a legit major league pitcher based on his 2010 performance.)
Here’s the catch.
I don’t care about the quality of performance, merely quantity. And the benchmark I set makes the players bona fide big leaguers regardless of whether or not they maintain their position on the big league roster in following seasons. So if anyone would like to argue that I should set the marks higher I’ll gladly hear you out.
Thanks in advance to anyone who cares enough to reply.
Is this a draft pick analysis? My reaction depends on what you’re looking for (and why)
I’m looking for a point that defines starters vs. role players, bench fodder, AAAA fill-in. Why would you have a different reaction depending on the topic?
Because you’re only looking for one season as a starter, and depending on the application of that one season, you may be well served to also look at things like opening-day lineups.
Tuffy Rhodes says not to trust Opening Day line-ups.
I’m dealing with compressed timeframes so I may only have one season of data to use when looking at a player. Anyone who falls below the guideline gets excluded, unless I find a compelling mitigating circumstance.
The question is how much of a problem would it be to miss a Brett Anderson in 2011.
I confused you somewhere. Or I’m confused. I only need 1 season of data to rate a player but I’ll look at the entirety of the player’s pro career. Anderson has more than enough data to conclude he’s a big league starter. Tyson Ross, on the other hand, would rate as a fringe player based on his career to date.
Things get tricky when you look at the Sean Gallagher’s of the baseball world.
Ah. Gotcha. So you want a player that has started at some point. Given that, your range seems reasonable.
Why not use PAs instead of starts for the position players?
Because it takes me longer to do the math for PAs in my head.
That and PAs can be inflated by PH and late-inning substitution roles. When a position player starts a game it’s the manager’s way of saying this particular guy is the best choice to help the team for the next 7 innings or so, minimum.
Anyways… thinking on your suggestion some more, I guess 120-110 GS would probably translate to 440-480 PA. sound about right?
480-440, but yes, sounds about right.
Hmmm. What are you going to do for injured players.
Shoot them.
Are you going to line them up back to back to minimize the number of bullets needed?
iFSU bullets are in much supply.
FK. That was supposed to be Does this mean that two fathers are better that one?
But..a father that abandoned his kids is by definition not in his children’s…oh the hell with it.
I guess that’s true to the extent that the jailed fathers might eventually return to the kids’ lives at some point in the future, whereas a non-existent father wouldn’t be able to do that.
But he’s straight, you see, is the point.
Where is the original quote from?
I snipped it from the LA Times article that PDX linked to. Sounds like the reporters were quoting from his remarks at a “private boarding school.”
If you’re asking who the “anti-poverty expert” is, I don’t think he ever said. Here’s some background, though.
That’s just weird
2. Mmmmm fried okra.
I’ve already got mrs ptbnl on it … SV + BR = happiness
FRIE DOKRA!
Okra is my second favorite vegetable
Cabbage Salma really got you, huh?
Cabbage Salma is the magical figure who distributes presents on Kraut Tamping Eve
Though technically she’d make okra WC’s third favorite vegetable.
Greatest Vegetables (although some may be fruits):
1) Eggplant
2) Okra
3) Spinach
4) Chamagadda
5) Salma’s cabbage
6) Bitter Melon
7) Dhondakaya
8) Kaakarakaya
9) Dung Qua (苦瓜)
10)Bak choy (白èœ)
Eggplant is pretty much my most hated vegetable ever. I’m not a vegetarian, but the missus and many of my vegetarian pals share the complaint that as vegetarians, the option they most often get served is a slab of eggplant, which no matter how its prepared or seasoned still amounts to a slab of eggplant. Yuck.
It’s definitely a food that has benefited from the asian portions of our cultural melting pot.
And Italian (see below). I guess the French do a decent job with aubergine, but it’s not in my top 10 ways to make eggplant.
They have never eaten my eggplant. I know this because they have never been in my kitchen. But even your average eggplant parmagiana is awesome. I’ve never had the eggplant steak that you describe.
As someone who was a vegetarian for a long time, I have no more use for portobello mushrooms
Pretty much gave up on eggplant after watching this:
Hee….
I love eggplant!
Mrs. Jedi likes to make an eggplant dish that’s basically eggplant parmesan without the breading.
Yeah this list is missing Broccoli, Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, Artichokes and Asparagus.
I’m exactly 50% with you.
which 50?
2,3,6.
I find artichokes overrated but not bad, hate hate hate broccoli, and don’t care much either way about parsnips.
you can do fine things with the hearts and also its pretty much perfect aoli delivery system.
I encourage you to go to Mission Chinese and have their beef and broccoli… it will change your life.
I love winter food. Parsnips really are that for me.
That Mission Chinese dish is incredible, but I think it uses Chinese broccoli, not the one nevermoor presumably hate hate hates.
Still, go eat it. It’s amazing.
I have a hard time not getting thrice cooked bacon from them.
its really good but not even close to my favorite
Yeah, but you aren’t married to a non-bacon-eater.
Youre right. I do make good life choices. :-P
:-)
I gave on video games and bacon. I got an avid baseball/football fan. Works out ok.
yeah I didn’t know about the nonbacon thing so my judgement might have been clouded but she seemed pretty awesome when I met her.
I’ve had plenty of bites of well-prepared broccoli. Just need to have something with my not-actually-related-uncle 41.
I don’t understand the last sentence.
Uncle George 41.
I am president now and dammit, I don’t like broccoli said the Yale man.
For me, 1, 3, 5, 6.
give beets a new shot roasted wtih olive oil and basalmic and then served cold with chevre and mixed baby greens with a little extra basalmic.
This – plus add some chopped pecans for an extra crunch.
That sounds good. Also you should do it when youre going to go drinking so that when you wake up the next day hung over and you pee red you think there is something terribly wrong.
I had some yesterday (no drinking). I was peeing while my 4 y.o. was brushing his teeth. He remarked how funny my pee looked.
The funny thing is, in the two years I lived in Russia, I never recall having funny colored pee, despite eating borscht and other beet dishes on a frequent basis.
For me, it isn’t my urine that scares the crap out of me for a second the next day…
lol yeah that too.
I think I’ve said before that if I ever have to take a drug test I’m going to make sure to eat both beets and asparagus the day before.
Add some Vitamin B supplements for some extra color.
Heh.
I’m with you on beets, artichokes and asparagus.
I make mean parsnips in stews and braises as well as a puree base for fish and Brocolini and Broccoli Rabe is fucking fantastic if done with bacon and shallots.
There are very few vegetables I dislike. Parsnips are one.
Likes not yet mentioned: brussels sprouts, orach, arugula, radishes
Brussels sprouts are really the shit. make em all the time.
RIP Twinkie
Thanks, and go As.
Meh. I preferred Ding Dongs
The Cupcakes were my thing in high school.
I’m kind of amazed that a company like that could go under.
Thanks, and go As.
Between the general move toward healthy living and higher costs for food-based substances, I can’t be totally surprised. I’d actually be more surprised if TwinkDongCakes were still available at my high school. I’m guessing more and more schools aren’t even having them as an option.
I have fond memory of twinkies!
Dammit. I’ll have to grab a couple of cases on the way home. Given the amount of chemicals in those things, my stock will last for YEARS.
I am Giancarlo Esposito. I’ve had a few people tell me reddit would be a great place to have a discussion with fans. And what does a man do? A man provides.
The comments are freakin awesome, I can’t wait to get to the home computer later to watch his various youtube response videos.
He’s still alive?
Most actors only take method acting up to a certain point.
He’s dead and acting alive?
Nerd!
THAT’s what Gus looks like?
WAY less badass than I envisioned.
Picture this guy:
Impassively telling you this:
I will kill your wife. I will kill your son. I will kill your infant daughter.
And knowing he means every word.
He’s stone cold, K. Seriously.
And now what? Because you know that’s what is coming. I’m scared.
Yeah, you kinda can’t let a boss like that live very long. Gotta kill ‘im and absorb his sphere of influence and worry about the consequences later.
I love you, FSU.
Couple illustrative excerpts:
In this video responses Esposito mentions that in one scene at his house Gilligan had him bring in pictures of his own kids, which were framed and placed around the set in the background. Esposito hopes Season 5 includes more delving into Gus’s family.
This means we haven’t seen the last of the Gus character, in flashbacks if nothing else, which makes me very happy.
This answer speaks to some of our previous discussions:
“There was never any indication at all that Gus had any homosexual tendencies, other than episode 408. And I personally believe that nothing is ever black and white and I believe Gus had a way of cultivating people, whether chemists, school teachers, or as businessmen. I had long discussions with Vince Gilligan that it shouldn’t be pointed up either way (and he agreed). And the audience should have to decide.”
Best dialogue in the thread:
[–]theloneavenger 82 points 8 hours ago
Please don’t kill me.
permalink
GiancarloEsposito
[–]GiancarloEspositoMr. Giancarlo Esposito (Verified)[S] 223 points 5 hours ago
No promises : )
“I had no idea Gus would become such an intrinsic part of the show in season 3. And I said no I didn’t want to come back because I didn’t have a contract, and they wanted me to come back as a guest star. But I wanted to be a member of the family. They then offered me 7 episodes, and I said no again. And then they offered me 11, and I said yes. Because they only do 13 episodes. And I thought 11 was a good number.”
This video response suggests that perhaps yes, Gus’s background includes time in the Pinochet govt.
Good stuff, FSU, even though I’m still ambivalent about Season 4 – which was my least favorite BB season despite Esposito’s awesomeness.
If only someone would analyze it. Episode by episode.
If only. *sigh*
FKwiz time!
Measuring players values in WAR/$M (positive) and $M (negative), and requiring at least 500PAs for position players and 160IP for pitchers, in 2011 who was:
a) the most valuable position player overall?
b) the least valuable position player overall?
c) the most valuable position player for the A’s?
d) the least valuable position player for the A’s?
e) the most valuable pitcher overall?
f) the least valuable pitcher overall?
g) the most valuable pitcher for the A’s?
h) the least valuable pitcher for the A’s?Edit: Change of metric to the much better (4.5*WAR – [Salary-$414K]/$1M), though it doesn’t affect the results so far!
a) Sandoval
b) Wells
c) Weeks
d) Kouz
e) Pineda
f) Zito
g) McCarthy
h) FUUUUU
a) excellent guess (12.2 would be 3rd/30.4 would be 5th) but only 466 PAs
b) yes indeed – $26,187,500 for -0.3 WAR!
c) no
d) no
e) no
f) only 53.2 IP
g) no
h) scrapped as inapplicable (only 3 A’s pitchers reached 160 IP)
Votto
Dunn
Weeks
Pennington
Kimbrel
Zito
McCarthy
Weurth
a) no
b) no
c) no
d) hell no
e) dnq
f) dnq
g) no
C- Coco Crisp
D- Coco Crisp
E- Brandon McCarthy
G- Brandon McCarthy
H- Trevor Cahill
NoNoNoNoNo
a) Longoria
b) Crawford
c) Weeks
d) Willingham
e) Shields
f) Zito
g) McCarthy
h) FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU
Thanks, and go As.
a) no (5th)
b) no (5th)
c) no
d) no
e) no (7th)
f) dnq
g) no
Your a, b & e guesses improved significantly with the revised/improved metric.
Yea I totally forgot Wells was still making 26M last year.
Thanks, and go As.
a) Longoria
b) Wells
c) Pennington
d) Matsui
e) Pineda
f) Burnett
g) McCarthy
h) Cahill
a) no
b) yes
c) yes!
d) yes!
e) no
f) no
g) no
Yay!
f) Lackey must be real close to the top if not king of the mountain.
Bingo! $15,950,000 for -1.2 WAR.
My god. I had no idea he was that bad.
I reduced the qualifying IP to 160 (rather than the standard 162) just so I could include his fugliness.
GM’s Burnett guess made me think of Lackey right away. I guess I cheated to the extent I looked to make sure Lackey was a qualifier. Once I saw him at 160 IP I figured that wasn’t a coincidence.
I can never think about 5 of these at one time for whatever reason. ONe or two is all my tiny mind can handle
e) Kershaw?
Bongi! $500,000 for 7.0 WAR.
I had no clue he was making so little.
Checking Cot’s for your fun quizzes would be cheating, though.
Wow.
a) Kemp?
Yes indeed – $7,100,000 for 10 WAR.
Really? Wasn’t Weeks about that good a ratio?
Weeks DNQ with only 437 PAs, but his 1.6 WAR for (presumably) $414,000 would beat Kemp in WAR/$M – though be waaaay behind Mike Stanton’s 5.7 WAR for $416,000 – but be nowhere near Kemp in the revised [value-above-replacement – cost-above-replacement] metric (8 to 43.31).
Ah. Missed the revised metric.
Yeah – I was in a hurry at the outset and didn’t think through the metric properly before posting.
Damn, was my second guess.
a) Kendrick
b) Dunn
c) Weeks
d) Matsui
e) Fister
f) Burnett
g) Moscoso
a) no
b) no
c) no
d) hell yes
e) no (4th)
f) hell no
g) no
have we gotten g?
Gio?
and if the qualifier on f was 162 would the answer be guthrie?
G is for Gio indeed (4th or 9th overall, depending on the metric).
If the qualifier were 162, then f would be Derek Lowe’s $15,000,000 for -0.3 WAR (Burnett’s $16,500,000 at least bought 1.1 WAR).
I did not know Lowe was so bad.
Yup – and Carmona ($6,287,500 for -1.4 WAR) was worse than Burnett too.
I think I saw Carmona shut down the A’s this year
Removing the PA/IP constraints:
Top 5 batters by value:
Matt Kemp LAD 689 10.0 $7,100,000 43.31
Ryan Braun MIL 629 7.7 $4,287,500 34.63
Jose Bautista TOR 655 8.5 $8,000,000 34.91
Jacoby Ellsbury BOS 732 7.2 $2,400,000 34.01
Pablo Sandoval SFG 466 6.1 $500,000 30.41
…
(Jemile Weeks OAK 437 1.6 $414,000 8.00)
————————————————————-
Bottom 5 batters by value:
(Adam Rosales OAK 68 -1.1 $425,000 -5.51)
…
Ichiro Suzuki SEA 721 -0.4 $18,000,000 -19.59
Alex Rodriguez NYY 428 2.7 $32,000,000 -18.09
Justin Morneau MIN 288 -1.1 $15,000,000 -20.09
Adam Dunn CHW 496 -2.7 $12,000,000 -25.09
Vernon Wells LAA 529 -0.3 $26,187,500 -27.27
———————————————-
Top 5 pitchers by value:
Clayton Kershaw LAD 233.1 33 7.0 $500,000 31.41
Justin Verlander DET 251 34 8.6 $12,850,000 26.26
Ricky Romero TOR 225 32 5.9 $1,000,000 25.96
Doug Fister 2TM 216.1 31 5.7 $436,500 25.63
Ian Kennedy ARI 222 33 5.5 $423,000 24.74
…
(Gio Gonzalez OAK 202 32 5.0 $420,000 22.49)
————————————————————-
Bottom 5 pitchers by value:
(Michael Wuertz OAK 33.2 0 -0.5 $2,800,000 -4.64)
…
Joel Pineiro LAA 145.2 24 -1.6 $8,000,000 -14.79
Carlos Zambrano CHC 145.2 24 0.7 $18,875,000 -15.31
Derek Lowe ATL 187 34 -0.3 $15,000,000 -15.94
Barry Zito SFG 53.2 9 -0.6 $18,500,000 -20.79
John Lackey BOS 160 28 -1.2 $15,950,000 -20.94
Wait… so my stupid misspelling of Wuertz was actually right?
Apparently, so was his grandpappy’s, and probably the officer at Ellis Island’s too.
So here are the distributions of surplus values (defined to be the difference between the dollar value of a player’s wins above replacement and their salary above replacement) for all pitchers and batters:
Summing the surplus values, it looks like the owners are making about $2.2B overall.
DF(Chicagoans)AS
WTF, Scrabble?
Top left corner, disallowed!
Some tournament dictionaries disallow “bad words”
Ah is a worse word than fart
The first scrabgrab I posted here had CUNT
So what’s on the end of TOO- ?
a much more dignified word for Fart
-NCES?
FEARER onto the triple is 30, but opens some bingo lines (though your lead could stand it).
AFAR/FA/RE for 22 keeps open things like EXERT with a kind draw and drops one of your Rs. Or IF/FOX/EX for 27 and cash in the X.
Why not fox on dw?
I’d pretty much checked out.
BTW: lol Rick Perry
So. We have what may be the perfect storm approaching my work.
We currently have a client who is vehemently anti-gay. He’s from Texas and I’m really kind of unsure how it came up, but he’s all about “killing all these faggots dead.” and he is definitely referring to homosexuals and not being dfa ironic.
Well, word just came down that we just took on a transgendered client. So.
Should be fun kicking the discriminator out.
Also, I’m guessing he has never seen a gay as big as me…
I was thinking I should introduce you and see if perhaps his attitude changes.
It happens. Lots of our clients have distasteful views.
Yeah, but they’re supposed to purge themselves of such things when they cease being prison-bound.
are you people taking less folks because of 1170(h)?
yes, definitely.
So I got this collapsible grill…it’s kinda cool!
Does it have wheels and coolers under the grill?
the other way. It’s completely collapsible…
Hmmm….I am a fan of grills, especially grills that make there way into the Coliseum Parking Lot on Certain nights….and I know that Chickie is a fan of grills that have been left behind in the Coliseum parking lot…
in fairness, he lost one before he gained one…
Yes, I know, but I think that the one he gained was much nicer than the one he lost, speaking of, why in the hell did somebody steal that other one?
hey, free grill.
cocaine’s a hell of a drug, Bryan.
She don’t lie She don’t lie
I had a Weber grill stolen out of the Coli parking lot about 5-6 years ago. Since then I started locking my grill to my truck axle with a chain of bicycle cable locks.
The other tip is to not empty the coals before the game. Let that sucker stay as hot and hard to move as possible. Not that any of you well-seasoned tailgaters need tips.
[takes notes]
Haha! True.
You mean, when you try to sleep on it?
A’s got a Cowgill, Bloomie got a cotgrill.
Does anyone have advice on how to deal with stray cats? My bf’s cat is an adopted stray, and while she is very loving towards both of us, when we go outside, she starts at the least little action.
I’m not used to a cat that is more comfortable inside than outside. Every cat I’ve ever had loves to be around me when I’m out in the garden.
Our old cat was terrified of the outdoors…but he had good reason to be, someone left him in a box all taped up on the doorstep of a Petco in Sacramento and he stayed there overnight until the workers found him in the morning. After we adopted and took him back to the apartment we were living in across from Arco Arena in Sacramento, he ran out the back door onto the patio and jumped down to the ground level and he took off running. He was a big cat and he ran towards the pool and he got stuck in the fence around the pool, we got him out of there and took him back in and he never went near the door again, every time the door opened he would run the other way. So now we only have indoor cats!
This is the exact kind of story I was afraid I’d hear. So I shouldn’t push to try and get her outside, then?
Yeah, I guess that some cats are just meant for indoors only, either they haven’t been exposed to the outdoors or they had something traumatic happen to them….Speaking of cats, our new cat is really cool and super loving, she really loves being around people, which is way different than our other cat. Well she loves being around people most of the time, we took her for her first vet visit today and she wasn’t so much loving that, but she was fine once we got home!
I didn’t even know you had a cat before!
Being around Sam makes me want a cat of my own. Eebee wants one, too.
Yeah we had a cat when we lived in Sacramento and in Atlanta..His name was Chaplin, but he only liked me, he would let me hold him and play with him, but anybody else and he would run and hide or be mean to…I let Ralph pick out our current cat so we don’t have the same problem…LOL
You lived in Sacramento AND Atlanta?
Did you find the secret warp vortex that connects the two?
Apparently you can get from 14th Street to 14th Street, except our 14th street is disgustingly boring.
I didnt find the secret warp vortex and when I lived in Atlanta I lived on 10th street and Peachtree! So I was only 4 blocks from 14th!!!
yeah, but Atlanta has like 18 different Peachtree Streets, so it’s kinda cheating.
Yes they do….LOL..it gets very confusing when someone gives you directions that include a Peachtree Street…lol..I lived on West Peachtree Street NW, right across the street from the Arts Center Marta Station, for anyone who is familiar with Atlanta..
photogenic kitty.
I thought you didn’t like pussy. huh.
Yeah this cat has a big personality…and yes like Mark said, “you finally have some pussy in your house, never thought I’d say that!” LOL
Walkin with my baby she’s got great big feet
Shes long, lean, and lanky and aint had nothing to eat
Shes my baby and I love her just the same
Crazy bout that woman cause Caldonia is her name
Son, you got to leave Caldonia alone.