Dr. Tom

Another example of why sacrifice bunting is a poor idea. This is especially true in the AL, where you don't have the pitcher coming up to bat. For pitchers, laying down a sac bunt is often more productive than swinging away with that big .124 BA. In the AL, though, it should never be done, especially not with a hitter like Crosby, who could easily drive in a man fron second if allowed to swing away. Small ball is the suck. It seems strange that Pena's job would be in trouble. The Royals definitely played over their heads last year, so comparing this year's results to last year's is ineffective. They've also had a few important injuries this year. I don't watch enough Royals games to know if Pena is a good or bad manager from a strategy and game management standpoint, but I don't think he's the reason the team is doing poorly this season.

Al, you need to trade me Bonds in the SNKT league. I need the OBP.

I read it a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a very quick read, and while some historical liberties may have been taken, the story is very compelling.

Goddamnit. I KNEW something was familiar about this motherfucker when he kept going on and on and on about a piddly little suspension. Sure enough, when I looked up his registration details, this is the email address I found: [email protected] I thought it would be hard for someone to be a bigger bitchy tool than Ghettoman was. Turns out I was right. So yeah, he's definitely banned.

Wait... Atomic Clock Time Sync? That sounds like a Gator or GAIN Network product, which means it's spyware. If that's the case, remove it from your system immediately.

Only he didn't suck at it.

"Alot" isn't a word.

As long as the place is structurally sound, I don't see why they need to build a new stadium. It's not like the Yankees need the revenue, or they want a new stadium to draw more fans, or they're in a small market. Yankee Stadium underwent major renovations in the 70s, so I can't imagine it's any worse off then any other park that's about 30 years old. Wrigley Field, on the other hand, might be falling apart. But leave Yankee Stadium alone. It's not going to stand forever, but they should leave it up as long as possible.

"Bitches leave."

That's all the explanation this needs. And to avoid this turning into a debacle, I'm locking the doors.

Dude, you got sent to the e-corner for AN HOUR. Get over it.

There is no reason to remove the guidelines. They're really not very inhibitive at all, and are there to impose a few basic standards of decency and common sense. As the guidelines mention, staff members have full discretion to warn/suspend/ban users. If we didn't think they were up to the task, they wouldn't have the title.

Crowe doesn't look the part, so I really can't see him in it. I have no doubts he would NAIL the role if they gave it to him, though. Really, who stars in the movie is less important than the quality of the story. Bond isn't supposed to be about gadgets, plot coupons, and explosions. There's supposed to be some thought and story in there, and those have been very lacking of late. Compare something like From Russia With Love to any of the recent movies. Either Bourne movie > any Bond movie in the last 10-12 years

It depends. Some of them have distinctive style, which makes them easy to spot. Some of them are foolish and give away their former identities early. Those are obviously the easy ones to catch. For the rest, you have to go by IP addresses. One of the things I started doing in the uber-secret Staff folder is having everyone post the IPs of people they ban, so we have a reference handy. Otherwise, you have to use their posting IPs and compare it (or them) to the ones in the ban filters. Dynamic IPs from dialup ISPs can throw this off. Some people spoof their IPs and/or use proxy servers, but there are ways to find out what their real IPs are. Still, we have to be able to compare those to something. I don't know PBP's IPs off the top of my head, and I doubt anyone else does, either.

Yes. I've always enjoyed your work, Ed. Anything you want to contribute would be welcome.

Retarded analysis? Yup. Actually, it seems like a spot-on analysis. Those aren't the themes I'd expect from a speech at the Democratic Convention. Maybe the full speech came across differently, but from that summation, it sounds quite conservative in nature.

Yeah, Dell is the way to go. They build good machines, and their customer service has improved since they moved a lot of it back out of India. Wait for the back-to-school specials, though, unless you see an unbeatable deal come along. I used to build all my own systems, but the last one I got was bought on eBay. I bought a system from a power seller with a computer business, and got it for about half what it would have cost at the time to buy the same thing from a larger vendor. I could stand a video card upgrade, but the core of the system (P4 2.4 GHz, 512 Mb DDR) is still more than adequate.

I've long thought the tobacco industry got sold down the river on those lawsuits. When they got assraped to the tune of half a trillion dollars, it was bad enough, but part of that was that they were supposed to be immune to individual smokers suing them. We all know how long that lasted. Fuck any stupid asshole who decides to sue a tobacco company for his health problems. Everybody knew cigarettes were bad for you since Shakespeare's time, so ignorance is no excuse. If you choose to buy a legal product, you're agreeing to the risks of using it. As for smoking in bars, I think it's stilly that it's being done away with anywhere. I don't smoke (apart from an occasional cigar), but I know what I'm walking into when I go to a bar. After a few hours, the smoke bothers my eyes, so I leave when that starts to happen. The only things I don't like are people holding cigarettes and/or blowing smoke in my face. Have some respect.

No, it's still funny. I think the only thing funnier would be an environmentalist getting pecked to death by a spotted owl.

Not true. Most cable companies can scan for illegal boxes. They can also send a signal thru the cable line to see if it's one of their boxes or not. I imagine this is easier with digital cable, since it's IP-based, and any digital descramblers that might work should be ludicrously easy to find. I think this is a techie issue, so I'll move it there.

Apparently, they'd had some issues during the previous night's game, and then Laird went looking for Kennedy during BP. FISTICUFFS~! ensued.

I think it's a possibility. While I have no proof that any player took steroids, I think it's far more likely Giambi did than Bonds. Giambi got quite large in the span of just a few seasons in Oakland -- look at him on his rookie card compared to his A's heyday. Bonds' bulking up was over the span of a decade or more. Like I said, I have no proof any player was using steroids, but Giambi strikes me as a likely candidate.

No, you're not alone. It looks too modern to have the "Year One" feel. If this were the suit in the third movie, OK, but not for the first. I never cared for any of the suits in the original movies (the first was probably the least offensive), and this reminds me of those.

Yeah, and that kind of puzzles me. Online, you get very few reads and tells. When you play in person, you have to watch people and know what to look for, and what those things mean. A lot of it is common sense, and I guess an online-only guy can go out and get Caro's Book of Tells and have a good idea what to look for. I wouldn't have been surprised to see an online-only guy do well in a smaller tourney, but to see someone like Moneymaker win the WSOP main event in his first live tourney... well, that was surprising. I like the "anyone can win" feel that the WSOP has (it encourages me to try it for myself one of these years), but there's also a part of me that finds it silly that a fellow who had only played tournies online can sit down and win The Big One like that. Of course, this year, he busted out on the first day...

I'm not. I think with some technique and such, that he can be pretty damn dominant. I concur. The guy has the size needed, and he's scary strong. He also has good speed and quickness for someone as big as he is. All he needs is football knowledge and technique. Brock picked up pro wrestling pretty quick, though, so I doubt he's an idiot when it comes to new athletic pursuits.