UConn James

If anything like that were to be done with a new owner (e.g. Jim Kelly's group) at most, you'd get something like the LA Angels did. "The Buffalo Bills of Niagra." Then, the stadium naming could get sponsored by everyone's favorite little blue pill and become Niagra Viagra Stadium.

I would also say it should be b/c the rules have been bent over backwards in favor of offenses. Already 15 yards for breathing on a QB. If defenses get too good, the Rules Committee just makes a new rule to increase scoring. Meaning, investing in defense is diminishing returns. So, naturally, Ralph's UFA and the draft will be all defense, all the time.

Count your nose, your ears, and then open your fly.

That's the inverse of what everyone said a couple of years ago... that our overpaid DEs would make our weak DTs look better. In order to get production, the whole shebang needs to be improved. The piecemeal solution does not work; it's always going to be one or the other using this excuse. As I see it, the OL is much closer to completion (for starters) than the DL. We should get that squared away first --- actually finish a unit before moving on --- and then deal with DL. We need a C... Lord knows we need a C, have needed one since Kent retired and have signed a bunch of castoffs that get pushed back into the QB, pockets break down and an entire half of the team performance is f--ked in large measure b/c of one position. If a REAL C is signed on UFA (rather not go this route again and put even more $ into the OL) or Mack / Unger is guaranteed to be there in round 2, fine. But I don't think they last. But for !@#$'s sake, we need to stop ignoring OL and OL depth and the mindset that productive OL will be found in round 7. Ralph's daughter, the head OL scout, needs to stop riding on daddy's coattails and pull her head out. As ever, Ralph's tentacles in every crevice of how the team is run creates a problem.

Righ' ch'ere.

Don't believe the words on the box. This is a fairly good comparison test site. You'll notice that all of the indoor models listed are toward the bottom of dB gain. Amplification they use to boost the number on the box to make anyone go oooohhh and aahhh is a sham. If your signal has noise, then it amplifies the noise and gives you a spotty signal. You want a good initial gain at the antenna --- that's what's important. Always remember that in this world you get exactly what you pay for ...tho sometimes you get less. But you'll never get more than you pay for. I don't know exactly how far away you are from the farm (Chicago, yes?) but you might actually try a 2-bay, outdoor-rated but is small enough to be used indoors (you'll have to manufacture a hanging hook or a stand). Channel Master or the Antennas Direct 2-bay are both decent models. It's in about the same price-range as your Philips, too, but you'd have to order online --- one of the things about in-store antenna selection is that they don't stock for sh-- so many people never see better choices. This is the best I saw in a quick search. Are you having trouble with WBBM 2.1? Right now that's on real-channel 3 --- post-switch it'll be on 12 and the signal will double to a whopping 8kW (Whew! Don't spend it all in one place, WBBM! ), and the so-called UHF-only antennas do have VHF-high (7-13) performance. Too late to take the Philips back? If so, it's your choice if you put any more $ into tv at work. Albany, I'm sorry, I just don't have any experience in the recording stuff, tho I want to eventually get a DVR when there's better selection out there. You might get your model numbers and check on avsforums.com

50 dB gain? Surely not. I have an 8-bay that's one of the highest-gain antennas out there, and it's a little over 15dB gain. An indoor antenna is certainly much less, even amplified. If you're only 10 miles from the farm, you don't want something too powerful either.

As far as antennas go, generally: Bigger is better Higher is better Outside is better If it bothers you enough, maybe try an amplified indoor antenna. Or you might try picking up an in-line amp or a 1-to-1 distribution amp at Lowe's/HD. If it doesn't help, bring it back.

Kent Hull was probably the most important part of the SB teams. You need someone smart, big, and tough. The wilderness years for us have all included centers being manhandled and pushed backwards off the ball. Sets the tone for the rest of the line. Duke freaking Preston was subbed in for Fowler this season. Would be great to trade down to ~ 20 to pick Mack, use whatever we pick up and the rest of Day 1 for DE, TE, and DT. Day 2 should mostly be OL depth to eventually replace the aging, expensive/overpaid/under-performing (Dockery), and unmotivated/dogging/sulking (Peters). Then again, Ralph runs the franchise with his Old Man Syndrome and DJ finishes the job by coaching it into the ground.

Chimney emissions are pretty corrosive to metal (esp. aluminum which antennas are generally made of since it's lightweight), for those with chimney mounts (not recommended for the life of an antenna and, more important, for the structure of the chimney)... and general oxidation for other parts that hurt reception. Salt water air for those living near the ocean --- that stevestojan destroys everything, not just antenna/electronics stuff. I've read people who have to replace outdoor coaxial cable every couple of years, while normal life is ~10-15. People on AVSforum recommend replacing an antenna about the same, every 10-15 years for peak reception. I think that'll especially be the case for newer models with circuit boards and direct F-connectors instead of baluns. Old antennas will still work... they just won't work as well. I've done conversions for several people out here using both existing and new and it does make a difference. And, as I say, borrowing a little from Ben Linus on Lost, "[Digital] is a finicky B word!"

Not very "green" and for damn sure, not very economical. Especially now. There's over 1,500 stations in the country. Can cost ~ 20K-30K per month just for electricity for an analog transmitter. Add up the low end and that's $30 MILLION per month in power. Many stations have decided to go all-digital on 17 Feb. as planned. Vast majority of (if not all) stations that planned to switch their channel allotment are going to "flash-cut" to all-digital at midnight. Several stations just in my area have had a "catastrophic failure" of their analog transmitter --- read: it broke , and we're not putting any more money into it. As a woman who has a column dedicated to the switch writes, "Analog broadcasting which was scheduled to go out with a bang on Feb. 17, will now go out with a wimper on June 12. How many more 'catastrophic transmitter failures' do yo think will occur in the next few weeks?" The new bill doesn't require that broadcasters have to maintain the analog signal, just that they can continue if they want to and need to inform the FCC if they're ending, whereas the previous legislation would've forced them off the air. Some areas just aren't ready yet --- as I noted above about some sections of rural Iowa where over 20 percent aren't ready. Some areas are having a very difficult time with signal radii for digital using VHF-high and UHF --- there are spots in Maine, for example, where people have been told by officialdom that if they want TV, they need to get cable or sat, and other areas of the country where terrain and distance is a real problem. Having a digital converter box is sometimes only half the problem; a lot of people would do well to upgrade their antennas and/or pre-amplifiers, especially people at long distances from the towers. All in all, I wouldn't be so fast to make that generalization about rural preparedness vs. urban malaise. And then, urban residents can be digital-ready in about 45 minutes. Rural folk (like myself) might find themselves SOL if they haven't prepared and don't have an adequate existing antenna (old ones will still work, but performance does degrade over time) and February is no time to be up on the roof.

This is one of the quirks in the absurdo reductum that we humans have created about time. AP style writes to use "noon" or "midnight." I go with that. Anything more you try to add is either unnecessary or creates confusion. "Simplify. Simplify." --- Thoreau

I just thought that was really weird. As a soft rule, I thought 'they' didn't air commercials that featured stars of the show, during that show. Hinders the 'suspension of disbelief' thingy. Then again, money speaks loudly. Anybody in show business care to comment on this phenomenon?

Then again, Ben told Jack to pack any thing he wanted on the island b/c he wasn't ever coming back. I'm not sure things could be completely reversed. "Course correction" and all that.... But... do you imagine that the time skipping is what might be allowing the dead characters to appear to the Oceanic 6? I also have yet to see comment on the computer woman at Oxford being the same woman at the 815 gate. Ginny, the one who let Hurley on? That was her, yes? Then, forgot to mention at the time a couple of weeks ago, but did you guys see the kid who plays Walt in the commercial that ran during Lost? I think it was Tostinos or HotPockets or some crap like that. Thought that was a little odd.

I'm not sure. As Faraday said, Desmond is a special case. His memory happens in real time. I'm not sure how it all works. And I'm not sure that I should get so caught up in understanding time theory, as Carlton Cuse advised. It'll probably give me a nosebleed.

Vinny Testaverde. Ramius, gaming the Franchise Tag system is exactly what the Pats* are doing. You know it, I know it... my paperweight knows it. You make a good point, tho --- the rest of the times this has happened, an eventual deal is close to what the tag would've earned. But ultimately, I don't think they'll raise much of a stink.

When Sayid was in the jungle after meeting Rousseau, there were whispers and no Others appeared. Sawyer heard them as well (if you remember, he asked Sayid about that experience but then when Sayid asked what Sawyer heard he said, "Nothin'", no Others appeared. Shannon heard whispers a few times, Walt appeared --- in the tent, in the jungle and then just before the Tailies came and she was shot. I also believe there were whispers in the scene where Eko was attacked by the smoke monster. Just b/c there were whispers in some instances where the Others appeared, don't fall into the assumption that it is the Others, it may be false cause. The whispers might more accurately be described as warnings of danger ahead; and that could only be known by someone who knows the future.

Yep. That was maybe the biggest thing of the ep. Looked like Juliet nailed one of them with the M1. That time-flash was to the future, the tents on the beach were abandoned and weather-beaten. Looks like there may be a new group that came to the island. And I'm getting the feeling that Eloise is so specific about the 70 hours b/c that may be the last instance of there being a future-flash (remember, the Oceanic 6 are in 2007; they need to get back to 2004, so it will be a precise jump they need to do) before the island stops 'skipping' and/or something happens to deserve her "God help us all." That's what I was thinking when Sawyer was eavesdropping there. Pondering, but I don't really know how Walt would fit in this phenomenon (e.g. when he appeared to Shannon, Shannon & Sayid) or if his apparition isn't related to the space-time-shifting. I'm fairly certain that his appearance to Locke in the Dharma pit happens during a time-flash, tho. No, they didn't. The lawyer said that the guy outside of the mental institution was killed before Hurley escaped. I don't know how he expects to explain away the photos of Hurley at the balcony of a room where two people are dead, holding the gun and covered with red liquid (ketchup). What remains to be seen is how they get Walt and also if Sun needs to bring her baby (my guess is yes). The 'Jin didn't die' plotline didn't surprise me. I never thought he did... b/c the island doesn't let you die until your role is through. Another hint by Daniel that Miles has been on the island before which puts some steam behind speculation that he's Halliwax's son shown in the first minutes of the season premiere. (That scene may be Daniel trying to input a constant for Miles). However, that Juliet is getting 'temporal displacement' after she'd been fine for three years previous, I think is an indication that it won't matter if you have a constant b/c the time-shifts are becoming more and more violent... all "Because You Left" in a way that violated the Rules. And it's for that reason that it's not enough for the Oceanic 6 to come back whenever --- they need to come back at a precise point. Does coming back c. 2004 mean that none of what happened to them after they were rescued will happen? Or, as I posited before, does it just create a "Back to the Future" instance where there are 4 Martys in the mall parking lot? B/c when Sawyer was watching Kate and Claire, you'd have to think there was still a past-Sawyer at the beach.

Do you wear that where I think you do? Does it come in clear... or at least 'nude' color? I need a 3-year supply.

I wasn't talking about the scientific process. The drugs they use and dosages are well calculated and administered to make the death peaceful. His went much quicker than that, the sedative and the barbiturate, one after the other. His state was already progressed, they had him on a strong dose of morphine. He had been biting at his front paws --- vet said that was similar to how if you have a headache, hitting your head (say, against a desk, gently) distracts the aching, throbbing pain with a new easier-to-take pain in another spot. No doubt in my mind that it was the right thing, and it ended his suffering. It's just the being there and the finality of seeing them go. He's gone, crossed over the thin line b/w life and death, no coming back. It creates memories that you can't take back, and it will be your last memory of your pet. Some people can take it fine, for others, seeing it actually happen is difficult to deal with. Affects us all in different ways. For sure, it's not the only memory, but the final memory stays with me strong and for a while --- and when I think back on it --- just wrecks me. I've had a hard time of it, and get a new depth of meaning for Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." I think we may be getting a pup in the spring.

We had two German Shorthaired Pointers, a father and a son from a litter. The father, at 13 years old in late June 2007, had had swollen joints from a combination of arthritis and Lyme (in CT, dogs (and people) pretty much will get Lyme. Read a little about Plum Island, what they research/experiment there, what Lyme disease does, and draw your own conclusions) as well as bumpy tumors all along his back and chest. Many times when he was on his haunches and wanted to move and just couldn't, with his head bobbing side to side, and on one long episode and when he was having trouble with steps and really wasn't eating for a couple of weeks, we took him to the vet to give him his dignity. Although I wanted to, we didn't stay. Came back and got him and buried him on acreage across town. I selected a nice natural stone and had a guy we know do an engraving with those Yeats lines about his dog that really fit ours. He was a gentle giant, a bit like a non-violent version of George in "Of Mice and Men" but loyal, listened (when you clapped, he turned on a dime: he did this in front of Paul Newman at his camp for kids once, who said, "What a beautiful dog!"), and was a great friend. We had to put down his son, who was nominally my dog, this past late June, come to find that it turned out to be exactly a year to the very hour. This was not the slow progression. We had went out to WNY for my grandfather's funeral (whose own dogs' name from when he was in Holland, I named my dog) and we took him with us --- very bad experience at the only time we had used a kennel during my brother's wedding. It went fine for the trip, apart from a reluctance to eat which I thought might be the trip --- he'd been a little reluctant for a while at home, which was not like him, but he was gobbling down cookies. We walked all the fields at the farm and he seemed fine as ever. Got home, he laid down on his bed and hardly got up again. It was painful; at 3 a.m. before I had an appointment next morning, I woke to a loud whimper/howling. Vet diagnosed a large tumor in his abdomen and said it would be best to put him down; he probably wouldn't survive surgery that probably wouldn't do much at that stage anyway. This time we stayed, I was determined to not let him go alone (tho the vet knew both of our dogs well and had a good rapport), said goodbye, I opened his eyes, and I hope he heard or smelled me through his shivering and hibernation-like state. It was such a rapid onset, but a day in the life of a dog is like a week to our bodies. Add in that they have pretty high pain thresholds; they feel it, but don't show it. Movinon, I would keep that in mind. stuckincincy, I would agree that it's honorable and important to be there so they have a friend to the very end. But being there was so much harder to take. Even now, just conjuring these memories I'm getting all sobby and drainy. But many of the variables are changed --- expectation of the father vs. shock for the son, having had the son to cushion the first loss probably was big. Johnny, I would've actually preferred them going peacefully in their sleep. It relieves you of any burden of guilt/selfishness. I felt like that for the father. Was it too soon? Should we have waited another day? Another week? Another month? That it came a year to the hour, exactly, gave me a little solace / 'sign' that it was the right decision. The chest paint that accompanies grief dissipated only about last month; really felt like I had a weight pressing down on my upper chest. He really was my best friend, and at times, especially in recent years, he was my only friend. We've now gotten another stone carved for the son's grave, right near his dad. It's sitting on the hearth, waiting for some of the snow to melt a little or a chance to get over there and put it there and we'll place in in the spring. Movinon, I'd suggest some kind of ritual, especially if you have children, if/when you decide. Having a burial, have a photo enlarged and framed, having a stone made, etc. And for anyone who says "it's just a dog" --- you erase them from your Rolodex b/c you don't want people who think like that in your life.

Bitteresbeergizehdt! I call that swill "Moose Piss."

Actually, the funds for expired coupons has been recycled toward new coupons being issued. That's been happening since they started being issued. Then again, the mechanism of delivery/playback for 8-tracks or cassettes was not publicly-owned airwaves. In order for this switch to happen, Congress, acting as the people's representatives, had to authorize the spectrum auction. And to make it politically palatable to force OTA-only households to stop using airwaves that belong to everyone and no one, the coupon program was created. Essentially, it's like "Brewster's Millions" --- the federal govt spends ~$1.5 billion so they can collect ~$19 billion. It was found money if they just took a few steps. Simultaneously, they upgrade teevee signals for most people, give local first responders more efficient communications systems, and hopefully create some new business technology for improved cell coverage / wireless Internet / etc. The switch is a win-win scenario if ever there was such a thing.

Doing some reading on Lostpedia and yeah. Also, her allegiance is disputed. For one, her suspected son, Daniel is working for Widmore. She is seen talking to Ben. What gives? Well, as someone suggests and from reading what Lindelof/Cuse have said about her after she first appeared, Lindelof called her a "temporal policeman." E.g. She is tasked with keeping the timeline in order. (To wit, she tells Ben that he has 70 hours to get to the island.) Perhaps she does not favor any side, but is merely an information officer dealing with time / physics and making sure the universe's course is correct... that 'the rules' are not broken, that what happened is what happens.

That's what I was wondering about as well, especially when remembering when Sayid said the last time he'd seen so much concrete, etc was Chernobyl. I don't know, but pretty likely. I was thinking also that it might have been stored in the Tempest, which Daniel 'rendered inert' but that may only have been the gas that was used in the Purge. Might also fit with how the Swan fail-safe key set off an electromagnetic burst/pulse consistent with such a detonation. But then, watches, the sonogram machine, the computer in the Tempest, etc. still worked so it doesn't seem to've released an EMP b/c everything like that would've gone dead. Also, there was no real extensive damage that you might expect from an H-bomb. If it was 'Jughead' that powered the Swan (and that the Swan's code being input every 108 min. ... what did that do? Vent something? Gradually release magnetic buildup?), it's unclear what the fail-safe did. Unless Jughead wasn't an H-bomb.