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boilerhorn

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by boilerhorn

  1. To date, all but 1 or 2 of the rookie QBs look like steaming garbage. Might explain 2 in round 1 and 5 in the first 3 rounds. With the ownership preferential salary scale, only 2 were taken in round 1 and the 2nd was a “WTF” pick. In 2024, 6 were picked in the first round. The guys picked in the 5th and 6th round (Rattler, Travis, and Milton) all suck, but they look better than every 2025 QB take outside round 1 in 2025. Maybe, just maybe, the NFL guys know what they are doing.
  2. Earlier this week, Cadence Design Systems pleaded guilty to illegally exporting EDA technology to China from 2015-2021. The CEO of Cadence at that time: Lip-Bu Tan. Today's Intel CEO: The same Lip-Bu Tan. DJT tends to do almost everything with a bludgeon, but a "leak" to the NYT or WSJ or whatever stating, "The administration, the DoE, DoD, etc. is extremely concerned by the outcome of the Cadence case. Cadence's CEO was Li-Bu Tan, who is now the CEO of Intel. Federal officials are concerned about such a breach under his leadership at Cadence and whether the Intel board exercised proper due diligence in adding Mr. Tan to the board in 2022 and appointing him as CEO in 2025. Intel has been a large recipient of CHIPs Act funding and has several critical contracts with the DoE and DoD." EDIT to add: DJT being prescriptive almost guarantees a certain course of action will not be taken. An immediate resignation/termination followed by a partnership with TSMC might actually be one correct course of action. They absolutely cannot do that now, as it would be akin to DJT dictating corporate actions. Yet another case where DJT should have been cautious or quiet.
  3. That article is rife with interesting quotes in there. It's not quite as bad as some of the Mensa pieces we read a few years back, but it's an odd piece. Lacks depth, IMO, but it is a WSJ Sports piece.... "Jim Knowles studied in the Ivy League and worked on Wall Street. Then he found his true calling: inventing new ways to hammer quarterbacks" He attended Cornell, the LSU of the Ivy League. I kid. "At Ohio State, Knowles pulled off an even bigger miracle. Before Knowles arrived, the Buckeyes had just the 38th-ranked defense in college football." "Bigger miracle" might be a bit of hyperbole. In 2019, tOSU was top-5 in scoring and total defense. In 2015-2016, they were top-5 in scoring and top-10 in total defense. Not exactly a miracle. Shoddy research. "That’s when the mad scientist truly began experimenting. He designed schemes built to do exactly what sophisticated financial algorithms are supposed to manage: Spot inefficiencies and ruthlessly capitalize on them." The article refers to him as an experimenter and mad scientist a couple of times, but cites nothing other than throwing blitzes that wreak havoc. No examples of exploiting inefficiencies. “Jim, basically, is a very, very intelligent man,” said former Western Michigan coach Gary Darnell. “I wouldn’t want to play poker with him.” [Darnell nod referred to by @notre dame joe] There are a few references to him figuring out how to snuff out offenses with inferior talent while at WMU and Cornell, failing to cite that some of that is because he is playing against inferior talent. The testimonial of a WMU/Florida game where his WMU team caused 2 interceptions left out an important detail: WMU lost 55-26. Sure, the game was 31-26 at one point. But WMU had zero sacks while giving up 600+ yards. Sure, Knowles is effective, but the article seemed a little lazy.
  4. Well, it looks like I’ll be visiting a Jim’s in the next week or two. I’ll report back…
  5. Somehow Jim’s at 183/Burnet and 183/Spicewood are still open. Honestly, I have not been to one in 10 years and eaten at one in around 30 years (just had a coke 10 years ago). Amazing that it has survived. Glad to see it has.
  6. The executive membership is REALLY paying off. The “clusterfuckedness” of Costco massively improves. First, there are none of the assholes who pay no fucking attention to their surroundings. Second, there are none of those folks who have free-range kids. Third, it’s just damned near empty. Fourth, every person who works there seems to love it. It’s like they get to deal with the Costco members who are not raging assholes for the first hour of their day. Lots of profanity to say that the exec membership is worth it. IIRC, they’ll refund the membership cost delta if your benefits do not exceed the cost cost delta. Walked past the Costco peasants at 9:50am one morning and was out of the place by 10:05. Glorious.
  7. Per the Googles, as I was curious: Raiders received: 2019 first-round pick (No. 24 overall, used to draft Josh Jacobs) 2019 sixth-round pick (No. 179 overall, used to draft Isaiah Johnson) 2020 first-round pick (No. 19 overall, used to draft Henry Ruggs) 2020 third-round pick (No. 81 overall, used to draft Lynn Bowden Jr.) Bears received: Khalil Mack 2020 second-round pick (No. 43 overall, used to draft Cole Kmet) Conditional 2020 fifth-round pick (used to draft Arlington Hambright) EDIT - Bears signed him to a 6-yr $141mm extension. Edit 2: 3 years later, Bears traded him to the Chargers for a 2023 second (Jaquan Brisker - S Penn St) and 2023 sixth. The Bears later traded that 6th for 2 2022 7th round picks: Elijah Hicks (S - Cal) and Trenton Gill (P- Penn State). Brisker and Hicks remain on the Bears. Chargers took on the remainder of his contract.
  8. I’m guessing the neighbors would call the cops. Sprayed parts of property line with ammonia + water - high ammonia concentration. Armadillo just outside the fence line scurried away. My dog that was unscathed has 3 armadillo kills in our back yard in the past 6 years. Glad we did not increase that count.
  9. Necro-bump. Just happened to one of my dogs and my daughter's dog in our back yard. Crap. Any solutions for ridding our yard of this creature?
  10. Temple of Doom and Gremlins were definitely catalysts for the PG13 rating, but folks often leave 16 Candles out of the discussion. I decided to watch the film with my oldest when he turned 16 (a while back) and totally forgot about the shower nudity at the very beginning. Not to mention specific sexual references throughout. In my "research" I found that the MPAA first rated in R and John Hughes lobbied for a PG rating.
  11. Missed this. You can likely tell from my posting history and handle that there’s an interest in Purdue. Getting kicked out of Memphis for stealing is akin to…. Well…. Probably something I should not type. Let’s hope Odom has him on a PIP.
  12. Self got a couple of stents installed today, extending the lifetime contract a little longer. Yeah, gallows humor, but FYI... https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/45818430/kansas-bill-self-hospitalized-expected-make-full-recovery
  13. Rush is one of those bands that dudes and (largely) musicians really appreciate. If you wanna go to a show with ladies and/or to meet ladies, Rush ain't it.
  14. Stuff like the above and this are what really added to Ozzy's legend.
  15. Erskine played in Steps Ahead, before Steve Smith (of Journey fame) joined in ~1987. Both are fantastic drummers. Steps Ahead was founded largely by Michael Brecker (tenor sax) and Mike Manieri (vibraphones). They created some fantastic music in the mid-80s to mid-90s. When in NYC (a family member lives there) I always seek out a Steve Smith show. After one of Smith's shows, I see a guy I think I recognize. I ask if his name is Mike Manieri. He says, "yes." I said that I recognized him from the "Live in Tokyo 1987" show (it was 2022?) video. He laughed and we talked for a bit. Down to earth talented guy. Was teaching at NYU and gigging on the side. EDIT - looks like it was from 1986. Mike was the first guy I ever saw play w/ 4 mallets. Freaking amazing.
  16. At the time, I was largely an alternative, punk, and (ironically?) US hard rock fan. When “Paranoid” came on MTV, all of us stopped and watched. Ozzy was transcendent.
  17. Finished this one. It was well researched and well written, and it supports his recurring and overarching world view. IMO, it was a little pedantic, with many, many examples. Upon reflection, he's an academic, so it helps his theories to have many examples. I did enjoy his historical accounts of information networks from the stone age to the present. Stories -> books w/ interpreters -> books when folks can read -> etc. He did highlight many of the obvious downsides of AI information networks. Recommend.
  18. Csb The RRISD sax “technique teacher” when I was in MS and HS was friends with Denis DiBlasio, the bari sax player for Maynard Ferguson. I, too, was a bari sax player. DiBlasio was in town and agreed to play in with our HS jazz band. Denis had an idea that we’d do a cross handed thing where we were both playing both saxes. I did not pick it up the first time and he concluded “screw it, we’ll do something else.” Anyhow, we played Coconut Champagne - I did the first solo - he played a 2nd solo for about 5 minutes. He was sensational. I was a high schooler who was afraid to fuck up in front of a famous person. Wish I had cared a little less about that at that time. Another time, Maynard played at Westlake high school and we all got to meet him. He’s more impressive in person that on his records. /csb Another trivia nugget - Gregg Bissonnette was the drummer for Maynard at that time. After, he was drummer for David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani, Andy Summers, Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, among many others. https://youtu.be/hGQWCR6jFZ4?si=HWAGsJ7jymc6Jgc-
  19. @Hornius Emeritus
  20. At a previous job, I worked with a very large group of engineers in the Portland area. I met VERY few (if any) from University of Oregon. Most who went to engineering school in Oregon were from Oregon State University. Fwiw.
  21. SIAP - merge this thread w/ another if necessary. Because, of course he does. https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/45783141/trump-calls-commanders-guardians-reverse-name-changes
  22. That’s far too cynical - and likely incorrect. 42% is the number of people - on each side - who will vote either (R) or (D) just because of the (R) or (D) on the ticket. No one pays attention to the news any more.
  23. According to this article , the man (61 years old - already mentioned) was wearing a 20-lb chain he used for weight training. That makes the entire story a bit more plausible. It’s not like he was wearing a cheap-ass 2 karat gold choker. If it is me, I am (1) not wearing one of those chains in public and (2) damn sure not wearing it into a hospital or any type of medical facility or any other random place of business. Really shitty all around - he died, he struggled, his wife saw him die, MRI dude did not hit the emergency switch, etc. Pretty fucking horrible all around.
  24. The NFL has existed for over 100 years. The NBA has been around for 75 years. As recently as the early-to-mid 1980s, some NFL players had offseason jobs to supplement their pay. Today, the average NFL player makes $3.2mm. In 1985 it was $160k. Players claimed it was 28% of revenue; owners claimed it was 44%. Regardless, they NFL was making a profit. Right now, the WNBA is 27 years old and (allegedly) loses $40mm on $200mm in revenue (2023). Revenue is clearly rising, as it was $102mm in 2019. In 2019, they were paid around 17% of league revenue and now around 10%. When costs are 120% of revenue, it is difficult to justify giving everyone a raise, but (as already noted before) we really do not know how the WNBA manages its P&L. NBA's CBA has players at 49%-51% of BRI (Basketball Related Income). WNBA should strive for that. The real problem is how is "income" calculated? Is it gross? Is it net? If net, they get nothing. The WNBAPA will need a really capable negotiator and financier on their side for the next few rounds of CBA negotiations. And clarity in how they report and manage P&L.
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