Open Thread (sans new strip)

Your humble author:
I've got nothing today, but I know many of you like to have a daily spot to anchor the comments/community to, so here it is.

 

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Comments

[Harwich Rich]

How about that Roger escaped Congress for another month?

[Bob]

Hmm, I got nothing today, either.

How about a Haiku to SDU?

He lives down under
Barrister (lawyer to us)
Likes Siracha sauce

[Jim in Denver]

Buddy LeRoux died. That's news.

[h.b]

Yeah, there's news out there if you dig, I'm just too lazy and/or apathetic.

I want news news.

Funny last year's Jan 10th piece is just as pertinent today as it was then.

I should just start stealing from the past and changing a few things to keep it timely and see if anyone notices.

[Bob]

Great idea, H.B. Cut-and-paste:

//To the Rice lovers...he's a guy who really isn't quite there. He's as close to the cusp as you'll find, but in the end he doesn't make it.//

But Dave S., isn't the Hall really about stats and comparisons? It certainly has been in the past. So let's take that Skankee killer Bill Mazeroski (who I personally love for all the obvious reasons).

Hall of Famer with a .260 lifetime batting average, 50 rbi per season average, and 8 home runs a season.

Uh, and Jim Rice doesn't belong?

[da kine]

Yankees suck!

[louclinton]

zzzzzz,

wait, what?

[Ryan with a capital "R"]

Bob,

I'm sure you know this but I feel it bears mentioning anyway. Comparing stats from different eras without placing them into context is only telling part of the story. I don't know what the league averages were during Mazeroski's and Rice's careers, but that's part of the story. Plus, comparing a secondbaseman's stats to an outfielder's stats is always suspect, too.

For example, Yaz's triple crown season doesn't look all that awesome when looked at plainly (.326, 44 homers, and 121 RBI). However, except for being tied by Killebrew in homers, those numbers were far and away much better than anyone else in each category. A spectacular season.

Again, I don't know the context of Maz's career numbers, that's not my point. Although, when you check them out, he doesn't look Hall worthy. He was voted in by the Veteran's Committee, whose selections have been eyeroll worthy at times.(Phil Rizzuto? No. Just no.) But, apparently, he was selected for his defense. I dunno.

[vermonter]

When is truck day?

[DickRaditz]

I like Barack O'Bama. And I am a Catholic.

Politics? Religion?

Wha?

[SoCalBoSoxFan]

I thought Rizzuto was in the hall for his broadcasting. I looked on the HOF web site to back that up and found that I was wrong.

[Kaz]

Ok, the guys upstairs finished carpet bombing yesterday.

Now our place smells like new carpet...which I've learned is due to a glue by-product called 4-phenylcyclohexene (4-PCH). Interesting enough to see all the links on that, but looking in the science literature shows a few mouse studies. One says that breathing even 0.4 parts per million (ppm) kills mice. I didn't look up the actual study, but it was referenced in a second study that said mice dosed with everywhere from 0-70+ ppm (saturation in air), for 6 hours a day for 9 days, didn't die at all. Sure, a couple 70+ ppm mice got lung lesions, but when they tested another 40 extra mice at that concentration, nothing at all showed up. The second study concludes that 4-PCH isn't harmful.

Now, here's your "hmm, science" lesson for the day, kids. That second report I found was from Dow Chemicals...it would behoove them to say "pish posh, breathe in deep and love your new chemical carpet", right? We can't believe them because they have a vested interest and therefore they might lie and lose objectivity, right?

Wrong. If you keep digging, you'll find the initial study where mice were dying was never published in a peer-reviewed journal article (it was a "viewpoint" in a low impact journal with very little actual data supporting the claims and no follow-ups on the samples that harmed the mice). It was also published by a single researcher from "Anderson Laboratories" (what a doozy of a website too) who just happens to own the place and seems to only ever have 1 collaborator...her husband, I think. This sort of private testing firm with a clear agenda usually throws up more red flags for a scientist than a big corporation's lab results..as you may start to see why.

Then, as the icing on the cake, I found this in an interview from Anderson as part of some documentary called "Exposed" about a woman who has "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" (which opens an entirely DIFFERENT bag of worms about scientific accuracy):

"We tested hundreds of carpets for people and we got terrifying data. So we went to Congressman Bernie Sanders and we said: 'we have this extraordinary data and if we wait to publish it, it will take two years before it becomes public knowledge. What else can we do?' And he said: 'Well, we can arrange congressional hearings.'"

Oh. Well. Perfect. Science is too slow and impractical to save lives! Superman, save us! I know! I'll use Congress to bypass peer review and treat my baseless assertions as fact!

And there's your "hmm, science" moment. Real science doesn't happen in one lab and it sure as hell doesn't happen in the halls of Congress. Every other study out there since the Dow study came out to refute this wingnut (and the rest of her interview is worth a good read into the mindset of a tinfoil-hatted researcher) has backed up the Dow results. Don't kill the message because of the messenger...but I was good to be skeptical of the Dow data initially.

Only by looking into the history of the entire body of evidence am I able to comfortably determine that at this time, there's no valid evidence that the air that I'm breathing is harmful. Talk about a sigh of relief.

[yazbread]

Are you a mouse or a man?

[Daubie]

I've got a buddy on the committee investigating all this crap. Autographs anyone?

[SoCalBoSoxFan]

Kind of makes me wonder how much damage I have done all those times when I find myself in the morning face down in the carpet.

Thank God I am not a mouse!

[Bob]

Kaz,

Ah, good old C12H14.

Fabulous scent, no?

BTW, Bernie Sanders is quite insane.

Just my opinion, but really, the guy's a nut case.

[Harwich Rich]

Good thing for me I never inhale :D

[Sonoma Sox]

RS looks to have re-upped w/ Beer 'Belli. Something like 1/2 mill w/ incentives.

So two aging catchers...any concern?

[Kaz]

Aw, man, I really woulda loved to see us overspend on Saltalamacchia. :(

In a few years, it wouldn't have seemed like overspending.

[larryhere]

Kaz - You should get a PhD or something...in entertainment! Oh, and screw the data - all that new shit is harmful as hell. Office environment = cancer.

[soxdownunder]

In the absence of interesting baseball news, and with deference to Kaz's studious analysis of carpet glue, and the myriad possibilities an ongoing discussion relating to the same, I thought I would share the fact that Australia and India have come close to war over the last week over a game of cricket.

Here's some beaut http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=11153&p=7 "> newspaper pictures of the game.

The controversy started with some bad umpiring decisions, most involving good fortune for Australia. In the middle one of the Indians called a black Australian a 'monkey'. The game ended with Australia behaving most ungraciously - kinda like baseballers really - not shaking their beaten foes hand. They were like a http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/arrogant-ponting-must-be-fired/2008/01/07/1199554571883.html "> pack of wild dogs

The Sikh Indian who said monkey was then banned for three test matches by the white South African 'match referee' for racism. The indians (who wiled great power in world cricket) decided they would abandon the tour. The Australian cricket team was generally criticised for not playing within http://www.smh.com.au/news/peter-roebuck/shaking-the-tree-for-the-games-sake/2008/01/10/1199554833069.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 "> spirit of the game while the http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Hail_Anil_crickets_new_statesman/articleshow/2690922.cms "> captain of india was much admired

The umpire got sacked, the Indians (for the time being and pending an appeal against the 3 match ban) are staying and the ground keepers in Perth are preparing a very spicy pitch for the http://cricket.indiatimes.com/India_tour_Down_Under/News/India_to_face_worlds_fastest_pitch_at_WACA/articleshow/2689456.cms "> third test

For what it is worth, I'm on the side of the Indians. The Aussies are bully boys, unfortunately - they can give it out but they can't take it.

Now my head will explode from all the cutting and pasting but hopefully I passed Kaz 101. Try the veal.

[Kaz]

Ok, here's my dissertation on entertainment for ya:

Chicks in Mens' Sporting Attire
by Kaz

I think chicks look hot in some mens' sporting attire and not others. In a recent discussion with a friend of mine, I came to an ordered conclusion on which sports' jerseys a chick would look hot in and not so much in others'. In all of the following studies, in no way am I suggesting that the woman is wearing anything else...just the jersey.

Chicks wearing football jerseys top the list. Material is often not too thick, the length is that of a mini skirt/dress. It drapes well in the front off the chest. Just a great combo of a comfortable look and peeks of hotness from around the edges.

Next would be a hockey jersey. Very similar cut but slightly heavier material and the shoulders are usually a bigger cut so it drapes quite a bit lower off the shoulders.

Rounding out the top three and staying above the "gross" line is a baseball jersey. The buttons make for an interesting new twist, but also take away a bit from the draping. Specifically for Sox jerseys, the knitted stitching is a bit "bumpy" too and distracts.

Finally, coming in a far distant fourth is a chick in just a basketball jersey. I would liken that to looking like a 5 year old in a sundress. I don't need any visits from Chris Hanson.

In summary, football > hockey > baseball >> basketball. It should be discussed that womens' jerseys are not a part of this dissertation. Feel free to debate the merits of the "Pink Hat" rules as they apply to team jerseys, but in all cases of this thesis, the mens' cut is absolutely necessary to maintain the above rankings and sexiness of a woman in different sport jerseys.

[Kaz]

In a few hundred years when some English major is examining this blog for the underlying meaning of today's entries (the same way we take apart all of the literary entendre in a book of Shakespeare's sonnets or beat the color metaphors out of "The Great Gatsby"), they're going to look at the title and look at my comments and write a great term paper on the use of the words "open thread" and how carpets and jerseys are both woven of different kinds of thread. They're going to conclude their paper with a witty thesis statement, by commenting that the word "thread" itself was the common "thread" by which all of Kaz's posts were "tied" together.

Then they're going to stand up from their meta-computer, look around and realize they're alone in their dorm room, and then punch themselves on the arm ala Anthony Michael Hall at the end of "The Breakfast Club", turn on their brainPod to the classical group Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me" and stroll across a virtual football field.

Sorry, dunno what's gotten into me today...I think I'm just trying to compensate from the h.b. withdrawal.

Heh heh.

[Sonoma Sox]

I find a different/better "thread" to tie dissertations together: the hint of "carpet" behind the "jersey" donned by said woman.

Sorry for quotation overuse.

[Sonoma Sox]

What would Lisa look like in a Pats uni...

[pinstripe thunder]

Superb dissertation on chicks in men's sporting attire, Kaz. It's a worthy and important subject, and you did it justice. I might disagree with you on the lofty ranking of the hockey jersey (that big-shouldered, Joan Crawford "Mommie Dearest" look has none of the feminine allure of, say, Holly Solo in a soccer jersey), but the analysis is detailed, scholarly and a worthy addition to the canon befitting your doctoral station in life.

The carpet cleaning discussion didn't do nearly as much for me, although your beleaguered liver must be reassured.

Look forward to a sequel on chicks in riding chaps and little else.

[SoCalBoSoxFan]

Iranian speedboats in the news!

Sounds like the US Navy feels like someone swatting at mosquitoes

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran

[Hart-za Cow-Ard]

Can anybody get me away from this cowardly get-a-life loser?

[Bob]

Yes, BB, just don't come here anymore. Simple, no?

[Devine]

Is it really cowardly to, say, stomp on a cockroach?

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[AndyRotGrooth]

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[CreativeSusan]

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[chekbazarette]

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[Gubchercepaulp]

L'altrra matitan sono andata a controllare sulla Chat il mil nnokminativo ed era giusto ,pero' quello della mia amica non era scritto come doveva esseer scritto in sttampatello.Io ho telefonato per farmelo aggiustare e poi ho visto che tuftto si eraq risoltoabbastanza bene e in fretta.
La chat mi e' servikta anchr per scrivree tante cose che non vaevo mai ftato per ripassare i cojpiti di mio figlio che rimane sempre indietro,per fare le taelline in modo che lui le impara attraferso il computer e le rimangaon impresse nella mente.
Tramite un ioco lui le scrive alla Chat e le imparra subiot,invece se io glidle faaccio studiasre cosi' a voce lui non riesce a ricordarle,evidentemente ha la memoria visiiva,quello che noi vediamo rimane più impressa,cosi' noi studiamo tutto per la Chat sul computer anche i giochi li rimangono più impressi.
Qunao andavo io a scuola mi dovevo ricordare tutto a memora altro che computer,ttto cervello anche se la storia era il mio forte,aadesso tutte le comodita ,il telefonino,il computer,ecc,,e' guisto che la scienza vada avantyi anche per lew malattie.
Una miaq amica a forza discrivere con la chat si e' dimentjcata discrikvere con la penha e nopn riesce più gli trema la mano quando scrive,vedi cosa fa l'abitudine?.
Le mani gli volano uslla tasstira ,ma con la pnena noj riesce a sctivbere più.
Oggi tutto si fa con il computer in chat dove tu trovi ,questo e' un fatto positivo eprxhe' se non hai con te un codice fiscale loro lo pososno trovare subito,anche i doytori vanno a spasso con il cokptuer portatile e lo mostrano dove essi sono.
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La mattina quando im alzo ci perdo un po' di tempo per migliiorare la scrittura e per la chat gratsi ,invio messagbi e mi rispondono anche,so come fare funzionare le due dita delle mani usanod slo i pollici e gli indici di entrambe le mani.
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