I've heard many a player interviewed when they say they're OK with umps making a mistake during the regular season because they all even out during the course of those games. During this last ALDS I thought the umps were terrible with calling balls and strikes, especially during Game 3 of NYY @ DET. There were many instances of CC Sabathia not getting strike calls when his pitches hit the edges of the strike zone (pitchers would very often get that call during the season), while Justin Verlander would get strike calls when the pitches were sailing over the inside edge of the other batter's box. Mistakes like this cannot be evened out during the course of a 5- or 7-game series; such mistakes have an obvious impact on the outcome of a series.

It seems like webOS is going to die an undeserved death. It was conceived by a company too small to survive and came late into the game, and it will be killed by a company too stupid to know what it has and what to do with it.

"Americans in general need to learn more science." There - fixed it for you.

Representative democracy is working just fine - for those with money for buying off^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hlobbying politicians.

I find that to be somewhat ironic considering Manning is a member of the anti-science American far right:

http://newsmeat.com/sports_political_donations/Peyton_Manning.php

WE'RE TRYING!!!!! It doesn't help that the sane people who vote in those who they thought were also sane were ( bought off by monied interests | turned his/their back on their base constituents ). And it takes time to change minds to at least change (if not dismantle) the military-industrial-intelligence complex.

I don't think Timothy necessarily did a disservice with posting this. This article exposed another effort by an "intelligent design proponent and global warming denier" hack to influence the public discourse (in favor of his corporate backers | to reflect his own evangelical beliefs). There's another mole that needs to be whacked. Again. *sigh*

And if you can turn this material into multi-colored, abstractly-shaped solids using a food replicator, you'd get a hit! It might be good with Romulan ale...

Your comment made me recall the causes of an airplane disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_981#Cause

Per the article:

"In the aftermath of the Flight 96 incident, the NTSB made several recommendations. Its primary concern was the addition of venting in the rear cabin floor that would ensure that a cargo area decompression would equalize the cabin area, and not place additional loads onto the floor. In fact, most of the DC-10 fuselage had vents like these: it was only the rearmost hold that lacked them. Additionally, the NTSB suggested that upgrades to the locking mechanism and to the latching actuator electrical system be made compulsory. However, while the FAA agreed that the locking and electrical systems should be upgraded, the FAA also agreed with McDonnell Douglas that the additional venting would be too expensive to implement (emphasis mine), and the FAA did not demand that this change be made."

His heart was definitely in the right place, but as the saying goes - the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Green Revolution certainly alleviated the immediate issue of his day, which was to feed hungry people, but now we've realized it leads to a humongous demographic bulge of the under-30 population. Even if we can use technology again to feed people, provide energy and extract raw materials, it'll take more energy (human and physical) and political will to do it and in less time. And in time the need for even more will strip the ability of that technology to sustain us. Why can't people just admit there are just too many humans? Why do some people, especially over-religious ones, press for policies that will lead to the suicide of humanity on this planet?

The vast majority of our problems are directly or indirectly a result of that issue - food and energy consumption, sub-standard education, illegal immigration, employment, the need for more raw materials, pollution/global warming, government spending for healthcare and entitlements, you name it. Fortunately the solutions are very straightforward: more education for girls and expanded access to birth control.

Why hasn't Jeremy Allison been sued yet by Microsoft/IBM?

I didn't realize my location was so valuable. So where's MY share of the money?!

I imagine there were also no costs used to pay salaries since they're students and not professional engineers. (No I don't count the professors' salaries.)

And the granddaddy of them all, the British East India Company.

(I think there might be some other older ones, but man they took over an entire subcontinent!!!)

I personally hope someone runs and beats Obama in the primaries, but, assuming Obama wins that or is unchallenged, who the hell would vote for that hick dim bulb of a crackpot over him? The problem isn't he did a bad job, the problems are a) he turned out to be milquetoast when it came to arguing for his points b) he is (a terrible negotiator | complicit with the corporations | an idiot) and his supporters saw right through him. He can take the high ground. He can easily win on his principles alone (assuming he has and believes in them) and doesn't have to resort to this kind of immature Limbaugh-style attempt at vote manipulation.