gehringer_2

looks like a good investment to me.... US POPULATION GROWTH

True enough. You also have be careful about whether you are measuring change in belief or just change in the language - in the way people understand and use certain syntax. Especially around religion because people use a lot language wrt religion for which they don't really have very fixed definitions/understanding. Of course on a more abstract basis one can argue (and many philosophers have over the centuries) that there is no certainty for any empirical knowledge which was gained by induction/experience/science, but in the modern world we tend to have tossed that argument into the 'how many angels can dance on the head of pin' class of irrelevances. 🤔

LOL - if that number was 68% in 1993 it was only because half the people were lying. I don't doubt there has been a great cultural shift, but I would guess it's more about people dropping their pretensions about they think they believe but didn't really. In any case, one somewhat odd bit is that according to Pew Research, income inequality in a society generally correlates to increases in religiosity, to the US would be going against form in that regard, though inequality in the US may be too recent so show up in deeper cultural trends like religious belief.

Be careful what you wish for though, guys that can hit are going to play even if they can't field, they will just play and be lousy 1Bs or LFs. Ortiz would still have played, Boston just would have been a much worse defensive team for it. That may be the way it should be, but it's not an unalloyed blessing. 🙄

and if you cut the batting order to 8, maintain the '3 times through the order' paradigm and the game ends at 8 innings. That's one way to cut 15 minutes of the games....

Another big road win at Iowa city. 6 games left, 4 against ranked opponents. They can't get to 20 wins but with that schedule they don't need to to make the tourney, if they can win some more of them!

And Crimea was different. It has its own individual history and ethnicity

I'd take the Kabul example exactly as the opposite. Enough of the Afghans refused to be pacified that neither the CCCP or the USA could make it work. We look at Kabul as having fallen because the Afghans didn't fight, but those were just "our" Afghans that declined to fight, the other side was most definitely Afghans that were fighting. If anything, what Ukraine lacks is a unifying ideology of resistance like Maoism or Islam that has some history of holding guerrilla movements together. Or another way to put is is whether Kyiv has reached a point of 1st worldliness where they would rather be politically dominated than physically reduced back to the middle ages by war. To be perfectly honest, that is not a black and white question. Putin and his oligarchy don't run a prison state (in the sense that no-one can get out) anymore like the CCCP. If you are politically disinterested you can be left alone, send your kids to school, if they do well they can probably emigrate to the EU or North America.

Wings are having a hard time finding a balance between coming out flat and over-extending themselves in the 1st period.

Seider 26 min, Larkin almost 25. Blashill's going to need to watch that.

one of worst looking examples of shoot out you'll ever see but the Wings prevail!

hate shoot outs. Just flip a coin.

that was something. Getting out of this one with even one point is no small feat.

early in the 3rd, wings looking like they are waiting to lose. Need to pick it up to match NY's energy level.

momentum pretty much shifts to NY in the 2nd but Dekeyser with a cute off the back board rebound pass to Larkin and the Wings still have a 1 goal lead. Let's hope the Rangers over extended as much energy in the 2nd as the Wings did in the 1st so the Wings can hold even in the 3rd.

LOL - this is in there too:

nice - but why is the Ram's management AWOL?

Of course nobody did much of anything beside something military when Russia went into Crimea, possibly for better reasons than can be mustered if everyone does nothing should they go into Ukraine. in the end it will still depend on the Ukrainians. If they have a taste to resist there will lots of things the west can do without fighting Russia themselves/ourselves. OTOH, if they see the Russians as just one more episode in a long history they are already resigned to, then not so much. In the end that is the population’s choice.

interesting. My experiences have not been along those lines but I can see how in many situations it could go that way. But I was involved more with the kind sales agreements where neither side would have been there if they disliked each other in the first place. You might not reach a deal, but the parties weren't representing different world views either!

Oh I know, I'm just pulling your chain, but the there is an underlying point that the people managing the game today really don't have any vision for the integrity of the game, they may propose a change that makes sense but it will be by random chance and they will propose as many others that will take the game backward. I mean, if I hear one more goofball proposal on pace of play before the game gets its head out of its arse and just tells hitters to get in the box and hit, I may give it up completely and start watching tournament basketweaving.

was just in the car running last minute before the storm errands (and the ice balls have just started falling here....) and the guys on DFN were going ballistic over it.

But is interchangeability the issue, or just more offense? If the ultimate quest is just more offense, then the principle says that any compromise in the selection of hitters is counterproductive, so don't make any of them field at all.

or shortstops. If you want to push it out to the end point it's football: 18 players - 9 defenders, nine hitters, an 'O' team and 'D' team.

IDK. I thought the owners initiated the lockout to prevent the players from striking. I don't remember the nuances but supposedly there were some kind of advantages to the players to having officially gone on strike. Why they can't strike while they are locked out I couldn't tell you.....

LOL. Pistons can't make the inbounds. Hold on anyway!