56 thoughts on “January 5, 2017: I Almost Typed “1993””

1. Got our first real snow of the season overnight (maybe 1"), and Mrs. Runner used the opportunity to shovel in order to put some distance ahead of her Fitbit friends. 3) Profit!

   1. Sierras are expected to get ~12 FEET in some places over the next seven days. Places like Boreal and Soda Springs have already gotten 56 inches in this current storm.

      1. Mammoth mountain is predicting 20 feet over the next 10 days. We were planning to go up there next weekend to ski, but not sure if we could make it to the slopes if there's still that much coming down.

      2. How has California not yet adopted the Metric System?
         Sierras are expected to get ~4M in some places over the next 0.7w.

         1. Diversion: in looking up metric time (which is properly "decimal time"), I learned that the French Republican calendar, with a decimal basis had 12 months of 30 days (3 weeks of 10), with 5 or 6 bonus days called "Sansculottides".
            I believe "Sansculottides" roughly means "Pantsless Days".

            1. We can all get behind Sansculottides.

            2. Unfortunately, it's the exact opposite. The Sans culottes were those who were "without breeches". Instead they wore full length trousers.

               1. Crap, I was thinking breeches and pants were the same thing.
                  Similar to what happened to me translating Linnean mushroom names. I said "lagopus" meant "Rabbit's foot", but was corrected that it means "Hare's foot".
                  Which is similar to conversations I've been having most of my life. I remember receiving some lectures from one high school classmate about the disctinctions between cement and concrete (and maybe between tar and asphalt).

2. Two cool space news items:

   One source of FRBs has been located (not the source, as many headlines imply), and it's not from somewhere we'd expect.

   How had I never heard of 16 Psyche before?

   1. I hate when news articles include astronomical images, and those images aren't marked as "artist's conception"

      1. Co-sign

      2. You mean there might not be trees on a metal asteroid? (Or is that supposed to be something else?)

         1. I mean the nice high resolution close-up of 16 Psyche

            1. Right: the one on which it appears to be forested.

               1. Oh, wait -- green means forest? Dude, that's copper!

                  1. really? Story says asteroid is made of Iron and Nickel. Copper tarnishes green, but why would copper tarnish in outer space?
                     Therefore: forests.
                     I guess space-grass meadows are an alternative explanation.

                     1. Wikipedia says "Psyche seems to have a surface that is 90% metallic (iron), with small amounts of pyroxene."
                        Wikipedia's pictures of pyroxine are mostly green. Maybe that's it.
                        There's a Popular Mechanics illo of 16 Psyche that's not green.

                     2. Is joke

                        1. Oh, I thought I had to explain mine.

                           1. Like forests is a more plausible explanation than tarnished copper... 😛

                           2. I think we both agree: "What was the artist thinking with the green?"

                           3. I really don't have a problem with green, as long as it's identified as ARTIST'S CONCEPTION.

   2. THIS is the astronomy new people here want to read.

   3. 16 Psyche is a more interesting thing to me than FRBs (as someone who hasn't spent a lot of time following astronomical mysteries).
      Thoughts:
      1. Things like this must be how the Star Wars villains get the raw materials for their Death Starkillers.
      2. Quote: "This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world - not one of rock... but of metal"
      Cheaptoy's been there for years.
      3. Tried to make a joke about Trojans, but it wasn't working. Help?

      1. I see what you did there.

      2. I keep telling you guys: read the book!

         1. Heh.

3. I got started on "Good Omens". It's fun so far, I'm looking forward to it.

   1. Nice. I have that book signed by Neil Gaiman. He said "If you ever run into Terry Pratchett, have him finish this tandem signature."

      Sigh. Never happened.

      1. Back in the 70s my parents were in Vegas. They saw Sonny Bono and asked for his autograph. He signed it "Sonny & ". Sure enough the next day they came across Cher who finished the autograph.

         1. I'm not a fan of autographs, but having a story like that with it is cool.

4. You may remember that the Oakland Athletics, who have been stymied in their attempts to escape the Coliseum, have been struggling to keep their clubhouse free of raw sewage for the last several years. You might also remember that the Atlanta Braves abandoned Turner Field after nineteen seasons after the mayor of Atlanta told the Braves the City would not pay $350 million to upgrade & renovate the ballpark, which had been funded almost entirely by NBC and other sponsors of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

   Well, yesterday night the D-backs filed a lawsuit against the Maricopa County Stadium District, the owners of 19-year-old Bank One Ballpark Chase Field, claiming the county has not fulfilled its obligations for $187 million in upgrades and repairs.In April the County informed the D-backs that $55 million of that total is annual maintenance for which the D-backs is responsible per the lease, and another $90 million represents "multiple cycles" of discretionary upgrades or refurbishments of fan amenities for which the County has no obligation per the lease. The taxpayers of Maricopa County paid $238 million out of the $364 million in construction costs for the ballpark.

   1. The Coyotes also have a cluster.... of a stadium situation in Arizona, apparently they'll be moving from their built-in-2003 arena to a new one in Tempe in a few years

      This reminds me of this recent Deadspin article about teams moving beyond stadiums to rip off the public. The Vikings are in the process of building a new HQ/practice facility in Eagan, not sure how it compares to Super Jerry World in Dallas though. Teams just can't get enough free money.

      1. Some region is gonna be the first to win a game of chicken against sports franchise extortion. I was really hoping MN vs Vikings would be it.

         1. Though I no longer live in the state, co-sign.

         2. StL is missing football, but not the Rams.

      2. That Deadspin article was satisfyingly astringent. If you're interested, Bloomberg published "The Braves Play Taxpayers Better Than They Play Baseball" last April. It's a pretty solid look at the Braves' use of their wholly-owned minor league system as a network of corporate ticks embedded in the public's back.

         Here's an excerpt:

         'If you feel like boiling your blood'

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         Under Pearl’s stadium agreement, which [then-mayor] Foster closed in a marathon phone session with Bennett and Plant just before the announcement, the city would raise $78 million through a series of bonds, with $28 million set aside to pay for the ballpark. Pearl planned to pay back bondholders through more than a half-dozen revenue streams, including a $1 surcharge on every game ticket and half of the sales tax from the Bass Pro Shop. (Bass didn’t respond to requests for comment.) The city also planned to collect $3 or $4 per car for parking. “That didn’t go over too well,” says Foster. Fans screamed at the parking lot attendants and jumped the fences. So Pearl swapped out the parking money for a new sales tax on a shopping and restaurant district near the ballpark. ... Altogether, the taxes and fees were supposed to be more than enough to pay the debt back. But just in case, Pearl pledged to cover as much as $950,000 annually from other sources if money didn’t come in as planned. It hasn’t. In 2014, the most recent year on record, the city paid $911,748, more than 5 percent of its general fund spending for the year, to cover shortfalls. The year before, it paid $967,944. [Current mayor] Rogers says he isn’t sure why Pearl paid more than it pledged. ... In December, Moody’s Investors Service cut Pearl’s debt rating four notches, to junk status, citing ongoing stadium liabilities. Wall Street sees Pearl about as likely to repay its debts, in other words, as Detroit just before it went bankrupt. With credit this poor, Pearl can’t borrow money to fix a road or build a fire station without paying interest rates that might make a credit card user think twice, assuming it can even find a willing investor. Moody’s also put Pearl on review for further downgrades. When it asked Pearl for details on the stadium deal, the city brushed it off. “Nobody but us needs to understand how this ballpark works,” says Rogers, claiming the downgrade was unwarranted. Foster, who lost his bid for a fourth term in 2009, blames his successor, Rogers, for the town’s financial troubles. “There was more than enough to cover those bonds, and you can’t convince me otherwise,” he says. “If there’s still not, I don’t know what’s going on.” Rogers says he was saddled with a bad deal and has revised the bonds four times in the last five years. To help keep lenders whole, according to Pearl’s financial adviser, Demery Grubbs, the city has taken on more of the debt burden. After the credit downgrade in December, Rogers looked to refinance again. Grubbs told him there wasn’t a market. “That’s fine by me,” Rogers says. “We don’t need any of the fancy New York banks who don’t understand us. There’s plenty of Mississippi banks that will be happy to have our business.” Grubbs says the town raised property taxes to pay back debt on the ballpark.

         And then there's:

         'This'

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         Bennett, the middleman in Pearl, has no regrets. Whatever the cost, he says, the stadium helped to put the city on the map. “That deal was successful for me personally,” he adds. His million-dollar finder’s fee helped keep him afloat while he worked on his most recent project: a $36 million minor league ballpark, paid for in part with settlement money from the BP Gulf oil spill [emphasis mine], for the Biloxi Shuckers, the Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Shuckers paid Bennett with a piece of equity in the team, and he’s got an office overlooking the field and the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s not a bad gig,” he says.

         1. pols, and the people who elect them, have always been suckers for Bread and Circuses. It will always be so.

            1. Especially when they are pitted against each other. They are able to capture the short-term glory while the costs are spread out beyond the time they are around.

5. No longer with Leather?

   1. I have changed the channel anytime Berman comes on for about a decade or so. His mannerisms wore on me from the get go.

      1. Ditto. And I've never looked back, back, back, back back!

      2. anytime Berman comes on for about a decade or so

         He just seems to go on that long.

6. How to manage shrinkage.

   1. Easy. Stay out of the pool.

7. Twins retain Chad Allen and Stu Cliburn as coaches for Rochester.

   1. After watching his running gaffes , I never thought Chad Allen would turn into a highly respected coach. Good for him!

8. if this happens it would be a big step toward the Cavs defending their title. I don't think they can beat GS again even with Korver, but he would definitely help Cleveland.

9. Gopher men follow up a big win at Purdue with a win at Northwestern. Wildcats haven't really established themselves, but Gophers have really struggled against them, especially in recent years.

   1. This Gophers squad is a terrible free throw shooting team (14-22), but they play tough and Pitino's coaching seems like it's improved from last year (so many games frittered away late... not happening so far this year)

      Here are the B1G teams with 2 or more conference wins
      Michigan State 3-0
      Nebraska 3-0 (!!!)
      Wisconsin 2-0
      Minnesota 2-1 (!!)
      Purdue 2-1

      Penn St (1) has more conference wins than Ohio St and Indiana combined (0) crazy

10. this wild game has a little bit of this and a little bit of that so far.

    1. okay,

       Spoiler	SelectShow
       5-4 now

       .

       any of you guys see some crazy deal on nhl.tv, please let me know.

    2. Granlund just made a Rubio-style no-look pass.

       1. Granlund will always be one of my favorite players because of this:

          1. Same, but this highlight:

             1. ahh, yes, that one too. nice pull. should probably go in search of a shirsey...

                also, again, please let me know if anyone sees a cheap NHL.tv thingie, y'all.

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