The best funded school districts in Minnesota receive about $4,290 more in funding per pupil then those with the lowest funding.
Come on, USA Today, this is a story about education -- proofread, eh?
USA Today receives less per proofreader than the richest newspapers.
We had a Montessori school that advertised with a series of 3-4 signs along the street near here; the middle sign with the possessive missing an apostrophe didn't help their cause much.
I finally got to watch some of the Olympics last night. I love Slopestyle, so even though the Women's event itself was a shadow of its usual self because of the high winds (to the point where it was surprising when a boarder actually made it all the way down the hill on their feet), watching that for a couple of hours was a treat. I also got to see quite a bit of curling, even though the actual matchup (Canada vs. Norway) seemed to kind of be a comedy of errors.
Also, Newbish LOVES the luge. Like really, really loves it. Whenever they'd show the straightaways where the sledder was coming toward the screen, he'd run away shouting with laughter.
I'm going to have to find a way to watch more of this stuff.
Do you have cable and a way to stream NBC Sports? They have all of the events available after they are done and the replays are a million times better than whatever they are showing "live" at the moment. (like, their "live" curling coverage is awful because they skip the first six damn stones but the replays or the actual live streams show everything and have pretty decent commentary.)
I have been complaining some about the judged events, but will agree that I forgot how rad slopestyle is. I haven't seen the women's, but the men's one was a lot of fun. My son really likes the skiing events (and I always love the alpine skiing) so he was pretty riveted when we were watching the men's normal hill jump and the women's moguls. Things are a little slow at work this morning so I think I'm gonna use up the rest of my non-throttled data and watch the curling semis.
Oh, also, the Biathlon! I watched the 10k sprint yesterday and really enjoyed that.
I was watching on the NBC Sports channel last night, and it was pretty solid. They gave a proper amount of time for each event that they were showcasing (the whole women's slopestyle was done live). Curling seemed complete, too.
I wouldn't watch on the main channel, because they slice and dice up their coverage so much that it becomes really irritating to follow.
The main channel is all we have available (and even then, our reception is terrible, and it constantly cuts out). I am constantly amazed at how awful the coverage is.
Another complaint: I really dislike when commentators talk about the "season" a particular athlete is having. It's probably even more specific to when the commentary implies that the Olympics is just another routine competition in that season. But whenever they do that, it really bothers me.
Thanks for the NBC Sports streaming tip. I DVR'ed the curling semifinals last night, but found out this morning it missed the first half of Canada-Norway for whatever reason, so we switched to the Roku app instead. My 6-year-old (off of school today) is super into it.
Alternately, there are ways around the geographic constraints. Email me if you need advice.
As I'm really only interested in going out of the way to watch Curling (and Homan in particular), I've been watching the CBC feed.
If there's no Canadian match at a given time but there is a Scottish British match, maybe I'll see what the BBC has to offer.
Problem: I have to watch it on the computer, can't put it on either TV.
Maybe next time around, I'll see what it takes to legit pay for NBC's expanded coverage.
But I really would prefer to hear the Canadian announcers. (Canadian is one of my favorite accents of English... so subtly different than Minnesotan... except when it's not! I'm always pointing out Canadian speech moments in my wife's TV shows.)
Tangent: Fred Armisen's map of the US and the accents thereof is the best part of his weird new Netflix special. (Weird because it's 50% jokes about being a drummer, 40% of which I think I got.)
The accompanist at church wanted me to see New in Town sometime as it was set in Minnesota; I had to tell her that I heard more Canadian than Minnesotan in the accents.
I don't recall exactly. From what I do recall, it, like Fargo, shows more of the old-timer accent and had younger folk speaking it.
NBBW and I were opining about what are the most salient characteristics that defines whether someone makes it to the winter Olympics (not in priority order):
raw physical talent
wealthy parents
parents and/or family of athletes
good trainer/coach
grow up by Olympic venue
live in mountains
ability to bounce back from failure
lack of fear
ability to withstand pain
high VO2max
last name ends in -ssen
grit
luck
If you missed it, MLBTR published a post last night linking to several pieces on the Twins. One was a link to LENIII reporting the Twins have made an initial trade offer for Chris Archer to the Rays, who want Kepler. I hope they don’t trade Kepler, but I’m not sure what the Twins would offer instead. Archer’s a decent pitcher who is under contract at a below-market salary for quite a while. Then again, Archer’s 29 next season, while Kepler will be 25.
Kepler’s b-ref similarity scores through age 24 are pretty interesting: Dave Henderson is the top comp (974.1/1000), and after that it’s a mix of guys who never really made it (Travis Snider, Lance Nix, Oswaldo Arcia), a couple intriguing names (Wil Myers, Logan Morrison, Carmelo Martínez), a Steroid Era star (Luis Gonzalez), a name to dream on (Larry Walker), and one that should be familiar to Twins fans: Larry Hisle, who was still primarily a center fielder then. Hisle spent his age-25 season in the PCL due to a bad slump and veterans ahead of him (do you remember Frank Robinson playing for the Dodgers?). I’d be pretty happy with Kepler replicating Myers’ age-25 season this year.
I adore Kepler. I've been watching his progress since he was first picked up by the organization. But with Zack Granite waiting, and corner outfielders generally easier to come by... I could forgive the move. I'd be sad, but I would understand it.
I also love Kepler, but I'd be pretty comfortable with them trading anyone not named Buxton or Lewis for Chris Archer. He's a very good pitcher on an unbelievably team-friendly deal, and with Josh Kalk in the FO, they should have the entire picture on Archer.
A trade with the Rays involving a starting pitcher under reasonable team control and a young corner outfielder. Hmmm. Seems familiar. Maybe if the Rays will throw in a shortstop, too.
I suspect it’s the Rays who’d be getting a shortstop (Nick Gordon) in this deal.
Simply acknowledging Black History Month might be progress for the Boston PD.
True.
After a year off, I'm doing the Climb for A Cure for CF again this year. My brother just got out of the hospital after a month-long stay (his lung function was somewhere in the 20% range when he went in...), so we're trying to make a big team and fundraising push, like we did after my sister passed away. Two of my kids are planning on climbing too!
Anyway, if anyone is interested in joining us, it's the morning of March 3rd, and you'd get to meet an insane number of people connected to my family (let me know, if interested). And assuming that doesn't work out, if anyone is willing to make a donation, that's hugely appreciated. You can do that for Aquinas here, Aristotle here, or just plain ol' me here.
Thanks!
Did you know Eric Fryer was still an active major leaguer last season? Well, neither did I. However, he’s decided to retire, just 14 homeruns short of Drew Butera’s career total, but with an OPS+ nearly 20 points higher (extremely SSS alert).
Four straight days without an Instantpot mention? What is going on here?!?!
Made yogurt on Friday night with the new, cheap (3 for $11) silicone sealing ring. Ring worked fine, and putting them on and off I couldn't feel a difference between the original and the new ones, so I'm happy with that purchase.
Yogurt tasted good, but was not quite as firm and tart as I would have liked; I'm running another batch now, and I think I may give it more time for those cultures to do their thing. We'll see how it goes.
I bought an Instant Pot for Xmas. I've been using it fairly frequently. Made black bean soup on Saturday night. Yummy! The ability of this tool to take beans from dry to tender in less than an hour is great.
When I open my cursed Instant Pot I hear a chorus of distant screams.
Due to our unique manufacturing process and uneasy accord with a heathen idol, you may occasionally hear the tortured and infinite wails of the damned emanating from within your cursed Instant Pot. If the screams become too frequent or anguished, try recalibrating by holding down the KEEP WARM and TIMER buttons for 5 seconds.
hungry joe. I think there is a malfunction on the rear communications array. You will have to put on your suit and fix it. Really, I will let you back in.
did you use the pot directly, or did you steam in jars/containers?
I also have found that (via steaming in a pyrex container) that the finished product is not quite as thick as I'd hoped. I think that you can put it on "keep warm" or some such for an extra five minutes, lid off, after steaming the milk to evaporate some of the water from the milk. This will enhance the thickness of the final product.
Also, get yourself a couple of yogurt strainers. After the yogurt is cooled, you can strain a couple of cups for 30 minutes or so to thicken, or for several hours to thicken to "Greek yogurt" thickness, or overnight for "yogurt cheese".
My wife thinks it's weird, but I drink the whey that is drained off. Full of vit-a-mins and stuff.
I did it in a round Pyrex casserole dish, with lid on. I’m running it for 10 hours in yogurt mode right now, we’ll see if that changes things. I assume the yogurt used as a starter could make a difference as well; I used Fage Greek (organic I think?). If this batch ends up about the same as round one, I’ll try a different starter.
And I should add, even though it wasn’t as thick or tangy as I expected, it was still very tasty.
Lid on the container will prevent evaporation. I steam with no cover on the container and used (last time) foil loosely on top during ferment to prevent drips.
Bronze medal game in Mixed Doubles underway!
I'll have to break to eat dinner with the family.
I thought the Russians were really ontop of this but I had to miss the last two stones of the 3rd, and Norway's back in the match.
I'll have to re-watch that.
Back from dinner (Instapot Pork Ribs)... and it looks like the Russkies are in control again.
Lots of missed shots... is mixed doubles more taxing from the back-and-forth while throwing so that nerves aren't quite as steady (like Biathlon)? Or the best players are on the traditional 4-player single-sex teams?
It's more that on a lot of shots, they don't have anyone holding a broom for them to aim at, so they're basically just guessing on the line. Then you only have one sweeper instead of two, and sweeping plays a big role in accuracy of the shot. On top of all that, in the full team game you have two people keeping their eye on the line for sweep calls while the sweepers are responsible for estimating weight.
Combine that altogether and accuracy is going to go way down for even the best curlers.
Thanks. That makes sense.
No problem. You can scratch that last line if we're talking about Team Canada though...
Ex-Twins news: Trevor Plouffe! signs a minor league deal with Texas.
The finishing touch on the costumes are drying (glitter, glitter everywhere (natch)), and the jello shots are setting up in the fridge. What are y'all doing tomorrow?
Pączki Day!
Someone brought some of these in today and now I understand what you are saying.
On consecutive possessions, the Warriors just scored fast break layups after a made basket and a made free throw.
C'mon, Phoenix. That is pathetic.
Gold medal game for mixed doubles.
I showed up for the last rock of the third end... nice shot!
One team is making the shots that no one could in the bronze medal game. I don't see how the other team can come back (but I watched the end of the 2017 world championships with these two countries when I thought the same thing).
No. It only ends one way. By far the best playing in any of the matches I watched. Canada was great, but the Swiss did not look bad. Kindof the way they looked in that 2017 world championship match, where two different Canadians generally played better than these Swiss, but the Swiss won because the Canadians made a few really costly mistakes. The Canucks here instead made a few really fantastic shots. But the Swiss were good enough that the shots had to be fantastic.
I'm glad the destroyed the Swiss team, to be honest. I've been upset with them since their first RR match against China where I am certain Rios cheated by moving a stone at the end of one of the ends into another Chinese stone. It probably cost China a crucial point.
MN comes in 10th in education.
The best funded school districts in Minnesota receive about $4,290 more in funding per pupil then those with the lowest funding.
Come on, USA Today, this is a story about education -- proofread, eh?
USA Today receives less per proofreader than the richest newspapers.
We had a Montessori school that advertised with a series of 3-4 signs along the street near here; the middle sign with the possessive missing an apostrophe didn't help their cause much.
I finally got to watch some of the Olympics last night. I love Slopestyle, so even though the Women's event itself was a shadow of its usual self because of the high winds (to the point where it was surprising when a boarder actually made it all the way down the hill on their feet), watching that for a couple of hours was a treat. I also got to see quite a bit of curling, even though the actual matchup (Canada vs. Norway) seemed to kind of be a comedy of errors.
Also, Newbish LOVES the luge. Like really, really loves it. Whenever they'd show the straightaways where the sledder was coming toward the screen, he'd run away shouting with laughter.
I'm going to have to find a way to watch more of this stuff.
Do you have cable and a way to stream NBC Sports? They have all of the events available after they are done and the replays are a million times better than whatever they are showing "live" at the moment. (like, their "live" curling coverage is awful because they skip the first six damn stones but the replays or the actual live streams show everything and have pretty decent commentary.)
I have been complaining some about the judged events, but will agree that I forgot how rad slopestyle is. I haven't seen the women's, but the men's one was a lot of fun. My son really likes the skiing events (and I always love the alpine skiing) so he was pretty riveted when we were watching the men's normal hill jump and the women's moguls. Things are a little slow at work this morning so I think I'm gonna use up the rest of my non-throttled data and watch the curling semis.
Oh, also, the Biathlon! I watched the 10k sprint yesterday and really enjoyed that.
I was watching on the NBC Sports channel last night, and it was pretty solid. They gave a proper amount of time for each event that they were showcasing (the whole women's slopestyle was done live). Curling seemed complete, too.
I wouldn't watch on the main channel, because they slice and dice up their coverage so much that it becomes really irritating to follow.
The main channel is all we have available (and even then, our reception is terrible, and it constantly cuts out). I am constantly amazed at how awful the coverage is.
Another complaint: I really dislike when commentators talk about the "season" a particular athlete is having. It's probably even more specific to when the commentary implies that the Olympics is just another routine competition in that season. But whenever they do that, it really bothers me.
Thanks for the NBC Sports streaming tip. I DVR'ed the curling semifinals last night, but found out this morning it missed the first half of Canada-Norway for whatever reason, so we switched to the Roku app instead. My 6-year-old (off of school today) is super into it.
Alternately, there are ways around the geographic constraints. Email me if you need advice.
As I'm really only interested in going out of the way to watch Curling (and Homan in particular), I've been watching the CBC feed.
If there's no Canadian match at a given time but there is a
ScottishBritish match, maybe I'll see what the BBC has to offer.Problem: I have to watch it on the computer, can't put it on either TV.
Maybe next time around, I'll see what it takes to legit pay for NBC's expanded coverage.
But I really would prefer to hear the Canadian announcers. (Canadian is one of my favorite accents of English... so subtly different than Minnesotan... except when it's not! I'm always pointing out Canadian speech moments in my wife's TV shows.)
Tangent: Fred Armisen's map of the US and the accents thereof is the best part of his weird new Netflix special. (Weird because it's 50% jokes about being a drummer, 40% of which I think I got.)
The accompanist at church wanted me to see New in Town sometime as it was set in Minnesota; I had to tell her that I heard more Canadian than Minnesotan in the accents.
I don't recall exactly. From what I do recall, it, like Fargo, shows more of the old-timer accent and had younger folk speaking it.
NBBW and I were opining about what are the most salient characteristics that defines whether someone makes it to the winter Olympics (not in priority order):
raw physical talent
wealthy parents
parents and/or family of athletes
good trainer/coach
grow up by Olympic venue
live in mountains
ability to bounce back from failure
lack of fear
ability to withstand pain
high VO2max
last name ends in -ssen
grit
luck
If you missed it, MLBTR published a post last night linking to several pieces on the Twins. One was a link to LENIII reporting the Twins have made an initial trade offer for Chris Archer to the Rays, who want Kepler. I hope they don’t trade Kepler, but I’m not sure what the Twins would offer instead. Archer’s a decent pitcher who is under contract at a below-market salary for quite a while. Then again, Archer’s 29 next season, while Kepler will be 25.
Kepler’s b-ref similarity scores through age 24 are pretty interesting: Dave Henderson is the top comp (974.1/1000), and after that it’s a mix of guys who never really made it (Travis Snider, Lance Nix, Oswaldo Arcia), a couple intriguing names (Wil Myers, Logan Morrison, Carmelo Martínez), a Steroid Era star (Luis Gonzalez), a name to dream on (Larry Walker), and one that should be familiar to Twins fans: Larry Hisle, who was still primarily a center fielder then. Hisle spent his age-25 season in the PCL due to a bad slump and veterans ahead of him (do you remember Frank Robinson playing for the Dodgers?). I’d be pretty happy with Kepler replicating Myers’ age-25 season this year.
I adore Kepler. I've been watching his progress since he was first picked up by the organization. But with Zack Granite waiting, and corner outfielders generally easier to come by... I could forgive the move. I'd be sad, but I would understand it.
I also love Kepler, but I'd be pretty comfortable with them trading anyone not named Buxton or Lewis for Chris Archer. He's a very good pitcher on an unbelievably team-friendly deal, and with Josh Kalk in the FO, they should have the entire picture on Archer.
A trade with the Rays involving a starting pitcher under reasonable team control and a young corner outfielder. Hmmm. Seems familiar. Maybe if the Rays will throw in a shortstop, too.
I suspect it’s the Rays who’d be getting a shortstop (Nick Gordon) in this deal.
Boston PD celebrates Black History Month by honoring...Red Auerbach.
Simply acknowledging Black History Month might be progress for the Boston PD.
True.
After a year off, I'm doing the Climb for A Cure for CF again this year. My brother just got out of the hospital after a month-long stay (his lung function was somewhere in the 20% range when he went in...), so we're trying to make a big team and fundraising push, like we did after my sister passed away. Two of my kids are planning on climbing too!
Anyway, if anyone is interested in joining us, it's the morning of March 3rd, and you'd get to meet an insane number of people connected to my family (let me know, if interested). And assuming that doesn't work out, if anyone is willing to make a donation, that's hugely appreciated. You can do that for Aquinas here, Aristotle here, or just plain ol' me here.
Thanks!
Did you know Eric Fryer was still an active major leaguer last season? Well, neither did I. However, he’s decided to retire, just 14 homeruns short of Drew Butera’s career total, but with an OPS+ nearly 20 points higher (extremely SSS alert).
Four straight days without an Instantpot mention? What is going on here?!?!
Made yogurt on Friday night with the new, cheap (3 for $11) silicone sealing ring. Ring worked fine, and putting them on and off I couldn't feel a difference between the original and the new ones, so I'm happy with that purchase.
Yogurt tasted good, but was not quite as firm and tart as I would have liked; I'm running another batch now, and I think I may give it more time for those cultures to do their thing. We'll see how it goes.
I bought an Instant Pot for Xmas. I've been using it fairly frequently. Made black bean soup on Saturday night. Yummy! The ability of this tool to take beans from dry to tender in less than an hour is great.
hungry joe. I think there is a malfunction on the rear communications array. You will have to put on your suit and fix it. Really, I will let you back in.
did you use the pot directly, or did you steam in jars/containers?
I also have found that (via steaming in a pyrex container) that the finished product is not quite as thick as I'd hoped. I think that you can put it on "keep warm" or some such for an extra five minutes, lid off, after steaming the milk to evaporate some of the water from the milk. This will enhance the thickness of the final product.
Also, get yourself a couple of yogurt strainers. After the yogurt is cooled, you can strain a couple of cups for 30 minutes or so to thicken, or for several hours to thicken to "Greek yogurt" thickness, or overnight for "yogurt cheese".
My wife thinks it's weird, but I drink the whey that is drained off. Full of vit-a-mins and stuff.
I did it in a round Pyrex casserole dish, with lid on. I’m running it for 10 hours in yogurt mode right now, we’ll see if that changes things. I assume the yogurt used as a starter could make a difference as well; I used Fage Greek (organic I think?). If this batch ends up about the same as round one, I’ll try a different starter.
And I should add, even though it wasn’t as thick or tangy as I expected, it was still very tasty.
Lid on the container will prevent evaporation. I steam with no cover on the container and used (last time) foil loosely on top during ferment to prevent drips.
Bronze medal game in Mixed Doubles underway!
I'll have to break to eat dinner with the family.
I thought the Russians were really ontop of this but I had to miss the last two stones of the 3rd, and Norway's back in the match.
I'll have to re-watch that.
Back from dinner (Instapot Pork Ribs)... and it looks like the Russkies are in control again.
Lots of missed shots... is mixed doubles more taxing from the back-and-forth while throwing so that nerves aren't quite as steady (like Biathlon)? Or the best players are on the traditional 4-player single-sex teams?
It's more that on a lot of shots, they don't have anyone holding a broom for them to aim at, so they're basically just guessing on the line. Then you only have one sweeper instead of two, and sweeping plays a big role in accuracy of the shot. On top of all that, in the full team game you have two people keeping their eye on the line for sweep calls while the sweepers are responsible for estimating weight.
Combine that altogether and accuracy is going to go way down for even the best curlers.
Thanks. That makes sense.
No problem. You can scratch that last line if we're talking about Team Canada though...
Ex-Twins news: Trevor Plouffe! signs a minor league deal with Texas.
The finishing touch on the costumes are drying (glitter, glitter everywhere (natch)), and the jello shots are setting up in the fridge. What are y'all doing tomorrow?
Pączki Day!
Someone brought some of these in today and now I understand what you are saying.
On consecutive possessions, the Warriors just scored fast break layups after a made basket and a made free throw.
C'mon, Phoenix. That is pathetic.
Gold medal game for mixed doubles.
I showed up for the last rock of the third end... nice shot!
One team is making the shots that no one could in the bronze medal game. I don't see how the other team can come back (but I watched the end of the 2017 world championships with these two countries when I thought the same thing).
Does it end the other way?
For sure.