dpberr

The Patriots paid great money for a good player. You generally shouldn't do that. NE/Gilmore reminds me of PHI/Asomugha. A good corner, asked to be great, and just isn't.

I've noticed that with the closure of the BBMB and the immigration of fans to this board, the topic titles proposed by some have become woefully, sometimes hilariously short. Have to add some detail, folks.

I think the biggest misstep to the Legacy series is that they didn't create a unique universe for the show that referenced all the stuff that happened in the original series. In a world where you had all that death and destruction and only one POTUS that served a full term, there's a lot of room for story. Shows that do create a unique "setting" (Person of Interest, The Man in the High Castle, Scandal, Designated Survivor, the Expanse, etc.) allows you to create fresh material.

Anabolic steroids, no. I'd have no issues if the NFL made HGH legal, however.

Professional wrestling today takes itself too serious, IMO. Believe it or not. I'm not a wrestling fan but the wrestlers of yesterday were more actors, less professional athletes. You legitimately thought Macho Man and the Ultimate Warrior were completely out of their minds. The guys today are more professional athletes than they are actors. Back in the day you had a guy with a parrot and gigantic snake (Koko B Ware, Jake Roberts), guys who's final move was cutting hair, (Brutus the Barber) guys who carried lumber as a weapon (Hacksaw), guys who carried instruments as weapons (Honky Tonk Man) and ridiculous Cold War stereotypes like Sergeant Slaugter, the Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkov.

I am but eh. They are using the same ol' plot devices, super goofy storylines (Carter's wife is the new Kim, quarreling gay coworkers, evil dad, etc.) and Islamic terrorists yet again. If this show takes place after all the Jack Bauer mayhem, consider all the nerve gas, atomic weapons detonated on American soil (at least two), and the numerous Presidents killed or arrested in Jack's time and you're going to have to do better than a truck bomb on a bridge by the hot little number in a van.

John DeLancie was always "Q" from Star Trek no matter the show. No matter what Alan Rickman did, he was still Hans.

The Expanse (one of my new favorite shows) has a ton of "hey I've seen you before..." actors and actresses. Miller is the Punisher (Thomas Jane) Fred Johnson is Tyrese from TWD Jean Pierre Mao is the doctor who was in all the films the survivors found on LOST Chrisjen Avarsala is the weird terror mom from Day 4 of 24 Lt. Sutton was Ed Lane from Flashpoint

Last night's episode was interesting from a details point of view for me. I find it odd the show dwells on the alleged lack of weapons but gasoline and diesel - apparently in abundance years after the last refinery cranked out a gallon - is so available that the Saviors are driving 2.5 tons and pickups and Alexandria is driving 80s vans and Suburbans.

Whoever green-lighted CHIPs should be not only fired but launched into space by SpaceX.

If SpaceX pulls that off without casualties or calamity, it'll be like what the Internet was to the 90s in terms of technological frontiers. It'll also make NASA and its insistence on low orbit nothingburger shuttles for 30 years look small.

He shouldn't have been released in the first place.

Throwing one Dr. Carson into the furnace and needing the other Dr. Carson at the Hilltop has a good chance of serving as an ignition point for the war. It'll be interesting to see if Eugene leads the Saviors to the right machine shop.

The Bills trade Sammy Watkins in a draft day deal.

I think pensions are THE collection of hairs that will snap the backs of many states. It's about as close as you get to a financial "extinction event" for a town, school district or state because it's so big. It was a crisis in 2000. Today it's like looking at a Category 5 hurricane on collision course with your town. I'm involved in the pension issues in Pennsylvania and insofar as PA goes, much of the state's pension issues are due to self inflicted wounds, very unfavorable demographic trends and a pension agency and legislature that steadfastly refuses to reform. During the 90s, legislators voted in very generous increases in benefits and the required employer contributions to the system were near zero because "times were so good" I agree with Will in that their actuarial calculations are based on voodoo/wildly crazy projections - still expecting a 7.5% return when it's more like 3-4% and that's being optimistic in my opinion. The candid truth is that Pennsylvania is running out of taxpayers and has a 3 billion dollar state deficit to boot at a time when there is this big surge of retirements putting strain on the system. Calculations by the state's independent fiscal office project a retraction in working age population in PA absent a very optimistic surge of international migration. When taxpayers reach retirement age, they check out to FL, AZ, TX en masse. The age groups backfilling that loss aren't on the tax rolls at all or are making substantially less in income. So in short, there's a lot of people taking from the system and fewer feeding into it.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Andrew Bogut be the most important player in the NBA should the 76ers waive him. Off the top of my head, GSW desperately needs rim protection and the Spurs would love to have yet another big man to compete with the Clips and GSW in the playoffs.

Tough call on this one. You or I would probably be arrested if we not only pulled a gun but then discharged it over some kids on the lawn mouthing off. Ironically, he probably should have called the police and let the uniforms handle it.

I chalk this "change" to the white hot roasting of Berchtold and the terrible execution of his job duties we provided on this very message board. I'm glad the hall walkers are being put on notice.

I chose TT. I'm not the biggest fan of his nor his biggest critic. I think he's ok but has potential to be better.

Favorite: Siege of Firebase Gloria Runner-Up: Aliens

...if the coaching staff has the courage and conviction to make adjustments at halftime to "the" plan.

This Russian story/narrative sounds like an episode of 24 where the Russians are set up as the bad guys but aren't and it is revealed around episode 8, that the bad guys are somebody else entirely. This It's the terrible Russians "story" has always smelled.

FEMA has had everyone with dams from the Corps to the state out to expensively test, probe and model the spillways because in their opinion, the spillways are the weak points because of flawed or outdated engineering, hydrology or the safety factors built into the spillways. It's like looking at the concrete and steel in a parking deck or a building - can you see the failure before it happens? Dam issues aren't new - it's a big problem in the US. However, this situation is dramatic and has drawn attention to the issue. In some cases, the engineering, hydrology and the safety factors considered for auxiliary and emergency spillways were flawed from the start or outdated. In the case of this Oroville dam, it appears that the state did none of the above or ever attempted even a minor flow test of the emergency spillway. Of course this begs another question - if they tested this primarily earth emergency spillway and it failed, and it led to catastrophe, would that actually have been worse situation? In a way, they have dangerously built something they have no evidence of knowing it'll work when it needs to.

"How can they use the emergency spillway if the elevation hasn't reach it yet. Just like your bathroom sink. Water won't go down the hole to the drain if it can't reach it." Interesting question. I suppose you'd have to look back at points since 1968 and see if there was the opportunity to test it. I'm surprised that the state never tested an emergency spillway on a flood control dam. The Army Corps routinely conducts emergency spillway and gates on their dams.

This dam,like many others was more than likely designed for flood protection primarily after some apocalyptic flooding in the 1950s where the flooding was the heaviest on record. I know that sounds bizarre considering the bad drought the state has been in, but it wasn't always that way. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1137f/report.pdf I understand your idea - they'd essentially need to pump it to above ground or below ground storage tanks.