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I think the problem is the huge number of medals available to a swimmer as compared to another athlete. Phelps may be one of the best swimmers ever, I have no doubt about that. But 11 medals in 2 olympics are only available to a select few sports, and the media has utterly and completely gotten on the "how many shiny things can we look at at once" bandwagon. Say there was olympic golf, for arguments sake. I'm going to bet that Tiger Woods would dominate that, because he is easily one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports. But, he'd still just win 1 gold medal, and to people who count the medals they'd say Phelps is a superior athlete. Make no mistake about it, the hype around Phelps is because of medal count. Other athletes could be just as dominant in their sport, but if they were only able to win 1, they wouldn't get the coverage.

We were in the airport on Friday, and my girlfriend saw two girls who had just got off a plane wearing winter coats. Its gonna be perfect weather for the next few days...the "lake effect rain" that we had seems to have moved on.

Yes, in _France_. You have much higher population densities, less land, less highway infrastructure, and higher fuel costs. Trains in Europe have always been feasible and efficient because of that. America is too big and spread out for trains to work in all but the highest density population areas (upstate NY is not one of them). Like a poster said above, flying is cheaper than taking the train. As for the stadium location....I had never really thought of Grand Island, but thats not a bad idea. The only way for that to work, however, is to get rid of the tolls on the bridges. It would look great on TV to get a shot of the stadium and the mist of the falls in the background. Also, the weather on the north end of grand island is far better than Orchard Park, so those late December games would be more bearable for those fans who don't like the bitter cold games.

I'm gonna bet that they _have_ been shopping JP all offseason. If the Bears or someone were interested, they'd have already made a deal. Now, if a starting QB gets hurt in training camp, then maybe the situation will change. But for now, I don't think there is a market for JP.

I live in Buffalo now, but I used to live in SW CT. When I was there, a trip from Stamford to Boston cost around 2x on the Acela vs. the standard amtrak, and got you there a whopping 20 minutes faster. Which means the far more cost conscious people in upstate NY and Ohio aren't going to bother. Sure, it'd be great to take a 150mph train from the stadium to Toronto or Albany after the game. But I'd have a hard time believing that the economics will ever come close to supporting it.

Huh? Who is going to take these trains? The Acela hasn't exactly been a resounding success in the highest population density region of the country. The thruway and other roads do a fine job moving people between the cities you mentioned.

I don't know how long it would take you to get there (might need a car+ferry), but Port Townsend is a pretty cool town. It fits the "Unique and/or quirky places to walk around or shop." Also, if you are really able to take a longer trip, check out Victoria, BC. I think there is a ferry from Seattle to Victoria, but its probably a long ride. I haven't been to Seattle itself, so I can't help too much, but those were the two cities that we liked when we were in the area.

I tend to use middle-click in Firefox to open the article in a new tab. I can't remember if that was an option I set up or not, but click on that cool little round button in the middle of your mouse, and voila...article opens in a new tab.

Don't forget, for those of you in Buffalo... The frontrunner for the 2008 olympics was Toronto, and by all accounts their bid was the best. The IOC thought it had some political say or something, and decided to give it to Beijing so that they would stop pulling BS like censoring journalists and what not. No matter how you feel about TO, it would be really cool to have the Olympics in our backyard. At least one venue I know of was going to be in St. Catherines...it never would have gotten closer to us here.

We don't really know much of anything about it: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=495

Yeah, I agree. I've never seen Evans catch a deep ball. I wish that the Bills could score 70-yard touchdowns. http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?arc...mp;d-447263-p=1 http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?arc...mp;d-447263-p=1 http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?arc...mp;d-447263-p=1 http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?arc...mp;d-447263-p=1

Just don't misspell it by flipping the i and the l around.... (NSFW, try it at your own risk...)

Can the NFL really keep up that policy forever? It seems to me like the value of NFL franchises has risen much faster than the pool of possible owners. Its already at the point where being a billionaire does not mean you could really afford to buy a team outright. At some point I would expect the current owners to realize that their franchises would be much more valuable if corporate entities (who have much more money than individuals) were allowed to purchase them.

Do you have a natural fade with your irons? You might just have the wrong flex for your driver....a natural fade + too stiff of a driver would lead to some nasty results. I have the opposite problem, a natural draw, but the only driver I own is too flexible, resulting in an awful duckhook. I've tried a few with a stiffer flex and they work well, but I don't play golf enough to justify the big $$ for a new driver. You don't really want to have to change your swing for only one club, so you should probably go to a range, spend some time hitting with your best clubs, then demo several drivers with different flexes. Buying any club without trying it probably isn't too good an idea.

Because he is still under contract with the Packers. If you were allowed to "retire" then talk to any team about coming back, all guys who weren't happy with their team would "retire" instead of hold out, and just sign with whoever they wanted.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380143,00.html Do you think they like their coffee "black"? Or is that racist too?

I went last thursday and thought it was great. And I don't like musicals.... The set was really cool, the story was decent. The Glinda character was kind of annoying, but I thought all the characters were pretty dynamic and kept the show interesting. I'd say its worth going.

I was against the casino before they started building it....I said "wait and see what happens in Niagara Falls for 10 years." But now....they've already started building the thing. There is a grand plan for a new downtown when the casino, HSBC and Bass Pro are all in a row. Since it has already begun, I say let it happen. Now its just another ugly dump site.

Indeed will get you the most results. Craigslist can have decent listings too, but be careful because sometimes it just recruiters trying to harvest your resume. If you know what industry and area you are looking in, I'd try to find what companies are interesting to you. Then check out their career sites, and apply directly. To find these companies, check out local business publications (like Business First), newspapers, and trade associations. To find my current job, I went through all the companies in the directory here: http://www.infotechniagara.org/membership/directory.php and checked out their career pages. Its a lot of work, but a lot of employers don't post jobs to sites like Monster.

Thats been a law here for years now.... Don't worry, the cops will forget about it soon enough. People talk on cell phones in NYS all the time....i think you'd only get a ticket for it if you were pulled over for something else.

They said most of the ones closing are "near other locations".... I'm guessing they are just going on that web site devoted to showing pictures of starbucks across the street from other starbucks, and getting rid of them. BTW people...Dunkin Donuts coffee sucks. And it doesn't have anything to do with quality of beans, or roasting or anything....they make it in those glass carafes that are exposed to air, and leave it on the burner to cook forever before you manage to get the last drop. I don't know how people can't taste the difference between oxidized coffee and fresh coffee. If its not in a vacuum pot, you had better get it right after brewing or its going to taste like....nasty DD coffee. I'm currently enjoying a fresh (from the vacuum pot) Spot coffee, and I won't miss Starbucks at all.

4 is way too young to be thinking of putting him down, so don't worry what these other guys say Anyway....I would get a 2nd opinion. You'd probably do it if it were your knee.... My family had a dog who was about that age and had knee problems. He had surgery (and had to be crated) twice before they actually did a biopsy and realized it was a cancer endemic to his breed. They thought about amputation, but it was too late by then, and he didn't make it much past 5. It most likely is just an orthopedic problem, but I would learn as much as you can about knee problems in your breed and what they might be caused by, and seek out a vet who knows your breed well. Also, while hip displasia might be a concern, a lot of dogs live with it. Feed him treats with Glucosamine every day (we like Zuke's Hip Action) and take your vet's advice on how much exercise he should get.

So, we don't have a TV in our apartment, but last night my downstairs neighbors asked us to hang out in their place so they could go out to dinner (they have a 1.5 year old). I thought, cool, we could watch TV like other people do on a tuesday night.... We came across the japanese game show...it was on for 10 minutes and there was absolutely nothing to do with a game show. There were a couple of people learning to drive a rickshaw, and a _lot_ of stupid reality TV interviews with the "contestants". Eventually we just had to watch reruns of law & order. Please people, do yourselves a favor, get rid of your TV...I promise you won't miss it. I wanted to claw my eyes out after seeing how horrible that show was....I don't even think the networks try anymore, they just say "is it a reality show? here is $1 billion! Go make it!" Support your local bar for sporting events, and read a book or listen to the radio.

I think he meant that the quarterback had 413 attempts, and 32 of them were completions for 20+ yards. I was as confused as you when I read this...I'd like to see what percentage of 20+ yard attempts were completions.

Eh, it doesn't sound like they did anything special. They physically broke into the school, and probably just found a teacher's password on a post-it note. These dudes were pulling C's and D's in high school AP courses....probably not the kind of kids that M$ and the like are going to hire.