Fan in Chicago

Congrats ! A job well done.

That's the part I am not sure about. I has a similar feeling after POTC 3 and it continued to make money in subsequent days & weekends. Indy has no real competition in the next 2 weekends. Sex and the City and Indy are skewed by gender and SATC doesn't appear to be a traditional chick flick to which makes women want to drag their SOs (thankfully).

Agreed. NT followed the Pirates of Caribbean formula of milking a perfectly good franchise and getting away with it (read: dishing out crap but still making a lot of money) . Now Lucas/Spielberg seem to have taken a similar path.

Thank you. Pretty much every action movie defies physics in some way but this movie has more than its fair share of ridiculous scenes. To the point that I was groaning at the start of every action sequence as I knew there will be some new level of absurdity. I don't know if Spielberg seriously underestimated the audience's intelligence or he is smarter than we think and marking this movie as a break into a new saga/style of Mutt-led Indy series. The latter would cater to a new audience and this movie is expected to make money (which it is doing) due to the strength of nostalgia.

Are you serious or is my sarcasm detector not working ?

I think I did not state my point clearly. I meant the fondness is for the Indy franchise as a provider of movies with adventure and fantasy blended together entertainingly. This movie did not hurt how I feel about those two movies - but it did dent the feelings I had about the Indy character and the campy, entertaining movies he appeared in. ToD I forgave especially after Last Crusade. But I felt cheated by this movie and in general go the feeling that Spielberg & co. went the Gore Verbinski way (Pirates of the Caribbean) by passing off idiocy under the guise of entertainment. This movie did not entertain and definitely did not provide a payoff for the Suspension of Disbelief concept. If you want to use a possible analogy about the Bills, I will feel this way if overnight Ralph were to move the franchise to some other town ala Browns.

SPOILERS LIKELY BELOW I agree with you and yall. It is a close third with ToD still being the fourth. The key point that yall made is what stayed with me. I have no problem with supernatural or extraterrestrial storylines. But when the action goes way over the top, ridiculous and unbelievable (within the realm of the suspension of disbelief) I stop enjoying what I am watching. The story had no heart, Indy and friends are indestructible and Shia is just not suited for the tough/punk role. I feel cheated and has hurt the fondness in my heart built by the Last Crusade and Raiders. I disagree this time with both the professional critics and fans who have made this now the second highest grossing Memorial day movie. BTW, I hated the movie thats the highest grossing also.

Saw it. Didn't like it. Posting a review would mean spoilers so I won't. It is barely better than Temple of Doom

My basic question is how anything first come into existence ? Imagine, everything came from nothing. Who, what, how ?

I disagree regarding Preston. I think Preston will not be on the team on opening day.

Driving sensibly (no jack rabitting, no idling when in grocery store etc.) and hypermiling are different ofcourse. Hypermiling may be fine and dandy on a secluded back road in Montana, but is a traffic hindrance in Chicago. Biggest difference is ofcourse if you make a smart choice in the first place by buying a car only a bit bigger than you usually need.

I know of a friend who was hooked on to a psychic who made a lot of money off of her over a 2 year period (last I was in touch with her). Hearing my friend's description of what they used to talk about convinced me that the psychic was a combination of a very good observer, mind reader conversationalist (read: bull$hitter) and scam artist.

Yup ... http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patrio...ead.php?t=82291

I am not sure what point you are trying to make. I do not subscribe to the 'no-tax' theory. However, I am paying my fair share of taxes and have a right to complain when I see that money wasted. Example - subsidies for producing ethanol.

I know I am going to get blasted for saying this. But if no proof is presented, all we will be left with is a bunch of conspiracy theories and feel-good discussions about how we all know the Pats* cheated.

Accounting was never my strong point, but it appears that you have calculated the percent based on gross income and total taxes paid. There are several 'deductions' (and I use the word very loosely) that a company can take before calculating the taxes owed such as depreciation etc. To make a very basic statement, I think it is like calculating taking your gross salary and taxes paid without accounting for standard deductions. Am I missing your point ? Nanker's point is very powerful. Companies such as XOM pay enormous taxes to the government which pays their officials to talk smack about them. Nice.

If Hardy fulfills the first part (maybe a few more TDs) and Evans does the second, I will be happy with the progress.

K-9, nice post and I agree with it. However, we don't have enough depth along the OL. A bit much on the d side and not much on the OL.

Appears that I am the lone voice here but I can understand the outrage. She is a 15 year old but you would not be able to tell that from her make-up, the excessive lip-gloss and the skanky look in her eyes (especially the ruffled hair, just had great s** pic). My issue is that there are sufficient number of females of legal age who can do these shoots. Why do it with a 15-year old who arguably has not fully matured mentally yet ? Secondly, her parents are the real culprits here who accompanied her to the session and perhaps approved of the pictures. I see the nonchalance towards these pictures as a symptom of the slow decaying of morals in society. Shame on Vanity Fair and Ms Liebovitz (sp?) for taking & publishing pictures of a young teen celebrity. The funny thing is that Miley Cyrus had some other private pictures over the web with her in underwear. My 13 year old daughter brought it to my attention with apparent disapproval. I could see my daughter's interest in Miley slowly erode after seeing those pictures. Hannah Montana is a brand-name and a very successful one at that. Her celebrity father should have had the good sense to keep her demeanour and her public exposure controlled. I will hate to see another precocious teen go the Lindsay Lohan/Britney Spears way.

So are you and that is why this argument for and against is meaningless.

Sounding like a broken record but - how do you know that ? I admit I don't know to the contrary.

We do not know that for sure. It is pure speculation. This point has been repeated so often in the media and on this board that most take it to be real.

The long term return on assets is pretty poor also. Plus mandates such as reducing benzene in gasoline (MSAT2) need refiners to spend capital for zero return. Of the projects I am working on right now, a typical process unit to 'saturate' the Bz costs $150-$200 million. It just increases the capital outlay and operating costs without providing any marginal increase in gasoline price. It is as if someone forced you to invest in your house to the level of ~ 10-20% of the equity without any increase in house market price or salary increase.

This article is ridiculous. We are pretty much reconciled to JP being a backup in Buffalo. But to bash the guy further and say he is not even worthy of being a backup is pure ignorance and borderline malicious. He is approaching the level of intelligence shown by Expert_Opinion.