finknottle

I think it is a reasonable assumption (but hopefully wrong) that the OL will be poor. It's been poor for awhile, and it was poor in the early part of last season. I think it's quite plausible for a national observer to conclude that they were a weak collection of players that played well down the stretch, and in 2005 will be the same collection minus a decent LT. If that's all it was - a bunch of guys playing above themselves - then from his perspective 2005 is more likely to look like the early part of 2004 than November and December.

Science lasts forever. Most other expenditures do not. I for one am glad they fooled around with wacky and outrageously expensive experiments like communications satellites in the 50's and 60's instead of building a few more roads and a dam or two.

Let me get this straight - McGahee ran to the right most plays, behind Williams. He averaged 3.97 ypc. Of the other 19 rushing leaders in the top 20, 15 had a higher ypc and 4 had worse. Seems to me that the McG-Williams combo doesn't look very special, and one or both have to be overated.

When's the last time a great running back carried his team to the title? When's the last time a team without a great running back won the title? Great runningbacks are consolation prizes. You can spend December getting excited about the playoffs or you can spend it getting excited about whether your guy is going to top 1,500 yards. Save your money - a good running back is good enough.

Yeah, this board is reserved for people who hear things from unnamed people close to the Bills. God Forbid that the guy should think about what's happening and offer an interesting speculation... We don't want to think here, we only want to spout off about what we heard on the radio or read on some other teams forum.

This is the key point that consistently gets under-reported. On a side note - and I admit I have not read the ruling - I would be surprised if a clear interpertation of fair use was strongly confirmed. It too is a key issue in the debate that gets consistently misrepresented. It's a phrase that has never been adequately defined, and IMO intentionally so, so that it can serve like a sword of Damocles. We say we can photocopy chunks of books for our own use under the fair use exemption, but the courts have been carefull not to lock in interpetations of what exactly constitutes fair use. This ambiguity has the cautionary effect of preventing people from working the letter of the law (v the intent), since in the absence of a clear definition they can never be entirely sure how the courts might rule if they push the boundary. IMO this is also a good thing precisely because technology and applications change over time and the ambiguity forces the courts to periodically revisit copyright law in the new contexts.

I produce audio books and, like most producers, sell exclusively over the internet. How do I benefit from the free P2P model? Why would anyone go to my site and pay to download when they could go to a grokster, browse my own catalog, and download the files for free? What's my business model?

Not sure how the assessments work exactly, but your number jibes with the following: Just for fun I did a sampling of the online listings in the 600k-800k range comparing the Buffalo region with Mclean VA. I chose Mclean because it has arguably the best public schools in the country and one would expect it to have high taxes. Place - #Samples - Ave. list Price - Ave. Tax - % Williamsville - 1 - 750k - $25,001 - 3.333 Lewiston - 1 - 795k - 21,852 - 2.749 Amherst - 4 - 686k - 16,453 - 2.397 West Seneca - 1 - 685k - 14,807 - 2.166 Orchard Park - 4 - 731k - 14,015 - 1.917 Buffalo - 4 - 704k - 13,415 - 1.904 Grand Island - 2 - 725k - 12,279 - 1.695 Clarence - 7 - 771k - 12,352 - 1.602 Elma - 1 - 659k - 8,000 - 1.214 Lockport - 1 - 700k - 7,749 - 1.107 Hamburg - 1 - 699k - 7,715 - 1.104 Ellicotville - 3 - 748k - 7,694 - 1.029 *Mclean, VA - 8 - 717k - 6,578 - .917 The only important number is the % since the others are not normalized; they're just there for flavor.

No, industry always could do that. The SC decision allows them to go after companies facilitating the activity. It's a distinction that seems lost in the popular reporting, and IMO does not represent anything new but is rather an affirmation of existing copyright practice. Consider a photocopy shop. Photocopy technology is ok, but facilitating theft is not. Their solution is usually (1) make you do your own copying, and (2) don't knowling let you do anything suspicious. The key point is that this is generally a corporate posture adopted to protect them from liability, and not a solution specified by law.

I only looked at a handfull, but it seemed true. For fun I looked at the most expensive places; one I distinctly remember was a standard XXL Mcmansion, 2002, 8 acres, $1.1 million. Taxes were $35k! In VA I'd have put it at $2 million (minus the land - simply can't get over 2 acres) and $15k. Anyway, they seemed to average about 3x the tax rate of similarly priced houses in the best school districts in Virginia, but I didn't see enough to be sure. Can anybody confirm this?

It's all those ifs and assumes that scare me. I would not be stunned if the offense played explosively this year, but the defense ran out of gas - maybe the defensive line gets soft, and Fletcher and the safety's lose a step maybe... Not predicting it, just saying I could see it.

I've been house-hunting in northern virginia, and between bouts of crying I check out WNY prices. I think it's a good long-term investment, but for other reasons... A big problem is this: a half million dollar property pays about $5,000 in taxes in Virginia. In WNY, it's more like $16,000. And everything I read suggests that the disparity will only get worse. So basically, you get a bigger house, but pay more in taxes. This hits retiree's hard, the government has to give them exemptions or support, pushing the burden on the tax-base even higher... It's a spiral that the region has to break out of. I agree that casinos are a tragic mistake for encouraging high-end development.

Yes, I am actually heartened by them getting it right. The issue is not the technology, but rather whether or not the company can be said to be facilitating a crime. If so, they can be sued. The classic example is a copy machine. You can make and sell them. If somebody copies a book it is generally not your problem. You can even make a copier that will make and bind a thousand copies. But if you start marketing it to bootleggers and supporting them with a CD on how to make and sell pirated books, you're fair game.

I'm worried about the defense, but not because of the loss of Sam Adams. The NFL is a dangerous league to stand pat in. Players age, they get injured, teams figure out how to exploit them, emerging stars have their slumps... I'm not saying we want change for change's sake, but I get very nervous when we say a side of the team is set and assume it's going to perform the same or better.

My mother and sister always stick a 'the' in front of roads, and it drives me nuts. Is it a Buffalo thing? Or am I wrong for leaving it off?

Weather swings are a fiction created by the liberal global-warming media. Things in the snow capital of America are exactly the same as they were when I was a kid in the '70's.

I want a super bowl championship, but that alone won't make me think JP is better any more than it will convince me Teague is better than Hull, or that any of these guys are better than Smith... He has to keep us in it every year, as many posters have said. But more importantly, he has to play every game with such emotion and toughness that whatever uninspired furrball the team may be coughing up on the field (as all teams do from time to time) we'll still BELIEVE that as long as there is time on the clock we can come back and win it. For me that confidence represented the Kelly era and was epitimized by the man himself.

So the answer is to just suck it up in the restuarant, say nothing, and hope that they'll become socialized by your response? The answer (?) is to let them out but keep them in check. That was the difficult dilemma faced by the bus driver. If as an earlier poster had advised he had just gone back to his seat, said nothing more, and called the deputy, jeering chaos would have erupted behind him. He would never be able to control those kids again (not that what he did will work out any better).

Subtle thing at work here. An inflation calculator measures inflation on prices - just what you expect. But you can also measure the increase in income, or in standard of living. Income rises a bit faster than inflation (hopefully) as productivity grows. So what? Well, sports is entertainment, with prices driven by what the market will support rather than by the cost of 'assembling the product.' And a better benchmark for what the market will support over time is the increase in incomes rather than the increase in inflation. The figure of $53 is still a bit surprising, just slightly less so. (This is relevent to the social security debate, where the outlays ar indexed to the increase in wages rather than inflation.)

15 is definitely the best and most scenic way to go. The only thing you have to be mindfull of is the weather. Two-lane roads through mountainy Pennsylvania on a snowy winter night can get scary...

The Washington Post reported today that they are going to the 4-6 to better unlease their key defensive playmakers. Apparently Buddy Ryan's son is a defensive coach...

1. Rugby Sevens 2. NHL Hockey 3. (regular) Rugby

Not to split hairs, but nothing in the article (other than a reference to the constitution) suggested that the argument for federal jurisdiction was based on interstate commerce. It sounds to me like that was not the rational (but I don't know anything else about the ruling).

He certainly brings a promising burst of sunshine to us Redskin-bashers - not that there isn't plenty of reason to gloat already.

Just wondering... if the animals in the lab got intelligent, organized, and revolted, would they be considered terrorists? And is it illegal for deer to defend themselves against hunters? Or just illegal for people to help them?