The Avenger

I still think it's early to anoint Willis McGahee as the next coming of Walter Payton. I like the guy and I think he's shown some really good stuff, but he only has 3 starts under his belt. What happens if he doesn't get another 100 yard game this year - then what will people say? Even worse - what would happen if his surgically repaired kneek blew up and he never played another game again - then how would you judge the experts' comments? I'm not trying to be a downer - I think Willis is going to be very good - but I'd just caution everyone that it's still very early to tell if the experts were ultimately right or wrong.

I don't understand this part of the story Does that mean that the league could replay certain games on Thursdays or Saturdays, or does it mean they could move games to Thursdays and Saturdays? Maybe neither? I'm confused

Sad to hear that Cope isn't doing well. I was just introduced to his unique style last weekend. While listening to Sirius I decided to listen to the Steelers broadcast rather than the Pats broadcast (I'm local to Boston and Gil and Geno are the worst radio guys!). So I tune in and I hear Cope and I think he must be doing some kind of fake voice for Halloween - nobody can possibly talk like that. Sounded like Burgess Meredith's character in Rocky - I kept waiting for him to scream "Come on, Rock - get up!" but he never did. It soon hit me that this was his real voice - unbelievable! I guess Cope is an acquired taste and one that you'd love if Pittsburgh was your home.

The best are some of the obscure characters that you don't see all the time. My favorites: Chef's Parents (my Windows Desktop) The Loch Ness Monster Underpants Gnomes (Step 3 - Profit!) Lemmiwinks the hamster Towlie Tugger (Fightin' 'Round the World w/Russel Crowe) Butters as Professor Chaos (classic when he gets the ninja star in his eye) Jesus (Jesus and Pals) Satan (co-dependent wuss) Token (great name) Romper Stomper (love the teardrop tatoo)

Gore took Iowa in 2000.

Right you are - when I worked the '92 election at ABC News we relied upon VRS, a pool group of exit polls shared by all the networks as well as the AP, etc. The VRS pollsters conducted the exit polls and all the info went into the same databse. All the media outlets had access to the same system - we all got the same data at the same time. Calling a state one way or the other was up to the individual network and how they interpreted the data.

Gore took the first 3 - Bush took Arizona.

Thought it was Pismo Beach with all the clams he could eat but was seriously wrong....

That's funny!!! I remember that cartoon now - seems like a good idea!

....America wakes up tomorrow morning and sees that nobody won and we won't know who will be president until Florida counts paper votes (absentee ballots) - AGAIN?? Do we simply kick Florida out of the union?

I think you're in the minority - people don't want to wait. We aren't used to that - we want to wake up the next morning and find out who won (how stunned were you in 2000 when you got up and your jaw dropped as you sai, "you mean nobody won?). I'd think you have a point if the networks continually screwed up with their "wild-ass guesses", but it only happened once. Simply put, accuracy isn't enough of a problem to have people wait.

States are called based on exit polls and data gathered all day. If the data is consistent and there is a wide enough gap between candidates the call is made. If the race is close or the exit poll data has shown different things at different times the networks look at the actual votes and where they are coming from to see which of the exit poll models is the correct reflection of what is happening. The closer the race, the more of the actuals you have to look at before you make a call. In 2000 the problem was that the margin was so small it was statistically insignificant (537 votes out of 15+ million cast) and there was no way to tell. The networks made calls and everyone was wrong because you actually had to count all the votes in the next few weeks to determine who actually won the state.

I'll take statistical analysis and getting the results within hours of the polls closing rather than waiting days for every single vote to be counted and I think most people would chose this as well. Again, considering every "wild-ass guess" has been right save for one in the last 20 years I think it works pretty well.

Generalismo Francisco Franco is still dead....

Actually he called the press up to film him sitting on the couch with his family and talking about his dog - that is some good, exciting stuff...

Actually, Travis has never rushed for 1500 yards in a single season as a pro.

It's not a "wild-ass guess" - it's reliable statistical analysis. People always complain that states are called on exit polls, but how many states have been called wrong in the last 20 years based on exit polls? Only 1 - Florida in 2000 and that's a reflection of it being so close and the networks just wanting to make a call - nobody ever thought you could possibly have an election and not know who the winner was within 4 hours or so of polls closing. It's funny that people hate exit polls and don't want to trust them but they also don't want to wait until 8am the next morning to hear how the states fell and who won. If you wait for the actuals you won't get any state calls prior to about 2am eastern.

I'll tell you how they called it - it's called exit polls and looking at the data all day. As a veteran of ABC News who went through the 1992 election in the Political Unit, I'll tell you that states are called based on exit poll data. Simply put, nobody waits for the actual votes to call a state. If the data coming in all day is consistent and shows a decent margin (I'd say 5 percentage points) you can call a state pretty soon after the polls close. In '92 I knew by about 4pm when the 3rd wave of exit polls came in that Clinton had won. The actuals sway tremendously as they come in depending on when different districts in a given state come in. Being up by 16% with 5% reporting means nothing - it can go back and forth several times before it's over. The exit poll data is what you rely on unless it really is too close to call. After 2000 the networks are more likely to be more conservative in their calls - they aren't going to call states based on exit polls that don't show consistency or are less than a certain percentage. My sense is that NJ has show consistency all day and the margin is large enough to call so the networks called the state for Kerry. None of the networks wants to get burned again - their goal is to make the right call - they don't care who wins a given state, just that they got it right. It's not bias - it's being secure in your data.

The Bills may not have the best offensive line in the NFL, but San Francisco's line has to be the worst! I'm watching them play the bears and they can't create any holes in the running game and they can't protect their QB - they are absolutely terrible! I think I'll tape this game and watch the tape everytime I get fired up about our poor offensive line play - it'll be nice to see that no matter how bad we are the niners are worse...

I hear Triumph all the time on BuzzSaw (19?) and Hair Nation (21?) - good stuff. Funny thing about Triumph. I grew up listening to Toronto radio stations from across the lake (Q107) and Triumph was a staple (imagine that - lots of Rush and Triumph on a Canadian rock station). It wasn't until I moved out of WNY that I realized Triumph wasn't nearly as popular elsewhere - many people hadn't even heard of them!

Exactly my experience as well - try it and you'll never go back. It's like cable TV for your car - why have 4 broadcast channels when you can have over 100 channels of specialized programming? Sure you could play your own tunes, but you never get much variety that way. Turn on satellite and you hear songs you like but haven't thought about in years (Sirius plays tons of Triumph - haven't thought about that band in years but it's great to hear them!). Sometimes I don't want to listen to music - comedy is great for a change of pace. Live sports is also great - as I drove the entire length of the NYS Thruway the Saturday before week 1 I was able to hear the entire Dolphin-Titans game - I never went out of range and the receiver constantly showed the score - how cool is that? This is still young technology and not many people have it but I beleive they will. As a young industry neither company has a great balance sheet and Sirius has a very high burn rate but I think there very high startup costs and barriers to entry in this marketplace. Once overcome (when people start to catch on) I see this as a very viable technology. I think you're going to see companies like Sirius get bought out by Clear Channel or Infinity as the big boys realize they are going to have to place in the satellite space - it's just a matter of time. People said cable wouldn't work and they said satellite TV wouldn't work - both are successful and have companies that have matured into money making players - satellite radio will, too.

Sirius does have such a unit - it just came out: Xact Tuner w/Power Pod

One thing you may want to keep in mind is the subscription model. Sirius charges you one set price per month ($12.95) but you get everything. XM also charges a monthly fee but has shown a willingness to charge additional money for certain channels (want Opie and Anthony? That's an extra $2 a month). Satellite radio is still in ints infantcy and today's pricing models might not be the same a year from now, but it can be very telling if you see which direction each company is going now.

They had to show bars outside of Boston because the city of Boston banned live TV shots from inside bars to limit the problems that happened after game 7 against the Yanks - the thought was that fans were getting too wild and trying to go crazy for the cameras and it was best not to rile them up even more. I think it was a good idea.

They did: Xact w/Power Pod