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RUPERTKBD

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Everything posted by RUPERTKBD

  1. I'm no Economics major, but I have to assume that all corporations have an idea how much they can charge before people stop buying their products.
  2. You're confused by the idea that corporations pass increased costs on to their customers? I honestly don't know what to say to that. AFAIK, it's pretty much ubiquitous.
  3. They're slowly filling in the missing variables in the Drake Equation and the trend seems to suggest that planets with an earth-like technology are more rare than originally believed. That being said, two of those variables that have been more or less confirmed: The number of stars in the Milky way that have at least one planet orbiting it and the number of those planets within the so-called "habitable zone". Those numbers are approximately 1 and 0.2 respectively. This means that on average, there is one planet orbiting every star in the galaxy and one of every five of these planets lies within the habitable zone. With approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, this suggests 40 million exoplanets that are in the "Goldilocks Zone". Of course there are many other factors that need to be taken into account before we can say that a planet is potentially cable of life as we know it. (A magnetic field to protect against solar radiation, an atmosphere, etc.) The 40 Million figure is just a starting point. We also have to take into consideration the fact that a planet may be harboring life, but that life is still in a primordial state, as was earth 4 billion years ago. People point to SETI and wonder why, after all these years we haven't picked up any kind of extraterrestrial signal, but we have to remember how little of the sky we've actually been able to scan for these signals. With the addition of the JWT to the mix, we should be able to increase those numbers in the coming decades. I've stated before that I believe unequivocally that there is life out there. There are just too many planets and too many galaxies for earth to be the only place with a technological civilization. The reason we haven't found clear evidence of this IMO, is because of the sheer size of the universe. (About 80 billion light years across, last I checked) To put that into perspective, there are about a dozen star systems within 10 light years of ours. That means a radio signal from any of these star systems would take between 4 and 10 years to reach earth. That doesn't sound too bad, but you also have to take into account that statistically, only 2 of these systems will have a planet within the habitable zone and if a radio signal was broadcast from either, we would require a clear line of sight between it and the earth. That means the planet could not be on the far side of it's star and SETI would have to be looking in that direction, at that time. Now, extrapolate that into the 200,000,000 possible targets out there. (remember, we don't know which of the stars in the galaxy are among the 40,000,000 in the Goldilocks Zone) You can see how truly this is the proverbial "needle in a haystack" search.
  4. My understanding is that we're not really allowed to talk about this stuff here, but if the tax had been levied at the oil companies, do you honestly believe they wouldn't pass that on to consumers? My experience has been that oil companies are comfortable jacking the price of gas up if well in Qatar has to be shut down for a day....
  5. Yeah, the only truly deserving all-stars on the Jays' roster are Bo and Gausman, IMO. Vladdy and maybe one of Romano, Mayza and Swanson could be reserves, although it wouldn't be a massive snub if they weren't.
  6. Just saw an article that said Miami is his preferred destination, but that San Antonio is another possibility. So here's the question: If a hypothetical deal is made with the Blazers that has the Spurs parting with picks and prospects, does a Lillard - Wembanyama combo put the Spurs immediately back in the playoff picture?
  7. Disappointing.... The Canucks need more guys willing to throw a hit and stand up for their teammates.....not less....
  8. Don't know if Dave still actually has a B3. (If he does, I've never seen it) When I see him play these days, he uses a Yamaha Motif. (That I'm extremely jealous of)
  9. Two guys strike up a conversation in a bar. The first guy, (a bit of a loudmouth) asks the other guy where he's from.... "Fernie", says the second guy. "Fernie?" laughs the loudmouth. "All they have in Fernie are hookers and hockey players!" "Hey!", yells the bouncer, (all 6'6", 250lbs of him) "My mom is from Fernie!" "Oh yeah?", says the loudmouth sheepishly..... "What position does she play?"
  10. Can't see the photo. Would "David" be Dave Wilson by any chance?
  11. Look out for the Reds... Their record is just decent, but they play in the relatively weak NL Central and they're 7-3 in their last 10 games. I mentioned him a while back, but Elly de la Cruz has phenom written all over him. From what I've seen, this kid can do it all....
  12. When the Rome hit on Nathan Horton happened, it was obvious that Horton was concussed. He was lying on the ice and twitching.....very bad optics for a league trying to make inroads into the American market and a game in the finals, watched by millions in the US and Canada. It was pretty much inevitable that the league would make an example of AR, but the suspension they handed down was completely out of line with precedent. Similar hits during the season (and the two or three seasons before) had been punished with significantly less severity. The league made a bunch of noise about how they were "setting a new standard", (something that you never do 100 games into a season, IMHO) but although they followed through for the first month of the next season, GMs started making a lot of noise about how ridiculous this new standard was, because now it was their players sitting out for weeks. Eventually the league caved and reverted back to the "Pre-Rome" standard for suspending late hits and Aaron Rome will forever be a scapegoat. Now, over a decade later, (and after lawsuits in several sports) CTE is being taken much more seriously across the big 4 leagues. There are spotters, who can have a player removed from the game and tested. There are also penalties for "hits to the head" in hockey and football. As you say, it's permeating all of sports and if it's evenly handled, it's a good thing....
  13. True story about Tommy.... In the 60s he was playing with four black guys and thought it would be "good publicity" to call themselves 4 Ni**ers and a Ch*nk....(sorry, not sure how to tell the story otherwise) Eventually, they got so much backlash, they changed it to 4 N's and a C....
  14. I have a story about these guys too.... We used to play a club in Stoon called the Capri. It was what we called a "Back Four" in those days, meaning you played Wednesday to Saturday night. I was with a crew from the Battlefords, so we could do the commute. The Pikes had an EP out at the time. (One of the members' parents had some money, so they financed it for them) IIRC, there were 4 songs on it and I think Teenland might have been the single, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, the drinking age in Saskatchewan was 19 and these guys were all underage.....so they'd stand in the doorway of the club (there was kind of a covered foyer, before you actually entered the premises) and watch all the acts.... Used to see them every time we gigged there.
  15. Maybe I'm too close to it, but I am so sick of watching guys swing at garbage pitches, as soon as they have a guy in scoring position.... Jansen's AB with Varsho on 3rd was brutal...3-1 count and he swings a consecutive pitches a foot outside..... Then Biggio comes up and follows suit....
  16. Again, the suspension to Rome was a ridiculous decision. Nobody made more noise about it at the time than I did.... ....but it had nothing to do with reffing. It was a late hit and deserving of a penalty. As far as the Boychuk hit on Raymond goes, I'm unaware of any league policy that states penalties should be called based on whether or not a player is injured. Maybe you can post it?
  17. A bit off topic, but did anyone catch the highlights of the Astros-Dodgers last night? The game winning run came on a balk by Astros pitcher Ryne Stanek, with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Dusty Baker and the rest of the coaching staff looked mystified at the call and Stanek basically lost his mind, but from the footage I've seen, it was clearly a balk. I'm curious to see what others think.
  18. BTW: On that field goal that Whyte bounced off the post....did anyone see the zebras make a call. From what I could see, they both just stood there....
  19. Take it FWIW, but CNN had an expert on Anderson Cooper’s show.....she said the implosion would have happened at 1500 MPH. In her words, a fraction of a millisecond. She told AC that the human brain takes roughly twice that to process something like that. They were literally dead before they knew it.....
  20. Gotta feel for Bomber fans.... Not only are they no longer undefeated, but they still live in Winnipeg....
  21. Very pleased to be proven wrong tonight. VA has been excellent and the O line deserves a lot of credit for giving him time to throw.
  22. I'd feel a lot better about it if the Offense was anywhere near as good as the Defense was against the Elks... Obviously, I'm pulling for the Leos, but if I'm putting money on it, I'm taking the Bombers and the Under....
  23. I am in Haida Gwaii for work and when I got to my hotel around 7:30, I turned on TSN. According to the guide, the 'Caps-Rapids game should have still been going, but they were showing Misplays of the Month instead. I checked Sportsnet to see if there were any highlights and although they showed Toronto and Montreal, there was no mention of the Whitecaps at all. I pulled out the iPad and checked both sites. Nothing. By this point I was thinking "WTF? Did I sail into some kind of Twilight Zone where the Whitecaps don't even exist? I mean, FFS! If you look at the banner at the top of any page on those two sites, it will tell you the scores of every baseball/basketball/hockey/football game and if it's delayed, or postponed, it will tell you that as well. For some reason, Canada's two so-called sports networks don't seem to GAF about MLS at all.....unless TFC has just signed another Italian.....
  24. Just so you know, the "Dr" on his username isn't just an affectation....
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