Started too, for the Redskins I believe. He was undrafted, made a name for himself as a rookie, and retired after a year or two to teach kids with learning disabilities if I remember correctly. The only one of those 5 starters who didn't start in the NFL the very next year was Goodwin, because he was a junior and came back to Michigan for his last season. Greatest collegiate offensive line ever assembled, no question.
The rule application you cite here has been cited in many other places as well as justification for this call. It irks me a bit that there is a very important piece to this example application that does not apply to Michigan's situation that generally goes without comment.
In the example, player A1 leaves the field of play during the previous down. Therefore, when player A12 comes on and player A2 simulates leaving, the team appears to be doing a 1-for-1 substitution. It's an added level of "deception," and the fact that it's specifically included in the rulebook example suggests that it's a necessary level of deception in order to invoke the rule. If the ruling is valid even without player A1 leaving the field, why is he included in the explanation?
Michigan didn't simulate an even number substitution. They had 3 guys run on and 4 guys appear to run off. Couple that with Butt significantly lagging behind the other exiting players and I think you could make a decent case that the rule shouldn't apply here. It's defintely not a case of the refs getting something 100% wrong, but I don't think it's clear they got it right either. Seems like a judgement call to me, which is fine, since so many rules in football are.
Then those issues should be raised, quantified, and addressed.
That's the whole point. Despite these conditions existing for decades at Mizzou, the university administration has never made any serious attempts to address them, instead preferring to pretend that the outbursts of overt racism are totally isolated and not a result of the environment that the university is fostering.
When I say the movement isn't about "fix these issues," the point I'm trying to make is that we're not seeing protests because racism exists in Columbia. Under different circumstances, a few shouted racial slurs would not have incited this reaction. The Mizzou administration doesn't seem to consider the racial issues the university is facing as a problem it can/should deal with directly, and that's the root of the whole issue here.
The list of demands is a poor representation of the environment surrounding the protest. It makes the protesters look like irrational idealists demanding that the university solve racism with the stroke of a pen. In actuality, the thing these protesters are fighting for is acknowledgement from the university. Acknowledgement that there is work to do on racial issues at Mizzou and that the university can and should play a direct role in that process.
And yes, it definitely seems like many of the elements of the protest have been engineered to capture outside attention, and they probably were. But again, remember that this isn't a sudden reaction to recent issues. Race has been a problem at Mizzou forever, and even when white students covered the lawn of the Black Cultural Center in cotton balls a few years ago nothing was done to address the root issue. The courting of outside attention here is tactic to finally force the university into action. It would have been great if such a tactic weren't necessary, but the university has had plenty of chances to act on its own and has consistently refused to do so.
I'm going to try to add some context to this, since I don't think this development is purely a result of the events of recent weeks and months.
First, Mizzou absolutely has an issue with systemic racial segregation and discrimination. There are black areas of campus, black tables at dining halls, black apartment complexes for off campus housing, etc. Of course, none of these things are official or enforced in any way, but they are a reality of life in Columbia. Overt expressions of racism aren't constant, but are common enough that it's not really surprising to hear about the ones that are being reported with this story. The Confederate flag hangs in many a dorm room, and the attitude that accompanies it isn't one of states' rights.
Second, and very importantly to this story, the power structures of the city and the university refuse to acknowledge race as a serious issue, instead treating incidents of aggressive racism as isolated instead of indicative of a pervasive cultural issue. With no active steps taken to end the physical segregation of black and white students on campus, the "us-vs-them" mentality that leads to racial tensions has continued to thrive.
The protests on campus and threatened non-participation of the football team are not the result of a couple of racial slurs and one instance of the university president dismissing the complaints of the protesters without serious consideration. This is a boiling over of years of racial slurs that black students can expect if they're walking through unfriendly territory, and repeated insistence from the office of the university president that these issues aren't deserving of a response beyond the typical hand-waving "racism is bad and we don't condone it."
The movement isn't about "fix these problems," it's about "acknowledge that these are in fact problems and start taking steps, any steps, to address them." The fact that one of the things that spurred it is a group releasing a list of demands that makes them seem more like hostage takers than concerned students is unfortunate, but it doesn't invalidate the issue at hand that has been plaguing Mizzou for decades now.
I mostly work with Python now, for many (mostly obvious) reasons. BUT! I will come to the defense of PHP a little. Well written PHP is just as robust and maintainable as any other language, it's just that it doesn't enforce any best-practices, and in fact makes it very easy to write terrible code (see: the server side component of the project linked above).
Anyway, like I said, don't take this project as an indicator of the type of code I write now, and let me know if I can contribute to development. You've got my GitHub and website, so feel free to contact me from either.
I was moving and trying to beef up my resume for the job hunt, and I actually talked with Brian a bit and started in on one of these. The UI is pretty good, it handles automatic YouTube and Image embeds, and sanitizes any other possibly harmful input. Unfortunately the server side is just a giant mess, I got it working as a proof of concept but never went back and put any architectural thought into it. Once I finished the move and got a job, I kind of forgot the whole thing. It's on GitHub, and it's functional as-is if you want to check it out: https://github.com/bendemeyer/moderated-chat, and I've got a longer post on my website explaining how its supposed to work: http://www.bendemeyer.com/2013/06/04/self-hosted-moderated-chat-room-an…
It's in PHP server-side, everything client-side is done through jQuery. I think the data architecture of the project is great, but the server side needs to be completely rewritten as a proper API. Also the frontend of a project like this should almost certainly be written in React (which didn't exist when I first built it, so I have that excuse). All in all, there might be enough wrong with it that you may be better off writing yours from scratch, but maybe this will provide you a useful starting point.
Also I'd be happy to contribute to development. I don't have tons of free time, but it's an interesting problem I'd like to revisit now that I'm considerably better at programming than I was a few years ago when I first attempted this.
There was an organizational failure that put a student athlete into a disturbingly dangerous position that could have ended significantly worse than it did. Hoke was responsible for the organization, so Hoke was responsible for that failure. I'm not trying to absolve him of all guilt, I just think there's been way too much focus on "his decision" to send Morris back into the game. While he clearly deserves some of the blame for this fiasco (and there's plenty to go around), I don't think much, if any, of it stems from his in-game actions.
I pretty strongly disagree with the idea that Hoke is at fault explicitly for sending Morris back into the game. As was pointed out in this excerpt several times, the coaching staff has no authority over the decisions of the medical staff, and if Hoke had ever tried to overrule said staff, they would have made no effort to protect him. In short, this verifies what we already pretty much knew: the medical staff on the sidelines green-lighted Morris to go back into the game.
I get that the knee-jerk follow up to this is, "Yeah, well Hoke still should have known that he wasn't right and kept him out anyway." To me, this is a terribly misguided and ultimately dangerous idea. When a medical staffer tells a football coach anything about a player's medical condition, the coach should treat that statement as unassailable gospel, and should never, in any way, consider his own judgement to be superior.
Hoke is certainly at fault for failing to make sure that a foolproof procedure was in place to prevent this entire ordeal. He was in change of the program, so he's ultimately on the hook for program's failure to have a fully operational concussion protocol in place when they needed it. But I absolutely do not fault him for his specific sideline actions during the game.
Back in my day, we had real journalists like William Randolph Hearst who reported FACTS and didn't do things like goad the entire country into a meaningless war solely for the purpose of selling newspapers.
Look, I get it. There are a lot of things about right now that seem shitty, but the problem is those things have ALWAYS been shitty. There never was a golden age of journalism, Woodward and Bernstein were an aberration in a murky and generally distasteful history. We just like to look back on those times and remember them with a wholly undeserved fondness. It's the exact same phenomenon behind how "pop music today" always seems to be so terrible. We remember the 40 best songs from any given decade and compare them 1-to-1 with the current top-40. Of course "music today" is going to lose, we're subconsciously comparing 6 months to 10 years.
Stop fearing for the future of the country, stop worrying that human interaction is disappearing. Every generation ever, since the dawn of the modern age, has looked at the generation that came after it and had the exact same compaints you're making here. Everyone thinks the people who come after them suck, and maybe they do, but not any more than those that they're supplanting.
I've found ADHD to be super manageable, with medication or without. The biggest hurdle is recognizing the potential signs and taking the steps to do something about it, which you've already done. Kudos!
All the other behavioral things you've mentioned hit pretty close to home for me too, so I'm going to mention some things that I've found very helpful in my journey through this stuff. Of course, I am not a doctor and all of this is anecdotal, so if you get any real medical advice that contradicts this I would suggest that you ignore me. Anyway.
Structured schedules. This is the one thing that's helped me more than anything else, and it's the reason that the biggest problems I had were in college and at a very un-structured work-from-home job. Try setting and maintaining a daily homework/study time, and stick too it even if there isn't much homework or studying necessary that day.
Take breaks. Instead of trying to focus on the same thing for a long period of time, take somewhat frequent 5-15 minute breaks and come back to it. This is a big reason that tons of tech companies have ping-pong or foosball in the office. ADHD: super common in programmers.
Read books. I've found that if my leisure time is spent reading books (pretty much any books) instead of watching TV or playing video games, I'm better able to concentrate on important tasks during the times of day when I need to be productive.
Lastly, I want to touch on depression again. Depression is a pretty scary concept, but if you're prepared then it doesn't need to be. By addressing mental and behavioral health issues in an up-front and non-stigmatized manner, I think you significantly reduce that chances that your son will ever have to deal with more serious issues like depression. However, just in case, I'd strongly recommend reading the descriptions of depression by Allie Brosch of Hyperbole and a Half. You can find them here and here.
I don't know if you'll actually see this, and maybe someone above has already mentioned something similar (but I don't have time to check because I have to leave for work in a few minutes).
The issues you describe your son having sound very similar to how things went for me in high school and college. I'd always managed to be an A/B student without really trying that hard, never took notes, never studied, skipped doing my homework if I knew I was doing well enough in the class to get away with it. I had a few classes in high school that were a real struggle to make it through this way, and in college it got a lot worse.
I still managed to graduate, worked productively for a few years, and then I took a work-from-home job and noticed that all of the problems I had in high school and college came storming back into my life. Turns out, I have ADHD. For me, it's much more attention deficit than hyperactivity, but because I never had any over the top problems in school, no one ever noticed or figured it out.
The thing with ADHD is it can make focusing on specific tasks a huge, energy consuming undertaking. A smart, well driven person can overcome this to some degree, but it still makes things harder. If you think this might be the case with your son, I would strongly recommend taking him to see a psychologist. The reason I recommend that goes well beyond his potential performance in school, ADHD left unrecognized and untreated can (and did in my case) lead to depression.
I know the depression reaction is fairly common, though I don't know the details of how it tends to manifest. I can tell you that for me, it was seeing all these people I knew do things that I couldn't (like start writing a paper more than 24 hours before it was due). I built up a combination of inferiority complex and fear of failure, and the pressures of college coursework put me into fairly serious depression a couple of times. It was not fun, do not recommend.
Mental health is still very socially stigmatized, so I don't generally talk about this stuff, but I hope it's been of some value to you. It's of course possible that none of the things I described apply to your son, but if they do I hope that you'll be better able to handle them than I was.
And thanks for the explanation of Pratchett as an inspiration. I've found myself sort of subconsciously associating the writing on this site with Pratchett's for a few years now, and I'm glad to find out that those associations are actually rooted in something substantive.
The recognition of Pratchett's work suffered at the hands of critics who, in Neil Gaiman's words "think serious is the opposite of funny." They're works of breathtaking beauty and literary brilliance, and almost totally overlooked by the critical community because of their genre. I don't think the parallels to the astounding level of writing we find on this sports blog need to be spelled out too much more than that.
While I generally agree that destroying a person's future is a bad idea, Brian isn't threatening to start vicious rumours, undermine this kid with lies, or use personal contacts to freeze him out of job prospects. He's threatening to find pictures and posts that the kid himself WILLINGLY PUT ON THE INTERNET FOR ANYONE TO FIND.
We are not talking about hacking, we are not talking about hiring a private investigator or a PR firm to ruin someone. The Internet is not a private place. Anything that you post publicly online can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. Calling the screencapping of this guy's twitter account "bullying" is like saying SNL "bullied" Sarah Palin by using the exact transcript of her Couric interview for a sketch. It sure as hell isn't flattering but they did it to themselves.
The lesson here for how to avoid embarrassing pictures of you showing up on a Google search isn't "don't piss off Brian," it's "Don't post those pictures in the first place! Why the hell would you do that? Are you even vaguely aware of what's going on in the world around you?"
Is the generic version of Viva. Not all stores have one, but often they'll have several generic brands each made to look/act like particular name brand. If you find a generic that's copying Viva, it's usually about as good, maybe a little less good, but significantly cheaper.
But the transparency he's displayed in these posts is a fantastic example of what journalism should look like in the modern world.
These last two items are me getting exercised about people reporting things without considering how likely they are outside of "I herd it from mah dudez". I heard the weirdass Marvin Lewis thing and told you, but I also mentioned it was weirdass and I didn't expect anything to come of it.
This is a perfect and concise expression of what Brian's getting right and so many others are getting wrong. The role of the journalist used to be to filter out important data from the crap, and only pass on the important stuff to the public. In the age of the Internet, people are going to find a way to access all available information, crap and otherwise. Far too many "journalists" have used this as an excuse to report everything all the time always, when what they really should do is present the information in the context that it was received and indicate the level of faith they have in the accuracy of that information.
The WD email thing is a fantastic example of this, and Brian's handling of any seemingly-insider info he gets is also superb. As a former journalism student who switched majors partly because of how shitty the journalism landscape looked when I started working in it, kudos to the MGoBlog staff for doing such a great job.
It's against the Google Ads terms of service to have people click on ads exclusively to generate revenue. They track this stuff pretty thoroughly, so if you just go around clicking a bunch of ads it can mean bad things for the site. Now, if you see an ad for a thing you find interesting, click on it and check it out, but you should avoid clicking ads haphazardly.
I agree that the other person in that conversation comes off way worse than DB, especially considering they looked at it afterward and decided to send it to Brian as evidence of DB being a douche. "Haha, I just acted like a total jackass and trolled DB into sending me less-than-respectful responses! I'd better exhibit a total lack of self-awareness and share this with as many people as possible."
Even so, one of these people represents the Michigan Athletic Department and one does not. If all was rosy in the world of Michigan Athletics and DB was a beloved figure, we probably look at these emails and think "Wow, how awesome is it the we have such a no-nonsense AD." But all is not rosy, and DB should be able to understand that and adjust his behaviour accordingly. You don't gloat when you're losing.
He overwrote the whole Brian object. He could have just adjusted one property, maybe Brian.politicalLeanings = Leftist, but no, he did the whole damn thing. Now Brian's entire entity is just Leftist. I knew they shouldn't have made life in a weakly-typed language.
Don't you know that '=' is the assignment operator and '==' is the equality operator? You've just set Brian equal to leftist! And you didn't even bother storing his initial value in a temp variable! Now we have no way of knowing what Brian was before you got involved! How can you toy with people's lives like this?
Last year Gostowski had the 3rd best fantasy year for all kickers since 1960. He was the #1 kicker in fantasy. He was worth 1.85 points/game more than the #10 kicker for the year. But hey, 1.85 points is still points, right? Well, only if you can actually accurately predict which kickers are going to be better than others, which is a nearly impossible task.
It's a little different in an auction draft, where depending on who you're targeting you may not end up spending your whole budget anyway, so dropping a couple extra bucks on a kicker may not be a terrible idea if you've got extra cash near the end. But in a regular draft league you're pretty much always better off taking an extra lottery ticket at RB or WR than taking your kicker even one round early.
To reiterate what other above have said, using AdBlock on sites like this that you frequently visit and want to support is a BAD idea. MGoBlog needs money, and they get money from you being slightly inconvenienced by looking at ads.
As for your popups, it's unlikely that the site itself is the cause. All the ads on here are Google Ads, and if Google Ads are suddenly causing malware issues, the whole Internet is in serious trouble. I see Brian has already responded that he'll look into it, but I doubt there's anything wrong with the site.
If your virus/malware detectors aren't turning up anything, there's another possibility: bloatware bundled with installers for other programs that you unintentionally installed by not unchecking the "include blah blah" checkbox. These are getting really super common, and since technically they're just regularly installed programs, they don't show as viruses or malware. Go into Control Panel > Programs and Features, sort by install date, and start going through them for anything you don't recognize. Uninstall from there.
I'm by no means a zealot for the points I made above. I know I personally was stunned when I saw the second video, I had not originally thought that it was going to be that bad. And since I was taken aback by the content of the second video, I don't think it's fair for me to criticize the Ravens or the NFL for taking harsher action after the video came out. The original 2 game suspension was ridiculous, sure, but I probably would have been OK with 6-8 games in the aftermath of the first video. After the second I think it's clear that he can't play in the NFL again this year, if ever.
An interesting question in my mind is why some people (such as yourself) seemed to be ready for the content of the second video, whereas others (such as myself) were taken by surprise. I readily admit that I have no personal experience in witnessing/experiencing domestic violence, so maybe I'm not very good at identifying it. This is a disturbing idea to me, because now I'm forced to wonder if I've ever encountered domestic violence in my personal life and simply didn't recognize it. It's a chilling thought, but if it is the case then I can only hope that this incident will make me a little more aware of the warning signs in the future.
Goodell appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner when he first took over the job. He's essentially been an autocrat when it comes to parceling out league discipline. Now we find out that everyone involved in this assault knew that there was a video of the event but Goodell somehow didn't? That is raging incompetence! Not an "Oops, my bad" mistake, but "I have no earthly idea how to do my job" type stuff. And he sure as hell can't continue being the NFL's disciplinary despot because he has no more credibility in that regard. So what use is he really as a commissioner?
Even though we knew he had "hit" her, that can still mean a lot of different things. Before the newest video, there was a sort of spectrum of things that could have happened inside that elevator. Maybe he doesn't use much force, but she falls and hits her head on something. Maybe he immediately rushes to her side to make sure she's OK. These wouldn't come close to justifying what happened, but they would have been one hell of a lot better than what we saw.
What we saw in the video is an absolute worst case scenario. After watching the original video, if you had tried to picture the single worst set of events that could have happened in that elevator it would have been pretty close to reality. The video proved that it wasn't an accident, that it wasn't an misjudged use of force, and that there was no remorse.
And there is just no way in hell that he didn't know that video existed. Months ago Chris Mortensen accurately reported some very specific details from that video. At least 20 casino employees saw it. All major law enforcement agencies involved saw it. If Goodell honestly didn't realize the video existed, then he should be out of a job anyway for absurd incompetence.
There is just no possible way that these events could have unfolded in which Goodell doesn't end up looking like a guy who isn't fit to be commissioner of the NFL. If he saw the video, he should go. If he knew the video existed and opted to interview Ray Rice and his fiance instead of watching the video, he should go. And if he was seriously dumb enough to not even realize that the video existed when it's becoming increasingly clear that everyone around him did, he needs to go.
Either he saw the video, or he knew of the video's existence and went out of his way to avoid seeing it. Whichever way it happened, it's totally inexcusable. Not to mention how horrifically the league has handled this entire situation from day one, and as the man in charge Goodell is ultimately responsible for that.
And I wouldn't classify that guy as a troll. He's just as delusional in his ND arrogance as some people are in their Michigan arrogance, but he's attempting to engage in productive conversation. It's just that his inflated sense of ND's value in the college football world makes him come off as a bit of a douche.
A true troll makes no attempt at valuable conversation, and just runs around saying inflammatory things to provoke a reaction and laugh at it. A troll would never write as much as that guy did, he would just say "Michigan's no longer relevant on the national stage, unlike ND" and scamper off.
I get that rival fans who don't have the best grip on reality are annoying, even if they're not outright trolls, but I find that to be just as annoying in Michigan fans as well. And we do have plenty of them.
Has helped me understand a few of the finer points of the game.
Don't know if BiSB is eligible, but his board presence is great.
Magnus too.
For some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, Erik_in_Dayton's posts always seem to catch my attention in a good way.
My level of concern is informed much more by last year's Akron game than 2007's App State game, which puts it at a fairly high level. I'd love to see an old school non-conference beatdown of an inferior opponent, but I no longer expect those games, and hardly dare to let myself hope for them.
I was just giving this thread a once-over at the end of the day to catch up on everything, and your post reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in which he responds to criticisms that his methods were too confrontational, and that his best course of action would be to wait things out. It's one of my favorite pieces of writing ever, and if anyone makes a late perusal of this thread like I did and sees this, I highly recommend reading it. Link.
A particularly relevant passage, describing Kings frustration with the "white moderate":
...who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; ... Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
With Braden in the thick of things for a guard spot going into last year, only to drop out of the conversation completely and never be heard from again, I was really starting to get worried we were headed into a "unending practice hype that never actually materializes on the field" situation. Announcing him as a starter this early really signals that the coaching staff is comfortable with his development, both physically and with his technique.
Let's hope he can lock down that spot for the next 3 years, and we never have to build an OL out of so many question marks again.
I join you in being disappointed by the reactions here, and the judgements being made about York as a person. We only know about this one incident, and that certainly doesn't make him some sort of incurable criminal who will never contribute to a civilized society. He's made one terrible mistake, and I sincerely hope that it doesn't send his life on an inescapable downward spiral.
That said, I do think he should be dismissed from the team for this. The total lack of escalation here is what's really jarring, and I don't think it's something the coaching staff can tolerate.
I do hope that he gets another chance at a scholarship at a MAC or similar level school, a chance to earn a college degree and build a life that isn't defined by moments like this.
York is currently on indefinite suspension and for all intents and purposes is not a part of the team right now. Based on Hoke's track record of handling players who are embroiled in legal criminal proceedings, I would not be surprised if no further action was taken until the criminal aspect is sorted out. If I recall correctly, that's how virtually every criminal investigation into a Michigan football player under Hoke has gone. Indefinite suspension while the criminal charges are open, specific discipline afterward.
I understand your reaction that this is something that requires more immediate decisive action, but I generally like this method of handling legal situations. I think it makes the important point that legal proceedings take precedence over football. Either way, I expect York will be officially dismissed from the team at some point, it may just be after a trial/plea is concluded and the charges are closed.
It's a less common usage of the word, but it can be used to mean essentially "because" or "since." I actually think the second half of that thing (starting with "For if you want what is ours") is pretty cool, it has kind of a Medieval battle motivational thing going on. The first half, on the other hand, is extremely clumsy. "With every accurate pass" is maybe the least threatening line I've ever read.
ESPN 3 programming is available to anyone. It's viewable via "WatchESPN," which is a service that requires you to sign in with your cable account in order to view ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPNU programming. But programming designated ESPN 3 shouldn't require a sign-in. I think.
I think it's a fine line between making a direct comparison and using a hyperbolic example. You don't get to invoke Hitler every time a government oversteps its authority, and you don't get to invoke Aaron Hernandez every time an athlete has character issues. Doing so drastically lowers the level of discourse and pulls the conversation immediately toward the extremes, and away from the gray area where all the stuff that matters is.
That said, I don't really think we have super different feelings on this particular case. Maybe I'm a bit more bleeding heart, but I don't think by a whole lot. I just really did not like the tone that this thread was taking, it seemed to be a lot of angry people pushing each other to say angrier and angrier things, and straying very far from the matter at hand.
I like to think that this turn of events will be good for him, regardless of whether he has to sit out a year (and I think he probably will). He came to Mizzou as a symbol of newfound football greatness, their first true blue-chip recruit in the Gary Pinkel era. He will enter OU as a troubled transfer with nothing guaranteed and a lot still to prove. I hope that he adjusts well to being the low man on the totem pole for the first time in quite a while, and if he does I fully expect him to grow into a better adult and learn from his past mistakes.
This kid has exactly one incident in his past that is actually disturbing (the forced entry), and as much as we can speculate terrible and awful things about that, no one here has any real idea of what really happened. It was probably bad, he probably should have faced legal consequences, but for a variety of reasons he didn't.
Other than that, he was arrested twice on possession of marijuana charges. Big. Fucking. Deal.
He faced legal and personal consequences from the pot incidents, and personal consequences from the violent one (again, I'm not arguing that he didn't get off a little light on that one), and yet I hear you all shout down to me from way up on your high horses that this kid is some sort of horrendous criminal who's never faced a consequence in his life. Seriously, someone above actually compared this situation to AARON FUCKING HERNANDEZ and got commended for it!
Get some perspective people. This kid had a horrific childhood, and suddenly became a major celebrity at the age of 16. Gary Pinkel actually flew a helicopter to his high school on a recruiting visit. Of course he's got entitlement issues, every single person in the world would if they were put in the same position.
DGB is a tremendously talented individual, and there's no reason to think that he can't grow to be a tremendous person as well. I wish him nothing but the best, both on the football field and off of it.
Very good food to go along with an excellent beer selection. They also distil some spirits I believe. It's a cool place.
What I actually miss the most is Vietnamese row on South Grand. So much delicious Vietnamese food, and so cheap! Oh, Pho Grand, how I long for you. But yes, BBQ too. We lived a block and a half from The Shaved Duck (if you haven't been, go), which is a fantastic slightly-upscale BBQ and craft beer place.
I just moved out of St. Louis last year, and I miss it. Four Hands is one of my favorite things ever, though I never liked Urban Chestnut that much. I think it's because I'm not a huge fan of German/Bavarian beers, and that's what they do best. I also recommend Square One if you haven't tried it, it's my favorite St. Louis brewpub.
Budweiser is actually pretty good for its price range and style. Especially if you get it on tap, and especially if it's super fresh. If you're ever in St. Louis or one if the other 5 or so cities where they brew it, go to a local bar and get a Budweiser draught. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
The estimated price of unbundled channels comes from the cable companies themselves, who have an obvious interest in maintaining the status quo as long as possible. So obviously they're going to put out numbers that make it sound like unbundling will drastically increase prices.
See, the numbers they come up with are essentially "How much would we have to charge in order to make the same amount of money?" In actuality, when unbundling does happen out of necessity, the question will be "How much can we charge so that people will still use us at all?" The current structure of TV providers is unmaintainable in the internet age, and cable companies are going to make WAY less money when it does eventually come crashing down.
I'm sure it's an intense and personal issue for you, and I'm glad you're comfortable enough to come on this board and talk about it.
The thing that I and many others are concerned about is that vaccines are essentially being propped up as a scapegoat for parents of autistic children looking for someone/something to blame. A significant amount of research has been done on this issue, and without exception, every last bit of it has failed to find any link between vaccines and autism. The only thing keeping this concern alive is public panic, which is even more infectious than the diseases these vaccines prevent.
There's certainly still a lot we don't know about autism, and there's a lot of work to be done to bring autism and spectrum disorders into the public eye, but prolonging the vaccine "argument" will not help accomplish either of those goals. If there is an environmental link to autism, it almost certainly isn't related to vaccines. On top of that, all the time and energy we spend continuing to debunk any vaccine-autism link is time and energy that could be spent looking for an environmental condition that does have some sort of link to autism.
Anyway, thanks again for weighing in. I know I speak for many people here in wishing you and your family the best.
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On the topic of media conversion/video encoding/ffmpeg, have you tried Handbrake? It's pretty easy to use, super powerful, and 0% scammy.
The rule application you cite here has been cited in many other places as well as justification for this call. It irks me a bit that there is a very important piece to this example application that does not apply to Michigan's situation that generally goes without comment.
In the example, player A1 leaves the field of play during the previous down. Therefore, when player A12 comes on and player A2 simulates leaving, the team appears to be doing a 1-for-1 substitution. It's an added level of "deception," and the fact that it's specifically included in the rulebook example suggests that it's a necessary level of deception in order to invoke the rule. If the ruling is valid even without player A1 leaving the field, why is he included in the explanation?
Michigan didn't simulate an even number substitution. They had 3 guys run on and 4 guys appear to run off. Couple that with Butt significantly lagging behind the other exiting players and I think you could make a decent case that the rule shouldn't apply here. It's defintely not a case of the refs getting something 100% wrong, but I don't think it's clear they got it right either. Seems like a judgement call to me, which is fine, since so many rules in football are.
That's the whole point. Despite these conditions existing for decades at Mizzou, the university administration has never made any serious attempts to address them, instead preferring to pretend that the outbursts of overt racism are totally isolated and not a result of the environment that the university is fostering.
When I say the movement isn't about "fix these issues," the point I'm trying to make is that we're not seeing protests because racism exists in Columbia. Under different circumstances, a few shouted racial slurs would not have incited this reaction. The Mizzou administration doesn't seem to consider the racial issues the university is facing as a problem it can/should deal with directly, and that's the root of the whole issue here.
The list of demands is a poor representation of the environment surrounding the protest. It makes the protesters look like irrational idealists demanding that the university solve racism with the stroke of a pen. In actuality, the thing these protesters are fighting for is acknowledgement from the university. Acknowledgement that there is work to do on racial issues at Mizzou and that the university can and should play a direct role in that process.
And yes, it definitely seems like many of the elements of the protest have been engineered to capture outside attention, and they probably were. But again, remember that this isn't a sudden reaction to recent issues. Race has been a problem at Mizzou forever, and even when white students covered the lawn of the Black Cultural Center in cotton balls a few years ago nothing was done to address the root issue. The courting of outside attention here is tactic to finally force the university into action. It would have been great if such a tactic weren't necessary, but the university has had plenty of chances to act on its own and has consistently refused to do so.
I'm going to try to add some context to this, since I don't think this development is purely a result of the events of recent weeks and months.
First, Mizzou absolutely has an issue with systemic racial segregation and discrimination. There are black areas of campus, black tables at dining halls, black apartment complexes for off campus housing, etc. Of course, none of these things are official or enforced in any way, but they are a reality of life in Columbia. Overt expressions of racism aren't constant, but are common enough that it's not really surprising to hear about the ones that are being reported with this story. The Confederate flag hangs in many a dorm room, and the attitude that accompanies it isn't one of states' rights.
Second, and very importantly to this story, the power structures of the city and the university refuse to acknowledge race as a serious issue, instead treating incidents of aggressive racism as isolated instead of indicative of a pervasive cultural issue. With no active steps taken to end the physical segregation of black and white students on campus, the "us-vs-them" mentality that leads to racial tensions has continued to thrive.
The protests on campus and threatened non-participation of the football team are not the result of a couple of racial slurs and one instance of the university president dismissing the complaints of the protesters without serious consideration. This is a boiling over of years of racial slurs that black students can expect if they're walking through unfriendly territory, and repeated insistence from the office of the university president that these issues aren't deserving of a response beyond the typical hand-waving "racism is bad and we don't condone it."
The movement isn't about "fix these problems," it's about "acknowledge that these are in fact problems and start taking steps, any steps, to address them." The fact that one of the things that spurred it is a group releasing a list of demands that makes them seem more like hostage takers than concerned students is unfortunate, but it doesn't invalidate the issue at hand that has been plaguing Mizzou for decades now.
I mostly work with Python now, for many (mostly obvious) reasons. BUT! I will come to the defense of PHP a little. Well written PHP is just as robust and maintainable as any other language, it's just that it doesn't enforce any best-practices, and in fact makes it very easy to write terrible code (see: the server side component of the project linked above).
Anyway, like I said, don't take this project as an indicator of the type of code I write now, and let me know if I can contribute to development. You've got my GitHub and website, so feel free to contact me from either.
I was moving and trying to beef up my resume for the job hunt, and I actually talked with Brian a bit and started in on one of these. The UI is pretty good, it handles automatic YouTube and Image embeds, and sanitizes any other possibly harmful input. Unfortunately the server side is just a giant mess, I got it working as a proof of concept but never went back and put any architectural thought into it. Once I finished the move and got a job, I kind of forgot the whole thing. It's on GitHub, and it's functional as-is if you want to check it out: https://github.com/bendemeyer/moderated-chat, and I've got a longer post on my website explaining how its supposed to work: http://www.bendemeyer.com/2013/06/04/self-hosted-moderated-chat-room-an…
It's in PHP server-side, everything client-side is done through jQuery. I think the data architecture of the project is great, but the server side needs to be completely rewritten as a proper API. Also the frontend of a project like this should almost certainly be written in React (which didn't exist when I first built it, so I have that excuse). All in all, there might be enough wrong with it that you may be better off writing yours from scratch, but maybe this will provide you a useful starting point.
Also I'd be happy to contribute to development. I don't have tons of free time, but it's an interesting problem I'd like to revisit now that I'm considerably better at programming than I was a few years ago when I first attempted this.
There was an organizational failure that put a student athlete into a disturbingly dangerous position that could have ended significantly worse than it did. Hoke was responsible for the organization, so Hoke was responsible for that failure. I'm not trying to absolve him of all guilt, I just think there's been way too much focus on "his decision" to send Morris back into the game. While he clearly deserves some of the blame for this fiasco (and there's plenty to go around), I don't think much, if any, of it stems from his in-game actions.
I pretty strongly disagree with the idea that Hoke is at fault explicitly for sending Morris back into the game. As was pointed out in this excerpt several times, the coaching staff has no authority over the decisions of the medical staff, and if Hoke had ever tried to overrule said staff, they would have made no effort to protect him. In short, this verifies what we already pretty much knew: the medical staff on the sidelines green-lighted Morris to go back into the game.
I get that the knee-jerk follow up to this is, "Yeah, well Hoke still should have known that he wasn't right and kept him out anyway." To me, this is a terribly misguided and ultimately dangerous idea. When a medical staffer tells a football coach anything about a player's medical condition, the coach should treat that statement as unassailable gospel, and should never, in any way, consider his own judgement to be superior.
Hoke is certainly at fault for failing to make sure that a foolproof procedure was in place to prevent this entire ordeal. He was in change of the program, so he's ultimately on the hook for program's failure to have a fully operational concussion protocol in place when they needed it. But I absolutely do not fault him for his specific sideline actions during the game.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/realignment-bargaining-its-finest
How do I sign up to collect my royalties?
Back in my day, we had real journalists like William Randolph Hearst who reported FACTS and didn't do things like goad the entire country into a meaningless war solely for the purpose of selling newspapers.
Look, I get it. There are a lot of things about right now that seem shitty, but the problem is those things have ALWAYS been shitty. There never was a golden age of journalism, Woodward and Bernstein were an aberration in a murky and generally distasteful history. We just like to look back on those times and remember them with a wholly undeserved fondness. It's the exact same phenomenon behind how "pop music today" always seems to be so terrible. We remember the 40 best songs from any given decade and compare them 1-to-1 with the current top-40. Of course "music today" is going to lose, we're subconsciously comparing 6 months to 10 years.
Stop fearing for the future of the country, stop worrying that human interaction is disappearing. Every generation ever, since the dawn of the modern age, has looked at the generation that came after it and had the exact same compaints you're making here. Everyone thinks the people who come after them suck, and maybe they do, but not any more than those that they're supplanting.
I've found ADHD to be super manageable, with medication or without. The biggest hurdle is recognizing the potential signs and taking the steps to do something about it, which you've already done. Kudos!
All the other behavioral things you've mentioned hit pretty close to home for me too, so I'm going to mention some things that I've found very helpful in my journey through this stuff. Of course, I am not a doctor and all of this is anecdotal, so if you get any real medical advice that contradicts this I would suggest that you ignore me. Anyway.
Structured schedules. This is the one thing that's helped me more than anything else, and it's the reason that the biggest problems I had were in college and at a very un-structured work-from-home job. Try setting and maintaining a daily homework/study time, and stick too it even if there isn't much homework or studying necessary that day.
Take breaks. Instead of trying to focus on the same thing for a long period of time, take somewhat frequent 5-15 minute breaks and come back to it. This is a big reason that tons of tech companies have ping-pong or foosball in the office. ADHD: super common in programmers.
Read books. I've found that if my leisure time is spent reading books (pretty much any books) instead of watching TV or playing video games, I'm better able to concentrate on important tasks during the times of day when I need to be productive.
Lastly, I want to touch on depression again. Depression is a pretty scary concept, but if you're prepared then it doesn't need to be. By addressing mental and behavioral health issues in an up-front and non-stigmatized manner, I think you significantly reduce that chances that your son will ever have to deal with more serious issues like depression. However, just in case, I'd strongly recommend reading the descriptions of depression by Allie Brosch of Hyperbole and a Half. You can find them here and here.
I don't know if you'll actually see this, and maybe someone above has already mentioned something similar (but I don't have time to check because I have to leave for work in a few minutes).
The issues you describe your son having sound very similar to how things went for me in high school and college. I'd always managed to be an A/B student without really trying that hard, never took notes, never studied, skipped doing my homework if I knew I was doing well enough in the class to get away with it. I had a few classes in high school that were a real struggle to make it through this way, and in college it got a lot worse.
I still managed to graduate, worked productively for a few years, and then I took a work-from-home job and noticed that all of the problems I had in high school and college came storming back into my life. Turns out, I have ADHD. For me, it's much more attention deficit than hyperactivity, but because I never had any over the top problems in school, no one ever noticed or figured it out.
The thing with ADHD is it can make focusing on specific tasks a huge, energy consuming undertaking. A smart, well driven person can overcome this to some degree, but it still makes things harder. If you think this might be the case with your son, I would strongly recommend taking him to see a psychologist. The reason I recommend that goes well beyond his potential performance in school, ADHD left unrecognized and untreated can (and did in my case) lead to depression.
I know the depression reaction is fairly common, though I don't know the details of how it tends to manifest. I can tell you that for me, it was seeing all these people I knew do things that I couldn't (like start writing a paper more than 24 hours before it was due). I built up a combination of inferiority complex and fear of failure, and the pressures of college coursework put me into fairly serious depression a couple of times. It was not fun, do not recommend.
Mental health is still very socially stigmatized, so I don't generally talk about this stuff, but I hope it's been of some value to you. It's of course possible that none of the things I described apply to your son, but if they do I hope that you'll be better able to handle them than I was.
And thanks for the explanation of Pratchett as an inspiration. I've found myself sort of subconsciously associating the writing on this site with Pratchett's for a few years now, and I'm glad to find out that those associations are actually rooted in something substantive.
The recognition of Pratchett's work suffered at the hands of critics who, in Neil Gaiman's words "think serious is the opposite of funny." They're works of breathtaking beauty and literary brilliance, and almost totally overlooked by the critical community because of their genre. I don't think the parallels to the astounding level of writing we find on this sports blog need to be spelled out too much more than that.
While I generally agree that destroying a person's future is a bad idea, Brian isn't threatening to start vicious rumours, undermine this kid with lies, or use personal contacts to freeze him out of job prospects. He's threatening to find pictures and posts that the kid himself WILLINGLY PUT ON THE INTERNET FOR ANYONE TO FIND.
We are not talking about hacking, we are not talking about hiring a private investigator or a PR firm to ruin someone. The Internet is not a private place. Anything that you post publicly online can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. Calling the screencapping of this guy's twitter account "bullying" is like saying SNL "bullied" Sarah Palin by using the exact transcript of her Couric interview for a sketch. It sure as hell isn't flattering but they did it to themselves.
The lesson here for how to avoid embarrassing pictures of you showing up on a Google search isn't "don't piss off Brian," it's "Don't post those pictures in the first place! Why the hell would you do that? Are you even vaguely aware of what's going on in the world around you?"
Is the generic version of Viva. Not all stores have one, but often they'll have several generic brands each made to look/act like particular name brand. If you find a generic that's copying Viva, it's usually about as good, maybe a little less good, but significantly cheaper.
But the transparency he's displayed in these posts is a fantastic example of what journalism should look like in the modern world.
This is a perfect and concise expression of what Brian's getting right and so many others are getting wrong. The role of the journalist used to be to filter out important data from the crap, and only pass on the important stuff to the public. In the age of the Internet, people are going to find a way to access all available information, crap and otherwise. Far too many "journalists" have used this as an excuse to report everything all the time always, when what they really should do is present the information in the context that it was received and indicate the level of faith they have in the accuracy of that information.
The WD email thing is a fantastic example of this, and Brian's handling of any seemingly-insider info he gets is also superb. As a former journalism student who switched majors partly because of how shitty the journalism landscape looked when I started working in it, kudos to the MGoBlog staff for doing such a great job.
This has been covered, extensively, by this very site.
http://mgoblog.com/content/profiles-heroism-dan-mullen
Skip to the "Recruiting" section. All evidence suggests that oversigning is way less of an issue with Mullen than it is with Miles.
I agree that the other person in that conversation comes off way worse than DB, especially considering they looked at it afterward and decided to send it to Brian as evidence of DB being a douche. "Haha, I just acted like a total jackass and trolled DB into sending me less-than-respectful responses! I'd better exhibit a total lack of self-awareness and share this with as many people as possible."
Even so, one of these people represents the Michigan Athletic Department and one does not. If all was rosy in the world of Michigan Athletics and DB was a beloved figure, we probably look at these emails and think "Wow, how awesome is it the we have such a no-nonsense AD." But all is not rosy, and DB should be able to understand that and adjust his behaviour accordingly. You don't gloat when you're losing.
He overwrote the whole Brian object. He could have just adjusted one property, maybe Brian.politicalLeanings = Leftist, but no, he did the whole damn thing. Now Brian's entire entity is just Leftist. I knew they shouldn't have made life in a weakly-typed language.
Don't you know that '=' is the assignment operator and '==' is the equality operator? You've just set Brian equal to leftist! And you didn't even bother storing his initial value in a temp variable! Now we have no way of knowing what Brian was before you got involved! How can you toy with people's lives like this?
Last year Gostowski had the 3rd best fantasy year for all kickers since 1960. He was the #1 kicker in fantasy. He was worth 1.85 points/game more than the #10 kicker for the year. But hey, 1.85 points is still points, right? Well, only if you can actually accurately predict which kickers are going to be better than others, which is a nearly impossible task.
It's a little different in an auction draft, where depending on who you're targeting you may not end up spending your whole budget anyway, so dropping a couple extra bucks on a kicker may not be a terrible idea if you've got extra cash near the end. But in a regular draft league you're pretty much always better off taking an extra lottery ticket at RB or WR than taking your kicker even one round early.
To reiterate what other above have said, using AdBlock on sites like this that you frequently visit and want to support is a BAD idea. MGoBlog needs money, and they get money from you being slightly inconvenienced by looking at ads.
As for your popups, it's unlikely that the site itself is the cause. All the ads on here are Google Ads, and if Google Ads are suddenly causing malware issues, the whole Internet is in serious trouble. I see Brian has already responded that he'll look into it, but I doubt there's anything wrong with the site.
If your virus/malware detectors aren't turning up anything, there's another possibility: bloatware bundled with installers for other programs that you unintentionally installed by not unchecking the "include blah blah" checkbox. These are getting really super common, and since technically they're just regularly installed programs, they don't show as viruses or malware. Go into Control Panel > Programs and Features, sort by install date, and start going through them for anything you don't recognize. Uninstall from there.
I'm by no means a zealot for the points I made above. I know I personally was stunned when I saw the second video, I had not originally thought that it was going to be that bad. And since I was taken aback by the content of the second video, I don't think it's fair for me to criticize the Ravens or the NFL for taking harsher action after the video came out. The original 2 game suspension was ridiculous, sure, but I probably would have been OK with 6-8 games in the aftermath of the first video. After the second I think it's clear that he can't play in the NFL again this year, if ever.
An interesting question in my mind is why some people (such as yourself) seemed to be ready for the content of the second video, whereas others (such as myself) were taken by surprise. I readily admit that I have no personal experience in witnessing/experiencing domestic violence, so maybe I'm not very good at identifying it. This is a disturbing idea to me, because now I'm forced to wonder if I've ever encountered domestic violence in my personal life and simply didn't recognize it. It's a chilling thought, but if it is the case then I can only hope that this incident will make me a little more aware of the warning signs in the future.
Even though we knew he had "hit" her, that can still mean a lot of different things. Before the newest video, there was a sort of spectrum of things that could have happened inside that elevator. Maybe he doesn't use much force, but she falls and hits her head on something. Maybe he immediately rushes to her side to make sure she's OK. These wouldn't come close to justifying what happened, but they would have been one hell of a lot better than what we saw.
What we saw in the video is an absolute worst case scenario. After watching the original video, if you had tried to picture the single worst set of events that could have happened in that elevator it would have been pretty close to reality. The video proved that it wasn't an accident, that it wasn't an misjudged use of force, and that there was no remorse.
And there is just no way in hell that he didn't know that video existed. Months ago Chris Mortensen accurately reported some very specific details from that video. At least 20 casino employees saw it. All major law enforcement agencies involved saw it. If Goodell honestly didn't realize the video existed, then he should be out of a job anyway for absurd incompetence.
There is just no possible way that these events could have unfolded in which Goodell doesn't end up looking like a guy who isn't fit to be commissioner of the NFL. If he saw the video, he should go. If he knew the video existed and opted to interview Ray Rice and his fiance instead of watching the video, he should go. And if he was seriously dumb enough to not even realize that the video existed when it's becoming increasingly clear that everyone around him did, he needs to go.
And I wouldn't classify that guy as a troll. He's just as delusional in his ND arrogance as some people are in their Michigan arrogance, but he's attempting to engage in productive conversation. It's just that his inflated sense of ND's value in the college football world makes him come off as a bit of a douche.
A true troll makes no attempt at valuable conversation, and just runs around saying inflammatory things to provoke a reaction and laugh at it. A troll would never write as much as that guy did, he would just say "Michigan's no longer relevant on the national stage, unlike ND" and scamper off.
I get that rival fans who don't have the best grip on reality are annoying, even if they're not outright trolls, but I find that to be just as annoying in Michigan fans as well. And we do have plenty of them.
I was just giving this thread a once-over at the end of the day to catch up on everything, and your post reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in which he responds to criticisms that his methods were too confrontational, and that his best course of action would be to wait things out. It's one of my favorite pieces of writing ever, and if anyone makes a late perusal of this thread like I did and sees this, I highly recommend reading it. Link.
A particularly relevant passage, describing Kings frustration with the "white moderate":
With Braden in the thick of things for a guard spot going into last year, only to drop out of the conversation completely and never be heard from again, I was really starting to get worried we were headed into a "unending practice hype that never actually materializes on the field" situation. Announcing him as a starter this early really signals that the coaching staff is comfortable with his development, both physically and with his technique.
Let's hope he can lock down that spot for the next 3 years, and we never have to build an OL out of so many question marks again.
I join you in being disappointed by the reactions here, and the judgements being made about York as a person. We only know about this one incident, and that certainly doesn't make him some sort of incurable criminal who will never contribute to a civilized society. He's made one terrible mistake, and I sincerely hope that it doesn't send his life on an inescapable downward spiral.
That said, I do think he should be dismissed from the team for this. The total lack of escalation here is what's really jarring, and I don't think it's something the coaching staff can tolerate.
I do hope that he gets another chance at a scholarship at a MAC or similar level school, a chance to earn a college degree and build a life that isn't defined by moments like this.
York is currently on indefinite suspension and for all intents and purposes is not a part of the team right now. Based on Hoke's track record of handling players who are embroiled in legal criminal proceedings, I would not be surprised if no further action was taken until the criminal aspect is sorted out. If I recall correctly, that's how virtually every criminal investigation into a Michigan football player under Hoke has gone. Indefinite suspension while the criminal charges are open, specific discipline afterward.
I understand your reaction that this is something that requires more immediate decisive action, but I generally like this method of handling legal situations. I think it makes the important point that legal proceedings take precedence over football. Either way, I expect York will be officially dismissed from the team at some point, it may just be after a trial/plea is concluded and the charges are closed.
It's a less common usage of the word, but it can be used to mean essentially "because" or "since." I actually think the second half of that thing (starting with "For if you want what is ours") is pretty cool, it has kind of a Medieval battle motivational thing going on. The first half, on the other hand, is extremely clumsy. "With every accurate pass" is maybe the least threatening line I've ever read.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whereas
ESPN 3 programming is available to anyone. It's viewable via "WatchESPN," which is a service that requires you to sign in with your cable account in order to view ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPNU programming. But programming designated ESPN 3 shouldn't require a sign-in. I think.
I think it's a fine line between making a direct comparison and using a hyperbolic example. You don't get to invoke Hitler every time a government oversteps its authority, and you don't get to invoke Aaron Hernandez every time an athlete has character issues. Doing so drastically lowers the level of discourse and pulls the conversation immediately toward the extremes, and away from the gray area where all the stuff that matters is.
That said, I don't really think we have super different feelings on this particular case. Maybe I'm a bit more bleeding heart, but I don't think by a whole lot. I just really did not like the tone that this thread was taking, it seemed to be a lot of angry people pushing each other to say angrier and angrier things, and straying very far from the matter at hand.
I like to think that this turn of events will be good for him, regardless of whether he has to sit out a year (and I think he probably will). He came to Mizzou as a symbol of newfound football greatness, their first true blue-chip recruit in the Gary Pinkel era. He will enter OU as a troubled transfer with nothing guaranteed and a lot still to prove. I hope that he adjusts well to being the low man on the totem pole for the first time in quite a while, and if he does I fully expect him to grow into a better adult and learn from his past mistakes.
This kid has exactly one incident in his past that is actually disturbing (the forced entry), and as much as we can speculate terrible and awful things about that, no one here has any real idea of what really happened. It was probably bad, he probably should have faced legal consequences, but for a variety of reasons he didn't.
Other than that, he was arrested twice on possession of marijuana charges. Big. Fucking. Deal.
He faced legal and personal consequences from the pot incidents, and personal consequences from the violent one (again, I'm not arguing that he didn't get off a little light on that one), and yet I hear you all shout down to me from way up on your high horses that this kid is some sort of horrendous criminal who's never faced a consequence in his life. Seriously, someone above actually compared this situation to AARON FUCKING HERNANDEZ and got commended for it!
Get some perspective people. This kid had a horrific childhood, and suddenly became a major celebrity at the age of 16. Gary Pinkel actually flew a helicopter to his high school on a recruiting visit. Of course he's got entitlement issues, every single person in the world would if they were put in the same position.
DGB is a tremendously talented individual, and there's no reason to think that he can't grow to be a tremendous person as well. I wish him nothing but the best, both on the football field and off of it.
Very good food to go along with an excellent beer selection. They also distil some spirits I believe. It's a cool place.
What I actually miss the most is Vietnamese row on South Grand. So much delicious Vietnamese food, and so cheap! Oh, Pho Grand, how I long for you. But yes, BBQ too. We lived a block and a half from The Shaved Duck (if you haven't been, go), which is a fantastic slightly-upscale BBQ and craft beer place.
I just moved out of St. Louis last year, and I miss it. Four Hands is one of my favorite things ever, though I never liked Urban Chestnut that much. I think it's because I'm not a huge fan of German/Bavarian beers, and that's what they do best. I also recommend Square One if you haven't tried it, it's my favorite St. Louis brewpub.
Budweiser is actually pretty good for its price range and style. Especially if you get it on tap, and especially if it's super fresh. If you're ever in St. Louis or one if the other 5 or so cities where they brew it, go to a local bar and get a Budweiser draught. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
The estimated price of unbundled channels comes from the cable companies themselves, who have an obvious interest in maintaining the status quo as long as possible. So obviously they're going to put out numbers that make it sound like unbundling will drastically increase prices.
See, the numbers they come up with are essentially "How much would we have to charge in order to make the same amount of money?" In actuality, when unbundling does happen out of necessity, the question will be "How much can we charge so that people will still use us at all?" The current structure of TV providers is unmaintainable in the internet age, and cable companies are going to make WAY less money when it does eventually come crashing down.
I'm sure it's an intense and personal issue for you, and I'm glad you're comfortable enough to come on this board and talk about it.
The thing that I and many others are concerned about is that vaccines are essentially being propped up as a scapegoat for parents of autistic children looking for someone/something to blame. A significant amount of research has been done on this issue, and without exception, every last bit of it has failed to find any link between vaccines and autism. The only thing keeping this concern alive is public panic, which is even more infectious than the diseases these vaccines prevent.
There's certainly still a lot we don't know about autism, and there's a lot of work to be done to bring autism and spectrum disorders into the public eye, but prolonging the vaccine "argument" will not help accomplish either of those goals. If there is an environmental link to autism, it almost certainly isn't related to vaccines. On top of that, all the time and energy we spend continuing to debunk any vaccine-autism link is time and energy that could be spent looking for an environmental condition that does have some sort of link to autism.
Anyway, thanks again for weighing in. I know I speak for many people here in wishing you and your family the best.