Spurs/Rockets on TNT this evening, at the Toy in Houston. Three out of five Western Conference All-Star starters (Yao, Francis, and Duncan) on the court – Hoops doesn’t get much better than this. The only thing lacking was Calvin Murphy and Bill Worrell doing the play-by-play.
During the 4th quarter, they have a sideline interview with new Astro Roger Clemens, asking the Rocket how he’s enjoying watching the Rockets (ha.) The keystone exchange went something like this:
Announcer: “So, what got you to come out of retirement to sign with the Astros? I understand you turned down another Hummer from a local dealer..”
Clemens: “Well, Mama Rocket got the Hummer…”
Clemens needs to be in Houston. Calling the old lady “Mama Rocket” on national television, with the kids holding bags of souvenirs, and flashing your NYY World Series ring. Almost makes me wish I were in Houston for the Baseball season.
Pitchers and catchers report next week.
Is there any argument that Page 2 has headed steadily downhill since they canned Greggggg Easterbrook? I’m just not lovin’ it.
(I am loving I Love This Game – scroll down during hoops games, though.)
Don’t you somehow miss the good old days when ESPN was carrying Outlaw Racing between the midnight and 6 AM SportsCenter?
I realize that I am about to cause this forum to become even more politicized, but did anyone else see Bush’s interview with Tim Russert on Sunday?
It started with half an hour of discussions on Iraq that will not change anyone’s mind about that war. (I still think that it was a dumb move, Jank and lots of other people disagree. Move along. Nothing to see here.)
Where Bush seemed to go off the deep end was the discussion of the economy and, more specifically, the fiscal health of the country.
After refusing to take any responsibility for the economy’s loss of jobs during his term, he went on to say that discretionary spending has decreased during his watch. As Slate and Andrew Sullivan note, what a load of crap.
Either this guy is completely out of touch with his own administration, or just cannot stop himself from telling bold-faced lies. Either way, I am disgusted.
I am terrified and mesmerized by the software discussed in this article about Stephen Thaler’s Creativity Machine.
“His first patent was for a Device for the Autonomous Generation of Useful Information,’‘ the official name of the Creativity Machine, Miller said. “His second patent was for the Self-Training Neural Network Object. Patent Number Two was invented by Patent Number One. Think about that. Patent Number Two was invented by Patent Number One!’‘
…
On Christmas Eve 1989, Thaler typed the lyrics to some of his favorite Christmas carols into a neural network. Once he’d taught the network the songs, he unleashed the Grim Reaper. As the reaper slashed away connections, the network’s digital life began to flash before its eyes. The program randomly spit out perfectly remembered carols as the killer application severed the first connections. But as its wounds grew deeper, and the network faded toward black, it began to hallucinate.
Don’t miss this Special Report Iraq discussing the way intelligence was really mishandled by Bush, from the Guardian. I’ve posited that Bush was directly responsible for ignoring the standard processes for intelligence vetting and this article supports my idea by extending it as Bush’s desperate ploy to invade Iraq.
The truth is that much of the intelligence community did not fail, but presented correct assessments and warnings, that were overridden and suppressed. On virtually every single important claim made by the Bush administration in its case for war, there was serious dissension. Discordant views – not from individual analysts but from several intelligence agencies as a whole – were kept from the public as momentum was built for a congressional vote on the war resolution.
I tried to vote yesterday, but my despotic, secretive party wouldn’t let me. I can’t really place all the blame on them. See, I was completely unfamiliar with what a caucus is and how it works. I thought it was some kind of democratic process where you get to vote for who you think should be your party’s candidate. Wrong! Here’s what I found out:
Read more!