Don

From NWU: "While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it. Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student athletes." I'll believe that student-athletes are simply students as soon as someone can skip a football or basketball game to meet with a project group or study for a final without repercussions.

A fine list too, but I think I'd take Cano over Fernandez just because of the dearth of high-WAR players at 2B, and I'd take Machado over Harper because I have a man-crush on Machado. In all reality, I think Harper will be an elite player, but I can see Machado turning into a .300 hitter with 25 HRs and 40 doubles to go with elite defense and tremendous baseball instincts.

Trout Kershaw Cano Machado (hopefully healthy) McCutchen

While it's not out of the question, I don't think Pujols will replicate those career averages ever again. Basically, I'm hoping Pujols follows the Hank Aaron career arc. Aaron went from being an elite player for the first 15 or so years of his career to a very good player for basically the last ten years of his career. So while I don't expect Pujols to be a truly elite player again, I'm hoping he can average .290/.360/.525 or so for the next five or six years.

There are a lot of questions to be asked about Terminus. One, why is this place advertising for new members when everyone knows that resources are limited and strangers are also potential threats? Why, in the middle of the day, is there only one person outside? Why is everything unlocked with no visible security people? To me, all of these raise red flags, in that it seems that Terminus wants people just a little too much. They are the drunk lonely guy throwing Hail Marys from the bar stool of the zombie world.

Yeah, I don't know how many other Midwesterners we have here, but I've spent 8 winters in the Kansas/Nebraska area, and this has easily been the coldest one. I'm used to it getting ridiculously cold, but only for short periods of time (2-3 days at a time) before returning to more average winter temps (i.e. High of 40, low of 20). But this winter has been a relentless hell beast. It seemed like we went from Mid-December until the end of February without ever seeing a day above 15 degrees, and plenty of those disgusting -20 with wind chill days. This March has pretty much been like a normal January, and I'm slowly becoming happier.

If he stays healthy, I don't think a .300/.370/.530 is too much of a stretch. I'm more worried about him staying healthy enough to play 145+ games.

So, I'm getting ready to move into a new place this April, and I've decided that I'm going with streaming services through my XBox instead of paying a ridiculous amount for cable. Have any of you ever run MLB.tv through your XBox? What was the quality like? I'm also trying to decide what Internet speed I should go with for live streaming games. My options are 25Mbps or 50Mbps. I know that 50Mbps is obviously better, but is 25Mbps enough?

This looks like a solid move for us. Worst case scenario: We gave up an up and down utility player that was out of options for some versatile pitching depth at AAA. Best case scenario: We gave up that same utility guy for a a good major league pitcher. We pretty much come out ahead either way, unless Andrew Romine suddenly becomes Michael Young.

There's one in Redlands too.

I'll agree on American Hustle. The story was just kinda all over the place. It didn't help that the only likable character in the movie was Carmine. I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire last night for the first time. They did a fantastic job on that one. Great all around movie.

Did anyone else notice the Of Mice and Men sort of tone to that episode? Also, is Mika Amy Schumer's illegitimate daughter?

I get that. The school has to, and should, take a stance that protects the student. I guess the question I have is whether this is really something that's preventable. With stiff enough penalties and reaffirmation, I'm sure you could prevent the physical stuff, but could you realistically prevent the ostracization (which I would argue is more damaging)?

Obviously the physical violence is unacceptable, but I'm not quite sure where the line is on forced acceptance vs. natural social behavior. Basically, I get that this kid loves My Little Pony, and I think that's fine (I actually have a seven-year-old nephew that is a huge fan). The question I have is what are the reasons that this is frowned upon by peers? Are gender roles enforced so early by society that males are expected to shun others that do anything perceived as feminine? Are males naturally called to shunning those that are different based on some caveman-level survival instinct (i.e. You're either with us or against us)?

BTW, can we vote this thread into the HOF early?

Well, I mean they're already breaking into your home, so why not? At least they're being efficient. It'd take a lot more time if they had to take a break and run to Starbucks for a handy.

Islam is kind of a big deal in Malaysia.

I'm just waiting for Alex Jones to chime in.

This story has officially entered the Tyson Zone. If it went toward mainland Asia, somebody would have picked it up on radar for sure. If it went further south and west into the Indian Ocean, well there's really nothing out there within reach other than the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Therefore, if it landed anywhere (which is still pretty unlikely), Sri Lanka is my bet. What I don't understand though is why anyone would fly that thing further south into the Indian Ocean, as that's pretty much suicidal. And if you're down with crashing a plane, why reroute it first?

I think this is just his way of letting us know that he has a pool. Next thing you know, he'll be sharing his designs for attaching a machine gun to his Porsche.

It's definitely the same group that came into the house where Rick, Carl, and Michonne were staying. The leader was the guy on the porch.

Quite the opposite. I realize it's a great deal. It's more than I wanted to spend though, as I'm very poor at the moment.

Thanks guys. Finally got enrolled. $83/month with no primary care copay, and $25 specialist copay. Frankly, it's a bit more than I wanted to pay per month (though I totally get that it's a good deal), but it's the cheapest plan I saw with reasonably good coverage.

Quick question about the subsidies, as I haven't been able to find a reasonable answer anywhere. I know I should be able to qualify for an insurance subsidy, but do I have to pay the non-subsidized premium every month, then wait until tax season to be reimbursed, or do I have to pay what the premium would be after the average monthly subsidy? I.E. $200/month, with $1800 coming back to me next year, or $50/month straight up? I only ask because this will pretty much determine whether or not I sign up in the next two days.

I think we can pretty much rule out this being an act of organized terrorism or a hijacking. There would have been a claim of responsibility if it were a terrorist attack, and there would have been demands and a landing if it were a hijacking. So, we've got a few possibilities: 1.) A crazy person (not part of a terrorist organization) blew up the plane mid-flight, perhaps over-doing it a bit by bringing enough explosives to take out an aircraft carrier. 2.) One of the pilots just put the stick down for whatever reason (depression, religion, schizophrenia, hallucinogens). 3.) Pilot disorientation leading to a crash. Perhaps a loss of instruments in the middle of the night over the ocean. 4.) Sudden breakup due to some sort of mechanical or structural issue. 5.) Some sort of slow, unnoticeable fatal issue, such as the gradual depressurization scenario described earlier. 6.) Some country's Air Force shot the plane down without realizing it was a passenger jet, and is a bit embarrassed. The biggest problem we have now though is all of the conflicting location possibilities. At this point, we're all reasonably confident that this plane is somewhere in a triangle between Madagascar, the Eastern Himilayas, and Fiji.