Rich

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coats-won-t-say-whether-trump-asked-him-push-back-n763551

So out of the 10ish people who have voted, it is pretty much split down the line. So here is what I propose. Got an email earlier this week about the next major version upgrade of the forum software. It is in beta testing right now and currently scheduled to be released late summer. One of their new features is a concept called Clubs. You can read about them here . I honestly don't yet completely understand how they differ from the forum categories we have today. The goal is apparently to make the software more social and the concept has apparently been implemented in the vBulletin forum software (has anyone seen this type of thing anywhere else?). When I first read it, I thought a good use would be for when we segregate off a forum for the people who join a football pool. But the fall time period might be a good time to try it with curling or NFL. Not entirely sold on the concept yet, and I won't be participating in the beta to see how they work, so will have to reserve judgement until it is released or there is a public demo. And if it sucks, we can not use them and go back to a basic implementation.

Have I missed a firing, or has Kellyanne Conway simply disappeared from anything Trump related?

You can put whatever you want on the table but if the agent has said he isn't going to listen to it or take it back to his client, then what?

The agent refused to accept any offers and demanded a trade.

About damn time this season gets started.....

Insurance will only cover you for the contract that you have. That is the point. If he signs the extension this off season and gets hurt, he is guaranteed his 8 years salary. If he waits and gets hurt, the Jets and any NHL team can walk away from signing him. Personally, I don't think he signs. I never believed his holding out was related to playing time. The rumours about his Dad not being able to come up to Canada to watch him play and the failed app that was blamed on market size (I don't think his app would work in any NHL market) to me means there are a lot of outside pressures on Trouba for him to play closer to home in the States. The question remains what Trouba actually wants and how much influence those people have over him.

Have had a suggestion to create a new forum dedicated to sport talk that isn't football or hockey related. (curling, baseball, MMA, etc.) I think some people prefer a more organised approach with everything in its place while others would prefer less places to check / read new threads. Right now those discussions tend to land here in the General forum, so throwing up a poll to see what people think.

The analytics have their place, but shouldn't solely be relied on. They are a complimentary piece to help give you a complete picture When you see the outliers (high or low) it can give you direction to take a closer look at a guy as to why the stats are coming out that way. It can also be used to validate what you are seeing visually. With how competitive professional sports are in trying to gain any advantage over your competition, dismissing them completely is just as dumb as solely relying on them. They are a tool, and like any tool, success willl depend on if you know how to use it properly.

He'd finally be able to bring the cup back to Winnipeg .... just like he promised 20+ years ago.

Might have got a sniff in the NHL, but that year he went to the AHL from the ECHL was the year the Ice Caps made that playoff push.

I'm waiting for Mr November.

The Bombers are a much more competent organization under Miller than they were under Garth Buchko. Buchko's mismanagement of opening IGF still haunts them in bad location perception to this day.

Some of his answers to people replying to his tweets: Are we farther behind in talent or coaching? It's chicken before the egg I guess but which needs most improvement? Lewis: not enough talent and games. A coach is not supposed to get u ready for next level, he supposed to get u ready for game day Lewis: olinemen are. That's basically it. Coaching in Cdn college has progessed incredible amount in last 15 yrs. NFL invites show that. Worse than almost all US high schools in 90s. Lewis: never said it hasn't progressed. Name a wr that has went in the NFL draft from. A CIS school

Jets were 6.3M under the cap this year. 12M above the floor.

The True North involvement is interesting speculation. My initial reaction was ... I'd have no problems if True North was somehow involved in the project if only to mitigate some of the risk to the club, I don't know how much of an initial cash outlay is required to setup a league like this, but if TN were involved as a minority owner to help with that initial buy in cost, it would help mitigate the financial risk to the club. But then I was really thinking about it, other then investment money, what else would True North contribute that the Bombers don't already do? The Bombers already have their own marketing and ticket sales departments. Seems to be more synergies packaging Bomber tickets with Soccer tickets. Like buy season tickets to both and if you buy a parking pass to the Bombers, get your parking pass to soccer free. Bombers already have and own the arrangements with the food vendors.

I don't think it is yet confirmed True North will own it. And if you look at the first post, the story broke by Ed Tait on the Bomber site 2 days ago. So hardly a stretch to go into the Bomber forum.

Had an interesting discussion with a surgeon a few weeks back. Gave some insights on how the Canadian medical system works. His speciality is fixing things like broken bones. The Canadian system is setup vastly different than the American system. Waiting times are purposefully built into the Canadian system. When everything is funded by the tax payer, the goal is to maximise the use of operating rooms and diagnostic equipment. Having down time is in essence a waste of money to have that equipment or room sitting there and waiting to be used. It is setup to always be busy, always being used. The American system is really more "service" based, catering to patients more as customers. They charge much more for what they do, and part of that cost is to have the operating room or equipment have idle time so it is available sooner when they need it. So if you are willing or able to pay for it, you can get serviced much quicker. His pay is also based on the procedure, not time spent doing it. While the nurses and other members of his surgical team are paid hourly. So it is really the surgeons that "crack the whip" to keep things moving along. If a procedure is supposed to take 2 hours, it is in his best interest to make sure as best he can to get it done in 2 hours. Again, his opinion is that this is by design to keep things moving at an accepted pace. When you think about the money we already spend on healthcare, the way the Canadian system is setup, actually made a lot of sense to me. You can probably argue that in some cases, wait time are too long, but you really don't want people and rooms sitting idle waiting to be used.

I've read the book it was based on, so looking forward to finding a way to get my hands on the series.

Want to post in this thread so it doesn't get buried. There is a bug with chat right now where it is causing errors for new member registrations, so I've been disabling the chat when not in use. If you ever want to use the chat or I forget to enable it for an event, a PM is probably the fastest way to get my attention to turn it back on.