5 days until season 6! Make your predictions! (24)

I agree with everything you say GHG, but as LHoffman pointed out Bettman is merely doing the owners’ bidding, which is the role of the modern commissioner. The position is no longer a “caretaker of the game” but a pit bull used in mauling the player unions during collective bargaining agreements.

The funny thing is Nashville fans should have been appreciate of Bettman since sunbelt expansion and team preservation is one of his primary legacies. Let’s see the result of this Cup run on the Predators’ TV ratings next year, which were laughably low this season.

Sitting out the Olympics will be a huge mistake for the league and its branding, I figure the owners will have to blink eventually.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the event that is commonly held to be the end of World War I: the armistice on the Western Front. Germany’s war effort was on the verge of collapse both militarily and domestically, and its allies had already signed separate armistice agreements during the preceding months. The signing took place early in the morning, the ceasefire went into effect at 11 AM.

Formally speaking, the notion that World War I ended with this armistice is incorrect. Hostilities had ended, but unlike the end of World War II, the armistice did not constitute a formal capitulation. So legally speaking, the war continued until the various parties involved had reached separate peace agreements, a process which took several years to complete – in the case of Germany, the Versailles treaty which was signed in 1919 and took effect on January 10, 1920. And the state of war with Turkey even continued until the 1923 treaty of Lausanne.

Allegedly I am closing on a house on Friday.  I say allegedly because I still don’t have a frazzing CLEAR TO CLOSE from the bank…(hey, they only preapproved the mortgage 4 months ago, I guess I am being unrealistic to think they MIGHT have the records in order so soon!)

So if I do close, I will be moving, and I won’t have internet setup yet.

On the 24th May 1864 Grant gifted Lee the  kind of opportunity that rarely happens in a campaign: to wreck the other’s army.
After the bloodletting of May 5-12th, that cost Lee 22000 casualties and Grant 34000,'weakening both armies by 33% and 25% respectively, Grant again disengaged and moved South towards Richmond. Lee had followed and had been reinforced with 7 small Brigades from his capital.
Grant had inadvertentally straddled his large army across the North Anna river.
Lee saw the way to take advantage of his smaller numbers and punish the Federal II Corps, Grant’s best. He could throw 30000 men at the 24000 that were over the V in the river separating Grant’s two halves of his army. Hancock’s 24000 could not be reinforced, because of the V of the river, so he readied his assault.
On the afternoon of the 24th Lee fell violently sick with diarrhoea. He lay helplessly for hours while the opportunity to assault, before the Union commanders realised the sure situation were in.
The reason Lee’s defensive strike could not be undertaken was simple: the attrition of the last 19 days had robbed him of a subordinate able to manage it.
Time and opportunity passed. Grant and Hancock’s isolated Corps were extremely lucky.
We all know the loss of a quarter of Grant’s force would never have changed his resolve to “fight it all out, even if it takes all Summer”, but another battering would have diminished his potential to do so sooner.

Would’ve been better in a cage match

Not going to spoil anything, but let me just say that I called the ending an hour and half ahead of time :) Awesome two episodes.

5.56x45mm NATO 7x43mm EM-2 7.6x39mm M43 7.62x51mm NATO
bullet weight 4.01 g (62 gr) 9.08 g (140 gr) 7.9 g (122 gr) 9.72 g (150 gr)
bullet velocity, at muzzle 921 m/s 745 m/s 710 m/s 860 m/s
bullet velocity, at 300 yards (273 meters) 585 m/s 570 m/s 470 m/s 674 m/s
bullet velocity, at 550 yards (500 meters) 385 m/s 450 m/s 341 m/s 516 m/s
bullet energy, at muzzle 1700 J 2519 J 1991 J 3594 J
bullet energy, at 300 yards (273 meters) 686 J 1475 J 872 J 2207 J
bullet energy, at 550 yards (500 meters) 297 J 919 J 460 J 1294 J

5.56 weighs 12g and 7.62x51 weighs 24. The person with the 5.56 fires with 3 round burst, the person with the 7.62 fires semi-auto. 3 shots=1 kill or 1 shot = 1 kill? Which is better? 36g or 24g? A 30 round 5.56 will get you ten pulls of the trigger if set on 3 round burst (the 3 round burst compensates for the smallness of the round. A 20 round 7.62 will give you 20 pulls.