Domain: tiger-web1.srvr.media3.us User Profile: AbuTheMonkey | TigerDroppings.com
User Avatar

AbuTheMonkey

All PostsAll TopicsPick'em
Favorite team:Notre Dame 
Location:Chicago, IL
Biography:
Interests:
Occupation:
Number of Posts:8611
Registered on:5/22/2014
Online Status:Not Online

Recent Posts

Message

re: Did we just do in Iran in one afternoon what it took over a decade to do in Iraq?

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 3/1/26 at 9:32 pm to Pragmatist2025
quote:
Serious question, no disrespect to the soldiers (probably in this thread) who served in Iraq. Not personally, but collectively, what did the U.S. accomplish in Iraq? A friend I graduated college with died in 2005 in Iraq (Bradley/IED). I’m certain you military guys know how horrific a death those guys suffered. Though his family was very proud of him and patriotic, years later, I met up with his brother and he had grown very bitter over the ‘why’ of the occupation. What is your insight? thx


No disrespect at all. It’s a fair question and one that many of us asked ourselves quite a bit.

I think the country, on balance, is a much better place to live in 2026 than it was in 2002. From everything I know and the people I keep in contact with, they would mostly agree. Much of that is due to the superhuman efforts of the American people - uniformed and not -over the last twenty-plus years.

Now, was it worth it? That’s an entirely different question. 5,000 American KIA, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, a region destabilized, two vicious insurgencies, on and on and on.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Senate bill targets Elon and SpaceX, only allowing up to 50% of launches from one provider

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/26/26 at 11:09 pm to The Pirate King
quote:
I bet you don't have to look far to find that the senators pockets are being lined by Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, Boeing and others.


Supplier monopoly or oligopoly isn't good for anyone over the long term other than the monopolistic / oligopolistic supplier.

It is fundamental to public service economics in a capitalist system to ensure a diversified supplier base. Witness how DoD has at least 4 - 5 firms on call that bid on most major contracts. Witness how the pharma grant system for basic research works. On and on and on.

I frankly don't care if Boeing or Blue Origin are donating to PACS - has SpaceX not done the same?
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1

re: Scottie F*cking Scheffler...

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/15/26 at 3:26 pm to MMauler
Jesus Christ
Jump to PostView Topicreplies2

re: Why are there less “injuries” and “load management” in the NHL?

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/13/26 at 4:41 pm to Tiger Prawn
quote:
I'm going to guess that it has to do with more frequent substitutions in hockey, so star players aren't playing 40 minutes a game. And skating seems like less stress and impact to the legs compared to running, jumping, and planting your feet for quick changes of direction.


It’s A) platooning, B) the biomechanics nature of what each sport asks (which you allude to), and C) the likelihood of injury given the player profile.

The average height in the NBA is 6’7”. The average height in the NHL is 6’1”.

In other words, the average NBA player is 3 - 3.5 standard deviations with plenty of guys 4 - 5 standard deviations above average human male height for the developed world. NHL players are about 1 standard deviation above the mean.

NBA players are true genetic freaks, and musculoskeletal injuries are likelier the taller you get. Much more of the NHL population falls closer to the mean in the normal curve.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: What college football looked like 36 years ago...

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/12/26 at 9:54 am to rpg37
quote:

Crazy thinking that at one time the Big Ten and Pac Ten conferences actually had ten teams. It's like it was logical.


The demise of the PAC 10 /12 is a national tragedy. Still shocking that happened. One of the great institutions in American sports with a legacy more than a century old just collapsed almost overnight.

That will be looked at as the moment the sport really turned.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies2

re: Will wade down by 20 at Louisville

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/9/26 at 8:43 pm to saintsfan22
quote:
quote:
He finally played a tough acc opponent

Clemson is ranked higher and higher in the conference standings than Louisville and NC St won at Clemson.


Granted, Louisville has been without Mykel Brown and / or with him pretty hobbled for large stretches of the season. That's a much different team when he is healthy.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Does anyone have any info on the fall of Jordan Spieth?

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/6/26 at 4:00 pm to The Pirate King
He has probably played better than people have given him credit - he was in the 20's in Datagolf for almost all of last year. He is actually probably a better driver now than he was when he was at his peak. He didn't fall completely off the face of the earth.

Two things, I think, with him:
1. The rate at which he was making the 10 - 20+ footers, especially in critical situations, when he was at his peak was unsustainable - that was a generational run he was on and that probabilistically was just never going to last

2. The game more or less passed him. He probably isn't that different of a player compared to 10 years ago, but the mix of people against whom he is competing is better. Longer, better iron players, more complete, etc. The bar was raised, and he wasn't able to quite compete like he once could. Look at the list of players in the top 15 of the OWGR in 2016:

1. Jason Day, Australia, 10.9145
2. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland, 9.8336
3. Dustin Johnson, United States, 9.5330
4. Henrik Stenson, Sweden, 8.6940
5. Jordan Spieth, United States, 8.0436
6. Hideki Matsuyama, Japan, 7.4883
7. Adam Scott, Australia, 6.5476
8. Patrick Reed, United States, 5.3972
9. Alex Noren, Sweden, 5.3525
10. Bubba Watson, United States, 5.1949
11. Danny Willett, England, 5.0889
12. Rickie Fowler, United States, 4.9676
13. Sergio Garcia, Spain, 4.7346
14. Paul Casey, England, 4.6999
15. Justin Rose, England, 4.4397

Of that set (putting Jordan beside), only Rory, Hideki, Adam Scott, Reed, and Rose are still playing world class golf week in and week out, and only Rory and Hideki have been quite clearly better than Jordan the last few years.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies2

re: OWGR decision for LIV Golf is in; Top 10 will receive points this weekend

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 2/6/26 at 11:55 am to JimTiger72
quote:
Unfortunately for most of the golf board, it looks like LIV will be staying here for awhile.


Maybe. They appear to be headed towards a merger of some sort with the Asian Tour.

More importantly, the PIF spigot is clearly drying up. That much is apparent - they’ve only signed 1 player in the current Datagolf 100 since the Rahm / Hatton move two years ago.

They have clearly pivoted strategies - place smaller bets on young guys with promise (McKibben, LeSasso, Ballester, etc.) and fill out with mid-table level players. Honestly, smart strategy if you are working with fewer resources. However, the days of them putting up a pretense of being a true competitor to the PGA Tour are likely over.

The PIF is drawing back on all sorts of vanity investments - and the professional services like finance, consulting, and legal that go with them - all across the board at this point. They finally exited hard on Neom. Hell, it was McKinsey that helped get them into this mess in the first place.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: New highly contagious virus just happened to pop up

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/29/26 at 8:05 pm to Crimson Wraith
Nipah is not that contagious - typically has an R0 below 1.

Very, very lethal, yes. But not highly contagious.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1

re: Patrick Reed leaving LIV!!

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/29/26 at 12:46 am to icegator337
quote:
Reed, Pat Perez, Kevin Na, and Hudson Swafford all coming back to the PGA tour is a net negative for the tour.


I'll admit to missing out on hate watching Reed. I like that he's coming back - everyone saying the Tour needs villains is right. Doesn't hurt that he still has his game.

Swafford and Na are whatever. They evoke no emotion, and I'd be surprised if either is a full member on the Tour in two years. Neither is in the top 500 in Datagolf right now and are well behind other LIV guys who are clearly past their prime in Kaymer, Westwood, McDowell, etc.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Do you foresee Russia attacking a NATO state in the future

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/28/26 at 10:29 pm to Jesterea
quote:
quote:
As long as the U.S. is in NATO: no


Not saying it would happen, but just curious... If Russia were to attack Estonia, would you be in support of US intervention? Question meant in good faith, just want to know where people stand on the idea.


At a minimum, I'd be in favor of providing logistical, air, naval, missile, intelligence, and other indirect support. Actually operating the platforms ourselves to the fullest extent of our capabilities, not providing generation-old tech and training officers and NCO's hundreds of miles and three countries away from the front.

Let the Eastern and Baltic NATO countries take the lead on the ground. They wouldn't have much of a problem with American air and naval power providing support.

For the record I don't think Russia has any plans whatsoever to take on a NATO country any time in the near future. Forget what you think of their performance in Ukraine:

Their geopolitical axis has fallen apart around them while they've been bogged down expending an enormous amount of military resources, money, and political capital in Ukraine.

Europe
The country with which it shares the longest border in Europe joined NATO and abandoned a long-standing neutrality policy as a direct result of the invasion. The remaining Scandinavian holdout (who also happens to be less than 100 miles from Russia's border) finally joined NATO, and the Baltic is completely choked out for Russian access in the event of a NATO conflict. They also betrayed a highly embittered Armenia in 2023.

Middle East
Of its three strongest allies in the Middle East (including probably what was its closest ally anywhere in the world outside Europe), one fell and is in exile in Moscow (Syria), one is teetering on the brink (Iran), and one is hopeless crushed for at least a generation (Hamas).

Latin America
Its closest Latin American ally was just decapitated in a 2 1/2 hour raid.

Etc. etc.

Most if not all of that would not have happened if they hadn't had invaded then been bogged down in Ukraine. They are inarguably in a much, much worse strategic position than they were in 2021.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - S1 Thread (no book spoilers, please)

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/27/26 at 8:53 am to cgrand
quote:
not a book reader so I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I did get the impression that egg got a good close up look at what the squires have to be able to do during the jousts to support the knights, and wondered how in the hell he was going to be able to do all that. Not only is it ultraviolent, it requires considerable physical strength

Hell I was wondering how he will be able to do it


Speaking of, the jousting scenes fricking ruled.

I had read that preview viewers were saying that the jousting was the most realistic ever depicted, and damn, did that not deliver in spades.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1

re: NATO Chief Rutte: "Europe cant defend itself without the USA"

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/26/26 at 2:13 pm to beerJeep
quote:
quote:
Meh comparable we did about 10% and the Russian road grader/meat grinder did 90%. The forces they committed on JUST the drive on Berlin were larger than the entire German force used in Barbarossa. The Russians were stacked in the infantry, artillery, armor category and not a terrible air support arm. We would have been hard pressed to beat them in a conventional war. Luckily we had the bomb.


Take away lend lease in the early war and Russia collapses.


More importantly, and all these Soviet-focused revisionists seem to forget this, the U.S. was leading the fight in another theater against the other mega Axis military where the Soviets were entirely absent. We had help from a fractured (but big) Chinese native force, various local insurgencies (like in Vietnam and the Philippines), the Australians, and remnants of the British military to help, but it was an American-led effort in the Indo-Pacific from December 1941 onward.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Have we discussed Alabama high school public / private split?

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/24/26 at 4:20 pm to SloaneRanger
quote:
So there are “state public school champs” as opposed to “state private school champs.” What’s the point here? It’s not like Alabama has a huge number of private schools. Nor do I sense that there is a big recruiting issue out there. So up and down the line of all sports we are going to have separate playoffs for public and private? Even though the teams will keep playing each other in the regular season. SMH.



I don’t understand it, either. Private schools aren’t really relevant in Alabama football and basketball with the exception of a small handful of schools in the mid-tier classes, and the one that’s actually any good there is about to lose its coach to the NFL. Every single one of the big dogs in 6A and 7A are public. It isn’t like Louisiana or Kentucky or Ohio or Illinois where privates are uber competitive powerhouses in the biggest classes.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1

re: New shooting in Minnesota

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/24/26 at 2:08 pm to Athis
quote:
Athis


The first video was unclear, but that is murder. Holy shite.

These untrained morons have me supporting Twin Cities progressives. Never thought I'd see that day.

For the record, I have been in more threatening situations than that, many times. We didn't do shite like that to Iraqis, armed or not, much less American citizens.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies2

re: Hottest and coldest place you’ve been to

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/23/26 at 10:19 pm to ClemsonKitten
Kuwait in August was absurd.

It got within spitting distance of the hottest temperatures ever recorded anywhere on earth a few days when I was there. Now that I actually looked, Mitribah, Kuwait apparently has the second-hottest recorded temperature ever (to be clear, not when I was there) and isn't far from where I was.

Cold is more relative to me. A sustained 38 and damp and windy is cold as hell if you're out there for 12 hours or longer. Different kind of cold than living somewhere where it gets 20 below but dry and you spend the vast majority of that time indoors. That being said, some of the Chicago vortexes in the late 2010's (want to say 2017 and 2019) were unforgettable. The high deserts out West (like central Washington, Oregon, and Nevada) get absolutely cold as frick in the winter - those are brutal.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Who has the easiest road to the CFP next year? Notre Dame or Texas Tech? Both are locks

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/23/26 at 3:37 pm to YoungSteele830
quote:
In reality, nobody has a clue how hard or easy ND’s schedule will be. This is just people getting their excuses warmed up because they know ND is usually pretty good and this past year might have been an anomaly. Even if their schedule ends up a lot harder than it looks people will still stand by the “easy schedule” narrative because they simply refuse to give Notre Dame any credit whatsoever.

Notre Dame Derangement Syndrome is real. “Haven’t won anything since 1988” and yet people hate them like they’re the Bama dynasty.


Wisconsin and Michigan State both being complete shite isn't helping. Those would have been two pretty solid games not that long ago. Maybe they'll be improved next year.

Miami and BYU should be good, though I suspect in both cases not as good as this year (and I don't think BYU was really all that great). SMU could be pretty good (as in, in the conversation for the playoffs and ACC title contention). Syracuse might not be completely horrible with Angeli coming back.

But other than that, the schedule is a real piece of shite.

Which sucks because next year is going to be the most talented Notre Dame team since the early 1990's and should be a legitimate national title contender.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Check Your Scales At Walmart Guys

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/22/26 at 11:58 pm to Shexter
quote:
quote:
3.26% not the 30%


Net profit. Are their operating expenses that large?


Walmart's gross margins are about 25% which is in line with industry standards, maybe even a touch low.

Their net income is typically about 2.5 - 3.5% of net revenue, which is pretty damn tight, even for the big box / grocer business which is a notoriously low margin business (Costco and Target, to name two, are usually a bit above that).

Their SG&A alone is about 20% of net revenue - it's expensive to operate stores of that scale, stock them, fulfill them, merchandise them, source for them, operate their supply chain, on and on and on and on.

Effectively, you are paying about a 25% markup to be able to go to Walmart and buy everything from retail to grocery in one location instead of going one by one to PepsiCo, Dole, JBS, Tyson, Cargill, Nestle, General Mills, P&G, Levi's, Hanes, and on and on to buy every consumable component of living.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Rajon Rondo has an 8th grade phenom basketball son

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/22/26 at 10:27 pm to BluegrassCardinal
quote:

quote:
23578 posts
Back to top
Posted on 1/21/26 at 3:44 pm to Chad504boy
I have a hard time believing that’s the #1 team in Kentucky or those are just the highlights and they didn’t show a lot.

There wasn’t a single player that looked to be over 6’4 on either team.


They're not the number one team in Kentucky. St X was ranked 18th in the latest KY RPI High school rankings.


#1 in Courier Journal, #1 in On3, #4 in MaxPreps. Probably by far the most talented team in the state this year. Only lost to two teams in state this year (Male and North Oldham), both by a bucket, and in both cases, St. X had beaten them either in a rematch or earlier in the year.

There is no chance that there are 3 better teams in Kentucky than St. X this year, much less 15.

In the RPI rankings you referenced, St. X has beaten #1, #2, #6, and #7 and somehow is sitting at 16th in the rankings. That math ain't mathing.
Jump to PostView Topicreplies0

re: Rajon Rondo has an 8th grade phenom basketball son

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/22/26 at 10:12 pm to ljhog
quote:

If that was the #1 HS team in KY, then KY high school basketball sux.


They were playing against Louisville St. Xavier (the team in white with green and gold trim), who is probably a top 50-ish team in the country this year. Certainly no powder puff team - they have 6 guys between 6'5" and 6'9" on their 12 man, including 3 high level D1 recruits and 1 kid in particular who is already being courted by all the major powerhouses, Louisville and Kentucky included. St. X in Louisville is about what Jesuit in New Orleans (or like a Loyola in Chicago or St. X in Cincinnati or similar) is like in terms of influence, network, money for sports, what have you.

Decent chance Rondo's kid actually ends up playing there himself next year (no penalty for transferring after 8th grade year, and a lot of North Oldham kids end up at St. X as it is).
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1

re: CFP Championship ••• Miami (FL) 21 @ Indiana 27 FINAL ••• Hoosier Daddy?

Posted by AbuTheMonkey on 1/19/26 at 9:24 pm to DiamondDog
quote:
Has anybody been to the U before? Is it really straight in the ghetto? Worse than the LSU North Gates?


The University itself is in one of the poshest areas in all of America.

The stadium is in a very rough part of the metro area (technically not Miami proper).
Jump to PostView Topicreplies1