2018-2019 NHL Predictions

~ darren

Always fun to do this and see how wrong I was at the end of the year.  So just hours before the puck drops, here are my NHL predictions for this season.

Eastern Conference

Metropolitan Division

  1. Pittsburgh
  2. Washington
  3. Philadelphia

Atlantic Division

  1. Toronto
  2. Tampa Bay
  3. Florida

Wild Cards

  1. Boston
  2. Columbus

Western Conference

Central Division

  1. Nashville
  2. Winnipeg
  3. St. Louis

Western Division

  1. Las Vegas
  2. San Jose
  3. Los Angeles

Wild Cards

  1. Edmonton
  2. Arizona

Stanley Cup Champions

Nashville Predators over the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games

How Bad Will It Get Before MLB Takes The Mets From The Wilpons?

Link ~ ~ darren ~ Leave a comment

I agree with everything said in this piece, but this is something baseball should have done a decade ago, and given they didn’t I find it hard to believe they can or will do anything now.

In many ways and for many reasons and for many years, the people that own the Mets obviously can’t be trusted to run a Major League Baseball team—not just trusted by the legions of defiant masochists who have stuck by the team but, more saliently, by the other image-conscious rich guys that own teams, and who know that the health of the league depends in no small part on the National League franchise in the nation’s largest media market not being run like a skunk-infested Quiznos franchise.

via How Bad Will It Get Before MLB Takes The Mets From The Wilpons?

Law professors torch Trump legal memo

Link ~ ~ darren

So much of this is not normal, but if this is the reality we must amplify those fighting to defend the institutions that make America a thing.

The Office of the President is not a get-out-of-jail free card for lawless behavior,” the professors wrote in their letter, obtained by POLITICO. “Indeed, our country’s Founders made it clear in the Declaration of Independence that they did not believe that even a king had such powers; they specifically cited King George’s obstruction of justice as among the ‘injuries and usurpations’ that justified independence. Our Founders would not have created — and did not create — a Constitution that would permit the President to use his powers to violate the laws for corrupt and self-interested reasons.”

https://politi.co/2sFQWol

Tools of Trump’s Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids – The New York Times

~ darren ~ Leave a comment

This article does a good job of explaining what Michael Cohen does for Donald Trump. What the article does not do is explain how dangerous this is.  This is right out of the organized crime playbook, but instead he is the president.  That is having a lawyer who is not doing any legal work, but instead just uses his degree as a way to try and keep some information privileged.  The courts have not been kind to this in the past, but Michael Cohen and Donald Trump are still living in 1970s New York.  

Also it’s really something that we have people in 2018 that look at Roy Cohn as some kind of heroic figure.  That said Nathan Lane will be playing him on Broadway starting in late March in “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and I am 100% interested in seeing it! 

The FaceID Only Conundrum

~ darren ~ Leave a comment

New tech is not always better just because it is new.  Over the last year while rumors of FaceID becoming reality on the next phone were out there, we also heard how Apple was working on getting TouchID working on the screen.  Well they didn’t, and now it’s FaceID only on the iPhone X.  
Judging by the first reviews this move will be a tad controversial.  I have two worries.

  • Checking the phone discreetly is now impossible.  If you are in a meeting, out for a meal, or just walking down the street a great feature of the iPhone was unlocking it while taking it out of your pocket and just peeking down at the screen. The phone never had to get a few inches outside your pocket and you had the ability to respond quickly to message, read a note, etc.  Now if you want to unlock it, the phone has to see your face.  
  • The other worry is Apple Pay. I know there is a new gesture (double tap power button) to launch Apple Pay, but again your face to authorize?  This is where the previous home button was perfect.  

Both of these issues can be resolved if you use an Apple Watch with your phone.   I wonder if Apple starts pushing the Watch as the “needed” accessory to get the everything working as it did before.  I know it would not be Apple like, but I wish they just put a fingerprint sensor on the back like Google did and let you unlock with your finger or your face.  We will all find out in just a few days if my worries are founded.