Winter 'Tis the Season Banter Thread 2018-2019

[Math/Met]

2 minutes ago, tnweathernut said:

Yes, it is.  He claims he was overseas and found the shirt and just wanted to give Alabama fans a hard time, but I don't buy it.  He was much more active wrt questionable calls in that game (29 to 15 whistles in favor of LSU).  Barnes wasn't happy and I consider him pretty fair minded and not one to make a big deal out of nothing. 

The SEC office knows about it and has put out a statement trying to smooth it over talking about all his accolades as an official. I personally don't think he ever needs to officiate an LSU game again with several questionable calls and several missed calls in favor of LSU.  You don't make that foul call with 0.6 seconds left in OT either.  He was the one that blew the whistle on that play 80 feet from the basket.

All this said, TN absolutely had chances to put them away and didn't.  Kudos to LSU (and their fans) for taking advantage of the situation and pulling out the win.

I saw that picture on social media and originally thought "there's no way that's real".  That’s ridiculous..

Regardless of the true story behind the picture, it shows a lack of integrity on his part for even agreeing to do an LSU game. He knew that picture was out there.

 

[Greyhound]

I hadn't heard this so I went and searched.  Here it is for everyone else who has been in self-imposed exile since Saturday's loss:

 

[Blue Ridge]

Yikes. Not a good look at all.

@tnweathernut, I agree and raise you the following: he should not be assigned to any game with conference title implications henceforth. That should include front-runners LSU, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and both Ole Miss and USCe, who are three games behind but not yet eliminated. Hell, throw Florida and Clanga in there for good measure as well.

Tennessee fans are entitled to being upset and would hold that right regardless of foul discrepancy or outcome.

[Greyhound]

Now this:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SwainEvent/status/1100113752198995968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1100113752198995968&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html%231100113752198995968

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

[John1122]

He's clearly an LSU fan and clearly has rooting interests in the league. Unacceptable for any official. That his calls skewed heavily in favor of LSU, including game changing type plays, is especially concerning. 

At one point he called Grant Williams for a blocking foul where the sole contact on the play was Grant getting elbowed in the face. He made the decision to let the LSU player stay in the game and not get kicked out when said player literally picked up Grant with both hands and slammed him to the floor in a clear flagrant 2 situation. He was right there watching Grant get hooked and held big time at the end of the game, and he went to the monitor and didn't call the hook and hold. Just out of bounds off Grant, because his off hand was in the arm bar and he couldn't grab the ball. Of course he made the final call with .6 seconds left when the ball was loose and the players collided. His calls against Tennessee, were more numerous than the total calls made by any other ref against both teams. The timing is even worse in that ESPN just aired the special about the NBA ref who was fixing games, his pattern of making calls against teams he was betting against were similar to the pattern from this ref vs Tennessee.

[Nash_LSU]

Every team gets screwed by the refs from time to time. This time it went in our favor and against UT. It just happens. LSU has been screwed many times, so I'm empathetic towards the UT fans. At the same time I'll take the W.

[John1122]

4 minutes ago, Nash_LSU said:

Every team gets screwed by the refs from time to time. This time it went in our favor and against UT. It just happens. LSU has been screwed many times, so I'm empathetic towards the UT fans. At the same time I'll take the W.

There's a big difference in getting a bad call and having a ref potentially altering the outcomes of games with his whistle because he's a fan of a certain team. The NBA ref made about 5-6 bad calls a game to alter their outcome and it worked for a long time. Vegas betters knew about it and won something like 90 percent of bets they placed involving his bets. I don't see how the SEC can possibly keep this guy. They won't change the outcome of the game, but it's very questionable at best at this point.

[TellicoWx]

Kinda embarrassing for US 

[tnweathernut]

1 hour ago, Nash_LSU said:

Every team gets screwed by the refs from time to time. This time it went in our favor and against UT. It just happens. LSU has been screwed many times, so I'm empathetic towards the UT fans. At the same time I'll take the W.

If you are a fan of a team, that's cool.  You don't get to ref in games that include your favorite team.  Deleting the picture off FB was incriminating.... as was the picture he took in an Alabama sweatshirt where he lost a bet and a friend chimed in by saying he was a true fan to follow through with his bet.  LSU fan and making friendly wagers.  He shouldn't be allowed to officiate an SEC game from here on out and certainly a game where LSU is on the court.  Congrats on the win......... and welcome to the forum.

[Carvers Gap]

Nailbiter last night.  Vols with some clutch shooting to close the game against Ole Miss.  That game was the very epitome of the type of grinder found in the NCAA tournament against a good team.  Still need to get the 3-ball dropping again.  Big game against the Cats on Saturday.  

[Carvers Gap]

Found this on the FoxNews site.  I think the blue is titanium.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/california-astrophotographer-creates-colorful-moon-image-using-pieces-of-150000-photos

 

 

 

[EastKnox]

All that nice work and he forgot to rotate it....haha.  I did a similar photo (composite of about 40k images) for the January 2018 supermoon.

On a side note...last day of meteorological winter.  This thread will be done soon.

[Windspeed]

So I think it is safe to say that AccuWeather's seasonal tornado outlook and forecast this week was an embarrassment to the meteorological community. Personally I think the bullshit at AW needs to stop. There is nothing remotely scientific about such a prediction and it just misleads the general public. It's a pseudo-statistical charade of gimmicks and spectacle that is unjustifiable for providing any kind of helpful, much less realistic accuracy. It is also crap such as this that leads to people losing faith in what is probable outcome and scientific methodology in general. They may as well hire psychics and let them write seasonal forecasts. I feel bad for the meteorologists that work there who had to go along with what appears more like an executive marketing/media decision than one based on actual good forecast reasoning.

[Holston_River_Rambler]

That that it matters much what I think, but your post above was well written and fun to read Windspeed. Agreed. 

2 hours ago, Windspeed said:

They may as well hire psychics and let them write seasonal forecasts.

I did lol a bit there. Hey they could pay me and I would at least drop some indices to make it sound more scientific and cite about ten articles. Heck, if they're reading this and want to revise it, I'm available for the half a day this would take me. 

$1000.00 flat rate. 

[Greyhound]

15 hours ago, EastKnox said:

All that nice work and he forgot to rotate it....haha.  I did a similar photo (composite of about 40k images) for the January 2018 supermoon.

On a side note...last day of meteorological winter.  This thread will be done soon.

Wait.....you took 40k photos of the moon???  How long did that take???  I assume you stacked them post-processing?  If you don't mind me asking....what lens did you use for that?  

[EastKnox]

27 minutes ago, Greyhound said:

Wait.....you took 40k photos of the moon???  How long did that take???  I assume you stacked them post-processing?  If you don't mind me asking....what lens did you use for that?  

Yes is the short answer.  The posted picture is a mosaic of 19 different photos of a more "zoomed in" view of the moon.  Each one of the 19 photos was created using approx 3000 images in a row at a high frame rate...essentially a video.  The stacking software identified the quality of the 3000 images and only the best 2000ish were kept to be stacked and then processed before combining into the final mosaic.  I spent about an hour behind the telescope (old 8" reflector) and camera (ZWO ASI120MC-S) and then another couple of hours in various post processing software to get the final result.  This was my first attempt at this kind of imaging and I aim to do another if we ever see clear skies again.