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Posted
On 2/28/2025 at 10:30 AM, 83Horn said:

I don't know about a band name, but Glory Hole Protocol would make a pretty awesome album name.

I once went to a show that had a band named Fourplay. They weren't particularly good, but I loved the word play. 

Posted

"Playfly is backed by Access Holdings and Sinclair Broadcast Group and is led by CEO Craig Sloan."

https://collegesportswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/sec/2025/02/28/texas-am-playfly-sports-deal-explained/80849836007/

That's an interesting combination of DEI-driven company values and fairly conservative backers. And the article linked says Auburn and LSU are also signed on with Playfly, which seems to have a pretty large portfolio of clients. 

Bottom line for A&M seems to be that their advantage in funding probably lasted as long as it took for the ink to dry. Standard Liucci hype here, probably explained by his need to focus TexAgs attention elsewhere than fields and courts where aggy is stinking it up.

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Posted
On 2/28/2025 at 11:35 AM, Hookem10 said:

They found an idiot company to pay them money to try and make them look cool. Wtf. Can’t wait to see the logo on all their jerseys. Idiots working with idiots. There is no reason to be broke with slapdicks out there paying money like this - lmao

And yet they'll still be ranked 9th-10th in rankings no matter how much money have 

 

On 2/28/2025 at 11:54 AM, Evil Bill Obrien said:

can't wait till they want to rename their football stadium "Playfly Sports Stadium presented by Manscape at Kyle Foeld

 

On 2/28/2025 at 2:49 PM, Mittens said:

image.png.8589317ce9d7d0a376593be3e8e8eda4.png

Only after Texas, Bama, Georgia, Florida. And Ohio State are done, they are can have the leftovers. 

Posted (edited)

Saw a segment with, I believe, Ari and his guest, and the guy refused to call then aggies. He said they will always be Texas 8&4. He pointed out that they did nothing in the Big XII, and the SEC and and hadn't made the CCG, even with  Manziel,who regressed each season. with a 12 or 13 head start, and Texas came in their first year and made it to the CCG. 

Forgot to mention he said the talent differential was massive, the culture was beyond anything Elko could accomplish.

Edited by Funk Doctor Spock
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

In yesterday’s game we threw them like 80% breaking balls because they kept whiffing. Some were really far off the plate. Just some horrid hitting. I’m honestly not sure how good a win that was. Down 3-2 to Rice currently.

Edited by 'stache
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Posted

Check out this goat molester. During the NASCAR race, they did a drone shot interview on the tower at COTA. This douche stands up there behind the analysts, going full aggy for the duration of the interview. He did the horns down so long that he had to switch hands. 

IMG_3005.thumb.jpeg.bc0b4c6a2dd49364f4032fae1c4bf2c3.jpegIMG_3012.thumb.jpeg.15c2c6a2204e95db3fc81618169340ae.jpeg
 

Afterward, they caught him going over to his buddies so they’d know what a sneaky redass he is. Yucking it up and letting his goober bros know that he got dem durn t-sippers good.
 

“Hay Kyle. Dem durn t-sippers may beat us at every durn sport we play against em, by I got dem super gay fairies but good. They sure will be embarrassed by this, probly gonna wanna shake a dildo at me. t.u.’s a buncha obsessed gay homos. Frick them frickers. Hisssssssssss. Whoop! Aggies!”

IMG_3014.thumb.jpeg.22daa57c949ce8c45dae0de4b668aa0f.jpeg

Posted
21 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

IMG_5396.jpeg

Pardon me for stepping in what I assume is two or three years late.  But that's the Furk guy with the limp hoe, right?

Posted
4 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

image.png.60c592306e0893f97d6c2c383f054054.png

And here we have Cosmo Kramer discussing write-offs:

image.png.ad81f2ef613d201d8c99fb9889f0c93e.png

I’d say their AD is not wreckless. Instead, I’d say their AD engineered a wreck of a college baseball, CFB, and MCBB program. 

Posted
Pardon me for stepping in what I assume is two or three years late.  But that's the Furk guy with the limp hoe, right?

As foretold in the Sibyline ms paint slides.
  • Like 1
Posted
53 minutes ago, Basil said:

Pardon me for stepping in what I assume is two or three years late.  But that's the Furk guy with the limp hoe, right?

Same. I knew aggy was replete with Cletus types, but I never knew there was an actual living Cletus. Surreal.  

Posted
22 minutes ago, deft said:

14th is disrespectful. They’re the best 5-4 team in the conference if not the nation.

6-4

They're also the only 6-4 team in the conference.  Hey, they're not in last place, just second to last.

 

Posted

Happy Mardi Gras! Love posting this because it's too funny and never gets old. God this was from 2014 when the fake showed up late to the Galveston Mardi Gras parade and STILL MARCHED AFTER THE PARADE WAS OVER! God this screams Texas A&M! 🤣

713efbe6c195937de9b2d38cb08eab6b--mardi-

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Longboard Horn said:

Happy Mardi Gras! Love posting this because it's too funny and never gets old. God this was from 2014 when the fake showed up late to the Galveston Mardi Gras parade and STILL MARCHED AFTER THE PARADE WAS OVER! God this screams Texas A&M! 🤣

713efbe6c195937de9b2d38cb08eab6b--mardi-

You have to figure that whatever tard was responsible for them being late couldn’t just tell them to turn around and head back. They had to at least march for “parade” pictures. Also, how dumb does someone have to be to plan it so close that they missed getting there in time for the event?

They didn’t miss the parade, they just ran out of time. Whoop! 

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Posted
31 minutes ago, Longboard Horn said:

Happy Mardi Gras! Love posting this because it's too funny and never gets old. God this was from 2014 when the fake showed up late to the Galveston Mardi Gras parade and STILL MARCHED AFTER THE PARADE WAS OVER! God this screams Texas A&M! 🤣

713efbe6c195937de9b2d38cb08eab6b--mardi-

The folks who went to watch that parade really dodged a bullet. 

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Posted

The top pic is real?

They're really not sending their best to Mardi Gras.  Guess the not fat milk men are too busy whopping it up at baseball games. 

Posted
57 minutes ago, Longboard Horn said:

Happy Mardi Gras! Love posting this because it's too funny and never gets old. God this was from 2014 when the fake showed up late to the Galveston Mardi Gras parade and STILL MARCHED AFTER THE PARADE WAS OVER! God this screams Texas A&M! 🤣

713efbe6c195937de9b2d38cb08eab6b--mardi-

Can't believe I'm borderline defending them, but it does look like there are more people and even a float coming up the street behind them.

Posted
3 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

Happy Mardi Gras! Love posting this because it's too funny and never gets old. God this was from 2014 when the fake showed up late to the Galveston Mardi Gras parade and STILL MARCHED AFTER THE PARADE WAS OVER! God this screams Texas A&M! 🤣

713efbe6c195937de9b2d38cb08eab6b--mardi-

Lolol!

I was actually there and saw that. We laughed our asses off!

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Posted
Quote

As the spring planting season arrives in College Station, Texas, certified master gardener Mark Smith is thrilled that peace is in the air. This time last year, a loud buzzing noise began disrupting Smith’s morning routine of checking on the peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and shrubs growing in his backyard. Several times an hour, an Amazon Prime Air delivery drone would noisily emerge about 800 feet away, just past a line of trees behind Smith’s home. His neighbors began calling the fleet flying chainsaws. Smith, a retired civil engineer, preferred a different comparison: “It was like your neighbor runs their leaf blower all day long,” he says. “It was just incessant.”

Amid technical and regulatory challenges, Amazon’s decade-plus quest to fly small items such as toothpaste and batteries to people’s yards in under an hour has yielded just thousands of deliveries. The experience in College Station has highlighted another challenge: NIMBYs—or people who push for developments to be “not in my backyard”—potentially curtailing where Amazon operates.
 

Over the past few years, drone delivery companies have started operating in several towns and cities across the US without much fuss. The Federal Aviation Administration conducted environmental reviews of 21 planned drone rollouts over the past four years, none of which received more than three critical public comments or any organized opposition—except for one location.

 

In College Station, a university town of about 125,000 people, hundreds of ordinary residents along with the mayor and other officials banded together last year to oppose Amazon’s proposal to more than double the number of daily local drone flights. The FAA received about 150 comments opposing the plans, including from homeowners’ associations and other groups.
 

A parent said their teenage daughter feared using the swimming pool because of the drone’s camera. (Amazon says it faces forward, not down). A 92-year-old worried about doves that were no longer visible from a kitchen window. Many claimed their homes were losing value. One resident said their peace and quiet was being “invaded by some billionaire's insatiable desire to make even more money.”

In early July last year, councilmember Bob Yancy emailed the mayor and two city officials, explaining that complaints would intensify if Amazon didn’t move the drones. “Amazon’s MO thus far is to conduct aggressive PR efforts writ large while ignoring the immediately affected neighborhood,” Yancy wrote, according to public records obtained by WIRED. “Without causing a public stink around their project, for their sake and ours, I think we need to quietly secure some assurances that they will act immediately to directly address neighborhood concerns.”

The FAA ultimately determined that some of the public concerns were meritless or outside its purview and that Amazon’s proposed expansion wouldn’t cause significant environmental impacts. But the local pushback still got through to the tech giant. Company representatives sought city officials’ help in getting contact information for homeowners’ associations near the drone depot, according to the email records. Meetings ensued between Amazon and homeowners, and by the end of July, Amazon communicated its intent to relocate within the city. (Yancy tells WIRED that Prime Air is a valued member of the community and, as long as it is mindful of the noise, he hopes it stays.)

Over the summer, Amazon reduced the number of drone flights. In November, it fully adopted newer, quieter drones in College Station that deliver within a range of about 7.5 miles. Inside his house, with the double-paned windows shut and TV on, Smith could no longer hear the drones. More recently, wet winter weather has further restricted the frequency of flights. (Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson says the drones can withstand only light rain and limited temperatures.)

But things finally went back to fully normal for Smith and other residents of the woodsy communities near Amazon’s drone base in January, when the company temporarily grounded its drones nationwide for a software update process that is ongoing. Amazon plans to end its College Station lease on September 30, potentially giving the frustrated communities permanent quiet.

If Amazon had conducted the maximum number of flights outlined in its plans reviewed by the FAA, a drone might have buzzed by Smith’s house about every 58 seconds for 15 hours a day. Now, he hasn’t seen one in weeks.

Residents say they have noticed wildlife return to the area. Paul Greer, who lives near the drone depot, says he heard an owl for the first time in months. Deer also are more abundant with the drones gone, he says. Even Greer’s dog, George, is at peace. Seeing and hearing the drones during walks agitated his 50-pound bull terrier. “I don’t think anybody expected the noise to be as invasive as it has been,” Greer says.

Amazon’s Stephenson reiterates that the FAA review determined that the operations would not have a significant impact on wildlife and says that College Station officials conducted a test that found the drones operated below the city’s noise limits. “We work hard to listen to the community and to mitigate any potential impact from our operations,” Stephenson says. Since the company launched its new MK30 drone, he says, it hasn’t “received any community complaints, and the feedback from local officials has been positive.”

Some of the College Station residents who have complained about the noise say they still largely support the testing of drones. But many believe Amazon miscalculated by locating its depot close to so many residences. The company’s first depot—now shut down—was located near businesses and vineyards in rural California. Its third and newest location is at one of its warehouses in a quiet Arizona town. A planned site in the UK is also based at a fulfillment center and largely bounded by fields and industrial parks. “I don’t think we should ban this,” Smith says of drone delivery. “If there’s a place for it, and the market needs it, then fine, but it shouldn’t mess up the peace in the neighborhood.”

Amazon’s drone sector rivals, such as DroneUp and Alphabet’s Wing, have made many more deliveries, mostly by operating out of commercial areas and forming partnerships with physical retailers. That’s not so easy for Amazon, the nation’s dominant online shopping platform. It has plenty of logistics warehouses, but they’re not necessarily located close enough to customers for delivery drones to reach them.
Location, Location, Location

Amazon has said little about how it chose the location of its College Station drone hub, which it began leasing in 2022. Residents such as Smith believe privacy may have played a role. The building Amazon leased is tucked away behind trees, limiting what might be visible to prying eyes. Stephenson, the Amazon spokesperson, says its choice of location involved “thorough analysis of the area” and “close collaboration with local leaders.”

Smith says that during a series of community events Amazon hosted in 2022, some College Station residents were miffed by how the company highlighted cookies rather than urgent necessities as items Prime Air could deliver. He and others also asked to see the drones in action to gauge how loud they might be, but the company refused. “We ended up getting it without actually hearing it,” he says. Amazon’s Stephenson says that the demonstrations weren’t possible, because the FAA didn’t approve the drones to take flight until the end of the year when commercial operations began.

As flights began picking up early last year, the people who live closest to the drone depot started fuming over the noise. Residents appealed to the city to do something, but Texas lawmakers have essentially banned cities from regulating drones, leaving local officials powerless.

Smith, who previously worked as a city public works director in charge of big projects, says the only developments that he had seen attract this amount of opposition were landfills. The drone pushback also attracted international media attention, sparking concerns at city hall.

Public records show city officials have suggested numerous options for Amazon’s potential relocation, including a mall about 4 miles up the highway from the current building. As of December, though, College Station mayor John Nichols wrote in one email, Amazon had not shared any recent updates about the status of its search. Nichols tells WIRED that as of last week, he still hadn't heard anything.
Lessons Learned

Some College Station residents who live near Amazon’s drone depot site say the noise and property value concerns raised by their neighbors are overblown. “What were people like when lawnmowers first came out?” says Kim Miller, who could hear the drones above her front yard and once received a dog toy by air as a gift from someone. “Progress has some drawbacks,” she says.

Raylene Lewis, a real estate agent at NextHome Realty Solutions, which has listings near the drone base, says home buyers don’t seem to mind the prospect of drones overhead. In fact, more people are curious about whether a prospective home is within Prime Air’s delivery range, she says. Lewis’ own house happens to be just outside the perimeter, but she says she would love to use the service “whether I want cookies or my medicine or pen and paper for a kid’s project.”

Lewis believes Amazon should have been more forthright about its operations and should have offered a local customer service center for people with questions and concerns. With updates still difficult to come by, some residents remain frustrated. Several of them learned about Amazon’s fleet grounding only after inquiries from WIRED.

The grounding followed two crashes—one related to rainy weather and the other operator miscommunications—of the roughly 80-pound drones, according to Bloomberg. Amazon’s Stephenson disputes the cause of the pause, saying it was initiated to “safely and properly conduct a software update” and that services will resume following FAA approval.

The accidents have introduced a new worry in College Station. “These events really bring out that Amazon is using my neighborhood as a test zone,” says Monica Williams, a teenager who opposed the company’s expansion plan.

For now, more drones are poised to hit the skies. In Dallas-Fort Worth, Amazon rival Wing is awaiting FAA review to triple its maximum deliveries per day to 30,000. In Florida, the company is seeking review to provide up to 60,000 deliveries each day, starting from Walmart supercenters in the Orlando and Tampa metro areas.

Smith and others in College Station expect that as long as drones aren’t constantly buzzing near homes—and new versions get increasingly quieter—complaints will be minimal. He believes Amazon learned a valuable lesson in his city, and he’s glad the company is adjusting its course. His garden is certainly happy to have him back.

https://www.wired.com/story/texas-amazon-drones-stop-flying/

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