unclevlad

Upsets aplenty today at the Open. Mentioned Halep losing. On the men's side...Tsitsipas at #4, Fritz at #10, and 4 more lower seeds (16 to 31). I think 3 of em to qualifiers, and Fritz lost to a 24 year old who...even with the win...didn't break the top 200. The other 2 Qs reached career highs...so these aren't players who've been there, fallen back, and making a comeback. On the women's side, the other significant upset was #8 Kasatkina losing to a 26 yo Brit, Harriet Dart, who reached her career high with the win, at 81. 2 other low seeds lost...#27 and #30.

What costs more...a pro tennis player's outfit, or your car? Tonight...it's the outfit. https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Serena_Williams/119726/serena-williams-to-rock-stunning-diamondencrusted-shoes-in-final-us-open-pics-/ Diamond studded SHOES....

Pocket change. His contract is about $1.5M with only $100K guaranteed. Darnold's is over $18M, salary and cap hit. Fully guaranteed. And arguably, he's got the more strongly established pattern of failure....and yes, I realize that's saying something when comparing to Lock.

listed as "undisclosed draft compensation"...and probably not that much. ESPN article notes he was 2nd in drops, and has a history of running the wrong routes, which is just inviting an INT to happen. Also sounds like it's an insurance trade. The Panthers would have to pay someone to take Darnold off their books.

The Nats' magic number to be eliminated from the expanded wild card race is 8. With 6 games for them between now and Labor Day, 3 against the Mets, and 6 for the Padres...altho 3 of those are against the Dodgers...it's entirely plausible that the Nats will be eliminated before Labor Day. Back in the days of only 1 WC? They'd actually already be eliminated from the WC already. Their elimination number for the division would be 4 *today*. The Rockies simply cannot win on the road. They're the only team who hasn't won 20 road games yet. Might also give the Nats a bit of a break...Mets and Braves are basically playoff locks, and 2nd and 4th in the NL. Philly is up to #5, tho. The Nats are 9-42 against the NL East, BY FAR the worst in-division record in the majors. Second worst is the Red Sox at 18-36. That's just bad; 9-42 is indescribably awful for baseball. Against everyone else, the Nats are 34-43. That's not good, but it's at least offering some hope.

Actually, read the story. Report is, this wasn't letting Watson off easier, this may have been sticking it to the Browns the most. So this could well be more about sticking it to Haslem for that contract structure...and for the optics of giving Watson such an obscene deal. Also figure, being suspended for the full season, as it turns out, would not have hurt Watson at all. So...hey, maybe that rationale is accurate.

I rather suspect few, if any, of us, knew who Daria Snigur was. She's a 20 year old tennis player from Ukraine. 4 days ago, the US Open held a Tennis Players for Peace exhibition in support of Ukraine. She was, of course, invited...along with Nadal, Swiatek, Alcaraz, Tsitisipas, and others. The first exhibition match was Nadal and Swiatek playing Gauff and John McEnroe. (Hey, exhibition.) And the last was Tiafoe and Yastremska (another Ukranian) vs. Korda...and Snigur. Now, recognize that Snigur started out the US Open qualifying ranked 129...so she had to qualify. And she's 20. And she's playing at an event with *legends* of the game. Commentators during the match just now, said she was blown away...this was way, way beyond anything she'd ever experienced. So today, she's playing Halep...a likely hall of famer with 2 Grand Slam titles, and 24 overall. On Louis Armstrong court, one of the main courts. In tennis terms, she's a kid...seriously. One WTA-level match this year...a loss. First time making a Grand Slam field...which is huge as it is, as her career earnings (in ITF events) was $93K coming into this. Making the last round of qualifying meant picking up $44K...and making the first round guaranteed $80K. Obviously HUGE. Snigur came out and took the first set, but Halep came back and bageled the second, 6-0. Snigur came back to take a 5-1 lead in the last set...fighting off a break point. Halep took the next 3...and the nerves were definitely affecting Snigur. She dropped the first 2 points on her serve at 5-4...but came back to win that game and the match. She was *stunned* to have done it. Very cool reaction. Looks like the first match of the night session...which at the Open, on day 1, is a big deal, there's an extensive ceremony. It's the equivalent of the opening ceremonies, despite obviously having had quite a few matches played. So who else? Serena. No one cares she's not seeded, nor is her opponent. NO DOUBT that this is the hardest seat to get tonight. EDIT: they're now replaying the post-match interview. She is barely coherent, the moment is that huge. The fans gave her a huge response.

Speaking of the SEC and Big 10... https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/college-football-looks-even-more-top-heavy-than-usual-this-year/

Just saw this. Patrick Corbin got credit for a win yesterday, going 6, giving up 1. The remarkable aspect is: this was the first win recorded for a Nats starter since July 6th. 43 games. SMASHED the previous record of 35. Granted: there's a much higher percentage of games where the starter never qualifies for the win these days. Still... And yes, the Nats are that bad. 12 fewer wins than our despondent Mr. P's Rockies.

It is definitely a gritty mechanic. Shadowrun and, IIRC, L5R had something similar...wounds applied penalties to target numbers...ALL of them in Shadowrun. (I remember those rules better.) Offense and defense. -1 on a d6 is nasty; -2 is devastating, when you have to roll high. In fact, I think in later editions they changed it from a target number penalty to a dice pool size penalty; the roll penalties made combats *extremely* hard to balance, I thought. One side effect is that people would probably buy more Con, particularly in 5E where you'll get all those figured stats. You'd also get a shift in defenses. Damage Negation and Damage Reduction are even less valuable...first things first, stop taking BODY.

I'd want to re-examine every conference, should things actually settle down for a few years, but the path if the SEC and Big 10 stay within the NCAA framework, appears to be the SEC and Big 10 at the top, the ACC and Big 12 *well* below them, and a few others...I don't know how many strong-ish conferences will be left after poaching. The Pac X is in this mix; they might become like C-USA, with "best of the rest" status. It's also possible that the Big 12 falls to this level...so it might well be the Super 2 and Group of 3, with the current Group of 5 completely discounted. As I noted, that might depend on how badly the Pac, Big 12, and possibly ACC fare. (Yeah, I get Clemson, but they're also an outlier, in that no one else in the ACC is above decent in football, and it's never seemed that they will get and stay there. The ACC is basketball first, and they're also really good in many other sports...football is not the elephant in the room at many of them.) Other thoughts: it's possible that e.g. Rutgers and perhaps Nebraska *leave*. Or get booted. Also, given the American Mindset, it seems likely that the SEC and Big 10 will only tighten their grip. There's a cycle there, as they dominate TV, therefore ratings, therefore bowls, therefore recruiting. It's not 100%...but the SEC has been the #1 conference for a while, and they're the only conference to get 2 teams into the playoffs in the same year...twice. Alabama and Georgia each time. A massive caveat here: we simply don't know how NIL issues will change the landscape.

What's written in the books sometimes includes hard-to-recognize factors, too. But yeah, sometimes the published costs don't work out very well, even considering those factors I can extract from similar items.

From NYT email about DeSantis and Florida: This is why, IMO, the modern far right is so much more of a threat. They're not simply imposing from the top, they're also strengthening the roots.

Angels are beating the Blue Jays 7-2. Buck Martinez, the Blue Jays analyst, is a square shooter...always has been. He's not a club apologist. Blue Jays have been playing poorly; there was a base running incident where a runner at first jogged on a ball up the middle. So he and Schulman have been talking. Buck made a big point. He feels that ball players don't feel enough pressure to keep their jobs...that there's a general lack of depth. That's why you see the inconsistent performances, the repeating of mistakes, the refusals to adapt...if the players aren't worried about being replaced, why should they? This doesn't apply to rookies on min contracts...which can be a lot of players on some teams...but once a player's getting guaranteed money, getting a 'paltry' 3-4 mill a year...it's a whole lot harder to send him down. He noted one factor, applicable just in the last couple years: teams only have 4 farm teams. I'll add, more broadly, simple expansion...most of the top 400 players are already in the majors for much of the year (counting long-term injury call-ups), so you're already down the depth chart quite a ways. There's very broad conservatism...the fear of doing worse is largely stronger than the hope of making a mild improvement.

I'd be stunned if any international league or association holds a sporting event in Russia. The invasion, sure...but also Brittney Griner. On the personal level, this is the incident that would have me saying no chance, no way, no how am I entering Russian jurisdiction.

League's policy is that whatever happens in practice, is left to the team to discipline. That includes practice against another team. Donald didn't really do anything that doesn't happen from time to time, when teams hold joint practices. Heck, sometimes just during normal practices. Yeah, the Bills GM isn't looking smart. He's claiming the severity wasn't really explained...but if one is briefed by the guy's lawyer, you MUST assume you're getting a highly sanitized account. That's the lawyer's job. But hey, what's the NFL without domestic violence or inappropriate conduct charges? Funniest thing in the PFT comments: do the Browns need a punter?

The only one like that I've personally read was Straczynski's Superman: Earth One...and only volume 1. I had no problem there, altho I know lots of others did, because to me, only details were changed...mostly modernized from a 30's or 40's basis to a 90's or 00's basis. One can argue that the ongoing development was...more problematic. But I also liked Thor having issues after the issues in the latter MCU films. However, to your point, you want Clark to work through the issues to develop the moral core...or it's not Superman. I think the entire reboot notion just won't work enough of the time. Rather than a reboot...move forward. Retire Clark...marry him off to Lois, make the happy ending, bring in Jon as their kid. Or make it a little weirder...age Lois, let her die. Clark becomes involved with some other female hero...possibly Diana. THEY have a kid. The mix of powers is...non-standard. Build from there. I wonder if they got leery of that because that's kinda what they tried with different Green Lanterns, but they made those new GLs putzes.

Does seem likely but it's also possible that Chapman messed up afterwards. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/tattoos-and-piercings/art-20045067#:~:text=Bloodborne diseases.,hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Seems stupid at any point during the season, as long as you're on the active roster. Tatis can go get some at this point, no problem.......... Yeah, I think I first heard this on MLB Tonight, and one of those guys made the same comment. NOT good judgment, even if the risk is typically low these days.

A "lab" can also be a type of practice/development area. I take OPs notion as basically a holodeck approach.

This is if you do still care... Butternut squash. Clean out the seeds, break down into a few manageable chunks (also makes it easier to seed), salt, seasonings, a bit of oil. Slow roast at 275 for 45-60 minutes. Let cool. The skin can be cut off easily at this point. Messy, what with the oil and all. After that? Measured amount of roasted squash, about 50% more liquid, by weight. I use unsweetened almond milk. Salt, sweetener (light touch to start), seasonings...tonight was five spice and cinnamon. Puree til smooth; I use my smoothie blender. Then just heat over low heat to avoid burning, and covered to prevent splatter (and evaporation...the squash makes a thick emulsion by trapping the free water, so you don't have much spare liquid.) Sooooo good. Works with acorn squash, altho that's even milder than butternut, and pumpkin, preferably pie pumpkin. I love fall. I wish I could get the array of fall seasonal beers that were around, 15-20 years ago, but...not available locally....

In the What the......... category Aroldis Chapman has been put onto the 15 day IL due to, apparently, a rather nasty infection in his leg. The WTF aspect? It was from getting a tattoo. Can't make this stuff up...

If you bar the direct route, then you should absolutely bar the indirect route...especially if it makes it cheaper. And this is just getting way too convoluted for my taste. Actually, I can see how this would work in that case...as long as one kept it highly specific. This is from a wiki article on a related practice: So it's a binary agent...the triggering agent, arsenic, is there to produce the reaction...THEN the second component reacts with the immune response, in whatever form, and *boom.* There's precedent for this. Parathion and malathion are both pesticides. In humans, malathion is generally the more lethal, because parathion is neutralized by the liver, IIRC. However, a tiny dose of malathion knocks this response out...and at that point, parathion is the more lethal. Believe that's correct, anyway...I'm going back, cuz I'm pretty sure this was in Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's seminal early work on environmental damage. I think some snake or spider venoms work that way too...some are exceptionally complex, and have components that disrupt the response to other components, so the whole is nastier than the parts. Alternately, the binary agent's secondary component reacts with the secondary metabolic byproducts of the body's response to the main toxin. But again, these are quite specific.

Guy needs to stop being so easily distracted... There's a lot to be said for starting a reset by cutting WAY back. I'm looking over what DC's got out now...and it is a jumbled mess. NINE different Batman series? One thing tho: being tied to mega corps means that suddenly paying living wage rates for pages seems unduly optimistic. It's not how they work. If the core talent isn't there, then the quality can't be, even if there's better editorial control.

Yeah, they weren't bad ideas, it's the way they were introduced, and the way the whole thing was such a massive retcon. Retcons BAD.

Anyone else see this? Braves are up big, 9th inning. Pitching isn't all that sharp...couple runs scoring, couple more on. Not worrisome by any means, but not what a manager wants to see. But then, the pitcher, Jackson Stephens, takes one *SQUARE* on the forehead...near the hairline, above the right eye. OOOF. He never drops down to the ground, but there was no question he *had* to come out of the game. Leaving him in would be reckless. News today, he was put on the 7 day concussion list, but there was no further word. Also saw: Adidas just dropped Tatis after his PED suspension. That's gonna sting; got to figure he had a *nice* sized deal with them. He may lose others, too; he's been one of the most prolific, high-profile pitchmen from MLB this year. Final note: we haven't hit September...and the Dodgers' number to clinch a playoff berth is 17.