unclevlad

As opposed to our vacuous overlord wannabes....

A quiet truth emerging from this round... Kickers *matter*.

That...would definitely cause a few problems. But I think it wouldn't shatter the planet. Restructure? Yeah. Totally depopulate while massive earthquakes ravage everything? Yeah. But eventually you'd get a new normal.

You're overestimating. 40 miles. Call it a pyramid, 40x40x40. Volume's about 20,000 cubic miles. Density is about 3. The inner core...radius is about 760 miles (Wikipedia). So volume of just the core is about 1.4 billion cubic miles. Density is much higher; it's a nickel-iron core. Listed as 10+. So the mass ratio's on the order of 1 : 240,000. Just to the inner core, and that's only a tiny fraction of the total mass. Relative to total mass...if my mental math's right, we're talking less than 1 part in 10 billion. Another way to look at this....the tectonic plates are about 60 miles thick. So you haven't even penetrated the bottom of the plates. Now, ok, if this was sitting at/near the surface? Yeah, it'd affect wind patterns over a very large area. I can see a major desert in its wind shadow, but that'd also depend on its location. It'd quite possibly create local seismic instabilities...note that you can't just consider the mass, but the moment due to Earth's rotation.

I think Rodgers wished it'd snowed harder, so it would've been harder to see how bad they stunk up the joint on offense. 14 first downs. 6 punts. Only 2 players caught passes, essentially...Adams and Aaron Jones had 9 each, 2 others had 1. A lot of that is on Rodgers, ya gotta think. Have to suspect that the 2nd half woes were due in part to adjustments against the only targets Rodgers seemingly considered.

This page takes a while to load but there's some good ones... https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3403062/aaron-rodgers-is-taking-a-vicious-beating-on-twitter I rather like this one: Maybe Aaron Rodgers is crying into his MyPillow right now

From a post on Twitter...not mine... Everyone stop making fun of Aaron Rodgers, he hates being needled.

Lots of upsets but that really isn't surprising. In the least. Aussie Open often has more than most majors, because everyone's coming off an extended break. And then, of course, with omicron, the disruption level is back to Really High. Shapovalov just finished off Zherev...in straights. 3, 6, 3. Big surprise; he'd lost, I think they said, last 17 matches against top 5 opponents. Next up is Nadal, who played an insane first set against Mannarino...16-14 in the tie break...but Mannarino's tank was on empty after that. 2 and 2 in the next 2 sets. I remember Shapo beating Nadal in Canada in 2017, in a *brilliant* match that was a total joy to watch. Whether I 'll see this next battle? Hard to say. Once you get this late into the tournament, there's very few matches remaining. The early (Aussie time) matches are gone. Evening matches...we're 6 hours later (absolute sense) so they're VERY early morning starts, pretty often. That's the frustrating thing with the Aussie Open.

Nice play calling on that last possession. Fairly safe but still with good potential for production. That...I think it was a trap, to Samuel, on 3rd and 7...heck of an effort. Wonder if he strained a hammy, it looked like it. But man, that was a really ugly position, but they executed.

PRAISE ROZELLE!!! PRAISE ROZELLE!!! RODGERS IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has to be one of the wackiest 2 games, back to back, I've ever seen. I'll make the same point now, in advance. IF!!! this goes to OT, I think I'd rather kick first. No certainty at all it'll get there.

Well, that came out quite nicely... 1 fairly large butternut squash, quartered and roasted (about an hour at 350)....netted about 800 grams when all said and done 1 mid-sized granny smith apple...another 200 grams. (Might use 2 next time but this was OK.) Tossed into the blender with a lot of unsweetened almond milk...about a liter...to get everything pureed. Split into 5 personal-size portions. So, 1 portion into a saucepan with a small amount of liquid stevia, some pumpkin pie spice, and a suggestion I saw...some prepared ginger. Probably a tablespoon? Might've been a bit much. Warm and serve. Quite yummy. I'll try a bit less ginger next time, I expect, but it was a solid combo. Butternut is available all year, and this is really easy and quick at dinner time.

Only scheduled Champions game I ever played at a con had pregens. That one didn't go real well...in part because the players weren't that comfortable with the system. The only time I can ever recall BYOC, that I played, were the Living campaigns, and that was D&D, and prior to 3E mostly. Options were much more limited. But even those dragged at times...especially with brand new characters.

External hard drive for now; main-use system is a NUC with a small-ish SSD. Got a 4 TB external, so lots of bigger stuff goes there. Considering a Win 11 box; the NUC is feeling sluggish. Part of that, tho, is Windows and external hard drives. Drive goes to sleep after a relatively short period of time; Windows seems to need to reload the entire file table...or something like that. So there's major lag. And, the NUC is not Win 11 ready according to MS. Well, OK, it's an i3-based NUC that's several years old now. If I do upgrade, I'm likely to go with something like 512 gig SSD and 1 or 2 gig hard drive built in, UNLESS I go for another NUC. Probably not, but they're dead quiet, and I do love that.

Uhhhh...after the Texas abortion law? You're thinking rational choices will prevail. This has been disproven. No, it's NOT just a sop to his allies. And as we've said elsewhere on this thread: too many senior Republican politicians don't give a damn about the wishes of their constituents as a whole. Their job is to ensure they stay in power, to lock up that power, and to make liberal attitudes as uncomfortable as possible. Controlling the educational curriculum is absolutely part of this.

Hey, change your destination to Skull Island and I might kick in a little something.....

Three picks and playing not to lose with 2:40 left. EXTREMELY conservative play calling. Perhaps reasonable at the start, just due to field position, but they stayed super-conservative after getting the first down at the 35. Still need to get 30 yards, but they ran the ball and let the clock run. Overall, I think the Titans lost due to a) no confidence in Tannehill b) coaching. The discussion above; also, IMO, taking the penalty after the first TD to try for 2. I don't like that. I'd rather take it on the kickoff; there's more options. Hard to say if trying to bring Henry back helped or hurt. Ah well. It was a better game. Unusual...yeah. Choppy because the defenses were notably better than the offenses...Titans might've been a bit in disarray trying to bring Henry and Jones back, but who knows. Now it's time to throw another log on the fire in sympathy. 14 degrees at kickoff and it'll only get colder...??? Ewwww... Too bad I don't have a fireplace....

If this goes to OT as it's looking to... This is a game where I'd prefer to kick off to start the OT. The defenses are largely controlling everything. Isolated big plays, yeah, but...I think I'd rather have the 2nd possession because at that point, my FG wins the game. EDIT: well, that just became rhetorical now... Clearly one of the stranger games I've seen in some time, with quite a few rather uncommon plays. More bootlegger turns than a Dukes of Hazzard episode. Oh lordy, Starlord's gonna be insufferable now, isn't he....

OK, since the first game's just about to kick...the Magic 8 Ball says..... Titans over Bengals Packers over Niners (sigh) would love to pick the Rams, but I just can't... let's go with Bills over Chiefs. Maybe this is an overreaction to how the Bills played on offense last week, but the Chiefs have also been very erratic at times.

I don't remember if we've posted this here; mighta been in one of my FB groups....but entirely on point. If it's a repeat, it's worth repeating. https://theoceancleanup.com/

I think it says a LOT more about the Titans' fan base than the team.

Speaking of the blizzard, a pipeline company threatened to cut off 5 Texas power plants yesterday, over payments they claim were owed as a result of events from during that blizzard. They called it a $21M penalty. This, after the power company already paid them $600M...more than expected for the entire YEAR...during the blizzard. Texas seems like it's a great example of how things might be if the Republicans complete their hostile takeover. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/20/texas-power-plants-gas-pipeline/

Austria's lower house of Parliament passed a bill today mandating Covid vaccination for everyone 18+, with some exceptions. The upper house has to pass it as well, then the president has to sign it, but NYT story says both are expected to be mere formalities. This will make Austria the first country to do this...but without doubt IMO, not the last. The law allows for random checks, including traffic checks, and not being able to show vaccination status carries a possible 600 euro fine. According to WorldOMeters, Austria's new case rate has been a touch under 14,000 per 1M people.

Yeah, the conclusion is at odds with the early reporting. There's a wrongful death lawsuit that's been filed against the park. If it's suicide? Pretty sure the lawsuit has no chance whatsoever, so that has to be the first thing to challenge.

So the stranglehold of the NCAA over college sports has been broken. They passed a new, highly simplified constitution, abrogating numerous powers and saying the divisions can set their own rules. https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/33110069/ncaa-member-schools-vote-ratify-new-streamlined-constitution Ahhhhh, ambiguity. No question but we'll hear about "education-related" benefits that will bear little or no resemblance to an educational mission. But this is pretty much it, for the NCAA as a governing body. I also suspect it'll increase the momentum for the Power 5 and CFP to completely separate.