unclevlad

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.

I don't remember this story, but...man.... https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33103144/deaths-woman-2-year-old-son-san-diego-padres-petco-park-ruled-suicide-homicide TL;DR: the woman held her kid and jumped. That's the verdict. The early reports speculated loss of balance. It seems unlikely that this is over. A tragic mess, no matter what.

I only caught a few Black Adder episodes here and there. I find...yeah, it can work, but it's also easy to go overboard. And that's when it's done *well*. I don't trust anyone to do it now; the fundamental style of comedy has changed. I also don't trust a modern American cast to do it right. And the scene that Spence has hidden? OK, so the target market is 10-12 year old boys...physical or mental age, mind.

I'm completely unfamiliar with the character/comic, but wikipedia says the character gets killed off in issue #3, but comes back later in the series. Yes, well, that's the comics. Real life is creepier. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60054237

Finding racial or gender inequity or prejudice/bigotry is never surprising. It's context-independent; what may vary is the exact form it takes.

Don't worry, it won't last. (Mind, I hope I'm totally, completely wrong here. But this is the one game that, on paper at least to me, is a mismatch.)

Yes.

First thing to consider is, when is a character eligible for a rank improvement? Then, as you've been asking, what does the rank difference mean? Wearing the Cape (the books) identified D, C, B, and A classes, then the rare Omega and Ultra. No regularly appearing PCs will be Ultra; they are simply untouchable, unstoppable, and irresistible. Omegas are pretty insane as they are. Flip side, D's aren't that much better than regular humans. When you're talking DCs and defenses, this is fairly easy. D to A, STR max (for chars based on STR) might be 25, 35, 45, 55. DCs might be 8, 10, 13, 16. Defenses would be commensurate. You might give a free DC of Damage Negation, as Grail suggested, each rank, alternating between PD and ED. (And start with rank 1 getting 1 of each, so at rank 9, everyone would have 5 PD/5 ED Negation.) I say free because it's inefficient to purchase, at least not without some limitations. When you're talking other stuff, well, that's when things get confusing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60034013 Those attending the Olympics are being advised to use a burner phone, and even create a temp email address. They are being required to use an app supplied by China to report their Covid status...and to have that app 14 days in advance of arriving. There are some flags about the app, tho.

And in yet another demonstration of the class and grace for which Fox News is so well known... https://www.thedailybeast.com/vindictive-laura-ingraham-scorched-for-cheering-mark-milleys-covid-diagnosis But let's also recognize that "the masses" LIKE them...at least a major fraction of them. That's why the accountability has broken down. And on both sides of the aisle, I think it's fair to say that the fear of the opposition is far, far greater than the anger at...well, almost any action.

That was certainly the case on the last Cowboy drive, but the offense was guilty too, earlier in the quarter. Plus, even in a loose defense, you guard the sidelines. Cowboys got 40 yards in 3 plays, all of which went OB at the end with NO problems.

Very widely reported a couple days ago, but perhaps largely under the radar for most of us here... DirecTV is not going to renew the contract with One America Network. The contract expires in April. Believe Reuters originally mentioned that DirecTV is the major revenue source for OAN. The usual suspects are claiming left-wing bias and censorship, of course.

Well, the avalanche started when Murray double-clutched. Once the protection started to break down, the *best likely* cases were getting to be pretty bad/ He was gonna need luck to just have it be incomplete. Figure: if he holds the ball, it's a safety. 16-0, and the Rams get the ball, commonly in fairly good field position...which means a FG is fairly likely. Not a given, but pretty likely. So the toss did hurt...but IMO, the bigger problem was situational recognition. And a side thought: did he have a safety valve...a receiver in position where he could throw it away? Intentional grounding in the end zone is also a safety, so there's a reasonable chance that Kingsbury deserves some of the blame, if the play call was part of the problem. I'm mostly hoping for better games. 4 blowouts; Raiders-Bengals was choppy; and the Niners had the Cowboys locked down for most of that game...it shouldn't have ever come down to that last play. The way they played in that 4th quarter...man, they tried to choke. Tried hard.

So the bluefin tuna gets eaten by the great white shark. It makes a lot of sense. XBox gets a massive, critical library; Activision Blizzard has a much better chance now of flushing the vermin from the company. The downside to consumers and gamers is...it is Microsoft. Not that it could be anyone else.

Been a long time since I read it too...probably about 8 years ago or so. But Dubois was pretty heavily the philosophical POV character...and he was ex-MI, and advocated for it. It is also pretty commonly believed Dubois is Heinlein's stand-in. So, yeah, the militaristic aspect can readily be inferred.

Pantone lists it as a cyan-blue. RGB (from Ram web site) is 0,53,148. The nearest named shade, from Pantone, is dark powder blue (0,51,153). I think it plays off the yellow very well. So now it's time to cogitate, freshen up the tea leaves, and see if the ouija board is working to make the next round of predictions.

Hank Aaron signs the first $200K contract. For reference, that would be about $1.3M today. I still fear that the timing is really poor for avoiding a strike this year, unlike 1972. The antagonism level between players and owners has become exceptionally high. I vaguely remember the Flood case, but pretty sure it didn't make a whole lot of sense at the time. I'd forgotten the Carlton trade. Not Carlton; arguably the best lefty slider I can ever recall.

And it looks like we've got blowout #4, of the 6 games. Kyler Murray commits the deadly sin of holding the ball WAYYYYY too long *in the end zone* and gets burned with an EASY pick-6 to move it solidly into Rout territory. Arizona is going to have to re-think their offense. It's been moribund. EDIT: and now with over 10 minutes left in the third, the Cards have a 0.5% win probability, thus making it official. Another rout. Unless something RADICALLY changes, this'll wind down a disappointing round, from a competitive standpoint. Not so much from a results standpoint, but there's been *so much* garbage time this round...

There's still time, and the situation may well change, but the French Open has announced a change in its policies. From Yahoo Sports, I think we may well see further pressure too, before then. The next Masters 1000 is at Indian Wells, in the California high desert not too far east of LA, just a bit SE of Palm Springs. I don't know what the vaccination policies are, but Los Angeles has been hit hard by Omicron. An article that pulls no punches... https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/the-tarnished-legacy-of-novak-djokovic

Plus, he plays for the Cowboys, where the hype machine is turbocharged and has afterburners.

But how many of em are like Romo, who couldn't figure out the yards to gain to kick the long FG in the first half? Yeah, ok, then I'll mostly blame McCarthy. Gee...what's new there??? Oh, yeah...Bayless is going off in an all-caps tirade that the umpire was late. Yeah, right. He's got to come from well in the backfield, got to make his way through the line. How fast do you want him to get in there???? One of the analysts said their team rule was, 18 seconds. 14 is...ok, if everything works perfectly. AND if you've got a QB who can maintain his cool...and that is not, IMO, Prescott.