The hardest part about the World Cup being over is going back to all of the newsletters and headlines surrouhdibg American-only-based sports. Basketball. (American) football. (Not necessarily American) golf and hockey. Having a really hard time caring about any of it.
I still love baseball. And maybe I get back into that. Its everyday nature helps in that.
Update: Perfect example
Sigh.
It’s amazing how one goal can change so much. If Argentina scores one goal, and wins the World Cup, the entire post-match, following day commenarty is vastly different. As it stands, so much digital ink is being spilled on how shit Argentina was in the game and how they didn’t have a single shot for the first 105 minutes or so. And that’s all true. But NO ONE would be talking about that if they had scored one goal. Or even gotten it to penalties and won. That stat (admittedly horrible) would have been tossed in the garbage can to feed the Messi-as-legend narrative.
I admit, I wanted the Messi-as-legend narrative. But it’s hilarious (and slightly saddening) to read the complete opposite simply because Spain scored one more goal. (And oh by the way, for as much as Spain “dominated” game and Argentina were “shit”, Spain still took 116 minutes to score one against a 10-man Argentina squad.)
Soccer: a game of ever-shrinking differences.
The Folds
In another (better) timeline, these two have been happily married for years.
Sadly, it didn’t happen.
Credit to Spain, though. Their plan to neutralize Messi was just never give Argentina the ball. And it worked.
Can he do it one more time?
Clouds showing out today
No notes.
Trump Media & Technology Group to launch Truth API to sell to Wall Street
President Trump’s social media platform announced plans Thursday to sell Wall Street firms early access to its “most market-moving” posts.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of Truth Social, said it would launch “Truth API” — a direct data feed that would give investment firms “real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.”
The naked grifts are just never-ending. We’ve come a long way from Carter having to give up his peanut farm.
Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.
In the land of things that do not surprise me at all.
So, let me get this straight. You “lose” NBC and no price lowering. And when you get it back, you raise prices. Not by $3. not by $5. Or even $10. Nope. By $15 per month.
WTF.
Customer service is awesome.
Hegseth wants to test troops for low testosterone | AP News
When asked what conditions Hegseth was looking to address with the new policy, the Pentagon referred to Hegseth’s remarks in the video that mentioned keeping troops “strong, resilient and capable” and that the rigors of the modern battlefield demand “maximum psychological and mental readiness.”
What is this obsession with “manly” troops, whatever “manly” means to these people. It’s getting a little homoerotic, if you ask me.
Sometimes it feels like my job is just to manage thousands or millions of queued background tasks and make sure all the servers are perfectly in balance.
This. So this.
Lindsey knew better. He chose worse.
Lindsey Graham was a pathetic man, a true cynic and a faithless servant of the Constitution.
I think this line says it all.
Mark Downie on Mastodon:
Beef, One Piece, Avatar live-action all had 2+ years between S1 and S2. You can’t ask people to binge a show in a weekend and then wait two years to care again.
Could not agree with this more.
Did I just block off my work calendar for Tuesday’s WC semi-final match between Spain and France?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Watching the Spain / Belgium game in LA. On the broadcast, they’ve mentioned, numerous times, how hot it is. “Baking” is a word they’ve used.
It’s 80 degrees.
I’ve heard many retorts to the (American) English announcing style of World Cup matches since the Cup began several weeks ago. “Nothing compared to the announcers in Spanish!” I’m told.
Having watched several World Cup games from hotel rooms outside the U.S. these past two weeks, I can assure you the level of drama and theater is WAY up there with the U.S. announcers as compared to say the German and Hungarian announcers we listened to. It was like watching a golf broadcast during the Spain / Portugal game last night. Brutal.
Such a good read, regardless. But this passage is perfection:
Then I stopped by the men’s room, which featured a decorative fish tank whose sole occupant had a full-frontal view of the urinals. If reincarnation is real, Henry Kissinger is in that tank.
There is an undeniable irony when the Museum of Communism charges for entry.
I feel very jaunty carrying an umbrella around Prague.
Even in Amsterdam I find someone wearing an Atlanta United jersey!
What always strikes me being in an international airport in another country is just how much it’s like any international airport in the U.S. Same hustle. Same busy-ness. Same overpriced, mediocre food. Our similarities really do outweigh our differences. :)
After a long struggle to stay open (prices going up, staff shortage), my beloved coffee spot will be closing this Friday. I could point out the utter convenience of Spiller Park, I mean, it was within walking distance of the house. But it’s more than that. It was a place where they knew me. I was a “regular”. They knew my order without even having to say it. That doesn’t happen that often anymore.
Man, I’m going to miss this place.
Isn’t it funny that the words resign and re-sign have two very different meanings?
You think it ever occurs to racists to NOT start with “I’m not racist but…”?
France coach Didier Deschamps says MetLife Stadium pitch ‘really tough’ on players’ muscles
“We have played in the heat (at MetLife) so, if there is some rain, good, because the grass will be faster and the quality will be better, much better than the one in New York,” he said, referring to the venue that FIFA is calling the New York New Jersey Stadium.
“The pitch in New York was really tough — it took a lot out of the players’ muscles.”
This is further than he was willing to go immediately after the Senegal match, when he initially said he was not sure how to answer a question about the pitch, before describing it as “a special surface — it’s different.”
France midfielder Adrien Rabiot was a little less guarded, though, as he said it “seemed more like an artificial pitch … hard and rigid.”
Really starting to think that no pitch surface is acceptable to players except maybe their own.
The noun is inactive. The verb is deactivate.
That is all.
Jeremy Doku wants to be there for the birth of his first child. That should be the end of it
The baby will always be there. Let us leave aside, for a second, the awful yet very real possibility of complications and tragedy in childbirth, and grant the point. The baby, yes, would be waiting for Doku on his return. That is both true and beside the point.
Doku would not have been there, would not have experienced that moment. He would not have had the shared epiphany with his partner, felt the surge of hormones and emotions, the automatic, pre-rational connection with the baby. It is a hoary old cliche that the birth of a child — particularly your first child — is a life-changing event, but it happens to be true. There is no substitute for being in the room. You can’t get the same effect by hearing the story later.
The fact that we’re even having this conversation is just…I don’t even know. It’s baffling. Your child should take precedence. Period.
Messi just can’t stop 🐐-ing
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Lea Thompson in anything from the 80’s where she was not absolutely getting it done. 💯
No disrespect to this guy at all. In fact, I’m grateful he’s out there fighting the good fight and preaching the good word that AI is not the answer to everything.
But then we get to this statement:
The Al came later, and it was small: a step that flagged quotes with margins below their threshold before they went out the door.
Call me a simpleton, but I just refer to that “step” as math.
Watching the Norway match and there is a striker named Sørloth. Like this man is from a Lord of the rings novel or something.
Fox to Acquire Roku in $22 Billion Deal
On a call with analysts, Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox, called the acquisition a “defining moment” for his company, and one that “pairs Fox, the leader in live news and sports, with Roku, the leading connected TV platform. This acquisition will strengthen and expand our position in the high growth digital video ecosystem and unlocks new ways to serve our audiences and partners.”
Not that I would ever buy a Roku before this, but I’m definitely not buying one now.
This image sums it up pretty well.
“It’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect.
In other words, it’s Donald Trump.”
I think with AI you’ve got to be building the software equivalent of escalators if you’re going to do it for prod. That way if the AI goes away you still have stairs, unless you’ve gotten too out of shape to walk up them.
See, I read this as if you have to make Plan B deterministic (as a backup), why have a non-deterministic Plan A in the first place?
I’m usually all for uniformity and consistency. But this mandate for hydration breaks during this World Cup even when the match is INDOORS is just crazy.
This is my hand towel holder. Right next to my sink in the bathroom. You will notice it is free of its titular hand towel. In fact, it’s a rare occasion that it has its towel in tow.
This is not a slight to Jayme. Not even a little bit. She does a fantastic job of keeping up with laundry. Especially when the kids are home.
The real reason is that everyone uses dad’s hand towel. Except dad. Jayme uses it when she’s on my side (for whatever reason…makeup, hair drying, what have you). Caroline uses it whenever she uses the bathroom for the shower and/or bath. And Brian uses it when he shaves in my sink. Do they have their own bathroom? Yes they do.
We’ve lived in this house for 7 years. Do you know how many times I’ve actually used my own hand towel?
About 6 times.
Kennedy Center removes Trump’s name from building - The Washington Post
“With the removal of 18 letters — “The Donald J. Trump and” — the building’s exterior reads “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” once more. Trump’s name had been on the facade for 176 days, a dramatic change to the 55-year-old memorial to an assassinated president.”
Good. Things can go back to normal.
Really trying to understand why FIFA chose “MAR” for the abbreviation for Morocco. The only thing that might make sense is the French name for the country (“Maroc”). Yet, when the country’s name is spelled out elsewhere in the tournament, it’s the normal spelling “Morocco”.
Weird.
I’m genuinely asking…
In 1986, when the World Cup was hosted in Mexico, were there hydration breaks? If not, why? If so, why is everyone making such a big deal of them now?
I never realized how loud a hard surface flooring installation is in an empty house. The echoing is just ridiculous.
Infantino’s Yearslong Effort to Woo Trump for the World Cup - The New York Times
For the past year, FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York’s Trump Tower that has sat all but empty. The rent goes to President Trump’s family business, but soccer officials say the space sits largely idle.
Paying rent to the Trumps was the choice of Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president, who has made being close to Mr. Trump a top priority. He has lavished the president with praise, trophies and a medal. He has made pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago, the Trump National Doral golf club and even the “Melania” documentary premiere.
Mr. Infantino has publicly boosted the president through impeachments and plummeting poll numbers.
It was all in service, Mr. Infantino’s supporters say, of ensuring that the World Cup, which begins this week, goes off without a hitch. Mr. Trump could disrupt the games in any number of ways. Mr. Infantino, allies say, is handling a volatile president who responds to praise and gifts.
That swamp Trump kept railing against must be absolutely resplendent.
The Supreme Court Has Invented a Right to Discriminate - The Atlantic
Now here was an example of exactly what Alito was talking about. “States are free to decide for themselves whether last-minute changes to an election are in their best interests,” the justices wrote this week. If a Republican legislature decides that a redistricting plan to suppress the power of Black voters is “in their best interests,” they may proceed.
They’re not hiding it.
It’s not surprising that every person I’ve met that rails against school indoctrination (both K-12 and higher ed) don’t know any actual teachers in real life, much less stepped a single foot in a classroom as an adult.
Why is it that everybody loses their damn mind when a man transitions to a woman, but nobody seems to give a shit about when a woman transitions to a man?