A Horse Named Stranger

Have you considered your daughter tried to trick you into buying booze, her friend's mum wouldn't?

FTFY Can I just say, you've obviously lived way too long in Germany. Neverlosen ffs. Even I find this one painful.

Yes, but still worth pointing out, that this big immunity case is a distraction. The Fischer case is the one, that should be all the talk, and that's the route to kill the Goverments Election interference case.

Wrong case for that. That's essentially the disruption of an official proceedings case filed by those J6 rioters (Fisher v. United States). That's the case to look out for not the Immunity Case.

Trump campaign/defense fundraiser?

Liverpool will face a post-Klopp world soon enough. It's not an easy gig to succeed him. It took Arsenal a while to find a satisfactory post-Wenger manager (who had overstayed his welcome). United still haven't found their post-Ferguson guy (admittedly United is just dyfunctional on so many levels, and Liverpool look like they at least have managed to put a presumably more functional structure in place).

Didn't think of you as traditionalist, with me ending up in the modernist camp arguing, the message is whatever you see in it.

Well, GRRM also thought he could deliver it before Season 5 (or was it 6?) of the TV adaption. We all know how that worked out. To be clear, he is entitled to work at his own pace and finish/deliver books as he sees fit, and better shelve it for a year than deliver a bad book. However, that doesn't mean this being the year the book gets published shouldn't be treated as a running gag. Sidenote. Him finishing A Dream of Spring before his 90th birthday gets odds of greater or lower than 1/10.

Shout out to Palace and Glasner for getting 9 points out of what looked like a very tricky run of games on paper. (Liverpool, West Ham and Newcastle)

Not sure if we had this covered, but Xavi reversed his decission and will stay in charge at Barca.

And inability to defend set pieces. Boy that was sorta defending (I guess?) by van Dijk.

The problem wasn't the pass being risky, it was the execution being absolute garbage. It was totally underpowered.

Ah, artist, art, AI. I will try to sum up your point, scot, with a little hyperbole. Art is the product of the work of an artist. What is an artist? Somebody who produces art. So is an AI an artist? If we go by that definition yes. Is it good art or bad art? I am not a critic. If it speaks to you, you enjoy it, then it is art to you, no matter if a machine or a human produced it. Can a machine produce (or generate?) that human experience of art for you? Question of the 21st century. (Wo)Man-machine boundaries. When photography popped up, there was a sorta similar discussion on whether photographers are artists (compared to painters), as they merely point their devilish device at an object and take a snapshot. If you think photography can be art, then by extension you should be able to view AI generations as art, too.

Yeah, but your were moaning about ten Hag being unable to set up a team defensively and you leaking goals left, right and centre. So I felt it was worth pointing out, that this goal was 100% Onana and 0% ten Hag.

Now it was Diaz turn in the inept finisher category at Liverpool. Not as bad as Darwin's miss, but boy Liverpool are back at wasting chances.

Also, that goal in United vs. Sheffield is 100% on Onana and not ten Hag.

Darwin really should've leveled the score there (undeservedly as Everton are better).

You still have to play Spurs. No, I am serious! I've always felt that would be a game you could lose. Again, I am serious!

Now imagine the scoreline if Arsenal had been just a wee bit more clinical with their chances.

But that's your destinaty. You are the chosen one, Anakin.

Somebody start a new thread?

Those things are not mutually exclusive. Ukraine has used drones to compensate for lack of artillery (ammo). There are situations, when a bunch of artillery shells are better suited than a dozen drones. A task for every tool a tool for every task etc. Drones will be vital but so will be the more traditional artillery in this conflict.

Bayern are narrowing down their list of candidates for the headcoach position. Frontrunners for a permanent appointment: Rangnick and Emery (no longer on the list: Zidane, and de Zerbi). They met with both and had first probatory talks with them Frontrunners for an interim appointment (1 season + option if things work out): Flick and Favre. Tuchel apparently really not willing to prolong his stint. He wants to salvage as much from the season (plain speak CL) as he can and then just move on. Bit surprised that Favre is apparently a candidate, but then again him and Eberl know each other from their Gladbach days with quite a bit of mutual respect. The arguments in favour of the temporary solution. They could give their preferred solutions a new go. Alonso (obviously) and Hoeneß (yes, Uli Hoeneß's nephew, right now in charge at Stuttgart). Maybe even Klopp after his sabbatical.

Didn't Kirschner address the issue a while ago? I think he assumed, that the protection of 45 behind bars would be the responsibility of the US Marshall service, as they have the experience and expertise on that matter.

Gukesh did what he had to and was supposed to do. Calmly drew his game against Nakamura and then wait and see what happens on the other board. Congratulations to him, deserved winner. Story of the round will be the Carudrama against Nepo. Once again, both in a must-win situation. Fabi managed to get into a winning position. Then around time control he made life more difficult (narrowed the path to victory significantly) than it had to be with the more active 39.Bh7!? (which once again, was still winning) but this allowed Nepo to give up an exchange to eliminate one of Fabi's extra pawns and allowed play against the white king with 39...Rxg5! 40.Qxg5 Qxh7, which was virtually the only chance Nepo had to stay in this game. We are not talking about winning, just not losing was an achievement at this point. We reached move 40 thus extra time for both players, esp. for Fabi, who desperately needed it. Alas, the first moves past time control are among the most error rich (yes, I am also speaking from experience here). 41.Ka1?? was an error (41.Ka2! keeps the winning chances, subtle differences) Nepo seized his chance 41...Qc2! and the position is level, based on perpetual ideas with around Nb3+;Nc1+. The position is objectively drawn, but the path to the draw is very, very narrow and not trivial. 42.Qg8+ Ka7 43.Ka2 a4! 44. f4 Nb3?? this once again puts Nepo on course to a loss. 44...Ka6!! was the right move, as the white queen has to keep watch over the a2-g8 diagonal and not allow her black sister to give checks there, the Knight has to stay on c5 for that. It's not an impossible move to find, but the two natural Knight jumps to d3 or b3 as in the game are both losers. The trickiest thing about 44...Ka6!! is you have to calculate the lines after Qa8+ and arrive at the conclusion that it's merely a perpetual. Again, doable for players at that level, but not trivial. Anyway back to the game after 44...Nb3?? 45.Qg7+ Ka6 46.Qc3 Qg2 47.Qc4+ Kb7 48.Re1 Nc5 +-. White has managed to stabilize, he has freed his rook and driven the Knight out from his b3 outpost. And from here you just assume that Fabi converts this. And he keeps on winning for the next 20 moves or so, until he slips again and the position peters out into a drawn queen ending. Super resilient play by Nepo and a super painful draw for Caruana, which will feel like a loss for quite some time.