baxus

Yeah, I understand all that. Still I think that if one country wins 2 gold medals and another wins 4 silver medals and five bronze medals, it's not that clear-cut as to who is better. We seem to have agreed to having gold>silver>bronze as measurement of who's the best and that's fine. It's just that medals total is also a pretty good indicator of country's success. If every country could have only one chance at the medal per event, then gold > silver > bronze would obviously be better, but if Jamaica wins all three medals in 100m sprint then that kind of skews the logic.

Having watched four seasons with original Spanish audio, it sounds EXTREMELY weird in English.

While I do see the reasoning for going gold > silver > bronze, I still think that medals total gives a better overview of country's success. I mean, silver and bronze are awarded for a reason. Just for the record, not an American.

Being fully aware how puny my runs will seem after @Starkess 15 mile run (great job!), I'm still going to mention I went running yesterday (5,5km) and today (6.5km). After 10 days of vacation during which my most demanding physical activity was playing in the pool with my daughter, it's a start Also, I'm having problems with my sinuses again and I'm now in the process of quitting nose drops so my nose is blocked, which is why I've skipped crossfit yesterday and went on that short run instead. Either way, the plan is add one or two running sessions per week and to actually stick with it instead of just skipping the run if I don't feel like it.

When I saw her second step I thought she stepped over the line and the jump would be disallowed

My basketball is improving. We played half-court 3x3 yesterday evening so I just might be reverting to what I was playing most of my life but my shooting is not so bad now, though there's still plenty of room for improvement. Also, I still need to get back to reading the situation better because I got a few of my shots blocked that I could've avoided. Still, I managed to block one shot of a colleague who's ~10cm taller and it was a quite an impressive block (all things considered) so I'm quite pleased. I need to drop a couple of kilos for my jumping to get back up to standard, but it's a work in progress. I might be wrong, but I think that miles are used as a measurement of distance in the UK. UK board members please correct me if needed.

I don't know if this would work in football, but NHL teams used to do something similar with players well over 30. They'd sign the contract for something like 11 years even though no one really expected him to play throughout the contract. After a while, the player would no longer be in the roster but would still get paid. It would ensure that the players deserved salary would not count towards the cap throughout all those seasons and even during seasons it would count it would be less than it would otherwise be. Also, players would ensure some income even after practically retiring.

I don't think it's likely that Messi did it out of the kindness of his heart. Barca most likely gave some other stuff up to compensate for lower salary.

Let me tell you right now - there is no way Serbia will host any matches in European competitions other than matches Serbia plays in qualifiers. There is no infrastructure, plain and simple. We basically have 3 stadiums of any significant size (two in Belgrade and one in NoviSad), last of which was built 50 years ago. There is some talk of building a national football stadium, but that's mostly politicians pulling that story out of a hat before elections. Even if that were to happen and a modern stadium that meets all the latest UEFA/FIFA requirements does get built we'd still only have one. On one hand, I don't think there's enough quality teams to fill out 48 spots in the World Cup. On the other hand, I'm quite certain the same argument was made when World Cup switched from 16 to 32 teams. We'll have to wait and see how it goes. At first it would just make it easier for top teams to advance from their groups except if only 1 team advances from the group but it stands to reason that quality would increase over time. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Portugal has hosted it in the past but with 16 participating teams, not 24. Also, there's already talk of having 32 teams in the future and when that happens I'd say it's highly unlikely Portugal would be a candidate. I'm not sure how good stadiums in Turkey are and whether or not matches can be played in three stadiums in the same city (Besiktas, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray are all located in Istanbul).

Didn't Liverpool bring in a coach to improve their throw-ins a couple of seasons ago? I think it was some Danish guy who also works with some Danish club(s).

It doesn't mean it would have to be a single host country. Netherlands and Belgium hosted it in 2000, as did Switzerland and Austria in 2008 and Poland and Ukraine in 2012. Poland and Ukraine are quite large but still nowhere near cross-continental. If it's down to single country, then there's only a handful of countries that could host it - England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Russia... anyone else?

My mind burns just from reading this question.

How funny would it be if Italy were awarded a similar penalty in the final?

Thankfully, my sleep troubles did not last long. I could use an hour or two longer but I've been sleeping very well, going to sleep rather quickly once in bed, not waking up during the night etc. We're in a middle of another heatwave at the moment. My before-work workouts end at 8:15AM and at that time it's already 27-28ºC and that makes it a bit more difficult for me to train. During the day temperature goes over 35ºC and that makes running, cycling and stuff like that basically impossible to do. Even walking is very unpleasant. I mean, when I go out of the office to grab some lunch it's like moving around in the oven.