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International Events IX: I feel like a mushroom


Which Tyler

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7 minutes ago, kiko said:

But everyone who compares a devastating flood with a lost game in sports needs to get their head examined. 

You certainly haven't met a hardcore cricket fan yet, especially the Indo-Pak ones (not me, the only thing hardcore I'm into is- you know...). For them its worse than floods or earthquakes. And nobody was comparing shit, just pointed out the coincidence.

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3 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

You certainly haven't met a hardcore cricket fan yet, especially the Indo-Pak ones (not me, the only thing hardcore I'm into is- you know...). For them its worse than floods or earthquakes. And nobody was comparing shit, just pointed out the coincidence.

As I said. I don't blame you for describing reality. Those "fans" exist everywhere and they are a problem. 

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8 hours ago, kiko said:

As I said. I don't blame you for describing reality. Those "fans" exist everywhere and they are a problem. 

kiko -- I didn't read either of them equating the flood with a sporting loss. I found @TheLastWolf's comment thought-provoking, albeit unintentionally amusing; and @The Anti-Targ's comment astute, especially given how intentionally nuanced and dry his words were, which I was compelled to acknowledge.

Considering the underlying tension between Pakistan and India, some interested people would go so far as to equate sports with warfare; i.e., a less than lethal expression of nationalism, or even a preparation for it. Irrational to some, a serious matter for others; yet, a valid form of human interaction. Consequently, I found the conflation of sports, war, and disaster to be a fascinating example of tragicomedy.

As a point of reference, one of the first war movies I watched, The Boys in Company C (anti-war, the best kind of war movie), illustrates just how impactful the (above) situation is for some people. When you see all three concepts align, it just makes it that much more fascinating as a human interest story.

The film concludes with the final entry in Foster's journal... Because after what happened today, who the hell is ever going to believe it? We actually had a chance to get out of this goddamn war. All we had to do was throw the game and walk away. But for some reason, we just couldn't. For some reason, winning that stupid game was more important than saving our ass."

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Incidentally, toward the end of the video clip is one of the best examples of a cadence call (by Stan Shaw, though it was more Army than Marine Corps, imo) I've ever seen come out of Hollywood (second only to R Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket).

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27 minutes ago, Wade1865 said:

(second only to R Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket).

I was about to protest until you added that bit. Helped that Ermey knew what he was about.

Though I admit a fondness for the silliness of Cadence.

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1 minute ago, Ran said:

I was about to protest until you added that bit. Helped that Ermey knew what he was about.

Though I admit a fondness for the silliness of Cadence.

Ran -- hahaha, yes, and I'd have conceded, too. Notably, Ermey was also a (more subdued, which probably made his role in Full Metal Jacket that much more memorable) drill instructor in, The Boys in Company C, starting at 2:22.

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Was about to say Gorbachev has passed away.

One of the last political giants.

He is, pardon, was in a sorta weird situations. He is was arguably the only pro-democracy actor at the head of the SU and later one Russian Federation. He himself, laughed at that sorta bitterly over the irony, that he viewed himself as the only real communist to have ever risen to the highest level of power. I think history will take a much kinder view on him in 30 years, than most of contemporary Russia does.

He outlasted an attempted KGB/FSB coup, and now an old KGB guy (and by extension intelligence department) is running the country. The split up of the SU as it happened was his big failure. There's an interesting interview series with him done a couple of years ago. 

 

RIP Mikhail Sergeyevich

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I hope his enduring legacy is more than Pizza Hutt, because if that is all it amounts to then he will be reviled for all eternity. 

Honestly, if you'd asked me yesterday I would have assumed he had died some time ago, so the fact of him being alive until 24 hours ago is the surprise, to me.

I do remember when he rose to power in the SU it came with a great deal of hope and optimism, at least in the headlines and articles in the western media, in the years that followed. I guess the way things have played out and where we are as of this moment  with Russia, and some of the shit that went down in the intervening years, one might say that hope and optimism are ashes in our mouths. 

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13 hours ago, Wade1865 said:

kiko -- I didn't read either of them equating the flood with a sporting loss. I found @TheLastWolf's comment thought-provoking, albeit unintentionally amusing

It was meant to be both, glad I succeeded.

13 hours ago, Wade1865 said:

and @The Anti-Targ's comment astute, especially given how intentionally nuanced and dry his words were, which I was compelled to acknowledge.

He's a pro after all when it comes to Intl event threads.

13 hours ago, Wade1865 said:

Considering the underlying tension between Pakistan and India, some interested people would go so far as to equate sports with warfare; i.e., a less than lethal expression of nationalism, or even a preparation for it. Irrational to some, a serious matter for others; yet, a valid form of human interaction. Consequently, I found the conflation of sports, war, and disaster to be a fascinating example of tragicomedy.

You'll never believe the jingos I meet on a daily basis

13 hours ago, Wade1865 said:

As a point of reference, one of the first war movies I watched, The Boys in Company C (anti-war, the best kind of war movie), illustrates just how impactful the (above) situation is for some people. When you see all three concepts align, it just makes it that much more fascinating as a human interest story.

The film concludes with the final entry in Foster's journal... Because after what happened today, who the hell is ever going to believe it? We actually had a chance to get out of this goddamn war. All we had to do was throw the game and walk away. But for some reason, we just couldn't. For some reason, winning that stupid game was more important than saving our ass."

I remember this lesson we had for English in school, 8th grade

The Best Christmas present in the World - Michael Morpurgo

Basically a young man who finds a very old letter from a WW1 officer in the trenches to his wife on Christmas and how they played football/soccer with the Germans...and how they never made it. The young man gives it to the 90 something yr old wife for Christmas. I was very moved then, being inclined towards tragic romances, now  I realize it was idealistically naïve to hope for such sweet returns.

Thanks for the movie recc btw

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8 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I hope his enduring legacy is more than Pizza Hutt, because if that is all it amounts to then he will be reviled for all eternity. 

Honestly, if you'd asked me yesterday I would have assumed he had died some time ago, so the fact of him being alive until 24 hours ago is the surprise, to me.

I do remember when he rose to power in the SU it came with a great deal of hope and optimism, at least in the headlines and articles in the western media, in the years that followed. I guess the way things have played out and where we are as of this moment  with Russia, and some of the shit that went down in the intervening years, one might say that hope and optimism are ashes in our mouths. 

I think that currently, his influence has been an undeniable force for good, for hope and optimism, for hundreds of millions of people, especially those in Eastern and Central Europe, but still for Russia itself, however hard Putin tries to reverse things.

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Nord Stream 1: Russia switches off gas pipeline

Russia has stopped the flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe, citing the need to carry out repairs, in a move that has heightened already acute nervousness over the reliability of winter energy supplies.

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