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The difference in performance in darts and chess are almost certainly environmental, with cue sports there could be a very very small advantage (size and cue power), not enough for me to think it should be legislated against. Nobody has said they can't play sports for the joy as far as I can tell.

The analysis feels a bit like grabbing in the dark but I do think you are probably on to something in noticing the wormy apple reference. The question is, what exactly, right? I will have a think.

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.

I've seen people calling for trans women to be banned from chess, darts, and fucking pool. Which suggests to me the "reasonable concerns" are just a cover for a bunch of bigots. Sometimes you need to look at who is using the same argument you are, and maybe just stop. To use a hopefully uncontroversial example, Anita Sarkessian's media analysis was shallow, boring, feminism 101 crap. But she also had a bunch of Nazis hounding her, so I could leave that alone so as not to hurt someone already going through hell. But hey, if fairness is so important that you're crying over some skateboarder who got 17th instead of 16th but was also beaten by an 11 year old maybe spare a thought for the runner who's only ever had a dirt track who has to compete against someone who trains in a billion dollar facility, or the athlete who has to work 2 jobs to afford to travel to competitions competing against someone who was selected by their country at 12 and has had to focus on nothing but their sport since. Realize sports aren't fair, fairness isn't actually a god damn concern, and maybe that should be a focus before we decide that the most important thing in the world is to take joy away from some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

I thought it was the Wall... :') Hey, since "hard materials" had to be defined, might it be made of leather? It's a real life material, not cloth, but hard.

I mean, he isn't. I like to laugh at him as much as the next person and I get why he must be extremely frustrating to watch, but he's really good at unsettling defences with his movement, creating space for himself and others, generally bringing other forwards into the game, etc. He's a shit finisher and I don't know that that will ever change (though Forlan managed it) but his flaws would be a lot less glaring if your other forwards didn't keep shitting the bed too - especially since in your setup it's not really the central forward's bailiwick to be the main scorer. Like he's scored 11 goals in the league. It's not an amazing return but it's hardly bad when someone else is the main guy for that, and from what I've seen despite scoring more goals Salah has been a lot less useful to you in overall impact this season. But also I just hope Klopp one day goes on line, sees the negativity towards him coming from a lot of Liverpool fans right now, and signs on to manage us or Everton.

My guess is gone.

Though I should note that cutting off contact doesn't necessarily have to be forever. I'm certainly no expert and have been accused of treating emotions like a robot, but I'm still convinced that the feelings can pass when you keep your distance for some time. In a year or so, or at the very least when you find yourself in a different spot of your life and have a fresh perspective, you could still tentatively reach out and reconnect as long as it doesn't bubble up again.

Going by GRRMs Stephen Colbert interview, it should be due in 2026.

Very surprised to wake up to a celtics defeat where the heat were without Butler.

Labour pledge to re nationalise 'most' railways within first term. I don't see how they could do worse.

Whether they are currently is irrelevant, you make rules now before there are issues so people know where they stand. Emily Bridges would be one example though. Her performance trajectory very much would have had her winning Olympic medals this cycle. She was an outstanding cyclist pre transition and her performance held up very well post transition. You can't begin to have the conversations when someone has dictated years of their lives to competing at the highest level then pull the rung from under them. That would be extremely unfair on the athletes.

We now have a cover for Neal Stephenson's next novel, Polostan, which is the first book in the Bomb Light Trilogy: (Still hate the name of this book. Polostan? What is this, an independent country founded by the owners of Polo and Banana Republic?!)

Do you? There is video' you can see that technically the women better' phycically tjey arent in the same league. Do you think women that were so dedicated that they are the best in the world voluntary rolled over and let a bunch if 15 year old beat them? You are just as guilty of making assumptions to support your argument here as I am. You should refrain from that label, because it would be bullshit. There are very legitimate scientific arguments as to why trans women should not compete with cis women if fairness is the most important factor. Far far far more science says this than the opposite. You might say that science is biased based on who is carrying it out and that's a fair position in some cases, but not all. And certainly not enough to discredit the wealth I'd data that's out there. You might not agree with them, and if you value inclusively more than fairness that's fine, but the kneejerk leap to 'trans phobia' every time someone makes them is so utterly boring.

I remember really liking the western he did (The Proposition - 2005). Very bleak. Very brutal. I don’t see anything about Pratt still being attached in the above article, so hopefully that’s not the case anymore. I saw a fan casting for The Judge of Anthony Carrigan from Barry, and now I can’t unsee it.

Agree with this. Read the first six twice and it didn't alter my opinion.

Yeah Mariko and John in the book were very much in love and because of it the ending hit hard. Here it lacked that oomph and it felt different. But then again not read it in fifteen years so memory is rusty.

Are you speaking to me? If so, I've already said I have the utmost respect for Karaddin and wish her well in all things. I always read her posts and find them to be thoughtful and well presented. I guess my primary point is it's facile and misleading to just label all folks who are wanting to know more about this complicated subject as "TERFs" and transphobic. For one thing, you run a huge risk of alienating people who could be your friends. The NYT article brings up some topics that deserve a more thoughtful consideration. Is it possible to treat both trans women and cis women with equal fairness? Maybe it's not. If not, tell me why.

I've given myself a day to think about it and I think they (for me) stumbled a bit and didn't stick the landing. The show was still really solid overall but I think the final episode continued a trend where the second half of the season wasn't as good as the first half. It felt like it languished a bit and focused on areas I didn't value, necessarily, and some of the character connections I know they wanted me to value (Mariko and Anjin) didn't come through. I don't know. Just kinda sad about it not culminating in a way I felt happy with.

Is it living, i.e. an animal? Could be ravens or crows, for example. If 'object' excludes a living thing, my hunch is a book or scroll.

It looks like Arizona AG Kris Mayes (D, formerly an R) has indicted the AZ Fake Electors and some of Trump's crew as well. The fake electors are the usual suspects of not-quite-right Republicans who jumped on the Trump bandwagon after failing at other business and political pursuits. The Trump Circle crew includes the usual suspects - Meadows, Giuliani, Eastman, Ellis, Epshteyn, etc.

Well each division of Disney is different. FX does things a bit different.

The link between interest rates and inflation is complex and depends a lot on debt and savings in the private sector. If there are a lot of savings out there higher interest rates will be net inflationary, because it's putting more money into the system. Right now the RBA is paying $billions in interest to banks because the inter-bank overnight exchange accounts (can't remember the correct name for them) for most banks are flush and the RBA is not forcing banks to buy bonds to takes liquidity out of those accounts and make banks pay interest via overnight borrowing. With the current plentifulness of cash in those accounts every interest rate increase is just RBA stuffing more money into bank's coffers. If the policy of letting banks maintain high balances in those counts continues then the only way to slow the flow of money is to lower interest rates.

She also showed more personality in the 30s clip I just saw of her calling Rishi a pint sized loser than I think I've seen in several years from Starmer.

Hard to believe this show was made by Disney+ It would be like Michael Bay making Killers of the Flower Moon.