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This was a sick bit of skill up until he decided to shoot near post (and miss goal) from a terrible angle vs shooting far post. If he shot it across, he scores. I do wonder if he is capable of getting better at finishing. It's one of those things that requires speed of thought, technique, instinct, slow heart rate... I don't know. We've seen a number of players who are really good never become prolific because they just can't keep their calm in front of the goal and I doubt it's for lack of training. On the Arsenal front, Partey really does make this team a lot quicker and more fluid. His desire to take one or two touches and immediately push the ball forward is a welcome change and allows Odegaard to receive the ball in more space and more dangerous positions. I can't believe yesterday was the first time we started a Rice, Partey, Odegaard midfield since Community Shield. I really hope they sign a similar profile to Partey this summer so they can finally let him go. The team just looks significantly more balanced with him in the side. Jorginho was able to replicate that a few games but he hasn't been as consistent with speed of release as Partey is. I suspect if we played Partey to start in the 2nd game against Bayern, we would have had a better shot.

Hopefully an admission or more forthright discussion that it's transphobia so we don't have to have proxy wars that it's actually about other issues. And it leaves trans athletes out of options if they want to do the same. So much for fairness. So what pragmatic solutions do you propose that permits the competition of trans professional/amateur athletes? Treating trans women like men and having them compete in men's sports and having trans men compete in women's sports perhaps? Or a complete non-competition clause for all trans and gender non-conforming individuals?

Wolves have had to put out a statement saying it's not any of their players involved because the internet detectives decided it must be Wolves players which has resulted in some of their players being harassed.

@Castellan I guess I have a strong hunch that lineages are about to become a major issue in Winds. We see multiple families with no clear heir, and with apoarent connections farther back to other regions. Everyone agrees of course that the Freys are all about to murder each or find other ways to climb. The Vale has a more civil approach but a great deal is going on behind the scenes. Meanwhile the North mostly believes Bran and Rickon are dead and so some of the moves the families there are making are related to who they think is rightfully next in line. Really every region has a bit of this going on. So the names are clues to where the story is going in this sense.

Yeah, there is an element here of who's teaching. Darwin has the bonus of being in a clearly defined system with a very good manager, whereas Jackson ... is at Chelsea. It would be interesting to have Jackson in another team where he had a clearer system and better management, to see if that would help him with the issues you mention. Have to admit I've watched less of Chelsea than of Liverpool, so I might be very wrong. And yes, if there's something you can't fault Darwin for, it's his effort and energy. He'll chase absolutely everything, at top speed.

This is very much a 'spitballing' post - I really just wanted to post my ideas before I lost the thread of what I was trying to get at. Anyway ... These damn apples are fated to come back to haunt me forever, it seems. This time, I was pondering on the connection between wormy apples and Gerold Dayne: These are the only two references to wormy apples in Feast. Such specificity makes me suspicious, especially when we have a name like Darkstar's If we run with Armen's metaphor, and split Darkstar's 'wormy apple' in two pieces, then we are left with the names of two of the Kingsguard at the Tower of Joy: Gerold Hightower / Arthur Dayne. Ok. So, one half of Alleras' fallen apple clearly falls in a place that symbolises 'Hightower': It bounces on a turret, then another roof- so not hitting a 'low tower' - then lands at the foot of an acolyte of the Citadel. And The Hightower's built the High Tower which is at the heart of the Citadel. So that gives us the Gerold half. But the fate of the other half of the apple is not described. Would it presumably symbolise Arthur Dayne, if we take Darkstar to be the key to this? Or is George just having fun with us? Might these arrows and apples in some way be telling us about events at the Tower of Joy? We have one cored apple, and one apple which survives to fall into the river, then this wormy apple which might represent two of the kingsgaurd in one. Any thoughts?

I don't know, maybe. The problem with Nunez is literally just the ball going in the net. His all round play is excellent and finishing, while he does occasionally make some bad choices, he's mostly making the right kind of attempts. If you look at the underlying stats he's at the very unlucky end of the scale to have the number of goals he does. For example I've got no doubt Nunez is throwing himself at that headed chance Jackson had, with his luck this season the keeper probably pulls off a worldie save though. Jackson is significantly more raw than Nunez I'd say. He's got the raw materials to be a top striker but when you watch him he's frequently making the wrong run or his head goes down in games and he's not really offering for his midfielders. It can't be easy to be a player who needs to develop at Chelsea to be fair.

I have left it, too. But that has made me more dependent on youtube... Never encountered any of the nasty stuff while I was using Twitter, though. I guess I was careful with who I followed. And I never wrote a tweet either.

Haley got 150k votes, which is not insubstantial. It may not mean much....but interesting that Republicans are still registering their displeasure with their choice.

Jackson, like Darwin (well, more than Darwin, really) will become an elite striker if and when he starts hitting the net. Given how he plays, it might be an idea for Chelsea to do a Joelinton with him and turn him into a winger. I mean, nobody would miss Mudryk on the left..

He did that by eliminating all of Aegon V’s reforms. We never hear the smallfolk’s side of the story, just the official historians kissing Tywin’s butt. We sometimes get an idea of who the smallfolk like and dislike. They never liked Tywin, from what I recall, and that says something.

Looks like it's going to be Arne Slot for the next Liverpool manager. I don't really have any particular opinion on whether he or Amorim is the better candidate having watched exactly zero minutes of either the Dutch or Portuguese leagues this season. We'll have to see how it goes I suppose. I only watched bits of the Arsenal Chelsea game last night but watching the highlights this morning Jackson had an, er, interesting game. He genuinely had Saliba and Gabriel on toast by the look of it. He's left Saliba for dead in the first half, then Gabriel's very lucky not to score an own goal. In the second half he really embarrasses Gabriel before his big chance. On the other side of the ledger he basically bottles going for the header in the first half for what should have been a massive chance and his chance in the second half, come on, you have to shoot across the keeper there. Oh yeah, and he should have had a red card.

2 premier league players (both 19) arrested over a rape. They've apparently been suspended so it won't be too difficult to work out who they are.

Twitter is an absolute cesspool. I have been a happier person since I left it behind.

I suppose one could say the same of those who are, say, supportive of the use of puberty blockers, or of the inclusion of trans women in women's sports, right? It's not just about medicine or science or sports; it's all a proxy for comfort with the existence of trans individuals. I just don't know where that view gets us.

When it comes to things like the war in Ukraine, Twitter is the main source of info. The classical media has no first-hand info, so all they do is interviews with "experts" or rehash stuff found on Twitter. That's not all bad as the Institute for the Study of War or the UK ministry of defence regularly post their latest intel there. I hadn't realised it before the war, but politicians and journalists depend heavily on Twitter, which is why there was such an outcry when Musk started to mess with it.

I see that they have successfully fixed Voyager 1. They worked out that a section of its memory had failed and reprogrammed its primitive computer to work round it. Voyager 1 was launched 47 years ago and is now nearly a light day away from Earth. As a retired software developer with some idea of what was involved, I am in awe of this achievement. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/04/recoding-voyager-1-nasas-interstellar-explorer-is-finally-making-sense-again/

That's not really what I'm saying: what I'm saying is that it's a best naive to pretend that our views on the former are not influenced by our views on the latter (which are in turn a product of wider issues we have as a society with gender, sex, sexual attraction, presentation, and so on). Any discussion of inclusion of trans athletes that doesn't reckon with those factors is incomplete.

I don't think Lothar is pure evil, he is just an intelligent and cunning guy with poor moral. If it benefits him he will do it. I genuinely like the idea of Lothar ending up Lord of the Crossing. This is based on the "Frey civil war" idea where Edwyn and Black Walder split the Frey family in two factions after the death of Lord Walder, each controlling one of the castles for a time and some Freys dying during the conflict and culminating with Lame Lothar on top at the end. The current Frey line of succession for the Twins is: Lord Walder > Stevron > Ryman > Edwyn > Walda1, 5 > Black Walder > Petyr Pimple > Perra1, 5 > Aegon Jinglebell > Maegelle1 > Walder Vance1, 5 > Patrek Vance1, 5 > Marianne Vance1, 5 > Walton > Steffon > Bryan5 > Fair Walda1 > Emmon4 > Cleos > Tywin4,5 > Willem4, 5 > Lyonel4 > Tion4, 5 > Red Walder4, 5 > Aenys > Aegon Bloodborn3 > Rhaegar > Robert5 > Jonos5 > White Walda1, 5 > Perianne1 > Harys Haigh1 > Walder Haigh1, 5 > Donnel Haigh1 > Alyn Haigh1, 5 > Jared > Tytos > Zachery2, 5 > Zia1, 5 > Kyra1 > Walder Goodbrook1, 5 > Jeyne Goodbrook1, 5 > Luceon2 > Hosteen > Arwood6 > Androw5, 6 > Alyn5, 6 > Ryella1, 5, 6 > Hostella1, 5, 6 > Symond > Alesander7 > Bradamar5, 8 > Alyx1 > Danwell6 > Merrett > Little Walder > Amerei1, 6 > Fat Walda1, 6 > Marissa1, 6 > Geremy > Sandor5 > Cynthea1, 5 > Raymund > Robert2 > Malwyn8 > Tywin5 > Jaime5 > Sarra1, 5 > Serra1, 5 > Cersei1, 5 > Lythene1 > Damon Vypren1 > Elyana Vypren1 > Rickard Vypren1, 5 > Lothar Legend Striketrough = Dead 1 = Female character or descendant of female character 2 = Took/Will take a vow barring them from succession (Septon, Septa, Maester, ..) 3 = Outlaw 4 = Members of House Frey of Riverrun, might be passed over now that they have their own castle 5 = Children, they would require a Regent to rule in their place 6 = Members of House Lannister of Darry or their household, might be passed over now that they have left the Twins 7 = Freys too close to the Starks and not trusted by the core family 8 = Away in Essos If we simplify the line of succession by deleting all the characters concerned by one of the points in the legend, it becomes: Lord Walder > Edwyn > Black Walder > Walton > Steffon > Hosteen > Raymund > Lothar. Edwyn and Black Walder are probably gonna end up killing each other. Hosteen is likely to die in the North in TWOW. I seriously don't think the BWB is done killing Freys and as the killer of Catelyn Stark, Raymund is probably the prime target they want to eliminate right now. That would only leave Walton and his son Steffon ahead of Lothar, the odds are not that bad for Lothar all things considered.

@karaddin My understanding is that the vast majority of transwomen do not have the surgery, and I'd guess this goes for transwomen athletes as well. But as I said, a one-size-fits-all policy doesn't seem right -- there's all kinds of transwomen, including those who do not take hormones, much less don't have gender-affirming surgeries. But the point of the research I linked is that even with well-controlled testosterone, there are physical advantages puberty gives that don't disappear at all. Skeletal structure isn't going to change, density of muscle nuclei is not changing or changing only very slowly, etc.

I've already spent far too much time on this so can't read through the studies being cited by that article to give it a fair read, but I can only assume the studies its referencing on testosterone levels post transition were looking at estrogen-only therapy in individuals that had not had reassignment surgery, because testosterone levels with androgen blockers and after surgery are absolutely within or lower than the range for cis women.

Do you agree we should stop basing moral decisions on a subjective wiki and instead use our own skill of reading the book to draw a conclusion for ourselves? It's not like this is even a particularly hard case.

Al Pacino, Dan Stevens to Play Troubled Priests in Exorcism Horror ‘The Ritual’ (EXCLUSIVE) https://variety.com/2024/film/global/al-pacino-dan-stevens-the-ritual-horror-david-midell-1235979115/ Based on a true story, “The Ritual” follows two priests — one questioning his faith (Stevens) and one reckoning with a troubled past (Pacino) — who must put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms. The film is an authentic portrayal of Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms. Her case remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.

I like his consistency on the hand dryer at the Crown and Treaty