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It's the assistants fault. A referee is extremely unlikely to overrule his assistant in that situation. The goal probably would've been ruled out for offside anyway. Real's players also stopped playing when the referee blew the whistle so it might not have ended in a Bayern goal had the assistant not put up his flag.

He did support Rhaegar; that was my point. Persuading Aerys to go to the tournament was intended to help raise support for Rhaegar. And it probably worked, but other circumstances intervened; fate took a different course.

Possibly the very best use of generative AI currently available for public use: https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-deepmind-isomorphic-alphafold-3-ai-model/ Hallucinations persist, but they've done a lot to mark those out as low-confidence. And the ultimate limitations of this kind of modeling, that they cannot predict the structures in solution very well, persist, of course. Still, there's a lot here that's actually useful, and I've had a delightful time entering in random proteins and nucleotide strings that I know interact and seeing what AlphaFold 3 comes up with.

So I watched the Tom Brady roast on Netflix. Figured I’d put this here. It was pretty funny. Nikki Glaser’s set was easily the best. Belichick and Kraft both being there was hilarious. Only thing that was clearly off limits was Kraft’s massage proclivities.

I saw someone point out, quite correctly, that a premise like that fundamentally misunderstands the point of The Office (either one). It being a completely uninteresting, unimportant, banal job with no stakes and no purpose was the point. The show wasn't About anything and therefore it was purely about the characters and their personal situations. A show about a dying newspaper office has at least two separate angles that the show is going to be About. That doesn't mean it's going to be bad, at all- it could be excellent, it's a good premise. It's just a weird use of the name.

Given that the Iron Bank is no longer even attempting to collect on the Crown's debt, I don't think there's any real solution. If Stannis fails, as seems likely, the Iron Bank will likely throw their support behind Faegon....particularly given Varys' ties to Braavos. If the Hightowers survive Euron, I find it highly unlikely they'll throw their support behind Cersie. They are purported to be every bit as rich as the Lannisters....if they support Faegon, along with the Iron Bank, it's pretty much curtains for Cersie.

It's rather convenient Groleo loses his head as Victarion is set to arrive. Vic will lead her fleets until Euron takes over.

It most definitely is not violent action. Nor is it theft. You’re going to have to prove that the point of the protest is to take away your daughter’s well-earned undergraduate education for theft to come into the picture. As for violence, no. As someone pointed out, sit-ins, blocking roads… all kinds of civil disobedience are inconvenient as hell, but not violent. Damn right it’s about inconvenience. My country only exists as a free nation because of this, so your finding it immaterial is meaningless. It can be effective, which is why protecting and celebrating this right is critical, and conflating it with violence is nonsensical and wrong. That’s because of the interaction of the protest with the stupid dumbfuck format of 24x7 news. Imagine this as representative of the actual protest on the ground at your own peril. To you, in your comfort, it is undoubtedly unhelpful. Doesn’t stop them from being effective. So what’s a non-coercive way to do this? If I’m a student in Columbia who wants to bring attention to this issue, what do I do? Write an Op Ed in the student paper? Corral people and ask them to debate me on the merits of the war? Isn’t that coercive too? And the life of Gaza’s citizens being threatened currently isn’t evil enough? Why do you get to decide what’s evil enough to merit protest?

You all just want to be Austin Powers.

High heels, not so much. Shoes with big thick chonky soles, very much so. I think it's an Asian trend, perhaps kicked off by the K-pop chaps. But what the hecc do I know? I'm just a fifty-five-year old codger who happens to like the aesthetic of this particular fashion, particularly when styled with smart, slim, flat-fronted strides.

Are men's high heels fashionable in the UK?

I feel like HBHBHB was slept on as an album. Some brilliant stuff in there but its usually Lungs and Ceremonials that get all the attention. The long form video accompanying the album was pretty great too

Yeah, I think you're right. The Derby looks a bit like a juiced-up rozzer shoe.

Go with the loafers.

Trying to decide between two pairs of Vagabond shoes. To be worn with smart, slim fitting trousers, just touching the ankle. Cameron Derby Cameron Loafer I really like the chonkiness of the loafers. Hecc, the derby is pretty chonky too. I've heard good things about this brand, so imma ignore the spoon-faced, nation-wrecking connotations associated with the moniker of these shoes.

I see some of the same themes here and in Fevre Dream. The fight against slavery. Existential threats on humans. The Others are creatures like the vampires. The Starks, like Sour Billy helping the bad side of the vampires, will help the Others.

Quhuru mo, the captain who visited and honored Daenerys.

Rhaegar was not the favored son. Perhaps Varys saw a weakness in Rhaegar. Inconsistency. Fear of wielding authority. Lack of skills at politics. Lack of interest in learning economics. Prince Viserys would have grown into a different man if his childhood had been easier. He would be preferable to Rhaegar.

New EV sales in New Zealand have fallen off a cliff with the new govt axing EV/Hybrid/PHEV subsidies and axing taxes on big engine ICE vehicles, as well as introducing a new tax for EV and PHEV drivers. The tax for EVs and PHEVs was always going to come, since our govt (whether right or left) still labours under the false belief that taxes pay for govt spending. And hence the public also believes it, for some reason near universally believing what the govt tells them, which is virtually unheard of on any other subject. So they had to put a tax on EVs and PHEVs in lieu of the petrol taxes ICE car users pay, so that everyone "pays their fair share" for maintaining and building roads. So, necessary and fair if you believe in the "pay for" fallacy, which means pretty much everyone including EV and PHEV owners believe it's necessary and fair.

I'm not saying this isn't the case. This very well may have been the case. Though one might argue it might have been possible or at least easier to call an informal great council to legally unseat his father if Aerys were not to attended said tourney. And if the Realm is more important than the king, Varys would be more than capable of simply killing Aerys so the rightful heir takes his place. If Aegon is fake, the plan to put in a pretender likely predates the birth of Aegon. But @Tradecraft's question was, why, assuming Aegon was legitimate ie "Genuinly Rheagar's son", would Varys support Aegon if he didn't support his father? And reasoned that the lack of the support of his father meant Aegon's identify was feigned. So if he is really his son, why support aegon when not Rheagar? In ostent, it is because Varys supported the king, as the king's spymaster. And he did his job faithfully. So, Why support Aegon and not Rheagar. Aegon is king. Rhaegar never was. If asked by a Targ. loyalist who thinks Aegon is real, that is likely what Varys would claim. And if Varys was genuinely loyal to house Targaryen (a Eunuch and thief honored up to serve an emperor who called him lord), this is how his actions could be reasoned.

Yep! It came out of the Korean War when the only protein sources were from GI mess kits. One of the most famous dishes translates to 'army stew' which combines Spam, hot dogs, baked beans, and bacon with ramen, Korean pepper paste (gochujang), and kimchi- its surprisingly awesome, if not exactly health friendly. Having gone from basically serfdom -> Japanese colony -> civil war, Koreans are pretty scrappy about making great meals out of dubious ingredients by Western standards. I believe the Hawaiian Spam cuisine is a derivative of this from both the API transplants and GI's on R&R (now evolved on its own of course). ETA: I didn't see @DanteGabriel already beat me to the explanation! Our kid gets musubi once a week for lunch. We have to pack a couple, lest her classmates eat everything.

MTG surely knew her motion would fail, so what audience was she playing to with that stunt?

Except perhaps a contract as an consultant to the new Labour govt when they win the election. Something she wouldn't get if she became a Reform MP. The reason you hop over to Reform is so you can get on the grift. I guess she can't be bothered with the kind of work and public profile that comes with being on the Reform grift, and is more comfortable with the lower profile govt consultant grift.

Brilliant producer. Really knew his role.

I have some doubts about this. Varys told us (more than once, I think) his duty was to the realm. He was sad about killing Kevan, but he did it for the greater good. I think the reason Varys persuaded Aerys to go to the tournament was because he wanted all the lords to see how demented their king was.