Rams should’ve had a bye that week…

Gurley’s fumble on the goal line vs Seattle in LA, Kupp’s drop TD in the same game….

Longs strip of Goff vs Eagles….

Shouldn’t have been playing ATL in the playoffs… should’ve been resting that week…

should’ve been 13-3, not 11-5….

URL =

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/20/vancouver-langara-college-crow-attack-map-thousands-of-reports

Counting crows: Vancouver college maps thousands of attacks
Tool launched in response to dive-bombing birds documents 2,500 attacks since 2016

Ashifa Kassam in Toronto
@ashifa_k
Fri 20 Jul 2018 04.32 EDT
Last modified on Fri 20 Jul 2018 09.12 EDT

It was a crow fiercely protecting its nest – and repeated complaints of it dive-bombing and swooping – that prompted the idea.
“Just about every day someone would come in and say: ‘I got smacked in the back of the head,’ or ‘Mary got smacked in the back of the head,’” said Jim O’Leary, a teacher at Langara College in Vancouver, Canada.
“I was thinking to myself: I know crows are smart but we’re pretty smart too. Isn’t there something that I can do about this?”
The result was CrowTrax, an online tool that since 2016 has documented about 2,500 crow attacks in the Metro Vancouver region, nearby Victoria and around the world.

You don’t hear anything and just like that you get smacked in the back of the head
Jim O’Leary
O’Leary, who teaches a course on geographic information systems (GIS), initially envisioned the site as a way to show his students how such systems could be used to map and store spatial data.
“But it kind of took on a life of its own. Because most people really don’t care about GIS; they just care about crows,” he said.

Within hours of launching the site, reports began pouring in. About 1,000 anecdotes came in during the site’s first year, and 1,500 the next year.

The deluge, particularly the many from across Metro Vancouver, surprised O’Leary. “I don’t know if crows are more aggressive in certain spots than others. It just seemed to be something which we experience here in Vancouver quite a bit,” he said, pointing to the city’s tall trees and concentration of rubbish bins as a possible explanation.

The site accepts reports only during the spring, or what O’Leary referred to as crow attack season – the period of typically eight to 10 weeks each year when crows are focused on protecting their eggs or young fledglings.

“When it happens, there’s a big spike,” he said. “I got like 100 reports in six hours one day.”
Crow swoops into crime scene and tries to steal knife identified as evidence
O’Leary, who created the site with another instructor, Rick Davidson, screens all the submissions for any obviously bogus reports, citing one that said: “A crow followed me into the bar and ran off with my girlfriend.”

The map lets users provide details of the attack and rate the bird’s aggressiveness, and see where attacks are happening so they can take steps to protect themselves. It has seemingly taken on a larger role in the city’s psyche. “It’s become a therapy for people … people just need to tell their story,” he said.
“It’s dramatic. If you’re going down the street and you see a dog and the dog is growling at you, well at least you get a bit of a warning. Maybe you can cross the street or you can steel yourself, get ready for an attack,” he explained. “But this comes from behind, invariably. You don’t hear anything and just like that you get smacked in the back of the head.”

Though he’s been swooped at a few times, O’Leary has never been attacked by crows. But after reading through the site’s thousands of submissions, he’s gained a new respect for the birds.
“The main thing that comes across is that crows are very intelligent, they work together. They’re one of the few species that actually uses tools,” he said, citing examples of crows using twigs to dig into tree crevasses for ants.

He’s also been astonished by their aggressiveness, pointing to stories of people being left with neck injuries after an attack. “Those crows, they’ve been getting away with murder for years,” he said. “They attack pigeons, squirrels, cats and dogs.”

As a result he’s modified his own behaviour during crow attack season, wearing a hat and turning around at the first whisper of wings behind him.
“Many of the reports are the same: ‘The crow attacked me from the back, hit the side of my head,’” he said. “Some of them are kind of scary. People are saying ‘a whole pack of crows followed me down the block and I had to go inside’.

7 children, 18 grand children and 4 great kids with 70 years of marriage….. an outpouring of love for your mom’s remembrance this Saturday….

Putin gonna annex Croatia, after he executes his penalty kickers….

Another incredible match in this World Cup.

Even if you don’t give a shit about soccer this tournament has been great

Croatia advances to semi’s vs England

Japan Belgium indeed……

https://www.newyorker.com/sporting-scene/replay/world-cup-2018-iran-vs-portugal-and-the-excruciating-thrill-of-technologically-enabled-meta-bewilderment

World Cup 2018: Iran vs. Portugal and the Excruciating Thrill of Technologically Enabled Meta-Bewilderment
By Brian PhillipsJune 25, 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo, of Portugal, and Ramin Rezaian, of Iran, on a combative final match day for Group B, at the World Cup, on Monday.Photograph by Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty

Soccer makes very little sense at the best of times, and on Monday, in the dying moments of Iran’s World Cup match against Portugal, it made no sense at all. The game had been combative. It was the third and final match day in Group B, and both teams had a chance to advance to the knockout stage; both teams also knew that a bad result could send them home. Elbows flew on every contested header. Bodies strained in ways that made you think of the word “sinew,” possibly for the first time all year. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star, winced so hard after bashing a free kick into the Iranian wall that his neck briefly looked like the Rock’s neck.
Both teams had chances to score. Ronaldo even took a penalty, in the fifty-third minute, but it was saved by the Iranian goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvand. Both had spent shrill minutes shrieking at and pleading with the referee, who had, from the perspective of the players, committed several of the most unfathomable injustices ever perpetrated by a human being. By the same token, he had also graced the world with many of the fairest and most far-seeing judgments that anyone had ever encountered. They were the same decisions; it only depended from which side you were looking at them. Heading into stoppage time, Portugal led 1–0 thanks to a screaming party trick of a shot by Ricardo Quaresma (also known as “a Ricardo Quaresma shot”). If the results from this match and Spain’s simultaneous game against Morocco held up, Portugal and Spain would advance from Group B.
Now, however, in the ninety-first minute, the referee, Enrique Cáceres, stood huddled under the visor of the video-replay unit on the sideline. He was checking to see whether Portugal’s Cédric Soares had committed a handball in the area, an infraction that would lead to an Iranian penalty. This World Cup is the first to use fifa’s new video-assistant referee system, and this was the first moment in World Cup history when an entire group seemed likely to be decided based on a referee’s encounter with a television. Cáceres stood there for a long time, watching. Universes rose and fell while the footage looped. If Iran could steal a goal here, and Morocco could somehow beat Spain, then it would be Spain, one of the favorites, that would be bumped from the tournament; Iran would advance. Incredibly, Morocco was winning. Everything hung on Cáceres’s decision. Diadems dropped and doges surrendered. Ronaldo unhinged and rehinged his jaw, like a deadly python that loves to wear aviators on a yacht for some reason.
Cáceres watched. And watched. And watched. He stood there for so long I started to wonder if the replay unit got Netflix. Had a new season of “Terrace House” dropped? I am against video replay in soccer, partly because I find it naïve to imagine that television footage could forestall crises of interpretation in a sport whose rulebook often forces the referee to assess other human beings’ inner thoughts (Did he intend to pong the ball away with his fist, or did it just, like, happen to get ponged?), and partly because it is boring to watch the referee watch the match you are watching. I had to admit, however, that there was something fascinating about this moment. A new kind of drama had entered the World Cup: the excruciating thrill of technologically enabled meta-bewilderment. My Twitter timeline filled up with variants of the message “I have no idea what’s going on right now.” I was bored, yet my heart was racing. Welcome to sports in 2018! Finally, Cáceres turned away from the monitor, strode back onto the pitch, and, having taken plenty of time to come to the correct decision, confidently announced what appeared to be a highly incorrect one. Soares’s handball had looked accidental, and in any case it wasn’t entirely clear that the ball had touched his hand. Penalty for Iran!
Karim Ansarifard, a substitute who had entered the match in the seventy-sixth minute, converted the shot. Iran was alive! The World Cup was happening! Fibre-optic cables were carrying “Game of Thrones” under the sea! Mehdi Taremi nearly scored a second for Iran, in the ninety-fifth minute, a result that would have upended civilization on several continents, but the ball whanged into the side of the net and civilization continued its sad march.

zn wrote:

joemad wrote:

what needs to happen to advance to “Round of 16”

Do you follow this Joe?

What are your insights, preferences, opinions?

My parents immigrated to California from Portugal… my dad loved soccer as does and my oldest brother…… In addition, I grew up and still live in an area where we have a decent sized Portuguese community that is very passionate about the sport, but personally I only follow the World Cup and Euro Cup tournaments.

After beating Sweden, I think Germany is destined to win…. either them or the French / Maybe Belgium….. those players are just too big for the Iberian cousins (Spain and Port) to compete with….

I get into it for the World Cup and would love to see Portugal advance, but my passion is Rams football.

BTW, did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo was named after……Ronald Reagan…..

Serbs serve Swiss Cheese defense in the 90th minute…. remarkable……

SWISS 2
Serbia 1

Kronke’s man from Arsenal tied the game for Swiss Miss..

URL = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/sports/world-cup/switzerland-vs-serbia.html

For the second time this World Cup, Switzerland responded well to going down early, and defeated Serbia 2-1 in Kaliningrad. They were put in the hole by a fifth minute Aleksandar Mitrovic header, and for the first 20 minutes the Swiss midfield was absolutely overrun.

But slowly they regained control of the game, and the second half belonged to Switzerland. Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka equalized just seven minutes into the second half with a beautiful belted curler from outside of the box, and Xherdan Shaqiri got the breakaway winner in the 90th minute after some shambolic Serbian defending

.

With the victory, Switzerland joins Brazil at the top of the group, and will advance to the round of 16 with win or draw against already-eliminated Costa Rica. Serbia has the tougher challenge of likely needing to defeat Brazil.

lead.

For the second time this World Cup, Switzerland responded well to going down early, and defeated Serbia 2-1 in Kaliningrad. They were put in the hole by a fifth minute Aleksandar Mitrovic header, and for the first 20 minutes the Swiss midfield was absolutely overrun.

But slowly they regained control of the game, and the second half belonged to Switzerland. Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka equalized just seven minutes into the second half with a beautiful belted curler from outside of the box, and Xherdan Shaqiri got the breakaway winner in the 90th minute after some shambolic Serbian defending.

With the victory, Switzerland joins Brazil at the top of the group, and will advance to the round of 16 with win or draw against already-eliminated Costa Rica. Serbia has the tougher challenge of likely needing to defeat Brazil.

lead.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by joemad.

Spagnulos 1
Persians Nil

Iran had their chances, and a very questionable nullified goal….but Spain is great at ball control

https://youtu.be/irzJZ8yggrM

Varoufakis argues that the entire Western economy has become a massive con game, on a scale thousands or millions of times larger than anything Bernie Madoff could have imagined. Furthermore, in his telling, it’s a con game run by intelligent and not necessarily malevolent people who understand perfectly well that the whole enterprise is a fraud that’s bound to come crashing down eventually.

Capitalism collapsed in 2008, just as communism had collapsed in 1991 — the system we have now is something else

The massive Greek bailout was a hoax that did nothing to help the Greek people — it moved money straight from the pockets of European taxpayers to the coffers of the big banks

It’s a shell game…. even seasoned folks within finance can’t explain ….

this 52 sec Seinfeld bit sums it up nicely at much smaller scale……. no one really knows… … DO YOU?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by joemad.

Ca voter demographics on wiki:

URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_locations_by_voter_registration

this is old data (2013), but the cities in O.C. that are “blue” the margins are slim, and in the most part are working class cities within O.C., thus these working class voter populations don’t have the time to vote. Similar results apply in other counties in CA.

I think making election days similar to “jury duty”. …. show proof to your employer that you voted to get paid for the “civil service”.

there is hope in “modern music” that is not influenced by Max Martin… these kids sound pretty good…..

BTW, I too don’t have the patience to view 20 min vids on topics like this…… thus, on the youtube screen, note the “sprocket” (settings) on the lower right of the vid and select “speed” to view the video in faster (or slower) speed. (IF viewing from a smart phone, note the 3 dots on the upper right of your screen to adjust vid speed)

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by joemad.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by joemad.

One of the most iconic photos in NFL history….

RIP DC87.

That was a huge play… a changing of the landscape from 1970’s NFL to the 80’s and beyond.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by joemad.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by joemad.

good point by Brian… the culture in the US has rapidly changed because of the lack of communication skills from the current POTUS…. and others mirror that arrogant approach….

Have you ever read tweets from James Woods? now I realize why he always plays a dick character in his movies.