Most sane people would take the vaccine.
But a popular new option for the crazier conspiracy theorists appears to be: book a vaccination appointment, and then turn up wearing a fake silicone arm to suck up all the poison juice / nanobots / tiny replica Bill Gateseses, melted down 5G masts or whatever.








_{I heard lots of people voted for Biden using fake arms, so those votes shouldn't be counted, which means Trump won.}

I think he is, yes. The last time he was in a serious title challenge it was against Vettel, and Vettel wasn't strong enough mentally to deal with it. But Verstappen is strong enough, I think. He's not shown any signs at all of buckling under the pressure. He's certainly a worthy opponent for Hamilton.

If Hamilton has the faster car here, then one thing that could be important is the pace of the second drivers. Bottas looks like he should be up near the front for a change, but Perez seems to be struggling a bit. That could hand Mercedes a tactical advantage if it stays like that through qualifying. Of course I don't expect Bottas to beat Verstappen in the race itself, but he might be able to assist Hamilton.

You almost make some valid points, but you've got some key details the wrong way around. Trump lost the vote in 2020, and was unable to manipulate the states into declaring him the winner. His two options for '24 are A) get more votes, or B) get the right people into positions of authority so that he can manipulate the outcome regardless of vote count.

Turns out he's going for option B.




As an aside, I notice the Kraken is now bobbing lifelessly near the top of the P&S threads. I suspect I pulled him up from the depths too quickly, and he's succumbed to decompression sickness. What an ignominious demise - I'd always anticipated he'd end up choking himself on frivolous lawsuits.

Practice 1 for the Saudi grand prix is done... Hamilton edged Verstappen by a tiny amount.
Can we read anything into this? Is Max closer than expected?
I know it's only first practice, and it's also earlier in the day than qualifying or the race will be, so the conditions are probably unrepresentative... but are there some signs here that it could be closer than the Hamilton steamroller that we might have expected?

Apologies, didn't realise you couldn't view the article.




"Far left"? You mean almost indistinguishable from, say, North Korean TV? Really?




Yes, agreed, that's a sensible write up that covers all angles, and critiques the report. It does say:
... which I'd agree with entirely.

And in the concluding remarks:
... again, reasonable. We don't know for certain, wet market appears somewhat more likely.

Weird that you link to Wikipedia for influenza, but choose to ignore it for Covid. Here's the link for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:COVID-19_pandemic_data
It would fill in that troublesome '??' you have for Covid deaths. The figure is widely available, so why do you pretend you're not aware of it? Other than it not fitting your chosen narrative, of course. The total is currently 5.22 million.

Weird also how you think that all coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS, are inconsequential, causing mere 'respiratory infections'.
One of the most common symptoms of MERS is death. If you catch it, the chance of dying is around 34%. Mercifully, it doesn't spread easily.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_MERS_outbreak.svg

Yep, me too. They have some good players, but their structure is wrong. I'm not sure if Rangnick has all the right components to make a good team, or whether he'll need to make some smart acquisitions in January.
Personally, I would think there will definitely be some major activity in the Jan window if they can get the players - always difficult to pick people up mid-season though, so might be a bit of a challenge.

But the timing for him becoming the manager is ideal. He has a few weeks now to get to know the squad, their strengths and weaknesses, and then once he's done that, the window is open again.

I'm not sure he'll move again. He wants to be at Barca, anywhere else isn't right. I'm sure the whole upheaval of moving to a new country has been difficult for him, after being at home in Barcelona for decades of his life. Presumably he will start to settle in Paris soon enough, but it feels like the whole process of uprooting everything and moving to another country is not something he would want to repeat. I mean, maybe as a stretch he'd have a token season in the US or something, but I can't see him moving to another top European club (unless it's back to Barca).

Yep.




Nope.

I think this is the basic problem. Yes, they have some great players. But football is a team game, and if you just throw 11 good players onto a pitch, they will get beaten by a well-organised fully-functioning team every time, even if the other team's players are less talented as individuals.

I've said it a few times, but I think Ronaldo exmplifies the problem. He is a goal machine, yes, but he doesn't function well as part of a team, especially when the opposition have the ball. If Man U are playing a top side, then the fact that Ronaldo can't defend or track back is an obvious avenue to exploit. It's these sorts of weakness that Man U need to address.

Apologies, I should explain. When text appears blue, this means it links out to somewhere else. In this case, to a report of the latest study.
If you want another link, this time with pictures, then a similar article in the LA Times (that's a link) may be useful.



As I say though, nothing is proven yet... and maybe we will never have definitive proof either way. But I am interested in your reaction to my post. You seem quite emotionally invested in the 'lab leak' origin, despite the dearth of evidence. What is it that makes you so sure that this is the explanation? Can't we just look at the evidence before arriving at a decision? Personally I believe that a natural origin is more plausible, but I'm certainly not saying it can't have been a lab leak.

Capitalist democracy is probably the least bad option.

One problem with most systems of government is that they can be exploited. Some people still defend communism by saying that 'communism in theory' hasn't yet been tried, because the various implementations we've seen so far are corrupt. But this isn't a problem of implementation, it's the nature of the system itself. Communism is easy to exploit. Those in charge can do whatever they like, and make themselves unaccountable. At the other end of the scale, laissez-faire capitalism is bad for the same reason, it's too easy for the rich and powerful to entrench their own advantage.

I believe the best system to be one where two forces oppose one another, and so work to maintain a balance. In short, a capitalist democracy with a left-of-centre government.

The Kraken has sunk to the third page in P&S, and is in danger of never being seen again! He's clearly intent on returning to the perpetual darkness of his watery lair.
I thought I should allow him one last visit to the top of the first page again, however briefly, just so that we can catch a glimpse of the monstrous, seaweed-strewn mess for a final time.

So here you go. Here he is, in all his magnificent glory. Look at his happy little face. One final day in the sun, before he returns home.

Clubs often have a brief upturn in fortunes after a new manager joins. Villa have beaten a couple of mediocre teams with their new boss. I think Man City will be a step too far for them, and City will score an easy win.
The big complicating factor here I think is not the new manager, but the return of Grealish... not sure how that will work out, he might score a hat-trick, or he might inspire Villa to try to show that they're better without him.

Messi said that Lewandowski would have been the winner in 2020, when it was cancelled. Messi won it in 2021.
France Football obviously know this is contentious, because they gave Lewandowski the special new award 'Striker of the Year'.
If you have to create a special award for someone who hasn't won, then there is something wrong.

What they should have done is either:
a) base the 2021 award on performance across both 2020 and 2021, or
b) award a 2020 prize as well.

If they are going to give Lewandowski the Striker of the Year award, they are doing so because he was the best player in 2020 but didn't get a Ballon D'Or for it. 'Striker of the Year' is 'Ballon D'Or 2020' in all but name.

It seems to me that instead of Striker of the Year, they should have given him the 2020 Ballon D'Or retrospectively, and then let Messi keep the 2021 award.
That way both players get the awards, Lewandowski gets recognition for his 2020 performances, and probably France Football gets loads of praise and extra publicity for giving out two awards.

We can't absolutely rule out the lab leak theory, but a growing body of evidence suggests that the origin was natural, and it spread out from the wet market.
The latest credible document I've found about it comes from someone who was one of the signatories to the request earlier this year that an investigation into its origin be carried out, including the possibility of a lab leak. This does suggest he is quite impartial in the matter.

Obviously the tendency of China to want to hide everything lends weight to conspiracy theories, but China is like this in everything, not specifically the Covid virus.

This is a silly argument. You are allowed to have a mullet and wear skinny jeans in the US. Mullets and jeans are your only protection, they are the only things keeping the government from your door...
because in North Korea people CAN'T HAVE A MULLET OR WEAR SKINNY JEANS.

^

There's a first time for everything!

He has to win it some time, surely. It's unlikely Messi will win it again next year, this year was all about the Copa America... he's not looking like the world's best player at PSG at the moment. And Ronaldo is the other perpetual winner... but he hasn't won since 2017 I think, and was only 6th this year, and is in a Man U team that is imploding.

Next time for Lewandowski?

I suspect he may skim right over your post without acknowledging it, as it doesn't fit with his chosen narrative. That's how it usually works.