Sports benefits people with an appropriate physique anyway, though, and often in a way that makes skill less of an issue. Although this depends on the sport. For example, even if I were exceptionally skilled at basketball (I'm not), then I'd never make it as a professional player because I'm not 7ft-whatever tall. But there are other sports where skill is more important. Footballers for example can be a range of physiques from tall strong centre-backs to slender, fast wingers. And there are other sports such as motor racing or snooker where height and strength are much less of an issue.
I would say that if you are good enough at sports, it's a case of finding one that suits you. Certain sports will always benefit people with certain physical attributes, that has always been the case and will continue to be so regardless of the gender issue. Other sports, is less of an issue or no issue at all.

Hope you guys get the bitcoin issue resolved quickly. I have to say it's working fine for me, so I assume it's just teething troubles that will be resolved very soon. I hope you can join me in the bitcoin markets soon!

This week I've taken a first tentative step into sports betting. São Paulo second in the table (albeit with a patchy recent record) at home to Coritiba who are in the relegation zone. Nailed on home win. What could possibly go wrong?

Me too. I do particularly like the breadth of markets on offer. I'm sticking mainly to US politics at the moment, but it's nice to see science, business and entertainment covered in addition to the more traditional sports markets.
Just waiting for the results of the Trump pardon bet to be confirmed, which will free up my bitcoin for further bets - I went all-in

The one cast-iron guarantee that the Democrats will remain in power is to create a third party that takes some of the GOP vote.

I was personally surprised at the lack of protest on inauguration day. Perhaps the belated police presence was off-putting, especially when combined with Trump abandoning the Capitol-stormers of the 6th. I was also anticipating the pardoning of Joe Exotic, a potential running-mate for '24 who could open a populist and tiger-strewn route back to power.

True, but this can give you an advantage in that you are in large part betting against what other platform users think. This means that you can get some very good odds, and so make a decent percentage profit. If 3 or 4 people make what you think are poor decisions with bets, then if it's 3 or 4 out of 10 total, it skews the odds quite nicely... whereas 3 or 4 out of 1,000 people makes almost no difference. Low liquidity can be a benefit as well as a hindrance. But anyway, liquidity should improve over time. It's early days for bitcoin on Futuur. It's a nice platform and—for me at least—impressive from both UI and UX perspectives. It should do very well.

It's a bit harsh to class Villa as a 'really weak' opponent - this is a team that put 7 past Liverpool, beat Arsenal and Leicester, and should have taken a point vs Man U in their last game. Mathematically, if they win their many games in hand, they go top of the table ahead of Leicester on goal difference.

I do agree though that Man City will win this one - just not convinced Villa are 'really weak'.

Kind of agree (although not convinced by the moonbat bit). But yes, the reason for the Twitter ban is obviously self-interest. Dorsey would only have blocked Trump once he felt it was in his personal (and Twitter's) best interest to do so, influenced no doubt by how his actions or lack thereof would be perceived by the incoming Biden team. The fact that Erdoğan etc are not banned speaks volumes. Anything about Trump being banned because his tweets incite violence is a smokescreen. Whether Trump tweets do or don't incite violence is from this perspective moot, and has zero to do with the reasons for the ban.

The potential rewards of winning, in terms of money and power, are so huge that people will go to extraordinary lengths in order to win. Politics will always attract people with a win-at-all-costs mentality, and will always attract people who have no actual ideological stance and no motivation beyond self-advancement and making $$$.
Of course there are also a number of genuine idealists attracted, who want to change the world. Some remain idealists, others either leave or slowly fall prey to the endemic corruption.

I've often thought that countries would be governed better if the first rule was that the people in charge have to be those who don't want to be in charge.

Yes. Democracy isn't just a right, it's a responsibility, and this facet is often overlooked. If you have the right to vote and contribute to determining who leads the country, then you also have the responsibility to ensure that you are making an informed and—most importantly—independent assessment. People who can't (or aren't willing to) think for themselves, who don't make the effort to see through biases and deception, and yet still turn out to vote because it's their 'right' are just as culpable in the subversion of democracy as those who are responsible for the manipulation in the first place. Mental laziness on the part of voters acts as an enabler of duplicitous politicians and media.

I'm really happy they're doing well, too. It's great for fans of middling teams to see that such success is possible, and not restricted to the few eternal 'big' clubs. I will certainly be cheering Leicester on and hoping they win a second title (whilst my own team sits someway further down the table).

Just put a bet on this one. 'No' looks extremely promising with only a few hours left.
For those who are still just betting in Ooms, it's definitely worth considering jumping into the bitcoin markets. Some of the markets are quite thin, which means the odds can shift a lot, which means the % opportunities are greater with bitcoin than with Ooms.

Yes, West Ham are much the better team, but as always recent form is a solid indicator, and West Ham are unbeaten since before Christmas. Looks like no chance for West Brom.
The other match is obviously tighter to call, but again with recent form you'd have to favour Leicester.

I suppose constipation is technically a form of methane sequestration, and so acts to prevent global warming. Something I'd not really considered in those terms before. Carbon sequestration gets all the attention, but those solutions are all large-scale, industrial-type endeavours. Turns out we can each do our bit with the methane. Not sure if this leads to unfortunate consequences further down the line.

There's also the fact that some people just like to get involved in violent encounters, and they will often attach themselves to any protest or demonstration, no matter how peaceful it is, and use this as an excuse to cause trouble. I'm sure plenty of the Capitol-stormers are Trump fanatics, but I'm equally sure that some of them were just there for the chance of mayhem, and would have been there irrespective of the cause. As we approach the 20th with the expectation that violence will flare up in many states, I'm sure these troublemakers will be out in force, and will likely take centre stage in any ensuing media reports of carnage.

On Futuur you can settle early and take profit at any point, before the outcome of the event itself happens. A change in the odds affects your payout, so if you have some solid insight into how you think the odds will change over time, you can work this to your advantage and cash out early. I might not bet on an event that's scheduled for 2025, because I don't think the odds will change very much this far out. But something that's due to settle in say a month's time, you can certainly take advantage of fluctuating odds in the run-up.

Mercedes have tweeted an image of a pen, along with the caption "You never know when one of these might come in handy... 😉 Designing Race Cars. Taking Notes. Signing Stuff."
Is this just to get people talking, or is there a chance of an imminent announcement on the Hamilton contract?

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1351197486262710278

That's the one I was watching out for, too. My assumption—and I think it's a reasonable assumption—is that Tiger Joe will be lined up as Trump's running mate for '24. Plus a <collective noun> of big cats would really supplement his insurrectionist army.

I would imagine, given what we see of his personality, that Trump will only pardon those he thinks will be able to return the favour somewhere down the line.

I think 2021 will be a Mercedes procession again. The only reason other teams started catching up a bit in the second half of last season is because Mercedes were so dominant in the first half that they stopped development on their 2020 car to focus on the 2021 iteration. Which means the best team already has a head-start on the others. Couple this with the fact that permitted development is very restricted for 2021, and it looks a good bet that the Mercedes dominance will continue... at least until the 2022 regulations reset.

Can he pardon himself for things that happen in the future? Because that's surely his biggest issue at the moment.

I think everyone is expecting some Trump-fuelled insurrection around the country on inauguration day. There's a reasonable chance that people will die, and that Trump will refuse to condemn the perpetrators, and thus open himself up to further charges of incitement... by which time he'll no longer be POTUS and no longer able to contrive a pardon for himself.

Because they've been rightly castigated for doing nothing, or next to nothing, last time. The issue now is that if the insurrectionists do persist with their armed uprising in an attempt to subvert democracy, then Trump will have yet more blood on his hands, possibly face conviction, and dramatically increase the chance of Republicans abandoning him when it comes to impeachment time.


1. They might expect it because Trump has screwed the people with his relentless lying, and has set one half of the country against the other. You can't cry 'election fraud' and then refuse to provide evidence. At least not convincingly.

2. Not sure how to respond to that one. Seems spectacularly unlikely—I might use the word fanciful—and utterly unrelated to what's happening at the moment.