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Hoo boy. If any of you are treasure hunters, head to the mid Atlantic.

"BREAKING: A giant cargo ship "Felicity Ace" is on fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

It's carrying a cargo of Porsche and VW automobiles.

The crew safely abandoned ship in lifeboats. Under maritime law the ship is now "finders keepers.""

https://twitter.com/RetroTechNoir/status/1494133673532305410

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brb gonna grab a boat and snag me a Taycan

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I'll help defray the cost of the boat if you pick me one up as well.

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Anyone else think it stupid that the Pac 12 bills itself as "The Conference of Champions"? Do they actually mean to draw attention to the fact that they awards championships in all sports, men's and women's ranging from football to field hockey to tennis? Doesn't every conference award championships?

Maybe WFC could brand itself a"The website of honorees" and start giving honors to various regulars. Most annoying commenter: Oski Disciple.

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Not sure why you mentioned conference championships, but Pac-12 does dominate national championships across all sports (Stanford, UCLA, and USC are the only schools to have 100+ NCAA titles). The fact that we got all those Billy Walton shouting "Conference of Champions" at random times made the moniker worth it IMHO.

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So it's because the Pac 12 wins more national championships than any other conference. That makes sense then. I withdraw my charge of silliness on the part of the conference.

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Well, there's plenty of other areas in which you can charge the conference with silliness.

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It would be even more if they counted Rugby.

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And crew.

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The Conference of Non-Revenue Sports Champions

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DBD Cooking Academy

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022Author

So I just finished my burger experiment. Same block of meat, divided in half. Half aged two days (remove water). Then did a single sample for compare normal pan, iron skillet, air fryer and smash-burger style. The results really surprised me. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed, but science is science.

The winner: the normal sample.

Aging: Air-aged meats were generally drier and surprisingly, were not as tasty - except in the aftertaste. I guess you need some water in the burger to transfer flavor.

Smash-burger style: Any recipes you read about smash burgers is that it needs to be in a really hot skillet and then some oil put at the bottom. Really hot is wrong. It is too hot and the meat quickly goes past the Maillard zone. You get burned meats rather than a Maillard crust.

Air-fryer: Cooking a burger in the air-fryer was a success in that it created a really uniform temperature and maximized the meat in the Maillard zone. The bad news. It also did a superior job in rendering out the fat. The burger tastes bland because it's so lean, but has a great aftertaste. So it's like a bad wine with a great, long finish.

Yeah, the normal sample took longer to steam off the water, plumped up, and generally took much longer to cook. The gentle cook allowed it to be easier to control, retain water/fat/flavor, and still form a delicious crust.

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In case you feel like publishing your results...

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/meat-science

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Attempting this on Saturday morning to take to my friends' place: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/basque-style-cheesecake-tarta-de-queso-recipe

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I made a few rounds of basque chesse-cup-cakes a while back. The bottoms tend to get burned before the batter is set and the top finished, so maybe a water bath of sorts for the first half of baking?

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Ah, thanks for the tip!

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But also don't really listen to me - I cook, I don't bake. So what the heck do I know.

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one of the comments on the recipe suggested a sheet pan on the rack below to block some of the direct heat, so it's a similar suggestion to yours

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Truth in advertising, sort of?

I actually saw a release advertising a new source as "Fake news you can trust!"

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022Author

Kid and I made up this game last night. Guess a musical instrument that was invented in the United States. Ask Google/Siri/Alexa for the answer. Try to guess three correctly.

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Speaking of games, a friend of a friend is Kickstarting a word game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amibaio/lost-for-words

I'm not really a game person, but sharing here in case it interests any of you.

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The Sousaphone!

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022

Autoharp

Washtub bass

Banjo

I have seen autoharp and washtub bass used by relatives in impromptu jam sessions that center on bluegrass and folk music. Banjos I associate with Dixieland jazz and bluegrass, which I understand to be musical genres originating in the US. I do not associate banjoes with musical genres that originated outside the US.

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That's called a gut-bucket; my ol' man, Cletus, born in Muskogee, OK, played the hell out of the gut-bucket, loved Hank Williams's Old Kalija!

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Love that term gut-bucket.

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Cats, dogs, and most other animals know what danger looks like. Humans, on the other hand...

https://twitter.com/marceldirsus/status/1494278994283438084

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Wait. How long has Twitter had a downvote button for comments?

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What do you mean? There's no downvote on my Twitter, just a regular old heart like always.

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not too long, I think. I never read the comments tho

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Olympics

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... and the agony of defeat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itnL_0NBzIw

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at least there was a happy ending

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Canada changed their gameplan for this game and dominated, at least in the first period and a half I watched.

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Wasn't even close. Canada spent most of the game in the US end. They were also very impressive on defense. They were very aggressive in helping their goaltender. Very few openings or second chances.

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The USA missed a couple early opportunities, and after they dug themselves into a hole, didn't play with that much urgency until it was too late. Canada overall played smarter as well as being better with puck security.

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Kamila Valieva comes in 4th place after disaster free skate.

she was not skating well from the start and never recovered.

medals ceremony taking place w/ 2 other Russians taking the top 2 spots.

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Did some Russian official tell her to take a dive or did the pressure finally catch up with a fifteen year old?

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her coach apparently was asking why she didnt fight after falling down. i.e. "you quit"

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Her coach is a real see you next tuesday.

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Probably just the pressure. Even in her "historic" skate in the team competition where she landed two quads, she had a fall.

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the medals ceremony is also in disarray as one of the of the top 2 Russians is refusing to participate for unknown reasons, but finally relents.

nobody seems happy ... expect maybe the Japanese woman who came in 3rd.

complete disaster!

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drama in figure skating...who could have seen this coming

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Gillooley won the pool.

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Elsewhere in college

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UCLA's best defensive player enters the portal.

https://twitter.com/bruinreport/status/1494033678753689603?s=21

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[Multiple sources] UCLA will probably hire Bill McGovern as DC. Seems like a classic Chip hire. Older, been around a long time, hit their peak when Chip was at Oregon, doesn't have recent recruiting history, underwhelming actual performance. All things considered, this seems like a good hire if your a Golden Bear fan.

https://247sports.com/college/ucla/Article/UCLA-Football-UCLA-to-Hire-Bill-McGovern-as-Defensive-Coordinator-182964234/

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their last DC went 3-1 vs Cal.

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and Azz was a career position coach before being tapped as DC . Experience in this case seems to be a bit overrated with regards to results vs Cal

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That’s what we said about the last DC hire by UCLA.

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it was, except when they played Cal

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the Bears are a truly unique team

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Just bring pressure…dunno why every team didn’t blitz Garbers.

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You and I could have been an opposing DC and held the Cal offense to about 20 points with the “just blitz” strategy.

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seriously, he was completely helpless in the face of a blitz

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DBD AV Club

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Finally saw an episode of Mythic Quest I really liked, E5 - Dark Quiet Death. Really enjoying Rez Dogs still.

Over the weekend saw a somewhat strange rom-com my wife picked out Remember the Night 1940, with Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray, written by Preston Sturges (who I think is great) the parts that are good, are very good, but it has soupcon of racism that's kinda a downer. Not for very long, but still. Ending was predictable if you thought about the Hayes code.

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Enjoying Pam and Tommy and The Gilded Age. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver returns from hiatus Sunday. Better Call Saul and Barry returning in April. Good times with the telly. Nice to find nuggets amid all the rubbish.

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Ohh...can't wait for John Oliver.

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Same. This midseason break has felt especially long.

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Rick & Morty (HBOMax, 19/19, WB). I'm binging it again. Man, it's funny, stupid-but-actually-really-smart stuff). Like one of the best animated series ever made. Also, I got the free HBO subscription by switching from GoogleFiber to AT&T. HBO's content depth kicks Netflix's and Amazon's ass.

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kind of a quality versus quantity thing, so far as I use either

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I agree, and I am close to axing Netflix

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I would but I've got my dad, mom, brother, and wife on my plan so I can't.

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Ali Wong's "Don Wong" on Netflix (11/19, WB). Her third Netflix special is now a bit high-concept - tiny, pretty Asian comedienne who pole-vaults way over the line in gross-out comedy. It's more of the same content like her last two specials, but when she does pole vault - she doesn't disappoint. I find myself choking on my own spit in laughter for those moments. I found it delightful to hear the audience that isn't just laughing, but struggling to catch their breaths. The rest is more of the same and the message of "fame double-standard" gets a bit tired.

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Thanks for reminding me about this. Just paused the scrolling to watch it. 14/19? Better than 2, but can’t touch the newness of 1.

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oh I'll need to watch this.

I also saw Hasan Minhaj on The Daily Show and saw he's touring. Going to take No 3 to the show in San Jose at the end of April.

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If it's anything like the show I saw him demo last year, it's a neat introspective mixed with the kind of media display he had on Patriot Act.

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It's probably very similar to what you saw. On The Daily Show he said it's a one man show, very similar to Homecoming with lots of media.

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her 1st special was awesome but her 2nd was almost unwatchable. My wife cant stand her because of her schtick

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022Author

Walter, Wally, Waldo, or other similar name

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I wondered why Wally's American cousin was Waldo... https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/6gyz92/why_is_wheres_wally_called_wheres_waldo_in_america/

Apparently "Waldo" was thought to resonate better in the US?

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In my mind, the OG Waldo-style was Richard Scarry

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My kids loved Richard Scarry.

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I liked the book Busy Busy World as a 4-year old.

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Lowly Worm has the best fashion sense.

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TODAY IN COVID

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technically yesterday in COVID, but: I was expecting to be going back to the customer's office at least part time in about 6-8 weeks, but we found out that they've decided to have the "back to work" plan to be for feds only, and all contractors to stay remote. I suspect that what this really means is that they don't have a clear view on how many contractors are on site on a daily basis, but they know enough to be sure that it would fuck up occupancy restrictions. So I'm in the guest room for the foreseeable future.

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Going to Las Vegas tomorrow, for my daughter's volleyball tournament. Like elsewhere, masks are no longer required, but encouraged. Daughter has decided she will most likely not wear a mask while playing(first time in over a year she has the choice). We're all going to try to mask, but acknowledge it may be nice to take it off in some settings/situations.

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Wife and I went two weeks ago - even with the mask mandate only about 50% of everyone there wore masks, and the ones who did not wear masks were exactly the people one would expect to not wear masks.

side note - doubled up my money at roulette and blackjack.

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Thanks for the perspective. Nice job on doubling up, especially if roulette was involved. I hope to hit a poker tournament if time allows, but will most likely lose my gambling money at blackjack or pai gow.

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I got insanely good luck. Had streaks of hitting numbers and getting exactly the cards I wanted on hits.

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NC governor announcing end to local mask mandates. IMO, it's a strategic shift to not be on the losing side of an issue that's already been lost.

https://twitter.com/KeenanWRAL/status/1494327576411602949

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Indoor mask mandate here in Madison is going to expire Mar 1.

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Despite the county going maskless, UCSB continues to require a mask and proof of vax plus booster, for entry into school-sponsored events (ie the upcoming Jason Isbell show & an evening with Erik Larsson).

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I think that's a requirement of the Isbell tour

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Yes, proof of vax is required for Isbell, which caused cancellations earlier in the tour, and some hub bub.

But this was the first I had seen proof of booster, and it’s for ALL school events. Interesting.

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oh I see - my daughter had to present "proof of booster" to return to campus last month, but that's at a northeastern liberal arts college.

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i thought i saw something that Cal was going lift mask mandates soon.

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Feb 28th.

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looks like our mandate for general indoor masking will be allowed to expire on Monday, but they will still be required for schools and public transport.

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We have embarked on a month and a half long stretch where the mandate varies building by building, and changes almost daily.

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coronavirus update from the house.

wife is feeling fine but still testing positive and quarantined in the attic. my daughters and i have all tested negative multiple times including 2 PCR tests and still symptom free.

everything looks good for older one to head off to the school trip to Greece this Fri and the rest of the family skiing in MT for the week.

we are still wearing masking in the house when people are together in the common spaces. that being said, i am home all day long by myself in the common spaces and have not been wearing a mask or restricting myself to the bedroom.

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022

My COVID update: after three weeks of fending it off while other family members got sick, I finally tested positive today (I felt tired and feverish on Monday, so I suspected something was up).

Our family has perfectly spaced out our infections so as to have quarantine last as long as possible.

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Ouch, although once long ago our son brought home some stomach flu that was sooooooo nasty, I got it first, and was as sick as I've ever been, I couldn't take care of anything, totally out of it. Once I had gotten somewhat better, then my wife got it, and was similarly affected.

It was really good we both didn't get at the same time.

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Yeah, in my case it's annoying because I'm really not very sick. Minor lingering cough, easily managed with DayQuil. But a positive test means we need to delay more stuff.

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Good news. I'm glad to hear the family's trips weren't interrupted.

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plainly everything that you're doing is working, which is good!

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yes, but a good bit of luck too.

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It's been part luck all along. The trick is to best slant the odds in your favor.

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Starting yesterday, noticed less folks wearing masks...

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I ran some errands and everything in my neck of SF looked normal (ie everyone still masked up). It will be interesting to see how it wanes over time. I personally just feel like I need a few weeks where everything doesn't go to shit due to loosened restrictions before I'm comfortable enough to partake.

A lot of shops in SF seem to still be requiring them.

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Since Contra Costa got rid of masks in the gym starting yesterday, most of the people weren't wearing them. I did and there still were some that did, both old and young.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Interesting, I bet they aren't feeling super comfortable right now.

And even if the family members were to decline to answer questions as part of Ms. James’s civil inquiry — as they are permitted to do under the Fifth Amendment — the lawyers said that decision could have negative repercussions for the criminal case, making headline-grabbing news that would make it difficult to select a jury. Once seated, a criminal jury would be instructed not to hold any refusal to answer questions against the Trump family.

In a civil trial, refusing to answer questions might harm the Trumps: Their silence could be used against them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/nyregion/trump-investigation-letitia-james.html

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"Must sit for a deposition within 21 days". Well, this will be awkward

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Exiled Chinese billionaire and Steve Bannon financier files for bankruptcy

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/16/exiled-chinese-billionaire-bannon-financier-bankruptcy-00009494

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That guy is without a doubt a CCP plant, intended to make the opposition look unsympathetic and out of touch. His supposed former billionaire status is all a fraud.

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Perhaps I'm using old-fashioned math, but if you can't pay back a $30m loan - you're not a billionaire.

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using Trumpian math, duh

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Meanwhile, over on Fox News - it is 24-7 about Durham.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/02/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-white-house-spying

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Biden and every other Democrat: oh no... anyways...

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PRO

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Um...did Phil really mean to say this?

Phil Mickelson will deal with Saudis to pressure PGA Tour

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/33312893/phil-mickelson-deal-saudis-pressure-pga-tour

LOS ANGELES -- Even though the Saudi Arabian government has been accused of myriad human rights violations by watchdog groups around the world, Phil Mickelson says he is willing to get involved with a Saudi-financed breakaway golf league to have leverage with the PGA Tour.

"They're scary motherf---ers to get involved with," Mickelson told author Alan Shipnuck, who posted an excerpt of his upcoming book, "Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar," on the Fire Pit Collective website Thursday.

"... They killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights," Mickelson continued, in an interview that Shipnuck said took place in November. "They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates."

Mickelson, 51, is one of the most high-profile PGA Tour players linked to the new circuit that will purportedly be funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, which has an estimated worth of $500 billion.

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C’mon on Steve Kerr…pull your head outta your a$$

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It was ugly in the 4th. Looney's FT shooting was subpar. I know he's a big guy and was winded, but I wonder if Kuminga or even JTA would give some energy and athleticism against Jokic. I guess they don't have the height or weight to battle Jokic.

Wiggins seems to have deferred to Klay. He doesn't seem to be aggressive unless he gets the ball late in the shot clock.

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Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022

That’s Wiggins in a nutshell, tho - soft. He’s so used to being the best player on a bad team.

Kerr’s substitution patterns are maddening. Where was GP2, your best defender, when it mattered? Kuminga was a beast, yet he’s basically benched in the 2H? Looney can’t guard Jokic.

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I assumed Payton was on the floor for the last defensive possession and then was stunned to see on the replay he wasn't. Why leave Steph out there?

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Sometimes I feel like I'm doomed to watch bad basketball for the rest of my life. The Knicks blew a 28-point lead to a Brooklyn team that recently snapped an 11-game losing streak. This is the third lead of 20+ the Knicks have blown in their last 7 games and the 5th double-digit lead they've blown in that same stretch.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1494308211331055622

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did the Knicks use all of their basketball to beat the Warriors

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something something broken clock

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CAL

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Go Bears!!!

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Cal women's bball pulls off a rare feat: two wins in one day

The Bears ride a 27-4 first quarter lead to a 45-point win over Cal State LA

https://twitter.com/CalWBBall/status/1494079476782682112

And they picked up a bonus win because yesterday's cancelled ASU game was ruled a forfeit

https://twitter.com/CalWBBall/status/1494160173866242050

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Forfeit only counts as a league win (for the Pac-12 tourney seeding purposes) but not an official win in the NCAA record book.

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ASU had mechanical issues with their flight, and evidently could rebook. That's not been a common problem.

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