Welcome to the Daily Bear Dump, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you’re generally civil.
i think the blessing is/was unintentional .. thus not clear it was originally meant to be a blessing.
i generally dont bless anyone, so all blessings from me would be in disguise. on the other hand, being born into Brahmin caste, i am officially allowed to bless things, occasions, people, etc.
on a semi-religious note, last night i had a fun short taxi ride home. the guy asked me what physics was and how it is supposed to work. then asked me about God and if i believed in "propulsion".
i think he was actually asking about the recent UFO sightings and how those UFOs seem to exhibit anti-gravity.
he said he thinks aliens are among us and i suggested that i would have no way of knowing if he was an alien or not.
...then he tries to convince you he is not, furthering the suspicion that he could be an alien, causing him to question whether he is, indeed, human or not. Driving home the point that while one may engage in the practice of "just asking questions," one should be weary of engaging in conspiratorial belief lest they fall prey to their own lack of critical thinking.
Joe seemed to get an exceedingly long ovation from the crowd. i didnt stick around to hear what he had to say. i assume it was exactly what everyone expected ..
George Santos - the first Vietnamese woman to go into space - has plead guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He is free on bond awaiting his February 7th sentencing, but is expected to be sentenced to around seven years in jail. He has also been ordered to pay $374k in restitution and forfeit $200k.
@CalBearArchive drops a bunch of games onto his Youtube channel. These tend to be up for short periods of times due to copyright strike, so act fast if you want to see them:
After an emotional split of the two final games of the Bay Bridge Series with the Giants at the Coliseum, the Oakland Athletics continued the current homestand with the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. Mark Kotsay will send 25-year-old righty Joe Boyle to the mound tonight against 23-year-old Taj Bradley for the Rays.
Hoping for a casual weekday series against a historically awful Chicago White Sox team? Looking to kick your feet up and relax after a long day of work with the game on in the background, letting your thoughts peacefully wander as the late summer light feathers away?
Then look no furth—
Nope, sorry, there is no respite for a San Francisco Giants fan. No such thing as an “easy” win. No match-up is “in the bag.”
The Dodgers began their nine game homestand on Monday, hosting the Seattle Mariners for the first of a three game series, with the Dodgers blanking Seattle to win 3-0.
Gavin Stone was given the start, entering as the only Dodger with 10 wins on the season, while Bryan Woo entered Monday having the lowest ERA by a starter with at least 70 innings pitched in a season in franchise history.
If a person notes that a team needs 94 losses out of 162 games to be mathematically eliminated, then that person is just using blunt force numbers to assert what had already happened.
The White Sox were probably mathematically eliminated 5 or 6 games earlier because among the teams ahead of the White Sox there will be matchups where only one team will lose a game when the White Sox would need both teams to lose to maintain mathematical viability.
[Yahoo Sports] Pats offer for 49ers Brandon Aiyuk was higher but their QB situation was bad. Steelers offered under $28m/year, showing that the market was softer than Aiyuk thought. Niners are in that territory and it appears to be his only real option
Cal has Wake on the schedule, a week after they have to go cross country, and have Stanford in Strawberry canyon this year. That should take care of it.
Hitching your institution's wagon to athletics is the first problem. It isn't athletics that should be pulling the university ahead. It should be academics. Athletics should be an enhancement, not the horse or the engine.
And now I read that Oklahoma State is going to have a QR code on the back of their helmet so as you watch the game on TV you can make a NIL donation. I’m about to give up on college football.
I'm going to go to all of Cal's home games (as I've been doing for decades) and watch their road games on TV. Other than I'm done with college football. It's been ruined in too many ways to here enumerate but y'all are familiar with those ways. It's a shame. It used to be my favorite sport but now I can't stomach stories like "who will make the 12 team playoffs?"
Just a couple days ago, I read a click bait headline that 7 ACC teams would not make a 32-team super-conference. Two of those seven teams are Cal and 'Furd. The upshot of the 32-team super-conference is that those teams would become the new "power football programs" or some such designation and everyone else would be consigned to mid-major status.
The implications are that those teams would be the NFL minor leagues. Everyone else will have to fend for themselves in terms of money and market share.
At that point, what's the point of *college* football anymore? If you aren't part of the 32-team super-conference, you're going to lose money somewhere in the high 7 to low 8 figures chasing college football relevance and Title IX compliance.
Things are getting really weird and exclusive. It really feels like TV is about to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs with an assist from the power football programs.
In the age of the transfer portal, multiple extra seasons of eligibility, extended seasons, dealing with players' agents, NIL, and impending payments to players, and the ensuing roster limits and exclusion of walk ons, and the need for funding to address these and other issues, the art & skill required for roster construction and management requires a dedicated professional with a good staff. Has been building for a good 10 years, and its only going to become more critical, regardless of level.
It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s question of the day.
I often hear of something being a blessing in disguise. The obvious question here is: why would anyone disguise a blessing?
I don't have a witty answer, but you have just provided me with an excellent concept for my Halloween costume this year!
Misfortune can be the kick in the pants we need to move ahead. We just don't always know it at the time.
"why are people always getting kicked in the pants?" is tomorrow's question of the day. you cant answer one QOTD with another one!
i think the blessing is/was unintentional .. thus not clear it was originally meant to be a blessing.
i generally dont bless anyone, so all blessings from me would be in disguise. on the other hand, being born into Brahmin caste, i am officially allowed to bless things, occasions, people, etc.
on a semi-religious note, last night i had a fun short taxi ride home. the guy asked me what physics was and how it is supposed to work. then asked me about God and if i believed in "propulsion".
i think he was actually asking about the recent UFO sightings and how those UFOs seem to exhibit anti-gravity.
he said he thinks aliens are among us and i suggested that i would have no way of knowing if he was an alien or not.
So are alien cab drivers just as bad as regular human ones? Did he pretend the cc reader in his UFO was broken and offer to drive you to an ATM?
no, we was bisy telling me about a dream where he saw the world explode and that somehow was coincidental w/ the World Trade bombings/attack on 9/11.
...then he tries to convince you he is not, furthering the suspicion that he could be an alien, causing him to question whether he is, indeed, human or not. Driving home the point that while one may engage in the practice of "just asking questions," one should be weary of engaging in conspiratorial belief lest they fall prey to their own lack of critical thinking.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
DNC goes well
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/politics/takeaways-dnc-day-1/index.html
Steve Kerr speaks at DNC, takes a page from Steph
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1825706272907473310
Joe seemed to get an exceedingly long ovation from the crowd. i didnt stick around to hear what he had to say. i assume it was exactly what everyone expected ..
He was sort of shouting the whole time, I assume trying to seem vigorous
George Santos - the first Vietnamese woman to go into space - has plead guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He is free on bond awaiting his February 7th sentencing, but is expected to be sentenced to around seven years in jail. He has also been ordered to pay $374k in restitution and forfeit $200k.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-santos-pleads-guilty-wire-fraud-aggravated-identity/story?id=105588889
CAL
SI thinks Nikko Remigio is on the bubble with the Chiefs.
https://www.si.com/nfl/chiefs/gm-report/resetting-at-wide-receiver-where-do-kc-chiefs-wr-stand-after-two-preseason-games
Go Bears!!!
@CalBearArchive drops a bunch of games onto his Youtube channel. These tend to be up for short periods of times due to copyright strike, so act fast if you want to see them:
https://www.youtube.com/@CalBearsArchive
Go Bears!
[WSOC] Bears fall 2-1 to #22 Santa Clara
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/18/womens-soccer-cal-bested-by-no-22-santa-clara-2-1.aspx
PRO
Athletics take down Rays 3-0
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/8/19/24224186/athletics-beat-rays
After an emotional split of the two final games of the Bay Bridge Series with the Giants at the Coliseum, the Oakland Athletics continued the current homestand with the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. Mark Kotsay will send 25-year-old righty Joe Boyle to the mound tonight against 23-year-old Taj Bradley for the Rays.
Giants nearly socked in the eye by Sox
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2024/8/20/24224365/mlb-final-giants-white-sox-8-19-2024-recap-curt-casali-kyle-harrison-thairo-estrada
Hoping for a casual weekday series against a historically awful Chicago White Sox team? Looking to kick your feet up and relax after a long day of work with the game on in the background, letting your thoughts peacefully wander as the late summer light feathers away?
Then look no furth—
Nope, sorry, there is no respite for a San Francisco Giants fan. No such thing as an “easy” win. No match-up is “in the bag.”
Gavin Stone deals, Gavin Lux delivers in win over Mariners
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/8/19/24224143/dodgers-mariners-game-recap
The Dodgers began their nine game homestand on Monday, hosting the Seattle Mariners for the first of a three game series, with the Dodgers blanking Seattle to win 3-0.
Gavin Stone was given the start, entering as the only Dodger with 10 wins on the season, while Bryan Woo entered Monday having the lowest ERA by a starter with at least 70 innings pitched in a season in franchise history.
DJ Moore admits that Cam Bynum lit him up
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-0uumXNMrd/
White Sox eliminated from playoffs
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/chicago-white-sox-eliminated-from-playoff-contention-break-divisional-era-record/ar-AA1p0qEn
If a person notes that a team needs 94 losses out of 162 games to be mathematically eliminated, then that person is just using blunt force numbers to assert what had already happened.
The White Sox were probably mathematically eliminated 5 or 6 games earlier because among the teams ahead of the White Sox there will be matchups where only one team will lose a game when the White Sox would need both teams to lose to maintain mathematical viability.
[Yahoo Sports] Pats offer for 49ers Brandon Aiyuk was higher but their QB situation was bad. Steelers offered under $28m/year, showing that the market was softer than Aiyuk thought. Niners are in that territory and it appears to be his only real option
https://sports.yahoo.com/report-steelers-contract-offer-aiyuk-193848350.html
DBD AV CLUB
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Dennis Dodd picks Cal to finish dead last in the ACC. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/acc-expert-picks-2024-most-overrated-and-underrated-teams-projected-order-of-finish-bold-predictions/
That’s laughable.
Curmudgeon continues his curmudgeonly ways.
In other news, water is wet. Film at 11.
there is zero chance this happens
Cal has Wake on the schedule, a week after they have to go cross country, and have Stanford in Strawberry canyon this year. That should take care of it.
None
Dude must have had his picks in reverse order.
"I must be in the front row...!"
Coach who makes more than $7m/year tells his players to quit asking for more money
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40921421/oklahoma-state-players-told-stop-asking-more-money
Someone tell me why institutions of higher education willingly subject themselves to ridicule by hiring guys like Mike Gundy.
Because some of them have few other options that will deliver as many Ws.
Hitching your institution's wagon to athletics is the first problem. It isn't athletics that should be pulling the university ahead. It should be academics. Athletics should be an enhancement, not the horse or the engine.
And now I read that Oklahoma State is going to have a QR code on the back of their helmet so as you watch the game on TV you can make a NIL donation. I’m about to give up on college football.
I'm going to go to all of Cal's home games (as I've been doing for decades) and watch their road games on TV. Other than I'm done with college football. It's been ruined in too many ways to here enumerate but y'all are familiar with those ways. It's a shame. It used to be my favorite sport but now I can't stomach stories like "who will make the 12 team playoffs?"
I'm right with you.
Just a couple days ago, I read a click bait headline that 7 ACC teams would not make a 32-team super-conference. Two of those seven teams are Cal and 'Furd. The upshot of the 32-team super-conference is that those teams would become the new "power football programs" or some such designation and everyone else would be consigned to mid-major status.
The implications are that those teams would be the NFL minor leagues. Everyone else will have to fend for themselves in terms of money and market share.
At that point, what's the point of *college* football anymore? If you aren't part of the 32-team super-conference, you're going to lose money somewhere in the high 7 to low 8 figures chasing college football relevance and Title IX compliance.
Things are getting really weird and exclusive. It really feels like TV is about to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs with an assist from the power football programs.
TV and the programs that emphasize football are trying to ensure the eggs they get are still coated with a thick layer of gold.
They will devalue the product.
And I saw that Alabama gave its general manager a big raise. Who knew college football teams had GMs?
In the age of the transfer portal, multiple extra seasons of eligibility, extended seasons, dealing with players' agents, NIL, and impending payments to players, and the ensuing roster limits and exclusion of walk ons, and the need for funding to address these and other issues, the art & skill required for roster construction and management requires a dedicated professional with a good staff. Has been building for a good 10 years, and its only going to become more critical, regardless of level.