Oh wow, I forgot until I was listening to a song "even in dreams..." My last dream this morning featured Newellbany - and some others - we were going to an away game in Texas, and we were getting close to stadium, and I realized I had left my ticket in my car, and had to walk back to get it, which meant crossing a large but shallow lake, and I must have driven all the way from CA - it was so vivid.
My USPS home tests arrived just in time. Got back late Sunday from my weekend in Austin and let me tell you, they've conquered Covid. Doesn't exist in Texas apparently.
While not entirely true, masks did not seem to strictly enforced. We experienced an almost even split of masks/no masks among customers and employees. On Saturday night, we saw All Them Witches at the Mohawk (an outdoor venue) and were required to show proof of vaxx to enter, and asked to be masked when ordering from the bar, but no one in the crowd was wearing masks.
Tested positive over the weekend. Triple pfizered. Mildish symptoms, sinus and throat crud plus low fever. Wife and I have a date night Friday for the Berkeley Rep, so hoping this clears by Thursday (5 days from onset) and I test negative.
My mom, brother, and I routinely go here for our cardiologist (we all have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and Brigham is a world-class level clinic for that condition).
Ethics aside, my mom is currently on the list for a heart transplant here, so the more people who want to get bumped from the list and die on that hill, the better for me!
Ethics not aside, refusing vaccination despite need for immunosuppression is akin to getting a liver transplant and not giving up alcohol (which is accepted exclusion criteria). Definitely ethical to de-list them!
Glad you and your family are following HOCM closely and doing the right things. Hoping your mom finds a match!
May you and your family enjoy many years of good health!
On the topic of transplants, I saw this interesting article about the pig heart recipient: https://wapo.st/34964AR
(That's a gift link, so you don't need a WaPo subscription to access)
Excerpt: Leslie Shumaker Downey was at home babysitting her two grandchildren Monday when a message pinged on her cellphone.
Her daughter had sent a link to a news article about a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease. Three days earlier at the University of Maryland Medical Center, he had received a genetically modified pig heart. The first-of-its-kind transplant was historic, saving the man’s life and offering the possibility of saving others.
What a great breakthrough for science, Downey thought, reading the headline. Then her phone pinged again.
“Mommmmmmm,” Downey’s daughter wrote. She told her to look at the man’s name.
Downey froze. The man being heralded as a medical pioneer, David Bennett Sr., was the same man who had been convicted in 1988 of stabbing her younger brother seven times, leaving him paralyzed. Edward Shumaker had spent the next 19 years using a wheelchair, before he had a stroke in 2005 and died two years later — one week before his 41st birthday.
I was struck by how quickly the Post decided to frame this as "bad man deserved nothing good." Bennett plainly was no prize, but our societal tendency to assume that there's really no rehabilitation only punishment rubs me the wrong way sometimes. Plus the dude got an animal heart FFS, it's not like they gave him the heart of a person with a more sympathetic life story.
Agreed. What's the point of sending people to prison, a supposed place of reform, if they're going to be demonized and marginalized when they return to society? (of course, the huge chasm between prison's intentions and outcomes is a topic for another day)
I think we need to consider a cost-benefit approach based on the type of crime as opposed to locking everyone up as it is expensive and kind of nukes the offender’s life, turning potentially productive people into societal deadweight.
For instance you can strip the right to vote, bear arms, drive, or travel for little cost. Maybe cluster punishment around that plus parole for nonviolent or low violence felonies. Highly violent crimes, plus other types of crimes extremely likely to reoffend (eg, child porn) would still require lock up. Misdemeanors are fines, wage garnishment, community service, etc.
The point of prison is punishment. It's always been about punishment. It's why the euphemism "Department of Corrections" is just that - a euphemism. If America were to live up to its intent in labeling the prison system as "Corrections" it would do everything it could to actually give incarcerated folks a chance at a life that contributes to society after prison.
For most prisoners that means education, medical treatment, and therapy. All of which are things that society thinks is too expensive to make available to the general population to say nothing of the prison population; ipso facto, dooming prisoners to poverty, addiction, disease, and recidivism.
How is it a good thing to spend more money on incarcerating people than it is on treating them?
I remember Jason Kidd's first home game and Dickey-V was there. We all got there like 2-3 hours before gametime and he came out and spoke to us. Was really cool.
Remember the backup TCU QB that we couldn't sack despite one of his feet being partially numb? And remember how he transferred to UNLV just in time for Cal to play him again in 2022. Rogers was the starter - albeit an "or" starter - at the beginning of the year but got bumped to the 3 person committee that backed up eventual starter Cameron Friel. Well, he just entered the transfer portal again. And Tate Martell quit football.
UNLV now has an incumbent sophomore QB who was not very good in 2021 and an incoming 4-star transfer Harrison Bailey from Tennessee. Cal's defense should feast on either.
It might be a long year but we should still be able to beat UNLV rather easily. If not, Wilcox isn’t the one and you can’t blame a loss to UNLV on “lack of institutional support”.
Unless the university has some favorable buyout numbers in the new extension, there's no way they're going to fire him within the next two years. For now, his seat is made of some really expensive, heat-proof material.
A couple of 4-8 seasons and he's gone...there's zero doubt.
The closer his P12 record gets to 20 games below .500, the worse it will be for him...he's already at 15-25.
Any increases the Department has made to coaching staff salaries is not Wilcox-dependent...those are there for the program, not just for JW's guys.
That said, I think if he does have a stinker next year, he'll probably have things ironed out by the time last year's marquee recruiting class are juniors.
If he goes 4-8 over the next two seasons, Memorial will be a ghost town and nothing would be trending in the right direction or indicate Wilcox is the guy to turn it around.
Not surprisingly, Cal doesn’t have the institutional resources to help kids navigate NLI...this will kill them in recruiting, bc that’s one of the 1st questions recruits will ask now.
Feels like there could be opportunities for Berkeley Law and the Haas School to help facilitate these types of partnerships and agreements. I get an email every week from some east coast b-school program volunteering their students to help with strategy at my work.
I get a lot of social media ads from Strawberry Creek Ventures limited to people with $2 million in assets or over $500K in income, with a background of the Berkeley Hills. Gotta think some of those would be interested.
I get a lot of social media ads from Strawberry Creek Ventures limited to people with $2 million in assets or over $500K in income, with a background of the Berkeley Hills. Gotta think some of those would be interested.
It could be a Catch-22 thing...Cal doesn't have the elite athletes with name recognition in the revenue sports that provide much market value, so there's limited NLI interest from outside companies....as a result, Cal will struggle to attract the type of athlete that is worthy of an NLI because of that lack of interest. Chase Garbers could walk into Crogan's Montclair to watch the Cal/UCLA hoops game while wearing his game jersey, and only a handful of people would even know who he is....imagine if DeSean or Marshawn were playing now, tho? Is it really just a matter of needing better players?
Having worked in the Cal Athletic Department, the University is almost certainly lagging far behind in terms of assisting the student-athletes with both the generalities and nuances of the NLI process. No doubt a majority of P5 schools probably have an Assistant AD w/ staff already hired and in charge of this...SEC schools probably have had this in place for years bc they've always been filtering money to players - only difference being now it's legal...Cal's job posting for such a position probably hasn't even dropped yet because of the bureaucratic mess that is the Cal Athletic Department.
It's most likely another instance of incompetence & inepititude at the administrative level.
I agree about the limited profile of our athletes and certainly the challenges , but I also think if a Kidd or Marshawn were ever to manifest again, marketers would absolutely find them. It's the rest of the kids that require more institutional outreach and support to manufacture those types of opportunities.
Yeah, also, at the end of the day, there are only so many opportunities and a huge supply of "talent". I never understood how NIL was going to make any substantial impact on the vast, vast majority of NCAA players, and feared it would be what it appears to be quickly devolving into: a thinly veiled method of pay for play. i.e. companies not paying players to market their products, but companies bribing kids to play for their leadership's alma maters (or simply favorite teams). I dont envy the NCAA (their greed and all bad things about them aside) for how tricky it really is going to be to figure out the post-amateur reality.
Spot on here. Focusing on CFB, the money is going to the top athletes who are hyped coming out of HS and have NFL draft potential. This is a very small percentage of CFB athletes. The supporting cast that makes up the other 95% of CFB is going to get whatever crumbs are thrown their way.
Sure, but again, where's the market for a Jason Kidd or a Marshawn, outside of the East Bay? Those are two of the most successful and identifiable Cal athletes in history, and though both of those guys were well known to the Cal fan base, it wasn't until they excelled at the professional level that they became national names...so what big time company is going to offer big $$ to them? Charles Schwab or some other bank?
At the end of the day, perhaps Cal athletes are not all that marketable, unfortunately. Hell, Cal hasn't even put together a good University ad in years - we're still stuck with that "You See a Place" nonsense. I mean, Unocal 76 would rather hire Jean and Gene for their ads FFS... ;-)
Kidd definitely had a national profile. Marshawn Lynch and DeSean Jackson were in the Heisman conversation for at least part of the time they were at Cal. They probably could have leveraged NIL in some way.
It's just been a while since we've had an athlete like that, so we forget.
His teams weren't good enough...he, Marshawn, & DeSean were all great Cal players, no doubt, and though they were known on national levels, they were never more than fringe Heisman candidates, at best, and only on the earliest of lists....Cal wasn't a big enough football program....hell, JJ Arrington had 2,000 rushing yards for a top 10 Cal team & wasn't even in the conversation.
Kidd had a prominent national profile before he even set foot on campus. His St. Joe's games were even getting coverage on Sports Center. He was talked about as a possible Dream Team-er (Roy Williams). Marshawn had more local relevance, but I also wonder how many of these college athletes actually do have a national profile these days. They are relatively few. In a lot of ways, the top WBB players are probably the most marketable because they stick around long enough to develop a profile, unlike in MBB. How many MBBers actually have a profile? How many folks know what Jabari Smith looks like? Maybe Holmgren, Banchero and the Gonzaga stiff with the mustache?
Ya, I remember Kidd very well...Newellbany and I were the same year/same league (E.S.A.L.), and we played v him in HS (me for baseball). I was on the FR hoops team and we played St. Joe's - SR Calvin Byrd was Villanova-bound, yet all anyone could talk about was this beast of a FR point guard.
But here's the thing...Jason Kidd doesn't even go to Cal in today's NLI climate...he gets $1M from Duke or Kentucky boosters and he's playing there...and then he's one and done....
Hate to say it, but the true value of the NLI in today's college athletics probably lies in the fact that it legitimizes payments to players that used to be illegal, under the table, hush hush deals...arrangements the blue bloods have been practicing for decades.
Right? I'm not sure a lot has really changed only the legitimacy. Kidd could have benefitted some at KU, but he saw the value in playing in front of his folks and with friends and figured he could bet on himself make up the rest. Guys like Russell White, Shareef and Jaylen are just different cats. Each were really driven almost to counter the narrative that they were jocks with money as the be-all, end-all. These are unicorns and that has always been our only real shot at top flight talent. That was the case then and will remain the case.
what school were you? I was at Albany during the Byrd/Kidd year. I remember the team was delighted to only lose by 49 to them at their place... cause they lost to O'Dowd by 62 earlier in the week at home
Programs that do not cultivate relationships that are mutually beneficial are then not able to leverage those non-existent relationships, to their disadvantage.
I also read this article yesterday. The takeaway is that tech companies mostly are not interested in NLI. Cal has some, but fewer influential alums in tech compared with Stanford. Mostly those folks studied hard and were not very interested in sports apparently, or haven't really become aware of the opportunity. We all know that is the case at Furd where sports are not important compared with the value of a Stanford diploma. FTX (where a Cal alum is COO) is an exception. A school like Alabama where the football coach is more powerful than the chancellor with rabid alums is likely to corner the market on NLI.
"The notice on Ticketmaster that restricted NFC Championship Game tickets to those with Los Angeles-area ZIP codes had abruptly and unceremoniously disappeared from the ticketing site’s website by Monday morning.
Previously, a fan attempting to buy tickets would see a notice alerting them that "Public sales to the game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA will be restricted to residents of the Greater Los Angeles region,” and, “Residency will be based on credit card billing address at checkout.”
Trump's lawyer lost a court ruling yesterday that dictated his must appear before 1/6 Commission. Today, he took the Fifth 146 times, one for each question he was asked.
Apropos, Weisselberg and Eric Trump plead the Fifth over 500 times each on September 24th and October 5th when interviewed by NY AG. (source; WaPo).
the professional right is now claiming that FDA's removal of emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibody treatment for omicron treatment (because it doesn't work) is a plot to kill Republicans in Florida:
"De Santis' press secretary retweets Mike Cernovich's claim that the removal of authorization for monoclonal antibodies, which have proven ineffective against Omicron, are part of an FDA plot to kill Republicans."
On that topic, there were three monoclonal antibody treatments that were approved, but only one is "still good" against omicron. The reason is because the other two were developed with data from more recent samples, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus has since evolved. In contrast, Sotrovimab was developed using antibodies from someone who had survived SARS in 2003, meaning that treatment targeted a part of the virus that is less likely to change/changes more slowly.
At least don’t promote it so much. It keeps recommending it to me and just seeing that dude’s dumbass face puts me off. I wish there was a thumbs down or no thanks button to make it go away
Enjoying 3rd season of Sex Education, a bit OTT at times, but fun.
Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping this weekend, was fun and silly. Was thinking of a football movie after the Niners win, looked up Any Given Sunday, but my wife vetoes anything much over 2 hours.
There are actually good *high school* football movies, and maybe some college, just not pro football movies. And its mostly about sentimentality (which pro baseball has as America's Past Time).
I watch The Natural every year right before Opening Day...remains to be seen if I do it this year...if they cancel games, I may avoid it all in protest.
Football movies usually have an edge that veers towards the crazy because, I think, of the violence of the sport. The violence of the game lends itself to stories where people are doing things on the edge. Think of North Dallas Forty and The Longest Yard (original version with Burt Reynolds).
Baseball, on the other hand, is genteel by comparison. Never mind The Bad News Bears, Major League, or Bull Durham.
Watched a good movie on weekend- Begin Again with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly. By the guy that wrote and directed Once. Sort of a similar type movie as Once but the relationship between the leads is more like that in Lost in Translation. Knightly is a surprisingly good singer
And that also leads me to a question - how do you guys find new music? This song above was rec’d on pitchfork, which I used to read regularly but seems to have a higher failure rate for me these days on its recs.
I find a lot of bands with Spotify's "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar" playlists. Also using the radio feature is a great way to discover somewhat like minded bands of interest.
Spotify does a very good job with those, and with my "Made for You" daily playlists. I usually get six different genres, and it's rare that I don't save at least one new song when listening to them.
I like Spotify recs for artist radio playlists that pivot off an artist frequently listened to. I just discovered Jim James from Kevin Morby Radio. I have found a lot of new artists while watching YouTube vids of professional adventure athletes.
Shop Girl (Prime Video, 9/19 WNB). This is a movie that was nicely written, wonderfully cast and acted, but its topic was so creepy that it made me feel dirty to the point that it overwhelmed the other parts. I should have known better because I read the book.
On Saturday, my wife made Kung Pao chicken for the first time, really, really tasty. Told her that I hoped it would take a place in the rotation.
Also got me thinking, when we were first together, I used to do a lot more of the cooking, including Chinese & Indian dishes, I think I made this back then, but I'm not 100% certain.
I've made palak paneer entirely from scratch, made the paneer, curry, and ghee. It was pretty good, though not nearly as rich or intensely flavorful as the same dish from a restaurant.
Week 2 of not having a refrigerator. I had to throw out a bunch of food because we've been storing things outside, but it suddenly got to 50 degrees yesterday. I am so sick of eating out. I am so full of salt, I can't stand it.
Oh wow, I forgot until I was listening to a song "even in dreams..." My last dream this morning featured Newellbany - and some others - we were going to an away game in Texas, and we were getting close to stadium, and I realized I had left my ticket in my car, and had to walk back to get it, which meant crossing a large but shallow lake, and I must have driven all the way from CA - it was so vivid.
Dreams featuring Newellbany are never a good sign.
https://www.mashed.com/669050/the-clever-reason-wisconsin-coats-its-roads-in-cheese-brine/
If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in appearing in a Botox commercial... https://alle.com/botoxcosmeticcasting?utm_source=Vanity&utm_medium=Vanity&utm_campaign=btxc-btxc-us-realpeoplecasting-leads-2022_100301
I need this. My RBF has gotten me in trouble a lot this past year.
George Orwell said after 40 you’re responsible for your own face. Maybe you are just a tough SOB, SGBear!
TODAY IN THE 'RONA
My USPS home tests arrived just in time. Got back late Sunday from my weekend in Austin and let me tell you, they've conquered Covid. Doesn't exist in Texas apparently.
airborne viruses are well known for being defeated by Extreme Freedom and Manly Vibes
While not entirely true, masks did not seem to strictly enforced. We experienced an almost even split of masks/no masks among customers and employees. On Saturday night, we saw All Them Witches at the Mohawk (an outdoor venue) and were required to show proof of vaxx to enter, and asked to be masked when ordering from the bar, but no one in the crowd was wearing masks.
Tested positive over the weekend. Triple pfizered. Mildish symptoms, sinus and throat crud plus low fever. Wife and I have a date night Friday for the Berkeley Rep, so hoping this clears by Thursday (5 days from onset) and I test negative.
Omicron strikes again. Feel well soon.
Good luck. I hope it clears up in time.
hope you feel better soon, and good for you for taking the "test to return" approach.
Fingers crossed!
Brigham and Women's hospital refusing heart transplant for man who won't get vaccinated.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brigham-and-womens-hospital-boston-refusing-heart-transplant-man-wont-get-vaccinated/
My mom, brother, and I routinely go here for our cardiologist (we all have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and Brigham is a world-class level clinic for that condition).
Ethics aside, my mom is currently on the list for a heart transplant here, so the more people who want to get bumped from the list and die on that hill, the better for me!
Ethics not aside, refusing vaccination despite need for immunosuppression is akin to getting a liver transplant and not giving up alcohol (which is accepted exclusion criteria). Definitely ethical to de-list them!
Glad you and your family are following HOCM closely and doing the right things. Hoping your mom finds a match!
May you and your family enjoy many years of good health!
On the topic of transplants, I saw this interesting article about the pig heart recipient: https://wapo.st/34964AR
(That's a gift link, so you don't need a WaPo subscription to access)
Excerpt: Leslie Shumaker Downey was at home babysitting her two grandchildren Monday when a message pinged on her cellphone.
Her daughter had sent a link to a news article about a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease. Three days earlier at the University of Maryland Medical Center, he had received a genetically modified pig heart. The first-of-its-kind transplant was historic, saving the man’s life and offering the possibility of saving others.
What a great breakthrough for science, Downey thought, reading the headline. Then her phone pinged again.
“Mommmmmmm,” Downey’s daughter wrote. She told her to look at the man’s name.
Downey froze. The man being heralded as a medical pioneer, David Bennett Sr., was the same man who had been convicted in 1988 of stabbing her younger brother seven times, leaving him paralyzed. Edward Shumaker had spent the next 19 years using a wheelchair, before he had a stroke in 2005 and died two years later — one week before his 41st birthday.
Thanks! That's pretty wild.
I was struck by how quickly the Post decided to frame this as "bad man deserved nothing good." Bennett plainly was no prize, but our societal tendency to assume that there's really no rehabilitation only punishment rubs me the wrong way sometimes. Plus the dude got an animal heart FFS, it's not like they gave him the heart of a person with a more sympathetic life story.
Agreed. What's the point of sending people to prison, a supposed place of reform, if they're going to be demonized and marginalized when they return to society? (of course, the huge chasm between prison's intentions and outcomes is a topic for another day)
I think we need to consider a cost-benefit approach based on the type of crime as opposed to locking everyone up as it is expensive and kind of nukes the offender’s life, turning potentially productive people into societal deadweight.
For instance you can strip the right to vote, bear arms, drive, or travel for little cost. Maybe cluster punishment around that plus parole for nonviolent or low violence felonies. Highly violent crimes, plus other types of crimes extremely likely to reoffend (eg, child porn) would still require lock up. Misdemeanors are fines, wage garnishment, community service, etc.
The point of prison is punishment. It's always been about punishment. It's why the euphemism "Department of Corrections" is just that - a euphemism. If America were to live up to its intent in labeling the prison system as "Corrections" it would do everything it could to actually give incarcerated folks a chance at a life that contributes to society after prison.
For most prisoners that means education, medical treatment, and therapy. All of which are things that society thinks is too expensive to make available to the general population to say nothing of the prison population; ipso facto, dooming prisoners to poverty, addiction, disease, and recidivism.
How is it a good thing to spend more money on incarcerating people than it is on treating them?
Well that plus deterrence traditionally are the goals. But I am not sure that makes a ton of sense
Wait until people learn about medical experimentation on prisoners!
As for your sentiment, I agree. Sometimes it's ok to not pick a side and just admire the complexity of the situation.
On theme:
Lisa : Perhaps there is no moral to this story.
Homer : Exactly! It's just a bunch of stuff that happened.
I read that. Alas, one doesn't have to be a saint or even altruistically motivated to be a research subject.
The ethics would have been even more interesting if he was still incarcerated. Or if he was still medically eligible for a conventional transplant.
That *would* have been interesting! I'm thankful I'm not in a position to decide these things.
Another Simpson's reference: CAN'T SOMEONE ELSE DO IT?
OTHER COLLEGE
Dick is broken
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/33140727/espn-college-basketball-analyst-dick-vitale-take-rest-season-preparation-vocal-surgery
It is cool that he is still at it (except for this interlude) and still amped
Hope he has a full recovery so he can call Cal's tournament games in 2023.
I remember Jason Kidd's first home game and Dickey-V was there. We all got there like 2-3 hours before gametime and he came out and spoke to us. Was really cool.
Early look at the top 20 NFL draft-eligible college football players taking the field in 2022
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/early-look-at-the-top-20-nfl-draft-eligible-college-football-players-taking-the-field-in-2022/
Early look at the top 20 NFL draft-eligible college football players taking the field in 2022
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/early-look-at-the-top-20-nfl-draft-eligible-college-football-players-taking-the-field-in-2022/
Early look at the top 20 NFL draft-eligible college football players taking the field in 2022
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/early-look-at-the-top-20-nfl-draft-eligible-college-football-players-taking-the-field-in-2022/
Remember the backup TCU QB that we couldn't sack despite one of his feet being partially numb? And remember how he transferred to UNLV just in time for Cal to play him again in 2022. Rogers was the starter - albeit an "or" starter - at the beginning of the year but got bumped to the 3 person committee that backed up eventual starter Cameron Friel. Well, he just entered the transfer portal again. And Tate Martell quit football.
UNLV now has an incumbent sophomore QB who was not very good in 2021 and an incoming 4-star transfer Harrison Bailey from Tennessee. Cal's defense should feast on either.
https://247sports.com/Article/UNLV-QB-Justin-Rogers-former-4-star-recruit-enters-NCAA-Transfer-Portal-181344508/
Exactly...if we struggle with this UNLV team, it's going to be a long year.
365 days is rather long.
If you're not leaping forward, you're leaping backward.
It might be a long year but we should still be able to beat UNLV rather easily. If not, Wilcox isn’t the one and you can’t blame a loss to UNLV on “lack of institutional support”.
If so, expect Wilcox's seat to get warm quickly, regardless of the extension.
Knowlton can justify an empty Memorial Stadium only so long....
Unless the university has some favorable buyout numbers in the new extension, there's no way they're going to fire him within the next two years. For now, his seat is made of some really expensive, heat-proof material.
A couple of 4-8 seasons and he's gone...there's zero doubt.
The closer his P12 record gets to 20 games below .500, the worse it will be for him...he's already at 15-25.
Any increases the Department has made to coaching staff salaries is not Wilcox-dependent...those are there for the program, not just for JW's guys.
That said, I think if he does have a stinker next year, he'll probably have things ironed out by the time last year's marquee recruiting class are juniors.
If he goes 4-8 over the next two seasons, Memorial will be a ghost town and nothing would be trending in the right direction or indicate Wilcox is the guy to turn it around.
Unless, as seems likely, he beats Furd both years and peppers in a fun W against UCLA or some other quasi rival like that
CAL
Go Bears!!!
Why Cal and other Bay Area school athletes are not getting Silicon Valley NIL
https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/reality-of-bay-area-college-nil-deals-16770276.php
Interesting article
Mia combines her basketball with fashion which was before NIL
Then she gained almost 200k instra followers in one week due to appearing on a single ballislife post
Unless you are a star player, you need to do something in addition to attract the significant NIL dollars
Also, the big dollars are not just NIL payments from sponsors. It’s from commissions on click through sales
It’s shocking how much those girls make who do YouTube makeup videos
Not surprisingly, Cal doesn’t have the institutional resources to help kids navigate NLI...this will kill them in recruiting, bc that’s one of the 1st questions recruits will ask now.
So tough to be a modern day Cal fan...Sigh...
Feels like there could be opportunities for Berkeley Law and the Haas School to help facilitate these types of partnerships and agreements. I get an email every week from some east coast b-school program volunteering their students to help with strategy at my work.
I get a lot of social media ads from Strawberry Creek Ventures limited to people with $2 million in assets or over $500K in income, with a background of the Berkeley Hills. Gotta think some of those would be interested.
I get a lot of social media ads from Strawberry Creek Ventures limited to people with $2 million in assets or over $500K in income, with a background of the Berkeley Hills. Gotta think some of those would be interested.
It could be a Catch-22 thing...Cal doesn't have the elite athletes with name recognition in the revenue sports that provide much market value, so there's limited NLI interest from outside companies....as a result, Cal will struggle to attract the type of athlete that is worthy of an NLI because of that lack of interest. Chase Garbers could walk into Crogan's Montclair to watch the Cal/UCLA hoops game while wearing his game jersey, and only a handful of people would even know who he is....imagine if DeSean or Marshawn were playing now, tho? Is it really just a matter of needing better players?
Having worked in the Cal Athletic Department, the University is almost certainly lagging far behind in terms of assisting the student-athletes with both the generalities and nuances of the NLI process. No doubt a majority of P5 schools probably have an Assistant AD w/ staff already hired and in charge of this...SEC schools probably have had this in place for years bc they've always been filtering money to players - only difference being now it's legal...Cal's job posting for such a position probably hasn't even dropped yet because of the bureaucratic mess that is the Cal Athletic Department.
It's most likely another instance of incompetence & inepititude at the administrative level.
Did y'all read the article?
I agree about the limited profile of our athletes and certainly the challenges , but I also think if a Kidd or Marshawn were ever to manifest again, marketers would absolutely find them. It's the rest of the kids that require more institutional outreach and support to manufacture those types of opportunities.
Yeah, also, at the end of the day, there are only so many opportunities and a huge supply of "talent". I never understood how NIL was going to make any substantial impact on the vast, vast majority of NCAA players, and feared it would be what it appears to be quickly devolving into: a thinly veiled method of pay for play. i.e. companies not paying players to market their products, but companies bribing kids to play for their leadership's alma maters (or simply favorite teams). I dont envy the NCAA (their greed and all bad things about them aside) for how tricky it really is going to be to figure out the post-amateur reality.
Spot on here. Focusing on CFB, the money is going to the top athletes who are hyped coming out of HS and have NFL draft potential. This is a very small percentage of CFB athletes. The supporting cast that makes up the other 95% of CFB is going to get whatever crumbs are thrown their way.
Sure, but again, where's the market for a Jason Kidd or a Marshawn, outside of the East Bay? Those are two of the most successful and identifiable Cal athletes in history, and though both of those guys were well known to the Cal fan base, it wasn't until they excelled at the professional level that they became national names...so what big time company is going to offer big $$ to them? Charles Schwab or some other bank?
At the end of the day, perhaps Cal athletes are not all that marketable, unfortunately. Hell, Cal hasn't even put together a good University ad in years - we're still stuck with that "You See a Place" nonsense. I mean, Unocal 76 would rather hire Jean and Gene for their ads FFS... ;-)
Kidd definitely had a national profile. Marshawn Lynch and DeSean Jackson were in the Heisman conversation for at least part of the time they were at Cal. They probably could have leveraged NIL in some way.
It's just been a while since we've had an athlete like that, so we forget.
Goff?
His teams weren't good enough...he, Marshawn, & DeSean were all great Cal players, no doubt, and though they were known on national levels, they were never more than fringe Heisman candidates, at best, and only on the earliest of lists....Cal wasn't a big enough football program....hell, JJ Arrington had 2,000 rushing yards for a top 10 Cal team & wasn't even in the conversation.
Kidd had a prominent national profile before he even set foot on campus. His St. Joe's games were even getting coverage on Sports Center. He was talked about as a possible Dream Team-er (Roy Williams). Marshawn had more local relevance, but I also wonder how many of these college athletes actually do have a national profile these days. They are relatively few. In a lot of ways, the top WBB players are probably the most marketable because they stick around long enough to develop a profile, unlike in MBB. How many MBBers actually have a profile? How many folks know what Jabari Smith looks like? Maybe Holmgren, Banchero and the Gonzaga stiff with the mustache?
Ya, I remember Kidd very well...Newellbany and I were the same year/same league (E.S.A.L.), and we played v him in HS (me for baseball). I was on the FR hoops team and we played St. Joe's - SR Calvin Byrd was Villanova-bound, yet all anyone could talk about was this beast of a FR point guard.
But here's the thing...Jason Kidd doesn't even go to Cal in today's NLI climate...he gets $1M from Duke or Kentucky boosters and he's playing there...and then he's one and done....
Hate to say it, but the true value of the NLI in today's college athletics probably lies in the fact that it legitimizes payments to players that used to be illegal, under the table, hush hush deals...arrangements the blue bloods have been practicing for decades.
Right? I'm not sure a lot has really changed only the legitimacy. Kidd could have benefitted some at KU, but he saw the value in playing in front of his folks and with friends and figured he could bet on himself make up the rest. Guys like Russell White, Shareef and Jaylen are just different cats. Each were really driven almost to counter the narrative that they were jocks with money as the be-all, end-all. These are unicorns and that has always been our only real shot at top flight talent. That was the case then and will remain the case.
what school were you? I was at Albany during the Byrd/Kidd year. I remember the team was delighted to only lose by 49 to them at their place... cause they lost to O'Dowd by 62 earlier in the week at home
And we need to get a piece of some of that Ahn Phoong scratch.
I live near her office. Will jump out of bushes and start raving about Cal sponsorship when she walks outside.
Programs that do not cultivate relationships that are mutually beneficial are then not able to leverage those non-existent relationships, to their disadvantage.
I also read this article yesterday. The takeaway is that tech companies mostly are not interested in NLI. Cal has some, but fewer influential alums in tech compared with Stanford. Mostly those folks studied hard and were not very interested in sports apparently, or haven't really become aware of the opportunity. We all know that is the case at Furd where sports are not important compared with the value of a Stanford diploma. FTX (where a Cal alum is COO) is an exception. A school like Alabama where the football coach is more powerful than the chancellor with rabid alums is likely to corner the market on NLI.
PRO SPORTS
Bonds denied HOF...cheating DH David Ortiz elected on first attempt...
Baseball Hall of Fame is an absolute joke.
AB to Ravens?
Probably not. I don’t think anyone is going to sign AB.
His twitter
https://twitter.com/AB84/status/1486073294759546880?s=20
Yeah, his Twitter. He is fishing and tryin to stay relevant.
Yeah, now that I look at it, I think it's jus his desire.
Sean Payton leaving the Saints
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33145340/sources-new-orleans-saints-coach-sean-payton-stepping-away-16-years
This is surprising.
So he throws a ton of $$$ at gadget QB Taysom Hill & then bails in the face of a massive salary cap mess...kinda chicken schitt...
Seems like the Rams are afraid of something...
"The notice on Ticketmaster that restricted NFC Championship Game tickets to those with Los Angeles-area ZIP codes had abruptly and unceremoniously disappeared from the ticketing site’s website by Monday morning.
Previously, a fan attempting to buy tickets would see a notice alerting them that "Public sales to the game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA will be restricted to residents of the Greater Los Angeles region,” and, “Residency will be based on credit card billing address at checkout.”
https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/49ers-Rams-NFC-Championship-tickets-ban-16799936.php
They might be better served worrying about the home zip code of the guys on the buses bringing the opponents for the game.
Cheapest ticket I've seen on Ticketmaster is $582...yikes.
Numbers are probably incorrect, but you get the idea
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1485314361312915456
Hope his crypto marketing deal is paid in fiat.
Anyone would think that using volatile equivalents to fiat currency was an ill advised idea
Dexter LVI
https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1485387596461010944
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Trump Jr blames Russian threat against Ukraine on [checks notes]... Hunter Biden.
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1485618298234494978
Trump's lawyer lost a court ruling yesterday that dictated his must appear before 1/6 Commission. Today, he took the Fifth 146 times, one for each question he was asked.
Apropos, Weisselberg and Eric Trump plead the Fifth over 500 times each on September 24th and October 5th when interviewed by NY AG. (source; WaPo).
the professional right is now claiming that FDA's removal of emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibody treatment for omicron treatment (because it doesn't work) is a plot to kill Republicans in Florida:
"De Santis' press secretary retweets Mike Cernovich's claim that the removal of authorization for monoclonal antibodies, which have proven ineffective against Omicron, are part of an FDA plot to kill Republicans."
https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1485971106821509123?s=20
and a reasonable question as a follow-up:
"But I actually don't understand. Why would Republicans be uniquely vulnerable to COVID without monoclonal antibodies?
Oh. That's right."
https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1485971576403152899?s=20
On that topic, there were three monoclonal antibody treatments that were approved, but only one is "still good" against omicron. The reason is because the other two were developed with data from more recent samples, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus has since evolved. In contrast, Sotrovimab was developed using antibodies from someone who had survived SARS in 2003, meaning that treatment targeted a part of the virus that is less likely to change/changes more slowly.
They sent the samples to my facility for some of the research, which is cool. Here's an article about it, but you need to have Mercury News: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/23/covid-how-one-persons-cells-led-to-our-only-antibody-treatment-for-omicron
(I don't have Mercury News, so I accessed it through the library...and have a Word doc I can email haha)
oh no... anyway...
DBD A/V CLUB
Calibre on Netflix. Only about 30 min in. Has a Shallow Grave vibe, and not just because of the Scottish.
I’m thinking of canceling my Spotify subscription until they decide to remove Joe Rogan.
At least don’t promote it so much. It keeps recommending it to me and just seeing that dude’s dumbass face puts me off. I wish there was a thumbs down or no thanks button to make it go away
Neal Young's stance made me realize how dependent I am on Spotify for my musical edification and how hard it would be to quit...
Enjoying 3rd season of Sex Education, a bit OTT at times, but fun.
Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping this weekend, was fun and silly. Was thinking of a football movie after the Niners win, looked up Any Given Sunday, but my wife vetoes anything much over 2 hours.
The Program is a good and over the top CFB movie from the early 90s.
The Replacements. Fun movie with Keanu Reeves.
Or if you want really silly Necessary Roughness with Scott Bakula and Kathy Ireland.
That’s probably my favorite silly football movie.
Necessary Roughness is fantastic.
Most football movies aren’t very good but most baseball movies are very good to excellent.
There are actually good *high school* football movies, and maybe some college, just not pro football movies. And its mostly about sentimentality (which pro baseball has as America's Past Time).
Ok, what's your favorite baseball movie? Mine is Naked Gun. The Sandlot is good as well.
Back to the Future Part 2, also a good baseball movie.
"I said I wish I could go back to the beginning of the season, put some money on the cubbies!"
Naked Gun is an all time classic but I don’t think it is really a baseball movie
Is Die Hard a Christmas movie, Cugel?
Oh course, why did you ask?
I agree...I think people that find Die Hard to be a Xmas movie would also find Naked Gun to be a baseball movie....
By that logic Fast Times is also a baseball movie
Breaking Away IS a biking movie.
That's just ridiculous...it's clearly a football movie ;-).
Jefferson, baby!!!
My favorites:
Bull Durham
The Sandlot
Field of Dreams
Mr. Baseball
Major League
My all time favorite of that list is probably Bull Durham.
Any baseball movie list that omits The Natural is incomplete... ;-)
Another classic movie was the HBO film, Long Gone...great flick.
I’ve honestly never seen The Natural but I’ve heard it is great.
The Natural is a good movie. It is on our rotation and we often watch it in April, and one other time (mid-season or in October/November).
Oh, it's gotta go on your watchlist, especially if you like movies that feature the old costumes/vehicles/hotels, etc. Like The Untouchables, etc.
Never read the book by Bernard Malamud, which I hear is different. I loved the movie, tho.
If you can find Long Gone, check it out as well....William Petersen, Virginia Madsen, Dermot Mulroney, and a young Teller (of Penn & Teller).
The book by Malamud is different, indeed. I read it about 3 or 4 years ago. The book is dark.
Yes, I have heard it is very dark.
I watch The Natural every year right before Opening Day...remains to be seen if I do it this year...if they cancel games, I may avoid it all in protest.
If MLB cancels games I will watch baseball movies as a weak replacement. Kinda like watching The West Wing during the Drumpf Administration.
The Natural
Oh definitely- easily best IMO. I read the book once and didn’t know it had a different ending!
probably the only one that has this answer
The Natural is hands down the best baseball movie ever.
its not a close discussion. By far the best baseball movie
o/
That film was watched on repeat by our sons. Not really, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, it's weird that it's so hard to crack the code on legitimately "good" football movies.
My top 3:
1. The Waterboy
2. Remember the Titans
3. Rudy
How dare you omit Varsity Blues!
This was going to be my response, but you beat me to it
Tweeter drank beer, because, well Tweeter drinks beer
Brian's Song.
Football movies usually have an edge that veers towards the crazy because, I think, of the violence of the sport. The violence of the game lends itself to stories where people are doing things on the edge. Think of North Dallas Forty and The Longest Yard (original version with Burt Reynolds).
Baseball, on the other hand, is genteel by comparison. Never mind The Bad News Bears, Major League, or Bull Durham.
Not a fan of Brian's Song.
The original Longest Yard might well hold pole position for me as the best pure football movie.
Any given Sunday (Pacino) was pretty good.
That reminds me of this bit: (RIP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIkqNiBASfI
Gawd, I love George Carlin. Thanks for that clip.
Watched a good movie on weekend- Begin Again with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly. By the guy that wrote and directed Once. Sort of a similar type movie as Once but the relationship between the leads is more like that in Lost in Translation. Knightly is a surprisingly good singer
Very good movie. Quality cast...Catherine Keener, James Corden, Hailee Steinfeld all good
Random new song that is pretty good: https://open.spotify.com/track/128Imu3Z7l234ihO6vktaQ?si=uywpmx5jSEybVtzOt-yZSA
And that also leads me to a question - how do you guys find new music? This song above was rec’d on pitchfork, which I used to read regularly but seems to have a higher failure rate for me these days on its recs.
I listen to KALX
>how do you guys find new music?
I don't. Music ended with the millennium.
I find a lot of bands with Spotify's "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar" playlists. Also using the radio feature is a great way to discover somewhat like minded bands of interest.
Spotify does a very good job with those, and with my "Made for You" daily playlists. I usually get six different genres, and it's rare that I don't save at least one new song when listening to them.
I like Spotify recs for artist radio playlists that pivot off an artist frequently listened to. I just discovered Jim James from Kevin Morby Radio. I have found a lot of new artists while watching YouTube vids of professional adventure athletes.
Oh sorry I think I shared a random remix of the song as opposed to the actual song:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4pNlEl7y5pT9f9zFy0oxXb?si=ZTVgxABqTV-dvf0YKZtpQA
Shop Girl (Prime Video, 9/19 WNB). This is a movie that was nicely written, wonderfully cast and acted, but its topic was so creepy that it made me feel dirty to the point that it overwhelmed the other parts. I should have known better because I read the book.
Is it like a May-Dec thing? Old dudes are such pervs 😀
Is that the Steve Martin movie?
Yes
DBD TEST KITCHEN
On Saturday, my wife made Kung Pao chicken for the first time, really, really tasty. Told her that I hoped it would take a place in the rotation.
Also got me thinking, when we were first together, I used to do a lot more of the cooking, including Chinese & Indian dishes, I think I made this back then, but I'm not 100% certain.
Go to Indian dish?
Non sequitur?
Oh, I was just curious if you had a go to Indian dish when you cooked more?
Chicken curry, although I have done lamb as well.
I've made palak paneer entirely from scratch, made the paneer, curry, and ghee. It was pretty good, though not nearly as rich or intensely flavorful as the same dish from a restaurant.
Week 2 of not having a refrigerator. I had to throw out a bunch of food because we've been storing things outside, but it suddenly got to 50 degrees yesterday. I am so sick of eating out. I am so full of salt, I can't stand it.
Here's where the northeast garagerator comes in handy
Can't you get a used one?
yes
SIMPSONS QUOTES AND MOMENTS
(Online investing)
Homer: I just bought NewsCorp
Bart: Dad, that's Fox
Homer: oh, no...undo, undo, undo!
I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me in such movies as...
"Mountain Dew or crab juice."
"Blecch! Ew! Sheesh! I'll take a crab juice."
No pizza! Only Khlav Kalash!
"Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" -Homer Simpson
I quote this one so much.
“My bones are so brittle. But I always drink plenty of... malk?!”
this always reminds me for norm and cliff going to a place with Bef and Loobster.
Doctor Zauis Doctor Zaius, oooooooooh Doctor Zaius!
I hate every ape I see...from Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee
"We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas"
Well if it isn't my old friend McGreg, with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg!
"There's no shame in being a pariah." - Marge Simpson
I'll take you to heaven before sending you to hell!
We paid for bloooood!
Let's tear this place aparrrrt!
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
Help me Jeebus!
Why is that man in pink?
The toppings contain potassium benzoate.
...that's bad
"All right, jail break!"
Time for a crime spree!