The Great Sphynx of Giza was buried up to its neck in sand. You can see in an 1849 photo how it was just started being dug out. They continuously excavated, only finding out in the late 1920s that the Sphynx actually has a tail. The Great Sphynx is old… like, we’re closer to time to Cleopatra (born 69 BC) than she was to the building of the Sphynx (25th century BC).
Speaking of Cleopatra… the famous one whose death (and Mark Antony’s) ended the Ptolemaic pharaonic era and started Egypt’s period as a Roman vassal state - was “Cleopatra VII”. One has to realize that ancient Egyptian royal marriages were polygamous and incestuous. Parents often married siblings and their own children and co-ruled in order to preserve the dynasty and prevent fratricide. The Ptolemaic rulers usually named their sons Ptolemy and girls Cleopatra - with some exceptions. The last Cleopatra was only the great-grandchild of the first.
I don't have the heart to make any "funny" suggestions, because it makes me a little sad to see the passion that you all direct to Cal football only to get the rug pulled out from underneath you time after time. Same for men's basketball.
I don't know. We're all waiting for that championship season, or maybe 8-4 one year. But it seems as far away as ever. We have a Sisyphean like reality, the rock is rolled up the hill only to roll back each time. Like some have said before "It's the future that's always bright at Cal."
It's getting late in the recruiting cycle and Cal only has 7 commits for 2023. Cal coaches are going to have to search the portal hard. We've got three 6th-years, 10 5th-years, and 22 4th-years.
They can’t close because offensively, the on-field product is awful. Kids with NFL aspirations want no part of Wilcox’s meager O…it doesn’t showcase them.
This is a major and easy target for negative recruiting from opposing teams/coaching staffs…
Charlotte's 49ers are not named 49ers after the goldminers. They are named that because UNC Chapel Hill started closing their extension centers. The one in Charlotte was saved in 1949 and converted into a 2 year college (Charlotte College). So the 49ers is for 1949 not 1849, but they adopted the gold miner as the symbol because it's easier to understand. And that's why a public school in North Carolina has a California goldminer as a mascot.
Photo coffee mugs. My MIL likes to take whatever photos we send her and then have them printed on mugs and sent back to us. Her heart is in the right place, so we've got a bajillion Snapfish/Shutterfly mugs.
I remember a friend in HS had a bet with his younger brother that my friend could wear a band tshirt every day of senior year. I learned about it because he wore a polo shirt for picture day, which was the only day that was exempt.
Not yet (at least, not tested positive). I've been sick several times because we have a 2yo in preschool who is always bringing home various colds/viruses. But any time I or the missus has something slightly worse than a usual cold, we test and so far all tests have been negative.
I'm in a similar position, though I haven't had a 2 year old or anyone in preschool in nearly 30 years. I've gotten fairly sick a couple of times, but one was clearly a bacterial infection. Earlier this fall, I got rather sick rather quickly, and we thought (Mrs. was convinced) I might have finally come down with Covid, despite being fully vaxed and boosted about as soon as each next step came along. So I tested.
And came up completely negative. Proves that you can still contract other nasty stuff as well. Took almost a week to become reasonably functional, and a couple more weeks to shake most of the rest of the after effects.
also, i have been the most "promiscuous and flaunting of masking" in our immediate family and still have not gotten it.
2 out of 3 others had it and i literally slept right next to my wife for 2 days before she tested positive .. so who knows??
my take is that it has been obviously highly contagious and bad, but the seeming randomness at which some people get it and others dont have fueled a lot of the anti-masking sentiment in parts of the country where such things happen ...
Me, although I believe it's possible I had it in early March 2020. There was no widely available test to verify infection at that time. I can only go by the fact that I was ill with flu-like symptoms for 6 days and slept for 14 to 16 hours each day during that time. I also was running a fever of about 100 to 101 during that time.
It might have been COVID. It might have been something else. I never got tested for anything, so who's to say it was or wasn't?
I assume it's just a matter of time now, as my 17 y.o. finally cracked and asked a couple of weeks ago if we would be upset if she stopped wearing a mask to school. We'd already told her that we were open to it, so it was more of a formality than anything else.
That's an interesting timeline. Around here, there are still an occasional person around campus (I think 1 in ~300 people involved with the band that I've seen), or at/with some school/team I work a game with that wears a mask. I assume when I see it, its a immune compromised situation, if not with the person then perhaps in the household. But overall usage anywhere in the region hasn't approached 1% on the high end since last spring.
When the schools rescinded the mask requirement last spring there was a pretty quick drop to around 30%... for about 2 weeks until there were a bunch of mini-outbreaks either based on friend groups or specific classes, then it went back up to about 50%. When school started back up in late August / early September, I'd guess it was maybe 10 - 15% and that dropped off precipitously as there haven't really been any outbreaks. When even my daughter's most cautious friends gave up on the masks, I know it was only a matter of time before she did. We didn't want her to feel like she had to be an outcast on our behalf which is why we told her the timing of dropping the mask was up to her.
She didn't push back on wearing a mask when we were on the subway in NYC a couple of weeks ago I noticed 😂
The Kennedy Center dropped its mask requirement last week. The 10-15% rate seems about rate. The folks I usually sit with wear masks, so I wear one out of courtesy to them. Otherwise, not sure if I would.
Likewise, 538's Senate forecast has been moving in a discouraging direction over the past month. Now control of the chamber is pretty much a 50-50 tossup.
Honestly, this was always expected as these things usually turn against the President's party in the last weeks of the midterm campaign.
If you'd told Democrats a year ago that they would be close to even on the generic ballot and in odds for keeping the Senate at this point, though, I'm sure they would have taken it.
[NYT] Biden negotiated a deal with Saudi for increased oil production on June 2. Three months later, the US finds out that the Saudis reneged and did the opposite.
The US should treat the Saudis as non-allies. Not necessarily as enemies, but certainly as non-allies. The Saudis have clearly shown that they will do what's strictly in their best interests and that they view the US with distrust and disdain. Except for US dollars.
They do like making investments in U.S. entities, including Jared Kushner's $2 billion fund which had a vague investment strategy. If he takes the standard 2% management fee each year that's $40 million for himself and colleagues regardless of how the fund performs.
Local news radio station reporting Ron Rivera not at practice today. Attending to a personal matter in California. Should this be in the thread above about coaches?
South Carolina rebrands, dropping UofSC in favor of USC. Good luck with that. Nobody calls them USC down here. It's South Carolina or just Carolina, never USC because of the obvious confusion with another more famous/prestigious school.
The NCAA record for average punt (min 40) is Reggie Roby, who averaged 49.8 in 1981. Michigan State's punter Bryce Barringer is on pace to beat that record despite putting 43% of his kicks within the 20. Jamieson Sheahan is currently 6th in the country with 45.82 average.
I was thinking I'd be surprised if USC paid him, contrast with a closely connected affiliate who got encouragement from USC. Minor difference, I know. DC would know better.
the best ones we went to for the last couple years were by my favorite NYC subway musician who plays the trumpet.
since he wasnt collecting money IRL anymore, he had a weekly "living room concert" on Wed nights on Instagram live. we would put on the music as we cooked and ate dinner for almost a year and i would Venmo him some $$.
going to the Beacon Theatre in NYC tonight to see Pink Martini.
this is not a household name by any means. but my friend from freshman dorms at Clark Kerr is the drummer and it is a fun show.
random singers that some times join them are Ari Shapiro (from NPR) and the grandkids of the Von Trapp family singers who come out and yodel a few songs. the band is based in Portland OR.
Who would you like to see as Cal's next head football coach? Wrong answers only.
Karl Dorrell (sans moustache)
Bum Phillips
Brian Ferentz
I don't have the heart to make any "funny" suggestions, because it makes me a little sad to see the passion that you all direct to Cal football only to get the rug pulled out from underneath you time after time. Same for men's basketball.
Agreed DCT…this isn’t a fun exercise.
I’d seriously punch someone’s Nana and Pop Pop in the jaw for Kenny Dillingham.
I'll volunteer mine (since they're all in the ground).
I’d actually settle for a good shot on Nicholas Dirks.
We are Charlie Brown. We try to”kick the ball” and Lucy pulls it away. I am tired of it. I hate Lucy.
I was just catching up with last Sunday's comics from the paper as I ate dinner. The "Classic Peanuts" was a Lucy and Charlie Brown football strip.
I don't know. We're all waiting for that championship season, or maybe 8-4 one year. But it seems as far away as ever. We have a Sisyphean like reality, the rock is rolled up the hill only to roll back each time. Like some have said before "It's the future that's always bright at Cal."
Holmoe. He just needed a little more time.
Andy Buh
Andy Smith.
Pappy Waldorf.
Mike Leach
Tosh Lupoi
Ouch
Bill Musgrave
Gilby redux!
Stub Allison.
Buddy Teevens
Hugh Freeze
Art Briles.
Too soon?
Fish and chips
Love it, especially when visiting Alaska.
One of my favorite meals, especially when in England.
was in Scotland recently. the fish and chips in Edinburgh were just as good as i remember from England
What about the mushy peas?
i like mushy peas well enough but never in that "i really crave good mushy peas" way
CAL
ICYMI: Matt Cindric is out for the season
Who steps up?
Nobody. The position is left vacant until next season.
That's about as effective as anyone we can plug in...
Dislike
Fuck.
PK Nick Lopez is in the portal as a grad transfer
https://twitter.com/nickklopez/status/1584945874110533635
It's getting late in the recruiting cycle and Cal only has 7 commits for 2023. Cal coaches are going to have to search the portal hard. We've got three 6th-years, 10 5th-years, and 22 4th-years.
Coupled with staff turnover on offense (pls pls pls), it could be a tough recruiting cycle.
Wilcox just needs more time.
Wilcox is really about to implode this program.
This seems bad? Recruiting to Cal is enormously difficult ugh
They can’t close because offensively, the on-field product is awful. Kids with NFL aspirations want no part of Wilcox’s meager O…it doesn’t showcase them.
This is a major and easy target for negative recruiting from opposing teams/coaching staffs…
We're number 11 in the conference on offense!
7? Holy Cow
And, so, the Bear diaspora begins.
Who?
Came across the gem of dirty ball.
Desean Jackson gets creamed, targetted, helmet to helmet by ASU.
SMDH
https://youtu.be/B3xi50DT5vs
Taco Bell unveils their hottest sauce yet
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/video-allegedly-shows-taco-bell-worker-throwing-boiling-water-on-customers
Maybe this will get the Germans to lighten up
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-health-minister-lauterbach-presents-plan-on-cannabis-legalization/a-63558414
So... this exists.
https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/burj-al-babas-turkey-an-abandoned-town-of-castles
Name the three US Presidents who were alumni of Eureka College, Whittier College, and Delaware.
I'm guessing Reagan, Nixon, and Biden?
Correct on all three!
I'm old so was pretty confident with the first two. Educated guess on the last.
FBS college teams with person or people as their official mascot
Wichita State Shockers
Oklahoma Sooners
Indiana Hoosiers
Iowa Hawkeyes
Charlotte 49ers
Louisiana Rajun Cajuns (Matty-Chitown!)
Charlotte's 49ers are not named 49ers after the goldminers. They are named that because UNC Chapel Hill started closing their extension centers. The one in Charlotte was saved in 1949 and converted into a 2 year college (Charlotte College). So the 49ers is for 1949 not 1849, but they adopted the gold miner as the symbol because it's easier to understand. And that's why a public school in North Carolina has a California goldminer as a mascot.
UMass Minutemen
West Virginia Mountaineers
Virginia Cavaliers
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
San Diego state Aztecs
Utah Utes
USC Trojans
SJSU Spartans
Michigan State Spartans
Nebraska Cornhuskers
I grew up a Huskers fan and used to wear red tshirts as a kid.
Same, since both my parents were from Nebraska. But not so much the red tshirts.
St. Mary's Gaels
I guess not FBS
Oklahoma State Cowboys
Texas Tech Red Raiders
Is Oski a human?
Vanderbilt Commodores
Florida State Seminoles.
Berkeley City College Fighting Hippies (not FBS, but deserving of mention just the same).
are they hippies who fight, or are they fighting the hippies?
Growing up in the Bay Area, I remember playing cops v hippies instead of cowboys and Indians sometimes.
Like the Fighting Irish, they are Hippies who fight.
Hippies should be against fighting
Surprise! All those hippies grew up and became NIMBYs. Now they fight against progress in the name of maintaining their property values
Illinois illini
Tennessee Volunteers
Purdue Boilermakers
The Fighting Irish!
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Appalachian State Mountaineers
Central Michigan Chippewas
DBD AV CLUB
Something physical that you have far too many of
USB-C cables. It seems like overnight we went from not having any to having an overabundance. Same thing happened with HDMI cables a while back.
HDMI cables, have a bunch that I got from Amazon.
Photo coffee mugs. My MIL likes to take whatever photos we send her and then have them printed on mugs and sent back to us. Her heart is in the right place, so we've got a bajillion Snapfish/Shutterfly mugs.
My wife would go insane. She is already pissed at how many mugs we have, routinely adding in more would push her over the edge.
CDs. I stopped counting at 700 and I never use them anymore, so it's really more of a storage problem at this point.
Dresses. Shoes. Bowls. Picture frames. Candlesticks. Old financial paperwork. Cables of any kind. British plugs.
Old financial paperwork is a good one.
others (like my wife) might say too many, but i have a lot of CDs, books and types of amaro.
there is a Japanese word for the person who has a "book collecting disease" - tsundoku
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44981013
Recommended amari?
old socks. I have a problems throwing away old socks that I will not wear.
Books? CD's? DVD's? Records? Maybe all?
Tshirts. Yet I keep buying them.
Same. And I have a hard time getting rid of old ones, especially Cal ones.
The oldest one I had was a yellow Cal Drinking song tshirt I got around 91 and gave it to my youngest.
Same. Every show I go to I visit the merch table and inevitably walk away with another band shirt
I remember a friend in HS had a bet with his younger brother that my friend could wear a band tshirt every day of senior year. I learned about it because he wore a polo shirt for picture day, which was the only day that was exempt.
Likewise
Cleopatra
Sphynx
So the sphinx is roughy 4,500 years old?
Yup. Cugel remembers its construction.
And actually sort of funny, Egypt is a history I know very little about, unlike Greece & Rome histories.
Did you ever get that PV interconnection completed with PG&E for the power to the Sphinx and the pyramids?
Sigh
Raise your hand if you haven't had Covid yet
Not yet (at least, not tested positive). I've been sick several times because we have a 2yo in preschool who is always bringing home various colds/viruses. But any time I or the missus has something slightly worse than a usual cold, we test and so far all tests have been negative.
I'm in a similar position, though I haven't had a 2 year old or anyone in preschool in nearly 30 years. I've gotten fairly sick a couple of times, but one was clearly a bacterial infection. Earlier this fall, I got rather sick rather quickly, and we thought (Mrs. was convinced) I might have finally come down with Covid, despite being fully vaxed and boosted about as soon as each next step came along. So I tested.
And came up completely negative. Proves that you can still contract other nasty stuff as well. Took almost a week to become reasonably functional, and a couple more weeks to shake most of the rest of the after effects.
Did you test more than once to rule out a false negative? I wonder if you tested before you had enough of the stuff to register positive.
Yes, and I tested when there was no chance of not having an advanced enough case to not register anything.
somehow i too have not.
the night before we were flying back from Scotland i was 100% sure i had it and was going to test positive the next morning before our flight home.
i felt awful for about 4 hours and then it passed and i never tested positive so it could have been something more standard.
also, i have been the most "promiscuous and flaunting of masking" in our immediate family and still have not gotten it.
2 out of 3 others had it and i literally slept right next to my wife for 2 days before she tested positive .. so who knows??
my take is that it has been obviously highly contagious and bad, but the seeming randomness at which some people get it and others dont have fueled a lot of the anti-masking sentiment in parts of the country where such things happen ...
Not yet! Though are you jinxing me, man?
🙋
Not yet. somewhat surprisingly, since I only worked from home about 10 days total.
Raised 👍
Not yet.
I don't think I have
Me, although I believe it's possible I had it in early March 2020. There was no widely available test to verify infection at that time. I can only go by the fact that I was ill with flu-like symptoms for 6 days and slept for 14 to 16 hours each day during that time. I also was running a fever of about 100 to 101 during that time.
It might have been COVID. It might have been something else. I never got tested for anything, so who's to say it was or wasn't?
Add me to the list.
Me
Not yet (I think).
Getting fifth shot of Pfizer on Friday.
👋🏻
I assume it's just a matter of time now, as my 17 y.o. finally cracked and asked a couple of weeks ago if we would be upset if she stopped wearing a mask to school. We'd already told her that we were open to it, so it was more of a formality than anything else.
That's an interesting timeline. Around here, there are still an occasional person around campus (I think 1 in ~300 people involved with the band that I've seen), or at/with some school/team I work a game with that wears a mask. I assume when I see it, its a immune compromised situation, if not with the person then perhaps in the household. But overall usage anywhere in the region hasn't approached 1% on the high end since last spring.
When the schools rescinded the mask requirement last spring there was a pretty quick drop to around 30%... for about 2 weeks until there were a bunch of mini-outbreaks either based on friend groups or specific classes, then it went back up to about 50%. When school started back up in late August / early September, I'd guess it was maybe 10 - 15% and that dropped off precipitously as there haven't really been any outbreaks. When even my daughter's most cautious friends gave up on the masks, I know it was only a matter of time before she did. We didn't want her to feel like she had to be an outcast on our behalf which is why we told her the timing of dropping the mask was up to her.
She didn't push back on wearing a mask when we were on the subway in NYC a couple of weeks ago I noticed 😂
The Kennedy Center dropped its mask requirement last week. The 10-15% rate seems about rate. The folks I usually sit with wear masks, so I wear one out of courtesy to them. Otherwise, not sure if I would.
Our crumbling democracy
Cook Political analysis indicates that GOP gaining momentum in key House races
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1584995991174139906
Likewise, 538's Senate forecast has been moving in a discouraging direction over the past month. Now control of the chamber is pretty much a 50-50 tossup.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/?cid=rrpromo
Sure one party is on record for trying to eliminate women's rights, LGBT rights, and democracy, but there's inflation!
It is amazing how effective the tried-and-true “CRIME” and “JOBS” bs political scare ads are in controlling people
Honestly, this was always expected as these things usually turn against the President's party in the last weeks of the midterm campaign.
If you'd told Democrats a year ago that they would be close to even on the generic ballot and in odds for keeping the Senate at this point, though, I'm sure they would have taken it.
Oh joy.
[NYT] Biden negotiated a deal with Saudi for increased oil production on June 2. Three months later, the US finds out that the Saudis reneged and did the opposite.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/25/us/politics/us-saudi-oil-deal.html
That is because they are not our allies in any meaningful way.
The US should treat the Saudis as non-allies. Not necessarily as enemies, but certainly as non-allies. The Saudis have clearly shown that they will do what's strictly in their best interests and that they view the US with distrust and disdain. Except for US dollars.
Amazingly, the US $, especially in quantity, has remained a popular commodity thru a lot of global mis-adventures.
They do like making investments in U.S. entities, including Jared Kushner's $2 billion fund which had a vague investment strategy. If he takes the standard 2% management fee each year that's $40 million for himself and colleagues regardless of how the fund performs.
PRO
Rodgers throws his teammates under the bus
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/10/25/aaron-rodgers-packers-make-too-many-mistakes-those-guys-shouldnt-be-playing/
That's a shock.
NFL investigates itself and finds that it didn't do anything wrong in the latest conflict-of-interest issue related to Mike Evans
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-week-8-power-rankings-sinking-bucs-packers-can-learn-from-phillies-and-get-right-make-run-in-playoffs/
Nothing to see here!
Suns bury the Warriors 134-105 in a chippy game
https://www.espn.com/nba/matchup/_/gameId/401468210
Suns are a great regular season team
And the Warriors are clearly tinkering and trying their young guys in a variety of lineups. They don't care all that much about results right now.
Jaylen Brown drops Kanye's agency
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34878645/celtics-jaylen-brown-rams-aaron-donald-leaving-donda-sports
As did Aaron Donald.
Local news radio station reporting Ron Rivera not at practice today. Attending to a personal matter in California. Should this be in the thread above about coaches?
Nice, but I doubt it has anything to do with Cal football.
I was just kidding. A subsequent report said it has something to do with his mom.
Ok. We'll best of luck to him and family...
Yep
Elsewhere in college
South Carolina rebrands, dropping UofSC in favor of USC. Good luck with that. Nobody calls them USC down here. It's South Carolina or just Carolina, never USC because of the obvious confusion with another more famous/prestigious school.
https://www.sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2022/10/branding-streamline-announcement.php#.Y1lBPHbMKUl
They're just mad because the last time they tried rebranding they hired bad IP lawyers and got their asses handed to them by SC.
Coach 30 FTW again
https://twitter.com/MrGo30/status/1585056571180339200
These are so good
The NCAA record for average punt (min 40) is Reggie Roby, who averaged 49.8 in 1981. Michigan State's punter Bryce Barringer is on pace to beat that record despite putting 43% of his kicks within the 20. Jamieson Sheahan is currently 6th in the country with 45.82 average.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4393519/bryce-baringer
Reggie Roby, he of wearing a watch during the game!
Maybe he wanted to time his own hang time.
He had a cannon for a leg.
Which two FBS teams are tied for first for fewest penalty yards thus far in the season?
Which FBS team has allowed the fewest points per game thus far?
Illinois?
Correct.
I credit Piotr's plots where the Illinois defense is always an impressive outlier in how solid it is.
Iowa?
Who currently has the most passing yards-per-game in the FBS?
I'm guessing Washington?
Yup.
Somehow, Cal is not in ESPN Bottom 10, including the honorable mentions. However, CU and ASU are.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34876565/college-football-bottom-10-texas-quite-expected
We're not even interesting enough to make this list.
It's no wonder that there is still no Stanfordium
https://twitter.com/kaylasansk/status/1584971171397013505
USC alum Lendale White said USC paid him $150k cash
https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1584971049782939685
1) He said he didn't know who was leaving the cash, counselor, I don't see any canceled checks 😂
2) $150k was a bargain for someone who could have won the Heisman if he didn't play with Reggie Bush.
I was thinking I'd be surprised if USC paid him, contrast with a closely connected affiliate who got encouragement from USC. Minor difference, I know. DC would know better.
All I know is money follows success for college football teams and that was a very successful couple of years.
Live concerts
I've been to several this year after not going to any for a couple years (thanks covid).
I'm in favor of 'em. Dead concerts are so moribund.
Deadheads might disagree.
i meant instead of the virtual kind ..
the best ones we went to for the last couple years were by my favorite NYC subway musician who plays the trumpet.
since he wasnt collecting money IRL anymore, he had a weekly "living room concert" on Wed nights on Instagram live. we would put on the music as we cooked and ate dinner for almost a year and i would Venmo him some $$.
Not exactly a concert, but a friend gave me two tickets to the Washington National Opera this Saturday. It's not like me to turn down free tickets.
Been to three this year. The surge of post-Covid tours (of bands I'd consider seeing anyway) seems to be dropping off a bit.
Love them - but it's been a while for me.
going to the Beacon Theatre in NYC tonight to see Pink Martini.
this is not a household name by any means. but my friend from freshman dorms at Clark Kerr is the drummer and it is a fun show.
random singers that some times join them are Ari Shapiro (from NPR) and the grandkids of the Von Trapp family singers who come out and yodel a few songs. the band is based in Portland OR.