I have never been to Sweden nor a Max Hamburger, but my experience with European fast food is that they are just more expensive, at the fast-casual price range like Shake Shack or Five Guys in the US (I've seen Five Guys in Europe and they are obviously even pricier than the McDs/Burger Kings). When I was at Lyon, France several years ago, I went out of my way to try Ouest Express because that's supposedly Paul Bocuse's (one of the most famous chefs in the world) fast food place; it reminded me more of Wendy's than anything else. [This was also at a time when I lived in Philly and worked across the street from a Shake Shack, which I probably only went to once every 1.5 months.]
I tried a McDonalds burger in Paris just for fun. No 1 and his then GF happened to be in Paris at the same time I was there for work so we had dinner at a couple of places. One was fondue and Raclette place. The other was Steak Frites. Both were very good. Anyways, her mom and dad grew up in Paris and her Grandmother still lives there so she has spent time there and said the McD burgers were much better than in the US. Maybe the meat quality was better. So I had a Sunday free and did a lot of walking around and I needed a quick lunch so I picked up the equivalent of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (or a Royale with Cheese). It actually was much more tasty than a US Quarter Pounder. She was probably right in that they use better quality meat. It also cost something like 7-8 USD so it was more expensive.
Heh, BMW 7-series is on the list. My first car was totaled in Monterey Park when some drunk Chinese businessman in a 7-series plowed into it as it was parked on the street.
Earlier this year, I went and rewatched the Before Sunrise and Before Sunset movies (but not Before Midnight which I have seen before). I was motivated by finally visited Vienna (setting of the first film) as well as it being 15+ years since I watched them (with grad school friends in the theater when the second film came out). I think I was somewhat struck by how little I have changed since I watched those films and how much the characters have changed in the 9 years between them.
I believe the female character was named Celine, but possibly a different spelling.
Under DOI and soon to be under the direction and management of Deb Haaland, great and inspiring cabinet choice by Biden. She will do great! Hopefully she can also help reform and improve the BIA.
A million years ago when I was a wee junior consultant, I was briefly on a project (or maybe it was an extended bid) for work at Interior, and the only people there who had external email were senior managers with Blackberries. The rest of the BIA (and I think even the rest of Interior) had been cut off FROM THE WHOLE INTERNET by court order after it transpired that the transactions had been entered in their system for tracking mineral rights royalties for the various nations were probably inaccurate and incomplete, and the system was so insecure that they had no way of proving that it wasn't being "adjusted" by either unapproved staff or outside actions.
There are literally thousands of such stories where people who never should have been put in a position of making any sort of decision (because of demonstrated incompetence to do so) blamed the internet and access to it for things that were ignorant design and management decisions. More scary is the amount of that sort of thinking that's still out there.
well, in fairness it was probably quicker to cut them off from the internet considering that they couldn't display any ability to prevent or detect intrusion. I'm not talking about people getting punished for being honest about finding sophisticated hacking like OPM with the Chinese theft of personnel data from clearance systems - a motivated 11 year old could have "broken in" to those DOI systems.
Blocked having the bill to increase the payments to individuals and families come to a vote, doubtless because he knows a number of Republicans would vote for it.
Regardless of party, I'd like to know how we can get the rules changed so that bills will actually have to be voted on. Even a lot of Republicans are beyond frustrated with McConnell blocking votes. Yet getting a rule change through is impossible, given that that requires a vote.
This right here. Any senator should be allowed to bring a bill to the floor to vote. It’s ridiculous that the senate majority leader gets to decide which bills get a vote and which don’t.
Isiah Thomas, the people that sang Christmas songs without masks in protest, and all the truckers in front of me on the 5 freeway going 60 miles an hour in the left lane.
This whole thing was so strange. Garbers seemed to give up rather quickly on UW, which makes me think he regretted committing to them from the beginning.
Twitter's targeted ads for me today reminds me that it's the 2020 Cheez-It Bowl tonight...even if the Cheez-I(N)T Bowl that I had cared about was a completely different bowl (now the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, IIRC).
Funny thing about that terrible Cheez-It-Bowl. I kinda wish Cal was in a bowl game just to make bowl season a little more interesting. I’d settle for another Cheez Bowl. At least is was fun to talk about. We still do.
That team has some head-scratching moments on special teams. A couple weeks ago I saw a play where they lined up a gunner next to the punter. As soon as the ball was snapped the gunner took off downfield, so he obviously wasn't there for protection purposes. So he was just hanging out 15 yards out of position for no obvious reason.
Lucky for the Rams, they only need to make the playoffs with a Chicago Bears loss. The Bears will be playing the Packers, who still need a win to get the first-round bye. Then there are the reports that Goff might somehow be ready to go by the first-round of the playoffs, should the Rams make it.
Look I don't know how to break it to you all, but as an SC alum I am familiar with the signs of quarterbacks who were very promising in college who aren't cut out for the NFL, and Goff has that air about him.
When was the last time a SC QB went to the SB or even the playoffs? I still believe in Goff, I just think the Rams haven’t done much to maintain or improve their offense around him since the SB.
I disagree somewhat, back when SC was really good, the system made their QBs look better than they really were, Goff had no such support at Cal, he was the best thing we had going, and had to earn everything he did. He can throw into really tight windows.
Not saying he set to be a hall of famer - but it's way different sitch than say Sanchez.
I know that the trade is not yet official, but shame on the Cubs that Darvish apparently only found out about it through a Tweet by MLB (which MLB has since deleted).
Love the Darvish deal....Snell will have to prove he is more than just a 5 inefficient- but-solid innings guy, but prospects under Preller are a dime a dozen tho so they literally got these guys for peanuts.
Meh, sure, he's cheaper, Ruey, but that's all you can really say, especially bc the prospects they gave up to Tampa have bigger upside. Darvish is the better pitcher, and they gave up far less to get him. Snell's outlier season, while Cy Young award-winning, was just that - an outlier. Take that seemingly-fluke year out of his 5 year career, and he's 4 games under .500 with injuries and an inability to last in games. Sure, he'll get a better pitchers park with Petco, and won't have to face the Yanks & Sox bats, etc., but now he gets the Doyers regularly, plus Coors and Chase Fields, and an NL DH....plus, he's a punk.
That said, San Diego should be better with him rather than a bunch of prospects, and it's a no brainer of a deal.
In modern day baseball, you really can't have too many quality pitchers. Who knows who will be available and pitching well comes October. I agree that Snell doesn't have the track record of throwing that many innings, but he does have a nice track record of throwing quality innings when healthy (or not immaturely pulled by the manager). It's just hard for me to see why you wouldn't be equally thrilled to get both guys.
I'm a big Darvish fan. I actually just saw a signed baseball by him last week when I was reorganizing some stuff. What was particularly interesting about that one time when I got his autograph before a game was that he was tossing and goofing around all left-handed and was probably throwing in the low 90s with accuracy.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Snell is allowed to pitch to the lineup the 3rd time around. We'll see if the Rays were correct or the rest of the world. He definitely has the stuff to be a shutdown No 2.
Sure, and I think Cash's lifting of him in Gm 6, and TB's analytics-based treatment of him was just silly....however, Cash didn't just invent Snell's struggles 3rd time through the lineup - they're real. And with that stuff & K totals comes high pitch counts, which in today's game of baseball is a negative.
Lots of players have had 1 good season....let's see if he can do it again. I'm skeptical.
From the front page: Jeremiah Hawkins in transfer portal after graduating. He is a junior in terms of eligibility who opted out of 2020 season, so he should have one more season to play.
"A new video captures the greatest hits of an epic, two-county car chase where a suspect collides with police cars, jumps a 20-foot ridge and carjacks his way out of it, and then attempts to gouge the eyeballs out of the K-9 dog that eventually nabs him.
Back in June, the Bay Area News Group reported the story of a East Bay carjacking police chase that did not seem terribly out of the ordinary, and no one really remembered it. But the Bay Area News Group stuck on the story, searching down all the body-cam and helicopter footage of the incident and stitching them together in narrative order, for the most absolutely insane real-life police car chase that plays out like a scene from a Blues Brothers movie."
That’s great! I love it when the narrator says that “he ALLEGEDLY crashed into a police officer’s car”. He hit it head on. On film. No allegedly about it.
Dude’s wearing a neon green fluorescent jacket as he is running (on foot) from the cops. You could see him from space. But, he his quite nimble though. So funny that it took 5 cops and 1 dog to subdue him. Pretty nuts.
Gift idea for those who know a bit of ornithology
https://www.amazon.ca/Silver-Plated-Duck-Design-Corkscrew/dp/B0083TH86O
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
sassy
TIL: Max Hamburger is one of the few fast-food hamburger enterprises that has beaten McDonald's as the #1 burger chain (also see: Jollibee)
https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/max-burgers-sweden
I have never been to Sweden nor a Max Hamburger, but my experience with European fast food is that they are just more expensive, at the fast-casual price range like Shake Shack or Five Guys in the US (I've seen Five Guys in Europe and they are obviously even pricier than the McDs/Burger Kings). When I was at Lyon, France several years ago, I went out of my way to try Ouest Express because that's supposedly Paul Bocuse's (one of the most famous chefs in the world) fast food place; it reminded me more of Wendy's than anything else. [This was also at a time when I lived in Philly and worked across the street from a Shake Shack, which I probably only went to once every 1.5 months.]
I tried a McDonalds burger in Paris just for fun. No 1 and his then GF happened to be in Paris at the same time I was there for work so we had dinner at a couple of places. One was fondue and Raclette place. The other was Steak Frites. Both were very good. Anyways, her mom and dad grew up in Paris and her Grandmother still lives there so she has spent time there and said the McD burgers were much better than in the US. Maybe the meat quality was better. So I had a Sunday free and did a lot of walking around and I needed a quick lunch so I picked up the equivalent of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (or a Royale with Cheese). It actually was much more tasty than a US Quarter Pounder. She was probably right in that they use better quality meat. It also cost something like 7-8 USD so it was more expensive.
Dodge Ram 2500 drivers are far-and-away the most likely to have a DUI. Like, double the national average and nearly half-again as much as #2.
https://insurify.com/insights/car-models-most-duis-2020/
Wow, missed this first go around, that's insane.
Heh, BMW 7-series is on the list. My first car was totaled in Monterey Park when some drunk Chinese businessman in a 7-series plowed into it as it was parked on the street.
why does this not surprise me?
Celine
Earlier this year, I went and rewatched the Before Sunrise and Before Sunset movies (but not Before Midnight which I have seen before). I was motivated by finally visited Vienna (setting of the first film) as well as it being 15+ years since I watched them (with grad school friends in the theater when the second film came out). I think I was somewhat struck by how little I have changed since I watched those films and how much the characters have changed in the 9 years between them.
I believe the female character was named Celine, but possibly a different spelling.
Dion? The fashion label? What are we going for here?
The fashion label, obvi. Atoms won't shut up about it. :s
You're just jelly of my sweet style
BLM
Someone smashed the Breonna Taylor sculpture in Oakland
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJWmRDFpV2I/?utm_source=ig_embed
I saw various reactionary wags on twitter wondering what the problem is, since it's okay to vandalize statues you don't like.
Under DOI and soon to be under the direction and management of Deb Haaland, great and inspiring cabinet choice by Biden. She will do great! Hopefully she can also help reform and improve the BIA.
A million years ago when I was a wee junior consultant, I was briefly on a project (or maybe it was an extended bid) for work at Interior, and the only people there who had external email were senior managers with Blackberries. The rest of the BIA (and I think even the rest of Interior) had been cut off FROM THE WHOLE INTERNET by court order after it transpired that the transactions had been entered in their system for tracking mineral rights royalties for the various nations were probably inaccurate and incomplete, and the system was so insecure that they had no way of proving that it wasn't being "adjusted" by either unapproved staff or outside actions.
There are literally thousands of such stories where people who never should have been put in a position of making any sort of decision (because of demonstrated incompetence to do so) blamed the internet and access to it for things that were ignorant design and management decisions. More scary is the amount of that sort of thinking that's still out there.
well, in fairness it was probably quicker to cut them off from the internet considering that they couldn't display any ability to prevent or detect intrusion. I'm not talking about people getting punished for being honest about finding sophisticated hacking like OPM with the Chinese theft of personnel data from clearance systems - a motivated 11 year old could have "broken in" to those DOI systems.
Cheez-Its Bowl: Cringe fest that you don't want to think about again or a masterpiece for the ages?
I think that may be my favorite Cal loss of all time. The absurdity of that game is unmatched.
I agree. One of the weirdest games I have watched. But, we still talk about it.
This is what I'm going with as well.
I am firmly in the do-not-want-to-hear-about-it-ever-again camp. Call me weird, but I think awful is awful.
why not both?: gif
I believe that with great sarcasm, it won an award for being the most interesting bowl game of that season (2018).
The Dodge Grand Caravan is no more. Rest in Peace, King.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/38378/once-the-king-of-minivans-the-dodge-grand-caravan-died-a-quiet-death-back-in-august
I'll commemorate it by pouring out a cup of cheerios in the backseat.
chef's kiss: gif
Poor one out for those we have lost.
Besides Twist, who do you want to punch in the face?
Mitch McConnell
Blocked having the bill to increase the payments to individuals and families come to a vote, doubtless because he knows a number of Republicans would vote for it.
Regardless of party, I'd like to know how we can get the rules changed so that bills will actually have to be voted on. Even a lot of Republicans are beyond frustrated with McConnell blocking votes. Yet getting a rule change through is impossible, given that that requires a vote.
This right here. Any senator should be allowed to bring a bill to the floor to vote. It’s ridiculous that the senate majority leader gets to decide which bills get a vote and which don’t.
Lindsey Graham
Isiah Thomas, the people that sang Christmas songs without masks in protest, and all the truckers in front of me on the 5 freeway going 60 miles an hour in the left lane.
Dabo Swinney. Urban Meyer. Mike Nolan.
Jared Kushner. Every Tory in the British cabinet. Peyton Manning.
I have more. Ryan Lochte. Joe Buck. Devin Nunes. Tom Shane. The Men's Wearhouse dude. Joe Kelly. Bobby Hurley. Aaron Bright's mom.
Stephen Miller, Don Jr, David Shaw, Rod Gilmore
Mack Brown, Pat Fucking Flood
gonna add Tom Brady and Gronk to my list
Oh definitely Tom "I fumbled" Brady.
Rachel Ray: she uses the word "yum-o".
I liked her when she was first on the Food Network, but over time she's worn on me.
this guy is asking for it: showed up on Sky News saying "oops I voted for Brexit and it might put me out of business, maybe that was a bad idea."
https://twitter.com/HackedOffHugh/status/1343890893745565696?s=20
Turns out it wasn't just "I figured it might be okay on the day," he was in UKIP election videos.
https://twitter.com/malaconotus/status/1343953907815485442?s=20
Elsewhere in college
Ethan Garbers commits to fUcla
https://twitter.com/ethan_garbers3/status/1344061679122845696?s=19
This whole thing was so strange. Garbers seemed to give up rather quickly on UW, which makes me think he regretted committing to them from the beginning.
Texas Bowl canceled due to Covid at TCU. Arkansas (3-7) left hanging.
https://www.nwahomepage.com/sports/pig-trail-nation/mercari-texas-bowl-canceled-due-to-covid-issues-at-tcu/
Can you really be left "hanging" at 3-7?
More like "Whew, Pig Sooey" amirite??!?!?!?!?!?
F the SEC
Twitter's targeted ads for me today reminds me that it's the 2020 Cheez-It Bowl tonight...even if the Cheez-I(N)T Bowl that I had cared about was a completely different bowl (now the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, IIRC).
Funny thing about that terrible Cheez-It-Bowl. I kinda wish Cal was in a bowl game just to make bowl season a little more interesting. I’d settle for another Cheez Bowl. At least is was fun to talk about. We still do.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Mitch McConnell blocks $2000 stimulus checks
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/29/covid-stimulus-update-senate-considers-vote-on-2000-stimulus-checks.html
The Ways that Trump and the Republicans have tried to overturn Biden's win...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/29/how-trump-and-republicans-have-tried-overturn-2020-election/4064558001/
Selling the US Ambassador's residence in Tel Aviv was a particularly refined dick move https://twitter.com/ShibleyTelhami/status/1343904359411806208?s=20
Eh, they have $67MM with which to buy a better one.
PRO
Maybe Cal should consider hiring Patriots' Special Team Coach Cameron Achord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvs4tTUIGA
That team has some head-scratching moments on special teams. A couple weeks ago I saw a play where they lined up a gunner next to the punter. As soon as the ball was snapped the gunner took off downfield, so he obviously wasn't there for protection purposes. So he was just hanging out 15 yards out of position for no obvious reason.
Goff to have surgery on broken throwing-hand thumb
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30614699/los-angeles-rams-qb-jared-goff-thumb-surgery-unlikely-play-sunday-vs-arizona-cardinals
Lucky for the Rams, they only need to make the playoffs with a Chicago Bears loss. The Bears will be playing the Packers, who still need a win to get the first-round bye. Then there are the reports that Goff might somehow be ready to go by the first-round of the playoffs, should the Rams make it.
So part of his problems on Sunday were caused by the broken thumb...
It happened pretty late in the game. And he still made a couple of his better throws after it happened (and he re-set it himself on the field).
I thought it happened in the 2nd quarter.
Oh. That still doesn't explain the erratic performance then. He converted a couple of 3rd and longs but that was it. There was no deep passing game.
Look I don't know how to break it to you all, but as an SC alum I am familiar with the signs of quarterbacks who were very promising in college who aren't cut out for the NFL, and Goff has that air about him.
When was the last time a SC QB went to the SB or even the playoffs? I still believe in Goff, I just think the Rams haven’t done much to maintain or improve their offense around him since the SB.
I disagree somewhat, back when SC was really good, the system made their QBs look better than they really were, Goff had no such support at Cal, he was the best thing we had going, and had to earn everything he did. He can throw into really tight windows.
Not saying he set to be a hall of famer - but it's way different sitch than say Sanchez.
He's done more than some of those SC flameouts, but yeah . . . he's looking like an average NFL starter at best.
Thank you
[ESPN] Padres on verge of trading for Yu Darvish
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30615373/sources-san-diego-padres-set-acquire-yu-darvish-chicago-cubs
I know that the trade is not yet official, but shame on the Cubs that Darvish apparently only found out about it through a Tweet by MLB (which MLB has since deleted).
That's weird.
My Pads are going all in!
Love the Darvish deal....Snell will have to prove he is more than just a 5 inefficient- but-solid innings guy, but prospects under Preller are a dime a dozen tho so they literally got these guys for peanuts.
The 28 years old Snell has probably much more upside (and is much much cheaper) that the 34 years old Darvish for the duration of their current deals.
Meh, sure, he's cheaper, Ruey, but that's all you can really say, especially bc the prospects they gave up to Tampa have bigger upside. Darvish is the better pitcher, and they gave up far less to get him. Snell's outlier season, while Cy Young award-winning, was just that - an outlier. Take that seemingly-fluke year out of his 5 year career, and he's 4 games under .500 with injuries and an inability to last in games. Sure, he'll get a better pitchers park with Petco, and won't have to face the Yanks & Sox bats, etc., but now he gets the Doyers regularly, plus Coors and Chase Fields, and an NL DH....plus, he's a punk.
That said, San Diego should be better with him rather than a bunch of prospects, and it's a no brainer of a deal.
In modern day baseball, you really can't have too many quality pitchers. Who knows who will be available and pitching well comes October. I agree that Snell doesn't have the track record of throwing that many innings, but he does have a nice track record of throwing quality innings when healthy (or not immaturely pulled by the manager). It's just hard for me to see why you wouldn't be equally thrilled to get both guys.
I'm a big Darvish fan. I actually just saw a signed baseball by him last week when I was reorganizing some stuff. What was particularly interesting about that one time when I got his autograph before a game was that he was tossing and goofing around all left-handed and was probably throwing in the low 90s with accuracy.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Snell is allowed to pitch to the lineup the 3rd time around. We'll see if the Rays were correct or the rest of the world. He definitely has the stuff to be a shutdown No 2.
Sure, and I think Cash's lifting of him in Gm 6, and TB's analytics-based treatment of him was just silly....however, Cash didn't just invent Snell's struggles 3rd time through the lineup - they're real. And with that stuff & K totals comes high pitch counts, which in today's game of baseball is a negative.
Lots of players have had 1 good season....let's see if he can do it again. I'm skeptical.
CAL
From the front page: Jeremiah Hawkins in transfer portal after graduating. He is a junior in terms of eligibility who opted out of 2020 season, so he should have one more season to play.
https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/cal-football-wr-jeremiah-hawkins
interesting 2021 stat: dropped passes declined
Cal comes in 6th to last in P5 football revenues. * sigh *
https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/College-football-richest-poorest-programs-Alabama-Crimson-Tide-Texas-Longhorns-Ohio-State-Buckeyes-157982941/#157982941_1
Even Oregon State was higher. :(
Who ya rootin' for?
Go Bears
Please enjoy this BANANAS car chase.
"A new video captures the greatest hits of an epic, two-county car chase where a suspect collides with police cars, jumps a 20-foot ridge and carjacks his way out of it, and then attempts to gouge the eyeballs out of the K-9 dog that eventually nabs him.
Back in June, the Bay Area News Group reported the story of a East Bay carjacking police chase that did not seem terribly out of the ordinary, and no one really remembered it. But the Bay Area News Group stuck on the story, searching down all the body-cam and helicopter footage of the incident and stitching them together in narrative order, for the most absolutely insane real-life police car chase that plays out like a scene from a Blues Brothers movie."
https://sfist.com/2020/12/29/bonkers-east-bay-car-chase-video-emerges-of-suspect-smashing-into-cop-cars-trying-to-fight-k-9-dog/
That’s great! I love it when the narrator says that “he ALLEGEDLY crashed into a police officer’s car”. He hit it head on. On film. No allegedly about it.
Dude’s wearing a neon green fluorescent jacket as he is running (on foot) from the cops. You could see him from space. But, he his quite nimble though. So funny that it took 5 cops and 1 dog to subdue him. Pretty nuts.
Whoa, crazy.
Good news: fully healed and good to go from my vasectomy.
Bad news: I think I have hemorrhoids now.
Karma.
this is a great picture: https://twitter.com/MarcDavenant/status/1343921795087392769?s=20
Yes