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Op-Ed by Jonas Salk's son. This stood out to me:

From the 1970s until his death in 1995, he thought deeply about this transformation and how we as a species might adapt successfully to population pressures and the approach of planetary limits. He examined the evidence and concluded we must evolve socially. In nature, evolutionary pressures and natural selection bear on competing individuals, but in the case of humans, we became evolutionarily successful through cooperation. My father believed that our future survival would depend on the values of collective human and planetary well-being becoming the drivers of our social, economic and political lives.

...

He would have recognized the COVID-19 pandemic not only as something to be feared and fought, but also as a moment to embrace wisdom. He would have seen this crisis as an opportunity to shift from individualism to interdependence. He would have told us that fighting the pandemic demands replacing the “us first,” win/lose mindset with a “we together,” win/win mindset, and he would have advised that, paradoxically, self-interest in this case is best served by generosity. He would have applauded cooperation and knowledge sharing among scientists and the altruism of medical workers and volunteers. He would have seconded New York’s plea for mutual aid: “Help us now and we’ll help you later.” And he would argue we need to implement that mutuality at every level, from individual relationships to global society.

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/492438-what-jonas-salk-would-have-said-about-covid-19

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What happened to the "Decade of Debt" article that was at the top yesterday? I meant to read some comments but I can't find it anymore?

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https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/a-decade-of-debt

It was written a couple weeks ago, so I'm not sure it was in the top spot yesterday.

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Weird. I swear it was the top spot for me yesterday and so I assumed it was written yesterday. I reloaded the front page this afternoon and it was gone. WTF

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Most of the comments are from yesterday, so I suspect it was up there when you saw it.

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It's a mystery!

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YESSSSSS THE NEW IPHONE IS SMALLER!!!!!!!!!

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I really wish my iPhone were smaller. I opted for the XR last time, which is pretty freaking large, basically because of the much improved battery life. I wonder if there's a battery life tradeoff with a newer, but smaller, phone.

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My guess would be that the SE has better battery life than the 8 because the newer chip (A13?) was designed to be more efficient. I don’t know how much the smaller screen would offset the bigger battery in the XR though.

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My wife is due to upgrade and I thought she would want the SE but at 50 she’s finally discovering what it’s like to not be able to see things and is muttering about wanting the larger screen on the 11

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For the huggers (not for me--no touching!) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_AM8iEll85/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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I miss hugs

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warm hugs . . .like Olaf!

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#HugsNotBugs

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I am fervently hoping that all this social distancing will break people of the habit of non-sexual hugging.

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Fingers crossed

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Hater

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This will work better with scootie than some others, I suspect.

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Scootie: just fuck already or don't bother

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Nailed it.

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Makes sense, it's of a piece with the PSoCY ethos

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At least it's an ethos

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COVID-19 research at Berkeley Lab: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/04/15/staff-at-berkeley-labs-x-ray-facility-mobilize-to-support-covid-19-related-research/

Nix noted that Beamline 4.2.2, which he operates, and some other beamlines at the ALS use robotic sample-delivery systems so that once they are filled with samples, experiments can largely operate via remote control.

“I haven’t had an onsite user in over 5 years,” he said.

It took a team effort, from ALS managers and staff to Berkeley Lab leadership, to make the COVID-19-related research happen, Nix noted. “They were working, even before the ‘lights went out,’ at the Lab, to see what we could do.”

He also noted that a variety of sources of research funding are making this work possible. “It’s public, private, and government support all coming together, which is really nice to see,” he said.

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Top Dog ...

Berkeley institution Top Dog is on the ropes. But they still won’t take federal aid.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-Dog-Berkeley-libertarian-aid-coronavirus-15200903.php

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My kids and I got a few the other day. So good.

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I may have to drive by and get one or two. What were the other locations? I know northside closed a while ago as did the one in Oakland at Broadway and 51st in the lobby of the Longs/CVS.

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the only one open is Durant and Telegraph. The other locations are northside and westside of campus.

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i might put in an order. $100 min though. i suppose i could order the kids a t-shirt.

normally it would be ok, but currently our freezer is more full than average from bulk shopping during coronovirus times.

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sun-dried tomatoes...

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Excellent in many things. After watching a Aqua Team Hunger Force episode many years ago, where the eating of The Broodwich (magical sandwich) turns the eater into a demon or something, the sandwich eater was not negatively affected and the evildoer wondered why. Turns out the eater took out all the sun-dried tomatoes and therefore didn't consume the whole Broodwich. Since that time, the wife and I don't use the term sun-dried tomatoes, we instead call them Broodwiches.

tl;dr Aqua Team Hunger Force = great show

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Too strong. Even though I love tomatoes as an ingredient, I pick the SDTs out of things.

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It took my brain a couple tries not to read this as "I pick the STDs out of things"

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Gotta be careful when you're escalating from those sexual hugs...

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Seems like a fad from the late 80's

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not a fan. Fresh tomatoes. canned tomatoes. not dried tomatoes.

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I prefer regular tomatoes to dried.

Beans work pretty well dried. I like prunes over plums, too.

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agreed, I think sun-dried tomatoes are overrated

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They're good in some limited applications every now and then. They're a nice change of pace. Not as good as a real tomato.

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the flavor is too concentrated (and too sweet) and I don't like the texture. I'm not sure I can think of a meal where I enjoy it, to be frank

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@but I thought your name was d$@

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are good. I've started making a pizza with pesto, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and chicken.

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Picking up my half-baked Zachary's at 3:45 in Pleasant Hill. Not going to Rockridge because I'm picking up No 3 from Sprouts in WC from his mom. To answer your next question, large deep dish Special and an XL thin cheese.

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We had Zachary's last Thursday for Mrs Slug's birthday dinner. Deep dish Zachary's Special and deep dish pesto and tomato. Both were her choice. Red wine with the deep dish, cheesecake for dessert after.

The boys came over with CJay's gf ( who we'll call simply Elle at the moment). It was so awkward to maintain something approximating social distance with these kids (who we want to hug). It was great having them over. We didn't want the evening to end.

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Social distancing is really tough

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I picked up Zachary's on Solano at 3:45 as well. Two pizzas

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I'm tempted to get one of these home pizza ovens. This one handles multiple fuels: wood pellets, propane, and I think charcoal.

https://ooni.com/products/ooni-pro?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4dr0BRCxARIsAKUNjWQ_XDOFY9RAzF4hXWL4S5R0Jt5A4tM8EvUEIawGsiV5iEr3Epje4-EaAiF4EALw_wcB

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looks cool. seems like outdoor pizza ovens are grill 2.0.

we make pizzas on our big green egg and they turn out great but require some finesse.

i think i do it different than most

- egg at 300-350 deg F

- no pizza stone, put pizza on grate w/ direct heat

- cook for approx 5 min. this usually melts the cheese perfectly and makes the crust nice and crispy.

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The good thing with these other ones is you're ready to cook in under 10 min. With the BGE you'll have to take time to heat it up right?

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Not on the Deck!

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loading dock only! 😄

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that one looks pretty cool as well.

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Started watching Zero Zero Zero on Prime...is very good

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Money Heist on the Netflix has been enjoyable. Even with the overdubbing.

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So... We watched Children of Men a couple of weeks ago (18/19 WB), great movie, but maybe not such a ideal watch during the pandemic, so we instituted a new rule, only comedies these days; first was Pirate Radio, which was ok 13/19 but not great.

Last week, based on comments here we watched the first episode of Reply 1988, which I thought was good (my love slave would have hated the broad comedy moments) but my wife says is too long for the 1 hour slot TV watching, and my daughter was not a 100% fan.

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Reply 1997, all the eps are 45 mins to an hour. Reply 1988 I think is 90 minutes per. Also, your daughter obviously has terrible taste

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She said it was good, just not for her.

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My wife would not like any of those three movies I am sure. (after looking them up)

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You're asking for it Reno-boy.

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Watched the first Medical police last night, I like a lot, totally silly. (i.e. Not a Sit-Com Terrance!)

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Yup! Loved Angie Tribeca.

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What works best when desiccated?

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FET: I was just wondering about this a couple days ago--why is dried fruit so common but dried vegetables are non-existent? I suspect it's because vegetables 1) have much lower water content than fruits and 2) would taste turrible if they were dehydrated. But I'm no desiccation expert, so I may be wrong.

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You're right, they suck, a tenant gave me some. 99% went in the trash.

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take that turkey!

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FET: My mom loves using her dehydrator. She does grapes, apples, persimmons. Her gardener brings apples from one of his other client's and there is a huge persimmon tree in the backyard. There are lots of dried fruit in the kitchen.

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You can find dried vegetables in instant noodle packets!!!

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then put the dried veges in your mouth for 2 min before eating...

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Pinch between the cheek and gum

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CAL

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GO BEARS!

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ICYMI: Cal lands 3-star CB from Folsom

https://twitter.com/kk_higgins/status/1250259165722763265

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PRO

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Trump halts funding WHO as he seeks to shift CV-19 blame away from himself.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/donald-trump-world-health-organization-funding-coronavirus/index.html

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Today in CV-19

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This is a long read, but Ed Yong is a fantastic science journalist who spoke to experts in a number of subject matters to offer a fairly broad outlook on what lies ahead

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-summer-coronavirus-reopening-back-normal/609940/

Our Pandemic Summer

"As I wrote last month, the only viable endgame is to play whack-a-mole with the coronavirus, suppressing it until a vaccine can be produced. With luck, that will take 18 to 24 months. During that time, new outbreaks will probably arise. Much about that period is unclear, but the dozens of experts whom I have interviewed agree that life as most people knew it cannot fully return. “I think people haven’t understood that this isn’t about the next couple of weeks,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. “This is about the next two years.”

The pandemic is not a hurricane or a wildfire. It is not comparable to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Such disasters are confined in time and space. The SARS-CoV-2 virus will linger through the year and across the world. “Everyone wants to know when this will end,” said Devi Sridhar, a public-health expert at the University of Edinburgh. “That’s not the right question. The right question is: How do we continue?”"

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I think that we are still probably looking at over 1M very serious cases in the US before it is all said and done and vaccinated. and for herd immunity ... we need to get up over 200 M people exposed and recovered. So a long way to go.

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Well, or develop a vaccine.

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Everything, EVERYTHING is political in the age of trump

"Some are planning to crowd the roads. Others will use their car horns. And a few are protesting in person — and, safe to say, there is no social distancing involved.

Amid growing uneasiness about stay-at-home orders, conservative groups around the country are organizing in-person or drive-by protests at statehouses to call on their governors to reopen the economy.

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200413/gop-lawmakers-protesters-call-on-dewine-to-begin-re-opening-ohio

At noon on Wednesday, a motorcade organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund is set to crowd roads in Lansing in what has been dubbed “Operation Gridlock.”

Protesters have been instructed to make noise and cause disruption while driving by, the Lansing State Journal reported, in objection to what they say are “erratic, unilateral orders that threaten Michiganders’ economic existence.”

Rosanne Ponkowski, the coalition’s president, said the stay-at-home order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) — whom she called a “radical leftist” — would end up forcing small businesses to close permanently. Whitmer’s directive has been scrutinized for some inconsistencies and was extended earlier this week.

In North Carolina, another group has planned recurring demonstrations to “ReopenNC” by May. On Tuesdays through the end of the month, they plan to honk every 15 minutes for four hours near the state’s legislative building."

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I wonder what the overlap is between these people and people who think lefties should be fined for protesting at rush hour

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the Venn Diagram is a circle.

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A pile of over 2,500 dead bodies has made no impression on a number of people.

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I thought maybe you were referring to yesterday's report of just over 2,300 for the day.

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That pile alone it would seem would be pretty sobering. But it doesn't appear to be to some.

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25,000

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Darned lack of ability to edit for typos with this tool!

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If NC is like many other states, there won't be any legislators in the legislative building. So these protesters are going to be honking occasionally at a mostly empty building. Great plan.

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Oh, yeah. I saw the ReopenNC protesters yesterday that we have here on the local news. Organization started as an anti-vaxx push, but blossomed into a conservative Facebook page that now has 36k members.

75 cars, 100% white, honked horns in a parking lot, drove around the parking lot, then left. Ironically, they were pushing for relaxing social distancing and stay-at-home order by staying in their cars and social distancing when protesting.

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pqtm

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Remember, this is a photo op for the evening news.

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who are probably bored out of their minds and will be on this like a sex scandal.

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I've had my fill of companies airing commercials featuring a somber piano while a gentle voiceover talks about how things have changed but we'll all get through this together. They're just so saccharine.

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I generally eschew commercials, only watching things on DVR or flipping to a different station (often PBS) when a news broadcast goes to commercials. But the other night, we missed a recording so had to watch the show on demand. Being forced to watch commercials w/o the ability to FF or switch to a different station was worse than a million Hitlers. Serious First World Problem right there.

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If I can't switch the channel to something else during commercials, I usually just mute them. I cannot listen to the same jingles over and over or I will go insane. I could never go back to the pre-DVR world.

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Side note/update: I was just on Spectrum chat cancelling the tier that permits me access to Pac-12 Networks. The agent said "I'll take that off for you right meow". We then had a bizarre Super Troopers exchange where we used meow in our sentences, and at the end where I said "I'm going to log off meow, but you earned 5 stars", the tech said "thank you very much. Meow." This just totally made my day.

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pqtm

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that's what the money is for

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I am having iTunes issues - i've watched through the most sinful motherfucker alive. Am trying to download last 4 episodes and binge them before the next Watch.

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I have solved this problem by not watching any television

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Seems like a challenging to maintain change given the current decline in other activities and diversionary options.

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We've been watching movies with the kids, but in general, between having a job I can do from home, child care responsibilities, and some other misc. side gigs that ask for time, I hardly have time for anything these days. I definitely don't relate to all the "I'm so bored!" people out there.

With live sports no longer a thing, I can't recall the last time I watched something live on television. Maybe the "The Good Place" finale.

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Interestingly, one of the thing that I have been watching live (or nearly live) has been the Jeopardy college championship tournament last and this week. I guess I followed too much Jeopardy related stuff on Twitter that if I wait a day or two, the results get spoiled. Competition also reminds me of live sports.

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Nightly Jeopardy watching has been a ritual during the pandemic.

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Funny you should mention The Good Place. I've just recently started to watch it on Netflix. Funny series.

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I really loved it. No 3 said he and his mom were watching it and I started it last summer and caught up to this season.

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It wasn't live sports but last night the Nats regional network showed game seven of the world series from last year. While it was on, many of the players got together on Zoom to watch it and the Zoom was on the Nats Facebook page so you could watch it while watching the game on the TV. It was pretty funny to watch the players drinking and cutting up. Also used it to solicit donations to a fund Ryan Zimmerman set up to raise money for covid front line folks. Raised over 200K.

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My wife still watches snippets of ESPN in between watching something on the DVR

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I'm guessing he means "broadcast"

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I haven’t watched broadcast tv since... whenever I abandoned the Blacklist/ the Archer in Hollywood series ended. I can’t think of anything I’ve watched since then in any case

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Actually I’m not watching much of anything at the moment. I took in Unorthodox the other week and watched Creed 2 with the missus. That’s been about it for at least the last 10 days.

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That and the never ending emails from Netflix on things to watch and telling me to continue watching shows - I don't need that!

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