82 Comments

I know this question is unrelated, But What is going on with Cal and Under Armour? is the deal broken, or is Cal going to get a new athletics deal?

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Both sides are just fulfilling base contract benefits right now - obviously UA wants out, but they don't have much of a legal leg to stand on. Cal would also like to be out, but not while they are still getting in-kind and cash benefits from UA - I hope (and suspect) we're shopping around for a deal - but it looks like we'll be a UA school for the upcoming season.

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Yeah, I saw all the Sales on Fanatics for Cal Jerseys, some at even 80%! And I was freaking out thinking a new deal was imminent. If we did have to change, who would you think Cal would go for?

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We're in a bad spot to be sure. Brands are pulling back their marketing dollars and concentrating on more effective - and as much as we love Cal, we're not even that big regionally. It's not like UCLA or Oklahoma where you can get national play.

Nike isn't spending a bunch of new dollars. Jordan Brand just spent on UCLA so they're not going to double up. So it's either adidas (so no one to bid against) OR a brand that no one will be happy with (New Balance. . . or a Chinese brand)

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TBF, I wouldn't mind Adidas. under Armour is making poor Financial decisions trying to keep up with Nike and they will be going Bankrupt pretty soon. I like how Adidas jersey's look anyway.

it's a shame that we couldn't see through to the end of this deal though.

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Bastille Day

Viva La France!!!

it has been a long time since a Frenchman won a tour stage on Bastille Day. the drought continues, but it always a fun day to watch le Tour.

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It was a great stage today.

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i was out on a ride. need to catch up on replay mode ...

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My Cal roommate for a semester before he moved to a fraternity was born on Bastille Day.

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As was my wife...hence birthday dinner this evening!

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Brazil's President Bolsonaro has been hospitalized for [checks notes] hiccups

https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/562960-brazils-bolsonaro-hospitalized-in-search-for-cause-of-chronic

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What's your remedy for hiccups?

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just wait ...

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In the past, I used the drink-something-upside-down method and breath-into-a-bag method with mixed results. My wife brought "eat a spoon of peanut butter" to our marriage. I was skeptical, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work every single time over the past 2 decades.

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If find just not thinking about it works best for me, rather than trying anything to stop them.

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Drinking lemonade with your head held down, must sip from the opposite side of the cup.

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Drinking almost anything, in a normal position, works for me. Soda or lemonade or similar drinks do tend to work better than plain water. Have to drink a sizeable quantity, like at least 6 to 8 ounces.

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My roommate used to try this method, only with any liquid not specifically lemonade.

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Side effect of Covid-19?

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Oh, that’s eccentric grandpa/ma [your name] who lived through the Pandemic that started in 2020 and is why (s)he still...

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... is a little too comfortable being all alone for long periods of time.

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That could be me. I had a reservation for the Natural History Museum last Friday afternoon and it was a little uncomfortable being surrounded by so many people, especially lots of small kids. I didn't have the same reaction at the couple Nats games I went to. Maybe the difference was being outside and a bit more spread out.

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...refusing to use video conference calling

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Eccentrities

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"For three weeks, the world has watched the painstaking rescue effort in Surfside, Fla., after a beachfront condominium collapsed, leaving 95 dead and 14 missing as of Tuesday. Few countries have followed the story as closely as China, where the topic has trended for multiple days on the microblogging site Weibo.

State-run news agencies have provided wall-to-wall coverage of the collapse halfway across the world, with daily updates on the death toll and multiple editorials deriding the U.S. government’s “sluggish” response. A hashtag started by Chinese news broadcasters saying that American citizens were losing faith in an “American-style” rescue effort garnered over 21 million views on Weibo. On Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying fired off a tweet on the condo collapse — her third in a week — noting that a cat named Binx was rescued from the rubble in Surfside.

“What about the 100+ lost lives?” she wrote. “It’s really hard for #Chinese to understand this kind of #US #humanrights.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/14/china-weibo-building-collapse-miami/

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Maybe she should ask whoever was behind all those schools in Sichuan that collapsed in 2008.

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The worst part about this wolf warrior diplomacy is having governmental shitposters.

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Or the 3-story building that collapsed yesterday, killing 8, with several more still missing.

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Loki

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DBD AV Club

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Loki

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This evening, I'll post tomorrow.

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Loved it. Best of the 3 MCU series - and I've liked all of them.

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DBD Test Kitchen

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For some reason I was craving a baked potato, so now I've eaten 3 in two days. That's very weird.

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My brother works in the field and when he was in the area where my parents lived he would often stop by at noon and through a potato in the microwave and dress it up for lunch. Not three in two days to my knowledge though.

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You might have a slight nutritional deficiency.

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Or perhaps your gut bacteria are taking over: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-our-microbiome-control-us-or-do-we-control-it/

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I hadn't had one in like 2 years. I think I just wanted a vehicle for sour cream. OR the trenette ala pesto I made made me think of baked potatoes since there were boiled potatoes in that.

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for less starch how about coring out some of the potato and making baked potato skins with the same ingredients?

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Maybe breed skinny potatoes as a healthier alternative.

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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Driving down 5 to LA last weekend, so many Recall Newsom signs...but not sure why. Our "failed" Covid response? :-/

Driving on 10 today between Santa Monica and Culver City, many freeway stanchions have tagged with things like: "9000 vaccine deaths". "Kill Fauci". "Kill Bill Gates"

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GOP selling "Don't Fauci my Florida" merch.

https://twitter.com/teamrondesantis/status/1414676440533159937

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While we bicker about internal politics, there are still bad actors out there doing bad things.

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1015861534/iranian-agents-are-facing-charges-for-their-role-in-a-plot-to-kidnap-a-u-s-journ

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Anyone know who that is?

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It's Ms. Florida Citrus 2003

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Her name sounds like something you'd make up to sound more interesting

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More money, more problems: Cheney and Kinzinger feel Trump effect

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/14/cheney-kinzinger-leaders-house-republicans-499589

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Today in Covid 19

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Great, we've gone up 109% over the last 14 days, from 4 per 100,000 to 8.

Stupid Republicans.

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Who would sue the Florida surgeon general over vaccine passport bans?

Norwegian would

Isn't it good?

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/whiteboard/2021/07/13/norwegian-cruise-line-sues-florida-over-vaccine-passport-ban-1388295

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Interesting facts:

Women catch Covid more frequently then men, but men have a higher mortality rate

Black Americans were the ethinic group that died at the highest rate for the first Covid wave, but were the lowest for the second wave

Hispanics are heavily over-represented in infection rates

The Hispanic community has recently stepped up their new vaccinations, while white Americans rates have plummeted

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographicsovertime

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I suspect that the over-representation for Hispanics in infection rates was a combination of doing a lot of work that has to be completed in person, some adult male resistance to masking at first, and the prevalence of multi-generational housing.

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All of that, yeah. Hispanic workers tended to be "essential workers" and also tended to live in houses with more people.

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Of course - Covid is really a red state/blue state issue. And science does not mean anything.... Carl Sagan quote from the 1990's:

‘I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or my grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantative content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.’

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Although there is a lot of truth to this, and I tend to agree with it, this is also the sort of thing that grumpy old guys have always said. When I was younger, I observed this in old guy, and now that I'm an old guy, I see it in my peeps.

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Jesus, that's almost too spot on.

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Exactly that.

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Pro

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I was reading a story in the Post about locals drafted in the first couple rounds of the MLB draft. One is a HS shortstop drafted in the first round by the Padres. I guess Tatis will be on the market in a year or two.

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With Washington Football Team name change coming in 2022, here are some of the best options to choose from...

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/with-washington-football-team-name-change-coming-in-2022-here-are-some-of-the-best-options-to-choose-from/

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Using "Club" in the name in the US is pretty cheesy, particularly for American football, but even for MLS. The word just has different meaning here, than it does in the context of the Premier League from which its obviously borrowing. So its obviously more a stylized term than anything to do with the structure of the organization or league in which it plays.

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MLB actually kind of makes sense, but definitely not NFL.

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Probably better than Imposter Salt Lake,

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Demon Cats? Rising? Archers? I also think it would be kind of weird (maybe ironic) if they go with Royals.

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Bureaucrats. Swamp Monsters. Filibusters.

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Zero chance of that.

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Other College

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2021 College Football Hot Seat Rankings: Evaluating the job security of all 130 FBS coaches

From 'win or be fired' to 'untouchable,' every college football coach gets rated

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/2021-college-football-hot-seat-rankings-evaluating-the-job-security-of-all-130-fbs-coaches/

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I don't know why they bother including Helton in these lists, he apparently cannot be fired.

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How can one accomplish so little, with so much at hand...

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it's impressive in its own way, but I think the answer is he's somehow achieved the rare feat of both having no identifiable strategy for his teams and being unable to make the most of what he's got... or even recognize what he hasn't got (you could make a decent run at any season with the average level of SC skill players IF you had a decent offensive line, but...)

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Cal

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GO BEARS!

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Cal now has a fullback. He's a walk-on and a '21 grad, so will be available for this season. https://twitter.com/c_jnson44/status/1415069298582687745

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So he was also offered by Oregon and SDSU...his only offers.

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