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ZZ Top's bassist Dusty Hill passes away at the age of 72. In his honor, here is La Grange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vppbdf-qtGU

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DBD IT

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Oh my God, I just asked for the next level of support! Am I a Chad?

I have an Epson scanner which worked great until OSX updated to Big Sur. Now I get a "You do not have permission to open the application “EPSON Scanner" error when I try to use the scanner. Called them up and they said the standalone Image Capture app doesn't need anything from Epson, which is wrong. So I asked if there was another level of support.

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"PC Load Letter . . . what the fuck does that mean?!"

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That makes me think of Charlie's Angels and "The Chad was great!"

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haha Charlie's Angels doesn't seem like your cup of tea.

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The empowerment side: Lucy Liu is fierce!

The prurient side: HELLO JUSTIN THEROUX

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Meanwhile, we're all thinking Farrah, Kate and Jaclyn.

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Heh, yep never saw the movie. Very little of the TV show.

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Remember how I had that 1:1 with the coworker? So she felt like I'd been disrespectful (when she kept saying, "We did this, we did that..." in the meeting, I said, "___ has been doing the work. We should give credit where credit is due."), that I had been telling everyone behind her back that she's crap at her job (I have not), and that I'm mad at her for a decision she made months ago and have been holding a grudge. She kept saying, "I just don't know what you want! If you think something isn't working, you should tell me!" I told her I'd raised concerns throughout, but they were dismissed, and she said that she didn't get any of that from me, snarkily pointing out that I'm a communications professional and should know how to communicate.

The kicker is, her nephew was in the hospital after a tragic accident and pronounced dead two weeks later, so during that time, she was understandably not around. When she kept saying that I never told her something had gone wrong, I tried to say that it happened when she wasn't there (not just during the family situation, but also when she was on vacation last week), and she said, "I have been going through the worst family tragedy, and for you to throw that in my face..."

I was horrified that she would think I'd hold her family tragedy against her. This was never about that. It was just that she said she didn't see anything going wrong at work, and when I pointed out that things had gone wrong, and she wanted "evidence," she thought I'd made it personal.

On the upside, my boss doesn't think I've been doing that. GLAD MY BOSS DOESN'T THINK I'M AN ASSHOLE.

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Clearly, this coworker has been put in a barrel as a consequence of the family tragedy. I bet her bearings are not accurate as an outcome of this tragedy. I feel for her in the abstract, but I also understand why you would be upset with the way she has presented events.

Your boss sounds like good people.

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My boss is really great.

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Sorry to ask, but could there possibly be a racial component here?

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That is not my sense; I think it's more lashing out in grief (and also being overwhelmed at work, because she's been put in charge of projects that would normally take three people to direct)

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DBD AV Club

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Enjoying the second season of Never Have I Ever. Still working through The Bureau; season 4.

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DBD Test Kitchen

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While tasting menus full of progressive culinary art aren't really my thing, my wife and I accompanied our out-of-town guests to Heron's to enjoy five-time James Bears semi-finalist Chef Steven Devereaux Greene. It was one of the best meals I've ever had, but it was far more than I prefer to spend on a single night.

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(James Beard) - and also, while James Beard award winning restaurants are often excellent, they're also a sign that the restaurant has an excellent PR team more than being outstanding compared to its peers.

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Live a little!

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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‘America is not racist’ becomes a GOP 2024 mantra (well, sure)

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/28/gop-primary-america-racist-2024-500680

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Today in Covid 19

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CDC changes guidelines to wear masks indoors in high risk areas/situations. Spokesman said it was due to new (but uncited) evidence that vaccinated people can get enough viral load of the Delta variant to be just as contagious as non-vaccinated people.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html

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An alarming number of people do not understand the difference between carrying a virus and becoming sick from it. But then an alarming number of people have not understood a number of things that have been material during this event.

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UK study: 84k patient study in UK indicates that Covid "brain fog" can be up to the equivalent of permanently aging 10 years in cognitive abilities among severe patients.

https://twitter.com/AliNouriPhD/status/1318967587796099074

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Another study out of the UK last week found signs of lewy bodies in Covid patients, even ones with milder cases, which are protein deposits in the brain that can lead to Parkinson's. ☹️

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As someone with a mom who had Parkinson's and an uncle on my dad's side who had lewy body dementia I don't like to read that.

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That really sucks.

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Other College

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ICYMI: Tate Martell has transferred to UNLV, which means he may be the starter against Cal in 2022 since he has 2 more years of eligibility. The previous starter/ex-Cal QB Max Gilliam graduated, which means that Martell will mostly compete against Justin Rodgers, the TCU QB who couldn't feel his foot and Cal still couldn't tackle during the Cheez-Its Bowl.

https://247sports.com/Article/Tate-Martell-transfer-to-UNLV-football-quarterback-Miami-Hurricanes-Ohio-State--168285438/

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Wasn’t Justin Rodgers also a one time Cal commit?

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Perhaps you're thinking of Armani Rogers?

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Yes, that’s the one. Did he transfer or graduate from UNLV?

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Armani Rogers transferred to Ohio after the 2019 season. He was the back-up QB during the shortened 3-game Covid season. He is currently on the Ohio roster. He is a dual-threat guy, but didn't develop as an accurate passer as he is a career 50% completion passer and 3:2 TD:INT ratio despite being primarily a short-pass thrower.

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Tate Martell will be almost 25 years-old senior before Cal gets a chance to play against him in 2022. Sam Darnold is only eight months older that Martell.

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2021 should be the sixth and final year of Vic Viramontes (ex-Cal QB), so Cal won't face him in 2022. Nate Longshore is the Tight Ends coach of UNLV. Kenwick Thompson is the LB coach. Viramontes will be the last of the Cal guys that transferred to UNLV, if one doesn't count Kaleo Ballungay, the TE recruit who I think got his scholly pulled in favor of DJ Rogers (*downslide whistle*)

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Wow Viramontes and Gilliam are that old. Time flies.

Btw where did Lonny Powell end up?

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Lonny Powell enrolled at American River College (Sacramento). He switched positions to linebacker. He started, but only played a single season.

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That's disappointing

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What ever happened to DJ Rogers, SGB?

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Enrolled at TCU. We play against him in six weeks. Pursuant to site guidelines, I will not publicly speculate to the reason.

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Gotcha...

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Duke HC Cutcliff interrupts players' Tiktok sess.

https://www.tiktok.com/@jhop411/video/6989779555183545605

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Stanford coach David Shaw weighs in on Bryce Young's NIL success: 'I think that's Alabama value'

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/stanford-coach-david-shaw-weighs-in-on-bryce-youngs-nil-success-i-think-thats-alabama-value/

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He's not wrong.

If it's a business, one can probably do the ROI analysis on this. What if we approached this like a project financing round. What if a college - through associated entities - can "buy" 4 and 5 star players for a few hundred thousand per year, packaged through NIL sponsorships awaiting them if the join the team. Back-end load the payments so the students pay, plus a kicker to the families for their likeness too.

You need a core of perhaps 20 of them, so let's say $8m/year. It's a no-brainer. $8m/year expense vs. the $20m swing in revenues of Dykes-era vs. the end of the Tedford Era. Or perhaps boost up $40m to the level of revenues that ASU gets. It would be interesting to borrow $8m in revenue bonds and pay back perhaps $2m in interest + revenue share for the upside.

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Also Cal and Stanford have access to lots of start-ups founded by former students. If some "founder shares" were gifted to players in a basket the potential upside is tremendous (and somewhat unique to the Bay Area because of SF and Silicon Valley). Alabama and Ohio State have access to greater "cash" incentives but nothing like the long-term potential wealth that can be created. Think of the Warriors' players dabbling in Silicon Valley a few years back. Some of those bets have paid off. I'm hoping the creative brains at Haas can put together a program like this.

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Olympics

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Israeli baseball players break the bed at the olympic village. I cannot understand why they would intentionally damage something that does not belong to them. If something looks unique or interesting, would they break something in a hotel or a friend's house just for fun?

https://nypost.com/2021/07/27/this-is-how-many-olympians-it-takes-to-break-the-anti-sex-bed/

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I'd through them out of the village and let them sleep on the street. Then throw them out for violating covid protocol. Stupid.

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SIOBHAN HAUGHEY!!!!!!!! 🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰 香港加油!!!!!!!!

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Pro

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Game #102: A’s slump continues, now against Padres

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/7/27/22597435/oakland-as-game-102-san-diego-padres-score-result

The Oakland A’s lost again on Tuesday. It was by more than one run this time! But it still felt a lot like every other game this month, as everything the A’s did fell just short while everything the opponent did was maximized by uncannily perfect sequencing.

The final score turned out to be 7-4 in favor of the San Diego Padres, but it may as well have been any pair of numbers these days. When you’re in a slump, nothing seems to work.

None of that is to say the A’s should have won this game. They got beat, by another good team. But on a day when they pounded out the majority of the game’s hard contact, and piled up 11 hits including five for extra-bases, you’ll excuse me for suggesting this could easily have gone better with even a minuscule amount of luck.

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I gave up on the game in the 7th and watched the Cal segment of Pac-12 media day and then commissioner K's opening talk. He played a bit of keep-away during the Q&A session but that's to be expected.

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A"s currently ahead of the Pads 5-0. Chapman connected for a three run homer. Hope it lasts. Manaea doing the pitching.

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7-0 now.

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Giants beat the Dodgers, and that’s all that really matters

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/7/27/22597407/san-francisco-giants-dodgers-recap-buster-posey-cody-bellinger

Well, that was fun.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, again. They did it using late-inning shenanigans, again.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic as last week’s games at Dodger Stadium, but it wasn’t not dramatic, either.

And more importantly, it was fun. Because the Giants beat the Dodgers.

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I am finding it so disturbing how successful the Gigantes are in those hideous uniforms, but I guess I'm going to have to learn to love them.

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To me it looked like when Bellinger faked the throw to 2nd Muncy cut to cover the plate in case there was a rundown. I think Muncy cut right in front of Bellinger when he went to go throw to 3rd and it caused his throw to go high.

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I'm still not sure why he doesn't just throw it back to second base. Yaz had stopped running to avoid getting tagged and was further from the base than Posey was at third.

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Exactly....I saw a similar play Sunday in my 35+ Adult Hardball league game ;-)...it was just bad decision by Bellinger, and then he absolutely air mailed the throw.

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Seems like Muncy was expecting him to throw back to 2nd and was trying to get out of the way of that, and then wound up being in the way of an inexplicable throw to 3rd.

Bellinger just got too cute by half in trying to pump-fake Posey off his base. Of course, if the throw is that bad then it doesn't matter which base he threw it to.

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Cody Bellinger’s ‘horrible throw’ delivers Dodgers’ latest loss to Giants

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/7/27/22597313/cody-bellinger-bad-throw-dodgers-paltry-offense-giants-recap

After three straight games with lead changes in the ninth inning last week in Los Angeles, the Dodgers and Giants on Tuesday in San Francisco decided things in the eighth inning, with the winning run scoring on the worst throw of the season from Cody Bellinger in a 2-1 loss by Los Angeles.

First base isn’t new to Bellinger, who has played more career games at the position than any particular outfield spot. But this was his first game all year at the position.

Blake Treinen, who escaped a jam to end the seventh, started the eighth with two walks, just his second game of the season with multiple walks. Up next was Darin Ruf, who grounded out to Max Muncy, who didn’t have time to tag Mike Yastrzemski before throwing to first.

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Definitely Little Leagued it up. Did not realize this was the first time Bellinger had played first this year. I've often questioned the over-fiddling that Dave Roberts does with his lineup, as the constant churn leads to these kinds of mistakes.

But as noted above, the important thing is the Giants beat the Dodgers.

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Bellinger is GG caliber at 1st, but he's been in CF with Muncy at 1st this whole year. The only reason he was at 1st is that he strained his hammy and they were trying to reduce the hard starts and stops.

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US Womens Water Polo somehow blows it in the 4th quarter to Hungary and loses 10-9.

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Saw most of this. Hungary is big and athletic, and matched or out-played the US inside most of the match.

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US Basketball deflates Iran 120-66 in their 2nd game in Tokyo.

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I am a foot and a half taller than my mom so i always tease her that she's the little kid in the family until she goes mom mode then i refer to her as the corporate boss.

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Wait, are you a giant?!?

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