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Can someone tell me what's going on in the main photo? Is the church trying to find God?

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It is the St. Johannes d. Täufer church in rural Raisting, Germany. It just happens to be located next a C-band sat downlink dish "farm".

It is here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.8963746,11.110781,1499m/data=!3m1!1e3

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AV Report:

Prime: Season 2 of Hanna came out last friday. Solid extension to the first season. Not quite as creepy, but broader conspiracy set up for season 3.

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I quite enjoyed it, although the emotional manipulation of young women was, as my kids say, uncomfy to watch

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Yes, since they are the age of the 'trainees', I can see where they would find it challenging.

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The kids didn’t watch it. Tbh I generally prefer to watch tv by myself and I binged the series while having serious insomnia

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I did the same, except was just avoiding everyone else and binged it.

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I have not watched that, is it any good?

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It's solid streaming TV. especially if you like a bit of twisty spy action.

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It’s not cinematic genius but I think it’s a good way to spend a few hours. In some regards, I think you could make the argument that it’s a more interesting story in season 2, especially in the emotional arc of the character Sandy

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Hyperdrive on Netflix. Sort of a Ninja Warrior for driving. It looks like a lot of fun. I wish I had disposable income where I could build a 600 HP drift machine.

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I was kind of disappointed by this show when I watched it a year or two ago when it first came out. There weren't enough variations on the course to make it interesting if one watches them all one weekend.

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I actually didn't know about it until I saw one of the drivers interviewed on the vinwiki youtube channel. I just finished episode 4 and all the qualifying is done. I think the trailer for the next episode said all new challenges for the knockout round. I love some of those cars. Was surprised there wasn't a Skyline though there were quite a few 240s and Mustangs.

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And then the rich guy in the Lambo.

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Zoomed through Hanna 2...it moves pretty fast...if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss...a solid performance by Cameron's real-life wife, Mireille Enos. Working on ep 2 of Mason.

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and yes Mireille is very solid, even though she spends most of this season locked up. I also really liked Jules and Sandy and their growth from automatons to something more like real teens.

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I haven't watched the new Perry Mason yet.

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3rd episode of Perry Mason was the best so far...

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I’m really looking forward to watching Perry Mason. I may start it this weekend.

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It's definitely not the Raymond Burr/Barbara Hale/William Katt Perry Mason from the late-80's...

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This was the proposed flag for Kuwait in 1906:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Kuwait#/media/File:Flag_of_Kuwait_(1906_proposal).svg

Eight years later, they actually adopted that flag idea, except in Arabic (as one might expect).

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Today in Karen'ing

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>> According to Chan, before she started recording, the man made other racist and vulgar comments like "F—k you Asians," "Go back to whatever f—king country you're from," and "You don't belong here."

...

>> Lofthouse himself is an immigrant who moved to California from the U.K. and also has an Asian sister-in-law and a half-Asian niece

Well, that took an unexpected turn.

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FFS. I have no words any more to describe my responses to this kind of thing.

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Judging from his accent, I think he's originally from Australia, too!

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I wonder if there is an issue with anti-Asian racism in Australia too. Seems quite possible.

This despite them wanting to play in Asia's soccer federation so they get an easier shot at making the World Cup.

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Oh 100% they have that problem. Took until 1975 to completely undo the whites only immigration policies and their offshoots.

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Comet Alert! Comet NEOWISE is visible in the northeast before dawn without any optical assistance, e.g. binoculars or a telescope. Probably the most impressive comet since Hale-Bopp!

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so, when is it supposed to hit?

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It's going to hit in DC

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deep earth driller sacrifices himself.

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That was yesterday's thing! BTW, did anyone guess mine?

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doesn't look like it.

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I even threw in a big clue, but I know Scootie won't get it as the film is B&W

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oh...I think I just got it. Hadn't thought about old movies and forgot that there was a beach scene at the end.

City in the title?

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sad pqtm

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If only the clouds would go away.

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I was thinking of it as an omen of Covid-19...

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Yep.

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Elsewhere in college

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Today in la 'rona

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Australia's Victoria and NSW close their mutual border

https://twitter.com/vicemergency/status/1280299193429487616

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“Vaccines don’t save lives,” said Walter Orenstein, an associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center. “Vaccinations save lives. A vaccine dose that remains in a vial is zero percent effective.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/07/coronavirus-measles-samoa-vaccine/

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If this doesn’t convince anti-vaxxers that you should vaccinate yourself and your children then nothing will and we should brand them all with a scarlet V and band then from all public places and public institutions.

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"Bottoms said she became concerned when her husband slept from Thursday to Monday. After she was confirmed to have the virus, her four children were also tested. One child has tested positive and another has tested negative; the family is still waiting for the results of two others."

Jesus FC

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I can only think of a handful of people in this world that I would like to see get corona more than him.

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Why not Donald?

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because no one gets close enough any more to breathe on him.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Mary Trump: My uncle paid someone to take the SAT for him

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-cheated-on-his-sat-penn-wharton-mary-trump-2020-7

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I have to confess that none of the “bombshells” I’ve seen people quoting on twitter are particularly surprising.

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Is anything surprising anymore?

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This delicious advertisement that has a target audience of one person.

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1280457599884935168

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Slow clap.

That might be the best one yet.

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Wow

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ICE is deporting any international students here who are attending schools that have gone online for the fall. How would a student manage that? Try to sublease to someone who knows they will be kicked out one day at short notice? Eat the cost of a vacant apartment? Try to find an apartment at the last second once things reopen? And a lot of university towns rely on international students. It hurts the economy. Why - I mean apart from being cruel and brain-dead racists? Fuck you Stephen Miller - this has your fingerprints all over it.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1280207487573069827

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Trump seems to be trying to do as much damage as possible to the country on his way out.

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If I may devil's advocate this one for a moment, why wouldn't they? They issued visas to a population that needed to come to the US to get a particular education, strictly so they could do that. They now no longer need to be in the US for that, so why would they let them stay on that visa (other than basic human kindness, I mean)?

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Beyond this being a ploy by the administration trying to force schools to reopen, as DC T pointed out.

I would add that your (devils) argument and others that genuinely believe this is flawed and makes some fairly big assumptions.

As we have seen in the US, internet and broadband access isn’t universal here and we have large chunks of our own country where going completely virtual would be a challenge for some American college students due to the lack of reliable internet access. Now imagine you’re from a developing country that has even less internet access, how do you attend these online courses.

Second, assuming you’re home country and city/town/village does have decent internet access. What about the time differences between time zones. I assume some lectures will be recorded and other parts of the curriculum could be made that you do it at your own pace but I also assume some portions of these online classes will have some live interaction requirements. So you’re now teaching a class at 2pm PST but you’re from Asia or the Middle East or European so that class is taking place and some crazy hour.

Third, if an international students family has access and is willing to make the time zone challenges work, can all families of international students afford to purchase and pay for the internet.

Lastly, will these international students pay for an online degree from an American university or just stay at home. We are already seeing this play out on a national level as some US HS students have deferred the start of their freshman year or have decided to stay closer to home or just go the JC route for the time being. So we as a nation and economy would lose out on any advances or innovation that these international students would achieve both individually and collectively in a group setting with fellow American students.

Think of the sports watching experience that our fellow Cal alums, brethren and fans on the east coast Europe or Asian have when trying to watch a Cal game.

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And to answer your question, it’s not the fault of the students that they might have online classes, they’re not in a position to control when they might or might not be able to attend school in person. It’s not even like it’s predictable seasonal work.

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Plus, grad students

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Turns out that this is part of the administration trying to force schools to re-open and only teach in person

https://twitter.com/tcmassie/status/1280569206501789697?s=21

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It had the corollary benefit for this administration of also punishing universities who are (perhaps too) dependent on full fare payments from foreign students. Quite a two-fer if you hate the live and the foreign

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ICE was just reinforcing their position as the most despised arm of the federal government, even worse than the TSA.

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They are the worst for sure

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It's a dumb move to punish all these foreign students who are in the US legally, but what else does one expect from this administration. You've got to think that most Universities will fight this to prevent the International students from having to move back or transfer. I also think there is some gray area with regards to schools going to the Hybrid model, and you would expect even schools that expected to be fully online to offer enough special courses to allow these students to stay legally.

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Should be clear: they have warned people it's going to happen, but it hasn't actually happened yet. I imagine such a policy might be challenged.

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If I were faculty at a university planning to go entirely online, I'd petition the dean to approve a one-person, in-person course during the semester. I'd call it "Special Topics in Obstructing Racist Policies."

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I am sending a message in this droid to Berk97, a leader of the Rebel Resistance

https://twitter.com/MissyAMarlowe/status/1280686195731689472

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Shit, this means that Cal would be without a good punter. Jamieson Sheahan is Australian. Dario Longhetto averaged 40.9 yards, which would have put in the bottom quartile of FBS punters if he had enough kicks to qualify.

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PRO

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Here's the Giant's 2020 schedule. Sheesh, having a deep bench will be important with so many consecutive games this season.

https://twitter.com/AmyGGiants/status/1280276046911139840

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A lot of young pitchers will be getting chances early this season. I think the plan calls for 30 men roster for the first month and eventually slide down to 26 for the playoffs...IF we actually get there.

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Interesting. Skeptical of two things: the season even getting off the ground with the latest surge, and Zaidi's re-building plan, as he seems to only draft catchers that are 2-3 years away....

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CAL

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Go Bears!

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Cal's recruiting team sends out the bat signal again. Looks like Cal got another 2021 commit.

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It is almost certainly William Reed.

https://twitter.com/Angus_McClure/status/1280630894445817857

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LeConte and Kroeber Hall will probably be renamed. Taking suggestions.

https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/task-forces/building-name-review-committee

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Cal's game vs. North Texas moved to 2023. As a result, we are not playing two games in the greater Dallas area within 365 days.

https://twitter.com/CalRivals/status/1280538122581733377

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Ugh, DeSean Jackson showing he's sharp as a marble...come on, man...

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Sure glad this fool went to Long Beach Poly and not Cal.

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If I’d had to pick a Pac12 alum to bust out Nazi talking points it wouldn’t have been him

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Yeah, I would have picked a kid that was originally from rural Washington, Oregon, California, or Orange County.

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I don't know what he was thinking when he posted that. It's one thing to believe lies from Farakhan, but another to openly support something that was attributed to Hitler.

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Yikes.

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lots of otherwise sensible people get sucked in by Farakhan's hate for jews.

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They may cut him.

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and it would be another bad decision in what seems like an ongoing series of them.

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