DonkeyCigars

Why are people so adamant that he didnt commit suicide? Think about it; you are caught dead to rights. Your options are hiding out and running around before getting caught and sent to prison to die or just walk knee deep into a swamp and shoot yourself and then become swamp food and then oil one day. What is the end game from hiding out in the wilderness somewhere? I would imagine you would eventually want to make it to a non-extradition country but there is too much media attention for you to hitchhike to Mexico or get to Cuba somehow to then find someone who can provide you with a fake ID to fly to Africa or whatever. If the media attention didn't go from 0-60 last month I could see it, but now? He's dead IMO.

Maybe, maybe not.

I don't know man. Regarding point 1, you would think that any remotely available or friendly friend and family member would have been paid a visit and asked more than a couple of questions. Not to mention we all know three people can keep a secret, if two are dead. Maybe I'm discounting how difficult it is to hunt someone down in the wilderness these days. I just assumed with drones and thermal/heat cameras and knowledge of the habitat, etc. that it would be very unlikely to stay hidden. But maybe I watch too many movies.

Both your two outcomes seem like it would take an immense amount of luck and/or ability and skill to stay hidden for this long. I don't peg this guy as being skillful or that lucky, but I guess stranger things have happened.

Well good news, it's beaten back again: With new U.S. cases of COVID-19 falling by more than a third this past month, according to The New York Times, the virus appears to be retreating once more — a scenario that could play out at varying levels of intensity for some time. Globally, too, cases are down by almost a third, suggesting that some of the retrenchment stems from the virus itself: COVID spreads faster for about two months, seemingly until those most vulnerable have been infected, and recedes for another two. Since Sept. 1, U.S. hospitalizations for COVID have also fallen by a quarter and deaths by 10%.

It sounds like now the key to breaking this thing is going to be either finding something to pin on the parents to arrest them or to manufacture a charge to get them to cooperate. It's kind of nuts how this guy is staying hidden, and the parents are holding their water, unless he's dead of a suicide somewhere. Which, Occam's razor, says is likely the case at this point. Right?

Did y'all even read the memo? It was fantastic (spoilered below), but especially this part which is what I feel like is the worst part of politics in 2021 and keep trying to say on here:

And @Bullneck has negged me 12 times in the past 10 minutes, I think he's got an agenda or something jajajaja

Yes, way too many. I think I avoided failing because citationmonkey.com let you cite MLA error free, and people probably generally felt sorry for me.

Kinda related to this book but mostly fake CRT: I have a good friend who is on the board of a very high end private school. They have a K-6 inner city school that is fully funded due to the death of someone or another, and as part of the charter (like back in the 90's), it has to be 80% African American. The problem is that the 7-12 is not in the inner city, it's in the suburbs, and it's very expensive. So mostly what happens is these AA's have to figure out how to pay for 7-12 or find the best public school, or a benefactor or loans or something, because there aren't enough scholarships, etc. Because of this, the 7-12 portion of this school is very white. Feedback over the years from the minority of AA's that go there is that they don't feel like they fit in, have people that look like them, feel represented, seen, etc. You know, the same stuff we've all heard as the complaints. The big problem is that there aren't a lot of AA teachers either-- it's hard to find in that area qualified black people who actually want to teach private school, etc. So to combat this, they put out a position called Director of Belonging or something like that. Funded the position and went to the board for approvals. This all happened well before all the CRT stuff of the last year or so. Well the HR lady changed it to Director of Diversity, Equity and Conclusion and made all the language sound super woke and hokey and everyone freaked out and communities and alum and everyone freak out like this is in RESPONSE to the sjw woke stuff of late when really it was an earnest attempt to do something good for the school and students well BEFORE the issue of CRT in schools was even making news, and now it's mired in controversy and it is probably about to be scraped and the school is being accused of bowing down to CRT. All because people don't understand what CRT is and they think DEI = CRT. Crazy stuff but this is the world in 2021.

I have gone on record here in the past year saying Yang was my #1 choice for 2020 and I generally like him and his ideas-- glad to see him ditch the Dem's and go Independent!

So where are we at with the voting and such?

Or apparently a movie Squid Game is accused of plagiarizing, A God's Will: Hit Korean drama series Squid Game has been faced with allegations of plagiarism for its supposed similarities to 2014 Japanese movie As The Gods Will https://www.nme.com/news/tv/viewers-call-out-squid-game-for-allegedly-plagiarising-as-the-gods-will-3057726

The conversation of why Squid Game was a break-out hit seems to reside on the fact that you could binge all 9 episodes at once versus wait week-over-week like with, say, Ted Lasso or Loki or whatever.

The point is in how divorcing the realities of soccer as a business and the consequences (the relegation conversation) cannot and should not be so readily discounted and shooed away as problematic details because by doing so you are breaking the entire fabric of assumptions that make the show work as having a soccer background. To put it another way for the old and the tv dorks alike (this entire thread now except for me, since the smartest guy in the room Brickhorn left, sadly), it would be like having WKRP Cincinnati, which is a show with a backdrop of a radio station I think but not about the radio business, and having a storyline where ratings are plummeting and have it never be a fear for the workers with respect to revenue or whatever.

Premise: Ted Lasso coaching a team of players who are picking up the soccer ball and throwing it with their hands and one guy is on horseback and the other has a quidditch wand. Reasonable human beings: Uhhh, that's not at all what soccer is like. Don't we need a shared understanding of soccer (which is admittedly not the focus but a backdrop) for this show to be rounded out and really work? Shouldn't we all buy-in and generally agree there is some tie to reality, even if not technically accurate for the rabid fan? Surly Ted Lasso fans: IT'S NOT ABOUT THE NAIL!

For those interested in this sort of thing (the business of streaming), I read an interesting article about how Netflix's business model enables a lightning in a bottle type break-out hit like Squid Game because they basically throw a bunch of crap (quantity versus quality) at the wall to see what sticks, versus like a Disney+ or AppleTV (known canon and platforms with built-in fans and quality over quantity, respectively). Squid game was considered an instant break-out and runaway hit, as it took off after 2 weeks. 2 weeks doesn't seem instant, but when it's a brand new thing nobody has ever heard of, it's instant. The only thing comparable in popularity has been Stranger Things, fwiw. Anyways, I think it's fascinating that this blew up, but I still think it will be a more flash-in-pan thing once the hype dies down. The international markets love this even more than Americans so that may keep it going for a while globally, though.

Ultimately this show is thumbing it's nose at the Derka's of the world because the rabid American soccer fan like Derka make up 1% of the audience of Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso Season 2 is a show for people who like feel good, goofy comedies and rom-com's and crap like that, so it probably skews very female and and slightly dorky/nerdy guys who enjoy meta-references and schlocky writing and humor. This show is not mainly for people who enjoy playing FIFA2021 on your Xbox and laugh at funny things and root for the underdog in a very unique and clever way-- that was Season 1. This show is now for people who loved Friends and who think Roy Kent is a cool guy and love him as a character: Grrrr. Oi...Grrrr Fffffff-uuuuu. Oi grrrr I'm hirsute.

TikTok is at least meritocratic but it's definitely more of a time suck for sure.

My wife bailed out after episode 4-- too much for her. I ended up watching the entire thing and thought it was very meh. Like others have said, the brother thing didn't make sense, the main guy wasn't likeable and the old man twist was really stupid too. I feel like this caught fire via word of mouth and hype, but it's really pretty mediocre if you take a step back. It's ultraviolence and sort of unique, but it's not very good on the balance. It reminds me of that stupid movie with Sandra Bullock that got a ton of hype and cultural capital, Bird Box, but then people sobered up and realized it was actually kinda stupid and it's 15 mins of fame were up.

This has to be a cyberattack/crime right? This is amazing.

I love YTTV-- have tried all the other crappy ones (sling, hululive, etc.) and YTTV is the GOAT. I got an email that cleared up the NBC tiff which is nice too.

Crazy