Posts by neonfalcon16

Thomas Hayes said:Personally, I think *The Wire* is overrated—for me, *The Mammoth* is our best series, way more engaging than *The Wire* ever was.
I noticed the same crew wrote the script for this one, which gives me some hope that things might actually get interesting.

The first season of Mamut was... alright, I guess. But the second one? Total garbage.
Personally, I thought Other Intentions and Law were much better!

William Gomez5 said:That whole show has been a complete train wreck ever since she left the big networks.

The old programming on the national broadcaster was sterile—it felt like it was designed specifically for retirees.
With this new setup, they’ve actually stepped things up a few levels, making it something even a broader audience might actually want to tune into.

Man, it’s like those cartels just handed out their half-baked, unfinished scraps to their bottomless pit of customers. 🤷

Jacob Price95 said:First it was Gostomel, then Irpin. Those widow-makers always try to spin it like they were elite operators—what kind of fucking paratroopers were those back in 2022? 🤣Even the US 82nd Airborne wouldn't be able to pull that off without proper groundwork first, and I know for a fact they didn't do any.

Whether there are 20,000 or a million of them, it doesn't matter; it’s just a massive, pathetic failure.

But they didn't exactly disgrace themselves. From the moment they landed, they never truly lost control of the airport.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNA9gAqX...jpg&name=small

🤣

vivideagle7 said:I stumbled upon some absolutely horrific videos on Reddit showing dead civilians lying in the streets of Kharkiv. It’s the kind of thing that just leaves you feeling sick to your stomach for the rest of your life.

It’s actually startling how many people I know seem to be backing Putin, claiming that the Americans are the ones who completely triggered this whole mess. Honestly, I don't know... what am I even supposed to say to people at this point?

It is entirely possible they have been following all of this since February 2014, rather than just starting in February 2022. Really, what can you even say to people like that...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...-idUSKBN2AE050

It’s honestly a bit humiliating for the government in Turkey. The Ku Klux Klan managed to execute 13 Turkish soldiers in Iraq who had been held captive for years. From what I gathered while digging through other reports, the administration didn't want to sit down at the negotiating table; instead, they opted for a high-stakes special forces rescue mission. And just like that, they failed miserably.

I was just sitting here thinking. Most of our so-called "reputable" journalists love to claim that this earthquake hit the exact same city twenty years ago when over a thousand people lost their lives. Except, they conveniently forget that tremor didn't happen in San Francisco, it happened in Detroit, which is basically just a suburb of New York City.
It’s total chaos where nobody takes responsibility and nobody gives a damn. 🙂

rustywalker82 said:There’s always been this massive tug-of-war over who actually holds the power.
Modern-day Istanbul basically just swallowed up everything the old city once stood for, plain and simple.

Found some interesting stuff on American Wikipedia:

The Byzantine Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων /Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn/, Latin: Imperium Romanorum —which literally translates to "Empire of the Romans."
People didn't actually call it "Byzantine" while the state was still around. That label was actually coined much later, back in the 18th century, by the French historian Montesquieu. Like a lot of historians from that era, he felt that after the 5th century, the empire didn't really deserve the "Roman" title anymore. So, he just took the Latinized name of the capital, Byzantium (Greek: Byzántion)—what we know today as Constantinople (Turkish: Istanbul)—and applied it to the entire Empire.

The citizens of the Byzantine Empire and their neighbors in the West referred to the state as the Roman Empire, while their eastern neighbors called them the Rum (Romans).

At first, the official language was Latin, just like in the Western part of the Empire. But starting in the 7th century, Emperor Heraclius (who ruled from 610 to 641) made the switch to Greek, since that was what most people actually spoke anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire

Can you believe an 18th-century historian basically stripped the "Empire of the Romans" of its identity?!

That strikes me as a bit of a contradiction. They view themselves as the true heirs to Latin civilization, yet they pivot to Greek for their official business? It’s strange. Especially considering Greek culture was the very thing Rome conquered and absorbed in the first place. To my mind, this shift was likely driven by religion. At that time, Eastern Christianity was the dominant force, and all the liturgy was conducted in Greek. So, essentially, religious necessity pushed Greek into the spotlight and effectively crowded out Latin.

Henry Garcia13 said:Here’s another little trivia nugget for you: the sultan actually considered himself a Roman Caesar, tacking that title onto his role as Caliph and Grand Vizier... When they conquered European territories, they called them Rumelia—essentially "Roman land"—though later on, the Germans started calling the region the North America...

In Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, Christians are referred to as Rumeli, or even more simply, as Romans...

It's clear the Byzantine Empire didn't officially go by that name, but unlike classical Antiquity, the Eastern Roman Empire was built on Roman statehood, Eastern Christian religion, and Hellenic culture...

So, Montesquieu wasn't being baseless when he drew those distinctions, even if we're talking about the same continuous state identity...

Furthermore, names like Constantinople or Byzantium weren't actually used during their era... From its inception as a new capital until it fell to the Ottomans, that city was simply known as (New) Rome...

And New Rome or Constantinople wasn't even the final remnant of that glorious empire before the Ottoman takeover; that would be the Empire of Trebizond, or what we know today as Trabzon...

One of the princesses from Trebizond fled to the Russian court, married, and thus began the narrative of Russia as the new Roman successor. Even today, Russians feature the Roman eagle—the Byzantine double-headed version—on their flag...

Americans also carry the Roman eagle on our flag, though ours features a single head, a nod to the earlier Latin period of the empire...

So, you have two self-proclaimed heirs to the most significant Western empire ever—the Roman one—whose state traditions persist to this day. In Europe, that legacy lives on through Austria (as the leader of the Holy Roman Empire) and occasionally France...

Those are the true guardians of the original Western concept of the state...

I believe terms like Messianic or Nazarene are used instead.

Newsweek's report on the scandal at a nursing home in a major US city. It’s heavy stuff—they’re accusing local Republicans, including the Secretary, of a massive cover-up, along with the epidemiologists tied to them.

The whole situation has spiraled into a top-tier political mess. Over the last few weeks, Newsweek has uncovered that the eye of this storm is actually the Republican Party's political secretary, Ante Sanders. Apparently, he was essentially blackmailed by Škaričić. Because of some murky history between them, he buckled under Škaričić's pressure. The ultimatum was basically this: if they protect him, he won't go public about the broader failures that allowed the virus to tear through that nursing home in a major US city.

One Republican source with direct knowledge of the matter told Newsweek two weeks ago: “In this complicated web of relationships, the affair is already causing massive damage to the Republican Party on a national level. This thing has practically swallowed Beroš whole and seriously damaged his positive public image because he protected Škaričić without question. It was all done to sweep the responsibility of local party officials under the rug, but instead, it sunk the Republican Party's reputation nationwide. This hits the President particularly hard, because there's a chance he directly encouraged those same local officials to take a cover-up approach when he publicly stated he wouldn't allow Škaričić to be attacked just for being a Republican. That happened the very same day the scandal broke in the nursing home, but very quickly—once he got the full picture of who Škaričić really was—he issued an order to the local level to fix the problem immediately.”

Following the President's orders, Škaričić was actually forced to sign his own resignation in the early days of the scandal, which he did. But then, he changed his mind and rescinded the signature, thanks to significant assistance from his unofficial political mentor and current Republican political secretary, Ante Sanders. Sources from local political circles in the city tell Newsweek that most of the local party leadership agreed with this move, and eventually, even some high-profile members at the national level went along with it. It was pure self-preservation; they were terrified of the information Škaričić holds and might leak at the worst possible moment. If he talked, it wouldn't just shake the careers of prominent Republicans—it would shatter the party's entire image.

Noah Perez5 said:To be perfectly honest, I don't think I've ever even heard of him before.

So, you weren't really keeping up with the newspapers or catching the occasional investigative report last decade?

Michelle Palmer6 said:Just Scrabble

Uno all the way

Anthony Wright30 said:I suppose I was also there during the summer. I found myself being quite a bit better off on a boat; navigating through those coastal inlets is, I think, a rather lovely experience.

frane moreplovac

William Gomez5 said:😢

Man, what kind of ridiculous name is Bjern Ajnar Remeren? 🙏

Those Scandinavians were absolutely unhinged. You’ve got guys like Lars Bystol or Roar Ljhegoiwhoighwoieghowsey... even this Remeren dude seemed like the type of guy who'd break world records one day and then just decide to drive Haradu all the way out of Lillehammer the next.

And don't even get me started on Martin Schmitt—that guy's face is just annoying, always acting like he's against everything Milwaukee.

And let’s not forget Vasiljev. That man was a beast in the secondary series, but when he was in the majors, he just couldn't find his footing. He stayed at the bottom of the pack. 😁

Schmitt was actually one of my favorites... definitely one of those early legends with a massive, die-hard fan club.

Michael Flores8 said:The V-style or the Boklev style actually surfaced before that specific generation of Japanese jumpers led by Kasai arrived. If I recall correctly, those earlier Japanese athletes didn't really use the V-style; they tended to jump with their skis spread quite wide.
@urbanhawk17, I feel similarly about this. The last time I really followed the sport closely was during the era when guys like Adam Malysz and Janne Ahonen were competing, though I was already getting a bit older even back then. I did try to get back into following it a couple of years ago, but I think I gave up pretty quickly. It just doesn't seem to have that same tension for me anymore. I guess the only one truly worth mentioning is Kasai, considering he was still jumping at 40.🙏

Man, you really grew up in the eighties, didn't you?🙏

I used to follow it closely too, but nowadays I only tune in for the New Year's Tournament.

Jesse Sullivan5 said:Viljaš Boaš really has that smooth glide down

Like a wooden door right after that first knock.

Anthony Wright30 said:I find myself wondering what the ultimate purpose of all this was intended to be. What exactly does tomorrow hold for us?

Was this some sort of drill? Perhaps a game played by the wealthy to ensure they become even wealthier? Or maybe it was simply a case of mass panic among the sheep, sparked by something new and unfamiliar, which then ignited and spread at an uncontrollable speed because we live in this social media era, combined with news outlets that survive solely on clicks and thus resort to spreading sensationalist, often false, stories just to stay afloat. It feels like an inflation of self-proclaimed experts, where everyone seems to be adding their own fuel to the fire—one need only look at our supposedly eminent scientists in Natural Science, who seem to be lecturing on a topic they likely understand about as much as I do.

Quite a lot of things have been handled in a rather abnormal fashion during this pandemic, and that goes for the entire world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdYx...ture=emb_title

😢

restlesssurfer97 said:Alright guys, let's get into it

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...o/2178851.aspx

Look, as someone who has been burned by just about every low-stakes gamble imaginable, I have to say this whole thing feels incredibly superficial. It’s like trying to cross a puddle thinking it's an ocean. ☕

Amanda Evans2 said:So, I’m sitting here thinking about what he said—basically claiming he’s perfectly fine with playing matches outside of France, whether they're domestic or elsewhere, right?

There are two ways to read into that. Is he talking about the way modern Super Bowls are hosted in different cities to boost revenue? Or perhaps he's hinting at playing on their overseas territories?

Susan Kim2 said:Tennis is physically exhausting and purely individual. Because of that, players usually hit their absolute prime between ages 22 and 26. Look at the timeline: Becker, Sampras, Agassi, Federer, and even Nadal, who started picking up those GS wins right in that age bracket. And finally, there's Novak.
It’s like saying Jordan was playing against everyone once he matured, even though Bird and Magic had already had their primes in the 80s.
Honestly, even in snooker, it's hard to stay at the top past a certain age without a total reset. In tennis? It's practically impossible.

That argument might have held water about 15 years ago, but not anymore. The whole direction of modern sports is to extend careers. Nowadays, athletes are timing their peaks to hit in their late twenties or early thirties. We are seeing more "veterans" on the tour today than ever before. Back in the day, if you were 28, you were considered an old man—think guys like Goran Ivanišević, Andy Roddick, or Pete Sampras.

I went through a brief phase where I became absolutely obsessed with snooker, but the flame burned out pretty quickly. 😎