Lake Mistake, creditable team this year, fifth in the East, 20-15 record were upset in the Pawn Shop by 12th place ATL, 15-19, 121-118. Cleve was a 2-point fave. The records respectively are now 20-16 and 16-19. Miami is 4th, now 23-13, 3 games ahead of Cleve and only 1.5 out of first. "Heat" have won five straight and eight of ten. It's an inspiring run. They've played dreck for the most part but they've had big problems with player availability. Bam, still out. Jimmy just back and had a monster game; Kyle just back and had a "bad Kyle" game. This is a tribute to "Heat" talent scouting. "Next man up" is the credo and they seemingly have an endless supply of "rustless bolts" to plug in when a main bolt blows. 23-13 is a .639 win rate and anything over .600 is damn good. .639 is seventh-best in the entire Association. Full two-handed clap for "Heat" resiliency.
Friday, December 31, 2021
#2 UGA 17 #3 Michigan 0, 9:55 2Q
Cowtown Getting Shut Down by the 305
Bama Blows Out Cincy
...Didn't even realize the national championship semi-finals were played today. Argh. One-seed Alabama beat 4-Cincinnati, the first team from outside the five biggest, richest conferences to make it, 27-6. The "Bearcats" managed only two measly field goals in the game.
#2 Georgia leads #3 Meeshagan 7-0 half-way through the first quarter.
Sergey V. Lavrov accused the United States and its
allies of stoking a conflict in the country’s east...
...after President Biden and Mr. Putin of Russia spoke for about 50 minutes on Thursday, Yuri V. Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser,... told journalists in a briefing early Friday in Moscow,“In principle, we are satisfied with the contact, the negotiations, because they have an open, substantive, concrete character."Does It Mean War?
Putin is rerunning the film of 1939 with Ukraine playing the part of Austria (and Czechoslovakia and Poland) and Joe Biden, in Putin's casting, standing in for Neville Chamberlain. In place of lebensraum Putin's aim is to reconstitute the Soviet empire in Central and Easter Europe. He is using the same tactics of Hitler, making demands that he knows are unacceptable,
Thursday, December 30, 2021
FT #12 Pitt 21 #10 Michigan State 31
M. Garrett :( and D-Ro :) Out Friday re Protocols; J-But "Questionable" :l
Beans Shot 4/42 From Three-Point Arc, Lost
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
I Hate Joe Manchin
This deserves at least more attention than I have given it. Manchin lied to President Biden. Misled him, then stabbed him in the back. This statement is spot on.
Jimmy Butler Hurt Again, Game Postponed
Inflation is an emotional subject. No other topic I write about generates as much hate mail.
...Be damned. In a generation that lived through the 1970's and 1980's I knew it was fearful, it scares me, but "hate mail"? I had no idea.
Who deserves empathy? Is showing empathy a burden? I don’t think empathy is a burden, and I’m not trying to say who deserves it. I’m saying that I can’t. If God says, “Nikki, I gotta write this check on you because you hate,” I would say, “I understand, because I do hate.” I hate Donald Trump. I hate what he’s done to our nation. So I will pay for my hatred. I don’t mind.-Nikki Giovanni.
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
FT: Miami 119 Wash. 112
@TheMiamiHeatUK
Very early start tomorrow so no in-game comms tonight.
Tomorrow: End of Year Quiz Special
Thurs: Gameday From The UK LIVE & in-game commentary vs San Antonio
#HEATCulture
6:35 PM · Dec 28, 2021·Twitter for Android
"I call BS."
I sent my issue and my baby's mamma the excerpted article on the CDC "revision" (4:03 pm post),
Last week, the C.D.C. said that Omicron accounted for approximately 73 percent of variants circulating in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. But in its revision, the agency said the variant accounted for about 23 percent of cases that week.
In other words, Delta, which has dominated U.S. infections since summer, still reigned in the United States that week.
Oh. That's not good.
That could mean that a significant number of current Covid hospitalizations were driven by infections from Delta, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, suggested on Twitter. Hospitalizations typically lag several weeks behind initial infections.
Experts said they were not surprised by the revisions...they said the C.D.C. did a poor job communicating the uncertainty of its estimates.
Oh, so we still suck.
...
“The 73 percent got a lot more attention than the confidence intervals, and I think this is one example among many where scientists are trying to project an air of confidence about what’s going to happen,” said David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
...
More precise numbers will be needed to smartly distribute Covid treatments.
...And the NYT graphs from 12:48:
Last week, the C.D.C. said that Omicron accounted for approximately 73 percent of variants circulating in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. But in its revision, the agency said the variant accounted for about 23 percent of cases that week.
In other words, Delta, which has dominated U.S. infections since summer, still reigned in the United States that week.
Oh. That's not good.
That could mean that a significant number of current Covid hospitalizations were driven by infections from Delta, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, suggested on Twitter. Hospitalizations typically lag several weeks behind initial infections.
Experts said they were not surprised by the revisions...they said the C.D.C. did a poor job communicating the uncertainty of its estimates.
Oh, so we still suck.
“The 73 percent got a lot more attention than the confidence intervals, and I think this is one example among many where scientists are trying to project an air of confidence about what’s going to happen,” said David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
...
More precise numbers will be needed to smartly distribute Covid treatments.
lol
“We can’t stop it"
That daunting notion — backed by data from nations where Omicron is spreading rapidly only a month after it was first detected — is tempered by early evidence that the variant causes milder symptoms, with vaccinations and boosters helping prevent serious illness and death.
Experts worldwide have expressed concern that the sheer number of people likely infected could create a flood of patients, overwhelming already stressed health care systems. But that concern is running up against those who argue that it is time to accept that the virus is endemic, and that countries should move away from lockdowns and toward more relaxed rules, including shorter quarantines.
John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University and an adviser to the British government, said that Omicron was “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago.”
“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago of intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely, that is now history, in my view, and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.
Britain appears to be a few weeks ahead of most other nations in confronting the first wave of Omicron infection and, for the moment, has decided that the evidence does not warrant new restrictions.
...
Chris Hopson, the head of N.H.S. Providers, the membership organization for England’s health staff, said that while hospitalizations across Britain had risen, it was not a precipitous jump....“Some are describing this as ‘incidental Covid.’”
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said the approach to the current rise is a complicated one.
“If health services are likely to come under such pressure that they could collapse then implementing control measures now would be the right thing to do,” he wrote in a post on Twitter. “But tighter control measures carry a real risk, and not just to mental health, the economy, etc.” Forcing a change in behavior would not prevent infections, just delay them, he said. So further restrictions now would reduce the peak of a surge in cases and could ease short-term pressure on health services, but also extend the wave, he added.
...
With or without regulations to curb the spread of the virus, positive test results are disrupting businesses around the world. Over the Christmas holidays, Omicron wreaked havoc on global travel, entertainment and sporting events.
COVID-19 BIDEN+341 (Dec 27)
Monday, December 27, 2021
"Dancing Queen"
COVID-19 BIDEN+339 (December 25)*#
Average number of cases per day Dec. 19-25, 201,330.
Sunday, December 26, 2021
Oh my
"...the Poles reacted with unbelievable stupidity."*
Malaise Days in L.A.
The "Lakers" lost their fifth loss game in a row last night. In La-La. L-L-L-L-L. Goodness gracious.
The Association famously consists of games of runs. That certainly applies to last night’s game. BKLYN led by 15 after One; Lakers woke and outscored them by 11 in the 2nd. Four point La-La deficit at the intermission. "Nets" outscored them by 16 in the third to take a 20-point lead into the 4th frame. "Lakers", embarrassed presumably, getting booed maybe, responded with a 19-5run to get it to a no prob 6-point deficit with 7:08 to play. Got it down to -4 with 3:56 left; to two at 1:55; tied it at 115 with :45 left. Anybody's game, anybody's, but Big Mo was with L.A. And then poof! Big Mo left Crypto.com Arena, formerly the revered Staples Center. BKLYN finished on a 7-0 run to win 122-115.
The Association season is a season of runs, too. You're slow getting into gear or you immediately go to fifth and then overheat and fall to fourth or third gear. In L.A. this year however this current is the longest streak they've had. They have constantly slipped gears with injury, COVID and I don't know. They lost their first two, won their next two, lost one, won three; lost two, won two; lost one, won one; lost three, won one; lost one, won one; lost one, won two; lost one, won one, lost won; won three, and have now lost five straight. The season is getting near the half-way mark. L.A. could go conceivably 64-18--provided they go on a 48-game win streak! I'll bet you a real 'Murican NICKEL they won't do that.
What exactly is the problem? "A.D.'s out, dude." Nah, nah, nah, don't give me that surfer, pot-head "explanation.". You have LeBron, you have Russ, you have Carmelo. You're 16-18 because A.D. is hurt? Nah man, nah-uh. I know LeBron James as much as anybody who has never met the man can know him. He's frustrated. Pissed. There is no explanation under the SoCal sun for this horseshit. Frank Vogel is a good coach but this team is not in a good place psychically. Thirty-four games and a losing record takes a big toll on the psyche and on the emotions of a team with this gargantuan talent. Nobody is this organization are complaisant that "we can work this out." They're a .500 team after 34 games. Something, something has got to change out there to end the malaise days.
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Friday, December 24, 2021
8:09 a.m.-8:53 a.m.
Nearly all of us though were once the most cherished being that ever existed to another. But few of us are told of this in the autumn of life. And yet it was that at sixty-six years of age, for forty-four minutes, I was given this greatest gift—being told that once I was the chosen, that I am still thought of, even dreamt of, and still beloved--by the most important person from the spring of my life. Christmas came early.
“I know I told you how much you meant to me, but I thought to tell you again on the phone because I don’t think I could do it in person, I’d break down. …
“When I first looked at you in the crib, I was not prepared. I loved you so much. I also felt protective of you. I felt like I was your dad. …I wanted to be around you all the time.
“I don’t want to burden you with all this. …
“One time when you were in the crib you and I looked at each other. Our eyes locked. And after a little while you made a noise. You were trying to communicate. It was intense!
“I have that crib in my room. I touch it every day.”
Thursday, December 23, 2021
@kiIIashaw
duncan robinson is not that guy anymore i fear
10:03 PM · Dec 23, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
No, and this isn't a less-than- half-season slump. When you look at Duncan's career stats his shooting percentage overall and from range has dropped since the year he was "that guy."
2019/20 "that guy": .470 overall .654 two-point .446 three-point.
2020/21: .439 .625 .408.
2021/22 (32 games): .383 .548 .346.
@Arielattias2
It's amazing how Duncan Robinson actively does not even try to do all of the *other* things he's able to get to when the shot is not falling.
8:54 PM · Dec 23, 2021·Twitter for Android
@Xavier_Sanchez4
🚨MAX STRUS GAME-WINNER🚨
Strus and the Miami Heat defeat the Detroit Pistons 115-112. He played a team-high 41 minutes and scored 26 points (10-18 FG, 5-11 3PT) and had 6 rebounds (1 offensive), an assist, and a steal in second NBA start. #HEATCulture
10:05 PM · Dec 23, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
Tim Reynolds
@ByTimReynolds
The Miami Heat just improved to 20-13 on a night where they lost their second starting center; got more technicals than field goals from the law firm of Adebayo, Butler and Robinson; and ended the game with a closing lineup that included Strus, Haslem and Vincent. Normal stuff.
10:02 PM · Dec 23, 2021·Twitter Web App
Heir Apparent or Afterthought? The Frustrations of Kamala Harris.-NYT
The vice president’s allies are increasingly concerned that President Biden relied on her to win but does not need her to govern.
This article is a lot of on the one hand, on the other hand so I am not quoting from it. However, I almost posted the other day, "Someone put out an APB for the vice president. Does Biden even know he has a vice president?" I never see her. Nor hear from her. He clearly does not rely on her to govern. Pity because he "needs" someone to help him govern.
United Airlines cancels more than 100 Christmas Eve flights because of Omicron-NYT
...
Dozens of customers took to social media to air their grievances about the last-minute cancellations, including John Ferris who tweeted: “You’ve got be kidding me. And there are apparently no available flights for days. Ba humbug.”
Booster protection wanes against symptomatic Omicron infections, British data suggests.-NYT
New data from Britain suggests that booster protection against symptomatic Covid caused by the Omicron variant wanes within 10 weeks.
So that's three news checks in 13 hours. Enjoy the rest of your even-ing.
First time today I check the news
Oh, I guess not. Okay, first time since fucking 8:15 a.m.