nandakandamanda comments

Well, the value must be somewhere. It's certainly not in the crudely painted plywood board.

Not sure why they say 'rare'. An albino one?

An expression of rage and revenge against the staff and school, I would bet.

Motor Racing

All very true, and a massive hand clap for Lewis. Some people say, "But, oh, it's the Mercedes car and package. Anyone could do that if they just had the right machine."

If Toto Wolff had to chose any other driver from any other team in any motor or auto racing sport, even with all the bright young talent bubbling up, I am sure he would still stick with Hamilton.

A new and slippery surface on a roller-coaster course makes for thrills and spills. Blue skies dotted with large black clouds rolling over. Gusty winds. Many cars spinning out into the gravel runoffs, fires, collisions, all in the first two free practice sessions.

Bottas seems to have got the hang of the track best of the lot so far.

If Daddy says it's all going to get better then we believe him, right?

Hawkeye, the photo caption is gender free, for whatever agenda...

Another treatment option is always a good thing.

Not quite sure what this bit in the last line about private insurers paying so much more is all about. (?)

Gilead has set the price at $390 per vial in developed countries, or $2,340 for six vials used over the normal five-day course, though U.S. private insurers will pay $520 per vial.

Well, I cannot see how Williams in their present set-up will benefit in any way from having won races in the past at Portimao. Miracles do happen though.

The biggest news will be all the driver changes for next year, I suspect. There is a lot of movement behind the scenes.

The cars are so close this year, thousandths of a second apart, and party mode has been banned from the qualifying sessions, so nothing is guaranteed re Mercedes and Lewis for points or records this weekend. I am sure the focus of the whole Mercedes team will be solely on doing their best; Lady Luck as always will inevitably play her part.

Hoping the weather holds for them. Portugal can have very changeable weather coming off the Atlantic, even in the course of one day.

PS Whatever it is, it worked in this instance. But I wonder what else they use it for....

Just as an aside, what is this unit?

Quote: The crime came to light after Hokkaido Prefectural Police’s cyber patrol unit discovered messages between the two.

PS Ten or twenty thousand years of a living language and culture can be erased, accidentally or deliberately. This has been shown.

But what is impossible is to fully resurrect a culture and language once it has vanished. A beautiful thing blown away to the heavens. Even scholars will struggle in the future to understand these valuable things that were lost.

Genocide is an emotive word denoting mass killing. The ending -cide comes from the Latin 'Caedere', to kill. Also evident in matricide, patricide, suicide, etc.

Some people use it for the emotive value it has, to say ethnic or cultural genocide, for example, but it is a double-edged sword in my opinion.

In the case of the Uighurs, the Chinese Han CCP has no particular desire to physically kill anyone. They simply want to increase Chinese patriotism, and simultaneously erase Uighur/Tibetan/Mongol etc. identities or dilute them to the extent that no clashes arise with the 'harmony' of CCP central party policy.

The Imam is worried about Islam’s image in mainstream French society and a possible backlash by rightists or racists.

He is a brave man for speaking up like this in order to keep the peace.

Quote: Epstein killed himself at age 66 in August 2019 at a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial

Oh, so that is absolute truth now, then?

Oops, six people got caught with their hands in the cookie tin? Tsk tsk. Naughty.

The Olympics seems to be the very least of it, according to the article, but maybe they were the best attention grabber.

Islamic State has a Big Mouth, but no state, just a presence on the web, and a state of mind, and a state of terror for those within it and without.

Whoever tweets such pronouncements is responsible for inciting unstable people to do unspeakable things.

That photograph is heart-rending. I do not care whose 'side' they may be on. Probably neither.

And now this is how they finally admit that there was indeed flooding inside. At the time we only heard mention of a little sea water splashing over the top of the sea wall, and no damage.

Quote: At the Onagawa complex, all three reactors -- the same boiling water reactors as in Fukushima -- shut down when a massive quake and a 13-meter tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, flooding the underground floors of the No. 2 unit.

Further, Wiki tells us that:

More recently, Tohoku Electric reported that the third floor of No. 2 reactor building lost about 70% of its structural rigidity and the first floors lost 25%, compared to when they were built, and was planning to reinforce the structures for increased quake resistance

The Japanese bid to Australia lost out on some minor details.

I am guessing that this new sub has improved and incorporated all the desirable features of the German and French offerings.

Just a hunch

Part of the problem must be that athletes' real names are used.

Trump on these rallies reminds me that he can and does fool some of the people all of the time.

(Biden does not seem to be interested in fooling anyone most of the time.)

Melania just seems to keep quiet...

Quote: "We will continue to issue strong warnings against bears so as to prevent injuries," said Makoto Kambe, who heads the prefecture's center to address damage caused by wildlife.

Not quite sure what that means, but it must be something positive, I guess.

Agreeing with Timeon above. Behind a paywall. Not even a replay offered by NHK or anyone?

"A large plastic pitcher of Sangria and we're off! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....................!!!"

Pretty hard to counter that with talk of common sense, selflessness, etc.

Re: Motor Racing. Hamilton drives his car, etc.

100 wins is just up the road, but Lewis will only be concentrating on the job at hand, i.e. staying at the sharp end. This must be the second Michael Schumacher helmet he has been given by the family. I think he combines some of the best of Schumacher (mental calculation) and some of the best of Ayrton Senna (innate flair), with a special genius of his own.

Max is encroaching though. The Red Bull is quick, the Honda engine is good, and the pit crew gain around 2 seconds with every lightning pit stop. His last blistering lap broke the course record once more and snatched that bonus point right out of Lewis's fingers!

PS And Bitcoin needs to be talked up.

Possibly someone who has invested in Bitcoin needing to get more publicity for it since it dropped out of the headlines. (Requiring massive amounts of power it is not especially environmentally friendly).

China will not give it a break. Taiwan has an equal claim to fishing and mineral rights there, but China wants to push its own agenda above all three.

Good article above. Really happy to see no politics in it.

Here are Sweden's projections for with and without masks. Universal masking and the curve stays flat, no masks and cases will continue to rise.

https://covid19.healthdata.org/sweden?view=total-deaths&tab=trend