The WTF? Thread

[Hot Pepsi]

The fact that the names of the conferences no longer very accurately reflect their membership in terms of number of schools or their location reflects the fact that the conference system has been in flux, driven primarily by the massive amount of money available from television broadcasts of gridiron and basketball. The SEC, PAC 12, Big Ten and ACC all have their own cable television networks that primarily show "non revenue" sports (gridiron and basketball are the subject of munificent contracts with national broadcasters) and chat and "analysis" shows, with the SEC's being particularly successful.


This isn’t quite true. Or at least, not as true as many of us would like. The Big Ten Network - especially the online version - does show a lot of non-revenue sports, but it’s still dominated by football and basketball. Yes, the most popular fixtures are on the networks or ESPN, but with 14 schools there are still a lot of games on the B1G and then they replay them *endlessly* along with all the inane chat shows featuring third-tier pundits.

Hockey fans, especially in Minnesota, are disappointed by how much hockey is on BTN given that all of college hockey was realigned to make room for the B1G hockey conference. Likewise the BTN prompted the creation of a B1G lacrosse conference - they let Hopkins in just for lacrosse to make up the numbers - and yet the network only shows a few games. BTN only showed the final session of the B1G wrestling tournament but still had room those days for all kinds of basketball chat and replays.

[Hot Pepsi]

No play for paupers...

That makes me sad. Underlined the need for more public parks.

[Hot Pepsi]

It makes me feel good to know that us on the west coast are sufficiently concerned about education that we at least want our public universities to be able to count into the low teens

At one point, the BigTen had 12 members and the Big XII had 10.

Once a brand name is established, it’s hard to change.

The Pac 12 has updated its number appropriately but the Pacific part is becoming more of a stretch with two schools in Arizona, one in Colorado, and one in Utah. If and when the Big12 collapses, it might expand further east.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Almost CGI-ish the way the wave suddenly rears up: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...acier-collapse

[Femme Folle]

https://twitter.com/Walldo/status/1112880877602656256

[ursus arctos]

That is creepy AF

[Femme Folle]

Yeah. I wonder what fucked up purpose they're using it for.

[Tactical Genius]

Yeah. I wonder what fucked up purpose they're using it for.

Organ harvesting perhaps?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Maybe they're researchers trying to isolate the "poor" gene.

Or perhaps they're undercover cops attempting to resolve some cold case crimes using DNA evidence.

Pop-up genealogists is a poor third in my guess list.

[ursus arctos]

Given the nature of the US "health care system", my money is on some kind of insurance fraud, in part due to the fact that they seem to be focusing on clients of one particular company.

[Ginger Yellow]

To lose one private jet may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose three looks like carelessness.

Hard to imagine the board didn't know about this though.

[ursus arctos]

French boards can be somnambulant, but it isn't going to be a good look when it turns out that members of the board flew on at least one of them.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

This is a genuinely WTF thing for a UK judge to be saying in 2019.

[Ginger Yellow]

I'm going to be generous and assume there's an implied or elsewhere-stated "with consent", as from the context in the article it does sound like the judge is talking about being unwilling to impose a court order impinging on personal rights without hearing full argument, rather than actually saying that marital rape is an oxymoron.

[ursus arctos]

You are being almost as generous as the Cubs' bullpen this week.

[Levin]

https://twitter.com/gregbuchanan/status/1113060972581728258

[ursus arctos]

Wake up, sheeple.

[Ginger Yellow]

Bears are the original voldemort

God, surely. And after that, Rome.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I haven't got the skills to display the photo of the screenshot that I saw online, but Fox News had a banner headline "Trump cuts aid to 3 Mexican countries" (meaning Latin American).

[ursus arctos]

[Nocturnal Submission]

So, I might have to dress up for a party this weekend, where the theme is going to be the '60s. Consequently, I found myself wandering around a party shop yesterday and discovered that this was part of their range (possibly NSFW): https://www.partysuperstores.co.uk/Flasher-Costume-4598

[Guy Profumo]

"Giant wall of trees planned to halt southern advance of Sahara Desert"


https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/doze...ucing-results/

[Fussbudget]

So, I might have to dress up for a party this weekend, where the theme is going to be the '60s. Consequently, I found myself wandering around a party shop yesterday and discovered that this was part of their range (possibly NSFW): https://www.partysuperstores.co.uk/Flasher-Costume-4598

Wow. The 'related products' are a bit special too.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yes, linking it to the "comb it over wig" seems a bit harsh. Men who adopt that tonsorial technique are a figure of fun already, without suggesting that they're part of the dirty raincoat brigade.

But £45 for a "fancy dress" costume that's going to make people question your judgement for the rest of your life, at best, and at worst harbour serious doubts as to your reasons for fancying the occasional "late night stroll".

[San Bernardhinault]

Here's an excellent longish form piece on the admissions scandal.

A cracking line near the end:

They were experiencing the same response to a changing America that ultimately brought Donald Trump to office: white displacement and a revised social contract. The collapse of manufacturing jobs has been to poor whites what the elite college-admissions crunch has been to wealthy ones: a smaller and smaller slice of pie for people who were used to having the fattest piece of all.