Football is becoming like chess became in the 1990s. Chess stopped being an innovative, intuitive and attacking game, and became one of memorization and evaluation. Football has gone the same way, entirely about coaching systems to defend the 18 yard box from every possible attack before even thinking about offense.
Football needs a shakeup. FIFA should adopt an old rule from the North American Soccer League (NASL), the 35 yard line.
In regulation football, offside begins at the centre line, 55 yards from the goal. With the NASL's 35 yard line, players could be onside 35 yards from goal line, 20 yards into the opponent's zone. It made teams much more aggressive (long passes, goalies punting the ball far) and stretched the teams up and down the field, creating more space and more goals.
The NASL also had an interesting points system, though I doubt FIFA would go for it: six points for a win (no ties, there was overtime and shootouts), and bonus points for goals scored, up to three. Examples:
Team A beats Teams B 1-0 --> Team A gets 7, Team B gets 0
Team C beats Teams D 4-3 --> Team C gets 9, Team D gets 3
Or how about adopting rubgy's points system? Award four points for a win, two for a tie and none for a loss, with a bonus point for scoring at least three goals (in rubgy the bonus is for four tries) and a bonus point for losing by one goal.
Team A beats Teams B 1-0 --> Team A gets 4, Team B gets 1
Team C beats Teams D 4-3 --> Team C gets 5, Team D gets 2
In preparation for this tour, Miller released a new album called "Bingo!" on his own indie label, Sailor Records(wow, what a surprising choice of name that is ). He hasn't released an album since he was dropped by Capitol in 1992.
I heard the first single on his website, called "Hey Yeah". Long-time fans will like it, but it doesn't break any new ground and sounds more like snippets of all his past hits put together.
"Number 5" remains my favourite album of his, not one piece of filler or attempts at hit writing. His best albums were always those he wrote only half of and had friends write the rest or did covers of songs (e.g. "Eagle", "Dreams", "20th", "Brave New World", etc.).
The Spanish don't deserve it. Their teams have had a long history of choking in big tournaments, including the Confederations Cup last year, Euro 2008 being the only exception. Until South Africa tanked at this World Cup, the Spanish and Mexicans shared the ignominy of being the least successful World Cup host countries.
The only reason the Netherlands hasn't won a World Cup before is they have had the misfortune of constantly being matched with the best teams in every tournament. Look up their records at Euros and World Cups, and who they lost to: they've never been upset in a playoff game by a minnow, losing only to World Cup and Euro champions, or countries in the middle of their "golden generations" (the Czechs, Danes and Portuguese). And they beat the top teams just as often.
Hmm...was there a reason you quoted this text from Twain?
If you were intending it as support for a religious view, you've made an error. Twain was an ardent atheist and openly critical of religion, as he was in the above text criticizing christianity.
You'll do what you want and what you think is best, but I wouldn't recommend it. I have the same presciption I had when I was 12 (I'm close to your age), and have no history or eye problems or diabetes in the family, so I'm not going to risk it.
The history of commercial "lasik surgery" is barely more than 20 years, and post-surgery problems still occur in some cases. Unless you don't expect to live much longer, you may live long enough to see (or rather, not see) major problems or complications that aren't known about now.
There's also the issue of aging. As you get older, the eyes are less flexible than young eyes. What if your eyes are too "old" to heal after the surgery?
I can understand surgery for people who are nearly blind, have difficulty seeing, or suffered eye injuries. But doing it solely out of vanity is not a good idea. (It sounds a lot like the issue of breast implants, doesn't it?)
About ten years ago, I stopped wearing large lenses like these:
Now my lenses are 1" high, 2" wide, and the frames thin enough to fit between the eyebrow and cheek bone. The lenses are barely more than a half inch from my eyes (not exactly like the picture):
Glasses like these weigh half as much as large lenses which means they don't slip down the nose. Also, skin and sweat rub on them less despite how close they are to the face, and I have my full peripheral vision. They're also much cheaper than eye surgery.
Fairy tales are for fairies and little girls. As is says in the buybull(because one must buy the bull to believe it) 1 Cor 1-13: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Too bad the religious don't follow their buybull's advice...then again, they obviously don't read it or they wouldn't still believe in it.
Here's the reality of the buybull: The mythical "god" of the buybull is a mysoginistic, sycophant-seeking, mass murdering sociopath, worse than the mythical "satan" which "god" allegedly created.
Charles Manson demanded absolute obedience and mass murders be committed by his command in his name. The only differences between Manson and the mythical "god" are that Manson actually exists and doesn't claim supernatural powers.
Don't worry - that last one is not a real picture, though I'm sure it's very similar to something Denis Rader once did. (Rader was the layman head of his christian church, and he was the BTK serial killer.).
Technology is neither a solution nor is it necessary. The problem is the number of eyeballs.
Hockey (the real game, played on ice) has four on-ice officials for twelve players, and two goal judges behind the net.
Basketball has two referees for ten players.
Football (the North American game) has six officials for 22 players in the US and seven for 24 players in Canada.
Baseball has four umpires(six during the playoffs) for four bases and never more than thirteen players on the field at once.
Tennis has at least three on-court officials for two or four players, sometimes more.
...And yet football (the world game) has only one referee for 22 players, and two linesmen who do nothing but call offsides. And then people wonder why the officiating sometimes sucks or they miss calls. (I'm surprised rugby officiating isn't worse with one referee for thirty players.)
Football either needs goal judges, or it needs to give the linesmen more authority (although the referee retains the final decision). And having two referees as hockey does, one for each half, means a referee is always close to the action without having to run as far.
Hey, why not mention the USS Liberty while you're at it?
You either don't get the point, or you're deliberately trying to avoid it. I was pointing out hypocritical attitudes, no matter how much you want to pretend they aren't.
As for your laughably ignorant statement "we can't go on their soil", do you even read or watch anything other than FAUX Noise? The US did put US troops on Saudi soil in 1991. The US could have operated from Turkey or Israel, but instead chose to set up camp in Saudi Arabia was a deliberate poke in the eye at muslim countries, an attempt to show force and that no one could hold them accountable.
Putting US troops in Saudi Arabia is as offensive to them as Chinese troops in Tibet is to buddhists. Or does it only matter if your "side" is violated, not anyone else's?
Religions always build on other religions' "holy grounds" as deliberately provocative acts, as a show of force. The jews have built over muslim sites in Jerusalem, christians razed and built over muslim sites in Spain, the Taliban blew up buddhist statues in Afghanistan, Korean christians vandalized and burnt down buddhist and animist temples to build over them, etc.
This story isn't anything new except for where it's happening. Hell, most "western holidays" are christian rewrites of "pagan" holidays - Hallowe'en, christmas, Valentine's Day, etc., rewriting history to try and make people forget what was there beforehand.
It's funny how those most up in arms about the mosque are ignoring and/or deliberately forgetting history.
Osama bin Laden didn't commit his first attack on the US or Americans until after US troops were on Saudi Arabian soil. It was US presence on "holy land" that led to the 1993 parking garage bombing at the World Trade Centre, and later, 9/11.
Now Americans act like the former WTC site is "holy land" and are getting upset in the exact same way that bin Laden did, that the "enemy" is "violating holy ground".
The difference is who is doing the labelling (e.g. some fundy christians claim catholics aren't christians, and some catholics claim theirs is the only true christianity).
Whether he read it (or can read at all) is immaterial.
Without misconstrual, misrepresentation and misanthropy, he wouldn't have an argument.
The Israeli terrorists and their dishonest and/or ignorant supporters would like the world to ignore the fact that civilian homes, businesses and schools have been the targets of Israeli terrorism. Construction materials would be used to rebuild, but the Israeli Apartheid regime controls building construction in Gaza. Non-jews are never given construction permits and attempts to build are demolished. Only jews are allowed to build, very similar to the rules on owning businesses and homes in Germany 80 years ago.
The goal of such war crimes is to leave people without normal lives - nowhere to live, to way to make an income, and prevent any children from being educated. The goal is to make people so desperate that they leave, then deny them the right to return home after they do. It's ethnic cleansing, similar to what happened in World War II Europe and in the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s/1990s.
That crap is the basis of the "prosperity gospel", that "praying" will solve everything and make you rich. It worked out really well for Stephen Baldwin, didn't it?
It's another example of people wanting things while absolving themselves of responsibility or effort.
You're down 2-1 and talk like you're ahead. You sound like Dudley Moore's drunken character Arthur, from the movie of the same name: "He's got me right where I want him."
You're whistling dixie as much as whistling in the dark.
It's gone as I said last week, Black Hawks in five. The Flyers game three win was a gasp for air, a delay in the inevitable. They only won because they were desperate and had a home game; now that the Hawks know they can clinch the cup at home instead of the road, they'll be driven to win game four.
Try again, chump. Israel is committing a war crime, a crime against humanity as it was declared at Nuremburg, by preventing food or medical supplies to get in, or injured people to leave. Including the Red Cross.
If the boats trying to enter had anything other than food or medical supplies, why didn't Israel present them? Because they didn't find any. The boats contained supplies to feed and treat people; Israel attempt to spin lies only works on the gullible willing to believe, like yourself.
Israel is trying to turn Gaza into the Lodz Ghetto. I guess they know from experience how effective starving out a population can be.
The Flyers might win game three and give the impression of still being in it, but they'll fold in game four, whether that means falling to 4-0 or 3-1.
In Stanley Cup Finals history, teams that lead 2-0 have won the series 31-2. The last teams to go 2-0 down and win the cup was the Calgary Flames in 1989.
The Flyers don't have the heart or desire that the Flames did. The Flames won that cup for the same reason (Lanny McDonald) that Colorado did in 2001 (Ray Bourque).
First, the criminals: If someone is facing murder by the state (the so-called "death penalty") and he's at risk of capture, is he going to give up or be willing to commit any crime in order to escape, including more murders? If someone is facing life without parole, would he do the same things to avoid capture?
Second, the innocent who are wrongly convicted: When those who are convicted and murdered by the state can be brought back to life, then there will be an argument killing them. But as long as innocent people can irrevocably have their lives stolen from them, it's unacceptable.
Then, of course, you'll hear the inevitable response of the ignorant and bloodthirsty, "They don't execute innocent people...."
There is no purpose in letting kids do stuff like this. This is not about "records" or "accomplishments", it's about egotistical parents living vicariously through kids, pushing them to do things they're not mature enough to handle, physically or mentally.
I am not the least bit impressed by this. And guess what can happen to kids when they grow up, after parents push them into such stupidity, forcing their kids to live out their own ambitions? They can end up no different than child actors who get into drugs.
What "god"? What "devil"? People keep talking about these things but never produce evidence of them. All they do is regurgitate tenth hand fairy tales like the buybull.
If this "god" thing split the waters between Louisiana and the oil spill under the ocean so oil rig workers could close it, then I would be impressed and believe. After all, splitting water is one of the things claimed as being possible....
As for aliens from other planets (if that's what you meant by UFOs and not Pete Way and Michael Schenker), until proof appears that the Earth isn't the first planet with life, then aliens don't exist.
K_rational Forum Posts (257)
). He hasn't released an album since he was dropped by Capitol in 1992.
RE: what did you think of the world cup?
Football is becoming like chess became in the 1990s. Chess stopped being an innovative, intuitive and attacking game, and became one of memorization and evaluation. Football has gone the same way, entirely about coaching systems to defend the 18 yard box from every possible attack before even thinking about offense.Football needs a shakeup. FIFA should adopt an old rule from the North American Soccer League (NASL), the 35 yard line.
In regulation football, offside begins at the centre line, 55 yards from the goal. With the NASL's 35 yard line, players could be onside 35 yards from goal line, 20 yards into the opponent's zone. It made teams much more aggressive (long passes, goalies punting the ball far) and stretched the teams up and down the field, creating more space and more goals.
The NASL also had an interesting points system, though I doubt FIFA would go for it: six points for a win (no ties, there was overtime and shootouts), and bonus points for goals scored, up to three. Examples:
Team A beats Teams B 1-0 --> Team A gets 7, Team B gets 0
Team C beats Teams D 4-3 --> Team C gets 9, Team D gets 3
Or how about adopting rubgy's points system? Award four points for a win, two for a tie and none for a loss, with a bonus point for scoring at least three goals (in rubgy the bonus is for four tries) and a bonus point for losing by one goal.
Team A beats Teams B 1-0 --> Team A gets 4, Team B gets 1
Team C beats Teams D 4-3 --> Team C gets 5, Team D gets 2
.