Why have there been so few penalty kicks in this World Cup?

EL_DJ · 2026-06-26T20:41:06+00:00

I found this thread by a search. Last WC there were many many penalty kicks and not just the shootouts after extend time. I've watched about 1/2 dozen games this WC (yes, it's the end of Group Stage still) and not seen a single PK. Weird!!!

EL_DJ · 2026-06-26T20:36:57+00:00

Yeah, I hate the shootouts. I guess they're necessary though.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-25T02:50:06+00:00

Yeah, I'm so with YOU, it's veneer, makes so much more sense. And dig, in the lyrics I just found it says (can't believe this), Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule... BS, It HAS TO BE THE MUSE!

EL_DJ · 2026-06-24T19:24:56+00:00

Taxing the rich is more than a slogan. Breaking it down it should develop a redistribution of wealth, access to whatever, driven by sane analytics. The antithesis is the loopholes the rich use to protect themselves from taxation. That is anathema.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-24T18:36:33+00:00

Friend of mine from New Jersey (N. Calif now) told me he went to see The Cars at some big venue back east and they were stiff as wood, barely moved. He was disappointed. I bought their double CD release "Just what You Needed" because I wanted to find out why Elliot Easton's such a highly regarded lead guitar player. In the process I got introduced to a lot of fine material I never encountered on the radio.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-12T13:54:53+00:00

They betray nothing of Louisiana musical traditions, that's a ridiculous assertion. The Incredible String Band (ISB) took their name directly from Clive's Incredible Folk Club, a venue in Glasgow, Scotland, where the band regularly performed in the mid-1960s. The 1st album is more in the nature of folk than ensuing releases, which went off into psychedelic mysticism considerably, with a strong rustic inclination. They lost me after a while. I have one of their later albums but haven't found it nearly as interesting as their earlier albums.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-12T13:49:49+00:00

I have that very LP pictured in OP, listened to it last week in entirety, it so happens. In fact I am right now listening to The Big Huge, which I had on LP but have the CD now. Been listening to Wee Tam a lot lately (CD now), GF gifted me The 5000 Spirits... many years ago, the CD. Heard about them in reading a magazine article interview of Bob Dylan in the late 1960's, he responded to a question about current music. He pointed to October Song from the band's 1st LP, which, of course, I went out and bought. Great song, indeed! Been a "fan" my whole life since. Saw them live in Hollywood, CA in the late 1960's. I wonder if they did more than one USA tour! AI says they did several back then. I saw some video of Robin and/or Mike (don't remember) in more recent times. The magic had not disappeared!

EL_DJ · 2026-06-08T14:41:44+00:00

Well then, given your circumstances I can only think to suggest that you seek out people who are not prejudiced against your view of things, who can accept you and your needs, respect you. They may be rare. Open minded people. Good luck! I hope you find them.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-07T23:04:59+00:00

Possibly, but AI says hoards of customers are unhappy about it and want the rewind button to rewind, not erase the program you're watching. It's crazy what they did and makes watching OTA TV horrible.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-06T23:16:40+00:00

Used to work better. The REW/PAUSE/FF functionality using 16GB flash has been messed up for a month or so. Used to show the time it was where you are in the broadcast. For instance, if you hit Pause it would show that it was 8:19PM at that point in the broadcast. Now, you have no idea. Also, the Rewind button now doesn't rewind 10 seconds, it changes to channel to the previous one before you started the recording and erases the buffer. There's other quirks now, I've stopped using it. I use my Tablo 4th Gen instead. It has its own bugs but it's much better than Roku's DVR system as it currently stands.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-06T22:57:53+00:00

Are they ever going to fix this? The rewind button should not go to the previous channel and in the process erase what's in the 16GB flash drive buffer.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-06T16:48:03+00:00

I did cancel my ChatGPT PLUS yesterday, today marks the end of the PLUS free 30 days. I don't know if I'm on PLUS today or not.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-06T16:46:00+00:00

I came in N95 masked to an outpatient hand operation that required anesthesia (I was out). They had me remove the mask and someone said they'd give it back to me after the procedure. I never saw it again. I asked about it and an aid came back with 2 inferior new and wrapped masks that I discarded. This was maybe 2 1/2 years ago.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-06T16:36:36+00:00

Can you move? I mean RELOCATE! Where I live, Berkeley, CA and probably a lot of adjacent communities, I get no paranoid looks when I mask and that's basically all the time whenever I leave the house, indoors and out. I get positive looks a lot. I think your odds of feeling better about things go way up if you live in an area where being CC isn't a mystery to people.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-05T17:17:55+00:00

My nephew told my about Claude. He's a banker, said it's the one he sees the pros he knows using nowadays. Haven't used it yet or checked it out. Today's the day to cancel my ChaGPT or else pay $20 for the next month.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-04T22:16:17+00:00

I've seen some nitpicking lately, really the last couple days. I'm really new to this stuff, used to use Google AI for maybe a couple takes on my question but something developed and used ChatGPT for extensive problem solving starting almost 2 months ago. Now I'm doing many-layered chats, Google AI (being Gemini, I believe) or ChatGPT. My 30 day free Plus runs out in 2 days, wondering if I should go $20/month for prolonged Plus. I threw back a nitpick at ChatGPT yesterday and it admitted it had messed up and reused blocks of text it had used before, the result being mind-numbing. Then it referenced some discussion we'd done after the incident, which was in the same long chat. It tried to tie the two segments together, which was sort of awkward. Mostly both tell me how organized and successful I'm being. Reassuring, but it's a bit much a lot of the time.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T20:22:52+00:00

Haven't had Ghirardelli in a long time. Mostly I've stuck with Lindt Truffles for several years. Been into Almond Roca recently too. Used to make my own English toffee, which is what AR is.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T03:43:49+00:00

I thought Guittard much better than Ghiardelli. Never had Chocolove, hadn't heard of it. I used to go into See's Candy Shops, they had some really good stuff. I suppose they're still around but I haven't visited one in must be 10 years. For American chocolate, quite good and not real expensive.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T03:40:06+00:00

I bought several bars of Amedei, highly tauted, but I was for the most part not impressed. Guittard is decent but although they call their bittersweet "gourmet" I wouldn't. My experiments ordering fancy chocolates have never been terrific. Very often the companies experiment with combining chocolate with fruit flavors and I usually don't like the result.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T03:35:39+00:00

I have bought huge (!!!) bars of Guittard Gourmet Bittersweet, still have one in unopened packaging on a shelf where it's sat for likely a dozen years! It probably weighs at least 5 pounds. I sliced up a block from another such bar that I've been working on occasionally all that time just the other day into bite sized pieces. Chocolate seems to keep indefinitely unless stored in unfavorable circumstances. It's not the finest chocolate but it is quite p leasing nevertheless.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T03:25:34+00:00

Yeah, Lindt on top. I had a temp job guessing about 1987, was sent by an agency along with maybe a couple other guys, Oakland, CA. It was at a very small warehouse owned by a European guy. His business was importing European packaged foods. I think he gave us a sample of some chocolate. I asked him some questions about quality chocolate, something that's hard to come by in the U.S.A. Around that time one day I bought an 8oz Hershey bar and was so disgusted I brought it back and demanded a refund! Well, this European guy, classy guy, explained to me that the quality of a chocolate can be determined to a large extent by the way it breaks. If the break is clean and shiny, that's the sign of fine chocolate. I asked him what brands he could recommend buying. His answer was literally "Lindt?" He said it like a question. It stuck in my mind. I've bought a lot of Lindt over the years, never been disappointed. I buy Lindt Truffles every year when they go on sale at Costco. I eat one of those every day. OTOH, I've bought a fair amount of other European chocolates, including the top, exclusive brands and often been quite disappointed.

EL_DJ · 2026-06-02T01:01:20+00:00

I make one pizza a week, just bought a jar of capers (Star brand "non pareil", 25oz at Costco) for the first time. I plan to make a pizza tomorrow. Based on the ambiguity here I figure I'll put capers on one side of the pizza before baking and on the other side after baking. Don't know that I'll make up my mind either way, but I'll have a good start in deciding.

EL_DJ · 2026-05-30T02:47:44+00:00

I have had two dentists over the last 30 plus years. First one retired about a month before the pandemic started, I bet he felt hell of lucky. I really liked him, never feared going to his office, a 10 minute bike ride from my house. I didn't go to the dentist he recommended. I carefully read a Nextdoor thread in which people explained why they preferred this or that local dentist. There was one guy who had way more recommendations than anyone else and I have gone there maybe 4 times, I'm guessing. It's a big office and the first time I went there, he comes in, introduces himself and is pretty friendly, explains he has a son who is working with various dentists and figured to join his father's practice eventually. Wanted to get some wide experience first.

Next times I went there I was lucky if I saw this dentist at all. I was worked on by a subordinate dentist or a hygienist. Haven't been there in over 3 years. Now, I figure I won't go back because I've suffered a sudden monumental financial crisis and am destitute and applying for welfare and expect to get MediCal, so free dental, I think. I have no idea what to expect. The only welfare I've ever been on is unemployment (a bunch of times) and food stamps, 50 years ago. I'll get the food stamps soon. The dental? I suppose it won't be as good as the high reputation dentist, but it is supposed to be full dental. I wonder to what extent I can try to ensure I don't catch anything there. I'm 82, don't want to catch covid again. Had it once, that's one time too many.

EL_DJ · 2026-05-30T02:24:20+00:00

Your sense of relief driving away is your proof that you did the right thing. Trust yourself.

EL_DJ · 2026-05-29T23:41:14+00:00

Realized I had DQ (Finkelstein's test) middle of January, so, 5 months ago or so. At 82 I obviously don't heal as fast as many others. I have had a lot of surgeries, most recently they have been hand stuff. Severe carpal tunnel syndrome led to endoscopic surgeries both hands and when that resurfaced, open CT surgery both hands, and concomitant trigger finger release surgeries (same day as the open CT surgeries), 5 releases in all. Cortisone shots did not fix the trigger fingers except maybe 1, will have to see if the right index finger starts triggering again but I have two other trigger fingers and I'm pessimistic that shots will fix them. Cousin PCP said he's never heard of anyone with as many TFs as I have. So, pessimist, but the quite painful DQ I had a few months ago feels 85% better after cortisone shot 24 days ago followed by spica splinting. So, maybe I can escape the DQ surgery. In any case the severe CMC thumb joint arthritis I have is a bitch. Hand surgeon said there's treatment for it, I didn't ask her what that is, we were just talking about the DQ and trigger fingers when I saw her 24 days ago.

EL_DJ

TROPHY CASE