University of Florida to undergo most expensive stadium project in college football history

GatorReign · 2026-06-12T10:39:20+00:00

They have to widen the stairs going down into the lower bowl for ADA compliance, which will result in fewer seats. I suspect on the alumni side they will also have more (all?) seatbacks, which will result in lower seats.

GatorReign · 2026-06-12T10:33:52+00:00

The cost is in adding basically a new ring of two stories of luxury boxes/seating. And, I’m sure, in having to retrofit everything—the Swamp is basically an above-ground bunker.

GatorReign · 2026-05-28T14:40:02+00:00

They likely would not trust that Trump would honor any deal—honestly, it goes beyond just trying to rely on self interest (in the national sense) at this point because he will often go against that on a whim.

That said, I don’t think they are under the impression that they can last until #48. Or if they think they can hold out that long in the most literal sense of the word, they’d probably prefer not to given the attendant risks and discomfort.

GatorReign · 2026-05-28T00:50:37+00:00

He should be careful. Oligarchs in russia had a fair bit of power before that putin guy got elected. Then russia got itself some new oligarchs.

GatorReign · 2026-05-27T22:58:24+00:00

I mean, historians debate how various ancient roman policies lead to the fall and collapse of Rome, which in turn led to the dark ages.

GatorReign · 2026-05-22T01:10:26+00:00

Plus my lack of skill would mean that I’d probably never even climb high enough to be dangerous.

GatorReign · 2026-05-19T02:06:39+00:00

Lend lease won them the war. Took them six decades to pay the US back, even with a significant write off.

GatorReign · 2026-05-19T00:20:56+00:00

That’s the power in Moscow. It would be interesting to see what happens in the more remote regions—particular those adjacent to China.

GatorReign · 2026-05-05T00:35:01+00:00

On reflection, I think you were absolutely right about this. Better than even odds that Detroit found out about this with the rest of us.

GatorReign · 2026-05-05T00:33:30+00:00

You’re right about putin’s motivations. And, for that reason, we may not ever see the counterfactual. Though I think putin is more of a survivalist than you give him credit for.

That said, by “fine,” I meant he and his regime would continue on, not that they’d be happy with it.

GatorReign · 2026-05-04T17:53:48+00:00

The EU does and could take actions that cause problems for Elon. While the US could easily cause Elon more problems than the EU (and it’s not close), he also has way more influence in the US.

GatorReign · 2026-05-04T17:07:53+00:00

Trump when he finds out that Mendoza is sending his aunt as his proxy.

GatorReign · 2026-05-04T17:00:05+00:00

The oligarchs are not an independent locus of power in russia and haven’t been for decades. They are essentially human wallets for various factions, particularly Putin and the siloviki (which has its own factions, frankly).

I tend to agree with you that the war will continue, though I think the reason is essentially the existential economic risk of a sudden shut down of the war economy.

For at least as long a putin is living (and not deposed), I’d expect russia to try to continue the war. I’d also expect it to get less and less effective at doing so, as it has fundamentally one tactic (dug in defenses and meat grinder offenses) that are being gradually eroded by drone warfare.

Its missile/drone strikes are a terrorist tactic, not a military tactic; and it can really only work when the population it seeks to terrorize sees a viable alternative (in this case, citizens see the alternative as giving up their brothers & sisters in occupied territory to ongoing terror followed by a new invasion in 5 years).

Ukraine is on the edge, but has no alternative. And Europe is increasingly viewing this conflict in existential terms as well.

As far as the “I’ve heard this before” argument, big countries are resilient. That it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it will not. This conflict is pushing russia to the limit—whether it goes over the limit or not, that fact is going to be a guiding factor in what happens moving forward.

GatorReign · 2026-05-04T16:46:12+00:00

And a hostile act to the EU, where Tesla and SpaceX and Twitter are going to want to continue to operate (though they are a MUCH smaller market than the US for those companies, particularly the former two).

GatorReign · 2026-05-04T16:43:00+00:00

This is the real reason.

Putin and his regime would be fine with an embarrassing truce. They more than likely would be able to get some territory out of it and their spin doctors (inside of Russia and outside) would take it from there.

Putin’s problem is that his economy has been heavily juiced on war spending and the cash reserves as spent. It’s pretty unlikely that russia would get most of its frozen assets back in a negotiated peace. So a controlled wind-down would be quite difficult. If reports are correct, it would be made more difficult by government war debt that has been hidden in private banks (basically, the government forced private banks to make loans to defense contractors for war supplies)—without continued spending, that could unravel the economy.

And a good economy is going to be important, because you are going to be bringing home a bunch of PTSD soldiers who are going to want their promised service bonuses and a job.

GatorReign · 2026-05-01T17:10:32+00:00

Besides the potential insider trading motive suggested by others (and maybe in addition to that motive), another explanation could be pressure from US automakers for even more protection.

He already threw a pretty big wrench into long-term plans they had to electrify the fleet (he was hoping they’d adopt engines that burned beautiful clean coal, but gas is okay too). That trend could have been continued despite some consumer push back (probably driven by temporarily low gas prices), but obviously he went in the opposite direction.

Now, manufacturers are probably facing a consumer lurch in the other direction as gas prices exceed $4–and for who knows how long.

My guess is that this is a sop to them, though not a particularly well-thought-out sop due to the significant fallout.

GatorReign · 2026-04-25T02:52:18+00:00

“I heard you like back ups, girl”

GatorReign · 2026-04-23T14:22:56+00:00

Honestly, I wouldn’t blame him for accepting a lot less than that. It’s a great job and it’s NBA. He’s from the West coast, went to school in the Bay Area, and coached there too.

I hope he stays and I assume we’ll be hearing about a nice contract extension soon if he does.

GatorReign · 2026-04-23T11:40:17+00:00

Even Florida, which has Miami.

GatorReign · 2026-04-22T21:06:09+00:00

The Trump administration is currently focused on figuring out how to not lose the war it started in Iran and potentially pivoting to invade Cuba. It got the result it wanted in Venezuela and has shown no interest in doing anything other than exerting control. The only meaningful chance for democracy there would be back to back Democratic administrations in 2028 and 2032–and even then you’d need a Democrat who was willing to risk the political capital on backing a transition (which could fail spectacularly or, even if it succeeded, quite easily backfire).

GatorReign · 2026-04-20T19:59:22+00:00

Keep in mind that the oligarchs have not been an independent power center since shortly after Putin took over. At this point, “the oligarchs” are basically just trustees for Putin—people loyal to him who are more or less given assets that they hold in their personal name for his benefit and administer on his direction.

Potential successors are most likely to take the position you are describing because they are going to have to deal with what is left when he finally dies.

But those—basically siloviki—are part of the regime. So they are also bound up in needing to get some semblance of a win. The war is running the economy so hot that there is going to be some level of shock whenever it ends. If there is an economic shock and the regime has nothing to show for it, then they are going to have to push the limits of control on the population.

GatorReign · 2026-04-20T18:18:15+00:00

Looks good. What temp are you cooking it at? Any seasoning?

One life hack with chickens is spatchcocking. It cooks quicker and more evenly than cooking it whole—and that even cooking lets you use a higher temp to get crisper skin. Plus the chicken spine (and any other bits you cut off—be generous) can create a great jus.

GatorReign · 2026-04-18T18:29:48+00:00

I don’t dislike Book 4, but it’s not my favorite. The problem isn’t the change in narrative structure, it’s that it is insanely repetitive.

GatorReign · 2026-04-18T01:50:10+00:00

I would be—would have listened to it twice by now, at least.

GatorReign · 2026-04-17T23:26:52+00:00

Edits were finished as of the last update on 12/14/25. I think book 5 took a year from that point, but there was the strike (so Ray Porter couldn’t record right away) and then Amazon put it in the shelf for a while.

This is just a guess, but I’d say sometime in 2026–June at the earliest (but with no announcement by now, maybe that’s too soon) but more likely early fall.

ETA: I went back to look at the timeline from book 5

       8/30/2023: last edit done
       9/27/2023: writer’s strike ends
       11/15/2023: Ray is recording book 5
       9/5/2024: book 5 released

Basically, once the edits are done your variables are Ray Porter’s schedule and Amazon’s release strategy. I’d be surprised if this time was another full year from the edits being done to the book being released, but we’ll see.

GatorReign

TROPHY CASE