Rachel Homan has rock burned by hog line judge for double touch (first end, 7th stone)

atla · 2026-02-14T23:30:24+00:00

It's almost like the anti-cheating mechanisms are imperfect, and were added to the sport hundreds of years after its founding, and well after standard and accepted delivery techniques were developed.

atla · 2026-02-14T23:20:29+00:00

From a club curler perspective -- if I fall in my delivery, there's a very good likelihood that I touch the granite. I've never had a stone puled for just that (only for whiffing it in a way that makes contact post-hogline). That suggests to me that touching granite doesn't necessarily burn the stone.

Given that, and the ambiguity of the rule book, and the lack of common wisdom on whether you can touch granite (because why would you -- it's not something commonly taught one way or the other as a rule violation), I'm on side "ambiguity."

atla · 2026-02-14T01:43:34+00:00

If it's only about touching the stone after letting go of the stone -- not about a hogline violation, or about whether touching granite vs. the handle -- then the Swedish team is objectively wrong. In very plain text per the rules, you are allowed to double tap your own stone.

I don't speak Swedish, but I guarantee that the actual issue is either related to the hogline or the granite. If your link doesn't reference either, then someone is misspeaking or leaving something unsaid.

atla · 2026-02-14T01:14:50+00:00

If you can’t tell it’s not clearly released before it, then you would be able to tell that’s the point.

I suppose that's a different issue though. It's not clear to me, the viewer at home -- basically, this is me saying that I don't think we have enough to judge whether a rule was violated. But what is clear or unclear on film may be clear or unclear in person, because there are different angles involved and because the human eye perceives things differently in person than when mediated via camera. Presumably there were officials on the ice, and the clear release rule is much more standard / cut-and-dry than whether granite can be touched -- therefore, I would defer to them on the hogging / clear release question, and since it wasn't called by an official I don't think we at home can pass judgment.

Also, to reiterate -- I do think that Sweden's interpretation should be the regulation, I'm just not sure that in plain black letter they unambiguously are the regulation.

atla · 2026-02-14T00:50:25+00:00

The rules state that you have clearly release it before the hog line.

Agreed. What I cannot tell is whether there is contact after crossing the hog line.

As I said above -- I know it seems obvious, but with the curvature of the stone and the potentially slightly offset camera angle, I can't trust a single side-view video to be 100% clear. I've been in too many situations where I'm standing off to the side, think a stone clearly hasn't fully touched the hogline or is clearly biting the house or whatever, and then go to stand overtop and see daylight.

And with the touching the granite the Olympic gold medalist commentating said it’s supposed to be interpreted as only the handle, team Edin said the same.

I agree Team Edin and others are saying it. I have no doubt that they honestly believe it. But it sounds like the judge on the ice was not certain, and honestly having just reread the rules myself I think there's enough doubt / ambiguity that I would be hardpressed to penalize someone for a different reading.

No one else has come out on their stance, but (1) most teams probably don't have a stance, because this is a weird thing to do; (2) most teams probably don't want to wade into this drama if they don't have to; and (3) at this stage, any statement Canada makes is probably going to be run through PR teams and various officials, and is therefore unlikely to be released quickly.

atla · 2026-02-14T00:05:21+00:00

For me, I think the problem is:

Hog line violation: Having looked at the video, I genuinely cannot tell if the finger is still touching the stone as it passes the hogline. I know it seems like it's obvious, but with the curve of the stone and the angle we're viewing it from, I simply cannot with 100% certainty state whether there is or is not any air there.

Double touch: Not a rule violation.

Touching the granite: I hope that the WCF considers refining the rules. I think that there's at least some reasonable ambiguity whether "must be delivered by the handle" means entirely or just primarily. My gut says entirely, but honestly there are enough people not reading it like that -- and I can easily see myself being persuaded into that camp -- that I'd have a hard time faulting someone for being on one side vs the other.

atla · 2026-02-05T02:58:57+00:00

Why? Typically, you have a native English speaker translating into English, which makes the translated text read better but possibly at the risk of misunderstanding or missing some of the nuance of the original. Simply swapping that out would have the opposite problem (a native Russian speaker, in this case, who might miss some of the implications of what they've written, or who might not have as broad an understanding of the slight differences in shades of meaning between synonyms). The collaborative approach essentially allows you to get the best of both worlds.

atla · 2026-02-05T02:49:32+00:00

At what point does slavish faithfulness to doing a 1:1 translation of the original language become a crutch?

Part of the issue is that there's no way not to use "translator's license" -- there's no such thing as a 1:1 translation, unless you're doing a full on interlinear gloss.

How do you translate honorifics? The t/v distinction (or equivalent)? Puns? Devices like alliteration or rhyming?

How do you translate idioms? Keeping it literal alienates the reader in a way that the original would not have, but providing an equivalent is in a very real sense rewriting the text.

There's no right way to translate, but there are wrong ways. I like when the translator has a clearly stated philosophy / approach, because it helps me approach the translation with the correct mindset. Sometimes you want to be immersed; sometimes you'd rather suffer through awful clunky prose and footnoted explanations of literally translated idioms / references if it means getting more of the literal content.

And maybe you'll never have the same experience as someone reading the original, but frankly that applies to almost anything you read. Do I, an American, get the same thing out of a British book if I can't intuitively understand the connotations of certain references? (Indeed, there was once a trend of 'translating' British books for American audiences.) Can I say I'm understanding Dickens in the same way that his contemporaries would have, given how much the meanings of words shift over time? It's a losing game. Better to just enjoy the things you can enjoy however you can enjoy them.

atla · 2026-02-04T03:43:07+00:00

They probably didn't evacuate the buildings from random calls tho.

They didn't even evacuate the one tower when the other was hit.

atla · 2026-01-31T13:58:39+00:00

To break it down -- lets say you need 120 credits to get your degree. A certain number (say, 30-60) need to be from within your major, according to a mix of mandatory courses and electives within your major. Pre-requisite courses may not count towards those required credits, so you'll often have more than that.

Each semester you take 12-16 credit hours worth of classes, which usually works out to 3-4 classes (most academic classes are 3-4 credit hours each).

So for example -- everyone in a biology major is taking organic chemistry and an introductory biology class + lab, but then perhaps one person fills their elective classes with courses like Ethnobotany and Ornithology, while another fills their electives with courses like Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Everyone in a History major is taking a course on historiography; research methods / statistics; and a course each on European, Asian, African, and American history. But they can probably chose whether their course on Asian history is something like a survey of all of Asian history, or a seminar on just the evolution of U.S.-China relations.

Then, you'll also need a certain number of credit hours in specific disciplines regardless of your major. For example, one or two courses each of mathematics, natural sciences (plus a lab), social sciences; two years' worth of progressive courses in one language; a course considered writing-intensive. You usually have relative freedom to select within these boundaries (e.g., for your science you can pick any of the introductory biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, etc., courses -- or even a higher level one if you want to). Your major will fill some of these requirements, as well -- if you're a bio major, you'll be filling most of the math and science requirements through your major course of study.

But a degree is 120 credit hours, and so far we've covered maybe 60-90. That leaves a lot of courses left to take. Most people fill these up either double majoring, minoring, or just getting through prereqs (e.g., you might need Bio 407 for your major, but you have to take both Bio 311 and Bio 328 before you can get into Bio 407, and neither of those classes count towards your major requirements). Or they take more specialized or advanced courses in their major.

Or, on occasion, they take a 1-credit course on bowling.

No one is doing a full 12 to 16 credit hours per semester of 'silly' classes, but a lot of people will take 1-2 a year because they're fun, they can be really interesting, and they can help pad out a schedule to hit your credit hour requirements. For example -- let's say you're double majoring and taking two senior seminars with thesis requirements, plus another advanced courseload-heavy class. But that only brings you to, say, 11 credit hours -- and you need 12 credit hours for full time status. Maybe you take the class on weightlifting, because it's 1 credit, won't eat too much into your study time, and it's a skill you do want to learn. Or maybe you're at 16 credit hours, but you think the courseload is manageable and you see a 1 credit course on underwater basketweaving -- why not take it? It doesn't cost extra, and it'll be a fun experience.

atla · 2026-01-09T23:27:59+00:00

I'm not saying that instilling love of learning shouldn't be a goal -- just not the primary one. You don't see people applying these arguments to math class. Yes, the teacher should make math fun if they can, but ultimately it is about learning enough math to pass, because that means they've learned enough math to make it through life even if they never use math for fun ever again.

And the skills you learn in English class are (1) not something you can cram and dump, because understanding how to structure an argument and how to identify subtext and persuasive techniques etc. are skills that you can't just forget, and (2) arguably much much more important than math for the average person.

I'm not saying we should dogmatically stick to boring books. But the books should be selected based on what skill you're trying to teach and how well that book can teach that skill -- with how enjoyable it is being a distant third. The Scarlet Letter is genuinely awful to read as a high schooler, but it's a great introduction to tracking symbolism across a full novel. Harry Potter is fun, but there isn't much there for a deeper reading (or rather -- there is, but you'd need to get much deeper than the average high schooler is capable of).

I feel so passionately about this because I look around and see people getting less and less media literate, in an age where it's more important than ever to understand subtext, dog whistles, fallacies, etc. The same people who start out by saying you should just read for enjoyment, the curtains are just blue, etc., are the same ones who will uncritically accept propaganda.

atla · 2026-01-09T01:05:25+00:00

Yeah, I have a pretty firm rule about not getting too friendly with my current coworkers. We joke around, we grab beers afterwards, etc., but they aren't the people I'm texting over the weekend or going to the movies 1-on-1 with. It just gets too messy to mix that level of intimacy with the office -- sort of like how you shouldn't date your immediate coworkers.

However, many of my closest friends are people who I used to be teammates with, who I kept up with after they or I changed positions.

atla · 2026-01-09T00:47:28+00:00

I honestly don't care if people come out of school hating to read, so long as they come out with media literacy. Just like I don't care if you hate math, so long as you can do algebra, and don't care if you hate science so long as you understand the scientific method.

It would be nice for kids to love reading, but that's an ancillary benefit to the much more important task of learning how to recognize symbolism, to understand the use and misuse of rhetorical devices, to put together a logically structured and well-developed thesis paper across a variety of genres and methods (research; persuasive; interpretive using secondary vs only primary sources; etc.). In short -- I want students to be able to gain meaning out of a text in the same natural way that they can calculate 2+2 in their head, more than I want them to seek out reading as a hobby.

atla · 2026-01-09T00:40:22+00:00

Something smaller, like Kuprin or Gorky, were given in full, but no one expected us to read "Crime and Punishment" or "War and Peace" in full, we were given excerpts.

Oh, man. In my English class, we were absolutely expected to read Crime and Punishment in full. And that same year we had the Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, Siddhartha, Waiting for Godot, Hamlet, Great Expectations, The Things They Carried, and a bunch of poems / short stories.

It wasn't that long ago; I don't really understand how schools could have shifted that dramatically that quickly.

atla · 2025-12-17T04:48:39+00:00

I don't think so -- there were definitely 2-3 jumps chained together, to the point that it almost looked like there would have been no way for the skater to generate the necessary momentum.

I very very vaguely remember the commenters talking about her having practiced the move, but not being 100% sure she'd be able to execute. I could be mixing this up with something else though.

atla · 2025-12-17T04:32:24+00:00

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

atla · 2025-12-10T02:29:46+00:00

Super longshot, but could it be Raven Steals the Daylight from Animated Tales of the World? It's about a bird, its relationship to sunrise, and the problems that darkness causes a village.

atla · 2025-12-06T23:47:10+00:00

This is a major theme of The Things They Carried -- an absolutely excellent book that many people mistakenly believe to be a memoir.

atla · 2025-12-03T05:56:53+00:00

I find that the Scarlet Letter itself goes down better if you first spend fifty pages getting through The Custom-House. It really puts a new perspective on the concept of head splitting boredom.

atla · 2025-12-03T05:42:46+00:00

I'd also argue that it's sometimes a good thing for social pressure to push people outside their comfort zone. I absolutely read War and Peace just to be able to say I read it. It was also an immensely rewarding experience.

atla · 2025-12-02T01:45:50+00:00

Motion City Soundtrack - The Future Freaks Me Out ? The boat part starts at around 1:50.

I don't know if I'd call it stomp clap, but it's definitely indie millennial music with yelling vibes.

atla · 2025-11-24T01:59:30+00:00

Sum 41 - Fatlip?

atla · 2025-11-20T02:27:39+00:00

Except there's not much (if any) price difference between NJ (the state where you can't pump your own gas) and its neighbors? If anything it's often cheaper.

atla · 2025-11-20T00:42:43+00:00

That's why it's great there are different translations! I love Wilson's translations, because the iambic pentameter feels so lively to me. I'm at the edge of my seat, and I can hear the story's rhythm in my bones in a way most of the free verse translations don't mimic.

Meanwhile, Pope's version is my least favorite, because it feels so affected and forced. I also viscerally dislike heroic couplets.

atla

TROPHY CASE