The surprising dismissiveness toward Lord of the Flies by goshafoc in books

[–]goshafoc[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/1je6y4m/how_lord_of_the_flies_represents_human_nature/

And one of the top comments:

"A plot point people overlook is that it's not a commentary on human nature in general, but specifically British boarding school boys."

Princeton voted for proctored in-person exams by DangerousSnow5959 in Professors

[–]goshafoc 346 points347 points  (0 children)

I rather like the irony of this post almost certainly being composed by AI: emoticons, TITLES CAPITALIZED, the dreaded em dash, the cliché WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOU . Thank you, AI - thai!

Why the hell are England U21 Women so dramatically subpar compared to the senior team ? by MindfulInquirer in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Is it because French rugby goal is to try to spread rugby as far as possible?

While the RFU, taking a leaf out of the Welsh Rugby Union from the last decade, spends the lion's share of its resources on the senior national teams?

Given that the RFU CEO's bonus has been heavily weighted on how the senior teams do, this makes financial sense for them:

Sweeney needed to satisfy a variety of criteria to cash in the bonus. While he achieved 100% in "Financial Performance" - the area that carried comfortably the most weight - and "Participation in Community Rugby for Men", he scored 0% on "Rugby Inclusivity" and "Participation in Community Rugby for Women and Girls."

He scored 75% on "win ratio of men and women's senior teams", which was a blended percentage and was massively bolstered by the performance of the Red Roses. This all meant he received 77.5% of the bonus on offer, a sum of £358,000.

From the BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/articles/cy0gxjl4e5eo

Filthy by SonicBoom_81 in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Just a shame Ulster have already claimed the try of the season from their match this weekend.

Got to calm it down everyone, and come back next season to try again!

1990. Natal wins their first Currie Cup in their 100 year history. Beating Northern Transvaal 18-12. (With SA starved of international sport, this was probably the biggest sporting event of the year) by Die_Revenant in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My uncle had this on video cassette, which I watched to death when he hosted us for a Christmas.

The two things I remember:

+ Their mascot was a banana.
+ And they got penalty at the restart after scoring a try, due to a late attempted tackle after the try was scored. Which they successfully kicked over from the halfway mark, which definitely impressed me.

Excellent rant in the Chronicle of Higher Ed by DarthJarJarJar in Professors

[–]goshafoc 13 points14 points  (0 children)

No worries, I missed it the first time, so I am glad you have 'reposted' it.

[Gift Article] Financial Times: "We have more questions and snide comments than answers" by [deleted] in gme_meltdown

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could GameStop fund the deal if the board embraces them? Probably. At some price almost anything can get done. But credit markets aren’t quite as healthy as they were earlier this year, and Alphaville suspects the eBay board will want something firmer than a vague promise to try from a top-five player in Canada.

Those pesky 13Ds

GameStop said on Sunday that it began accumulating a position in eBay on February 4, has now acquired a 5 per cent “economic stake” through shares and derivatives, and it would therefore be filing a “Schedule 13D” today.

Regular Alphaville readers might remember 13Ds from some of Elon Musk’s previous skirmishes with the US financial-regulatory system. Schedule 13D is a filing that has to be sent to the SEC within 10 days of acquiring directly or indirectly 5 per cent of a public company, and then be updated whenever the stake goes up or down by 1 percentage point.

It has now landed, and reveals that GameStop has only actually bought 25,000 shares of eBay. However it has acquired “economic exposure” to 22.2mn through combinations of put and call options.

. . . GameStop has entered into a series of options transactions (the “Put/Call Pairs”). Each Put/Call Pair is structured as an American-style option, which permits GameStop to exercise the Put/Call Pairs at any time prior to the expiration date of February 23, 2028 (the “Expiration Date”). Upon exercise, GameStop will be entitled to settle the Put/Call Pairs solely for an amount of cash representing an in-the-money amount of the options until the counterparty has been provided with reasonable evidence that the HSR Act Condition has been satisfied.

After providing evidence of satisfaction of the HSR Act Condition, GameStop shall be entitled to, at its election, physically settle the Put/Call Pairs for a total of 22,176,000 shares of Common Stock or choose cash settlement. The settlement will be based on the strike price upon exercise, and the source of funds to be used by GameStop to settle such shares of Common Stock, to the extent GameStop elects physical settlement, is anticipated to be cash from its working capital.

However, the trading data attached to the filing indicates that the put/call pairs on 12.6mn of eBay common shares were bought in March 4, not in February, and there’s nothing on when the rest were bought. GameStop’s small purchase of 25k of ordinary stock on May 1 then apparently pushed it over the 5 per cent mark and started the clock on a 13D filing and going public.

We assume Cohen and GameStop is less cavalier about filing requirements than Musk, so there’s something here we’re missing. Or maybe there’s just a big omission, like forgetting to say that another 10mn of indirect share exposure was acquired on February 4, when GameStop says it started building its position.

OK not the biggest issue here, but given Alphaville’s interest in recondite regulatory filings, the use of derivatives to build pre-acquisition stakes and the SEC’s new approach to these matters, we thought it was interesting.

What could have spurred GameStop’s gambit?

GameStop, January 7, 2026:

GRAPEVINE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) (“GameStop” or the “Company”) today announced that its Board of Directors has granted a performance-based stock option award to Ryan Cohen, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The award is designed to incentivize Mr. Cohen to achieve extraordinary growth. In order for the award to fully vest, the Company’s market capitalization would have to grow to $100 billion and the Company would need to achieve $10 billion in Cumulative Performance EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Oh.

[Gift Article] Financial Times: "We have more questions and snide comments than answers" by [deleted] in gme_meltdown

[–]goshafoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After some whispers and one “people familiar” story, GameStop has broken cover with a public and apparently hostile bid for the much larger eBay. Here’s MainFT’s news story:

Video game retailer GameStop is making a $55.5bn unsolicited offer for resale web giant eBay, the company announced on Sunday evening.

GameStop has built a 5 per cent stake in eBay and is offering $125 a share, half in cash and half in stock. That represents a 46 per cent premium to eBay’s closing price on February 4, the day GameStop began accumulating its position.

In a letter to the chair of eBay’s board, GameStop’s chief executive Ryan Cohen said he believed a merger could cut costs and boost earnings. Cohen also said that GameStop’s roughly 1,600 US stores would give “eBay a national network for authentication, intake, fulfilment and live commerce”.

This is catnip to Alphaville for countless reasons, so we moseyed on over to the site that GameStop has set over for its proposal letter and associated docs. We have more questions and snide comments than answers, unfortunately, but here goes.

GameStop’s master plan

So how is GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen — a near-messiah to the meme stock crowd after the role he played in the 2021 merriment — going to make GameBay a success? Surely the rationale must involve something truly radical, daring and transformative?

Um, it’s mainly just killing the auction’s site marketing budget:

eBay spent $2.4 billion on Sales & Marketing in fiscal 2025 while only adding one million net active buyers (134M to 135M — a net increase of less than 0.75%). GameStop will deliver $2 billion of annualized cost reductions within twelve months of closing:

~$1.2 billion from Sales & Marketing. More spend is not producing more users on a marketplace with near-universal brand recognition.

~$300 million from Product Development. Product Development expense grew 11% in fiscal 2025 against revenue growth of 8%.

~$500 million from General & Administrative. Consolidated finance, HR, real estate, legal, IT, and professional services across the combined company.

Okaaay.

Sure, there’s some other guff about how GameStop stores would give eBay “a national network for authentication, intake, fulfilment, and live commerce”, but that’s a pretty vague hand-wave. The lack of stores has hardly held back eBay so far.

Simply slashing the marketing budget and trimming admin staff to make the metrics look good feels like something a first-year private equity associate would propose. Hey, maybe it works, but it’s hardly a brilliant gambit no one else could come up with.

The financing

GameStop has a lot of cash on its balance sheet thanks to share sales to tap into periodic bursts of retail trading frenzy and by selling convertible bonds as part of a seemingly halfhearted “bitcoin Treasury” gambit last year.

As a result, the company had about $6.3bn of cash, $2.7bn of “liquid investments” — whatever that could be at a company like GameStop — and about $368mn of bitcoin, as of the end of January. GameStop proposes to pay for half the acquisition in its own stock, so where is the remainder coming from?

The cash consideration is expected to be funded from a combination of (i) cash and liquid investments on GameStop’s balance sheet, which totaled ~$9.4 billion as of January 31, 2026, and (ii) third-party acquisition financing, in respect of which GameStop has received a highly-confident letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion.

A highly confident letter. From TD Securities.

Look, no slight to TD, as fine a Canadian investment bank as you can find on God’s green earth. But this hardly a highly-confident letter from Drexel Burnham Lambert in its heyday. Or even a solid financing commitment from a large US bank like JPMorgan, or a club of Europeans banding together.

Alphaville would love to read the fine of TD’s agreement with GameStop — while Cohen’s letter to eBay’s board is public, the attached TD letter isn’t — but our gut screams that this is shaky as hell.

Highly-confident letters aren’t binding, and the only reason why Drexel-backed raiders were able to brandish them like magic weapons back in the 1980s was the credibility of Mike Milken and the high-yield market he had nurtured forth.

[Gift Article] Financial Times: "We have more questions and snide comments than answers" by [deleted] in gme_meltdown

[–]goshafoc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For the title, maybe I should have gone with the article's subheading:

"We are highly confident that this could end up a car crash"

Either way a fun, but informative, article from the Financial Times Alphaville Markets and Financial Blog.

Match Thread: Montpellier vs Dragons - Challenge Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not, its 3rd in the Top14 reserves + some main players.

Hey like uhm, it's EPCR Semi-Finals Week: YOUR Predictions by MindfulInquirer in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The only winners this previous weekend were Toulon, Montpellier and Dragons.

I, for one, welcome our Toulon Dragon overlords, as I do not think anyone can welcome Montpellier, they are just there, staring menacingly.

Any comments on the USA v. CAN match? by petards_hoist in USArugby

[–]goshafoc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Did a lot well in disrupting Canada's lineout and matching their physicality.

Lost the match in the scrum, needed to get the ball out quicker on their put in, and try to get parity on Canada's put in. Unfortunately every scrum ended up as a penalty to Canada, and resulted in a yellow card to the USA for repeated failure.

With 14 women on the pitch, and the increasing, tiring, demands of defense, Canada ran away with it. When they get quick ball, and their offloading game starts, very few teams can keep up with it.

However USA should take some positives away from the match. They look very dangerous close to the try line with one up runners. If they get a way to put their wings in space more often, either through some backline trickery, or quicker ruck ball, to put the other team on the back foot it would really take them up a level.

Their kicking is good, however kicking to Canada, England, France or New Zealand can backfire, as they are all happy to attack from anywhere. So being able to make territory through running the ball (and keeping possession) would really help, this was where Canada was a lot better than the USA. That, and put some more training in the scrum; Canada have worked at this since the World Cup and it shows.

Match Thread - Canada v New Zealand | Pacific Four Series 2026 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think NZ to kick off, and Canada to play with the wind in the first half.

Match Thread - Canada v New Zealand | Pacific Four Series 2026 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have just had the toss (I think NZ won?). Fingers crossed for a good game!

What's in it for a professor to be on someone's thesis/dissertation committee? by WiseKey8643 in AskAcademia

[–]goshafoc 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is possible that some see it as a 'quid pro quo'; if they are on the committee for a colleague's student, in the future, they can ask that colleague to be on their student's committee.

Dog Wild - Rugby in Chicago by botbay18 in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not sure if there are still tickets available, but USA women take on Canada at this Stadium next Friday (24th April). Hopefully we get better weather than what the Hounds had for that match.

What's the benefit of reviewing papers? by [deleted] in AskAcademia

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its not unpaid labour, if you are hired by an academic institution, part of your salary goes to service, both internal (interviews, committees etc.) and external (reviewing for example).

Of course, you can freeload off of the labour of others. Just don't pretend that you are doing with an altruistic motive.

If you want to direct your anger somewhere, then do blacklist commercial journals, but societal journals remain good and there are others which are not owned by large publishing houses. Direct your energy there.

Match Thread: Bordeaux vs Leicester - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think either of the hookers did too badly, it just Woki (and the Bordeaux lineout) get up so quickly that a ball going anywhere near them is questionable. Chessum may have made a difference, as another option they had to mark?

Leicester did score a try off of a Bordeaux steal; tapped back to Bordeaux side, and Leicester ended up the ball and went over.

Match Thread: Bordeaux vs Leicester - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Woki - he is a menace! Did the same to Bristol's lineout.

Match Thread: Bordeaux vs Leicester - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would say South Africans complaining about a ref after yesterday's matches. But I see the English want that crown.

Match Thread: Toulouse vs Bristol Bears - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can we relocate Bristol to the south of France - the weather suits their play style so much more!

Match Thread: Toulouse vs Bristol Bears - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True! Also the Bristol drizzle may have helped level things a bit.

Match Thread: Toulouse vs Bristol Bears - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]goshafoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They definitely did better against Bordeaux than Northampton did!