Off Topic Thread 4.0

Buer wrote: »

Somewhat different. That's a bloke taking over from another coach whose time is coming to an end. We know where we stand with both of them and the incumbent is departing on his terms at the end of his contract after a lengthy spell.

McCarthy is a new appointment and has been given the job with a clock already running on him for another guy who won't even be on his staff.

And thrilled to see Robbie Keane being given an assistant job with the national set up on the basis of absolutely no coaching experience too! You have to laugh.

The Keane appointment is mind boggling. If they wanted the PR stunt of putting in a prolific ex-player, they should've offered it to Damien Duff, who actually has a decent amount of experience in coaching.

aloooof

Buer wrote: »

Somewhat different. That's a bloke taking over from another coach whose time is coming to an end. We know where we stand with both of them and the incumbent is departing on his terms at the end of his contract after a lengthy spell.

McCarthy is a new appointment and has been given the job with a clock already running on him for another guy who won't even be on his staff.

And thrilled to see Robbie Keane being given an assistant job with the national set up on the basis of absolutely no coaching experience too! You have to laugh.

Ah agreed, I was just being facetious tbh. The Kenny thing really does just seem like a sop from Delaney. Reminiscent of when he got Bobby Robson in with Steve Staunton.

Squidgy Black wrote: »

The Keane appointment is mind boggling. If they wanted the PR stunt of putting in a prolific ex-player, they should've offered it to Damien Duff, who actually has a decent amount of experience in coaching.

I'd say Duff wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

sydthebeat

does keane even have his coaching badges at this stage?

sydthebeat wrote: »

does keane even have his coaching badges at this stage?

Has his A licence I believe, don't know if he has his Pro one though. Would assume he'll have to get it before he's allowed near the team in terms of coaching

troyzer

Sitting in the airport and there are Christmas tunes on.

That's the first time I've heard any. Seems earlier and earlier every year.

troyzer wrote: »

Sitting in the airport and there are Christmas tunes on.

That's the first time I've heard any. Seems earlier and earlier every year.

Was in a shopping centre over the weekend. Santa Claus, elves, Christmas music etc. It's in full swing.

It is getting earlier, to my mind. Have seen a number of houses with the decorations up already; whilst the shops etc. have always been pushing it in November I haven't noticed people's homes being decorated in November before.

EDIT: Also, if you ever want some Christmas cheer, I highly recommend Dublin Airport on December 23rd or 24th. Live music at the arrivals gate. Nice just to sit there with a coffee and watch the reunions. Although, depending on your personal situation, it could be the most depressing place in the world too at that time.

dregin

Our tree usually goes up the 25th of Novemeber. We'd family over last weekend, so it went up the weekend before instead

thomond2006

It's fairly wet out.

dregin

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's fairly wet out.

This has been a wonderful opportunity to find ALL of the places wind and rain get into our new house. Who knew 80 year old stained glass could actually leak?

Stheno

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's fairly wet out.

The wind is worse

mfceiling

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's fairly wet out.

Try standing on the 5th floor of a building that has no windows..actually no walls on the outside at all...just a poxy shell.
Handed a set of lay out drawings at 6.35 this morning and was told to hand the floor over before 4. FML.

mfceiling wrote: »

Try standing on the 5th floor of a building that has no windows..actually no walls on the outside at all...just a poxy shell.
Handed a set of lay out drawings at 6.35 this morning and was told to hand the floor over before 4. FML.

And here you are, pricking about on your phone! Get back to it!

I do not envy anyone working outdoors today. Grim. And the forecast for the next week is fairly miserable too.

stephen_n

troyzer wrote: »

Sitting in the airport and there are Christmas tunes on.

That's the first time I've heard any. Seems earlier and earlier every year.

Trying working as a DJ, the Christmas parties started about 2 weeks ago and last year the last one we did was in March.

mfceiling wrote: »

Try standing on the 5th floor of a building that has no windows..actually no walls on the outside at all...just a poxy shell.
Handed a set of lay out drawings at 6.35 this morning and was told to hand the floor over before 4. FML.

I drove into town today because I didn't want to get wet on my 10 minute walk from the bus stop.

So yeah, my work day's been pretty hard too

This is the most amazingly ironic thing I've ever listened to. The greatest minds in situational comedy could never write something like this.

Zzippy

Deleted User wrote: »

This is the most amazingly ironic thing I've ever listened to. The greatest minds in situational comedy could never write something like this.

No Venjur, you're a clown!

swiwi_

So the other half asked me to talk dirty.

POM, Jerome Kaino, Richard Hill...

She was not impressed.

“But you said let’s talk about six, baby”

errlloyd

swiwi_ wrote: »

So the other half asked me to talk dirty.

POM, Jerome Kaino, Richard Hill...

She was not impressed.

“But you said let’s talk about six, baby”

Just quietly whisper "You wanna get real dirty, think of what Alan Quinlan could do with his fingers"

stephen_n

swiwi_ wrote: »

So the other half asked me to talk dirty.

POM, Jerome Kaino, Richard Hill...

She was not impressed.

“But you said let’s talk about six, baby”

I suppose in a kiwi accent that probably sounds funny.

Despite all the attention and focus on the NFL and concussion in recent seasons, it doesn't really appear to be changing that much. One of the stars of the league, Alvin Kamara was completely smashed, helmet to helmet. Got to his feet, visibly wobbled and came off the field as his team were punting the ball away on the next play anyway.

No call on the dangerous hit and, when the opposition fumbled on their next drive and Kamara's team got the ball back, he was straight back in. All the talk this morning is of the missed call....no mention of the fact that a guy who was clearly dazed and unsteady on his feet was back on the field and was actually targetted with a pass immediately.

I know rugby is far from perfect but I get the impression it's going to get the concussion situation under control (as much as possible) far more efficiently than the NFL.

thomond2006

Buer wrote: »

Despite all the attention and focus on the NFL and concussion in recent seasons, it doesn't really appear to be changing that much. One of the stars of the league, Alvin Kamara was completely smashed, helmet to helmet. Got to his feet, visibly wobbled and came off the field as his team were punting the ball away on the next play anyway.

No call on the dangerous hit and, when the opposition fumbled on their next drive and Kamara's team got the ball back, he was straight back in. All the talk this morning is of the missed call....no mention of the fact that a guy who was clearly dazed and unsteady on his feet was back on the field and was actually targetted with a pass immediately.

I know rugby is far from perfect but I get the impression it's going to get the concussion situation under control (as much as possible) far more efficiently than the NFL.

In the pre-season officials made a point about penalising any helmet-to-helmet contact. The media went to town on it (there were a few over the top penalties IIRC) and in the regular season it was forgotten.

I think they need to extend coach challenges' to allow for a review of possible personal foul penalties. On review the Kamara hit would almost certainly have been ruled a penalty.

thomond2006

That incident aside, the playoffs in the NFC side look like they could be fantastic. The Rams and Saints are very strong but are not invincible, the Cowboys are an emerging team after looking done a few weeks ago and the Bears have a defense that will strike fear in any team. Sprinkle in two wildcard teams and it's going to be great to watch.

What does everyone think of the whole Mueller investigation over the last couple of days, with Cohen folding like a deckchair?

Squidgy Black wrote: »

What does everyone think of the whole Mueller investigation over the last couple of days, with Cohen folding like a deckchair?

It's been interesting. Cohen folded months ago, but it looks like the special prosecutors have been extremely careful in drip feeding information and working from the very outside of the conspiracy in, closing all the potential exits along the way.

It's all pretty complicated. There appears to have been a good deal of trade craft going on in the background. In a very basic way - the special counsel has a bunch of charges against Trump surrogates. They've gotten indictments on some but stayed silent on others - in particular those which incriminate Trump.

The Trump surrogates (Manafort etc.,) have been communicating through their legal teams with Trump's legal team. Corsi admitted on Tuesday that his legal team and Trump's are cooperating with each other.

The prosecutors gave Trump's surrogates an impression of the direction the investigation was going which was intentionally misleading. As a result, Trump gave an affidavit answering questions by the prosecutor believing that he was safe to mislead them - based on his false understanding of the evidence that they have through what his surrogates have shared with him.

It now appears that he has committed perjury which is a felony, but so far - he is only guilty of lying under oath, the full details of what it is that he was trying to conceal has yet to be released. We've seen snippets, it may just be collusion relating to the DNC hack and the subsequent cover up but given that Deutsch bank have been raided and a tax lawyer Trump used previously has been raided at the same time this week it's starting to look a lot more broad.

A supreme court judge recently retired in the US who was the father of a senior Deutsch bank executive. It's believed this happened as he would have had to recuse himself from any decision relating to Trump, Deutsch bank and money laundering which would have left the bench leaning away from the GOP.

Getting him off the bench and a replacement (ideally one with strong views of executive power) was critical for them, hence the entire debacle with Kavanaugh.

It looks like the hand Trump is playing is to obstruct and deny and when prosecuted to argue that as President he can only be prosecuted by the senate (who won't do it as a republican majority). This will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court which he has stacked in his favour. I doubt very much that Trump will run again, and if Republicans find a strong candidate and can secure the presidency, they'll stay on this course and pardon the investigation away labelling it a witch hunt.

The scandal may grow too great for the Republicans before that, but it looks like they are badly exposed (they were also hacked by the Russians, but that info has never been released) and will attempt to ride their luck, hiding behind the idea that they have a duty to support the president and hoping they can swing the 2020 elections their way.

It's going to get really messy now. By January we'll have a better idea of the charges against Trump, if they are devastating and the republicans refuse to budge there will be protests. If it's bad and justice isn't served we're in similar territory to where Turkey were just before Erdogan rounded up the judges and faked a coup.

Clegg

I see Newstalk have given Peter Casey a job. As good a reason as any to stop listening completely.

The traveller furore was one thing, but the man himself just appears to be a waffler. Campaigned for the Presidency but didn't seem to have a notion as to what the powers of the office actually were.

Clegg wrote: »

I see Newstalk have given Peter Casey a job. As good a reason as any to stop listening completely.

The traveller furore was one thing, but the man himself just appears to be a waffler. Campaigned for the Presidency but didn't seem to have a notion as to what the powers of the office actually were.

Newstalk is a real mongrel channel. Seems to be courting the right now but would have been one of the more liberal channels much of the last decade.

I think it's a terrible idea. The guy is a spoofer. He took a situation with a lot of anger between two distinctive communities and tried to drag it into the gutter for the sake of an already failed presidential bid. It takes a wicked kind of vanity to consciously stir and then stoke an issue just to make you look slightly better than your rich acquaintances that are also competing for the same prize.

There was a contempt to his comments after the campaign and a sincere bitterness that I'm convinced has lost him a lot of that 23% he pissed on the curtains to earn.

I reckon this has a decent chance of alienating a lot of Newstalk listeners, it certainly has for me. Worse though, it gives Casey a platform from which to launch a legitimate political career in the lead up to the next general. For Newstalk this fills the grumpy, older, tell it like it is, right wing, white male advocate, George Hook spot.

Hook was just too toxic for the station to stand by and in his attempts to alienate and offend large parts of society (for the amusement of a few) he ended up burning his wings and crashing out of media with a permanently tarnished reputation. I'd say he gets filthy looks in public, probably a fair bit of support at times too sadly enough.

Newstalk obviously feel there is still a market for that type of personality - but much like George, I suspect that they are flying too close to the sun for their own good with Casey. My hope is that this fails quickly, but lasts just long enough to similarly tarnish Casey's reputation.

awec

What is it with kids toys and toilet functions?

awec wrote: »

What is it with kids toys and toilet functions?

Trying to normalise it from a young age so it doesn't turn into a fetish...