#worst past is i see this double standards on bloggers who i expected to know better..... maybe theyre not so in touch with the rumor mills

[selamat-linting]

i should really hang out with more indo wrestling fans (they actually got other nia jax stans here)

#yeah i like her. sue me lol #i like her moves and she hasnt injured anyone in months and its not like anyone working with her is making interviews or vagueposts about it #unlike certain guys including my own faves. she's literally not in the worst scale of worst ppl and yet the hate she got is overblown #one of the classic GOATs in wrestling actually beats his wife and one of the newer fan favoriters who still got fanfic written about him #injured literally two brothers in the same year and made rape comments about a girl and he never get as horrible backlash that nia gets #and if anyone wants to come at her for being antivaxx there are male stars who are still loved despite being a flat earther #worst past is i see this double standards on bloggers who i expected to know better..... maybe theyre not so in touch with the rumor mills #but cmon. do you ever question why the girls bad marks tend to be more well know than the guys? #ugh. some of yalls support for women's art seems superficial ngl #compared to my indo wrasslin friends and when they like women #they just make fancams about how cool their girls are and how they should win and it seems 100 times more sincere than the yuri moment #posting i see on tumblr #fandom wank

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

18 classic viral videos that will always be hilarious

It’s Viral Market Crash week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit.

Long before Vine and Instagram, sites like Newgrounds, eBaum's World, and of course YouTube were the breeding grounds for viral video legends. 

The viral video market has sadly taken a greedy turn for the worst. Thankfully, we can still look back on the iconic viral videos that set a standard for internet greatness. 

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk was once tech's angel. Now he's an overplayed meme.

It's been years since these videos first premiered, but they've never faded from our hearts or minds.

1. Grape Lady Falling

What started off as friendly competition turned into a few broken ribs and viral fame. Melissa Sander aka "Grape Lady," was reporting for Fox 5 in Atlanta at a vineyard in the late '90s when she took quite the tumble.

After falling to the ground letting out very strange sounding "ows," the camera returns to the newsroom where the two hosts comment on how she could possibly be hurt.

This video was uploaded in 2007 and has racked up almost 20 million views. 

2. Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama

The "Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama" video was one of the first news stories to achieve viral status on YouTube back in 2006. The story itself was about a leprechaun sighting that turned the community into a search party.

An amazing amateur sketch of the magical creature, as well as interviews with people who had different theories ranging from "it could be a crackhead," to "it's casting a shadow," made the video so entertaining. 

3. Double Rainbow

This man having a meltdown over witnessing a double rainbow in 2010 proves we should enjoy the simpler things in life. Apparently over 45 million people agree. 

Drugs may or may not have been involved in the making of this viral video. 

4. Shoes

Arguably THE original YouTube viral video. Liam Kyle Sullivan released this banger in 2007 and it has been viewed over 67 million times. 

Kelly, who is played by Sullivan, is not happy with her birthday gifts. When her father asks what she's going to do with her life, she fiercely responds, "I'm going to get what I want." 

What happens next is the best song dedicated to shoes known to humanity. Sullivan has also made quite the career following his viral fame. 

5. Leave Britney Alone

Poor Chris Crocker, all he wanted was for everyone to leave Britney Spears alone. During Britney's rough spot in 2007, Crocker went on YouTube and hysterically begged the entire internet to leave the pop star be.

This video became an instant viral sensation, and Crocker got a lot of backlash from all over the internet for his femme appearance and sobbing. Since the release of this video, Crocker rose above the haters, and went on to become a porn star, blogger, and a singer-songwriter. 

6. Fenton

A peaceful stroll through Richmond Park in London turns to chaos when someone off in the distance can be heard screaming "FENTON." When the person recording the video pans right, a herd of deer being chased by a dog runs past.

A few seconds later the dog's owner can be seen chasing the him while screaming "Jesus Christ, Fenton!" Thankfully no one gets hurt.

This video was uploaded in 2011 and it currently has over 18 million views.

7. Potter Puppet Pals

A classic video for any Harry Potter fan out there. The "Potter Puppet Pals" went on to become a successful YouTube skit that garnered millions of views. 

The first episode of the series "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" released in 2007 has over 181 million views. Those of us nerds who watched the video back then, most definitely still know the lyrics in 2018.

8. Greatest Freak Out Ever

After Stephen Quire gets his World of Warcraft subscription canceled, his brother Jack (aka wafflepwn) recorded his brother's reaction to the punishment. Stephen goes on to throw the biggest tantrum in tween history, not knowing Jack left the camera in the room to record it all for YouTube.

Jack went on to record more videos of Stephen freaking out, but most of them were deemed fake or scripted. Nothing compares to the first video of the series that came out in 2009 that has garnered almost 100 million views. 

Real or fake, the original is still just as ridiculous as it was when it was released in 2009.

9. Numa Numa Guy

Gary Brolsma aka the "Numa Numa Guy" was out here living his best life on Newgrounds in 2004. In this video, Brolsman was lip-syncing to O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei," and he became an instant meme and viral icon. 

Although the Newgrounds took the video down for licensing reasons, someone uploaded the video on YouTube so his legacy lives on. According to an old BBC article in 2006, the video was estimated to have been viewed 700 million times, just falling shortly behind the next video on this list. 

10. Star Wars Kid

Ghyslain Raza, aka "Star Wars Kid" was also living his truth during the early days of the viral internet. While he didn't intend for this video of him in 2002 to get thrown on the web, his attempt to copy Darth Maul's lightsaber moves became one of the most viewed viral videos of all time. 

According to an article by NBC in 2007 Raza's video had gotten well over 1 billion views on the internet since. Sadly, the price of this kind of internet fame caused Raza to get teased and bullied from people in school, and all over the internet.

Raza rose above this, and is now a lawyer who takes on many legal cases surrounding cyberbullying. He is absolutely following the way of the Jedi, and we're here for it.

12.  Charlie Bit My Finger

Personally, I never understood the appeal of this video. But what do I know? I might just be one out of the almost 1 billion people who watched this video that just doesn't understand why Charlie biting his brother's finger is funny. 

13. Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

Sweet Brown's iconic "Ain't nobody got time for that" line was a big mood for 2012 when this video came out. There was also an auto-tuned version that accompanied the video that achieved its own viral fame.

Since her narrow escape with a fire at her apartment complex, Kimberly Wilkins starred in a Tyler Perry movie and got a shoutout from Beyoncé.

13. The Ultimate Showdown

Another Newgrounds relic from 2005, this animated video pit comic and pop culture's most recognizable figures against each other in a battle to the death, along with a song narrating the entire scene. I don't want to spoil who wins, so give this video with over 20 million views a watch.

14.  The Duck Song

When I first watched this video in 2009, I was expecting something really horrifying or creepy to happen at the end because you can't trust anything on the internet with a catchy tune and a cute duck. Thankfully this cheery viral video with over 350 million views was only annoying as this duck who keeps asking for grapes. 

15. Charlie the Unicorn

Originating from Newgrounds, "Charlie the Unicorn" was an iconic flash cartoon that had everyone saying "shun the nonbeliever," like someone who was tripping on something from Candy Mountain. The video first came out in 2005, and was uploaded onto YouTube in a year later. In 2008 an official version of the first episode was uploaded and currently has over 30 million views.

16. Apparently Kid

Apparently, "Apparently Kid" has to be on this list with his viral news interview that has over 30 million views. Noah Ritter stole the hearts of everyone on the internet with his hilarious usage of the word "apparently" during an interview with a local news station at a county fair in 2014. 

Ritter also caught the attention of Ellen Degeneres, who later brought him on the show for a very cute interview. He's also apparently, over the word, "apparently."

17. HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA

Everyone talks about Rick Rolling, but "HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA," which came out around the same time, is so underrated. According to KnowYourMeme, He-Man singing 4 Non Blondes' "Whats Up" first made an appearance on the Something Awful forums back in 2005. The video then made a few appearances on the eBaum's World forums in 2005. 

It eventually found its way onto YouTube in 2006 where it continued to go viral before finally getting its official video and meme title. Truly, a viral relic from the past that has over 100 million views today.

18. Keyboard Cat

Look at how happy Fatso was back in '80s playing his keyboard! Even though this kitty cat was long gone before YouTube even became a thing, his owner Charlie Schmidt allowed Fatso's legacy to live on by uploading his amazing piano skills onto the site in 2007. 

After becoming a massive meme and viral icon, Keyboard Cat continues to dazzle audiences all over the world. With over 50 million views this cat — from a time period before internet fame wasn't even a concept — is truly timeless.

WATCH: Meet the man who makes music with vegetables

#_uuid:77ff9e09-b93b-3964-ba21-57503474bde5 #_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_author:Xavier Piedra #_revsp:news.mashable

[disc-golf]

How to Turn the Tide in the Battle Against Anxiety and Depression

Let’s talk about anxiety and depression.

On the surface, anxiety is the distant cousin to depression. They’re in the same family, but depression is almost always at the forefront of the mental health discussion. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a medical afterthought.

I think this is true because anxiety appears to be so easily curable. Google “anxiety” and it’ll turn up a wealth of random listicle articles detailing “15 different ways to overcome your anxiety.”

“Feeling anxious” is a common sensation that everyone experiences at one point or another. Here are a few scenarios that might ring a bell:

That job interview that leaves your stomach in knots the night before

Welcoming a new baby into the world and the weight of a thousand suns illuminating the reality of your new role as father to a human

Clenching your fists while hoping your favorite team’s quarterback can nail that touchdown pass with 2 minutes to go in the game

For many people, moments like these amount to little more than a temporary “bug in the brain.” Countless writers even suggest “in the moment” techniques for dealing with anxious moments—like intentional breathing and meditation.

I mean, they are all just in our heads anyway, right?

In reality, however, anxiety often serves as the precursor—or fellow ailment—of depression. They aren’t distant cousins after all. They’re more like siblings that play off of each other to render your mind a mess.

To help paint a real-life picture of anxiety-turned-depression, I want to share my personal story.

Many may relate to what I share here. But many more might have a totally different experience with anxiety and depression. My story is not THE story, but if it helps you understand your own struggles and fight your own battles more effectively, then it will be worth sharing.

Before I dive in, however, I want to be clear about something: This is not a broad-stroke cure nested in 11 easy-to-follow ways to cure what ails you. This is a serious look at a terrifying experience and how I’ve managed to deal with it in my own way.

My hope is that it encourages others who struggle in similar ways to seek out help and keep up the fight. Because if you do, you will win.

The hidden demons of an ideal life

For almost 10 years, I spent every waking minute of my life dedicated to one of the most “manly” careers you can imagine. I was a TV sports anchor.

For many, this is a dream job. I got paid to watch sports and then deliver my own viewpoint on the day’s action for thousands of viewers every single day.

One thing I got accustomed to watching was failure. Everybody lusts for success, and for some teams, it was just a never-ending crusade for greatness that always turned out badly.

That failure can seep into everyday life. It can infect your conversation, your relationships, your public and private image. The feeling of constant defeat wears on you, as it did for many athletes during my time as anchor.

The most talented athletes I had ever known became “lovable losers”—sometimes overnight—enduring the relentless onslaught of season after season of “Ls” on the scoreboard.

Still, most of us say, these are men and women who earn 7 figures in a year—an amount easily doubled with sponsorships and advertising deals. So they lose a few games. So what? They’ve still got it made.

Right?

Eventually, I left that life behind. But what stuck with me was the experience of losing—of failing so epically in a public forum that it’s hard to step back into a place of confidence. Nevermind 7 figures or a Nike sponsorship.

It wasn’t long before I, too, began to feel the ache of anxiety and depression.

But it wasn’t the result of some monumental loss in life. I didn’t go to war and lose a friend. I didn’t suffer an agonizing injury. I’m not on the streets.

In fact, my life is pretty amazing. I’m a successful entrepreneur by most standards. I’m a husband to a fantastic, beautiful, and loving wife. I’m the dad to a gorgeous daughter who fills my day with energy and joy.

I’m also living my dream in New York City and have little to agitate me outside of cliché #FirstWorldProblems.

But I have a confession to make: I’ve suffered with anxiety and depression for years.

About one in eight men men is diagnosed with mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. I’d wager a good portion are under the stress of trying to be awesome dads and pretty terrific partners. Still others are playing up to the macho business man stereotype or rugged, work-with-your-hands paragons.

And sure, society tells us that to be an awesome dad, we really only have to strive to be better than a babbling moron in a sitcom. But for those of us who want to go above and beyond this narrative and actually become a meaningful person in the lives of our kids and families—not to mention the community—this can be an immense burden.

You see, there’s this thing about admitting to the emotional toll that comes from stress, anxiety, and depression: Men simply don’t do it.

We’ve been taught to suck it up and be men. The toxic culture of over-leveled testosterone and road-rage-like intensity of masculinity tells us that a man who seeks help and can’t battle his own demons is a coward. A crybaby. A failure.

That was my story.

So I “sucked it up.” I’d managed to live life long enough to overcome a multitude of problems, so surely I was equipped to handle a little bout of sadness.

I could handle the anxiety and depression, I vowed. I was stronger than it.

But then, it began to attack me when I least expected.

The battle begins

Imagine sitting alone in your living room late at night. Perhaps you’re enjoying a nonstop binge session on Netflix or reading for fun. Suddenly, you feel something. Your heart skips a beat. You inexplicably need to catch your breath. You start shaking.

And then, your mind goes wild. It must be the worst possible health crisis, you imagine—a heart attack, a ruptured ulcer, a stroke. You’re dying.

But it passes.

And then it returns—always when you least expect it.

You never tell anyone. Who would believe your crazy, illogical fear? But you don’t know where it comes from. You just want it to stop.

And yet, the more you focus on it, the worse it becomes. The rush of adrenaline, the heart palpitations, the irregular breathing.

Still, you manage to function. You work past it. And most of the time, you can hide your symptoms from prying eyes—even those that care.

Welcome to the endless battle of chronic anxiety attacks.

But that’s not all. This fear, this negative anticipation of the worst possible outcome, often tumbles into depression.

I remember when I realized this was happening to me.

I was sitting on the couch with my daughter, who was bouncing around doing her normal toddler-type activities, when the overwhelming emotion hit me like a linebacker shooting the gap and blowing up a play before it even starts.

The thoughts of the day were more like a montage of negativity playing in mind.

My failures rolled on steady repeat while flash-forwards of failure gripped every future moment I could imagine. I was stuck—right there in my beautiful Brooklyn home while my beautiful toddler was singing some song she picked up from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” in the center of my beautiful life.

She was happy. I was terrified.

It was crushing. And I wanted nothing more than to be out of that internal chaos. We live 17 floors up in a downtown Brooklyn apartment building overlooking the rest of the borough. For a split second, I thought… “Jump?”

No. Jumping was never something I’d even consider, despite the release it promised.

But I so desperately wanted it to end, to have someone else end it for me, to have some else end me…

Owning the anxiety 

As you might have guessed, I decided to do something about this plague of anxiety and depression.

I tested the waters a bit and reached out to others going through similar struggles. While I didn’t explain the extent of my pain, it was obvious to them that I was in a dark place.

John Romaniello, my business mentor and friend, who’s shared his own experiences with depression and attempted suicide, encouraged me to find a therapist immediately. He explained how it was incredibly helpful for his own journey and even offered to help me look for a professional.

Fellow dad blogger Doyin Richards said the same. His piece on experiencing the battle with depression resonated with me and I was moved to get his advice.

But I hesitated to do anything else.

I don’t think it was because of my manly manliness complex. Rather, I suspect my hesitation came from an internal guilt—a shame that I needed to ask for help. For the longest time, I honestly thought it was a great idea that everyone see a therapist at some point in their life.

But that meant sharing my struggles with my family. And when you’re consumed with being a great husband and father and cannot fathom resting until achieving perfection on all fronts, the thought of bringing a loved one into a web of mental anguish is a fantastic barrier to overcome.

I mean, why hurt the ones we love the most by sharing this incredible burden and making them worry?

Fortunately for those of us who suffer, this is flawed logic.

Our family and friends are here for this exact purpose—to hold each another up and catch us when we stumble and fall.

So I told my wife. She wasn’t oblivious to my suffering, of course; she knew for a while that I had been sliding into a dark place. But it wasn’t until she read this post for the first time that she knew how desperate I was for a solution.

So we started looking for a therapist together. But here’s the rub: Finding help is a part time job.

On top of my business, taking care of my daughter every day, and fighting to stay mentally afloat, the search for help was an enormous burden. That’s why I needed my wife.  She was there to help me organize thoughts and research, and to help me make decisions that were difficult because of my fog of depression.

We worked hard to find someone. And we did, but it took time—and many visits to therapists. The truth is, the first professional you interact with may not be the right fit for you. Keep looking, keep talking, and keep the fight going. You will find the support you need.

The ongoing battle

It’s been over a year since I started therapy.

Every session I have with my therapist, we manage to talk about everything and anything. We talk about my failures in my personal and professional lives. We talk about my effort to become a fantastic husband and father. We talk about my relationship with my mother. And we talk about how uncomfortable I feel in my skin as a biracial man living in a climate of deep ethnic divisions and prejudices.

We also talk about the things that bring me joy and happiness. These color my mental state as much as any negativity—and give me a force to counteract the negative absurdity running rampant in my mind.

Some days, my sessions work. But my therapist has made it clear that conquering anxiety and depression is not a once-a-week affair. That’s why I write. And meditate. And journal. I make sense of the madness and seek out the good in the bad.

With all of this effort, you might be surprised to read that I’m not winning the battle today. But I’m still fighting. And I have support and methods to quell the growing fear of failure.

And tomorrow—well, tomorrow I might be back to my mostly perfect, beautiful life in New York City. Or I might not.

But as long as I keep fighting, keep working, I believe I will have more good days than bad. And on that journey, I will become exponentially more grateful for the good in my life that sustains me in the darker days.

How to get help

If you’re suffering from anxiety or depression, I strongly encourage you to seek out help from a professional. Knowing others in your walk of life who have done the same will give you courage to follow through, but if you know you’ll hesitate, then bring in a loved one to help you take the right steps.

Here’s what I recommend:

Check with your insurance provider for a potential list of mental health professionals covered by your plan.

If you don’t have mental health coverage, consider TalkSpace.com—an online solution for anyone who cannot afford in-person options for therapy. Licensed therapists are available by text message, which breaks that potential mental barrier of having to meet someone face-to-face.

And if you or someone you know is having thoughts about suicide or feel like you might harm yourself, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

With help, you can unshackle your life from anxiety and depression. Commit to the work, and let go of ingrained fears of weakness and failure.

Please believe me: Not treating these illnesses will absolutely be the bigger failure.

The post How to Turn the Tide in the Battle Against Anxiety and Depression appeared first on Early To Rise.

[phooll123]

Why Elon Musk's Tesla Model 3 

production ramp plan is flawe

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pushing for Model 3 production to surge to 6,000 a week.

Musk outlined his new goals in an email to Tesla employees.

Tesla Model 3 production will now run 24/7, Musk says, and employees will be hired to staff the factory.

The news around Tesla's troubled Model 3 ramp-up has been mostly bad. The company launched the vehicle last year and has thus far fallen woefully short of its production goals. Let's not sugarcoat the situation: This is easily the worst new-vehicle rollout I've seen in over a decade of covering the auto industry. It might be the worst rollout in the history of the business. Even the infamous Edsel was produced briskly during its sad two years of existence 60 years ago. For contrast, the last risky rollout I watched was Ford's redesign of its flagship F-150 pickup truck in 2014, switching from a steel body to an aluminum one. There were issues, but Ford still managed to shift production in about two months at its Rouge Factory in Michigan. In short order, Ford was building more than 1,400 pickups a day. Tesla is closing in on manufacturing 2,500 Model 3s — but that's on a weekly basis. Until Tuesday, we were expecting 5,000 a week at the end of June. Then CEO Elon Musk did something very Muskian and issued a companywide stretch goal via email. Instead of 5,000 Model 3s a week, how about surging to 6,000?

Tesla is throwing people at the problem

Workers at Tesla's factory.Tesla Electrek obtained Musk's sprawling email, which also included stern warnings to Tesla's suppliers, tips on how to avoid meetings, directives about improving the build quality of Tesla vehicles, and a plea to Tesla's workforce — now moving to what he called "24/7" production of the Model 3 — to recruit 400 people a week to bulk up the headcount. Tesla hasn't done a competent job of designing a production system for the Model 3 that can hit that previous target of 5,000 in weekly production, and Musk's dream of creating a heavily automated assembly line has, by his own admission, failed. The solution is to throw people at the problem and find some ways to distribute partial blame to the supply chain, which for Tesla has often been fraught — for example, the Model X SUV's seats were such a botched job that Tesla decided to do them itself.

Musk needs to get better at building cars

Great car. Not building enough of them.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider Musk is a visionary, with all the pros and cons such a role entails. But as a manufacturing leader, he's a work in progress. The Model S, the first car Tesla built from scratch, had initial production problems, and the Model X was so overdesignedthat Musk later acknowledged that the company probably shouldn't have made it. Recently, he said he would be taking over Model 3 production and sleeping — again — on the factory floor in Fremont, California. There are no other auto CEOs who pitch sleeping bags on their factory floors. That's because their factories are capably managed by manufacturing professionals who could build 2,000 Model 3s a day with less drama than Tesla has brought to the undertaking. General Motors' Mary Barra oversaw the sale of 10 million vehicles last year and put an all-electric car with a 200-mile range on the road in 2016, a year and a half ahead of Musk. As a longtime Musk watcher, I don't find this surprising or out of character. But it is another case of the guy embracing his penchant for hubris, a quality he has freely acknowledged in the past. (I realize overconfidence is an integral part of Musk's personality.) In typical Silicon Valley fashion, however, Musk doesn't so much learn from his mistakes as double down on them to try to bend them to the force of his will.

Tesla's bad news overwhelms the good

Let's make this harder.Mike Blake/Reuters I'm not going to argue with Tesla about hiring more people — jobs are jobs, and in my interactions with the company, employees maintain that it's an inspiring place to work. But I will argue with Musk's tendency to take measurable progress and zoom past it to keep the troops motivated. Objectively, Tesla has done well in getting Model S and Model X production to where it should be. The system was, according to Musk, designed to make 100,000 cars a year, and that's what it's doing. The Model 3 system is supposed to take that to 500,000 — but that never made any sense. Tesla's factory, when it was operated by GM and Toyota in the 1980s, never hit that capacity, though it did get close. Despite the Model 3's difficult birth, Tesla has managed to achieve its own benchmark, producing about 2,500 a week to call it a tardy success. But if the company had simply delayed the launch by six months, a lot of this negative stuff might have been avoided. But rather than consolidate at that level and ensure that 2,500 a week is sustainable — something Tesla has repeatedly said it wants to do — the company has decided to push on toward more adventurous goals. Just like the premature launch and the over-designed manufacturing process, this is a mistake. Tesla needs to spend at least a few months learning how to mass-produce cars according to decades-old industry standards.

Musk doesn't always seem satisfied with good news

I'll take the bad news, then the bad news.Bobby Yip/Reuters

The Model 3 has been fairly well received by reviewers, including myself and my colleagues at Business Insider. That's good news.

Tesla sold more than 100,000 cars last year. That's good news.

China just changed a decades-old rule permitting Tesla to construct a factory in the country, without a Chinese partner. That's good news.

The carmaker hasn't made any money since it was founded, and yet its market cap is higher than Ford's. That's good (though baffling) news.

And the Model 3, at long last, was getting on track. Customers who preordered it, paying $1,000 each, could look forward to getting their cars.

But instead of enjoying that milestone, Musk has swept in on production and once more overloaded Tesla's limited capabilities. It might work. A surge to 6,000 Model 3s a week would be impressive and provide a margin of error to allow Tesla to fluctuate around that 5,000 target. But if it doesn't, it will be bad news, which Musk sometimes seems to prefer anyway. "Production hell," as he calls it, is where he likes to be. Tesla has made investors rich by minting crisis after crisis — so much so that you could argue that crisis is its real product — so it's possible they'll see this latest crushing objective as a chance to put their money into what they know. The auto market is strong in the US, and the economy is in reasonably good shape, so Tesla isn't going to be unduly punished for Musk's unorthodox and at times controversial management style. In the end, however, customers could suffer if the Model 3 continues to endure production challenges. They're a patient lot, but Tesla is asking much of them.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2HczY7c

[getseriouser]

20 THOUGHTS: 2017 Get Serious Awards for Football

THIS column has become such a juggernaut we are dedicating an entire column to our own version of honours for the 2017 season.

That whilst all the other scribes and bloggers and twitter menaces have their say on who was the best, the worst, their highlights of the season, why would I begrudge this snowball of an audience by not chipping in with our own version.

So as we celebrate the home and away year in this chasm between the last round and the first week of finals, let’s look back and reminisce by calling it as we see it, who outperformed, underperformed and work out just who had the shitter year out of Damien Barrett and Mark Robinson.

Some of the following awards are cliché and obvious, some though are a bit different and unique to the Get Serious platform, so get on board, get yourself a cupper and a bicky, and prepare to be enlightened.

 SURPRISE OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Liam Jones (Carlton), Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn), Ben Brown (North Melbourne)

 Winner: Ben Brown – Bloody hell, the once-third ruck option down at Arden St. almost won the Coleman in a team barely able to avoid the wooden spoon. And the crucial kicker to be as good as the season was, it won’t be a flash in the pan. Given he is only 24 Shinboner fans can expect him to build on his 63-goal season, which is a scary thought really.

  DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Gold Coast, Western Bulldogs, AFL Senior Executives, the married ones, who should know better….

 Winner: The Match Review Panel – stuff the nominees, we had to give it to the MRP. Do we need to explain this one, I mean Jack Redpath, Brodie Grundy, Toby Greene, the list goes on. Horrid, awful, un-Australian really…

  GAME OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Round 2 Geelong defeats North Melbourne by 1 point; Round 4 (Good Friday), Bulldogs defeats North Melbourne by 3 points; Round 14, Sydney defeats Essendon by 1 point; Round 19, Collingwood draw with Adelaide; Round 22, Adelaide defeats Sydney by 3 points.

 Winner: Round 4 (Good Friday), Bulldogs defeats North Melbourne by 3 points – great game, great occasion. There were so many close, exciting, high standard games this year, it was the best season on record for close finishes, but we loved this game back in April. It was well promoted, it worked beautifully as an initiative, and on the fast track at Etihad the final term especially was pulsating.

  COACH OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Don Pyke (Adelaide), John Longmire (Sydney), Damien Hardwick (Richmond)

 Winner: Don Pyke – Horse and Dimma are stiff but here’s why: Horse has got the Swans into great shape, but we’re going to knock a couple points off for the start of the year from a coaching standpoint, and Dimma, he would have yielded a similar result to last year if it wasn’t for two things, the soft draw and the turnover of assistants. Pyke has kept the Crows up all year and deserves the minor premiership.

  TEAM OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Adelaide Crows, Sydney Swans, Richmond

 Winner: Sydney Swans – so we knocked points off Longmire in the previous award, but the best team for much of the year were the Swans, who almost knocked off the top of the ladder Crows in Adelaide. Yes, not a super start, but since Round Six no-one comes close, a phenomenal performance, scary, and given the Dogs saluted from 7th last year, the 6th placed Swans are a massive show to go one better in 2017.

  THE ABEL TASMAN PERPETUAL PLATE (MISS OF THE YEAR)

Named after Dutch sailor Abel Tasman, who on his journeys centuries ago, discovered Tasmania, discovered New Zealand, but sailed straight past Australia, and instead of being a Commonwealth country under British rule, we so easily could have been pot-smoking tulip farmers. Bloody Abel.

 Runner Up: Josh Bruce (St Kilda) for not one but two shockers in the goal square, down in Tassie against Hawthorn and against Richmond at Etihad.

 Winner: Melbourne – when your marketing department comes up with the website banner for finals arrangements, you better do better than six first quarter tackles when Collingwood has already kicked six goals and stuff up the unmissable finals spot at the final hurdle.

   THE LANCE ARMSTRONG AWARD FOR HONESTY (LIE OF THE YEAR)

Runner Up: Perth radio shock-jock Who-Cares McSomebody who had Nat Fyfe as a lock to St Kilda, weeks later the Dockers captain re-committed to the club for five years.

 Winner: Jordan De Goey – blamed a broken hand on playing with the dog before eventually confessing he did it in a weekend scuffle at a watering hole. Now come on Jordan…

  THE Y2K BUG GOLDEN JUG (WORST PREDICTION OF THE YEAR)

Winner: Me – for predicting West Coast will finish a strong third or that I had Fremantle improving resoundingly into eight spot. Yuck.

   THE GET SERIOUS PREDICTION OF THE YEAR

Essendon – In the lead up to the season proper I was bullish about the Bombers in 2017, that the 2016 wooden spooner could do the unthinkable and ascend into a September appearance as early as a year later, and then March 30 suggested Dons fans get ready for finals, they are good enough now. Low and behold, they came through like a treat, well done to the club and the faithful alike, pretty amazing year.

  FIRST YEAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Nominees: Andrew McGrath (Essendon), Sam Petrveski-Seton (Carlton), Sam Powell-Pepper (Port Adelaide)

 Winner: Andrew McGrath (Essendon) – you don’t believe how much I wanted to award my pre-season Rising Star pick SPP but one must concede the Bombers defender did just enough to pip the bull from Alberton. Amazing poise and contribution, consistently over the entire year too, so whilst it’s closer than many think, especially those Victorians who don’t see enough of Port Adelaide, this one goes to McGrath.

  THE CHER MEMORIAL TROPHY (“If I could turn back time” REGRET OF THE YEAR)

Winner – Chris Mayne (Collingwood) – Four years. And VFL track-watchers advise his form in the seconds as the year progressed was hardly progressing either, not good. Four. Years.

  THE 1944 NORMANDY LANDINGS MEDAL (TACTICAL MOVE OF THE YEAR)

Winner: James Sicily (Hawthorn) – Sicily was an ‘ok’ key forward prospect in a club who started the season 3-6. Alastair Clarkson throws the magnets around, turns Sicily into a tall ranging midfielder and with great success it helps turn the Hawks season around. From that point, the Hawks lose only three of the next ten games and 22-year old averages 24 disposals and nine marks a game in that stretch – a superb positional move.

 THE GET SERIOUS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Nominees: Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong), Dustin Martin (Richmond), Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn)

Winner: Dustin Martin (Richmond) – Geelong are annoying but somehow get the job done, and hosted a preliminary final as recently as last year. The Tigers meanwhile stunk so bad last year if their coach not had this year already on his contract he would have been booted. We award this to Martin over Danger because of the influence he has had on his side finishing where it has. We rate the Cats list a little better than the Tigers list, structurally, especially with tall stocks, the Cats do a lot better than the Tigers. But the games that Martin has single handedly won are mesmerising, and not to downplay Dangers’ 2017, he has been a jet, this column just acknowledges that in our view, Martin was a smidge more valuable, a smidge more influential, a smidge better.

  And now the big one….

 THE SEAN SPICER ‘SWINGERS PARTY KEYS IN THE BOWL’ PAPER MACHE BOWL FOR OUTSTANDING MEDIA PERFORMANCE IN FOOTBALL JOURNALISM

Nominees:

Damien Barrett – ‘breaking’ the Rod Butters story about his alcohol and drug issues as President of St Kilda on the Footy Show when the Herald Sun ran the same tale as a feature six years ago, and also for being very boring, more narcissistic as the year progressed, and for claiming on his own podcast St Kilda had double standards for criticising Sam Newman’s transgender comments when by doing so was double standards in itself.

 Mark Stevens – late entry, but for following Dustin Martin to Auckland this week, chucking a microphone under his chin at the airport and expecting something. Martin is as introverted a footballer anyway, let alone the fact he was going to get nothing close to ‘hi Stevo, look, I can reveal to your audience exclusively, since you made the effort to make the trip over here, that I will be moving to North Melbourne next year”. And for ‘making up’ that the Pies want/need Jarrod Harbrow. Time to take a look in the mirror Stevo, average by you.

 Mark Robinson – one thing to send out an insensitive tweet about a player with depression, but it’s another thing to reach out with an apology letter, after being told not to, which included an interview request at the same time to further feather your own nest. Seriously you can’t make this stuff up sometimes.

 The Winner – Mark Robinson. Not a great year for the chiefy chief-chief of the sport’s biggest publisher. But the clincher for our friend Slobbo ‘Time to say no at the dinner table’ Robinson, was when he accused in the wake of Tom Boyd’s public battle with depression, that manager Liam Pickering or president Peter Gordon might be to blame for the illness, for not thinking of the psychological repercussions of the monster contract that Boyd signed in moving to the Dogs a couple years ago. Really? Very ordinary stuff. Time for a spell we think, maybe a ‘promotion’ to the classifieds section of the Colac Observer, or into photocopying for the Ovens Valley Bugle?

    (originally published August 30)

[poetryofchrist]

Assumptions

This has been written over several days while working on moving an office and Exodus 29 (to come soon) and getting a rats nest and dead babies and shredded mother out of my car. (Ugh). It may be a bit rambling. To add or infer prepositions, that is one question among many. Is something in apposition, or is a preposition implied by the verb when the preposition is lacking the the text? Every jot and tittle in the translation is an interpretation according to the biases of the method and the executioner of the text. (Ha, ha, ha - that was a joke, for surely, like the young bull, the text is also butchered by the translator.) It is clear in verse Exodus 29:11 for instance that there is no preposition in the text of the second colon, and there is no preposition implied by the verb that would carry over past the caesura to the second colon. Is then the bull = the door? Why not? Then another sacrifice can have the I am the door attributed to him by inference. וְשָׁחַטְתָּ֥ אֶת־הַפָּ֖ר לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה פֶּ֖תַח אֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד And you will butcher the young bull in the presence of Yahweh, the door of the tent of engagement. So what are my assumptions? Personally, I have been a part of Anglican Christian tradition in Canada as a choral musician since I was 8 years old. This began in 1953-54 in a brutal school modeled on all the worst implications of the King James translation. I did learn some music. But translations have been used to justify all sorts of egregious wrong and hurtful behaviour. Incidentally, hurt, רע, is derived from evil, רעע, so wherever the Hebrew is רע I have for some random reason, not necessarily made its root רעע. So where I have evil, you could substitute harm, hurt without compromise.  Harm and hurt are evil, and evil is done when harm or hurt are done. The word רעה is ambiguous and may resolve to a number of different roots and glosses. Here are the instances so far. Even friend and shepherd can be confused. רע harm(1), hurt(4), hurting(1), thought(1) רעה grazes(1), shepherd(11), tend(1), tending(1), tends(1) רעע evil(69) Note how often evil occurs in this form. רעה. The word for evil never occurs in its root form. There is too much data to see easily, but I was wondering how often I have resolved the word to a form of evil or injury rather than harm or hurt. Note the ambiguity of the Hebrew word by itself. Also I see that I have resolved רע to רעע more often than not. Why even call something a tri-literal root when it never occurs? It's a geminate. And it has to do with a linguistic lengthening of sound. Since it rarely (if ever) occurs with a double ayin I will let it stand but remove the distinction between these two, because my decisions are arbitrary.

Root Word Form (may be with prefix) My Glosses with prepositions and pronouns stripped רעע רע bad(1), evil(89), injury(2) רע רע dejected(2), dejection(2), harm(1), hurtful(1), thought(2) רעע מּרע evil(14) רעע בּרע evil(3) רעע לרע evil(3) רעה כּרע friend(1) רעה בּרע friend(1) רעה רע friend(1) רע בּרע grimace(1), harm(1) רע לרע hurt(2) רע מּרע hurtful(4)

What though do I know about language that I should undertake such a project as this? I don't know the answer to this question, but I assume that language has some power in it, and I wish to examine it with a degree of shrewdness (aka wisdom). I expect to be surprised. And its easy to become discouraged. But, hey, you learn as you go and you correct what you can. I assume the earliest writers made creative use of language, metaphor, play, coinage, and so on. Story informs more than regulation. But I read with rather fixed rules that are mediated by algorithms. So I am regulating the language I use in an odd way. I avoid using the same English gloss for two different Hebrew roots. I have just over 220 exceptions, but I know what they are if they haven't escaped the software net that I have written. I do not know if language and story work this way but so far I have not been stymied, but I have often been discouraged. I am reducing the number of different roots in the standard Hebrew glossaries. I may find based on word forms and usage that I can tease out the distinctions again when the reduced glossary is complete. I also hope to see word families emerge. What about religious assumptions? Do I have to be some type of Christian, hold some class of views on atonement or penal substitution or whatever? Emphatically not. While I know the work of Jesus and I take incarnation seriously, I am appalled by the history of Christendom and its prejudice against its own roots. It is steeped in the evil we call abuse of power. Having been weighed in the balance and been found wanting, it has lost its authority. I still hear sermons, but most of them are pretty hard to take. What about marriage of divorced persons? Or female-male equality? Or gay-straight relations? Funny how all these contemporary problems are related to sex.  And I thought the 19th century was prudish. Does sex and gender inform my translation? Yes. The screen writer of a relatively recent mystery (Grantchester season 2) joked that God was not interested in what goes on in the bedroom (in much less polite language). I concur with Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who quipped that 'the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation', but such cannot be so quipped of God. One must be careful of some words in a sentence. Whatever one's tradition, it is clear that the body is in the presence of a holy mystery, not a comedic one (though context is everything). While the state has no business in some ways, violence, exploitation, and hurt are its business and they frequently accompany this issue. My short conclusion is that most religious traditions are ambiguous, confused, and often wrong. So where are our deep questions that go beyond regulation, necessary though that may be? So if you must have a name for my opinions, I am egalitarian with respect to my humanity. I am opposed to what hurts another. Faithfulness finds a binding that heals rather than separates. This leaves me with plenty of difficulty. If you have read my e-novel, Seen from the Street, you will find my biases plain. (I have little financial interest to speak of with this e-book. I gave it to an unemployed Brahman priest in India. He pays me if he sees fit. Whether it is well written or not, I have written what I thought was my truth in it.) Having with anguish and pain put Christendom to one side, (but I have not put aside Jesus or his work, and how he and his work relate to the Old Testament), what other religious assumptions are there? Why is this work of literature in the Biblical canon so important for three religious traditions? What other book do we read this way? Even if I read critically, I am still faced with the enormous love exhibited by the copyists. Why would anyone treat a text with such diligence and tenderness over such an extended time-period? But equally, if we really want to be right, we have to do more than defer to a text. What about political assumptions? I have no bias toward the divine right of monarchs. We are all sovereign, but what will we do with such a responsibility? Where will we get the power to live as we ought? And what does such an ethical word do to us? It's not a matter of morality but of justice, and of care, as I have noted before. How can we govern ourselves with care for others and with justice? The Psalms promise that Yahweh will judge us accordingly and it is supposed to be and is good news. Seeking such equity is a serious hope. It is not achieved by exploitation, enforced conformity, or violence. God help us. from Blogger http://ift.tt/2ujwLvF via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger