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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. Carl Torbush says, "Wow!" Edit - Already referenced.
  2. Meh. There's something in our human wiring where every generation acts like that to one degree or another. The truth is that an element of ignorance is required for almost any action to take place. We have to discount what came before us to go to somewhere new. And being ignorant of the consequences of this new path is often helpful to actually taking steps towards that path. Unfortunately, sometimes that path leads to going over a cliff. But we're purposefully wired to create independence from what came before us. There is also the need to synthesize, so that happens too. I think the huge difference now is that our evolutionary methods of socialization don't work the same way any more. There have been challenges previously. When we moved from small hunter gatherer tribes subsisting on the edge of extermination in East Africa, feeding off bone marrow after the apex predators and the carrion eaters had their fill, to larger multi family tribes who shared oral traditions and passed down knowledge from one generation to the next in a way that had never been done by any other species, to larger city states with their domesticated food sources, to the invention of writing, to horses, ships, roads, and various empires, fast forward to the printing press, and the various speeds in communication. With social media we now have a world where no matter how outlandish your views, there's a community out there that shares it. We all have this push/pull of separating ourselves from a community so we can better understand who we are outside the confines of that identity, but also craving the connection and shared meaning that comes with being a part of something bigger than ourselves as an individual. With social media, no matter how toxic those views are, we can find a community that shares that same toxicity - thrives on it, even - and so we can have both. A big example, and I use it often, is there are online communities devoted to suicide. If someone googles "how can I kill myself" or other thoughts on suicide, a message board/chat room comes up in the search algorithm. In there, people ostensibly offering help, providing a sympathetic ear, are actually jockeying for who will be the person who convinces the latest victim to pull the trigger and kill themselves. This is horrific, and they know this. But they are socializing each other to engage in this activity by their shared actions. Think of it this way. Let's say 10% of the population is born with psychopathy - the innate inability to empathize with others. Raised in a certain environment, they will learn to mimic empathy, even though they don't feel it themselves, in an attempt to fit in with those around them. Here's a decent article about a neurologist who discovered he's a psychopath. He wrote a book about it. The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath Social media has "helped" us leapfrog evolutionary mechanisms to assist us in living together. We're not evolutionarily designed to live in large groups. We're evolutionarily designed to live in small groups. Say, less than 50, but probably even way less than that. We were just such a successful species we grew larger co-habitation environments, and adopted strategies to co-exist. But by and large we still have huge genocidal tendencies. We instinctually bond by identifying other enemy tribes. It's as simple as rooting for similar sports teams while hating our rivals. Or being annoyed when an android user joins a group chat and the text turns from blue to green. Or demonizing the opposing political group. What keeps that from happening to some degree is the socialization process. We resent the socialization process. It feels like it diminishes our free will by compelling us to take on the values of those around us. We feel like ants in a hive. But without a socialization process we have break downs in social order, as various tribes within a larger construct start competing with one another for resources in internecine warfare. What propels those individual tribes to form is linking together to identify common enemies. Often times extreme views can produce the most extreme loyalty to the tribe. They're identification markers. More moderate view holders tend to have a looser connection where the bonds aren't as strong. So what we're seeing with this generation as much as anything are dynamics as old as humanity itself, exacerbated by technology and the breakdown of traditional socialization techniques.
  3. It's in the title of the clip. Joyeux Noel. True story. It's based on this book: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce: Weintraub, Stanley: 9780452283671: Amazon.com: Books
  4. It says there Missouri went 3-27 in SEC play. Does anyone know who those 3 wins were against and where they played? Must have won them at home, right?
  5. The only person in my family that I'm personally aware of who died in service was my grandfather's younger brother, George Wolgamott (even though pretty much every male in my family served in the armed services). My grandfather, Don, flew B-17s but was so good they made him an instructor and told him he was unavailable for deployment. He was too valuable as an instructor. George and Don were two of 5 brothers. Don was second youngest. George was the youngest. They also had 7 sisters. Tenant farming community in Hartford, Kansas on the border with Oklahoma. Parents immigrated from Germany. Don and George were 1st generation born in the US (along with all their brothers and sisters). Don signed up the day after Pearl Harbor. George signed up when he turned 18. George wanted to be a pilot like his older brother Don, but his eyesight wasn't 20/20 like Don's. He ended up flying a prop reconnaissance plane over enemy lines in Europe, and was shot down by the Germans. Granddad always felt like if he could have deployed, he could have saved his younger brother's life. It doesn't make realistic sense, but that's always how he felt. I wish I could have known my grand uncle and the family he never had. I had two cousins. My Dad was an only child, and my Mom had one brother. Uncle Roka had two kids. Both served in the military. The older cousin, Rocky, wanted to be a pilot like his grandfather. He ended up retiring as a warrant officer as an instructor flying Apaches. He's still flying missions in Europe as a contract employee. My younger cousin, Brodie, served in the Army, deployed mostly in Germany. Got out after his single 4 year enlistment. Every Memorial Day weekend he would make a post on social media explaining to everyone in his social circle the sacred difference between Memorial Dad and Veterans Day, and tell the story about our grand uncle George. Brodie died almost 5 years ago in a motorcycle accident at the age of 50. Every Memorial Day since then I think of George, and I also think of Brodie, who did his part to remember our family member who gave his life in defense of his country. Thank you to George and to all the brave Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country regardless of conflict or even in peace time operations. This day is for you.
  6. You mean forever? Is that what you mean by many moons? There is zero chance Texas is ever going to be accepted as one of them. And good. We're going to win too much. We're going to be way too arrogant about it. And at the end of the day, we really do think we're better than everyone else in this conference, and that's never going to go over well.
  7. I don't understand how changing it from a collapsed bonfire to a collapsed dumpster fire is fixing it.
  8. "I'd run through a collapsed bonfire for Michael Earley."
  9. I hope Ohio State gets another 7 Big Noon kickoff games this year. It's going to be hilarious. See if Penn State will move their kickoff to a different day to make that a prime time matchup. It's the Horseshoe! At night! Hahahahaha!
  10. People also underestimated how big he was. AJ Hawk, the Ohio State linebacker, said tackling Young was like tackling a tree trunk. I remember watching him in high school and defenders just bounced off him. When Vince was behind the line of scrimmage looking to throw downfield he acted as if opposing players weren't even there. If he ever happened to get sacked it literally looked like a tree falling down, with Vince looking baffled as if this could ever even happen.
  11. Bruce Feldman had a recent article for The Athletic where he rated Vince Young the #7 rated player overall of the 2000s. He had Cam Newton and Reggie Bush as #1 and #2. Kirk Bohls sent him a thumbs up emoticon. No Colt McCoy anywhere on the list. It seems crazy to say, but Vince Young is underrated nationally for how good he was. The best player I've ever seen. Better than Earl Campbell, high school and college, and I don't say that lightly. I say that to emphasize how unbelievable he was. What he did with Madison HS his senior year shouldn't have been possible. Even his first year in the NFL was incredible, until poor personal decisions and playing for Jeff Fisher caught up with him. But he had a sensational second half of a season that year after Fisher let him take over the starting role. What could have been. Ah well. I cherish all the memories I have.
  12. Where is Trev Alberts on here?
  13. Dia Bell's younger brother is a top prospect, too, although he's only a freshman right now. Apparently Raja Bell LOVES Sean Miller.
  14. I know what you're saying. It's going to be harder to involve the running backs in the passing game when every deep ball Arch throws goes for a touchdown. And don't talk to me about incompletions or interceptions. There will be none of that. Maybe they can catch a pass every now and then on a wheel route deep down field on a mismatch with a linebacker.
  15. You are very declarative about things that are hardly set in stone. I'm not saying you're wrong. I have not watched either player. I'm saying that what the tape is telling you is not as certain about determining what kind of player they are in college as you make it sound. That said, the staff isn't always going to be correct in their evaluations, and at the least I admire and appreciate your willingness to constantly form your own opinion, regardless about how right or wrong that opinion ends up being.
  16. Jordan Scruggs from Horns247 extensively quotes his trainer, Bernard "Bam" Blake, on what kind of player Texas is getting. I'll be honest. I don't worry about whether Texas hits on every recruitment. Not every kid has to be a 5 star - nor can they be. What I get concerned with is if Texas is filling up with players who are not as highly touted because they're trying to build momentum, they can't successfully recruit the more talented athletes, or they're too lazy to do the work to go outside the immediate area to identify the highest level of talent. None of those three things describe this staff. The worse thing I could speculate about this recruitment is they're trying to maintain tight relations with Blake, but given his track record with DBs, including Taafe, Barron, and Mukuba, that's not the worst thing in the world to happen. They decided this kid would be a good fit. Whatever role he plays - and for all I know he's a multiple year AA - he seems like he'll be an amazing culture fit. I'm excited to see how he develops. Here's the article Scruggs wrote quoting Blake: Texas lands Austin Anderson three-star safety Yaheim "Miami" Riley
  17. I mean, Texas could get one from Anderson every year if they wanted.
  18. So 60% of their history isn't considered "much" in your opinion? Are you saying that period didn't have an impact on their current culture? I don't think I'm understanding your point.
  19. I spent a great deal of time on the NC State message boards for a few years in the late 1990s. I started there by researching Mack Brown, and ended up staying because they were hilarious. But the way they viewed UNC struck me as very similar to how A&M views Texas. And the way they perceived UNC viewed them was exactly how I felt I perceived A&M. It's actually quite a common dynamic among flagship versus land grant schools. Michigan and Michigan State certainly have a lot of it. The difference is that A&M was an all male compulsory ROTC school for much of its history, and because of that its cultural foundations are very odd.
  20. Well, the biggest reasons are two fold. They are just a really weird bunch with a ton of entertaining cognitive dissonances. We talk about them so much because they're so much fun to talk about. They give us so much material. Every. Day. Sooners...not as much. The second reason is they're so damn many of them these days, and we encounter Aggies more regularly in our daily lives. And any time you mention Texas to any of them, they so often manage to slide in a disparaging remark even if you've never met them before. So over the years it has become more personal. In the 70s, we hardly even thought about Aggie. They were a smallish student body just beginning to integrate. Not people of color. I'm unconvinced they've ever been that awesome in that regard. People with vaginas. With a 70,000 student body pumping out diploma mill graduates, I can't even get away from them if I wanted to in Houston these days. I know there are more Sooners in the DFW area, but in Houston they're practically non existent. There are way more LSU fans here than Sooner fans.
  21. That chokehold education would have been well served in other parts of the athletic department.
  22. I don't know any details. It's going to hamper them regardless when he passes on. He's basically Oregon's PUF. Half the campus is named for him or a family member.
  23. Because Kirk Bohls put a number out there. This is how reporting works. No one has time or the means to figure out what the truth is. So what they look for instead is someone authoritative they can cite. This isn't limited to sports. War reporting is especially bad, but it's any topic, really. How many deaths were there in the battle yesterday? I don't know, but the Russian ministry of defense reports this many. Same thing happened with Ohio State last year. Before the season the athletic director says they'll have a payroll of $20m, so everyone in the world said they had a payroll of $20m. The payroll was well north of that. Closer to $25m. But that doesn't matter because the athletic director stated before the season in an off hand way it was $20m, so everyone in the world could quote that and be covered. When people say Texas has a payroll of between $35m to $40m, they say according to the Houston Chronicle, and that's about the end of their fact checking. Nobody else covering a team has put a number out there, so Texas makes headlines. That's how it works.
  24. Rumor is he's leaving $6b. I believe that's just for the athletic department. Probably more for the general fund. But it's not like I've seen his will nor has anyone I've talked to. Just a rumor.
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