The NFL dominates because they make their product scarce: the best teams play 21 times per season. Every single play, individual performance matters. Yes, basketball players can in fact play so much more often — the grind of a football game is obviously much more difficult.
If NBA teams played everyone in their division twice and scheduled 8-12 more games, it would close the gap between the regular season and playoffs (which are nearly two different sports, the way the NBA is constructed currently).
You've written about the NBA's Twitter-ization of roster and player movement — this would put every single performance under a microscope like we do in the NFL. Twitter booms, sports betting booms, fantasy basketball booms, ticket prices boom, players are less likely to get injured.
I have a trillion other thoughts on this, but this is the basis.
Someone explain to me how wearing shoes in your residence is not utterly disgusting. How many times have you stood in someone else’s urine and you know what flakes in a public restroom? You do so frequently, so take your shoes OFF.
Breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day. When you need to go so far out of your way to promote a meal, maybe that is a meal you should skip. Fuck breakfast!
The situation between Jacob Panetta and Jordan Subban and its aftermath is detrimental to race relations in hockey, but not in the way most media institutions have been framing it.
TL;DR - Last Saturday in the ECHL (minor league hockey), Panetta (who is white) and Subban (who is black) were chirping on the ice after a play. Panetta taunted him with a pose that he says was a Hulk/muscleman pose and Subban perceived a monkey pose and thus a racial insult. Subban's brother P.K. retweets a video showing the incident which gains over a million views on Twitter. Within one day, Panetta gets dragged online, receives a suspension from the league for 38 games, and is cut by by his team. Panetta posts an apology maintaining his pose was not racially motivated, while also understanding Subban's perception of it as such. A couple days later Panetta's former teammates issue a statement in support of his character and stating that they have seen Panetta do that pose to white players multiple times. No follow-up from either of the Subbans since the day of the gesture.
I've seen 2 different angles of the incident and neither gives me reasonable certainty that Panetta was impersonating a monkey. Much of the conversation, early and ongoing, has been about if Panetta's intent in making the gesture matters. Most sports outlets, including The Athletic have said that Panetta's intent is irrelevant and, "that's a good thing." I've seen suggestions that Panetta, at the very least, should have been wise enough to not make the flex pose to a black player, knowing that it could be misread as a monkey pose. I find that take to be a little too full of hindsight, but Panetta himself, in his apology, acknowledged Subban, and all black hockey players, have had to endure racial slurs hurled their way on the ice and he understands why Subban took it the way he did.
I think all this is bad to race relations because it's another example of optics winning out over growth and understanding. Panetta was released without any known investigation into the incident or his character, which is in-line with the ethos of 'intent doesn't matter.' Younger white hockey players will remember this and engage less with black hockey players in fear of what they do or say being misperceived. We should be encouraging MORE engagement*, having more conversations (offline preferably), and having a greater understanding of each other's different experiences. Having Panetta and Subban sit down and talk about what happened, covering all aspects of this misunderstanding including the crap Subban has had to endure through his life leading up to it, would do a hell of a lot more to end racism in hockey than sending one minor-leaguer into the sun.
*This should go without saying but I'll say it anyway: "More engagement" is not code for more exposure to racism. It's more shared experiences.
Ethan, I know you don't typically cover hockey, but I immediately thought of you when I heard about this story because of its intersection of sports, culture, and journalism. If you do end up doing something about this, I'd love to read it.
1) Racism virtually doesn’t exist in America today. I say virtually, because it will probably never completely go away. On a scale of 1-100, with 100 being during slavery, racism is at around a 10-15. And most of that comes from older people and people living in poor, rural areas.
2) There should have been zero Covid mitigations in the world after June 2020, when we had one month of data showing that places opening up in early May saw no spike in cases. If we could go back in time, by June 1 we should have returned to 2019 life — no restrictions, including mask requirements.
Ethan, I always enjoyed your Warriors coverage and love your substack. Could college football be barreling down the path to a structure that might look a lot like the relegation system of the English Premier League? The 8-12 most powerful schools join together to form the premier league. A second tier of schools form a second division?
Every time I hear someone mention "hey, why doesn't American professional sports league X consider adopting the relegation model of the EPL?", I scoff. Owners bought franchises that were valued based on a static set of teams in the league, a league that they can never be jettisoned from. They're never going to agree to putting their franchise value at risk by introducing relegation. This is absolutely laughable and will never happen. File this under things that will only happen if an an entirely new league sprouts out of nowhere.
However, college football isn't a franchise system. Once you take the NCAA out of the equation, anything is possible.
Is this an indication that we've reached an inflection point where America is actually losing the soft war to China? Or is this a product of the uniqueness of San Francisco's educational system / culture / environment that's so anti-American that someone born here and educated here decides that they would rather represent a communist country?
NFL teams who don't have a good QB should use ~50% of their draft capital on QBs and carry up to 6 QBs on their roster to evaluate and develop them until they find the guy.
The Expanse - mostly ignored by the mainstream for some inexplicable reason - is both the best hard sci-fi ever made, and up there with the great shows of all time like The Wire and Breaking Bad. The quality of the writing is superb, the character arcs meaningful, the continuity consistent, the foreshadowing immensely powerful (eg. something in S1E1 forshadows the entire arc from S5 onwards), and the space battles are easily the best ever put on a screen. Sure, there are a few tropey scenes in the first few episodes, but from S1E4 onwards it only gets better, deeper and more impactful. And what's more, it is simultaneously an incredible commentary on the state of our world today (think Earth is US/EU, Mars is China, the Belt is the developing world), and a plausible scenario for what will happen if humans discover a fusion drive in the next few hundred years, assuming we make it out of this century. Push through the initial resistance and watch it, I guarantee you will be hooked once you work out what the hell is happening.
Why are people writing so many articles and crying about “cancel culture” so much, when it affects basically nobody except a few rich folks with really offensive takes (who then go on to make millions crying about it on the “I was cancelled” tour)? It’s nothing more than the public saying, “hey, that’s a really crappy thing to say/do”. And it’s never been easier in all of human history to have your voice heard, what with social media. Nobody’s actually getting “cancelled”.
Then there’s barely a whisper about the literal government in states (with bills proposed in over 35 states the last I checked) passing laws telling teachers what can and can’t be taught in in history and English classes. This affects millions and millions of kids not learning actual history and facts, and it’s putting muzzles on hundreds of thousands of teachers. How many people know that Indiana has 10 bills in the works or that Missouri has more than 15? This stuff is *literally* the government trying to erase the public’s knowledge of history. But we’ve all heard *so much* about “cancel culture”? Why so much disparity in coverage In favor of a made up issue that doesn’t involve any abuse of power vs a real thing that the force of government is doing?
A lot of the debate on whether the government should forgive student loan debt overlooks the most important point: how did we get here in the first place and what do we do to prevent such a large debt problem going forward? Giving out loans to pay for any old institution that will give someone a diploma is moral hazardy at best, predatory lending at worst.
Defense is really important for improving viewership numbers and health of a sport. This helps create parity and make a sport more interesting.
For example, in cricket, especially test cricket which is mainly played by the commonwealth countries. till 2017 it was drab and one sided affairs with conditions being suited for batting and bowling (or pitching) was at a low point, leading to reduced viewership. In 2018, ICC and the boards informally decided to help improve conditions for bowlers and this has resulted in more parity amongst the teams!
Though everyone in the media keeps talking about the death of test cricket, this is perhaps the time people watch it more since the 1970s and every team is competitive.
There is no imminent collapse of Honey Bees in America. Key points:
1.) The introduction of varroa mites in 1987 was thought to kill all feral honey bee colonies. (very recently, a few feral colonies have been found in upstate NY which seem to have an adaptation to survive the mite.)
2.) Honey bee populations have remained steady over the last 30 years despite the varroa mite and other unknown ailments.
3.) The market forces driving sustained bee populations are mostly pollination fees for almonds in California, not honey production.
So if you really want to save the supposedly endangered honey bees, ditch the bumper sticker, buy almonds, and if you live near a commercial beekeeper, buy him a drink (it's a tough life).
Tom Brady is mythologized as a tough leader, but the guy walked out on his pregnant girlfriend and couldn't get along with the greatest nfl coach of all time.
Criminals and gangsters will find a way to profit off NIL. NIL just feels rife for organized crime somehow (money laundering?), not sure how, not that smart. Would love to hear you talk NIL with an expert on callin.
Slot machines on phones will just be the tip of the iceberg (astute insight from one of your callin guests). Getting the female, non-masc male, LGBT/gender community, grannies, etc. into gambling is the next move. If they could somehow find a way to gamble on animal crossing they could print money. Is there a way to fuse K Pop with gambling? You get the picture.
The NBA are consistently dropping the ball when it comes to the international development of the league. The Premier League recently agreed a broadcast contract in the USA worth $2.7bn per annum. The NBA's current domestic contract, the main breadwinner, is worth around $3bn. One league has learned how to build their offering and maximise international revenues while the other was left heavily dependent on a partnership with just one country, China.
It is genuinely staggering that the NBA has been so poor at 'growing the game' and building their own revenue streams. English is the lingua franca of the world and the NBA has a saleable product that is littered with international stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic. You can sell all of these players and give people a reason to watch the product.
My other hot-take is that the NBA's product can be pretty shit. I enjoy watching the game of basketball and seeing the nightly contests between teams but man can it be difficult. The frequent stoppages, the lengthy time outs (ad breaks) and drawn out foul reviews take all of the rhythm out of the game. It also means that a quarter which should take 12 minutes ends taking 45 minutes. By that point, the viewer's attention is elsewhere and they have disengaged from watching the game.
The NBA also completely craps on their product by lacking flexibility when it comes to scheduling. Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies are super fun to watch and yet they barely ever play on national television. A team like the Grizzlies or Cavaliers have broad appeal to nearly every demographic. Basketball nerds can appreciate lesser known stars getting their chance to show out. An underdog team like Memphis also appeals to families; everybody likes an underdog. Selling the hottest, most exciting team in the league is a strategy that should not really go wrong.
And yet the NBA have persisted with their strategy of ensuring that teams like Boston, the Lakers and the Knicks are constantly on our TV screens. All three teams are dreadfully mediocre and lack any real sense of excitement. The only excitement around these teams is the drama that circles the roster and that is not a reason for people to tune in and watch games.
I'm a Thunder fan and I have been for five years. I will be the first to say that this year's roster is young, inexperienced and will make you tear your hair out but these dudes are fun as anything. Why not put SGA or Giddey on TV for people to enjoy?
Replace the NFL draft with free agency for incoming rookies. To make up for the missing entertainment aspect, turn it into a TV show like Shark Tank, but with multiple teams trying to pitch to top prospects.
To help out struggling teams now that they aren't getting high draft picks anymore, teams that miss the playoffs get a little extra cap space.
I have general anxiety. I believe not every mental health issue needs to be treated with gentle compassion. In many cases, a kick in the ass — some tough love — is more effective.
At least - it can be fought intellegently, and we can make progress towards actually reducing the bad effects of drugs.
But we would need to actually think about what we're doing, where the harm comes from, and how to prevent it.
Some examples:
Heroin - does not cause people to commit crimes, except to acquire it. Give people drugs and clean needles, we are not eradicating it.
Weed - we need to think ahead. When it is legalized nationally, we could have huge corps with large amounts of power, advertising during the super bowl, insanely cheap prices with minimal taxes. That is if we do nothing.
Alcohol, cocaine, Meth - the people committing crimes from using these drugs are almost all going through the justice system. We should be getting 90% off those drugs and into a stable environment with a job, routine, etc.
As far as I can tell, the whole discussion of drugs in this country is either "drugs bad" or "drugs ok"
Social credit scores will be introduced in “progressive” cities to incentivise people to not steal. That’s the only thing I can think of why petty theft is essentially legal in some cities.
I'm late on responding to this, but I used to absolutely love everything about the olympics. You could not change the channel for two weeks every couple of years. I couldn't get enough of it and would watch anything and enjoy it. And that's all I talked about with my friends, family and co-workers. For gods sake I would stop everything just to watch curling! Now I don't know what has happened. I could care less now and only watch a token USA hockey match or womens floor gymnastics competition. I can't be the only one. NBC's ratings are in the toilet.
I actually don’t have a take per se on the JRE and the hot air around it at the minute. But just floating the topic out there so as to see if you will explore it soon!
Take: I think Giannis’ win in Milwaukee actually has shown some preliminary signs as being a trendsetter in regards to NBA Stars wanting to create a legacy via being adorned in one city/franchise. Dame was already doing this…but there are signs of Ja, Beal.
My guess is that you were trying to determine something like......what subjects people would talk about most or how they would talk about particular subjects or perhaps if people would turn it into an online discussion of those topics.
Was this about gauging the interests of your readership to inform your future writing?
How exciting!
The data show that people mostly got caught up in a debate about a particular take.
I was expecting more humour overall, although there were some funny ones.
Bone-in Pork Chops are better than Bone-in new york strip when both are cooked with equal spices and both are cooked appropriately in a cast-iron skillet. This can also be a hot take about steak being the most overrated meat. Crispy livers are better. Lamb is much better. Steak is a tough meat that needs a lot of other things to happen in order for it to be optimally made. My must-haves with steak right now are kale and mushrooms (cooked obviously, with soy sauce, pepper, paprika and Italian seasoning{herbs}).
Hmm, message in a bottle. Maybe it would be interesting to revisit that time Sting performed at the All-Star game. 2016 feels like an inflection point for the NBA, among other things, in retrospect.
The NBA should adopt an NFL-style season.
The NFL dominates because they make their product scarce: the best teams play 21 times per season. Every single play, individual performance matters. Yes, basketball players can in fact play so much more often — the grind of a football game is obviously much more difficult.
If NBA teams played everyone in their division twice and scheduled 8-12 more games, it would close the gap between the regular season and playoffs (which are nearly two different sports, the way the NBA is constructed currently).
You've written about the NBA's Twitter-ization of roster and player movement — this would put every single performance under a microscope like we do in the NFL. Twitter booms, sports betting booms, fantasy basketball booms, ticket prices boom, players are less likely to get injured.
I have a trillion other thoughts on this, but this is the basis.
Water, better with no ice
The current gambling ads are the modern day equivalent of the 1950s “more doctors smoke camels” cigarette ads.
Someone explain to me how wearing shoes in your residence is not utterly disgusting. How many times have you stood in someone else’s urine and you know what flakes in a public restroom? You do so frequently, so take your shoes OFF.
No hot take to report here, just wanted to say thanks to Ethan for the substack and glad he's feeling better after Covid.
Why does it seem the biggest voices in criminal justice reformer are also the loudest for severe punishments for social justice taboos?
Bring back Radio Ethan
Breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day. When you need to go so far out of your way to promote a meal, maybe that is a meal you should skip. Fuck breakfast!
The situation between Jacob Panetta and Jordan Subban and its aftermath is detrimental to race relations in hockey, but not in the way most media institutions have been framing it.
If you haven't heard about this story, watch this video and see if you can tell what starts the scruff at around 50 seconds: https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/sf1zok/full_incident_alternate_angle_subban_panetta/?ref=share&ref_source=link
TL;DR - Last Saturday in the ECHL (minor league hockey), Panetta (who is white) and Subban (who is black) were chirping on the ice after a play. Panetta taunted him with a pose that he says was a Hulk/muscleman pose and Subban perceived a monkey pose and thus a racial insult. Subban's brother P.K. retweets a video showing the incident which gains over a million views on Twitter. Within one day, Panetta gets dragged online, receives a suspension from the league for 38 games, and is cut by by his team. Panetta posts an apology maintaining his pose was not racially motivated, while also understanding Subban's perception of it as such. A couple days later Panetta's former teammates issue a statement in support of his character and stating that they have seen Panetta do that pose to white players multiple times. No follow-up from either of the Subbans since the day of the gesture.
I've seen 2 different angles of the incident and neither gives me reasonable certainty that Panetta was impersonating a monkey. Much of the conversation, early and ongoing, has been about if Panetta's intent in making the gesture matters. Most sports outlets, including The Athletic have said that Panetta's intent is irrelevant and, "that's a good thing." I've seen suggestions that Panetta, at the very least, should have been wise enough to not make the flex pose to a black player, knowing that it could be misread as a monkey pose. I find that take to be a little too full of hindsight, but Panetta himself, in his apology, acknowledged Subban, and all black hockey players, have had to endure racial slurs hurled their way on the ice and he understands why Subban took it the way he did.
I think all this is bad to race relations because it's another example of optics winning out over growth and understanding. Panetta was released without any known investigation into the incident or his character, which is in-line with the ethos of 'intent doesn't matter.' Younger white hockey players will remember this and engage less with black hockey players in fear of what they do or say being misperceived. We should be encouraging MORE engagement*, having more conversations (offline preferably), and having a greater understanding of each other's different experiences. Having Panetta and Subban sit down and talk about what happened, covering all aspects of this misunderstanding including the crap Subban has had to endure through his life leading up to it, would do a hell of a lot more to end racism in hockey than sending one minor-leaguer into the sun.
*This should go without saying but I'll say it anyway: "More engagement" is not code for more exposure to racism. It's more shared experiences.
Ethan, I know you don't typically cover hockey, but I immediately thought of you when I heard about this story because of its intersection of sports, culture, and journalism. If you do end up doing something about this, I'd love to read it.
Two from me:
1) Racism virtually doesn’t exist in America today. I say virtually, because it will probably never completely go away. On a scale of 1-100, with 100 being during slavery, racism is at around a 10-15. And most of that comes from older people and people living in poor, rural areas.
2) There should have been zero Covid mitigations in the world after June 2020, when we had one month of data showing that places opening up in early May saw no spike in cases. If we could go back in time, by June 1 we should have returned to 2019 life — no restrictions, including mask requirements.
The government is not in control of your life; you are.
Ethan, I always enjoyed your Warriors coverage and love your substack. Could college football be barreling down the path to a structure that might look a lot like the relegation system of the English Premier League? The 8-12 most powerful schools join together to form the premier league. A second tier of schools form a second division?
Every time I hear someone mention "hey, why doesn't American professional sports league X consider adopting the relegation model of the EPL?", I scoff. Owners bought franchises that were valued based on a static set of teams in the league, a league that they can never be jettisoned from. They're never going to agree to putting their franchise value at risk by introducing relegation. This is absolutely laughable and will never happen. File this under things that will only happen if an an entirely new league sprouts out of nowhere.
However, college football isn't a franchise system. Once you take the NCAA out of the equation, anything is possible.
Ethan, curious if you're following this story ...
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/33160624/olympics-2022-freeski-star-eileen-gu-delicate-balancing-act-china-us
Is this an indication that we've reached an inflection point where America is actually losing the soft war to China? Or is this a product of the uniqueness of San Francisco's educational system / culture / environment that's so anti-American that someone born here and educated here decides that they would rather represent a communist country?
NFL teams who don't have a good QB should use ~50% of their draft capital on QBs and carry up to 6 QBs on their roster to evaluate and develop them until they find the guy.
The Expanse - mostly ignored by the mainstream for some inexplicable reason - is both the best hard sci-fi ever made, and up there with the great shows of all time like The Wire and Breaking Bad. The quality of the writing is superb, the character arcs meaningful, the continuity consistent, the foreshadowing immensely powerful (eg. something in S1E1 forshadows the entire arc from S5 onwards), and the space battles are easily the best ever put on a screen. Sure, there are a few tropey scenes in the first few episodes, but from S1E4 onwards it only gets better, deeper and more impactful. And what's more, it is simultaneously an incredible commentary on the state of our world today (think Earth is US/EU, Mars is China, the Belt is the developing world), and a plausible scenario for what will happen if humans discover a fusion drive in the next few hundred years, assuming we make it out of this century. Push through the initial resistance and watch it, I guarantee you will be hooked once you work out what the hell is happening.
Why are people writing so many articles and crying about “cancel culture” so much, when it affects basically nobody except a few rich folks with really offensive takes (who then go on to make millions crying about it on the “I was cancelled” tour)? It’s nothing more than the public saying, “hey, that’s a really crappy thing to say/do”. And it’s never been easier in all of human history to have your voice heard, what with social media. Nobody’s actually getting “cancelled”.
Then there’s barely a whisper about the literal government in states (with bills proposed in over 35 states the last I checked) passing laws telling teachers what can and can’t be taught in in history and English classes. This affects millions and millions of kids not learning actual history and facts, and it’s putting muzzles on hundreds of thousands of teachers. How many people know that Indiana has 10 bills in the works or that Missouri has more than 15? This stuff is *literally* the government trying to erase the public’s knowledge of history. But we’ve all heard *so much* about “cancel culture”? Why so much disparity in coverage In favor of a made up issue that doesn’t involve any abuse of power vs a real thing that the force of government is doing?
A lot of the debate on whether the government should forgive student loan debt overlooks the most important point: how did we get here in the first place and what do we do to prevent such a large debt problem going forward? Giving out loans to pay for any old institution that will give someone a diploma is moral hazardy at best, predatory lending at worst.
Defense is really important for improving viewership numbers and health of a sport. This helps create parity and make a sport more interesting.
For example, in cricket, especially test cricket which is mainly played by the commonwealth countries. till 2017 it was drab and one sided affairs with conditions being suited for batting and bowling (or pitching) was at a low point, leading to reduced viewership. In 2018, ICC and the boards informally decided to help improve conditions for bowlers and this has resulted in more parity amongst the teams!
Though everyone in the media keeps talking about the death of test cricket, this is perhaps the time people watch it more since the 1970s and every team is competitive.
There is no imminent collapse of Honey Bees in America. Key points:
1.) The introduction of varroa mites in 1987 was thought to kill all feral honey bee colonies. (very recently, a few feral colonies have been found in upstate NY which seem to have an adaptation to survive the mite.)
2.) Honey bee populations have remained steady over the last 30 years despite the varroa mite and other unknown ailments.
3.) The market forces driving sustained bee populations are mostly pollination fees for almonds in California, not honey production.
So if you really want to save the supposedly endangered honey bees, ditch the bumper sticker, buy almonds, and if you live near a commercial beekeeper, buy him a drink (it's a tough life).
Tom Brady is mythologized as a tough leader, but the guy walked out on his pregnant girlfriend and couldn't get along with the greatest nfl coach of all time.
Bon Jovi > Bruce Springsteen.
Criminals and gangsters will find a way to profit off NIL. NIL just feels rife for organized crime somehow (money laundering?), not sure how, not that smart. Would love to hear you talk NIL with an expert on callin.
Slot machines on phones will just be the tip of the iceberg (astute insight from one of your callin guests). Getting the female, non-masc male, LGBT/gender community, grannies, etc. into gambling is the next move. If they could somehow find a way to gamble on animal crossing they could print money. Is there a way to fuse K Pop with gambling? You get the picture.
Will a memphis-cleveland nba final be a good or bad thing for NBA?
The NBA are consistently dropping the ball when it comes to the international development of the league. The Premier League recently agreed a broadcast contract in the USA worth $2.7bn per annum. The NBA's current domestic contract, the main breadwinner, is worth around $3bn. One league has learned how to build their offering and maximise international revenues while the other was left heavily dependent on a partnership with just one country, China.
It is genuinely staggering that the NBA has been so poor at 'growing the game' and building their own revenue streams. English is the lingua franca of the world and the NBA has a saleable product that is littered with international stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic. You can sell all of these players and give people a reason to watch the product.
My other hot-take is that the NBA's product can be pretty shit. I enjoy watching the game of basketball and seeing the nightly contests between teams but man can it be difficult. The frequent stoppages, the lengthy time outs (ad breaks) and drawn out foul reviews take all of the rhythm out of the game. It also means that a quarter which should take 12 minutes ends taking 45 minutes. By that point, the viewer's attention is elsewhere and they have disengaged from watching the game.
The NBA also completely craps on their product by lacking flexibility when it comes to scheduling. Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies are super fun to watch and yet they barely ever play on national television. A team like the Grizzlies or Cavaliers have broad appeal to nearly every demographic. Basketball nerds can appreciate lesser known stars getting their chance to show out. An underdog team like Memphis also appeals to families; everybody likes an underdog. Selling the hottest, most exciting team in the league is a strategy that should not really go wrong.
And yet the NBA have persisted with their strategy of ensuring that teams like Boston, the Lakers and the Knicks are constantly on our TV screens. All three teams are dreadfully mediocre and lack any real sense of excitement. The only excitement around these teams is the drama that circles the roster and that is not a reason for people to tune in and watch games.
I'm a Thunder fan and I have been for five years. I will be the first to say that this year's roster is young, inexperienced and will make you tear your hair out but these dudes are fun as anything. Why not put SGA or Giddey on TV for people to enjoy?
The world would be a better place without the internet. We should destroy the internet.
The Breaking Bad finale was quite bad
Millennials are simply Baby Boomers + Internet.
Replace the NFL draft with free agency for incoming rookies. To make up for the missing entertainment aspect, turn it into a TV show like Shark Tank, but with multiple teams trying to pitch to top prospects.
To help out struggling teams now that they aren't getting high draft picks anymore, teams that miss the playoffs get a little extra cap space.
Have you seen this hot NBA take? Would love to hear your perspective on it. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/21/the-dallas-mavericks-are-consistently-white-in-a-black-league-why
I have general anxiety. I believe not every mental health issue needs to be treated with gentle compassion. In many cases, a kick in the ass — some tough love — is more effective.
All cheap fried calamari is actually Chitterlings. Big Chitterling doesn't want you to know that.
The War on Drugs can actually be won.
At least - it can be fought intellegently, and we can make progress towards actually reducing the bad effects of drugs.
But we would need to actually think about what we're doing, where the harm comes from, and how to prevent it.
Some examples:
Heroin - does not cause people to commit crimes, except to acquire it. Give people drugs and clean needles, we are not eradicating it.
Weed - we need to think ahead. When it is legalized nationally, we could have huge corps with large amounts of power, advertising during the super bowl, insanely cheap prices with minimal taxes. That is if we do nothing.
Alcohol, cocaine, Meth - the people committing crimes from using these drugs are almost all going through the justice system. We should be getting 90% off those drugs and into a stable environment with a job, routine, etc.
As far as I can tell, the whole discussion of drugs in this country is either "drugs bad" or "drugs ok"
LBJ ordered the Israelis to sink the USS Liberty as a false flag to get us into the Six Day War
Social credit scores will be introduced in “progressive” cities to incentivise people to not steal. That’s the only thing I can think of why petty theft is essentially legal in some cities.
I'm late on responding to this, but I used to absolutely love everything about the olympics. You could not change the channel for two weeks every couple of years. I couldn't get enough of it and would watch anything and enjoy it. And that's all I talked about with my friends, family and co-workers. For gods sake I would stop everything just to watch curling! Now I don't know what has happened. I could care less now and only watch a token USA hockey match or womens floor gymnastics competition. I can't be the only one. NBC's ratings are in the toilet.
Joe Rogan…
I actually don’t have a take per se on the JRE and the hot air around it at the minute. But just floating the topic out there so as to see if you will explore it soon!
Take: I think Giannis’ win in Milwaukee actually has shown some preliminary signs as being a trendsetter in regards to NBA Stars wanting to create a legacy via being adorned in one city/franchise. Dame was already doing this…but there are signs of Ja, Beal.
Can you find out what actually happened to Micheal Wright?
Experiment, fun!
What was your hypothesis?
My guess is that you were trying to determine something like......what subjects people would talk about most or how they would talk about particular subjects or perhaps if people would turn it into an online discussion of those topics.
Was this about gauging the interests of your readership to inform your future writing?
How exciting!
The data show that people mostly got caught up in a debate about a particular take.
I was expecting more humour overall, although there were some funny ones.
What did you get out of the exercise Ethan?
woke mob is full of bums
Sparkling Mineral Water makes you cum harder.
Bone-in Pork Chops are better than Bone-in new york strip when both are cooked with equal spices and both are cooked appropriately in a cast-iron skillet. This can also be a hot take about steak being the most overrated meat. Crispy livers are better. Lamb is much better. Steak is a tough meat that needs a lot of other things to happen in order for it to be optimally made. My must-haves with steak right now are kale and mushrooms (cooked obviously, with soy sauce, pepper, paprika and Italian seasoning{herbs}).
If you’re complaining about something on social media your life is not that bad
Looks like early childhood education programs don't work in terms of promoting later academic or behavioral achievement: https://seliger.com/2022/01/26/the-effects-of-early-childhood-education-programs-dont-look-good-a-large-randomized-pre-kindergarten-study.
We should give up pretending they're "academic" and admit they're daycare.
NBA groupies
Hmm, message in a bottle. Maybe it would be interesting to revisit that time Sting performed at the All-Star game. 2016 feels like an inflection point for the NBA, among other things, in retrospect.