Bartender_Venator
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User ID: 2349
Bartender_Venator
3d ago
History podcasting has also evolved a ton since the Carlin/Duncan days. It's sort of split off into two directions - one, exemplified by The Cost of Glory, is being upfront about being a retelling and explanation of the ancient sources. Cost of Glory is as much about Plutarch as it is about the characters, and I think it's a better podcast for it (it's my favourite of the current crop. Listen in the gym and hit PRs). Then, there are podcasts like History of Byzantium, History of the Germans, and above all When Diplomacy Fails, which blend narrative history with an overview of the historiographical debates and a proper examination of the sources.
Bartender_Venator
4d ago
"Pop" history isn't "history" if it gets stuff seriously wrong. But history as a discipline isn't just an arcane hobby for a gaggle of ivory-tower academics - a huge part of the point of those academics' existence is to inform (or to write) works that educate the public about history. And Mike Duncan pretty much gives you the background you need to read academic Roman history without getting lost. Papers can be abstruse and difficult but academic books are generally written with enough background to be readable outside a specialist niche, even if you need to have some experience in the discipline. Just as an example, I recently read Emanuel Mayer's The Ancient Middle Classes. Mostly a very dry read going through the details of Roman tombs and houses and making arguments from there about the existence of a Roman "middle class", but the book contains enough background that someone generally familiar with Roman history can read it all - after all, an academic writing a book like that will expect it to be used by scholars in other aspects of ancient history, or economic historians studying class throughout history, or historians working on urbanization, etc. etc.
Bartender_Venator
5d ago
You're right, should have read that more carefully, the fines were imposed by the disciplinary board and reduced on appeal (lol).
Bartender_Venator
5d ago
I think it is, uh, difficult to call CAF a serious organization, much like FIFA when it comes to stuff like the Qatar World Cup and the inevitable future Saudi World Cup, or the Premier League when it comes to Man City. But the seriousness of a tournament is, thankfully, not determined by the organizers - it's determined by the passion of the fans and players, and AFCON has that in spades (no thanks to Morocco, who seemingly did everything in their power to exclude fans from getting tickets).
Bartender_Venator
5d ago
Death Chuck Norrised at the age of 4,000,000,000. RIP.
Some of you may recall my write-up on the African Cup of Nations final a couple months back. Well, I'm pleased to announce that the crazy AFCON drama is not actually at an end. To recap: Senegal defeated Morocco in a highly contested final. Throughout the tournament, I'd heard black African fans complain that "the Arabs" are bribing the refs to help Morocco and Egypt against sub-Saharan nations, and the ref made himself a big part of the game. In the last minutes of the game, he ruled out a Senegal goal for a very soft foul, then awarded Morocco a penalty for an even softer one (on what would have been the last play before the game breaks to extra time, if a goal is not scored). Senegalese fans started fighting the Moroccans, a delay is announced, the Senegalese players get into an argument on the pitch and storm off into the dressing room. Eventually, their captain runs in, convinces them to come back out, the penalty is set up - and Morocco flubs it in embarrassing fashion. Senegal wins with a smashing goal in extra time, cue massive celebrations (including my family jumping around waving a knockoff Senegalese jersey in the air).
But, it's not over.
59 days after the final, CAF, the body administrating African football/soccer, officially stripped Senegal of the title. Their reasoning is that, by leaving the pitch without the authorization of the referee, Senegal forfeited the match, and therefore Morocco is awarded a 3-0 victory (as is standard for forfeits in football). They also fined Morocco for some of their infringements, like, uh, having their ball boys steal towels and water bottles from the Senegalese goalkeeper.
Senegal, of course, is not taking this lying down. Their government has announced they will appeal the verdict and called for an investigation into CAF corruption. An Senegalese member of the CAF Executive Committee publicly slammed the decision. The Senegalese coach, already sanctioned by CAF due to the scuffle during the final, has reportedly taken the trophy to a military base for safe-keeping.
Now, the appeal itself seems simple: were the rules broken? And it would be simple, anywhere but Africa. Let's take a look: the CAF board cites Senegal as violating Articles 82 and 84 of the CAF rules. See here:
ARTICLE 82 If, for any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorisation of the referee, it shall be considered looser [sic] and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition. The same shall apply for the teams previously disqualified by decision of CAF.
ARTICLE 83 A team that shall not be present on the ground, dressed to play at the time fixed for kick-off or at most 15 minutes later, shall forfeit the match. The referee shall register the absence of the team and shall write it in his report. The Organising Committee shall take the final decision in this respect.
ARTICLE 84 The team which contravenes the provisions of articles 82 and 83 shall be eliminated for good from the competition. This team will lose its match by 3-0 unless the opponent has scored a more advantageous result at the time when the match was interrupted, in this case this score will be maintained. The Organising Committee may adopt further measures
Let's think about this. Senegal cannot have violated Article 84. In fact, Article 84 only applies to no-shows, because it clearly states that a team must contravene the provisions of articles 82 and 83. Article 82, if it applies, would state that Senegal is "looser" and eliminated from the competition, but has no provision to award Morocco the 3-0 win in particular. Furthermore, Article 82, unlike 83, does not provide for the final decision of the Organising Committee in the article, it seems to be up to the referee's judgement. And the referee did not disqualify Senegal. He let them play on, and no statement from him revising that is addressed by CAF. Is there precedent for this? Well, in 1976, in the game that won them their first-ever AFCON title, Morocco's players walked off the field in protest at the referee and stopped play for 15 minutes. Their title stood.
I hope for good luck for Senegal in the Court for Arbitration of Sport (the international court in Switzerland which oversees football as well as e.g. the Olympics), both for their sake and for the drama that will result. It's also worth noting that, if Morocco and Senegal both finish second in their groups in the World Cup (likely, both are comfortably the second-best team in their groups), and both win their first knockout game (tougher - Senegal would have an easy one, but Morocco would face Japan or the Netherlands), we will see a very juicy rematch in New York...
Bartender_Venator
5d ago
I tend to go for the heaviest weights I can, as soon as I can.
I also avoid deadlifts because I have the impression the risk of injury is concerning
Those two are related!
Anyway, form is more important than weight. Not just for injury, but also to make sure you're actually progressing and not just finding new ways to cheat that will bite you in the ass (while also probably killing your mind-muscle connection gains). Your goal is not to get the weight from point A to point B, it's to do the lift. You won't progress as fast in the numbers, but you'll progress a lot better in the mirror.
Bartender_Venator
6d ago
The global doctor workload is the aggregate effective demand for services which must be provided by MDs. Since very little of healthcare functions based on market dynamics, this mostly resolves to "how much are governments/charities/insurers willing to pay for", which is basically "how much do they need to pay for before people flip out at them to an extent it causes them problems". I suspect that line is actually surprisingly easy to move, that it will move by necessity with our aging populations, and we are already seeing it move (not just delegation of doctors' authority, but stuff like MAID).
Bartender_Venator
6d ago
I suspect the dam on AI medicine is going to break quicker than anyone believed possible. Many of the gatekeeping functions of doctors, like writing prescriptions, are already being outsourced to NPs, and AI will act as the gatekeeper to them or, if you really seem to need it, an actual doctor. We don't have enough doctors to do the global doctor workload; we probably do have enough doctors to do the things only doctors can actually do.
Honestly kind of crazy that half the survivors weren't captured. What did they do, row a lifeboat back to Germany? Wait for the Kriegsmarine to steam out and pick them up? I know there were U-boat-to-U-boat rescue operations but that's not exactly an easy feat either.
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