DiegoDiego

Incredible. As I can't deploy a thousand greenies I'll meekly surrender when we meet across the board instead.

Aye, my lads are looking forward to the international break. Chess.com does a pretty bad job of notifying you of it being your move. Sometimes it's great and flashes on the title bar and other times it doesn't even give you a red notification number on the left panel. It's also frustrating how after making your move it takes you away from the board.

We know what happens, the temperance movement was pretty well documented. I think targeting currently obese people isn't the best use of resources, the issue is education. People should be accountable for their own bodies but so many are put on the wrong track from a young age by ignorant parents. If you grow up eating unhealthily then you're very likely going to eat unhealthily as an adult. It's so cheap and easy to make a vegetable soup but people haven't been taught the basic skills and there are still misconceptions about cost. All these cookery programmes help but they're generally preaching to the choir.

Maybe not for your own amusement but I know a guy who earns a living pottering along on his bike across Provence leading cycling tours and he loves it. Of course, your general point is sound; if everyone did what they loved there'd be no binmen. I understand not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur but with the way civilisation's heading it's becoming easier and easier to combine your aptitudes with your interests and make a living from it. Thirty years ago your parents would kick you out the house if you said "I love dogs so I'm going to make a living walking other people's dogs." Another example: I love sitting on my arse doing f**k all and thanks to furlough I'm getting paid to live my dream!

I couldn't make it to the end. It must be embarrassing being one of their decent journalists and being associated with that.

Hearts 2020-21 are quite dislikable.

I disagree with you there. If the choice is two clubs from Celtic, Sevco, Panathanaikos and Olympiacos they'll choose one Scots and one Greek. I'd imagine the league would be some combination of decade+ long licenses giving automatic participation for mega clubs and some form of qualification for diddies like the cheeks. That's all conjecture on my part though.

I never got any money from the tooth fairy, nor presents from santa or indulged in Halloween (that nonsense hadn't really made its way over from the states by then though). No pagan nonsense in my parents' house!

That's not Rangers, it's a graverobber wearing dead man's clothes.

I'm still not following you. That was how I was taught Scots history. Are you insinuating I'm making it up for some reason?

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your tone correctly here. Why would I have been asleep at school?

It is great. I love language and etymology anyway. To be honest, a couple of months ago I had no idea how important the Picts were. My Scottish history curriculum went something like: The Romans never conquered us, the Picts were too ferocious and our landscape too unforgiving. 1314, f**k the English! 1603, f**k the English! 1707, f**k the English! 1745, f**k the English! Post jacobite cultural genocide and clearances, f**k the English! That was of course a few decades ago at a Highland primary school whose headmaster's mother tongue was Gaelic. Not sure if it's still like that but perhaps it might be good to interject some more positive aspects in there. Talk about Big Ken MacAlpine and frame Scotland as a union of Picts and Gaels, something a bit more inclusive. More about the enlightenment. I'm way off topic here but I'm not sure framing our nation as one in constant struggle against our neighbours does us much favours in the 21st century.

I've been sat on furlough since boxing day and have been getting stuck right into the Duolingo (furlough is math fucking fhèin). It's been really enjoyable learning a language purely out of interest for once. Spelling and pronunciation is starting to come a lot more naturally now which is a bit of a relief. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up some activity once restrictions lift and I'm forced into contributing to society again. It's also got me looking up toponym etymology, which has taken me down many a Wikipedia hole and resulted in me becoming a lot more knowledgeable about my own country and its history.

I think you'd probably give white way too much of an advantage. There might even be some forced mates, too.

Something pretty similar to Euroleague basketball is what I'd expect. Perhaps with North (England, Germany...) and South (Italy, Spain...) conferences.

Just played a couple of games of 960 against stockfish on a low setting. My word, anyone who doesn't hang their queen in the first ten moves is doing well. This'll be carnage.

Surely with a timer all you need to do is find one hour a week you're mutually free with one other person? If people think they won't be able to schedule a time then that's fair enough. I find a set time for rapid games much easier than having a game played in fits and starts. Regarding relegation and promotion, as a struggling Division A club I think it is clear that now is not the time to entertain such matters. We shouldn't be considering any relegation during a pandemic. Some of their bishops are going to cathedral before games, I don't want them bringing the virus into our bubble. Besides, how many of These Division B diddies have compliant stadia? Raise the drawbridge!

It's not that I'm pro-tie, but they're taking a bizarre approach with that headline.

How about the cup is rapid time format?

Good luck finding a Highland League winner this season. Could always go with the 2019/20 winners I suppose.

Accidentally signing up for a free Amazon Prime trial for the nth time.

Maybe I've misunderstood it then! In a normal Swiss system you usually have initial seedings but after each round winners play winners, losers play losers and those who've drawn also face each other. So you don't know who you'll play in the next set of fixtures until the previous round is completed. It means you can have somewhat accurate standings after a few rounds despite having a field of hundreds. I've not actually read up on this proposal, so perhaps it's some sort of semi-Swiss.

You can't do that with a Swiss system.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2021/feb/08/the-phallic-necktie-is-an-outdated-symbol-of-white-male-rule-in-new-zealands-parliament How can anyone take that newspaper seriously?

Aye, I agree with all that. There's definitely a strong cultural element. I've watched a decent amount of football in countries like Mexico and Italy and there's definitely differences in behaviour. I think it was Craig Levein who said after a game that Juanjo was new to the country and didn't understand that his behaviour wasn't acceptable here. The same goes for arguing with referees, of course it goes on here but the way the Italians do it just looks pathetic from our point of view. Same with the Spanish, you even see it in their handball team. A sport where you've no time to stop yet some of them are badgering referees while the opposition have got on with it and are about to score. I think we should count ourselves lucky that the sporting culture here discourages such behaviour, but I think more needs to be done in terms of rule tweaks.