That Aud Smell

Risto announced as week to week.

This has been a thread distinguished by really good content.

Good stuff, 3putt and FC.

There’s a fascinating sociology thesis to be proposed on detecting and measuring larger social changes based on the analysis of footage of crowds at games over the years.

Hush yo mouth. And that's spoken as a fan of LFC. I took a deeper dive into international soccer about 3 years ago, and, yeah -- I initially would try to follow the rumours, but quickly just stopped entirely. It's totally nuts -- way beyond anything we see in the NA sports leagues. Besides which, Pulisic is signing with Liverpool. I read that in the North Wales Standard.

By Cod and holy mackerel, you're a funny man.

Re Danny Paille, some somewhat encouraging news (and inevitable humour) from a Google-translated news report from a Swedish (?) publication: After the brutal assault of Mannheim player Thomas Larkin, the first reassuring message about Brynä star Daniel Paille was given. On Wednesday morning, Paille was investigated - and now new tasks are coming. "He has incurred a concussion and is missing at least one week," confirms Brynäs sports director Stefan Bengtzén of SVT Sport. It was Mannheim's United States-born Italian national teamman Thomas Larkin who stood for what everyone describes as a real assault. "Disaster, one can kill someone on that show." We are supposed to play elite riders, but this is "Kalle Anka-level", says Brynäs sports director Stefan Bengtzén about the tackle that gave a stupid end to the match. . - I tried to talk with their coach afterwards but all he said was "###### !, ###### !, ######!". There was no point, Bengtzén continues to DG. "Ugly stuff"Even Brynäs coach Tommy Sjödin saw the Germans describing the incident as among the worst he saw. - It's ugly stuff that. But I'm not surprised that it happens to just a German team. They have many "wannabe-NHL players" who come to Europe and show stuff, says Tommy Sjödin. Brynäs won the match with 2-1 and is on to quarter final in CHL.

That's fair. About losing a job, though, I'd characterize that more as a consequence of behavior, not part of an ongoing attempt to modify behavior or motivate someone. Taken slightly differently, would it work well to motivate or modify the behavior of a struggling employee if the supervisor continually said "You keep that up, and I'll fire you." Maybe. Maybe not.

Years ago, I read an entertaining and thought-provoking essay by a former marine mammal trainer (this was long before Blackfish and all the associated Seaworld shame) who talked about how, in training her animals, it was a best practice to use ONLY positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcements yielded little to no progress. Then she extrapolated that into relationships in her life, including with her husband. And, to hear her tell it, it worked quite well. It was more of a light touch on the subject, but it was something that stayed with me.

Yeah, sorry. I can't. I won't. I've been through an entire evaluative process with that derp. I'm never going back.

^ That is just awful.

Excellent post. I can't read Harrington (doctor's orders), but I saw a Tweet indicating that he was chirping Housley for being more pollyannaish than positive in the face of the team's struggles. I understand that point, and would expect as much from that chinless hack. But I also think there's much to be said for working to be positive, trusting the talent, and trying like hell to get to where you're going while maintaining your confidence. And, from what I can tell, "where they're going" does not feature low-risk, low-event, small-ice hockey. I hope they can get there. As for the matter of confidence, I can't speak to how it affects the performance of pro athletes, but I do know that it plays an absolutely HUGE role in 16-18 year-olds who play their sports at a fairly high level. I just can't over-state how important confidence is in that setting. It's a necessary component of letting your talent shine and reaching for the proverbial brass ring every time you step on the field, etc.

Interesting.

Yep. Thanks - that makes sense.

Re Sam: I thought I saw the same last night (although I was watching with no sound while doing some work stuff). He is looking stronger, smarter, and harder on the puck. As for Eichel, I guess I see where the frustration comes from. There are plenty of instances where it seems like he could make a "hard" play on or toward the puck (lean on an opponent, even throw a check, or simply take the body), but he pokes around for the puck to no avail. I can't say that I'm seeing him float or fail to skate when he should. OTOH, he picked a d-man's pocket to set up the first goal; created a dangerous odd-man rush on the PK (yes, that he flubbed); set up Girgensons for what should have been a goal (but was shot wide); and selflessly (maybe unwisely) tried to get an assist on the EN rather than shoot. I thought Eichel was just fine, thank you very much. But he can be and has been so much better than that.

What is the CHL and, dear God, did Dan Paille just die playing there? https://twitter.com/HockeyWebCast/status/928012262597677056

That's a commonly stated truth. I do not think it's one that is borne out by the data. There's good, sound research out there demonstrating that the incredible rises in college tuition actually correlate with large increases in public spending to support post-secondary education, and that the high-point of inflation-adjusted public spending to support colleges came right before the Lehman-induced recession of ~2008-2009. And I hear you on faculty compensation. I've read that it's been quite flat for a long time. But I've also read that the sheer numbers of faculty, administration, etc. have grown at a pace that has contributed to the rise in the cost of college tuition.

Thassa big idear you get there, son. I'd be dead set against that level of federal intrusion into how universities run their businesses. /Silently begs for there to be no political tangent on the subject. As for why the cost of post-secondary education has ballooned, I would not imagine that hefty spending on revenue sports would be a leading reason -- at least not in the large majority of situations. I'd venture that bloated faculty and administration positions would be a more likely culprit. And, echoing a criticism I often level at NFL franchises, the amount of money that colleges and universities spend nowadays on their facilities, their real estate improvements is just staggering. I'd also wager that the manner/method in which sporting competitions are "consumed" by customers would change dramatically before the sort of uncoupling you're talking about could occur.

Hahaha. Dude. I'm about 50-50 on seeing Muni when I go to games. He's frequently lurking around the alumni lounge in the 200s.

I'd argue that the length of the games is worse than the NFL. Yeah. I don't know how you go about unwinding the tradition and brand of the various schools from their teams.

No. But he can be the QB of a playoff team.

Aye. Fair point. I think that's been a rule forever. My bad. My sense is, though, that having many, many more plays (and dozens more first downs) is partly what's behind the slow progress of the games. That and their replay review system.

I'm fascinated by the rise and fall of each QB class. Last year's class: Widely judged as not worth mortgaging anything for. And yet Deshaun Watson looked like an all-world talent before his injury. This year's class: Widely hailed in the preseason as having several top-level talents, and now being slowly, steadily undermined and relegated to not-so-great. The Garappolo trade is said to be a sure sign that NFL teams don't want to draft a QB in 2018. And yet we can be sure there will be good-to-great QBs that are selected in the 2018 draft. It's a maddening matter of finding the right one and matching him to your team, system, etc.

Inside? The predicate was immediately upthread!

Just popping in to say: I used to love college football. But then some combination of rule changes (clock stops on 1st down, I presume) and style changes (moar plays!) gave us these 4-hour games on the regular. That's gotta change.