The unimportant news thread

[Karl Henning]

Funny to Americans of a certain age. I once saw the Globetrotters live. [Added: reading the article, I was surprised to find the Trotters still exist. Had no idea!]


https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/66525597

On 5 January 1971, Louis Herman Klotz did something that no basketballer has dared repeat.

In front of a disbelieving audience in the city of Martin, Tennessee, the man known as Red broke one of the most sacred unwritten rules in sport. As player-coach for the Washington Generals, Klotz shot the winning basket against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Everybody knows the Generals aren't supposed to beat the Globetrotters.

I saw them live once, too! What fun!

[LKB]

I saw them live once, too! What fun!

Water or confetti?

[AnotherSpin]

Before 1991 nobody thought that the Soviet Union would collapse. The Soviet regime/govt appeared to be more stable than China today. Even if the Chinese govt collapsed, Chinese people may not admit it and pretend that it is a transformation of the same government. Any way it will have a lot of impact on the world economy.

Of course, in the late 80s it was hard to imagine that the USSR would suddenly disappear. It was not supposed to. Perhaps not everyone remembers, but the Russian Federation was the first of the major Soviet republics to secede from the USSR. In fact, it was just a move in the power struggle in the top Party leadership, between Yeltsin and Gorbachev. As soon as Gorbachev was ousted, a new consolidation process began and the so-called CIS was created. This was not much different from the way the USSR was created in 1922 soon after the collapse of tsarist Russia. In fact, the final collapse of the USSR (now Russia) is happening only now, when Russia is fighting its last and most likely decisive war to preserve the Empire.

And I find the comparison between China and the USSR very frivolous. China is a great power that has existed for thousands of years and has gone through numerous periods of ups and downs, a country of immense cultural heritage. While the USSR was a pathetic short-lived formation, stillborn from the very beginning, which existed largely on terror and murder.

[Karl Henning]

Water or confetti?

That I do not recall.

[T. D.]

Water or confetti?

Good one! I'd forgotten that detail.
My vague impression is water at the live game, but more often confetti on TV. Could be wrong.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I had to google that one! 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Clever!  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66592170

PD

[BWV 1080]

And you're right, too. I guess it is well that I don't mistake even my own opinions as expressed on an internet forum for sacred writ. Sometimes one just spitballs, and a beneficial result of that is, the lucid, well-thought refutations which come back.

Thanks, all.

well, prediction is hard, especially about the future.   Past Chinese regime changes certainly were catastrophic

[JBS]

well, prediction is hard, especially about the future.   Past Chinese regime changes certainly were catastrophic

And there have been significant eras in Chinese history in which China was split into multiple states, sometimes with an emperor who nominally superior to everyone else, sometimes not.

[Todd]

Sir John Eliot Gardiner Quits Trojans After Singer Incident

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Just heard that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin probably/maybe died due him being on to a "crashed plane".  Though it may have been shot down (over Russia)?  And it sounded like he was somewhere in Africa?!

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774

PD

[T. D.]

Just heard that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin probably died due him being on to a "crashed plane".  Though it may have been shot down (over Russia)?

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774

PD

I just saw a similar story and came here to post it...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-23/prigozhin-listed-as-passenger-aboard-crashed-jet-interfax-says

Didn't exactly require Nostradamus to see that one coming. Though I expected something along the lines of defenestration or poisoning.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I just saw a similar story and came here to post it...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-23/prigozhin-listed-as-passenger-aboard-crashed-jet-interfax-says

Didn't exactly require Nostradamus to see that one coming. Though I expected something along the lines of defenestration or poisoning.

Sorry, I had just added to my original posting in that it sounded like he was in Africa?  And, yes, I didn't think that Putin would let him get away with that though possibly using him and his forces further--at least for a while if possible.

PD

[T. D.]

Sorry, I had just added to my original posting in that it sounded like he was in Africa?  And, yes, I didn't think that Putin would let him get away with that though possibly using him and his forces further--at least for a while if possible.

PD

I had seen a number of surprising (to me) stories over the past couple of months about Prigozhin being in Russia, specifically St. Petersburg.

This one (which I hadn't seen) came up on Google: https://www.rferl.org/a/prigozhin-st--petersburg-mutiny-summit/32522769.html

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Just heard that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin probably/maybe died due him being on to a "crashed plane".  Though it may have been shot down (over Russia)?  And it sounded like he was somewhere in Africa?!

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774

PD

What a surprise!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I had seen a number of surprising (to me) stories over the past couple of months about Prigozhin being in Russia, specifically St. Petersburg.

This one (which I hadn't seen) came up on Google: https://www.rferl.org/a/prigozhin-st--petersburg-mutiny-summit/32522769.html

Interesting!

What a surprise!

I know. 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

What a day!  Rudy Giuliani is expected to surrender at Fulton County Jail today.  https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-66594115

PD

[T. D.]

What a day!  Rudy Giuliani is expected to surrender at Fulton County Jail today.  https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-66594115

PD

Will his hair dye melt?

What about the dopey lawyer (provided she hasn't yet been disbarred) victim of Rudy's flatus?

Oh, looks like she posted bond, so may have already surrendered. Aw shucks, no repeat.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4165159-trump-attorney-jenna-ellis-bond/#:~:text=According%20to%20prosecutors%2C%20Ellis%20was,oath%20by%20a%20public%20officer.

[Spotted Horses]

Just heard that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin probably/maybe died due him being on to a "crashed plane".  Though it may have been shot down (over Russia)?  And it sounded like he was somewhere in Africa?!

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774

PD

Nine other people had to die because he didn't have the decency to fall out of a window?

[BWV 1080]

Nine other people had to die because he didn't have the decency to fall out of a window?

Maybe the crew was a loss (if they were civilians, not Wagner), but the passengers were his cronies so good riddance there.  Dmitry Ukin was also on the plane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Utkin