Monzanator

announced the A-Team squads for the upcoming season: Men: J.T. Boe Tarjei Boe V.S. Christiansen Erlend Bjoentegaard Johannes Dale Sturla Holm Laegreid Women: Tiril Eckhoff Marte Olsbu Roeiseland Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg Karoline Offigstad Knotten Ida Lien Looks like the end of the World Cup road for Lars Helge Birkeland who didn't compete individually after Ruhpolding last season already. I don't see him grinding on the IBU Cup for too long at age 32. Sturla Laegreid takes his place on full-time basis. Following Solemdal's retirement her spot is taken by Ida Lien rather than the more experienced Thekla Brun-Lie and Karoline Erdal. This is a bit of a surprise.

These lists won't solve anything without vaccine. USA can be ranked #1 in gazillion indicators but common sense suggests a country with 330m population will struggle more than a country with 5 million population. I don't need any list to say that USA will struggle more with COVID than let's say Slovakia.

This is from three weeks ago. Very irrelevant now. Just throw it in the trash. The Swedish non-isolation method seems to be bottoming out hard since last week.

I call it how I see it. Someone like Anderson Cooper is probably in the 0,05% of most privileged journalists in the USA who has a nationwide following. Cooper was a fat cat 15 years ago and he is a fat cat now. I have CNN on my dish for 20 years and I see the same names all the time, Cooper, Blitzer, Amanpour, King, Quest. Hard to get excited when the same people are saying the same things for over a decade

Tomasz Sikora once said he fired 10,000 shots per season including the training & preparation. Guess the numbers have gone way up since then

Another gigantic myth of this world. So, what else is new?

CNN will be criticial of every Republican President there is. Let's don't pretend they started their bias with Trump. Objective journalism has died IMO. Everyone take a side these days and sticks to it which helps to polarize the political landscape. It is what it is. For me both FOX and CNN are equally worthless.

Yep, getting rid of Khadaffi or Saddam hasn't solved any problems

CNN won't say a single positive word about Trump, it's the Democrats version of FOX tbh

I know. I've been saying equality is a myth for years. There will always be rich & poor and they will always be the same. Sub-Saharan Africa was poor 50 years ago and it will be poor in 50 years time too. The coronavirus is such a big news because it hits rich unlike malaria which tends to hit the poor.

Well, California is the wealthiest state in USA. I'm not surprised they can afford more ventilators than anyone else.

Cuomo was all over CNN over a month ago already. I fully expect him to run for President in 2024 The Bernie Sanders craze should be over by then and in steps Cuomo as the COVID hero IMO.

Satellites during Cold War weren't standouts, they were standard procedure. USA controlled Costa Rica & Panama Canal, tried to control Nicaragua but failed in their effort just like the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. You win some, you lose some Of course USA also supported Duvalier in Haiti and that eventually became very problematic as well.

Andrew Cuomo also took this seriously and he's helpless with New York being hit the hardest. Until the pandemic ends there's no place for pyrrhic victories like a controlled spread. The entire country will be hit hard by this and even if California recovers the best since it has the biggest income in USA there will be many others struggling. Funny enough, I bet Trump will take the eventual economy rise as his own success and CNN & New York Times will freak out again

This is just a by-product of the geopolitics of Cold War. Both USA and USSR created satellite countries to spread their influence across the world. Costa Rica, Turkey and Israel are US satellites. Wars in Korea and Vietnam made sure nobody tried to invade the satellites without thinking better off it. Meanwhile Nicaragua was a mess and CIA failed there in miserable fashion with the Contras support

It sure helps Costa Rica has sided with USA for decades while most Latin America either had military juntas or communists in charge during that span. Costa Rica is what Turkey or Israel are to USA in Middle East. A safety buffer. It further helped that USA (or CIA) controlled the nearby Panama Canal for over 60 years

It's obvious the coronavirus has overwhelmed everyone. It's proven to be too much for both liberal and conservative politicians so I can only laugh at the ideas that if someone else was in charge here or there, things would have looked different. No, it wouldn't. Malaria claims 1-3 million lives per year but it's viewed as Third World disease so it doesn't impact the global market and all these wealthy countries don't give a damn about it. But 100k coronavirus deaths have broke into the industrial powerhouses in Europe and America and the world freaks out. It's easy to dismiss infants dying in Chad of malaria but COVID has proven rich & powerful people can't buy health either.

I watched every World Cup live since 1990 and quite frankly 2010 and 2014 in particular were the worst since 1990 indeed. I think the Brazilian heat & humidity had a lot to do with that. 1994 & 1998 were the two best ones followed by 2006, 2002 & 2018. Then 2010, 2014 and poor 1990 that was too tactical and had the ugliest World Cup final I can remember. Argentina in particular looked old & tired and even Maradona couldn't save them. I really liked the German uniforms from that era with the extra black, gold & red stripes. The vintage white & black that followed from Euro 1996 are kinda bland tbh.

Plenty of group games are largely forgotten over the years, Spain played a lot of these forgotten classics: How was Luis Arconada their best keeper in the 80s is still beyond me. One major blunder vs NI in 1982 here but of course he is more remembered from his howler vs France at 1984 Euros. I love how over the top the ref were in the 80s while bradishing a yellow or red card. Mal Donaghy was sent off here, probably one of the silliest RC ever, but Maradona had even more stupid one vs Brazil IIRC later that tournament. South Korea played their best WC football in 1994, this was their best showing when they went out in group stage. If only they beaten Bolivia! Miguel Nadal was sent off in 26th minute, he was a Barcelona player back then, me as a Barca fan remember that well. Spain bombed out in 1998 group stage, Nigeria and Paraguay qualified from the group, I believe Paraguay beat Nigeria in the final match, a draw would have send Spain through IIRC. Another Spain GK howler, this time from the otherwise very reliable Zubizarreta.

I know, Netherlands dominated the 2nd half like crazy and they were without Cruyff which is even more amazing. Probably the biggest heartbreak in Dutch football history?

Italy vs Germany SF

Since 1986 Argentina and Netherlands have been playing the most enjoyable football on the global stage for me. The 1978 WC final is a somewhat forgotten gem, Netherlands should have really won that game, pretty much like Portugal should have won the 1984 Euro SF vs France. I haven't watched many pre-1974 WC games in full tbh so I have a vague memory of them in most cases. Northern Ireland at 1982 had some fine games, Norman Whiteside remains the biggest What If case in modern football tbh. Spain vs NI group stage game is like totally forgotten though Gerry Armstrong was a long-time commentator for EuroSport later on.

Off the top of my head: 1986 Argentina vs England QF 1986 Argentina vs West Germany Final 1994 Romania vs Argentina Round of 16 1994 Brazil vs Netherlands QF 2006 Italy vs Germany Final

Zbigniew Waskiewicz is back as the Head of Polish Biathlon Union. He was the boss from 2006-2014 before. The outgoing boss Dagmara Gerasimuk has been named as IBU Development Director in December so it was obvious she will leave her PZB post.

Synnoeve Solemdal (biathlon) has retired at the age of 30. Quite frankly her career never recovered from the mononucleosis she picked up in March 2014. Zhang Guowei (high jump) has retired at the age of 28. He didn't do anything since winning silver medal at 2015 World Champs save for a 6th place at the World Indoors in 2016. He bombed out in qualifying at Rio Games and 2017 WChamps.