thiago_simoes

1,000+ deaths in 24 h in Brazil. 5,500+ deaths in 7 days. Still, the president and state governors want people to return to normal everyday life. I'm getting crazy in this country.

A question for our Mexican friends (@mrv86 and others): does anybody here have access to the hemeroteca of the online newspaper El Porvenir, from Monterrey? Alternatively, those who study at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) can also have free access to the archives. The website is located here: http://hemerotecaelporvenir.com.mx/ There are some results from the Pan American Gymnastics Championships that are only available through the archives of this newspaper. I asked UANL for a temporary pass, but they only allow access to students there. I also asked El Porvenir themselves for a free pass for 24 hours so I could just update Wikipedia, on the basis that I don't earn any money by updating Wikipedia and the hemeroteca would gain free publicity through citations there, but they ignored my e-mail. Bummer. A few months ago, I would probably jump in and pay the asking price (around 47 dollars) for the 3-month access plan, but the strong devaluation of the Brazilian real is a major issue for me right now.

Yep. There's a whole district in Rio de Janeiro, pretty much like a Chinatown, but composed of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants and their descendants. Weirdly enough, I never associated them to Muslims because I've never seen a Mosque in Rio. According to Google, there is one, but this is new information for me. It's really odd, because according to Wikipedia, there are around 2 to 10 million Brazilians whose parents/grandparents are from Syria, Lebanon or Palestine, but Google tells me that there are only 9 mosques in the whole country.

I keep my distance from most of my family members. The one I used to be closer was my aunt, but she has become a very strong supporter of Bolsonaro and I don't talk to her anymore. They think (and sometimes do) the most terrible things, but they act like they're humble and self-conscious, and this really pisses me off. There are very few Muslims in Brazil. There was a family that came from Lebanon two blocks away from where I used to live and they had a small restaurant. I've seen them giving away free food for the poor over and over again. They are really nice people, and the food was superb. I miss eating there. Evangelican Christians in Brazil are also divided in subgroups (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Jehovah's witnesses, Adventists and so on) but they are very consistent when it comes to hate speech (disguised as part of their beliefs). Almost all of them are like "I don't care if you're from a different branch as long as you hate LGBT+ people and macumbeiros (people who practice African-derived religions like umbanda, candomblé, tambor de mina, quimbanda etc.)".

Good for you. Most of my family are evangelical Christians, and I have nothing but terrible experiences when I'm around them. I get into verbal conflict even my mom, who also practices this religion, more often than not, for some very questionable beliefs and behaviors (I mean borderline hate speech here, or blatant hate speech from some of my family members, while I firmly oppose to any form of hate towards people's freedom). I've been to two or three services in big churches, because my mom tried to convince me that her religion is good, and all I could see was: 1) Ministers want money, lots of money, all the money you can give them, and then some more. 2) If something is wrong with your life, it's because the devil is causing it. One's bad choices, lack of commitment to work or study, laziness, nothing counts. Bad government? Nope. Corrupt politicians? Nope. It's the devil. 3) However, if you go to church every day, pay whatever the hell they want you to pay, pray, pay some more and things are still bad, then it's because God is testing you. Once again, it's not like you can do anything to change it other than pay and pray. Alternatively, if you are truly a pristine person, then the problem is that someone around you is causing the anger of God, and the problem is this person's lifestyle and behavior. Usually someone who smokes, drinks, has sex outside of marriage, dresses "provocatively", is gay or lesbian, or practices a different religion. 4) Anyone who practices African-derived religions is seen as a summoner of demons. Evangelical Christians pray that they are punished, and their temples close. And that they convert to Christianism, of course. 5) The more extreme branches will go as far as advise people to not even consider family bonds anymore if one is not evangelical Christian, or if one does something terribly wrong (like being gay). Former thieves and killers are immediately forgiven once they become evangelical Christians, but gays and lesbians are usually seen as the worst offenders, unless they get "cured". Oh, and most evangelical Christians support Bolsonaro. In fact, there's a strong theory he was mainly elected because of them. Another crazy fact: all around Brazil, especially in Rio, there are several evangelical Christian drug dealers. They can go as far as invading temples of African-derived religions and destroying sacred sculptures and offerings, usually with a machine gun on their hands. Also, priests of African-derived religions are often expelled from the community once their temples are destroyed, and dealers invade their homes and take everything from them. They have to leave only with the clothes they are wearing at the moment and nothing else, and they lose their property and belongings forever. Of course these are extreme cases, but I've read about it at least two or three times.

It's similar to how some (I'd say most) evangelical Christians in Brazil claim that it's part of "God's plan" to punish (often kill) people who are not evangelical Christians.

Thank you! Fantastic work! I'm bored too, so I decided to spend the last few days trying to gather the results for every edition of the Junior Pan American Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. I was able to find most of the results, what's very surprising even to me, considering these events date all way back to 1987! The only event I could find nothing about, except for confirmation that it did indeed happen, is the 1987 Jr Rhythmics Pan Ams. But given how old this is, I think it's perfectly understandable that not even Web Archive or obscure newspaper archives have nothing about it. As usual, I've uploaded all of the results to Wikipedia. The full list is here. EDIT: Guess what? I found some results. They were hidden in an electronic library from Mexico. Now I've found results (not all of them, but most of them) for all 36 tournaments. Nice.

I don't know where to ask, but I hope this is a good place. Does anybody have the documents detailing the qualification system in gymnastics for the 2010 Youth Olympics? I want to know if results of the 2009 Junior Pan American Championships were used, or if there was a specific Junior Pan Am Championship in 2010. I know senior Pan Am Championships were staged in 2010, but I can't find any info on Junior Pan Ams.

Yes, I'm intrigued by it, but I believe that there are only online modes (i.e., no single player versions of the games with AI opponents). While it would be easy to find someone to play the most famous games, my favorite game is Hanafuda Koi Koi (a Japanese card game), and I'm sure it would be extremely hard to find people interested in playing it. I bought a specific game on Steam named Koi Koi Japan, so I can play it against the computer and hopefully find some online matches too. It's quite fun and currently it's very cheap (I paid, like, 1.5 USD for the game and all DLCs).

What are your favorite board games, card games and trading card games? Are there traditional board/card games specific to your nation? Are there online options for one to learn how to play your favorite games? Are you a fan of Trading Card Games? Do you have any recommendations?

I think you're too optimistic when it comes to the effects of combat sports. Jiu-jitsu is very popular in Brazil, and most men who practice it are complete jerks. Also, there are famous cases of boxers being too "hot-blooded" outside of the ring, too. Football takes lots of poor kids out of the streets and make them worry about being clean and healthy. I get it that Neymar and some other footballers act like crybabies, but I believe that most footballers learn about discipline the hard way while they are trying hard to become famous. Of couse some of them are just unbearable after they actually become famous, but at least I don't listen to stories of them attacking people or hitting women or the like.

I can't stand combat sports, except for Judo, and my knowledge about MMA (or UFC, they're pretty much the same thing to me) is restricted to McGregor, Silva and Sonnen. I can live in a world without them, yeah.

Like most MMA fighters and a couple of Portuguese-speaking FIFA golden ball winners.

I know nothing about him except that, at some point, rumors said he was Cristiano Ronaldo's boyfriend.

Nope. Nice work. I was just bored and decided to create a top 5 for each continent.

Oops. Totally forgot about it.

I was bored, so I decided to do this. Top 5: World: ; Now, if USSR is not considered, is next Europe: ; If USSR is not considered, is next Asia: North America: South America: Americas (combined): Africa: Oceania:

Well, this is Russia's problem, not China's. Medal tables are nothing but political, and if a given territory is so problematic that it can't stay united for more than 50 years, this is not China's or the IOC's problem. Besides, it's not up to the IOC to define which situation applies to Russia or whatnot, since other nations can require the same treatment and get nothing in return (Serbia, Czech Republic, and so on, which would be unfair to Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and other nations).

I disagree. So, Yugoslavia should be counted together with Serbia, too? Different nations must be listed separately.

It depends on when the last stage, Doha, will happen. If it is staged later this year, Petrounias is in trouble. I don't see FIG taking chances and staging it in 2021, though, so I bet it will take place between September and October if the pandemics is mildly in control until there. I'm not sure Petrounias can score around 15.3 again in 5/6 months. Now, is Yang really a lock for the Olympic quota on rings? Since results from Baku were considered as valid, Weng Hao adds yet another title to his collection and maybe his average score surpassed Yang's? Who knows? This system is too confusing for me to care about scores and current rankings. FIG rarely creates good things, but this is too much. And now that I look at the PH scores, I guess Keikha still has a chance. Am I right? He needs to win the next stage probably with a huge score and he could surpass Kameyama. If Weng Hao is really not eligible, Keikha would be the next in line, I guess.

FIG quietly decided that results from Baku World Cup qualifications will serve as finals. This completely changes the Olympic qualification race, since Rebeca Andrade and Saeid Reza Keikha will not be able to qualify through the World Cup series anymore, but Petrounias still has a shot.

You don't have to learn HTML to contribute to Wikipedia, but if you do, it helps a lot learning the ropes. I learned basic HTML in 1998 (lol, I'm old), so I'm not even sure about what could be a good source for newcomers. Wikipedia has great tutorials for you to get started, and it might seem like a lot at first but once you get the hang of it, it will be pretty simple and straightforward.

Once you have the basic template ready, it's very easy to update with the names of the athletes and results. Not really a big deal. If you know basic HTML it will be a piece of cake to learn how wiki code works.

I've always been against investing lots of time reporting the results of competitions on the forum because the last major server crash rendered all that work futile. Everything was lost and I can only imagine the frustration of people who spent hours typing everything. I'm a huge supporter of Wikipedia and I believe that it would be great for a larger number of people if results were to be uploaded to Wikipedia. Of course not every competition is deemed big enough to be listed there, but I doubt that lack of preservation of the results for a number of small meets would be considered catastrophic for many people.

Well, the 90s were a rough time for realistic graphics, so I don't quite enjoy the aesthetics of Western RPGs of that time and I prefer the more cartoonish look of JRPGs. Skyrim was the first game that made me get into WRPGs because it finally had a fully realized world that was lifelike and believable. I also learned to like Baldur's Gate, too, bur I strongly dislike Fallout, for example. It's interesting that, in recent times, Dark Souls and Moster Hunter completely changed the landscape for JRPGs in the West since they look a lot like WRPGs and there's been sort of a JRPG renaissance after these titles. Still, Final Fantasy is my favorite series, but I have to say it's suffering from identity crisis; I didn't get into anything past FFXII, even though FFXV has a great battle system, but the characters put me off. I'm more and more stuck in retrogaming for the rest of my life, unless anything major changes my taste for games, which is highly unlikely.