Dr. Gonzo

wow such parody

Well it's in Canada right now, so theoretically you could bring it over But yeah, there's definitely a chance this can spread to South America. How likely is it? I don't think there's anyone in the world who can tell you that - far too many variables.

Likely record low turnout in Iran's parliamentary elections today: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/21/nothing-will-change-apathy-and-a-lack-of-queues-on-election-day-in-iran Could it be apathy... or is it because of the coronavirus fears now that there's these cases in Iran and relating to people who've traveled to Iran.

Idk if you've seen this but: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-bc-hit-with-sixth-case-of-coronavirus-after-woman-returns-from-iran/ This woman came back from Iran and came back with the virus. This might indicate there are more infected people in Iran than we know about (which I would assume, considering how long you can go without showing symptoms so if we're now seeing more cases develop out of Iran... that's an issue). And Lebanon's got cases now: https://news.yahoo.com/lebanon-confirms-first-case-coronavirus-144847635.html - after flights from Qom came in.

Yeah really bad news for us. There’s a good argument he’s player of the season and I think whenever we’re at our best he’s in the side.

I would have started that letter off a bit differently... ”Read carefully, you little shit...”

Isn’t the purpose of these blanket sanctions hoping to make people suffer enough they stand up to the government? They use targeted sanctions on government officials, but these blanket ones are just designed to cut Iran off from the rest of the world to force them to try to change regimes. Never mind that every time there’s been a big uprising it’s also ended up with the side that’s armed shooting protestors... Considering other fucked up things that have happened in the Middle East I wouldn’t put it passed anyone

Reminds me of when I used to do cocaine, tbh.

It's not showing up.

I think Gamepass is a pretty steller deal tbh. I've heard many good things about the Yakuza games, but never played them - I'm looking forward to giving them a spin.

A big worry for it spreading to Iran is that the sanctions have made it really difficult to get medicine into Iran. I know there's no vaccine for the disease right now, but I think the sanctions mean that even if there is a vaccine made anytime soon... it's probably not going to make it's way to Iran.

@nudge since this is probably a better place to talk about coronavirus in Iran than the Asian football thread Qom (where the first instances of the virus) isn't too far from Arak - about the same distance as Qom is from Tehran... but considering how quickly the virus seems to spread, it's pretty concerning. Because Arak's an industrial hub - so you've got tons of people and things coming and going from the city. Hopefully the virus stays the fuck away from my gran in Shiraz & hopefully she doesn't travel to Tehran anytime soon (but I know she goes back and forth between the two cities pretty regularly).

Here's a fun story about the history of Iranian politics: https://portside.org/2020-01-25/how-britain-helped-irans-islamic-regime-destroy-its-left-wing-opposition This is the fun story of how the country I was born in that utterly fucked my mum's country, decided "yeah, let's keep fucking it" because apparently people on the left are more evil than authoritarian theocracy. And in a similar vein... earlier in this thread I said that the US's recent escalations with Iran all stemming from the US pulling out of the JCPOA would ultimately lead to an erosion of support in Iranian politics of the reformists. Well guess what's happening: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/iran-reformists-lose-parliamentary-vote-200219102846864.htmlhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/iran-reformists-lose-parliamentary-vote-200219102846864.html The failure of the nuclear deal and return of sanctions has been devastating to an economy that's already been under strain from decades of mismanagement. Popular support for the reformists is at an all time low - people feel betrayed and feel stupid for believing in politicians that felt the west could be trusted. And even without that popular support, reformists are finding political life in Iran pretty tough. 80% of reformist candidates have been blocked from running in the upcoming elections & many reformist newspapers have been shut down. I feel like US foreign policy advisors must have known what escalating tensions and guaranteeing that the JCPOA would fail would lead to a rebound in support for Iran's hardliners. The confusing thing there is... the hardliners are the ones who think Iran's best way of dealing with the West is with rampant hostility. They are the ones who think more of Iran's resources, not less of them, should be spent supporting Iranian proxy wars - even if this does literally nothing for the millions of Iranians begging for their government to step in to fix their failing economy. It begs the question: do they want a hostile Iran? If so, why? Because it guarantees instability in the region which guarantees more military intervention on the part of the US? Do they want to push Iran to become so belligerent they force the US to invade? And if this political reality was not by design... it begs the question why no other parties to JCPOA did more than "urge restraint" as tensions first escalated. Because outside of super religious Shia Muslims, I can't imagine anyone in the world would be happy with hardliners likely coming back to power in Iran.

Yeah in Qom right?

Oh lol, I just got that off the top blurb on google. My bad - I trust your numbers on it better than I trust google's. Especially with you doing a good job keeping us all up to date on coronavirus. I swear, sometimes google's top result for me when I'm on my work network is always insane compared to my top result when I'm using my laptop/phone at home There's been a flu going around in the US that's already killed 10k this year (in only the US) that's not really getting anywhere near the same sort of coverage as coronavirus.

It's killed more people than SARS, but it's also infected a hell of a lot more people than SARS did. The outbreak also happened at the exact worst time for a viral outbreak in China - right before their New Year where everyone's going to be traveling a lot. But yeah, I wouldn't risk going to where there's a sickness that's killing people and is all over the news right now. Especially as China passed that law limiting how much foreign footballers get paid.

It's still only got around a 2% mortality rate. The flu's got a mortality rate of 5-15% in normal times and 25-50% when we've got a "flu pandemic" like swine flu. It's a lot less deadly than SARS was - but it's much more infectious than SARS was. I think he's banking on: 1.) The Chinese season's been postponed until this calms down a bit; 2.) Most people who have died have either been very old, very young, or with weakened immune systems prior to getting the disease; 3.)

How's the Sony equivalent of Xbox Live that they rolled out once the PS4 ended Sony's free online services. Because I had a PS3 at uni and the online services were always shite compared to my roommate's Xbox 360 - but I always thought "ah, it's fine if it's not the greatest because it's free." I almost got a PS4 until I learned basically everyone out here in the same timezone I'd be playing video games with had an Xbox One (although I'm well happy with that because Halo 5 gave me 2 years of some excellent online gaming & some of the Microsoft exclusives have been surprisingly fun - the Gears series, Sea of Thieves, Killer Instinct) and that they both charged money to use the online services. I think because Microsoft has been a software company for so long... they've really got a great thing going with their online services. Sony's got that whole PS Vue though, which gets them in on the TV streaming game with their consoles - where they compete with other US TV streaming companies like Google's YouTubeTV, Sling, etc... so they've got a pretty smart idea trying to undercut Microsoft and getting people hooked on their additional services. But Xbox does have the Xbox Game Pass, which I've now got bundled with my Xbox Live subscription... and it's pretty ridiculous value. I imagine all console manufacturers want as many of their users subscribed to as many of these extra services as possible. It's where they make their real money. It does bother me, paying a company to use the internet I've already paid for... but Game Pass does make it less irritating (especially as I was able to convert 3 years of Xbox Live into Game Pass Ultimate for $3). But it's really smart from Sony/Microsoft. I just wonder if Sony's done more with their services to get more people to sign up other than the fact they just need to if they're playing online. Because Nintendo's online services (thank god they're cheap though) are straight outta the fucking late 90s/early 2000s. Utter shite.

Seems like MS likes to set a $500 limit with their console releases though? Granted, it seems insane when you think about how cheap the consoles become just a year after launch.

I wonder if he just misheard his agent and thought it was a move to West Ham...

Iran finally hired a head coach to replace Wilmots. It's Dragan Skocic. It's his first national team job - but he's worked in Iran before and was willing to be paid in rials. I think that's 2 of the 3 criteria the IFF were looking for - familiarity with Iranian football, experience managing a national team (which was probably unlikely considering the third criteria), and being willing to be paid in rials (I think many managers with the right experience would have likely wanted to be paid in Euros or Dollars - which is unlikely right now considering the economy of Iran & how hard it is to get any money converted to dollars/Euros). The Iranians in Iran (so pretty much all family) I know were hoping the manager of the club they support would be the next national team manager. That's Branko Ivankovic - who was, up until recently, Persepolis FC's manager & also the Iran manager from 2002-2006. But he went off to be the manager for Oman. I don't know anything about Skocic other than what's on his Wikipedia page & what I've been told about him. He's been at 4 Iranian clubs though - Malavan (which is from a province I've got family from... but I don't know any of my family that's not from Tehran/Shiraz so it's not like I can ask "how was he?"), Foolad, Kooneh be Kooneh (a club that doesn't exist anymore), and Sanat Naft. So two clubs from Khuzestan - probably one of the most diverse places in Iran - & two clubs in cities by the Caspian sea. So there's some fun Iran facts. And in other news, Sevilla have sold their captain to a club in China. Specifically... to Wuhan.

The 3DO's launch price looks insane compared to everything else on that.

They’re easily the most annoying side I’ve ever seen us play, ever. I’ve never witnessed such shithousery.

Tbh one thing I’ve noticed under Klopp with us is we always seem to lose momentum after an extended break. I think breaks are necessary for the intensity we use in each match. But you can see after the winter break there’s a bit of rust on the players. I think we’ll see more rotation in the final stretch, but I doubt we do a rest of the entire first team. But yeah, obviously winning the treble would be a really nice way to ensure this season lives on in history for decades. And I’m sure that’s what the team is hoping for. I think at this point we just need to play our way back into form before we host Atletico at Anfield, when we’re at our best at Anfield I think we can beat anyone. But VVD had his worst match in a Liverpool kit and Fabinho, who at his best is very important for us, hasn’t been at his best since coming back from injury. I think we get a bit of momentum back and we can start thinking about a treble. We’ve got 3 weeks (I think, I can’t remember when the FA cup match is) to keep that dream alive

Having Messi and Griezmann and then claiming you have an emergency so you should be able to take the best player on a small team battling relegation. This emergency signing rule is fucking stupid. I can understand a goalkeeper, but this is just down to poor planning from Barca. They had 2 injured attackers - then sold one in January. Now they can claim an emergency? Its embarrassing they even asked. It’s absurd it was deemed an emergency. And what about Leganes? Can they now declare emergency after having lost the player that’s helped them win most of their points this season?