CombatWombat

Is a hedge fund guy really the best we could do for MLS commissioner?

Berg, a former senior partner at Apollo Global Management, will have to divest his ownership stake in LAFC as he takes on the new role. He will be charged with leading MLS into its next era of growth.

Lemme know if you find it; this is the link Prism and Pen promoted via their mastodon account.

Pickling is my favorite method of preserving green beans as well. You don't necessarily have to can them, either -- they last a surprisingly long time in the fridge.

A great deal for US Soccer, who are getting the same results we’ve gotten under every manager, but for a much higher price tag

There is also something of an opportunity cost to keeping Pochettino on. Tax filings show that he made more than $5m over his first seven months in the job, a sum that was reportedly padded with further payment from billionaire US Soccer supporter Ken Griffin and other sources. Griffin is once again a primary funder of Pochettino’s new deal, which keeps him among the most highly paid managers in international soccer. And while the federation got a return on that investment over the past summer, it’s worth wondering whether it makes sense to pay out that kind of money to go and play early qualifiers against Nicaragua, or to face Jamaica and Panama again and again.

Hopefully, ownership has looser purse strings with the Reign than the Sounders

The moves open two roster spots for the Reign, who now have three available spots and several open international slots. Additionally, Lynn Biyendolo is expected to return from maternity leave later this season, while Ruby Hladek’s short-term contract now runs through the end of August.

To come out? Yes. To be trans? No.

I will warn you that there do exist people who will deliberately misunderstand you because there is someone else that they are arguing with and you just happen to be present, and no clarity of expression will get them to understand you. How you choose to deal with these people is up to you.

The best thing I did to improve my ability to speak persuasively is learn to write quickly. I studied literature, and it was common to take exams where you have to write a short essay in a quick timeframe in response to an excerpt from something you studied during your coursework. I spent a lot of time writing a few paragraphs making a point as quickly as possible, and then read back what I wrote and try to figure out how I could be more persuasive. It bled over into my speech and I still speak in paragraphs.

It's frustrating how many claims they make do not hold up to even the slightest scrutiny

I made a version of this point to a bloke in a comment thread this week and I’ll make it again. I was raised in the eighties and nineties in a northern town on a diet of almost nothing but straight, cisgender people. Every advert. Every teacher. Every neighbour. Total immersion, not one trans woman anywhere in my line of sight for two decades. By the contagion model I should have emerged the straightest man in the north.

It’s the same argument as gay people kissing on telly will turn our kids gay. And it always falls over at the same place: right — then why didn’t thirty years of straight people kissing on telly turn me straight?

Me, every hour when @capybarahourly@mastodon.social posts

I think it's appropriate that the anglo-saxon word for fate, wyrd, is retained in English as the word "weird," because it seems folks only really turn to destiny as an explanation when something seems kinda strange and they don't have another explanation.

I find it particularly cynical that she's working to increase her prominence on the back of a group of "fans" who would never be caught dead watching women's sports

If Clark has lacked the courage and dexterity to say anything beyond the milky and ambiguous, Sophie Cunningham does not suffer from such internal conflicts. Largely anonymous politically or otherwise during her eight-year career, Cunningham – she of the viral finger-point which has been adopted as a symbol of the white animosity toward the WNBA culture – is in her moment. Her comments in a lengthy 21 July ESPN profile stating her opposition to transgender athletes has earned her hero status of the specious “Protect Our Girls” movement, even though you’d need a microscope to find any critical mass of transgender women participating in sports at any level.

I don't have the setup but if you do, they have a way to share your data with scientists

As I wrote in BAN Issue #1042, the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket is going to hit the moon next week, on August 5, 2026. The impact time is predicted to be 06:34:33 UTC (02:34:33 Eastern US time). The upper stage will impact near the crater Einstein in the northwest portion of the moon, which, unfortunately, will be lit by the sun at the time. That will make seeing any impact flash difficult.

But not impossible! A paper has come out detailing the event, and the plans to observe it. It’s not likely to be visible by amateur telescopes, but hey, “amateurs” have pretty sophisticated equipment these days, so I would encourage anyone with a good setup and some experience give it a try. You’ll need to take video — the flash will be very brief, so capturing it during a short image exposure of the sunlit moon is extremely unlikely. The paper also talks about how to share data if you get any.

Unsurprising that the testing required doesn't actually exist and doesn't actually help protect kids playing sports in any way

“This measure was clearly not written by somebody who practices medicine,” said Dr. Gina Martin, a family medicine physician who offers sports physicals to her patients. “Physicals focus on the two most important aspects of sports. First, musculoskeletal health — thinking about kids’ joints, bones, muscles, and tendons — and then cardiac health, looking into their heart health and finding out if we need to screen for additional cardiac risk factors.”

“What is certainly not medically necessary is for me to do an exam and confirm somebody’s sex, either through hormone testing, genetic testing or a non-indicated genital exam,” Martin added. “I don’t even know how it would work because I’ve never run those tests on a patient.”

I use the pwa. The interface for following users is still pretty clunky — you have to browse the instance on the instances page, and you only see accounts who have interacted with your instance previously. I went to pixelfed.social and gram.social and followed just some random accounts and it has turned out way better than I expected. My favorite is an account that posts photos from a gameboy camera, @harryfk@pixelfed.social

I’m more of a «Les Victoire vont etre un cauchemar cette année» kinda guy — they never expect a French-speaking American.

It’s not a good sign for Mayor Katie that firing Barnes was clearly the right choice, but even AMR is annoyed about how it went down

Even Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who might be the most politically aligned with Wilson, expressed disappointment at the lack of communication from the Mayor’s Office.

“I am disappointed that I found out about the possible dismissal of Chief Barnes from reports on social media last night and did not receive any update or information about this development from the Mayor or Mayor's Office until mid-morning today,” Rinck said in a press statement. “Chief Barnes’ recent interactions with press have been concerning, but I have yet to receive an explanation of what decisions have or haven’t been made, or a full rationale behind why any decision has been made.”

Quite a bit for a teenaged defender

The newly-promoted Premier League club have agreed to pay an upfront fee of around $17million (£12.6m) plus a further $6m (£4.4m) in add-ons for the centre-back, while Colorado Rapids will retain a 15 per cent of any future sale profit.

I think we're gonna be hearing a lot from Cabo Verde in the future

Cape Verde already has plans in place to build on its recent progress. “Looking ahead, we’re implementing an ambitious four-year technical development strategy for women’s and youth football. My technical department is working to create sustainable structures that will strengthen every stage of the player pathway, from grassroots participation through to elite performance.” Turning specifically to the women’s game, Rui says it is “receiving more attention than ever before” in the country.

Iirc, the salary doesn't count against the cap

In 2024, the NWSL passed a revised collective bargaining agreement, which will run through 2030, that expanded the league’s parental leave legislation. Players now are guaranteed to receive their base salary while out on maternity leave. For players whose contracts expire during their leave period, their club is required to include them in the following season’s 30-day training camp to give them a chance at earning a new contract. Additionally, players are given money for childcare services and travel support, and the NWSL helps provide resources to help through fertility journeys.

Uh-oh Canada

USA brought together 216 players born in 2011, 107 from 2010, and 87 from 2009. Each one of those is more than the total number of players Canada will bring to their U-18 national camp, which will include zero from 2011, and only a handful of 2010 and 2009 players.