Liam Deane

Split into Michaels and Blackrock. Draft system for players from anywhere else. Guaranteed to broaden the appeal of the game.

If we're going really big picture I guess this is an argument in favour of a URC/Premiership merger since that would bring clubs actually capable of offering alternative pathways to Irish players into the league.

Not sure there's any solution here other than biting the bullet and allowing selection of players at English/French clubs and all the risks that come with that

Who would sign Irish players though? The Scots are even more bottlenecked with 2 teams, Wales have no money, SA no shortage of domestic talent

I mean there are three majority Dutch speaking countries

Making Munster, Ulster, and Connacht players eligible for the national team would be an exciting start

I suppose there's some sense to that but you have to wonder how much value there really is in holding a kind of figurehead leadership of a government that doesn't deliver much of your policy aims. D66 doesn't really seem like a "power for the sake of power" kind of party.

*No* pleasure at all?

Look you win a grand slam by accident and these are the karmic consequences. I don't make the rules.

Do you think that D66 drove such a soft bargain on the expectation that the coalition would inevitably be dragged left into something they're happier with by GL/PvdA? That's the only logic I can think of, though not sure I buy it - they could just as well be dragged right by JA21/BBB.

Well indeed

A lot of people still think it's a shithole. Have a look at games industry LinkedIn this time of year to see what all the guys begging for GDC to be moved to Las Vegas think about it.

I have a sinking feeling that the only place with a decent recap may be YouTube which is absolutely not the format I want it in

I've been reluctant to get the new one for exactly this reason. I know I enjoyed the first two books but unfortunately now have not the slightest memory of what actually happened in then.

"isn't"? Straight to jail I'm afraid. Have to take a firm line against that yankicism taking root.

Arguably the most distinctive thing about Protestant churches is that they don't typically claim to be sole true universal church, whereas pretty much all non-Protestant churches do.

Yeah it's not really a question of "true" legitimacy. All land has been stolen from someone at some point. It's really just an issue of moral hazard: rejecting any concept of legitimate ownership is a licence for imperialism.

It's genuinely a hard question because you *do* have to draw the line somewhere. I'm not willing to just go "welp what can you do?" and let Russia keep whatever parts of Ukraine it can conquer. But there does also have to be some point where you allow ill-gotten gains to be legitimised.

It's pretty funny in this context that you feel the need to stress that you follow Ygelsias strictly for ideologically pure reasons. Why not just say that it's OK to agree with him sometimes?

They do all of this far less frequently than human drivers, which is evident from them getting into dramatically fewer accidents. That does tend to mean longer journey times for passengers though.

Waymos are invariably slower than normal taxis in the cities where they operate because they drive more carefully and never break traffic rules. Other drivers also quickly learn that Waymos can be cut off and bullied without consequence.

This strikes me as a vast overestimate of the number of things I need to know

It was the two best second place teams that went through (which did create some imbalance but often drama as well). 16 teams might or might not be better but my feeling would be that we know for sure that the 24 team format worked well so let's just go with that.

That requires an extra weekend compared to the current format though and if you can get the French to give you a ninth round why not just go back to the glory days 24 team format?

Not to contradict the general thrust of your point, but the PVV got 23% in 2023 and they'd be polling at under 15% a few weeks before election day. The highest they reached was around 30% a few months *after* the election.

The aim is by 2030 apparently. Virgin are due to start running running cross-channel trains then which will require more capacity.

London St Pancras revamp aims to cut Eurostar waiting time to 15 minutes Planned £100mn overhaul of train station will seek to end ‘holding pen’ experience for passengers

It is indeed crap currently but there is a major renovation planned to improve things www.ft.com/content/ff71...

If it had been the opposite schedule this year I'd be very worried about the games away to Scotland and Italy. It's harder to win the tournament in a even-numbered year but it's definitely kinder for a transitional season.

Honestly not so bad for this to come in a year when we would've been very likely to lose away to France/England anyway and should be able to pick up 3 wins at home even with a weakened squad. Should at least be able to get through the campaign with our dignity intact and a few new players blooded.

My "safe to use" handheld console is raising a lot of questions already answered by the console

What a time to be alive