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I am not as excited about the start of the season as you are. I would be really pumped to watch any other NFC East team take on Tom Brady this week.

I have never thought about it before, but would the NFLPA even want an expanded roster? If the salary cap is tied to revenue, it seems like a larger roster just reduces the amount of $ available for all the players who are NFLPA members currently.

I have heard that his overall attitude and work ethic were next level bad throughout training camp, and even going back to last season. I guess his lack of effort/desire was noticeable to the point that it was a frequent topic of discussion on the team.

I think Dallas is a mediocre team at best, though I can't switch teams, as I am already locked to the Cowboys. I think Dallas has a less than 50% chance of winning the NFC East, but I would not pick any other team in the East to be favorites over them. If Dak is not OK, they are longshots. If Dak is OK, they have the best QB in the division, and that is usually enough. I do not think Dallas should be feared or worshipped. They are not even a good team. But, I have to throw out some support for them when they are dismissed.

Not for nothing, but Dallas had finished with a record better than last year's NFC East champion WFT, four straight years before Dak was injured. He is 7-1 against the reigning NFC East champs, and has a winning record against every other team in the division as well. My guess is they will be talking about Dak's health if Dallas loses again.

I think Dallas was already thin on the interior DL, and then had some guys get injured. Are there any DTs that the WFT might have to let go that have a good chance to earn playing time on other teams? If Washington is really loaded on the DL, it would make sense to trade guys you are considering cutting, even if it only nets you a conditional 6th-7th round pick.

I do a lot of Veterans' mental health evaluations, so I tend to meet with one or more Afghanistan Veterans a week. It is going to be a very tough time for so many people. Many of the soldiers were struggling with issues related to direct combat experiences, which was common regardless of which war the person had been in. With Afghanistan, I found translators, who did not engage in combat, would develop severe mental health concerns more often than other conflicts. So much guilt related to what would often happen to villagers and their families after the translators convinced them that they would be protected. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch videos of children being burned to death or beheaded because their parents believed you (personally) after you built a relationship with them to convince them that they would be safe. This whole situation is horrific.

I can't even imagine if covid hit the NFL so hard, and Cousins ended up dominating while going with the plexiglass defense instead of the vaccine.

I know that hatred of Dallas runs deep.. But, I was wondering if the Cowboys' decades long run of poor play has dampened that hatred. So, I was wondering what situations would be more upsetting to WFT fans then watching the Cowboys win a Super Bowl this season. What would be worse, the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl in a blowout, or... The WFT missing the playoffs due to poor QB play, while Kirk Cousins and Dwayne Haskins finish 1 and 2 in the MVP race. Both of those scenarios have a non-zero chance of happening. So, which would you choose?

I was excited for the Cowboys game last week. I usually am excited before the hall of fame game, because I hate how long the offseason is. But, the game is always a letdown when it actually starts. For that game in particular, it seems like backups play for one series, then are replaced by people who will never actually play a regular season game. I hope tonight's game is a little more interesting. The highlight of the HOF game was a good punt.

I agree. I also think part of the Giants hype has to do with Saquon Barkley returning. His highlight runs make it feel like he could take the whole offense to a new level if he has an injury free season. I have seen a lot of Giants fans expecting him to compete for MVP based on how improved the Giants run blocking was in the second half of last year. It reminds me of the hype about how good the Giants would be with a healthy OBJ. Even when he was healthy, it didn't help them win. I think Saquon is extremely fun to watch, but his running style is going to continue to lead to getting hit in the backfield even with good blocking.

I give a thumbs up for suicide squad. I thought it was the best suicide squad/Harley Quinn movie at least. I thought the humor and action were pretty good. The villans were very weak, but the humor made up for it.

I watched "Mortal" on Amazon Prime. It is about a guy who starts to get strange and dangerous powers. It is a Norwegian film, but is primarily in English. One of the better foreign films I have seen in a while. Good acting and an original plot.

Get ready to watch the first step towards the greatest season of all time when the Cowboys take on the Steelers tonight! Cowboys have been sandbaging the past few years because they didn't see winning the Super Bowl (against obviously inferior competition) as a worthy goal. So, I have been informed that the Cowboys are so confident about the game tonight that they are going to mostly play backups. They are so good that Dak isn't even making the trip for the game. No need. Now that the Cowboys have a worthy goal (1st 17-0 regular season), they are going to rampage through the league! Sorry, just wanted to throw that out there before reality sets in watching them play.

I think Dak declined to say whether he was vaccinated the other day, and a bunch of people jumped on him assuming he wasn’t vaccinated. But others were saying that according to social media reports from his family he has been vaccinated. He also referenced HIPPA as a reason to not answer the question, which was just silly. My guess is that he is vaccinated, but did not want to have it be an issue where he is publicly disagreeing with teammates. It may be that he would prefer to address these issues with teammates in person, rather than through the media.

I watched "Willy's Wonderland" on Hulu. Nick Cage is the star, is on camera for 80% of the movie... and does not have one line of dialog. The movie is terrible in so many ways... like it wasn't even trying to be a real movie... and for some inexplicable reason, I was entertained by it. Also, "Barb and Star go to Vista Dell Mar"... on Hulu was really funny to me. It was made by the people who did the movie Bridesmaids. It is focused on a pair of female friends in their 40s taking a vacation. It is pretty random humor, and a lot of people will not find it funny, but if you like the humor you might watch it several times. So, what I'm trying to say is that you might hate these movies and think they are unwatchable, or you might love them and watch them repeatedly. Please check out my YouTube channel for more reviews.

I kind of liked it too. I don't have high standards. I rarely hate a movie. Plus, I have two teen daughters that enjoy when girls kick butt, so I tend to enjoy this kind of movie vicariously on some level.

I'm just starting to get back into NBA stuff since the pandemic, so I don't know much about the strengths/weaknesses of various players except what I have seen spouted by various people on reddit. I'm a casual Lakers fan, so I follow speculation about what players they might be interested in more than other teams. I was wondering what people more familiar with Westbrook's recent play think about how he would fit on the Lakers if he did end up there. I have seen a lot of hot takes from reddit that act like any team with Westbrook has no chance of winning a championship, but there seems to be no nuance in opinions on the guy (or almost any topic discussing the NBA) when it comes to reddit. I'm thinking the Lakers need another player that can score, and hopefully keep the team good while allowing Lebron to play fewer minutes during the regular season next year. Any thoughts about how Westbrook would fit with the Lakers vs other guys like Lowry or DeRozan that have been rumored to be interested in the Lakers.

I agree that identifying if it developed in nature or in the lab is the key question that needs to be answered in order to know how to reduce threats from future pandemics. The answer to that question is vital to guiding future policies. If it developed in nature, that would lead to an increased support for research to address the pressing risks of viruses that evolved in nature, most likely including gain of function research. On the other hand, if we assume it evolved in nature and are incorrect about that, that could result in us increasing future risk dramatically by doing a lot more of what just led to the death of millions of people. Obviously, more needs to be done to address risks from nature (e.g. discourage exotic meat and pet industries) and to address lab safety procedures. I do think that knowing the origin of the virus is important to decide what solutions to prioritize. One of the articles I read recently was written by a bat researcher who noted that when they collected bats from caves, they were not allowed to wear gloves because the gloves may increase the risk of damaging the wings of bats. He claimed that it was not concerning to him because the risk of getting a virus from a bat was very low. I thought that was an interesting detail. Seemed like a horrible idea to me, but the scientists in the field didn't seem to think it was something to worry about.

Awesome. I know the general meaning of several of those words. This is a little off topic, but I need some input from a physicist. I like sci-fi stories. I was thinking that if I wrote a story about time travel or faster than light space travel, I could throw in the phrase "We learned how to stabilize an Einstein-Rosen bridge" as a sufficient explanation for everything else that happens in the story. Do you think most non-physicists would think that was a good enough explanation?

Man... you just double dissed me. LOL. I have a Ph.D in clinical psychology. I attended a University that only accepted 6 of 120+ applicants for the program. So, after a decade in school, I earned my Ph.D in Clinical Psychology. Also, PH.D stands for doctor of philosophy. It does not say what subject you earned your doctoral degree in. I think that idiot is an English literature doctor. Don't you feel silly now.

Honestly, I have not seen much speculation that Covid was a biological weapon, or was intentionally released. Saying that the virus was created in a lab does not mean that it was a weapon or was meant to harm anyone. The jury is out about if it was even created vs evolving on its own in nature. If it was created, it most likely was done so to help us learn how to defeat such a virus and prevent the kind of pandemic that we ended up with. There is also a possibility that the research was supported by American funding of "gain of function" research. I would hope our intelligence agencies would recommend against funding projects at the Wuhan lab if it was suspected that China was researching biological weapons development there.

Honestly, I don't really want to go any further than what I said. I don't know if covid came from nature or a lab. I was never a Trump supporter. I despise the man. I don't have any desire to try to convince anyone that it is possible Trump was right about anything. I just tried to answer the question about why Trumpers might be upset.

I don't use things like Twitter, Facebook, etc. So, I don't know what people are saying. But I expect that people are upset that Fauci was receiving emails suggesting that covid showed markers that were more consistent with being created in a lab rather than evolving naturally. Also, that Fauci had a part in the "gain of function" research that may have created the virus. So, I would guess that "Trumpers" are upset about being called racist conspiracy nuts for suggesting the possibility of covid being created in a lab, when Fauci knew about this stuff and didn't say anything.

He has all the tools. Wax on/off, paint the fence, sand the floor. You didn't think the original movie was about a guy learning karate to win over the girl did you? Read between the lines! Edit to add "Look eye! Always look eye!"