Post Race!

[wes4dbt]

I heard that Spain only allow one goal the entire tournament. I'm not into soccer but that sounds impressive.

[Zvoni]

I heard that Spain only allow one goal the entire tournament. I'm not into soccer but that sounds impressive.

It is.
Unai Simon (Spanish Goalkeeper) actually holds the world record for 650 consecutive Worldcup match-Minutes without a goal conceded.
That includes the World Cup in Qatar 2022. And no: Penalty-Shootouts don't count for a "shutout" (They lost the shootout in 2022 after a 0:0 against Morocco),
since those are outside of "match-minutes"

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/745...in-goalkeeper/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unai_Sim%C3%B3n

You know the old saying: Offense wins games, Defense wins Championships

[Zvoni]

And, once again, England fell just short.

Yeah, and the english are not too happy about it.
OTOH, England made up for it with a spectacular Match for 3rd Place against France.
Their best placement in 60 years!!

They are now a serious contender for the EURO in 2028, which takes place in the UK, so Home-Turf and all that.

As of right now (my take on it):
Favorites
Spain, France, England

Close (but not really Favorites)
Norway

Surprise-Teams (maybe)
Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium,
and maybe Germany, if they get their act together

[Zvoni]

LOL
The spanish are certainly poking the bear in the eye

First
the official "Winners"-Picture from the WorldCup (the one where the spanish raise the cup into the air), where Donnie didn't want to leave the stage, and Infantino trying to drag him off the stage.

What did the spanish do?
Used (probably) Photoshop/AI to remove him, and then posted the picture on all Social Media: official Post by the Spanish Football Federation.
No Donnie on the Picture.

Second
Iberia Airlines (Spanish national Airline) have an Airbus 350 in special "WorldCup-Livery"
The Airplane is painted in a kinda same way as the spanish national dress, and with other references to the WorldCup

What do i find this morning on FlightRadar24?
The very same Airplane in still the same paintjob on approach to Buenos Aires!
First comment on Facebook: COJONES!

LMFAO

[dday9]

That's odd. I definitely commented on the storm last night, but now it's gone. It looks like anything posted yesterday at all is gone now.

[Zvoni]

That's odd. I definitely commented on the storm last night, but now it's gone. It looks like anything posted yesterday at all is gone now.

Sounds like that storm was fake news?

[dday9]

Pretty much. There was almost no wind for large swaths of the storm and just constant (light) rain. So, what we wound up with where I live is a very hot and humid day with the ditches overflowing.

[dday9]

Thankfully it didn't actually flood like they projected we would.

[dday9]

At one point the night before, it had the center of the eye go directly over Golden Meadow. But then yesterday morning, I saw where it had shifted south back to Grand Isle / Gulf of Mexico.

[dday9]

Plus, it was so particularly lopsided on the south that most of the wind and rain stayed away.

[dday9]

I do feel bad for the mariners offshore, I haven't heard from any of them yet, but I had a few friends working.

[wes4dbt]

Had an uncle that use to work on the rigs offshore. Think that was out of Texas.

Out of curiosity, do general labor offshore jobs pay well? Is there a high demand for them?

[dday9]

Yes and yes.

[dday9]

I cannot get into details on pay because of the position/company I work for, but in the spirit of a generic "pays well", absolutely.

[dday9]

In terms of high demand, it depends. Keep in mind this is all my opinion and shouldn't be interpreted any other way.

Prior to 2010-ish, there was much more demand. There was ton of speculation and companies needed people to man vessels/rigs. Since the price of oil dropped, it's been in less of a demand in that you have to prove you're more than just a pulse to get a job, but I don't think it's difficult by any means to get a job and work your way up.

Even since the start of the Iran War with oil prices increasing, I think there's a healthy level of concern in the industry that the increased oil prices are transitory.

Just look at the yo-yo effect of oil futures: pre-war it was around or less than $65 per barrel, then in March it had a low $71 with a peak at $102 with some daily swings of +/-$10, April had a low of $82 with a peak at $112 with some daily swings of +/-$12, May was similar to April, and June was front-heavy with a peak of $96 at the beginning and a low of $69 at the end. So even though futures are around $90 per barrel right now, who's to say that it won't tumble back down in a week back to $70.

Until oil futures hit a good/solid stretch of $130 a barrel, it's not going to be anything like the boom Louisiana experienced post millennium.

[dday9]

There's actually a reverse incentive in Louisiana around oil. Higher oil prices might mean paying more at the pumps, but the local economy will bring in more money.

[dday9]

My wife's parrain was a captain and I used to not understand why he would pine for another sustained increase in oil prices.

[dday9]

Something else to consider about the pay side is also scheduling.

Back in the day, 14 days on and 14 days off (aka 14 and 14) was the gold standard. Since 2010-ish, you mainly see 28 and 7, 14 and 7, 56 and 28, 42 and 21. You almost never see those old 14 and 14's anymore.

[wes4dbt]

It surprises me a little that there are so many different schedules. Large corporations usually figure out which schedule is the most profitable and go with it. Maybe because of the high demand for workers they use their schedule to draw in workers.

The big thing I've been seeing recently here in Ca. is companies hiring more people but only scheduling them for 24hrs. Then if they have to have someone work more hours for some reason (someone calls in sick) they don't have to pay them overtime.

My son use to get 40hrs a week and now he is struggling to get the hours he needs. The people he works with know if they want to take a day off he'll take their shift.

[dday9]

There are tons of different variations, but the ones I listed are the most common. It really depends on the vessel and client to be honest.