Downtown Rumbles: Sharp's Scotch Bar

[Iron_Twister]

...I drank Sting once and that was good stuff...Why don't my Asian Supermarkets carry these?!?!

[bruceleegreyhulk]

screwattack calculated the boulder that Ryu is holding in his third strike ending and they came up with 36 tons.

[Gryphon]

For those who don't know and are unfamiliar, the ending spoilers:

is the starchild made flesh. in other words, the emperor's compassion and love for humanity. Essentially, hope has returned at last

end of spoilers

[Yun Lao]

For those who don't know and are unfamiliar, the ending spoilers:

is the starchild made flesh. in other words, the emperor's compassion and love for humanity. Essentially, hope has returned at last

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Alfabusa said in the Q&A that Fyodor's personality will occasionally break through kinda like Vulkan/TheBeast

end of spoilers

[Hiromi]

It also is likely what the Emperor intended to happen all along since it provides a means for one of his bigger fragments still floating around to return to the materium, meaning his big plans regarding using Magnus and the Inquisition had yet another plan inside of that, also it gets him another one of his Primarchs back

[Vakanai]

I saw fireworks and indulged in ice cream and hot dogs, huzzah!

About the world cup thingy - why the hell does so much of the world care about one sport thing like soccer? You'd think it would be a more equal placement amongst all the sports, why has just that one risen to such a prominence? As a non-sports guy and an American it seems like some weird cultural obsession overseas.

[Hiromi]

basically because a few European countries colonized most of the world at one point and spread their customs including popular sports. Soccer also has the benefit of not requiring any real equipment to play thus can be picked up by virtually anyone from a young age regardless of their financial situation

[Gryphon]

fantasy casting idea. uncharted movie. bruce campbell as sully

[Lord Falcon]

For those who don't know and are unfamiliar, the ending spoilers:

is the starchild made flesh. in other words, the emperor's compassion and love for humanity. Essentially, hope has returned at last

end of spoilers

I feel like I waited years for this.

Despite everything, I never, ever saw the ending coming. Fyodor goes against everything I want the Imperium or even a good character to be. But it was so funny and even kinda poignant what happens to him.

[Beadle]

I saw fireworks and indulged in ice cream and hot dogs, huzzah!

About the world cup thingy - why the hell does so much of the world care about one sport thing like soccer? You'd think it would be a more equal placement amongst all the sports, why has just that one risen to such a prominence? As a non-sports guy and an American it seems like some weird cultural obsession overseas.

I'm pretty sure that while European colonialism played a part, it's not that big a part.

Football (I refuse point blank to use the ‘s’-word) is a tribal thing.

Football clubs are a reflection of local, working-class identity from a time when for many it was their only escape from the intensity of their working lives in mines, pits, steel-works, railway works, factories, power companies etc. In most cases they weren't artificially-created franchises set up in a self-contained league because it would be good for the league overall if a certain city had a team or two - they were organically established by groups of working men and grew with time, becoming intertwined with the roots of their communities. Working class sports will always fire the public imagination and inspire more primal, guttural emotion than middle/upper class sports. In some cases, team names reflect the jobs from which they sprung, for example in Russia you'll get team names starting with Lokomotiv (railways), Dynamo (police), or CSKA (army).

In many cases, football teams were developed along the lines of religious divides. For example, in Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool the big two teams in each city represent both sides of the Protestant/Catholic divide (e.g. historically speaking, Liverpool FC is the Protestant club in Liverpool, whereas Everton FC is the Catholic club). Again, this reinforces community passion around their teams.

Success and failure of these teams matters. Not only are they a reflection of their communities, but there are genuine consequences (including financial ones) for failure. In some sports, finishing bottom of the league one season isn't that big a deal. It's disappointing, but they'll still be in the league the following year and maybe they'll get the first pick in the draft of new players. Football doesn't have drafts - players must be purchased at great expense or nurtured from the youth system as an integral part of the club's heritage (there's a reason that Tottenham Hotspur fans chant "He's one of our own!" about Harry Kane). And when it comes to finishing bottom of the league, that REALLY matters. The bottom three of the EPL last year were Swansea City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion, and those teams have now been relegated to the division below, which means much lower revenues, players wanting to leave etc. It's especially exacerbated for Swansea and West Brom because their historic rivals (Cardiff City and Wolverhampton Wanderers respectively) went the other way, so there's local tribal bragging rights to factor in.

Part of the reason that football so much a grass-roots sport is its accessibility. The rules (apart from the odd ideosyncracy like the offside rule, which was introduced long after the sport's popularity was ingrained globally) are comparatively simple. In terms of tools, you need some kind of ball - that's it. The rest can be improvised (over here every child learns with 'jumpers for goal-posts'). You don't need pads, rackets, sticks, bats or nets. This means that it can just as readily be played on reclaimed marshland in North East London, the beaches and favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the streets of slum housing in Mexico City, dry shrub-land in Africa or any other place you can think of.

As a team sport it's much more likely to engender depth of emotion among supporters - it's a lot easier to get invested in or unify behind a badge or crest than it is to do so behind one competitor ahead of others.

When we come to national football teams, these are in turn a reflection of national identity, so again it’s tribal, just on a much grander and more unifying scale. And national football teams can come to represent national identity not only in terms of flags and symbology, but also in playing style. Scandinavian teams have often (not always by any means) been honest, hard-working, blood-and-thunder teams, whereas German teams have been calm, measured and unapologetically and ruthlessly efficient, and Brazilian teams will be ostentatious, effervescent entertainers. Italian teams love to defend. Mexican teams love to attack.

Football also has more than almost any other sport (and I’m a big lover of most sports) a balance of both physicality and artistry, so you get both the blood and thunder passion of crunching tackles firing the blood and the deftness of a cheeky back-heel or a perfectly weighted pass lifting the soul when something magical happens. Not for nothing is it referred to as ‘The Beautiful Game’. And scoring is comparatively infrequent (a lot of games will end goalless or with a one-goal margin), so goals begin to feel more important.

Finally, football can be a great leveller. You wouldn't expect a college baseball team to beat the Yankees. You wouldn't think a village cricket team could beat Australia or India. But football is so wonderfully unpredictable with 11 vs 11 that teams can sometimes be beaten by other teams several divisions below them. Leicester City can win the EPL at odds of 5000:1. Iceland, a country with a population of... what?... 300,000-ish?... can not only qualify for major international tournaments, but thrive like they did at Euro 2016. At the end of the day, it's only ever 11 vs 11, no matter how you spin it.

There's probably a whole load of other reasons, but that's a good starter.

[Sharpandpointies]

quick thanks to hiromi and sharp. thanks to your support, i can probably publish my book by the end of summer. depending on if i can find a cover artist quick enough.

I didn't do a lot, but congratulations, man. ^_^

[The Arbiter]

Anyone read the recent Avengers where Loki leads the final Host of Dark Celestials against Earth?

[Hiromi]

I'm pretty sure that while European colonialism played a part, it's not that big a part.

Football (I refuse point blank to use the ‘s’-word) is a tribal thing.

Soccer is just a abbreviation for Association Football, coined in England during the 19th century, American Football coincidentally is just the improper name for Gridiron Football, and Rugby is just the shortened version of Rugby Football

If anything Rugby is probably the oldest form of football considering it resembles the original medieval version more(though the original version had less rules and was FAR more violent). The Term football itself just means it's played on foot instead of horseback like Polo and other mostly nobility games

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Gryphon]

I feel like I waited years for this.

Despite everything, I never, ever saw the ending coming. Fyodor goes against everything I want the Imperium or even a good character to be. But it was so funny and even kinda poignant what happens to him.

Also

spoilers:

The way the star child interacted with Dominique is so different from Throne emp....the contrast between the cold and analytical, and compassionate and loving sides of the emperor is very apparent

end of spoilers