You could credibly say the same thing about a habanero pepper, but not sure that it would do either full justice

Sure, there is gamesmanship everywhere.

How many people try to excuse themselves by (implicitly) with "Oh, but I am ____."  Fill in the blank. It's like the insanity defense for serial killers, etc.

The kids my sister works with have real problems though and how well they learn to manage themselves and work around it will determine who goes to college (probably some to MIT) and others may wind up in assisted living for life. At the age she sees them, this is not about parents gaming the college admissions system. And she is a very fair, empathetic, and antiestablishment-but-has-to-work-within-establishment  force in their young lives.

Anyway, another topic - for bearish - I was watching the PGA Senior Open at my favorite sports bar this evening and noted that Thomas Bjorn is 4th right now, with 4 under par for the second round, a Danish, not Norwegian player, but still. (Maybe you actually root against him lol.)

He was rock solid on two puts in the second round - one out of the rough and straight into the hole.

Leaderboard is: Hamilton. CInk, and Andrade, but it keeps changing, This is at Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, a truly beautiful course, surrounded by mountains.

I'm working on an original song now about golf without gravity. Not playable actually, but it's a metaphor....

Edit update: TB is still 4th now: 2 under par for the second round, 4 under total, 13 thru. Andrade dropped to 5th, and Hensby advanced to 3rd. Harrington and Cink still in the lead.

I’m always happy to see my ursine brethren do well, historically up to and including Mr Borg (a Swede!). As for Thomas, I watched the coverage when he obliterated his final round Open lead in a bunker at the 16th hole of Royal St George’s in 2003. Not quite as bad as the Jean van de Velde collapse at Carnoustie in 1999 (which I watched on TV from the terrace of my parents’ house while on a vacation visit - I can still visualize the setting), but pretty close. And much more relatable than when these guys hit a 320 yard drive and a pitching wedge hole high on a par five. I’ll be playing rather than watching this weekend, but will report back anything newsworthy.

This is at Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, a truly beautiful course, surrounded by mountains.

I stayed at the Broadmoor once years ago. Hiked up a nearby mountain in beautiful, sunny June weather, wearing shorts and a T-shirt ... and then broke land speed records on the way down as a new weather system rolled in and it started to snow, hard.

The other memorable thing about that trip was that, to get to Colorado Springs (where the Broadmoor is), you generally have to fly to Denver and then take a shuttle flight from Denver to Colorado Springs. CS has a fairly big airport -- I think the shuttle flight was in a Boeing 727 or something comparable -- but they probably never get enough air traffic from anywhere else to warrant flights from more distant airports. It's less than a 100 mile or 160 kilometers between the two airports.

Anyway, this was for a convention of pension actuaries, so a significant number of American pension actuaries were there; maybe a third of the total and probably close to half of the more prominent among them. And basically all of them boarded the same shuttle flight back to Denver when the convention was over.

Now, apparently the Rocky Mountains create some ... "interesting" ... wind situations under the right conditions, and this particular shuttle flight was bouncing up and down by (I would guess) about 50 feet or 20 meters again and again. It was the only time in my life when I seriously thought the airplane I was on might crash.

I looked up and down the seats on the plane -- everyone was clearly very uncomfortable -- and saw a significant number of American pension actuaries, maybe a third of the total and probably close to half of the more prominent among them. And I thought that flight might be the end of pensions in America!

(Spoiler alert: pensions in America instead died a slow death.)

Someone apparently took notice of the inherent risk -- actuaries, after all -- because I think there hasn't been another actuaries convention in Colorado Springs since.

There should be an actuarial term for that: collective or compounded mortality risk.

The WEF Annual meeting has a similar quality. Of course, the Swiss make it clear as soon as you hit the airport that they are watching and carry semis. 
Although it is more discreet out and about in town, the Swiss protective services are there at the great hall too.

Got it - sorry!

There is fine line between grensehandel and smuggling, but I’m all in favor of it!

Some elements for making your own cross-topic interwoven music video. 
Anoushka Shankar with Last Chance - Land of Gold Glastonbury 2016

plus
First images from the Vera Rubin Observatory
(This is shorter than Anoushka's piece, but it's a start. If you like this art form, you can keep going on your own. : D)

Indeed. I’m heading in that direction myself in a few weeks. The duty free shopping on arrival is very convenient (although a bizarre concept if you think hard about it), but is probably still limited to the assortment carried by Vinmonopolet.

There is fine line between grensehandel and smuggling, but I’m all in favor of it!

There are both the same. 

"Of course, a situation like that does tempt amateurs, but, you know, they can't stay the course like a professional"

The Perseid meteor shower is peaking Tuesday - CNN August 12

"These meteors shoot out in all directions from the constellation Perseus, which is located in the northern sky...however, due to Perseus appearing low on the horizon at this time, much of the meteor activity will be blocked from view."

Still, worth a try.

Also, for your fall calendars:

Here are the peak dates of other meteor showers anticipated in 2025, according to the American Meteor Society and EarthSky.

• Draconids: October 8-9
• Orionids: October 22-23
• Southern Taurids: November 3-4
• Northern Taurids: November 8-9
• Leonids: November 16-17
• Geminids: December 13-14
• Ursids: December 21-22

Good luck!