Carl Sagan

1 hour ago, Loughborough Ram said:

I think that he's the best left wing back at the club. I don't think that he's in the top two in any other position. 

If Paul Warne decides to go with 3 centre halves and the two best wing backs, in ward and Sibley, from now on, I think that our home performances and results will improve, but our away performances may suffer.

I guess you pays your money, you takes your choice.

I say Louie is our best attacking central midfielder. But he's never given the opportunity to show it.

The good news tonight, with 10 games still to go, is we're now safe from relegation. With our 69 points, we can't be caught by: Carlisle, Fleetwood, Port Vale (obviously a crucial win today), Shrewsbury or Charlton.

So the worst position we could end up in is 19th, and might even be higher with teams below us having to play each other.

As we begin the business end of the season, the hope is fewer and fewer teams will be able to catch us. For instance, Oxford in 7th can now only get a maximum of 87 points, and the time will come (maybe in 5 games or so) when we're mathematically cemented in the playoffs. Let's hope we reach a point when we cannot finish lower than 2nd. Let's count it down in this thread.

4 minutes ago, B4’s Sister said:

Congratulations on getting published. This flower looks fascinating 

Thanks, but in this case I'm only the book publisher. This is one by someone else (the botanist Chris Thorogood) where I'm just his editor. But it's a great book. He transports you into the rainforest with him.

30 minutes ago, Barney1991 said:

Forest owner sent off on the touch line 😂😂 clatternburg better get to work 

I would worry for Paul Tierney. And the ref for the gump's next game. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/revealed-would-nottingham-forest-owner-8451522

Great to get back to winning ways. And Sky gave me a free £1 build a bet that was used to fine effect:

With everyone else winning too, we briefly remain effectively 4th (on points per games), but it's very tight between Bolton, Barnsley and us, and because Barnsley play Bolton midweek, whatever the result we will sit 3rd on ppg. Plus goal difference may yet be a factor. Boosting that really helps and brings confidence.

28 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

Mine is a monograph of my PhD discussing Carl Schmitt's exceptional sovereignty in relation to Iran and Syria 🙂 It's called "Carl Schmitt in the Middle East: Unstable Decisionism and the Failure of Political Orders". I'm trying to make it easily readable and am talking to the publisher to make it reasonably priced so it might shift a few copies 🙂 

Confess it sounds somewhat niche, but I have no doubt it will be ace. Happy writing!

48 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Get in

Sibs shot took a deflection and goes in

If you don't shoot, you don't score. It's one of many reasons Sibley should be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Wonderful for Gayle to score. That will give him massive confidence. Hope he gets a couple more in the second half!

Come on you Rams.

47 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

Great review! Sounds very interesting 🙂 hope it sells well for you! I feel the pain on writing, writing a book myself, albeit not with such a prestigious publisher and it's definitely hard going haha. 

Great stuff! As I said when starting the AI thread, I'm also writing a book on that for a different publisher at the moment. And, like you, it's currently hard going haha. What's yours for our future reading pleasure?

22 hours ago, EraniosSocks said:

Linked with Chelsea, West Ham , Juventus, Ac Milan, Lyon and Nice! 
 

£15 million! Sky sports transfer feed”

Here's a link: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/01/chelsea-and-west-ham-considering-15m-move-for-gents-archie-brown

So is that going to be?

Wildsmith

Ward     Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

Adams

Sibley         Bird

Mendez-Laing     Gayle     Barkhuizen

Creating books is a really slow process. I moved to Penguin a couple of years ago, but first you have to contract an author to write a book, then they must do the hard graft of writing, and we go through numerous drafts together, and then it moves into production and all the stages there. My very first book from start to finish like that publishes on Thursday and it's a great story - proper narrative nonfiction that follows Chris Thorogood's lifelong obsession with Rafflesia, the world's biggest flowers, and his quest to save them. Lovely review in the Guardian to kick things off. Before this book, I was pretty blind to plants. Now I notice them so much more. It's called Pathless Forest if anyone wants to try out a nature adventure story.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/01/pathless-forest-by-chris-thorogood-review-love-letter-to-a-monstrous-flower

Well, after back-to-back defeats we've fallen to fourth place in the table that properly reflects points over the season:

It's been a big dropoff by us and Bolton with the 95 point target for automatics now looking a significant overestimate. Barnsley will fancy their chances and if poor form continues then Peterborough can come back into the mix.

All is not lost, but we need to put a run of results together quickly. If my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle, but what a missed opportunity this has been. We could have been well clear with Portsmouth...

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

The fact that he looked rather good as LFB last season, and when we needed one last night we got Cashin, has to be questioned. Obviously Sibley has done something wrong?

6 hours ago, Ramtastic ones said:

Warne set up as a 4-2-3-1. I have no issue with that, but why push Cashin to left back? He needs to be brave. Sibley has filled that role well on numerous occasions. Well has Bradley has played lately he should have been on the bench.

I don't like seeing Sibley at left back, but if Fozzy and Elder are injured and we're playing 4 at the back, then it has to be him. With the bonus of a goalscorer/attacking player in the team when, last night against Charlton we only really had two in NML and Gayle. Wilson was brought as a defender and although he can be very useful on the wing, I don't see him ever scoring many. Nathan Jones just had to nullify two players and hope we didn't score from a set piece. 

Warne said on Radio Derby after the game something to the effect that he thought about playing Sibley there, but he wanted to get all his best players on the pitch. That's not a quote - I'd have to listen to it back, but the truth is I can't be bothered to put myself through that again. So, Warne moved by far his best central defender out wide, and by only playing two attackers his strategy appeared to be to stay in the game and hope we nicked a goal from a set piece. Against a team without a win in 20+ games. I am desperate for Warne to get us promoted this season - I HATE us being in this league. But I would sack him at the end of the season either way, and bring in a better coach/tactician. 

Listening on Radio Derby. They have been very critical of referee Jeremy Simpson - apparently the same one who sent Louie Sibley off for being fouled, so it had to be overturned a couple of days later.

Great to have the lead in what sounds a game with few chances. When things are so tight, you need magical finishers, but of course Sibley was dropped. Good that left back Cashin found the net from a set piece. Sounds a really odd lineup, starting with so many defensive players on the pitch and attacking players on the bench,

Fantastic to be winning, but Nathan Jones is a better tactician than Warne, making me fear a little for us in the second half. Maybe Warne can change things around sooner rather than later and keep Jones off balance? Maybe we can bag goals 2 and 3 and relax? We all live in hope - come on you Rams!

America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finished its look at the 2nd flight test, so we're now nearly ready to go with the third (a new licence must still be requested). But, meanwhile, SpaceX twice attempted what's called a wet dress rehearsal (to test the spacecraft and ground systems) last week, with Ship 28 stacked atop Booster 10, and it didn't work. As an indication the problem is with the spacecraft, Booster 10 has returned to the hangar for inspection and repairs while the Starship (28) remains at the pad. 

My guess is this means the third Integrated Flight Test won't launch until mid-March at the earliest. 

15 hours ago, David said:

We would have won had Madley reffed the game.

Won 5, lost 4 and drew 1 with him in charge, what did you do that for 😂

Ha! I wonder as well. So many sliding doors moments supporting Derby - one of which was the Madley game against Burnley. My hope was actually that he would remain the ref for this, but be aware of the scrutiny he would be under, and err on the side of giving us decisions. I missed the game but haven't seen any complaints about the replacement ref. 

On 23/02/2024 at 19:24, Ian Buxton's Bat said:

Our Kieran is a bit behind on this - isn't he?

The Kirch has already faced charges and has been convicted?

I even updated Wikipedia to that effect after it happened. You'd think Maguire might have at least looked there!

I will go with the In No Particular Order thing:

Cosmos

Blake's 7

Babylon 5

The Professionals

Sapphire and Steel

X-Files

Twin Peaks

The Tube

The Word

Tomorrow's World

Here's a simple video showing the initial design of the Starship. All the space above where they place the battery back (22 seconds) will be the cargo hold or, ultimately, crew quarters.

As others have said, we can't outsource our own problems to other people to deal with. She is our responsibility and should be dealt with here.

I think a reason some don't seem to see this, and are happy to be rid of her, is that probably hardly anyone has confidence the British state would do a good job of dealing with her in a just and effective way. The country is in a mess - schoolgirls willingly going off to be Islamic brides for an evil terrorist movement with a penchant for beheadings, is just one symptom of that.

FWIW my Twitter alter ego did get the referee replaced for Barnsley vs Derby this weekend. Amazing to see the power of one post on social media:

168,000 views as I post it here. 

6 minutes ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

They just said on Rams Tv the police have stopped a train because of too many bouncing Derby Fans !!

I imagine that could make the train unsafe, and it would be scary to be onboard. Derby fans trying to win the Darwin award?

Early atmosphere sounds great. Come on you Rams!

1 hour ago, Foreveram said:

Footy scran.

Is that an actual "pea mix" (I think the term was), as described in other threads?

On 12/02/2024 at 10:21, Wolfie said:

The Creator (rent on Prime)

Sci-fi written & directed by Gareth Edwards.

Humans are at war with AI, after a nuking of LA. The AI have developed a new weapon to win the war and the race is on to kill/save this "weapon" robot child.

Visually stunning. Looks a lot more expensive than it actually was.

I liked it a lot. 8/10

I feel Gareth Edwards is the finest director currently working in terms of visual imagery. But his writing is mediocre. I'd love him to work more on other people's scripts. For instance he did an incredibly important job for the Star Wars franchise with Rogue One. 

The Creator looked sumptuous - unlike anything else - but was basically a re-run of The Golden Child. Felt a waste of such a beautifully imagined world.

1 hour ago, angieram said:

Including by Paul Warne, if you listen to his interview on the website.

Fantastic! "where the ref comes from" slipped in there. Well done Paul Warne, not dwelling on it but making sure Madley is aware.