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Carl Sagan

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Everything posted by Carl Sagan

  1. Very disappointing (if predictable) results today with all three chasers winning. Lose at Portsmouth and automatic promotion is out of our hands. Sadly, with us scraping wins while Bolton bagged 5 each against Oxford and Reading, our goal difference can no longer be relied upon if the final points tally ends up being tied. What does that mean for this game? Obviously we all want to win, but I expect we will set up as a "must not lose" game and be quite cautious. So one of the strikers (NML/CBT/Wash) drops our for a midfielder (who will probably be Hourihane). I expect it will be CBT who makes way. Warne would take a draw now, and I think so would I. Then we remain masters of our destiny with just 4 games to go.
  2. What a lift that would give everyone, if he's on the bench. It does feel the calm before the storm, while we await tomorrow's results.
  3. All the very best to you and Leanne. And to your great nephews. Life's sometimes heartbreaking and difficult, and often complicated. But then also filled with joy. And I hope yours are filled with much joy in the future.
  4. How other social media companies compare with the new twitter is clearly relevant to many people on the thread. In this case, everyone else except Twitter is being sued for damaging children's mental health. Bizarre to suggest deleting it.
  5. What a massive Monday and Tuesday coming. How we feel going into this game will partly be determined by what happens the day before. Normally in League One I'd say only wins matter, but if Bolton don't win I'd be OK with a draw here. The extra day works in our favour in terms of recovery time, which makes me think Warne will pick an unchanged team for this one. Which would be: Wildsmith Wilson Nelson Cashin Sibley Ward Adams Smith Blackett-Taylor Mendez-Laing Washington Bench: Loach Robinson Hourihane Thompson Fornah Collins Waghorn I hate seeing Sibbo so far back, but at least when you look at Saturday's positions on WhoScored, the "back four" was actually more like Nelson, Cashin, Adams and Smith, with Wilson and Sibley much further forward. This selection means not rushing Collins back into the starting lineup - we need to be careful with him. On a side note, what an amazing few days it's been for young defender Keilen Robinson, playing for England U19s and then making the first team bench. Congrats to him!
  6. This is Derby we're talking about - I still wouldn't feel safe. Has to be 4 points clear for that.
  7. I presume he'd just taken an inswinging corner. On the radio in the bit I was able to listen to, they were saying Sibbo's corners were very good (as I think they always are).
  8. Looking at Twitter vids, a couple of shocking first half offside calls given against us when players were clean through. Yards onside.
  9. Fantastic result. Called away so missed the commentary, but so relieved when I checked the final score. Probably lucky not to have to go through the in-game tension with the rest of you. Well done to the lads. We don't have one foot in the Championship, but I'd say maybe a big toe. Lets hope it can cling on. I fully expect the three teams in the hunt below us to win on Monday. Might even put an accumulator insurance bet on it...
  10. Booked on 20 minutes. Scored this goal: Apparently through one-on-one for a second but a blatantly wrong offside call. Subbed on 72 minutes.
  11. Today's (fantastic) results: Wycombe 1 Portsmouth 3 RAMS 1 Blackpool 0 Stevenage 0 Bolton 0 Peterborough 1 Carlisle 3 Barnsley 0 Cambridge 2 The race for automatics now looks like this: I've added a new column of maximum points each of the five can achieve. It tells us that four wins and a draw now guarantees promotion (as that takes us to 94 points). As the games unfold, we hope the final task will become easier. We don't play again until the big game away at Portsmouth on Tuesday, by which point this table will have changed. Monday's key fixtures are: Bolton vs Reading Orient vs Peterborough Burton vs Barnsley
  12. At a first glance, we can't now finish lower than 7th, because Oxford have to play Lincoln. So almost guaranteed that playoff place!
  13. With Gateshead bringing in a new striker last night, after Dajaune Brown has bagged 8 goals in his last 7 (with plenty of assists too), has our young striker secretly been recalled to lead the line? With Warne choosing Wildsmith Wilson Nelson Cashin Sibley Smith Adams Hourihane Washington Brown Blackett-Taylor Bench: Loach Ward Radcliffe Elder Mendez-Laing Collins Waghorn
  14. The Gateshead fans are worried and talking about it. This new loan seems a strange move for them unless DB is coming back. Here's a North East football writer, just commenting on how good Brown is:
  15. Yes this is two leagues below, but you look at all these goals - left foot, right foot, headers, and often very clever finishes, poaching in the six yard area, running from the halfway line, shooting from outside the box - And this fast, powerful, skillful, confident young striker looks *exactly* what we (and any team at our level and probably above) needs. It seems baffling he's not had proper first team time this season. But huge plaudits to Dajaune for putting down a marker, and getting an U23 international call up as an 18 year old. The future looks bright with him on our books - scoring goals is the hardest thing.
  16. Dajaune's goals. So pleased for him.
  17. Love the song. "They" (the Mars naysayers) might have said that about radiation, but they're completely wrong. We're protected from some radiation on Earth because of our planet's magnetic field, created by a molten iron dynamo at Earth's core. Mars used to have a similar dynamo, but being smaller it cooled to the extent it no longer works. However, there are LOTS of solutions, some of which will be deployed at different times along the colonization timeline. Due to its historic magnetic field, areas on Mars already have a stronger magnetic field than Earth's and might be sites for early settlement. Then, rock provides shielding. Other early settlements will be built inside collapsed lava tubes or into the walls of canyons with rock above. Water is also a great radiation shield, so some cities will have lakes built into their roofs, with fish etc for food swimming above the settler's heads. Overall, the risk from radiation only leads to a small increase in cancer risk, but even so Mars genetic engineers will work to reduce this. Then, moving on, it will be possible to create an artificial magnetic field for Mars. One suggestion is to place a large magnet at the gravitationally stable point between the Sun and Mars (called L1). A magnet only a quarter the size of those already in use at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern would probably suffice. We just need to work out how to power it at that location. So these problems are surmountable. And definitely not on the critical path to Mars colonization.
  18. Here's Ship 29 having an engine test in the run-up to the coming fourth Integrated Flight Test: Analysing Flight 3, it seems the team had significant problems with stabilizing Starship on reentry, so that its heatshield was properly positioned. It was pitching and rolling all over the place, exposing the unprotected areas to the surrounding plasma - hence the loss of vehicle quite early into the descent. Finding a solution is likely the biggest objective of Flight 4. In the early tests, when it was just the Starship on its own, flying up and then bellyflopping back down, this wasn't a problem as it was beginning from a stationary start. But now Starship is coming in at 'orbital velocity' it proved harder to maintain stability first time around. In Flight 3 the team decided against a deorbit burn to slow the ship, because of the rolling. I expect they'll be keen to do this next time around.
  19. "This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
  20. Reluctantly, watching Brown at Gateshead, I think he's likely better finishing the season there. But it's a close call. If Warne had prepared to play a little more youth earlier in the season, we might know better. Will Gayle or Collins make the bench? It's unlikely but would give everyone a fillip. Without Bradley or Fozzy, and without decent strikers, this is going to be four at the back and then it's almost anyone's guess for the remainder. My guess would be: Wildsmith Smith Nelson Cashin Elder Wilson Adams Thompson Blackett-Taylor Sibley Waghorn Subs: Loach Ward Radcliffe Hourihane Robinson Washington Weston
  21. Obviously very disappointing, buckling yet again when having the opportunity to pull away and put one foot in the Championship. Warne's substitutions prioritised experience over energy, which seemed the wrong approach. I get that Adams was having an off day, but still twice he came closest to scoring. Sibs always has a goal in him whatever position Warne puts him in, as well as picking out Waghorn with an amazing ball, only for it to be smashed over. We had to keep Adams on and move Sibley into a more advanced role. And as I said at the start of the thread, I'd have had Weston on the bench for a youthful attacking option, given our lack of strikers. I've watched and rewatched the highlights. Was it really a headbutt from Bradley (I couldn't see anything) or yet more gamesmanship from the opposition? People on here saying he was a fool - was he, or just a victim? For their goal, Wilson was probably fouled, Bradley should probably have stopped the cross, and Wildsmith should probably have been better positioned to come and claim the cross. Never easy being a Ram, as the injuries stack up.
  22. Obviously Betfair is going to be better for serious gamblers, but I've never used it. Instead, I saw I had a "free" £5 "build a bet" on Sky about to expire so I went for Northampton winning and us not scoring (as I figured we were unlikely to concede 2). For which they gave me 9/1. Really all that does is add money to the account which can all be lumped on us losing a more crucial match nearer the end of the season, should it come to the worst. Please let us go up automatically and have me lose all my gambling funds!
  23. Alas it's the same as last week, not having gained any ground.
  24. @Owen87ITKhas explained there were tech issues with the Radio Derby feed. TV commo without pictures might force me to switch away from him. Meanwhile... Washington and Ward on for Mendez-Laing and Waghorn. All 5 subs suddenly made.
  25. Sibley, Tommo and Adams off!!!!!! Smith, Blackett-Taylor and Elder on. On the face of it, these are bizarre changes. Let's hope they somehow work.
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