Blair Russell

A rather unique individual; used to live in Illinois before moving to Florida in '04

[Zealand @theoldzealand]

Balogun has a defender come up from behind him and they collide, he’s trying to land, he can’t even see the guy because he’s literally behind his shoulder

And because he happens to land on his ankle it’s a red

It’s just absurd

[Blair Russell @blairpac]

My ★★★ review of Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) on @letterboxd: https://t.co/B9apJcV6aX

[alxndr @alexaldente]

This man is going on two decades of consistently proving he is an absolute piece of shit and it’s so embarrassing that anyone still listens and supports him

[leyla @leylaaa31]

You guys HOLY SHIT. This is like meeting a celebrity

[Lost In Film @LostInFilm]

The entire Criterion Closet is now available as a website, where you can browse all 1,247 films by walking the shelves, thanks to redditor olievans.

https://t.co/O2b7MwzCZj

[Duncan Money @mininghistory]

The Tunguska event is a good example of how historical change is sometimes random.

This impact would be among the most significant events in modern times had it hit a major city. Instead, it hit one of the least populated bits of land on earth, so it's hardly remembered.

[Blair Russell @blairpac]

Backrooms, The Furious, Spaceballs, Cape Verde, & Doctor Congo: https://t.co/VTGe2776Ey

[Blair Russell @blairpac]

My ★★★½ review of Thunder on the Hill (1951) on @letterboxd: https://t.co/X8UxbBf225

[Fede’s intern 🥊 @fede_intern]

european football has spent the past fifteen years solving futbol like chess.

a generation of coaches optimized for pass completion, pressing triggers, territorial control, rest defense, and positional occupation.

the problem of this is that they optimize for what is measurable. depth, the willingness to attack space early, attempt the difficult pass, dribble past a defender, or deliberately create chaos, is a high variance play. it fails more often than it succeeds. if you evaluate players by completion rate, ball retention, or positional discipline, those actions look like mistakes. so they get coached out. eventually, everyone converges toward the same local optimum.

the game becomes increasingly legible. every team occupies similar spaces, presses in similar ways, builds from the back with similar patterns, and minimizes the same risks. systems become better at defeating other systems, but worse at dealing with players who refuse to behave like systems.

south american football never fully abandoned the duel as the fundamental unit of the game. the 1v1 remained sacred. so did the tactical foul, the unpredictable dribble, and the player willing to lose possession five times if the sixth breaks the match open. the objective was never simply to preserve structure, it was to create someone capable of destroying the opponent’s structure.

football is not won by completing the most passes. it is won by scoring more goals than the other team. those are related, but they are not the same objective.

this is the danger of optimizing proxies. when everyone optimizes the same measurements, they stop optimizing for victory itself. they optimize for looking efficient.

italy may have been the first major european football culture to lose part of its identity this way. its historical advantage was never athletic superiority or perfect positional play. it was tactical asymmetry, unpredictability, and an instinct for making matches uncomfortable. as italian football converged toward the same coaching model as the rest of europe, it gradually surrendered the qualities that had made it different.

the broader lesson extends well beyond football. every optimization process eventually risks becoming self-defeating. metrics become targets. proxies replace objectives. variance is mistaken for error. the outliers capable of breaking the system disappear because the system itself learns to eliminate them.

[andi (twocents.com) @Nexuist]

Florida cop in a foot pursuit gets picked up by a random Uber driver in a minivan and does a drive by on the suspect

[Blair Russell @blairpac]

My ★★★★½ review of Spaceballs (1987) on @letterboxd: https://t.co/IrvFXSxi5K

[Dr Shrimp Puerto Rico ☘️🇧🇷🇲🇽🔻 @LadPsycho]

Welcome back Wong Kar Wai

[peepeepoopoo @DeepDishEnjoyer]

this is so sad.

[yoshimi battles video game addiction @nise_yoshimi]

Id love to see nicholas cage get out of this one

[Dan Veesenmeyer @dveese]

Late 20th century movie theater design used to be nothing short of epic and memorable.

[CoveredGeekly @CoveredGeekly]

Mel Brooks turns 100 years young today, but also:

• Defused landmines in WWII at Battle of the Bulge
• Is one of only 22 people to win a competitive EGOT
• Changed his name to avoid being confused with a famous trumpet player
• Just filmed Spaceballs 2 at age 99

[Zealand @theoldzealand]

If you’re an Iran fan I genuinely don’t know what to say, there’s never been a more heart breaking way to get knocked out of the World Cup

[◥◤Kriston Capps @kristoncapps]

This is the one true recipe for a Reflecting Pool: 2oz rum, 4oz pineapple juice, 1oz blue curacao, one Blue Razzberry Fruit Roll-Up

[Blair Russell @blairpac]

My ★★★½ review of The Replacement Killers (1998) on @letterboxd: https://t.co/6O6bz1kksG

[shelby @thetrueshelby]

So the Great American State Fair lasted approximately 17 minutes before a guy got caught masturbating in public.

America 250. 🇺🇸