Knepherbird

@knepherbird.com

975 Followers 517 Following

An old spy in a hurry

Bottom of the dude wipes display, where it says, in cartoon letters, "poopsicle"
Barry, a grey striped cat, laying on a towel-covered laptop stand on my desk.
That surface was far too dry and slow for high-level soccer, according to the players who contested some of the biggest games of their lives on subpar grass. Even from way up in the press box, you could see the ball bobbling about unprovoked and dying on its way from one player to the next.
Earlier this morning I reposted a Luise Glück poem. I did it immediately, without thinking. Why? Because I've read it before. Here's my copy. It's actually okay to actually read things and know them and share them. It's not vain or arrogant to be familiar with stuff, I promise it's not cringe.
As news emerged that Sulyok had signed the legislation, bringing an end to his time in office, Magyar proposed nominating Polgár as his replacement. The idea was first floated in an open letter signed by 16 prominent Hungarians, including Ernő Rubik, theinventor of the Rubik’s Cube.
Close-up on Timothee Chalamet's Paul Atreides from Dune 3, but instead of blue spice eyes, he has Oreos. Across his nose is the word, "EPIC"
image from the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings depicting the Balrog as a red, winged humanoid figure with a head that looks sort of like a cross between a lion and Jeff Lynne. Its arms are spread wide and it holds a sort of whip/string in one hand and a flaming what should be a sword in the other.
Section of google maps showing state highway 154 running diagonally from the upper left to lower right near Santa Ynez, which occupies the lower left quadrant. Near each end of the 154 can be seen a roundabout intersection.
Asked if Serkis planned to use AI in The Hunt for Gollum, the actor-turned-director replied: "Not at present, other than some of the de-aging," before refusing to confirm specifically which actors would be subject to an AI de-aging process. "There’s a little bit of de-aging for some of the characters and machine learning is part of the process," Serkis continued, going on to compare the technology to Jackson's usage of a computer program which helped generate animations for the original trilogy's army of orcs. "When you think about it, in the original Lord of the Rings films, Peter created MASSIVE, which was a program which allowed 1000s of orcs to all have their own individual mindset," Serkis said. "So that is a brilliant example of an incredible use of AI. But we're not creating AI shots in our movie, every shot is created in a traditional way. One of the things actually that I really wanted to do with this film was to bring back all of the great filmmaking skills, from miniatures to prosthetics and marry them up, because that's my taste. I like it when you mix up different filmmaking techniques."
album cover of Bob Larson Speaks Out On Rock Music - a yellow cover with a collage of three photographs of Bob Larson on an almost bare stage with a curtain backdrop.
Publishers Marketplace posting for John Ganz's next book, Crackpot Empire: Lyndon Larouche and the Conquest of America, "an account of how the technology- and conspiracy-obsessed leader of a fringe political cult and his followers embodied essential aspects of the country's past and present"
Photo of a nice, new, signed paperback edition of Tom Cox's Everything Will Swallow You. It is sitting atop a thin cardboard mailer with a flap at one end opened because the adhesive failed.
It was devised by the Danish Situationist Asger Jorn to explain his notion of triolectics, which was his refinement on the Marxian concept of dialectics, as well as to disrupt everyone's general idea of football.
Expected Delivery on Thursday 9 July 2026 by 9:00pm
Screenshot of the Lostpedia page for "Aldo," a character prayed by Rob McElhenney. He has short hair, a couple-days-old beard growth (in that scruffy but still pretty style of most TV shows), and a slightly surprised, almost slack-jawed doofus expression on his face.
Telemundo’s effort to bring English speakers to the network for its World Cup coverage is reportedly causing some “tension” between Fox, the English-language rightsholder, and NBCUniversal, which owns Telemundo. In a report outlining media companies interested in securing rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, CNBC reporter Alex Sherman noted that FIFA may choose to package English-language and Spanish-language rights together, for one media partner, rather than splitting the rights in two. Sherman writes that packaging these rights together could help “eliminate some tensions between rival media companies airing the same games.” The report goes on to explain that Telemundo has claimed “some unknown population of English speakers” who are watching the games via Peacock, which has “dampened” Fox’s potential World Cup reach. According to a recent report by NPR, 20 percent of Telemundo’s World Cup viewers say English is their “primary language.” It seems Telemundo has been intentional about this initiative as well. The network tapped actor Owen Wilson, who is not Latino nor known to speak Spanish, for an ad campaign ahead of the World Cup. A Telemundo announcer even broke into English during a recent match, thanking non-Spanish-speaking viewers for tuning in.
Lord of the Rings "second breakfast" meme: Panel 1: Merry and Pippin stand next to Bill the Pony with cooking equipment in hand. Pippin asks, "What about Round of 16?" Panel 2: Aragorn turns back towards them and says, "We already had it." Panel 3: Pippin replies, "We've had one, yes." Panel 4: Pippin continues, "What about second Round of 16?"
Worship leader: Happy 4th! Wondering if you could be on standby to lead 7-19? Reason is if Argentina make it to the World Cup final my wife's family will have a live watch party and would love to be able to be there Me: As long as they're not playing the US;) Worship leader: [Laughing, crying, rolling emoji] Awesome!
Close-up of a sparkler burned almost all the way down. Blurred in the background are an American flag hanging from a house and several palm trees, with a blue sky and pinkish clouds from the sunset in the distance
So, it never, ever sits easy with me. But that's Tottenham, that's fine, they can do that. I guess De Zerbi got that in his contract, if we stay up, this is what we have to do, otherwise I'm not coming. So, he's in a real power situation. The power is always with De Zerbi in terms of what he wants and what he can do. So, yeah, I'm fine with Spurs spending the money. It's just frustrating that Newcastle with the wealth can't spend like that." He added: "I'm okay with Tonali leaving. As I previously said on this saga, if Newcastle set their fee at three figures and stick to it then that is fine and that's what they've got. I don't think he had a great season last season. We didn't see the Tonali we saw the season before, because he was incredible the season...
Poster for Citizen Kane: against a white background, a man fills the poster, standing athwart a series of smaller images and people. Amount his head a red banner reads: "Oraon Welles - Citizen Kane". Across his chest, with a broken blue banner behind the text is "It's Terrific!"
‪Nick Harkaway‬ ‪@nickharkaway.com‬ · 12h Replied to you (Loved “an old spy in a hurry“ btw. “You used to say thry were the worst.” :)
Blurry photo of a beer glass and a television in the distance with the Mexico-Ecuador match.
In an emotional plea, Cepicky told of his own father having fought in World War II and challenged members of his own party to take a stand against such hate. " And, by golly, in Maury County, you gotta stand up,” the Republican lawmaker continued. “You gotta take a stand against this stuff. This is an idea that gains traction and destroys. This doesn't unite us, ‘we the people.’ It doesn't say ‘we, the white people.’ Or ‘we, the Christians.’ Or ‘we, the Jews.’ It says ‘we, the people.’" Lee's video shows some members of the audience gave Cepicky a standing ovation after his remarks. Sheriff's deputies later showed up and asked Lee to leave the event. The Tennessee Young Republicans Federation later issued a statement, saying that the use of its logo for the mailer was not approved and that the views “DO NOT constitute the views or an official position” of the group. Maury County Republican Chair Jason Gilliam was more blunt in a statement posted to Facebook. “We do not condone the hate conveyed in the mailer that was sent out to young men in our community,” Gilliam said. “The MCGOP will support any effort assuring that these people are held accountable for such disgusting behavior.”
A young Paraguayan supporter screaming his encouragement for his team during the penalty shootout
Knepherbird @knepherbird.com Turns out Brazil might actually be good. Richard Whittall @rwhittall.bsky.social Brazil frauds. Will be caught out soon enough.
1. Gene Wilder - HOT
Adjacent skeets: Grace Robertson @graceonfootball.com they're calling it the least football of all --- Riker Googling @rikergoogling.bsky.com what disaster is happening today
Your Results 75% Woke 25% Chud 33% Techbro 67% Neo-Luddite 59% Hopepilled 41% Doomer 92% Davos 8% Dubai
A golden cockerel on a football atop Tottenham Hotspur's stadium
NY Times headline: BRET STEPHENS If You Love America, Cringe for It 4 MIN READ
The driver, who lives in Whiteville, has been charge with: Manufacture of liquor without a permit Possession/sale of non-tax-paid liquor Possession/sale of alcoholic beverages without a permit Possession of marijuana with intent to tell or deliver Possession with intent to sell or deliver a Schedule I controlled substance The driver also received a citation for having faulty directional signal equipment, records show. Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article316214590.html#storylink=cpy
Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's
They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete
Johnny Carson stands in front of a multicolored curtain, waves, and then dies a mock golf swing
Group H's game schedule for Sunday: Spain vs Saudi Arabia at 9am and Uruguay vs Cape Verde at 3pm (both PT)
Three bicycle racers on a wet road with out of focus barriers and crowds behind them. The middle cyclist is Greg Lemond, in the US road champion jersey. He has a fierce visage, possibly yelling in victory as he crosses the finish line in first place. None of the cyclists are wearing helmets.
Pippin, a black cat, is seen in profile partially submerged in a cushion against the back of a couch, with his chin resting on the edge of the back, and a pensive, faraway look in his eye as he stares out a window.
Two seated figures, each with a limited range of expression. On the right, er, left, is a bronze statue of football player Harry Kane, with his right hand on right knee and his left hand holding a ball stop his left knee. Next to the statue sits Harry Kane himself with hands on his knees and a sort of smile on his face as he looks into the camera.
After Alexi Lalas blathers on about the French team being arrogant, Thierry Henry sits sternly with furrowed brow as Ibra explains, "it's not arrogance, it's confidence..."
Adjacent but not related posts: ‪Nathan Goldwag‬ ‪@goldwagnathan.bsky.social‬ · 2h I honestly love this piece of fanart from EPIC: THE MUSICAL, which captures the vibe of Odysseus and Athena's meeting better than most of the Classical depictions. They're just bros! Attached is a comic-style illustration of Odysseus and Athena doing a sort of high-five, though Odysseus's hand is reversed. ‪Reno Wallabout‬ @renowallabout.bsky.social‬ · 2h These bozos do not deserve the benefit of the doubt, but they are making moves
Book cover of The Lion's World by Rowan Williams, which features a photorealistic lion's face against a blue filtered image of what might be a church or cathedral, I can't really tell looking at it in my phone right now
Screenshot of Fox's broadcast of the Brazil-Morocco match. In the upper left, each side of the score bug is bordered with the primary kit color of each team - yellow fire Brazil, red for Morocco
The Lego collection was never actually worth $200k (we had suggested this in our initial post as well). It was probably closer to $100k (and possibly a bit less). Some of it was definitely sold before all this, but much of it had not been. Plenty of it clearly remained in the store after Brandon Best showed up the night in November 2024 to kick out Law and take over the store.
Screenshot from the livestream from the Kennedy Center. Three workers stand atop some scaffolding, leaning on a bar and looking out away from the wall where the president's name awaits its removal.
Two emails in my inbox: From LinkedIn Subject: Your puzzle today, Michael Preheader: 23 colleagues from your company alread... From Plex Introducing Discussions Our newest Plex feature is here
A black phoebe sits atop a broad white bird of paradise leaf and greets the neighborhood
Your closest counterpart: The Virtuoso
Brief clip from Mythic Quest. "I don't know what that means." "I said Yorba Linda."
Album cover for Spain's The Blue Moods of Spain
A black cat is spread across the completed portion of a puzzle on top of a coffee table
Portion of the cover of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
Cover of a pamphlet titled Within the Frontiers of Germany, by Helmut Arntz
The page of candidates for governor on the California primary ballot. There's a lot.
Ralph Fiennes, in a screen cap from IN BRUGES, stares at a phone handset in his hand.
TV screen from The Simpsons' Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie episode with "Note: Poochie died on the way back to his home planet" handscrawled in red, but with Poochie covered up and "Tommy" in its place.
7. Stop thinking you’re better than me just because you know the word “stochastic.” Have you ever noticed how there’s always a tech-guy hype word that they use to make themselves sound smart? For a while it was “heuristic”; then it became “stochastic.” I think it’s great that you discovered rationalism via a Slate Star Codex post arguing that white men shouldn’t pay taxes, but come on. Anyone can look up a word in the dictionary. Or at least we could, before we got stuck waiting for a passcode to get into the dictionary app.
40 Ways the Tech Industry Could Stop Being Such a Colossal Goddamn Pain in the Ass, Proffered on This Day as a Righteous and Apostolic Addendum to Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas