Team USA

[Gomig-21]

USA is the favorite villain here days, hence Team USA is not exactly encouraged here for popularity.

I hear that. It's been like that since I joined in 2016, but you're right, lately it seems to have peeked. That's why I mostly limit my discussions amongst friends only.

 

[VCheng]

I hear that. It's been like that since I joined in 2016, but you're right, lately it seems to have peeked. That's why I mostly limit my discussions amongst friends only.

The narrative du jour here is that it is USA that is bad, not that Pakistan has led itself into a corner with its policy measures. That is okay. I respect Pakistan's right to pursue whatever policies it wishes to in order to serve its national interests, but then I also know that such policies have a way of extracting inevitable consequences.

Back on topic, I am just looking forward to some nice trips for the fall color season.

 

[Gomig-21]

The narrative du jour here is that it is USA that is bad, not that Pakistan has led itself into a corner with its policy measures. That is okay. I respect Pakistan's right to pursue whatever policies it wishes to in order to serve its national interests, but then I also know that such policies have a way of extracting inevitable consequences.

It is a pretty interesting dynamic for sure. Especially with Pakistan and the US' involvement in Afghanistan for the past 20 years. There's been a lot of intertwining developments that have affected Pakistan and the US in many ways. I think it's certainly impacted Pakistan on a much greater level and the resentment towards the US is very understandable.

Heck I've been very frustrated with US policies towards Egypt and how it's been going waaaay out of its way to undermine Egypt's ability to purchase weapons outside the US' sphere of influence. The latest move by the US to go behind Egypt's back and try to persuade Saudi Arabia and the UAE to not assist Egypt is disturbing beyond belief. For someone like myself, it really creates a conundrum I tell you.

Back on topic, I am just looking forward to some nice trips for the fall color season.

Well, for me fall used to be neat for not only peak foliage, but also peak coastal raptor migration and banding with my friend. But the older you get.......you know the rest of that line lol. And on topic for me was actually asking @Hamartia Antidote what he thought about tonight's game with Tom Brady returning to New England and Foxboro stadium to play against his old team of 20 years and 6 super biowls and 9 appearances. It's a big deal for us up here.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

what he thought about tonight's game with Tom Brady returning to New England and Foxboro stadium to play against his old team of 20 years and 6 super biowls and 9 appearances. It's a big deal for us up here.

I'm sure this will be a NFL first where the home team is at a disadvantage with the crowd.

This won't help

If Brady sets record, Patriots to pause, not stop

If Tom Brady sets the NFL career passing record Sunday night at New England, the Patriots will pause to acknowledge it but not stop the game for a ceremony.

www.espn.com

 

[Gomig-21]

I'm sure this will be a NFL first where the home team is at a disadvantage with the crowd.

This won't help

If Brady sets record, Patriots to pause, not stop

If Tom Brady sets the NFL career passing record Sunday night at New England, the Patriots will pause to acknowledge it but not stop the game for a ceremony.

www.espn.com

Yeah I saw that. They better! Most teams will do that even to players on other teams they don't have any history with. In this case, it would be the talk of the next five years if the Patriots didn't honor him. It would be ten times worst than spygate and you saw the legs that had lol.

 

[Gomig-21]

Back on topic, I am just looking forward to some nice trips for the fall color season.

BTW, I meant to tell you that your pics on the photography thread are excellent. I enjoy the closeups of the food dishes in particular loool. But seriously, where you are is actually an amazingly well-known route for coastal migrating birds of prey and birds in general. September through November is the prime time for southbound migration and right now it's right in peak season.

While you're out catching colors on leaves, keep your eye out for warblers (although very small birds and difficult to see but their colors are magnificent; most of the time you just see flashes of bright color zip by) but mainly raptors flying south and using the top of mountains to catch thermals. Very easy to spot them circling over small and big mountain tops where they catch those thermals and gain altitude as they go in circles like that until they get high enough and then just glide for a couple of miles to the next thermal and repeat. All that without flapping their wings once to conserve energy for these long distances. It's really fascinating to observe.

You're bound to see peregrine falcons, merlins, kestrels, red shouldered hawks, a lot of coopers and sharp-shinned hawks even bald eagles. But most of them will be red tailed hawks. Red tails are the most abundant raptors in the North America and are easy to spot because of their size and soaring flights. Very visible most of the time because they usually fly in pairs or more this time of year. Keep your eye out on roadside light poles, trees along the edge of highways and side roads and you'll most certainly see them perched and resting or looking for food and you can get some excellent shots.

 

[SQ8]

Whats the down low on that Huntington beach spill from cali folks?

 

[VCheng]

BTW, I meant to tell you that your pics on the photography thread are excellent. I enjoy the closeups of the food dishes in particular loool. But seriously, where you are is actually an amazingly well-known route for coastal migrating birds of prey and birds in general. September through November is the prime time for southbound migration and right now it's right in peak season.

Thank you for the kind words. This is one of my favorite places to go:

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is truly a haven for wildlife. Its diverse habitats of wetland, grassland, shrubland and forest give food, shelter, water and space to many of Central New York’s wildlife species. Waterfowl and other migratory birds depend on the Refuge as nesting, feeding...

www.fws.gov

Watching birds is easy, taking good photos of them is definitely not!

 

[Gomig-21]

Thank you for the kind words. This is one of my favorite places to go:

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is truly a haven for wildlife. Its diverse habitats of wetland, grassland, shrubland and forest give food, shelter, water and space to many of Central New York’s wildlife species. Waterfowl and other migratory birds depend on the Refuge as nesting, feeding...

www.fws.gov

Watching birds is easy, taking good photos of them is definitely not!

Montezuma, heard of it but never been. Looks amazing. You're definitely right about photographing birds. Need some serious telephoto lenses and perfect understanding of working shutter/light speeds!

Whats the down low on that Huntington beach spill from cali folks?

Just briefly saw something on the news about that.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

what he thought about tonight's game with Tom Brady returning to New England and Foxboro stadium to play against his old team of 20 years and 6 super biowls and 9 appearances. It's a big deal for us up here.

Ah they were booing

NBC Sports

stream.nbcsports.com

 

[Gomig-21]

Ah they were booing

NBC Sports

stream.nbcsports.com

lol. Typical Boston/New England fans. I guess they cheered him on when he first came out for warmups, but once the game started it was all business lool.

It's so obvious the difference between him when he first came in for Bledsoe in 2000 and Mac Jones now. The latter just lacks that charisma and it's so obvious. Not to mention Brady was surrounded by great players at the time and throughout the two decades. This Pats team is average at best. So he really has no help to shine anyway.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

lol. Typical Boston/New England fans. I guess they cheered him on when he first came out for warmups, but once the game started it was all business lool.

It's so obvious the difference between him when he first came in for Bledsoe in 2000 and Mac Jones now. The latter just lacks that charisma and it's so obvious. Not to mention Brady was surrounded by great players at the time and throughout the two decades. This Pats team is average at best. So he really has no help to shine anyway.

Geez only 3:0.

 

[Gomig-21]

Geez only 3:0.

I told you typical Boston fan!

 

[VCheng]

Montezuma, heard of it but never been. Looks amazing. You're definitely right about photographing birds. Need some serious telephoto lenses and perfect understanding of working shutter/light speeds!

Montezuma is a National Wildlife Refuge with a great location for migratory birds. Truly astounding.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

iPhone 13 release sparks buying frenzy in China

LOL! https://www.scmp.com/video/china/3150250/iphone-13-release-sparks-buying-frenzy-china Hundreds of people were seen running into a shopping mall in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province to buy the new iPhone.

defence.pk

@VCheng @Gomig-21