merc

"Sports Interactive regret to inform that, following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift our focus to the next release."

This sounds like a disaster.

For those who don't know, Football Manager has a yearly release schedule, and the highlight of the release is that it has a database of nearly every professional player in the world, the club they play for, and an attempt to "scout" them, giving all their various attributes from passing ability, to height and weight, to their determination.

By releasing in March 2025, they're going to release the game essentially at the end of the 2024/2025 season right before players start moving to new clubs and the database becomes obsolete. Typically, around March is when they're giving deep discounts on the yearly release because they know there won't be much remaining interest in playing a game that's almost out of date.

They really shot themselves in the foot. They could have released a Football Manager 25 that was 100% FM 24 but with an updated database, they've done it before. They could have called "Football Manager 25" something like "Football Manager Next Gen" and not tied themselves to a certain season. And, if they do manage to get Football Manager 25 out in March, are they really going to be able to do FM 26 half a year later? Will anybody buy FM 25 if they know there's a FM 26 coming out so soon?

It's amazing to me that they can even measure a 0.01 XG shot. This comes from James Benge's twitter account.

The XG graph is also interesting. Tottenham has a continuous stream of very low quality shots, resulting in the graph going up in tiny increments. Arsenal has a series of decent chances near minute 17, and then the one high-quality shot resulting in Gabriel's goal.

https://understat.com/match/26640

I'm sure part of it is Arsenal defending in a low block after scoring. But, it also smacks of desperation on Tottenham's part. If you're taking a shot that has a 1% chance of going in, rather than passing and waiting for a better opportunity, you don't believe that you're going to get a better opportunity.

Maybe the "great" America that Donald wants to take us back to is the 1860s?

Note: National Bank of Canada is a commercial bank, not the Bank of Canada which is Canada's national bank. Um. Which is Canada's central bank.

The graphs in the presentation are the key takeaway for me. But, some key words:

"Canada is caught in a population trap that has historically been the preserve of emerging economies. We currently lack the infrastructure and capital stock in this country to adequately absorb current population growth and improve our standard of living."

...

"To put things in perspective, Canada's population growth in 2023 was 3.2%, five times higher than the OECD average."

...

"But to meet current demand and reduce shelter cost inflation, Canada would need to double its housing construction capacity to approximately 700,000 starts per year, an unattainable goal."

Earlier today, Scottish adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey were finally able to announce their completion of the nine-month, 17,000-mile "Pole To Pole EV" expedition, the world's first drive from the 1823 Magnetic North Pole to South Pole.

Other links:

https://expeditionportal.com/what-the-pole-to-pole-expedition-wants-you-to-know-about-long-term-ev-travel/

https://poletopoleev.com/

https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/north-pole-to-south-pole-with-nissan-ariya

The article was clearly AI generated. Microsoft has killed the original article, giving a 404, pretending it never existed. But, you can see an archived image of it on Imgur.

Even ignoring the ridiculousness of including the Ottawa Food Bank as a destination. Even ignoring the callousness of the line "Consider going into it on an empty stomach", the article is just full of spicy autocomplete nonsense.

• "Participate in the Winterlude, the Capital's winter festival, skate on the world's largest skating rink, or play on North America's largest snow."
• "Go to an Ottawa Senators Game: Ottawa, as Canada's capital draws visitors from around the world who come to see its historic buildings and landmarks, experience its arts and culture and take in the sights and sounds. Denis Potvin are two NHL heroes from Ottawa..."
• "The World's Largest Naturallyfrozen Ice Rink"
• "Discover a Winter Wonderland at Omega Park" (along with a picture of the Canal)