Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002
3-4-2002	3-11-2002	3-18-2002	3-25-2002
4-1-2002	4-8-2002	4-15-2002	4-22-2002
4-29-2002	5-6-2002	5-13-2002	5-20-2002
5-27-2002	6-3-2002	6-10-2002	6-17-2002
6-24-2002	7-1-2002	7-8-2002

• In a shocking turn of events, NWA-TNA announced last week that Vince Russo was joining the promotion, less than 3 weeks after he returned to WWE. Russo's return to WWE was announced as joining the company as part of the creative team on 6/20, but after his first creative meeting, he was demoted to consultant and was paid $1,000 a week to sit at home and send in written critiques of the weekly TV shows. Russo didn't have a contract and it's no secret that his return was deeply unpopular in the locker room and even more unpopular in the office among those who still resent him for how he left in 1999. Russo has told friends that he feels like WWE is a mess and it won't change because Vince McMahon won't remove Stephanie McMahon from her position as head writer. Russo recently sold his record store in Atlanta and was planning to move back up north (he never liked living in the south, but moved there when he went to WCW) but he hasn't moved yet. According to TNA sources, Russo will essentially help with production and writing of the shows. TNA is way understaffed when it comes to people with experience producing live shows like this. Russo was introduced to the staff on 7/9 and, much like in WWE, there were a lot of unhappy people who weren't the least bit happy to see him. He's not exactly the most well-liked guy in the business. But he's still good friends with Jeff Jarrett and Russo had already been contributing ideas and storylines for this company before the brief WWE return anyway. At the time, Russo's involvement was being kept secret because of his lawsuit with Hulk Hogan. AOL/Time Warner was representing him (since the incident happened in WCW). They only agreed to represent him as long as he didn't go work for another wrestling promotion. When the WWE offer came along, Russo managed to get AOL/Time Warner to drop that stipulation, which allowed him to go work for WWE. And now, subsequently, TNA. The lawsuit with Hogan is still ongoing and AOL/Time Warner's lawyers are still repping Russo.
  
• Kevin Nash will be out of action for god knows how long after tearing his left quad in a match on Raw. It was Nash's first match back since suffering a bicep tear back in March. After tagging in, he tore his quad on the first move. It's the same injury Triple H suffered that kept him out for over 7 months and there's no way that Nash—who's 10 years older than Triple H—is about to put himself through the same grueling rehab that Triple H did. Triple H moved to Birmingham and lived there 24/7 doing Dr. James Andrews full-time rehab program. Nash has kids and a family and shit, he's probably not moving to Birmingham so he can do rehab 3 times a day. Dave suspects this is gonna take a bit longer for Nash (ended up being around 9 months). The injury occurred in a 10-man tag match that Nash wasn't even scheduled for until he found out the day of the show. Nash's original return to the ring was supposed to be on house shows later that week. The match was planned and designed to get Nash over as a huge monster and build him into one of the top 5 or so major main event stars in the company, because the plan was to do Nash vs. Triple H at Summerslam in one of the top matches (with Rock/Brock and Hogan/Vince penciled in as the other top matches). But as soon as Nash tagged in, he kicked Booker T, but then tripped over him when trying to step over Booker and collapsed, grabbing his thigh and screaming in pain. The match fell apart and nobody knew what to do until Shawn Michaels (not even in the match, just outside the ring) took charge and started telling guys what to do and calling spots. He improvised a superkick on Booker T and told Big Show to chokeslam him to finish it. The next day, Nash underwent surgery from Dr. James Andrews, who has done several previous surgeries on Nash (knee, bicep, elbow, and more). All in all, not a bump gone wrong or anything, just a freak accident.
  

WATCH: Kevin Nash tears his quad

• Bret Hart has written a new column in the Calgary Sun, his first since suffering his recent stroke. Dave copies and pastes the whole column here, but I'll just cliff notes it: Bret is doing as well as can be expected. Made a stupid mistake by bike riding without a helmet because he'd been too lazy to fix the broken chin-strap. Hit a pothole, crashed his bicycle, hit his head, believes he suffered a stroke on impact. Was unable to move the left side of his body. Used his cell phone to call for help. Thanks fans, doctors, nurses, wife, kids, family, friends, etc. for being there for him. Promises he'll recover. Dave says Bret's progress has been slow but steady over the past week. He can take small steps with help but is mostly still confined to a bed and wheelchair and is only just now getting feeling back in his left leg. He's spending his time doing therapy and working on his autobiography which is apparently already 960 pages deep and he's only up to the late-80s so far. Doctors were surprised Bret was able to work on his book since they expected him to have memory issues or problems writing due to the stroke, but he has neither. Dave says Bret has talked about dividing the book up into 3 parts and releasing them that way due to the length (it only ended up being around 600 pages so he must have had a merciless editor).
  
• WWE reached an out-of-court settlement this week with the Parents Television Council which will award WWE $3.5 million and a public apology from the PTC, as well as a promise that they will leave WWE alone. As part of the settlement, PTC agreed to never have any involvement with WWE business in the future, to never urge boycotts of WWE or of WWE sponsors. PTC head L. Brent Bozell had to issue a public apology to the WWE and Vince McMahon and the apology must be posted on the PTC's website home page for 6 months. They also must remove all other content from its website relating to WWE, its advertisers, or the accusations that WWE held any responsibility in the deaths of several children. Also, if WWE decides to make him do so, they can request Bozell meet with WWE advertisers personally to further explain his apology, and he'll be required to do it. Long story short: the PTC got absolutely fucking SPANKED here. The PTC will not be paying the settlement out of pocket, it will be paid by insurance, which is the only thing that is allowing them to even stay in business because without them, that $3.5 million would have killed the organization. The case was expected to go to trial in September and WWE was seeking $55 million in damages. And they likely would have won easily, so the PTC didn't have much of a choice here. They had to settle.
  
• In addition to the above, attorney Jim Lewis (who represented Lionell Tate, one of the kids who was convicted of murdering a young girl) must also publicly apologize for claiming that Tate's actions were inspired by what he saw watching wrestling. Dave recaps the history of the PTC going after WWF at the height of its Attitude Era success, crusading against WWF by targeting their sponsors. At first, the PTC made some valid points about some of the extremely questionable content WWF was producing. Problem is, then they started outright lying and their claims got more and more outlandish, and Bozell turned it into a personal mission to take down Vince McMahon and the WWE, to the point that they crossed over into libel and defamation. They also used fake and misleading statistics when pressuring sponsors. All of this led to WWE taking them to court and mollywhopping dat ass. (I've actually done a lot of research on this WWE/PTC case for some other thing I'm writing and it's a really fun case to read about. WWE's past is pretty indefensible sometimes, but Bozell was out of his mind obsessed with destroying them. He's a hardcore right-wing conservative and his battle with WWE was literally a moral and religious crusade to him. To this day, I bet it eats Bozell alive that he got owned so thoroughly and had to release such a humbling apology. And oh, bet your ass, we're about to read that apology):
  
• Bozell's and PTC's public apology on their website reads the following:
  

`Media Research Center (MRC), Parents Television Council (PTC), Dr. Delores Tucker, Mark Honig and I have in the past made statements regarding so-called wrestling deaths — children killed by other children alleged to be mimicking “professional wrestling” moves they saw on television.
We made such statements to members of MRC and PTC, the media, advertisers on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) SmackDown! program, retailers that sell WWE-related toys and merchandise, public officials and the public.
MRC and PTC also produced a videotape as part of a fundraising campaign in connection with its “National Campaign to Clean Up TV Now!”, which advanced the notion that the murder of Tiffany Eunick was caused by the influence of professional wrestling on Lionel Tate.
The videotape included interviews with Lionel Tate’s lawyer advancing the notion that the murder of Tiffany Eunick, the victim, was directly caused by the impact that professional wrestling had on Lionel Tate.
We based our statements on media reports and source information. We now believe, based on extensive investigation and facts which have come to light since making those statements that it was wrong for MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and myself to have said anything that could be construed as blaming WWE or any of its programs for the deaths of the children.
Simply put, it was premature to reach that conclusion when we did, and there is now ample evidence to show that conclusion was incorrect. I now believe that professional wrestling played no role in the murder of Tiffany Eunick, which was a part of our “Clean Up TV Now!” campaign and am equally convinced that it was incorrect and wrong to have blamed WWE or any of its programs for the deaths of the other children.
Because of our statements, PTC, MRC and the WWE have been in litigation since November 2000. WWE vigorously advanced its position that neither it, nor “professional wrestling” led to these deaths.
WWE also contended that MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and I had misrepresented the number of advertisers who withdrew support from WWE’s SmackDown! television program after receiving communications from the PTC, some of which regrettably connected the WWE and SmackDown! to the deaths of children.
As such, WWE exercised its right to initiate this litigation, during which facts came to light that prompted me to make this statement.
By this retraction, I want to be clear that WWE was correct in pointing out that various statements made by MRC, PTC and me were inaccurate concerning the identity and number of WWE SmackDown! advertisers who withdrew support from the program. Many of the companies we stated had “withdrawn” or pulled their support had never, in fact, advertised on SmackDown! nor had any plan to advertise on SmackDown!
Again, we regret this error and retract any such misleading statements.
Finally, concerning the statements about child wrestling deaths, it was wrong to have stated or implied that WWE or any of its programs caused these tragic deaths. Specifically concerning the Lionel Tate case, recent developments lead us to believe that others and we were given, and relied upon, false information provided by parties close to the case.
The information that we were given and relied upon may have been designed to make a national example of the Florida murder trial, pinning the blame on WWE.
For example, we were told by a source that Lionel Tate was watching a WWE program when he assaulted Tiffany Eunick. In fact, Lionel Tate was watching the “Flintstones” and a cartoon entitled “Cow and Chicken.” We were also told, by a source, that Lionel Tate killed Tiffany Eunick while executing a wrestling move unique to a WWE character called the “Stone Cold Stunner”.
We have since learned that this was not true, nor was there any evidence that it was true. It is now well documented that after the Tate trial concluded, the presiding Judge said it was “inconceivable” that Tiffany Eunick’s injuries were caused by Lionel Tate mimicking wrestling moves.
Indeed, since the trial ended, Lionel Tate’s new lawyers have filed court papers in which they admit that the “wrestling defense” was, in their words, “bogus.”
Given these facts, WWE was within its rights to be angry at the MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and I for contacting WWE’s advertisers to go beyond complaining about WWE content but passing along accusations which we now know were false. Because I feel a simple retraction is not sufficient, I have personally extended my apology to Vince McMahon and the WWE on behalf of MRC, PTC, Dr. Tucker, Mr. Honig and me.
Through this letter, I now make this apology public and specifically directed to the advertising community that has in the past, is currently or may in the future consider advertising or sponsoring WWE programming.
The PTC can have its concern with the content of WWE’s television programming – though these concerns have been reduced significantly over the past years as a reflection of WWE’s changed standards. But nowhere in that debate, including in the correspondence and statements to the advertising community, should there have been any discussion of “wrestling” deaths.
I regret this happening. It wasn’t fair to WWE.
And I say this emphatically: Please disregard what others and we have said in the past about the Florida “wrestling” death. Neither “wrestling” in general, nor WWE specifically, had anything to do with it. Of that I am certain.’

• PRIDE and K-1 announced their plans to put on the biggest event in MMA history, with a joint show in August, with hopes to draw 100,000 people to the Tokyo National Soccer Stadium. The original plan was for the show to take place on Aug. 29th, but they changed it to the 28th to avoid going head-to-head with a major NJPW show at Buddokan Hall which would have drawn many of the same fans they're trying to get. However, this is during monsoon season in Japan and it's an outdoor stadium, so just in case, they've got the stadium on reserve for several days in the event the scheduled date gets rained out. Here's the problem: this stadium only holds 60,000 for soccer games, so even if you add ground seating, realistically, you can only pack probably 80,000 at most. So the claim that they're going to draw 100,000 fans is "just as legitimate as the 93,173 number that WWE uses for its record." Dave notes that the real record for biggest paid attendance for a wrestling show is Summerslam 92 with the Hart/Bulldog match drawing 78,927 confirmed paid. But whatever. The plan for this show is for it to be an 8-9 match card, with every fight being dream matches featuring big name fighters. Rules for each fight will be unique and it will air on prime time TV in Japan. The main event will be Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Mirko Cro Cop, plus Dave breaks down a bunch of other planned or rumored match-ups.
  
• Dave looks at some business numbers and it ain't good news. Just to give one example, WWE's average attendance-per-show was 4,711 during the month of June, which is the lowest month for attendance since Feb. 1997. And most of the tickets for those shows were sold before Austin walked out. So once fans realize that Austin really is gone (at least for now) and not coming back anytime soon, the coming months could look even more dire for ticket sales.
  
• AAA's Triplemania X event took place last week (again) and ended with Octagon unmasking Pentagon in a mask vs. mask match. I only mention this because there have been lots of "Pentagon" characters over the years in AAA and later the indies in Mexico, portrayed by different people. But this match ended up being the last time the Pentagon gimmick would be used in AAA for the next decade.....until AEW star Pentagon Jr. began using the gimmick in 2012.
  
• Keiji Muto is apparently trying to shorten what's left of his career by being a complete madman. Muto is already beyond banged up, with knees that should have retired him years ago. He has no business working a full schedule at this stage in his career, but he's AJPW's biggest star and best draw, so he is continuing to work every show. But now he's taking it a step further. Muto will be working 3 separate matches in one night for AJPW's upcoming Budokan Hall show. He's doing the Mick Foley gimmick, where he will wrestle under a different gimmick for each match. He'll be wrestling as Muto, Great Muta, and Kokushi Muso (the gimmick he uses only when he teams with Hakushi and paints his body in similar fashion). So yeah.
  
• Vader was arrested in his hometown of Boulder, CO earlier this month for allegedly spitting at a police officer, threatening the officers with rocks, resisting arrest, drinking and driving, careless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. It ended up taking 8 officers and 2 police dogs on the scene before Vader agreed to be arrested peacefully, and they used multiple sets of handcuffs. It started when Vader crashed his van into some bushes, but then backed out, left the scene, and drove home (about a block away). Police came to his home and found Vader severely intoxicated and barely able to stand. At some point, Vader told the police, "I will and can kick all of your asses! Let's fight!" The police brought in the police dogs, but Vader still wouldn't back down and threatened to kill the dogs if they came at him. Then he picked up rocks and threatened to throw them and spit at one of the cops, but missed. The other cops showed up and they eventually calmed him down and arrested him. According to records, Vader has 2 prior DUI arrests in Boulder. This all occurred just days before he was scheduled to leave for Japan for the latest NOAH tour but he still went and is over there working shows now.
  
• Kenta Kobashi finally made his real in-ring return after more than a year out of action (aside from the one comeback match where he re-injured himself for 4 more months). Kobashi has been told in no uncertain terms that one more knee injury and he's done for good. Dave figures that knee injury is inevitable. Kobashi is working opening matches all week, teaming with the rookies and doing hot tag spots for now.
  
• Former IWGP champion Kazuyuki Fujita is scheduled to make his return to NJPW next week after being out of action the past 7 months with a torn Achilles that caused him to vacate the IWGP title. He's going to continue doing shoot fights as well.
  
• Manami Toyota, arguably (is it even arguable) the greatest female wrestler of all time, announced she is leaving All Japan Women and jumping ship to Gaea. Toyota has spent her entire 15 year career working for AJW so this is a surprise and a pretty big blow to AJW.
  
• Jesse Ventura was rushed to the hospital this week with a blood clot in his lung after complaining of chest pains. He's now in stable condition, on blood thinners, and should be okay. Ventura has a history of blood clots and a pulmonary embolism in 1984 took him out of action right before he was about to start a lengthy (and surely lucrative) feud with Hulk Hogan. He eventually returned and wrestled for another year, mostly in tag teams and such, before retiring due to the health issues.
  
• Dave has some anecdotal evidence of how TNA's viewership numbers are going and it ain't pretty. Between week 1 and week 2, there was a full 50% drop in responses to the reader poll Dave put out on the show. That was to be expected. But the drop from Week 2 to Week 3 was another 41% drop from that. So we're only a few weeks in and it appears this company is already hemorrhaging viewers. Internally, TNA is basically flaunting the preliminary numbers they got from the PPV providers that show they're doing big buyrates. Dave feels sorry for them because he's been following the PPV industry since it began and the preliminary numbers from the providers are ALWAYS wrong and ALWAYS substantially higher than what the real number ends up being. Dave basically says TNA is getting excited over fake numbers and if they're basing their future on what they expect to pull in financially, they're going to be VERY disappointed a few months from now when the real numbers are revealed and those PPV checks end up being way less than they're expecting. TNA's weekly production costs are around $200,000, which means they need at least 50,000 buys per week just to break even on the production costs (and that's not counting all the other costs like paying the wrestlers, advertising, etc. that I'm sure they'd like to have some extra money for). So we're only a few weeks in and, yet again, this whole project still does not seem sustainable.
  
• Notes from TNA Weekly PPV: this was by far the weakest of the 3 shows so far. Dave thinks they're trying too hard to copy much of WWE's formula, rather than focusing on what makes them different or what they can do better. They were in Nashville this week, with about 2,000 fans (1,100 paid, the rest freebies). There's a lot of young talent here and they have potential, but so many of them aren't ready for the national stage and it showed. They did almost nothing to promote or build for next week's show, which is a killer when you're depending on people to pay for it every week. Dave thinks it felt like an episode of WCW Thunder. More production mistakes (wrong names on the screen during introductions, etc.). They announced Japanese wrestler Takao Omori and Christopher Daniels will be there next week, but made no effort to educate fans on who those people are or why anyone should care. Monty Brown made his debut and Dave is impressed, since he looks good, was athletic, and has some good mic skills and he thinks TNA did a better job of debuting and protecting him than WWE usually does with new guys. Another angle with NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler and it sucked, leading Dave to joke that Sterling Martin carried their tag team last time. 6 matches into the show and Dave says not a single one of them has even reached the 1-star mark. Thankfully, AJ Styles and David Young saved the show with a 2.25 star classic. Brian Christopher turned heel on Scott Hall, leading Hall to do a stretcher job in what was a pretty good angle but, ya know....it's Jarrett and Brian Christopher.
  
• Various other TNA news and notes: they've been taking out radio ads to promote the shows, with the tagline, "If you're tired of that other wrestling..." Dave is flabbergasted that TNA brought Jackie Fargo in for the debut shows (in Huntsville, where he wasn't really a big name) but didn't use him at all in Nashville this week, since he's the biggest drawing star in the city's history. Vince Russo and Disco Inferno were backstage at the show. TNA's new backstage interviewer Goldylocks was in the Los Angeles airport during the shooting there last week that left 2 people dead and several others injured. She was even interviewed by the local news about it.
  
• More fun political games in WWE. Paul Heyman and Pat Patterson came up with an angle to continue John Cena's momentum following his debut match with Kurt Angle, in which Cena would slap Vince McMahon in the face and then have a match with Jericho in which he would almost win and Jericho would have to cheat to get the pin. You know, make him look strong in defeat kinda thing, same as the Angle match. Well, Triple H apparently went to Vince and convinced him to nix the angle, saying nobody should be laying hands on Vince right now since they're building to Hogan vs. Vince at Summerslam. This turned into a major issue backstage because most of the locker room doesn't like the "NWO group" (basically, Nash, X-Pac, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H, even though he's not part of the group on TV). The usual Kliq stuff. Some of the wrestlers said that everyone can see that Cena has major star potential and they feel like Triple H cutting him off at the knees like this is more about protecting his own spot. They compromised and had Cena slap Jericho instead (Dave says it was a hell of a slap, and on his podcast, Bruce Prichard has told this story. Apparently Jericho insisted that Cena really lay in the slap to make it look good. And so Cena damn near killed him). Patterson in particular was furious that his idea got scrapped and told everyone who would listen about it, feeling the original angle would have gotten people talking about Cena (something they haven't been able to do with any of the other news guys) and felt the compromise angle didn't really have the same effect. Dave notes there's been a lot of resentment towards Nash and Michaels because they're getting some of the biggest pushes in the company right now despite not working full-time like everyone else. And Triple H is going to always be a target of it because of his real-life relationship with Stephanie McMahon. And, of course, X-Pac is basically protected by all his friends and has gotten out of doing multiple jobs in recent weeks when Nash or Michaels complained on his behalf. For what it's worth though, Hulk Hogan is said to be the total opposite, doing exactly what is asked of him and working as hard as he's capable of doing, has had no problem doing jobs or putting anyone over, and is pretty much avoiding all this Kliq drama. So at least one of these guys is redeeming their reputation here a little (just don't turn any hidden cameras on when he's having a conversation).
  
• Chris Jericho has agreed to a new WWE deal, but hasn't yet signed the contract and is actually working without one at the moment. His previous deal expired a week or two ago and he's been hammering out details with WWE ever since. With declining business and no real competition to use as leverage, Jericho's negotiating power was obviously not great. But he is one of the company's key guys and word is Jericho considers the offer "fair, under the circumstances." So probably not as good as he was hoping, but that's what happens when you work for a monopoly.
  
• Notes from Raw: "one of those nights best left forgotten," Dave says, as WWE's 2002 continues to suck. Booker T cut a promo challenging the NWO, but Eddie Guerrero answered the challenge instead, "I guess since they could get him to do a job on TV without complaining," Dave quips. And indeed, Booker won. Chris Benoit was embroiled in the beginnings of an angle with Austin and Flair, but when Austin left, everything got changed, and now Benoit is feuding with Bubba Ray Dudley, which is quite the demotion. Shawn Michaels cut a promo talking about the Kliq days, full of insider references that were lost on most of the crowd and it was so quiet that you could even hear one heckler yell, "Get to the point!" Dave doesn't understand why they're fondly reminiscing about a time that was by far the darkest, lowest period in the last 30 years of the business, but whatever. William Regal lost to Jeff Hardy, leading Dave to wonder whatever happened to the Regal/Molly Holly storyline that has seemingly been dropped with no explanation. And, of course, the Kevin Nash injury to end the show.
  
• Oh yeah....and then there's this. Raw also featured a match with Trish Stratus & Bradshaw vs. Chris Nowinski & Jackie Gayda, which Dave calls "the longest 3:14 in pro wrestling history." Basically every spot that Gayda and Stratus did was completely blown, some so badly that Dave can't even figure out what they were trying to do. Nowinski and Bradshaw brawled into the crowd. "I think they were running out as fast as they could to preserve whatever reputation they have left." Jim Ross on commentary used the dreaded "bowling shoe ugly" phrase which is JR Code for "holy shit this is a bad match." The ending was completely botched but this time, Gayda at least had the sense to realize that they botched the finish so bad that she probably shouldn't eat a pin from it, so she tried to kick out instead. But Trish and the referee didn't get the memo and so the ref counted the 3 anyway, which made the whole thing look even worse. Crowd booed this like crazy and Dave says it was clear to everybody that Gayda has no business on Raw yet, she's still waaaaaaay too green (If you haven't seen it, this match is legendarily bad and is widely known simply as "That Jackie Gayda Match."
  

WATCH: That Jackie Gayda match

• Notes from Smackdown: on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, this was a great show. Lillian Garcia singing "America the Beautiful" was interrupted by Team Canada, who got the most heel heat Dave has seen anywhere in wrestling in a long time. They're trying to redo the 1997 Hart Foundation/Canada angle, except this time, it's Christian, Test, and Lance Storm. Whether it will be successful or not depends on who the babyface is. In 1997, it was Steve Austin. If they pick Rikishi or somebody here in 2002, it's not gonna get over near as big. Batista working tag matches is the best thing for him, because he's looking a lot better lately while being able to hide his weaknesses. The Cena/Jericho angle was good (though probably not as good as the original idea would have been). During the Billy and Chuck segment, Chuck had a line about being tired from walking all day on Sunday. The joke wasn't explained, so if you didn't get it: that recent Sunday was the day of a lot of major national gay pride parades in major cities around the country. And Hogan and Edge won the tag titles in a fun match that the crowd was nuclear hot for.

WATCH: Edge & Hogan win the WWE tag team titles

• Chris Benoit didn't do any actual matches in developmental before his return, he was just there training and taking bumps, so the matches he's been doing on TV the last week or two really were his first actual matches since the neck surgery. Benoit is said to be in less pain than he expected to be and is hopeful to get back to his old self.
  
• Dave saw a recent picture of Rey Mysterio and he's worried. Mysterio has bulked up waaaaay too much for his frame. Dave compares him to The Patriot, another masked wrestler who's career was pretty much ended due to repeated muscle tears from being too steroided up. With Mysterio's size, there's zero reason or advantage to him being so muscular and it's only going to increase his risk of getting injured, especially when he starts working that 200-dates-per-year WWE schedule (yeah, this proved to be pretty accurate. Despite the success he had during that time, the next decade or so of Mysterio's career is pretty much injury after injury after injury).
  
• Latest on Goldberg is that he has no plans to do anything in wrestling until later this year, if at all. Dave thinks that's smart, since WWE business looks like it's going to keep plummeting, at which time they'll be even more desperate for him to come in. Dave thinks Goldberg could probably command a pretty large offer to come in around the beginning of 2003 and build to a big Wrestlemania match (close, but not quite what happens).
  
• Various WWE notes: Triple H has been out of action since King of the Ring after getting elbow surgery. He's been back in Birmingham again, doing 24/7 rehab. Stephanie McMahon hasn't been working in the WWE offices for the last few weeks because she's been with him. Stacy Keibler asked for time off because she's burned out and was replaced with Dawn Marie for all her scheduled bra and panties matches on house shows this week.
  
• During the Sunday Night Heat/Raw tapings, someone held up a sign that said "Big Show is not over" when Big Show was out during Heat. Show saw the sign, flipped the guy off, and pointed it out to security. They tried to get the sign but I guess the guy holding it ran away and actually escaped them. Later during the night, when Big Show was out again (this time on Raw), the sign got held up again. Show once again saw it, once again pointed it out to security, and this time, they jumped the rail and caught the guy and took his sign. Imagine being that sensitive.
  

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Eric Bischoff debuts in WWE, X-Pac suspended, more on Russo in TNA, and more...

As a long-time contributor to this sub, I know we love nothing more than discussing our degeneracy. If nothing else, hearing such stories makes you realise there are other people out there who have lived similar experiences to you. Stories of epic failure provide a sense of comfort. Stories of unexpected triumphs provide a feeling of hope.
The following bets - and the circumstances surrounding each - were not necessarily story-worthy. However, there were a number of intricate details which I felt were worth highlighting. Aside from the statistical rollercoaster than one experiences throughout a game (i.e. going from "how can this lose?" to "this bet is over"), there are other factors which can have significant ramifications for one's betting endeavours.
This is where the factor of timing comes into play. How often have you bet on something purely due to the fact that the game was starting shortly? It could either be a straight wager on the game. Or, you might have decided to add the short-priced "lock" to boost your odds. How often has this then come back to bite you? Or conversely, this random event - where your betting urge coincided with the scheduled timing of this event taking place - results in a recuperation of losses from previous games that you "studied" prior to placing your losing wagers?
Without further ado, this is my story. It is but a speck in the ocean that is my entire betting career. But it was a Sunday night full of swings, sweats and... well I won't spoil the ending.
As you read this, I want you to keep the headline in mind. Specifically, the words timing, luck and degeneracy.
It's early on a Sunday evening in Melbourne, Australia. Approximately 6PM to be exact. We are currently under the world's strictest COVID lockdown. We have an 8PM curfew, and I was keen to get in a 1 hour walk before returning home to make dinner. Now typically - as I had already walked my dog several hours earlier - I would not go for another on my own. But for some reason, I just had an urge to get some fresh air. Here is the first element in play: timing. At 6:10PM, an AFL (Australian Football) was scheduled to begin. As I begin my walk, I inevitably flick through my preferred bookmaker's iPhone app and this game catches my eye. Part of me says "don't bet it". The other part of me curb-stomps that voice in my head and says "don't be a pussy". Now on another note, I placed a daily deposit limit of $3000 on my account. To some, that is insanely big. I generally bet $1000 or so, and so this stops me from stupidly chasing the day's losses. Here is where another element peaks it's head: luck. I had deposited $1750 that day. Had I reached my limit, the following events would only have existed in a parallel universe. But as luck would have it, I had $1250 to play with. So I said 'fuck it' and made the deposit. It's about 6:05PM now and I don't have much time. I sift through the markets on offer and decide it's best to play a Same Game Multi (parlaying multiple events from the same game). With not much time left to make a decision, I quickly check the weather forecast in Gold Coast (where this game is taking place) and note that there is meant to be rain in the second half. (Spoiler: there was no rain in the second half). As this sport is played outdoors, this would favour the unders. So I come up with a bet that looks like this:

• First quarter OVER 23.5
• First half OVER 48.5
• Full match UNDER 125.5
• West Coast +34.5 handicap
• Margin: either team by 1-39
• Bontempelli 15+ disposals
• Macrae 20+ disposals

ODDS: 4.10
A bet of $1250 would pay $5125.
​
I was ready to place the bet. The problem? The match was only seconds from beginning.
The time stamp on when the bet was accepted:
18:09:55
I made it by 5 measly seconds.
​
Ok, so game begins rather uneventfully. Now it's worth noting for those who aren't familiar with AFL that you can score by 1's and 6's. It's late in the first quarter and the total is sitting at 22 points. Needing over 23.5, I'm in desperate need of a goal. The whole bet is about to come crashing down without it. With only seconds remaining a player marks the ball from a score-able position. The siren sounds. Now in AFL, if a mark is taken before the siren ("buzzer"), the player may take their kick. As luck would have it, this legend kicks it right through the middle of the goal posts, and the first quarter score ends on 28. We live on!
Second quarter ends, and the combined total is 52 points. Again, we survive the over 48.5 by less than a full goal! (But this one cleared with a handful of minutes left to play, so there was no sweat involved).
I'l wrap up the remainder of the game fairly quickly, as it is rather uneventful. The final score is 47-49, so the total under 125.5 hits easily, the +34.5 and margin 1-39 hit comfortably, and both players rack up well over their required disposals. Fantastic. My account hits $5125.
By this stage, some would be satisfied. I wasn't. I was out for blood.
The smart move would have been to withdraw, say, $4000. Play with the remaining $1125 (house money), and lock in a profit. But what's the fun in that?
I scroll through the upcoming events and see that there is a Chinese Super League (soccer) match starting in a few hours. This isn't the first example of degeneracy in this story, but it's probably the biggest.
So what do I do? Another Same Game Multi of course. And how much do I bet on it? $5125 of course.
The bet:

• Beijing Guoan: win or draw
• Total corners: OVER 7.5
• Total goals: OVER 1.5
• BOTH teams to score in BOTH halves: No

ODDS: 1.95
A bet of $5125 would pay $9993.75
​
Here's where the rollercoaster of events begins.
5 minutes in, we have our first corner.
13 minutes in, we have our second.
Corners are looking good.
Fast forward to half time and Beijing are leading 2-0.

• BOTH teams to score in BOTH halves: No = WINNER
• Total goals: OVER 1.5 = WINNER
• Beijing or draw = TBD, but looking good!
• Corners OVER 7.5 = ONLY 2 FUCKING CORNERS IN THE FIRST HALF!

Remember, they had already accumulated 2 corners 13 minutes into the match. 32 minutes without a single corner!
The live odds for over 7.5 were now over 3.00, and I was losing hope.
The second half begins and approximately 10 minutes passes without a corner. I'm fucked.
The next 15 minutes feels like God (aka Bob from NBA Daily Discussion) had blessed me. A flurry of corners results in an 8th corner before the 70th minute mark!
What looked like a total sweat, turned into the easiest of victories. Or so I thought...
The final leg: Beijing or draw - who by the way, were 1.50 favourites to win the match - were still up 2-0. One book had the opposing team at 81.00 odds to win from here. But you guys can guess what happened next.
Wuhan goal!
I'm still leading 2-1. My brain: "it's all good man, you still have a 1 goal buffer".
Barely a few minutes later...
Wuhan goal!
It's now 2-2. My brain: "it's cool, you just need a draw, you're still likely to win this".
Including the 6 minutes of added time, I have to sit through approximately 20 excruciating minutes of soccer, with just under $10k on the line.
Luckily, Beijing did 75% of the attacking. Wuhan did have a few minor chances, but nothing that made the heart sink.
The referee blew the full-time whistle, and I slowly unclenched my ass cheeks.
I waited to see my account balance, just to make sure all was kosher. (You know, we've all been there, when we thought we bet on a certain team, but because their names are all Chinese, you actually bet on the wrong Beijing or something like that).
My balance appeared at $9,993.75.
It was time to call it a night.
I reflected on the past 6 or so hours that I had just been through, and the 3 things that kept popping up in my mind again were timing, luck and degeneracy.
P.S.
Sorry to all the Djokovic and Heat backers. Brutal. Especially Djokovic. I'd say that's a once-in-a-career circumstance, but I think that would be understating how unlikely it is that the best player in the world get's DQ'd because he inadvertently hit a ball into an official's neck out of frustration.

Alright, yesterday I created a quick match thread to calm down the increasing flow of new redditors on the sub, we went up to 3,598 online users on the subreddit at some point...
So today, let's have a serious, interesting and calm discussion about what happened during the game yesterday.

Atalanta 1 — 2 Paris Saint-Germain

Quarterfinals

Venue: Estádio da Luz
Attendance: Unkown
Referee: Anthony Taylor (ENG)
Kick-off: 21:00 local.

Lineups

Paris Saint-Germain lineup 4-4-2: Navas; Bernat, Kimpembe, T. Silva (Captain), Kehrer; Gueye, Marquinhos, Herrera; Neymar Jr., Icardi, Sarabia
Atalanta lineup 3-4-2-1: Sportiello; Toloi, Caldara, Djimsiti; Hateboer, De Roon, Freuler, Gosens; Gomez, Pasalic; Duvan Zapata

L'EQUIPE RATINGS

MATCH REPORT

GOALS:

• [1]-0 - Mario Pasalic (27')
• 1-[1] - Marquinhos (90')
• 1-[2] - Choupo Moting (90+3')

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

• CBS Extended Highlights
• UEFA Highlights
• Optus Sports Highlights

STATISTICS:

	Atalanta	PSG
Shots (on target)	9 (4)	16 (6)
Ball Possession	39%	61%
Passes	367	593
Distance Covered	108.2 kms	104.9 kms
Fouls	29	13
Corners	4	3
Offsides	2	0
xG	0.58	3.29

FULL STATISTICS
FULL MATCH REPORTS:

UEFA: "Tuchel's side pull off stunning late comeback."

Paris were so nearly the first to land a blow, Neymar racing clear in the third minute only to slot wide with just Marco Sportiello to beat. Atalanta soon found their feet, with Hans Hateboer’s back-post header – smartly saved by Keylor Navas – serving notice of their growing intent.
La Dea’s ascendancy was rewarded before the half-hour when Duván Zapata played the ball neatly into the path of Mario Pašalić, whose first-time effort from just inside the penalty area arced perfectly past Navas.
Paris carved relatively little out of their superior possession for much of the second half, at least until the 90th minute when Neymar squared for Marquinhos to tap in from close range.
Crestfallen, Gian Piero Gasperini's side had barely caught their breath when substitute Kylian Mbappé raced down the left and crossed for fellow replacement Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to help himself to an added-time winner.

The Guardian: "PSG's late, late double ends Atalanta's Champions League dream" by Barney Ronay

In the end it took £400m of attacking talent, 93 minutes of increasingly frantic football, and a man who mustered up five goals in a single year at Stoke to wrench a thrilling Champions League quarter-final the way of Paris Saint-Germain.
It had to be Neymar, one way or another. The world’s most expensive footballer had played for much of the game like a man trapped inside another kind of storyline, finding space fluently but shooting at goal like a man wearing wooden clogs.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta underdogs had played with familiar verve to lead 1-0 with 90 minutes already up. At which point PSG’s labouring star machine finally found some relief.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, on as a 79th-minute substitute, swung a fine cross into the box, and the ball was deflected in off a combination of an Atalanta defender and Marquinhos.
Three minutes later, with extra time looming, Neymar played an extraordinary, high-pressure pass, taking the ball in a small space outside the area, freezing the moment, then sliding the ball inside José Palomino to meet the run of Kylian Mbappé. His low cross was equally precise. Choupo-Moting turned the ball into the net to set up a semi-final with either RB Leipzig or Atlético Madrid next Tuesday.
Atalanta will remain the wider story and not just because of another stirring show from this high-intensity team of low-cost parts. A Champions League quarter-final represents an all-time high, albeit one that will be coloured by other emotions. The horrors of March in Bergamo are well-documented. This is a region still processing its grief. Freewheeling success on the football field is not a fix or a balm for this kind of real-life pain. But all things considered, it is not a bad place to start.
The other story is, of course, Neymar, and a step into fresh territory for Thomas Tuchel’s version of that oddly brittle PSG star vehicle. Neymar remains, for all the outstanding moments, an object of some frustration among those baffled by the choice to move at his peak to an environment as lukewarm as Ligue 1.
And yet, Neymar did deliver and did so when his team needed it most. There are stronger opponents in the draw but not many better attacks, with Mbappé likely also to be fit for the next round.
The Estádio da Luz had provided an agreeably haunting stage for the latest instalment of midsummer Covid-bal. The late evening kick-off meant Lisbon was at least mercifully cool, a step down from the predicted mid-August firepit.
Atalanta had Marco Sportiello in goal, with Josip Ilicic absent for domestic reasons. PSG were without Ángel Di María and Marco Verratti, with Mbappé on the bench.
The action was frantic from the start. It took Neymar two minutes to produce an astonishing miss, running in on goal unimpeded from the centre circle, then shanking the ball five yards wide of the right-hand post.
Unconcerned by their own suicidally high defensive line, Atalanta set about besieging the PSG end. With 10 minutes gone Hans Hateboer drew a clawing save from Keylor Navas and the game settled into a series of crisp, direct Atalanta attacks, broken up by the occasional white-shirted counter.
For a while that powerful PSG midfield began to dictate its more stately rhythms but it was Atalanta who took the lead. Duván Zapata found space just outside the box, tumbling over as the ball ran on to Mario Pasalic. His first-time shot zinged into the top corner.
The response was familiarly staccato. Neymar produced a nutmeg on Pasalic then pinged a shot just wide. Otherwise Atalanta held their high line and swarmed around the ball, their combinations zippy and urgent where PSG seemed to be playing through a midsummer haze.
Neymar had time before the break to miss another presentable chance, blasting miles over the bar after seizing on a terrible pass from Hateboer and sending Tuchel into mild frenzy in his dugout.
Tuchel has something agreeably pale and gaunt about him at the best of times, striding about the touchline looking like a sad-eyed victorian wraith. In Lisbon, left leg encased in a surgical boot, he could be seen shielding his brow and flinching in horror at times in that first half.
Mbappé, his remaining ace, was sent out to warm up at the interval. And PSG did start with more purpose after the break. Neymar continued to find space but still lacked any sense of edge. A low free-kick on 50 minutes was his fourth shot at goal, his third off target.
With 31 minutes to play Mbappé was on, replacing Pablo Sarabia. His impact was instant, a series of surges down the left offering a threat where PSG had been reliant on Neymar’s twists and spins.
Atalanta flooded that side, surrounding Mbappé with five defenders at times. It looked like being enough, right up until that extraordinary ending.

La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Atalanta, going out like this hurts! Pasalic deludes, but PSG overturns everything in the recovery minutes" by Francesco Fontana

Nerazzurri ahead 1-0 until the 90', then the mockery: Marquinhos' draw and Choupo-Moting's overtaking goal. The Parisians went to the semi-finals and Mbappé's entry was decisive.
Players in tears over an incredible result, unbelievable stuff. Atalanta lost 2-1 on PSG, killing the minutes from 90 minutes (Marquinhos' goal) to 93 minutes, when Choupo-Moting signed the overtaking after Pasalic's great goal at 27 minutes of the first half. The Champions League quarter-finals speak French, in the semi-finals Tuchel's team will go there and now await the winner of Leipzig-Atletico Madrid, on the pitch tomorrow night. In any case, despite the defeat, the Goddess can return to Bergamo with a very high head.
Compared to the hypothesis of the eve there is no news in Atalanta's house: Gasperini bets on Caldara, Hateboer and Pasalic, preferred to Palomino, Castagne and Malinovskyi. So, in his 3-4-2-1, space to Sportiello in goal. In defence also Toloi and Djimsiti with De Roon-Freuler on the middle and Gosens on the left. In front, of course, Gomez and Zapata. On the other side, without Verratti and Di Maria (out for injury and disqualification respectively), Tuchel chooses the 4-3-3 with Keylor Navas between the posts, behind Kehrer, Thiago Silva, Kimpempe and Bernat. In midfield Herrera, Marquinhos and Gueye with Sarabia, Icardi and Neymar in attack (Mbappé starts on the bench). English referee Taylor.
First ring at 3': left Papu from inside the area, para Navas on the ground. The real danger comes 1' later with Neymar who, incredibly, makes a one-on-one mistake with Sportiello kicking out. Super start in this first quarter final. The Goddess is in the game, PSG concedes something. On the 11th assist top of Gomez, who from a distance fishes Hateboer on the second post: dunked by the Dutchman's head, Navas is ok in answering (ditto a few moments later on Caldara, albeit offside). Until the 27th minute, the French push to corner the opponent, then the result changes: a ball to the limit for Zapata who, in a daring way, serves Pasalic, amazing with a left-footed shot to beat Navas on the second post. Goddess ahead. And he'll stay there until halftime, also because Neymar, in the 41st minute, didn't take advantage of Hateboer's mistake (Sportiello's back pass was too short) and sent him out. And by quite a lot. Thrill. We go into the locker room after 1' of recovery.
Tuchel (on crutches due to a sprained left ankle with a fractured fifth metatarsus) is not happy and sends Mbappé to warm up immediately, on the field at 60'. At the same time Gasperini puts Malinovskyi and Palomino in place of Papu and Djimsiti, who just before (57') makes a mistake on the fly: what a chance for the Goddess. In the central part of the shot Atalanta shortens, PSG struggles to create. And it's no coincidence that, at this stage, Sportiello is still watching: it will seem absurd, considering adversary and level of competition, but that's how it is. The changes continue: Gasp throws in the fray Muriel (out Pasalic), Tuchel risks more with Paredes and Draxler for Gueye and Herrera. We're at 74', when Sportiello puts his big foot on Mbappé's right. Navas doesn't make it because of an injury accused just before, on 79' space for Sergio Rico, the reserve goalkeeper. Eleven minutes to go, Mbappé made another mistake (very good Palomino in closing). Gasp called for Castagne and Da Riva, midfielder of the 2000 class at his debut in the Champions League. PSG tries, tries and tries. And at the end, in the 90th minute, he finds a draw with Marquinhos, who puts it in the fray from a few steps. And in the 93rd minute he even overtakes Choupo-Moting, who receives a "chocolate" from Mbappé. Unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. Although a round of applause for this Atalanta is certainly not to be missed.
POST-MATCH INTERVIEWS & QUOTES

• Thomas Tuchel Post-Match Press Conference.
• Eric Choupo-Moting Post-Match Press Conference.

Over the years, sports betting has become more popular. It all started with fantasy sports games and the ability to analyze player statistics. This soon moved into betting where you can look at odds and back your favorite teams to win money. Indeed, many sports enthusiasts have said that it boosts their fan experience and makes games more exciting. Six out of 10 Americans said that they approved of sports betting.
But how much do you really know about the ins and outs of sports betting? For example, you may have heard of the term ‘arbitrage’. But do you know what it means? Let’s take a look.
What is an Arbitrage?
We all know that in any capacity, gambling is about risk. You are betting money with the potential to win or lose. So, when it comes to arbitrage in sports betting, this is about people wanting to better their odds of winning. An arbitrage involves making several bets on the same sports match in order to win and gain a profit from the event. Indeed, people believe that it no longer matters what the result is; they think they will win either way. It is viewed as security when it comes to sports betting.
There are many ways that you can enjoy arbitrage betting. For example, it can be used in roulette, craps and online blackjack, but it is particularly popular in sports betting since you can bet on the two teams that are playing against each other. For instance, this can be done in soccer, American football, basketball and baseball. The idea is that you use different sportsbooks to spread the risk.
📷
Are There Advantages to this Strategy?
Of course, the purpose of arbitrage betting is to always win. In this way, a lot of players view it as a safe strategy that means that you are going to profit every time you play. If you are new to gambling, perhaps you view arbitrage betting as a safety blanket. But this is going to be the case if you do it right. What’s more, you often only make a small profit from this type of strategy.
The only thing is, it is easy to get carried away when it comes to arbitrage betting. In other words, you can get too confident and end up making mistakes. This is the last thing that anybody wants. Thus, you will need to do a lot of work in order for this strategy to be successful for you. As arbitrage betting means there is a small profit margin, this means that some people will make high bets. Again, if you do not do your research, this means that you could end up losing big.
In addition, you have to be careful. There are some sportsbooks that do not like arbitrage betting. This means that your account could be closed and it may be best to adopt another strategy. The purpose of gambling is to have fun and see if you can win. Trying to beat the system is not always the best idea nor is it the easiest.

So hey I was just searching for some advanced statistics that could help me build a fantasy team in Dream11. Since there are a lot of very advanced stats being discussed here I thought I will search the term Dream11 in the subreddit. And what I saw was there was a big chunk of people who are not very familiar with the app or how it works. (Hey if you are a pro gambler who bets tons on money on Dream11 you can skip this post) What's Dream11? It's a daily fantasy sports gaming platform. You create a fantasy team and based on the performance of the players you have you win or lose. It's based off on a single game - not like fantasy premier league that runs throughout the season. And you can place money on it.
Is it gambling? Depends on how you define the term gambling, in my opinion it is.
Is it scam? Nope. It's pretty legit. In the US Fanduel and DraftKings are the major fantasy sports platforms. Similar business model. It works they don't need to scam you to make money, they take around 16% of your entry fees. That's enough. (There could be players who are cheating in other ways tough, will get to it later)
Just because you know cricket you can't win shit on Dream11. I'm serious. It helps if you know how the prize money is distributed, the number of people you are playing against etc.
There are two types of games within Dream11 - tournament and cash games. (grand league and small league). In tournaments 100K to 500K teams play. You need to put in about INR 26 to 49 to play. The top ranked team will take home INR 1 million. And you can see crazy lucky teams winning it. Your first reaction no way this dude put in that team. Most of often they did. Why? If you play the tournament, you need to win first prize once in an year to be profitable. So you don't play Kohli's and Steve Smith's in all your team's. Everyone will have them - you play players who are unlikely to be in other people's teams. So you take huge risks - if everyone is captaining Kohli you captain someone else that's not popular. (Doesn't mean you avoid good players, a mix of good plus overlooked players. In Dream11 you can see how many people are picking the players)
Cash games or small league are H2H that is one on one, 4 players one person wins etc. Less players - you need to win them more often so less risky picks.
That's kind of the basic idea of the game. And there are numerous sharks or pro players. So be careful. And scam - players could collude. Create unique teams and cover many permutations and combinations in the tournament. Hard to keep a check on.
You can play without money as well for fun.
(If you are a pro player and would like to help out this newbie what are some advanced stats I can look up for in cricket. I play soccer okay. So I can help you with that.)

So I’ve always been ‘addicted’ to sports, both playing and watching, in a mostly healthy way. I also like maths and statistics and I had been sports betting profitably for a while, all of this naturally always made me interested in fantasy football (soccer), although I never really played it until last year because I could never find a group of friends who were interested. So last year I started playing as an inexperienced rookie and I loved it: I started focusing more and more on it, I was spending a lot of time doing research etc., and after a bad start I won our league title with an improbable comeback… and kept talking shit about it to my league mates ever since. Riding the wave of excitement from last season, we decided to play again this season and even expanded our league to include 2 more guys. By now I was very experienced, I had learned and created a lot of the game strategy and I was excited to give my team the best chance to win again starting with the auction draft. Once again I started the season very slowly and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already getting desperate about it… thankfully though, I knew the sample size of games was still very small and I quickly began rising to the top of the league table. Right now, I have a decent lead at the top of the table with a few games left, which I need to hold in order to win the title again. Well… during the whole lockdown period, which was devastating for my mental health for several unrelated reasons, fantasy football eventually coming back was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, hoping it would give me something to distract myself from all the stress. I couldn’t be more wrong: ever since it restarted I’ve been having daily anxiety attacks because of it and I just can’t cope with the stress and especially the fear of everybody making fun of me if I lose, it terrifies me. I can’t even enjoy one of my favorite hobbies anymore because of social anxiety, I know it might sound ridiculous but it’s obsessing me. I wanted to know if anyone else’s social anxiety has become so bad after the lockdown, I was not in a very good place before the whole pandemic began (I’ve had social anxiety since I was in preschool), but at the time I didn’t expect it to get this bad as this was an example of how I can’t even do the simplest things now. For the record, I restarted going to therapy every two weeks after the lockdown measures were eased.

Hello everyone,
Our latest feature, Leagues, is now available on both iOS and Android. It took us some time but we wanted to get this right, we are happy with this version and hope you’ll enjoy it too 🕺
Leagues are intended to make PeerBet a little bit more fun and engaging. In this first release, all leagues created will be private so you'll be given a code in order to share and invite others to join your league.

How does it work?

Let's say you've created a Soccer league, for a duration of 2 weeks — all bets that you and your league's members place on Soccer topics (during that time frame) will automatically go towards that league statistics (wins, losses). Based on those stats, each league will have its own leaderboard.

Entry fees

Leagues can either be free or require an entry fee. The fee goes directly to the admin who will decide whether or not to give away prizes (rules can be set when creating a new league). So please make sure to trust the admin and that you are happy with the rules when joining a new league :)

How to reward a winner?

We updated our mini profile feature — if you tap on the user's avatar, you'll now have the option to send any Kin amount to that user.
We've created a short league as an example. It ends this Sunday, entry fee is 50k Kin and you can bet on any topic. We'll be giving away the pot to the top 2 winners so come join us: P8YWBF2F
Here is a video example on how to create a league:https://twitter.com/peerbetapp/status/1285283389424140290

Other cool things

It's also worth mentioning, in this release:

• We've integrated the new SDK
• You can now access your favourite topics more easily (Favourite tab)
• You can track your earnings (Updated Earn screen)
• Deeper integration with Kin Ads

​
Thanks for playing!
If you like the app and would like to support us, feel free to leave us positive reviews 📷
Download from the Apple Store (iOS)
Download from Google Play Store (Android)
Have fun!
The PeerBet team
peerbet_simon
patoux_
https://peerbet.io
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

July 25th
Europe (Rating per FotMob/whoscored if provided)
Serie A (Italy)
Jeremy Toljan (US Sassuolo on loan from Borussia Dortmund) Subbed on in the 46th‘ in a 2-0 Loss against Napoli (5.9/6.07) 0/1 shots on target, 19/22 passing, 1 cross, 31 touches, 1 interception, 1 recovery Match Highlights
​
Super Lig (Turkey)
Tyler Boyd (Besiktas JK) Started at LCM and went the full 90‘ in a 3-0 Win against Genclerbirligi. Picked up a yellow in the 41st’ (6.4/6.84) 1/2 shots on target, 12/18 passing, 1 cross, 1/1 accurate long balls, 31 touches, 5/15 duels won, 1 clearance, 2/2 successful dribbles, 2 times dispossessed, 3 fouls, 1/1 successful tackles, 2/4 aerials won, 4 recoveries Match Highlights
​
NordicBet Liga (Danish 2nd Division)
Kyle McLagan (FC Roskilde) Started at LCB and went the full 90’ in a 0-0 draw with Hvidovre (-/-)
​
Superettan (Swedish 2nd Division)
Brian Span (Vasteras SK) Started at LW and went the full 90’ in a 2-1 Loss against Norrby (-/-)
​
Ykkonen (Finnish 2nd Division)
Kyle Curinga (Kokkolan Pallo-veikot) Started at RB and played 71‘ in a 1-0 Loss against AC Oulu (-/-) Match Highlights
​
July 26th
Europe (Rating per FotMob/whoscored if provided)
Segunda Division B Promotion Playoffs - Final (Spanish 3rd Division)
Konrad de la Fuente (FC Barcelona B) Started at LW and played 82‘ in a 2-1 Loss against Sabadell (-/-) Match Highlights
​
Premier league (England)
Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) Started at LW and played 78‘ in a 2-0 Win against Wolves**. With this result Chelsea clinches Champions League Soccer for next season** (6.4/6.37) 0/1 shots on target, 19/31 passing, 1/4 accurate long balls, 1 key pass, 52 touches, 4/10 duels won, 0/3 successful dribbles, 2 times dispossessed, 3 times fouled, 1 foul, 1/1 successful tackles, 7 recoveries Match Highlights
​
Superliga Europa League Playoff (Denmark)
Ryan Laursen (Odense Boldklub) Started at RM and played 39‘ in a 1-1 draw with AC Horsens (6.1/-) 6/10 passing, 0/2 accurate long balls, 17 touches, 1/3 duels won, 1/1 successful tackles, 0/1 aerials won 1 interception, 1 recovery Match Highlights
​
Eliteserien (Norway)
Romain Gall (Stabaek football on loan from Malmo FF) Started at LW and played 57‘ in a 0-0 draw with Start (5.5/-) 0/1 shots on target, 21/22 passing, 1/2 accurate long balls, 25 touches, 0/4 duels won, 2 times dispossessed Match Highlights
Henry Wingo (Molde FK) Started at RB and went the full 90’ in a 3-1 Loss against Bodoe/Glimt (-/-) Match Highlights
​
Veikkausliiga (Finland)
Tim Murray (FC Honka) Started at GK and went the full 90’ in a 1-0 Win against RoPS (-/-)
Michael Hartmann (FC Haka) Started at GK and went the full 90’ in a 2-0 Loss against FC Inter (-/-)
Jacob Bushue (FC Haka) Started at RCM and played 61‘ in a 2-0 Loss against FC Inter (-/-)

During this period of downtime with no sports it might not be a bad idea to build out frameworks of power ratings for the future so that when sports come back you are ready. If you have no idea how to build power rating systems to help plug into models to guide your bets I have a series of 5 videos that I have made over the past month that help introduce basic concepts when it comes to building out power ratings.
Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCeyAgQXcGPsKwIONd-PUQqxr_bo_J5
In these videos I use the NFL since its limited number of games made it easier to work with for an educational video. However the concepts outlined in these videos can be applied to any sport. Please keep in mind these videos are intended to teach CONCEPTS. In other words, they are not HOW TO videos on how to build power ratings. Don't watch these videos expecting me to build out a power rating system for you. While I do go into some detail on the coding/programming, I also include links to the spreadsheet and macros featured in the videos so you can skip the videos and just play around with the files/code if you want.
VIDEO 1: ELO SYSTEM - This video teaches the viewer the concepts of the most basic power rating system, ELO. In this video basic excel macro programming is covered and the viewer learns how to convert wins and losses into raw and adjusted win percentages, which can then be used to make win probability predictions. Home/Away advantages and league averages are also covered.
VIDEO 2: PURE POINTS SYSTEM - This video teaches the viewer the concepts of the PURE POINTS rating system. Like with the ELO video, it uses one stat, which is scoring margin as opposed to win percentage. The viewer learns how to calculate raw per game and adjusted per game scoring differential, which can then be used to make predicted margin of victory predictions.
VIDEO 3: OFFENSE/DEFENSE BREAKOUT + MODULAR INFINITE ADAPTABILITY - This video is the first to use multiple statistics and how to operate with multiple inputs. This video uses adjusted points for and adjusted points against. However the real important aspect of this video is the modular and infinite adaptability concepts introduced. When building out a power rating system its best to put in a little extra effort on the front end to make your life easier on the back end. With a modular, infinitely adaptable setup, you can easily plug and play more stats into your system in the future without having to write any new code.
VIDEO 4: PYTHAGOREAN EXPECTATION AND LOG5 WIN PERCENTAGE - This video teaches the concepts of pythagorean win expectation and log 5 win percentage. It also teaches how to find the right exponent for a pythagorean expectation calculation. With pythagorean expectation, you can calculate both predicted margin AND expected win percentage with just one system(as opposed to having to break it out by ELO and PURE POINTS)
VIDEO 5: MULTIPLE STATISTICS, NORMALIZATION, AND LINEALOGISTIC REGRESSION - This final video shows how to incorporate an endless number of stats into your ratings even if they don't relate directly to win/loss or scoring margin, a method that can be used to pick which stats to use in your ratings, how to normalize stats with standard deviation so that they can be combined into one single offensive and defensive rating and then finally one single overall rating. It also touches upon the concepts of linear and logistic regression to predict margin and win probability respectively.
Please keep in mind this is an INTRO to power ratings series. Keyword, INTRO. It's meant to teach basic concepts to get a beginner started. Obviously for those of you like me who are data scientists by profession there are more complex and sophisticated ways to do things, but these videos are not intended for the advanced user.
I think that spending some time to build out some systems right now when nothing is going on is a better use of time than betting on some random sports video game simulation or a 3rd world soccer match.

During this period of downtime with no sports it might not be a bad idea to build out frameworks of power ratings for the future so that when sports come back you are ready. If you have no idea how to build power rating systems to help plug into models to guide your bets I have a series of 5 videos that I have made over the past month that help introduce basic concepts when it comes to building out power ratings.
Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCeyAgQXcGPsKwIONd-PUQqxr_bo_J5
In these videos I use the NFL since its limited number of games made it easier to work with for an educational video. However the concepts outlined in these videos can be applied to any sport. Please keep in mind these videos are intended to teach CONCEPTS. In other words, they are not HOW TO videos on how to build power ratings. Don't watch these videos expecting me to build out a power rating system for you. While I do go into some detail on the coding/programming, I also include links to the spreadsheet and macros featured in the videos so you can skip the videos and just play around with the files/code if you want.
VIDEO 1: ELO SYSTEM - This video teaches the viewer the concepts of the most basic power rating system, ELO. In this video basic excel macro programming is covered and the viewer learns how to convert wins and losses into raw and adjusted win percentages, which can then be used to make win probability predictions. Home/Away advantages and league averages are also covered.
VIDEO 2: PURE POINTS SYSTEM - This video teaches the viewer the concepts of the PURE POINTS rating system. Like with the ELO video, it uses one stat, which is scoring margin as opposed to win percentage. The viewer learns how to calculate raw per game and adjusted per game scoring differential, which can then be used to make predicted margin of victory predictions.
VIDEO 3: OFFENSE/DEFENSE BREAKOUT + MODULAR INFINITE ADAPTABILITY - This video is the first to use multiple statistics and how to operate with multiple inputs. This video uses adjusted points for and adjusted points against. However the real important aspect of this video is the modular and infinite adaptability concepts introduced. When building out a power rating system its best to put in a little extra effort on the front end to make your life easier on the back end. With a modular, infinitely adaptable setup, you can easily plug and play more stats into your system in the future without having to write any new code.
VIDEO 4: PYTHAGOREAN EXPECTATION AND LOG5 WIN PERCENTAGE - This video teaches the concepts of pythagorean win expectation and log 5 win percentage. It also teaches how to find the right exponent for a pythagorean expectation calculation. With pythagorean expectation, you can calculate both predicted margin AND expected win percentage with just one system(as opposed to having to break it out by ELO and PURE POINTS)
VIDEO 5: MULTIPLE STATISTICS, NORMALIZATION, AND LINEALOGISTIC REGRESSION - This final video shows how to incorporate an endless number of stats into your ratings even if they don't relate directly to win/loss or scoring margin, a method that can be used to pick which stats to use in your ratings, how to normalize stats with standard deviation so that they can be combined into one single offensive and defensive rating and then finally one single overall rating. It also touches upon the concepts of linear and logistic regression to predict margin and win probability respectively.
Please keep in mind this is an INTRO to power ratings series. Keyword, INTRO. It's meant to teach basic concepts to get a beginner started. Obviously for those of you like me who are data scientists by profession there are more complex and sophisticated ways to do things, but these videos are not intended for the advanced user.
I think that spending some time to build out some systems right now when nothing is going on is a better use of time than betting on some random sports video game simulation or a 3rd world soccer match.

Updated on 16 Sept 2020, Arranged in Chronological Order
All articles cited are from reliable and trustworthy sources (some may be NSFL):
Use this website to read any paywalled site you might encounter in this list.
Major Incidents:
ONE. Assasination of Jacob Israël de Haan (1924), a Dutch-Jewish diplomat, for attempting to make a peace deal with the Emir of Mecca - his plan was a Palestinian state in a Jordanian federation, the Zionists would drop the Balfour declaration and any claim to a state in exchange for unrestricted immigration. He was assassinated when leaving a synagogue by Avraham Tehomi (who admitted to it much later), on the orders of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who later became the 2nd President of Israel:
Wiki, Haaretz, 972mag
TWO. King David Hotel Bombing (1946) where right-wing Zionist terrorists attacked a British HQ located within the hotel killing 91 and injuring 46. The leader of the perpetrators, Manachem Begin became the Prime Minister of Israel in 1977:
Wiki, Haaretz
THREE. Deir Yassin Massacre (1948) where 110 villagers were slaughtered, some members of the perpetrators were at a later time, absorbed into the IDF, one even became PM of Israel:
Wiki, Haaretz, Britannica
FOUR. Document from IDF archives (1948) which after translation states:
"In the villages lying between Nahraiya and Tarshiha there are no foreign troops for the time being.The villages are armed and ready for action^1. Your orders are to occupy, kill the men^2, destroy and burn down the villages of Kabri, Umm al-Faraj and al-Nahr."
[1] Ilan Pappe notes that the villagers had no proper arms, only for hunting purposes and people who served in the police; without Arab troops that were absent they stood no chance [2] In April 1948, the Intelligence of the Hagana defined men as anyone above the age of 10
Sources:
-Photo taken from IDF Archives 1676\51\12
-Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947-1949, ISBN 0-521-33028-9. P. 133
-Hagana archives, 100\35, dated May 19, 1948
FIVE. Palestinian Exodus "Nakba" (1948) was an expulsion of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their Homeland during the war and establishment of Israel in May 1948, these includes testimonies of massacres, rape and looting. During and immediately following the state’s creation, Israel expropriated approximately 4,244,776 acres of Palestinian land.
Haaretz, Haaretz, Atlantic, Vox, TheWallsOfJerusalem
SIX. Assassination of Folke Bernadotte, (1948) UN Mediator for Palestinian Refugees by Israel's Zionist Paramilitary Group, Lehi. The killing was approved by the three-man 'center' of Lehi, one of which, after the assassination, became 7th Prime Minister of Israel (Yitzhak Shamir). No one was convicted for the assassination:
Wiki, Independent, Haaretz, WRMEA
SEVEN. Lavon Affair (1954) a failed false flag operation where Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli Military Intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American, and British-owned civilian targets, their foiled plan was to blame the attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood:
Haaretz, TimesofIsrael, Wiki
EIGHT. Kafr Qasim Massacre (1956) where Israeli Border Police killed 49 Arabs (19 men, 6 women, 23 children, 1 unborn child) returning home from work during a curfew they were unaware of. Those involved in the massacre were found guilty but were pardoned and released from prison in a single year. The highest ranking official prosecuted for the massacre confessed before his death, that the massacre were planned to ethnically cleanse Israeli Arabs from the region, and that his trial was staged to protect Israeli political and military elites, including Prime Minister Ben Gurion, from taking responsibility for the massacre:
Wiki, Haaretz, 972mag, Medium
NINE. Apollo Affair (1965) an incident where 200-600 pounds of highly enriched uranium disappeared from a Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Highly suspected to have gone to Israel's Nuclear Program particularly given the visit of Rafi Eitan who was under the guise of a chemist but later revealed as an Israeli spy and who was later involved in the Jonathan Pollard incident:
Wiki, LATimes, Mondoweiss,
Archive of the findings of Roger Mattson, a Physicist who investigated the Incident for the Nuclear Regulatory Commision,
YouTube, 1968 FBI Report, FBI's Declassified Memo PDF
TEN. USS Liberty (1967) where Israel deliberately attacked an American Cargo Vessel killing 34 without any repurcussions:
YouTube, Haaretz, Wiki
ELEVEN. Sabra & Shatila massacre (1982), perpetrated by a Lebanese Christian militia (Phalangists), which was under the political and military control of Israel. For 3 days, they engaged in rape, murder and mutilation w the knowledge of IDF troops surrounding the refugee camps. Israeli forces fired flares into the night sky to illuminate the darkness for the Phalangists, allowed reinforcements to enter the area on the 2nd day of the massacre, and provided bulldozers that were used to dispose of the bodies of many victims. Estimated death count: 2000 - 3500. Ariel Sharon was held responsible for the Massacre, but he was still voted as PM of Israel in 2001:
SciencesPo, TRTworld, AJ, IMEU
TWELVE. Operation Trojan (1986) according to ex-Mossad agent in his book, Mossad instigated the US bombing of Libya by planting a transmission device and impersonating as the Libyan Govt sending terrorist orders to its embassies around the world. (Story in Page 113-117) (Downloadable PDF File):
Other Side of Deception PDF
THIRTEEN. Cave of Patriarchs Massacre (1994) Israeli Settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire in Ibrahimi Mosque, killing 29 worshippers and wounding more than 125:
Wiki, JPost
FOURTEEN. Qana Massacre (1996) IDF fired artillery shells at a UN Compound where 800 Lebanese civillians were taking refuge. 106 civillians were killed, 116 injured, 4 Fiji UN forces were also seriously injured:
Wiki, AlAraby, Independent, DailyMotion
FIFTEEN. 2nd Qana Massacre (2006) air-strike carried out by IDF on a building Lebanon during the war. 28 civillians were killed out of which 16 were children. Upon investigation, IDF concluded that there was in fact no rocket launched from Qana on the day of the deadly strike by IDF:
Wiki, BBC, Norman Finkelstein
SIXTEEN. Israeli Mossad posed as CIA agents to recruit terrorists to carry out False Flag Operations against Iran (2007-2008)
Haaretz, ForeignPolicy
SEVENTEEN. Four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated and another was seriously wounded in an attempted murder between (2010-2012). US officials confirm that Terror Group, MEK was financed, trained, and armed by Israel in killing the nuclear scientists:
NBC, Guardian, Guardian
Sidenote
What is Zionism?
YouTube
Palestine before Zionism (Pre-1948):
Youtube (1896)
Youtube (1900s)
Youtube (1930s)
Youtube (1946 - Arrival of Illegal Zionist Immigrants)
Divide & Conquer: An interactive map explaining the Israel divide and control of Palestinian Land (2019):
Interactive Map
JIDF: Israeli Government is paying and giving away scholarships to students who fight internet battles and spread propaganda (2013):
BBC, USAToday, Huffington Post
Israel's JIDF Hasbara App (2017):
YouTube
App on GooglePlay where people defend Israel on Social Platforms to gain points (2019):
GooglePlay
Intl Law:
Apartheid Against Palestinians:
Protected Wiki
International Law (Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, UN Resolution 37/43) dictates that Palestinians have a legal right to an armed struggle to resist occupation:
Add. Protocol I, Geneva Conventions (PDF), UN Resolution 37/43 (PDF)
Israel's building of settlements in occupied territories such as the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, violating Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 as well as the Statute of Rome, Art. 8 (2)(b)(viii) which states: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.":
Wiki, UN, International Law on Occupation, Al Jazeera, Amnesty, Amnesty, B'Tselem, YouTube
Israel's destruction of homes in occupied territories such as the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, violating Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which states: "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons ... is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.":
Fourth Geneva Convention (PDF)
Others:
Israeli former nuclear technician turned whistleblower was lured to Italy where Mossad drugged and abducted him back to Israel for the trial that was held secretly behind closed doors. He spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement. Says he suffered "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of Israeli authorities while imprisoned because he was Christian. After his release in 2004, he was subjected to a broad array of very strict restrictions on his speech and movement (1986):
Wiki, Youtube, NYT, Guardian, CNN, Wired, Telegraph
2nd Intifada, 12 yr old boy shot dead, father severely injured (2000):
CNN, Twitter
Breaking the silence - targeting civilians with grenades and machine guns during the 2nd Intifada (2000):
YouTube
5 Israelis working for an Israeli Company "Urban Moving Systems" were arrested on 9/11 after being seen photographing and celebrating the attack on the WTC. Owner of the company fled to Israel after the incident. FBI still lists him as a 9/11 suspect but Israel refuses to extradiate him (2001):
9/11 War by Deception, YouTube, Forward, NYT, Haaretz
Netanyahu caught on tape: "America is something that you can easily maneuver and move in the right direction" (2001):
YouTube
Netanyahu lying during his speech at the US House of Representatives on Saddam Hussiens WMDs which doesn't exist (2002):
YouTube
Advocating racial purity in Israel, Chinese workers in Israel sign no-sex contract (2003)
Guardian
Tom Hurndall, a British Peace Activist, was shot in the head by an IDF sniper while he was helping Palestinian children flee from cross-fire in Rafah, Gaza strip. His killer was released from prison 2 years early of his 8-year sentence (2003):
Wiki, BBC, Guardian, Evening Standard
Rachel Corrie, American Activist who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer destroying Palestinian homes in Gaza (2003):
Imgur, BBC
New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel over an incident where 2 Australia-based Israelis, who were allegedly working for Mossad, attempted to fraudulently obtain NZ Passports by claiming the identity of a disabled man. 2 others, Ze'ev Barkan and David Reznick, are believed to have been the 3rd and 4th men involved in the scandal but they managed to leave NZ before being apprehended. NZ PM viewed the incident as "not only utterly unacceptable but also a breach of NZ's sovereignty and international law". The following year, Israeli foreign minister apologized for the incident. (2004)
Wiki, NZHerald
Breaking the Silence, testimonies from IDF Whistleblowers (2004):
BreakingTheSilence
Not guilty, IDF Captain who empties his magazine on a 13yr old girl, says he would have done the same if she was 3 yrs old (2005):
Guardian
Phosphorus and cluster bombs which is illegal under international law heavily used by Israel during the Lebanon war (2006)
Haaretz
Israel celebrates Irgun Hotel Bombing (2006):
Telegraph
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami: “If I were a Palestinian, I Would Have Rejected Camp David” implying that the Camp David Summit Offer by Ehud Barak in 2000 was unreasonable and designed to be rejected (2006):
DemocracyNow
Jewish National Fund (a charity) owns 13% of the land in Israel and stipulates that only Jews can buy, mortgage or lease their land. (2007):
Economist, Wiki
Operation 'Cast Lead', estimated 1391 Palestinians killed, 759 to be civillians, 344 children, 110 women 13 Israeli killed, out of which 10 are soldiers (2008-2009):
BBC, Haaretz, Haaretz, Amnesty
Israel admits using White Phosphorus during their military offensive on Gaza (2009):
France24
Palestinian who claimed to be a Jew after a consensual sexual encounter with an Israeli woman jailed for 'Rape By Deception' (2010)
[ABCnews](https://abcnews.go.com/International/palestinian-claimed-jew-jailed-rape-deceptio
Israeli Organization, Kav La Oved: "Israel owes billions of shekels to Palestinian workers" (2010) (Downloadable PDF File):
KavLaOved PDF
Using Palestinian captives as human shields (2010):
Imgur, Guardian, Haaretz, Haaretz
Gaza Flotilla, Israeli Commandos raid 6 civillians ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, 9 activists were killed, 10 Israeli commandos wounded (2010):
Guardian, CNN
Hashomer, Haganah, Irgun and Lehi which operated against the British Government and Arabs in Palestine used to hide weapons in synagogues, women's rooms and kindergartens. Something Israel criticises Hamas of doing today. (2011):
Haaretz
IDF soldier caught kicking a Palestinian child (2012):
RT
Hierarchy of the Human species according to Eli Ben-Dahan, Israel's former deputy minister of defense: Goyims (Non-Jews) placed below Homosexual Jews (2013):
Haaretz
Israeli Trade Minister: "I've killed alot of Arabs in my life, there's no problem with that" (2013)
JPost
IDF soldier posting an Instagram pic of a Palestinian clild in his rifle crosshairs (2013):
Guardian
Ethiopian Jews injected with contraceptive birth control without their consent (2013):
Haaretz, Independent, Guardian
In 2013, Israel awarded 'Genie Energy', an American Oil and Gas company, rights to drill in Golan Heights (Syrian territory occupied by Israel) despite international opposition. In 2015, Israel claimed a massive discovery of oil in the area, which Israeli officials reportedly believe could supply the country’s oil needs for many years to come. (2013):
Here are the prominent figures in Genie Energy's Board of Advisors:
Jacob Rothschild (British banker of the prominent Rothschild family), Dick Cheney (Ex-Vice president of USA), Rupert Murdoch (Billionaire American Media Mogul), James Woolsey (Ex-CIA Director), Lawrence Summers (Ex-Head of US Treasury), Bill Richardson (Ex-Energy Secretary of USA), Michael Steinhardt (Wall Street Trader, Investor and Hedge Fund Manager)
BusinessInsider, TRTworld, Yahoo Finance
4 boys playing soccer in an open beach bombed by an Israeli warship, a later report in 2018 then revealed that it was two missiles fired from an Israeli armed drone that actually killed the boys (2014):
NYT, Intercept, Haaretz, Independent
Israeli police officers beats up a 15yr old American boy a week after the boy's cousin was killed, no jail time was given to the officers (2014):
BBC, TimesofIsrael
Palestinian boy beaten and burned alive by Israeli settlers (2014):
Guardian, Wiki
Israelis cheering on the Gaza bombing (2014):
Guardian
Statistics of Palestinian children killed in Operation 'Protective Edge' (2014):
Telegraph
Avraham Shalom (Former Head of Shin Bet) compares Israel's Occupation to Nazi Germany's actions in WW2 towards the Czechs, Poles and Dutch (2014):
YouTube
Killing Gaza: Documentary on war crimes committed by the Israeli Military, with direct testimonies and evidence from survivors (2014):
KillingGaza
IDF beating up a Palestinian man who told them to stop firing tear gas (2015):
YouTube
Eli Ben-Dahan, Israel's former deputy defense minister: "Homosexual Jews are superior to Gentiles (Non-Jews), a jew always has a higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual" He also says "To me, they (Palestinians) are like animals, they aren't human" (2015):
TimesofIsrael
Israeli Foreign Minister says disloyal Arabs should be beheaded with an axe (2015):
WashingtonPost
Israeli Radicals celebrate by stabbing picture of Palestinian baby that was killed in a firebomb attack (2015):
Haaretz
Beitar Jerusalem, the most racist football fanbase in the world (2015):
YouTube
IDF Soldier assaults and beats up Palestinian Shopkeeper as he was loading boxes (2015):
YouTube
Former IDF Soldier Ido Gal Razon testifies to murdering people in Gaza (2015):
YouTube
Israeli racist police officer assaults their own african soldier (2015):
YouTube
Shir Hever, Israeli Economist: "78% of Palestinian aid money ends up going to Israel" (2015) (Downloadable PDF File):
ShirHever PDF
Brooke Goldstein (Director of the Lawfare Project who has assisted in many lawsuits towards Palestinian activist groups) declared to enthusiastic applause at a meeting of key Israel lobby operatives in New York: “Why are we using the word Palestinian? There’s no such thing as a Palestinian person” (2016)
Video
Many Palestinians including children are detained in Israeli prisons without trial or charges (2016):
Time, Haaretz, 972mag, B'Tselem
Jewish Community Watch: "Israel becoming a safe haven for paedophiles worldwide" (2016):
Independent
IDF Soldier throws disabled man out of his wheelchair after he attempts to help a 14yr old who was shot (2016):
Independent
IDF throws stun grenade at unarmed Palestinians talking outside their home (2016)
YouTube
IDF soldier laughs as Palestinian man is crushed at the gate (2016):
YouTube
IDF killing a 15yr old Palestinian travelling home from a family outing (2016):
Guardian
Report: Israel's repetitive destruction of EU-funded projects in Palestine (2016):
EuroMed
Former Director of Mossad defends Israel providing aid to Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda's Affiliate) in Syria (2016)
Youtube, WSJ, Haaretz
Israeli Former Defence Minister says ISIS fighters apologizes to Israel after mistakenly launching an attack on IDF. Refused to comment on how they expressed their apology. Have since forgiven ISIS (2017)
Independent, DailySabah
Reports of Torture during custody from Palestinians held imprisoned without charges or trial (2017):
Haaretz
IDF Veteran: "I was the terrorist" (2017):
YouTube
Israel seizes solar panels donated to Palestinians by the Dutch govt (2017):
Independent
Israelis speak candidly about Palestinians to Abby Martin, includes lots of racism (2017):
YouTube
Gaza: World's Largest Open-Air Prison (2018):
NRC
Sentence to 9 Months after killing 2 unarmed Palestinian teens (2018):
972mag, WashingtonPost
Unarmed protestor holding flag shot by live bullets (2018):
YouTube
Unarmed protester shot in the head during the protest (2018):
Gyfcat
IDF assaulting medics and injured protesters (2018):
Gyfcat
Abdullah Shamali, was shot while standing and talking with his friends 700 metres away from the fence (2018):
Twitter
Muhammad Ayoub, 15yr old was shot in the head while running away from the fence (2018):
YouTube
Mentally disabled man shot in the back of his head as he was walking away (2018):
Haaretz
Elderly man waving a flag and a medic got shot at by a live round (2018):
Gyfcat
Shot dead for waving flag (2018):
EgyptToday
Medic shot dead by an IDF sniper (2018):
WashingtonPost
IDF edits video of Palestinian Medic who was shot dead by them to misleadingly show that she was a human shield for Hamas and justify her death (2018):
Independent, BuzzFeed
Canadian Doctor shot by IDF sniper (2018):
CBC
Israeli Border police throws stun grenade at a Palestian couple and their infant baby as they were fleeing (2018):
YnetNews
IDF Snipers cheering as they shoot an unarmed Palestinian (2018):
Guardian
Similar incident, cheering after shooting a Palestinian (2018):
Guardian
"Nation State" Law gives Jews exclusive rights over Arabs living in Israel (2018):
Guardian
List of active discriminatory laws in Israel:
Adalah
Did you know that 97% of drinking water in Gaza (under Israeli control) is contaminated? (2018):
Haaretz
IDF Soldiers shooting tear gas into a Palestinian school (2018):
Haaretz
Israeli settlers beating up Palestinian farmer in front of his children (2018):
Haaretz
Former Chairman of Israel Labour Party says relationships between Jews and Non-Jews are "an actual plague" (2018):
Twitter
4 year old child dies 4 days after being shot by the IDF while protesting (2018):
Reuters, PressTV
An alternative view, Palestinian Christians on Israel (2018):
Youtube
Chief Rabbi calls black people "monkeys" in his weekly sermon (2018):
TimesofIsrael
Israel's Supreme Court rejects legal challenge on the military's rule where soldiers can fire on UNARMED protesters (2018):
APNews
Mohammed Tamimi, 16, who was shot in the head by Israeli forces held in prison for 2 days without explanation (2018):
Haaretz, Haaretz
Most demonstrators shot by the IDF with live rounds are unarmed and not in immediate vicinity of the perimeter fence (2018):
B'Tselem
IDF edited out key footage of Gaza missile strike which killed 2 Palestinian teenagers (2018):
Youtube, 972mag, B'Tselem
Multi Award-winning short documentary on the occupation of Gaza (2018):
YouTube
What if your whole family was being forcefully evicted from a home you lived in since 1948 to make way for new settlers? (2019)
Haaretz
Palestinian Boy on the way to school shot in the head by Israeli Police (2019):
Haaretz
Video of war crimes screened at UN Human Rights Council (2019):
Youtube
Top Rabbis in Israel defending and calling for donations to an Israeli charged with killing a Palestinian woman (2019):
Haaretz, Haaretz
PART 2, 3, 4 & 5 CONTINUED IN COMMENT SECTION BELOW

Continuing…
That being handled, I leave a wakeup call for 0430 as I want a shower and a couple shower-sunrisers before we leave. It takes me about 10 minutes to pack. I call home to let Es know what’s going on. She’s not in, so I leave a message. Same for my friends Rack and Ruin of the Agency. They’re thrilled so far with my reports.
The security forces here are absolutely going to freak if they reverse-review my phone records once we leave.
Covert? Schmovert. I’m too old for playing such games.
The next morning, after a sudsy shower and a couple of vodka-infused shower-beers; I’m in the lobby with all my kit, checked-out, and waiting on the tour leader. My passport was stamp-stamp-stampity-stamped here at the hotel, which I thought was weird, but after spending time in this here country, not all that unusual.
At 0545 on the dime, the tour bus pulls into the lot. Without a word, bellhops grab near all my kit and escort it out to the waiting bus.
After tipping each extravagantly, I fire up a huge cigar, and wander around outside, loitering by the bus. I see members of my team at the front desk, checking out. Everything’s been paid for already, they just have to sign documents that they’re not secreting hotel towels or televisions or errant nationals in their luggage.
It’s a weird country.
I see them loading box breakfasts for us as well as box lunches on the bus.
Hell, they’re actually doing ‘field trip’ correctly.
If the bus us fueled up, we can go for days at this rate. There are several coolers bearing the hotel’s brand and I sidle over to see what they’re carrying.
Case after case of iced-down beer and a couple of cases of various high-octane potables; and over there? A couple of boxes of mixers…ah, soda…pop…carbonated citrusy goodness.
“OK”, I sigh, “All is as it should be. Now the field excursion may begin.”
My teammates filter outside as does their luggage. I suggest they get out and keep what is necessary for preliminary outcrop excursions; such as a backpack or knapsack, hammer, acid bottles, field notebooks, Brunton compass, lighters, cameras, personal tobacco products, and the like in the bus. That way, we don’t have to go tearing through all the luggage at every stop.
I pull out a bundle of 100 Hubco™ large geological dual-sample bags. That’s right: ‘dual’ sample…
I distribute these to everyone on the team. I ask that they devise their own numbering system and make absolutely certain I have a copy of it when we’re done. I’ll be correlating and curating all the samples when we get back to the world.
I ask that a cooler of drinks are left on board the bus, rather than in the hold. It’s humid, sticky, and muggy today. We must expend valiant effort in remaining hydrated and this will help.
Luckily, the bus has on-board lavatory facilities.
We are seated on the bus, my 10 collective team members, myself, our 4 ‘guides’, ‘Yuk’, ‘No’, ‘Man’, and ‘Kong’; our driver, relief driver, one incredibly shy national geologist, Myung-Dae Soo, and four of the shiny suit clan.
The hotel wheels out a large cart laden with pastries and a huge coffee urn. A bit of a “Bon Voyage” from the casino and bar crowd, as they put this together for us when they heard we were leaving.
“Hey. That’s really nice of them.” Dax notes.
Dax handed over our raw “elevator waiting” funds as we didn’t have time to run it through the casino-machine before we left. We donated over 75,000 won to our friends at the bar, casino, and massage parlor. The ones delivering our going away present assured us it would be divided equitably.
“It best be”, I laughed, “You never know when one of us might be back!”
There was a collective horrified look on their faces for the merest moments. Then they all laughed and said that they hoped we would return someday soon.
“Nice folks”, I thought, “Stupid as shit country, but nice folks.”
We had all separately left tips for the room maids, bellmen, and matrons back before we checked-out.
There was a flurry of handshaking and goodbyes. Not a bad hotel experience here in the so-called land of Best Korea.
Serious dark coffee was passed out amongst the riders, but Ivan, myself, and Dax were already giving one of my emergency flasks a workout.
Ivan smiled and said: “We drink our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterward. HA!”
Ivan and I are cut from the same bolt.
Faux-doughnuts, pseudo-bear claws and fake-long johns all distributed; the bus is fired up, and rumbling. We are exhorted to watch our drinks as we pull away from the hotel and into the wilds of Northern Korea.
I’m humming away:

On the road again -Just can't wait to get on the road again,
The life I love is bashing rocks in the field with my friends.
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again.
Goin' places that we've never been,
Seein' things that we may never see again…
--
“Rock?”, Dax inquires.
“Yes?” I reply.
“Do please shut up.”
“Music hater”, I muse and comply.
We’re rolling down the highway, as it were, headed generally north. We all have cameras of one kind or another; and rather than relieve us of them, they quietly and without much fuss, slowly darken the windows.
They claim it’s to keep the sun out and temperatures down, but just before things go all black, we’re seeing sights and scenes of the true North Korea. They’re trying to keep us from seeing that en route to the outcrops.
This new bus has some sort of electronic tint-control gizmo for the windows. However, if one has a pair of polarizing sunglasses, as all good field geologists do, you see right past that and can view the passing scenery unencumbered.
I return from a quick beer-recycling loo trip and am amused to see 10 Western scientists, sitting in a blacked-out bus, all wearing polarizing sunglasses.
It was just the surreal note this trip needed as we left the confines of the capital city.
We traveled north, and the empties pile began to grow. We had a few trash bags we had liberated from the hotel, but the shiny suits were very insistent that every empty can, bottle, and bag, yes they had beer in bags…had to be repatriated to a box in the far back of the bus.
Evidently, they either were paid a bounty on each container or were accountable for each vessel. They were soon to realize just the capacity for drink that a group of 11 seasoned very Senior Field Geologists, and one stowaway geologist-in-training can amass.
As we ply our way northward, we see the agricultural side of North Korea. The contrast between rural areas and the capital was striking. There were miles of rice paddies being harvested by people with sickles in their hands. And no cars on the highway. It was most destabilizing for this Westerner.
I think we saw a maximum of three tractors, as most of the work was done with ox power, there was very little evidence of rural electrification. Oh, hold on. We saw many more tractors, I should correct that: we saw three running and not rusted into oblivion tractors.
The farmers we see are using equipment that is quite literally medieval - single-share plows pulled by large, cranky bovines; sweeping sickles to bring in the harvest, and twin-engine, bilateral, botanical-fired ox-carts to transport it. It’s hard to believe that this third-world level of poverty exists in the same country that’s capable of building rockets, nuclear weapons, and tall, well-appointed hotels.
But when we stop at a motorway service station for fuel - a bizarre alien spaceship-like building squatting over the empty carriageways - we do encounter a jangmadang, or semi-official market. Here they are selling cans of knock-off Vietnamese Red Bull and Malaysian-made King Cobra™ Cola.
It reminds me of Russia right after the wall fell. Off the Trans-Siberian Railway in Krasnoyarsk, the Gateway to Eastern Siberia. You can buy Chinese hams, Chinese sodas, Chinese knock-off liquor, and those bloody delicious little bullets of Vitamin-C, Chinese mandarins.
Here, it’s similar. You can get most anything you desire, except it isn’t of Korean manufacture. That stuff is even too shitty to pawn off on tourists.
Instead, it’s knock-off Malaysian, Chinese, or Indonesian beer, wine, or soft drinks.
“Tiger-brand energy drink. Now with 40% more real tiger.” Here? I believe them.
Vodka from everywhere not known for its vodka distilling prowess. Rural hotel shops sell nastily stale crisps, gummy gummies, filling-ripping ‘chewy’ taffy or caramel, and biscuits with a severely limited choice. Rural hotels do not have full electricity so beer is warm and often tossed on the table, waiting for tourists to arrive - as is the food. We were warned to be prepared for cold rice, cold fish, cold potato – and plenty of kimchi and tofu.
Back on the road again, we’re passing small burgs that are not on any of our maps; even the ones we traded for back in the hotel that are specially marked: “For Internal Use ONLY!”.
They were amazingly the same. Clean. Bright. Uncluttered. And attended by cadres of prim, uniform-clad, though non-military people. They were all doing a day’s work keeping everything neat and clean.
There were no cars, trucks, forklifts…only rickshaws and ox-carts. However every one of these ‘towns’ were identical, and exactly, as Ivan pointed out, ‘X’ number of minutes apart.
“Watch! Is so!”, Ivan said. We passed one of these villages, and exactly 3 minutes later, an exact copy. Three minutes later? Another one. 3 more minutes? Xerox-city.
“What the fuck?” Dax asked.
“Potemkin village.” Comrade Dr. Academician Ivan replied.
A Potemkin village is any construction, literal or figurative, whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country which is faring poorly. It is for making people believe that the country is faring better, although statistics and data would suggest otherwise.
“Russia pioneered the process,” Ivan noted with no small amount of pride. “During Cold War with West, entire cities were built, moved, raised, and razed. Ever hear of Krasnoyarsk-25? Atomic Research City? Supposed place of weapons study and manufacture. Huge ‘accident’. Entire city demolished, total populace relocated supposedly, after massive nuclear calamity.”
“Is that true? Cliff asks.
“No. Not at all.” Ivan smiles, “Deliberate misinformation. At least for K-25. It was diversion for actual towns where accidents; nuclear, biological, or worse, had happened. West so concerned about K-25 because it was big, near big capital city of Krasnoyarsk and suitably located out in the taiga. Easy to spot, easy to watch. Kept Western satellites busy while real towns of I-33, U-10, and AR-13 out in the forest were quietly demolished and people relocated or mass buried after some horrible, horrible accidents...”
“You think it’s the same here?” I asked Ivan.
“No, Dr. Rock”, Ivan smiled, and helped himself to my freshly constructed, but untouched, Yorshch, “This is all fake and bluster. Make West think everything is all A-OK, is that right idiom?”
“Yep.” I reply, “Precisely.”
“Make West believe all is OK and green”, as he winks at me, “And bustling and growing. Cover up what is real case here. We all see it and we see right through. Shoddy even for Asians.”
We all had to snicker and smirk as the shiny suit squad, who sat up at the front of the bus, and were not supposed to be listening; reacted like every cell in their bodies were just hit with a drop of pure lemon juice.
“Comrade Dr. Academician. Decorum, please.” I snickered.
“Oh, fuck them!”, Ivan replied, “I am old Russian. They try and pull burlap over my eyes? St. Petersburg? Moscow? Krasnoyarsk.? I’ve been there, seen them. They think this display of tawdriness…Even goofy American and Canadian can see the fakes they are. Britisher? I’m not so sure…”
“Damn, Doctor., I said to Ivan, “You’re just making friends all over the planet today.”
We all knew it was in jest; but the shiny suit squad certainly had their feathers ruffled and either didn’t care or wanted us to know we were under their observation.
“Fuck them twice”, Ivan said, “Ask them for bottle opener. I’m too lazy to search for my field jackknife.”
I hand him my pocket Leatherman and he pries the top of another bottle of ‘Budveiser’ beer.
“They can’t even make fake the name correctly”, he smirks and drains the bottle.
‘Town’ after ‘town’ and even that parade gets uninteresting. We’re headed north and finally come to a crossroads.
The bus driver, who must be a regular paranoid-maniac because he actually stopped to look for oncoming traffic, which we have seen precisely none since leaving the capital city, made a hard right. We’re heading back and up into the hills, leaving the bright lights of the big city far behind.
After an hour or so of driving, we pull off to the left-hand side of the road.
“Rock, Ivan, Cliff…holy shit, look at this!” Dax was uncharacteristically excited.
It was an open field that leads to a series of low outcrops of polychromatic, obviously sedimentary rocks. Magentas, greens, purples, rust-reds, browns, blacks, olive greens…holy shit. A real sedimentary pile.
We filed out of the bus with our field gear. The shiny suit squad started in with a bullhorn.
“You will wait for tour guides!”
“You will listen to group leaders!”
“You will not stray from the designated paths set up…”
No one heard them as the group of 11 remaining Western geoscientists were already across the highway and hieing for the exposures like outcrop-seeking multiple-warhead re-entry vehicles.
“You must wait!” we heard from exasperated voices back at the bus. “You must stop!”
“You must piss off!” Cliff said, “This is what we’ve been waiting over two weeks to see!”
“They are very angry with us”, Myung-dae the young Korean geologist said. “I find that just too bad.”
“And you are?” I asked.
Myung-dae Soo, the young Korean geologist, introduced himself.
“Well”, I said, “Welcome aboard. I’m Dr. Rock.”
“They are very, very angry”, he repeats.
“So? Are you tagging along to give them internal reports?” I asked.
“No, Doctor”, he replied, “I too am a geologist. I want to get away from those assholes and see some real rocks.”
“Who are you with?” I ask, “What group?”
“I am 5th-year student at Pyongyang College. I am not officially here. We were told in class that you were coming. I decided to see if I could join you. This morning, I was standing by bus and they thought I was hotel worker or orderly. I was given cooler full of beer and told to find place for it on the bus. I did and after that, just stayed in the back. I am stowaway. I am ashamed, but I had to see for myself. But, I like Western field trips so far!”
“No shit? Well, then”, I said, “Double welcome aboard. None of this ‘I am ashamed’ shit. You’re a geologist, but you haven’t even worked through your first field-evening get-together with us. But this is no pleasure cruise. It’s real work, real geology, real serious science shit. You savvy?”
“Yes, sir, Doctor Rocknocker from Sultanate in the Middle East.” Myung-dae smiled.
“And you fucking stay close to me”, I smirked.
I fired a couple of BLAAATS! from my portable air horn.
“Field Meeting! Field Meeting! Assholes & Elbows!” I called aloud.
Everyone gathered within earshot.
“OK, guys, here’s the deal. We do not know how long we’ve got here. So, let’s split up into teams. Geophysicists, go do your structural thing. Stratigraphers? Field relations. Geologists? Let’s go talk to some ronery-rooking-rocks. No offense, Mr. Myung.”
Myung-dae was laughing up a storm. He got that reference. He later told us all around the campfire he thought ‘Team America’ was a “fucking hilarious movie.”
Oh, we are going to be a real bad influence on this poor kid.
The groups spontaneously broke up into 4 or 5 sub-groups. They headed for areas they thought were important and they were photographing, measuring, pounding on rocks, and arguing within minutes.
“No, you idiot! It’s continental. Look at those adhesion ripples.”
“The fuck you know. It’s only a little low-level eggbeater tectonics. Where the fuck would you get continental collision-size energy around here?”
“Oh, the fuck you say. It’s non-marine. Those are mud cracks. Look at the sandy aeolian infill, fer chrissake.”
Formal? Proper? Detached Doctors of Geology?
Not when you’re in the field. It all goes out the window when different opinions collide like subducting plates.
“The music of my people!” I said to Morse.
“I thought that was the ‘Safety Dance’?” he chided.
“We’re a big family. We can have more than one.” I snickered.
We’re wandering around the site, with individual purpose.
We are looking for or looking at items of interest.
We’re hacking at the outcrops.
We’re all looking at…things.
It’s hard to describe. Get a load of geologists or geology students out of the office, lab, or classroom; stick them out on a bare expanse of heavily weathered rock and it’s simply…numinous.
We’re rebuilding worlds here.
This rock says this.
This rock says that.
And you’re not fluent in that dialect. Here, let me interpret for you…
We’re at each other’s throats, in the academic-metaphorical sense. Tempers have been known to run hot. There has been the occasional bloody nose or rocks sailing down an outcrop without the obligate “HEADACHE!” call. Hammers and Marsh Picks have ended up swimming without the owner’s knowledge.
But once we’re back; settled in the hotel room, tavern, or around the campfire, we’re all a Band of Brothers again. It’s an odd thing to watch; as if you’re not of the clan, you’d need an interpreter. It defies all boundaries: political, sexual, educational, geographical, linguistic, social, et cetera.
We’re all geologists first. We share the common scientific bond of Geology.
That’s why Geology is the First Science.
Plus we tend to drink a serious fucking whole bloody awful lot.
We’ve all been on that ‘crawlin’ home puker’.
We’ve also been to the ends of the earth: the deepest depths, the highest heights, we deal with the greatest pressures, the hottest temperatures; we’ve been to the mountain, we’ve seen the elephant, and we’ve held a bear’s nose to dogshit.
We wear the scars attained in our travels like badges of honor.
We’re God-Damned Scientists.
Back off, man. Geologist comin’ through.
Anyways, I’m looking at the bedding-plane boundaries between the purple unit and the underlying olive-green unit. The upper unit it looks, to me, continental in origin. Fluvial, perhaps. The lower unit is much finer-grained. Marine mudstone, perhaps? But what age?
The cadged Korean Geological maps are worse than useless. They never would go down to the outcrop scale. Consulting them, they don’t even note these exposures in a field sense.
Myung-dae, who is working about 35 meters down-section from me calls out, “Doctors! Sirs! Look here! I’ve found something!”
We all wander over as he is hacking away at the dusty, eroded rock. He stands and dusts off his find.
It’s a very large, nearly 1-meter diameter, coiled fossil cephalopod.
I wander over for a closer look. Dax, Cliff, Morse, and Ivan do as well.
“Blimey! Will you look at that? Outstanding, Mr. Myung!” Cliff says.
“Well, that confirms it. This layer, at least, is marine. Look at that suture pattern”, I say, dusting off an unweathered bit.
“Look at the radius of coiling.”, Cliff joins in.
We’re slowly wresting information out of this silent witness.
“Ornamentation?”, Dr. Ivan asks. “Knobs, bosses, and excrutions?” Oh, yes.”
In unison, we declare: “Hyphoplites!”
Morse adds, “And therefore…these rocks are middle Cretaceous. Marine. Not bad…”
“Need to get some samples for geochemical analysis. Dig deep, gentlemen, we need unweathered samples for TOC (Total Organic Carbon) content.”, Dr. Erlen Meyer notes.
With that, we have a relative age of the rock, a good idea of its depositional environment, and therefore extent, ideas of field relationships, and an indication of some of its fauna.
Could it be source rock worthy?
Samples? Best get diggin’, Beaumont.
That unit is right smack in the middle of this pile of rocks. Dax and I will work up-section and Ivan and Cliff will work down-section. We’re going to see what lies above, what lies below, what trends we can discern, and develop an idea of what happened here some 100 million years ago.
This is what happens when you get geologists out in the field with the proper amounts of field gear, outcrops, and alcohol.
Overall, the deeper down-section, and therefore, earlier in geological time you go, the more marine the rocks are. Conversely, the higher you go in the column, i.e., up-section, into younger rocks, the more continental it appears.
We find fragments of marine fish fossils, sea-crocodile scutes and teeth, heaps of mosasaur coprolites, i.e., fossil shit piles, and other indications that the lower, older rocks are Lower Cretaceous ocean basin-fill.
But up higher; we find mud cracks, rain prints, land turtle shells, land-snails (Bellerophontid gastropods), and what may actually be a fossil feather. All indications of a more continental, i.e., fluvial (river), floodplain, lacustrine (lake), and paludal (swamp) deposition.
That’s my particular bailiwick.
I’m ‘elephant walking’ along the upper outcrops looking for fossils. You basically bend over at the waist and sweep from left to right as you take exaggerated step after step, scanning the ground looking for…well…it takes years, but once you see it, you never forget it.
“Fossil sign”.
A disjunct endemism. Something not in situ. Something out of place. A bit of a different, out of context color. Out of context texture. Out of context size. Out of context context.
Something that looks like it shouldn’t ought to be there.
I’m picking up 1 cm. square hunks of what look like an ordinary rock. I taste them. Well, I stick them to my tongue. If it liquefies and runs away, it’s ordinary mudstone, shale, or the like.
If it sticks…well, it might just be fossil bone.
“PTWTWOO!”
“Damn right, Rock”, Cliff says from behind me, “Fucking North Korea tastes terrible.”
“Still, it’s the best way I know to…” I paused.
“Got something?” Cliff asked.
“Look here.” I said, “Anthill. Big, nasty buggers. Look around the edges. Pieces of flat, cream-colored rock on this gaudy purple stuff. Tongue test? They stick like cockleburs. Let’s look upslope, see if there’s a drainage…”
There it was, a nice little drainage incised about 1.5 meters deep into the nearly horizontal rocks we were walking on.
“Any float?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Cliff said.
We followed the weak, little drainage that was cut into the outcrop, up another couple of meters.
There were very scrappy, very small, very scattered pieces of that same cream-colored rock. Some were ornamented with a scroll-work or some sort of striations. Most un-geological. More biological. We followed the trail, up here, around here, over there.
Cliff noticed it first, a soccer-ball sized lump of completely out-of-place crème-colored ‘rock’ working its way out by gradual erosion of the variegated pastels of the continental rocks upon which we were treading.
I got there first and began to clear the area with my Estwing.
“Careful. Careful”, Cliff admonished.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mind your Mincies. [Mince pies = eyes]”, as I’m swinging away at the reluctant, reticent, rocks.
The excavation grew, slowly. From the rounded dome, we could see small sutures that had developed…
Then condyles, fenestrae, then more ‘bone’. Then a jaw, teeth, vertebrae…
“HOLY DOUBLE-DAMN SHIT!” I tootled my air horn. We needed the group to see this.
It was a skull. A dinosaur skull. A small, non-avian dinosaur skull.
Everyone has crowded around and looked at the small quarry we had just built.
“Whatcha got, Rock? Cliff?” Joon asked.
“Fuck me, but I think we’ve got us a dinosaur skull,” I said.
Professor Doctor Academician Ivan walked over and cleared the area.
As Professor Emeritus, he had pole position priority.
“I agree.” is all he said.
I cleared the area and let others take a whack at opening up the quarry.
We may have been low on power tools, but we had a surfeit of opinions.
“OK,” I said, “Let’s look at the facts…”

1. Age? Cretaceous. Probably lower to lower-middle Cretaceous.
   
2. Continental deposits. That’s very fine sand we’re hacking away. Fluvial, without a doubt. Or, possibly aeolian; there’s no such thing as a geological certainty. Dunes? Ephemeral creeks? Low floodplain? Geo-talk… .
   
3. Small size. Potentially a juvenile?
   
4. Nope. Not a juvie. Sutures are closed, fused. This is, well was, an adult; perhaps a subadult, given its size.
   
5. In situ? In place? Or washed in?
   

Hard to tell when all you’ve exposed is half the critter’s brain box.
“Look at that!” Myung-dae exclaimed, “Squamosal bones and the inner parietals…temporal fenestrae. It had a frill; a small one.”
“OK,”, I said, looking closely at the exposed scrappy remains, “Fucking-A Bubba. Nailed it.” I said, giving him the thumbs up.
“Ceratopsian. Look at those greens-grinder molars. There’s some small osteoderms on the skull; knobby old bastard. Early critter.” I continued.
Others looked around and confirmed my observations.
“Reminds me of Protoceratops from when I was back in Mongolia,” I said.
Dax chimed in with, “Looks something like Psittacosaurus from back in the Cretaceous Belly River of Canada.”
Drs. Ivan and Morse agree. “Most assuredly. It is definitely proto-ceratopsian. Young adult, as Dr. Rock notes by the cranial sutures. Do they have a record of proto-ceratopsians here?”
Myung-dae replies, “I have read reports of Korean proto-ceratopsian found in South Korea. Not long ago, 2019, it is called…ah… Auroraceratops. It is a genus of bipedal basal neo-ceratopsian dinosaur.”
“Bipedal?” I query. “Well, there’s a fine how do you do. All the proto-ceratopsians I’ve known were obligate quadrupeds.”
“Well”, Ivan, Dax, Cliff, and Morse agree, “That should give the shiny suit squad something to report. That’ll keep them the hell out of our hair for a while.”
We photograph each step as we excavate the critter. It’s more or less in situ, buried where it fell. Probably killed by a sand slip off a dune, or a river sandbar slip and burial. It’s not complete, but we do have the skull and a good portion of the post-cranial elements to about just before the pelvis. A good pectoral girdle, skull, jaw, frill, forelimbs, forefeet…easily half-a cute little herbivorous dinosaur. About the size of a smallish Highland Coo or large Great Dane.
We flag it with the team particulars, it’s GPS position, and carefully rebury the animal. We don’t have any of the equipment nor time to excavate it properly, but we can conserve it. Of course, we’ll be informing the proper authorities of our discovery.
I have an absolutely ancient Polaroid instant camera. Before re-internment, I take several pictures of our “Koreasaurus”, as we’ve dubbed the animal, with items for scale; like a hammer, cigar, and oddly enough, a photographic scale. Then I get a photo of the whole crew standing around, drinking warm beers from their individual day packs, smiling about the find ‘they‘ made.
We hear the melodious tootle of the bus’s horns. We make sure to pack out all our trash and wander back to our terrestrial transport.
“You were gone too long!” the chief shiny suited character goes all ballistic on me.
“Watch yourself, Herr Mac.”, I calmly said, “You’re going to burn your nose on my cigar.”
“You left without your handlers…err…guides!” he fumed.
“Hey, Scooter. Cool out. We’re geologists. We never get lost.” I said.
It sometimes just takes us longer to get back than it took us to leave…
“Your impertinence will be reported.” He smoldered.
“Report this, Mother Chuckler”, I observed and held out the pictures of our newly discovered Koreasaurus.
“Show those photos to your handlers,” I said in a mocking tone. “We found a brand new species of God-damned dinosaur for you geezers. It took us less than two hours. You can spin it that it’s a new, never-before-seen species of very specialized dinosaur found right here in beautiful Korea del Norte. Be quite the scientific coup, don’t you think? Trust us. We won’t say anything.”
He immediately shut up and went into conference with the rest of the shiny suit squad.
“Doctor”, one of the clan covert asked, “This is a new dinosaur?”
I had a thunderbolt of an idea.
“Oh! Yes, it is. I’d stake my reputation on it. You’ve had no concerted search here for the beasts and well, with the normalizing of relations between your country and the world, it allowed your specialists to perform real science. In fact, on the bus is the young North Korean geoscientist who made the discovery.” I said. “Give me a minute. I’ll go and get him. I think he was off taking a shi…ah, using the lavatory. Just give me a minute.”
I did have an idea. A wonderful idea. A wonderfully evil idea.
Back on the bus, I ordered the doors closed.
“Gentlemen! Ears and eyes! Please.” I said loudly.
Continuing…
“The shiny suits have their knickers all a-twist because we don’t want to listen to them; the assholes. Fuck that. I’ve got an idea. Let’s make our young acolyte here, Mr. Myung-dae Soo, a national hero. He would probably get his ass in a crack for sneaking on board the Western bus today the way he did. Well, double fuck that. Let’s all say he found the dinosaur. Let him take the glory for the homeland. No one else will ever need to know.” I said smiling.
“Fuck Yeah! You bet! Замечательное! Ihmeellisiä! Maravilhoso! Geweldig!”
Good to know we’re all on the same page. Geologists. You can always count on them…
“Mr. Myung-dae Soo? Front and center. Time to go and become ‘Hero of Best Korea’.” I smiled.
He was absolutely terrified.
“Doctor…I …don't…wait…no…” he stammered.
Cliff, Dax, Ivan, and I trotted him out to confront the shiny suit squad.
“Don’t worry, Myung. We’ve got your back. Trust us.” I said in a low conspiratorial tone.
The shiny suit squad turned as one and gave Mr. Myung the Stink Eye treatment.
“Here you go. The man of the hour. Mr. Myung-Dae Soo, young geologist and up and coming paleontologist.” I say loudly and with the utmost honor.
They look at him and the Korean erupts in rapid-fire staccato bursts.
Cliff just wanders in and interjects, “Yes. Righto. Top form. Found the float. Tracked down that dino like he was on safari. Highest marks. Good man!”
Dax adds more fuel to the fire. “Like he knew where to go, knew where to look. He’s a natural.”
Dr. Academician Ivan blustered forth: “Excellent scholar. Excellent field man. Banner geologist.”
I couldn’t have added more. The shiny suit squad was gobsmacked.
I asked Myung-dae what they were saying.
“They were talking about reprisals. Reporting to authorities. Then, they stopped. You have them completely confounded.” He said.
“How so?” I asked, quietly.
“Between an international incident where we don’t listen to our handlers and this potential important scientific discovery.” Mr. Myung-dae reported, trying hard to parse the evolving situation.
“Yes”, I added to Ivan’s bluster.
To the shiny suits: “I’ve worked as visiting Dinosaurian Vertebrate Paleontology Curator at all the major American museums. This is a find quite unlike anything known. It is a watershed discovery. It will help unravel the evolution and distribution of the clan Dinosauria for the whole Korean Peninsula. Perhaps, even with international impact on the recent finds in China.”
I laid it on with a trowel.
I hit all the buzzwords.
“Yes. Yes, perhaps.”, the head shiny-suiter said. “I will report this bit of very good news to the proper authorities. Myung-dae, with us. We require more information.”
“Ah, we’d prefer him to ride in back with us if you don’t mind. Scientific courtesy, old man. He needs to be classically de-interviewed after such a find.” I insisted, making certain I stand as tall, wide, and menacing as possible while smiling like a damned Cheshire cat, one smoking a very large cigar.
“Very well. We are not far from our evening stop. We can talk later.” He agreed.
We all moseyed, laughing silently, back to the bus; literally supporting our young hero Mr. Myung-dae as he seemed to have gone all wobbly of late.
Myung-dae was ashen-white. He looked like he had just given birth to a basketball. He was visibly shaking.
We get on the bus and I whip up a stout Yorshch for the young hero of the hour.
“Here! This is for you. If you’re going to be a world-class geologist, you’d damn sure better start acting like one.” I smile broadly.
There were hoots, cheers, and cat-calls.
Beers were popped, bottles uncorked; cigars, cigarettes, and pipes lit.
“Damn Skippy!” some anonymous reveler added.
Myung-dae slurped a good half the drink. I offered him a cigar. He stopped shaking enough to accept the novel offer.
Remember “crawlin’ home puker”? He’s taken his first step into a larger world.
OK, just to recap. Here are the dramatis personae left on the bus…
Bus driver (Kim) and his relief (Won).
My team and I. That’s 11 Western geoscientists: Morse, Cliff, Volna, Ack, Viv, Graco, Erlen, Dr. Academician Ivan, Joon, Dax, and myself.
Then there are our guides: Yuk, No, Man, and Kong.
Our stowaway hero geologist-in-training: Myung-dae Soo, aka, “Mung”.
And the four members of the shiny suit clan: Pak, Mak, Tak, and Jak. At least, that’s the names we used when we addressed them.
The bus was rumbling down the deserted highway. We were headed more or less due east, passing the occasional Potemkin Village. They knew we cracked their code long ago, so they didn’t bother with darkening the windows any longer.
We are passing a series of highway road cut outcrops. We’re only going approximately 35 or 40 miles per hour. Suddenly, Morse jumps out of his seat and runs up to the driver.
“STOP! STOP! Back up! We almost missed it!” he barks in heavily Russian inflected English.
The driver, shaken to the core, just slams on the brakes. The bus grinds to a stop. Good thing there’s no traffic out here.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
Jak of the suit clan jumps up and asks “What is the problem?”
“How could you miss that?” Morse shouts. “Huge fault. Mineralization. I saw that from a glimpse. We must return to investigate.”
“Is not possible. We have appointment at the hotel.” Jak replies.
“Fuck that!”, Morse shouts. I guess he’s just really into faults…
I wander up and try to defuse the situation.
“OK, guys, cool out. Let’s be reasonable. Do it our way. Go back to that road cut. We spend a half-hour there then we go on to the hotel. The hotel will still be there when we arrive, won’t it? Even if we’re a bit late?” I ask.
Jak looks to Pak, who converses with Mak and Tak. They know they’re outgunned.
The driver shifts the bus into reverse and we back down the luckily deserted highway over a mile to the outcrop in question.
We had to admit, it was a mother beautiful normal fault. In perfect, textbook cross-section.
Morse and Joon were on it like white on rice; given the mineralization along the fault plane. All sorts of implications for the thermal and geological history of the area. But with just one exposure like this, more or less just a real interesting geo-oddity.
We spent precisely 30 minutes at the exposure, and when our handlers requested we re-board and head to the motel, we complied like nice, normal sort of folks.
I believe the appropriate maxim here is: “Lull them into a false sense of security…”
Once more down the road we travel. Beers popped, bottles uncorked; you know, the usual.
Forty-five minutes later, we pull into, I kid you not, a replica US of A 1950s Motor-Inn.
“Mr. Myung”, I ask, “What the hell is this?”
To be continued…