Hello! This is just one write-up in a series of write-ups I will be doing making the case for the best survivor. For each write-up, I will look at one legendary player, and explain why they have an argument for being the best player survivor has seen. If you don't feel like reading, you can watch the YouTube video version of it on my channel.
Of all of the candidates, I can go over for the Best Survivor, Sandra might be the most difficult, and at the same time, the most simple one to make the case for. On paper she had a resume that stood for 39 seasons as an unbeatable, one-of-one achievement. Sandra came onto the show in Season 7 Pearl Islands and finished as the sole survivor of the season, which for many viewers already puts you in contention as one of the greatest survivors to ever play. 13 seasons later, on heroes vs villains, Sandra comes back, and wins her second million. In one of the most beloved and hyped of seasons, on one of the most star-studded casts, this little potty-mouthed lady found a way to get all the way to the end and be the sole survivor yet again. In a game where returning winners are immediately targeted as massive threats, this is an incredible achievement. Her title as the only two-time winner stood until a season of all returning winners was introduced, effectively ending the record no matter what happened. Even then, the player who won that season, Tony, needed a second season between his two winning ones to fumble the game and reduce his target for Winners at War. Every other returning player who you can think of, any great you can put a name on that returned for a second time, failed to do what Sandra did. It is a fact that Sandra’s two back-to-back wins immediately put her into the GOAT conversation for survivor. On the other hand, this is in fact Sandra we’re talking about. Now I love Sandra, and I know it sounds pretty rude, but at first glance, she seems to have zero of the qualities the best survivor player holds. So far in my series, my two other candidates for best ever have been domineering, physically fit alpha males, and you would be hard-pressed to find any other player as opposed to them as Sandra. She’s at worst a challenge liability who warms the sit-out bench, and in her two postmergers has not once won individual immunity. She isn’t some all-controlling godfather, and she isn’t exactly the master of the idol play. She speaks her mind and gets into fights with her tribemates. Winners are supposed to be threats to the game, but looking at all of this, maybe you can see the perspective of some - is she really ever an actual threat, or did she just luck out? What I have just outlined is the polarizing debate about Sandra that seems to follow her around. Because if you’re invested in Survivor like I am, there’s a huge chance you either think Sandra is one of, if not the best to ever play, or flat-out one of the worst winners who had the amazing fate of winning twice. Clearly, since this video is arguing for Sandra being the Best, I’ll stick with the former position in this video, but I’ll even let you know I have gone back and forth continuously about ranking Sandra as legendary or middling. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I will try my hardest in this video to convince you Sandra is the best, but I will not pretend she’s your standard fantastic player. What Sandra really is, is maybe the most unorthodox, unique player the game has ever seen.
Season 7 of survivor is probably the most engaging and chaotic of the early seasons. Sandra famously begins the season helping her tribe out by bargaining with the local villagers in spanish. She becomes a key part of Rupert’s Drake Tribe alliance, which gets her all the way to the merge. But that alliance is shattered by the third vote of the merge. This is due to some major shenanigans; for one, the unprecedented twist occurs of having two people who were previously voted out re-enter the game. Additional mischief ensues to the scheming of one Jonny Fairplay, in my eyes one of the most underrated strategists of the early game, and one of the great Sandra bickering partners. In large part due to the outcasts and Fairplay, Rupert is blindsided, and the Drake alliance crumbles, as Jon and the Outcasts slowly take over. Oh, but Sandra still wins. What? Yeah; even with her alliance crumbling and placed in arguably the most chaotic postmerge the game had seen up to that point, Sandra still makes it to the end and wins handily, 6-1. Oh, well, clearly she can’t repeat a run like that again. 6 years later, Sandra returned to the Villains tribe of the universally lauded season 20 of the show, Heroes vs Villains, where once more she is met with some unprecedented and chaotic 39 days, a game-changing strategist, and Rupert. This time, she ingrains herself in Boston Rob’s villain alliance in the early pre merge, before once more disorder ensues. Russell Hantz happens, using hidden immunity idols like no one ever has before to destroy Rob’s alliance, and eventually take out the Robfather himself all before the merge. Sandra appears to be down for the count, relegated to the perimeter of the villain's tribe along with the fellow challenge beast Courtney Yates, where she once more bickers with another squat little man for her remaining time in the game. The merge ensues, and just like at the villains' beach, through some all-time great idol play, the heroes roll over, one by one, to Russell. It seems like Hantz and Parvati are all but unstoppable… oh, and then Sandra wins again. 6-3. How does this keep happening? Is it really luck that Sandra, in some of the most chaotic seasons we’ve seen, beginning already in poor circumstances due to her poor challenge abilities and emphasized by her alliances continuously collapsing, wins not once but two times? Lightning does not strike twice, but Sandra does.
Yes, the haters will say, she really is that lucky. Like pearl island's final immunity challenge. For those that don’t know, in the final challenge of pearl islands, Jonny Fairplay has to win one more challenge against Lil and Sandra, to guarantee himself immunity and kick Sandra out. Jon is not a challenge threat but against them, he’s an Olympic athlete. Of course, the final challenge is all about squatting, the one thing Lil is good at. Wishy-washy Lil wins and very much in character, stabs fair play in the back and essentially hands Sandra the million, the contest being so one-sided due to said compulsive backstabbing. If the challenge was based around anything else except squatting, Sandra doesn’t win. Oh, and look at Heroes vs Villains, in the very last moments of that final immunity challenge. Jerri is less than half a second away from winning this immunity. If that happens, Sandra is out instead of Jerri in the final four. Maybe if you’re a real survivor nerd, you know that even with her translation help, Sandra was still probably the first to go out on the drake tribe if they lose the first challenge. Which by the way, the drake tribe win by no more than a couple yards. If the morgan team never hits a bit of muddy sand, Sandra Diaz-twine, potential best survivor ever candidate, is the first player voted out of her very first season.
You know, a wise man once said “ if ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd all have a merry christmas", and that’s what I’m hearing here. These are all hypothetical situations that never happened. Who's to say they know if x, y, and z didn’t happen, sandra would have no chance of winning? Even without squats, women usually win the balance and focus-heavy final challenges of the first 7 seasons. In season 20, no matter who gets immunity Sandra is pretty safe considering russell and jerri saw her as a goat to bring to the end. In fact, jerri winning probably means Parvati goes in her place, and from what we know Jerri does not beat Sandra in a final tribal council scenario. And with the possibility of her getting out first… seriously, can you really call yourself a great survivor if you weren’t close to getting out first in your winning season? Also, why Sandra would just roll over and die? She has the ability to scramble and get the vote off of her, so why wouldn’t she in this scenario? Hypotheticals and calling out Sandra’s challenge luck only take you so far, let’s talk about all of the most obvious moments where she lacked luck. Season 7 episode 13, Jon and Burton seem to be wrapping the season up. One of the three women is going home next. While Jon and Burton are off for a reward, Sandra guides Darrah and Lil to begin flipping on the boys, once more preying on Lil and Darrah’s wishy-washy behavior. As the men get back to camp, she pretends to have given up on the game as they had predicted, setting up the spectacular blindside of Burton. Fast forward to Season 20 Episode 8. The villains' tribe loses in a disappointing fashion to the heroes, with Sandra’s close ally Courtney being the main target due to her poor challenge performance. Courtney seems like the obvious choice, except for the fact Sandra has been convincing Russell that Coach Wade is out to get him, as an act of vengeance for voting out his ally Rob. Russell in his paranoia believes Sandra for the most part, and even though Coach is completely fine with voting out Courtney to keep the tribe strong, he is instead blindsided, and Sandra’s ally is saved.
And never mind the unfortunate circumstances of having her alliances crumble around her and being forced to play from the bottom, one of the hardest situations a player can get themselves into. But no, doubters will tell you that actually, being at the bottom helped Sandra. She just got to sit on the sidelines while the bigger threats were taken out. In fact, if Russell had gone out just like Sandra wanted, she surely would have lost. That bitter jury hated Russell and his allies so much they would’ve voted for anyone instead of them, so no Russell equals no Sandra win. The first thing to address here is this; why are you bringing out the hypotheticals again man? Why are we automatically assuming that taking a far easier road would’ve meant absolute death for Sandra? We’ve seen this woman adapt to every crappy situation the game threw at her, why would it be so hard for her to once walk to the straightforward path to victory. Secondly, let’s talk about this “bitter jury” which purportedly handed Sandra the win unfairly. No matter what video you watch from me, I will never admit that a bitter jury is a thing, mainly because it isn’t. The jury is the end all be all of the game of Survivor. Being judged by your peers, and taking care of the way they see you are baked into the very essence of the game. Saying a jury can be bitter or wrong is like saying a basketball is wrong when you miss a shot. Ball don’t lie, and neither does a jury. Finally, sitting on the sidelines is a very diminishing term for the skill that might be the most important to the entire game: threat-level management. There are arguments for who is the best challenge beast or mastermind in Survivor History, but Sandra is without a doubt the greatest threat manager the game has ever seen. In her entire season, Sandra, who had all but one person write her name down on day 39, logged exactly 0 votes against her the previous 38 days. In her second season, now with the revered distinction as a returning winner, she logged a whopping… 3 votes against her. Now’s a good time to bring up Sandra’s other appearances. Sandra returned for two more appearances as a player, and once as a giant stone head. But for those player appearances, you would think, a two-time winner would be dead in the water immediately. Her target would just be too big to bare, and an appearance after the first vote of her tribe would be a miracle. But this is Sandra, so are you even surprised when I tell you she survived until day 16 both times, outlasting multiple players from her own tribes along the way? Yeah sure, day 16 is not exactly a long run, especially pre-shortened seasons, but anything past day 3 for a two-time winner should be looked at with bafflement. As well, both times Sandra got out on some pretty iffy terms. For those latter 2 seasons, she was relatively safe until the Jeff probst special, a lopsided tribe swap, which completely obliterated her chances of surviving in season 35 game changers. In 40 after a more fair swap occurred, but Sandra was the target of a pretty controversial idol play, that lots of people argued was a dumb move on the idol player’s part that Sandra couldn’t have predicted. To me, I think it still stands that Sandra’s threat-level management is of a caliber of its own. Her unmatched ability to sneak under the radar, allowing anyone but her to be the target of the episode, and the episode after that, and so on until it’s only her, does wonders, and it’s why she won twice. It also very much contrasts with the other great players of survivor history, who command groups of people or pull ingenious idol tricks to stay afloat. The contrast between these greats and Sandra is what makes her unique, but also, uniquely unappreciated by some fans.
For me, I feel the Survivor community at large uses completely conceptual ideas and phrases to judge a player’s abilities, phrases that unintentionally undervalue Sandra. You can look at her game, and say a thousand things; What are her physical, social, and strategic skills, does she have agency in the game, does she control a voting bloc, does she really have jury management… Look, I use a lot of these terms as well, but, do you really think this is the kind of stuff they were talking about during that first season in Borneo. Just for once, throw away these buzzwords about how a proper winner should play, and look at the pure, primordial essence of becoming sole survivor: getting to the end and winning over the jury. That’s it. And whose game better fit’s these simple parameters than Sandra. Let’s look at an example of how using survivor vocab overlooks Sandra’s unique winning abilities. In heroes vs villains a lot of people critique her for having little voting power and never being able to vote out Russell Hantz even though she attempted to orchestrate a plan throughout the post-merge. Let’s give more context to this situation, however: Yes, Sandra could not gather the remaining heroes to vote against Russell. What she did do however is use her open scheming against him to her advantage at the very end. She survived to the final tribal council where she proved she was the only remaining villain who had actively stood against Russell, something all the heroes, who were now out and hated the way Russell treated them respected dearly. Sandra showed she had separated herself from Russell’s alliance, something not even the great Parvati could do. All of this; leveraging your failed strategy as a way to win, does not fall under any one word or skill survivor nerds use, but it still works. I think Sandra is actually filled with a lot of these intangibles. She is very aware of others, is able to spot problem players early on, a master of picking at social cracks between people to stir the pot, etc, etc
Sandra’s playstyle is so simple it’s stupid. Call it under the radar or effective jury management or whatever, but simply put, in a game called Survivor, Sandra it the best at surviving. Until she held the biggest target on her back the game has ever seen, Sandra could survive to the end, and get the jury to like her over the remaining survivors. That’s all you need to win. And really winning is all that matters, especially in Survivor. Think about it; we are seeing the smallest slice of a season - about a whole month of contestants playing boiled down to 13-40 minute episodes. We as fans really know nothing about the success of a player. The only real evidence we have of a truly successful player, something the editors can’t cut out or warp, is that winning tally. So who are we to say Sandra isn’t the best player? Why question if she really is great, when the only concrete evidence we have points to a resounding yes. Not to sound like a broken record, but she has won twice, back to back, across multiple eras of the show. And looking at the modern seasons, which seem to heavily favor under-the-radar and non-domineering winners, do you think a newbie Sandra plopped in these contemporary games would do anything else but completely dominate? Her game style could work in any era of the show, under the worst conditions; Sandra would still find a way to win in her own, unique way. So when asking who is the best survivor, the survivor who has the greatest odds of winning it all, give me a player who can back that claim up with real results. Give me the queen, give me Sandra Diaz-Twine.

I'm seeing significant misconceptions about the members of the NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Study Team (UAPST). Some of that is from sloppy writing in the mainstream media, some is just assumptions.
This group is individuals chosen by NASA from outside NASA reflecting a variety of opinions, approaches, and expertise to apply to the question of UAP. Some are hostile to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis; some are willing to accept it as a possibility. Not all are scientists, though all have science training. They have not seen classified material. I get the impression they haven't had many meetings and haven't actually discussed much to come to consensus. The budget for the committee was only $120k. Some have worked for NASA in the past. One interesting point is that all sixteen were NASA's "first picks" -- no-one who was invited turned down the opportunity. They have received harrassment from both the "believer" and the "conventional academy" sides of the spectrum; possibly also hostility from the Fundementalist Christian leadership who consider UFOs to be demonic manifistations.
Contrary to news reports, their mission was not to solve the UAP problem, but to to come up with ways to solve the UAP problem using NASA's publicly available data already collected in various Earth and Space surveys (satellite stuff). A historical review of NASA's photography and videography and of statements made by astronauts in the past wasn't in their remit. (Though let's face it nothing was stopping any of them from picking up a book.) AS far as I know, no public statement has been made outlining what evidence they did review; I certainly hope it will be in their report.

The members of NASA’s independent study team on unidentified anomalous phenomena are:
David Spergel was selected to chair NASA’s independent study on unidentified anomalous phenomena. He is the president of the Simons Foundation where he was the founding director of its Flatiron Institute for Computational Astrophysics. His interests range from the search for planets and nearby stars to the shape of the universe. He has measured the age, shape and composition of the universe and played a key role in establishing the standard model of cosmology. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Spergel has been cited in publications more than 100,000 times.
Anamaria Berea is an associate professor of Computational and Data Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a research affiliate with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and a research investigator with Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Seattle. Her research is focused on the emergence of communication in complex living systems and on data science applications in astrobiology, for the science of both biosignatures and technosignatures. She uses a wide range of computational methods to uncover fundamental patterns in the data. ​​
Federica Bianco is a joint professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Physics and Astrophysics, the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and a Senior Scientist at the Multi-city Urban Observatory. She is a cross-disciplinary scientist with a focus on using data-science to study the universe and find solutions to urban-based problems on earth. She is Deputy Project Scientist for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory which in 2023 will start the Legacy Survey of Space and Time to study the night sky in the southern hemisphere and discover new galaxies and stars. She has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and received that Department of Energy’s “Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science” grant.
Paula Bontempi has been a biological oceanographer for more than 25 years. She is the sixth dean and the second woman to lead the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (URI). She is also a professor of oceanography at URI. She spent eighteen years at NASA and was appointed acting deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division for the Science Mission Directorate. She also led NASA’s research on ocean biology, biogeochemistry, the carbon cycle and ecosystems, as well as many NASA Earth observing satellite missions in marine science. She is a fellow of The Oceanography Society.
Reggie Brothers is the operating partner at AE Industrial Partners in Boca Raton, Florida. He previously served as CEO and board member of BigBear.ai in Columbia, Maryland. Brothers also was the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Peraton, as well as a principal with the Chertoff Group. Prior to his time in the private sector, he served as the undersecretary for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research at the Department of Defense. Brothers is also a Distinguished Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and he is a member of the Visiting Committee for Sponsored Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jen Buss is the CEO of the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia. Before she became CEO, Buss worked extensively with NASA to explore policy issues and strategic planning processes for astronaut medical care and cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. She is nationally recognized as an authority in her field for science and technology trends analysis and policy solutions.
Nadia Drake is a freelance science journalist and contributing writer at National Geographic. She also regularly writes for Scientific American, and specializes in covering astronomy, astrophysics, planetary sciences, and jungles. She has won journalism awards for her work in National Geographic including the David N. Schramm Award from the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society and the Jonathan Eberhart award from the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences. Drake holds a doctorate in genetics from Cornell University.
Mike Gold is the executive vice president of Civil Space and External Affairs at Redwire in Jacksonville, Florida. Prior to Redwire, Gold held multiple leadership roles at NASA, including associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, acting associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations and senior advisor to the Administrator for International and Legal Affairs. He led for NASA, jointly with the Department of State, the creation and execution of the Artemis Accords, which established the norms of behavior in space. He also led the negotiation and adoption of binding international agreements for the lunar Gateway, the creation of new planetary protocols and the first purchase by NASA of a lunar resource. Gold was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work in 2020.Additionally, Gold was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to serve as Chair of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee from 2012 until he joined NASA in 2019.
David Grinspoon is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona, and serves as a frequent advisor to NASA on space exploration. He is on science teams for several interplanetary spacecraft missions including the DAVINCI mission to Venus. He is the former inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology. His research focuses on comparative planetology especially regarding climate evolution and the implications of habitability on earth-like planets. He was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal by the American Astronomical Society and he is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also an adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, as well as Georgetown University in Washington.
Scott Kelly is a former NASA astronaut, test pilot, fighter pilot, and retired U.S. Navy captain. He commanded the International Space Station Expeditions 26, 45, and 46. He was also the pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery for the third Hubble Servicing Mission. He was selected for a year-long mission to the space station where he set the record at the time for the total accumulated number of days spent in space. Prior to NASA, Kelly was the first pilot to fly the F-14 with a new digital flight control system. He flew the F-14 Tomcat in fighter squadron VF-143 aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and was recognized by Time magazine in 2015 as one of the most influential people in the world.
Matt Mountain is the president of The Association of Universities for Research and Astronomy, known as AURA. At AURA, Mountain oversees a consortium of 44 universities nationwide and four international affiliates who help NASA and the National Science Foundation build and operate observatories including NASA’s Hubble Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. He also serves as a telescope scientist for Webb and is a member of its Science Working Group. He is the former director of The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and the International Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii.
Warren Randolph is the deputy executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety department. He has an extensive background in aviation safety at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is currently responsible for setting and implementing safety management system principles and using data to inform the assessment of future hazards and emerging safety risks. Prior to the FAA, Randolph served as an aerodynamicist for the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Air Force for multiple flight simulations. Walter Scott is the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Maxar in Westminster, Colorado, a space technology company that specializes in earth intelligence and space infrastructure. In 1992, he founded DigitalGlobe which became part of Maxar in 2017. He has held leadership positions at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California and was the president of Scott Consulting. In 2021, he was inducted into the David W. Thompson Lecture in Space Commerce by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Joshua Semeter is a professor of electrical and computer engineering as well as the director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. At Boston University, he researches interactions between Earth’s ionosphere and the space environment. Activities in Semeter’s lab include the development of optical and magnetic sensor technologies, radar experiment design and signal processing, and the application of tomographic and other inversion techniques to the analysis of distributed, multi-mode measurements of the space environment.
Karlin Toner is the acting executive director of the FAA’s Office of Aviation Policy and Plans. Previously, she served as the director of the FAA’s global strategy where she led the FAA’s international strategy and managed threats to international civil aviation. Prior to the FAA, Toner served at NASA in multiple leadership positions including director of the Airspace Systems Program at NASA Headquarters. She is a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal recipient and is an associate fellow for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Shelley Wright is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Studies. She specializes in galaxies, supermassive black holes and building optical and infrared instruments for telescopes using adaptive optics such as integral field spectrographs. She is a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) researcher and instrumentalist. She is also the principal investigator for the UC San Diego Optical Infrared Laboratory. Previously, she was an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-study-team-members/

A little history with me and Marquesas first. I was living in Utah at the time of this series airing and it was Neleh Fever all the way. It was a level I don’t think Todd, Tyson, or Dawn ever got. So in hindsight my memory gave her a much bigger presence then was actually the case! And it has been over a decade since I sat down to properly re-watch it.
Firstly… WOW, the island/s are beautiful. I understand never going back there due to the no-nos and the local government not being as co-operative as other places (trust the French to love their red tape!) plus the fact it was a last minute substitute for Jordan (and things where not as smooth as they could’ve been), but dang, part of me kinda wish they did just for the sheer visual beauty of it!
Pity they didn’t stay at Maraamu camp due it seemingly having a much better supply of food (and the lion’s share of camp stuff due to the Raid), but Rotu camp did seem to have much better access to that waterfall at least.
Hot dang… Vecepia was such a great player. She did some 4D level shit with her gaming. Such mad respect. A New School style of play in an Old School Era. And the fact The Powers that Be have basically forgotten/ignored her since is bloody ridiculous and very annoying. Especially with so few female winners and she wasn’t even sounded out (for Winners at War) just does not sit well with me. Future greats like Rob C & Sandra owe a bit to what Vee paved for them (in their style of play).
She really should be rated much higher on winner’s lists then she really is (saying that in a quick search, this SubReddit does seem to respect her pretty well!)
I also dispute people saying she was an Under the Radar winner. The entire tribe knew she playing from the middle and making alliances with everybody, but they let her get away with it as well (which says a lot for her social game and work ethic on a tribe that valued both). Her game play was very much telegraphed to everybody early on (and brought up several times throughout the course of the series).
And yes was helped in getting Tammy’s bitter vote, but she still steamrolled Neleh at FTC and got those swing votes from General & John (especially John) by giving them exactly what they wanted to hear.
Kathy might of been the star of the season, but I could also tell Kathy just is one of those people that is annoying and frustrating to live with no matter how good an edit she got on the tele. And I feel the tribe swapped saved her big time as well.
I know Vee & Neleh’s edit has been criticized in the past and yes, while it could’ve been better, it none the less both where fairly solid. No real Natalie W/Sophie style purpling there. Vee always at least a few scenes in most episode (other than a couple around the merge) and was the voice chosen to explain how things where falling around camp life for the season. The only truly purple edit that season was Zoe – an enigma wrapped in a riddle if there ever was a person.
If there is one player I wish they brought back (and sad they never) did was Gina – talk about the ultimate swap screw! Completely charming and genuine and for a pre-merge boot, so much screen time (though it did help Maraamu was always going to tribal)!
I gotta say before I forget, re-watching some of those reward and immunity challenges was a head-trip! Especially now deep into the era of them being Flanderized into the same bit-of-physical, a bit-of-coordination and finish on a puzzle.
TWO immunity challenges had a player's fate was not in their own hands but in other contestants (thus the General had no chance of ever winning). Heck even the vote where Gina left there was talk of Rotu throwing it to get out Boston rob, but it turned out to be pretty difficult to achieve with what it was.
I do wish we got some outside-the-box challenges again these days (though that is an entire different post! LOL)
One thing I couldn’t stand in the season though was Rosie hosting the Finale. Now I actually was watching 'The Rosie O’Donnell Show' when the season was airing (and her interviewing each tribe member on eviction) and in 2002 it did feel like a natural progression for her to host the Finale. But watching it 21 years later, it feels so jarring (and Jeff just walking away after the votes being read was super super weird). She barely let anybody get a word in I swear (did we even hear from Patricia? And the only thing Rob said I swear was a comment about being thankful for Sarah’s boobs!)
Did we every find out why Maraamu voted out Peter first? Gina mentioned something in the voting confessionals, but nothing was brought up later.
I’ll end this by saying Neleh’s sneaky move by telling Kathy her boobs where falling out of her blouse will always been one of my favourite dirty moves of all time! She may of not owned up to it, but she did have game when she wanted to!
EDIT - Words and Grammar are hard LOL

Something I found very shocking was that TWY have a monthly listener count of 589k. For clarity to those who don’t fully understand this number, it is the unique listener count for the past 28 days. For a band their size this is shockingly low and made me wonder why they aren’t seeing more listeners. TWY play +1500 cap rooms on their tours and are very popular, yet bands that headline 300 cap rooms (at best) have way more listeners. Now I know monthly listener metrics aren’t the be all end all, the gap to other bands on the scene is crazy, just thought this would be interesting to others as well: below are some comparatives:
The Story So Far - 993k
Real Friends - 545k
Boston Manor - 652k
State Champs - 1.1M
Stand Atlantic - 861k
Point North - 1.3M
Neck Deep - 3.9M
Magnolia Park - 953k
Broadside - 794k
Arrows In Action - 805k (recently released an album)
Hot Milk - 510k
With Confidence - 817k
Four Year Strong - 418k
Hot Mulligan - 913k (recently released an album)
Mom Jeans - 764k
*it’s also worth noting that TWY released a single 2 weeks ago, so their numbers are propped up more than usual with release radar bumps, and many of these bands listed here haven’t
Note: hey all lots of great discussion going on in this post, love to see the different view points and considerations

O Grêmio segue em busca de reforços para seu ataque e agora tem seu radar voltado para o Uruguai. Segundo o empresário Edgardo Lasalvia, o atacante Cristian Olivera, atualmente no Boston River, interessa ao clube. A revelação foi feita em entrevista à Rádio Oriental do Uruguai.
Olivera, de 21 anos, atua pelos lados do campo, preferencialmente pela direita, e já teve passagens pela seleção uruguaia de base. O atacante, formado nas categorias de base do Rentistas, já passou pelo Almería, da Espanha, e pelo Peñarol, do Uruguai.
“Tem várias possibilidades nacionais, porém economicamente é muito difícil. Do Brasil, tenho várias e muito interessantes. Hoje estou conversando com a equipe de Suárez, o Grêmio de Porto Alegre, que está muito interessado, mas temos que formular e chegar a um acordo com o Almería”, disse Lasalvia.
Com a camisa do Boston River, Olivera disputou 30 partidas e marcou oito gols.
https://www.gremistas.net/noticias-do-gremio/atacante-uruguaio-radar-gremio-quem-e-alvo-segundo-empresario-jogado

On his latest episode Bill defends keeping the Jays together with one of his reasons being the east will be weaker next season. He says something like Bucks and Sixers have a lot of roster uncertainty and prob take a step back. Cleveland isn’t ready. Then he starts listing off other teams that he just doesn’t seem worried about. NY, BK, ATL, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, etc.
Thought it was hilarious how Miami was swept under the rug as a non-threat on a podcast entirely about how the Heat just ended their season and are now 2-1 in the last 4 years vs the Celtics. Really!? especially after Bill was one of the few who had the Heat on his radar for sneaky playoff killers.
I think his point is mostly fair and agree Boston should keep the Jays together but thought the Heat overlook was crazy.

Obviously, I am wrong about every one of these but tell me why.
Day 1:
Alisa Amadore: fun, Norah Jones type jazz with her own voice 7/10 on The indie scale
The Beaches: Fun modern rock band with heavy 60s beach rock influence 8/10 indie scale
Talk: raspy Rock and roll, didn't shy away from covers and had a lot of fun doing it 6/10 on the headliner scale
Blue Light Bandits: heavy use of the minor key, very waily, their faster stuff was the best tbh 5/10 on the indie scale
Dropkick Murphys: Old men yell at crowd; crowd yells back 8/10 headliners
Little Fuss: Scott Pilgrim vibes with a female lead with vocals that were flat way more than they should've been. Lots of future potential here if they get a good producer 3/10 indie scale 5/10 when warmed up
Niall Horan: all the way from Brazil(Ireland) along with about 200 raving lunatic women front and center, a very technically sound performance, great use of violin, and oops, I'm now one of the raving women. Discovery of this type of music that was sitting right under my nose is exactly why I came here. Started at 6/10 and built to 9/10
Foo Fighters: wait, who are these guys? 9/10 I think if the drummer went any harder he would ignite fusion and form new elements out of the atmosphere. All gas, no breaks with these guys.
Day 2:
Neemz: R&B/rap performer; the DJ was fantastic and the performance was her singing/rapping over the recording with a very low microphone. Not a bad performance but the style doesn't lend itself well for a live show. 4/10 on the indie scale
Loveless: the world is still producing whiny boy bands and they are pretty good. Okay stage presence. 6/10 headliners scale
The Aces: Buddy Holly meets Funk; I guess that makes them the female Arctic Monkeys. Great stage presence, especially dealing with technical difficulties. I'm not sure what scale to put them on because they were so good. 10/10 indie scale but they won't get that scale next time. Consider me a new fan.
Joy Oladokun: I've heard of her and her one-hit song but I did not expect the sheer joy (pun not intended) she shares on stage. Her other non-hit stuff was a lot less waily and I am now a fan. 8/10 headliner scale
Actor Observer: Maybe because it was hardcore metal but these guys went the hardest of anyone at the festival so far. A lot of musical depth here that really came out when they were harmonizing 9/10 indie scale and this is the reason I wanted to come to this music festival, to discover new music. If you like anything hardcore from rock to metal, check them out. They live right up the street in Boston.
Noah Kahan: local Watertown boy literally draws a bigger crowd than the Lumineers. It was standing room only for the biggest stage and everyone knew the words. I was not incredibly familiar with him before the festival but this was the stage presence that I expected from the Lumineers. The embodiment of northern folk music and it shines bright. 9/10 headliners
The Flaming Lips: Going in not a fan, I saw 15 ft robots, giant balloons popping into confetti on the crowd, and a man singing from an orb. Pure childhood joy bottled, distilled, and injected into your veins. I don't believe in extended scales but the stage presence 100% overcomes any lack of technical talent. 10/10 and they literally stole the show. The words spiritual experience were brought up multiple times from different people.
The Lumineers: maybe the expectations were just too high but these guys had no stage presence. The songs sounded exactly like the album which is skillful and good but not really what live music is about. Great atmosphere in the place made up for it with people dancing and singing along. Obviously, everyone knew the words. It all felt very corporate for folk. 7/10 headliners scale.
Day 3:
Juice: The spiritual successor to Earth Wind and Fire with a lot more depth and variety. Multiple genres, they were the best opening act of the weekend. 8/10 indie scale
Wunderhorse: If you told me that Nirvana had done a colab with White Stripes I would believe you. Stage presence was basically non-existent. 8/10 indie scale because the music was so on point
Workman Song: Christian music that doesn't need to market that way. Blues folk that could stand as the soundtrack to paddle off into the sunset on a southern river. Extra points for some of the chords giving literal chills. 8/10 indie scale
Linda Lindas: Tiny girls as young as 12 sing about their cats. They accidentally rock and roll. What a stage presence... "hey crowd, what's your favorite dinosaur? Stegosaurus ? Trex?" 8/10 headliners scale.
070 Shake: Neemz could learn a thing or two from this performance. Perfect audio levels over the base track. Her vocals really added to a fantastic dj. Probably shouldn't drink mid-performance but it was still fun. 6/10 headliners scale
Sorry Mom: Sorry mom indeed. 9/10 guitar work. Lots of screaming but not so much the vocals to back it up. Don't let the rating fool you, these girls go hard. 5/10 indie scale
Genesis Owusu: Pink Floyd meets the Black Eyed Peas, there's certainly an A+ stage presence and he was all in. 7/10 headliners
Bleachers: Love letter to music production, Queen at Live Aid vibes, they know how to lead a crowd. Perfect music festival act. 8/10 headliners. Bonus points for giant tomatoes and dueling saxophones.
Ali McGuirk: Wonderful blues, Norah Jones if she was really into blues but early on in her career. 7/10 indie
Maren Morris: This woman's voice could single handedly turn the tide of a world war. It was all live and she sang her heart out. Great accompaniment and great blues, the stage was somehow too small. 8/10 headliner
Queens of the Stone Age: Stage presence was hard to determine from where I was but No One Knows was perfectly built into completely making up for any set issues prior. A lot of it felt like just biding time. 8/10 headliners scale
Paramore: What's there to say? Haley's ability to absolutely nail disjunct high notes was there 20 years ago. It hasn't gotten better because it was already perfect. There were some interesting song choices that made the performance drag but the entire stage was set up for them. 9/10
Overall:
All in all it was a fantastic festival. If the goal was to discover new music, it was a complete success. Lots of new Boston locals to appreciate and some headliners that had slipped through. The Flaming Lips, The Aces, Noah Kahan, Nial Horan, and the Linda Lindas all started out barely on my radar and absolutely blew me away.

The Finals are here!
And it is a match-up that was on nobody's radar.
Here's a quick preview of how these teams match-up. Only looking at the Playoff stats till date. Throwing the Regular season out the window (just like the Miami Heat have done).
The Nuggets are heavy favourites, and rightfully so. Unfortunately for them, that's exactly how Miami likes it.
So, here we go!
First up, let's look at the Team Statistics.

• Denver has the edge in most categories, but when strictly looking at percentages, there is very little that overwhelmingly favours the Nuggets.
• Rebounding is a strong plus for the Nuggets. Their size can give the Heat some trouble. A lot of second chance points and easy points can get generated.
• Miami has a slight edge in defensive metrics, such as turnover rate and defensive rating. "Heat culture" is predicated on hard-nosed, resilient defense. That is what they will need to demonstrate vs Denver. Along with hitting 3's, that is going to be Miami's primary formula to overcome the Nuggets.
• Denver loves to get in and around the paint (3-10ft out), where approximately 29% of their shots come from. Dribble penetration, second only to the Pick and Roll, is their key offensive strategy. The likes of Murray, Brown, Gordon make a living with those cuts, drives and slashes. Managing that area of the court will be key for Miami.

Team Stat	DEN	MIA	Diff.
FG%	.490	.472	DEN + .018
FT%	.815	.804	DEN + .011
3pt%	.386	.390	MIA + .004
2pt%	.548	.524	DEN + .024
TS%	.595	.583	DEN + .012
eFG% For	.559	.548	DEN + .011
eFG% Against	.530	.530	Tied
Stocks Per Game (Stl +Blk)	11.4	11.2	DEN + 0.2
TOV% (opp. TO per 100 poss.)	10.9%	12.7%	MIA +1.8%
Off. Rating	121.0	116.3	DEN + 4.7
Def. Rating	112.4	111.9	MIA + 0.5
Off. Reb %	25.6%	21.8%	DEN +3.8%
Def. Reb %	81.1%	74.6%	DEN +6.5%
0-3ft: FGA % / FG%	19% / 69.3%	21.4% / 70.6%	MIA takes more shots within this range, with a slightly better efficiency
3-10ft: FGA % / FG%	29% / 50%	18.2% / 40.6%	DEN takes more shots within this range, with significantly better efficiency
10-16ft: FGA % / FG%	8.6% / 50%	14.1% / 45%	MIA takes more shots within this range, but with a worse efficiency
16-23ft: FGA % / FG%	7.7% / 42.2%	7.5% / 43.1%	Just about even, less than 1% edge to MIA in efficiency
23+: FGA % / FG%	35.6% / 38.6%	38.9% / 39%	MIA takes more shots within this range, with a negligible edge in efficiency

Next up, let's take a bit of a deeper dive into the Players and what sort of match-ups we'll see in the Finals.

• Both Coaches have basically set up a traditional 8-man playoff unit, with the occasional appearance by a deeper bench player. Coach Spo is more likely to tinker and offer minutes to guys like Cody Zeller and Highsmith. Whereas, Coach Malone will barely sniff at his deeper bench guys like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Jackson.
• The potential return of Tyler Herro could have a huge impact on this series. We all know that Tyler can be instant offense. While he may lack defensively, the Heat do have enough to surround him with more than capable team defenders.
• Star player v Star player:
  • The edge goes to Nikola Jokic. He has been the best player in these playoffs. Offensively, the show runs through him. He has his detractors defensively, but he's still a big body that can change shots and grab rebounds to clean things up. Who on Miami can stop him? It's going to have to be a team effort and special schemes drawn up by Coach Spo.
  • On the other end, we have Jimmy Butler, a true, gritty, never say die leader of men. He epitomizes what a leader or a captain should be. He impacts both ends of the floor and commands respect. He's not a great jump shooter, but he'll often make them in the clutch. Denver has a lot of length and can throw many bodies at him. This is where guys like Vincent, Martin, Robinson and Lowry need to make their shots if Miami has any shot at winning this series. They've done it thus far, they got to keep at it.

Position	Players (DEN)	Players (MIA)	Who has the edge?
Center	Nikola Jokic	Bam Adebayo	The Joker. Nuff' said. Bam will have his hands full. That said, Bam is good on his feet, and at the very least can make Jokic work for his points and rebounds. That's his only chance. Bam needs to be competitive and bring it each and every play.
Forwards	Michael Porter Jr., B. Brown, J. Green, Aaron Gordon	Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Kevin Love	The Forward group will be the make-or-break for the Heat in this series. If they can outdo Denver's group, then the Heat will have a strong chance to win. Jimmy is the best of the lot, but Denver's length and versatility could pose problems. I give the slight edge to the Nuggets, but as we saw vs Boston, the Heat forwards can absolutely ball when the chips are down.
Guards	Jamal Murray, Caldwell-Pope, C. Braun	Kyle Lowry, Gabe Vincent, D. Robinson	Murray is the 3rd best player in this series. If he plays like it, Miami will be hard pressed to match his offensive punch. Lowry, Vincent and Robinson all had their moments vs Boston, but can they replicate that output? How healthy is Vincent, that is going to be a determining factor in Miami's guard play. KCP will be important for Denver. He proved vital vs LA and will be required to do so again. There is greater degree of trust and output with KCP vs Duncan Robinson. And that can be a X-factor punch that pushes Denver over the line.
Deep Bench / Possible returns	Reggie Jackson, DeAndre Jordan	Tyler Herro, Cody Zeller, Haywood Highsmith	Miami's deeper options are more playable and fit into their system better than the Nuggets options. It's no wonder Coach Malone just doesn't play these guys. Add to the mix that Tyler Herro might be able to suit up - it could be a huge boost for the Heat.

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It's been a year since I graduated from college with a BA in psychology & I'm thinking about going back to school to become an interior designer.
I'm specifically looking for in-person programs in the Northeast USA. A few masters programs that are on my radar are NYSID, Boston Architectural College, Pratt, Drexel, and RISD.
Could you share your experience at these programs, or similar programs?
How competitive/intensive is the application process?
Any other advice is welcome!! :)

I have a flight I do somewhat regularly where I overfly central Maine and I can't figure out the right procedure for how to contact US ATC before crossing the border! There is a legal requirement that you are in touch with US ATC before crossing, but often I'm too low to contact any ATC directly (Boston Center is who I talk to).
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I've tried calling Boston Center on the phone about this scenario and they told me to contact Montreal Center and have them relay a message. Montreal Center did it once, but then gave me a hard time on following attempts saying it was an inappropriate request for an IFR controller (they won't give VFR flight following because they don't have radar coverage in the area). I've been able to get Flight Service to do it other times, but it always seems like they're surprised by the request and it takes them a while to figure out what I'm asking for and how to do it.
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Am I missing something here? This seems like it would be a fairly common scenario in overflights? How do people usually handle this?

Small fact that’s been going under the radar. With the nuggets closing out the Lakers last night, Denver will now have 9 full days of rest until the finals start on June 1st, and could start off rusty.
If Miami closes out Boston tonight, they’ll also get over a week’s worth of rest, which will allow butler to rest up his ankle, which you could argue outweighs any rust they might have. Obviously the nuggets would love to see Boston stretch the series out to 6 or 7 games.
Do we think the long amount of rest or will favor the nuggets or their opponent? Or is it negligible?