text:
50% chance of victory. Michigan wins by virtue of being one spot higher on his rankings.
Tourney Preview: Kentucky
Michigan (28-8, 15-3 B1G) vs.
Kentucky (27-10, 12-6 SEC)
Colts Location Stadium,
Indianapolis, IN
|5:05 pm Eastern, Sunday
|Michigan -1 (KenPom)
PBP: Jim Nantz
Analyst: Greg Anthony
|Sponsored by Marawatch; starts at 5.
Win or go home.
Projected starters are in bold.
This preview assumes that Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein is out after John Calipari said his issue was "not a good ankle injury." He was limping badly after the game, on crutches, and told Kentucky trainers he "heard it pop." Save some Travis Trice blisters heroism, he's out.
|Aaron Harrison
|6'6, 218
|Sort of
|80/48/35 shooter is UK's most efficient offensive player.
|Andrew Harrison
|6'6, 215
|Sort of
|PG-type player awful inside line, has high TO rate. Gets FTs, decent from 3.
|James Young
|6'6, 215
|Sort of
|Almost identical statistically to Aaron, but slightly worse in most categories.
|Julius Randle
|6'9, 250
|Classic PF tough to handle on boards, can get own shot. Only 52%.
|Dakari Johnson
|7'0, 265
|OREB monster. Block rate/DREB rates not scary. Putback machine. Miserable FT%.
|Alex Poythress
|6'8, 239
|OREB guy and rim finisher is black hole on O, good on D.
|Dominique Hawkins
|6'0, 193
|Almost invisible on offense for good reason. 46/43/13 shooter in small sample.
|Jarrod Polson
|6'2, 182
|Sort of
|Gritty walk on has 35 shots on the year.
For completeness, Cauley-Stein is an elite defensive player, a block machine with a high steal rate. He doesn't rebound as much as you'd expect because he tries to swat everything and his offense is relatively limited.
Welcome to the sequel of the sequel: Kentucky is an upgraded version of Tennessee, which was an upgraded version of Texas. Stop me if you've heard this before: Kentucky is an offensive rebound machine that can't shoot threes and doesn't force turnovers but does do everything else well on D. Or at least they were with Cauley-Stein. They're probably still a number of those things. How many remains to be seen, but that's another section.
The individual players all come with a sameness to them. Kentucky is the world's worst NBA team, a collection of bodies that looks like an NBA All Star game… and often plays like one. But if they've figured something out they've figured something out, and then they're not pleasant to consider.
Andrew, #5, is the point guard type guy
The Harrison twins are the primary guards. Andrew Harrison (#5) is the point-guard type substance—it's hard to tell when everyone's 6'6"—with his team-high assist rate. Unfortunately for Kentucky, his TO rate is just as high. 23.5 is a number that would make you shake your head if it was a 7-footer turning it in; for a point guard it's turrible. His inconsistency has been apparent even amongst the maelstrom that is the Kentucky freshmen:
He has the handles and jumper, until they disappear. He can be a lock-down defender on individual plays but often lets up on that end and commits a lot of silly fouls. He also seems too reliant on and comfortable with passing to his brother, an NBA prospect but not Kentucky's best player by any means.
Harrison is only a 39% two-point shooter; he gets to the rack a lot (a third of his shots) but only hits half of his generally tough layup attempts and he's a miserable two-point shooter. He may be getting saddled with the Dion Harris shots, to be fair: 4% of his two pointers were assisted this year. FOUR!
Harrison has two three-point modes: he's a good catch and shoot guy near the arc, and then he's a miserable bricklayer trying to catch guys off the dribble, often on shots that are a couple feet behind the line. His main strength as a player is drawing fouls. He's in the top 100 in that department and hits FTs at 77%. Michigan, of course, does not foul much.
Aaron Harrison (#2) is a wing/SG type who's considerably more efficient than his brother; outside of the presumably unavailable Cauley-Stein he's Kentucky's most efficient guy. He's got a relatively low TO rate, decent usage, and shoots 80/48/35. He's much better at the rim than his brother, probably because at least some of his shots are coming off plays other guys made, but he's relatively uninspiring from all ranges.
James Young (#1) may as well be the third Harrison twin. He's also 6'6". Statistically he is a clone of Aaron. Watching Kentucky in person it was difficult to tell who was doing what; their games are all so similar. Young is marginally worse at getting to the basket and finishing, marginally worse in A:TO, marginally worse in defensive categories.
The biggest difference is that Young is about 55/45 threes to twos while Aaron Harrison is the inverse. Meanwhile, point guard Harrison—Andrew—has only 87 3FGA on the season against 208 twos and a bucket of free throws.
Guesses as to Michigan's defensive disposition: Stauskas on Young, LeVert on Aaron Harrison, Walton on Andrew Harrison, but they're just going to switch everything because screw it they're all basically the same guy. Look for Spike to get almost all of his minutes when one of them is on the bench and one of the six-foot zero offense backups comes in.
Video made nine games into the season
Power forward Julius Randle is going to be a lottery pick in a few months and it takes about ten minutes of observation for you to figure out why. Capable of getting to the rack from the three point line and making tough shots once there, Randle has a high ceiling and an NBA body. Randle draws fouls like whoah, rebounds both ends ferociously, and has a 71% free throw stroke that bodes well for the future, when jumpers will have to become a part of his game.
They aren't now. Randle's shots are split evenly between the rim and two-point jumpers. The difference is stark. He hits 71% at the rim and 34% when removed from it. And that 71% is not a Jordan Morgan assisted-dunk fest; he gets his own offense quite a bit. If you watched Louisville you saw a number of Randle buckets where the only appropriate response was "whoah."
But as we saw in the Tennessee game, a disadvantage in size for Glenn Robinson leads to an advantage in quickness. Randle is a much better athlete than Jeronne Maymon, but his ability to check Robinson remains questionable. With Cauley-Stein out Kentucky loses most of their shotblocking. Meanwhile, if Glenn can cut Randle off when he tries to attack from the perimeter a chunk of his game turns into those two-pointers Michigan wants to see.
Starting center Dakari Johnson has actually been starting since the beginning of February, alternating between games where he is a starter in name only (8 minutes versus Arkansas, nine versus Florida) and games of 20 or so minutes. He hadn't had a ton of impact aside from the occasional offensive board and putback until he went 7/10 against Louisville in 31 minutes. Actually, scratch "occasional." Johnson is a facecrushing offensive rebounder. If he'd gotten enough minutes to qualify on Kenpom he'd be fifth in the country, behind only Baylor's Rico Gathers amongst power conference teams.
Johnson's game is limited outside of those putbacks, which comprise almost 60% of his makes at the rim. When not flushing someone else's miss he's 44% in the post. He is a bizarrely great player on jumpers, though, hitting nearly half. Sample size? Maybe, but the prescription is clear for Morgan: crowd the guy if he gets the ball in the short corner or elbow, and for the love of god someone box him out.
On defense Johnson is a huge step back from Cauley-Stein. His block rate of 4.2 is about a third of Cauley-Stein's. He doesn't steal the ball like Cauley-Stein and his foul rate of 5.9 per 40 veritably looms in a game where he's going to have to go 30-35 minutes.
Unlike Tennessee, Kentucky has a bench. His name is Alex Poythress.
Kentucky's bench is now nearly as barren as Tennessee's. They have one guy, 6'8" SF/PF Alex Poythress. Poythress generates little offense on his own—75% of his shots at the rim are assisted or putbacks and he has a tiny assist rate—and is an inefficient shooter. He is a good finisher once he gets to the rim, and he is of course an excellent offensive rebounder who blocks a fair amount of shots; he's mostly of use on defense. Kentucky has played him at the three and in the post during his career. Now that he's the only big backup he'll see almost all of his time spotting Randle and Johnson.
Two other gentlemen will see the court. Six-foot freshman Dominique Hawkins was unearthed yesterday for his first extended playing time since January. In 15 minutes his box score contribution was three fouls and nothing else. Senior heady gritenstein Jarrod Polson has had spurts of playing time throughout the season after a significant bench role a year ago; he has vanishingly small usage. If he does anything it'll be take an open three someone else generates.
While Kentucky spreads their offense around almost equally amongst four players, Michigan has an opportunity whenever Hawkins or Polson is in. First, the point guard can sag off that guy with impunity, and second, that point guard can be Spike Albrecht.
Kentucky's nonconference schedule was middling. Games against power conference teams:
- Michigan State (N): L 78-74
- Providence (N): W 79-65
- Baylor (Semi-Away): L 67-62
- @ North Carolina: L 82-77
- Louisville: W 73-66
A win against a Providence outfit that ended up an 11 seed and a home win over Louisville against a couple of road-ish losses that were close and a neutral court loss to MSU by 4. Kentucky did beat Cleveland State, Boise State, and Belmont, all KP100 teams, FWIW.
And then SEC play. Tennessee alternated losses and blowouts en route to a +0.14 efficiency margin; Kentucky had more close games and only managed a +0.08. They lost to Arkansas twice, LSU once (and escaped with a one-point OT win against them at home), Florida twice, and to a miserable South Carolina team. That's how you end up with an eight seed.
All of that looks lovely if you stop the season right then. It looks less so now, after SEC tourney blowouts of LSU and Georgia followed by a one-point loss to Florida in the title game and a three-game NCAA run that features wins over Wichita State and Louisville. Since the end of the regular season Kentucky has flown up from 25th to 10th in Kenpom. The whole freshman-figuring-it-out thing may apply.
Kentucky in a nutshell: they are 311th in assists and 23rd at preventing assists. On offense they:
- murder the boards, resurrect the boards, and murder them again (42% OREB, 2nd nationally)
- get fouled a ton
- shoot relatively poorly for a team with so much talent
- are pretty bad at a relatively small number of threes
- are mediocre at taking care of the ball
On defense they:
- have a Michigan-level aversion to creating turnovers
- block a ton of shots (but not anymore probably)
- are tough to score against from any range
- aren't too good at rebounding and keeping guys off the line
- are pretty good at preventing threes from going up
Kentucky is about as transition-oriented as Michigan, but considerably less efficient. On defense, they suuuuuuuck at transition relative to their half-court defense, giving up half their transition shots at the rim for a 70% eFG rate. Kentucky has survived their transition threes well enough, but if they give 'em up to Michigan they are going to regret it—Michigan hits 46%.
Hold up against Randle, GRIII, and get yours. There are going to be 15-20 minutes when Poythress is on the floor, whereupon Morgan will get whichever starting big is left. With Johnson just too big for Robinson to handle (see: Frank Kaminsky) Michigan probably* doesn't have the option to put Morgan, who is coming off a straight-up domination of Jarnell Stokes, on Randle for the other 25 minutes.
This reads like a problem. It read like a problem against Tennessee until Jeronne Maymon was exposed as a pylon. Michigan's offense has the ability to do the same thing to Randle, who is quicker than Maymon but still decidedly uncomfortable defending the perimeter. Meanwhile, his mistake-eraser is out. Michigan cannot win the rebounding battle in this game; they have to make up for it by using their perimeter quickness to get it back.
*[They could actually try it since Johnson does not have a post game, especially if one of the backup guards is in. But then Johnson is going to have an even easier time of just jumping over someone for a rebound.]
1-3-1 watch. Turnover-prone, assist-light, often-discombobulated gaggle of freshmen that is mediocre from three-point range: Kentucky is an obvious 1-3-1 target. The rebounding looms, as it is wont to do, but it's going to loom anyway. I didn't like its deployment against Texas since Michigan's defense was forcing all manner of horrible shots anyway; against Kentucky it could be a game-swinger.
Zone panic watch. There won't be a zone attempt in this game since Calipari can barely get his guys to play one defense, let alone two. Advantage Michigan?
I WILL STRIKE DOWN UPON THEE WITH GREAT VENGEANCE [Bryan Fuller]
DEATH FROM ABOVE. Concerns about Michigan being able to deploy their prime weapon against Tennessee were blown away by an 11 for 20 performance against one of the country's stingiest three-point defenses. Kentucky is good but not on Tennessee's level in this department, and it is really easy to see Michigan initiating drives, getting dudes lost via Beilein wizardry, and raining in death from above. It'll be there to take. Michigan can shoot over Kentucky's guys.
As a bonus, death from above from opposition teams tends to lure Kentucky into a machismo battle—NBA all star game, remember—and causes them to launch up long, contested, terrible shots.
Salt. Jordan Morgan has been one man fighting a horde of giants in this tournament and the road gets no easier tomorrow. He will draw Randle on a number of important possessions, and if he can body up like he did against Stokes Randle is going to have a frustrating night. Meanwhile he has to battle Johnson for defensive rebounds and has an opportunity to clean up on the pick and roll and the offensive boards himself, as Kentucky is generally unfamiliar with the concept of a box out.
Take care of the ball. Generally this goes without saying but after some ugly turnovers from Walton, LeVert, and the team as a whole late in the game, I'm going to say it: Michigan needs one of those four turnover games, not a 13 turnover outing. Fortunately they've drawn a Kentucky team that does not steal the ball, playing without their best steal man.
Michigan by one.
Considering KenPom doesn't take into account the loss of one of UK's most important players, I'd say Michigan has an edge.
They won without him last night. I think they have enough talent to be okay.
But they're still (presumably) better with him than without.
But but but Greg Anthony says UM is better without Mitch McGary so having a key big man out is clearly a benefit???
at the TV when he said that. Pissed me off.
But then I thought: "Who throws a shoe? I mean, really?"
the strategy of relying on getting to the free throw line in this tournament has been suspect at best. Which could only help us!
Need to get one of their top 4 in foul trouble. If we do that I think we're looking good.
With the injury and another guy in foul trouble, I think the other freshman on the floor get the yips. Especially if Death From Above is in full force!
Coach McGary sez: Win the Game!!
This is a good write-up and summation of Kentucky. And it gives a nod to us, which, cool beans. But man, when Kentucky is on, and they have been, they are a tough, tough beat. This could be one for the ages.
This is what I think about when I think of Kentucky:
Has all the looks of a last possession game.
Shoot it! Shoot it!
....and please don't turn the ball over.
Can't wait for tip-off. Going to be a great game. Love watching Coach B move his chess peices around.
Outside of MSU where the fouls to our bigs crushed us early and the Wofford game which was basically a JV team we have had a weird pattern since OSU of almost identical games. Monster start, great shooting, sit at half time and think "we just shot the lights out and played as efficiently on offense as you could ask a NCAA team to, why the heck aren't we up by more...oh yeah defense", early 2nd half decent play, then massive lull in 5 min to 15 min spot in 2nd, then either a frantic finish (OSU, Tenn) or regain form (Texas).
I know a small sample but it's been eerie how a few of these games have been so similar. Not sure why we go to sleep there in the 2nd - maybe because the leads are generally 10-14, we are lulled into complacency and in a 1 and done the other team has more desperation but (a) I doubt we have such a lead this time around and (b) we cannot be asleep for 10 minutes in this game.
On paper this game worries me a lot more than Tenn and Texas because I have Fab 5 tourney run etched in my mind but this time in Kentucky uniforms, but if UK does pull it off, it won't be cheap - they'd have beaten the #1, #2, and #4 (incl their major rival). Everyone is focused on the bigs, but their ability to take guards off the dribble against our "challenged" perimeter defenders is the main worry to me. Morgan will be busy with Randle inside, and asking him to help defense all game when their guards blow by ours is going to be impossible. They have multiple Jordan McRae types.
around here i'd be foolish to say it's a "trend" without actually looking into our propensity to blow big leads, but i'm with you. about 10 mins into the game yesterday i texted my friend: "tenn looks good but we look better. gotta extend this lead so we can do our usual take big lead, give up most of it, pull out a victory anyway thing"
since the fab 5 comparisons keep coming up... a theoretical kentucky run (the real one ends tomorrow) would have to be one of the best ever SOS-wise (using AP ranks). i threw in last year's tourney run just for comparison.
fab 5: temple, e tenn st, #11 oklahoma st, #3 ohio st, #12 cincy, #1 duke
2013 michigan: s dakota st, vcu, #3 kansas, #14 florida, #16 syracuse, #2 lville
theoretical kentucky: kansas st, #2 wichita st, #5 lville, #7 michigan, #4 arizona, #1 florida
Remember, though, that right before that was the apparent trend of start terribly, put together an incredible, unnecessary-feeling comeback, and usually win the game. I think your "small sample" instincts are right.
on the one hand, they are a streaky team of freshmen that doesn't play defense particularly well. OTOH, they have been terrifying in the last 5-10 games.
Again, the X-factor will be extremely similar to the Tennessee game: JMo does work down low, GRIII runs past slower guys, and then make it rain from behind the arc. I could see either team winning by 10.
I really don't think they're that terrifying, unless they suddenly learned to shoot. Wichita wins fairly easily if Kentucky shoots their season average from three instead of 45%, for example. Louisville gave that game away last night.
Two of Louisville's most important players, Harell and Hancock, sat for significant portions of the game because of foul trouble.
Kentucky scares me, but I feel better after reading your preview.
I really hope Michigan is on fire from 3 tomorrow.
Go Blue and let it rain!
was 6'6" not 6'9", oh well, don't know why I thought that.
If we shoot well, I like our chances, will be a great game.
Dumb question of the day - why the heck are Saturday games on TBS rather than CBS. CBS is showing things like a rerun of 2 Broke Girls and paid programming in that time slot. I am boggled by this as I assumed Elite 8 matchups would garner better ratings than rerurns and paid infomercials.
I thought the same. I cut the cord recently but still get basic cable channels in standard def and local channels in HD by plugging into the wall (I live in a complex). I love when games are on CBS so I can get that sweet sweet high definition.
Guess what? Next week's Final Four games are also on TBS, if I'm not mistaken. Stupid, isn't it?!
The thing that I didn't like about the turnovers was that most of them (minus the end of game antics) were unforced turnovers. A lot of levert just losing the ball and Walton throwing it away. Tennessee doesn't usually force a lot of turnovers either and yet we had 13....:
what the cause of the turnovers was. Spike's inbounding was not good as he put guys in bad spots. Caris and Walton seemed to be playing too fast at other times.
This is waaay out there, but could a contributing factor have been that the color of the unis were so similar?
We all thought that the NCAA would have Michigan wear home whites to get the appropriate contrast with Tenn creamsicle orange, but that's not what happened. There's not that much contrast between our maize and their light orange. When you are looking to make a pass in the midst of 10 players moving at high velocity, every little bit of clarity helps.
Again, way out there, but who knows?
Read several times kentucky gets lost in transition D. Im thinking Nik Stauskas transition left wing 3 all day. Go blue, cant wait for tomorrow! !
I predict a Mich McGary surprise appearance to wraastle both Julius Randle and Dakari Johnson at the same time - getting all three of them kicked out of the game.
This is not a knock against kentucky, which is a very talented group and have been playing well the last 3-4 weeks....
but we got this. our offense won't turn the ball over like yesterday (partly b/c UK doesn't force them). They are missing their best defender and are 90% freshman who haven't seen an offense this effecient and a team who can shoot like M. They don't defend the 3 well, don't have much transition D. typical young team, really. They are talented and will surely have a few OMG plays, but it's not like we haven't seen talented teams before. We can get their collective egos to get in a long range shooting contest at times- but we can do that in the context of the offense, they do it in the context of an all star game. they will have a few transition WOW plays and a few great plays in the paint, but I really think we win by 8+ by getting hot and making a couple 8-0 or 11-2 runs, perhaps spurred by a 1-3-1 phase or two on D.
A date with MSU in the title game is really looking like a terrifying possibility for my heart.
Agree on some points, mainly the "HAVOC offense" we run is going to be something that makes a bunch of freshman heads spin. Also when we do rebound I do think we'll get some easy transition looks, probably some open 3s since we seem to prefer those over taking it to the hole (unless its LeVert). And as Brian said we'll see a lot of man to man so that will simplify what to prepare for.
As for turnovers yesterday was strange - until the last few minutes I don't think UT caused much of any. Caris did his usual head scratchers but Walton did a few strange ones where he drove to the basket and seemed to have no place to go with his pass (one went off Morgan's hands but the ther 1-2 I remember just were him not having any place to throw it to). I expect Caris to have 2-3 of those "weird guy" turnovers a game but Walton generally has less/more normal turnovers.
Going to be a fascinating matchup which should be very worthy of Elite 8. Spike is due in one of these games to go off - this would be a fine one to do so!
that is going to confuse a young team like Kentucky. I'm feeling relatively good with Cauley-Stein out. It is a scary match up though because they are athletic.
You left out one key piece of information when you mentioned the MSU game. Injuries. I'm sure Michigan State would have dominated otherwise.
Say all you want last night about the comment RE: McGary, but I think he does have a marginal point. I think the point was, if McGary was going to be out or limited, it did force some of the otherwise younger role players to step up their game. Leadership & talent abhors a vaccum, so we had Stauskas, LeVert, and Walton up their games a bit.
Where I think he screwed up was implying that it was necessarily a net improvement in overall talent/production for the team.
But unlike us w/ McGary's absence, the absence of Kentucky's big man happened literally 24 hours ago. They don't have weeks/months for the younger players to fill the void and adjust to shifting roles in light of his absence. They've got 48 hours.
But who knows? Maybe Johnson somehow represents an instant upgrade, or he has inspired play or something. But you'd think if that were obvious, they would've been giving him more playing minutes from the beginning. Maybe he turns into a beast ala Mitch McGary in last year's tournament run, but I doubt it.
The smart bet here is that the injury leads to a significant downgrade in Kentucky's defensive capabilities.
I forget where, but Nik gave an interview saying just as much. He said early on that Mitch was planned to be the go-to guy, the center of the offense and when he went down, Nik knew someone had to step up to fill the void. A 6-4 start has grown into a 28-8 record and an Elite 8 berth.
And you're right about UK, if WCS was that big a deal to them, they wouldn't have enough time to fill that void of leadership. They may be talented enough to win anyway though
It's mostly the rim protection that WCS provides that' would have been bad for us. Our shots are:
1) Threes
2) GR3 mid-range jumpers
3) Drives
4) Dump offs to Morgan
WCS basically removes #3 and affects #4.
If Mitch had been healthy all year I think LeVert would have been more of a 4th option and Morgan somewhere between last year's Morgan and what we currently have. I think Nik would have exploded either way.
The first 10 games of the year we were starting Horford mostly over Mitch (no offense to Horford), Mitch was playing at X%, a freshman PG was running a complex offense for the first time at this level, Caris was going from 2 pts per game and 10 minutes a game 8th man to starter, and we had 2 returning starters essentially. With our entire backcourt in the NBA. There was going to be a learning curve with or without Mitch in terms of roles and getting Walton to run the team.
Expectations for this team coming into the year were that Mitch and GR3 were going to be the 2 leaders and then everyone else would grow into the roles even if we had been completely healthy, and it would have taken time to gel together as it was still only 3 returning starters and all those guys were SOPHOMORES. What they have accomplished without Mitch is almost surreal.
in the context of UK's players an insignificant difference--save perhaps depth
Do we go big and play LeVert at the 1 and Morgan at the 4 and Horford at the 5 at times?
Our advantage is speed. Playing that lineup would be playing into their hands because they'd become superior athletically and be better at every one of those positions. Play them just like UT but less turnovers.
We're probably going to have to at some point. The GRIII/Randle matchup is a mismatch on both sides, but Kentucky is better set-up to take advantage of it than we are (they already run much of their offense through Randle).
I think our guards will scratch down to help GR3 I'm not too worried about the post ups. I'm more worried about his rebounding.
NEVER. Beilein hasn't tried it even once this year--for a very good reason--they simply cannot not play together. We do what we do. We will try to make UK adjust to us--not vice versa.
That's what's going to be nice about having Donnal next year. Big body to play the post, and can still stretch the floor.
Avoided Kenpom and picked us to win. I think I finally got through to this boy.
Kenpom has us by 1. Brian predicted exactly what Kenpom did, as always.
I have a feeling that this is going to be the game where get out of our 2nd half funk. I think they will cut down on turnovers and continue the pattern of beating down these "stronger, bigger, physical teams".
second half funks have emerged this season. Last year the problem was slow starts.
to get some transition 3s and we won't give up many fouls- they will have to work to get their points. If Randle doesn't go beast mode, I think we win it. GO BLUE


text:
A floral fruity fragrance that captures absolute femininity of a modern women. The heart is enriched with the elegance of orris and jasmine along with refined notes of magnolia and rose. The trail evokes an intense sensuality with precious amber, musk, vanilla and softwoods.
Top Notes: Apricot, Freesia, Green Apple, Orange Blossom
Heart Notes: Magnolia, Orris, Rose, Jasmine
Base Notes: Musk, Softwoods, Vanilla, Amber
FREE Delivery for orders over £40 within England, Wales and some Scottish postal codes*
Postage charge of £3.95 will be applicable for orders less than £40
*Exclusions apply
This product has not been reviewed yet.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Exploring space is in again, with heavy hitters like Elite Dangerous paving the way for a surprising variety of star exploration, trading, and dogfighting games. These games tend to come with a steep learning curve, shoving players out into a vast and seemingly empty universe without a clue. Such games are fixated on their sheer imposing level of freedom, but at the expense of playability and personality.
Rebel Galaxy, however, isn't like these other games. It's chock-full of personality and easy to get into. Catering to the dreams of devil-may-care space jockeys in the classic golden age style of sci-fi, it sucks you in from the start, providing plenty of guidance without sacrificing a sense of freedom and, more importantly, fun.
Rebel Galaxy is totally centered around indulging the fantasy of being Han Solo (before he got suckered into joining those obnoxious rebels) or Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Joss Whedon's Firefly. The overall plot revolves around a mysterious message to meet your long lost mercenary aunt at some seedy, backwater space station. She's given you an old rust bucket to get you moving, but is long gone by the time you actually arrive.
From there, it's clear your ship needs work, weapons, and upgrades, which all require money. Thankfully, the galaxy is ripe with backwater space stations, all brimming with product to buy and sell, bartenders with loose lips, missions to take on, and, of course, people to kill.
How you earn your money is entirely your business. You can opt to take the high road and just stick to legal goods, paying attention to the markets and tips to buy stock cheap and sell high. Or you can take the really low road. Rebel Galaxy lets you jump right into the black market, buying and selling organs, weapons, and, shall we say, "unwilling" human and alien labor (which is practically a genre trope at this point. Slaves are illegal, of course, but that only means the profits are potentially greater.
Related: I'm a Virtual Human Trafficker in 'Elite: Dangerous'
Rebel Galaxy lives up to its name in every sense of the word. Thrusting you into a vibrant space with competing factions, vicious pirates and a thriving and constantly changing economy, the game manages to feel accessible and involving even if you've never played a space game before. Part of the reason for this is the simplified means of travel. You control your ship purely on a flat plain, as if it were adrift in a literal sea of stars as opposed to the vacuum of space. There's no up and down movement to worry about.
This works fantastically. The controls and combat are modeled after sea-faring ships from games like Assassin's Creed Black Flag. You circle your opponents, lining up your side cannons to unleash a massive barrage of destruction, while thrusting and maneuvering to stay away from their broadsides. There are auto-turrets, tons of ship customizations, and a wide array of weapon choices—if you have the cash to afford them. Combat is intense fun, with a distinctive flavor.
Even outside of combat there's always something to do in Rebel Galaxy. Everywhere you go, someone has something that they're will to pay you money for, and the available missions change based on your choices and the faction you end up aligning with. Players interested in becoming the scourge of the spaceways, for instance, will find numerous opportunities to hitch their space wagon with the Red Devil Cartel.
Join these scurrilous space criminals and play through the entire game as a pirate—at the expense of your relationship with the the other factions (the Militia and Citizenry). The benefit of joining a faction is multifaceted. Join the Devils, and pirate craft will assist you in combat. You'll be allowed to dock at Pirate stations and get pirate specific ships, weapons, and equipment. There's even a whole chain of missions that only trigger if you are "pirate friendly".
Granted, the same goes for all three factions. The factions you're friendly with not only determines not only the stations you can dock at, but also has an influence over your conversation options with ships of that faction. This is especially important because you can actually hail other ships in space, even during combat.
No matter what your style of play is, be it serious trader, illegal smuggler, pirate, assassin, or just trying to be as Han Solo as possible, Rebel Galaxy will accommodate you. It's a beautiful mix of freedom, narration, and style creating a sense of space that fits our illusions of what we wish it might be like—a wild west of opportunity and adventure. So, while it's not as vast or deep as Elite, the focus on characters, atmosphere, and sheer flavor mark Rebel Galaxy as a memorable and unique flight of fancy.
Jason D'Aprile has been covering games and entertainment for the last three decades across a variety of platforms, many of which are now extinct. In addition to covering gaming (both obscure and otherwise), he also writes a bit of the odd fiction and tries hard to avoid social media.
RELATED: Gamer Next Door Pamela Horton Has a Deadly Best Friend in 'Fallout 4'


text:
Apple isn't pulling any punches in its litigation with Samsung.
Last week, a German Court granted Apple an injunction preventing sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 device in Germany and all other EU countries except for the Netherlands. A few days later, the injunction was scaled back and made applicable only in Germany as it remained questionable whether or not the German Court's jurisdiction over the Korean-based company extended beyond German borders. So while Samsung gets a temporary reprieve from the injunction, a final hearing on the matter is scheduled to take place on August 25th and the injunction may be put back into effect.
Unfortunately for Samsung, the August 25th hearing may be the least of their worries.
Apple recently filed a new complaint against Samsung in the Netherlands that seeks to ban the import of all Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Not only that, but Apple's complaint seeks to prevent allegedly infringing Samsung products already in the channel from being sold to consumers. And going one step further, Apple wants Samsung to reimburse distributors and retailers for costs incurred in shipping said products back to Korea.
Driving the point home, Apple also wants Samsung to inform resellers that if they continue to store, offer or sell any Galaxy smartphones or tablets that they are infringing upon Apple's intellectual property rights.
Apple's latest suit against Samsung is undeniably far more encompassing than any of Apple's previous actions in Europe. Whereas Apple's previous legal filings in Europe have focused on design aesthetics, their most recent complaint includes alleged patent infringement violations as well.
But wait, there's more!
Apple's lawsuit also includes non-Galaxy branded Samsung devices such as the Google-branded Nexus S and the Samsung Gio.
Apple is clearly going all-in here and is throwing all of its legal weight behind its efforts to get Samsung to, you know, come up with something original.
ComputerWorld, who first broke the story, adds:
"If this injunction is granted it could have 'significant implications' for the European market for smartphones and tablet, said Canalys' Edwards. "This is a very big threat to Samsung, because basically their whole European supply chain will be broken," he said.
Edwards believes a possible injunction could have an enormous impact on the market. "This could mean it's almost game over for Samsung in Europe," he said, noting that Samsung in the last year has rapidly overtaken Apple in shipments in the smartphone market in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and is currently closing in on market leader Nokia.
A ruling on Apple's motion will be heard at The Hague on September 15. Judge Edger Brinkman has previously stated that even if an injunction is in order, one would not go into effect before October 13.
Apple first sued Samsung in the US this past April in a case that's still on-going. We'll have an update on that particular proceeding tomorrow.


text:
Call us 7 days a week
Supco Motors Are Used For Moter And Power Transmission Applications.
Supco Motors have a cast aluminum housing up to 16 watts to provide long lasting durability. Most motors are designed to meet or exceed OEM specifications. Available styles include Condensor Motor, Motor Kit, Refrigerator Evaporator Fan Motor, Thermally Protected Utility Motor, Universal Motor, Utility Motor, and Vent Hood Motor. Universal mounting, threaded mounting holes, sleeve bearings, permanent lubrication and overload protection provides optimum performance. Hardware included. UL® Approved. Dimensions vary per model.


text:
> > If you were to query either > > one of these documents, then you'd be querying RDF, not a > "completed" > > graph with extra inferences. I certainly haven't seen anything to > > suggest that a query implementation should be able to perform > > inferencing, and I certainly don't see anything in the BRQL > spec to try > > to get this to happen. > > Firstly - I'm not arguing for one way or another. You are > assuming I am > advocating a position. I undertook to write some test cases > for points I > thought needed answering. > > I agree that the query system accesses a graph without regard > to inference. > I think this should be a headline principle of our work. > > It happens to lead to ?src = <a1/a2.rdf> in each case which > seems like the > natural answer. So far so good. I don't understand what you're saying here. I totally dig on your first example, which just involved aggregation. Yes there's an issue when a statement has multiple sources, and yes it needs to be addressed. I was trying to avoid addressing that problem--inferencing is quite orthogonal. Thus I take issue with the very notion of your second and third examples, because they both assume a very big piece of functionality (inferencing) that I don't think anyone is expecting to be in a query processor. > Yes. This is one of my worries about quads - that it is an incomplete > solution without chaining. There is a reasonable position to > take that only > the last step in the chain matters because publishing a statement is > undertaking it to be true. Hence, only quads are needed. > I'd just like to > be sure of this if the WG decides that way. I think the general solution to this problem is that the fourth element of each quad is simple a unique identifier for the statement. You can then use a regular triple with that identifier as its subject to tack whatever information you want on to that identifier. You can use multiple triples, and since roles don't need to be functional, you can have multiple values for the same thing. Eg: :Rob :worksFor :NetworkInference :Statement1 :Statement1 :assertedBy :Rob It can be argued that you don't really want that statement identifier to be relevent. What matters is that you're talking about the triple involving Rob, worksFor, and NetworkInference. If this triple ever appears again (and RDF is built such that such an event should be mundane and tolerable) then it would be a little nasty if it got a completely different identifier. For example, if both Rob and Network Inference asserted the same thing, what you want is: :Rob :worksFor :NetworkInference :Statement1 :Statement1 :assertedBy :Rob :Rob :worksFor :NetworkInference :Statement1 :Statement1 :assertedBy :NetworkInference And an aggregation system would probably do something like: :Rob :worksFor :NetworkInference :Statement1 :Statement1 :assertedInDocument :RobsBusinessCard.rdf :RobsBusinessCard.rdf :endorsedBy :Rob :RobsBusinessCard.rdf :printedOn 2004-03-01^^xsd:date :Statement1 :assertedInDocument :NIEmployeeListing.rdf :NIEmployeeListing.rdf :endorsedBy :NetworkInference :NIEmployeeListing.rdf :currentAsOf 2004-08-26^^xsd:date My understanding was that RDF was *supposed* to have a reification system such that you could actually talk about the "Rob worksFor NI" triple as a bNode (even assigning it an explicit identifier such as Statement1 if you liked). If that worked, then these SOURCE things could really be exposed in the pure RDF model (even if many implementations stored them in some more efficient format, like quads or chained quads).Received on Thursday, 26 August 2004 22:50:56 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Wednesday, 7 January 2015 15:00:44 UTC


text:
John's Surprise Party Jacket from Mickey Mantle's Restaurant, 3 Signed Baseballs.
Lot 63. John's Surprise Party Jacket from Mickey Mantle's Restaurant, 3 Signed Baseballs. These items represent two birthday parties for the Yankees' hurler. A size large unsigned jacket from "Mickey Mantle's" (Restaurant) is embroidered on the front with "Surprise!!! 46th Birthday Party for Tommy John, May 22, 1989." Mantle's logo is on the front and back. The three baseballs, from a 1988 birthday party, are autographed to "Tommy" by Jack Clark, Rick Rhoden and Dave Righetti. The signatures, mint 9 to gem mint 10 authenticated by Kevin Keating, are on the side panels of nm OAL Bobby Brown baseballs. The Righetti-signed ball shows light discoloration. Clark wrote, "From '1' great to another, Happy Birthday." The ball is dated 1988. Also included is a Yankees cap signed on the underside of the bill by John. His signature displays as nm 7 to nm-m 8 against the dark background.
Winning Bid $168.
Back to List
Winning Bid $168
Back to List


text:
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
Sweet Olive Mediterranean Grill in Richmond, VA on West Broad St.
Sorry we couldn't complete your registration. Please try again.
Please enter your email to finish creating your account.
Receive a personalized list of podcasts based on your preferences.


text:
Hallet, Martin (1997) National and regional development in Central and Eastern Europe: implications for EU structural assistance. Economic Papers No. 120, March 1997. [EU Commission - Working Document]
|PDF - Published Version
Download (127Kb) | Preview
Eastern enlargement is generally assumed not to take place before the year 2000, with a first accession of at least some of the 10 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) that have association agreements with the European Union (EU). In spite of uncertainties about the time and scope of enlargement, it is not premature to start reflecting on EU structural assistance to CEECs. One reason is that all external assistance has - wanted or not - a regional impact as it is allocated to certain locations and therefore requires some decisions on priority regions and activities. Second, preaccession aid to CEECs should be designed in a way that allows a smooth switch-over from existing funds (such as PHARE) to the Structural Funds in order to facilitate accession. This means not only to adjust pre-accession aid to the Structural Funds, but may also require - in the opposite direction - to prepare the Structural Funds for the CEECs. Whatever the modalities of transition will be, it is clear that sooner or later there will have to be an equal treatment of old and new Member States after a certain period. This paper will proceed as follows. After summarising briefly the national development gap of the CEECs relative to the EU (section 2), a more comprehensive view will be taken on the CEECs' regions (section 3). Section 4 presents some theoretical considerations on whether priority should be given to national or to regional development policy. Section 5 discusses several implications for EU structural assistance. Section 6 summarises and concludes.
|EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII (Chicago style) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
|Social Networking:
Share |
|Item Type:
|EU Commission - Working Document
|Subjects for non-EU documents:
|Subjects for EU documents:
|External Relations > Relations with regional entities > East-Central Europe
|EU Series and Periodicals:
|ECONOMIC AND FINANCE:Economic Papers
|EU Annual Reports:
|Depositing User:
|Phil Wilkin
|Official EU Document:
|Date Deposited:
|16 Jul 2012 08:49
|Number of Pages:
|Last Modified:
|04 Jun 2014 16:18
Actions (login required)
|View Item


text:
The Juneau Assembly delayed voting on a measure to increase taxes on cruise ships to pay for future waterfront projects on Monday night after facing strong opposition from cruise line operators.
The Assembly voted unanimously to send the controversial proposal to its Committee of the Whole, which will take up the matter at its Feb. 9 meeting. The tax increase then will go to a public hearing at the Assembly's first regular meeting in March.
The proposed tax increase would raise the city's current port development fee of 18 cents-per-day, per-passenger by one dollar in 2005 and 2006. If their cruise ships docked or lightered in a Juneau harbor, cruise lines would pay an additional $2 per day.
At present, cruise line passengers pay the city a $5 per-passenger fee.
The Juneau Docks and Harbors Board charges the cruise lines fees for lighting, dock access and other cruise ship services. The proposal to increase the port development fee would generate an estimated $900,000 in 2005 and $950,000 in 2006, city officials said.
The city's recently approved waterfront plan is expected to cost much more, and could require other funding sources as well. The project includes a dock extension, a sea walk along the harbor and new green spaces in downtown Juneau.
In a memo sent Monday, Mayor Bruce Botelho told the Assembly that he agreed, at the end of recent discussions with cruise ship industry representatives in Seattle, to consider increasing the port development fee by one dollar in 2005 and 2006 but leave the fee structure in later years undefined.
But Botelho said he was "comfortable" with designating future fees because, although the city hasn't defined specific costs in the waterfront plan, "we do know that there are multimillion-dollar projects that are high priorities and that will be used by cruise ship passengers."
Representatives from Princess Tours, Cruise West, the North West Cruiseship Association and Royal Caribbean objected to setting fees for projects that haven't been defined yet. They also said that the proposal didn't allow enough input from industry.
"It's a huge departure from industry-community relations," said Don Habeger, director of government and community relations for Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises.
Chris Wyatt, executive director of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, said her board hasn't looked at the proposal but the chamber supports a more collaborative approach.
Tourism industry representatives did not raise any objections to specific proposals in the waterfront plan.
Mike Windred, director of operations for Alaska Travel Adventures, said, "As a taxpayer ... just raising money for the sake of raising money .. I have an issue with that."
He said the city hasn't used about $2 million from the current fees on the cruise industry.
Assembly member Marc Wheeler proposed delaying action on the tax increase to allow the committee of a whole to take a look at it.
"These are pretty difficult issues and may take a while to resolve," he said.
Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
© 2018. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


text:
Katrina Kaif's unseen hot-photoshoot
Katrina Kaif has been a sensation in tinsel town, ever since she stepped into Bollywood. Today, she is one of the most beautiful women and a top actress in the industry.
In early 2000, she graced the cover of Cine Blitz in a bikini. She was among the top models, before making a debut in the flop Boom in 2003.
1/ 3
Katrina Kaif has been a sensation in tinsel town, ever since she stepped into Bollywood. Today, she is one of the most beautiful women and a top actress in the industry.
From a VJ to an item girl: Malaika Arora Khan's hottest pics! Unseen sexy photohoot of Malaika Arora Khan
Katrina Kaif sets temperatures soaring with her latest photoshoot The actress has featured in a leading magazine
Katrina's Boom days! Old picture of Katrina Kaif
Unseen pics: When Bollywood actors went behind the camera! From Aamir Khan to Shilpa Shetty, tried their hands behind the camera
Starkids, look away! Embarrassing pics of B-town's dads Pics that will embarrass starkids Shraddha Kapoor, Suraj Pancholi and Tiger Shroff
The long legged beauty: Katrina Kaif Here is why Katrina Kaif should be crowned for her lovely legs
Unseen: When Katrina Kaif didn't mind exposing! Shocking pics of the actress during her early days in Bollywood
Priyanka from her modelling days Rare pictures of the Gunday actress
Tag: katrina kaifs unseen hotphotoshoot, katrina kaif, unseen photoshoot katrina kaif, katrina kaif bikini, katrina kaif hot, katrina kaif modelling days, katrina kaif news, katrina kaif pics, katrina kaif photos, katrina kaif pictures, katrina, katrina kaif photoshoot, bollywood
By Team Biscoot | Apr 28,2014,09:44 AM IST | Views 136614
Trending Now
Top Stories
Danny Boyle personally wished Harshvardhan Kapoor for 'Mirzya' The director really liked the trailer
Shahid's brother Ishaan to make his debut in Majid Majidi's next The young actor will be launched by the Oscar-nominated director
Check out this secret detail in The Girl on The Train The film is adapted by a novel
Aamir Khan breaks his rule for the launch of Dangal The actor will release the trailer before Diwali
Take a look at Deepika's mesmerizing photo shoot for Tanishq She is the brand ambassador for the jewellery
Take a look at these best-dressed B-town beauties of the week These fashionistas have mesmerized us withe each appearances


text:
I am very new and I am trying to figure out if when I create a post it can also appear under my a page as well. Ex. if I post a recipe can it also appear under my bulletproof section as a new entry? Thanks still trying to figure this stuff out...ty
The blog I need help with is adventuresintheuncommon.wordpress.com.


text:
NFL Skinny: Week 16 Rankings Preview
Thinking ahead is a necessity in fantasy football. By the conclusion of Monday night, owners need to immediately turn their thoughts to roster maintenance so as to account for the ever-changing NFL landscape. Injuries, depth chart fluctuations and upcoming matchups need to be mulled in an effort to determine which players should be added, dropped, benched and/or started in the week ahead. The Skinny will strive to paint an early picture of what you can expect in the coming week of NFL action. The player rankings below are subject to change based on news developments and my constant scrutiny as we move towards the kickoff of Week 16. But, at least, the Skinny represents a best-guess starting point for owners to consult as they begin their week of roster preparation.
Editor's Note: This is the final week for the Skinny in '13, but look for Yahoo! position rankings to be live by Tuesday, December 24 in Week 17, where my rankings will be listed along with the other four Yahoo! fantasy experts. Thanks for following along with me in this space this season, and best of luck with your fantasy championship matchups. Cheers!
Most FPPG allowed: DAL; MIN; JAC; OAK; TB — Least FPPG allowed: SEA; CAR; SF; NO; TEN
Most FPPG allowed: DAL; TEN; WAS; CHI; STL — Least FPPG allowed: ARI; CAR; SEA; BAL; CIN
Most FPPG allowed: PHI; MIN; DET; SDG; BUF — Least FPPG allowed: SEA; TEN; CAR; HOU; SF
Most FPPG allowed: ARI; JAC; MIN; WAS; MIA — Least FPPG allowed: PHI; KC; DET; STL; SF
Most FPPG allowed: NYG; NYJ; HOU; WAS; OAK — Least FPPG allowed: KC; DAL; CAR; NO; SD


text:
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Silent Sunday...God Speaks
5 comments:
I hear it in French and in the sound of silence. This is just BEAUTIFUL MY LOVELY FRIEND! AnitaReplyDelete
What a beautiful line and never been so true!ReplyDelete
Enjoy your day!
Lovely thoughts this Sunday Elizabeth...hope you are well. Thanks for your comments, I am have been remiss in catching up. A postcard is on it's way...:)ReplyDelete
Best wishes for a lovely week!!
Jeanne xx
A wonderful quote and a wonderful thought! Have a great day!ReplyDelete
Thank you Elizabeth for your lovely comment...have a wonderful week,ReplyDelete
Sarah -x-
Thank you for coming to visit Pine Cones and Acorns. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Although I try to come to visit every blog that comments sometimes I just do not get the chance, but I do try to comment here.


text:
Welcome! Register and reunite with old friends and classmates, and share memories by posting pictures or sharing stories of your old friends.
Recent Members
Military Alumni
Honoring Our Heroes
This area is dedicated to our alumni that have served or are serving in our armed forces!
Lost Class Rings
Have you lost your Captain Shreve High School class ring? Have you found someone's class ring? Visit our Gators lost class ring page to search for your class ring or post information about a found ring.
Alumni Newsletters
Gators Wall
View, post and comment on photo's and events with your classmates!
Classmates Spotlight
Tameka Williams
Captain Shreve High School Class Reunions
Alumni Stories
Read and submit stories about our classmates from Captain Shreve High School, post achievements and news about our alumni, and post photos of our fellow Gators.
School News
LSU, TCU and New Orleans Saints books
Hello Gators!


text:
Honda introduced its subcompact Civic to the world in 1973. The pocket-sized Japanese import putted along with a petite engine rated at just 50 horsepower, but nothing more substantial was needed to pull around a curb weight of just 1,500 pounds. Critics scoffed, but the diminutive coupe was fun to drive, and its economy and practicality struck just the right notes for buyers facing 1973's oil crisis.
Now, more than 40 years later, Honda has introduced its tenth-generation Civic, and customer expectations are fundamentally the same, though safety and comfort are deemed almost as crucial to the purchase decision as fuel efficiency, utility, and spirited road manners. Not only has the bar been significantly raised in the Civic's compact segment, there are now more than a dozen other challengers from North America, Asia, and Europe.
For our first look at the all-new 2016 Honda, we headed to Southern California to drive the four-door sedan.
Design, Comfort and Utility
The tenth-generation Civic is a real looker — a positive start after several misses from the styling department over the past few generations. Most prominent at first glance is Honda's signature front fascia, an aggressive nose with an expanse of brightwork (complemented by full LED lighting on premium trims). The side pillars are blackened, visually increasing the size of the greenhouse, and the exterior mirrors are mounted on the doors at the base of the A-pillar. The rear is unexpectedly aggressive — the shallow-sloped backlight almost mimics the silhouette of a five-door hatchback — with sharply styled tail lamps and strong character lines. Oddly, in an era when exposed pipes project power, Honda has chosen to hide the Civic's exhaust tips beneath the rear fascia.
Completely redesigned from tip to tail, the compact sedan, says Honda, is no longer a boring "economy vehicle" but is instead a "premium sedan." Compared to its predecessor, the 2016 model arrives with a lower roofline (by 0.8 in.), shorter hood (by 1.2 in.), a longer trunk (by 3.0 in.), and a stretched wheelbase (by 1.2 in.) and overall length (by 2.9 in.). The result is a pleasantly aggressive look and the largest passenger cabin in its class.
The interior looks great too, its appointments clearly elevating the sedan a few notches up on the premium scale. I was pleased to see that Honda has ditched its multi-level instrument cluster in exchange for a much more traditional, yet still modern, layout. Primary instrumentation is a mix of digital and analog on premium models and includes a coolant temperature gauge, tachometer, and fuel level gauge (left to right). There is a digital speedometer in the center, set just above a color multifunction display. The dash overall is easy to read, but the temperature and fuel gauges need larger needles; their indicators get lost in the glare and bright plastic trim, and it took more than a passing glance to decipher them.
The Civic might qualify as a compact car, but I didn't have to squeeze my six-foot two-inch frame into the driver's seat, which never cramped my comfort over hours of driving. Overall fit and finish is excellent, and all of the touchpoints are pleasing to the eyes and fingertips (the faux stitching on the dashboard is a nice touch). I dropped my plus-size frame into the second row and was accommodated in comfort equal to the first-class passengers, though the door panel trim materials felt harder and cheaper back there in coach.
The transmission lever (PRNDSL) is mounted on the center console, as has been tradition for decades, with a new electronically actuated parking brake switch to its left. While that arrangement does take up a fair amount of real estate, the "Tech Center Console" (Honda's nomenclature) beneath the sliding armrest offers plenty of space and options for electronic connectivity.
In terms of luggage capacity, the rear decklid's hinges do drop into the cargo space, but only minimally, and the opening is wide for easier loading. The rear seats split 60:40 and fall forward and out of the way to increase capacity, but only on premium trims (levers inside the trunk make this an easy process).
Technology and Innovation
The 2016 Honda Civic Sedan is more advanced, at least in computer power, than the rockets that took men to the moon — and much safer.
Honda will initially offer five different trim levels (LX, EX, EX-T, EX-L, and Touring). Base LX models arrive with cloth upholstery and a full complement of power equipment, including automatic climate control, automatic headlights, and LED running and tail lights. At the other end of the spectrum sits the all-new Touring model — the flagship Civic sedan — boasting leather upholstery, HondaSensing safety technology, LED headlights, heated rear seats, a 450-watt audio package, and Garmin-based navigation.
This segment's shoppers demand technology and connectivity to their mobile devices, so Honda is offering the Civic with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto — both connect via a USB port conveniently located beneath the head unit and console. A 7-inch color capacitive touchscreen, set prominently in the center stack, controls navigation, phone, audio, vehicle information, settings, and more. New technology to the Civic lineup aimed to help ease routine owner chores includes cap-less refueling, tire fill assist, and a maintenance reminder system.
Under the Hood
Honda is launching the Civic Sedan with two new all-aluminum dual-overhead engines — the automaker's first four-cylinder DOHC offerings since the beloved S2000 was retired in 2009.
Standard trims (EX and LX) arrive with a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four with multi-point fuel injection that puts out 158 horsepower at 6500 rpm and 138 pound-feet of torque at 4200 rpm. Premium models (EX-T, EX-L, and Touring) are fitted with a turbocharged 1.5-liter four with direct fuel injection. Running up to 16.5 psi of boost, the engine delivers 174 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 162 pound-feet of torque from 1700-5500 rpm. Both engines run smoothly and deliver power almost all the way to redline (6700 rpm on the 2.0; 6500 rpm on the 1.5), but the turbocharged engine is my top choice. It's a jewel of a powerplant, boasting sodium-filled valves, a liquid-cooled integrated exhaust manifold, and dual exhaust pipes.
If you want to change gears the old-fashioned way, the only opportunity is with the base LX. Its 2.0-liter is mated to a slick-shifting 6-speed manual gearbox, while all other trims are fitted with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), featuring Drive, Sport, and Low modes. Honda isn't pulling the wool over anyone's eyes with faux gear ratios on the belted transmission — there are no paddle shifters or manual modes.
Fuel economy figures haven't been released, but the 2.0-liter 6MT model's mpg ratings should be 27 city/40 mpg highway; the 2.0-liter CVT models are expected to earn 31 city/41 highway. The 1.5-liter turbocharged model promises 31 city/42 highway, slightly improving upon its naturally aspirated sibling, but my real-world experience says the more powerful model will be slightly less efficient because of dipping into the boost more often.
On the Road
I spent the better part of a full day driving the Civic Sedan in the Santa Monica Mountains and along the Pacific Coast just west of Malibu. The terrain varied between rolling hills, steep grades, challenging corners and flat highways — a wonderful range of roads to properly wring out a vehicle. Regardless of the challenge, the Honda never left me disappointed.
Ride quality is very good, and the suspension also absorbs bumps, bashes, and the raised ceramic Bott's dots with effortless calm. Considering the Civic's segment and price point, I was surprised at how physically isolated we were from the turmoil of the road. Many sedans costing double aren't as competent. There's so little wind noise or engine clamor — my ears suspect best in segment — that rumble from the all-season tires does permeate the cabin, especially over pavement with coarse aggregate, but that is expected.
Acceleration is best described as "leisurely" with the standard 2.0-liter, and "spirited" with the turbocharged 1.5-liter. Both engines spin willingly to redline with smooth power delivery (there was a familiarity to the powerplants that kept reminding me of the days when Honda's engines were second to none). There is an expected four-cylinder buzz (not be confused with physical vibration), but the forced induction engine is less abrasive to the ears (the turbocharger muffles some of the less pleasant sounds from the exhaust note), and its power made it much easier to pass slower cars on mountain grades.
The CVT deserves an individual call-out because it didn't draw profanities from my mouth — nearly every CVT leaves me cursing. I'm not a fan of this type of transmission as the driver can't really tell how hard the engine is working, or how much power is left in reserve, but sometimes an automaker gets the hardware's software right. Honda has.
Handling isn't sporty — those weren't the design objectives — but it isn't sloppy, either. Zipping through the canyons is pleasant and . . . well, not unsatisfying, as body roll is well controlled, even when the sedan is pushed hard, but the electrically-assisted steering lacks the tactile feedback and engagement of a sports sedan. G-forces push around the chassis, but little of that movement is felt through the steering wheel. Tire howl is the tune, and understeer is the dance, when the Civic Sedan is pushed to its limits.
The Final Verdict
Once, not long ago, it was easy to dismiss this segment's cars as boring, bland, and uninspiring compact appliances with little appeal to those who wanted a fair dose of cabin comfort and respectable ride quality. The 2016 Honda Civic Sedan put a big smile on my face after a full day of driving. Reaching up and borrowing the playbook from the premium midsize segment resulted in a more accomplished chassis, two extraordinary engines, a host of premium appointments and passenger accommodations that make occupants feel welcome and not just along for the ride. Honda had better clear some space on its trophy shelves; the all-new Civic Sedan is likely to win more than a few awards.
For more information, options, and pricing, please visit our 2016 Honda Civic Sedan page on AutoWeb's search and configure site.
[Photography ©2015 Honda]


text:
Saturday, July 2, 2011
How Does Historic Premillennialism Differ from Dispensational Premillennialism?
With this post I want to address how Historic Premillennialism differs from Dispensational Premillennialism. I have found that there is some confusion on this matter. Sometimes at the beginning of my eschatology classes I'll ask the students, "What are the main issues that separate Historic Premillennialism and Dispensational Premillennialism?" More often than not, there is no clear understanding on this. The problem is not with them but with an overall lack of clarity on this issue.
Recently, there was a book published, A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology (Baker, 2009). A compilation of scholars presented the case for Historic Premillennialism and a case against pre-tribulationism often associated with Dispensationalism. Although there were some helpful chapters in the book, there was no clear explanation of how Historic Premillennialism (hereafter HP) differs specifically from Dispensational Premillennialism (hereafter DP). If one thing came through it was that HP does not hold to a pre-trib rapture. But that's not good enough when it comes to distinguishing the two camps since the timing of the rapture is not the primary issue that separates HP from DP. There are some dispensationalists who are post-trib too. So we need to dig deeper on this one.
There are three major beliefs that I believe separate HP from all forms of DP:
First, historic premillennialists believe in New Testament priority in which the New Testament interprets/reinterprets the OT. As the leading HP proponent, George Ladd has stated:
The Old Testament must be interpreted by the New Testament. In principle it is quite possible that the prophecies addressed originally to literal Israel describing physical blessings have their fulfillment exclusively in the spiritual blessings enjoyed by the church. It is also possible that the Old Testament expectation of a kingdom on earth could be reinterpreted by the New Testament altogether of blessings in the spiritual realm.[1]
No dispensationalist would affirm this statement of Ladd since all dispensationalists reject the hermeneutic of "reinterpretation" and affirm that the meaning of all passages in the Bible is found in the authorial intent of all the Bible authors, including those of the OT. Dispensationalists reject the hermeneutic of reinterpretation because they don't believe that New Testament passages override or transcend the meaning of earlier passages of Scripture.
Second, historic premillennialists believe the church is the new Israel. Ladd asserted that the church is now the new "spiritual Israel."[2] Millard Erickson, too, holds that the church is the new Israel: "To sum up then: the church is the new Israel. It occupies the place in the new covenant that Israel occupied in the old." [3]
Dispensationalists, on the other hand, do not see the church as replacing or fulfilling national Israel. They assert that all references to "Israel" in the New Testament are references to ethnic Jews or believing ethnic Jews (see Gal. 6:16).
Third, unlike dispensationalists, historic premillennialists do not believe in a future restoration of national Israel. Historic premillennialists like George Ladd have affirmed a salvation of ethnic Israel but this salvation is viewed as incorporation into the Church. This salvation is different from the concept of restoration in which Israel is saved as a national entity with a role to play to other nations in the future. Thus, historic premillennialists often believe in a salvation of Israel but not a restoration of national Israel.
Dispensationalists, on the other hand, believe in both a salvation and restoration of national Israel. Israel is saved and then restored to a position of prominence and service to the other nations on the earth. The coming millennium is also a time when God will fulfill all aspects of the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New covenants with Israel and the nations.
There are other differences but I believe these are the three main issues that separate HP from DP.
On a final note, sometimes I read or hear statements that HP and Progressive Dispensationalism are very close cousins with no major differences between them. But I believe the three points above show that there are major points of difference between HP and Progressive Dispensationalism.
[1] George E. Ladd, "Revelation 20 and the Millennium," Review and Expositor 57 (1960): 167. Emphasis mine.)
[2] George Eldon Ladd, "Historic Premillennialism," in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, ed. Robert G. Clouse (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1977), 25.
[3] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 1053.


text: On Thu, 18 Nov 1999 14:19:27 -0500, Neil McKenna <nmckenna at ottawa.com> wrote: > > >"Hélène" wrote: >> >> Hi, I would like to know wath is the shelf life for sterile glassware. > > >As long as you don't open them, forever. If nothing can get in, nothing >can contaminate it. Glass gets brittle with age. Microscopic cracks from and plastic flow cause the bottom to thicken. You might notice some degradition in 50 years if you measured carefully. Gordon Gordon Couger Stillwater OK. www.couger.com/gcouger Remove the nospam from my return address


text:
|You are here: Home Index » Actors » Mark McKinney
|Please log in or Register here
Mark McKinney
Promoting media: pictures, videos, wallpapers, quotes, bio, filmography.
|Known for:
|The Saddest Music in the World, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, Superstar
|Birth name:
|Mark Douglas Brown McKinney
|26 June 1959, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
|5' 11" (1.80 m)
Free Pictures of Mark McKinney. Click here to see them >>>
Free Image Hosting - Upload your favorite celebrity pictures.
TriviaSon, Christopher Thomas Russell McKinney, born March 4, 1996. Daughter, Emma Jane McKinney born in July of 2001. Is the tallest member of the Kids in the Hall, being one inch taller than Scott Thompson and Kevin McDonald. Is the most verbally versatile member of the "The Kids in the Hall" (1988) troupe.


text:
Every day Mussa travels from his Tel Aviv neighborhood, which is mostly populated with African refugees like himself, to a private school. There he plays soccer, reads, and writes in Hebrew but only communicates with his friends, teachers, and family through gestures. At the end of the day, Mussa returns to his tiny apartment and waits for his mother to return from work, left alone with his voiceless thoughts and the fear of meeting the same fate as many of his friends – deportation back to Ethiopia.
Join us in the Passholder Lounge at L'Aroma Cafe after the West Newton Screening (11/20).
Screening as part of the Cummings Social Justice Film Series+ More... - Less...
Fact Sheet
Sunday, November 13, 2016, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
JCC Greater Boston Riemer Goldstein Theater
333 Nahanton St
Newton, MA 02459
333 Nahanton St
Newton, MA 02459
Organized By
$16.00 General Admission
$14.00 Senior/Member/Student Discount
$11.00 Group of 10+
$14.00 Senior/Member/Student Discount
$11.00 Group of 10+


text:
Texas Cigarette Buying Age Would Be Highest in U.S. Under Bill
Texas would become the first state to raise the age to buy cigarettes to 21 from 18 as a way to curtail teenage smoking in a legislative proposal that may reduce tax collections.
The measure introduced last month covers all tobacco products and is designed to cut $1.6 billion in Medicaid costs for providing health care to smokers, according to the author, state Senator Carlos Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat.
"It's costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars to care for the people with smoking-related illnesses," said Uresti, 49. "Maybe we can be a leader on this issue."
Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah have raised the age to buy cigarettes to 19, while other states have kept the age at 18, said Thomas Carr, director of national policy for the American Lung Association in Washington. A proposal introduced in the Oklahoma House this year would increase the smoking age to 19.
About 600,000 middle-school students and 3 million high school students smoke cigarettes, according to U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. She has urged policies to reduce teen smoking. About one of five deaths in the U.S. annually is tied to smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Raising the purchase age "could have a real impact on smoking prevalence," said Maggie Mahoney, deputy director of the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, a St. Paul, Minnesota- based group of lawyers that assists tobacco control efforts. "By reducing the prevalence of smoking in this age group, fewer young adults will become addicted to cigarettes."
Cigarette Tax
Texas charges a $1.41 tax on a package of 20 cigarettes. Increasing the age requirement may result in a sales decline and reduce revenue by $40 million annually, according to the Legislative Budget Board, which advises lawmakers.
The Republican-dominated legislature may balk at the proposal, said Matt Mackowiak, president of Potomac Strategy Group, a Washington-based political consultant who works for Texas Republicans. Lawmakers may refuse to give up the revenue because of "uncertainty about education funding and other big ticket items," he said.
The measure, pending before a legislative committee, needs an explanation of how reduced tax collections would be recouped, said Mackowiak.
Uresti disputes the $40 million estimate because it doesn't consider possible cost savings from reducing the number of smokers. He said his staff is working with the board to come up with better estimates.
A few states propose raising the smoking age every year, said Karmen Hanson, a program manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. No state has raised the age since 2006, Carr said.
A proposal in Rhode Island to increase the age to 21 died in the legislature in 2010. Opponents of the measures say 18- year-olds should be able to make their own decisions.
"There's also a liberty aspect," Mackowiak said. "You are an adult when you're 18."
To contact the reporters on this story: Darrell Preston in Dallas at firstname.lastname@example.com; David Mildenberg in Austin at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at email@example.com


text:
All of which makes me want to write about it.
|Possibly the classic image of cannibalism, and the ultimate origin of the pervasive motifs of cannibals cooking European explorers in large pots, this is an original woodcut from Hans Staden's mid-sixteenth century account of living as a captive among the Tupinamba, one of the more prominent groups of Tupian-speaking peoples in the historical record.
From Tupí we get the words jaguar and mandioca, from which we derive the English 'manioc' (Manihot esculenta), a rot-resistant and nutritious staple food that is now the second most important tropical crop in the world. Like other largely riverine Amerindian groups, Tupían speakers are commonly associated with canoes, bows and arrows, and manioc agriculture. Tupí-Guaraní speakers use(d) a device called a tipití, a woven tube that compresses shredded bitter manioc through gravitational force to leach the poisonous juices from the tuber. (Tipití is also the name of a prominent journal focusing on lowland South America.) It is unlikely that bows were present in Amazonia when the family expanded, so they must be a later addition.
|A tipití. Shredded or pounded manioc is put inside with water added, and it is hung up for the poisonous fluid, tucupi, to leach out. h/t Wiki, Flickr.
Dates for Tupían are hard to establish; Aryon Rodrigues originally suggested a date of c.5000 BP for Tupían, but 3600 BP has also been suggested. Ceramics are reportedly not particularly useful for dating Tupían, although there is a ceramic tradition common to Tupí-Guaraní speakers, known unsurprisingly as the Tupiguarani tradition, that has proven useful in reconstructing their past distribution. American archaeologist Michael Heckenberger says it is
most clearly hallmarked by its thin bi-chrome painting (red on white slip), body corrugation, and thin-walled vessel forms.A timeline for the Tupí-Guaraní expansion can therefore be established based on the radiocarbon dates of this ceramic tradition: Heckenberger gives 2500-1500 BP (up to about 500 CE) for the phenomenon, corroborated by the Brazilian archaeologist Francisco Silva Noelli. Dates after 1 CE have been given for Tupiguarani finds up and down the Brazilian coast and into Paraguay, indicating that Tupí- and Guaraní-speaking tribes were almost certainly present in these areas for a good thousand years before the arrival of Europeans, living in permanent villages and farming manioc.
|Ceramics of the Tupiguarani tradition. You can just about make out the red colours and the faded white slip. For chemical analysis, see here. h/t Ricardo Frantz - Wiki, User: Tetraktys.
Some Tupí-Guaraní speakers are or were nomadic when first contacted, and there have been a few recorded instances of large-scale migrations led by prophets in post-Columbian times. In Heckenberger's summary of the views of the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Tupí-Guaraní people are characterised by their 'other-worldly, mobile, [and] predatory' cultures. Noelli, who has published several significant papers on Tupían, nevertheless characterises Tupían communities in general as 'highly sedentary'.
It is possible that they are both right, with Viveiros de Castro describing the post-Columbian Tupí-Guaraní and Noelli's description instead pertaining only to the pre-Columbian Tupían world as a whole. It is hard to be sure what Tupían people were like in pre-Columbian times, and post-Columbian comparative ethnology is unlikely to give a firm indication.
Tupían was one of the most widely spread families in pre-Columbian times, and could be found from the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro to Asuncion in Paraguay and the cloud forests of the Andean-Amazonian border region. Guaraní speakers raided Inka settlements, even collaborating with early European explorers in South America in fighting Andean peoples before the conquest of the Inka empire in 1532. Tupían peoples along the Amazon, if Carvajal's account is to be believed, also appear to have formed large and powerful polities supposedly typical of the Amazonian floodplain (varzea). Speakers of proto-Tupían may have been associated with one of the most important domestication events in human history, one which gave us the extraordinarily nutritious peanut and the carbohydrate-packed manioc, and they clearly contradict the claim that the Americas were static and migration-less in the pre-Columbian era.
For more information:
Bellwood, Peter. 2013. First migrants. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 224-228.
Heckenberger, Michael. 2008. Amazonian mosaics: identity, interaction, and integration in the tropical forest. Silverman and Isbell (eds). Handbook of South American archaeology. New York: Springer. pp. 941-961.
Noelli, Francisco Silva. 2008. The Tupí expansion. Silverman and Isbell (eds). Handbook of South American archaeology. New York: Springer. pp. 659-670.
Rodrigues, Aryon and Cabral, Ana. 2012. Tupían. Campbell, Lyle, and Verónica Grondona (eds). The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 495-574.
Also see my posts on:
Language Contact in South America
'The Ecology of Power' by Michael Heckenberger
Violence in Pre-Colonial Amazonia


text:
Most game developers partnering with Xsolla choose to global. And by saying global, we mean it: we carefully research the gaming market in every region, from Vatican to the Philippines and enable local payment methods in each of them. Players tend to have more trust in local payment methods they know, so games that offer their users local payments enjoy an increased flow of transactions.
In January, Xsolla focused on Turkey. This country is considered to be an emerging market with great potential. We have added 3 payment methods last month, they are PayByMe Visa Card, TTNet and FastPay. Let's have a closer look at each of them.
1) TTNet uses a truly unique payment approach, which is only available in Turkey and in France. TTNet is an Internet services provider and it withdraws money from the users' account for the payment. The company has over 7 million users and it is the largest ISP in Turkey.
2) PayByMe VISA Card is an anonymous prepaid VISA card launched by PayByMe. It looks the same as a regular VISA card (it has a card number and a security code), only it does not have a card holder's name on it. Money from PayByMe VISA card can be withdrawn in ATM machines, and no card is required to do it.
3) FastPay is a mobile e-wallet that can be used to make online transactions and transfer money between mobile accounts. The e-wallet can be easily refilled with a credit card, bank trasfer via Denizbank, or in any Denizbank ATM.
Other payment methods available to Turkish players via Xsolla that proved to be popular in 2013 are:
Turkish prepaid card available in 10 TL, 25 TL, 50 TL and 100 TL. TL stands for Turkish Lira and this currency is enabled in Xsolla PayStation. MangırKart is rightfully considered #1 payment method among gamers in Turkey.
Visa / MasterCard
Credit cards are #2 preference of Turkish game players.
This global e-wallet is available in Turkey and it is #3 preference of players who make in-game transactions.
PayByMe allows for mobile and landline payments, and its service its considered global. The company is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. It works with leading Turkish mobile carriers, Vodafone, AVEA, and Turkcell.
3pay can be used to pay with a credit card, mobile phone and a prepaid card.
Credit cards, prepaid cards and mobile payments are the most popular payment methods in Turkey. Global e-wallets like PayPal and Skrill also rank high, but they are definitely coming second after local payment methods.
Terrapinn, a British media company, will host Cards & Payments expo in Istanbul. It is not by accident that the event will take place in Turkey. Here are only a couple of interesting facts to remember:
- Online credit card transactions in Turkey up by 34% in 2012
- More than 10 million contactless cards now active in Turkey
- Turkey has the third highest level of credit card adoption in Europe
- 300% growth in the number of credit card holders in Turkey, to 45 million
- Turkish e-commerce sector to reach USD 6.6 billion by 2017
- Government mandates a cashless society by 2023


text:
death, loss, Rest in Paradise., Rest In Peace, RIP, simmers, TheQuxxn, You Tube, youtube, youtuber
By now you've probably heard: fellow simmer and YouTuber TheQuxxn (pronounced "The Queen") has passed away. She was sick for quite a while, undergoing many surgeries. However, despite all the best efforts to save her and her own determination, she lost the fight on Saturday, July 20, 2013.
At the moment of this posting, her YouTube channel is still live; however her Twitter account has been closed. Nonetheless, the news is spreading across the Twittersphere as well-wishers continue to post their sympathy. I myself have followed her for years, and am both saddened and dismayed by her passing. I think The Quxxn was a little younger than my own daughters. To imagine a youngster, a child still, being lost like this… My heart swells.
My deepest sympathies to her friends and family. May she continue simming up there in Paradise, and continue to bring joy and love to all she meets.


text:
Charles Aranguiz joins Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez in the final 23-man Chile squad for next month's Copa America Centenario.
Having spent much of the 2015-16 season sidelined through an Achilles injury sustained shortly after signing for Bayer Leverkusen last year, Aranguiz did not make his debut for the German club until April 1.
The midfielder closed out the season with goals in successive matches as Leverkusen secured Champions League qualification.
With his fitness not a concern, Aranguiz has been selected by Juan Antonio Pizzi as Chile look to defend the title they won on home soil – and for the first time in their history – last year.
The strong spine used so regularly by former boss Jorge Sampaoli is retained, with Claudio Bravo, Gary Medel, Vidal and Sanchez all included.
Former Manchester United striker Angelo Henriquez is one of four players who featured in last year's title triumph to have been cut from the preliminary squad.
Chile begin their campaign against Argentina in a repeat of the 2015 final, before facing Bolivia and Panama in their remaining Group D fixtures.
Squad in full:
Goalkeepers: Claudio Bravo (Barcelona), Johnny Herrera (Universidad de Chile), Cristopher Toselli (Universidad Catolica)
Defenders: Mauricio Isla (Marseille), Jose Pedro Fuenzalida (Universidad Catolica), Gonzalo Jara (Universidad de Chile), Enzo Roco (Espanyol), Gary Medel (Inter), Eugenio Mena (Sao Paulo)
Midfielders: Jean Beausejour (Colo Colo), Marcelo Diaz (Celta Vigo), Francisco Silva (Chiapas), Erick Pulgar (Bologna), Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich), Matias Fernandez (Fiorentina), Charles Aranguiz (Bayer Leverkusen), Pablo Hernandez (Celta Vigo), Edson Puch (LDU Quito).
Forwards: Nicolas Castillo (Universidad Catolica), Fabian Orellana (Celta Vigo), Mauricio Pinilla (Atalanta), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal), Eduardo Vargas (Hoffenheim).
- Soccer News Like
- Be the first of your friends!


text:
McGrady sits out while Adelman works with rotation
T-Mac sits until he can be worked in
Coach unsure how to distribute players' minutes
Published 6:30 am, Saturday, December 26, 2009
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — With Tracy McGrady dissatisfied with his limited playing time, the Rockets came up with a solution he never saw coming.
Instead of increasing his playing time as McGrady had wanted, they chose not to play him at all.
"I said all along I want to see where he fits," coach Rick Adelman said Saturday. "Coming back from an injury like that (microfracture knee surgery), it's obvious he's not the Tracy we knew two years ago. He knows that. What I'm trying to figure out is where we can best get him in the rotation where he can have a positive effect on the team.
"I just felt if he was unhappy with that situation, I wasn't comfortable to go forward and try to jump-start it again. I want to be sure, this is our plan. I don't blame any player for saying, 'I want more.' That's what he wants. Right now, I'm not sure how to do it. We'll figure it out, I hope."
No objections
McGrady, a 6-8 guard/forward, was told Saturday morning he will sit out the weekend back-to-back against the Nets and Cavaliers and was given permission Saturday afternoon to return to Houston from New Jersey. The Rockets host New Orleans on Tuesday.
"I'm a player, man," McGrady, 30, said. "I don't make these decisions. I just abide by whatever they bring to me. That's the plan. I'm not going to argue and fight with them — just run with it. I felt it was time (to increase the routine of playing seven to eight first-half minutes).
"I'm not going to cause any confusion or confrontations. As a player, that's what I felt. They obviously feel different. That's what I have to roll with."
McGrady said neither he nor his representatives have asked for his playing time to increase, beyond his answers to questions after the game in Orlando on Wednesday.
"Where we go next deserves a lot of discussions and talking to Tracy and figuring out what the best next step is," general manager Daryl Morey said. "Tracy didn't feel like this is working in terms of working him back in. We want to develop the best next step."
Morey said McGrady and his representatives have not requested a trade. McGrady has said often and as recently as Wednesday that he hopes to sign with the Rockets as a free agent next summer.
"They love Houston," Morey said. "There's been no talk of trade."
But Adelman said he is unsure how to increase McGrady's playing time because any change would reduce someone's minutes and likely would require the Rockets to run more offense through McGrady than they have in his first six games.
"We need him to play like our team is playing now," Adelman said. "We're not the same team. How much can he give us and in what time frame?"
Expectations remain
Adelman said he does not know when he will return McGrady to the rotation but seemed to expect McGrady to become effective for the Rockets again.
"A player of his caliber, he's smart; he's got skills other people don't have," Adelman said. "They're in him. All the things he did before that came easy, suddenly, they're harder.
"When you try to incorporate that into your game as a team, that's the thing I'm struggling with. I'm trying to figure it out. As talented as he is and as smart as he is, once he gets going, he's going to find a way. I don't know how long it's going to take."


text:
Some details on the BlackBerry Curve 9300 have been revealed last month, and unfortunately it's not a powerhouse we hoped it to be. The device is a successor to the Curve 8500 model, and will feature a low-res 320×240 screen, run on OS 5.0, and will have supprt for 802.11n Wi-Fi and W-CDMA networks. Still there's no info regarding the camera pixelcount, battery life, CPU,RAM, but we'll that find out eventually. Stay tuned for more details.
Add comment


text:
Russia Ousting U.S. Official Accused of Being CIA Spy
Russian authorities are expelling a U.S. official they accused of being a CIA officer who offered a member of the special services in Moscow as much as $1 million a year for information.
The accused spy, identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle, was detained in a sting operation on May 13, the Federal Security Service said yesterday on its website. Fogle worked under a cover in the U.S. embassy's political section, according to the FSB, as the successor to the Soviet-era KGB is known in Russian.
Russia declared Fogle persona non grata and is demanding that he be sent home as soon as possible, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov conveyed "protest" over the incident to U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul at a meeting in Moscow today.
The incident marks a new source of tension between Russia and the U.S. Fogle's arrest shows that intelligence services are resuming their Cold War spying tactics after the end of the "reset" policy championed by former President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, said Nikolai Kovalyov, who ran the FSB from 1996 to 1998, when he was replaced by Vladimir Putin.
"This won't lead to global changes in relations between countries and security services, though it is a signal that Americans have returned to their old tactics and methods of work," Kovalyov, now a member of the security committee in the lower house of parliament, said by telephone from Moscow.
Recruitment Foiled
The man the FSB identified as Fogle was detained in a nighttime operation that included video footage and photographs that were later distributed to media outlets and broadcast on state television. Fogle was returned to the embassy yesterday, an on-duty FSB officer said by phone.
An identified Russian official shown in the video says Fogle had tried to recruit an officer linked to counter-terrorism work in the North Caucasus, an area where intelligence services of the former Cold War foes have sought to broaden cooperation in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing case.
"At first we didn't even believe this could be happening because as you know the FSB actively helping with the investigation of the Boston bombings and with information on threats to the U.S. national security," the officer tells American officials in the video.
Tsarnaev Brothers
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar, ethnic Chechens who moved to the U.S. from the Dagestan region of Russia, are suspected of detonating the two bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 at the Boston Marathon last month. The older brother was killed during a shootout with police on April 19, while the younger one is being held at a federal prison hospital outside Boston.
Kovalyov said Russian leaders are puzzled by what he said was U.S. reluctance to work more closely with Russia on the global war on terror.
"After the Boston bombings, the whole world saw Russia's readiness to cooperate against a common threat, but for some reason the Americans didn't use this chance," Kovalyov said in the interview yesterday.
U.S. President Barack Obama said two weeks ago that Russia had been "very cooperative" in the investigation of the attack, which included a visit to Dagestan by a team of FBI agents.
Russian intelligence agencies had told the FBI that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become radical and asked for information about him, prompting the FBI to open an inquiry. The Central Intelligence Agency was also provided with the information.
No Response
The Russians didn't respond to requests for more information after the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted interviews and searched U.S. terrorism and crime databases, finding nothing incriminating, according to U.S. officials who asked not to be identified discussing intelligence matters.
"There are still suspicions sometimes between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies that date back 10, 20, 30 years, back to the Cold War," Obama said at a White House news briefing on April 30.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry refused to comment on the Russian charges today and emphasized U.S.-Russia cooperation on Syria instead as he stood beside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Kiruna, Sweden. In Washington, Patrick Ventrell, a State Department spokesman, declined yesterday to answer repeated questions about the Russian spying allegations and Fogle's role.
Detained, Released
"We can confirm that an officer at our U.S. embassy in Moscow was briefly detained and was released," Ventrell said. "We have seen the Russian Foreign Ministry announcement, and we have no further comment at this time." He declined to say whether Fogle was still in Russia.
One photo of the nighttime operation shows the contents of the backpack the FSB said Fogle was carrying at the time of his arrest, neatly arrayed on a table, including dark and light wigs, sunglasses, a compass, a map of Moscow, two knives, a notepad, a microphone, a plastic cigarette lighter and an RFID shield.
Another image showed what the FSB said was a printed letter in Russian that Fogle intended to deliver to the target of a recruitment effort. The missive, which starts, "Dear Friend," promises $100,000 just to "discuss possible cooperation" and as much as $1 million a year for supplying information demanded by the U.S., state-run RT television said on its website. It instructs the recipient to open a new Gmail account, write an e-mail to email@example.com and wait a week for a reply, RT said.
'Numerous Attempts'
The FSB said in its statement the Fogle case is just the latest in "numerous attempts" by the U.S. recently to recruit Russians in law enforcement and the security services.
Kovalyov said relations have worsened since the U.S. passed the so-called Magnitsky Act last year that sanctions Russian officials deemed complicit in human rights abuses. The bill is named for a legal adviser who accused officials of stealing $230 million from Russia's treasury. Supporters of Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested on tax evasion charges and died in jail in 2009, say he was tortured and denied medical care.
Putin, who returned to the presidency a year ago, responded by banning adoptions of Russian children by American families and urged the Obama administration to pressure Congress to tame its hostile attitude toward Russia.
"While the presidents of our countries confirmed their readiness to expand bilateral cooperation, including the intelligence services' fight against international terrorism, such provocative acts in the spirit of the Cold War hardly facilitate the strengthening of mutual trust," said Russian Foreign Ministry in the statement yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Product Description
Flash Columbia Blue Microfiber Rocker Recliner AM-9460-5861-GG
This plush rocking recliner provides excellent comfort. Reclining furniture offers the best in relaxation for you to kick up your feet to watch TV, work on a laptop, or to just hang out with family and friends. With a quick pull on the lever you can situate yourself in multiple positions. Recliners provide good neck and lumbar support, making them the most popular seating choice for everyday use. If you're on the market for a plush Rocker Recliner, you cannot go wrong with this very attractive contemporary piece.
- Manufacture: Flash Furniture
- Category: Recliners
- Sub-Category: Microfiber Recliners
- Material: Foam, Microfiber, Steel, Wood
- Color: Blue
- Product Type: Recliner
- Assembly Required: Yes
- Freight Class: 300
- UPC Code: 889142005025
- Box Dimensions 1: 43 W x 33 D x 15 H Inches, Weight: 31 Lbs
- Box Dimensions 2: 35 W x 38 D x 28 H Inches, Weight: 94 Lbs
- Dimensions : 41.5 W x 43 D x 43.5 H Inches, Weight: 101 Lbs
- Features:
- Contemporary Design
- Columbia Indigo Blue Microfiber Upholstery
- Plush Upholstered Arms
- Plush Pillow Back
- Rocker Feature
- Lever Recliner
- Dacron wrapped 1.8 resiliency foam
- Leggett and Platt Subsidiary
- Spot clean with damp cloth
- 250 lb. Weight Capacity
- Ships in two individual boxes
- Seat-Size : 17Wx21D
- Back Size : 41W x 25H
- Arm Height From Floor : 27
- Arm Height From Seat : 6
- Seat Height : 22
Additional Information
Additional Information
|Free Shipping
|Delivery Type
|Fedex/UPS Drop off Delivery (If bought alone ) without Appointment / For large quantity, LTL Curbside Delivery with appointment
|Delivery Time
|2-3 Weeks
|Flash Furniture
Product Tags
You may also be interested in the following product(s)
Flash Blue Microfiber Recliner With Heat Control AM-H9460-5861-GG
Regular Price: $789.79
Now only: $658.16
Flash Blue Microfiber Power Recliner With Push Button AM-P9460-5861-GG
Regular Price: $834.19
Now only: $695.16