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Man, Jake Ryan has some beautiful locks.
Also, sounds like a hell of a first basketball game experience.
Let me start off on a bit of a personal note: each of the past three years, my girlfriend (username megangoblue) and I have gotten each other late Christmas presents. I believe this started by spending Christmas apart our first year, but now it's a tradition between the two of us. Long story short, we needed to be in Ann Arbor today, Wednesday 1/9/13, which coincided with a basketball game that wouldn't get much attention on StubHub or from scalpers, #2 M v. unranked Nebraska. She managed to buy great tickets for the two of us: Section 134, Row 9, Seats 9-10-11-12 that we shared with my uncle and cousin. The happy couple, arriving to our seats:
This was the first MBB game I've been to, and we were definitely going for the full MBB experience: a nationally televised game with tickets nine rows off the court in an seemingly brand new stadium. I can't describe how much fun I've had tonight; from walking the concourse before the game, seeing the now famed waterfall, the maize and blue lighting outside, and most of all the #2 team in the nation take on an overmatched (but still Big Ten) squad from Lincoln. Michigan didn't shoot particularly well, and Nebraska stuck around too long, but a win is a win, and I'll remember this one forever.
One of the cool things about this section were the people who happened to be populating it. The entire womens cross country team took up a few rows just below us, and below them in Row 1 sat Taylor Lewan, Jake Ryan and Drew Dileo. At halftime, gathering some courage, I went to talk to our favorite LB with feathered locks while Lewan was whisked away somewhere, no doubt being congratulated by people far more connected and powerful than I for his decision to return for the 2013 season [ed: according to M-Wolverine it was a radio interview]. Approaching him, Ryan is a big guy, but certainly not a monster (although his hands approach monster territory). He was very polite and thanked me after I congratulated him on his past two seasons and wished him luck in the next two. He agreed to take a couple pictures with us, one turned out okay:
We went to the concourse to grab a four dollar bottle of water, and when we came back there was a 6'8 309lb LT standing on the corner of the court, talking to people with badges and little kids, maybe a few pretty girls too. Heading straight past our seats and down to the court (also thinking that Ryan might be laughing at us a bit in his head as we passed him again), we walked towards Lewan, who is an absolute mountain of a man in person. Talking to Lewan was surprisingly easy, especially considering how well he stood up to a potential number one pick just eight days ago, and his sheer size (which is every bit as big as advertised).
When I asked Mr. Lewan if he would mind taking a picture, he was polite (I'm noticing a theme here) and obliged, although the fellow fan nice enough to take the shot only took one, and it didn't turn out so well:
Megan had started on my right side with my arm around her when Lewan quipped, "I know y'all are dating but this picture's gonna look better with her on my side too". That got a chuckle at the time and a bit of a laugh later. I told him how much his return meant to so many people, and he shook my hand (mine promptly disappeared in his ridiculously big hands) and told me he was glad.
I know others have better shots down on the board, but here is Lewan conducting the band:
A win is a win:
And my favorite girl near one of my favorite symbols:
Go Blue, good night, and thanks for reading.
Man, Jake Ryan has some beautiful locks.
Also, sounds like a hell of a first basketball game experience.
That fountain is just class. Beautiful and it's just the beginning of the transformation the athletic campus is going through.
Plus this looked pretty nice on display-
I got a picture of just the Big Ten title trophy, one with me and the Hobey Baker and one of her and me with Charles Woodson's Heisman (we already have one of us with Desmond's, as an aside) and one with us and the Little Brown Jug. Good times all around.
Jim Abbott's Golden Spikes Award (college baseball heisman) was on display too.
Hopefully we can see the basketball heisman, the Naismith Award there soon.
but with viewership dwindling as the days go by, I don't see the problem posting:
Charles Woodson's Heisman:
Hobey Baker (and the back of the cleats, like you mention):
Wait, where was that? When we saw it, it was in the tunnel where the guys run out from.
on the concourse. They have the Big Ten MBB trophy and a lot of the individual awards. I know the Jug was up in the Jack Roth Stadium Club when I was up there in 2011, and I think they switched it with the Paul Bunyon, which was the only major trophy aside from Desmond's Heisman (and the trophies perminantly residing in Schembechler) that seemed to be missing.
Great photos, and this had to be an awesome first game for you between the win and meeting Ryan and Lewan. I dare say the band looks like they are paying pretty close attention to Taylor as well, but then if your conductor was 6'8" and 318 lbs, you might as well.
Thanks for sharing!
That's pretty awesome dude thanks for sharing. I had to look up how tall Jake Ryan is... how tall are you? You've gotta be about 5-10 to 6 feet no? It's crazy how big these guys are.
PS your girlfriend rocks! I hope mine would do the same if we lived closer to Michigan.
For perspective on how big these guys are, I was 6' even, 205lbs at my last physical. Ryan was a good deal bigger than I am and Lewan...well, he was pretty tiny, obviously.
She's on the taller end of 5'10 for another reference point.
And next to Lewan she looks so petite.
i love how lewan is such a nice and social guy even though he could have declared for the draft and have made millions
That's really awesome. Congrats to MGB for scoring the seats. Glad to hear that even though they're destroyers on the field, they're class acts off of it.
Also whoa Nellie, are the pictures gigantic for anyone else? Resize those things, man!
Happy now?
Much obliged!
You look different than I imagined. I guess I just thought you'd have longer hair and have it pulled back, maybe a megaphone. I'm not sure where I got that image from, though.
A win for MBB, Lewan stays, pics and memories. Tough to beat that.
I'm happy for you. No really, this is great. A Christmas to remember.
I loved having a pair of season tickets to MBB in the mid-80's. And I'll never forget on a sunny Christmas morning in Southern California on internship being given 3 tickets to Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Those are Christmas gifts you'll never forget.
Only one question: your attractive girl friend bought you tickets. You not only went to a Big 10 game, it was your first . . . ever! You met Jake Ryan. And Taylor Lewan, to boot. I can't figure out why you are the one person in the photos not to show a smile!
I don't know what it is, I just don't seem to have a big smiile. If you look, you can see that I have dimples when I smile, it just isn't too noticible I guess. Also, the Lewan picture is where I probably look the most serious, and I think that was just a pretty bad picture all around. I really wish we had a second, but we had to ask a random lady to take it for us and I didn't want to be rude to her or Lewan (who took probably 75 pictures throughout the course of the game).
Jake Ryan is just dreamy....
Taylor's not bad either. (He was whisked away just before the half ended to go do a radio interview that carried over into halftime, but not through the whole thing).
Try to keep it in your pants, Brent!
(MGoBlog will issue an apology later)
Glad that you had those great experiences. The game wasn't great and the crowd could never really get into it (it came really close, and errupted a couple times, but never really got rolling too much, just like the team did). But a win is a win, and we're one step closer 17-0.
Also, Lewan conducting the band was amazing.
Great story!! I've lived in Tallahassee, FL most of my life and I have always wanted to attend a Michigan football or basketball game. Reading this was a good experience for me, especially since it surpasses anything I would have imagined happening. Those things don't happen at FSU games. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I shook Lloyd Carr's hand at a random home MBB game in I believe 2008 vs. EMU. He was walking down the steps to his courtside seats. I told him he rocked!
I saw you post that you were going to try to get pictures and am glad to see you did. Thanks for sharing.
I have the same hoodie that Jake Ryan is wearing.
It looks much better on me, as you may have guessed.
Lewan quipped, "I know y'all are dating but this picture's gonna look better with her on my side too"
Love this quote! and the whole story - thanks for sharing.
You don't look a thing like your avatar. I would've bet against that!
Thanks for posting the pix and sharing the stories, though. It's always good to hear that the athletes are good guys in these informal situations, and that they seem to be enjoying the college experience (esp. TL after such a big day). Folks can argue about what it really means to be a "MIchigan Man" - but it's pretty clear that TL and JR are Michigan Men.
Go Blue!
I know that Taylor Lewan will always remember me as that tubby soccer mom who completely whiffed the high-five he tried to give her after an awesome hit at a UM Softball game.
Girlfriend? If you like it then you better put a ring on it.
That IS a cool story, bro.
My god, Jake Ryan looks like he should be manning a Viking longship leading a raid on Northern England or searching for Greenland or something like that.
Or carrying a huge, magical hammer around.
if Jake cuts that flow, i think i might cry.
It seems you suffer from the same disease as me...cannotsmileforpicturitis.
JustinGoBlue in 25 years
Rich Eisen thing going.
Lewan's body language with your girlfriend, right?
''She managed to buy great tickets for the two of us: Section 134, Row 9, Seats 9-10-11-12 that we shared with my uncle and cousin. The happy couple, arriving to our seats:''
I must admit, I had to read this sentence a few times, Mistaking the following picture of you and your girlfriend, as a picture of your Uncle and Cousin and say to myself "What's up with that"?
Nice post. I know it's too late in the thread, but might I propose a JustinGoBlue posbang to get him into five digits?
I'm sorry if this is inappropriate, but are you "the Naked Man"? I just happened to catch this episode tonight.
It'll be a while at least. She's a junior this year, so I won't be doing any proposing until I get commissioned (hopefully this fall) and she graduates, which will be spring 2014. After that we'll take a look at where we are and see if it sounds like the right move (I'd love if it was).
I've been working on a package for OCC; just waiting for the stars to align to submit. Ideally that would be late this semester, with the ten week course coming this fall or winter.
What, no Dileo picture????? Why doesn't The Threat get some love?!
and I actually kind of feel bad about it. Him, Ryan and Lewan all walked in together, and Dileo is more of a normal looking dude than Ryan with his hair or Lewan with his size; by the time I glanced to the third man in the group his face was turned away and I couldn't see who it was. I didn't think to look twice when I went to say hi to Jake Ryan, and didn't learn it was Dileo until the second half had started and it was too late to go down.
I would have loved to say hi and congrats for the MSU play, amongst others, but I guess it's just one of those things that wasn't meant to be.
fun to read Justin. What a great experience for you both.
I hope you get to tell your kids that story too.
(its never too early to get that ring, cause lets face it, she is a BABE...don't let her get away!)
I do appreciate the positive feedback on the writing. As far as her being a babe and not letting her get away, I totally agree. I'm a lucky guy to have her, and I do my best to remember that every day. Glad you enjoyed the story and the pictures.


text:
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Re-live the Broncos' 2013 calendar year with the 13 most-viewed pieces of written content from DenverBroncos.com.
13) First Look at Week 1 Depth Chart, Aug. 31, 2013
12) Broncos Add College Free Agents, April 27, 2013
Following the 2013 NFL Draft, the Broncos' personnel staff took to the phones, adding 16 college free agents to the roster. Denver entered the 2013 season with a nine-year streak of at least one CFA making the team's Week 1 roster. That streak was pushed to double digits this year as running back
11) Broncos Trim Roster to 77, Aug. 25, 2013
After three preseason games, with the NFL's deadline to cut the roster to 75 two days away, the Broncos announced 11 transactions take the roster from 88 to 77. Of the players waived, cornerback Mario Butler was the most tenured player. The other 10 players were either rookies or first-year players.
10) Mr. Bowlen's Letter to Broncos Fans, Jan. 15, 2013
Three days after the Broncos' 2012 season came to an end, Broncos Owner and CEO Pat Bowlen wrote a letter to Broncos fans. The letter covered his thoughts on the 2012 season, thanked the fans for their support and looked forward to 2013.
9) Manning Updates Health, Nov. 11, 2013
Late in the fourth quarter, quarterback
8) Broncos' 53-Man Roster Finalized, Aug. 31, 2013
The Broncos made 22 transactions to take their roster from 75 to 53 in advance of Week 1 of the 2013 season. Five veterans were released, 13 players were waived, three went on injured reserve and one was placed on the reserve/suspended list.
7) Preseason Schedule Finalized, April 4, 2013
A few weeks before the regular-season was announced, the NFL released the finalized preseason slate. Denver's four games all came against NFC West opponents with trips to San Francisco and Seattle preceding home games against St. Louis and Arizona.
6) 2014 Opponents Finalized, Dec. 26, 2013
The end of the 2013 season meant Denver's 2014 opponents were finalized. Along with the AFC West, the Broncos will face the entire AFC East and NFC West, along with AFC North-champion Cincinnati and AFC South-champion Indianapolis.
5) Full Ron Burgundy-Peyton Manning Interview, Dec. 6, 2013
During the Broncos' bye week, Manning taped an interview with Ron Burgundy in advance of the Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues release. The interview was done on behalf on ESPN's SportsCenter.
4) Huff Signed; Moore to IR, Designation to Return, Nov. 19, 2013
After safety
3) Manning the Multitasker, Dec. 11, 2013
Even when Peyton Manning's ankle injury kept him from participating in practice, he still found a way to stay involved in the session. A photo of Manning soaking his right ankle in the cold tub, while watching film on an ipad with his helmet on was broadcast on CBS and then made its rounds on the internet. The explanation behind the photo: Manning was listening to Offensive Coordinator Adam Gase's calls to backup quarterback
2) Moreno Expands on Pregame Emotions, Dec. 2, 2013
CBS' cameras found
1) 2013 Denver Broncos Schedule, April 18, 2013
After months of anticipation, the NFL unveiled the Broncos' 2013 schedule. The original slate had the Broncos playing five primetime games, but with Denver's Week 11 game vs. Kansas City getting flexed to Sunday Night Football, that number ended up at six.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Can any Slashdotters chime in on this...is this technology really "the next thing", or is it "the next thing that is actually nothing"?
For more info see The mysterious memristor [ieee.org]
Or just search Google memristor ieee [google.com]
Nature tries to find the most efficient path
Perhaps for particularly weird values of "efficient". If you look carefully at 'Nature' you see kludges upon kludges upon kludges. That's why molecular biology of organisms has been so hard to decipher. Natural selection has had millions of years to twiddle with things - therefore, if something works just a bit better (in terms of organism survival or reproduction) then it can be selected for. It may be a complex, error filled process that slows ten other pro
Ill let wiki do it for me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor#Potential_applications [wikipedia.org]
Think flash drives with the access times of DRAM. Think of instant hibernate computers. Instead of having to write out to HD the memory could just remember where it was at. Another application they talk about is crossbar switches. Currently each node in a cross bar has some sort of 'memory' associated to it. Such that the crossbar can 'learn' what are good routes and bad ones. This would allow them to make crossbar switches much smaller and use less power. Crossbar switches are used many times with NxM sized computers and in large communication networks.
They have known about them for ages (since 1971). However, they have only recently figured out how to actually make them at micron sizes.
Now given that we have not seen what they can do. What speeds we are talking about ect... If they can make them however (and at current gate sizes, and volume) the NAND flash drives we use today will probably quickly become a niche product.
Typical application would be somewhere where you want to retain some sort of 'memory' of what is going on but do not want a processor involved. It has also been theorized you could use them for storage of n bits per resistor. So instead of 1 bit per location you could have 4 or even 16 bits. They are also nice in that supposedly you do not need to refresh them as often as we do now so they could also save power.
Yes these things are cool
They have known about them for ages (since 1971). However, they have only recently figured out how to actually make them at micron sizes.
Well, no, not quite. The effect was postulated decades ago, but it was purely theoretical at the time (well, okay, it has been emulated using complicated circuitry). Furthermore, it's not that scientists "figured out how to actually make them at micron sizes"... it's that the effect only comes to the fore at micron sizes, which is why it hadn't been discovered sooner.
No, the discovery is the ability to build a very simple implementation of this theorized circuit element, and its a mighty cool discovery indeed (someone linked to a IEEE article on memresistors... check it out, it's a great read, and does a very good job of explaining the theory and mechanism behind the operation of this particular implementation).
Memristor based crossbar switches will be extremely useful for two uses:
Shuffling data between VMs in a secure manner on a host such as an IBM 795 or a zSeries that has a large number of VMs in use for different tasks. This way a bunch of VMs that talk amongst themselves frequently (a DB server to an app server) will end up being able to do high I/O without that slamming the CPU.
Another use is tiered memory, where one has a machine with fast RAM and slow RAM, with slow RAM being exponentially faster than going to SSD or magnetic platters. If memristors become able to be printed on a large scale, perhaps we will see machines with 16-32 GB of DRAM, then 256-512 GB of memristive RAM that is used as both swap space, but also a persistant cache for the OS to boot from an image with, never touching the storage media until the OS is fully loaded and the user wants to load documents, or the OS is doing a backup.
slow RAM being exponentially faster
Unless you have very special RAM, that word does not mean what you think it does.
I should rephrase:
RAM access is in nanoseconds (10^-9). HDD seek times are in milliseconds (10^-3) of a second. Registers are about 10 times as fast as RAM.
So, computers will have a massive speedup the less we use hard disks as part of the core computing cycles. Primary and "secondary" RAM for temporary and permanent storage, then have the HDD that runs with non-blocking DMA I/O in the background as a backup. This way, the hard disk's glacial speeds (relative to RAM access) are not slowing the machine d
IIRC, FreeScale has had (small) MRAM chips on the market for a while, memristors are just more of the same thing. I was quite surprised not to see hard drive manufacturers jump on them, at least for enterprise drives and/or RAID controllers - imagine having your HDD cache as fast as DRAM, but not needing a battery backup to retain the data in the event of sudden power loss; write-back caches could become a whole lot more widespread, for all types of storage.
And, of course, once densities go up you manage to
You do not RC. MRAM is magnetic, nothing like memresistors.
I'm aware of that, but don't they both fulfil the same sorts of roles? Fast, non-volatile storage...? I'm just surprised no-one seems to have used it for things like storage caches yet, whatever the technology behind it.
"It has also been theorized you could use them for storage of n bits per resistor. So instead of 1 bit per location you could have 4 or even 16 bits."
At anything like our current level of technology, this is unrealistic. While it sounds like a good idea on its face, there are several problems with this.
First of all, it's a resistor, not a binary gate. If it's just being used as a two-state (binary) device, then interface to other digital circuits is trivial. But in order to get several bits of data out of it, you have to actually measure its resistance (by means of voltage or current). I.e., let's say that it can have 4 resistance values, representing
When I first read the news a couple years ago about the first produced memristers, I was thrilled... and a little frightened. I did not expect actual AI to happen in my lifetime. The description of memristers is very well aligned with the functional description of a neuron. Given how we pack zillions of transistors into cheap, commodity hardware, this discovery will lead to a whole different level and type of computing... and even life,
The description of memristers is very well aligned with the functional description of a neuron. Given how we pack zillions of transistors into cheap, commodity hardware, this discovery will lead to a whole different level and type of computing... and even life,
It's a step closer, sure. But you're not going to see a HAL-9000 anytime soon.
A pond full of algae is a gigantic pile of single celled life, but it won't quote Shakespeare. It's not the individual neurons that are the problem. It's
Hynix just feels bad about being too young and missing the Bubble Memory Revolution.
Not from a physicist point of view, but from engineer's.
I mean, I know it can store data by means of variable resistance. But how do you read and write? Specific voltages, currents, frequencies? If I understand correctly, it has only two terminals like a resistor. You just apply some variable voltage and measure the current. So how can one differentiate between a write and a read?
The resistance of the memristor can be viewed as a function of the sum of the current that has passed through it (including the effects of polarity). A write would be performed by sending a larger current through the memristor in the right direction to increase or decrease the resistance; a read would be performed at lower currents that would not change the overall state of the memristor.
Just make sure to unplug the machine when not in use then, as it will probably be more sensitive to power fluctuations, since they tend to be DC in nature.
I guess they would even contain refresh mechanisms similar to DRAM, run some current in the right direction from time to time.
as I understand from watching "Memristor and Memristive Systems Symposium" on youtube, low voltage/current (read) wont change the memory. Only applying large voltage changes the state of the memristor. No need to refresh.
Presumably they'd have some capacitors over the power supply for the memristor to stabilize the power a bit. And I'm sure they don't use raw AC - there's probably a low-voltage DC inverter in there.
This is HP we're talking about; of course you won't be using raw AC power. These will obviously only work when used in conjunction with genuine HP power supplies; HP can't guarantee that electrical current from other sources won't damage your memristor, so a special chip in the memristor package will ensure that only genuine HP electrical current is used.
Now quit mixing your technical discussion up with my (poor) jokes.
You do not need to use multi-period high frequency readout, just a single period (or read it twice with current in both directions) so that total charge (or integral of current over time) is zero. Once you now a value, you can "condition" it from time to time so that it does not degrade over many readouts. Other possibility is to condition it instantly during readout: You read the value in one direction and according to the value you either apply slightly higher opposite charge or you do not apply it at all
I actually happened to read this article [ieee.org] on IEEE Spectrum about new RAM technologies, and it covers both Phase-Change RAM (PC-RAM), which may of hit a road block in its development, and Resistance RAM (RRAM), of which memristor is a particular kind of.
If you put a high voltage through it, some conductive atoms move a little bit away from each other. That that makes it into an insulator instead. You can then reverse the voltage and move the atoms back in place. Actually a mechanical on/off switch, but at such small scales that it goes blazingly fast.
3 dimensional memory cubes would be revolutionary, memory sizes could expand geometrically...(only a mild pun intended).
Also with 3 dimensions of wear leveling you probably wouldnt wear them out for a very LONG time.
"memory sizes could expand geometrically"
Yes yes yes, and about 12 picoseconds behind that the software morons will increase bloat exponentially.
You choose which software to run. If you run software that you think is bloated, and everyone else thinks is swell, then you have only violated your own preferences. There is nothing wrong with the software, it's all in your head. I like my 2-gigabyte operating system much better than the 2-megabyte operating system I used in 1993, and I imagine I would like a 2-terabyte operating system very much. I bet it would do all sorts of awesome stuff, and have the kinds of visual effects that I think enhance the graphical experience. If you disagree, that's fine. Version 1.1 of Linux will still run as well as the day it was released, and you can use it.
As for me, I say bring on the bloat. I can hardly wait.
"I like my 2-gigabyte operating system much better than the 2-megabyte operating system I used in 1993"
But do you like it 1048x as well? If the difference in size were multimedia I might be inclined to let it go but it isn't. Also your numbers are off, the current version of most popular OS is about triple that.
Considering that a 1.35GB hard drive cost $1800 in 1993 [jcmit.com], and a 1.5TB (over 1048x the storage) is only $90 right now, and as 2MB is ~.15% of the 1.35GB disk, and 2GB is ~.13% of the 1.5TB disk, I'd say he could like it less and it'd still be an improvement.
Thank you for reminding us all again why the gp he responded to was right when he said...
"Yes yes yes, and about 12 picoseconds behind that the software morons will increase bloat exponentially."
It's not bloat if it's functional. I somehow doubt you posted that comment using DOS.
Why would I need to like it a thousand times more? (Also, it's 1024, not 1048.) If I like it better, that's what counts. If you want to amortize by something, then that something would be dollars, not bytes. Since computers cost about the same today as they did a generation ago, yet they have so much more power in them, I need only enjoy the power, not enjoy it in proportion to which the power has grown.
(And I just want to say that I meant memory footprint, not hard drive footprint; and I meant OS plus a ty
"(Also, it's 1024, not 1048.)"
Good catch. I kept wanted to put 2048 and mentally correcting to 1024 and ended up with 1048. doh!
"If you want to amortize by something, then that something would be dollars"
It would be both bytes and dollars. I want all the hardware AND price improvement. I'm not willing to share it with software firms that will charge me the same price for bloated software developed using more rapid (read lazy) techniques.
I'm all for bloat that translates directly into actual benefits or the
Hmmm, well I can see your point, but programmers being far far more expensive than computers, I understand why we would throw more hardware at a problem rather than more programmers. I say that as a (lazy) programmer. Another thing is that all those rapid-dev tools have brought us a world with far, far fewer bugs, especially crash bugs like segfaults. Remember the 90s when software crashed all the time? That sucked! As a programmer, I know it's easy to screw up pointer arithmetic, and I really love sandboxe
The version 1.1 of Linux is fine, but it doesn't have the latest security patches, and a malformed ping packet will cause it to give up the ghost.
A 2 TB operating system won't be a nice thing to upgrade, but it will be something forced in order to keep up with the latest security issues. Security never stands still, so one has to either keep on the upgrade treadmill to stay protected, add third party software to make up for the outdated OS protections, or put the machines behind an air gap.
All I see is the
Okay. So you are looking for, what, Slackware (no bloat)? maybe NetBSD (great security)?
Me, I like pretty icons with fancy animated windows and menus. I like browsers that show flash videos and all kinds of bells and whistles. I love bloat, if that's the kind of thing you mean.
Luckily we both have options. Neither of us is stuck in a position where we want to run software that doesn't exist. The only problem is when someone runs a system that they hate, then complain about it. If you are specifically compla
I'm not against bloat that has some use, which includes the user experience. But I should be able to get that functionality without all the bloat, which some linux versions allow. I also shouldn't have to put up with crappy bloat and cruft because someone decided to link DRM (which shouldn't even be there) with network speed in such a way that viewing any media causes my effective network connection to drop to 1% of theoretical.
And no, that is not a made-up scenario.
Holy crap. Whatever software you're talking about sounds like software you should know better than to run. Will you tell me what it is, so I can avoid it too?
Windows Vista. I believe they fixed that little bug in a service pack. Here's [slashdot.org] the Slashdot article.
Storage space has outpaced software development for some time. The only thing that has a hope of keeping up with it in the consumer space is high definition 3D video. Video games consume a lot of media space too, but producing the content takes a lot more effort.
The mere storage of software? People already just deploy an individual copy of the libraries for each application.
Once we start seeing expanded RAM sizes, I'm sure we will see OO based development tools more than ready to fill up that RAM with object frameworks vastly larger than now. End result: Still needing to buy and upgrade RAM, applications performing essentially the same, except taking up a lot more space.
Where I'd like to see memristor technology be used are dumbphones and embedded devices such as cash registers and POS (point of sale, not the other POS) units. Places where having the ability to boot near in
Aren't processors already layered, and we use multiple platters in HDDs? As interesting as a "memory cube" sounds, I would expect heat dissipation and magnetic fields from the current could be a major roadblock in its production.
However, Even if they could only do three layers with insulation layers inserted in between them, it'd probably still be more cost effective than current implementations as long as the memory density is similar.
Aren't processors already layered[?]
None of the in production processors are 3-D layered. Of course all physical devices are three dimensional themselves, but the height is basically moot until designers can use 3-D layering and routing (of the "wires" or interconnections.
I believe research prototypes in universities and R&D labs have been created or are being worked on, so it is not science fiction.
From what I've read about memristor's, they don't wear out like Flash does. They are also massively faster than Flash memory. Think of it as a hybrid of RAM and Flash.
In fact, from what I read I think these devices (if they live up to what people are saying about them) will be able to replace both RAM and Disks/SSD's. Instead we'd just have one set of primary memory where everything happens.
Now we just have to see if they can do what is postulated, and how much it will cost to manufacture. If cheap enough to be worth buying due to their benefits, then they will have a huge effect on computing.
They're probably going to be crazy expensive at first though, just as SSDs are still relatively expensive. By the sounds of other comments, we will first see these things as replacements for disk drives, then later usable as RAM, and I expect that once they're more common we could end up with whole new architectures in which they are both the RAM and storage as the GP mentions..
If they're expensive, why not replace conventional RAM first? The board architecture will change, but the CPU architecture and overall system would remain largely the same (read from block, write to block, do computation on block). It would be a similar transition as we had from SD-RAM to DDR-RAM. You'd immediately get the benefits of a system that can go into standby mode without having to keep feeding power, and would get these chips into a place where there is still high value per byte (as compared to
I was thinking because they might not be fast enough for RAM at first - guess we'll find out in a few years
I have the perfect design--not that I could make it, as I'm just some shlub, but it's something I've been working on the theory for for a while. In sum, "modular computing", or basically, a whole bunch of components that share a standardized, high speed protocol for message passing across module boundaries rather than being on the same board.
With that system, you have something like a ultra-thin hypervisor that the physical computer runs on, and guest OSes that converse with virtual devices via the backbon
And out of all of them - at the least the Symbian is ready!
(seriously, it was built from the beginning on the idea of running binaries/etc. directly from "storage" - though it didn't work out quite that way, mostly because mobile flash can't really be fast)
Well, from the article they're now about "3 years away", which in marketing speak is probably less than a decade! At least they're not "5 years away", which never comes.
The basic architecture should be cheap to fabricate in bulk. It's lines of wires, a layer running in one direction, a thin film of the memristive material, then a layer of wires on top running at right angles. Every intersection point is a bit.
DRAMs involve all sorts of careful operations to create a trench or stack, fill it with a capacitor, run the lines in and out, etc. Much more complicated on a per-bit basis. Many more things can go wrong. Memristors are pretty much the simplest to implement circu
From what I've read about memristor's, they don't wear out like Flash does.
Doesn't it depend on the technology used to implement the memristor? The name merely refers to how it behaves electrically, not how it's actually built. As an example, a normal resistor is a device where current flow and voltage are proportional. This can be implemented by many materials, for example carbon composition, metal film, wire wound. Each has different lifetime/stability characteristics, even though they are all resistors.
We could stack chips today except for the fact that it's impossible to cool the middle layers and the thing would almost instantly melt itself down.
Not if it's low enough power. Major chip makers have already considered the minimal level of chip stacking when the "bottom" chip is something relatively low power.
If the promise of using even less power than current flash memory holds true, they may not have any problem stacking chips several layers deep.
Any military that just "relies" on the fact that what the company sends you is actually the device you bought, rather then the one you designed, shouldn't be procuring ANYTHING from ANYONE. If you're buying stuff that was made in some foreign country, and it's for a military application, you should damn well be inspecting it before using it anyway. You should damn well be inspecting it no matter where it came from - even an ally.
And there are a million and one of these "bugs coming from Chinese-manufactur
It used to be that we would only buy American. Then American came to mean assembled in America and it became moot. I would LOVE to see companies that do business with the federal governments and especially the defense and civil protection branches be forced to produce the products on American soil from bottom to top. It may cost more but it would be justified by the improved security and availability. Aditionally it would encourage them to produce more here to reduce costs, etc...
With you 100%. In fact, the price benefits of outsourcing overseas are so extreme that until we get a solid economy back I think it would be worthwhile to make all profits earned on goods built entirely in the US (and the income earned by workers producing them) tax free.
This makes a hell of a lot more sense than the tax breaks we give foreign oil powers and bailing out anti-consumer massive banks. Especially since it will strengthen the economy and pay for itself indirectly by increasing other tax revenues
Seriously, where will the work be done? Will HP set up the fab shop here, or in SK? Or set up multiple shops. I would love to see the DOD suggest to HP that they need to set up a shop here in the USA. We need to make certain that we have our electronics under control here. In addition, the DOD, NSA, etc needs to offer up contracts to American companies that produce equipment here. Why? Because we are increasingly seeing embedded virus, etc coming in from Asia.
Last I heard, Hewlett Packard still has domestic fabs: Corvallis, Oregon, I believe, and I think they still have fab capability in Palo Alto. A lot of large semiconductor companies retain small cutting-edge fabs at their headquarters for doing small runs of experimental stuff.
My company has two of its fabs in the US and one in the UK. We do all our packaging and testing in southeast Asia, but the company apparently made a decision about three years ago that we're not going to put fabs there, because we closed down one we'd built less than two years before.
And, as I've said many times before, with the possible exception of processors, it's really difficult to sabotage chip design. Your profit margin is directly related to the surface area your chip layout occupies, so it is aggressively minimized in design, and there simply isn't room on the silicon to splice in new stuff. Added to that, chip companies that I've worked with usually do a planet run of many prototype silicon designs through one fab, often their domestic/in-house fab, do their initial testing on that, and only after that do they put it into production with a full-size mask on dedicated silicon in the production fab, so if you wanted to sneak stuff in you'd have to infiltrate both fabs, or you'd end up with silicon that's visually different -- and we spend a lot of time with high-power microscopes and microprobes poking around at new silicon, sometimes chipping bits out with a laser if we need to do a metal layer change, so it's not like someone wouldn't notice changes on smaller chips. And even if all of THAT didn't catch changes, test and product engineers spend months writing automated test programs that check each pin on each chip and characterize its leakage current, its current draw when functioning, its ESD resistance, all sorts of things, and added circuitry will change those values.
If a company doesn't have a fab, and they just send all their completed masks (or, even worse, just the designs) off to one company, then I think it's possible, albeit difficult, for stuff to sneak into the silicon. But a company that has a fab, or runs their designs through multiple fabs, is pretty unlikely to get compromised silicon without noticing it. It would be significantly easier for a malevolent group to just design their own silicon from the ground up, and package it to look like the target chip and get it into distribution channels by selling it as authentic stuff, than to try to compromise a company's silicon.
among other things, memristive slime mold modeling [memristor.org] and synaptic chain behaviours [arxiv.org]...
I can buy big bags of transistors direct from hong kong on ebay for $5 for my hobby electronics use. Will that ever be the came with the memristor or will these never be made in component size and instead restricted to larger chips that are tens of dollars or more capacities only?
"Will that ever be the came"
Don't worry, we're all nerds here, we understand these little Freudian slips...
"Will that ever be the came"
considering that the effect is only exploitable at nano meter scales - it might take a lot of work/time before anyone makes them into something you can buy off the shelf as a single component.
I don't see why you couldn't put it into a larger package. But I am unsure if there would be any demand for such a thing, since it sounds like you can already make a component that behaves like a memristor. The advantage of these things is the size.
It used to be in the 50's that you could only do that kind of stuff with expensive vacuum tubes. Gotta give it time.
Pretty much everything ends up in single-function packages eventually. This type of memory especially as it would be nonvolatile. Nonvolatile memory that wont wear out is a dream come true for any developer of embedded systems.
While it would be possible to build a large device with thousands or millions of memristor junctions ganged to scale the effect up to macro scale, it would largely be a waste to do so. This innovation is more useful when millions of memristors are used in a more elaborate way as storage, and/or logic.
Depends which HP we are talking about. I'm hoping the HP of today is like the HP of the 80s and 90s with kick-butt research, calculators that could be used as bludgeons against the zombie hordes while still being able to calculate the critical numbers in building a bridge, PA-RISC workstations which were great performers, and the maker of unkillable printers (I know people who buy up LJ 3s and 4s that are 10+ year old, put them in service and they are still going strong.)
I'm just hoping this is the HP that
In case you're wondering who Steve Furber is, he is also one of the original designers of the ARM CPU.
... and for other British geeks, he was one of the folk that made the BBC Micro!
after watching Memristor and Memristive Systems Symposium (Part 2) [youtube.com], I'm quite excited about the analogue memory capabilities of this component.
As Greg Snyder elaborates (first talk), CMOS "neurons" interconnected by a memristive layer of "synapses" could implement a neural network much more efficiently than pure digital computation.
this is exciting!
APL hackers do it in the quad.


text:
Conference USA athletic directors voted to make Old Dominion's football program eligible for their 2014 championship, one year earlier than originally announced.
Old Dominion, which announced last May that it had accepted an invitation to join Conference USA, will transition toward the FBS level in 2013 and play an FCS independent schedule with a scholarship level above the FCS limit.
Although the Monarchs will join the East Division of Conference USA in 2014, they will not be eligible for a bowl berth until 2015.
"This is a great moment for ODU and our program to learn we are championship eligible in 2014. We are grateful to the leadership in Conference USA," ODU coach Bobby Wilder said. "This will provide motivation to our current student- athletes and our incoming recruits to raise the bar quickly to get ready to compete for the championship in C-USA."


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|2012-05-31, 17:57
|Link #702
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
It is ultimately saying that the only deep loving relationship you can have is a romance and friendship is something weaker...and well since I have very strong friendships in real life this is something I ultimately disagree with.
As for this episode I thought it was largely very good. I like how the little separation Sen & Kaoru has had has only seemed to strengthen their bond in the end and in a way it is what made Kaoru himself realize Sen's importance to him.
I also mostly like how Yurika and Jun's relationship is working out. There is some good drama going on there (although even though he didn't do anything I didn't like how Jun pushed her down at all).
I wish the anime would have expanded on the student protests. I know there is limited time but I am largely ignorant about them and while I got the general gist I could only partially understand what was going on from those flashbacks (well I guess that is what Wikipedia is for).
And although it is nice that Sen finally realized Ri-chan's feelings I am less sure how I feel about Ri-chan not being sure if she likes Kaoru now.
|2012-05-31, 18:24
|Link #704
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
|2012-05-31, 20:42
|Link #705
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Forests of Hokkaido
Age: 68
It feels like every episode is better than the ones before.
Apparently Kaoru Chujo and I were wrong.
Like Kim, I didn't like Jun's treatment of Yurika either, though it's so reminiscent of Sen in the stairwell. Yurika has remarkable strength of character, though. Look at how she embarrasses Jun in that sequence by agreeing. She would have cooperated too, I'm sure, but I suspect she knew that by offering herself she gained the upper hand.
It's nice to see Sentarou overcome his block-headedness when it comes to Ritsuko. It might be too little, too late, though. Making a bento is one thing, but knitting is in an entirely separate class. (I'm reminded of Yuuno's handwarmer for Shinkurou in Kurenai.) I can see Ritsuko finishing that sweater then not being sure which boy to give it to!
I like Kaoru more in this episode than I have for a while. He's become so thoughtful, less self-obsessed, and kinder. Good for him.
|2012-05-31, 23:08
|Link #706
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Episode 8: Owww.
Sentarou: Many viewers saw it coming, but it didn't lessen the impact on Sentarou, like a sledgehammer in the chest. His first love and first heart break, the pain amplified by his innocence and living in a more innocent time. The voice actor did a great job with the "bakayarou." The strained voice told all.
All things considered, Sentarou seems to be handling heartbreak well. It would be normal for him to feel like it was the end of the world; perhaps more grief and outpouring took place off screen. Perhaps the fact that he detected hints of Yurkia's affection and a history of looking up to but never measuring up to his idol Jun helped him face facts. "The better man won."
Still, hard to imagine Sentarou getting over Yurika that quickly and cleanly. I think Sentarou will find resolution and move on, but there's still work to be done (read: more action to come).
Ritsu: Clearly beginning to develop feelings for Kaoru. And why wouldn't she? Kaoru is handsome, smart, talented, rich, fun to get along with, and a gentleman (except for that kiss). Most importantly, he likes her. Feelings for childhood friends do not necessarily last forever. So what does Ritsu do now?
Oh and case anyone missed it, the cute classmate who inspired Ritsu to knit appears to have a crush on glasses-freckle-chubby-guitarist-train-otaku-boy, whose name I forget. So good things come to nerds after all!
Now if you'll excuse, I'm off to take some pills for the dull pain in my stomach.
Edit: Calling it now: Yurika's father will try to arrange her marriage with Kaoru. Nothing will come of it, and the effects on the current relationship map will be negligible.
|2012-05-31, 23:23
|Link #707
Eternal Dreamer
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Caladan
Well, Yurika and Jun are done and over with. Yurika is the type that will get her way regardless of what her parents want her to do. Maybe she'll elope with Jun. Jun just needs to get his groove back.
Now we have a nice love triangle shaping up. Sen likes Ri. Ri likes Kaoru and Kaoru thinks Ri likes Sen. To complete the triangle, we all know Kaoru will eventually fall for Sen. I may even get the chance to see Sen and Kaoru holding hands walking toward the sunset at the end.
|2012-05-31, 23:49
|Link #708
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: in the land down under...
There is a very good reason why a lot of people in happy marriages say that their spouse is their best friend.
Other than that - the three of them (Sen and Ritchan and Kaoru) have now been friends for what...about a year? And pretty strong friendship bonds on all sides too, what with each person trying to support the bonds of friendship and/or love between the other two, or just trying to support each other fullstop (unfortunately, it's not as obvious here as in the manga - the time constraint is really telling now). So there IS friendship there, both between Ritchan and each of the guys, and also between Sen and Kaoru. But like all relationships, they're somewhat more complex than can be covered by a single concept like "romantic love" or even "friendship" or "bromance" if you wish - because there are many kinds of friendships.
This was the problem I had with No.6 too. And even with Macross Frontier. It's something of a habit for people to want to simplify things to one simple concept or theory (after one and a half years of my current degree, in a field which is dominated by this kind of desire for parsimony, I really can't stand it). Human relationships really are a bit more complex than that.
Moving on to the episode...hm...it felt somewhat...average...after last week's finale. *sighs* perhaps it's the final calm before the storm, so-to-speak.
But...I was rather happy to hear the Cherry Bell duo of Sakurai Takahiro and Suzumura Kenichi in there ^^ and...seriously, Hosoya just keeps getting better with each new show...each new week, even...
|2012-06-01, 01:22
|Link #709
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Also, I don't blame her at all, but she's got abominable timing to change targets.
|2012-06-01, 01:34
|Link #710
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Austria
|2012-06-01, 01:38
|Link #711
Anime-Only Viewer
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
Spoiler for Episode 8:
Another solid episode. The love triangle that just won't go away has now gotten even more complicated. Sen's love affair with one relationship ended up in a heartbreak, but now he has realized he is in another one already. How will this end up? Someone will end up hurt in the end, and I'm guessing 2 out of the 3 will be hurt, if not all 3.
Ritsuko is now in the "muddy" feelings stage, where she is not sure who she really likes anymore. That usually continues with more pain before everything ends. For some reason, I feel like in the end, all three will go their separate ways. A girl can be a very divisive catalyst between two guy friends, especially when both love her. It really doesn't help when she can't decide between them, and at this stage, Ritsuko is exactly at that predicament.
I'm not counting Jun out yet. Before the story ends, he could end up as a martyr of sorts. Will Yurika be able to save him before his demise, or will she end up alone (with his baby)?
Last edited by thundrakkon; 2012-06-01 at 02:25. Reason: Correcting name from Jun to Sen
|2012-06-01, 01:41
|Link #712
Seishu's Ace
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
I haven't read the manga, but my view on that scene is quite different. I thought Yurika's Mom just assumed she'd slept with Jun, and was interested in nipping any potential embarrassments to the family in the bud.
|2012-06-01, 01:49
|Link #713
Anime-Only Viewer
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
From Sen's reaction, it also seemed like it was more than just Yurika choosing Jun over him. The fact that Yurika did not deny her mom in that scene is more revealing. Usually, if your mom is jumping to a negative conclusion about you, you would immediately defend your honor.
|2012-06-01, 02:13
|Link #714
Kamaboko smash & grab
Join Date: Nov 2009
|2012-06-01, 02:37
|Link #716
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: in the land down under...
Second, I don't think we really know enough about Yurika and her relationship with her family to say she'd immediately defend her honour.
Most of us today would - well...depending on the reality, of course.
But given what we know of her situation (almost nothing, other than she's well-off and was known to have a pure image), I don't think we can assume that they've already slept together.
Ah, and as for Jun - I also believe that what Yurika said about his motive is true: he was trying to drive her away from him. Hence, I doubt he would have gone through with it - he was probably hoping she'd fight and run away, and he would have let her go.
|2012-06-01, 02:42
|Link #717
Kamaboko smash & grab
Join Date: Nov 2009
|2012-06-01, 02:47
|Link #718
Anime-Only Viewer
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Last week, I believe they did not. This week, I believe they did. Time has passed in this episode since the time Yurika first went to Jun's apartment to when the mom was talking to her. A lot of things could have happened in between, especially considering that she visits Jun all the time.
Her personality supposedly changed as well, as noted by other people. Also, her mom seemed to show some concern for her, trying to lighten the blow that the dad did. It seems that the mom at least has somewhat of a closer connection, so it did seem strange for her not to protect her honor.
It's a good story so far, and adding pregnancy to the story adds a different, more adult theme.
|2012-06-01, 03:49
|Link #719
Osana-Najimi Shipper
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Mt. Ordeals
Sen no BAKA! Only realizing your feelings when Ri-chan is on the verge of being taken away by Bon. Not sure if I want to continue cheering Sen on because they're childhood friends, or want to see him get (as other people would say it) "NTR'd" because he's being a douche. >_>
What I care about is if people talking about their favourite coupling is being suppressed, whether it be other shippers telling them how unfeasible it is or non-shippers saying they have no place in doing so.
I guess different strokes for different folks.
|2012-06-01, 07:47
|Link #720
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Food for thought:
Put yourselves in the shoes of Yurika's mom and dad: You pour your love and care into your (only?) child for 17-18 years, then out of the blue, in the span of a few months, her behavior changes rapidly, she starts getting into trouble at school, and then you learn she's dating/living with an older, questionable man, possibly in trouble with the law (and carrying that man's child?), all before she graduates from school.
Now, they're minor characters and we're not supposed to give much thought to their feelings, but it seems natural that Yurika's parents would be hurt and upset.
They're not shown to be stereotypical over-controlling parents whose vanity was offended either: Yurika hangs out with who she wants, goes where she wants (the beach, the record store, a bar frequented by American sailors at night), when she wants. If anything, her parents appear to grant her autonomy extraordinary for this time period and culture. I could understand if they felt Yurika has betrayed their trust, and in a way she has.
Of course, this being anime, the audience sees that Yurika and Jun are truly in love, and true love ignores social conventions. Still, being in love does not necessarily meaning burning bridges with your parents, and I can not but feel that Yurika could have handled it better (like waiting till graduation).
|josei, shoujo, slice of life
|Thread Tools


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So, I've been interested in possibly making my own distro project. Yes, I know there are too many, but there are still areas where I see large gaps. I will list a few of my ideas, and I'd like to hear some of your own input or ideas.
Libre Beginners Arch: (Parabola + Deployability = Paratrooper)
It seems that currently there is not one fully libre and fully modern distro. This would essentially be based on Parabola, a libre version of arch, but instead of initially booting into a command line or desktop environment the graphical installer would provide an easy method of choosing desktop environment, included applications, and whatever else is needed.
Alternative mobile phone OS: (PocketHack)
What annoys me most about Android, iOS, or Windows phone is purely who they are made by. And now Meego and Maemo have been canceled. Why not just get a cheap Chinese smart phone and build a legitimately good and customizable OS? Far too simple.
Heavy Ram-based distro: (Puppy linux for big computers = Bernard Linux)
There are many computers with 4-6GB of ram. Why not create a full featured distro that is as lightning fast as Puppy Linux? (If you haven't tried it, just try the liveCD from the last LXF.)
What are your ideas? (And maybe some input on mine)


text:
Friendly advice from a brother in Christ
Chicago-area Episcopal priest George Smith offers this thoughtful and sympathetic reflection on the Roman Catholic priesthood and the current in a letter to the editor in today's Chicago Tribune:
As an Episcopal priest, I am an outsider yet close enough in vocation and tradition to offer the following observations. Although I support the idea of married priests and ordination for women, I don't think these changes would easily solve the problems facing the Catholic Church. First, basic questions must be asked about the work and expectations of Catholic clergy. Today's priests are leading parishes with thousands of members. Consider the workload of saying daily masses, visiting the sick and elderly, and presiding at countless funerals and weddings. The hours are long and the pastoral work is demanding, difficult and lonely. At the same time, these priests are put on a pedestal and expected to be holier and closer to God than anyone else. How can anyone live up to such expectations?
Smith goes on to point out higher rates of substance abuse and depression among clergy. Though Roman Catholic priests by and large love their work, every one I personally know is profoundly overworked. Though not a direct cause of this current crisis, I have to agree with Smith when he says, "The goal of a healthy, vibrant and transparent priesthood is an urgent one."


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Groundbreaking ceremony takes place for RPMH Cardiac Rehab
A groundbreaking ceremony took place Tuesday morning at Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital for their new Cardiac Rehabilitation Center. Hospital Board members Kirby Andrews, Steve Holcomb, Jose Villafranca, Vickie May and Cheyenne Smith, along with Donna Boatright, Hospital Administrator, and Wes Stafford, Director of Cardiac Rehab, threw the first shovelful of dirt with golden shovels to mark the occasion. Hospital Department Managers, Chamber of Commerce members and community members attended the ceremony as well.


text:
Is Flacco "elite"? No.
Is Flacco better than Sanchez at this point? Absolutely
This is my 4th of July question.
I was watching the NFL's count down of the games top 100 players and Flacco's name came up.
And all of these players came on saying how great Flacco is and how much of an "elite" QB he is. Am I missing something here.... The Ravens Flacco ELITE?
I really don't see how Flacco is better than Sanchez at all?
Indeed the constant negative comments that Sanchez received concerning the belief "that he was given a ready made team" etc apply IMO double in Flacco's case.
The Raven's Defense was all world consistently before and after he got there and his WR while not spectacular had far more stability and consistency than that of the Jets.
Flacco also had a fantastic RB which Sanchez didn't have...
And finally Flacco has yet to play as consistently well as Sanchez has in the post season.
So I don't get it is Flacco really better than Sanchez....
IMO the answer is No but I could be worng.
Happy & Safe Holiday
Is Flacco "elite"? No.
Is Flacco better than Sanchez at this point? Absolutely
He's had more consistency and has a much 'bigger' arm.
I think he's above average to good...
I believe if the Jets had the Raven's defense in those AFC games the Jets would have gone to the SB both times so how come Flacco is as you put it "Absoultely" better than Sanchez!!!
Mark Sanchez is head and shoulders a far superior QB to Flacco... Flacco is damn good. Led his team to the AFC Championship as a Rookie- that's no gimmi.
Last years playoffs vs the Pats, Flacco's colors came true- He's no the fastest reader of picking up a blitz nor does he have a gunslinging arm we all thought he had-- don't get me wrong, his arm is one of the best in the league and he can probably throw the long ball farther than Sanchez HOWEVER he does not have the quick decision then SNAP when the WR is open--- when he does it, the throw is OFF.
Sanchez on the other hand has one of the best SNAPs I've ever seen. He can look one way turn the other, thread the needle like no other and it's all with a flick of the wrist- not to mention he can do it on the run, something Flacco can't.. Sanchez biggest problem is that he'll make just as many poor decisions as good ones, & when those poor decisions happen in the 4th quarter he gets eaten alive by everyone in the world.
Neither QB is elite, nor is either QB a top 10- but Sanchez definitely has the edge by a mile.. not saying Flacco can't cut it- his mental toughness is greater than Sanchez, that's big.
IMHO,Flacco,Sanchez,Freeman and to some extent Matty Ice are all in the same boat behind guys like Eli Manning the Kid QB from the Rams and the Cutler kid in Chicago who are behind guys like Rodgers and Rotheslisberger who are behind guys like Brady and Peyton Manning .


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Of cars, booze, guns and angry mothers
Years ago, when I was much younger and dumber, I sometimes drove after drinking too much, occasionally even with a beer in hand. Once a state policeman stopped me leaving the small town of Joseph, Ore., and asked me to count backwards, touch my toes and walk a line. Fortunately, he knew me, and so he just suggested gently that I get in the passenger seat and let my wife drive home.
There was also the time after a full and fabulous day at the ski run, when, sipping that last beer as we headed for home on the back roads, I hit a patch of ice and slipped into the barrow pit. Again, fortunately, the only damage was to my ego, and all my law-breaking and stupid behavior took place at low speeds on quiet roads.
Then along came Mothers Against Drunk Driving with its memorable acronym, MADD. Mothers across the country stood up and screamed at the press, at lawmakers, and at law enforcement agencies to do something about the rash of young deaths on our roads caused by drunk drivers. I remember a dance sponsored by a group I was a part of -- we organized a team of sober drivers to get people home -- and the body shop owner telling me with great pleasure that there were fewer horrendous accidents to clean up.
I can't remember the specific laws that MADD helped enact, but I do remember hearing about the stiff laws in Scandinavian countries; a driver there who got one ticket for Driving Under the Influence lost his license forever. Here in America, we also stopped feeling tolerant toward drunk drivers; MADD's campaign worked.
I've been thinking about this as we stew over gun laws and deaths -- mostly young deaths -- caused by guns and the people who misuse them. It seems to me that there are clear parallels. First, we are not going to get rid of guns any more than we were going to get rid of cars or alcohol. Second, there are laws already on the books. Third, there are cars with speeds too fast for safety, just as there are guns too powerful for civil society. Fourth, registration and insurance are already in the picture. Finally, no reasonable person thinks that gun deaths can be eliminated entirely, but just as with drunk drivers, everyone thinks we can do better.
I think the parallels might give us a starting point. First, we could start enforcing existing laws. Second, let's be reasonable: Can we agree that private individuals should not own or use rocket grenade launchers, any more than workday commuters should drive Indie cars on the highway? Let's work our way back down the line, and agree that there is a place for "public gun racks," confined places where sportsmen and women can fire weapons that are too dangerous to shoot out in the open. Such guns would have to be registered and kept there.
As for constraining the users of guns; Yes, it would be good to ferret out the mentally unstable. Theoretically, we could make everyone get a license, just as we do with the owners of cars. But that's too radical for some. I understand that people who have concealed weapons permits, the folks who have jumped through legal hoops and are licensed, tend to be the safest gun owners and users around, as safe as most law enforcement officers. But it seems to me that the mentally unstable guy with a gun trick up his sleeve (and yes, this is mostly a male problem) might have trouble passing a competency test. We seem to do pretty well with cars and drivers' licenses, taking tests, registering when we buy and sell: Why not do the same with guns?
We might even create safe places for people to store their guns if there is a fear of instability in the family, suicide threats or threats of violence -- safe places that anyone could use without explaining why. Is that too hard? One thing is clear: What we have now is not working.
Tragically, most gun deaths come at the hands of people the victims know. The most unfortunate ones are children who find a loaded gun at home and play their way to death. Maybe parents or responsible guardians deserve jail time when such things happen. Maybe guns would be watched more carefully, given such a law.
It seems to me that this kind of close watching by friends, family and community is especially necessary. After all, that's just what MADD made us all do –– and amazingly enough, it worked to change dangerous behavior -- behavior that had once been considered normal by everyone.
Richard Wandschneider is a contributor to Writers on the Range, an op ed service of High Country News (hcn.org). He writes in Joseph, Oregon.
Note: the opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of High Country News, its board or staff. If you'd like to share an opinion piece of your own, please write Betsy Marston at [email protected].


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NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Caroline Wozniacki took some time to reminisce after moving into the semifinals in New Haven for the sixth consecutive year.
"It's unbelievable how the time flies," she said. "I've played a lot of good matches, a lot of tough matches. I've had rain delays. I've played indoors, outdoors in the heat, night sessions. I've played with some wind, with a hurricane coming in. You know, I played with a bit of everything."
The four-time tournament champion beat American Sloane Stephens 7-6 (6), 6-2 on Thursday, improving her record to 23-1 at the Connecticut Tennis Center, with her lone loss coming a year ago when she had to retire from the semifinals because of a knee injury.
"I don't think there's many players that have won an event four times already," she said. "I'm pretty proud of my achievement actually. You know, I think it's pretty impressive."
The former No. 1 player in the world will play Simona Halep on Friday. The Romanian beat Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 7-6 (6).
The other semifinal will feature two players from the Czech Republic. Defending champion Petra Kvitova beat Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. She will face Klara Zakopolova, who came from a set down to beat Russian Elena Vesnina 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Stephens, the 20-year-old rising U.S. star, stayed with Wozniacki early and was serving for the set after breaking the Danish star in the ninth game. But Wozniacki broke back to tie the set at 5-5 and never trailed in the tiebreaker, winning 8-6.
Wozniacki broke Stephens in the third game of the second set, and put the match away with another break to go up 5-2.
"We both were playing well," said Stephens, who is still looking for her first WTA tournament title. "It's just unfortunate that I lost the tiebreaker. But I thought we both played really well."
Kvitova needed three sets and a full day to make her return to the semifinals. Rain delayed the start of play in the early matches by more than an hour and a half, and she was forced to sit through a second, hour-long rain delay, during play.
It was the third three-set match of the tournament for the defending New Haven champion, who leads the WTA Tour's top 100 players with 29 this season. She improved to 18-11 in those contests.
"I know I'm playing a lot of three-set matches, that's why I probably know if I lose the first set, still I can go to the third," Kvitova said. "I don't feel like without energy in the third set, so that's good sign, too."
Zakopalova also came from behind to win her quarterfinal, finding her confidence in the second set, which she won in 28 minutes. She was serving for the match at 5-2 before Vesnina rallied, coming within a point of tying the set.
"I was just fighting for every point," Zakopalova said. "In the end I was a little bit more lucky, I think."
Their match and the earlier quarterfinal between Halep and Makarova were forced to the grandstand court by the rain.
Fewer than 20 fans watched as Halep jumped out early, taking the first 6-1 while breaking Makarova's serve four times.
The second rain delay came with the players tied at 1-1 in the second, and when play resumed Makarova made a run, winning the next two games.
"I was a little bit nervous after (the rain)," Halep said. "I played really slow after. But I came back from 4-2 again and I did well."
The Romanian broke serve in the eighth game, and won the tiebreaker 8-6.
She is looking for her fourth tournament title this summer and said she likes where her game is heading into next week's U.S. Open.
"I'm a bit tired right now," she said. "But I want to play tomorrow, to try my best. After that I will see what will happen."
This is the first quarterfinal in the tournament's history that didn't include either of the top two seeds. Sara Errani and Angelique Kerber both lost earlier in the week in the second round. Kvitova, Wozniacki and Stephens were the only seeded players to make it past round two.
The players got a little excitement before play began Thursday.
A fire alarm, caused by smoke from someone cooking in the players' lounge, forced the evacuation of the Connecticut Tennis Center for about 15 minutes.
"It was OK, when we were waiting for the match, some fun," Kvitova said. "I wasn't cooking, so that's good."


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|North Wildwood, N.J.
|High School:
|Wildwood Catholic
2012:Begins his junior year making a position change as he moves from behind the plate to first base ... has made the transition smooth and had a good fall at first base ... is a hitter that makes good contact and hits for a high average ... has been developing power and will hit in the lower half of the Spartan lineup.
2011: Played in 17 games, earning a start in 13 of those contests ... hit .206 with 7 hits in 34 at-bats with three runs scored, three doubles, and three RBI ... had a .294 slugging percentage and a .289 on-base percentage ... had one multiple hit game as he was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two doubles in the May 2 game at Messiah ... the two hits tied a career-high for hits in a game ... tied a career-high with four total bases at Messiah.
2010: Saw action in 11 games as he came off the bench in all of his appearances ... hit .400 in his 10 at-bats as he collected four hits, two runs scored, one RBI, a double and a home run ... had an .800 slugging percentage and a .400 on-base percentage ... notched his first collegiate hit and first home run in the March 16 at Wesley College ... collected his first career double in the March 20 game against Stevenson ... had a career-high two hits in the April 3 win over Gallaudet ... did not make an error in eight attempts behind the plate for the year.
Personal: Is the son of Doug and Regina Long ... is an Accounting major ... lists his parents as the people he most admires ... lists hitting a home run in his first collegiate at-bat as his most memorable athletic moment at York.


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For starters, I have a disclaimer to make – I have been a big fan of Star Trek since I was a little kid watching Captain Picard outsmart aliens, this was often a highlight of my Sunday afternoons.
So naturally when I heard I could combine two of my favorite things, Gaming and Star Trek, I instantly became interested in playing Star Trek Online (referred to as STO in the rest of the article). I have spent about 2 weeks in the open beta that you get into for pre-ordering the game.
The group responsible for developing STO is Cryptic Studios, which recently released Champions Online [Metacritic score: 72] which is being published by Atari. For starters, we have to that unlike Champions Online, which felt a bit incomplete, I have enjoyed most of my time playing STO. STO is broken into two distinct portions, Space Exploration/Combat and Ground Exploration/Combat.
Most of the game so far has taken place with missions in space. In the content department STO has surprised me. Given that several staffers at BSN* played the beta, the positive move was that we haven't seen much of the recycling of areas. Of course there are only so many different combinations of planets, moons, asteroid belts and nebulae. In the multitude of solar systems and other space locales I have visited in the game have all felt distinctly unique. On the ground it is mostly the same story. Ground locales are distinct, the negative of the ground locales [including space stations] is that they feel barren almost sterile. The one positive I have enjoyed with ground combat is the ability to fill out your away team [party in normal MMO vernacular] with your bridge officers. So even if you can only find one friend to adventure with, you can still complete ground missions even if you are short-handed.
Space Combat: Finally done right
Space battles are proper way to "get you in the game"
In my opinion space combat is where this game really shines. You can pick between 3 different career paths for your avatar. Cruiser Captain?s allow you to fly large ships that can take a lot of punishment and have lots of crew to make repairs [similar to tanking classes in other MMO games], Escort Captain?s fly small nimble warships that can inflict heavy damage but cannot take much abuse [the rogues of the STO universe]. Lastly, Science ship Captain?s use technologically advanced ships to buff teammates and debuff enemies [similar to old school roleplaying Bards]. Space combat is a balance of making sure your strongest shields are facing your enemy, while firing your weapons and using your special abilities to destroy enemy ships.
An important part of any MMO is the acquiring of new and exciting items. STO does have a slight failing in this department. While there are plenty of weapons, some with very interesting effects, the other items seem a bit lacking. Other than shields and weapons, most other space equipable items are just modifiers of stats that aren?t well explained, or consumables that don?t do much than recharge systems. Ground equipment is mostly the same, there is a lot of variation in the small arms you can use, but most other items are very generic. The game?s library of items lacks the WOW! effect that trying to obtain a badass looking sword or cool armor can cause. As far as I have played you can make do with just using items you can buy from the vendors. This leaves me wishing weapons and other gear had less parity making it more important to go quest to get better items. As far as looting the actual gear, STO has an excellent system that doesn?t hinder trading acquired gear or saving gear for a second character.
If Space combat is "Hooray", Ground combat is…
My biggest complaint about STO is the ground combat. Space combat feels fluid and is a lot of fun; conversely ground combat feels like a grind. I mentioned earlier that you don?t have to have a full group to complete missions, as you can fill out the party with your own bridge officers who are dumb as bricks. Of course I don?t expect a lot from AI but it?s just the general model of the combat. You equip your crew with various types of small arms, from phaser pistols to handheld disruptor cannons, and various kinds of personal shields, these are all available from different vendors on starbases and travelling merchants found in space. Ground combat involves making sure that your crew has the best weapons available at your level and running up to groups and just having a firefight. The only strategy I have really encountered is the Alpha strike, target someone and tell everyone in my party to attack them at once. Since that?s all it takes to excel at ground combat I think Cryptic needs to figure out some added mechanics to add to ground game.
The downfall of Cryptic Studios: Generic looking base locations
If Star Trek Online were split into two different games and you could play just the space combat then I would tell you to buy it in a heartbeat. As far as space combat games go, STO is top notch when you are flying your ship around blowing other ships up. But I can?t really endorse the ground combat. It is very clunky and needs a lot of work. I have told my friends that I feel like STO is 90% fun and 10% suck, that 10 percent suck is enough to make me advise people to wait for some changes to the game, maybe a couple months of post release patches and development, before they buy STO. Hopefully Cryptic will address some of these problems before release, or soon after.
Quick Conclusion
Overall, I have enjo
yed my time with STO and I think most people will as well. As with most MMO?s that are just starting out, there are of course many bugs and glitches that will need ironing out. It does not have the polish of some other long running MMO?s like World of Warcraft. Please remember that STO still in open beta and won?t be released until the first week of February, so there will be fixes for a lot of problems that might still exist. If you are a star trek fan this is definitely worth a try, like I said, I have had a lot of fun with it. But, if you are a MMO player in general you should probably wait for them to flesh out some of the features and work out some of the mechanics problems.
I have had lots of MMO experience having spent substantial time with EVE: Online, Age of Conan, Guild Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, and (of course) World of Warcraft. After all this time with other MMO?s it is pretty easy to see what people like and what people don?t. I feel like this one isn?t ready for primetime quite yet. People who were around World of Warcraft when it was released will probably remember a similar state of affairs. But as MMO?s have time to mature and developers get more time they usually work these things out. So for right now I am giving STO a Star Trek Fans only, as I don?t think it?s ready for mainstream gamers. But hopefully soon it will be.


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CANTLEY: Zumba fitness will be held at Wilby Carr Community Centre, Cantley from 6.30-7.30pm and at St Peter's Community Hall (White Church) Balby on Fridays from 6-7pm. Classes cost £4. Contact 01709 860527.
CANTLEY: Zumba fitness will be held at Wilby Carr Community Centre, Cantley from 6.30-7.30pm and at St Peter's Community Hall (White Church) Balby on Fridays from 6-7pm. Classes cost £4. Contact 01709 860527.
EDLINGTON: Nifty Fifty 50+ swimming for adults aged 50 and over takes place from 10.15am to noon at Edlington Sports Centre. Contact 01709 862625.
EPWORTH: Pre-school play groups take place for babies and toddlers at Epworth's Thurlow Pavilion from 9am to 10am for toddlers and 10am to 11am for babies. INTAKE: Social dancing, 8-11pm at the Lonsdale Hotel, Intake. Admission £4. Contact 01924 360449.
TOWN CENTRE: Meditation will be held at Doncaster Women's Centre with Buddhist nun Kelsang Gepel, 7-8.30pm. Visit www.meditateindoncaster.co.uk or call 0114 2661142.
TOWN CENTRE: Gentle exercise takes place at Doncaster Baptist Church, Chequer Road from 11am to noon. Contact 07949 023309.
ADWICK: Get yourself in shape and take a dip at Adwick Leisure Centre. There are adults only classes from 7.30am - 8.30pm, noon to 1.15pm and 3pm to 4pm and a Swim 4 All session from 4pm to 5.45pm. Contact 01302 721447 for details of all classes.
CANTLEY: Computer courses for absolute beginners are held at Cantley Community Centre, Goodison Boulevard from 10am to noon. Contact 01302 533214
ADWICK: Spin cycling classes for beginners take place at Adwick Leisure Centre every Saturday morning from 10am to 10.45am. Places need to be pre-booked on 01302 721447.
ASKERN: A parent and toddler class featuring tap, singing and freestyle dance will be held at Claremont House, Askern from 10am.
ASKERN: Children's street dance will take place at Askern Welfare Hall from 12.15pm to 2pm. Contact 01302 700441.
ASKERN: Children's dance classes in freestyle and street dance from 12.15pm at Askern Miners Welfare with a gymnastics and acrobatics class from 1pm. A parent and toddler class will be held from 9.15am. Contact 01302 700441.
WHEATLEY: Ballroom dancing takes place at Parklands Ballroom, Wheatley Hall Road from 11.30am to 3pm. Admission £2. Contact 01302 884707.
ADWICK: Swim for all sessions take place at Adwick Leisure Centre, Welfare Road, Woodlands from 8.30 to 10am.
LAKESIDE: The Keepmoat Stadium car boot sale takes place from 6.30am to 12.30pm. Contact (01302) 862480.
AUCKLEY: Doncaster Rovers hosts mini kickers for 4-7 year olds from 5pm - 6pm at Hayfield School (£3) while a boys and girls drop in club for 8-14 year olds takes place from 6pm - 7pm. £3. 01302 764663
CANTLEY: Computer courses for absolute beginners are held at Cantley Community Centre, Goodison Boulevard from 1pm to 3pm and 3pm to 5pm. Contact 01302 533214.
BALBY: A tea dance is held from 2pm-4pm at St Peter's Church, Balby. Contact 01302 570544.
TOWN CENTRE: Doncaster Wheatsheaf Singers stage weekly rehearsal classes at the Quaker Meeting House, Oxford Place from 7pm to 9pm. The group is open to women aged 12 to 70. Contact 01302 770007.
TOWN CENTRE: Doncaster Speakers meet at The Base, Marshgate, every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month, at 7-9.30pm, contact 0770 326 1861 for further details.
WOODLANDS: The Citizens Advice Bureau will be at the meeting room, Woodlands Library from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.
ARMTHORPE: Get into shape with spin cycling classes at Armthorpe Leisure Centre, Mere Lane. The classes take place from 10am to 10.45am. Contact 01302 834268 or visit www.armthorpeleisurecentre. co.uk
ASKERN: Ballroom, latin and sequence dance lessons take place at Askern Miners Welfare Hall from 7pm for beginners. Contact 01302 700441.
EDLINGTON: Line dancing will be held from 8pm to 11pm at Yorkshire Main WMC, Edlington. Admission £2. Telephone 01709 864075.
KIRK SANDALL: Line dancing takes place at, Pilkington's Recreational Club, Kirk Sandall from 6.45pm to 10pm. £3. 07900 484810.
TOWN CENTRE: Scottish Country Dancing, 7.30-9.30pm at the Baptist Church Hall, Chequer Road. Contact 01302 851174.
ADWICK: Get in shape with aqua fit sessions at Adwick Leisure Centre from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.
ASKERN: Line dancing takes place from 1pm to 4pm at Alexander House, Askern every Wednesday. 01302 701456.
CANTLEY: Beginners ballroom, latin and sequence dance classes are held at Wilby Carr Community Centre, Cantley from 7pm. Contact 01302 700441.
CANTLEY: Computer courses for absolute beginners are held at Cantley Community Centre, Goodison Boulevard, 6-8pm. Contact 01302 533214.
TOWN CENTRE: A Buddhism and meditation course at the Quaker Meeting House, Oxford Place, Doncaster, 7.15-9.15pm. Open to all. Contact 0114 233 3971 for details.
HEXTHORPE: Line dancing at Doncaster Indoor Bowling Club, Urban Road, 1.30-3pm. Admission £3. Contact 361600 for details.
WOODLANDS: A golden oldies gentle exercise class at Woodlands Library, 11am to noon. Over 60s are welcome with places available. The cost is £1 and sessions run in conjunction with Age Concern. The classes take place in the meeting room.
TOWN CENTRE: Ghost Walk of Doncaster, meet at Barley Twist Pub, Premier Inn, Tuesday & Friday, 7.30pm, Tel. 0787 566 2798.
BESSACARR: Potteric Carr Nature Reserve open 7 days a week between (am and 5pm (last entry 5pm) Guided daytime or evening visits can be arranged, please call for more details. Tel.(01302) 570077 email: firstname.lastname@example.com
LAKESIDE: Aeroventure is a member of the British Aviation Preservation Council. Opening times are Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. for more details tel (01302) 761616 www.aeroventure.org.uk
* Please check in advance with organisers that events are taking place before setting off.


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Two new series for the fall TV slate that, to my eye, both look promising.
Perception stars Eric McCormick as a neuropsychiatrist (with some neuroses of his own) who assists the FBI. It has already had 2 episodes, although I haven't got to watch either. I did DVR them and will watch them as soon as I finish this season of Suits.
The other show, Elementary, is a modernization of Sherlock Holmes. Personally, I'm a huge fan of anything to do with Sherlock Holmes, and this series has the added benefit of having Lucy Liu in every episode.
Either of these series on anybody's radar?


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In Jews and Jesus, Rabbi Boteach turns his outspoken energy and vast erudition to the core teachings of Judaism itself, as well as the misperceived differences between the Judaism and other faiths.
During his eleven years as Rabbi of Oxford University and founder of the university's Jewish outreach organization, the L'Chaim Society, Boteach began to realize how well-matched the foundational beliefs of Judaism are to the broad human needs of the modern world. Unlike the dualist credo of other religions, in which the material and spiritual are always in conflict, the Jewish faith, argues Boteach, uniquely represents a spiritual philosophy concerned about life in this world, rather than in the hereafter. In Jews and Jesus, this most unorthodox of orthodox rabbis explores the Jewish and Biblical origins of civilization's seminal moral ideas and presents Judaism as a program of action for people of all faiths.
Boteach's interpretations and commentary are a vibrant celebration of the dynamism that is Judaism. Whether he's peppering his points with stories from his childhood, promoting feminism and decrying boredom, or extolling the virtues of leisure and solitude, Shmuley Boteach never fails to inform, inspire, and surprise. Jews and Jesus is for everyone seeking a universal moral creed to maximize human goodness and inner potential.
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- Can Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah? (Alan Colmes Show)
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"A great read, and a splendid stepping stone to a thoroughly enriched life."
Deepak Chopra, on Boteach's book, Judaism for Everyone


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In the long dark months (or two short months) between the end of one season and the start of winter testing, there's not much in terms of F1 news doing the rounds. The hunt for stories takes place far from the track, with teams engrossed in finishing up the next year's contender.
In those fallow times, a great source of F1 news to come can be found in the business and financial pages of your newspaper of choice, where blue-chip sponsors get acres of coverage. But it never pays to read too much into the business section when it comes to involvement in sport - some sponsor relationships are more valuable than the figures alone might suggest.
Shell announced a profit warning shortly before the publication of their year-end results, with profits down to an estimated $16.8 billion from $27.2 billion one year ago. In the business section it was all doom and gloom, with Shell criticised for not waking up to the fact that the era of big spending was over.
You could be forgiven for assuming that with such a drop in profits, Shell would be looking at their corporate spending, and possibly reassessing their fifty-year relationship with Ferrari (among other corporate investments).
But to do so would misunderstand the nature of the technical partnership. Ferrari might not be much use to Shell when it comes to industrial drilling and global oil management. But when it comes to developing products for the retail market, Ferrari's value to Shell is practically unquantifiable.
While tyres were the big story last year, and engines will be the headline grabbers this season, oils and lubricants are going to be a vital part of the discussion. Teams have been working with their fuel and lubricant suppliers to develop high density fuels and multi-grade lubricants in order to find the best compromise between fuel efficiency and component longevity.
For companies like Shell (and Mobil, Petronas, Total, etc.), Formula One is the ideal laboratory for consumer products, a testing ground in which peak performance is the most basic requirement, and where conditions are more extreme than those faced by any road car.
Whatever costs are incurred in developing specialist products for the track can be at least partially written off in R&D and marketing budgets, while the exposure that comes of a successful technical partnership provides all manner of benefit when it comes to positive brand association.
Any company that merely stickers a car is unlikely to stay around for the long haul. But technical partnerships - when done well - are a truly symbiotic relationship, one that exists for mutual benefit.
As far as the Ferrari-Shell relationship goes, there is more than just a long and successful partnership to take into account. This year, teams who have been able to develop their oils and lubricants in concert with the development of their engine will have an advantage over customer teams, both when it comes to component longevity and maximising fuel efficiency.
For Ferrari, Shell could help them get that winning advantage (although Mercedes are in a similar position with Petronas and Red Bull with Total), while a winning Ferrari helps Shell's retail sales. For two technical companies with common interests, mutual benefit is more important in the long-term than a year of falling profits.


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Philippe Cornet and Mark Flood scored in regulation for the Checkers, who got 34 saves from a sharp-looking Justin Peters in the first game of his conditioning stint from the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. Charlotte concludes the first leg of its franchise-record, 10-game road swing with one point in two weekend games against their West Division rival.
Dating back to last season, three of the Checkers' last six games in Texas have gone to the sudden-death shootout rounds, with the home team winning all three. In this game, Peters stopped three of seven attempts with the Stars' Matej Stransky netting the winner after his goaltender, Cristopher Nilstorp, started the seventh round with a save on Checkers captain Brett Sutter.
After being held out of Friday's game as he shook the rust off from the NHL's Olympic break, Peters made several key stops in his first AHL game since Oct. 4 and his first game at any level since his last start for Carolina on Jan. 19. What began by shutting down a two-on-one chance in the game's first shift culminated in an unlikely point-blank save on Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak in overtime with several more in between.
The final result ended a nine-game streak in which the Checkers had allowed three or more goals in regulation. The last time they held a team to fewer than three was during the last time an NHL goalie joined the team on a conditioning stint, with Cam Ward suffering a 1-0 loss in Lake Erie on Jan. 31.
After losing 4-1 to the Stars on Friday, the Checkers fell behind 1-0 in this game when AHL goals leader Colton Sceviour netted his 31st of the season by firing home a loose puck in the slot on a second-period power play. Instead of suffering the kind of sag that saw them allow two goals within the same 60-second span on Friday, a common theme in recent months, it was the Checkers that answered back 64 seconds later when Ryan Murphy stole a puck in the defensive zone and immediately took off up ice, setting up a two-on-one break that saw Cornet provide the sharp-angle shot to tie the game.
With the assist, Murphy extended his assist and point streaks to seven games – the longest by a Checkers defenseman this season and the longest active streak of any AHL blueliner. He has eight assists during that stretch and 12 in 12 AHL games this season, tying him with Flood for the team lead among defensemen.
Not to be outdone, Flood, who had already set the Checkers' single-season record for most goals by a defenseman, set a new career high with his 12th of the campaign on the tail end of a long play early in the third period – a blast from the right point that gave Charlotte a 2-1 lead. The Checkers had earned the power play late in period two when Peters set off a wild scrum by shoving the Stars' Chris Mueller after a whistle.
During that scrum, the Stars' Cameron Gaunce took down Jared Staal with a slew foot, earning a match penalty that gave the Checkers five minutes with which to work. Flood's goal came with only 23 seconds remaining in that window.
With Sean Dolan in the box for hooking, Mueller, one of four Texas players who entered the game ranked among the AHL's top seven scorers, tied Charlotte's Zach Boychuk for the most power-play goals in the league (13) when he tied the game with 6:56 remaining in regulation. The goal came when a handful of players were fighting for a loose puck in front of Peters and the puck squirted off to the netminder's right side for an open look.
Texas' power play converted two of three opportunities to improve to a league-best 27.9 percent. Charlotte killed the Stars' first chance with Rasmus Rissanen in the box for cross checking but allowed goals on each of the next two, including Scevoiur's strike that occurred when Rissanen went off for boarding less than a minute after his initial penalty had expired.
In the shootout, Peters gave up goals to Dustin Jeffrey and Sceviour on Texas' first two shots, stopped the next three from Justin Dowling, Mueller and AHL scoring leader Travis Morin but then allowed Brendan Ranford to convert a do-or-die opportunity in round six after Brody Sutter scored on a beautiful move to convert his first career shootout opportunity. Also missing chances for Charlotte were Justin Shugg, Victor Rask and Zach Boychuk.
The Checkers now briefly return home for a few days of practice before embarking on a four-game trip that will see them face Eastern Conference foes Norfolk and Hershey twice each. That trip starts with Wednesday's game against the Admirals.


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A man in his 20s was in critical condition after being shot early Saturday morning in Mattapan, Boston police said in a prepared statement.
Officers responded to the area of 640 Morton St. at 12:48 a.m. and found the man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken by ambulance to Brigham and Women's Hospital, according to the statement.
Trevor Harrigan said he was cooking in his home on Morton Street around midnight when he heard a commotion outside after several young adults had left a party down the street.
"I heard some yelling and screaming, mostly yelling, and then three big gunshots," Harrigan said. "Then more screaming."
Harrigan said he went outside and saw an EMT applying CPR to a young man who appeared to have lost a lot of blood.
No arrests have been made in the case, a Boston police spokeswoman said.
The shooting struck a chord with Harrigan, who said the wounded man was around the same age as his son, who is in college.
"I just picture him on the ground," he said. "That's a call no mother wants to hear."Todd Feathers can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Fol-
low him on Twitter @Todd


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Ferry to and from Block Island.
Manisses Hotel (Above and Below)
Indian Cemetery, see Find-A-Grave entry for this cemetery.
Beautiful photos! You've been island hopping this summer, haven't you? Come see me on Martha's Vineyard!
I feel like I'm right there with you! Hope that camel is not lonely!
Hydrangea?? WOW!!
Welcome back Barbara! Wonderful photos from Block Island!