text:
Every breath I take...every move I make
Paul had bad knees from trying to get fit. Fernando is approaching his 50s and wants to keep running marathons. Phil's a rock-climbing instructor. They're all part of a global community called Quantified Self, where people gather and analyse their own data about their health, exercise, diet and sleep, using web-based tools.
Quantified Self has been described as marrying technology with self-improvement. It's also known as self-tracking, body hacking—and can possibly lead to 'cyberchondria'! Right now, it's fitness freaks, geeks and early adopters who are into this stuff, but as health care systems around the world are coming under increasing pressure, is self-tracking the way of the future? Will we all need to be body hackers in years to come?
MUS: Kraftwerk, Pocket Calculator
Amanda Smith: Hi I'm Amanda Smith and in this edition of The Body Sphere you're going to meet Paul - who's got dodgy knees; Fernando - who's approaching 50 and wants to keep running marathons; and Phil - who's a rock-climbing instructor. They're all what's known as self-trackers, or body hackers. They're also part of a global community called the Quantified Self. It's all about measuring and analysing data about your own body; things like your health, fitness, weight, injuries using the latest apps and gizmos.
Now all this focus on self improvement through technology may possibly lead to 'cyberchondria'! But as health care systems around the world are coming under increasing pressure, is self-tracking the way of the future? Will we all need to be body hackers in years to come?
Here in The Body Sphere we're meeting some of the early adopters.
This is an indoor rock climbing centre, Hardrock. Phil Goebel is training a group of teenagers with climbing here.
Phil Goebel: …I've got a couple of routes marked out. They're covered so you can't see their grades. and I want you to do five minute preview time…
Amanda Smith: And Phil as well as being a rock climbing enthusiast is a self- tracker - and he's encouraging his teenagers to do a bit of self-tracking as well with the climbing.
Erin: I'm Erin, I'm 17.
Issie: I'm Issie I'm 17.
Connor: I'm Connor and I'm 14.
May: I'm May and I'm 17.
Amanda Smith: So have you been doing any tracking on your climbing?
Issie: Yeah it's online, you get an email just to remind you to get into the process of doing it.
Erin: What we have to do is, every time we climb we have to say whether we're warm by 5.30, how many climbs in general we do and how many project times we did (which is like the ones that are the hardest you can climb and what you're working on trying to get). And then you rate yourself from 1 to 3 overall on how you think your performance has gone as well.
Amanda Smith: And how is it going Issie?
Issie: Pretty good. You have your good days and your bad days. It depends how you're feeling and stuff like that. I think that is what Phil is trying to say as well: like if you had something certain to eat, maybe whether or not that depends on how good you've been that certain day, so yeah.
Amanda Smith: What difference does has that made, doing that tracking for your climbing do you think?
May: It's inspiring yourself, just because you know how much you've improved and it's good to get a little bit of confidence back I guess.
Amanda Smith: Connor, have you been doing any of this kind of tracking?
Connor: Ah yeah I have because I only started recently rock climbing. So yeah I'm trying to find out what I can and can't do and seeing where I can improve.
Amanda Smith: And what have you found out so far?
Connor: That I'm not that good!
Phil Goebel: …Alright whenever you're ready…
So with that information I get an idea of the volume and intensity of their climbing session and can track how they feel their sessions went and that stuff.
Amanda Smith: And you're turning them into little self-trackers.
Phil Goebel: Yeah. I hope with the ones that really pick up these sorts of things, we can start to add questions onto their tracker about their climbing session. But also maybe include more variables - things like their sleep and general activity levels with like a digital pedometer and that kind of stuff. Then we can look at the things that may be affecting their climbing performance. But I want to introduce things slowly and just a step and a time, otherwise it can get too overwhelming.
…Right, let's get onto that next big hold. That's it, good, whenever you're ready…
Amanda Smith: Phil Goebel and his youth rock climbing squad are starting to get pretty savvy on the self-tracking stuff and Phil belongs to a Quantified Self meet-up group. Sometimes though you just stumble into these things…
Paul Kittson: My name is Paul Kittson, I've just turned 27 years old. I work in HR and describe myself as a sort of regular guy.
Amanda Smith: Alright so regular guy Paul how and why did you hook into Quantified Self?
Paul Kittson: For me it all started with a fitness kick. I was trying to get in shape a couple of years ago and I started this sport called CrossFit. And it was going really good for 6 months, you know. I was actually getting in shape, you know. I started to look a little bit buffer, it was going good. But my knees started to niggle. I hadn't really been very injured in my life and I hadn't had any health problems so I ignored it for a little while hoping it would go away, but it started to get worse and worse and then I knew OK, this is an issue I have.
Amanda Smith: Paul stopped working out and went to see a number of physiotherapists, but nothing seemed to be helping.
Paul Kittson: So this went on for a while and it sort of dawned on me that, OK if they were going to get better they would have gotten better by now. At least I assumed so because I'd been doing everything right. Like I was getting up in the morning and taping my knees, I was taking anti-inflammatory medication, I was icing them. I had this whole regime I was doing for about easily an hour a day and I wasn't getting any better and I was at my wit's end.
So I started this journal. It was very simple. I'd rate my pain levels, or my discomfort, once a day from 1 to 10 and I'd write like a few sentences of why I thought it was like that.
So the first thing that this tracking did was - for example I used to be a bit afraid of doing like a couple of flights of stairs and I'd avoid doing that. By tracking my pain levels and then doing stuff like that like, or going for a big walk, I could see, well actually the pain seemed to be consistent or unrelated to that. So it gave me confidence to test some boundaries around some self defence mechanisms I'd put up.
Amanda Smith: So you're doing this off your own bat, really, keeping this journal? When does the hook into the Quantified Self movement come in?
Paul Kittson: Of course, yes. So I Googled this. I Googled it and found other people were tracking pain, but they were also tracking all sorts of things. They have lots of people giving videos about the different stuff that they are tracking. So, quite a few other people dealing with health issues. Not the same one as me, different stuff, but niggling things, chronic things that you couldn't quite figure out – it could be this or it could be that.
Amanda Smith: So things like people who couldn't sleep, for example? That sort of thing?
Paul Kittson: Yeah, couldn't sleep, people having troubles with their mood, with their weight, other people with digestive problems, allergies, just all that stuff. It made me realise, even though I was in a bad situation, there's things about what I'm doing I can learn to control. And by tracking and measuring different things in my life I could learn what those things are.
Amanda Smith: So what happened with your knees?
Paul Kittson: The first thing I found was that I can do more than I thought. The second thing I learnt is that all this regime to try and make it better - most of it made no difference. So it brought back a lot of time into my life that I was wasting on things that really didn't seem to make a difference. I found a few things that really worked, I didn't find – yes, that's it and they're done - but just tracking and learning the little things that didn't work and what I can do over time, the pain just gradually faded away. Until now, I'm pretty much back to normal.
Amanda Smith: But are you still self-tracking? Have you moved onto other projects, personal projects?
Paul Kittson: Yeah, because there's so many apps on a smart phone that let you…
Amanda Smith: Yes, I was going to ask you that actually - because there are smart phone apps that help you keep track of some of these things.
Paul Kittson: Right. So those apps I find make it easy for just a regular guy like me to track my data and analyse my data. Because when I first started, I was physically writing down in a diary and just going through the pages and having a look, whereas this is - it can send you a little notification reminder to track and whatnot. So it makes it a lot easier. And, it's always with you.
Amanda Smith: On RN - on air and online - this is The Body Sphere. Amanda Smith with you, with a program about self-trackers and body hackers.
The global community called Quantified Self started in Silicon Valley (surprise, surprise). Two of the people from Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, established it in 2008. Ernesto Ramirez is now the community organiser for Quantified Self.
Ernesto Ramirez: After going through the paces with Wired and really seeing the personal computing revolution, they took a long hard look at where the future of technology was going. And they saw that computing was becoming closer to our bodies - allowing us to see things in ways we were never able to see before. Especially through the use of sensors and personal technologies that were helping people track themselves. So they decided to host a meet-up and see what else other people thought about this in 2008. And about 15 to 20 people showed up for that very first one and since then it's just kind of blossomed now to over 70 meet-ups in over 15 countries across the world.
Amanda Smith: Well now for a long time there have been, you know, people self- tracking in various ways. For example, athletes and coaches have often kept detailed records of their training and diet and performance, that kind of thing. What's new or different though about QS?
Ernesto Ramirez: You're right, this is something that people have been doing even before there was the technology you know. But what was really, I think, the turning point with what we're seeing now is that it's becoming much easier to track. Say for instance you wanted to track your physical activity. You know, this has usually been done by people going to the gym, just writing down what they're doing, maybe keeping some notes in a notebook. But now, with the use of accelerometers, GPS sensors, heart rate monitors we're able to track those different pieces of information about our activity in a much easier way.
Amanda Smith: Well now you're the community organiser for Quantified Self. What does that mean?
Ernesto Ramirez: So I speak with a lot of the different meet-up organisers across the world, to either: help them get started, answer their questions about their different meet ups, connect them to other organisers.
Amanda Smith: So you're the kind of hub of the global network?
Ernesto Ramirez: I guess you could call it that. As it started to really explode in the last year and a half you know it seems almost every other week I'm getting another email saying, I'd like to start up a meet up in my area. So whether it's in Athens or whether it's just north of San Francisco in Davis or individuals in Chicago - even down there in Sydney - we're seeing a bunch of people wanting to really see what their community is doing around this space.
Amanda Smith: And what do you think being part of the Quantified Self community means for people?
Ernesto Ramirez: It's interesting, because there's a lot of people who engage in what we call Quantified Self, who are self-tracking and self experimentation, trying to figure out their lives through these different methods. And then there's the people who come to these meet-ups. And these meet-ups are really a place for people to come and share and experience what others are doing.
Paul Kittson: I think it's about empowerment, because I was in a bad situation and I was sort of accepting that this was how it was going to be. But you know what I'm going to keep looking and just try find out little things that can improve my symptoms or can improve my diet or my mood, that sort of thing. So I think it's all about people saying yeah, I'm willing to try new things and see what works and see what doesn't work.
Would you like me to talk about other things I've been tracking as well?
Amanda Smith: Yeah, why don't you.
Paul Kittson: Sure. There's such an explosion in reasonably cheap devices that are coming out that people can use to track different things in their life, like the Sleep Zeo, the Fit Bit. One thing that I'm really interested in is called the Lumoback...
Amanda Smith: What's that?
Paul Kittson: It's like a sensor you wear around your lower back. Lots of, well I assume lots about posture is from people curving their back the wrong way. This actually can sense when you start to curve your back the wrong way and provides a little bit of vibration to remind you that that's not the best thing to do. It also tracks you throughout the day and so it gives you a score. I'm a pretty tall guy, so my posture hasn't always been the best so I think that's something where I've had a problem that I can't seem to solve and I think that'll really help.
Amanda Smith: Are you in communication with other people who are doing all this kind of self-tracking, whatever it is?
Paul Kittson: Yes. So there is, at first it was just a community in Sydney, and we're all over the country, so you just dial in and you can speak to other guys.
Amanda Smith: Is it all nerdy boys who do this?
Paul Kittson: At the moment, yes, it is all nerdy boys. You know that's obviously what we are, there's no denying it.
Phil Goebel: …That one there, then you're going all the way over to the overhang – good…
More than anything, what I want to know is sort of where are my baseline values are. So, what is normal for me, like what's my normal activity levels. Climbing is also - strength to weight ratio is really important - so I actually track my weight every day with a wireless scale. So I can respond to a trend where my weight is going up and respond to that trend rather than wait for my weight to be a problem. And I want to start, as I'm getting more familiar with the Quantified Self movement, I want to start adding some other things. I'm interested in tracking stress levels with heart rate variability, and nutrition. I think is really important to track nutrition but I find it's very difficult and I think it's maybe the hardest thing to track and at this point, there's no really good tool to do that.
Amanda Smith: What are the advantages do you think of doing all this measuring - noticing through measuring - as opposed to intuiting, being intuitive about any of this stuff?
Phil Goebel: Yeah, I think that getting actual data and objective numbers associated with these types of experiences can really help to make a clear minded decision about how to make adjustments and respond to things that you like or things that you don't like. Do I want more high performance days? What do I need to do to do that? But more importantly, I think it's important to become expert about your own body and how you respond to things. The fitness industry and health industry, so much of it is just about fads and anecdotal evidence - so this works for me so you should do it. But I really think that people should understand how their own body responds to certain things like food, or physical activity and then make decisions based on how they respond and what their goals are, rather than just what someone else has told them to do. And I think that fundamentally that's what the Quantified Self movement is about. It's about self experimentation and understanding what influences and your health and well being and how to optimise that.
Amanda Smith: How did you get involved with Quantified Self? How did you find out about it and hook into it?
Phil Goebel: I'm studying physiotherapy and I've just been interested in where the future of health care is going. There's so much discussion currently about how health care is doomed. The cost is rising, an ageing population, the obesity crisis and all those types of things, so that our health care system in a couple of years will not be able to maintain itself. I think that, for me, as a future health care professional sparked interest in the question about where is health care going, how are we going to solve these problems. Right now, the Quantified Self movement is a group of early adopters who are really just trying to get an understanding of what is the potential of this technology and the potential of these types of health behaviours.
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: My name is Fernando Martin-Sanchez and I am originally from Spain but I was appointed Professor of Health Informatics at the Melbourne Medical School in February 2011.
Amanda Smith: So you're the head man for Health Informatics at the Medical School here at Melbourne University; let's talk about personal informatics first though if we may, the self tracking that you've been doing that's to do with running a marathon?
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: Well, running several of them. I ran my first marathon when I was 23 years of age, so I have been running for almost 25 years now. And I have always had I would say a kind of scientific approach to running. So I was from the beginning interested in tracking and recording my performance, my training and the times in the races and all of this. So I now have a big spreadsheet with lots of numbers which basically inform about my level of preparation and fitness year by year. So I could, using this model, I could eventually predict if I am in good preparation for finishing a marathon. So this is something everybody asks himself, what if I run in two months? But looking at my diagrams and my charts I was able to predict just doing a test, looking at the time that I need to run 1K, what will be my performance in 42K.
Amanda Smith: And has it come true?
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: Yes. I can tell you that I'm not a professional runner, I'm an amateur, but I am quite proud to say that I have run and finished all of the marathons that I have started, which are 12 right now and almost 50 half marathons. So I think that using this model has prevented me to have injuries. And sometimes, applying the model, I have decided that it was better not to try because I was not good, I was not in good shape. And the other thing is that I never, ever had to give up in any race.
Amanda Smith: Amateur marathon runner, Fernando Martin-Sanchez. In his professional capacity as a Health Informatics academic, Fernando is running a big research project around self-tracking that we'll hear about in a tick.
But you know when it comes to injuries or illness or pain what I want to know is, how do you judge whether you can help yourself through self-tracking - or you really should just go and see a doctor?
Ernesto Ramirez: Well I don't think anyone is ever saying that you should never see a doctor. But the one thing that I would say that's different is that individuals now have the capacity to understand themselves in a much clearer way. So let's take, for instance, you know you go to the physician just for your regular check up. You may go every 6 months, you may go every year depending on your age. And they'll take your blood pressure at that time. What they're only seeing is that blood pressure in that one moment of you being inside of that doctor's office. But if you can, say for instance, purchase a blood pressure monitor that sinks wirelessly with your i-phone, that can automatically keep that data, what you're now able to do is really understand what your blood pressure really looks like over time. And maybe understand some of the things that are associated with either rises or falls in that blood pressure.
And the doctor is not going to be able understand that. He can only ask you questions like how are you feeling, what was going on the last few days. But if you can track things over time - and that's what I think we're seeing a lot in the health spaces where we're able to get this huge amount of longitudinal data about individuals - that they can better understand their lives and the things that are happening in conjunction with their health. If you think about it, diabetics have been doing this for a long time with tracking their insulin doses and their blood sugar, but what we haven't seen yet is physicians really say you know we're going to take all that data and really understand people. They unfortunately haven't been trained in that way yet to understand the large amounts of data that could come from someone tracking time and time again. But the hope is that we'll kind of meet in the middle sometime soon.
Amanda Smith: It's a hope that's shared by Fernando Martin-Sanchez, the chair of Health Informatics at Melbourne Medical School, with the new research project that he's heading up.
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: So the idea and our perspective in this area is that the Quantified Self will bring together two of the most important trends in medicine for the future. Which are personalised medicine – so the use of genomic information, molecular information from the patient; and also participatory health - which is this attempt to have a more informed and empowered patient. So the technological advances nowadays are facilitating this movement in which patients, or citizens, can have access to their own health information. So I think this project is trying to bring these two worlds together: the measuring of molecular information from patients but also providing them with tools to measure and quantify their own physical activity and their environmental risk factors and so on.
Amanda Smith: So do you think the Quantified Self philosophy can be seen as a new kind of way of interfacing with the human body?
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: Absolutely. So participatory health encompasses a number of things that individuals can do now and that was almost impossible to do some years ago. We are talking about the possibility of maintaining their own health record, we are talking about the possibility of getting their genome sequence, we are talking about the possibility of managing their own medical images on the cloud; sharing health information with doctors, or even sharing with family, relatives or even people with the same problem. So this is really starting to change the face of medicine, and poses many, many challenges from many different perspectives. But we think that if we address all these problems in terms of ethics, privacy protection and technical challenges, the potential for this approach to really contribute to participatory health and prevention is huge. But of course there is still a long way to go.
Amanda Smith: Is there a danger though do you think in that paying such close and particular attention to whatever it is that you're tracking and quantifying about yourself, that you'll become kind of self absorbed and self obsessed in an unhealthy way?
Fernando Martin-Sanchez: Well yes you're right. Someone coined the term 'cyberchondria'. So this is hypochondria facilitated by the use of the internet and all these tools.
Ernesto Ramirez: Obviously that's something where there is a kind of danger of becoming wrapped up in yourself and really wrapped up in the numbers and the data and the tracking and the methods. Bu there's also something interesting, that we've seen, is that when people engage in self tracking - and they learn something about themselves - it becomes social. You know there's this idea that you need to share that experience, that knowledge with people. It's not just about - at least we don't think it is about - the tools and the technologies and the methods of doing these things. It's really about how we live our life in terms of sharing our understanding and knowledge about ourselves with others. It's about a new way of creating knowledge that's very, very personal but at the same time also very, very social.
Amanda Smith: And if you want to know more about Quantified Self there's a link on The Body Sphere website. Ernesto Ramirez is the QS community organiser, he's based in Los Angeles. You also heard from Fernando Martin-Sanchez, Professor of Health Informatics at the Melbourne Medical School and marathon runner; Phil Goebel who's a rock climbing instructor of, among others, Erin, Issie, May and Connor who you also heard from; and Phil's studying to be a physiotherapist; and Paul Kittson, self confessed regular guy but like all of them a self-tracker.
I'm Amanda Smith, post a comment if you feel like it to The Body Sphere website or the RN Facebook page.
- Phil Goebel
- Rock-climbing instructor; physiotherapy student
- Ernesto Ramirez
- Community organiser, Quantified Self
- Paul Kittson
- Self-tracker
- Professor Fernando Martin-Sanchez
- Chair of Health Informatics, Melbourne Medical School
Further Information
- Presenter
- Amanda Smith
Comments (7)
Gwyn :
10 Feb 2013 11:42:41am
I find this a little strange. There seems to be a common assumption that "understanding" the self only can entail some kind of self-quantitative-measurement via technology. E.g.:
"Individuals now have the capacity to understand themselves in a much clearer way", as if they didn't have that capacity before.
But I think it is dangerous to assume self-awareness can sufficiently be mediated through technology. Or even through documentation and categorisation.
E.g. the point I think the gym trainer raised about nutrition as being difficult to easily measure. I personally am more on top of my nutrition when I have a clearer state of mind. If I cultivate that first, then it is much easier for me to notice a bloated stomach, to stop myself before I reach for a chocolate bar, to not follow popular communal dietary norms (like eating fruit after a meal instead of before) and do my own thing. Even though I get that the knowledge garnered from technology can be empowering and self-assuring as well.
So whilst I agree that having these tools and using them (like note-taking) definitely forces us to be more self-aware, and consistently so (which is great - I'm going to start tracking my bung back), I don't think it is always enough to really get us to connect fully with what is happening in our body.
I'm just looking at a post about Mood on the Quantified Self website - all very nice and well, but who says we're all that good at actually noticing our moods, even with all their suggestions? When we're in it it's often very hard to be aware of it, especially if it is prolonged. For me meditation and some form of exercise (difficult with the bung back...) works to develop a baseline for good mood (resilience), but I also have combined that with psychotherapy (which can be done with non-judgmental friends) so I can understand why I get my moods.
Tracking does not necessarily entail understanding; neither should we assume that it is always accurate. E.g. it can become self-judgment instead of self-assessment if we're not careful.
Gwyn :
10 Feb 2013 11:50:06am
Having said that, I'm all for people feeling empowered by taking control of their own medical records and history, and the democratisation of health-tracking mechanisms, whatever their form. I just thing spine-curvature checking devices are a waste of valuable minerals. Just use your mind!
Tim :
10 Feb 2013 7:20:19pm
Thanks for an informative show. I'd like to find more about the Looma (?) posture keeper thingy. Sounds like a great idea.
Paul Kittson :
11 Feb 2013 11:29:38am
Thanks again for interviewing me for the show Amanda.
@Gwyn - I understand what your saying. From my experience some people really enjoying learning about themselves using data whilst others prefer a more intuitive mindfulness based approach like the one you mentioned. At the end of the day comes down to whatever works best for you with no one size fits all solutions.
@Tim - The device I mentioned is called the LUMOback. Unfortunately its only available on iphones ATM so i am waiting for its Android release before i can try it out.
Finally, if anyone is interested in learning more about Quantified Self there is a Melbourne group accessible here
and a Sydney group accesible here
paul leonard hill :
11 Feb 2013 9:12:21pm
Some of the technology sounds pretty gimmicky to me. For instance, sensors to tell you when you are swiveling your back to far. What's wrong with pain. A more informative set of tests is a 5 Hr GTT (glucose tolerance test) with add ons. Primarily this is for testing for Reactive Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar in response to high blood sugar) but with the add ons it can test for a helluva lot more.
I am an electronic technician and began to study neurology, then later biochemistry, hematology, endocrinology, etc. when I began to develop Biofeedback equipment. I saw the standard 5 Hr GTT as hopelessly inadequate. In it basic form it consists of drinking 2 oz of glucose at 9am after fasting from the last meal the night before then tracking ones blood glucose level over 5 hrs, doing a test each hour. Well for a start one test each hour is no good because when I tested one women, by testing every 15 minutes, her BG shot up from 6 to 16 then fell to 4 in the first hour. That's a huge pathological swing which wouldn't show with the standard test. Another woman with gluten intolerance showed a very low BG to start off with and a very long time before it began to rise. That the damage done to the wall of the small intestine.
As there is so much else going on besides BG, I added a heart rate and blood pressure monitor, skin conductance (using a digital multimeter set on the high ohms range) and a finger temperature monitor. Skin conductance increases as one gets anxious. It is thought to be perspiration which causes this, however I'd reckon that it's the muscle tone rate that shoots up when uptight. Muscle tone consists of a signal sent from the brain to the muscles and goes from about 100 HZ when relaxed to about 600 HZ when uptight. It can be measured with an Electromyogram, and with a scope attached one can see the waveform.
Now to the finger temperature monitor. I inadvertently triggered panic attacks in two of my test subjects as shown by a 3 DEGREE C drop in finger temperature (also a rise in blood pressure and heart rate and fall in skin conductance. That's a HUGE fall, taking place on the fall in BG after the rise and indicates the release of NORADRENALIN because of impaired liver storage of glucose as glycogen. When the liver is unable to respond by bringing the BG up after the fall (the recovery phase) the muscles are called upon to release their stores. However the muscles do not express the enzyme Glucose-6-Phosphatase and thus cannot release glucose as glucose but have to break it down to lactic acid which is released into the bloodstream to be converted back to glucose by the liver. These is an extremely convoluted process known as gluconeogenesis and requires the release of adrenalin, NORADRENALIN and cortisol.
It's at the bottom of the trough, the Hypoglycemia phase that's indicative. Can be depression, migraine, tremors, panic attack, etc. or nothing if everything is fine.
paul leonard hill :
12 Feb 2013 6:51:29pm
A few years ago a friend of mine who reckoned that he was a bit of a guru put the electrodes of my GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) monitor) onto his fingers, closed his eyes and proceeded to meditate. However, much to his embarrassment, the oscillator on the monitor went up in pitch instead of down which indicated that he wasn't relaxing, but doing the very opposite. I assume that he was focussing on some sort of mantra to exclude everything else from his mind and thought that this was the meditation state. Well it might be for some but the GSR indicates that it is not the relaxation state. There is an analogy that meditation is like relaxing a clenched fist, but first it has to be clenched (focusing on a mantra) then letting go of even that to be not thinking of anything at all.
The GSR takes all the guesswork out of the problem. It is a pretty simple instrument, puts a low fixed DC voltage into the skin and measures it's electrical conductance, which decreases as one relaxes. This can be tested for with a digital multimeter set on the high resistance range whilst gripping a probe in each hand. It works the same as a lie detector and is thought that increased perspiration lowers electrical resistance. However I would refute that as it responds far too quickly, and I believe that it is responding the constant of stream muscle tone signals from the brain to the skeletal muscles. These rise from around 100 when relaxed to 600 when, preparing the muscles for 'fight or flight' and it is this that changes skin conductance.
The GSR I built from a kit set had both an oscillator, which could be heard via a built in speaker, or headphones for privacy and a meter which went up, (as did the tone) when uptight and down when relaxed. It had a volume control and most importantly a THRESHOLD control which sets it's sensitivity that is adjusted upward as one becomes more experienced. It is EXTREMELY sensitive. I just thought "Gee I'm smart building this," and the oscillator shot up as if in rebuke. I added a lamp controller to the meter circuit (via an optocoupler for safety) so that a nice bed lamp could be turned down as one relaxed. I added this for migraine treatment as the migraineur is photo phobic (light sensitive), the trick being to darken the room (with the oscillator turned off naturally.) A small 15 watt globe would be ideal.
Going online all I saw was gimmicky rubbish which grossly overpriced You want one with a LARGE analogue meter, not digital, an oscillator with provision for headphones and an ADJUSTABLE threshold control. I made electrodes from thin stainless steel insulated from each other with insulation tape. For the handyman ETI project 546. Very old but very good. Might still find a kit set somewhere. Alternatively you could make your own PCB (printed circuit board).
John :
14 Feb 2013 10:28:25am
Every Breath I Take ....
A very amusing program yesterday and hopefully not a sign of the times to come. Where we can't eat, breath, move or defecate without looking at the results on a spreadsheet. With a usual, healthy-enough body to begin with, staying healthy is pretty straight forward:
- select your foods from the bottom of the food pyramid (have the boys featured on your program ever heard of this?)
- do the recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week
- take it easy on the alchohol and try not to drink every day
- work out your BMI. Better still, have a look in the mirror
- have the odd blood test to know what your blood and fats are up to and that the organs are all chugging along okay
- and sleep well.
That's about it really. And it also means that you avoid becoming neurotic through ceaseless 'self-tracking' and data dissection.
Maybe I'm old fashioned.
Can't decide whether these young men are being responsible or whether at their ages they should be throwing their bodies at the world with health consequences being the last thing on their minds. I tend to think theirs is a too cautious way to approach life when that young.


text:
will campbell
Fall Camp Presser Transcript 8-6-12: Will Campbell, Roy Roundtree, Denard Robinson, and Jordan Kovacs
Will Campbell
We'll miss you, big guy.
What did you see out of your guys from Day one?
"I thought everyone out there was excited to play … We've been training all summer …"
Are you coming in more confident this time around?
"I mean, it was not more confidence. I just had to step up and this was the time to do it. This is my last go-around, and I owe Michigan and these fans a lot."
When did that sink in?
"I mean, I had to change a lot. I was talking to a lot of guys who left. It's just been a lot going on this summer and a lot of hard work."
What do you mean by "owing the fans"?
"Well I came in with big expectations and I didn't live up to them. And now it's time to play."
Can you tell the difference between guys who prepared well and guys who didn't?
"I think everybody prepared the same because we all owe each other to play for each other. I mean I go out there to work hard every day for the guy next to me. Craig Roh. I work hard to go out there every day even for the freshmen. I work hard every day for Willie Henry, Peewee, everybody."
(F-bomb after the jump)
Fall Camp Presser Transcript 8-6-12: Brady Hoke
Michigan's athletic department has made a few changes regarding media access for the upcoming season:
- Players' family members cannot be interviewed without permission from the athletic department.
- Freshmen will be withheld from media day.
- Practice will be closed to all media.
This is just a heads up. Shutting off practice is the only item that affects MGoBlog directly, but it's not a huge loss. Last year I attended a few Tuesday practices and took a couple photos, but I didn't see anything other than stretching and a hand-off. If they're going to do things like throw a Jordan Kovacs jersey on Matt Cavanaugh anyway, nothing is left to be gained. No complaints from me.
The other two items, however, will significantly affect the MSM (main stream media for those new to this blog). Enterprising features about David Molk's mother, Kovacs's journey as a walk-on, and Denard Robinson's humble beginnings will be harder to come by, as I predict that access will be granted sparingly and only to preferred media outlets. I doubt we'll see any freshmen this season, and relationships with their family members formed during the recruiting process will no longer be viable sources. Hail to the VictorsTM.
BREAKING, RELATED: Will Campbell dropped the F-bomb today (transcript tomorrow), so here's to never hearing from him again.
Brady Hoke
News bullets and other important items:
- Fitz Toussaint and Frank Clark did not practice today; judgment has not yet been passed.
- Jerald Robinson did practice.
- Antonio Poole is out with a pec injury.
- Ricardo Miller is playing both U-back TE and receiver.
- Devin Gardner is taking reps at receiver.
I feel like there's something between us.
Opening remarks:
"Ready to go? All right. Thanks for coming out. For us, it was the first day back out there with a new football team. It's always fun. There's a lot of questions out there that we'll continue to have as we go through this fall camp. I thought there's some excitement, some chippyness, which is always good because there's some competition. And that's an important part of every day. We're going to manufacture that as much as we can and put stress on our players and get them out of their comfort zone so that Saturdays are easy. That's part of what the plan has always been. I thought we had a pretty good day. We got some good work as a team. Obviously when you're going out there without pads on, helmets on, it can be deceiving at times, but I liked how we practiced with only helmets on. I thought they did a nice job with that. Thought the seniors and the guys who have played a lot of football at Michigan -- they've really taken an accountability, so that part of it is exciting and it was a good first day."
Did Fitz Toussaint and Frank Clark participate?
"They did not participate."
Will they?
"I don't know that."
When will you make a decision on that?
"When I make it, I guess. When? I don't know."
What's your hope and expectation for Schofield at tackle?
"What I like about him is that he has some good game experience from a year ago being at guard. I think his athleticism, I think his maturity -- when you look at the group as a whole, genetically I think we look better from what we did physically during the summer. He's one of those guys who's stronger. He's one of those guys who I think the maturity level -- everyone's a little different, but I think he's pretty serious about it."
With Frank Clark out, who will compete with Brennen Beyer, and how will he respond to the competition?
"I think when you talk about him responding, he's always responded. He's a competitive kid. He loves to play. I think he's done a tremendous job. Mario Ojemudia is a guy we can play at that position. We can put Jake Ryan back down there and play him there and move Cam Gordon up and rotate some linebackers around if we had to. So when you look at it, there's some freshmen who are going to get some looks obviously throughout our football team, depthwise. I'm not too worried about it."
Jake Ryan's been a playmaker without a whole lot of technique. How do you refine that technique?
"I think through the spring he got better. Greg did a nice job coaching him every day. I think Jake probably became [a] more focused and intense football player, so his fundamentals would improve, his technique would improve. You still like some of the natural things that he does instinctively best that he does at times."
Given that the entire staff is back, is there some continuity?
"I think there is. I think there is from the standpoint that -- and I know Kovacs said this in Chicago. They [have] the same coaches, and they [have] the same playbook and the same terminology. So I think all those things are a big part of it, which help it."
What does a "good practice" mean on day 1?
"Well we lined up right. We didn't have too many balls on the ground. Didn't have a whole lot of penalties. Personally I like it when it's a little chippy. Come out with an attitude to compete with each other."
Will Campbell.
"Well I think it would help our team an awful lot. He's got a great atittude. He's really become a tremendous leader of our football team in a lot of ways. He's worked his tail off during the summer from everything I've heard from players on this team. He really was a guy who led by example and then when he had to get after somebody, he's not afraid to do that."
Is it uplifting when that kind of thing comes from the players?
"No question. If we have to lead -- if I have to lead or the coaches have to lead the team, we aren't going to be any good."
Is that why you think Campbell's going to be better?
"I'd be surprised if he didn't because of his work ethic and his toughness and his leadership."
Is lack of playing time a factor in his development?
"Well I think that's part of it and when you play a couple different positions a couple different times around -- you've been in three different defenses when you did play defense, I think there's a continuity level that you like to have."
How do you know that a guy is going to be good before Sept. 1?
"I don't know that you do. Some guys get in front of those big crowds and they just don't quite play as well maybe as they practice. I just like his work ethic and what he's done and not just physically but the mental part of playing the game of football."
What about Ricky Barnum makes you think he'll be ready?
"I think again there's a guy who's played some snaps. His work ethic, I mean, his leadership, you know I think Ricky's got a really good quickness. I think that's one of the pluses of a center that he has. Plays with pretty good leverage. I just like him."
How is his chemistry with Denard?
"Well we've only had one day, but it was pretty good today. What I've seen of it. Now again, we're out there in shorts. It's a little different."
Have you seen Denard be more of a vocal leader?
"Well I've seen that from him probably since the end of spring and through the end of summer. I think his maturity for the position and at the position has been really good. I thought today, again, we're one day in. I thought he did a nice job of getting the offense where they needed to be from place to place and from practice. Talking with his receivers whether it was skelly or one-on-one and just how he runs the huddle."
How different is that from how he was the first day of practice last year?
"Oh I don't know. If I had to measure it, I couldn't tell you that. I think what we observe, I think it's there."
What's the goal of practices without pads?
"Well there's a lot of installation obviously. The veterans are pretty clued into most of it. You always maybe tweak some things on either side of the ball during the course of spring and summer a little bit. You look at opponents, maybe somebody's doing [something] that fits your scheme. There's those kinds of things. I think it really is trying to establish the physicalness that we're trying to play with."
Have you decided how you'll split Devin Gardner's reps?
"Not yet. Again, it's one day."
Did Jerald Robinson practice?
Is his punishment effectively over?
How long does it take before you make decisions regarding position battles?
"We evaluate it every day. We evaluate the kids we'll meet here in about an hour as a staff, and we'll go through practice and talk about it. The coaches right now, they're already into the tape, so they're looking at it, so when we meet we'll talk about them. From what we did in the special teams today and the different things we did there to how they [did in] the seven-on-seven, how the nine-on-seven went, the full line stuff. And trying to do a good job of talking about where everybody is as a staff. We've got walkthroughs in the morning, and we'll meet before that and talk about it, then we'll talk about it afterwards."
Stephen Hopkins looks more like a fullback now with his weight gain. What will be his role?
"I think Steph is one of those guys who has good understanding and has accepted that role in a real positive way. I think he's grown a lot maturity wise. I can just tell you from 18 months or however long it's been we've been here, I think it's really for the position. I think he's become a teammate. So his role will depend on the game plan and what we want to do. I think he fits a great role for us."
Has Al Borges used a fullback extensively before? Catching the ball, running the ball …
"Oh yeah. A whole lot."
Did everybody show up?
"Yeah. Yeah."
Any injuries?
"He's the only one."
"Well, his pec."
You were pushing Kenny Demens pretty hard in the spring. How has he done so far?
"I think he's done a good job. I think Kenny is, again -- these guys who are getting ready to play their last year, they finally realize that you tell them for three or four years it doesn't last forever. I think those guys, there's always a little difference in their approach in a positive way, and Kenny's one of those guys."
Overall, are you happy with the condition of the players?
"Oh yeah. I'm very happy with it. And they do a nice job. They've done a nice job and they had a little time off. The guys who have finished with school were able to go home for five, six days before we came back. I think they came back ready to go."
How has Kovacs changed over the past year?
"I don't know if he has. I think Kovacs has always been a guy who's had a lot of passion and love for the game of football. He's a guy that's very instinctive. He's smart. He's got a love for Michigan, and if anywhere he probably feels a little more comfortable and confident talking when he needs to say something."
Is that steadiness part of who he is, and do you think others feed off it?
"I think they do. I do think it makes him who he is."
Ricardo Miller was a tight end last fall, a wide receiver in the spring, and yesterday he was a tight end again.
"Well he's playing both. I think from a weight standpoint and everything he's still going to be an edge guy, U-back guy, wide receiver guy. So he's working them both."
What do you most want to see from the team to know that you're ready to go?
"Well, I really hope we're a tough football team. And a physical football team. We have the mental toughness in how we prepare, to prepare at a high level, to play fast as a team, which means you're confident and you're knowing what you're doing. There's a physicalness to that because there's an intensity to it. I think that's what we would like to see."
Is Miller back going back to tight end due a depth problem?
"Well you got some death issues -- uh death, DEPTH -- depth issues, that's part of it. You have some depth that you want to look at at wide receiver, too. Right now he's kind of a guy who can be a swing U-back for you and play wide receiver."
Any freshmen who have impressed you?
"Some of those guys -- most of them, they're finishing classes so they're kind of running in and out. So to be honest with you, no."
What did you think about Denard's speech at the B1G luncheon?
"I think he did an amazing job. I thought he really told a story and did it how Denard would do it. And I think that's what you want out of your players. Just like your captains. You want them to be who they are."
Do you know when you'll choose your captains?
"No that's not for a couple more weeks. Usually we do it the Saturday or Sunday before game week."
Rawls runs angry, mean, and fast. Is that how you would describe him? Also, re: Devin. Did he take snaps at receiver today?
"Yeah. And Rawls is angry."
How so?
"He just runs hard. He runs hard, he's hard to tackle, he's physical, he's got pretty good balance. Between Justice Hayes and Thomas and Vince, they all got carries."
Did Jibreel Black show up with a good weight on him?
"He did. He's not near as big as his brother who plays at Indiana. I don't know if his body can be that, but he did a good job of working hard to put some weight on him. He and Craig both did a tremendous job. I think how he is able to keep it during camp, and I don't know what the weather is going to be. I'm hoping it's hot like it had been for at least 10 days, because that's good for us. You know, I sweat a little more, maybe lose a pound. You know, that's always good. But I just think how he manages that …"
How's the punting battle shaping up?
"It's a heck of a battle."
Unverified Voracity Shows Off Ab-Type Substances
Will Campbell perpetual shirt malfunction. Tim Sullivan headed out to the Cass Tech alumni 7-on-7 game last weekend and got this shot of Will Campbell doing, well, this:
He's (relatively) thin. This will make him an excellent football player. Lewan:
"The most dramatic change I've seen in a body on our team is Will Campbell," said left tackle Taylor Lewan. "His body is transformed. He was a sloppy 350 and now he's a toned down 308 kind of guy. He looks real good. His conditioning shows it. You should see him run. He's like a gazelle. It's unreal. I think Will is going to do some special things this year."
Come on, baby.
Haters. I just don't know, man. People deploy "haters" to flip criticism to the critic but surely…
From Garry Gilliam™ twitter feed with the comment
"Just in case the haters thought otherwise"
…nope. There is nothing in this world bad enough to prevent "haters" from being deployed. Yeah, Penn State football player, it's jealousy at the root of all of this.
UNC stuff. A "special faculty committee" at North Carolina has called for "an independent commission of outside experts" to review the relationship between athletics and academics at the university. If this happens expect the outside experts to exhale a slow, sliding whistle at the car wreck:
The report, released Thursday, also states staffers in the school's Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes referred players to classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM). In May, the university outlined fraud and poor oversight in 54 AFAM classes between 2007 and 2011, including classes that met irregularly if at all.
That included a class last summer with 18 current football players and one former player.
"It seems likely that someone in the (AFAM) department called athletics counselors … to tell them that certain courses would be available," the report states, "it is less clear whether staff … actually contacted departments to ask about the availability of classes."
So there's that. There's playing Hakeem Nicks in 2008 when he was ineligible, and there was Butch Davis employing an assistant coach literally acting as a "street agent." UNC got a one-year bowl ban and some minor scholarship losses.
Why didn't UNC get hammered? They've subverted nearly as much to the drive of the football program as Penn State did, albeit with far less odious results. If the NCAA is ever going to get a handle on these things, plausible deniability needs to be tossed out the window.
Leave Jordan alone. It's bad enough that Roy Roundtree is 21 and Devin Gardner is 12 and I'm going to be confused but come on man let's not take a bomb to our roster:
In May, Michigan announced that Roundtree would wear the No. 21 jersey of "Michigan Football Legend" Desmond Howard next season. Shortly thereafter, the school announced it would be un-retiring and recirculating Ron Kramer's No. 87, Gerald Ford's No. 48 and Bennie Oosterbaan's No. 47 beginning this fall.
Who might those players be? Will they be announced this season? When will Hoke decide it all?
"Sometime," he said with a grin. "In the future.
"We'll see."
Come on man let's not do this. Let's give the numbers to players who have not yet established themselves as starters. Let's do this: not doing this. Come on man.
This one not so close. In other non-WH games on youtube, here's almost all of the 1991 Florida State game. Advantages: Desmond Howard and Keith Jackson. Disadvantages: Michigan loses by 20. Tread carefully:
If that doesn't tempt, 100 random Michigan touchdowns may:
Angry Iowa running back hating God is having its Exodus moment. Or it just released "Blood on the Tracks" or something. What I am getting at is: wow, that got out of hand.
Sophomore De'Andre Johnson got a ticket for "maintaining a disorderly house" because the cops didn't appreciate walking up a never-ending staircase* and then drove very fast away from police*, drawing the usual indefinite suspension. This is the fifth(!) tailback hewed down by AIRBHG this offseason alone, though incoming freshman Greg Garmon got away with a drug paraphernalia charge without a suspension.
The new QC assistant. The NCAA made a move to formalize and limit quality control staffers, albeit one that got tabled. Your move, college football coaches:
Alabama coach Nick Saban's support staff has expanded to nine "analysts." That's up from six in 2011, three in 2010 and none before then.
The money has to go somewhere.
We will fare less well on this list next year. Orson charts fun/good from the perspective of his Orsonbrain. The Big Ten:
This is because Denard. Next year… well, it'll probably be Gardner and if early returns are any indication that will be fun to the Orsonbrain as well because it will occasionally result in passes thrown ten yards past the line of scrimmage or thirty yards behind it. Our brains will probably not interpret this as "fun."
I think Northwestern gets a raw deal here since they are liable to do anything at any time no matter how big their lead is.
Goodbye, Bolden. Rob Bolden's inevitable, slow-motion transfer process seems to have come to a conclusion with an LSU visit and the notable omission of Bolden from the Penn State roster. How he'll improve LSU's football team is unclear. Tulane, maybe.
In any case, the highly-touted in-state QB recruiting class is down to Devin Gardner's one or two years at the helm at Michigan. Joe Boisture discovered he wasn't actually good at football and lasted less than a year at MSU, Bolden lost his job to a walk-on, and Gardner's been stuck behind Denard.
Um. Nebraska's going to wear alternate uniforms for their game against Wisconsin that look slightly familiar, and not just because they give off the faint air of Rollerball.
this is just a picture. don't click on it.
Ad some shoulder stripes and that's Michigan's outfit from last year's ND game. Hopefully Adidas was too busy making jerseys that don't have to be switched out at halftime to innovate this summer.
Derrick Walton doing this work business. He led his AAU team to a championship in Vegas last weekend, garnering MVP honors in the process:
Walton is aggressively moving up the 2013 recruiting ranks, and continued to impress coaches and recruiting gurus with his performance this week in Las Vegas. Before the game, Dave Telep, ESPN.com's top recruiting analyst, tweeted that Walton is being considered as a McDonald's All-American after his strong performance.
TELEP: Sprinkle that Derrick Walton name in for McDonalds consideration.
The Mustangs, who boast four Division 1-bound players, cruised through the tournament going 9-0, outscoring opponents by 17 points per game in super pool play.
Walton had 16 points, 13 assists, and one turnover in the final.
Media days stuff. ESPN has a transcript of his speech. Denard:
And Denard:
And Lewan:
And Kovacs:
Etc.: USA water polo goalie Betsey Armstrong will become a Michigan assistant this fall. Advice: try not to get kicked by her. Not that she's in the habit of kicking random passersby. Annual MVictors JDRF donation drive is live. GRITTY GRIT GIRT. SOCKS. WOLVERINE CONSERVATION THROUGH CITIZEN SCIENCE FUNDRAISING.
Unverified Voracity Invites You To His Lawn
Programming note/briefly. No Friday Recruitin' today since Ace is in Chicago covering Big Ten media days. Here's an abbreviated version:
Ohio State dropped VA RB Derrick Green, who is either the top back in his class (Rivals) or like #5 or so and a guy you can line up in the I-form—mixed feelings ho—and pound away with. So he's changed his plans to spend more time at Michigan instead of hitting up OSU's Friday Night Lights camp. With Clemson also out of the picture since they filled up at running back, Green is now looking like far more of a possibility than he was just a couple weeks ago.
IL WR LaQuon Treadwell: still visiting Oklahoma State. Still probably thinking about officials. Trieu: "I still think Michigan is very much in the lead with him."
FL S Leon McQuay's dad clarified that the younger McQuay had not dropped Michigan but confirmed that Florida State had replaced M in his top three.
No one else exists.
Bo talks Joe. WH posts the Big Ten Ticket segment from before the '98 PSU game:
Hey, kids! Get on my lawn! Jump up and down and smoke the pot! Have a woodstock! Northwestern just debuted new uniforms that are unique and awesome:
These aren't alternates, either, they're the thing they're going to wear all the time now. I'm not sure about the brickwork frippery on the numbers when you get real close but if you can't see it at all in the above shots it's probably not too bad.
Why do I like these when Michigan's parade of changes are annoying at best and horrifying at worst?
This is a new overall identity for Northwestern, one in which the "Northwestern stripe" is being reclaimed for all their sports. It is not a one-off flibbertyjibber that only confuses things.
It is a One Big Idea jersey minus the fooferrah that made Remember Bo's parody of the direction Michigan is headed in the thing I front-paged hardest last year. I front-paged that so hard. Michigan keeps adding block Ms all over the place and patches and numbers and all this stuff when they have already acquired the One Big Idea—the winged helmet.
They are unique across college football and give you the start of a tradition. I feel like I should have a ridiculous carnival noun in here.
Anyway. Steve Spurrier needs to be involved with this.
mgotrivia: named primary Rock Band band "OBC and the Click Clacks"
BONUS: Man, Under Armor likes misters.
Meanwhile, more detail on our bit. The Alabama jerseys in a 30 second video:
Those gloves will come in handy if any of those guys ever have a test on what the lyrics to the fight song are.
I know you're literally coming off the worst scandal in the history of college athletics, but doesn't this seem extreme? Penn State is considering something drastic:
An issue that generated just as much buzz Thursday was the possibility that coach Bill O'Brien plans to change Penn State's traditional, basic blue and white uniforms. The coach mentioned that possibility during a conference call with players' parents Wednesday night, according to the Reading Eagle.
O'Brien has had discussions with Nike about changing the uniforms, which he has said repeatedly that he would not do since taking the PSU job in January.
"I reserve the right to change my mind," O'Brien said Thursday when asked what led to his decision.
Neither O'Brien nor the Penn State players would give any indication as to what the uniform changes might include, but there has been widespread speculation that it would be names on the jerseys.
The fans are already lying on the ground after a thorough kicking so I guess now's the time to do this. I suggest taking everyone's mind off the terrible things that happened by changing the school's mascot to a rainbow unicorn.
Try to be sad now! Pretty hard, right?
Also in lack of sadness. PSU adds an unrated 2012 LB named Brennan Franklin who had been ticketed for Eastern Arizona Junior College. Had "interest" from Toledo. Franklin on his commitment: "If I went to New Mexico or New Mexico State or Indiana, they wouldn't be going to a bowl game anyway."
Oy. I'm not happy about this at all. I can only imagine what it's like to be a Penn State fan. What's the Michigan equivalent of this? Bo helped plan 9/11 and the Rodriguez era lasts 15 years. I would not wish the equivalent on my worst enemy*.
*[False. I would wish it on many people, but only bad ones. Like the people who came up with the Buffalo Wild Wings commercials.]
Boooooooooo. Boooooooo. Booooooooo. PEOPLE ARE JERKS AND STUFF:
Don't expect to see a nine-game Big Ten schedule any time soon.
Commissioner Jim Delany said at Big Ten media days Thursday that league schools are "of a unanimous mind to stay at eight games" in the conference schedule.
Guh. The Pac-12 is already there, the Big 12 and ACC are going to nine, and it's only the teams with the sappiest saps sticking with four nonconference games: the Big Ten and the SEC. And maybe the Big East, but no one bothers mentioning them any more.
This is especially bad for Michigan since its primary foes for the division title play Indiana, Penn State, and Purdue on an annual basis while Michigan gets Ohio State. Anything that softened that disparity helps. Hopefully it won't matter much if Hoke keeps the recruiting train going like he is, but the least the league could have done was make the conference record of your crossover opponents the first tiebreaker. If two teams finish tied at 7-1 and one of them took on OSU and UW while the other didn't, head to head can get bent.
Rebranded. Fan day is now Youth Day, for whatever reason. It's August 12th at 2. Anyone over 19 trying to enter the stadium will be chased through a cornfield by a giant red-eyed monster and eaten.
Yes. Michael Weinreb should take over PR for the Paterno family, because he's able to express the tricky concepts about moving forward as a Penn State fan in a way that sounds right:
There is no way to make up for what has been lost. All we can do is start over again. If it takes Penn State fielding a team full of walk-ons and castaways in the years to come, if it takes losses to Temple and to the dregs of the Mid-American Conference to reinforce the horror of what took place, then I will accept that. What I want now is for my alma mater to become what we'd always imagined it to be, an agent of change in a sport that desperately seeks it. If failure equals success, the punishment will be justified.
I don't know about you, but next year's game in Happy Valley has become a must-attend for me. Not to gloat, just to see what it's like and maybe stare at a place a statue used to stand and think about what is or is not pretty much the same band of RV-possessing friendly people I experienced in 2006.
And so it came to pass that Wisconsin fans bought all the tickets. The Big Ten has added this "TeamTix" system in which you gamble ten bucks on your team making the title game and then can buy a face value ticket if your team gets there. Which may be a hideously overpriced one if it's, say, Michigan State-Wisconsin. Events with Michigan in them may be another matter but I'd probably want to see how the secondary market shapes up this year. You might be able to get a suite for ten bucks.
Walton stuff. UMHoops talks to his AAU coach:
Can you talk about the progression in his game, especially within the last few months?
"He's gotten tremendously better. He works hard every day, getting his shots up, working on his step back, working on how to finish in the mid-range because he knows that he's going to run into 7-footers, and 6-foot-9 and so forth, so we try to make sure he's got a little floater coming and a higher arching jump shot. So he knows what's to come."
Taken by the will of the wisp. Will Campbell gets probation, has to pay fines and court costs and restitution, etc. The judge gets it, man:
Judge Chris Easthope said he believed Campbell didn't have any kind of malicious intent and was rather "caught up in the moment."
Chris Easthope has been there, man. On the hood of a car at two AM.
Etc.: Brian Phillips on rhythmic gymnastics. Anthony Zettel stays put. Jordan Morgan expectations. Gasaway on the Emmert penalty shotgun. He's in favor. Suspended Wolverines' are called team cancers by teammates. Alabama's NT benches 600 pounds. Yay.
Unverified Voracity Roots For Ties
- 1987 minnesota
- 1998 penn state
- bowl games
- i am driven insane by buffalo wild wings commercials
- mark emmert
- michael buckner only lawyer in america
- ncaa: the bureaucracy
- ncaa: the game
- notre dame
- penn state awful thing
- recruiting might not be so legit sometimes
- schadenfreude
- unverified voracity
- will campbell
[Programming note: Ace is at a Big Day Prep Showdown event today and will be reporting from that. Recruiting roundup will be tomorrow.]
Jamie Morris breaks the record. Via WH, the 1987 Minnesota game:
Also Michigan gives up a 98-yard touchdown run.
FOOTBAW. Also from WH, the 1998 shutout of Penn State. Try to watch the first minute of this without punching something and thinking about FOOTBAW:
Keith Jackson, man.
UPDATE/BONUS: Fumble recoveries, man.
Luck be a lady tonight.
Your tears are so yummy, Scott. Run, don't walk, to ND Nation and imbibe the thread "An emo rant: I'm still not over the Michigan loss" if the suffering of other tribes stirs even the barest tremors of pleasure in you. You will not be disappointed:
I was there...
by mg73
and the worst part for me was the 45 min it took to wade through 100,000 rabid fans screaming and singing the entire time.
I had perfect seats right under the press box on the west side with my best friend who's a UM fan. There were so many head-banging letdowns during that game: The last drive, Denard continually throwing the ball up for grabs the entire game and having UM come down with it every time, Denard fumbling and then picking it up and running it in for a TD vs Rees having the ball just fall out of his hands in the Red Zone...
Fortunately my friend was very gracious in victory, as I would have been had we won. But it still makes me ill when I think about it.
My brother's response after the game summed it up perfectly
by jameszuro
"I don't know where to start cleaning up. Firs I sh*t myself I was so happy. Then I threw up all over the carpet."
Oh, man. I have to sit down after that.
He came with the power of LAW and gave unto newspaper reporters. Are you wondering what the only lawyer in America thinks about the Penn State sanctions? Wonder no longer:
On Sunday, Buckner filed a blog entry (read it here) stating that he is "extremely concerned about the possible NCAA sanctions and urge the organization to comply with its existing processes and procedures to address the Penn State sexual abuse scandal."
Further, he wrote that sanctions could "potentially violate federal and state notions of due and fair process" because, among other reasons, Penn State did not violate an existing NCAA rule, and the NCAA is not following existing procedures available to other schools.
He's got a blog now. Batten down the law-hatches.
Even more PENN STATE~! So the thing about the sanctions that is truly painful is that the roster restriction doesn't start for two years. The bowl ban is now, the scholarship reductions are now, but the roster cap of 65 does not come into effect until 2014. But since it's open season on PSU players and what's left of their 2012 recruiting class, PSU is likely to be way, way below their hypothetical maximum this fall, and then they've only got 15 slots to try to bring that up to par next year, and that's when the roster cap kicks in. Penn State has six years of extreme restrictions. Which… wow.
Q: assuming academic-fraud-laden and booster-runner-employing North Carolina gets charged with LOIC can Mark Emmert level a similar punishment? I think that's the test case for those theorizing about the New Era Of Enforcement. What went down at UNC seems as egregious a violation of NCAA principles as what happened at Penn State, though not the principles of basic human decency. If Emmert agitates for a similarly harsh, long-term punishment of the Tarheels, then I'll believe in the new era.
I'm on the fence as it is. Emmert is clearly trying to repair some of the things that suck about the NCAA. Under his watch they jammed through the ability to offer multi-year scholarships (barely) and were only thwarted by the Indiana States of the world when they tried to offer an additional stipend to the athletes. IIRC, both of these pieces of legislation took some arcane-but-direct route that got them through the legislative process without exposing it to votes involving the Indiana States until their only resort was the override process. That required a supermajority of 5/8ths to knock down the legislation and that is the only reason (THE OPTION TO OFFER!) multi-year scholarships got through. A majority was against it.
So, yeah, rail on the NCAA because you're Drew Magary or Charlie Pierce and railin' is your speciality, but really what we're railing at is the rickety structure trying to accommodate schools that spend millions of dollars annually on a bonfire called college athletics with the major schools that can build thousand-foot tall statues of Charles Woodson intercepting that pass against MSU*. When the big players try to lurch slowly towards a more equitable distribution of their massive revenues, the small schools cry "level playing field" with a straight face and knock it down. That's the real issue, and the only solution is to hack big football schools away from Indiana State.
Anyway, Emmert seems to be ramming things through the NCAA without regard to anything except how he can Get Things Done, and the things that he wants to get done are good changes. He can't help it that he's not a dictator.
*[Just sayin']
Paterno statue position paper. Should have left it up, but removed the "educator, coach, humanitarian" text under his name. Just let people look at as they would.
We've got a poll. The writers have taken it upon themselves to replicate the preseason polls the milquetoasty Big Ten has done away with. Results:
Leaders Division
1. Wisconsin (19 first-place votes)
2. Ohio State (5)
3. Purdue
4. Illinois
5. Penn State
6. Indiana
Legends Division
1. Michigan (16 first-place votes)
2. Michigan State (7)
3. Nebraska (1)
4. Iowa
5. Northwestern
6. Minnesota
Michigan wins the championship game on 11 out of 24 ballots. If only it was slightly under 50% for the Rose Bowl this year. The inexplicable Will Gholston Hype Train continues, as he's the pick for defensive player of the year. Kawaan Short and John Simon are like "WTF I have beaten many blocks in my career page me when Gholston does yes I still have a pager also Tamagotchi."
The Elite 11 is a ridiculous thing now. You may not be following this closely, but there are now 25(!) quarterbacks at the Elite 11, which is, like, too many quarterbacks. Not only is your name silly but it results in events like this:
The third day of 7v7 began at the Elite 11 in which each quarterback takes eight throws. The duration of the day spread across a seven hour time frame makes for some strikingly different conditions. The early afternoon groups contend with a stiff ocean breeze that typically dies down late afternoon and into the evening.
Even more ridiculous was a redzone event where the QBs threw four times. Take all Elite 11 rankings with a grain of salt, as they represent little data made big. Shane Morris did well according to all observers, but did not make the camp coaches' Elite 11 list.
Isn't he doing this whenever he walks down a street? Will Campbell's Dukes of Hazzard fail magically transmogrifies into…
Michigan senior defensive tackle Will Campbell accepted responsibility for a civil infraction of blocking a sidewalk Monday morning in the 15th District Court in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Be narrower or pay $300 in fines or court costs. Campbell also has a sentencing hearing for misdemeanor destruction of property coming up. My punishment spidey-sense suggests this is a stairs-type offense that shouldn't impact his availability for football games.
Nevermind. The "Valley of the Sun Bowl" is no more. In its place:
The bastard child of the Fiesta Bowl, the Insight Bowl, will now shed its technocratic shell and become known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Please insert immediately obvious jokes about a field rigged with sprinklers and booby traps designed to take games into overtime here.
I hope other people are driven as insane by the idea people would go to a sports bar and cheer for a tie, or that someone could be watching the Detroit Randoms try a last-ditch Hail Mary down a touchdown and say "the only thing that could make this better is… OVERTIME" instead of "the only thing that could make this better is winning 68-0 and being at a place where the food comes on, you know, plates." I hate the fake BWW people so, so much.
Yessssssss. EA has agreed to give up NCAA licensing exclusivity as part of an anti-trust class-action lawsuit. The contract lapses in 2014. Bizarrely, it stipulates that EA won't re-acquire an exclusive license for "at least five years." If your position now is so crappy you're paying out a class action lawsuit settlement why would it be better in five years? I don't know.
Anyway, this opens the door for football games from other people that may not suck and may get EA to actually fix its product. A lot of folks in the comment thread were skeptical about the economics of just putting out a college football game, but I figure someone's got to take a swing. Also one guy put out a call for a CFB game akin to Football Manager. Working title: "Brian was never heard from again."
Etc.: Bonus news that will depress Penn State fans: top basketball recruit Brandon Austin decommits. UNC stuff gets incrementally worse. Luke Winn on transferring up in college basketball. Former Penn State player twitter roundup. Penn State punishment comment fallout. BHGP podcast w/ the original BSD mafia (Chris Grovich, Kevin… uh… I don't know his last name) on the Penn State stuff. The city of Grambling is saucy, yo.
Michigan Museday If the Dudes Get Dinged: D-Line
- 2012
- 4-3 under
- brennen beyer
- chris wormley
- craig roh
- defensive line
- frank clark
- i has a graph
- injuries
- jibreel black
- keith heitzman
- ken wilkins
- mario ojemudia
- matt godin
- mike martin is the hulk
- museday
- nathan brink
- quinton washington
- richard ash
- tom strobel
- will campbell
- will campbell is thor
- willie henry
♪ Well a whole season played with the first string guy is usually quite lucky.
And a squad who plays with the second team out can be anything but fussy.
But a team whose seen an important guy down—head concussed, knee on the ground!
If they ain't got depth around, then all goes to poopie.
To poopie, to poopie, to poopie, but depth is hard to get!
To poopie, to poopie, to poopie, but we can get there yet! /♫
This is a continuation from last week when I went through the expected offensive depth chart and tried to predict what would happen—what's the dropoff? how do we react?—if each starter is injured for an extended time. Now, I'm not here trying to roll into town and stir up trouble, see? I'm a purveyor of portents and hedger of predictions only. What I seek to do is prepare us for any one of these dings, so that if one occurs we can say something intelligent like "it hurts to lose Roh but Black is probably the less replaceable!"
Why not all defense? Things slow down from here because the defense has a lot of intermeshing parts, and because there actually is depth in places to speak of.
Mattison's er Michigan's defense has been characterized by interchangeable positions but really each spot is more of a sliding scale from NT to field corner where each one overlaps the things on either side of it. The listed spring/recruiting weights play this out (click e-bigitates):
Quickly again. Photos are all by Upchurch unless otherwise noted. Ratings are given in Saturn-punting Zoltans. Think of them like stars except more heavenly. Five is an all-conference-type player (Denard to Kovacs); four is a guy you'd call "solid" (RVB to Demens); three is an average B1G player (Morgan to Hawthorne); two is a guy with a big hole in his game (freshman Kovacs); one is trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for Poole.
Nose Tackle (Avengers)
Geeks / O. Ryan Hussain|TheWolverine / 247 Sports
Backups: Ondre Pipkins ???, Richard Ash .5 ???
In case of emergency: I'll be honest; this one is impossible to call straight. The 4-3 under is like the 3-4 in that it leans on the nose to suck up double teams and create mismatches elsewhere. The ideal is a superhero, and for the last few years we've had one of the best (by Ghost of Bo).
Hulk is gone but the franchise must go on, and for now that means we are 100% committed to making Thor work.
If the old 5-star takes up the hammer he's the pivot point of a great defense. If he doesn't then one of two mystery men could be anything from serviceable to disasters, and most things in between.
The upside on all three of Michigan's nose tackles is mighty. Weirdly, we think we know more about the true freshman, Ondre Pipkins, than the redshirt sophomore. Pipkins was a 4 or 5 star whose huge, squat, Tongan frame and jovial, Hoke-impersonating character made him and Michigan's need for nose tackle a cosmic destiny. If he's got the goods we'll see Pipkins early in spells of Campbell. True freshmen (Martin, Gabe Watson) of his caliber have fared well enough in rotational duty. The later this season goes, the more comfortable you can feel about Pipkins when he's called upon. Caveat: until he's called upon you have no idea if he can hack it, and for every huge dude you can name who could play right away (Marcus Thomas, Suh, Ngata, [sigh] Johnathan Hankins, DeQuinta Jones) there's 30 who need to spend a year as Ben Grimm before being The Thing. /metaphor used up.
In case of dire emergency: …break glass on Richard Ash. Nobody knows on this guy, who was recruited by Rodriguez as the last Pahokeeian project for Barwis to tear down and rebuild. The tear-down went unnoticed through 2010 and '11 and we caught a glimpse of possible rebuild when, 20 lbs. svelter, he made a few plays nice in the backfield. Ash could be anything from ahead of Pipkins to Adam Patterson. If that's where we are I could see Quinton Washington sliding down.
Rush Tackle (3-Tech)
Right: Dell Callihan|UMGoBlog
Backups: Quinton Washington .5, Ken Wilkins , Matt Godin ???, Willie Henry ???, plus nose tackles
In case of emergency: The coaches have made it clear that Jibreel Black can play, and moving him two slots down the size/speed slide chart of defensive positions means they want him on the field, and that they want 5-tech-ish skills at the 3-tech. This being a swing position means the backups could be different things.
Quinton Washington is a big dude who was an offensive guard until he and Will Campbell were swapped for each other in that experiment. He still looks like a guard, and has yet show much at tackle besides easily dismissible coach hokum right after the move in 2010 so it wouldn't look like Rodriguez was throwing substances at surfaces to see what sticks.
Q stuck although the OL he left is now about as leaky as the DL he came to save. That the coaches moved Roh and Black down the line tells you something about their faith that Washington is ready, and going into his redshirt junior year that might mean he'll never be. He's seen time on goal line situations and is likely to again. Early in the year I wouldn't be surprised if he or Ash—whichever wins—is backing up both interior line spots, and that later on we see some Pipkins and Campbell together time.
In case of dire emergency: Ken Wilkins has been absent enough from chatter that people email me asking if he's still on team. Yes he is on the damn team, and he's still just a RS sophomore, but yeah, there's room for true freshmen on the three deep. Those two seem to be Godin and Henry, the lesser heralded of the heralded class, both of whom would benefit from redshirts. Henry is the larger. Chris Wormley, whom I rate at 5-tech, seems a more likely backup.
Strongside End (5-Tech)
Backups: Nate Brink , Keith Heitzman , Chris Wormley ???, Tom Strobel ???, plus 3-techs.
In case of emergency: Craig Roh has to be the hardest four-year starter to project in history, thanks to many different careers as too-small WDE in a 4-3, a miscast OLB in the 3-3-5, then as the edge rushing WDE in Mattison's 4-3 under. Now he moves to RVB's old spot.
The backup here is almost assuredly Nate Brink, whom the coaches love but the fans hardly know because he's been hurt (he missed Spring because of it). When the coaches talk about the one-time walk-on they make sure to hit all of the Ecksteinian points: "coachable", "hard worker", "toughness", "great technique", "great motor." To that I might add he's 6'5 and 263, which is normal for the position. He's not Heininger (who as a sophomore backed up Brandon Graham), except in that he's some of the things you wrongly thought about Heininger. Then again I remember Brady Hoke making all sorts of guys into effect tech linemen.
If you'd rather see stars, Keith Heitzman is your guy. The beneficiary of the spring time Brink missed, the redshirt fresham was rated higher at tight end out of high school yet apparently good enough at SDE that the coaches moved Jordan Paskorz instead of him. Either this was a promise made at the time of his last-minute recruitment—likely since Tim reacted strongly when I say him and the TE depth chart together—or an endorsement by Hoke that he can play, or both. Best guess is it's both.
In case of dire emergency: Any of the freshmen linemen but Pipkins and Ojemudia are ready built for 5-tech. Of these Chris Wormley was a longtime high school star, which tells me he is probably physically ahead of the other guys right now. Tom Strobel is the other proto-RVB here. One day I expect we'll see the two of them playing next to each other at 3- and 5- respectively.
Weakside End
Starter: Brennan Beyer .5, or Frank Clark .5
Backups: Mario Ojemudia ???, plus 5-techs
In case of emergency: Well if one goes down the other starts. Following a trend, both Clark and Beyer were OLBs last season, while this spot was rotated between Black and Roh. Though technically a unit change, the job they did last year—outside rusher—and what they'll be called on to do this year are not all that dissimilar. It speaks well to both that they played as true freshmen ahead of once-touted Cam Gordon. Read less into that, since Gordon was hurt to give them the opening and their skillsets are different from his.
They're also different from each other. Beyer was the more highly regarded and will get called "solid" more often because he's less eventful than Clark. Clark has the greater athleticism (see: interception in Sugar Bowl) though has been convicted of multiple accounts of giving up the edge, a freshman mistake repeated in spring. The rest of the D-line by design is meant to free these guys up for sacks, thus I see both rotating. If one goes down we lose the rotation.
The only other designated WDE is freshman Ojemudia, who is about 200 lbs. right now and would be 2009 Craig Roh'ed by most of the OTs and TEs on our schedule. Far more likely, in the event we lose one of the sophomores, we'll see one of the 5-techs or SLBs move in before the shirt is lifted from Mario. Craig Roh has played WDE more than any other spot, and Brink has the coaches' trust to fill in at 5-tech.
In case of dire emergency: Packaging still covers but there's Ojemudia if you need him. Packaging means in pass situations you just put Jake Ryan here and have Cam Gordon or Brandin Hawthorne or a nickel corner come in; otherwise go "big" (for a certain definition of such) with Roh back to wide and whichever backup DT/SDE in the game instead.

subset: commoncrawl


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Huddersfield Giants currently lead the Super League, something very few people would have imagined prior to the season,and the League Leaders Shield is all but going to the Giants.
However any of the top eight could claim the Super League with a good play-off run.
1. Huddersfield Giants
The most anticipated game in recent weeks, the league leading Huddersfield Giants travelled to Wigan to face the Warriors, a team most people tipped for the title, fighting the favourites and beating them 12-30 surely tipping them for the League Leaders Shield and possibly the Super League title.
From week one Huddersfield have shocked the league with their opening day demolition of St Helens and surprise win over Wigan in week three. And they haven't left the top of the ladder since.
81 years since the Giants last won the cup and 60 since any silverware, the Yorkshire club now are on the verge of ending the drought and with the current team could stroll to the Super League trophy.
2. Warrington Wolves
The Wolves yet again are at the top end of the Super League table and after coming runners up in 2012 they appear even stronger heading into the final three games.
With wins over fellow top eight teams Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR in recent weeks, both teams they could face in the playoffs, the Wire could sneak under the radar into the finals.
With Scrum Half Richie Myler possibly fit for playoff action the boost to the team could rocket them to the top.
3. Wigan Warriors
The Crushing defeat last Friday to Huddersfield can do one of two things for the depleted Warriors, the result could send them on a downward spiral or the more likely option will motivate them to power past any opposition.
Despite numerous injuries in recent weeks the Warriors still look strong with the possibility of taking the challenge cup against Hull FC on the 24th of august and with the key players expected back anytime, a big finish to the season isn't so far fetched.
The most recent team other than Leeds to claim the trophy, they've been their before and know how to win on the biggest stage.
4. Leeds Rhinos
Riddled with injuries the Rhinos end the season with one of their most seasoned veterans Danny McGuire missing and countless other players missing throughout the season. The Rhinos youth has dragged them through the season but with the first team all but back to full strength the current champions could easily take the trophy again.
With five of the last six titles sitting in their trophy cabinet the West Yorkshire outfit would love to make this their second three-peat as title holders.
Ever the big game winners the Rhinos have a knack for pinching games when they have to and with the wealth of talent available outside the first team the champions look strong as always heading into the last three weeks.
5. St. Helens
Ever the bridesmaid coming runners up in every visit to the final since their win in 2006, St Helens have what it takes in the playoffs just not the final game.
After their demolition of Catalans in round 23, and scrappy win over the Broncos in round 24, the Saints are hitting form at the right time and could easily walk their way to the final, especially given some of their results over the season against other top eight competitors.
With their win against London where returning Jonny Lomax scored three, the Saints have all but secured their playoff spot and ambitions for the final.
6. Catalan Dragons
The Dragons are a constant force and a formidable one at home, with this seasons additions contributing a decent away record.
Although current form is not the greatest in sixth position, the Dragons could pick up strength in the playoffs and with Brett Webb winner of numerous titles with the Rhinos now part of the squad the home quality could carry the Catalonians through.
Although chances are slim a lucky draw and teams underestimating them could be the key to Old Trafford.
7. Hull FC
A huge win against local rivals and eight spot Hull KR launches the black and whites into this final faze of the season with gusto and momentum.
With the Challenge Cup final coming up as well the black and whites have their eyes firmly fixed on some silverware this season, and with captain Gareth Ellis fit the team seem to be hitting real form at just the right time.
Although only a slim chance they'll make it they weren't expected to defeat Warrington in the Challenge Cup, but stunned the Wolves and the league in doing so, maybe a wild card for the cup.
8. Hull KR
Although equal on points to city rivals - Hull KR are the outsiders in the hunt for the Super League Grand Final, but they've had a good season so far and held FC to a valiant fight they lacked the spark to take them over the edge and win the game.
An issue that will follow them into the playoffs, and with Bradford biting their heels into the playoffs, the next three weeks are going to be nail biting for KR fans.
Real outsiders for the competition but if circumstances fall their way and confidence KR could sneak it, after all they where the last team to beat Huddersfield in the league, albeit eight rounds ago.
With the current playoff system anyone of the eight could claim the trophy, and with the season ending as it started there could be a few shocks in store.
Who do you think will win? Have your say in the comment section below.
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By Matthew Hicks, Mobile Sports Information Director
MADISON, Miss.-- Former Mobile (Ala.) golfer Nathan Rau will make his PGA TOUR debut Thursday when he competes in the Sanderson Farms Championship at Annandale Golf Club.
A native of Cumming, Ga., Rau fired a 62 in Monday's qualifier at the Lake Caroline Golf Club. Rau birdied nine holes and added an eagle to qualify.
The Sanderson Farms Championship runs Thursday, July 18 - Sunday, July 21 and has a purse of $3,000,000, with the winner taking home $540,000.
Rau is in group #11 with Nolan Henke and Ted Tryba. They will tee off on hole one at 8:50 a.m.
Among the 132 players competing are Masters winner Trevor Immelman, David Toms, Stuart Appleby and Davis Love III.
Rau played 2007-09 at Mobile after transferring from Darton State College. With the Rams, he was a 1st-Team All-Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) selection for the 2007-08 season and a two-time GCAC All-Academic honoree.
The Rams won the GCAC Championship both years and Rau won the individual title in the 2007-08 season after firing a 2-under 142 (68, 74).
Rau has been playing on the Emerald Coast Tour. He last competed on the ECGT June 5-7 in the Drex Guthrie Classic at Troy Country Club where he placed 6th with a 198 (68, 63, 67).
In his last season at Mobile, Rau won the UST Texas Intercollegiate with a 7-under 137 (68, 69), finished 10th at the Troy University Invitational with a 17-over 233 (77, 75, 81) and finished 3rd at the NAIA Preview Invitational with a 9-over 151 (75, 76).


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Neil Patrick Harris is to serve as host of the Tony Awards show in New York for a fourth time, CBS said Thursday.
"I'm very excited to be back hosting the Tony Awards at the legendary Radio City Music Hall. It'll be more impressive than ever -- if my math is correct, it will be 267 times bigger than last year," Harris said in a statement. "Oh, wait. No, that can't... hold on ... carry the one ... I'm awful at math. But rest assured, the show will rock."
"Neil is a multi-talented performer whose showmanship, wit and energy command the stage of live events," said Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "He is a master of ceremony who truly loves celebrating the performing arts with the highest level of entertainment, and it's quite obvious to the audience he's having a lot of fun along the way."
"We are thrilled that Neil will be joining us, once again, at Radio City Music Hall to host the 67th annual Tony Awards," Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, said in a joint statement.
"Neil's creativity and passion for Broadway shines through when he is on the stage and off -- and we cannot wait to see what surprises Neil will have up his sleeves."


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September 2013
Poor Heart Health May Hurt Your Brain, Too
Here's a good reason to keep your heart hearty: your mind. A recently published study suggests unhealthy heart habits may impair brain function-no matter what your age.
The head-heart connection
Like any super computer, your brain needs a power supply. The source: the heart. It pumps oxygen-rich blood to the brain. Without adequate blood flow, your mind may suffer glitches in memory, thought, and other intellectual processes.
What might limit blood flow? The same unhealthy habits that harm your heart, such as smoking and eating high-fat foods. Over time, these behaviors can cause blood vessels throughout the body to narrow. They can also lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
In the journal Stroke, researchers explored this head-heart connection. Using a tool called the Framingham Risk Score (FRS), they calculated the heart health of more than 3,700 people ages 35 to 82. FRS predicts a person's risk of developing heart disease within 10 years. It factors in age, sex, and smoking history. It also takes into account whether a person has diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.
After determining participants' heart health, researchers measured each person's brain function. They used two different tests to assess brain activities, such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning. Regardless of age, people with unhealthy hearts had decreased brain function.
Beyond normal aging
Your mind ages-just like your body. Forgetting words or losing track of your car keys is a normal part of aging. Poor heart health, though, may worsen the problem. It may also lead to serious diseases of the mind, such as vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Vascular dementia results from restricted blood flow to the brain. Many small strokes gradually damage blood vessels in the head. People most likely to develop this type of dementia are those who have suffered a stroke in the past. Uncontrolled blood pressure sets the stage for stroke.
High blood pressure has also been linked to Alzheimer's disease. In a past study, researchers used imaging tools and other tests to look at the brains of 115 healthy older adults. They found that those with high blood pressure showed early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Always talk with your health care provider to find out more information.
7 Ways to Build Up Your Brain and Heart
Want to fend off age-related forgetfulness and perhaps diseases like dementia? Here are seven tips to build up brain and heart health:
Exercise regularly. Physical activity boosts blow flood throughout the body, even the brain.
Don't smoke. It's a leading risk factor for heart troubles and other diseases.
Watch what you eat. Avoid foods high in saturated fat. Over time, they can clog arteries, limiting blood flood.
Maintain a healthy weight. Research shows obesity contributes to heart disease and dementia.
Invigorate your mind. Do crossword puzzles or read books. Want to go more high tech? Some research suggests video games may help keep the brain sharp.
Stay involved. Social interaction with family and friends can liven up your life and reduce stress on the heart and brain.
Mind your heart numbers. Work with your doctor to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in a healthy range.
Learn more about memory with this quiz.
Online Resources
Alzheimer's Association - Brain Health


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Installing dash cover
Reviewed By Jon N (Dexter, MI) Reviewed for a 1983 Chevy El Camino —12/28/2012 11:25 AM
Should come with more velco for installation, but overall good.
Reviewed By LeRoy M (Jerome, ID) Reviewed for a 1984 Chevy El Camino —6/22/2011 7:43 AM
The fit and finish is well worth the money spent. It fits the dash contour perfectly and the material is of great Quality. It makes Me feel comfortable to order seat covers in the future from Auto Anything.


text:
From Iron Chariots Wiki
This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. If an internal link referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Q may refer to:
- The Q document, a document hypothesized to be the source of much of the New Testament.
- Q (Star Trek), a godlike character in Star Trek: the Next Generation.