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Using the MBTI® assessment with the LPI®
- A rationale for why the responsibility for leadership development must start at the top of an organization.
- Six factors that predict the success of leadership development efforts in organizations.
The most valuable investment any organization can make is in the development of its future leaders. The responsibility for this investment lies squarely with the executive team. This vital task ensures that leaders possess competencies to achieve the organization's strategy, continue to mature the organizational culture, and inspire the workforce.
Due to the baby-boomer exodus from the workforce, many organizations are poised to lose 30 to 50 percent of their key leaders in the next half-dozen years. In addition, organizations have been lax in developing people who will replace individuals in these leadership roles. At the same time, the expectation of essential leadership skill standards continues to climb. Senior leaders' positions have become more challenging, requiring a broader range of job experience and a surprisingly long list of competencies.
In addition to what we typically think of as required leadership skills, the next generation of leaders must be visionary coalition-builders; internationally astute; quick learners and fast implementers; highly creative; comfortable with change, volatility, and ambiguity; have an intimate knowledge of the changing customer needs; have the agility to revamp operations instantly; and must produce rapid results in all areas.
The breadth of these competencies indicates that every forward-looking organization should be asking itself, "What are we doing to prepare our next generation of leaders? Is our pipeline filled with sufficient talent to carry out our organization's strategy and to inspire the workforce? Who is at the helm of developing our new leaders?"
How are our key leaders involved? Is leadership development at the top of all of our leaders' action lists? And exactly what are these actions?"
Actions for Successful Leadership Development
Leadership development must start at the top so that all leaders have a role model.
Leaders need to be clear about what they need to do and why. Six critical success factors distinguish organizations that are successful in developing their leaders. An organization's leaders are the key in each of these actions to ensure success.
Ask these questions: To what extent do our leaders...
- View leadership development from a strategic, future focus?
- Make improving quality of bench strength a top priority?
- Accept full responsibility for developing future leaders?
- Practice evaluating the results of leadership development?
- Value learning and development?
- Take a long-term, aligned, systemic approach to developing leaders?
Lack of support from current leaders is one of the key reasons that leadership development fails. If current leaders rate high on each of these six factors, a company's leadership development efforts are most likely thriving. Let's examine each of these factors.
View Leadership Development from a Strategic, Future Focus
Successful companies ensure that their leadership development efforts are strategically driven and see business strategies as inseparable from leadership development. Senior leaders examine the emerging issues and challenges and consider the unique skills required to resolve them. They see leadership development as a strategy as opposed to being a project.
Leaders must:
- Place as much rigor into the leadership development effort as they do in marketing, sales, or other key areas in the organization.
- Encourage discussions with future leaders about their strategic developmental needs.
Make Improving Quality of Bench Strength a Top Priority
The quality of leadership, more than any other factor, determines the success or failure of an organization. Leaders must candidly discuss the current and the future bench strength required. Does the organization have the leadership resources to achieve its strategic imperative given the current competencies on board?
With this in mind, identifying and improving the quality of leaders must be a top priority to ensure a filled pipeline of experienced employees ready to be placed in leadership positions. This includes recognizing the high-potential individuals and accelerating their development.
Leaders are responsible for developing a systemic process for identifying candidates for key leadership positions. Once candidates are identified, leaders provide opportunities for learning and growth. Research by RHR International Company shows that over 90 percent of senior teams are involved in identifying individuals with high potential (Kaiser, 2005). In addition, organizations need to learn what it takes to retain employees identified as future leaders once they have identified them and integrate that learning into the company's culture.
Leaders must:
- Initiate a candid discussion of skills required for the future among themselves.
- Create and support a systemic approach to identify high-potentials.
- Sustain a progressive retention plan.
Accept Full Responsibility for Developing Future Leaders
It's easy for leaders to say, "I support the mentoring program" or "Rotational assignments are critical to a leader's growth" or "Leaders must be involved in employees' learning." It is quite another for leaders to set aside time on their calendars to meet a protégé for an early morning breakfast or to encourage their best employee to leave for a six-month-long, high-visibility project during the busiest season or to show up to facilitate a leadership class. The Leadership Reminder List presents ideas for what your leaders can do to develop future leaders in their departments.
Leadership Reminder List
- Are you spending one-third of your time strengthening the talent and growing leaders in your department?
- Are you and your key people held accountable for improving skills and knowledge?
- Do all of your employees have an individual development plan, and are your managers held accountable for them?
- Does your department regularly identify job rotation opportunities to give your upcoming employees experience and development?
- Do you have a robust mentoring and coaching plan for your employees?
- Do you mentor your direct reports on a regular basis?
- Do you regularly reach down several levels in search of possible talent?
- Do you have attrition data about your young managers and why they are leaving?
- Have you implemented a strategy to ensure that your best and brightest managers continue employment?
- Are you working with HR to develop an aggressive recruitment plan for top talent?
- Have you implemented a plan to deal with underperformers?
- Is leadership development and talent management one of your top priorities?
Leaders develop leaders. Senior leaders accept the important role they have of developing future leaders: owning and sponsoring development efforts. Leaders of successful organizations spend as much as one-third of their time in developing others. For example, Larry Bossidy (2001) states that, while at Allied Signal, "That level of [leadership] excellence didn't happen by accident. I devoted what some people consider an inordinate amount of emotional energy and time — perhaps between 30 and 40 percent of my day to hiring and developing leaders." Reportedly, Jack Welch, when he was chairman at GE, invested 30 to 40 percent of his time at Crotonville, GE's leadership development center. Welch believed that his most important job was motivating and developing GE leaders and future leaders. He felt so strongly about it that he spent about 50 percent of his time on people issues. He likened a leader's role to that of a gardener. "You have to go along with a can of fertilizer in one hand and water in the other and constantly throw both on the flowers." He noted that leaders, like plants, may need more fertilizer to ensure that they will fully blossom and that some need to be weeded out so the strongest can thrive and achieve their potential (Hymowitz & Murray, 1999, p. B1).
Leaders must:
- Schedule time to spend with potential leaders to assess their inherent leadership talent capacity, identify goals, and provide coaching, tools, and development opportunities.
- Coach before a new assignment using good questions and follow the assignment with a solid after-action review and feedback.
- Seek rotational assignments and special projects to provide real-world experiences for the best and brightest employees.
Practice Evaluating the Results of Leadership Development
Future leaders must deliver a competitive advantage; therefore, the goals for the current leadership development efforts must support the organization's strategy and produce results.
An organization's leadership must establish, track, measure, and evaluate clear goals for their organization's leadership development efforts. These may be different for every organization.
Leaders must:
- Determine how they will measure and evaluate their leadership development efforts.
- Design a measurement process that ties leadership development efforts to the bottom line.
- Hold each other accountable for developmental results.
Value Learning and Development
The most successful organizations value learning and development for all employees, not just leaders; the organization is committed to a life-long learning strategy. Learning is rewarded. In addition, standards for reaching leadership positions are clear to everyone in the organization. Even more critical, leaders must be willing to admit that they do not know everything and actively participate in learning events. Finding opportunities to learn and grow provides an excellent model for the rest of the organization.
Leaders must:
- Model a developmental mindset, encouraging all employees to develop to their full potential.
- Establish a broad view of leadership development based on teachable moments that incorporate projects, assignments, mentoring, cross-functional experiences, and hundreds of other learning opportunities.
- Continuously attend to their own professional and personal self-development.
Take a Long-term, Aligned, Systemic Approach to Developing Leaders
A successful leadership development program is aligned with the other aspects of the organization and prepares future leaders to cope with the challenges of the future. Every leader should ensure that the leadership development efforts are aligned with the organization's mission, vision, values, and strategic plan. Senior leaders understand and accept that leadership development is a lengthy process. They ensure their involvement in establishing a common set of leadership values and standards that permeate everything the organization does, including recruiting, hiring, succession planning, and performance management.
What does the organization believe about leadership development? A leadership development philosophy is a statement that defines the principles the organization espouses. A leadership development philosophy provides direction for those crafting the plan and a communication tool to help the organization understand leadership development.
Leaders must:
- Build leadership development into their strategic planning efforts.
- Lead by example.
You may predict your organization's success in implementing a leadership development effort based on the six factors using the Organizational Leadership Readiness Audit found in the accompanying online tools.
The Ultimate Goal
Whose responsibility is it to develop an organization's future leaders? The responsibility starts at the top. Support and development must begin in the C-level suite. Engaged senior leaders are best poised to recognize leadership gaps as an obstacle to the execution of strategy.
At a time when leadership development is recognized as a vital ingredient for organization success, the involvement of senior leaders in the learning and development of future leaders is a powerful decision by every organization. The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Senior leaders are the key to the success of producing the next generation of leaders who will ensure the success of the organization.
Bossidy, L. (2001, March). The job no CEO should delegate. Harvard Business Review.
Hymowitz, C., & Murray, M. (1999, June 21). How GE's chief rates and spurs his employees.
The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
Kaiser, R.B. (2005). Filling the leadership pipeline. Greensboro, NC: The Center for Creative Leadership.
Excerpted from Developing Talent for Organization Results: Training Tools from the Best in the Field, edited by Elaine Biech. Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. www.pfeiffer.com.
Elaine Biech is founder and CEO of ebb associates inc, an organization and leadership development firm that helps organizations work through large-scale change. The thirty-year-old company specializes in helping people work as teams to maximize their effectiveness. Author or editor of more than fifty books, she is particularly adept at turning dysfunctional teams into productive teams. She can be reached at email@example.com or through the company website at www.ebbweb.com.


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chocolate imp needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 52 designs submitted by 26 freelance designers.
A clean,simple and stylish logo which will become a recognisable brand
Green Light Brand-Check
Desired Color Scheme:
Desired Style:
clean, modern, professional, stylish, eye-catching
Accepted File Formats:
Vector format
We would like a modern looking design that is clean and to the point. No set colour scheme at this point, although 'green' is probably going to be a strong influence given the brand name. We will need the logo in a Vector format when the contest is completed.
The product/service to which the logo will be applied is a new product/service which will checks if a new brand is going to infringe the registered trade mark rights of others and confirms if trade mark registration for that brand is available. It is a new product provided in a very traditional industry and so modern and clean design (possible with a bit of fun too) is very important to set it apart from the norm.
The logo needs to appeal to business people (start-up businesses and established businesses) and convey a modern but professional feel - it will be used to distinguish the product and services of a modern patent firm from those of its traditional competitor firms.
We are open to a wide interpretation of the brief provided the result is eye-catching and clean.
We would prefer not to receive traffic-light related logo designs.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.

subset: commoncrawl


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ROME (Reuters) - Centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani is favorite among Italians to lead the next government, with outgoing technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti second most popular and Silvio Berlusconi coming a close third, a poll showed on Sunday.
Bersani scored 36.2 percent, Monti 23.3 percent and Berlusconi 21.8 percent, the poll, conducted by the CISE electoral research institute for Il Sole 24 Ore daily, found.
Whoever wins the February 24-25 elections will have to tackle a deep recession and rising unemployment in the euro zone's third largest economy as well as keeping strained public finances under control.
Monti said on Friday he would lead a centrist alliance, setting up a three-way contest with Bersani's Democratic Party (PD) and Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL). The poll of 1,309 Italians was carried out between December 22 and December 28.
A former European Commissioner, Monti was appointed to lead an unelected government of experts to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago.
He is a favorite with international investors, the Catholic Church, and the business establishment, and has been widely credited with restoring Italy's credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi years.
The coalitions that will back the prime ministerial candidates are not yet finalized but 34.6 percent of respondents in the poll said they would vote for Bersani's PD, 19.7 percent Berlusconi's PDL, and 14.3 percent the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement if parliamentary elections were held now.
The UDC, Italy's largest centrist party which is among those backing Monti, came in fourth place with 6.4 percent.
In a separate article in La Stampa daily, several leading political researchers said Monti could attract up to 20 percent of the vote by eroding support for both the centre left and centre right and convincing undecided Italians.
However, many Italians have become increasingly tired of the painful tax hikes he has introduced to repair Italy's strained public finances.
The poll showed that 34 percent of Italians think the most important initiative for the next government will be adjusting public spending so that taxes can be cut.
About 24 percent put the fight against tax evasion as the most pressing concern, while 15 percent want the focus to be on moving the fiscal burden away from companies and workers and towards wealthy individuals.
Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Louise Ireland


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Thanks for all the positive comments in my last post. Much appreciated.
I finally got my web server hosted with the game running (in a hopefully stable fashion). Please keep in mind this is a very early version of the game so there are a lot of things that still need improving. Part of the reason I'm hosting such an early version is to get feedback, so please leave feedback on the page if you can. There is a public poll on there and also a private feedback block, both are completely anonymous. Thanks! The working title of my game is Stratagem. Notably, it is a fully multiplayer game so you will need someone with you to play against. You could also make two accounts and play against yourself (if you log in on the second account with a different/incognito browser). I'll probably be hanging out in the lobby and am happy to talk and answer any questions.
Play Stratagem
A lot of the characters are very similar to the original; however, some have changed. Blocking is also slightly different from the original. When you attack you'll see numbers pop up:
- Red: Damge Dealt
- Grey: Damage Blocked
- Green: Amount Healed
I tried to balance everything as best I can, but let me know if any changes need to be made. Here is an image of the UI layout, it should look familiar
I'm working with a lot of technologies which are new to me, so bare with me and read my list of things that could go wrong
- The number of players counter at the bottom right hand corner will sometimes show 1 less than the actual number of players online. Sorry about that!
- The server may(probably) crash
- You may get a security warning, something like: "This connection is not private". What that probably means is that my HTTPS certificate got messed up somehow. Please don't go to the website if you feel unsafe, but please let me know so I can work on fixing it for you. It doesn't mean that my site is malicious, it just means that the encryption key I'm using doesn't match the encryption key that the internet has on record for me. The reason they show this is because someone (bad guy) could position themselves between you and my server, create their own encryption key, and then read all the data that you send over (username, password, your super secret plans to overthrow the government, etc).
- Something may break in your match, If you refresh your page then start matchmaking again it will find your old match and you can rejoin the game you were in.


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Answers to Time Capsule reader questionsFollowing our introduction and teardown of Time Capsule, we were deluged with questions from readers about the product and how it works. Here's what we've found, along with some discoveries reported by readers.
An in-depth review of Apple's 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station
Apple Time Capsule unboxing and preview
A Look Inside Apple's New Time Capsule
Fast and Direct Access to the Time Capsule Drive
Andy M asks: "Can the TC unit be used as a 'hard wired' external drive either by connection with USB or Ethernet? In this hard wired mode can the TC be used to read and write data like a normal external hard drive? The 'hard wire' connection may be needed to speed up large file transfer or in the event that the AirPort (WiFi) connection is unavailable for some reason."
There's no way to put Time Capsule into anything like FireWire Target Mode, but if you want to connect to the drive faster than wireless networking will allow, attaching a computer directly to its Gigabit Ethernet port will provide very fast connectivity approaching the same speeds as a directly attached USB attached disk.
The unit can also be opened and the drive can also be removed and attached directly via SATA, but this is not trivial nor convenient to do. A Look Inside Apple's New Time Capsule shows how to open the unit up to access the drive.
"Can the TC be used as a normal external hard drive to store data? In other words can I manually drag files and folders to and from the TC (when it is connected wirelessly or when 'hard wired')."
"If one has the TC close to ones main computer, would you recommend keeping it permanently connected by USB or Ethernet cable to improve the data transfer rate. In my case the wireless capability would only be needed for other computers or laptops in the house."
Gigabit Ethernet is indeed much faster than WiFi, yes.
"Can you tell me how loud Time Capsule is? Our network hub is in the kids room and I want to make sure that the fan to cool the disk is not loud and noisy."
Time Capsule is virtually silent. I can only hear the drive running if I have the unit in contact with my ear. It runs slightly warmer than Apple TV. It has a 30 watt power adapter, meaning that it doesn't use that much electricity though the drive is running all the time.
Partitioning the Time Capsule Drive
"Can the TC be partitioned like a normal external hard drive? If so how big a partition should one allow for Time Machine backup? I guess this also raised the question: Is it necessary or desirable to partition large capacity hard drives?"
The Time Capsule software does not provide any support for partitioning the drive, but has no problem dealing with partitions on the drive. That means you'd have to remove the drive and partition it yourself. Many readers asked about partitioning, but for most users, there isn't really any good reason to partition the disk, as it would only create artificial barriers to using the drive.
That doesn't mean some users won't try. Aaron of computerserviceman.com reports that it's possible to remove the drive and partition it:
"I read through many of the posts since Time Capsule was announced and never could I find anyone who was able to or knew if you could partition the internal hard drive in Time Capsule. Therefore, when I received the beauty on my door this morning, I opened Time Capsule, connected the drive directly to my mac via USB SATA Hard Drive Cables and took a look at what was on the drive. There is a partition for the Apple Airport Settings, a partition for the Apple Airport Swap File, and the third partition where all your data goes.
So first thing I did was use disk utility to make a backup of the current configuration in case my drive were to ever fail. Then I proceeded to resize the DATA partition to suite my needs of my 3 macs.. (630GB) and left the rest for use as a NAS Space (300GB). I put the drive back into Time Capsule turned it on and crossed my fingers. Just as I thought, it worked. When using Time Capsule install disk it shows two partitions: Data & Data_2 (below)."
Complex File Permissions
David W., in Boston asks: "Does the Time Machine support partitioning into two separate volumes with separate password protection (to facilitate two users mounting their own independently password-protected volumes on the drive)?"
No, even if you add your own partitions to the internal drive, there is no mechanism for using different passwords to secure different volumes. This also applies to adding external USB drives; there is only one password for all the shared drives, and no provision for setting up complex folder permissions. This is the same as disk sharing on AirPort Extreme.
Jose B. similarly asks: "I would to know if I can set shared folders on the Time Capsule Hard Disk, with restricted permissions (some users can read, some users can r&W, etc).... Would this be possible with Time Capsule?"
Yes, in addition to setting up a single password for all users, both Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme allow you to define a list of users, and assign each read only or full read and write permissions. However, there is no more granular controls to set up drop box (write only) permissions or to define different permissions on different volumes, files, folders or drives.
Reigning in Time Machine
The only significant difference in how Time Capsule works compared to AirPort Extreme is that the new unit supports being used by Time Machine for backups. AirPort Extreme does not currently support being used as a backup target by Time Machine, although it can be hacked to bypass the restriction. Officially supported use with Time Machine would apparently require a firmware update to the Extreme, and Apple is being coyly quiet about whether or not this is in the works.
Theo K asks: "Can you control how much space Time Machine uses of your Time Capsule, so you could say I would like to use 200Gb for Time Machine, and 300 Gb for file sharing in general. I have heard that Time Machine uses all your available space on your drive, so basically you could end up with 500gb of Time Machine backups, and be left with no room for file sharing.""
Time Machine will indeed eventually use up all the disk space available, and there isn't any way to set it to only use a specific amount of disk space. Attaching an external drive would provide a natural barrier to separate the disk used by Time Machine and the disks used for general file sharing. Apple has recommended using Time Machine on a volume that is only used for sharing. Manually partitioning the drive would be another option, but users can also just occasionally check their drive to make sure they haven't lost 500GB to backups.
Lance Gilbert asks: "Can the Time Capsule be set up to use its own internal drive as a backup and then switch over to the external drive once the internal drive is full? In other words, can both the internal and external drive be combined for use as backup drives?"
There is no automatic fall over system, but users can switch Time Machine to point to the new external drive after filling up the internal volume were that to occur, leaving the backups on the internal disk intact as an archive and available for later retrieval. Time Machine can return to a previously used volume to restore files.
Time Machine File Portability and Disk Image Experimentation
David K. asks: "Please include how/if one can transfer existing Time Machine backup files from another hard drive to Time Capsule."
If the existing backups were made to a local drive, this wouldn't be practical, as local and network drives use different file structures to save Time Machine data. Once a drive has been used with Time Machine, it's best to either retain it as an archive, or choose to wipe the drive for reuse. The files on it are not really designed to be portable.
Mr L. in the UK asks: "Early reports suggest the Time Capsule uses a sparse 'expanding' partition to store Time Machine backups. Theoretically, this would continue to expand until the disk is full. Could you see if it is possible to 'limit' how much of the drive that Time Machine can use up, by creating a read/write disk image (say, 250gb) and placing that onto the Time Capsule drive?"
Partitioning the disk or using an additional external USB drive would probably be better ways to accomplish the same thing. Trying to force Time Machine to use a rigid sparse image constraint may result in lost backups, which would not be a good thing.
Back to My Mac in a Time Capsule
"Can the drive be mounted at-will, and used as a regular network-attached drive for drag-and-drop storage?"
"Can the drive be accessed over the internet, e.g. using a MacBook away from home to browse a documents folder on the Time Capsule drive?"
Yes, it supports Wide Area Bonjour, the basis of Back to My Mac. However, Apple hasn't made it obvious how to connect the device to its .Mac servers in order to do this. Savvy users with access to their own DNS-SD server will be able to set this up themselves, but the rest of us will need to wait for Apple to make things more obvious.
Both Leopard and Time Capsule allow users to enter a Hostname, User, and Password for a "dynamic global hostname," which means creating a Wide Area Bonjour name that can be looked up by Back to My Mac from any location. This panel (below top) is brought up by clicking Edit next to the Time Capsule Name (below bottom), or in Leopard, by clicking on Edit next to the Computer Name in System Preferences : Sharing.
There's no clue how to set this up provided by Apple, but it appears that this can be used to register the Time Capsule (or Mac) with .Mac. An anonymous Tim, commenting in the Apple support forums, suggests trying the following, with 'Foo' being your machine name and 'Bar' your .Mac account:
Hostname: Foo.Bar.members.mac.com
User: Foo.Bar.members.mac.com
Password: you get this by finding the Back to Mac entry in the system keyring, and copying the password from that.
On page 2 of 3: Disk Performance over the Network; Time Capsule Disk Formatting; RAID and Disk Spanning; Disk Performance; Disk vs Printer Sharing; and Upgrading or Expanding an Existing Network.


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The Mt Washington Valley Ice Fest will be here before you know it. Make your plans now!
I usually don't entertain this subject because I love bouldering, sport climbing and trad equally. After just spending 10 days in Yosemite it dawned on me that for the most part the bolted routes that I climb tend to be scarier than the trad ones. I don't know what routes people are climbing trad on regularly but almost all the classics that I can think of in New Hampshire tend to be so well protected that they are less scary than the bolted routes. Recompense, Intimidation, Diedre, Lichen Delight, Robinson Crusoe and dozens of other classics are so well protected that they are only as dangerous as you choose to make them, (bold by me)
Tradmanclimbz brings up a good issue (not to fuel the fire). If you can place gear between bolts what is the point of bolting a route? If adaquate trad protection exists why would you bolt the route? Seems to me the better adventure would be to lead it ground up. (this ought to get the discussion going on a boring Friday morning).
"In trad, ordinarly, when you are scare, you are already in problem. [...] Say you are a competent 5.9 trad climber, do not tell me you are not even a little scared leading 5.7R especially it is on-sight.
Quote from: sneoh on November 14, 2013, 09:57:47 PM"In trad, ordinarly, when you are scare, you are already in problem. [...] Say you are a competent 5.9 trad climber, do not tell me you are not even a little scared leading 5.7R especially it is on-sight.When you are scare, you can't concentrate as much as when your mind is relax. Some climber can make an abstraction of the situation and just concentrate on the movement without thinking about the exposition.I used to call it "the wall". The situation when a beginner know enough to get into trouble, but not enough to get out of the trouble safely. When a beginner hit the wall, he can understand that he should master his emotion and concentrate on technique (which is climbing at your limit) or he can bail and need more bolt to climb a 5.7x in a 5.9 route. if he stay at the wall, he is good for an accident.Pushing your limit in sport, you are going to try the move what ever will happen as you fall on the rope. Pushing the limit in trad, you have to learn more about how the rope management, what physic concept is important to place good pro, how can be a good second to know if your belayer do his job correctly and what you should expect from him, how strong you are and how much you can stretch...how to anticipate a move or a situation...[....] and how you can keep in control of yourself in the worse situation.Taking a guide as a beginner is particularly important in trad as you don't know a lot. You can be scare easily and, after your partner explained you some basic situation, you can begin to put in perspective all the piece of the puzzle. In sport, you just climb hard, but very very hard and built your strenght and flexibility to meet your goal. use a gri gri. know how to avoid bad clip, and follow a set of individual rules. But you climb very hard.
I did No Money Down a few years ago.. the crux bolt is original so it doesn't change it much.
The classic trad ones still get done (probably because they are closer to the parking lot) Beginners route, crack by the road and Holderness corner.
Quote from: JakeDatc on November 15, 2013, 10:20:38 AM I did No Money Down a few years ago.. the crux bolt is original so it doesn't change it much. Actually the crux bolt is not the original one. It is in the same general vacinity though - so Jake's point is valid. Well except for the inevitable knee jerk response about the lack of true committment when one goes off to do a sport route with trad gear. That argument gets refought on a regular basis.
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text:
- Build support around the country for an ambitious national infrastructure plan in the areas of transportation, energy, and water.
- Identify and prioritize the key infrastructure priorities in the megaregions, which can act as building blocks to a national plan.
- Create megaregion coalitions to support these megaregion priorities and begin coordinating with each other.
Download the Summary of Megaregion Forums.
Download a PowerPoint about the Forums.


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text:
Most alarm clocks have only one way of waking you up—with an annoying buzz that goes on until you hit snooze. The Hybrid Alarm Clock concept has two. It can either go off like a traditional alarm clock or it can wake you up silently with a pulsating light (in case you don't wanna wake up your significant other). I can barely wake up with 3 alarm clocks, so something tells me the light show ain't gonna work. Nice design (kudos to its creator Francesco Costacurta), but my tired bones need something like Clocky to get me going.
Hybrid Alarm Clock [Yanko Design]


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I'll be heading to the rally from the Raleigh NC area and I'm looking for an interesting route.
I'll be leaving Wednesday 7-20 or Thursday 7-21 if anyone is interested in traveling together.
I'll be heading to the rally from the Raleigh NC area and I'm looking for an interesting route.
I'll be leaving Wednesday 7-20 or Thursday 7-21 if anyone is interested in traveling together.
The simplest (assuming you want to staff off of interstates) would be to pick up 15 in Chapel Hill or Durham and stay on it all the way to Bloomsburg. The funnest would be to take the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive through Virginia to Front Royal, then maybe 340 to Frederick, MD and pick up 15 there.
You got a GS, here is a good start.
oh, and it connects with the Cherokee WMA ride......
you could be the new GS Giant!
Last edited by Visian; 05-28-2011 at 05:52 AM.
Go soothingly through the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon.
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'67 Trail 90 || '86 R80 G/SPD+ || '97 F650ST || '00 1150 GS || '07 Xchallenge || '13 CB500X || '14 Grom
Head over to Greensboro take RT 220 north to State College PA Then RT 45 east will get you close. But slow going at times.
Why not ride the interstate and get to Bloomsburg a day early and ride the roads around the Rally site before all those BMWs crowd the roads?
We're not here for a long time
We're here for a good time HUEY LEWIS
2007 R1200RT, 2014 R1200rt
We have four riders leaving on Tuesday morning from Hillsborough, NC. We will travel on 86 N to Danville, head west on 158 to Martinsville, N on 220 to Roanoke and into West Virginia on 39 and then through WV on Rt 28 to spend the night at Smoke Hole Resort. On Wednesday, we travel east to Hancock, MD and into PA on 522. We will pick up 75 and 274 to head northeast. We will cross the Susquehanna and proceed on 147 to 225 to Shamokin and then travel to Catawissa and arrive in Bloomsburg on Wednesday afternoon.
Coming back to NC on Saturday, we will take 11/15 through Gettysburg and then 15 south through VA and spend the night at Warrenton. Sunday, we will travel to NC.
Thanks for the info. Hwy 15 looks like a good route. No GPS just paper maps, old school style. I have limited time off from work, so I'll be trying to make it up to PA in one day.
I'm planning to leave from Charlotte on Wednesday. Depending on the weather and traffic I might make it a one or two day trip to Rally Grounds.
I will be leaving the beach [near Wilmington, NC] Tuesday morning.
I will take Hwy 421 North toward Sanford then go over to Hwy 86 near Hillsborough. It will be route 86 to Danville, VA. where I will pick up I-81 for 181 miles before getting on Hwy 11 which will take me into the rally.
I normally avoid interstate travel, but I-81 through that section is some great travel. I avoid I-95 at ALL costs.
My riding time should be around 12 hours but i will add an hour to that for stops. I should be at the rally before dark. I hate riding after dark. Too many close calls from deer for me.
Jerry Dockery
309 N. 3rd. Ave.
Kure Beach, NC 28449
2009 R 1200 RT,1996 R1100RT, 1985 K100RS...too fast to believe.


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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
9:00 a.m.–4:15 p.m. ET
Masur Auditorium, Building 10
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) celebrated a decade of rigorous research with NCCAM's 10th Anniversary Research Symposium: Exploring the Science of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Speakers discussed topics including natural products, mind-body medicine, and the intersection of behavioral science and integrative medicine.
People have used some CAM therapies since ancient times and often with little scientific evidence.
Since its inception in 1999, NCCAM has addressed the need to examine complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches through the scope of rigorous scientific research and supported more than 2,200 research projects at scientific institutions across the United States and around the world. This symposium highlighted advances in the field of CAM research.
The symposium videocast and podcasts are posted for viewing at videocast.nih.gov/Summary.asp?File=15484.


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I took mine out because I had a c-section, and just never got to put them back in. I used a nipple shield because I leaked more milk than my little man could handle at first, but around 5 or 6 months he got used to the milk flow and didn't need it anymore.
Check out some of the moms from Offbeatmama.com
I asked them the same question last year, and they really helped me out :)
Is it okay to breastfeed if you have nipple piercings?
For the alternative mom, what should she know about breastfeeding and body piercings?
I took mine out because I had a c-section, and just never got to put them back in. I used a nipple shield because I leaked more milk than my little man could handle at first, but around 5 or 6 months he got used to the milk flow and didn't need it anymore.
Yes indeed. I have both pierced & just took the bars out whilst breastfeeding. I 'leaked' more due to the piercings but it didn't get in the way of feeding x
Yes it is just fine to breastfeed after having your nipples pierced (i had mine pierced for 10 years). I have breastfed 2 children without any problems. I took the piercings out when I was midway through my first pregnancy.
I have both pierced and had no problem breastfeeding my kids. I took them out to avoid choking, and you with definitely need to use leak pads (my left leaked a lot more than my right for some reason)
I've had both mine pierced and removed them during pregnancy. There is a high risk of tearing while nursing due to the baby nursing. If you tear, you can get an infection which would be extremely painful and the infection could be passed to the baby. Also, whether you have barbells or captive beads, the ball can become loose and the baby can swollow it which the babys body could have a bad reaction to if not choke on it. If you want to keep your piercings, I would just use retainers rather then any metals and be sure to remove them while nursing. Otherwise just repierce them when your done completely nursing.
I had my left nipple pierced and had to take it out when I was pregnant for my son because i was already lactating from the nipple, but I breastfed and he preferred my left breast, and it always gave him more milk due to having more flow with three holes, just make sure you let them air dry as often as possible because you will have a higher chance of thrush (yeast infection) your baby will probably be nice and chunky if you do breastfeed though, my son was 27 lbs at 3 months old because I had so much milk due to him getting more milk this way....this is my experience anyway! It just sprayed everywhere with my perviously pierced nipple when my son was hungry, your body tends to just know, you'll learn that as well :) good luck, I hopr iy works out well for you!!
I just took mine out for feedings. Keep them clean, keep them dry, and you should be just fine.
I had mine pierced and asked my OB. She said its fine to keep them but to take them out for feedings. I ended up having to take mine out halfway through my pregnancy because of how big my BB's got haven't bothered to try putting them back in because it'd be such a pain to keeping having to take them out and put them back in.
Not sure. You prob would have to take it out.wont your midwife know ?
I would take it out at feeding time, if not until you are done breast feeding, just to be sure it does not come out in the baby's mouth. Breastfeeding babies have a very strong suck and you don't want it to tear!!!
Word of advice make sure you take out your piercing before breastfeeding. The ball could become loose and chock your baby. Also if you don't take it out, it could cause latching problems.
I took my piercing out completely while breast feeding DS1, it can become really painfull and having to re-insterted it after each feed, the ring or the bar can scratch the inside of your nipple and make it more painfull then it already is. Other then that you will be fine, you shouldn't have a problem. Milk flow will be quicker on your pierced side.
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Technological Change - A Glass Half Empty or a Glass Half Full: Discussion of "Meeting the Challenge of Technological Change," and "Business and Auditing Impacts of New Technologies" Urton Anderson University of Texas Will there still be work for auditors in the year 2016? This is the question James Sylph and Gregory Shields initially posed in their paper "Meeting the Challenge of Technological Change - A Standard Setter's Perspective." It is also the question addressed, albeit more implicitly, in the paper by Charles Le Grand, "Business and Auditing Impacts of New Technology." While both papers agree that technological change will have a dramatic impact on the auditing profession over the next 20 years, their perspectives are quite different. Whereas the Sylph and Shields see technological change as "a glass half empty," Le Grand views technological change "as a glass half full" in terms of opportunities for the auditing profession. The difference in these views comes from how each defines auditing. Sylph and Shields take what I will call the "attestation perspective," going back to the 1973 ASOBAC (A Statement of Basic Auditing Concepts) and its framework for conditions which create demand for auditing. Le Grand, on the other hand, takes what I will call the "assurance perspective" with an emphasis on reliability of systems and improvement in their performance. While these perspectives both describe the traditional external audit of the financial statements, different attributes of the product of the audit process are emphasized. Attestation versus Assurance The definition of auditing presented in ASOBAC, and subsequently in the majority of auditing textbooks, is as follows: Auditing is a systematic process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions about economic actions and events to ascertain the degree of correspondence between those assertions and established criteria and communicating the results to interested users. (American Accounting Association, 1973). ASOBAC further qualifies the definition of "auditing" by adding the restriction that "quantifiability is an attribute which subject matter must possess to be auditable." In this view the product of the audit process is a statement about the quality of the information contained in the assertions (i.e., the information presented in the financial statements either meets or does not meet some quality criteria). Indeed, this definition characterizes quite well the external auditing of financial statements, particularly as practiced in the 1970s, as well as the activity that today we would call "attestation." However, the ASOBAC definition is less than satisfying when one moves from the case of the external audit of financial statements to other activities which most would regard as also properly being classified as "auditing." One need only consider the layman's image of the auditor as the IRS agent examining a tax return, the person introduced at the Academy Award ceremony, or the one standing by as the balls are selected during the weekly state lottery drawing, to see the limited nature of the ASOBAC definition. 127
Object Description
Technological change -- A glass half empty or a glass half full: Discussion of "Meeting the challenge of technological change," and "Business and auditing impacts of new technologies"
Anderson, Urton
Ettredge, Michael L., ed.
Auditing -- Data processing
Auditing Symposium XIII: Proceedings of the 1996 Deloitte & Touche/University of Kansas Symposium on Auditing Problems, pp. 127-133
|Published by: University of Kansas, School of Business
|Contents have not been copyrighted
|PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi
|Deloitte Digital Collection
|Digital Publisher
|University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection
|Date-Digitally Created
|symposium 13-p127-133


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When was the last time you planned out a car crash? Or practiced the safest way to run full speed into a brick wall? Never? Pity. You're not much of a problem solver. Definitely not proactive. Not like the National Football League. Facing a brain trauma crisis that threatens both football's medium-term profitability (via a series of lawsuits) and long-term viability (via a critical mass of Americans deciding not to watch nor participate in cognitive Russian Roulette), the sport's powers-that-be have settled on a two-step self-preservation strategy that basically works as follows:
1. Eliminate hitting and tackling that results in blows to the head;
2. Continue hitting and tackling otherwise, because, hey, this is football.
Last week, the NFL passed a rule prohibiting runners and defenders from lowering their heads and striking a forcible blow with the crown of their helmets when they are outside the tackle box, a football move seldom seen outside of vintage Earl Campbell YouTube clips, primarily because deliberately deploying one's head in the manner of an enraged Bighorn ram against another large human attempting to knock you flat is an excellent way to break one's neck. But never mind that. As league commissioner Roger Goodell put it, "We've demonstrated the game is safer and the game is better." The demonstrating doesn't stop there. Since last fall, the NFL has partnered with the Indianapolis-based national youth organization USA Football to expand and promote "Heads Up Football," a program purporting to teach new techniques that "literally take the whole head" out of actual tackling, thereby: (a) theoretically reducing the risk of brain trauma; (b) helping concerned parents feel less anxious about allowing their sons to be part of
the pro game's fan and participant feeder system an estimated three million youth football players nationwide.
Both efforts are undoubtedly well intentioned. So are others like them, including steeper fines for intentional helmet-to-helmet hits, altering kickoffs and the re-imagining of head-banging, sub-concussive line play as Jujitsu-based slap-fighting. Taken together, they reflect an optimistic, can-do mindset, and a core belief that the problem with football isn't football itself, but rather reckless, ignorant or untrained individual players who are essentially doing it wrong. University of North Carolina researcher Kevin Guskiewicz was awarded a 2011 MacArthur genius grant for his work on football head trauma. He is a member of the NFL's Head, Neck and Spine Committee. He lets his young sons play the sport. He's a public proponent of "behavior modification" -- that is, teaching players to tackle while protecting their heads. Goodell blows the same trumpet in a Heads Up video, endorsing "the proper way to play the game." USA Football executive director Scott Hallenbeck takes the comforting, confident talk one step further, asserting that "there is no question that the game can be played safely and is safe, as long as it is taught properly and the players execute it properly."
In other words: There is no existential crisis. This can be fixed. A game that revolves around hitting other people as hard as you can is as safe as driving to work in the morning, provided you obey traffic signals, speed limits and stop signs. All of which sounds pretty great, as reassuring and nifty as safe cigarettes, except for one thing.
Like safe cigarettes, safe football is a myth.
* * *
Full disclosure: I'm a football skeptic. A naysayer, even. So don't take my word on this. Ask an expert. Someone like NFL linebacker Scott Fujita, an uncommonly thoughtful man who makes his living, well, tackling. Go ahead, he says. Change the rules. Teach different techniques. Concussive helmet-to-helmet hits are still going to happen. So are concussive knee-to-helmet hits. And concussive helmet-to-face mask hits. And countless other subconcussive blows to the head, which research suggests are also dangerous. "There's increased emphasis on trying to clean up the game, you know, coaching guys up in 'proper technique' and all these catch phrases, and paying lip-service to everything," Fujita told author Matt Chaney. "It's just a brutal game, and I don't think you can technique -- using 'technique' as a verb here -- you can't technique the game into becoming safer. You can't even fine [players in] the game into becoming safer. And that's just the reality."
The head is connected to the shoulders. The shoulders are connected to the arms. The latter two are essential for hitting and tackling; the former cannot be unscrewed like a bottlecap and left on the sidelines. That's just the reality, no matter what Goodell claims the NFL is demonstrating.
Consider the league's new head-lowering penalty. Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith thinks it's ridiculous. So does Chicago Bears runner Matt Forte. Hall of Fame runner Marshall Faulk called the rule "stupid," and did so on NFL Network. Now, football players can be macho. They're paid to take and give physical punishment, not to worry about their long-term health and well-being. Over at Deadspin, Isaac Rauch argues that objections to the head-lowering penalty are a sign the NFL must be doing something right. Seeking answers, I called former Denver Broncos tight end Nate Jackson.
Griping aside, I asked, does this rule make football safer?
Jackson sighed.
"Dude," he said, "it's all [public relations]."
But shouldn't players be discouraged from leading with their heads?
"You can't control these movements," he said. "These guys are going too fast. They're reacting instinctively. Carrying the ball is very instinctive, the one thing you can't coach or legislate. The most effective way to continue to go forward when someone is trying to stop you is to lower your helmet and keep going. And when you lower your head, you're reacting to leverage, to what defenders are doing, to how they are going to tackle you."
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio notes that instead of being a game changer, the new rule is actually quite limited. Players are still allowed to use their facemasks and the hairlines of their helmets -- that is, the fronts of their heads -- to initiate contact. They are still allowed to drop their pads and dip their helmets for protection and leverage. Blows delivered with the crown of the helmet can only be penalized if they are judged to be "forcible," a fuzzy term that describes … just about every type of contact that occurs on a football field.
According to the NFL, 11 hits during a 32-game span of the 2012 season would have drawn flags. But former Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard's frightening helmet-to-helmet collision with New England running back Stevan Ridley in the AFC title game would not have resulted in a penalty -- because while both players were dropping their heads, neither made contact with the top of his helmet.
"Even when a receiver in space gets the ball, we have to lower our head sometimes," Jackson says. "[Defensive backs] tackle extremely low. Go for your knees and ankles. When they do that, you either have to jump over them -- which is frowned upon -- or you meet them low. It's a natural reaction. So this rule is really silly."
* * *
Sillier still is the Heads Up program, which promises "better, safer" tackles. According to a USA TODAY Sports report, tackling maxims like "biting the ball" (ramming your face into the ball when hitting a runner) and "ear-holing" (smacking your helmet into an opponent's earhole) are out; keeping your head to the side while launching up and into ballcarriers with a chest-first, double-uppercut motion is in. The goal? Making contact with your shoulder pads, not your helmet.
The hang-ups? Physics and biology.
During his rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs, Hall of Fame linebacker Willie Lanier dove to make a tackle and was kneed in the head. He suffered a concussion and was later diagnosed with a brain bleed. He says that from that point on, he never dropped his head in order to tackle; now a member of the NFL's Player Safety Advisory Committee, he also says that today's players can and should follow suit, and that doing so is simply a matter of changing "long-held habits." As Chaney points out, however, a quick YouTube search reveals that Lanier did plenty of helmet-ramming during his career. (The current safety advocate also favored clothesline tackling, a dangerous, bannable behavior that has, in fact, been banned.) According to Jackson, it's impossible not to hit with your helmet in football, in part because the head is connected to the shoulders, in part because the whole point of the game -- knocking another guy on his ass before he has a chance to return the favor -- requires players to create as much force and leverage as possible.
And how do you do that?
"The lowest man wins," Jackson says. "They always tell you that. How do you get low? You f-ing drop your head. I played free safety in high school, and I wasn't very good because I wasn't good at getting low and delivering a blow to somebody."
That changed when Jackson, a Division III All-American wide receiver, signed with the Broncos. The club moved him to tight end. He found himself having to block opponents who outweighed him by 50 pounds or more. Opponents who were fighting for their professional lives, just like him. So Jackson got low. Led with his head. Did what he had to do. "When you are trying to knock a big man down, you have to turn yourself into a missile," he says. "And that means hitting them with your face."
In USA Football's tutorial videos, players practice their safer, better tackles against empty air, foam pads and stationary opponents who seem to be imitating scarecrows. The double-uppercut movement is broken down into five distinct stages. There's plenty of time and space to take the right angle, launch into a tackle, maintain perfect form, keep one's head from getting bashed by tucking it under an opponent's armpit. Football becomes an exercise in aggressive, studied chest-bumping. The actual sport is completely different: players running at full speed, knees pumping, arms swinging, tripping and shoving and hitting and falling; players of varying sizes and strength, pin-balling around at ever-changing heights and angles; players not passively waiting to receive blows, but actively seeking to deliver them. Chaos. A football tackle is not like a tennis serve or a basketball free throw, static and repeatable. It's a violent, desperate physical snowflake, shaped by its equally violent, desperate environment.
When a USA Football regional manager tweeted out a photo of two coaches practicing Heads Up tackling, longtime Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist and former All-Big Ten defensive back Rick Telander assumed it was a joke. Imagine Adrian Peterson seeing that. Or any decent high school running back. Like Fujita, Telander isn't a spigot of reckless machismo. He can be critical of football, and has written extensively about the sport's costs. Still, he once had to bring opponents to the ground. He played the game to win. As such, he has one question about the safer, better way to tackle:
Does the ball carrier cooperate with you?
"You watch those videos and teaching sessions, and it's an obsessively controlled environment," Jackson says. "But maybe once a game would you find yourself in a situation like that. Nobody presents themselves like a perfect tackling form dummy. At all levels, tackling is really just by any means necessary. You don't get to stop and think about how you are going to do this thing you are about to do. You have to just do it. The ones who are good move up the ladder and make it to the NFL. It's not like you need amazing technique. Sometimes you just do this thing and it defies technique."
* * *
Six years ago, a team of researchers outfitted an Illinois high school football team with special helmets that measured the location and magnitude of head impacts sustained during practices and games. They found that the prep players sustained greater head accelerations after impact during play than their college counterparts and wrote that their results highlighted "the need for coaching proper tackling techniques, such that the athlete keeps his head up and avoids contact with the top of the helmet." University of Michigan professor Steven Broglio was one of the study's co-authors. He still studies football brain trauma. Like North Carolina's Guskiewicz, he's a proponent of behavior modification. "We have data showing the impacts at the top of the head are the most significant impacts," Broglio says. "So we need to teach kids to hit and keep their heads up -- and now we're moving toward getting your head out of the tackling process altogether, which should reduce the risk of injury."
Telander has seen this before. During the 1970 season, Northwestern middle linebacker John Voorhees wore what his teammates dubbed "the electric hat," a helmet outfitted with electrodes and a bulky transmitter than sent g-force readings to the press box. The helmet was the brainchild of Dr. Stephen E. Reid Sr., a former Wildcats football player who was conducting a study of football head trauma; a first-of-its-kind device, it was built with the help of NASA engineers.
"One time we were playing UCLA out at the Coliseum in [Los Angeles]," Telander says. "We were leading at halftime. They stopped the game and wouldn't start the second half until the referees made John take that helmet off and wear another one. They thought he was receiving signals from the press box.
"The players all thought [the helmet] was nonsensical. Technology was not something we believed much in. It was still grunt and hit 'em as hard as you can football. [Reid] was so far ahead of his time it was beyond belief."
Even then, Telander recalls, tacklers were taught to keep their heads up. To "see what you hit." The reason? In 1966, head and neck injuries resulted in nearly two dozen deaths in high school and college football, leading an alarmed American Medical Association to call for an end to "spearing," the use of the helmet as a battering ram. Football authorities responded the same way they always do: by calling on coaches to teach "correct, head-up blocking and tackling," and demanding that officials strictly enforce rules prohibiting helmet contact. By 1976, "butt-blocking" (blows delivered with the face mask or front and top of the helmet to an opponent in close line play) and "face tackling" (driving the face mask or front and top of the helmet into a runner) were banned. The game itself was not the problem. The game itself is never the problem. Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian spoke for the football establishment: "I can't begin to tell of the number of clinics where I have lectured on the (spearing) problem. We don't teach this at Notre Dame; and over the years, I have done everything within my power to influence others to coach against it."
Parseghian said this in 1967.
Last season, more than 160 NFL players reportedly suffered concussions. No one even bothers to tally the number of subconcussive impacts that occur each week, possibly because calculating Pi would be less tedious. Enhanced tackling techniques are not enough. Rules tweaks are insufficient. By design, football is a collision sport; the only way to eliminate hits to the head is to eliminate hitting outright. Otherwise, safe football is as real as the Loch Ness Monster.
Sal Marinello has coached youth football for 15 years. He recently coached his son's junior high squad. He played the sport. He loves the sport. But he harbors no illusions. Football, he says, is not for everyone. Or even most people. It's inherently, irreducibly dangerous. "One of my buddies I coach with is also a police officer," says Marinello, a New York City-based athletic trainer and Manhattan College strength coach. "He always used to use the analogy that there's no nice way to put handcuffs on someone. Well, there's no nice way to tackle someone, either."
Why does Goodell pretend otherwise? Why is Hallenbeck pushing a revolutionary new tackling philosophy that's at least 45 years old? Perhaps because the NFL is being sued by more than 4,000 former players who allege the league lied about and covered up evidence that football can cause long-term cognitive damage. Perhaps because the number of children ages 6 to 12 playing the sport dropped 35 percent from 2007 to 2011. Perhaps because current and former players ranging from Peterson to Terry Bradshaw have said they will never let their sons participate. Perhaps because concussion expert Robert Cantu has written an entire book arguing that children under the age of 14 shouldn't play tackle football, and because Hall of Famer Ron Mix thinks the same prohibition should extend to age 15. In one of the Heads Up promotional videos, a USA Football coach is shown teaching safe -- ahem -- tackling technique to a group of football mothers. This is not a coincidence. In an article about the new helmet crown rule, ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert peeked behind the game's Oz-like curtain. Player safety rule changes, he wrote, are as important to the outside perception of the league as they are to actually increasing player safety.
Speaking of perception, remember this: When Goodell and others frame football safety as a matter of proper individual technique -- like slowing down for yield signs -- they also are suggesting whom to blame when something goes horribly wrong.
"To me, this is them admitting that this game is really, really bad for you and it's going to cause awful concussions and shorten your life and cause brain issues," Jackson says. "It's them admitting it and then absolving themselves of the guilt. Like, 'Hey, we tried to protect you. We changed the rule. We penalized and fined you. If you hit with your head and get a concussion, it's your f-ing fault.'
"But that's not true. How do you think that running full speed at someone and throwing your body at someone can be made safe? It can't and it's not. It's like driving a car. There's going to be car accidents no matter what."
During a 1970 game between Northwestern and Indiana at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind., Telander recalls, Voorhees spun away from two blockers to meet an opposing running back. Head up. A textbook tackle. The same safe way he had been taught. Nevertheless, the runner's left knee smashed into the side of Voorhees' helmet; in the press box, a sensor measured the force of the blow at 188 times the force of gravity. One of the biggest hits Dr. Reid ever measured. "I saw John go down," Telander says. "He actually was never out cold. But he couldn't get up for a while. He was looking for his mouth guard, and he wasn't even wearing one that game. That's how we knew he was messed up."
Jackson is only half-right. Football isn't like driving a car. It's like driving a car in a demolition derby. The collisions aren't accidents.


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HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden officially launched the 1001 Inventions exhibition (Source)
Karlstad, 30th August 2013: HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden officially launched the award-winning 1001 Inventions exhibition, at the renowned Värmlands Museum in Karlstad, today.
The Scandinavian premiere of 1001 Inventions took place in the historic city, which also serves as capital of the Värmland county, in the west of Sweden, and the exhibition will be open to the public seven days a week through to the 19th of January 2014.
Värmlands Museum, Sweden (source)
At a lavish opening ceremony, the Prince was joined by representatives from the Board of Värmlands Museum as well as foreign Ambassadors, local Academics and senior politicians, including:
(From left) Åsa Hallén, Director of Värmlands Museum, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Sweden's Minister of Culture, and HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, the Duke of Värmland.
The 1001 Inventions exhibitions, which highlight the scientific and cultural accomplishments the world inherited from Muslim Civilisation, have already attracted more than three million visitors since a 2010 debut at the London Science Museum.
The exhibitions have visited New York, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Abu Dhabi, Dhahran and Doha prior to the Swedish residency, and 2013 will see further openings in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the Middle East.
HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden officially launched the award-winning 1001 Inventions exhibition, at the renowned Värmlands Museum in Karlstad (source)
Speaking on behalf of 1001 Inventions, producer and director Ahmed Salim said: "We are delighted that Karlstad is hosting our Scandinavian premiere, and we are thrilled to be working with the prestigious Värmlands Museum. 1001 Inventions is honoured by the support we have received from HRH Prince Carl Philip, the Board of Värmlands Museum and the educational and political figures who have joined us here today. We look forward to the 1001 Inventions residency in Karlstad being as popular and successful as we have enjoyed in other host cities around the world."
Värmlands Museum, Sweden (source)
Åsa Hallén, Director of Värmlands Museum said: "1001 Inventions is an entertaining, fun and educational experience for children and adults alike. It complements the western writing of history and accentuates some of the many amazing treasures of the cultural and scientific history of the Muslim civilization. It shows us how indeed we share a cultural global heritage and points at a very important precondition for development: the openness to input and influences from other cultures."
Värmlands Museum, Sweden (source)
The exhibition includes more than 60 interactive exhibits across seven zones. Visitors will meet men and women that they may have never even heard of but whose discoveries are the basis of a great deal of everyday life we take for granted today.
HRH Prince Carl Philip and Åsa Hallén, Director of Värmlands Museum, are guided through the exhibition by the producer and the director of 1001 Inventions, Ahmed Salim. (source)
For instance, the visitors will learn about Fatima Al-Fihri, who founded the world's first modern university complex in Fez, Al-Jazari, who developed machines and reciprocating double action suction pump, Ibn al-Haytham, who explains the workings of the human eye using methods that we today call the camera obscura, and Al-Zahrawi who invented hundreds of surgical instruments, many of which are still used in hospitals today.
HRH Prince Carl Philip and Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Sweden's Minister of Culture, are guided through the exhibition by the producer and the director of "1001 Inventions" Ahmed Salim. (source)
1001 Inventions aims to arouse people's interest in the history of science and technology, and inspire future generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Värmlands Museum, in Karlstad, has announced that every schoolchild in the county of Värmland aged between 6 and 18 will enjoy a field trip to see the exhibition. Many companies and societies, both local and national, are collaborating with the exhibition host to ensure that 1001 Inventions will be widely promoted and receives as many visitors as possible.
Whilst the exhibition is in Karlstad, the Värmlands Museum will also arrange special activities such as lectures and educational events in different subjects related to 1001 Inventions.
HRH Prince Carl Philip and Ahmed Salim and the Elephant Clock (source)
1001 Inventions is a leading and award-winning international science and cultural heritage brand reaching over 50 million people.
The 1001 Inventions initiative has received recognition from industry leaders, statesmen and academics from around the world. In 2011, 1001 Inventions was declared the World's Best Touring Exhibition by the Museums and Heritage Awards in London. The exhibition's introductory film "Library of Secrets", starring Sir Ben Kinglsey, has been downloaded more than 20 million times and won more than 20 industry awards including "Best Film" recognition in Cannes, Los Angeles and at the New York Film Festival. In 2010, 1001 Inventions was presented with the Google-sponsored Science and Technology Award by HRH Princess Badiya bint El Hassan at the Mosaic Talent Awards.
Värmlands Museum, Sweden (source)
To date, the interactive 1001 Inventions exhibition has attracted more than three million visitors during its blockbusters residencies in London, Istanbul, New York, Los Angeles, Abu Dhabi, Dhahran, Doha and Washington DC. The exhibition's best-selling companion book, now in it's third edition, has sold more than 200,000 copies and been translated into Arabic and Turkish.
1001 Inventions is supported by the UK-based Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), an international network of academic experts, as its Global Knowledge Partner. Additional support comes from the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives, philanthropic arm of the ALJ Group of companies, which serves as the Global Strategic Partner of 1001 Inventions.
Värmlands Museum, Sweden (source)
1001 Inventions is based on two decades of research by more than a hundred leading academics and educationalists from around the world. The content of the 1001 Inventions exhibition was reviewed and approved by an independent panel of academics from the London Science Museum's and was also reviewed by academic experts retained by California Science Center. Further information is available from the official website: www.1001inventions.com/references
Monday 10am to 6pm
Tuesday 10am to 6pm
Wednesday 10am to 6pm
Thursday 10am to 6pm
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In the five weeks since NBC's callous Curry dumping, Today's ratings have been in a free fall, suggesting that Curry was made the scapegoat for a problem far larger than any one person. Or, it suggests NBC's botched canning of Curry left a bad taste in viewers' mouths. Maybe the lingering image of her forced exit is causing the audience to go to a happier place, such as ABC's Good Morning America, Today's arch rival.
Morning show fans have a strong preference now for lighter fare and feel-good stories. The public humiliation of Curry didn't feel good.
In the aftermath of Curry's ouster from Today, GMA continues to break ratings records. The week of July 23rd, GMA was number one in total viewers for the fifth consecutive week, and posted its largest number yet in total viewer margin (+542,000). GMA's ratings dominance culminated in their first win in 879 weeks in the all-important adult 25-54 demographic.
For the first time in 20 years, in the week before an Olympics, GMA won both the total number of viewers and the key demo. And for the third week in a row, GMA beat Today in total viewers in all five head to head broadcasts.
Since NBC has the exclusive license to broadcast the Olympics in the US, Today is currently receiving a token ratings bump. Today posted its biggest margin of victory in a year, and on three different days during the first week of telecasts from London, the show reached almost 6 million viewers. However, the ratings are still down from Today's numbers during the first week of the Olympics in Beijing four years ago. This is in contrast to the huge ratings the Olympic broadcasts are bringing to NBC every night, making these the most watched Summer Olympics outside US soil since 1976.
Reading the tea leaves, it's doubtful Today will hang on to its margin when the Games are over. Additional viewers are tuning in to Today due to the Olympics, not switching their program habits. GMA's ratings are down only 5-12 percent of its usual audience during the Olympics, thus far.
It's rumored Curry will finally make an appearance on Today later this week, though nothing has been officially announced. If and when she does appear, it will be interesting to see how the show handles her return to the fold.
Will Matt Lauer deign to have the woman he tossed overboard without a life jacket stand beside him, or will he insist she be kept isolated and only report through pre-taped packages?
And more important, from NBC's perspective, what impact - if any - will Curry's presence have on the ratings? Will it bring viewers back, or will the sight of Curry remind viewers why they're tuning out of Today?
NBC and its parent company, Comcast, need Today to rebound soon, otherwise the estimated $484 million the showed earned in revenue last year (more than GMA and CBS' The Early Show combined) is up for grabs from the reinvigorated competition.


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(A) Minnesota is cold.
(B) Babies are hard.
I have photographic proof.
Here's Jarrod getting down with my brother-in-law's snow blower:
It was one of those moments where I was so thankful I'm the girl in the relationship. Because while Jarrod was out fighting the snow, I was indoors with a sleeping baby and a good book.* Yay me!
But there's no need to feel pity for my husband. It evened out in the end because, of course, Jack Jack did NOT sleep the whole trip. No.
He fed.
And fed and fed and fed and fed and fed until Aunt Stephanie was temped to hook him up to a milk IV and prop his tush over the toilet bowl. I took all of the night shifts so everyone else could sleep, in particular, my poor sister. And let me say, night shifts with my novel? Exhausting but awesome. Night shifts with a baby? Exhausting but NOT awesome.
Here is (Headless) Jack Jack in (Headless) Uncle Jarrod's lap, doing what he does best:
What he does best? Really what he does only.
It's a good thing Jack Jack is so sweet and beautiful and funny. (Oh, come on. Those piggy snortling noises and farts are funny.) I am a very lucky aunt!
For the sweetness. Not the farting.
So while I was away, Gretchen posted a link to this TRULY GREAT website, The Hero Factory. Create your own superhero! Yippee!! Here I am:
Love it! Though . . . the name was computer-generated, not my own. The Pure Flying Bulls Eye? Does that mean I'm not getting it on with the other superheroes? Because I am all about the romantic tension, people. And if I'm not kissing The Impure Flying Devil Boy, then it's time to rethink my angel wings.
Also, I gotta say, my weapon is clashing with my costume. What's up with that? I should probably just learn kung fu.
Let me know if you make your own superhero! (I'm totally looking at YOU, Jimbo.)
*I read several books with Jack Jack in my lap, but my favorite was Susan Juby's Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery, because of lines like this:
"Edna snorted, which made her sound like a bear in a garbage dump."
"How's the love life? You dating anyone?"
"Mom," I said, because for God's sake.
I enjoy all of Juby's work -- she has a strong, original voice -- but I LOVED this one. It's about a short, geeky freshman named Sherman Mack (who has a hilarious burlesque dancing mother) who decides to solve the mystery of his high school's cruelest tradition: Who is D-listing the girls? Who selects the girls, and why are they turning them into near-invisible social pariahs?
Here's hoping Sherman gets his own series, like Alice.


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The announcement on Monday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had tapped former representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) to reopen and head the party's office in Washington is an important development for the future of Taiwan's relations with its principal ally.
Although, as some critics have already pointed out, it is unusual for the opposition party of a democratic ally to have an office in the US capital, Taiwan's idiosyncratic — and at times precarious — position makes this essential. The disparity in power and resources between the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) alone is such that any counterweight to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) must be physically present in Washington to be heard.
Since the DPP closed its Washington office in 2000 when it entered the Presidential Office, the party has relied on a one-man liaison office to negotiate the vagaries of the always complex relationship between Taiwan, the US and China. That man, Mike Fonte, has done a wonderful job and earned the respect of many officials, but the immensity of the task, along with Taiwan's uncertain future as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) accelerates the pace of cross-strait exchanges, requires more resources.
No sooner had the appointment been announced than observers began arguing that Wu should be permanently based in Washington, rather than regularly shuttle between Taipei and Washington as originally planned. While a case can be made for the need for a permanent presence, there are also important benefits to having Wu commute between the two capitals. Most importantly, his comings and goings will ensure that his views, and presumably those of his underlings, will not ossify, as often occurs when officials operate for too long away from home. There is no better way to ensure that the DPP envoy's views remain relevant and current than to have him take stock of the situation in both cities. This will be taxing, but Taiwanese — and ultimately the US government itself — will be better served for it.
Wu will face many challenges. Chief among them will be finding ways to provide a version of Taiwan that differs from that given by TECRO officials and that on occasion will be inconvenient to the US, which is keen on seeing the continuation of the current stability in the Taiwan Strait. There will be times when Wu will find it difficult to gain access to certain circles in Washington and it is not impossible that on some occasions TECRO will use its influence to make his life more difficult. Wu will need to summon all his political savvy and connections to gain the ear of people of influence in Washington.
Given the very China-centric mood that prevails at TECRO today, one can only hope that US officials, academics and journalists will give Wu the opportunity to present a version of Taiwan that differs from the conventional story provided by Ma's envoys. There undoubtedly are good, hard working people at TECRO, but under the current regime they are often forced to toe the line and give their US counterparts a false image of Taiwan.
At the other end of the spectrum, it will be Wu's responsibility to ensure that the information he gives US officials about Taiwan is based on reality and acceptable to a superpower for who Taiwan is but a small problem in a constellation of challenging imperatives. Wu must present a sensible alternative to TECRO that avoids the rhetorical excesses that at times have undermined the DPP's credibility in Washington's eyes.
All these are formidable challenges. However, it is hard to imagine a man better placed to meet them.


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Nightengale: So much intrigue in A-Rod's latest ache
- Alex Rodriguez was expected to make his season debut Monday after hip surgery and lengthy rehab
- Instead%2C A-Rod will miss another week to 10 days after an MRI revealed a Grad 1 left quadriceps strain
- A-Rod is also the face of MLB%27s Biogenesis investigation%2C which could result in a hefty suspension
ARLINGTON, Texas — Gentlemen, start your conspiracy theories.
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, adamant Sunday afternoon that he was healthy and ready to make his season debut, was told a few hours later that he has a Grade 1 left quadriceps strain, revealed by an MRI.
Instead of making his season debut in Texas, he will be going to the Yankees' spring-training facility in Tampa where he'll be sidelined another week to 10 days.
Then, who knows? Maybe another rehab assignment?
STRAINED:A-Rod's rehab ends painfully
Or will Rodriguez be gone just long enough for Major League Baseball's investigative team to deliver its findings on Biogenesis, recommending a penalty that assures Rodriguez won't play again while Bud Selig is commissioner?
Is it possible that Rodriguez's quadriceps injury — the reported severity of which came as quite a surprise to Rodriguez — is merely part of a grand plan to fulfill the Yankees' wishes he never wear their uniform again?
Could this be evidence the Yankees need to prove that Rodriguez — who hurt his quad returning from major hip surgery in January — will never be able to physically perform at the major-league level again, permitting them to collect their insurance money and A-Rod to cash in the rest of his $114 million?
NO QUIT:Defiant Rodriguez vows to return
Plenty of questions, but typical in the drama surrounding A-Rod, there are never concrete answers.
"I hate even talking about it,'' says Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter, Rodriguez's manager in Texas when he won his first MVP in 2003. "It doesn't do any good. It really doesn't.''
The legendary tales about Rodriguez still reverberate in these parts, almost as if he's now a ghost, leaving only scratchy memories.
This, of course, is the place where it all started.
It is where Rodriguez became the face of baseball — physically and fiscally — with one mere signature, signing the largest contract in sports history — 10 years, $252 million with the Texas Rangers — stunning the sports world.
Just like that, Rodriguez became simultaneously revered, loathed, admired, and resented.
Now, 13 years later, nothing has changed. Only there is much more hatred. Bitterness. Frustration. And, yes, in some circles, even sympathy.
"He's my favorite player, and will always be my favorite player,'' Orioles All-Star third baseman Manny Machado told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday. "He loves the game, loves it to death. I hope he comes back and does great. It's unfortunate everything that has happened, but he's a great mentor for me, and always gives me encouragement.
"No matter what happens to him, he will always be my friend.
"There's a lot of people in the baseball world rooting for him, and a lot people like me want to see the old A-Rod come back and be the best.''
Those days, even Rodriguez realizes, are gone. Saturday, he will mark his 38th birthday, and his body is betraying him. He has had two hip surgeries the last four years, and only now is close to major league-ready after a grueling seven months returning from his left hip procedure in January.
There have never been any guarantees how long he'll last.
Now, there's no assurance he'll even get started.
"I am extremely disappointed with the results of the MRI,'' Rodriguez said in a statement, "and hoping to be back as soon as possible and continue with my goal of coming back and helping the Yankees win a championship.''
And, yes, there was a time when he was quite capable of doing just that, Showalter remembers.
"He was something,'' Showalter says. "God, he was good. You could tell he loved to play. He had a real innocence about him, and he was sincere.
"He could dial up whatever you needed, playing a premium position.''
Indeed, it was right here, deep in the heart of Texas, where Rodriguez established himself as the greatest player in the game outside Barry Bonds. He averaged 52 homers and 132 RBI, winning the 2003 American League Most Valuable Player award.
"He was signed with a pure heart,'' Showalter says. "He was traded with a pure heart.''
It was here where the Rangers could no longer afford him, dumping him after only three years, back in the days when the Yankees actually spent money, and acted like today's Los Angeles Dodgers.
"To have that much money invested in one player,'' Showalter says, "we had to move him to put together the club we wanted.
"Was it hard parting with the player and the statistics? Of course.
"Was it something that had to be done for us to move forward as an organization? Yes.''
And it was also here, Rodriguez admits, when he began using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs on a team enriched in a drug culture, with many of its stars considered among the biggest steroid-users in the game.
Rodriguez insists he stopped using performance-enhancing drugs after he left Texas.
MLB investigators have reason to believe he never stopped.
The truth may emerge within the next couple of weeks when MLB investigators meet with Michael Weiner, director of the Major League Players Association, and his staff. They will lay out all of the evidence and their recommended penalties. The union will turn to the players, and find out whether they want to accept the punishment, fight for a reduced suspension, or challenge the suspension well into the winter with a lengthy appeal.
There could be at least a dozen players who receive suspensions, maybe more if minor-league players are included, but none will be bigger than Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, the face of baseball destined to be the heir apparent to Barry Bonds' home run record, now is only the face of Biogenesis.
"I feel bad because he loves the game so much,'' Machado says. "Do you know he sent me a text on my (21st) birthday this month? He congratulated me and said, "Happy Birthday. Keep doing your thing.' That's what kind of guy he is. He's always giving me encouragement.
"For a guy that has so much on his plate right now, to send me a text message, it shows you what an awesome guy he is. That's Alex. I still have a signed baseball from him. It's the greatest gift I ever got from a ballplayer. I will always cherish it.''
Yet, that wondrous gift of baseball talent Rodriguez provided us for nearly two decades, may be gone forever.
You now begin to wonder if we'll ever see him play again.
Follow USA TODAY Sports MLB reporter Bob Nightengale on Twitter @BNightengale.


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Branson release caps surprising day
A wild day of roster transactions has concluded at Dove Valley.
Add the release of tight end Marquez Branson and guard Seth Olsen to the bizarre developments that also included the release of defensive end Jarvis Green, and trade of second-year cornerback Alphonso Smith to the Detroit Lions in exchange for receiving tight end Dan Gronkowski and a draft pick.
The cuts: linebacker Kevin Alexander (undrafted rookie), Branson, receiver Britt Davis, former Colorado tight end Riar Geer, Green, safety Kyle McCarthy, Olsen, Reid, defensive lineman Jeff Stehle (undrafted rookie), and linebacker Worrell Williams.
Alexander, Davis, Geer, McCarthy, Stehle and Williams are candidates for the practice squad that will be announced tomorrow.
The team also placed former Air Force defensive end Ben Garland on the reserve/military's list, and defensive end Elvis Dumervil and receiver Brandon Stokley on injured reserve.
Stokley's contract will be terminated as soon as his agent and the team work out an injury settlement. Stokley suffered a groin injury a couple days after the Broncos' first preseason game.
Branson had been the Broncos' replacement to Tony Scheffler but as preseason went along, he had issues with dependability and durability. Gronkowski _ a good receiver but not considered much of a blocker _ is now Scheffler's replacement.
Olsen was the Broncos' fourth-round pick last year, but after playing with the first team at left guard early in the offseason, he was replaced first by rookie Zane Beadles, then by veteran Stanley Daniels.
Smith was traded away even though the Broncos surrendered a first-round 2010 draft pick (it turned out to be No. 14 overall, which Seattle used to select safety Earl Thomas) to move up in the second round of the 2009 draft. The Broncos gave Smith a $2.15 million signing bonus last year.
They gave Green a $3.255 million guarantee.


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The nation's central bank has said that people in Taiwan can begin onshore Chinese yuan-denominated transactions including deposits, exchanges, remittances and loans next month, after China's central bank finally signed a pact with the Bank of China's Taipei branch allowing it to conduct yuan-clearing in Taiwan. Would it be too soon to expect a substantial expansion of the yuan market here and for Taiwan to move closer to becoming a major offshore center of trade in yuan?
Since the inking of a memorandum of understanding on a currency clearing agreement across the Taiwan Strait on Aug. 31 last year, allowing full convertibility between the New Taiwan dollar and the yuan, policymakers have expressed interest in developing Taiwan into a second offshore yuan business center, after Hong Kong, on the back of growing demand for direct currency settlement amid expanding cross-strait trade and tourism. Financial experts have also made it known that they intend to include the yuan in their portfolios to take advantage of the currency's potential appreciation.
There are good reasons for facilitating yuan use here: It would enable people to make yuan-based deposits and remittances at onshore banks in Taiwan, allow individuals to freely convert yuan and transfer funds between accounts, let companies use yuan for settlement for imports from China or investment in China, allow Taiwanese banks to offer yuan-denominated loans to companies, engage banks in providing yuan-related wealth management products to individual investors and let companies issue yuan-based bonds in Taiwan, to name just a few.
Based on almost 10 years of development of the yuan market in Hong Kong, coupled with Taiwanese banks' strong drive to develop the yuan business and people's preference for the higher interest rates of yuan deposits compared with those offered for the New Taiwan dollar, experts in the banking industry have forecast yuan deposits will account for 5 percent of Taiwan's total deposits in three to five years.
However, to decide whether Taiwan has the potential to become an offshore yuan trading center or even develop into a yuan-based fund-raising hub for companies in the longer term, the government needs to ask itself a question: Has enough planning and preparation been made to safeguard the nation's financial stability in the wake of the upcoming opening of direct currency exchanges and capital flows across the Taiwan Strait?
There was one thing in the central bank's press conference on Friday that everyone should keep in mind: Its warning that people should remain vigilant about the Chinese currency in terms of restricted cash flow, credit risk and its exchange fluctuation. If people and companies do not agree with the central bank's warning, they should not indulge in any fantasies about future yuan-based financial products and services.
As for China, can it move forward at the same pace as Taiwan? Looking at China's strong control over its capital accounts and its still tight regulations on inward and outward remittances, the prospect for making Taiwan an offshore yuan trading center does not seem immediately encouraging, nor does the longer-term plan of becoming a yuan-based fund-raising hub for corporate entities.
The effectiveness of the cross-strait currency settlement system will surely have a profound impact on both individual and corporate entities' financial management and the nation's financial development. However, this will need the government to continue negotiations with its Chinese counterpart in easing capital flow restrictions and other banking-related barriers if Taiwan hopes to become one of the world's major yuan business centers.