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The Wales manager is hoping Tottenham's Bale will receive the required amount of protection after Dundee manager John Brown's inflammatory comments ahead of tonight's match against Scotland in Glasgow.
Antony Gautier is the referee who takes charge of the game and is not shy in handing out red cards. The 36-year-old has issued 10 red cards in 20 games and five in the last five matches he has officiated.
Coleman told a press conference: "In any game it's important to have a strong referee. I've been here when it's a full house and it's intimidating. As a manager or player you want to play in atmospheres like that.
"A referee's job is tough, but we know that they are being scrutinised more and more as we all are. It's hard for referees. We're just asking for a fair crack of the whip.
"This is going to be a tough game. It will be a typical British derby, so there will be challenges and it might get a bit heavy but going out and trying to snap, break someone's legs, if somebody is insinuating that's the way to go about it, I've no respect for that."
Bale has put in a lot of effort to ensure he is fit and available for the important World Cup qualifier.
The 23-year-old has had a stomach bug this week and flew to Glasgow alone to meet his teammates there.
The Tottenham front man has also had to overcome an ankle problem and was bed-ridden for two days and kept away from the rest of the Wales squad.
Bale had a 30-minute training session on his own at Hampden Park and Coleman is confident the on-fire winger will start the Group A match as Wales look to win their third win in four matches.
Coleman added: "Gareth flew up later than us because he had a bit of a virus. We wanted to separate him from the lads for other reasons.
"We could not do any sessions with him and he just needed rest. The doctors and medical team are happy with his response and he's in good spirits. He wants to be here. He is getting better every day and hopefully he will have a good night's sleep and be ready on Friday.
"The ankle is OK. He had a scan, but that's not such a big concern. It is the illness that has kept him out of training for a few days.
"He's in my plans because otherwise it would have been pointless to have brought him up. He's not trained but he knows how we play and his role."
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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After reading through 4 pages of wildness:
1. We all should know by now that Nike is GMCJets. I'm just waiting for him to send me another PM threatening me again.
2. That kid on the other board who knows if he's legit with what he is posting. The Jets may let some people default on some seats if they are over 50% paid who knows what's going on.
3. People who paid in full have nothing to complain about. Buying a PSL is similar to the housing market. People default the issue is this time there may be consequences. It's like buying a house with cash when the market was high, now the market is low people default or do short sales and the person who didn't get a mortgage is pissed.
4. The price of PSLs on the secondary market shouldn't be shocking right now. Two lousy seasons and an even lousier economy.
5. The issues the Jets have with the new stadium (fans upset about ticket prices and less tickets sold) are the same every professional sports team in the tri state area is facing. Many tickets are overpriced. Even the Yankees are having ticket issues and a few years ago you could bring in a 400% profit on a ticket plan.
Last edited by Flushing Roots; 02-23-2013 at 06:32 AM.
This whole new Giants Stadium thing is one wagon I didn`t want to be on. Me and all my old tailgate buddies agreed. We did one season in the UD because thats where we always were. We didn`t want to upgrade because we were happy where the real Jets fans were(pre-Fireman Ed). We wanted nothing to do with sitting anywhere near any corporate type fans because they really aren`t fans. They just have money to burn and we knew they would spend most of their time sitting inside the clubs watching television. The real kick in the ass that made us all drop our tickets was the segregated parking lots. It was always first come, first serve. We understood the parking pass crap when the new place was being built and that there would be limited spaces. Now that that is all said and done, why do fans still need to purchase pre-paid passes? Just have it the way it was with toll takers accepting cash and go back to first come, first served. It`s just an extremely stale atmosphere at Jets games now. The fans have changed and it shows. The new fans have no clue on what to do without Fireman Ed telling them. Back in my days, we didn`t need Ed. The UD was the place to be at Jets games. Now it`s not anymore and we want no part of it.
Enjoy your new Jets and your new segregated fans in your new Giants Stadium(because we all know it`s the stadium the Giants wanted to have built, NOT Woody). Woody just got suckered in and he bent over and W I D E L Y accepted.
Last edited by The Band; 02-23-2013 at 08:28 AM.
says a man with 700 posts that i threatened him. show me the post where Nike threatened you with your new id or your old.thanks
the fact of the matter that 1 ticket owner myself included wants to default on a psl agreement is bad news. we bought in because this is our team that we love and support. meanwhile the owner screws us every chance he gets.
Statements like "UD fans are the only real fans" say more about that person's state of mental health than anything else. They feel inadequate, so they make up something to make themselves feel better.
Also, the mez clubs are empty during gameplay, almost everyone is in the seats, just like anywhere else in the stadium. Most of the fans sitting here are just Jets fans with a larger budget. It's not "corporate types watching TV". Couldn't be further from the the truth. It is more of a family atmosphere though.
Last edited by tmertz; 02-23-2013 at 09:37 AM.
Anyone that thinks the new stadium and all PSLs are corporate has never sat in LLEZ during a game at the new place. It's plenty nuts, well 148 and 149 are anyway.Originally Posted by tmertz;
Last edited by buickrob; 02-23-2013 at 10:35 AM.
A "corporate fan" is a person that is a lightweight Jets supporter, gets free tickets from a business associate, goes just for the hell of it, is at the game for entertainment purposes only.
I can tell you three things:
1. The fans in Section 232A or 231A do not qualify as "corporate fans".
2. The Club section adjacent to mine can be as rowdy as my non-Club section.
3. The only difference between the fandom of an old time upper decker and today's modern PSL owner is that we take personal hygiene seriously.
You were a one-and-done upper decker. You have not sat in the Mezz or the LL, so please stop acting like some "authority" when you have no idea what you're talking about. Sit on your couch, eat your pretzels, and thank God that there are 14,333 paying PSL owners who allow you to receive games on your SDTV for free.
A person like The Band sits there, sees a $4,000 PSL, would imagine a $20,000 outlay for a set of seats, thinks the world is ending, could by a nice used car for that kind of money.
Someone with an education and washed armpits realizes that it's only a $13 per ticket price increase, and any long-time season ticket holder from the ol' Giants Stadium days can handle that.
A ticket to a Jets game cost $13 in 1983. Prices jumped to $75 by 2003 and then $100 by 2009. Where was the outrage then? Why would so-called "diehard" fans accept such a steep increase over the years yet balk at paying another $13 for a better view in a brand new stadium?
Those old timers who bailed on the Jets are using PSL's as their excuse. They wanted out, are using Woody and a marginal price increase to whine and tell the world "we are true Jets fans because we quit!" Fact is, they have the money. They just don't want to go. But instead of admitting that, no, have to make up a narrative that postures them as "true" fans and the rest of us as wealthy sell outs.
Shut up already. You quit. You're disloyal. Suck on your shame. Don't shove it on us.
"Tickets are being sold! Look at StubHub!" Back then there were tons of scalpers in parking lots, tons of ads in Newsday classifieds.
"Fans are going to back out! They aren't going to pay their PSL's or their invoices!" Back then there were always 1-2% of season ticket holders who had to leave for health, financial, or relocation reasons.
"All the diehard fans are gone!" Back then the argument was "all the diehards are on Long Island, they'll never go to New Jersey!"
"There will be scores of no-shows!" Back then, Kotite years, were 50,000 no-shows for a whole year, made no difference as the seats were sold, the Jets got paid, the games were still on TV.
"There will be an exodus, and blackouts!" Back then, stadium always sold out, no blackouts, season ticket holders not giving up their subscriptions because they were in it for the long haul.
Nothing has changed. Nothing. PSL's are just a slight price increase.

subset: commoncrawl


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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
I don't think it is always rude to ask how much something cost. DH and I priced out having laminate flooring put in (by professionals) on our first floor and it was really high. Friends of ours just installed it and I asked if she minded if I asked how much it cost. She was fine telling us and now we are thinking about doing it ourselves (they even offerred to help).
But I've had people respond - "no, I'm just curious what you paid for it".
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This season it was all about 'pretty' for designer Rick Owens. Not in the conventional sense, this was about Owens adding lightness, fluidity and softness to his well-established house codes. Interestingly, this mirrored the approach taken by his protégé Gareth Pugh, who showed last night. This is certainly no criticism - whilst they both appear to be on the same 'page', the new approach seemed to produce different results for the designers. Both sat in the front row at each other's shows. Owens' trademarks were omnipresent throughout the 42-piece collection - angular zips, geometric shapes (specifically triangles and diamonds), one-sleeved vests, and a variety of leather jackets, strong silhouettes and layered styling. The latter helped along by Panos Yiapanis, long-term collaborator of Owens. His 'pretty' came with lighter fabrics, and fluid shapes such as parachute backs or billowing elongated trouser legs; a series of beautifully cut dresses and liquid grey and black jumpsuits. His favored colour palette of slate grey, black, white, beige and nude was complimented by metallic highlights, in the sharp bracelets on the wrists of every model or in soft silver and gold draped dresses that seemed to float around the model's body as she walked. The Rick Owens customer will have no problem with coats this season with options including elegant hooded raincoats and a black coat with angled shoulders, cut with couture-like precision. Bottom-half solutions were a bit thin on the ground albeit for shorts and long trousers, but there will no doubt be plenty of options in the showroom. Most puzzling were the long strips of fabrics that featured in numerous looks that seemed to have no purpose whatsoever, an unnecessary distraction. That low-point aside, this was a strong collection - plenty of standout garments for editorial and once you've picked apart the multi-layered looks, lots of appealing, easy-to-wear separates.
Paris Womenswear S/S 10
Rick Owens
Show Report
Interestingly, this mirrored the approach taken by his protégé Gareth Pugh, who showed last night.


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Mike Zimmer Says Bengals Are Really Close To Being Elite Team
The Cincinnati Bengals have made the playoffs the past two seasons, and are making strides towards being a perennial contender.
Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer is a big reason for their recent success, and told NFL Network, that the Bengals are "really close to being one of the AFC's elite teams."
"I think we're really close," Mike Zimmer told NFL Network's "NFL AM" on Tuesday while at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. "The first year, we got thumped pretty good by Houston. This year was a lot closer. We're right there. But we're going to have to keep grinding and keep adding talent. We have a good nucleus of guys, and I think we're exactly where we need to be."
The Bengals surprisingly have the most cap room in the NFL this off-season, and will focus first on locking up pass rusher Michael Johnson and linebacker Rey Maualuga.


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Posted 6 years ago
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Ok all you folks who like to keep everything old in thier original condition, STOP READING NOW!!! This is how I got this old beauti, but I've already dis-assembled and started to restore. I'm making a new grill,fixing the worn wheels and axles ,and thinking about a color scheme. My 2 options are: 1) replicate an original Coca-cola version(Red body, yellow bed, or 2) "57 chevy turqupoise with off white fenders & black running boards.
Any thoughts??suggestions welcome!


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Controlled by a military junta, the nation of Burma, or Myanmar, has long been isolated as an international pariah state. But a flicker of hope for many Burmese has been Aung San Suu Kyi, who's spent decades defying military leaders in her quest for democracy. Now, the generals have started to implement a series of democratic and economic reforms - which the US and other Western powers have welcomed overwhelmingly. But are Myanmar's military leaders serious about reform? And is Aung San Suu Kyi the one to lead Burma through what could be a rocky transition from international outcast to Asian "tiger?"
Visit the Website: http://www.greatdecisions.org
Episode #407 / Length: 26 minutes


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To celebrate the 1st npower Test Match of 2011 from 26th- 30th May, which will see England take on Sri Lanka at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, npower are giving cricket fans a chance to watch the action unfold before their very eyes at the stadium!
Following their victorious win in Australia to retain the Ashes, England will be looking to make a solid start to the season on home soil. However Sri Lanka will be no push over, so an exciting contest of wickets and runs is sure to be on the cards.
npower are proud sponsors of Test Match cricket, for more information visit npower Cricket - Welcome to the npower Cricket Website.
Prize Pack
For your chance to win a pair of tickets to watch the 1st npower Test Match reply to this thread answering the below question. The winner will be picked at random from members who have the correct answer.
Suggested Competition Question
1) Who is the current captain of the England Test team?
A. Andrew Strauss
B. Kevin Pietersen
C. Andrew Flintoff


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of the most successful companies in the construction industry rely on Chubb for their surety needs?
Given such credentials, it is not surprising that Chubb Surety was the sole or co-surety provider of choice for more of the
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MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) -- Two schools in Manhattan were placed on lockout Tuesday as Riley County police worked to track down a person believed to be involved in an assault involving a weapon in the area.
The department tweeted Tuesday morning that the precaution was taken at Susan B. Anthony Middle School on Browning Avenue and Frank Bergman Elementary School on Lombard Drive.
Officials responded to concerns on Twitter, saying the incident did not occur at either school but that lockout at both schools was initiated due to the investigation nearby in the 2500 block of Candlecrest Circle- the Brittnay Ridge Estates. The complex is located on the west side of Manhattan off of Candlewood Drive and backs up to Seth Child Road.
Around 12:20 p.m. RCPD announced on Twitter that the incident was resolved and "no longer poses a danger to the community." The school lockouts lasted less than an hour, officials said.
"At approximately 11:20 this morning, officers responded to a complaint of an aggravated assault which included a subject brandishing a firearm. Since it was in close proximity to two area schools, the district was notified and ultimately, the decision to lockout the schools was made," explained Officer Matt Droge, the Riley County Police Department's Public Information Officer.
"When officers arrived on scene, they began to attempt to locate the subject who was brandishing a firearm. When they couldn't immediately locate that subject, that's when the schools were notified. Shortly after the schools were placed on lockout, officers made contact with the subject they were attempting to locate and an investigation into the original complaint ensued. At this time, an arrest has not been made, however, the investigation is currently ongoing," Droge said.
No one was injured in the aggravated assault. RCPD did not release any other details as their investigation into the incident continues.
During a school lockout, normal activities resume within the confines of the building and only authorized personnel are permitted to enter the school.
During a lockdown, all school activities cease and staff/students seek safety in a locked room until notified by law enforcement.
Lockouts are typically initiated when there is a threat out in the community. Lockdowns are typically initiated when a threat is believed to be already inside the school.


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For more than 20 years, Becki Torres was the one throwing the fundraisers, the one looking to help out those in need.
Now, she's the one in need.
Torres, co-owner of Lowrey's Saloon & Dancehall and a longtime bar manager at now-closed Marty's, is battling stage 4 lung cancer.
And her friends, including many of those she's helped over the years, are coming out to repay the favor.
Bandanas for Becki kicks off at 8 a.m. Sunday with a garage sale, then kicks into high gear about 12:30 p.m. with a lineup of 14 bands spread across two stages at Lowrey's, 609 S. Independence St., and Skooterz, 4100 Bushland Blvd.
Independence Street between the two bars will be blocked off for the day.
The event also includes a bike run, an arm-wrestling contest and live and silent auctions. Admission is $5 at the gate - and $5 more buys you food.
Torres said she never expected anything remotely like this.
"Everyone has been so kind and giving," Torres said. "It just overwhelms me."
It's just natural, said Debbie Warden, one of the event's organizers.
"A lot of these people have known Becki - because of Marty's - for years," Warden said. "I had more bands want to play, but no place to put them. It's wonderful how people just step up."
One of those is Chuck Alexander, singer for Insufficient Funds, which had a regular gig at Marty's for most of Torres' tenure there.
"You know why? Because Becki, from the moment I met her, she has always been very outgoing, and she always did her best ... to support live music," Alexander said. "She's a live music lover and really helps out as much as she can to keep live music alive in Amarillo."
Their friendship stretches back to Torres' first day at Marty's.
"What's really funny, if you know Becki now, the day she was hired, she was really quiet," Alexander said. "She said she was so scared. And Becki is the least scared person I know."
Torres was diagnosed in February with Stage 4 lung cancer that has metastasized into her bone, brain and spinal fluid, according to the Facebook page for Sunday's fundraiser.
"I've done radiation and two chemo treatments," Torres said. "I'm still very ill, I know that. You pray and put it in God's hands and do everything the doctor tells you to do, and you hope for the best."
For information and a full lineup of bands, visit http://on.fb.me/IwlEVH.
Sign up for band contest
I'm hoping to see the full slate of bands for Sunday's fundraiser toss their hats in the ring in the Get Out! band competition we announced last week.
In case you missed it, the winner gets to open the live music portion of the Amarillo Globe-News 2012 July 4th Celebration.
Enter two ways: One, post on the Get Out! Facebook page (www.facebook.com/getoutamarillo). These posts must be from the official band profile, not from a member's personal page or from a fan. We're only accepting one post per band; any others will be deleted. (Comments on that post don't count against you, though.)
Or two, email us an mp3 (it doesn't have to be professionally recorded), a photo and a band bio to email@example.com.
We're taking entries through May 4.
Following that, bands (and solo artists) will be voted on by readers at www.amarillo.com/entertainment. The top vote-getters every week will advance to the next round until voters have decided who'll open the concert.
Readers will be able to vote once per IP address per hour, so make sure they come out in full force.
That winner will get to perform three songs to kick off the July 4 concert in John S. Stiff Memorial Park, opening for A.J. Swope & The Last Train Home, Casey Berry and the Amarillo Symphony, all already booked to perform.
The first round of the contest runs through April 30, after which the bracket will be posted.
Voting for the first round of bracket play begins May 4, and we'll announce the big winner in our June 1 issue.
Features Editor Chip Chandler can be reached at 806-345-3320 or firstname.lastname@example.com. His blog appears on amarillo.com. Find him on Facebook: ChipChandlerAGN. Follow him on Twitter: @chipchandler1.


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Travel offers the potential for a sensory feast. On your next trip, encourage family members to do more than just see the sights.
Travel offers the potential for a sensory feast. On your next trip, encourage family members to do more than just see the sights. Here are five ways to deepen the experience.
� What do you smell? Farmers markets, street fairs, carnivals, sulfur hot springs, a pine forest and fragrant rose gardens all offer an opportunity to sniff something special. Talk with the children about which aromas they like or would rather pass by quickly. Do certain aromas evoke a memory? Notice how each member of your family responds.
� What do you hear? Throughout your trip, encourage the kids to close their eyes and tune in. Is that the whistle of a train in the distance? Listen intently to the traffic noise in the city, waves crashing on a rocky shoreline or an unfamiliar bird chirping in the rain forest. Take note of the street musicians performing in a language that isn�t your own.
� How does it feel? Leaving the comfort of home can evoke a range of emotions spanning from excitement and anticipation to anxiety and uncertainty. From the topsy-turvy thrill created by riding a roller coaster to the sensation of that first step into an unfamiliar landscape, each member of your family is bound to feel something new. Who feels tired, hungry or even homesick? Talk about it.
� Can I touch? From petting zoos and tide pools to dolphin encounters and turtle sanctuaries, travel offers your family the opportunity to reach for the unexpected. Discuss the options ahead of time, particularly when young children are along. Spiny cactus might look interesting, but close contact isn�t advised.
� Can I taste it? Travel provides the ideal opportunity to encourage children to expand their culinary range. Talk about the origins of different ingredients and why many are unique to different regions of the world. Seek out small, local establishments where it might be possible to learn about food preparation or even talk with the chef or proprietor. From curry and coconut to bok choy and barbecue sauce, there is a story to accompany every flavor you�ll sample.


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libNUI is a hardware accelerated GUI framework that makes it possible to build rich multi-platform applications based on 3D rendered dynamic layouts. Interfaces are built as a composition of widgets and behaviors, and the framework handles positioning, resizing, anchoring, and texture stretching. Objects are connected with synchronous events and delegates for mono-threaded communication, or asynchronous notifications and message queues are used for multi-threaded applications. It also supports strings (including Unicode), paths, files, data streams, fonts, threads, critical sections, audio buffer rendering, and more.
Modelbook is a social networking platform that features most mainstream social networking features: Paypal subscriptions, friends request/approval, shout-outs, wall castings/events, a forum, profile approval/private profiles, image galleries, MP3 upload, Zip code radius search, Facebook-style chat, and more.
InfinityDB is an all-Java B+Tree database engine that is embeddable in the smallest to the largest applications that run on hand held devices, workstations, servers, or in distributed systems. InfinityDB provides a data integrity guarantee through all non-media failures, provides a simple API with only a few basic methods, and requires no administrative support. Version 2 offers full ACID transactionality without a log and with fine-grained locks. Programmers can easily superimpose their own data model or employ the Entity-Attribute-Value model by direct low-level access. The basic engine provides multi-valued or set attributes, all primitive Java types, unlimited Large Objects, heterogenous values, composite keys (Entities) and values, and unlimited sparse attributes, all extensible in-place with no schema changes.
Magento Extension For IP Restrictions allows merchants using Magento websites to block users from accessing a particular product page or a whole site. A customized message can be added and displayed to users from a blocked location trying to access an IP-restricted URL. It can redirect the customer from a particular country to a desired URL.
Magento News And Press Release Extension enables Magento merchants to publish blogs, news, and articles related to their companies, products, and services. Each press release, blog, and article can be optimized for search engine ranking, which helps in generating more traffic for the website.
Magento Partial Payment is a Magento extension that makes it possible for customers to pay the order amount in installments. It charges an initial down payment to book the order, and allows the remaining amount to be paid in instalments. It can also be used as a layaway solution. This way customers get the option to purchase multiple products simultaneously with a lower budget and can manage their finances.
An infrastructure manager.
A mature implementation of a SIP server/proxy.


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VILLANOVA — When folks think of the Spring-Ford girls basketball team, these are usually the images that first come to mind:
Star guard Sammy Stipa flying up and down the court.
Forwards Sarah Payonk and Shelby Mueller doing damage in the paint area.
Guard Brittany Moore knocking down 3-pointers and helping run the Rams' lethal fastbreak.
So you can see why it's pretty easy to overlook the other member of the splendid Spring-Ford starting five: Sammi Haas.
Friday night at the Pavilion, however, it was hard not to notice the blue-collar effort Haas provided in helping the top seeded Rams rout Mount St. Joseph Academy 51-30 and bring home their second straight District 1-AAAA championship.
Haas, a 5-foot-7 senior, personified a defensive rampage by Pioneer Athletic Conference champion Spring-Ford (27-2), which held the second seeded Magic (25-3) scoreless for a span of 13 minutes.
"Sammi's tough," Rams coach Jeff Rinehimer said. "Over the summer she really got better as a player. She raised her game, and I was as impressed with her as any of our kids I saw over the summer.
"She has a good feel for the game. She'll score when we need it, but more importantly she'll come out and play high-energy defense. She knows she's got to board, too, and that's what she does."
Haas was tasked with guarding standout Magic junior Alex Louin, who was coming off a 19-point effort in Wednesday's 48-36 semifinal win over Upper Dublin. With Moore also lending a defensive hand, the 5-foot-11 Louin could manage just six points on 2-for-9 shooting. And four of those points came in the final period, after Spring-Ford had built a 43-15 lead.
"I watched a lot of film on her, and she's a really good player," Haas said of Louin, who was averaging 16 points per game. "From talking to Coach (Rinehimer), I didn't want to try to go for the steals and go for her moves. It was more of just staying back with the pressure and trying to make her go this way (side-to-side) instead of going north-to-south."
Haas and her teammates held Mount St. Joe's to just 19 percent shooting through the first three quarters (6-for-31).
"What they do they do very well," Mount coach John Miller said of the Rams. "They do a great job of double-teaming you in the frontcourt, and obviously we just didn't have it tonight.
"Any time Alex tried to make a move, they'd double-team her. They just play defense so well. Not only Alex, but they really took our whole team out of our game."
The Rams, meanwhile, played their game — and then some.
They got a game-high 15 points from Stipa, nine points from Mueller and eight points from Moore in a typically balanced offensive attack.
Haas, who averages 5.6 points, contributed five points — including three in a row as part of the game-turning 27-point tear that broke open what had been an 18-15 lead midway through the second quarter.
More importantly, she shared team-high honors in rebounds with seven (along with Payonk) as Spring-Ford enjoyed a 30-23 advantage on the glass.
"I can hit the shot, but not as consistently as some of the other girls on the team," said Haas, who also had two assists and two steals. "I try to concentrate more on passing the ball inside.
"I consider myself more of a 'helping' player. I'm not real small but I'm not real big, so I can guard big girls and I can guard small girls, too. And I try to be a good leader on the court, and let everybody know what's going on. That's always been my nature."
Haas was a starter and key part of Spring-Ford's PAC-10 championship squad in field hockey last fall.
As a junior in basketball last year, she was a reserve on the Rams squad that won the PAC-10 and District 1 titles and advanced to the PIAA semis.
And Friday night, Haas continued what has been a dream senior season.
"It's pretty exciting," she said. "Actually, I never thought it would be like this. I'll remember it forever."
For the immediate future, though, Haas will do her best to ensure she and her teammates maintain their laser-like focus as they head into the state tourney.
"In our locker room we have a whiteboard with goals on it," she said. "This (the district title) was one of them, so it's another thing to check off. But we just have to keep going, and states is what we're going for now."
Follow Darryl Grumling on Twitter at @MercSmokinD


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It's just of matter of time before low cost, high quality shuttles with great fuel economy become available. This is just the kick in the pants that the American shuttle industry needs to start being innovative.
...if they hope to bring any kind of sizeable payload into space, it's going to have to be one mamba-jamba of an engine, unless they have very tiny sattelites...
I asked this elsewhere. How many shuttle missions leave with a full payload? I believe that Hubble filled the cargo bay, as did the various ISS modules, and the European Spacelab. But doesn't that leave dozens of missions with partially loaded cargo bays?
Okey, when are they going to make the one for Dr. Evil, as evidently they can make one for Mini Me?
I seem to recall hearing that Russia was having big financial problems with their space program, and that if they didn't scrape up funding in some form, that it may adversely impact the long term construction plans for the ISS over the next few years.
Yeah. The ISS has a Soyuz docked to it, to serve as a lifeboat, if the ISS suffers a disastrous failure. The Soyuz can fit three spacesuits, so when the shuttle leaves they only leave three scientists aboard the shuttle at any one time.
Well, the Soyuz isn't left there permanently. They loft a new one every six months or so. So, if the Russians pack up their Space program either the ISS inhabitants have to get left there with no lifeboat, or a substitute has to be designed.
How difficult would designing a return module be? It wouldn't have to be as robust or sophisticated as a Soyuz, Apollo or Gemini, if its sole purpose was to serve as a lifeboat. It could be brought to the ISS by a shuttle, so it wouldn't need to control the one shot rocket that launched it. And, it wouldn't require the endurance of an Apollo or Soyuz. Its mission would last less than an hour or two. It would only have to endure long enough to bring the ISS researchers back to Earth.
Well, Nasa has stopped their ISS crew rescue vehicle program last year for cost reasons. See here
Thanks for the info. I found some additional information [astronautix.com]. There was some talk of using this gold-plated mini-shuttle [astronautix.com] as the rescue vehicle. Then this design [spacedaily.com] was being worked on. Even though its budget was, as Lars pointed out, cut for 2002, they still test launched it as recently as December 2001. This link has some info on the use of the Soyuz [erau.edu] as the rescue vehicle.
I hadn't realized that US budget decisions had cut the ISS back to a skeleton crew. Here is a press release [spaceref.ca] from a US Senator commenting on a recently released independent review of the Space Station's Science programs.
Most of the manned mission to space has just resulted into exploring curiosity without any real scientific research (certainly not worth the cost).
It was ego that resulted in mission to moon. It was miscalculation of cost that resulted into US space shuttle (they thought that the reusability of space shuttle boosters will make it cheaper than traditional rockets). No wonder, during the time, space shuttle was developed, Europians overtook US in launching commercial satellites. Russian space shuttle Buran is a failure but their traditional rocket business is successful. ISS hasn't produced anything scientifically or technologically to justify the cost. The only scientific advantage of US shuttle program could be successful launch and subsequent repair/upgrade of Hubble space telescope. Excluding this, the manned space mission have been mostly wastage of public money.
It was miscalculation of cost that resulted into US space shuttle (they thought that the reusability of space shuttle boosters will make it cheaper than traditional rockets).
I read, a long time ago, that the US shuttle's design incorporates features to serve the USAF, or reasonable equivalent. The story, as I read it, was that NASA didn't think it could get the funding to build the shuttle if it didn't have allies inside the Beltway. Elements in the Defense department agreed to endorse the shuttle, provided they got input into its design. The large size of the shuttle was given as one of those compromises. The suggestion was that if NASA had been allowed to build a shuttle without design compromises, it would have been more successful.
I'd welcome knowledgeable comments on this story. Sorry, I can't remember where I read it.
As it turned out, the US military doesn't use the shuttle, do they? Don't they use the old one-shot rockets?
Why does the shuttle have to be so big? Okay, Hubble, and the various ISS modules more or less fill the shuttle bay. But there have been something like 100 shuttle missions so far, how many of those missions had payloads that fully filled the cargo bay? They could all have been launched with big one-shot rockets, couldn't they? The 197?s Skylab was launched by a surplus Saturn V wasn't it?
The Hubble repair missions could have been mounted from a more modestly sized shuttle, couldn't they?
I read, something interesting back during the first years of Hubble's deployment, back before its optics were corrected, and everything was out of focus. NASA cut corners. They tested all the pieces separately, on the ground. But they didn't test the fully assembled telescope on the ground. I read that they considered doing so, but it required the construstion of a test jig. The test jig would have been expensive, and the decision was made to gamble.
The story was that the US already possessed a test jig suitable for testing large space telescopes. But NASA couldn't use it, because it was top secret, because it was used to test the large telescopes of top secret spy satellites, which were focussed on the Earth.
Can anyone debunk this story? If true, those satellites must have been launched by one-shot rockets.
The space shuttle is not successful. The space shuttle is an utter disaster. In fact, the space shuttle is, arguably, the worst thing that ever happened to the American space programme.
The problem is that the shuttle is trying to be both a man-rated lifter, a reusable lifter, and a heavy lifter, and as a result it does all three incredibly badly. It's a massive money pit that swallowed the American space station, SSTOs, the moon base, and any manned Mars missions...
Put it like this:
Space shuttle capacity: 6 people, 15 tonnes cargo; cost: $600M.
Soyuz capacity: 3 people, no cargo; cost: $60M.
Proton capacity: no people, 20 tonnes cargo; cost: $70M.
This means that you could replace a single shuttle launch with the Russian alternative, launch three seperate vehicles, and have over four hundred million dollars in change! With a single shuttle launch budget, you could put nearly two hundred tonnes into LEO --- or sixteen tonnes into GEO, and the shuttle can't do that at all.
Unfortunately, the shuttle is now become political, so noone's going to be able to get rid of it. It's going to hang around consuming more and more of NASA's budget, until eventually another one will blow up, and then NASA will be reorganised out of existence. Meanwhile, the Russians, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Pakistani, and basically anyone else with a clue (and alas, I don't live in such a country) will be using disposable launchers to maintain their space presence. The ISS will probably be kept up until the shuttle explosion, and then it'll be quietly evacuated and deorbited; but by then, there'll be other space stations, at least some of them privately funded.
The reason these things all wind up looking the same is simple: Math.
In doing similar tasks, the same engineering problems present themselves.
Buran, the Soviet shuttle, has been discussed here on slashdot in the past. I spent most of an afternoon following some links other slashdotters had provided to details of Buran's design.
I found it fascinating. They do look similar. But there were some important differences, under the skin.
One of the web-pages discussed the similarity in appearance of Buran and the American shuttles. It said that Soviet engineers had considered a number of hull designs, with differing appearances. The other hulls looked, on paper, as if they would be just as successful as the American hull design. IIRC the only advantage of the American hull design was that it was a proven design.
The American shuttle uses strap on boosters fueled with solid fuel. Buran's boosters are liquid fueled, and it could strap on three of them. Consequently, it had a much larger lift capacity than the American shuttle.
Buran's crew, at least four of them, were protected by ejection seats.
It has been a year or two since I read these pages. I may not remember them correctly. But wouldn't Buran's liquid fueled boosters be innately safer than the American shuttle. Solid fueled rockets can't be shut down. If the challenger had liquid fueled boosters, would they have been able to shut down the booster, and have a greater chance of survival? Liquid fueled boosters wouldn't have had the dangerous "O ring" feature.
Max Faget was the early and leading proponent of a blunt "capsule" instead of a winged reentry vehicle as a cost-effective solution to the reentry problem. His unique contribution was to have the "capsule" (Tom Wolfe tells us that astronauts hated that word -- they preferred "spacecraft", although capsule distinguishes the thing from lifting-body or winged-reentry vehicle) reenter ass-backwards -- the Air Force Corona/Discoverer capsule reentered face forward.
An axi-symmetric capsule is zero lift, meaning you have little control over where it lands once you fire the retro rockets, and the G-forces can get quite high. You can give a capule a small amount of lift by shifting its center of gravity by rearranging stuff inside, reducing the G's a little bit and giving some control over where you land by doing a roll in the direction you want to head, all without sacrificing the minimal heat shielding requirement compared to a winged reentry vehicle. Gemini, Apollo, and Soyuz use this trick.
The Faget straight-wing Shuttle was supposed to reenter belly first. His critics complained that straight-wing hypersonic vehicles aren't the most stable: Chuck Yeager's famous recovery of the X-1B going end or end and Mike Adam's fatal reentry in the X-15. What Faget explains is that by reentering belly first (think of it as angle of attack of 90 degrees -- in a full stall if you weren't going hypersonic), his straight winged shuttle works just like a capsule -- the belly of the Shuttle and the underside of the wing are like a cookie cutter applied to the underside of a traditional capsule. He argues that it is perfectly stable and works just like proven capsules.
The trick is that as you come out of reentry, you have to do this kind of stall recovery maneuver descending from 80,000 to 60,000 feet and start flying like a conventional glider or airplane. This stomach-dropping transition maneuver, the higher G-load of a capsule style reentry, the limited choice of a landing spot compared to a delta wing Shuttle (the Defense department did not want to make emergency landings in Communist China), all conspired to shelve the straight-wing shuttle. The consequence of going with the delta wing, however, was much higher heat shielding requirements for which the infamous tiles were the answer, and now you know THE REST OF THE STORY.
But we are [google.ca]. How long is the lag on your transatlantic calls? Fibre optic trumps satellite communications except for extremely remote locations.If we had to rely on the space shuttle to launch communications satellites into orbit, we would still be running trans-Atlantic cables for our communications needs.
Were there fewer fools, knaves would starve. - Anonymous


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Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/14/canonical_ceo_silber/
Shuttleworth heir opens up on Ubuntu biz
Canonical kingdom spans 10 million machines
Posted in The Channel, 14th March 2010 21:24 GMT
When you have Mark Shuttleworth as your backer, as commercial Linux distributor Canonical does, it is a bit like having money in the bank when the bank also believes fervently in your cause. It is a rare combination, and one that has allowed the Ubuntu project to reach out from its Linux desktop beginnings into commercial servers - and with the latest releases, cloudy infrastructure - without having the profit pressure that most startups have to deal with as they try to grow.
While Shuttleworth may be the Self Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life at the Ubuntu project, that does not mean that he is the best person to lead Canonical, the commercial entity behind Ubuntu, or even that Shuttleworth, having created digital certificate and security software vendor Thawte during the dot-com boom and selling it off to Verisign before the bust for $575m, wants to steer Canonical. He clearly doesn't, since Jane Silber, the long-time chief operating officer at Canonical, was tapped last December to replace Shuttleworth as CEO.
Silber started her new job running the company on March 1. With the transition, an important and influential British software company founded by a South African is now being run by an American ex-pat. One who has been a software developer and senior manager and who was vice president of command and control systems at the C4 Systems subsidiary of General Dynamics.
With the appointment, Shuttleworth heads up the Ubuntu development project and gets to tinker with all the technical stuff and interface with the open source community, and Silber gets to do all the paperwork and worry about making money off the stuff the Ubuntu project cooks up. In February, Matt Asay was brought in from open source content management software provider Alfresco to replace Silber as COO, so I guess we all know who is going to get a lot of the paperwork.
Jane Silber, Canonical's new CEO
Being privately held, Canonical is pretty secretive about the size of its business. Shuttleworth said when Silber was appointed last December that the company was not yet profitable but heading in the right direction with growth in its three key product lines. (He added that he expected to spend seven years building an open source platform and that the company still has nearly two more years to make it under the wire). But judging by its employee headcount, Canonical is growing like crazy.
In an interview with El Reg, Silber said that the current workforce at Canonical was about 320 people and added that the company was growing rapidly and would continue to do so. She said that Canonical added about 100 employees in both 2008 and 2009.
"We're pretty sizable now, and we have stuck to our original tradition of hiring the best people, no matter where they are in the world," Silber explained. "
Over the last couple of years, the mix of people has changed. We have more people in roles that probably aren't visible through the open source community. We have more sales people and more technical people working in the factories of major OEMs in Asia. We have an office in Taipei that we opened last year and one in Shanghai that we opened this year, for example, and we have a much larger presence there. A lot of our growth is there, and it is driven by the business coming out of our OEM Services group."
The Canonical business is like a three-legged stool. The OEM Services group is the largest part of Canonical, according to Silber, and it works with OEMs and other hardware suppliers to get the Ubuntu variant of Debian Linux installed on machines of all shapes and sizes (netbooks, desktops, servers). The Corporate Services group works primarily with companies - but also with governments and educational institutions - to sell them tools and services that help them better deploy Ubuntu in their organizations.
So money garnered through the Landscape online Ubuntu patching and management service plus tech support and training relating to the Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server distros comes from this group. The final group - and the newest unit and one that Silber established - is the Online Services group, which distributes some free as well as fee-based consumer-facing services. These include the Ubuntu One storage utility, which debuted last fall with Ubuntu 9.10 and which will be soon expanded with Ubuntu 10.04 to include the Ubuntu One Music Store, the Canonical equivalent to iTunes done in partnership with London-based online music distributor 7digital.
Silber would not elaborate on the relative sizes of these groups or on how much money each generates. She did say that the OEM Services group was the largest, and presumably, the Online Services group is the smallest, being the newest.
It is hard to guess how much revenue Canonical might be generating, since OEM deals are a big part of what it does and this could be more like consulting than selling support contracts as Red Hat and Novell do with their respective Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux distros. But assuming there is some similarity, we take get a rough idea of how big Canonical might be and how fast it is growing. Depending on the year, Novell and Red Hat are generating around $235,000 to $240,000 per employee, and given that ratio, that should have put Canonical at somewhere around $30m in sales in calendar 2007, up above $52m in 2008 and kissing up against $80m in 2009.
With the economy coming out of recession and the appetite for new devices growing and Canonical's pushing into larger deals, the company will most likely resume the kind of growth it had between 2007 and 2008 in 2010. Of course, this is all speculation, as is the supposition that Silber moved up to CEO and Asay was brought in as COO to keep Canonical growing and presumably to push it to profitability so the company could go public. Canonical does not need to go public to get backers to fuel its growth, and it is hard to imagine Shuttleworth giving up the company to investors before it has reached a higher value than it would have even a year or two from now.
The community
The Canonical business is, of course, driven through the Ubuntu community, the vast majority of which get the software for free and don't pay anything for it because they do not consume services offered by Canonical. Just like the Fedora and openSUSE projects do not generate money (or much money, in the case of openSUSE, which Novell will offer tech support for, unlike Red Hat with Fedora).
So how big is that community? And what potential does it have for generating increasing revenues?
"All of our indicators are imperfect ones," explains Silber, and that is because Ubuntu's desktop and server distros do not have call-home features that allow Canonical to track their use; and while Canonical does have a sense of how many Ubuntu licenses are distributed through OEM deals, the problem is that in some cases, a box with Ubuntu is sold and then the Linux is nuked and a pirated copy of Windows is plunked down on the machine. "We know this happens on certain machines in certain markets, and we obviously don't like it," Silber says.
As far as Canonical can tell from its indirect indicators, the worldwide base of machines running Ubuntu is above 10 million. Back in October 2007, when Ubuntu 7.10 was launched, Shuttleworth was estimating the base to be around 6 million. (In 2006, Shuttleworth was guessing 8 million users, but backed down from that number). According to Silber, using some of the indicators it uses to reckon its installed base are growing at 10 per cent per month, which is very healthy growth for any software company, open source or not.
The important thing - and one that perhaps Novell should take a lesson from - is that Ubuntu's headcount and presumably its revenues (because Shuttleworth is actually a businessman) are growing at a faster clip than the installed base. Which could mean that Ubuntu has a fairly high conversion rate, relative to other open source programs, moving freebie customers to paid services.
The other interesting thing about the Ubuntu business is how it is changing. The vast majority of the support contracts that Canonical gets money from come from companies, not consumers, although consumers sometimes pay for an Ubuntu support contract indirectly when they buy Ubuntu embedded in a device.
Eye on the enterprise
Enterprise support contracts used to be fairly small deals done at mostly at SMB shops as they were installing Linux, sometimes for the first time. But now, as Ubuntu is becoming more widely adopted on a more diverse set of machines, and companies are coming to Canonical for much larger support contracts after they figure out developers have created applications running atop Ubuntu and they need to get proper commercial-grade support for these application platforms.
"There is a noticeable change in the kind of customers we are getting and the size of contracts," says Silber. "And there is a marked increase in interest around our Landscape systems management tools." The initial Landscape was run as a service hosted by Canonical, but last year a hosted version that companies could run behind their firewalls was announced, akin to the local version of Red Hat Network. IT shops like having their management tools hosted locally, although for SMBs, the trend is moving in the opposite direction towards SaaSy tools. Luckily, Canonical now has both.
And, says Silber, the roadmap for Landscape is moving up cloudy infrastructure management tools, lining up with the Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Service (LTS) release due next month, which has the Eucalyptus cloud framework embedded in it. The cloudy management features in the future Landscape will not just work with the Ubuntu-Eucalyptus combination, but also on public clouds like Amazon EC2, where Ubuntu has been the most popularly deployed operating system on the service for some time.
Helping build cloudy infrastructure is not the only thing that will help Canonical grow. The company has a lot of grunt work to do, as every operating system provider does, in getting as many commercial applications - the database, middleware, and application software that companies deploy - certified atop its platform as possible. So how is application certification process going with Ubuntu?
"It's coming along," says Silber. "We frankly still have work to do in that area. It's something that we're seeing and expecting much improvement for with the Ubuntu 10.04 release coming out in April. We'll have a rolling series of announcements with ISVs announcing their support, and 10.04 is important because it is an LTS release and on the server has a five-year support cycle.
"That's really the one enterprises rally around both in terms of use and ISV support. So we are growing there, and will continue to grow, and not just in the traditional open source ISVs - like the Alfrescos and the Openbravos of the world - but in the more traditional enterprise ISVs. But we admittedly have work to do in that area."
Don't expect Canonical to say anything like this any time soon. If it runs on RHEL, it will run on Ubuntu. But, Silber says that Canonical is targeting the key subset of commercial applications that run on RHEL and SLES to get them certified. Oracle's databases are not certified, by the way, even though Oracle's own developers do use Ubuntu internally. MySQL, now under control of Oracle, obviously is certified to run on Ubuntu. The two companies have what Silber calls a "complicated but positive relationship."
The same holds true with the top-tier server makers, many of whom certify Ubuntu to run on their machines and yet do not go all the way and pre-install it, offering it alongside Windows, RHEL, and SLES. Silber would love to see Ubuntu take up its rightful position as the fourth pre-installed alternative, of course, but she's not as concerned with this as ensuring that Ubuntu gets certified to run on server iron.
"As ISVs are aligning around the 10.04 release, you'll see the server vendors do the same for certification," says Silber. Sometimes the server makers do the certification, sometimes Canonical does it in conjunction with the hardware maker. "In the server world, in terms of pre-installation, it doesn't matter that much. According to the data that we have seen, the vast majority of users re-install whatever operating system they want, and that the pre-installed server operating system is not that critical.
"The certification is critical because customers need to know that if they have a problem, they can call people. In the server world, pre-installation is something we want, but it is not critical. In the consumer world, pre-installation is the critical piece. There are only so many people in the world who are going to download and install an operating system."
Luckily for Canonical, that's a big enough pool of people to build a tidy and growing business upon. ®


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The University of Chicago is grappling with a mystery today involving Indiana Jones, of all people.
According to the university's admissions department Tumblr page, a package arrived at the university on Wednesday addressed to Henry Walton Jones Jr. Unsure where to put the package, the student office worker set it aside until someone realized it wasn't intended for any actual student or faculty member, but a fictional character who in his story was once enrolled at the University of Chicago: Indiana Jones.
The character's Wikia profile, compiled from information released about the character through the films, TV series, video games and supplemental novels, says he was a student there sometime in the early 1920s.
When the package was finally opened, the mystery grew. Inside was an apparently handmade re-creation of Abner Ravenwood's diary. Ravenwood, for those not familiar with the Indiana Jones films, was Jones' professor at the University of Chicago whose knowledge of the Ark of the Covenant set in motion the story of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Steven Spielberg's landmark 1981 film starring Harrison Ford as the adventuresome archaeologist.
"The book itself is a bit dusty, and the cover is teal fabric with a red velvet spine, with weathered inserts and many postcards/pictures of Marion Ravenwood (and some cool old replica money) included," the admissions department wrote on its Tumblr page.
Some sleuthing on the part of the university discovered that the package had never actually been sent through the mail — the postage on the outside of the package was not real, even though it was dirty and scuffed as though it had been in transit.
So why did someone send this package here? Is it promotional? Is it an attempt to gain admission to the university? Is it some kind of art project?
The university is baffled and is soliciting help and advice, establishing an email address — email@example.com — in order to get tips and insight.
A representative from Lucasfilm expressed bewilderment about news of the package. So it was not a misdirected bit of film promotion.
Have theories of your own? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.
— Patrick Kevin Day
Follow us on Twitter: @LATHeroComplex
Damon Lindelof's love letter to 'Raiders'
Video: Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones' future
Video: Ford talks 'Raiders' swordsman scene
Video: Ford on turning down 'Jurassic Park'
Fedora flashback: A look back at Indy-mania
Spielberg at 33: 'I'll always be the worker bee'
'Raiders' exhibit whips up Hollywood and history
Spielberg: 'Raiders' does not seem like 30 years ago
'Raiders' stuntman looks back, 30 years later


text:
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Hastings Entertainment Inc, a national retailer, has announced the winner of its nationwide Summer Book Club Essay Contest.
A panel of judges among hundreds of essays selected the writings of Meredith Pletcher from Winnsboro. Pletcher was awarded two Dell laptop computers from Hastings, one for herself and one to donate to her school, Mt. Vernon High School.
Hastings' Summer Book Club lasted from May 5, 2012 until September 8, 2012 and encouraged kids to participate in summer reading activities at Hastings.


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Under the contracts, Wabtec will provide its Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS®) equipment and installation of all PTC components for 54 locomotives. Wabtec's scope of work also includes installation of its Train Management & Dispatch System (TMDS®), a computer-aided dispatch system to be used for centralized traffic control and track warrant control for all territories; and integration of I-ETMS® with Wabtec's Back Office System. The Alaska Railroad system will be fully interoperable with PTC systems being implemented by Class 1 railroads in the U.S.
Albert J. Neupaver, Wabtec's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "PTC continues to be developed and deployed by freight and passenger railroads in the U.S., and this project with Alaska Railroad demonstrates the variety of capabilities we have to assist our customers."
Eileen Reilly, vice president of advanced train control systems and technology for Alaska Railroad, said: "Wabtec understood our needs and delivered the computer-aided dispatch that is the cornerstone of our PTC project. We look forward to our continued successful relationship as we implement the I-ETMS® PTC at the Alaska Railroad."


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A Queen Retakes Her Throne: Cyborg, Not Ronda Rousey, Is Still WMMA's BestApril 6, 2013
The world of mixed martial arts operates outside the confines of our regular reality. The laws of the jungle are in full effect, promotion guaranteed not by your perfect corporate hair or unfailing ability to suck up to just the right person, but rather by a unique skill set involving bludgeoning your competition senseless.
Arriving at the top of this particularly Darwinian world is never easy. Playing the game of MMA thrones requires unusual physical ability, the mental fortitude to bring your best each and every time and no small amount of luck.
And once you arrive at the top? Each and every fighter you meet smiles in your face but has a secret plan to knock you out of your hard-earned place at the top of the pecking order. When it happens, it's often a complete surprise.
Think Fedor Emelianenko, dumbfounded and unable to process his shocking loss to Fabricio Werdum in Strikeforce.
Think Georges St-Pierre on his knees, discombobulated from a punch he never saw coming, desperately tapping from Matt Serra's continued onslaught.
And think Cris "Cyborg" Santos falling victim to, well, herself. Cyborg wasn't knocked from her perch at the top of the women's game. She jumped, needle in hand, testing positive for stanozolol metabolites after a December 2011 fight with Hiroko Yamanaka. As a result, she was suspended for a year by the California State Athletic Commission.
"I made a mistake," Santos told the Commission in a written statement. "I do not condone the use of performance enhancing drugs in MMA."
Cyborg returned to the fight game for Invicta Fighting on Friday night, coming back to a wholly unfamiliar environment. When Cyborg had left, she was the undisputed queen of mixed martial arts. Today, Ronday Rousey sits on her throne. What a difference a year can make.
In that time, just 16 short months since Cyborg's suspension and subsequent contract squabbles with the UFC, Rousey has stamped her name on the sport of women's MMA. She beat Miesha Tate for the bantamweight title and defended against Sarah Kaufman and Liz Carmouche, all while slowly inserting herself into the cultural mainstream.
Rousey is now the sport's top dog. Undisputed, undefeated. But Friday night's massacre of Fiona Muxlow reopened the discussion in a major way. Cyborg knocked Muxlow down almost immediately, then spent almost four minutes battering her face into smithereens.
Cyborg reminded the world why she was the most feared figure in women's MMA; reminded the world why the last face of women's MMA, Gina Carano, is now a full-time actress; and reminded the world that she, and not Rousey, is the best in the game.
I have a ton of respect for Ronda Rousey. How can you not? She's never been pushed, every fight a mirror image of the last—Rousey by first-round armbar.
But Ronda Rousey didn't earn her place at the top of the game. She sat down on a throne Santos had abdicated. Now the queen has returned. And there isn't room for two at the tippy top.
There is only one solution—Rousey versus Cyborg for the honor of being the best in the business. The sport demands it. For obvious reasons, Rousey and the UFC are hesitant. They've built a box-office monster and have no desire to see her bludgeoned by a relentless punching machine like Cyborg.
"Ask Dana White if he wants to make the fight," Santos ordered MMA Fighting. "Ask Ronda if she wants the fight. I will fight her. I'm not afraid of anyone. You have to ask them why they don't want to make the fight."
Sure, there are some hurdles in the way. Rousey, who once competed in the Olympics at 154 pounds, now resides in the bantamweight division. Cyborg barely makes it to 145 pounds for her featherweight fights and doesn't feel capable of making the cut all the way down to 135 pounds. For the moment that remains a stumbling block. But it can't be allowed to cheat fans out of this legacy-defining fight.
Time for both to step up and prove who's the better woman. My money is on Cyborg. Who do you have? Let me know in the comments.


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FOX RIVER GROVE – Norge Ski Club will host its 27th annual Summer Ski Jump Tournament on Sept. 29 and 30.
Competitors from across the country will compete at Norge, the largest summer competition in the Midwest, trying to improve their national rankings as they vie for points and cash prizes.
At noon Saturday, Norge will kick off the weekend with a tournament that will use the 5- through 40-meter junior hills, followed by elite skiers competing on Norge's largest hill, the K70, in the early afternoon.
Afterward, there will be live entertainment, a bouncy house for children and a bonfire for spectators. Food and beverages will be available.
Sunday, gates open at 11 a.m., and the skiers will start their trial round on the Big Hill at noon. Each athlete then will make two additional jumps, which will be judged as their first and second competitive rounds. After completion of the sanctioned USSA Ski Team event, there will be a nonsanctioned competition in which qualifying athletes will vie for a cash prize.
Admission buttons, at $10, are available through Friday from local merchants in the Fox River Grove area. They can be obtained online a http://www.norgeskiclub.com for $11.
Admission for both days is $15 at the gate. Admission for children 12 and under is free when when accompanied by a parent.
For information, call 847-639-9718 or email email@example.com. For directions and tournament details, visit www.norgeskiclub.com.


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My intention is to crash on the couch and watch television all night long, but Chuck opens his mouth and changes those plans.
Chuck's my roommate, a math major who takes late afternoon classes and then works the graveyard shift as a factory security guard, where he pretty much just sits on his ass and studies. It's perfect for him because he's a night crawler; he sleeps until noon every day. I sleep late too, but I couldn't handle a job like his. I have issues with jobs that require me to be someplace at a specific time or to do boring shit for long periods. Guess that's why I don't have one.
Anyway, back to Chuck. He comes into our living room at 10 p.m. dressed like a rent-a-cop: blue shirt, navy slacks, black lace-ups, and an official brimmed hat pulled down over dark hair gelled into submission. His unhealthy pallor has come from spending too much time under fluorescent lights, and this stint isn't helping him any.
"Going to work?" I ask him.
"Another crack observation." Chuck slips on his denim jacket, the key ring jangling in the pocket. "You should find yourself a job."
"What — like yours?"
"Man's gotta scrape a living."
"So I've heard."
He pauses to examine me in all my unemployed glory — unbrushed hair, unshaven face, unlaundered college sweatshirt in which armpit bacteria conducts several unscheduled science experiments, and unwashed jeans that could probably stand on their own by now. Guess I'm quite a sight sitting here with no shoes on, an empty bag of cheese puffs on my lap, and a drained bottle of cola by my side. "There're a lot of 'Help Wanted' signs along Main Street now," he says, the creases between his eyebrows deepening. "Tomorrow you should clean up and go check it out."
"Now why'd I want to do a thing like that?"
"Money, for one."
"Have I asked you for any?"
"No, but I don't know how you manage to make rent. And girls, for two. Don't know if you've noticed this, my friend, but if you're not getting paid, you're not getting laid."
I snicker. "Look out — he's rhyming now."
"Whatever, man. Just trying to help."
"What a pal."
"Yeah. Later."
Chuck's conventional — one of the things I like about him. Predictability makes a person safe to be around. No guesswork there.
Still, Chuck makes me think about money, so I check my wallet. I'm running low on funds — only a twenty left to get me through. That'll ruin my weekend. I pick up the telephone.
"Tony's Pizza," says the man who answers.
"I'd like a large cheese pie."
"Justin Case. I'll need it delivered."
I rattle it off.
"No way, man. We don't deliver there."
"Why the hell not?"
"My guys get robbed on that block. You gotta come pick the pie up."
I think up an excuse quick. "I can't. I'm babysitting my nephew and he's sleeping. Besides, you delivered last time."
"Last Friday." Indeed, Tony's did deliver — but only after I'd shouted "Doesn't anyone in that shop have the balls to bring me a friggin' pizza?" into the receiver. I was put on hold for a few seconds, and then was told they'd bring it only if I agreed to wait outside. When the delivery guy pulled up in his beaten-up Chevy a half-hour later, he rolled his window down four inches. "You order a pizza?" he asked, his eyes darting from me to the rearview mirror to the side windows so much I thought he might be seizing.
"Yeah," I said. He slid the box through the gap. As soon as I took it, he took off; he never even asked me for the money. I ask you: With a precedent like that, who wouldn't call Tony's again?
The man on the line tonight is quiet, thinking things through. "Well, I do have this new guy, and we do have a couple of deliveries to make about half a mile over," he says. "I suppose I can send him past your place."
"Good man," I say.
"Just have your money ready. He'll be there in 30."
"Gotcha." I hang up, unsurprised. Tony won't risk delivering my pizza himself, but lust for the American greenback makes him send some poor sucker out to do it for him. This is exactly the blatant unfairness that discourages me from getting such a crap job for myself.
Our neighborhood — a nice area of Queens, mostly Asian but multicultural, well-maintained, apartments stuffed with students in pursuit of university validation — isn't unsafe, per se, but even the best cities have street crime, and this place is no different. Every few weeks a delivery guy gets mugged, and the details get chronicled in the local paper's police blotter. The past few incidents have involved a handgun. No one's been shot, but the delivery guys are still leery of going anywhere near where the last mugging took place. Can't say I blame them, but hey — I still need them to do their job.
The telephone rings. "Yeah?" I answer.
"Dude, it's me — Snap."
Snap is the adult juvenile delinquent who lives one floor below, a Californian surfer type with a fading tan and a similar aversion to low-wage employment. He's dumber than a Hummer — in school six years and still nowhere near getting his associate's degree — but he's got my back, and you can't help but like a guy like that. So long as he lets me make the calls, that is.
"What's up?" I ask him.
He giggles, meaning he's stoned. "Feel like orderin' a pizza?"
"Just did."
"Ooh! You need some help then?"
"Eating it? Sure. I'll call you when I get back."
"Get back?"
"I'm picking it up. The delivery guy won't come."
Snap snorts with mirth. "I wonder why not!"
"Just hang until I call you."
"Whatever you say, man. Peace." And Snap hangs up.
I check the clock and see I have 25 more minutes to wait. No rush, of course, but I put my sneakers on and lean back to take in the rest of "Law and Order."
I don't get up until the square doorbell makes its pathetic clunking sound. When I open the door, I find a tired-looking Asian guy wearing a red windbreaker and a Tony's Pizza ball cap on the other side. "You order food?" he asks.
"Yeah, man, but not Chinese."
The guy holds up the pizza box. "This look like chop suey to you?"
"Easy now." I pull out my wallet. "How much do I owe you?"
"Fifteen dollars."
"Robbery, I tell you." I hand him the twenty and take the pie. "But keep the change."
He's already reaching for his back pocket, so he jolts. "Yeah?"
"Sure. Why not?"
He smiles. "Thanks, Mister."
"You're welcome," I say, shutting the door between us.
I put the pie on the kitchenette counter. Then I grab my black jacket, slip it on, take the ski mask and gun out of its pockets, and I climb out onto the dark fire escape.
Call it one giant scrape on my part.
Kathleen Powers-Vermaelen is a graduate of the Stony Brook Southampton master's in fine arts program in creative writing and literature. Her work has been published in "Proteus," "The Southampton Review," and in a flash fiction anthology, as well as in The Star and several other places.


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Grind Review
We hated this game. Hated, hated, hated! Hated every second of the experience. We know there are shortcuts to take when you're developing a game–ripping off ideas, poor graphics, etc.– but we never thought we'd see something this patently terrible on the App Store. There is nothing worthwhile about this game, and no fun to be had at all. It might seem like we're out of line, but we assure you, we are not. You see, the 99 cent Grind is one of the worst games we've played yet on our iDevice.
In Grind, you skateboard for a fixed period of time in a square skate park. You are given the option of customizing your own version of the park, using a poorly executed editing feature. You might be tempted to use this, but you should not, as it is impossible to build a decent skate park. The controls are touch based: you hit the GO button to move, the up arrow to jump, and the numbers 1, 2 and 3 to do a trick. Turning is controlled via accelerometer. And it's much, much worse to play than that sounds. Your skater is a pile of polygons with no relation to real-world physics, for whom landing a trick is like making a full-sized house out of toothpicks: a nearly impossible dream. Did you read the part just now where we mentioned how there were only three different trick buttons? Combined with the rotation you can achieve via turning you iDevice while in air, that gives you about four tricks to perform, which would be okay if they were executed well. Rest assured, they are not done well here.
So, the controls and gameplay are poorly done. The graphics–outside of a decent background sky–are abysmal. The music is terrible. The sound effects aren't even average. There is no compelling story or reason to keep playing. The entire game is two minutes long. We'll give Grind this, though: sometimes the really bad physics and graphics combine in ways that are hilarious, like the time we skated directly into a wall, and our guy appeared to have his head stuck in the wall and his legs kicked spasmodically as he dangled. That was a good few seconds.
McDonald's has a dollar menu–a chicken sandwich, a sundae, things of that nature. The food quality is poor, the health value is negative, and so on, but it only costs three dollars. You should go spend your 99 cents at the Golden Arches… because even if the sated feeling lasts only few hours, and even if it hurts your stomach–heck, even if drop your food on the sidewalk–it's a better use of your money than Grind is.


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BRITAIN'S opposition is tearing into the government over what it calls failed policies, after Moody's stripped the country of its coveted triple-A credit rating.
However, while analysts are calling the loss an embarrassment for Finance Minister George Osborne and his handling of Britain's debt and deficit problems, they say the downgrade will have a limited impact in the international markets.
In an expected rebuff to London's hopes that sharp spending cuts would both gradually eliminate the deficit and boost growth, Moody's rating agency has cut Britain's grade by one notch to Aa1.
Labour opposition finance spokesman Ed Balls has ripped into Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne, saying the entire point of his austerity drive has failed.
"The Chancellor said this would be a humiliating blow and the first test of his policy was to avoid it," he told BBC television on Saturday.
"Economically, the credit rating decision itself makes no difference at all. What the credit rating agencies are doing, though, is reflecting the reality and the reality is an economy which is not growing, a deficit which is getting bigger, families in real stress and a government which is ploughing on regardless with a plan which is not working - saying 'the medicine is not working, let's increase the dose of the medicine'."
However, Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight research group, says the market has been anticipating the downgrade for some time, though the pound sterling currency may be vulnerable.
"The loss of the AAA rating certainly puts pressure on Mr Osborne to come up with more initiatives in the [March 20] budget." he said. AFP
Britain loses Moody's AAA credit rating
BRITAIN'S opposition is tearing into the government over what it calls failed policies, after Moody's stripped the country of its coveted triple-A credit rating.
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Everton left-back Leighton Baines believes the Toffees can still make a late surge for one of the Champions League places.
David Moyes' side are currently just two points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, although the west London side have two games in hand on the Goodison Park outfit.
Baines stated his delight at Everton's goalless draw against Arsenal on Tuesday and dismissed claims his side set out to bully Arsene Wenger's side at the Emirates Stadium.
"We know they are a good passing team, but we did not speak about physically disrupting them in terms of getting stuck in," said the England international.
"We have taken points off a lot of the teams who will finish in the Champions League positions. I don't think anyone will particularly enjoy playing against us at any level."
Moyes' side have been in terrific form of late, with their most impressive victory coming with 10-men against Premier League champions Manchester City at Goodison Park back in March.
Everton take on relegation candidates Sunderland this weekend, and face Merseyside rivals Liverpool in a crunch game at Anfield during the first week of May.
The Toffees end the campaign at Chelsea, in a game which could determine whether they play Champions League football next season or not.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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GREENVILLE, Ill.-- The Lady Panther Soccer team lost to Webster University 2-0 despite a valiant effort.
Both of Webster's goals were scored in the second half of the game, the first by Freddie Brandt in the 49th minute, and the second by Kristin Montgomery, with the assist by Ally Nikolaus, in the game's 69th minute.
Greenville's goalkeeper, Heidi Koehl, made an impressive 7 saves in the game. The Panther's fought a tough battle to the Gorlocks, but could not come away with the win.
This brings the Lady Panthers' record to 9-8-1 (5-3 SLIAC) The women will play again Wednesday, Oct. 31 in the first round of the SLIAC Tournament.


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I then noticed that the store had a JMD-1 100 watt head and so I tried it out through a 1960. It sounded pretty good, and didn't have any of the compression/dynamics issues from the spider valve. There was also a JVM next to it, so while the JMD1 tones were fresh in my memory I played through the JVM to see if I would notice any any glarring differences and I didn't. It seemed like maybe the edge of breakup tones were better in the JVM but otherwise they both sounded great.
So the new Marshall JMD-1 looks like it could fit the bill, plus it has sweet side handles for the load in/out.


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Some content in this article is derived from information featured in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and, as such, spoilers will be present.
- "There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') , fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons."
- —Description[src]
Honeydukes is a legendary wizarding sweets shop famous for its chocolate and many, wonderful and wild sweets[1]. It was first established in 1641[2] and is located in the wintry, all-wizarding village of Hogsmeade, in Scotland. Honeydukes is frequented by students and teachers alike; indeed, one can barely move due to the crowd of visitors throughout the Christmas season.[1]
Customers are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.
Merry Christmas!"
- —Notice on the Honeydukes door during the escape of Sirius Black[src]
The shop is run by Ambrosius Flume, a rather large, bald man, and his wife, who watched over the shop when he went to the cellar to retrieve the sweets that the main shop was running out of[1].
Honeydukes also houses the entrance to a secret passageway from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry directly into the cellar of the sweet-shop; however, it is advisable only to use it to go from Hogwarts Castle to Honeydukes and not the other way around, due to the presence of a stone slide at the Hogwarts end.
In the Gunhilda of Gorsemoor Corridor on the third floor of Hogwarts Castle, one can find a large stone statue of Gunhilda. By tapping the back of the statue with one's wand and incant "Dissendium", one will open up the secret passageway in the statue's hunched back, leading down a short, cool stone slide[1]. They will land in a very low, very narrow earthy passageway that twists like a rabbit's burrow, rising after an hour or so and reaches a large, worn stone staircase after ten minutes of steep ascent[1]. There are over two hundred steps on this staircase, and those climbing it will usually be surprised when their head hits the hard, cold trap-door[1]. This trap-door leads into the cellar of Honeydukes, and matches the dusty floor perfectly[1].
The cellar of the shop is full of wooden crates and boxes, with a very dusty floor and a large wooden staircase leading up to the main shop[1]. In the cellar, one could hear the opening and shutting of the sweet-shop door, as well as the tinkling of the bell above it[1].
Honeydukes maintains and supplies the Honeydukes Express, a large food trolley which sells sweets to the staff and students riding the Hogwarts Express. It is driven about, and the candies are dispersed, by a kind, wizened old lady.
Sweets sold
- Acid Pops
- Bat's Blood Soup
- Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans
- Blood-flavoured lollipops
- Cauldron Cakes
- Charm Choc
- Chocoballs
- Chocolate Cauldrons
- Chocolate Frogs
- Chocolate Skeletons
- Chocolate Wands
- Choco-Loco
- Cockroach Clusters
- Crystallised pineapple
- Drooble's Best Blowing Gum
- Exploding bonbons
- Fizzing Whizzbees
- Fudge Flies
- Glacial Snow Flakes
- Honeydukes Best Chocolate
- Honeydukes Mice Pops
- Ice Mice
- Jelly Slugs
- Liquorice Wands
- No-Melt Ice cream
- Nougat Chunks
- Pepper Imps (Breath fire for your friends!)
- Peppermint Toad (Hop realistically in the stomach!)
- Pink Coconut Ice
- Pixie Puffs
- Pumpkin fizz
- Pumpkin Pasties
- Salt Water Taffy
- Shock-o-Choc
- Skeletal Sweets
- Spindle's Lick'O'Rish Spiders
- Sugar Quills
- Sugared Butterfly Wings
- Toffees
- Toothflossing Stringmints
- Tooth-Splintering Strongmints
- Treacle fudge
- Wizochoc
Behind the scenes
- The 2-disc DVD edition of the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban includes an interactive tour of Honeydukes, featuring the main shop area, as well as the cellar and the entrance to the Hogwarts' secret tunnel. The tour includes exclusive footage of Fred and George Weasley wandering about the place and, ultimately, accessing the secret tunnel.
- There is a recreation of Honeydukes in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
- Alfonso Cuarón included some Mexican elements in Honeydukes, such as Chocolate Skeletons.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) (Flashback on Disc 2)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play) (Mentioned only)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
- LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World (Mentioned only)
- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- LEGO Harry Potter
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (mentioned only)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 10 (The Marauder's Map)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (see this image)


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The first Monday of the month KLRU Q's 11pm music block features Hardly Sound. The documentary series focuses on Texas underground music and artists but goes beyond the recording studio to tell the story of the band members with insight into the creative process.
For December
Join Vincent Martinez – one of the most stunningly original artists in Austin – as he lives his self-proclaimed "Jazz Life." Then marvel at his undeniable hooks and poetic, personal lyrics as he steps into the studio as Emcee Eats.


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Zynga is preparing for a large-scale expansion to Farmville, titled Farmville English Countryside. Venture Beat reports that being rather than a full sequel, English Countryside will launch from the standard Farmville application but add a new farm that's significantly more British.
In England, you can breed sheep of different colors, and speed the process along with a "love potion" micro-transaction. Other new additions include a more detailed progress map to see your levels, plus new crops, equipment, decorations, and buildings. Luckily for experienced farmers, all of your current coins and cash, and farm size can transfer to English Countryside.
The game will also be adding quests, taking a cue from other "Ville" games FrontierVille and CityVille. It makes sense to cross-pollinate the ideas, after CityVille grew extremely fast at launch. But as usual, the quests are very focused on being viral, encouraging you to invite your friends.
Zynga has been quietly hyping the game on its Facebook page, managing to hit 1.5 million "likes" for English Countryside before launch, without any promotion for the expansion. It's expected to hit in the next few weeks.


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— From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
In yet another example of the Obama campaign pushing back hard on the gas tax holiday issue, Obama supporter Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) hosted a conference call to highlight past opposition to such a holiday from Clinton supporters, including North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and her own husband.
McCaskill, who is campaigning in North Carolina today, quoted Easley
who two years ago called a cut in the gas tax a "subsidy for oil
companies" and added that less than two weeks ago he said, "people need
to be told the truth about it," because such a holiday would not
necessarily result in savings.
The campaign sent out an audio link to the governor's more recent
comments. She also said the former president Clinton also agreed with
Obama at one point in time about how short-sighted a gas tax holiday
would be and said it was noteworthy that the Clinton campaign had not
been able to produce experts who backed her proposal, arguing that when
promoting an economic policy it was important to have at least someone
who knows about economics agree with you, unless you never planned for
your proposal to pass and were simply trying to get votes.
Kitchen-table issues like high gas prices have increasingly been the
focus for both candidates as they try to win over voters who are
struggling economically.
Obama has hit his rivals consistently over the past several days for supporting the tax holiday and his campaign sent out a memo on the matter during the conference call, a bid to drive home its argument that the senator is not "out of touch" with voters for refusing to back a plan that would save them little, is not supported by experts and was unlikely to pass before summer.
The Missouri senator said the race on the ground in the Tar Heel state felt "very good" even as polls showed Clinton edging up, narrowing Obama's lead. McCaskill said such narrowing was to be expected, comparing it to Obama having closed the gap in Pennsylvania to 10 points from 20. She said the Clinton campaign had put a lot of effort into campaigning in the state and that Bill Clinton had "camped out" there.
She argued repeatedly that North Carolinians were offended by the gas tax holiday proposal that she and the Illinois senator have painted as a gimmick to buy their votes.
NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli passes along that Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway reacted to the call this way: "The Obama campaign seems bitter about sliding in the polls and is clinging to these negative attacks out of frustration."