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Twins have things moving in right direction
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It was just one game, an exhausting 6-4 Twins' victory that took 12 innings over 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete as the clock crept toward midnight.
But for this success at Tropicana Field -- a chamber of horrors for the Twins -- it was indeed much more than just one game, one win.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It was just one game, an exhausting 6-4 Twins' victory that took 12 innings over 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete as the clock crept toward midnight.
But for this success at Tropicana Field -- a chamber of horrors for the Twins -- it was indeed much more than just one game, one win.
The folks from Minnesota had lost to the Rays seven consecutive times.
Ending that losing streak on Wednesday night was significant, but more important is the new image of this rebuilding team that was on display. Since they won the AL Central Division title in 2010, they're an aggregate 96 games under .500 -- two last-place finishes and a fourth in 2013.
This team might not win its division or advance to the postseason this year, but it's obvious the Twins are turning the corner.
When the amazing Chris Colabello lined a two-run single up the middle against struggling Rays reliever Josh Lueke in the 12th inning, the Twins all but sealed their 10th victory in 20 games.
And on Thursday afternoon, they held off Tampa Bay for a 9-7 triumph that moved them a game above .500. The Twins kept reaching for a little extra, a gritty performance in stark contrast on Wednesday night to the way they played the last three seasons. They flashed energy and determination so lacking in 2013.
They kept reaching for a little extra, a gritty performance in stark contrast to the way they played the last three seasons. They flashed energy and determination so lacking in 2013.
I asked manager Ron Gardenhire how a similar game would have ended a year ago.
"You saw us, we lost 96 games," he said. "It's not hard to figure it out. It probably wouldn't have gone very good. We had a lot of tough ones just like this last year. We were in games and had chances, but couldn't finish them off.
"This is a different group. They're battling pretty good. In this game they persevered and hung in in situations where we could have let it get away from us. We missed some opportunities, but no one got down. They just kept plugging away."
Manager Joe Maddon lived through the same growing pains when he took over the Rays in 2006. They lost 101 games his first year and 96 in 2007. The following season they played the Phillies in the World Series.
"Their turnaround is going to be tied to how well they pitch," he said. "That's where we were. The first two years we didn't pitch well at all. In 2008 we pitched a whole lot better and our bullpen got significantly better. Minnesota's bullpen has been good.
"Their offense has been outstanding and when their starters get it together that's when you're going to see the accession take place."
Prior to his 12th inning heroics, Colabello blasted a two-run homer in the Twins' four-run fourth inning as his mom Silvana, on her birthday, watched from the Tropicana stands while doing a TV interview.
When the Twins took the field for Thursday's game, Colabello's 26 runs batted in were tops in the American League and second on the Major Leagues. He remained at that number, as he went 0-for-5 in the matinee.
The 30-year old spent seven seasons playing for the Worcester Tornadoes in the independent Canadian-American Association; he calls it a "a beer league."
Regardless, the Massachusetts native whose dad Lou played for Italy in the 1984 Olympics, is baseball's No. 1 feel-good story this season.
How amazing has his start been?
His 26 RBIs tie him with the late Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett for the most by a Twins hitter in April and he has a handful of games remaining.
"I'm just trying to go up and have good at-bats. I swear I'm telling the truth," he said. "I'm trying to help this team however I can. Obviously, I'm thankful to the coaches for giving me the opportunity. To hit in the middle of this order is a lot of fun. To have both my parents here is pretty special for me."
Gardenhire says: "It's a lot of fun to watch Colabello. For a guy, as he puts it, (who) played in beer leagues for seven summers. We'll see how long he can keep it going. He's put a lot of great swings on the ball, driving the baseball. What a heckuva month. It's got to be pretty special for him and it's very special for our ball club, our organization and our fans. It's a good story."
With almost a month under their belts, the Twins have created a buzz in their division.
"We came out swinging," said Gardenhire. "In Spring Training, we didn't hit much, so that tells you not to always go with what happens in the spring.
"We've been swinging the bats a lot better than I thought we would. Our starting pitching, on the other hand, has been a little suspect. But we know they are pretty good. The difference is when we get down three or four runs, I don't feel like we're out of the game. The last couple of years when we got down like that it seemed almost impossible to get back in the game."
A much better team?
"Yeah," he said without hesitation. "I think we have an opportunity here and it's a lot more fun to watch. We've got some good life."
Hal Bodley is the senior correspondent for MLB.com.


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Inspired by Diamond in the Ruff by designer Vanessa Christenson of V. and Co.
Quilt tester: Kathleen Williams
1-7/8 yards assorted dark prints (diamonds, middle border)
1-5/8 yards assorted tan prints (diamonds)
7/8 yard tan print No. 1 (inner border, binding)
1/2 yard tan print No. 2 (outer border)
3 yards backing fabric
52x63" batting
Finished quilt: 43-1/2x54-1/2"
Quantities are for 44/45"-wide, 100% cotton fabrics. Measurements include 1/4" seam allowances. Sew with right sides together unless otherwise stated.
Related Links:

subset: commoncrawl


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« In Which We Taste The Blood Of The Dragon »
Queen's Walk
A Dance With Dragons
by George R.R. Martin
1040 pp
A light wind was riffling the waters of the pool below, all around the naked swordsman. It reminded him of how Tysha would riffle his hair during the false spring of their marriage, before he helped his father's guardsmen rape her.
Have you ever half-remembered a rape you were involved in fondly when you saw the sight of lapping water? Then A Dance With Dragons is the book for you.
Reviewing HBO's first season of Game of Thrones was tough sledding. I know that I became insufferable in the thrall of the Iron Throne; I know that it was wrong to demand everyone call me "Blood of the Dragon." I considered a lot of tattoos that probably won't be as kewl after GRRM kills off both Arya Stark and CM Punk in the sixth volume of the series, A Meeting with Lawyers. Now that GRRM has received stereo blowjobs from Laura Miller and Rupert Murdoch, he doesn't have to work hard on his writing anymore. It's more of a free association game.
Worse, GRRM just doesn't know how to treat a lady. No amount of Asha Greyjoy sex scenes is likely to alter my view of this matter. Experience the "pleasure" of this "scene" from A Dance With Dragons:
Qarl followed her up to Galbart Glover's bedchamber. "Get out," she told him. "I want to be alone."
"What you want is me." He tried to kiss her.
Asha pushed him away. "Touch me again and I'll-"
"What?" He drew his dagger. "Undress yourself, girl."
"Fuck yourself, you beardless boy."
"I'd sooner fuck you." One quick slash unlaced her jerkin. Asha reached for her axe, but Qarl dropped his knife and caught her wrist, twisting back her arm until the weapon fell from her fingers. He pushed her back onto Glover's bed, kissed her hand, and tore off her tunic to let her breasts spill out. When she tried to knee him in the groin, he twisted away and forced her legs apart with his knees. "I'll have you now."
"Do it," she spat, "and I'll kill you in her sleep."
She was sopping wet when he entered her. "Damn you," she said. "Damn you damn you damn you." He sucked her nipples till she cried out half in pain and half in pleasure. Her cunt became the world. Only his hands mattered, only his mouth, only his arms around her, his cock inside her. He fucked her till she screamed, and then again until she wept, before he finally spent his seed inside her womb.
"I am a woman wed," she reminded him afterward. "You've despoiled me, you beardless boy. My lord husband will cut your balls off and put you in a dress."
Qarl rolled off her. "If he can get out of his chair."
The room was cold. Asha rose from Galbart Glober's bed and took off her torn clothes. The jerkin would need fresh laces, but her tunic was ruined. I never liked it anyway. She tossed it on the flames. The rest she left in a puddle by the bed. Her breasts were sore, and Qarl's seed was trickling down her thigh. She would need to brew some moon tea or risk bringing another kraken into the world.
I forgot to include a trigger warning, but by now you will understand that the source of much of George R.R. Martin's "original material" is actually the pre-marriage work of Tracie "Slut Machine" Egan. Her c-word became the internet.
If you really want to scare a woman into an erotic frenzy, try screening Last Tango in Paris the night before your honeymoon. That's how we used to do things before we elected a president who "loves" The Wire and Derrick Rose.
Whenever GRRM writes of a woman's constant need for sex, he is either wishcasting or channeling Valley of the Dolls. His attempt to channel the real thoughts and feelings of a woman is usually directed towards extremely mannish looking faux-women, like Brienne, Catelyn Stark, Penny and Jeyne. As usual, A Dance With Dragons includes a loveless wedding. Even Dany coldly sacrifices her own pleasure for the benefits of having a man around. What kind of lesson is this for our young women?
This fifth volume in the series begins a divergence from Martin's provisional POV-style. Various characters are introduced with ham-fisted chapter titles like "The Arrant Queen" or "The Cumswaddled Infant" or "The Voracious Eunuch." Varys himself manages to put in an appearance late in the work. The rest of the time, who knows? He probably just kicks back with a chardonnay and tickles the place previously occupied by his genitals.
Martin's most well-known character, that of the plotting halfman, is relegated to performing vaudeville for the Meereenese elite. Much of A Dance With Dragons takes place in the city which lies not very far away from the Valyrian environmental collapse. There is nothing worse than political writing dressed up to be something else.
Are you honing in on the central metaphor yet? Martin's descriptions of the destroyed Meereen/New Orleans are disturbingly fresh. I view them largely as a personal criticism of myself. Liberals write all the novels. If someone tells you they wrote a novel, ask them if it's about a spy during World War II. If not, they undoubtedly voted for Barack Obama.
I did some counting of how many times GRRM used what I refer to as "key words" designed to objectify his female readers. Here were my tallies, which I have inscribed on a stone tablet I plan to cherish as a keepsake:
rape: 163
raping: 76
'You know nothing, Jon Snow's: 14
jape: 1,341
Mystical reminiscences of the time before the present: 103
Snacks: alarmingly few, except at the Wall where it's always fucking bacon and eggs. You have to carboload at the Wall because what else is there to do really?
oblique references to The Mad King Aerys: 54
crossbow: 17
grotesque yet moving reflections on Jamie Lannister's hand-wound: 3
sky cells: 0
Jon Snow, the central bastard-born protagonist of A Song of Ice and Fire, reveals little more about his mysterious origins. His actions, however, consist of behaving like a Machiavellian Harvard-educated undergraduate. He presumably acquired this wisdom from the cold as he waited out the decade between books he appeared in.
Listen, you have to make your mistakes in public service. This is a message not afforded Snow, whose idea to populate the Wall with wildlings is politically unfeasible according to those educated in the old ways. As for himself, he favors a shinier set of new gods and sometimes samples the wisdom of the Lord of Light, a futile replacement for true faith.
I have begun planning the Targaryen-Jon Snow wedding. He'll be wearing all white, like his dog. So will she. Samwell Tarly will be the best man, because he isn't around for more than a couple pages of A Dance With Dragons, as we get what basically amounts to a flashback where Jon sends him to be educated as a maester. Besides Tarly and the magnificent Dornish bodyguard Areo Hotah, every other person in the narrative is an attractive individual between the ages of 18-35.
I hate Davos Seaworth with every fibre of my being. It's great that you know how to read, but almost everyone can read, even George Stephanopoulus. He sounds out the words.
On the whole, A Dance With Dragons shows a lot more care than the rushed and incomplete A Feast for Crows. Many will grow impatient waiting for the two concluding volumes in A Song Of Ice And Fire. Dry those tears. Anticipating the future is ten times more entertaining than reading about a guy named Qarl penetrating an ironborn woman. The mystery and excitement of A Dance With Dragons comes in the moments when the characters aren't having unprotected sex with one another. A dragon descends from the heavens, and ascends. We want to imagine where he went, we don't want to really know.
Dick Cheney is the senior contributor to This Recording. You can find his Game of Thrones reviews here.
"Here Comes The Rain Again" - The Watson Twins (mp3)
"Angelene" - The Watson Twins (mp3)
"Ain't No Sunshine" - The Watson Twins (mp3)


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Reeder for iPhone updated with Feedbin and local RSS support
In March Google announced that they would be shutting down the popular Reader service come July, and soon after a number of services and apps announced that they would be stepping in to fill the void, or that they were already available to do such. One of our favorite iOS apps for Google Reader, the aptly named Reeder, was one of those apps, pledging to expand the available services from two to more than two.
While Reeder for iPhone has supported Google Reader and Fever for a while, an update to version 3.1 has added two new options: Feedbin and local RSS. For the unfamiliar, Feedbin is a $2/month (or $20/year) service that essentially duplicates the features of Google Reader, though its web interface is far better. Feeds fed into Reeder from Feedbin look and act exactly as they do from Google Reader, so if you're looking to make the switch there won't be much of a learning curve on your iPhone.
Reeder for iPhone 3.1 also now offers the ability to dive directly into RSS feeds. Essentially, RSS in Reeder is handled like another account, down to the ability to add individual feeds just as you would with Google Reader in Reeder. There's just one hitch in the RSS wagon: there's no syncing support right now. It is, as the app describes, "still a work in progress". Apart from the feed source updates, Reeder for iPhone 3.1 also adds support for pull-to-refresh.
Reeder for iPhone is still $2.99, while the 2.0 versions of Reeder for Mac and iPad are available for free until they get similar updates to enable non-Google account syncing.
$2.99 - Download Now


text:
From ForensicsWiki
General books about forensics
- Principles and Practice of Criminalistics: The Profession of Forensic Science, by Keith Inman and Norah Rudin. (Highly recommended).
Books about computer forensics
- File System Forensic Analysis, by Brian Carrier, Addision-Wesley, 2005. (Highly recommended).
- Forensic Discovery, by Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema, Addison-Wesley, 2004.
- A HTML version of the book is freely available online.
- Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, by Eoghan Casey, Academic Press, 2004.
- Incident Response & Computer Forensics, Second Edition, by Kevin Mandia, Chris Prosise & Matt Pepe, 2003.
- Forensic Examination of Digital Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement, NCJ 199408, April 2004, Special Report, National Institute of Justice
Books in other languages
- German: Computer-Forensik, 2nd edition, by Alexander Geschonneck, dpunkt, 2006.
- Errata and blog of the author.


text:
This section presents a wide selection of products from the category hats, panamas from the best manufacturers of Ukraine and Europe.
We care about each buyer find affordable and high-quality new clothes, so commodity prices very different - from the 835 to 836 UAH.
Products category hats, panamas constantly replenished with new collections, so before you choose from 1 the best models.
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«Intimo» always cares about the health of their customers, because offers you the products in the category hats, panamas only with quality materials: viscose, cotton.
Among the bright colors you are sure to find a favorite model of hue, and our most popular colors of buyers – white.
If you are looking for something special, we are pleased to offer these models: combination color, no lining, beachy.


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Saif, Riteish to team up for comedy film
Mumbai: Actors Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh are teaming up for a comedy film.
"We have finalised Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandes for a comedy film. We have got an amazing star cast in place. We are quite excited about it," said producer Vashu Bhagnani.
The untitled film will be directed by Sajid Khan. This will be Sajid's second collaboration with Bhagnani after Himmatwala.
"It is a different kind of comedy film and completely original," Bhagnani said.
It will be for the first time that Saif and Riteish will act together in a film.
Jacqueline has worked earlier in three films - Aladin, Jaane Kaha Se Aayi Hai, Housefull 2 – with Riteish and will be working for the first time with Saif.
"We will start shooting for the film this year and release it next year," Bhagnani added.


text:
* At least 500 deaths thought to be caused by Mediator
* Drug pulled in France years after other countries
* Case put health authorities and industry under scrutiny
By Thierry Lévêque
NANTERRE, France, May 14 (Reuters) - French drugmaker Servier and its founder went on trial on Monday accused of misleading patients and authorities about a diabetes drug often prescribed for weight loss that officials blame for at least 500 deaths.
The case, one of France's worst health scandals, has put authorities under scrutiny for allowing the sale of Mediator long after the medicine had been pulled in other European countries.
Although licensed as a diabetes treatment, the drug was widely prescribed, with a state subsidy, as an appetite suppressant to help people lose weight.
It is now suspected of causing heart valve disorders and was withdrawn in France in November 2009, around a decade after being pulled in Spain, Italy and the United States.
Several hundred civil plaintiffs who have joined the criminal case argue that Servier intentionally misled doctors about the drug, even though the dangers had been known since the 1990s.
State health inspectors also say the drug should have been withdrawn in France a decade earlier, and the plaintiffs are seeking damages and interest of 100,000 euros ($129,000) each.
"Servier let people use a toxic product for years. There is no debate about it," said Charles Joseph Oudin, one of the presumed victims' lawyers.
The focus of the Nanterre trial is on whether Servier made misleading claims, while a second, broader trial in Paris is due much later after an investigation that will examine allegations of manslaughter and corruption.
The defendants in Nanterre deny the allegations against them and are seeking to stop the trial on grounds that they should not be tried in two separate cases.
Servier's founder and president, 90-year-old Jacques Servier, and four other executives risk custodial sentences of up to four years plus fines. The privately-owned Servier and its subsidiary Biopharma also face fines and the possibility of being banned from some activities.
Mediator - designed as an add-on treatment for diabetes patients who were overweight - was sold to as many as 5 million people in France between 1976 and November 2009.
However, many of those were not diabetics but simply seeking help to lose weight.
The offices of the Afssaps healthcare regulator were searched by investigators in February in connection with the case.
Concerns about the agency - whose head resigned over the case - have grown following a scandal over defective breast implants manufactured by the now-bankrupt French company PIP.
The Mediator case has also drawn attention to pharmaceutical companies' influence in France's public health system as well as their sway over politicians.
It has also triggered a push at European Union level to step up monitoring of drug safety.
According to the health ministry, at least 500 people died of heart valve trouble in France because of exposure to Mediator's active ingredient, benfluorex. Other estimates based on extrapolations put the death toll closer to 2,000.
Less than a year before the drug was pulled, Servier was awarded France's national merit medal, the Legion d'Honneur, by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had previously served as his lawyer. ($1 = 0.7726 euros) (Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


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Made its big comeback at the beginning of 2019.
This fast tournament, was quickly appreciated by the community,
with a list of 64 players fill in just 1 month.
For the participants you have until the 21st of February, to play the phase 1!
Winners history:
2015 Pavle - 2016 clovis1122
Link Tournaments: https://fr.atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=40030
2nd Master of America Tournament
Open since the month of August he enters his 5th game,
with an opening of one game per month.
It pays tribute to the famous game "Risk" of my youth and can be yours too.
Link Tournaments: https://fr.atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=38633
4th Clan Tournament
A new tournament, especially for casual gamers.
It will happen as you can see on the map "Europe Symmetric".
Hoping you will see many, casual players, so that tournaments be a success.
It will also be available next month for fast gaming players, do not worry.
Be patient please.
Link Tournaments: https://fr.atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=40460
Moderator of The Year 2018 Apocalypse
Player of The Year 2018 Apocalypse
AtWar Times Network - Revival and Future of AtWar Press? Pavle
Tournaments update Taz Youlkepoye
Formatting Pavle
Publisher Pavle


text:
Editor's note: On Tuesday of this week, Pope Benedict XVI issued "Charity in Truth," a new encyclical or general letter to the Roman Catholic Christians around the world. Popes use encyclical letters to teach the church what they believe is the Christian viewpoint on key issues.
In the past, evangelical Christians have sometimes cheered, sometimes demurred, when an encyclical has been issued. Among the encyclicals evangelical Protestants have welcomed are John Paul II's "The Splendor of Truth" and his "The Gospel of Life." They were less thrilled with his 1987 letter, "The Mother of the Redeemer."
The new papal letter is being touted as an instruction on global economics—a subject it addresses at length. But Benedict XVI is not backing a particular school of economics so much as laying the theological and ethical foundation for an approach to the economic, social, technological, and moral development of peoples. Benedict's fundamental point is that you cannot do good for people without a proper understanding of what people are—that is, what God made them to be and destined them to be.
CT asked Baylor University philosopher Frank Beckwith to examine the document, analyze its theology, and explain why evangelical Christians should care.
Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (or "Charity in Truth") is a brief against secular materialism in its economic and metaphysical forms, and its harmful consequences on the human family's common good. Secular materialism in an ideology that maintains that there are no theological truths that can be known. Among these unknowable theological truths is the nature of human beings, and their intrinsic purpose and natural ends that help us understand the common ...1


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September 2005
Diagram of geological time scale, where the past is toward the bottom of the spiral. Source: Graham, Joseph, Newman, William, and Stacy, John, U.S. Geological Survey.
Ask a group of students, or a member of the general public, to estimate the size of the container you would need to hold a million gallons of water and you're likely to get responses ranging from a backyard swimming pool to a professional football stadium. (The answer is roughly equivalent to two Olympic-sized swimming pools measuring 25 meters by 50 meters by 2 meters each). Comprehension of numbers on the order of millions or billions requires a numerical literacy that is often lacking.1 However, that same comprehension is critical if students are to grasp
- key evolutionary concepts related to the geologic time scale
- the origin and diversification of life on Earth
- other concepts such as the national debt, human population growth, and so on2
Without an understanding of "billions," students cannot conceptualize the vast amount of time that has elapsed in the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth. That conceptualization is necessary to realize that even improbable events are more likely within that time span—if there is a "one in a million" chance of some combination of characters arising or events occurring, it is likely that that combination would have occurred at some point in the history of the Earth. When such understanding is combined with information regarding how the Earth's atmosphere, climate, and geography have changed over time, students come to better appreciate how life on Earth originated and diversified.
An understanding of billions will also help students to appreciate that during most of the first two billion years of life on Earth, the only living organisms were unicellular prokaryotes. This could be used to emphasize our anthropocentric view of the world by reminding students that the vast majority of the history of life on Earth is the history of unicellular organisms. Understanding the relative time elapsed between various evolutionary events would help students better appreciate the evolutionary impact of innovations such as cells with nuclei, multicellularity, photosynthesis, or amniotic eggs.
Although this type of conceptualization is critical, a common approach to teaching the geologic time scale is to present one or more lectures with a chronological history of major events, why they were important, and when they occurred, supported by diagrams illustrating the geological time scale. Such diagrams often are scaled in ways that condense the early periods of the Earth's history, reinforcing student misconceptions about elapsed time. Strong students internalize the relative order of events and the relevance of each event to the larger macroevolutionary picture. Other students may develop mnemonics to recall the various periods and eras in the appropriate order (e.g., "Prince Charles Devoured Several Old Cabbages" for the Paleozoic periods: Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian) and perhaps also memorize the time at which each interval began. Some students simply cross their fingers and hope geologic time is only a small percentage of the exam. Regardless of the approach, the actual magnitude of time encapsulated in the discussion remains, for most students, ambiguous and abstract.
As with many challenges in teaching, there is a significant advantage in converting abstract ideas of the magnitude of time into a concrete form that the students can more easily see or feel or touch. For many students, viewing a pictorial representation, walking a particular distance, or drawing an analogy relevant to their own life makes learning come alive. Suggesting a relevant conversion allows the instructor to reach students with a wider array of learning styles and reduces the ambiguity of the abstract concepts. This pedagogical philosophy led us to develop a series of conversion factors related to the history of the Earth and to the diversification of life during the past 600 million years. Here, we present a variety of those conversion factors and discuss some of the strategies we have used to bring the conversions into the classroom.
The conversions
Our goal in creating the conversions was to find comparisons that were familiar and relevant to today's students. For that reason, our student author (Andrew Lloyd) chose comparisons such as the number of M&M's® in a one-pound bag rather than, say, the number of pages in War and Peace. We created two scales for the conversions:
- Table 1, based on the history of the Earth (estimated at 4.5 billion years)
- Table 2, based on the history of most animal life on Earth (600 million years from the Ediacaran fauna)
Table 1
Earth's history spans an estimated 4.5 billion years.
[view large]
download Excel file; Word doc
We have found these to be the most commonly used scales in biology textbooks.3-5 Our estimates of dates for various geological and biological events are drawn from a variety of sources and obviously should be seen as approximations rather than absolute values. Where these values differ from those published in other textbooks, instructors have an opportunity to discuss how such values are estimated and why there is an element of uncertainty.
Table 2
The history of life on Earth goes back 600 million years.
[view large]
download Excel file; Word doc
Using the conversions to help students visualize magnitude
The activities described below were developed for a sophomore-level ecology course. They could be modified fairly easily to a wide range of student backgrounds and abilities, as well as to a range of class sizes.
The simplest activities are those in which students are introduced to the scale of conversion to be used; for example:
- Bring the class to the soccer field and explain that the 100-meter field represents the past 4.5 billion years.
- Then ask students to place themselves at particular points in time; for example, "If the field represents 4.5 billion years and the first unicellular organisms arose 3.8 billion years ago, where would you stand if you were the first unicellular organism?"
- After students have made a few similar estimations (e.g., first eukaryote, first primate, last dinosaur), it is often useful to initiate a discussion about the relative duration of a "million" as opposed to a "billion" years.
Students have a hard time believing that if the field represents 4.5 billion years, then a million years would be represented by approximately 2 centimeters (0.8 inches). This can sometimes move them from thinking a million years is impossibly long ("never in a million years") to thinking that a million years is "a blink of an eye" in the history of the Earth.
Using the conversions to identify misconceptions
Another type of classroom activity can be particularly useful for identifying the biases or misconceptions that students might bring into the classroom. For this type of activity, students are introduced to the scale of the conversion:
- Bring in a one-year calendar and share with students that the class will convert the last 600 million years into the 365 days on the calendar.
- Hand students cards with various critical events (e.g., unicellular life first appears, dinosaurs go extinct, and so on) and ask them to place the cards at the appropriate positions within the year.
- This can be done as a cooperative or collaborative learning activity, or students can work independently and join in a group discussion after all cards have been placed.
As with the previous exercise, this one asks the students to wrestle with the magnitude of the time scale with which they are working. In addition, the placement of cards can give important insight into the perceptions of the students. For example, it is not uncommon for students to place "origin of life" and "origin of the Earth" cards together on the calendar. This most often reflects a belief in special creation and can provide avenues for initiating a discussion with the students about the scientific perspective of the origin of life. Similarly, students will also frequently have the evolutionary origin of humans predate the extinction of the dinosaurs—initiating a discussion of the influence of popular culture and misconceptions of "cavemen" coexisting with dinosaurs.
Reinforcing the message
After students have been exposed to and worked with the magnitude of geologic time through the exercises described above, the instructor can reinforce their understanding by sharing periodic "factoids" such as these:
There are 2.7 million books in the Milwaukee Public Library. Only 1,000 books represent the time humans have been on the Earth.
The distance from Carroll College to San Diego is 2,100 miles. The dinosaurs went extinct in Escondido, California, about 30 miles outside of San Diego.
Humans blink 10,000,000 times a year. Only the last 4,000 blinks (4 hour's worth) represent the time humans have been on the Earth.
Every year, 227,500,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered. Only 110,000,000 pieces, which represents 0.04 percent of the total amount of mail delivered, is the time humans have been on the Earth.6
The average human will eat 60,000 pounds of food in a lifetime. Compared to the timeline of the Earth, humans have been around for the last 24 pounds.7
Of all the days in a calendar year, the dinosaurs went extinct Christmas Eve, and humans started roaming the earth at 8:30 P.M. on New Year's Eve.
For additional math factoids and conversion activities, see "get involved links" that follow this article.
Informal feedback from students has reinforced the value of using these conversions as an aid to understanding geologic time. Many students, especially those who learn better by doing than by hearing or reading, appreciate an opportunity to experience such abstract concepts in a more concrete way. When asked to evaluate the exercise, students' responses have been overwhelmingly positive. These are a few of their comments:
- I thought the exercise brought the magnitude of 4.5 billion years down to reality. Before I wasn't able to put a million years into a time frame.
- I am a visual learner, so the exercise really did help me to get a sense of how long ago the world was created, and how it compares to when life started.
- I really liked the exercise. It really helped me realize how many years this has been going on. Four and a half billion is just a number, but putting it down in a timeline and seeing that 1.8 million is less than a quarter of an inch made an impact.
A clearer understanding of geologic time allows students to hang their understanding of the biological concepts and ideas (e.g., macroevolution, continental drift, and so on) from a more understandable and manageable framework, strengthening their understanding of not just when things happened but also how they are interconnected. Another advantage of using these conversions and the associated classroom activities is that they provide a means of quickly identifying and addressing common misperceptions that students in the class may hold. As such, they add another useful tool to the educator's toolbox.
© 2005, American Institute of Biological Sciences. Educators have permission to reprint articles for classroom use; other users, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com for reprint permission. See reprint policy.


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(via chron.com)
NEW YORK — Reggie Bush says he is forfeiting his Heisman Trophy.
The New Orleans Saints' running back released a statement Tuesday saying he would give back the award that he won in 2005 while he was at Southern California.
It's the first time college football's top award was returned by a recipient.
"While this decision is heart-breaking, I find solace in knowing that the award was made possible by the support and love of so many," Bush said. "Those are gifts that can never be taken away."
USC was hit with heavy sanctions by the NCAA this summer after it determined Bush had received improper benefits. The NCAA ruled that Bush was ineligible for the 2005 season, which opened the possibility that the Heisman Trophy Trust would take back the award.
One of the few guidelines given to Heisman Trophy voters is that a player must be in compliance with NCAA rules to be eligible for the trophy.
The eight-member Heisman Trophy Trust, based in New York, had said it would have to consider what to do about Bush, who won in a landslide vote over Texas quarterback Vince Young.
There was no immediate word from the Heisman Trust if the award would be vacated or given to Young.


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Happy Feet Two: The Videogame
Happy Feet Two - The Videogame is a 3D musical adventure game for the entire family inspired by the whimsical Antarctic world of the upcoming animated film Happy Feet Two. The upbeat game is scored by the three time Grammy Award winning band Ozomatli to get players into the penguin groove.
Release Date: November 8, 2011


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PRINCE Harry today (February 15) visited Goodwood Motor Circuit, joining ex-servicemen for a special track day organised by his charity, the Endeavour Fund.
The Royal Foundation - of which Prince Harry is a patron - used the day to provide injured service personnel the opportunity to drive classic cars and raise awareness of the Endeavour Fund.
The fund was created by the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry in 2011 to support the recovery of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women.
The Prince spent the morning chatting with service personnel before challenging them to a race around the famous motor circuit.
Ready for some friendly competition, he donned his helmet - and took off his shoes - before jumping into a 1964 Aston Martin DB4 and setting off around the tack.
He also sped around in a black Lamborghini Gallardo, a silver Aston Martin and a red Jaguar.
David Wiseman, who was a captain in the Yorkshire Regiment, joined The Endeavour Fund last year after taking part in challenges for Walking With The Wounded.
The 31-year-old, who was shot in the chest in Afghanistan in 2009, is now project manager for the fund.
"The Endeavour Fund promotes sports and adventurous challenges to enable wounded servicemen back on the road to recovery.
"I know what it is like to benefit from something like this - having been there myself.
"I climbed Manaslu, in Nepal, the eighth highest mountain in the world, in 2011, and attempted Everest in 2012. I want to see projects like that happen for other people."
In the afternoon, Prince Harry visited Goodwood's Boultbee Flight Academy to launch a flight scholarship for wounded ex-service personnel.
"This whole day has just been absolutely amazing," said Private Matthew Noakes, who is currently training for his pilot's license with the help of flying charity, Aerobility, which gives disabled people the chance to take to the skies.
"This is a pretty cool birthday," added Private Noakes, who turned 34 today.
"First we got to race around in the cars, and now I have the possibility of winning a place on the scholarship.
"Harry is a great guy - really down to Earth and quite awe-inspiring.
"And he's a hell of a lot taller than I expected."
The scholarship which Private Noakes is hoping to gain a place on is being operated by Boultbee Flight Academy with support from Aerobility and Flying for Freedom in partnership with The Endeavour Fund.
Beginning in the summer of 2014, a small team of six candidates will be selected to begin a flight training programme to mirror that of WW2 pilot veterans. The programme will see one of the selected candidates progress from a Tiger Moth to a Harvard and finally the Spitfire itself.
It will culminate with one pilot taking a solo flight in a Spitfire, to help mark the 75th anniversary of The Battle of Britain in September 2015.
Pilot veterans from World War Two, and some who fought in the Battle of Britain, were also in attendance at the launch to give their backing to the scheme.
"I am so pleased that Harry is supporting a scheme like this," said Joy Lofthouse, 91, who was a Spitfire pilot in WW2.
Joy was asked to go along the event because of her wealth of experience, but was relatively unphased by the VIP in her midst, "Prince Harry is one of the only members of the Royal family I hadn't met. He's been delightful."


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The Vail International Dance Festival kicks off tomorrow with a performance of Buckets & Tap Shoes followed by opening night of New York Ballet Moves at the Ford Amphitheater.
The two-week-long event showcases advanced-level dance classes, open rehearsals, and contemporary ballet, among other forms of modern dance. Lawn tickets are $20. Reserved seating sections 1 & 4 (on the far right and left sides) are $60; front and center tickets (Reserved Seating Section 2 & 3) are $80.
To register for a master class at the 2011 Vail International Dance Festival, contact Abby Olson at firstname.lastname@example.com or call (970) 777-2015. Cost is $15.
Dancing in the Streets is a series of three interactive evenings of dance and movement Thursday, July 28, Thursday, August 4, and Thursday, August 11. All events start at 5pm at the Solaris.
2011 Artist In Residence: Charles "Lil Buck" Riley will be performing in Dancing the Streets: Memphis Jookin' in Vail, International Evenings of Dance, Dance for $20.11, and Dance TV.
New York City Ballet MOVES is a select touring group from the New York City Ballet, lead by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins.
The Brooklyn-based Mark Morris Dance Group only dances to live music; they celebrate their 30th anniversary this Wednesday with a one-night-only performance.
Trey McIntyre Project is a contemporary ballet company with a wide array of musical accompaniment including the Beatles, Beck, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
UpClose is a didactic mixture of lecture and performance during which the audience gets an exclusive, open rehearsal.
Below is the schedule for the entire festival.
Saturday, July 30
Village Vignettes: Buckets & Tap Shoes, 11am, Beaver Creek Village, Free
Master Class: Classical Ballet by Daniel Ulbricht of the New York City Ballet (for intermediate and advanced dancers only), 5:30pm, Vail Mountain School
Sunday, July 31
Village Vignettes: Buckets & Tap Shoes, 11am, Solaris, Vail Village
Opening Night: New York Ballet MOVES, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Monday, August 1
Master Class: Modern Dance by Fang-Yi Sheu, 5:30pm, Vail Mountain School
21st Century Moves: New York City Ballet MOVES, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Tuesday, August 2
UpClose: The Male Dancer by Balanchine, 7:30pm, Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek
Wednesday, August 3
Mark Morris Dance Group 30th Anniversary Celebration, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Thursday, August 4
Dancing in the Streets: Memphis Jookin' in Vail Charles "Lil Buck" Riley & Friends, 5pm, Solaris, Free
Friday, August 5
International Evenings of Dance I, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Saturday, August 6
Beginner Tango Class taught by Tango Colorado, 12:30 to 1:30pm, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, Free
Public Tango Milonga Dance, 4pm, Betty Ford Alpine Garden, Free
International Evenings of Dance II, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Sunday, August 7
Ballroom Spectacular, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Monday, August 8
UpClose: Premieres, 7:30pm, Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek
Tuesday, August 9
Dance for $20.11, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Thursday, August 11
Dancing in the Streets: Trey McIntyre, 5pm, Solaris
Friday, August 12
Trey McIntyre Project, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Saturday, August 13
Dance TV, 7:30pm, Ford Amphitheater
Sunday, August 14
Master Class: Contemporary Dance with Alison Holker from "So You Think You Can Dance," 10pm, Vail Mountain School


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"The drumbeat of new publications" (04/10/17 19:03:16)
As long as the journals publish the stuff (because publishing is what they do to earn their money), this will go on. The time and expense associated with reading up-to-date literature is too much. And the risks to high with research at the bleeding edge. Such research will depend on development of new tools, which is a slow and difficult task.
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Take your RSO to the next level, find campus events and activities, and leave your mark. Get Sync'd today. Go Hogs!
Enhance Communication - Membership, Discussion Posts, Finances, To-Do Lists, Files, Events/Activities & Forms
Collaborate on programs, share resources, increase membership, and support each others' events
One click to find out about all of the activities and events happening on campus


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When the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival it captured both the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the Audience Award for US dramatic film. More than that, it captured the hearts of everyone who saw it. And as the saying goes, 'what's on the heart is always on the tongue.' In this case, the movers in shakers in cinema can't stop talking about the brave and honest artistry of director Ryan Coogler's tracing of the last few hours of the life of Oscar Grant in his film Fruitvale Station.
Fruitvale Station, opening in Washington area theaters July 19, follows the true story of a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being better son to his mother, partner to his girlfriend Sophina, and being a better father to Tatiana, their beautiful four year-old daughter. Crossing paths with friends, family and strangers, Oscar starts out well, as the day goes on, he realizes that changes are not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year's Day. Oscar's life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area – and the entire nation – to its very core.


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An effective way to contact your legislator with your opinion is by telephone. The advantage of making a phone call is that you can quickly provide the Congressperson's office with all of the information you would have provided in a letter, and you will still often receive a written reply from the Congressperson's office. The disadvantage is that notes taken by a staff person on your opinion expressed via telephone will not be as clearly expressed as your opinions as stated in a letter.
Telephone calls are an especially effective way to contact legislators when urgency is needed; faxes and emails are the best ways to quickly attempt to persuade your legislator. Be certain to telephone or fax the legislator's Washington, D.C., office, which is the office handling legislative issues.
If you do not know the Washington, D.C., telephone or fax numbers of your legislators, phone the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or visit the websites for the Senate and House of Representatives.
A typical call will take less that five minutes.
When calling to express opposition to a bill, an NCTE member timed her phone call at one minute and forty-five seconds. When you call the legislative office, a staff member will take your information and record it on a form.
The following information is typically requested:
1. Your Name2. Address and telephone number3. Name and/or number of the legislation or the issue about which you are concerned4. Your stance on the issue and reasons for supporting that viewpoint.
Here is a sample telephone conversation regarding a piece of legislation:
Staff member: Congresswoman Smith's office, may I help you?
Constituent: Hello. My name is Jane Doe, and I'd like to voice my opposition to Bill # (H.R. XXXX or S.XXXX), the ________________ Act.
Staff member: Could you please spell your name, Ms. Doe?
Constituent: J-A-N-E D-O-E
Staff member: Thank you. Could you please tell me your address and phone number?
Constituent: Any Street, Any Town, USA; 555-555-5555.
Staff member: And you are opposed to ______________ (bill)?
Constituent: Yes. I am a teacher, and I feel that this bill --------- (provide a concise rationale here).
Staff member: Thank you very much for sharing your opinion. I will pass this information along to the Congresswoman.
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LOS ANGELES - The story is not so unusual in hockey, any more.
Two good players, important to their teams, valued by their coaches, treasured by their teammates, loved by their fans, but carrying bloated contracts disproportionate to their on-ice contributions … so they have to go.
If it were only about an ability to help their teams win, they would stay where they are next year and the year after and the year after that.
But for two faded forwards named Richards in this Stanley Cup final --- Los Angeles Kings' Mike and New York Rangers' Brad --- it is about the disconnect between huge dollars and declining production in a salary-cap league.
And even though one of them is going to play a significant role in helping his team win the Cup in a week or two, it will make no difference to the bottom line: almost certainly, both will be out the door this summer.
Each will be very, very rich, and very, very hard to move without some accommodation being made --- perhaps a compliance buyout, or the current employer eating a portion of the player's salary.
It's a variation of the Roberto Luongo conundrum: the long-term, front-loaded deal that looked so crafty when it was signed turned into an albatross when the new collective bargaining agreement included the cap recapture clause, leaving the team that entered into the deal on the hook for whatever years and dollars are left, even if a player retires.
Brad Richards has six years remaining on the nine-year, $60 million deal he signed in 2011, so the Rangers will have to take a $6.67 million cap hit until 2020 (when he'll be 40 years old) unless they buy him out or trade him. If they're going to use a compliance buyout on him, it has to happen before the end of this month.
Ditto the Kings, who could buy out Mike Richards, or trade him, a slightly better possibility because at 29, he might still have productive years ahead of him and because his cap hit of $5.75 million, also through 2020, might be at least somewhat tempting for another team, one that sees a more prominent role for him than that of a fourth-line centre, which has been his lot in L.A. recently.
"He hasn't had his best year yet," says Kings coach Darryl Sutter, who disputes the characterization of Richards as a fourth-liner. "He gives us that strong leadership. He's really good with the young players. You can count on him, Mike Richards, always in a big game."
His teammates, too, speak of the many intangibles Richards brings, but L.A. GM Dean Lombardi would have to swallow hard to continue getting dinged $5.75 million a year for intangibles.
"That player has a track record of winning and understanding what his role is. Basically he just wins," said Sutter, who has never had any complaint from Richards about his role.
"You know why? Because Mike's old school. He gets it.
The only reward for somebody like Mike Richards in all this is just winning. He's all set. He's won everything. It's just winning again, that's all."
"I think it's fair to say everyone in here understands what he does for us," said captain Dustin Brown, of the re-deployment that occurred after the trade-deadline acquisition of Marian Gaborik, with Jeff Carter moving to centre and Richards dropping down a couple of notches.
"It allows us to play four lines, which is key this time of year, but Rick's also a big (power play) guy and a big (penalty kill) guy and those are areas he can really make a difference on.
"He's a top-line centre on most teams and he was a top-line centre for us, and for whatever reason, however it's trickled down for us, he's on the fourth line, but I think that's what's special about our team: we have guys that are willing to do whatever it takes, who put the team first, and that's how we've always been here."
When Brown talks about the Kings being "built for the playoffs" he is essentially describing Richards, who makes so many subtly smart plays with the puck, he is rarely a liability.
But his ice time has steadily dropped from his days in Philadelphia, when the Flyers were two wins from a Stanley Cup in 2010, to the 2012 Cup run in L.A., to today, when he's playing the fewest minutes of any of the four centres on a Kings team that has its greatest depth at that position.
The Rangers have similar feelings about Brad Richards, who also has fallen off offensively but has taken a bigger leadership role this season, especially operating without a captain since they dealt Ryan Callahan and two first-round picks to Tampa at the deadline to get Richards's 2004 Stanley Cup teammate, Martin St. Louis.
It's a far cry from last year's playoffs, when then-coach John Tortorella made Richards a healthy scratch in the Rangers' second-round loss to the Bruins.
Like Mike Richards, who came to camp last fall in poor shape and seems to have been especially slow of foot against the swifter teams the Kings have faced this post-season, Brad Richards hadn't kept himself fit during last year's lockout and his play showed it.
"It was the lowest point of my career," Richards said.
But in his exit meetings with the Rangers, he said, GM Glen Sather "said they didn't want to buy me out. He mentioned Messier, that he'd seen this (before) ... that when he came to New York, he had some struggles and things that went on –-- it's a different animal, and was expected to do a lot of things as a free agent, and he came back and righted the ship. He wasn't comparing me to Mark Messier, he was just giving me an instance of: it's happened before, don't worry about it, you can get through this.
"It made you feel like, OK, they're not giving up."
Even so, despite working out harder than ever and coming back highly motivated, he had a fairly ordinary regular season --- 51 points in 82 games is nothing like the production expected from someone with his salary.
The 2004 Conn Smythe Trophy winner has been an important piece of the playoff puzzle on Alain Vigneault's squad, playing 17 minutes a game, but with five goals and six assists, he is only fifth on the team in scoring.
The Kings, one of the league's lowest-scoring teams in the regular season, have eight players --- seven forwards and Drew Doughty --- with more playoff points than Brad Richards, and nine with more than Mike.
If his team wins a second Stanley Cup in three years, Lombardi may be loath to part with a veteran cog in the machine. If the Rangers win for the first time in 20 years, there will be glory for all in the Big Apple, and Sather will have to rationalize dumping a 34-year-old champion.
Richards and Richards are no relation to one another. But that's not to say they are unrelated.
Hockey's only a game until it's time to crunch the numbers.


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Your ALA Dues support the work of the association in 'Offices'. These offices usually have an associated advisory or standing committee and subcommittees through which members may participate and through which publications, programs, and other activities are offered. The offices are diverse in their purposes but generally focus on issues that span most or all types of libraries, types of interests, and constituencies within the Association and the profession.
- Chapter Relations Office
- Development Office
- International Relations Office
- Office for Accreditation
- Office for Diversity
- Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment
- Office for Information Technology Policy
- Office for Intellectual Freedom
- Office for Literacy and Outreach Services
- Office for Research and Statistics
- Office of Government Relations
- Public Information Office
- Public Programs Office
- Washington Office
In addition, two 'internal' offices, the ALA Library and the ALA Office for Governance, are instrumental to the running of the association. Links to all of the offices are available at http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/offices/offices.htm
The ALA Handbook section on Offices has many more details.


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NBA Predraft Camp ThoughtsPosted by rtmsf on June 5th, 2007
Thanks to the guys over at draftexpress.com, we're just getting our first look at some of the height/weight and athletic numbers coming out of the NBA Predraft Camp last weekend in Orlando. We don't put a lot of stock in drafting players based on these measurements – after all, if a guy can play, he can play (tip of the hat to Jonathan Givony for making this very point perfectly on draftexpress.com) – but it's always fun to see who wins for the "incredible shrinking" award (aka the Lonny Baxter Trophy) as well as who appears to be the top athletes coming out of college this year. Note we said "appears."
The Logo and MJ discussing the talent in Orlando
Why wasn't Maryland better this year?
Guard D.J. Strawberry was rated the top overall athlete this year, and Ekene Ibekwe had some of the most eye-popping big man numbers, featuring a 7'6 foot wingspan and a thirty-nine inch veritical leap. This is yet another example of superior basketball skills and IQ (see: Florida Gators) trumping a stable of athletes. Either that, or Gary Williams was too busy resting on his laurels to teach these kids anything the last four years.
Durant needs to beef up
We realize he's only eighteen and he can score on just about anyone already… but zero bench presses of 185 lbs. is pathetic. That stat, combined with his surprising lack of speed and agility in the drills, may suggest that he'll face long obstacles in becoming a solid two-way player in the long run. He's also going to take a beating on drives into the paint the next few years unless he commits himself to a weight training program to improve his strength.
Perhaps not surpisingly, most of the one-and-dones were weaker than their older peers. Durant, Julian Wright (2), Brandan Wright (2) and Daequan Cook (4) combined for a total of just eight bench presses at the 185-lb. weight. Mike Conley, Jr., (13), Javaris Crittenton (11) and Spencer Hawes (9) did better. Greg Oden sat out that event due to his injured wrist.
Lonny Baxter Award
Corey Brewer. Routinely listed at 6'9 at Florida, he came in at just 6'6.75 by the camp measurements. Lucky for him, he's not a post man, so this won't likely affect his draft status too much. Another Floridian, Al Thornton, deserves a nod here too. FSU listed him at 6'8, but the measurements put him at a mere 6'5.75. Considering that Thornton logged significant minutes on the interior, this puts him at a major disadvantage going into the draft.
Who Knew?
Aaron Gray is a legitimate seven feet tall, and Joakim Noah is a solid 6'10.5. We would have guessed both were shorter. ACC bigs Brandan Wright and Josh McRoberts are both 6'8.75 tall, but Wright has the slightly longer wingspan and McBob needs to put… the…
coffee cupcakes… down (camp high 13.7% body fat).
Guys who'll get a look based on their measurements alone
SEC big men Major Wingate and Jermareo Davidson. Both measure in the solid 6'9-6'10 range, have extremely long wingspans (7'4) and solid if not spectacular athleticism. Clemson's James Mays could be a Renaldo Balkman type – a 6'7 jumping jack with a 37″ vertical and long arms (7'1.5″ wingspan).
Wingate & Richard battle in the post
Watch for these guys in a future NBA dunk contest near you
- Al Thornton – 6'6 with a 7'1 wingspan and a 41-inch vertical – wow!
- Nick Young – 6'5 with a 7'0 wingspan and a 40.5 inch vertical
- Jeff Green – 6'8 with a 7'1 wingspan and a 38-inch vertical.
Dis-honorable Mention – Jared Jordan, who managed a standing still 14.5-inch vertical (to be fair, he doubled it to 28.5 inches in the running vertical).
Can you outjump this JJ?
Quick bigs and slow guards
- Greg Oden, Ekene Ibekwe and Chris Richard. We covered Oden yesterday and Ibekwe above, but how about super-sub Chris Richard? He never struck us as very fast. At 6'7.5 he's a classic tweener, but his length (7'4.5 wingspan) and agility might just get him a spot somewhere eventually.
- Marcelus Kemp and Sammy Mejia. Both of these guards were slower than big-ass Mario Boggan and a host of other big men at the three-quarter court sprint. Kemp in particular may need to think about heading back to Nevada for another season.
Classic Tweeners
Hard-luck Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter and BC forward Jared Dudley. Both are ferocious rebounders in the paint, but both happen to measure at around 6'6. Their only real chance at the next level is to re-invent their games to face the basket, akin to what Corliss Williamson and more recently, Chuck Hayes, have done.


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When the New England Patriots offense first took the field against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, they did so without their leading receiver from their previous five seasons. But Wes Welker wasn't injured. He stood on the sideline as Julian Edelman took his place as the team's starting wide receiver opposite Brandon Lloyd.
The box score will show that Welker ended up playing 63 of the 82 offensive snaps and led the Patriots with 95 receiving yards on five catches. But he didn't enter the game until the team's second possession -- and not until after versatile tight end/slot receiver/running back Aaron Hernandez injured his ankle on a screen play.
For the rest of the game, Welker was again a fixture of the offense, presumably replacing Hernandez in the slot in many packages, as the Patriots were forced to use a three-receiver set with Rob Gronkowski playing a more traditional tight end role and a running back, usually second-year player Stevan Ridley, in the backfield. But Lloyd played all 82 snaps, usually as the boundary receiver, and Edelman was out there for 75 of the plays.
Now the talk around Boston and the rest of New England is what is going on between Welker and the Patriots. Welker, 31, is playing on the franchise tag this season after negotiations for a new contract extension went nowhere this summer.
Among the theories considered by The Boston Herald is that the Patriots are trying to drive his price down, he is in Bill Belichick's doghouse, the Patriots don't trust him after his critical drop in the Super Bowl, they are saving him for the playoffs, he is old and on the decline, and that Edelman is simply a better player than him (Ravens cornerback Cary Williams debunked that last theory in a conversation with my colleague Ed Lee).
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports has another theory: They plan to shop Welker in a trade. Several league sources told Freeman that a trade is "more than some remote possibility" and that it "might actually be a probability." Don't forget, they traded away veteran wideout Randy Moss four games into the 2010 season.
But Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels told reporters it was the byproduct of a specific gameplan for the Cardinals
"Sometimes we play guys a majority of the game, other times we feel like using some different rotations may give us some advantages, whether that's a matchup we end up with in the front, or a personnel grouping that we expect the defense to give us, or even formationally ourselves in terms of what we try to do," McDaniels said. "But certainly he's going to be a big part of our game plan each week that we go in and play."
In a Monday interview with radio station WEEI, Welker said he had "a little bit" of an indication that Edelman might start, but he said he "really wasn't positive even leading up to the first series."
"I wasn't sure what was going to happen," said Welker, who appears to be taking the high road at the moment. "I just go out there, and whenever my number's called, I go out and play. Coaches coach, players play. That's all I can do."
How often will McDaniels and the Patriots call Welker's number against the Ravens? They now might be forced to do it a lot.
Hernandez is expected to be sidelined Sunday night with that ankle injury. He is New England's most versatile offensive weapon and they line him up all over the formation to create mismatches. The Patriots have signed tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. to help fill the void. Winslow has been a productive pass catcher throughout his career, but it seems unlikely they will try to use him in all of the ways they used Hernandez. Plus, he has to learn that playbook, which is apparently more complex than most playbooks (right, Chad Ochocinco?). The Patriots brought back veteran wide receiver Deion Branch, too, and it's unclear how he will fit into the mix.
Still, assuming the demise of Welker's career has been greatly exaggerated, the shifty slot receiver should still be able to get open on some short and intermediate routes. After all, this is the guy who became the team's all-time receptions leader on Sunday with his 558th catch in a Patriots uniform. He has averaged more than seven catches a game during his 79 games with the Patriots, most of them propelled by the golden arm of Tom Brady.
"I don't pay attention to it," Brady said Wednesday. "I love Wes and he's a great player on this team and has been since the day he arrived, so nothing has changed in my mind."
We'll see what Welker's role will be whenever Hernandez returns and the Patriots can go back to using their base "12" personnel of a running back, two tight ends and two wide receivers. That will be an interesting situation to watch from afar. But as it relates to the Ravens, all that matters for now is how the Patriots plan to use Welker and Brady's many other weapons against their vulnerable 27th-ranked defense on Sunday night at M&T; Bank Stadium.
"Anytime there's Tom Brady playing, they're always going to be dangerous," coach John Harbaugh said.


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Paul Mango has told the people of Pennsylvania that he and his campaign are focused on "Faith, Honesty and Family Values." With his latest actions, Paul Mango is proving that he is nothing more than a typical politician.
Mango has become desperate in his quest for the governor's office. Last week he released a cartoon-style ad targeting Scott Wagner.
These are the kind of false, personal attack ads that make people sick of politics. They don't help our democratic process. One of the major reasons most people don't go out to vote is because they get sick of the name-calling, mudslinging, and all of the lies from politicians.
Paul Mango should focus on telling voters why he should be governor rather than tearing down and telling lies about other people who get in his way.
Clearly honesty is not one of Paul's core values.
The 8th Commandment of the Bible says that "thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Not only is Paul Mango breaking this Commandment, he is spending millions of dollars to do so.
A candidate truly running with "faith" as a pillar of their campaign would not have released an ad like this. Shame on Paul Mango.
Vote for a man who will actually share our values. Vote Scott Wagner on May 15th.


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Lightning Acquire Defenseman Drew Olson from Columbusby Staff Writer / Tampa Bay Lightning
TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired defenseman Drew Olson from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for future considerations, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced today.
Olson, 23, skated in five games with the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League last season, collecting one assist and two penalty minutes. He made his AHL debut with the Rivermen on April 13 against the Grand Rapids Griffins and recorded his first AHL point (assist) on April 16 versus the Charlotte Checkers. Olson also skated in 38 games with the University of Minnesota-Duluth last season, collecting a goal and seven points to go along with 28 penalty minutes. Olson also served as an alternate captain with the Bulldogs during the 2012-13 season.
The 6-foot, 200-pound defenseman played four seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, recording three goals and 21 points in 147 games. During the 2011-12 season, the Brainerd, Minnesota native set collegiate highs for games played (41), assists (seven), points (eight) and penalty minutes (51). He was a member of the University of Minnesota-Duluth team that won the Frozen Four in 2011.
Olson was originally drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the fourth round, 118th overall, at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.


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Pharmacy Benefit
How prescriptions are covered
Your plan includes a pharmacy benefit, meaning prescriptions that are listed in the plan's formulary (list of covered drugs) are covered. There is a copay associated with prescriptions, and is determined by the drug prescribed.
The drugs covered under this plan (and their associated copay) are organized into up to four levels, or tiers.
- Tier 1: Includes most generic drugs, and is the lowest copay.
- Tier 2: Includes many generic and brand-name drugs, and is the next-highest copay.
- Tier 3: Includes the most expensive generic and brand-name drugs, and is the secondhighest copay.
- Tier 4: Includes specialty drugs and those with an exceptionally high cost, and is the highest copay.
You can have your prescription filled at any pharmacy that's part of the CVS Caremark network. The vast majority of pharmacies in the U.S. are part of the CVS Caremark network, including most national retail chains and independent pharmacies. If you have a medication that needs to be refilled continually (eg. diabetes medication, asthma inhalers), you can fill your prescriptions by mail through the CVS Caremark mail service pharmacy, often at a cost savings.
Is your prescription covered?
Every plan is different. The fastest way to find out if your prescription is covered is to see your plan's specific benefits at mytuftshealthplan.com.
Filling Your Prescriptions
Prescription drugs and their associated co-pay are broken down into tiers. You can easily check to see which tier your drug is on by visiting the members' pharmacy section. If you don't see your drug listed, call our Member Services Department at the number printed on your ID card.
|Tier Level
|Tier Copay
|Tier Description
|Tier 1
|Lowest Cost
|Includes most generic prescription drugs on our list of covered drugs.
|Tier 2
|Next Highest Cost
|Includes many generic and brand-name prescription drugs on our list of covered drugs.
|Tier 3
|Second Highest Cost
|Includes the most expensive prescription drugs on our list of covered drugs.
|Tier 4
|Highest Cost
|Includes specialty drugs and those with an exceptionally high cost.
Once you find your drug on the list, check to see if one of the following codes is listed after it. If not, you can proceed with getting your prescription filled.
- PA: Prior Authorization
- STPA: Step Therapy Prior Authorization
- NTM: New-To-Market Drug Evaluation
- QL: Quantity Limitation
- SP: Designated Specialty Pharmacy
- NC: Non-Covered
PA: Prior Authorization
Some drugs must meet certain criteria before they're covered. If your provider believes a drug with a prior authorization is necessary for your treatment, the provider should submit a request for coverage by faxing a Universal Pharmacy Medical Review Request Form to Tufts Health Plan. If the drug meets our pharmacy medical necessity coverage guidelines, your request will be approved, and we will cover the drug. If for some reason it is not approved, you always have the option of appealing the decision.
STPA: Step Therapy Prior Authorization
You may be required to try a certain drug to treat a specific medical condition before Tufts Health Plan will approve the coverage of another drug to treat the same condition. If you have not previously taken the steps required by our pharmacy coverage guidelines, and your provider believes the drug prescribed for you is medically necessary, he or she may submit a request for coverage by faxing a Universal Pharmacy Medical Review Request Form. If you are a new member, please call us at the number on the back of your ID card, and let us know if you are currently taking a step therapy drug from another plan.
NTM: New-To-Market Drug Evaluation
In an effort to ensure the new-to-market prescriptions we cover are safe, effective and affordable, we delay coverage of many new drug products until our Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee and physician specialist review them. These drugs require prior authorization until the review is complete and a coverage decision has been made.
QL: Quantity Limitation
There may be a limit on how much of a drug you can get for a specific time period. You're covered for up to the quantity posted in our list of covered drugs. If your provider believes it's necessary for you to take more than the quantity limit posted on the list, he or she may submit a Universal Pharmacy Medical Review Request Form to request coverage.
SP: Designated Specialty Pharmacy
We've designated special pharmacies to supply a select number of medications used in the treatment of complex disease states. These pharmacies specialize in providing these medications and are staffed with nurses, coordinators and pharmacists to provide support services for members. Call the designated specialty pharmacy provider indicated in your search results of covered drugs, or contact the Tufts Health Plan Member Services Department at the number on your ID card. We want to make sure you receive your drug without interruption.
NC: Non-Covered
There are thousands of drugs listed on the Tufts Health Plan covered drug list. In fact, most drugs are covered. There is, however, a list of drugs that Tufts Health Plan currently does not cover. In many cases, these drugs are not covered by Tufts Health Plan because there are safe, comparably effective, and cost-effective alternatives available. Our goal is to keep pharmacy benefits as affordable as possible.
If your provider believes a non-covered drug is necessary for your treatment, he or she may submit a request for coverage by faxing a Universal Pharmacy Medical Review Request Form. If the drug meets our pharmacy medical necessity coverage guidelines, your request will be approved, and we will cover the drug. If it is not approved, you always have the option of appealing the decision.
Tips to save money on prescriptions.
There are ways to save a little money without compromising your treatment's effectiveness.
- Get a prescription for a generic drug when possible
- Use CVS Caremark Mail Service Pharmacy for maintenance medications (those you use regularly)
- Talk to your doctor about less expensive alternatives to your medications


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Let me guess, you have been playing New York Times crossword and got stuck on the clue Name in plastic. Well, you have come to the right place to find the answer to this clue.
While some crosswords are much simpler than others, most require that players have a vast knowledge of the language and possibly even various topics. So while crossword puzzles are seen as a more intelligent game, they can be very frustrating for players to complete and even experienced crossword players need some help occasionally.
When finding the answers to the clues becomes too difficult, there's no shame in looking for them online.
Now you have the answer to your clue. Its time to move on to the next clue. You can browse through the list with all the answers to the New York Times crossword of January 19th, 2005. Or you can use the search form below to find the answer (no matter if its New York Times Crossword or any other crossword).
|New York Times crossword of January 19th, 2005 other clues
|Cries of pain
|Early Chinese dynasty
|Ending with time or life
|Flora and fauna
|Formal turndown
|Frisbee maker
|Gilbert & Sullivan princess
|Give some to
|Guy Fawkes Day mo.
|Half of a yr.
|In a lather?
|Iranian city
|It's extracted
|July 1944 battle site
|Just out
|Key letter
|Lazarus and Goldman
|Like some wonders
|Like W. C. Fields's nose
|List heading
|Martha's 1960's backup group
|Med. insurance group
|Mid seventh-century year
|Nielsen of 'Rocky IV'
|Ode title starter
|Old Ford
|Omega symbolizes it
|Organism with pseudopods
|Painted metalware
|Path to enlightenment
|Pick up
|Place to take off in lighter-than-air craft?
|Prefix with -drome
|Railroad stop: Abbr.
|Row of cavalry barracks?
|Salt, for one
|Satirical blog item?
|Some museum hangings
|Stanford-Binet figs.
|Strauss of denim
|Street cleaner
|Syllable from Curly
|Toil in a trireme
|Translator's obstacle
|Web site?
|Whole bunch
|Wise old head
|Xbox user
|___ Office
|___ Percé Indians
|'Agnus ___'
|'Holy cats!'
|'Alley ___!'
|'Alfie' actress, 2004
|'Movin' ___' ('The Jeffersons' theme)
|'Must've been something ___'
|'The Matrix' role
|1990's rock genre
|50's monogram
|Ballpark rollout
|Big time
|Book lover's prefix
|Brazilian novelist Jorge
|Capable, slangily
|Cape Town coin
|Caught, in a way
|Community news source in Belgium?
|Cornhusker city
We offer support and help with a wide range of crosswords and are guaranteed to make sure you complete everything; the site is also updated regularly to make sure that all of our answers are correct and to add more crosswords to the ever growing list.__IMAGE__
If there is any problem with the answer, please contact us! We will fix the problem.


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SONOR welcomes The Kooks' Alexis Nunez
SONOR welcomes The Kooks' Alexis Nunez
SONOR is proud to announce the signing of Alexis Nunez, drummer for UK based indie-rock band The Kooks.
Says Alexis "I've been playing with the Kooks for about 3 months now and we have toured The US, Europe, and Asia. Really enjoying my time with them and playing Sonor drums."
The Kooks released the album Junk Of The Heart, their third following 2006′s number 2 UK chart album Inside In/Inside Out and 2008′s number 1 Konk, end of 2011.
The band now follow the release with an extensive run of shows throughout the UK, Europe, and the USA & Canada as well as several dates in Australia.


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Event Serial -1046735
Contact Person - Conference Coordinator
Event Enquiries Email Address - email@example.com
Deadline For Abstracts/Proposals: 2019-09-24
Organized By: ASAR Check
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel Perth Central,
24 Mount St,
Perth WA 6000,
The aim of the Conference is to provide a platform to the researchers and practitioners from both academia as well as industry to meet the share cuttingedge development in the field.
© Internationalconferencealert. All Rights Reserved


text: Designed with fun in mind, this stamp set is sure to help you unlock your creative potential! Mix and match the fun and bold designs to make your cards into artwork.This is a Two-Step Stampin' set. Combine individual stamps to build the final image you want in the colors you want.Photopolymer stamps* Are totally transparent for perfect image placement.* Have just enough give to create a perfectly stamped image every time. * Cling like crazy to our clear blocks so you don't have to worry about slipping.* Save space—you need only one set of blocks for all your photopolymer stamps (blocks sold separately). * Come packaged in cases with images on the spine for easy storage and quick reference.Quantity: 24 photopolymer stampsSuggested clear blocks (sold separately): a, b, c, g


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http://www.umass.edu/umext/CSA/ -- Lawrence F. London, Jr. mailto:email@example.com http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGardenTitle: Community Supported Agriculture of North America
What is Community Supported Agriculture? And how you can make it work.
Resource List
U.S. farm listings
Look here soon for Information on the NorthEast CSA Conference Nov. 7-8, 1997.
For more information on Community Supported Agriculture.
Please contact us at: email@example.com
Page Design and Maintenance by Jim Pierro at CSANA.
University of Massachusetts, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Massachusetts counties cooperating. UMass Extension offers equal opportunity in programs and employment.


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Back to MelancLucy's Brown Toad's (NwdLC) Page
Please select a reason for your report below. You will not be notified of the results of this report. Please note that spamming reports or sending multiple false reports will lock you out of this function. If you would like to directly contact the admins about an abuse, PM the users Upper Center or Q with your message, or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Notes from the Border: Harvest in Vermont
As the harvest season begins in earnest in Vermont, I am once again grateful to live someplace where I and my children can be in tune with the seasonal changes that lead to fall's bounty. As a child growing up in New Jersey, the brightest objects in my night sky were the moon and the satellites that managed to penetrate the permanent soft-red glow of electric lights reflecting back from the low atmosphere. In Vermont, I have become much more aware of the cycles of the moon and the changing of daylight with the seasons. Because of this, I have been able to connect more fully not only with my own religious traditions, but with the traditions of farming cultures the world over.
In Judaism, the fall harvest festival of Sukkot is also referred to as the Feast of the Ingathering. Originating in a part of the world where there were three harvest feasts each year, Sukkot has many environmental traditions that no doubt pre-date the Biblical period and story of the Exodus that has come to overlay it. Judaism follows a lunar calendar, but the ancient Israelites are also credited with creating a seven day week by adding the Sabbath—a day of rest—to the Babylonian Base 6 mathematical and calendrical system that dominated the Middle East at that time. Hence, Sukkot begins on the full moon of the month of Tishri and lasts seven days (eight for Jews in the Diaspora). Because the lunar year is shorter than the solar year, the Jewish calendar added a "leap month" every four years to ensure that harvests and their celebrations occurred in the right season. As a result, Sukkot almost always begins on the first full moon after the autumnal equinox.
The Chinese calendar, which spread to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia over the millennia, also incorporates the autumn harvest into its religious pantheon of belief and festivals. The Mid-Autumn Festival occurs on the full moon of nearest the fall equinox. Although based on a lunar calendar, from ancient times China was an extremely well-organized and primarily agricultural society, so it was crucial for astronomers to ensure the alignment of harvest celebrations with the cycle of seasons as well as celestially-based religious holidays. Worship of the moon dates to 2000 B.C.E., when it was believed that the birthday of the Queen of the Moon celebrated her birthday on the full moon of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar. Traditionally, people settled their debts along with harvesting fruits, vegetables, and grains. To this day, Chinese people exchange moon cakes—dense, highly caloric rice flour delicacies—to friends, family, and business partners. And, as with most Chinese holidays, offerings of fruit, incense and money are offered on each family's ancestral shrine.
A debt to my Welsh great-grandparents must also be acknowledged, for the ancient Celts, who migrated in waves from their homeland in Central Europe to Gaul and the British Isles by 2000 B.C.E., also followed a primarily lunar calendar. Because they were farmers, they too correlated their calendar with solstices and equinoxes, as the massive henge monuments that dot the British Isles attest. For the Celts, the new year began with the second full moon following the fall equinox, on Samhein, the first day of the month of Samonios. Unlike other harvest festivals, Samhein truly marked the beginning of winter, and thus took on the features of a feast of thanksgiving. With the hard work of the harvest over and livestock brought in for the winter, the Celtic people were ready to express both their gratitude for the season's bounty and their hopes for an easy winter. They sacrificed cattle, offered petitionary prayers, and—like the Chinese—laid out offerings of food and drink for the dead, whom they believed could pass through a boundary between the Otherworld and their own on this night. They also built huge bonfires on hilltops, perhaps in recognition of the lengthening darkness of winter nights that had begun with the autumn equinox and now were reinforced by the cold of the season. The full moon's light shone down on it all.
The agricultural cultures of the Eastern Woodlands Native American Indian tribes also relied on the brightness of the Harvest Moon as a time to mark both harvest and celebration. Astronomically speaking, the Harvest Moon rises only thirty minutes later each successive day, compared with the average fifty minutes during the rest of the year. Thus, there is little period of darkness on the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox, and some anthropologists believe farming cultures used this additional light to bring in the harvest in colder climates where survival through difficult winters depended upon gleaning as much as possible from the fields. Moreover, the reddish glow and perception of its larger sign makes the full moon exceptionally beautiful as it gradually rises above the horizon line. These Americans celebrated the Ripe Corn Harvest with feasts and dances of thanksgiving in New England that pre-date the "First Thanksgiving" of European colonists by several thousand years.
Living in the United States, we are all included in the celebration of Thanksgiving, our national outpouring of gratitude for family and food. Groups of early colonists, individual families and communities, and even states observed holidays of thanksgiving shortly after the harvest, but it wasn't until 1863, in the depths of this nation's greatest crisis, that President Lincoln dedicated the fourth Thursday in November as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. For many of us, it is a wonderful blending of traditions that dates back centuries: embracing foods from the bounty of the North American continent, reciting blessings and prayers that date back thousands of years and have been passed down generation to generation, and preparing family recipes from many cultures for the Thanksgiving table: lasagna, tamales, dumplings. In Vermont, the produce of our gardens will long have been harvested, canned, frozen or preserved, the remnants of our gardens composted, and the ground hard and rimed with frost. From now until then, I look forward to enjoying this season of unprecedented bounty and celebration in honor of what the earth, the work of many hands, and the mysterious workings of life have created.


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Forty million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. Take this 10-question sleep quiz to find out more about the myths and realities of sleep.
Review Date: Friday, October 31, 2014
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