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Karen Hawthorne/National Post
Chef Jonathan Garnier spins some pepper for sauteed mushrooms during a cooking class at La Guilde Culinaire. He likes his polenta crunchy, just 10 minutes in, compared to the usual 40, and whips his with cream and parmesan.
Karen Hawthorne, National Post · May 7, 2010 | Last Updated: May 7, 2010 10:32 AM ET
Let's be honest. Gorgeous scenery and architecture is great, sure, but the best vacation memories usually have something to do with food. Why? Food takes us away from our routine and the whole "what are we going to have for dinner?" question that crops up even with the most careful household planners. The tasting and eating indulges most of our senses, and gives us insight into local habits and culture.
Montreal is a foodie town, and a great weekend destination with its outdoor markets, restaurants, patisseries and fine food shops. But, it may be hard to choose just where to go, so here are a few tips from one merry eater to another.
First, take off that workaholic uniform and put on something fashion-friendly and comfortable (Montrealers are so put together), something that won't wrinkle and require ironing, and gives you ample room for a bit of waistline expansion. Getaways shouldn't be restricted by unforgiving calorie counting or tight pencil skirts. Ladies, a sexy pair of heels, on the other hand, should always be in your carryall.
Want to add to the relaxation? Consider leaving the car and road stress behind, and take the VIA train. You can stretch your legs and just gaze out the large windows. If you can't resist, you can also plug in your laptop and stay on top of the emails before you arrive.
Train travel, along with business class cocktails, is an excellent way to channel your carefree holiday mode. Montreal has a convenient subway system to get around and, essentially, you can walk many routes. Along with those heels, pack some supportive sandals.
Stay in the heart of the city and treat yourself to a beautiful boutique hotel, such as the Sofitel Montreal Golden Mile at Sherbrooke and Stanley streets, where two crosswalks will get you to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Holts and Quebec fashion designers, Nadya Toto and Marie Saint Pierre. The use of floor-to-ceiling glass in this modern hotel is impressive, flooding the front lobby and restaurant with natural light and mood-lifting vitamin D. "The hotel owner, an art collector, came in one day [during construction] carrying an original Renoir that he planned to hang in the restaurant. We were a little nervous about keeping it there and suggested a reproduction instead," marketing director Ivan Lebrun says. The restaurant, aptly, is called Restaurant Renoir.
Once in the rooms, you'll completely zen out when you try the beds – soft, yet firm, with a feathered and trademarked system. Even a cafe au lait in the lounge here is chic, served with a side of chocolate nut brittle and fresh berries.
But why just taste Montreal, when you can cook in the city? As food tourism grows, so has the number of urban culinary schools. At La Guilde Culinaire, on the up-and-coming St-Laurent strip south of the landmark Jean-Talon market, Chef Jonathan Garnier teaches while he entertains in a hands-on class. This Montrealer brings his Cote d'Azur training to the kitchen with a Quebec sensibility.
On the menu? He never makes the same dish twice but, for the moment, pork tenderloin with onions, blueberries and maple syrup, a mushroom sauté with parsley, and firm polenta with cream and parmesan. The finishing dolci was a simple dish of fresh strawberries with amaretto whipped cream, "just a teardrop of amaretto," Chef Garnier says with a long pour from the bottle. He's easygoing, not an intense, barking commander, and patiently shares his techniques to peel the outer skin off mushrooms or slice an onion with your first two fingers resting against the knife blade.
La Guilde can host classes of two or 20 and up. "In Quebec-style, they always want to have a kitchen party. Someone says, OK, I'm going to cook the meat, someone else, I'll chop that, so I organize the session, we make three courses and it's a great party."
His focus is not fancy sauces or foams, but recipes people can easily do at home, with variations to suit their tastes. His own home cooking is often the simplest of all:
"Butter and spaghetti -- fresh pasta, a nice spoon of good butter and some parmesan cheese, it's perfect."
When you work up your appetite again, head to Magnan Restaurant et Taverne for the famous roast beef dinner, courtesy of a secret recipe by the family matriarch Marie-Ange Magnan. She and her husband Armand opened the business in 1932. It's a little out of the way, on St-Patrick near the Atwater Market in a former industrial area, but that just adds to the find. Locals know it well and crowd the main floor tavern to watch hockey on the big-screen TVs, while slightly more subdued patrons dine in the lower-floor restaurant on the oh-so tender roast beef and trimmings.
Save room for a traditional French cheese plate for dessert, accompanied by wine, of course. The newly opened rich and rustic La Montee de Lait, on St-Laurent, has a thoughtful wine-by-the-glass selection and knowledgeable servers, along with a knockout cheese board served with nuts and a streak of orange cream sauce. Remember to look up at the ceiling if you use the bathroom.
Yes, there are bagels and smoked meat sandwiches aplenty, so include those where possible, but the final sweet finish must be pastry chef Thierry Andrieu's Point G confectionary boutique on trendy Mont-Royal Est. "Point G means g-spot," Chef Andrieu explains with a grin, his neon pink hair spike standing at attention. The Parisian macarons are crisp and then all melting sugar as you bite into flavours of salted caramel, cassis and balsamic vinegar, mon Dieu!
He'll be adding a top secret gelatto flavour for his friend and space tourist, Guy Laliberté, to celebrate his new Cirque du Soleil show in the city.


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Monday's Dish: Bailey Keeps Making Baby Steps
Homer Bailey is no longer a prospect. He's thrown 82 big league innings, which means he's no longer rookie eligible. He first pitched for Triple-A Louisville in 2007, but he's still there two years later after narrowly failing to beat out Micah Owings for the Reds' fifth starter job.
So you may be wondering why he's showing up in a Daily Dish? For all of his Triple-A and big league experience, it's easy to forget that Bailey just turned 23, which makes him younger than Rays prospect David Price. So we're making an exception today, one we may make a couple of other times through the season to look at a former prospect who hasn't made it yet to try to help figure out if he ever will.
Watching Bailey's most recent start on Wednesday evening against Wade Davis and the Durham Bulls summed up a lot of Bailey's young career. His final line doesn't look very good: 6 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. But Bailey also showed some of the reasons that the Reds haven't given up on him.
Bailey retired the first 12 batters he faced, carrying a perfect game into the fifth until Johnny Gomes lost a fly ball in the lights and watched it fall 10 feet away for a double. He managed to get out of that jam, but an inning later he gave up a two-run home run to Jon Webber. An inning later he gave up another two-run home run to Chris Richard, ending his night.
If you're looking to make excuses for Bailey, it was a relatively dominating performance undone by two pitches. But then, it's also fair to say that home runs have have been a problem for Bailey all year. He gave up only 10 home runs in 111 innings in Louisville last year, but he's already given up nine home runs in 39 innings this year.
That's the bad news for Bailey. On the plus side, he is a different looking pitcher than the one that arrived in Louisville in 2006. Back then Bailey brought his hands up over his head before breaking them in his wind-up. He then stabbed some with the ball as he rared back and fired mid-90s fastballs.
He has a much more compact motion now in an attempt to improve his once shaky command. He breaks his hands much lower and has reduced the stabbing motion in the back of his delivery. But according to Louisville pitching coach Ted Power, the biggest change is his stride. He used to have an exaggerated hip twist and an extremely long stride. He's now shortened it because in his old delivery, when he tired he was prone to leaving the ball up in the zone.
Bailey also throws a different assortment of pitchers. He added a slider last year out of necessity. When Bailey first debuted in the big leagues in 2007, he used a hard-breaking 12-to-6 curveball to compliment his 93-95 mph fastball. But Bailey's curveball came from a different, higher release point than his fastball. At the big league level, hitters recognized that and simply let them go, waiting to get a fastball they could drive.
"They would see the hand come up and they'd know it's off speed, so they took it. Now his arm angle is the same for all of his pitches," Power said.
The slider gives hitters something a little less recognizable to worry about, although he still will throw an occasional 75-79 mph curve (three by my unofficial count), as he showed against the Bulls. His changeup is a fourth pitch, although he throws it infrequently.
The fastball sat at 92-95 mph last Wednesday, although he still ran it up to 98 mph at least once out of the zone. It may not be the Nolan Ryan-esque gas he once had, but he's not far off his old velocity. And velocity has never been Bailey's problem–if he's ever going to succeed in the big leagues, he'll have to show improved command. There are signs that the toned-down delivery is helping. For Louisville Bailey is throwing strikes on 65.9 percent of his pitches this season, compared to 62.8 percent in 2008 and 60.58 percent in 2007.
A running discussion on the Cincinnati Reds and everything else in the baseball universe.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Baseball America on Homer Bailey
6 comments:
- AnonymousMay 20, 2009 at 11:51 AM
puts a lot in perspective and actually encouraging! Seems like Ted Power may be the real deal if he can get Bailey to make some changes...of course, some failures make one a little more open to change.ReplyDelete
Hey Anon,ReplyDelete
It's an interesting article, to be sure. I think it offers a little something for everyone. The Bailey haters can point to his continued issues, while the Bailey supporters can point to the potential improvement that may ultimately be brought about by the changes.
I'm not ready to give up on Homer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have also yet to be impressed by him. Typically, when I see a young prospect with "ace" potential, something about them will stand out to me. When I first saw guys like Lincecum, Cueto, Greinke, and even Gil Meche, they had an electricity about them. They had fastballs with hop and movement and they had swing-and-miss offspeed pitches. They also seemed to know what to do with their stuff.
Since Homer has arrived, I've yet to really see anything that indicates that he can dominate at the big league level. His fastball never seemed as fast as it was reported to be and his curve ball was a huge disappointment (to me, at least). Maybe, the different release point is the reason for the ineffectiveness of the curve ball.
As for the changes, I agree that Homer had a very long stride and his "stabbing" of the air was a rather odd move. It's understandable that when he tired, his stride shortened up and he struggled to keep the ball down. However, I've always preferred the "over the head" arm motion in the windup, but Homer has removed that aspect. I suppose it was done to shorten up his delivery in all aspects.
For the foreseeable future, I think it's in the best interests of both the Reds and Homer for him to stay at triple-A. He needs to truly earn his way back to the majors. In addition, it can take a long time for a major mechanical overhaul to completely take effect.
I'll be very interested to see which Homer Bailey emerges at the end of all of this. Maybe a nice hard slider is what he needs to give the hitters something else to think about and improve the effectiveness of the fastball.
He remains an enigma, but he's young enough and possesses enough upside to warrant the organization's patience. Hopefully, it'll be rewarded.
Thanks for the comment!
- AnonymousMay 30, 2009 at 1:23 AM
Actually, claiming his stride shortened when he was tired it debateable. I heard different fwiw. Homer hasn't been the same since 2007 spring training compared to what we expected after his 'breakout' 2006 season. You could see it early on. I think it was because they first shortened his stride. Then they gave him a sinkerball in 2008 and took away his curveball. That is some serious micromanaging by the Reds.ReplyDelete
What you need to do is get 2006 Homer Bailey starst in AA and compare it to Homer Bailey's starts since then. Compare and contrast the style(not so much the results) and findout which ones looks "more electric". I did so taking 5 Bailey AA starts and comparing then to April 2007 start in AAA, 2007 MLB game vs. the Cards in June, Astros in September 2007, Brewers 2008 and Indians 2009. I thought the 2006 version looked much more electric. His fastball was better with his weight coming toward the plate rather than in a controlled motion he started showing in 2007. Looks like to me they have compacted his mechanics to much and he is having trouble throwing a sinkerball(2 seam fastball). The 2006 Homer had a sick curve 3/5 games I watched, good curve 1 game 1 subpar curve. 2007-9 Homer had only one game, against the Astros he showed that kind of breaking stuff and it was....no surprise a game he abandoned the shorter strides.
I say let him go back to the "velocity" pitcher. The current "sinker/slider" model isn't working.
I would love to get him in our organization and allow him to "go back to the beginning" with him mechanically. I think the Reds are scared to death they let him go and end up looking like idiots.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of Homer at this point. He is truly an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
What concerns me most about Homer is not the terrible results, but how he has gotten those results. Every time I see him pitch at the MLB level, his fastball looks pedestrian and his breaking ball is ineffective.
As much as I heard about his hammer curveball, I have never seen him snap off a plus curveball. And, maybe it's because, as mentioned in the above BA article, of a different release point. If hitters could identify the curveball from the different release point, then maybe they could effectively lay off the pitch. Whatever the reason, it's just not an effective pitch against MLB hitters, so I don't mind seeing him add something else to his arsenal.
As for the mechanics, I don't mind them trying to make a few tweaks. He had a few unusual aspects to his delivery, so trying to refine them isn't a bad idea. That said, his lack of effectiveness is a big cause for concern. I would imagine that the Reds are REALLY freaked out by the thought of getting absolute nothing of value for their investment in Homer Bailey.
If Bailey would be better off going back to his old mechanics, then I'd have no problem with him doing so. However, it's likely more difficult than it seems. There is a degree of muscle memory at work here, so switching back may not be easy. And, I'm not convinced that switching back would necessarily lead to better results. The Reds are running out of options on Homer, so he'll need to be in the majors full-time in the near future.
For what it's worth (admittedly, not much), Homer's average fastball in 2007 was 92.4 mph and in his 2009 start it was 92.4 mph. Of course, the sample size in 2009 is minuscule, but I'm not sure if a lack of velocity is his problem. In addition, in the minors he is still giving up more fly balls than ground balls. So, if they really are trying to turn him into a ground ball, 2 seamer pitcher instead of a high velocity pitcher, it doesn't seem to be working too well.
I just don't know what to make of Homer, but he has never impressed me at the MLB level. I really wonder if he was just overhyped coming up the ranks. I've got a buddy who agrees with you on the changes to his mechanics. He thinks that was the beginning of the end as well. I'm just not sure Homer Bailey 1.0 was truly as good as advertised, so I'm heistant to scrap version 2.0 when the old version might not be any better.
As much as I think the media tends to over-exaggerate the issue, I do question his attitude. For a pitcher who has had zero success at the MLB level, he certainly has strong opinions. His comments after his last start about how he and Ramon Hernandez struggled to get on the same page because Ramon had never caught him before seemed odd. From a defensive standpoint, I'm not a big Ramon fan, but I'd rather see Homer throw whatever Ramon puts down. I'm not sure Homer has earned the right to shake off a veteran catcher.
Anyway, I appreciate the interesting and well thought out comment. Unfortunately, I really don't know what to make of Homer at this point, but if the Reds are going to get anything of value out of him, then they need to leave him at triple-A until September.
By the by, where do you watch complete minor league games from past years? Or, were you just watching video clips? Thanks!
- AnonymousJune 27, 2009 at 1:48 AM
FWIW, Bailey has gone back to his old arm slot and stride. It shows. He has pitched better.ReplyDelete
They are using the Split finger as a excuse.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Posted by Pamela on March 31, 2008 at 03:53:
In Reply to: I could care less posted by pamela on March 31, 2008 at 03:48:
: : : : : : : : : : I could care less. This is not incorrect English - It is irony! All of the 'hypercorrect' usage self-proclaimed experts seem unaware of the different ways points can be made.
: : : : : : : : : Irony? Well, maybe occasionally. Whenever I've heard 'I could care less' used it was by people who only used irony to describe iron bars.
: : : : : : : : "The 'hypercorrect' usage self-proclaimed experts seem unaware...": I see. And *your* credentials as a usage expert are...? ~rb
: : : : : : : My credentials as a usage expert are pretty much nil, but nonetheless I think someone ought at least to comment on, even if only to demolish, Smokey Stover's explanation of "I could care less."
: : : : : : : Some of you are doubtless familiar with Valleyspeak, or Valspeak, as the Wikipedia puts it, allegedly spoken in the San Fernando Valley in the last two decades of the last century. The "Valley," as it is often called for the sake of brevity, is in Los Angeles County, near Hollywood, a place of high prices and Hollywood types who can afford to live there--writers, producers, executives, whoever makes good enough money.
: : : : : : : Although you wouldn't guess it from the kind of movies these people make, they are pretty high-IQ people, and so are their children. So you can bet that they are not language-impaired. But they do like their slang, and it includes a lot of ellipsis. Have you seen the movie, "Valley Girl" ? It gave rise to the term Valleyspeak. One of the best-known elliptical sentences is "As if!" It means, of course, "As though that could be true," "that" depending on the referent that precedes it.
: : : : : : : My contention is based on ellipsis. A sentence that I imagine you've heard is, "I couldn't care less." How did that become, "I could care less"? Is it because these highly intelligent teenagers dropped the "not" without realizing it? I imagine that it's another case of ellipsis, a short form of, "As though I could care less!" It has to be spoken a certain way, of course. Valleyspeak requires some very distinctive use of pitch and prolongation to make its points with the proper emphasis.
: : : : : : : There's a good, though all too brief, article in the Wikipedia which also mentions the influence of surfer speak and skateboard speak. It also mentions the important "documentation" to be found in "Clueless" and "Wayne's World."
: : : : : : : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valspeak
: : : : : The 1982 Frank Zappa song "Valley Girl" (his only Top 40 hit in the US and featuring his daughter Moon Unit Zappa) popularized the term (and valspeak) prior to the 1983 movie.
: : : : "I could care less" was common before the 1980s. Valspeak can't get credit as its originator. ~rb
: : :
: : : It would be nice to be able to get to the bottom of this, although the origin may be elusive. Valspeak, to be sure, is supposed to date only from the 1970s, and is probably hard to document from written sources. I would seriously like to know whether the sentence, "I couldn't care less," can or cannot be found earlier than "I could care less," regardless of which mouth or pen first gave it utterance. Obviously valley girls are not the only English speakers to use ellipsis. But just as a starting point, do you, rb, or does anyone else, have dates before 1970 for either sentence? That's not a challenge; curious minds want to know, that's all.
: : I can't document either use before 1970. All I have is a memory of both sentences being spoken in the 1960s, and they seemed well established then. The origin of "I could care less" that I think most likely is speakers' confusion when a sentence contains more than one negative. Of course, thinking something most likely isn't proof. ~rb
: There is a book called "I couldn't care less" by Anthony Phelps (1942,Harborough London)on ABE books. Dictionary.com says that the phrase came "to the US in the 1950s" (they don't give a source). "Could care less" dictionary.com says is of US origin and was "recorded in print by 1966". Again no source. The full entry is at: [Dead link removed - ed]
Sorry - my two posts got muddled somehow. Here's the other bit:
Here's the 1966 "could care less" - (d) U.S. colloq. phr. (I, etc.) could care less = sense (c) above, with omission of negative.
1966 Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1 Nov. 21/2 My husband is a lethargic, indecisive guy who drifts along from day to day. If a bill doesn't get paid he could care less.


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First Birthday Flamingo Pink Floral Chalkboard Sign, Gold Foil Floral Wreath Chalk Sign, Printable Girl 1st Birthday Poster, Pink and Gold
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*Please note: I just had a baby, so processing times are currently up to 2-3 days for first proof. Thank you for your patience!*
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|Pat Arneson: 'Noise is Life' Exhibit
Event Type: Library Event
Date: 8/9/2019
Start Time: All Day
Maker and artist Pat Arneson presents his exhibit, "Noise is Life," at the Langdon Divers Gallery August 7 to September 3. Arneson, of Theresa, has worked in myriad media – from advanced audiovisual and pyrotechnical materials to basic pencil. He said his exhibit explores the inherent artifacts of paint, canvas and printing plate to engage concepts of signal and noise: what information is important, and what often is overlooked.
"I wanted to blow up the small-scale processes of printing into large monotypes that explore the interaction of texture and color," Arneson said. "I am always focused on the forgotten, overlooked and ubiquitous, reimagining 'noise' as 'life.'"
The library's gallery is a showcase for local and regional artists. The space is curated by volunteer artist Mel Kolstad, who can be contacted at [email protected]
Location: Langdon Divers Gallery


text:
Sunday, January 20, 2008
SPEED Will Glimpse Nationwide Series Reality
Executives at ESPN will be glued to their TV screens at 7PM on Monday evening.
What they will be watching is SPEED's continuing coverage of NASCAR Pre-Season Thunder. This will be the first time that everyone gets a TV reality check on the health of the Nationwide Series for 2008.
The creeping concerns began last season, when the Busch Series often had teams filling out the field that were rather "colorful." When the series traveled to California, Las Vegas and Montreal the rumors of "tow money" to teams that made the trip were rampant. Needless to say, team sponsorship problems for the series made things rough.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the Nationwide schedule is ESPN's only full NASCAR Series. On the Sprint Cup side, they cover the final seventeen races, less than half of the season. The network is not involved in the Craftsman Truck Series telecasts. Where ESPN is concerned, the Nationwide Series in many ways is their franchise NASCAR TV property.
That may sound strange to some, but think about it for a moment. Without a doubt, the Sprint Cup has a higher profile. Unfortunately, ESPN does not become involved in that series until the Brickyard 400 is run in late July. The presence of the network in NASCAR racing from February through almost August is solely the Nationwide Series.
It would seem then that the network would focus their resources on the build-up of the first race at Daytona. Currently, their presence at the Daytona testing is reporter Marty Smith who has been reporting for ESPN News and SportsCenter.
As the teams continue their testing, it is going to be fascinating to see how many of the cars are independent Nationwide teams, how many are "race for fun" teams owned by Sprint Cup drivers, and how many are "driver training" teams run by current Cup owners. The first two days of this Nationwide test had no TV coverage.
The Monday evening program will give us the first "reality check" of the overall health of the series that ESPN will be producing for the entire season. Along with meeting the drivers who will be racing, we will be seeing what sponsors are coming along for the Nationwide ride, and what teams have just enough money for Daytona, and nothing else.
This was the situation that NASCAR has worried about since the decision to insert the COT into the sport fulltime. With the hard splitter, the fixed wing, and the inability to shape the body, one very big thing changed for 2008. Now, absolutely nothing is to be gained for the Cup teams by racing in the Nationwide Series.
No information about shocks and springs and set-ups or anything else will translate between the Nationwide and Sprint Cup cars. One popular school of thought was that the Truck Series would better serve the Cup teams as far as set-up information was concerned. It was going to be interesting to see which Cup teams chose which support series to run in 2008.
Now, we will get our first look at the number of teams, the quality of the teams, and who will be driving. SPEED is going to have an unusual opportunity to break new ground, as this is the first time that the Nationwide Series has raced alongside the COT. Hopefully, this issue will be explored by John Roberts, Phil Parsons and Ray Dunlap in Daytona.
So far, the SPEED team has done an outstanding job of interviewing top crew chiefs and drivers as both the Sprint Cup and Truck Series teams tested. Monday, however, may bring a brand new reality as many of the cars on the track at Daytona might not be seen after that race.
It will be important for SPEED to take the temperature of the Nationwide Series, and then report honestly on the overall health of the patient. After the Monday diagnosis, it may be the TV executives at ESPN that suddenly need a very good doctor.
Reminder: ESPN Classic's continuing series of Daytona 500 highlight shows airs at 2PM Eastern Time on Monday. Set those DVR's and TiVo's to watch Derrike Cope's moment in the sun. The Monday program is two hours in length.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.
24 comments:
- Anonymous said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- January 21, 2008 at 6:37 AM
- Anonymous said...
The Media tour begins today in charlotte from what I've seen on Jayski and Brian France usually gives a speech and makes announcments today. Is this going to be on the show tonight or on ESPN? The schedule in your original Preseason Thunder writeup shows Media tour programs Wednesday -Friday on Speed with Nationwide from Daytona today and tomorrow as you write here.
Surely if Brian makes a big announcment or statement it will be on the show though he's not in Daytona.
- January 21, 2008 at 6:55 AM
- Anonymous said...
JD, I don't have any optimism that the Nationwide series will improve for the 2008 season. It's been going downhill for years with cup drivers racing in the races - JUST FOR FUN or cup teams stealing sponsors away from the Busch Series-only teams, and the worse yet is so many Busch teams closing their doors. I love the old timers who are, unfortunately, watching the races from their lazyboys instead of being in them!
- January 21, 2008 at 7:25 AM
- Anonymous said...
It may be early to comment on the health of the series, but the fact that SPEED is the one doing the diagnosis is pretty sad in itself, considering ESPN is the one with the Nationwide series broadcast. IMHO, it's part of their job to be the cheerleaders for giving this series proper attention, which is obviously NOT happening--no wonder teams can't find sponsors.
Best case I think would be for Nationwide to go back to doing what it did best--a place for developmental personnel and teams, as well as a place for medium level sponsors who can't afford Cup to still be involved in racing. And some of the teams were very consistant with experienced drivers who chose not to go to Cup (guys like LaJoie.) Worst case is, with the economy being what it is, we continue to lose sponsors/teams who don't find their ad dollars well spent here.
I have mixed feelings about the 'Sprinters' running in Nationwide--I have been to the 'then Busch' series races that were stand-alone, as well as those run tandem with Cup. Obviously, attendence was a major difference. But you had a lot more locals who could actually afford tickets at stand-alones, which you'd think would be a boost for regional sponsors (including some who may be involved in Camping World East & west.) It takes a lot of work, I would imagine, to arrange those multiple sponsors as they do in Cup, only you'd have fewer personnel to do it (the business side, I mean.)
As far as the drivers go, they claim they learn nothing, but I don't believe that--even with different cars, I think they learn some characteristics of the track as the race goes on. If they continue to flood each tandem race, for 'fun' or whatever, I personally would limit any given race to the top say, 7 or 8 Sprinters and the rest go home. If it ends up not being an issue because of the COT--well, perhaps it can go back as it was. As far as 'sponsor stealing'--well, I think those sponsors probably wouldn't have been interested in the first place unless they had the Cup guy.
I know analysts have expressed concern about the Truck series then ending up with the same problem (Ray Dunlap or Bob Dillner, maybe???) But I think you have to cross that bridge when you get there; the same ideas would apply though.
- January 21, 2008 at 8:56 AM
- E-Ticket said...
This is from the TV column in today's USA TODAY. Imagine if they would do this for NASCAR but nooo they had to do it for TENNIS. Maybe they should watch their tennis broadcasts for ideas for NASCAR
Here is the quote
"ESPN2 stayed with live coverage of tennis' Australian Open, rather than taking scheduled programming breaks, to produce nearly 15 consecutive hours of live action."
Me again..
Wow... Would it be cool if they could do that for only a few hours. But I guess I should learn to love Tennis just for decent coverage..
- January 21, 2008 at 9:07 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
The TV coverage of the media tour starts on Wednesday. Any announcements made today during the annual R&D stop will be carried by the mainstream press as news.
I would suggest keeping your eye on scenedaily.com, Yahoo! Sports, or Jayski.
- January 21, 2008 at 9:12 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Anon 6:37AM,
When you get a chance, could you drop me an email at email@example.com please?
Links to other sites and promotions for third party articles need to be run by me first. We had a big problem early last season with this issue.
I have never heard of that site, and I would be happy to review any content that you would suggest.
- January 21, 2008 at 9:16 AM
- GinaV24 said...
I'll look forward to seeing what Speed covers on Monday for the Nationwide series, but if Brian France is on flapping his gums, I probably won't tune in for long. I'd like to see the Nationwide series go back to being what it used to be -- a training ground and opportunity for up and coming drivers or for teams/sponsors that couldn't afford the $ of Cup entries. I always enjoyed the Busch series until it was ruined, in my opinion, by so many Cup teams coming in and beating the snot out of the regulars.
- January 21, 2008 at 9:18 AM
- Unknown said...
Why does Nascar allows its second most popular division (Nationwide) live or die based on the Cup series? If Nascar wants the Nationwide series to grow and be a stand alone series, they need to divorce it from the Cup series influence as they did with the Truck series. The truck series has shown that you can have exciting racing without 1/2 of the drivers being from the Cup series. They need to do the same with the Nationwide series.
The deal ESPN has with the last 17 races and all of the Nationwide series reminds me of the commercials you see on TV. But wait, if you purchase the last 17 Cup races of the season right now, we will throw in the Nationwide series free (plus additional shipping and handling).
- January 21, 2008 at 9:58 AM
- Anonymous said...
I find it sad that so many fans are saying such negative things about the sport. Their is no optimism or anything to look forward to in your minds, and everything is NASCAR's fault and nothing will every improve. What caused this kind of thinking in NASCAR fans? And don't say one season a bad coverage, because that should not be enough to bring down such a major sport.
- January 21, 2008 at 12:26 PM
- GinaV24 said...
Anonymous 12:26 -- that's the thing, it isn't just one season that has caused many NASCAR fans to have such negative opinions of the sport. This is a cumulative effect based on decisions made by NASCAR since 2001. The suits in Daytona wanted to take it so "mainstream" that they alienated many of the long time fans AND they forgot that its supposed to be fun for the fans. I still enjoy the sport, just not as much as I once did when the driver's had some personality, when the tracks were unique and I wasn't inundated by all of the "hype" and feeling like it is WWE on Wheels. The decline in viewership and attendance has been happening for several years. I think that NASCAR thought it was just a blip or a leveling off; I don't think they realized that it was going to be a significant drop.
- January 21, 2008 at 12:48 PM
- Anonymous said...
Is the full field clause still in the contract with ESPN? I think we will see local drivers from Nascar North ,South,East and West showing up at the tracks along with Arca drivers with one race sponsorship. I haven't seen any ads on ESPN touting the start of the Nationwide racing season. Fox has been hot and heavy on their Daytona kickoff. I wonder what kind of paint scheme BIG MAMA'S WAFFLE HOUSE will have?
- January 21, 2008 at 12:58 PM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Anon 12:26PM,
Nothing in life is harder than change. To begin the discussions about why and how things need to change might be only slightly less difficult.
This site is not about the racing, the drivers, or the management of the series. It is simply about how and why the TV networks present the sport in the manner that they choose.
Sometimes, the choices result in absolutely memorable moments that are going to be with us forever. But, sometimes things get out of control when the agenda of the network over-rides the agenda of the sports itself.
No one asked TNT to show us non-stop promos for their shows in every race at every moment and then run more promos attached to the commercial breaks.
No one asked Fox Sports to have us join them for a three hour telecast, and then to be shown only the winning car finishing the race.
No one asked ESPN to assault us with non-NASCAR experienced announcers and features and cut-ins and updates and interviews and everything else...but the race.
Nothing is more frustrating that sitting at home and being handcuffed by the very TV network that asked you to come and watch the race.
What would happen in an NFL playoff game if the camera stayed on the quarterback after he passed the ball...and then they replayed the touchdown catch?
What would happen in the NBA if a player put up the winning shot at the buzzer and the camera showed the players reaction...and then replayed the ball going through the hoop?
The simple answer is, all hell would break loose. The bottom line is, that is exactly what happened in many situations to NASCAR in 2007 and the fans are here saying it better not happen again.
Holding a TV network accountable for doing the job they promoted and told you they would do is fair and honest.
We did that all season long in 2007 and affected a lot of discussion and change. If we do it again in 2008, hopefully it will continue to positively affect the NASCAR TV product that you see at home.
- January 21, 2008 at 1:03 PM
- Anonymous said...
Yesterday as many did,I watched the Packers,Giants game on Fox. i found myself watching how they placed and timed the breaks for ads and compared it to the Nascar coverage. They didn't miss one play. They were always back on time for the snap after a short time out was called on the field. If they can do that with football, why should we ever miss a restart at a race? Is there more fear of the football fan than the Nascar fan? The networks have the knowledge to give us great coverage as shown by the football coverage. Why can't they just apply it to the racing?
- January 21, 2008 at 1:28 PM
- Anonymous said...
you cannot compare the coverage. In football there is someone on the sidelines that will not let the game continue unless the TV broadcast is on the air. You cannot do that with NASCAR. NASCAR does not have a job like that where someone is saying, don't restart yet, coverage is not on yet. So, it is not because FOX can always come back right before a play, it is because football officials wont let the game continue until the broadcast returns. it is sometimes called a "TV timeout" in football. We definitely cannot that in NASCAR. I don't think a "TV caution flag" would work well for anyone.
- January 21, 2008 at 2:00 PM
- Andy Marquis said...
I think you're being unfair. CBS missed snaps, CBS got carried away in irrelevant conversation. FOX does football best. FOX and TNT do NASCAR best. It's not FOX needs to do NASCAR better, the problems are ESPN's mickey mouse graphics and amateur commentators.
I still think the entire IndyCar Series screw (minus Marty and Scott) should go to ESPN NASCAR and they should swap them around and give IRL the amateur pit road commentators (well, Brieene is an amateur but she's better than Jamie Little). The only people ESPN should keep are Brad, Allen and DJ.
- January 21, 2008 at 2:21 PM
- Anonymous said...
Personally, I'm really glad that SPEED is continuing the coverage and that they are covering the media tour. If it was on ESPN, I wouldn't watch a single minute of it.
I agree that the Nationwide series needs a lot of help with sponsorship and that the teams need money to stay in the series. I don't agree that Cup drivers shouldn't be allowed to race in the series, though, which seems to be how a lot of fans feel. As far as I'm concerned, the Cup drivers (mostly the veterans), have more than paid their dues and I think they've earned the right to run a partial or full-time Nationwide schedule if they want. Change the point system so that the full-time newbies benefit more. Reward them with more money, too.
There was an article on nascar.com over the weekend about the veterans retiring, about how the drivers (even the youngsters in the Truck and Nationwide series) are less and less accessible to the fans, about how the fans don't know much about the new drivers and what they are like. The basic gist of the article was that there's a disconnect between the fans and these newer drivers. The long-time fans do not identify with the young drivers because they know nothing about them. There's also the fact that most of these guys came up the racing ranks fast because their parents had enough money to give them the best equipment possible and that they never worked on their own cars because they had a small crew that did it for them. Not all of these kids are working a day job, or two jobs trying to scrape money together for the next race at their home track-mommy and daddy are providing all of it for them. Once they have a Truck or Nationwide series ride, these guys aren't out there among the racing public meeting fans, signing autographs or showing any part of their personality. All the fans get is what's on t.v. during an interview.
This is why I like it when Cup drivers are in the Nationwide races, including my most favorite driver, Bobby Labonte. If there were no Cup drivers in the Nationwide series, I wouldn't watch them and I wouldn't attend the race, either, even though I'm a season ticket holder at TMS. The reason for this is that there are hardly any young, full-time Nationwide drivers that I identify with, that I know something about. Sure, it's great that Steve Wallace is running the series but I don't know a thing about him other than who his dad is. What's he like? Is he nice or is he a jerk? Is he one of these drivers who doesn't want to be bothered by his fans? Or does he love to autograph stuff for them?
Jason Leffler is one driver that I know a little bit about just from reading about him and seeing interviews. Back when he was with JGR in the 11 car, he had an autograph session at his souvenir trailer at TMS so I went and stood in line and got his autograph on a cap. He was very nice and seemed to genuinely appreciate the people who came to see him. Other than this, I really don't feel that I know enough about Jason Leffler to where I'd go to a Nationwide race without any Cup drivers in it.
Why aren't these new guys having autograph sessions at their souvenir trailers? Why don't all of them have souvenir trailers? Or, at the very least, souvenirs at all?
Now if I were a young whipper- snapper with a Nationwide series ride, be it part-time or full-time, I'd love to see Cup drivers in the garage. That's an opportunity to talk with them about their career, hear some really great stories and ask for advice about certain tracks or something.
I think these kids are very fortunate that they do have Cup drivers who are willing to share information with them, willing to mentor them like Mark Martin did with David Ragan a couple of years ago.
- January 21, 2008 at 6:54 PM
- Anonymous said...
Anon at 6:24am said
"Why aren't these new guys having autograph sessions at their souvenir trailers? Why don't all of them have souvenir trailers? Or, at the very least, souvenirs at all?"
This might be another reason to require that some of these "youngsters" stay in the minor leagues for a few years. If they had to learn to suck up to sponsors and fans they'd be a bit friendlier and really know what "payin' yer dues" means.
The racers used to bring their fans with them to the big leagues, now they fly right through the lower tiers no one knows who they are or where they came from, especially when daddy pays all the bills.
- January 21, 2008 at 9:00 PM
- elena said...
The article in nascar.com over veterans retiring and the old fans not connecting to the new drivers, is further proof why advertisers value younger viewers. Old folks just are so set in the "good ole days" and "the way things were", that they don't buy new products.
How many older fans are going to start drinking AMP? How many are going to buy a Wii? How many know how to text-message?
That's one of the reasons Jr is such hot property. Could Rusty sell AMP? No way jose. Could Bobby? No. Could Kyle? YES.
I took a survey in one of my classes (college) a couple of years ago to see how many had a cell phone that was over 12 months old? NO ONE! Some of these students had had as many as 5-6 phones already.
As companies come out with new products, they will find the athlete who can "sell" that product. Try to get an older person to eat sushi, vegan food, Thai food, pay $270 for Nike's, buy a new computer every 12 months, or a camera, etc.
This should be a wake-up call to older drivers who are looking for sponsors.
I think some NASCAR fans should take a page from other sports. When Kobe Bryant and LeBron James became pros at 18, they were embraced by fans and many retired players. The fans rushed to watch them play. They sold out home games. The same with Tiger Woods. I see what respect Tom Brady gets from fans and the retired quarterbacks. The same with Payton Manning.
Youth is the future. I hope more people embrace them. It would help if older drivers did not dis them so much. Thank goodness for Mark Martin! Now there's a guy who loves youth.
- January 21, 2008 at 9:08 PM
- Anonymous said...
I think it might be good for some of the younger drivers to stay in Nationwide.
Kobe and LeBron are parts of teams, so it's easier for person 30 and up to support them at age 18. They've been supporting that team all along.
Jimmy Spencer said who do you see at the track with David Ragan and Reed Sorenson t-shirts? It's true. If they'd won a Nationwide championship or two, they might have a bigger following.
Plus some of them might learn some humility. I'm 28, and I remember Denny Hamlin (same age as me) on RaceDay in the middle of his rookie year two years ago talking about his new plane. He bought a plane his rookie year! It immediately turned me off him. Contrast that to Kasey Kahne who probably has more money than Denny abnd is a year younger but just bought a plane recently, before the beginning of his fifth Cup season.
Then Denny bought the lot next to Joe Gibbs at the end of his rookie season and built a bigger house than Joe. JD Gibbs joked even he couldn't afford to live there.
It's that kind of arrogance - from a two year 'veteran' - that turns people off. Some of the Nationwide drivers might be Denny-like in their attitude toward Nascar and what it can get for them if they get to Cup. Staying in Nationwide for a while might temper that.
- January 21, 2008 at 11:09 PM
- Anonymous said...
anonymous 6:54--the answer is they DO. Have you been to a 'Nationwide-former Busch' race lately, or surrounding community events? I have several autographs from 'Busch' drivers. They do their time, and the ones I've met have been very, very nice. I know they can't be everywhere, but they do what they can. The more hype, the harder they are to get to, but they are there, they know the drill. And the NASCAR East series (not sure about West cause I haven't been to a race) was always fan friendly, especially to kids. Having a souvie trailer costs money not all of them have. Sometimes there are sales at manufacturer or owner rigs, you just have to look.
- January 21, 2008 at 11:37 PM
- Anonymous said...
Plus some of them might learn some humility. I'm 28, and I remember Denny Hamlin (same age as me) on RaceDay in the middle of his rookie year two years ago talking about his new plane. He bought a plane his rookie year!
That's not about humility, it's a sign of very bad money-handling skills.
There's no safety-net for drivers who lose their rides, and it's just stupid for a rookie to be throwing money around like it'll always be there.
Of course, that's something the old-school guys understood, because they actually earned that money.
- January 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
- Anonymous said...
Youth is the future. I hope more people embrace them.
Give me a reason. So far, what I see is a bunch of guys who act as if they're owed their Cup ride.
Look at Denny: he was thrilled to be in the Show his rookie year. But by the second year, he was trash-talking, nothing was ever his fault, the crew wasn't good enough, his car was bad...
Who can support a kid who says things like that?
- January 22, 2008 at 11:07 AM
- Anonymous said...
I appreciate SPEED's coverage of the testing. Being basically an easy-going positive person, I have hopes that the NW series will have good TV coverage by ESPN this season. During a race weekend, I attend/view all of the racing activities of all three series. Same goes for ARCA or any other series that races during that weekend.
I dislike labels being assigned to groups of people. When people are labeled by gender, age, geographical location, etc., etc., the labeler is showing bias and is usually wrong. As a veteran fan, I enjoy both veteran and newer drivers. It all depends on the driver. I have met veteran drivers, rookie drivers and in betweens; some I liked and some I didn't. Again, it all depends on the driver.
Cup drivers have been racing in the NW series since the beginning. Some seasons more, some seasons less. I'll leave any changes up to the NASCAR officials. I'll attend/view the series in whatever form.
There are teams in all three series having difficulty finding sponsorship money. It will sort itself out. If sponsors are only looking for a teenager to sell their product, they are very shortsighted. Veteran fans come in all ages and newer fans come in all ages. I imagine most people purchase products for people other than themselves. I support NASCAR sponsors, even if I don't buy their driver's merchandise. I appreciate the NASCAR sponsors making it possible for me to attend/view my sport.
- January 22, 2008 at 1:14 PM


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I've just recommended the following test to Bladen on another thread, but I think you should all take it. It seems very accurate.
http://www.learning-styles-online.com/i ... ookieset=y
I couldn't make sense of the graph, but scores are also printed numerically on one side of the screen. Here are my results:
Style Scores
Solitary - 19
Verbal - 18
Logical - 10
Social - 9
Aural - 9
Physical - 8
Visual - 2
Once you know what your main learning styles are, read what the website has to say about each particular style. It gives some useful tips on how to mould your work and study habits according to the way you learn best.


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Soooo it has been a week since I've started Weight Watcher's Simple Start program and…I've survived. No, I'm kidding. It really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. The first week of any weight loss challenge can be a bit difficult because you're telling your body, "Look. Those old habits are gone, dude. We're on a new and healthier track." And while you may think and feel this, your stomach may think otherwise. Your mind plays tricks on you and makes you crave the things that you really don't need. I've been combating this by making sure that I have delicious eats on hand.
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This has been working out so much better than my first attempt. I feel more motivated this time around. I did a run/walk of 5.5 miles with a friend. I walk at least a mile a day and I do workout videos at home. I'm drinking my water and making sure that I don't deprive myself. It was particularly cold the other night so I had Esposo whip up a Weight Watchers Simple Start-friendly recipe of Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken and Kale soup.
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Stay tuned for next week!
I was given a free one month subscription to Weight Watchers to try their new Simple Start plan and write about my experience.Though I was compensated for my time and commitment, all views, positive and negative, are my own.


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Disclaimer: This information about Calista Flockhart is derived from astrological interpretation of Calista Flockhart's date, time, and place of birth.


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Most of this post was written while sitting for 5.5 hours in the waiting room at Transitowne, waiting for Roy the Car to get fixed. (If only it was that easy to fix my car's namesake, LOL.)
– If you saw the article concerning Buffalo's prep for the world juniors in the hard copy of today's paper, you would have noticed in the accompanying image that there were large yellow dots on the floor of the Sabres locker room. (For some reason the image is not in the online edition.) Is management expecting a twister game to break out pregame? ("Right foot yellow! Left hand yellow! Right hand errr yellow!") Or are they meant to give the players something to chuckle about as they watch the media try and avoid stepping on the yellow dots in the middle of the floor during the post game media ruckus? Of course, watch them be something as innocuous as patches over freshly sewn carpet, or something like that.
– Kudos to the Bisons for getting involved with the WJC fun downtown and wanting to host a winter wonderland at Coca Cola Field in between hockey games. What a nice diversion and a way to keep people downtown.
– I was watching PTI yesterday and Dan LeBatard was talking about the Bills in Toronto, and how he can't say anything bad about the city of Buffalo because every time he does, his inbox fills up. Is PTI really that popular amongst Buffalonians / Bills fans that he gets that much "hate" mail? Poor little LeBatard . And speaking of PTI, where the heck have TK and Willybuns been lately? It seems like they have been on vacation forever. I enjoy LeBatard, but Bob Ryan is a little too dry for my tastes. But then again, as long as Reali is there, it's all good.
– I finished reading Ken Dryden's "The Game" while at the dealership. If you haven't read this book, and you're a hockey fan, you need to put it on your reading list. His thoughts on what makes the game of hockey great, the different roles players have on teams and the chemistry generated by having the right mix of these players is incredibly insightful. Sure, Dryden's playing career was a bit before my time, so I was not as familiar with the great Canadiens teams as someone who is a bit older would be, but the book is still a great read nonetheless. I was particularly amused by his musings on why goalies are considered nutty and it's not just because they're willing to step in front of a speeding rubber disk every night.
– And finally, if this Geico commercial does not make you smile, well…


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By Master Liam St. Liam
Features Reporter, Pennsic Independent
If you have ever wanted to express your opinion about any aspect of the SCA – from the non-member surcharge to an additional peerage to same-sex consorts – you now have your chance.
The SCA 2010 Census committee, working with the Board of Directors, has set up an open survey on the Internet that seeks answers to a wide variety of questions regarding people's SCA experiences.
The survey, open to all, is linked on the main page of www.sca.org and the link has been distributed though many e-mail lists and blogs.
Connor MacGillivray, the chairman of the committee, said that smaller surveys of this type have been done in the past, but never reaching out so far and wide.
"The Board of Directors is reaching out to everyone in the SCA, whether members or not, on a society-wide level."
Connor said the census, which will be open until Dec. 1, is just a first step.
"It's important for people to know that the Board will not use this information to make any decisions right off the bat," he said. "This is to get a feel for how people feel about the SCA now and what they want in the future."
Connor said the census will collect both demographic data and survey data, and added that he has several committee members who are professionals in the field and will help him prepare a report for the Board of Directors.
"The information will be packaged for the Board, and they will also have access to the raw data," he said. "Anyone will be able to see it. People will have access and can see what the data are.
"This is something that will take a while," Connor said. "That information will be taken seriously."
Connor added that he feels this census is a first step toward gathering more information from the populace for the board. "I see this as the first step. We're setting the bar, and we're setting it high. That's how I conceive it. There will be more questions that will come up."
The survey does not ask for an individual's name, and those who take it do not have to be SCA members. It asks demographic information, including number of years in the SCA, reasons for joining and staying in, and it seeks to find out what areas of the SCA individuals are interested in. There is also a section for those who have dropped out of the SCA, seeking the reasons for that. For those who have left and returned, there is a section asking why.
The survey also seeks commentary on many widely discussed topics, such as those already mentioned, and asks whether they would prefer a central SCA corporation or individual state corporations. There is ample space for additional commentary.
If you would like to complete the survey today, there is a dedicated computer at Mystic Mail, that can be accessed for free to take the survey.


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I like clean, simple arguments. I like inescapable logical conclusions. And when those things appear in a paper telling us something new about the very early universe – even better.
Today, David Parkinson, a research fellow at the University of Queensland, came to Melbourne to give a talk on the paper he just posted to the arxiv today with his colleagues Marina Cortes and Andrew Liddle. It was incredibly (and not coincidentally) well timed. Just two days ago, I spend most of the day grappling with the implications of the latest cosmic microwave background results from the Planck satellite, and now David was going to come and give a new perspective on it.
|Marina Cortes
|Andrew Liddle
|David Parkinson
But let me back up. In March, researchers with a telescope at the South Pole – the BICEP2 collaboration – announced an astonishing new result. They were studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB, the afterglow of the Big Bang), and they presented what they said was the first evidence of primordial gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime, from the first tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. The announcement made a HUGE splash. There were articles in all the major newspapers and magazines hailing the discovery as the start of a new era in cosmology, and in some cases even as proof of cosmic inflation. This is a scenario in which the early universe, in the first billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second after the moment of creation, expanded extremely rapidly and grew several orders of magnitude in size. The theory of inflation has been around since the 1980s, first proposed by Alan Guth, and developed by Andre Linde, Paul Steinhardt, and others. One of the key predictions of inflation is that it would produce gravitational waves, and in principle these could be seen as little swirls in the pattern of polarization of the CMB. The CMB is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the Big Bang happened at all, and by studying its light we can learn a huge amount about what the early universe looked like. Some of that light is polarized, meaning it is preferentially oriented one way or another when it reaches the detector. Patterns in the polarization can show us traces of those early spacetime ripples. Although many experiments had been looking for these patterns, BICEP2's signal was unexpectedly strong, and it was in some tension with previous tensor measurements by the Planck satellite, among others. A viral video went around showing a flabbergasted Andre Linde receiving the news, and even he, a vocal supporter of inflation theory, looked shocked.
Characteristic swirls in cosmic microwave background polarization, found by BICEP2. Image credit: BICEP2 Collaboration.
It wasn't long after BICEP2's announcement, though, that problems appeared. Rumors went around saying that the BICEP2 team had made a mistake in their calculations. The problem was interstellar stardust. It turns out that dust can create polarization too, and although the BICEP2 team considered a few different possibilities for the level of contribution of dust to their signal, several cosmologists argued that the estimates were way too low. Two papers came out showing that the BICEP2 signal – the one that was supposed to be a beautiful picture of gravitational waves – could have been entirely due to dust in our Galaxy mimicking the primordial signal.
More articles appeared, now announcing that the "Big Bang result" has "turned to dust" (among other clever puns). Paul Steinhardt, who has spent the last several years developing alternatives to inflation theory, wrote an article proclaiming that inflation was never a good idea to begin with, and the dust problems go to show that the hype was all for nothing. Most of the cosmology community, however, took the attitude that we should probably just wait and see. There were several other experiments taking data to confirm or rule out BICEP2's discovery, and the Planck satellite – the current flagship in the CMB detection game – would be producing maps of interstellar dust really soon. That should clear everything up.
Two days ago, Planck released their dust polarization results. They specifically addressed the BICEP2 study, and while they were very measured in their statements (pointing to an upcoming joint analysis), the upshot of the work was that the dust polarization signal was so high that it could easily account for everything BICEP2 saw. Maybe the gravitational waves are there, but if Planck is right about the amount of dust in the way, there's really no way to say that BICEP2 actually discovered them. In physics, a discovery means you've shown something to be the case beyond any reasonable (statistical) doubt. Usually that comes in the form of a statement of how incredibly unlikely it is that chance or some spurious signal could have given you the same result. A signal that could just as easily be all dust is definitely not a discovery.
This all brings us to David's paper. The details are technical, but David and his colleagues basically go back to the drawing board to determine how we can analyze data to get the best, most unbiased estimate of the gravitational wave signal. They re-analyze the BICEP2 polarization signal, under a couple of different assumptions, using Planck's previous limits on the gravitational wave contribution as a starting point. First, they assume there was no dust contamination at all. Then they look at an "optimistic" dust model, where dust contamination is there but not bad enough to drown out the signal, and a "pessimistic" dust model, where dust can account for everything. They look at not just the level of primordial gravitational waves – also known as tensor modes – but also the "tilt" of the tensor mode spectrum, an important parameter in inflationary models.
What they find is striking. In the "optimistic" and dust-free models, they find tensor modes, just as BICEP2 did, but they also find a tilt that is utterly incompatible with standard models of inflation. Basically, if BICEP2 and Planck's previous measurements are correct, and the dust is at a manageable level, BICEP2 not only doesn't prove inflation – it just about rules it out! The only other option is to use the "pessimistic" dust model, in which case BICEP2 discovered nothing. As it happens, Planck's new measurements fit the pessimistic dust model best.
In any case, the implication is clear, and somewhat unsettling. It presents us with three items – Planck's previous tensor limits, BICEP2's gravitational wave signal, and the inflationary model – and it says we can pick two. At least one has to be incorrect.
That's a bold statement, and a big deal if it holds up. I love the irony in the suggestion that keeping the "inflation-proving" result requires disproving inflation. But it also illustrates the danger of jumping the gun in these kinds of complicated data analyses. It's widely believed that BICEP2 made too strong a statement in their original paper and press-release, both in their optimism about dust foregrounds and in their statement of confidence in the signal. Now it appears that their analysis may also have introduced a bias that hid the implications for the tensor tilt.
To know with any degree of certainty what the BICEP2 result really means, we'll have to wait for a joint analysis being carried out by the BICEP2 and Planck teams in collaboration, and we'll have to see what the other experiments find. But it's certainly an exciting time, and, as always, it's fascinating to see the scientific process in action.
Footnote: My PhD thesis was partially based on a study with a similar sort of gist – that you can have two of three theories, but not all of them together. In my case, the theories were axion dark matter, string theory, and inflation. If you're really curious, you can find the paper here.


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As you can see, I'm new here! What can I say except that I really love DA since the beginning! And I'm still a huge fan even 10 years later! I know about the DAN for a long time, sorry I couldn't be a part of it earlier Anyway, I finally register, so here I am! Hope, there are still people around... I would be glad to talk with some of you!
By the way, I speak French and English!


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Anonymous Attacks North Korea
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Anonymous claims it has hacked and vandalized social networks and other sites in the Hermit Kingdom.
The amorphous internet collective Anonymous claims to have struck a blow against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, better known to the world at large as North Korea. As you may be aware, Kim Jong-un's regime has been rattling its sabers rather loudly, blocking South Korean access to a shared North/South industrial complex and threatening the U.S. with a nuclear attack, which it seems more capable than ever of actually carrying out.
It's a sticky wicket for diplomats, but for Anonymous it's a chance to do a solid for democracy - or at the very least, to stir up trouble with little likelihood of repercussion. The group has claimed attacks on the news site Uriminzokkiri, which was still offline at the time of writing, and Twitter and Flickr accounts run by the regime were also compromised. An image of Kim sporting a pig's snout and ears and a Mickey Mouse tattoo on his belly appeared on the Flickr account for awhile, but has since been removed; the Twitter account remains a mess, however, with links to hacked sites and an avatar featuring two people dancing and the words, "Tango down." The group also claimed to have accessed 15,000 user names and passwords from the agency's database.
In a "message to North Korea," Anonymous claimed ongoing enmity with the government of the United States but stated that this matter "is not about country vs. country - This is about we, the people, the 99% (of USA and of North Korea) vs oppressing and violent regimes (like USA gov. and N.K. gov)!"
The message includes demands that North Korea stop making nuclear weapons and issuing threats to use them, and that Kim resign and install a "free direct democracy." It also calls for uncensored internet access for all citizens.
"To the citizens of North Korea we suggest to rise up and bring these motherfuckers of a oppressive government down!" the message states. "We are holding your back and your hand, while you take the journey to freedom, democracy and peace. You are not alone. Don't fear us, we are not terrorist, we are the good guys from the internet. AnonKorea and all the other Anons are here to set you free."
It's fairly standard Anonymous fare (including the dire need for a copy editor) but it's an interesting situation to watch because there's virtually nothing impeding its attacks against the North Korean state. If Anonymous can disrupt the regime's activities at any level, I can't imagine the U.S. having much interest in stopping it, which potentially gives Anon a near-limitless laboratory/playground in which to do its thing.
The North Korean army has warned the U.S. that it has been given official clearance to launch a nuclear strike against it, saying that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast" and that war could break out "today or tomorrow."
Source: National Post, Al Jazeera
North Korea has computers advanced enough to connect to the internet?!
Even better question: They can be accessed from outside of North Korea?
Well, now I don't know who to root for, but this sure was funny.
My bets is on this little attack doing absolutely nothing.
I'm sure this will wake the whole government of NK up and not add to tensions one little bit.
Anonymous! Setting in motion events that will lead to the death of millions of innocent South Koreans!
...would someone remind me why people support these guys?
Anonymous, please, please, please don't trigger a global thermonuclear war!
I'm sure they have computers in the capital somewhere where the people in charge of the propaganda create it and spread it to the outside world. The rest of the country, however, doesn't even reliably have electricity, let alone internet.
Incidentally, I can't be the only one who thought that in a weird way, this plays into North Korea's hands -- Anonymous called the US an oppressive government, which is exactly what North Koreans are told it is. I'm picturing a new video now talking about anonymous freedom fighters standing up against their oprressive government, with the parts about North Korea also being oppressive being conveniently left out. I saw one of their propaganda videos the other day that claimed the only thing Americans have to eat is coffee made out of melted snow, wild pigeons/whatever other birds you might find in a city (which are rare, because we've eaten most of them), and whatever food North Korea sends our way. I wish I was making this up.
You... do realise that North Korea has about 5 computers in the whole fucking country... I doubt many N. Korean citizens even know about this, than alone actually saw the message.
Yeah... kinda don't think this was a good idea. There's already on a razor's edge, do they really need a bunch of first-worlders saying they have similar issues?
Are you trying to cause an international incident, Anonymous? There are nukes at stake here, and you're doing nothing but giving the NK a crap excuse to start a possibly-nuclear war. Do you really think that that Kim will look at this and honestly go "Welp, better give up now. Somebody on the interwebz is DDOSing a website of ours. I'm screwed"?
Even if most North Koreans have computers or internet access (not sure)... why would you make the message in English?
If North Korea ever detonates a Nuke against the USA or South Korea, it will cease to exist as a country. I can't imagine them having that many Nukes, retaliation would be immediate and that would be it.
Throwing rocks at the hornet's nest again, eh Anonymous?
Incidentally: If North Korea fires one nuke, anywhere, whether it hits or not, North Korea will cease to exist within the year.
Really? Telling the North Koreans to rise up because anonymous will support them? Even more full of themselves than usual.
Some of you fail to understand that while N Korea may believe and think it's in the right to make demands and threats with big words but in reality they could be squashed like a mere bug compared to the military the rest of the world has and our allies along with all the nukes we have that actually work.
And besides I'm pretty sure N Korea want the US to acknowledge their actual existence rather than be ignored forever and treated as such, but yeah they are ants compared to other country firepower.
I think that may be what Anon has in mind, push them until they make a mistake (though Anon's methods may not mean much to the NK government). NK has positioned a medium range ballistic missile on the coast that has the capability to hit SK or japan. The US has been hurrying to deploy missile defense systems near those countries. Even if NK fires something off I don't believe we'll see it do any major damage. Then they will have to deal with repercussions like China potentially dropping support of the country, not to mention the Russian government is getting antsy about the whole situation. If NK makes that mistake, I believe the retribution from all sides will be swift and severe.
captcha: take care
Don't worry captcha, I've got the bunker ready.
That was my thought as well, kinda makes it seem more like Anonymous are showing off to Americans rather than actually trying to accomplish anything. Ho-Hum.
Also, calling USA government oppressive might be fine in normal political shouting matches, but doing it in the same sentence as the North Korean Government. Kinda baffling, like talking about the danger of a shotgun in a debate on nukes.
The moral equivalency and egotism shown here is staggering. I'd say their at least attacking a worth while target for a change, but the attempt is so off the mark and misguided that I can't really even say that.
And the world went right on spinning. ~_~
Why the fuck do we have to wait for them to nuke us? We've already had one pre-emptive war that has killed far more people than either of the atomic bombs we dropped on Japan. And you can't tell me the fallout from Iraq won't continue to poison that country's inhabitants for generations. All it takes is one city gone and all the rest of the country will be allowed to eat the crops they grow. Should have put a stop to this joke of a nation long before they developed nuclear weapons. But no, we had to go and recognize the main Chinese government and give them all our manufacturing jobs because it's too fucking inconvenient to give people a living wage in first world countries.
When I witness asshole-to-asshole combat, I hope both sides can lose equally. Like with World War II, I'm tempted to go by who has the lesser body count, which means I'd root for Anonymous. ...Then again, when it came down to Communist Russia and Nazi Germany, I'd be rooting for the Germans. Oh well.
They are just saber rattling, since he is the new kid on the block hes trying to be a big man and show he wont be pushed around, n korea doesn't have the tech to launch a real attack against anyone, they would be counting entirely on china having their back and if they did something really stupid like try and launch a nuke, I doubt china would want to put its hat into that ring. Everyone forgets that china gets most of its food from the US, we go to war, they starve rather quickly.
A bit sensationalist there, it is more capable than it used to be yes, but it is still nowhere near capable of an attack on the US.
Their weapon is nowhere near sophisticated enough to fit or be carried by a missile, nor is it likely to survive the acceleration forces. Assuming they could missile mount it the US has the capability to shoot down any endoatmospheric missile so it would have to be exoatmospheric missile and the people's republic does not have the technology for this. Even if it it had exoatmospheric missiles they have to get out of the atmosphere before the US can shoot it down, from a fixed, known position this would be almost impossible. So they'd need a hidden, unknown position to successfully launch a exothermic missile from to ensure it remains as unlikely to be intercepted as possible, like say a sub. Now I would suggest if North Korea already had all these things we'd know about it. I don't really see North Korea possessing all this.
The other conventional delivery mechanism would be a heavy bomber and how would we rate their chances against a few F22s in that situation?
Building a nuclear bomb is relatively easy, the hard part is delivering it.
Huh, and to think I used to like what these guys did... That was until I realized they're idiots and are making so many things worse. Now there's this. Great, more reason to piss North Korea off >.> The nuclear threats thing is already iffy enough as it is, do we need Anons throwing their hat into the ring?
Boy that must of been easy for them to hacked! Still do they really have to troll them as I wouldn't want to mess a nation with nukes even when the nation is backward to the rest of the world.
Actually, under normal circumstances, we (America) would have already started fighting with N.Korea. The problem though is unless they attack first, we risk a big incident with China. Overall we're kinda hoping that Korea tries something, fails, and we get China to say "Have at it." so we can just deal with them and not have the big threat to worry about. We really don't wanna have to fight China (Actual military, lotta canon fodder, good bit of our stuff comes from there, etc.)
$1M for the leader of a nuclear-armed nation, a member of regimes that (in the past) got millions killed? He's probably worth like $250M, given that the US offered $25M for Bin Laden.
I'm baffled as to why we're just sitting around waiting for them to throw the first punch.
If that's the case don't be suprised when Annon hacks the nuke launch controls and re-directs it towards EA HQ
The world needs a little chaos, chaos is what makes things fun.
because they are incapable of throwing a nuclear "first punch". They are saber rattling and if they decide to invade the south it wont take long to sort out.
Actually the missile they are moving to the coast has the range to hit Guam. Japan and RoK are both within range of DPRK's short range missiles. They are not believed to have many medium range missiles but there are around 1000 short range missiles. There is no missile defence capable of defending against that many launches. They also have around 2000 artillery pieces within range of Seoul. They also have the worlds 3rd largest arsenal of chemical weapons, all of which deliverable by artillery and missile. Retribution from all sides will be swift and severe, but its far from sure that the North understands this. In 2010 the north torpedoed and sank a south korean corvette killing 46 sailors and then shelled a south korean island killing another 4 people. These are not the acts of a rational government, because this kind of action can rapidly go out of control. In 2010 the South did chose to retaliate for the sinking of the ship, but the new south korean president has already stated that she would. Its very likely that she would, because her mother, who south korea's 1st lady at the time, was assassinated by the north in 1974.
Because of just war theory. There's nothing they can do that will make it through "Star Wars" or whatever our missle defense system in the pacific is called nowadays and once we deflect an attack we can move in with the support of pretty much everyone.
Maybe we also don't want to invade North Korea. Do they even have any oil?
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Wellboro, PA
Region: Pennsylvania Wilds
Wellsboro is the home of Pine Creek Gorge, more familiarly known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. This breathtaking natural phenomenon is 50 miles long and 1,000 feet deep; it takes up a full 300,000 acres of forestland. Overwhelmed tourists in search of civilization can stroll the gas-lit streets of Victorian downtown Wellsboro, and race fans can take in the 14-hour Susquehannock Trail PRO Rally, one of the Sports Car Club of America's best-known and most challenging events.


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Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and storm the Wisconsin capitol building. LET'S GO!
ACADEMY AWARDS – 8:30PM Sunday (ABC) The big night is here, children. It's the 475th annual (NOTE: number guesstimated) Oscar ceremony brought to live from the Kodak Theater in mildly pleasant but often filthy Hollywood. Your hosts are Anne Hathaway and James Franco. And while both Hathaway and Franco are extremely appealing people, this mashup of Evita and "Rump Shaker" is a terrible, terrible omen. I never understood why the producers of this show felt obligated to include any musical numbers (that goes for the entire Best Song category). It's not the Tonys. It's not the Grammys. It's the Oscars. Show movie clips and audience shots of famous people and get on with it.
Your favorite to win Best Picture this evening is "The King's Speech." I'm constantly being told that the Academy favors traditional fare such as that particular movie, which is an odd assertion given that recent winners include "No Country For Old Men," "Slumdog Millionaire," "The Departed," and "The Hurt Locker." Those are not exactly stuffy period costume dramas. So call me nutty, but I think the award will go to "The Social Network." It's gonna win Best Screenplay and Best Director. So tell me, if it was the most well written movie of the year, and the most well directed movie of year, shouldn't it be named the best overall movie of the year? I think voters will probably draw the same conclusion. ANTICIPATION: UPSETS!
ACADEMY AWARDS RED CARPET LIVE – 7:00PM Sunday (ABC) Before the ceremony, check out all the famous people intermingling with each other near the entrance of the theater. Your hosts are Robin Roberts and Tim Gunn. Expect much fashion speak and lots of forced conviviality. ANTICIPATION: I KNOW PHONY LAUGHTER WHEN I HEAR IT!
KNICKS AT HEAT – 8:00PM Sunday (ESPN) Not a big Oscars fan? I bet! You're big and strong and burly and drive trucks GRRRRR. Anyway, if counter-programming is what you need, check out Carmelo Anthony taking on LeBron James and the Heat for the first time in a New York uniform. ANTICIPATION: MELO!
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS – 8:00PM Saturday (ABC) Prepare for the Oscars by watching any number of Oscar-nominated films on TV this weekend (TCM has a bunch), including this tearjerker that nabbed Will Smith a Best Actor nomination. And you know what kills me about this movie? It's the fact that for every Chris Gardner out there, there are about four million other people who have to struggle just as mightily as single parents, and DON'T end up with a multi-million dollar job in finance. They just endlessly try and make ends meet, and then they die. Anyway, enjoy! ANTICIPATION: WEEPIE!
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE – 8:00PM Tonight (NBC) Kim Cattrall learns about her past. Also, she's probably naked. ANTICIPATION: YOU WERE IN MANNEQUIN!
Weekend Watch List: Oscar Night!
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and storm the Wisconsin capitol building. LET'S GO!