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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Intriguing and spring training shouldn't fit in the same sentence.
Yet one of the most interesting Rockies starts of the spring played out Sunday when Jordan Lyles faced the Los Angeles Dodgers' opening-day lineup. He tried to create separation in the fifth-starter derby but remains deadlocked with Franklin Morales after an uneven outing.
"I really can't control any of that," Lyles said. "I feel really good physically, and the changes I have made (getting more groundballs) have been beneficial."
The Rockies see him as a candidate, something they were reluctant to do this winter when they acquired him as the key piece in the Dexter Fowler trade to Houston. They liked Lyles but figured he would need to spend time in the minors after getting his brain and ERA melted as a kid with the Astros. He still might after his inconclusive effort.
However, they are reconsidering because of Jhoulys Chacin's shoulder injury. Chacin said Sunday that he will throw his first bullpen of the spring soon.
Lyles posted three scoreless innings, then labored through the fourth, allowing two runs, and couldn't escape the fifth as his pitch count climbed to the 75 limit. Lyles owns a 2.92 ERA in 12-plus innings.
Morales owns a 3.97 ERA. His versatility could work against him as the Rockies look for a starter to fill in for three weeks until Chacin returns in mid-to-late April. Morales is expected to make the team, either as a reliever or a starter. Lyles, manager Walt Weiss said, is viewed only for the rotation.
Fish stories on Trout. LaTroy Hawkins screamed the answer. "Heck, yes! No question!" when asked if the Angels' Mike Trout could play in the NFL.
Trout homered and stole a base Saturday against the Rockies. Starter Brett Anderson explained why the all-star is different.
"I pitch inside, and he's like (Derek) Jeter and Michael Young, because he can go to right field with that pitch," Anderson said. "The difference is he can hit it in the gap or for a home run."
Footnotes. Reliever Boone Logan (elbow) will throw in a simulated game Monday. He remains on course to break camp with the team. … Jorge De La Rosa allowed two runs in five innings in a minor-league game.
Rockies recap
Rockies 3, Dodgers 3
At Camelback Ranch
Hits: Slumping Charlie Blackmon delivered three hits, further muddling the center field picture. Candidate Brandon Barnes made a terrific, leaping catch to prevent a big inning against Matt Belisle. … Charlie Culberson played flawlessly at short. His speed could give him an edge for a bench job. … Manager Walt Weiss won his first replay challenge as Matt McBride was ruled safe on a missed tag on Yasiel Puig's 250-foot throw to the plate.
Misses: Hard-luck Michael Cuddyer is 4-for-26 at plate.
What's next: Rockies at Padres. Brett Anderson starts.
Troy E. Renck, The Denver Post

subset: commoncrawl


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Nearly a year after leaving LSU and ultimately landing at TCU, David Jenkins will again be in search of a new collegiate home — provided his near-future home doesn't include bars and stripes, of course.
According to TCU360.com, two warrants were issued recently for the cornerback's arrest on suspicion of burglary of a habitation. Thursday night, Jenkins turned himself in.
Friday morning, head coach Gary Patterson confirmed to the website that Jenkins has been dismissed from the football program.
'Very disappointed in his actions," the coach wrote in an email.
Jenkins left LSU in mid-June last year for unknown reasons. He sat out the 2012 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, but was in line for a starting job exiting spring as he was listed No. 2 on the depth chart.
As a four-star recruit in LSU's 2011 class, Jenkins was rated as the No. 21 cornerback in the country coming out of high school in Carrollton, Tex. He would've been a redshirt sophomore in 2013.
(Tip O' the Cap: Frogs O' War)


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Suspect's mother worked at school, officials says
A law enforcement official says the suspect in the Connecticut school shootings is 20-year-old Adam Lanza, the son of a teacher at the school where the shootings occurred. A second law enforcement official says the boy's mother, Nancy Lanza, is presumed dead.
The first official says Adam Lanza's older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, of Hoboken, N.J., is being questioned by police. An earlier report from a law enforcement official mistakenly transposed the brothers' first names.
Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.
The first official said Adam Lanza is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


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Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus, intern and Diamondback co-sports editor Josh Vitale, and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports.
Should Mark Turgeon go after Antonio Barton to play point guard next season for the Terps?
Don Markus: Having already written that Pe'Shon Howard might have been a suitable stop-gap before Roddy Peters is ready to take over at the point, I think it is fair to say that Barton would be a more than suitable replacement as Maryland's transition point guard going into the 2013-14 season.
The 6-2, 178-pound Barton, who announced this week that he won't return for his senior year at Memphis, is a lot quicker than Howard from what I've seen both on television and once in person when the Tigers played at Georgetown two years ago. He is also a capable – and willing – 3-point shooter.
It's not a guarantee that Barton, who will be eligible to play next season as long as he finishes his undergraduate credits for a degree in leisure and sports management this summer, definitely wants to play for the Terps. It's not a lock that Turgeon is certain.
But as Barton checks out the possibilities of where he might land, and Turgeon looks at game tape of Barton's career at Memphis, here's what I think: it's a low risk, and possibly high reward, for all parties concerned.
For Barton, it's a chance for his friends and family who haven't seen him play much the past three years to drive down from Baltimore. It's also a chance for Barton to see his young daughter, who lives with her mother in Baltimore, more frequently.
While Memphis has certainly had more talent the past few years – and will probably again next season – Barton will have players with NBA potential such as Dez Wells and other promising talents like Seth Allen, Jake Layman and transfer Evan Smotrycz to set up.
For the Terps, who haven't been to the NCAA tournament in three years, it's a chance to have a player aside from Wells and Smotrycz who has played on the biggest stage. When Memphis went down to the wire with Arizona in Barton's freshman year, it was Antonio, not his more famous brother Will (now with the Portland Trail Blazers) who helped keep it close.
Turgeon has four scholarships available for next season with Howard's recent departure, so you know there's room in that Comcast Center locker room for Barton. Though Memphis coach Josh Pastner rarely has a bad word to say about anybody, he speaks glowingly about Barton and how hard he worked on and off the court during the past three years.
Much was written when Barton came out of Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts after starting his career at Lake Clifton, that he was just a tag-along for the signing of his brother. But Antonio Barton averaged a more than respectable 8.2 points as a freshman. Pastner was reportedly under a lot of pressure to give Joe Jackson, a Memphis native, the majority of minutes at the point.
I'm not saying that Barton saw his minutes go down because his brother was no longer there. Jackson was clearly the better of the two. But given the issues Turgeon has had at point guard his first two years – the non-passing Terrell Stoglin his first season and then a revolving door with Howard, Seth Allen and Nick Faust last season – he needs some stability before Peters is ready to take over.
Barton could be the perfect one-year fit.
What are the biggest takeaways from last week's Red-White spring game?
Josh Vitale: Performances in spring games have to be taken with a grain of salt. They're nothing but more glorified scrimmages that fans are invited to watch, and the effort on the field does not always offer a complete picture of the team's ability.
But in last week's Red-White spring game, the Maryland football team showed some things on offense that offered hope for next season. It was only a scrimmage, but it was clear some strides had been made since the Terps last took the field in late November.
The most eye-popping performance on the stat sheet was the play of wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The rising sophomore exploded for 159 yards and a touchdown on eight receptions, and he did it playing with a quarterback who might not take a single snap next season.
Quarterback Ricardo Young was passable under center—he finished the game with 185 passing yards on 12 of 21 passing—but he's expected to return to a backup role once starter C.J. Brown is fully recovered from a torn ACL.
But even without great play from its quarterbacks—Dustin Dailey completed 8 of 17 passes for just 81 yards on the other team—the Terps' running game exploded. Running backs Brandon Ross combined for 257 rushing yards on 42 carries, and each averaged at least 5.9 yards per carry.
Perhaps the most significant takeaway, though, is how well the offense performed without some of its best offensive stars available. The game might have ended in a 13-13 tie, but the offense showed potential to score much more, especially with a full complement of players.
Brown's return should give the Terps more experience and play-making ability at quarterback. Running back Wes Brown should also be healthy next year after recovering from a shoulder injury this offseason, giving coach Randy Edsall another talented back to deploy in the running game. And second-leading receiver Marcus Leak should create a formidable trio with Diggs and Deon Long once he returns from a foot injury.
It's only a spring game, but the Terps showed they have the potential to finally become the team Edsall and offensive coordinator Mike Locksley envisioned they could be.
Aside from monitoring the transfer wire, when can Terps fans expect to get some legitimate basketball recruiting news?
Matt Bracken: It's been a slow couple of weeks in the world of Maryland basketball recruiting. So slow that for the second consecutive week there's been no reason to write a weekly recruiting roundup. But the dearth of hoops news should change this weekend, with a huge slate of AAU action on tap.
CBSSports.com this week posted an exhaustive list of the top spring and summer AAU events. This weekend, Nike's EYBL kicks off its circuit with Session 1 in Los Angeles. The Adidas circuit has an event in Dallas, while Under Armour and Hoop Group are putting on the Pitt Jam Fest in Pittsburgh. This is an open evaluation period for basketball recruiting, so it'll be a busy weekend for Maryland's coaching staff.
The publically known list of Terps targets for 2014 – Dion Wiley, Obi Enechionyia, Abdul-Malik Abu, Rashad Vaughn, etc. – will undoubtedly expand significantly. But for now, here's a closer look at Wiley – the four-star Potomac shooting guard -- courtesy of DMVElite.com.


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Fire claims man's life early Thursday
SAN ANTONIO — A man died early Thursday in a fire in the 500 block of General Krueger Boulevard.
Firefighters arrived at the scene just after 4:30 a.m. to find a detached apartment fully engulfed in flames behind a single-family home, Fire Department spokeswoman Deborah Foster said.
Firefighters found the man's body inside the apartment while they were putting out the flames.
The victim's identity wasn't known.
Preliminary observations indicated the man was overcome by the smoke before he could get out and that he could have died of smoke inhalation, Foster said.
The Fire Department's arson bureau is investigating. Officials said Thursday afternoon that the fire's cause still was undetermined.
Foster said investigators were looking into the possibility the fire was caused by a makeshift heating device the man was using.
A woman, who was not living at the apartment, suffered minor burns trying to rescue the man and was treated at the scene, Foster said.
Officials estimate the blaze caused $24,000 worth of damage.
Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN


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The Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board today voted to continue Phase III irrigation restrictions for Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and DeSoto counties through July 31.
"While the region is out of the immediate crisis, we are still contending with the effects of the long-term drought," said David Moore, SWFWMD's executive director. "The May rainfall helped, but the summer rainy season hasn't begun. We're going to monitor conditions closely over the next month before easing any of the restrictions."
The region received above normal rainfall in May, and aquifer levels are in the low normal range, lakes are still averaging between 2-5 feet below the lowest normal readings. Lake Manatee levels have held steady at 39 feet recently, about three feet above historical averages for this time of year according to John Zimmerman, Manatee County deputy director of utilities.
"The real importance of extending these restrictions is, we're all part of this regional system," Zimmerman said. "SWFWMD wants to make sure the Manatee County system will be strong when we come out of the rainy season. We need the aquifer system to recover also."
Under the Phase III restrictions, Manatee County is required to fine property owners who use irrigation systems during unauthorized days. First-time violators could be subject to $110 in fines and administrative fees. A second violation could result in a $210 fine. A third violation could cost $550 and a potential court appearance.
Most watering violations are related to irrigation of lawns, but other restrictions are in effect and are subject to fines, as well.
For more information, call 792-8811, Ext. 5327, or click on the Utilities tab at www.mymanatee.org.
SWFWMD's Phase III restrictions
· Lawn watering remains limited to a once-per-week schedule.
· Always refer to your local government or utility restriction guidelines first.
· Unless your city or county already has stricter hours in effect,
· Properties under two acres in size may only water before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
· Properties more than two acres in size may only water before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m.


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About the teamIn response to market demands and client needs, the Tax practice is in the process of transforming its Tax Compliance proposition and Tax Compliance delivery model. Central to our plans for the future within each of our three service streams (Corporate, Personal and Global Mobility compliance) is the Client Portfolio Lead role. This is a senior role within the Tax Compliance business and successful candidates will be given the opportunity to work on high profile client assignments alongside Tax Compliance and other Tax staff across the wider practice as we re-define our approach to delivering our services
About the roleIn this role you'll:Work with Resourcing and other compliance staff to ensure that the client is set up within the relevant systems and that work on the client is resourced responsively throughout the compliance cycle
Ensure that any transitional activities relating to PwC acting for the client in the first year are undertaken
Generate and agree scope, calculate draft costs and budgets, devise timetable. Activities to be performed in conjunction with client and relationship team.
Conduct internal review of scope, budget, timetable and resourcing year on year and ensure that systems are updated for any changes. Activities to be performed in conjunction and in agreement with client and relationship team.
Conduct external review of client information and ensure that the client is able to provide necessary details
Agree the approach to be used for data collection during scoping, liaising with the Data Management team throughout Data Exchange
Reviewing the format of data requests and missing information requests with the relevant compliance staff at each stage of the cycle.
Dealing with queries raised by client and the team in relation to missing information requests.
Agree tax technical positions for returns as required including any liaison with specialist teams. Ensure scope/budget is updated accordingly for use of specialists.
Ensure that the reviewer and other staff have reviewed all information and followed procedures followed so that the return can be delivered to the client and then e-filed to HMRC. This includes any client consent and co-ordination of re-work of returns (with Reviewer)
Assess the impact of any scope change on timetable, budget, resourcing and risk throughout the compliance cycle. Liaise with client and relationship over changes and review and update any documentation accordingly
Be the first point of contact for Relationship team, data team and compliance team and facilitate how each team works together
Planning flow of work to offshore team at taxpayer level and based upon timing of work, terms of engagement.
Coaching and developing other staff
Sharing technical and practical knowledge through own team
Budget management
Managing senior responsibility for and communicating with a mixed portfolio of clients varying from large engagements to HNW individuals with complex international tax affairs.
Provision of quarterly payment advice as agreed in scope
Monitoring and tracking progress of client portfolio and provision of regular updates to client taxpayers and relationship teams
Opportunity spotting for related PwC services and helping clients to manage their tax risk.
Dealing with a mixed portfolio of clients varying from large engagements to HNW individuals with complex international tax affairs.
Communicating with internal client teams, both within the Regional Process Team and the UK Regional International Mobility practice.
Deal with incoming HMRC correspondence as required, reverting to Relationship teams for any necessary actions.
Manage payment on account process for client including any client updates, tracking of amounts to be paid, capturing payment for inclusion in subsequent year
Essential skills and experienceThe successful candidate will possess initiative and enthusiasm and will show the ability to work in and contribute to the team and will possess the personal skills needed to form successful relationships. The successful candidate will have the majority of the following skills and experience:
Be ACA, ATT or CTA qualified.
Strong UK corporate or personal tax skills.
UK GAAP and IFRS tax accounting experience
Has a highly developed client service ethos and can adopt a flexible approach to meeting client needs.
Be able to establish, build and maintain a good working relationship with key decision makers, including partners and senior client personnel.
Have the ability to help manage and build new business through referrals, networking and spotting client opportunities.
Be an effective delegator, strong at coaching junior staff.
This is a challenging and exciting opportunity to join a growing business that offers exposure to an unrivalled range of clients and specialist tax areas. We offer a competitive salary and a wide range of flexible benefits.
Who we're looking forAll our people need to demonstrate the skills and behaviours that support us in delivering our business strategy. This is important to the work we do for our business, and our clients. These skills and behaviours make up our global leadership framework, 'The PwC Professional' and are made up of five core attributes; whole leadership, technical capabilities, business acumen, global acumen and relationships.
We help organisations and the people who run them answer the big business questions. How should we raise finance? Where should we be based? How should we reward our people? With some 3,300 experts whose expertise covers every conceivable area of taxation, we're one of the UK's leading tax practices.
Not the role for you?
Did you know PwC offer flexible contract arrangements as well as contingent work ( ie temporary or day rate contracting)?
The skills we look for in future employees
All our people need to demonstrate the skills and behaviours that support us in delivering our business strategy. This is important to the work we do for our business, and our clients. These skills and behaviours make up our global leadership framework, 'The PwC Professional' and are made up of five core attributes; whole leadership, technical capabilities, business acumen, global acumen and relationships.
Learn more here www.pwc.com/uk/careers/experienced/apply
We work in a changing world which offers great opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We seek to attract and employ the best people from the widest talent pool, as well as those who reflect the diverse nature of our society. And we aim to encourage a culture where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths. Creating value through diversity is what makes us strong as a business and as an organisation with an increasingly agile workforce, we're open to flexible working arrangements where appropriate.
Learn more here www.pwc.com/uk/diversity
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Forêt de Sumatra
An intrepid journey into an unknown territory
Indisponible -
Deep in the heart of the Indonesian rainforest, reveals an undiscovered natural wilderness. Sunlight dapples the forest floor and lush vegetation awakens every sense, as wafts of patchouli and cedar wood merge with the scent of damp earth underfoot to effectively blur the trail.
Exotic Woody
Lush, rare, mysterious
Jasmine, patchouli, smoked tea
During the first use, wait until the wax is evenly consumed, all the way to the edges, before extinguishing the candle.
The wick must always remain centred. If necessary, trim it to about 0.5 cm, straighten it and centre it.
Ideal for perfuming your living room or office.


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Public libraries are wonderful things
For our Thanksgiving drive to L.A., I went to our local library and got several books on CD. Since our small family manages not to have any overlapping areas of interest, this is always a challenge. One wants teenage hero spy books, another wants high school romantic dramadies (half drama, half comedy), another wants books on computer technology, and I like history books. Fate favored me because , on the day I went to the library, the only available books on CD that would meet any of those parameters were the history books.
The kids were not amused. In a compromise, we ended up spending half of each drive listening to the videos they got to watch from the back seat (fyi, The Simpsons is fun to listen to), and half the drive listening to David McCulloch's 1776. My husband was so delighted with this book that, upon our return, he put it in his own car so that he could listen to the rest of it while driving to work.
I, meanwhile, put Joseph Ellis' American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic in the CD player in my car. Since I drove about 100 miles yesterday to go to my pistol class, I was able to listen to the first disk. It's a delightful book, because Ellis shares my approach to American history: it's not about plaster saints or blinkered, evil white guys. It's about real people, in real time, dealing with real issues. And yes, the Founding Fathers were special.
The Founders' unique abilities came about by virtue of the particular historic time they occupied (what one might call the culmination of the Enlightenment), the incredible bounty of the American continent, their one hundred plus years of freedom as the British government ignored them (right up until the French-Indian War), and the education and class freedom that distinguished them from their European peers and from modern man. Despite these benefits and virtues, they still made mistakes, their personalities interfered with their decision-making, and they punted on the hard decisions because they wanted their own nation more than they wanted to free the slaves. Those nuances are what make history interesting.
Ellis has a nice turn of phrase and a good eye for historic details, so the book is an effortless listen (or read). I also detect in his tone a decided disdain for the Howard Zinn school of history, one that throws away the baby with the bath water. Characterizing the Founders as racist, sexist hypocrites not only obscures their great accomplishments, it also diminishes Americans' ability to understand their past, to control their present, and, in some small measure, to affect their future.
Listening to the book reminded me that one of the things that makes the Founders so fascinating is that they were men of truly catholic tastes. Everything interested them. No man from the Colonial era better exemplifies this quality than Benjamin Franklin. (Thomas Jefferson loses first place because he was a bit too Southern elitist.) Franklin was feted the world over for inventing the lightening rod, a device that drastically reduced a terrible scourge. He also invented the Franklin Stove, bifocals (bless his heart), and the public library.
Before Franklin came along, libraries were reserved for rich people. Even with the advent of the printing press, books were still expensive, and it was the fortunate man indeed who was both literate and capable of putting together a library of his own. Now of course, we take libraries completely for granted. In my community, we have ten public libraries, all of which are clean, well-stocked, well-maintained, and have wonderful on-line resources.
In a historical irony that Ben Franklin would fully have appreciated, modern Britain also has a splendid public library, one that includes a suburb on-line system. The aristocrats of old might be rolling in their graves, but Ben Franklin, who was also an entrepreneur extraordinaire would especially appreciate the fact that the British library has a department devoted to business planning. Yup. That former bastion of intellectual and class exclusivity now has a great resource for British residents who want to see if they can make it on their own.
As a confirmed bookworm, I feel blessed to live in era that not only has public libraries, but that also puts so many resources on-line, so that one doesn't even have to go to the library to experience the library's benefit. Is this the best of all possible worlds or what?
(BTW, if you're interested in learning more about Benjamin Franklin, I highly recommend Benjamin Franklin's own quite delightful autobiography, and Walter Isaacson's slightly more honest look at Franklin's life as a whole.)


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If you've got a recognizable name like the folks pictured above, you'd think that once you sign onto a project, you can expect to see your face on the big screen. That's not the case when Terrence Malick is the director. Although Rachel Weisz, Barry Pepper, Amanda Peet and Michael Sheen all filmed scenes for the Badlands director's film, To the Wonder, all of them were left on the cutting room floor. The film screens this coming Sunday at the Venice Film Festival before moving on to TIFF next week. Hit the jump for why the actors' scenes were cut and who is left in the finished film.
Deadline reports that Weisz, Pepper, Peet and Sheen all occupied small roles in minor parts of the film's main storyline. Malick is known for shooting excessive footage which he later excises to trim down to his desired final cut. In the words of one of the film's insiders:
"It's just the way Terry works; it's not a reflection on anything other than the story."
The actors are clearly aware of this risk as well, as Weisz was informed that her part would likely be cut, but was happy just to have the experience of working with Malick.
To the Wonder stars Ben Affleck as a player who seduces a European woman (Olga Kurylenko) while in Paris, and who he marries when he returns with her to Oklahoma. As their relationship sours, he takes comfort in a childhood friend (Rachel McAdams) and a religious exile (Javier Bardem).


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Category : Research Paper.
Topic : Citing a research paper mla. Author : Kalynn Wilcox.
Posted : Thu, Apr 30th 2020 01:13 AM.
Format : jpg/jpeg.
In a number of cases, you will also have to bring in what you have observed from daily occurrences. These will be those ideas that you could more methodically look into with the aid of books and other written sources. The ideas could further be on what you have read or learned or from what you can think of.


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Family Lawyer Battisford Tye
If you are searching for a family lawyer Ipswich, and 're based in Ipswich, we can help. We have specialist family law lawyers that cover all aspects of family law: married issues, paternity rights, divorces or union separation. We also perform work in civil marriages, civil partnerships or same-sex marriage. Prenuptial agreements (prenup) or post marital agreements can be an area our divorce lawyers specialise in. Cohabitation re couples living together who are not married can seek a cohabitation agreement, which is another area where we can help.
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Divorce-solicitors-Ipswich Family Law Lawyers Ipswich – Get In Touch Today
We are a company of divorce lawyers focused on giving people in Ipswich the very best family law advice. We are as passionate now as we were when we began and have dealt with a number of different family law cases throughout the last few years. We pride ourselves in providing the very best family law lawyers guidance within an open and compassionate style. We are working with individuals like yourself so get in touch on 01473 760 240 today. Or click HERE to go to our dedicated Family Law Website.
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With 13 days until the election, President Obama tried to fortify his support in Ohio and Florida; meanwhile, Mitt Romney is distancing himself from Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock after he made controversial comments about rape and abortion. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
Obama and Romney embark on battleground blitz… First Read's Electoral College scenario of the day: How Obama could get to 270 without Ohio… Mourdock pulls an Akin?... Why Mourdock could matter to Romney… Obama and that second-term agenda… Des Moines Register editorial chides Obama's off-the-record conversation… And Quinnipiac poll shows McMahon trailing by six in Connecticut.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney crisscross the country Wednesday, with a new urgency – though the campaigns are still fighting over a slice of undecided voters. The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd reports.
*** Battleground blitz: If you want to know where the presidential campaign is being fought, just look at all the candidate travel. Yesterday, President Obama hit Florida and Ohio. And today, beginning his whirlwind tour on Air Force One, he heads to Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada. Meanwhile, Romney yesterday was in Nevada and Colorado. And today, he returns to Nevada before heading to Iowa. And all of this occurring with 13 days until Election Day (a little over 300 hours until the first polls close, but who's counting). By the way, as we mentioned earlier, NBC's Brian Williams will be accompanying Obama on his battleground-state blitz.
"There is a fairly legitimate path for the president to win without Ohio," NBC News' Chuck Todd tells the Morning Joe panel this morning in discussing the last-minute grab both Obama and Romney are making for the swing states.
*** Electoral College scenario of the day: Between now and election day, we're going to delve into the various scenarios which are semi-realistic. Today's: Obama could still lose Ohio and get to 270 electoral votes, and the path is not a nutty path. He does it by winning Wisconsin (a state that hasn't gone GOP since 84), Iowa (a state Gore carried), New Hampshire (a state Kerry carried), and Colorado. That gets him to 272. Sorta stunning that with all of our focus on FL-OH-VA that they all three could get rendered meaningless by the Rodney Dangerfield of the battleground: Colorado. And this is why, despite some national polls showing Romney either tied or slightly ahead, the narrative has never held that Obama is behind – due to all of his different paths to 270. And isn't it inevitable that it's a NEW state that keeps us up, not an old one? In the last three presidential campaign cycles, we in the media have looked backwards at an old battle for a swing state, and it ends up being a new state that becomes THE story. In 2000, it was Florida (which no one believed before October). In 2004, it was Ohio (again, no one believed it until October). In 2008, it was Virginia (which ended up reflecting the national vote). So why not Colorado in 2012? And keep an eye on Maine, too: The pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future is up with a TV ad in the state trying to win the state's one EV in the 2nd congressional district.
*** Mourdock pulls an Akin? This isn't a story the Romney campaign wants to see just 13 days before Election Day. Just days after Romney endorsed and cut a TV ad for Richard Mourdock, the GOP nominee in Indiana's competitive Senate contest, Mourdock walked into controversy on rape and abortion. Describing his opposition to abortion – even in cases of rape – Mourdock said at a debate: "I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." Despite that recent endorsement, the Romney campaign distanced itself from Mourdock's remarks. "Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views." And even Mourdock walked back what he said at the debate. "God creates life, and that was my point," he said in a statement. "God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that He does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick."
*** Why Mourdock could matter to Romney: Even though the Romney camp quickly distanced itself from Mourdock's remarks, the story could matter to Romney. Why? Because just as Romney is trying to move to the middle -- on domestic policy, foreign policy, and social issues -- the Mourdock story is a reminder how the conservative bent of this Republican Party has been a drag on Romney. While Romney's fav/unfav inched up in our latest NBC/WSJ poll to 43%-44%, the GOP's own fav/unfav is at 36%-43% (compared with the Democratic Party's 42%-40% score). It's been the under-reported story of this campaign. So this becomes a fundamental question for Romney: Can he win over voters in the middle, even if these same folks have reservations about the party he now leads? Consider how the party will react if Romney loses; they'll blame him for all sorts of things. But if Romney loses, it'll likely be because Obama over-performed with Hispanics and women. Will that be Romney's fault, or will blame lie with the perception of the party?
*** Obama and a second-term agenda: And here's a fundamental question for Obama: How does he convince the public he has a second-term agenda with less than less than two weeks before election day? Yesterday, the campaign unveiled a new booklet outlining that agenda, and Obama held it up as he campaigned yesterday. (A little hiccup: Per NBC's Ali Weinberg, the booklets, as of yesterday, had arrived only in Florida, where Obama was yesterday. They were not available at his Ohio rally!!) Here's the irony in all of this discussion about Obama's second-term agenda: He definitely has one; in fact, it was the subject of most of his convention speech in Charlotte (100,000 new teachers, investment in infrastructure, tax breaks to families that create U.S. jobs, tax cuts to middle-class families, balanced deficit reduction). But because much of his campaign has been oriented to hitting Romney, there is the impression that Obama doesn't have a second-term agenda. And that is something the Obama camp is trying to fix. But it's clear the Obama campaign didn't expect Romney to fix his image as fast as he did with that first debate because the pivot by the campaign from disqualifying Romney to re-qualifying Obama has been, um, sluggish.
*** Des Moines Register chides Obama's off-the-record conversation: Meanwhile, the editor of the Des Moines Register, NBC's Carrie Dann flags, wrote an editorial about a private, off-the-record phone conversation Obama had with the editor and publisher -- in an effort to win the paper's endorsement. In the editorial, the editor chides Team Obama for not making the conversation on the record. "The conference call lasted nearly 30 minutes and was an incredibly informative exchange of questions, answers and an insightful glimpse into the president's vision for a second term… Just two weeks before Election Day, the discussion, I believe, would have been valuable to all voters, but especially those in Iowa and around the country who have yet to decide between the incumbent Democrat and his Republican opponent." The paper makes its endorsement on Saturday night.
*** On the trail: Obama campaigns in Davenport, IA at 11:10 am ET, in Denver, CO at 4:55 pm ET, and Las Vegas at 12:35 am ET… Romney stumps in Reno, NV at 2:45 pm ET and in Cedar Rapids, IA at 8:00 pm ET… Biden hits Marion, OH… Ryan makes a stop in Cleveland, OH… And Ann Romney visits Florida.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama speak in Ohio, Sept. 26, 2012.
*** Down the ballot: Meanwhile, looking down the ballot, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Chris Murphy leading Linda McMahon in Connecticut by six points among likely voters, 49%-43%... And Politico writes that the pro-Senate Democrat Super PAC Majority PAC is going up in Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. Yes, Pennsylvania, that's right; Casey in more trouble than perhaps folks realized? The Republican there is a self-funder and has been relentless.
Countdown to Election Day: 13 days
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Here we go, the last one in my series. The big finale. The crème de la crème. The ultimate in baseball knowledge. I hope I don't cry, I'm very emotional. In case you missed my other masterpieces, here you go:
AL East AL Central AL West NL East NL West
Please, blog, may I have some more?


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- "I wouldn't bother telling you what's in there. You wouldn't believe me if I did."
- —Barty Crouch Jr. imitating Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody speaking to Harry Potter[src]
Alastor Moody owns an especially bewitched magical trunk. It has seven locks on it, and the trunk opens to a different assortment of objects for each lock. The first compartment contained a mass of spellbooks. The second contained an assortment of broken Sneakoscopes, parchments, quills, and a silvery Invisibility cloak. Most notably, though, the seventh compartment is about 10 feet (3.0 m) deep (possibly because of the use of an Undetectable Extension Charm), and is where Barty Crouch Jr. imprisoned the real Moody in 1994.[1] It's presumably in this last compartment that Moody kept captured Dark Wizards and Death Eaters for transport during his days as an Auror.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Notes and References
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapter 35


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Over the past 10 years research in the area of pediatric exercise has focused on two primary topics. One topic under examination is the area of exercise metabolism in children. Studies to date have investigated the effect of maturation on exercise metabolism, the influence of a positive family history for diabetes on the metabolic response to submaximal exercise, and the effect of carbohydrate sports drinks on exercise metabolism and anaerobic exercise performance.
A second area of research has dealt with the effects of exercise in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Studies assessing the effect of stimulant medication use on the physiological and perceptual responses to exercise and the impact of an acute bout of exercise on measures of attention and impulsivity in this population have been conducted. Futures studies are being developed that will examine more closely the impact of stimulant medication on the cardiovascular response to exercise and the role in which exercise may serve as a means to curtail disruptive behavior in children with ADHD.


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Christine Sinclair wins Rosenfeld award as Canada's top female athlete
Soccer star had a transcendent season
Little about Christine Sinclair's brilliant performance at the London Olympics came as a surprise to her teammates.
But it allowed the rest of the world to finally see the captain they all know so well.
The 29-year-old star of Canada's women's soccer team lifted her squad to a bronze medal at last summer's Olympics, Canada's first medal in a traditional team sport since 1936. The result firmly entrenched her as a Canadian sports hero and brought global acclaim to a player who has been among the best women on the planet for years.
It also capped a tremendous season that earned the Burnaby, B.C., native the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The Canadian Press female athlete of 2012.
Previous winners
2011 — Jennifer Heil, freestyle skiing
2010 — Joannie Rochette, figure skating
2009 — Aleksandra Wozniak, tennis
2008 — Chantal Peticlerc, wheelchair racing
2007 — Hayley Wickenheiser, hockey
2006 — Cindy Klassen, speedskating
2005 — Cindy Klassen, speedskating
"She's always been one of the best in the world, she's always been fantastic, and what's great about this year is that the world got to see her at the highest stage — Olympics," said Canada's veteran goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc. "The world was watching, and she showed what we've all known for so long.
"People are starting to see all sides of her — her funny side and her humble side. She's a phenomenal athlete. And she believes so much. Playing for Canada is such an honour, and she shows that in the way she plays. She doesn't go out there and talk the talk. . . She shows it in the most beautiful way."
Sinclair earned 269 points, including the majority of first-place votes (84), to run away with the award, which is determined through balloting among sports editors and broadcasters across the country.
Olympic trampoline champion Rosie MacLennan was second with 118 points ahead of speedskater Christine Nesbitt (76), tennis player Eugenie Bouchard (30) and hockey player Caroline Ouellette (27).
"It's a huge honour," Sinclair said, but then deflected praise to her teammates as deftly as she delivers a pass.
"I'm proud of our team. We had a goal this year heading into the Olympics and that was to bring home a medal, and we accomplished that and just to sort of see the way Canada fell in love with our team, it's been very remarkable."
Sinclair, who has won nearly every athlete of the year award in Canada this month, led her team to bronze in London in spectacular fashion, scoring an Olympic-record six goals to win the Golden Boot. Sinclair recorded a hat trick in a controversial 4-3 extra-time semifinal loss to the U.S., and then lashed out at the officiating, which seemed to endear her even more to frustrated fans watching back home.
"Christine Sinclair is Canada's best soccer player," said Phil Andrews of the Guelph Mercury. "What a passionate leader. What a clutch performer. What an inspiration to the thousands of youths playing soccer in Canada and dreaming of being a star at an international level. She was the biggest story at the Olympics for Canada this year."
Cyclist Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria won the Lionel Conacher Award as Canada's male athlete of the year Wednesday.
Sinclair scored a Canadian-record 23 goals in 2012, and added six assists, meaning she contributed to 65.9 per cent of her team's scoring in 2012. Her 143 career international goals rank third all-time.
The season was a remarkable turnaround for the five-foot-nine player with the sweet scoring touch. Only a year earlier, Canada was ousted in the preliminary round of the women's World Cup.
Coach John Herdman, hired to pick up the pieces after their heartbreaking World Cup result, used a photo of Canada's disconsolate captain, head in hands, her face contorted in despair and dashed hopes, as motivation for his players heading into London.
"When you look at Christine's face in that picture, it wasn't just disappointment, it was frustration, it was anguish, it was guilt, it was a little bit of shame as well," said Herdman. "I told them, 'I never want to see a player with this sort of talent with this sort of love for the game feeling like this after any game they play for Canada.' "
He's since added a much happier photo of a crying Sinclair on her knees on the pitch, her arms raised in jubilation after Canada's bronze-medal victory over France.
"I emailed that around the team and I said, 'I think we promised we'd make Sincy cry, and this time for the right reasons,' " Herdman said.
Sinclair is the first soccer player to win the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award, originally awarded in 1933 and named for the Olympic champion and all-round athlete who was voted Canada's top female athlete for the first half of the 20th century.
Herdman compares her to a Rolls Royce — because she's all class. He's said she could be the David Beckham of the women's game because of her smart soccer mind. He likes to tell the story of how when she emails him about a particular trip, she always adds "if selected" in brackets.
Sinclair, true to form, heaps all the praise for the team's success this past season on Herdman.
"He brought back this confidence and belief within us, and had the veteran players learning new things and excited to play, and we all bought into his system and his style," Sinclair said.
One might not think a veteran such as Sinclair would have many new things to learn. But she points to Herdman's "grow room" as an example. A soccer computer lab of sorts with six laptops, players can watch footage of their performance in practice and games.
"We've never had that before so you're able to watch every single time, for instance, in practice you are involved in the play, every single time you touch the ball: what did you do with it, what was your pass percentage, how many times did you turn?" Sinclair said.
"That's been a big thing for me is watching myself in practice. It's one thing to watch yourself in games, but day in and day out what you do in practice is what makes a difference and we've never experienced that before."
Sinclair, who was Canada's flag-bearer at the closing ceremonies, took a month off following London — her longest break from the sport since having mono in 2002. She knows the next three years could be the busiest of her career. Canada will be gunning for gold when it hosts the 2015 World Cup, and then looking for a podium performance — an perhaps a measure of revenge against its American rivals — at the Olympics a year later.
She still has to sit out a four-game suspension for a post-game incident after that heartbreaking loss to the U.S. in London. But she will travel with the Canadian team to next month's Four Nations tournament in China.
"She's banned from the games in China, but she wants to be in that environment, she wants to be able to support players," Herdman said. "It speaks reams about her.
"You get into some of the spiritual and emotional things that Christine brings to the game and I think in a society now where we're challenged with whether we can keep kids active, whether we can actually find opportunities for kids during those troublesome teenage years to stay in involved with sport, people like Christine come along."


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In pursuit of the Yucatan Peninsula's gray ghosts
Welcome to the end of the road. If you're going to Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, it stops here, near the tip of a long, skinny peninsula about 100 miles south of Cancun. Scrub jungle encroaches on the village, fishermen wait for the opening of lobster season, the town drunk sleeps it off, dogs bark, flies swarm, flotsam surfaces on the beach and bread rises in the panaderia.
That's about it for Punta Allen, which promises nothing to visitors seeking parasailing, shopping, golf and other Cancun-style diversions. Development, which has crept down the Yucatan coast during the last 10 years and turned stretches of wild beach into a self-styled Maya Riviera, hasn't yet reached Punta Allen. And it isn't likely to soon because the construction of tourist facilities is strictly limited in the roughly 1.5 million-acre ecological reserve that surrounds the drowsy Mexican village.
If, however, you lust to catch a bonefish with a fly and rod, Punta Allen may be one of the most exciting places on earth.
The bonefish, Albula vulpes, is a creature only a fly fisherman could love--small (3 to 8 pounds in this area) and too bony to eat, which is why they're generally pursued on a catch-and-release basis. They populate the shallow, mangrove-fringed flats of Sian Ka'an's 20-square-mile Ascension Bay. The balmy habitat makes an appealing change of scenery for fly fishermen used to braving the elements on North American trout streams, but it gives the fish a critical advantage: They are almost impossible to see without the help of expensive polarized sunglasses and the trained eyes of a local guide. And even if your casting is precise, the tricky devils are strong and fast, as people who hook and then lose them are dismayed to discover.
"It's the ultimate trout fishing," says the owner/namesake of Bob Marriott's Fly Fishing Store in Fullerton. The travel department at Marriott's store sends anglers to several small resorts in the area between Sian Ka'an and the Belize border. It is one of the best places in the world to fish for bones, together with the Bahamas, Los Roques in Venezuela, the Seychelles and Christmas Island.
Before heading to Sian Ka'an last fall, I took casting lessons with Kevin Bell, a fly-fishing instructor and general manager at Marriott's store. By the pond in a Fullerton park, he showed me how to keep a tight loop in the line and apply power at the end of a cast. It's harder than it looks, a completely clumsy enterprise for a novice, until you get the hang of it. By the end of two lessons, I was making reasonably well-formed casts. Of course, I still had no idea of the complex tactics required to hook and land a bonefish. Nevertheless, my teacher seemed upbeat about my chances, though I could tell he thought it strange for a rookie to go after bones, which, I guess, is like someone who's just learned how to ride a bike entering the Tour de France.
The truth is, I just wanted an excuse to visit Punta Allen, which, on a visit to the Yucatan peninsula 10 years ago, had lodged in my memory as one of the world's great end-of-the-road places. I had taken a VW Bug on the perilously potholed, unpaved 30-mile road that scratches its way down the peninsula, often within sight of both the Caribbean to the east and Ascension Bay to the west, but had turned back when the going got too rough.
The average Cancun vacationer never catches wind of Sian Ka'an and the lost world of jungle, beach and reef that lies between the Maya coastal ruins of Tulum, about 60 miles south of the international airport, and the Mexico-Belize border. Then, too, the infamous Boca Paila Road to Punta Allen culls out all but the most determined.
"Some people make it some of the time," Manuel Sabido, the office manager of Cuzan Guest House, where I stayed in Punta Allen, told one of the guests. Everyone at the table laughed uproariously, but all the new arrivals had bruised behinds and glazed looks from the drive.
Knowing the road's rigors, I had Sabido book me a transfer to Punta Allen from the airport, where I was met by a beat-up white Chevy Suburban. Pedro, the driver, and his blase young sidekick, Luis, looked as though they could handle anything, so I kicked back and watched the scenery along Highway 307, which follows the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula all the way to Belize.
The last time I drove the road, nothing interrupted the low, thick jungle, though the area south of Cancun had just been designated a development zone by the Mexican government. Now there were resort entrances every few miles, all grandiose faux-Maya, attracting Europeans for sun-and-sand package vacations. In Playa del Carmen, I saw new fast-food outlets and shopping malls. Formerly a sleepy village with little more than ferry service to Cozumel, it is now one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
We passed through Tulum, then stopped at the reserve entrance to pay for admission, about $2 a day. Hotels and houses, ruined by one hurricane or another, sat moldering beside the road. Soldiers assigned to drug smuggling-watch along the beach, wearing hot boots and uniforms, hitchhiked along the extenuated peninsula. It had rained recently, turning potholes into swimming pools filled with standing water high enough to reach the Suburban's door handles. Every time we launched through one, Pedro grinned determinedly and Luis laughed. "I like this," he said. "It's an adventure."
About 10 miles into the reserve we crossed a wooden bridge over the cut near Boca Paila Fishing Lodge, where Pedro pointed out a manta ray undulating by a stanchion and a roseate spoonbill stalking fish on a flat. The lodge there is one of the more upscale of about half a dozen around Ascension Bay, and the place where bonefishing was introduced to the area about a decade ago, just as lucrative spiny lobster harvests seemed to be falling off.
Once the "gray ghosts"--as bonefish became known--were discovered here, North American fly-fishing experts came south to teach Punta Allen lobstermen and lodge guides the tricks of the trade. Locals had to learn how to cast and tie flies, and at first thought the whole catch-and-release enterprise crazy, says Sonja Lillvik, who opened Cuzan around 1985 with her partner, Armando Lopez. Now, guiding bone fishermen in the winter and spring is an important source of income for the people of Punta Allen, besides summer harvesting of lobsters, which are coming back.
There, on the tip of a fish hook, is what Sian Ka'an--and other biosphere reserves selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization--is about: balancing preservation of some of the world's rarest, most biologically diverse places with the need of indigenous populations to survive and prosper.
Sian Ka'an was decreed in 1986 and enlarged in 1994, and now is operated by the Mexican federal parks system, with extensive help from the Amigos de Sian Ka'an, a not-for-profit group created by environmentalist Barbara MacKinnon de Montes, who was born and raised in the U.S. but is a naturalized Mexican citizen. Though pressure to develop the reserve has been mounting, they have instituted a slow-growth plan for Sian Ka'an, emphasizing low-impact eco-tourism and limiting the number of hotel rooms to 1,500. "I would prefer not to see any development," MacKinnon says. "But the area is a biosphere reserve and thus 'sustainable' development is an integral part of the management plan."
To that end, MacKinnon's group and other conservationists encourage traditional cottage industries such as honey harvesting and hammock weaving. They support reforestation and crocodile monitoring efforts. And, perhaps most important, they teach some of the more than 800 residents of Sian Ka'an how to serve as eco-tourist guides. Catch-and-release fly-fishing fits nicely in the program.
Thankfully, the reserve is, as yet, too rough and off-the-beaten-track to be in imminent danger of overdevelopment. A third of it is tangled mangrove islets, swamps and mirror-like flats. Another third is Caribbean coast, looking out to the long reef that borders the Yucatan. The rest is machete-dulling tropical jungle, virtually untrammeled since the time of the Mayans, who left 23 ruins and a streak of proud independence to their descendants in the area.
Bumping around in the back seat, I tried to read a guidebook about the fauna of Sian Ka'an: crocodiles, jaguars, snakes, manatees, tapirs, pumas, leatherback sea turtles, howler monkeys, almost 250 species of birds--including jabiru storks, parrots, toucans, egrets and flamingos--and all the fish of the bay, reef and deep. Suddenly the Suburban came to a stop. We were finally at Cuzan, though by now it was too dark to see anything beyond a large, round, palapa-roofed restaurant, where lights glowed and the sand floor invited bare feet.
Inside, I met Cuzan's owner, Sonja, a transplant to the Yucatan from Northern California, the cook Jose, bartender Ruby--an expert mixer of strong, limey margaritas--and a serendipitous collection of guests. I'd half-expected to be the only person staying at the 14-room lodge, but there were eight of us around the dinner table that night, including a California couple who'd driven the road in a little Nissan to tour the bay, two adventurous young Czech backpackers with scant English, and a father and son from Oklahoma who had come, like me, for bonefish.
In that castaway place, we made a surprisingly cosmopolitan group. The woman from California happened to be the daughter of Czech immigrants, so the backpackers had someone to chat with. Sonja talked about her early days in the village at the end of the road, when she learned how to treat shock because the only people who came to Cuzan were shipwrecked yachters.
Chuck Goldenberg, an endearing septuagenarian who ties flies in his spare time, and his son John, a businessman currently in London, proved something my Marriott casting instructor had told me: You meet a more ethical class of people when fly-fishing, the sort that takes pleasure in the hunt, not the kill. Chuck dreamed of catching a bone, tarpon and permit fish, a fly-fishing grand slam, but he and John had gotten only three small bones and a 24-inch barracuda, and that was by trolling.
I had booked a three-day package, with all meals included. Jose delivered one plate after another, starting that night with delicious lentil soup, then the house specialty, grilled lobster tails, and flan for dessert. Everything was cooked in a palapa adjoining the dining room, including terrific breakfasts of huevos rancheros and French toast made of freshly baked bread from the panaderia. One afternoon, I saw a huge red snapper suspended outside the kitchen, which showed up again on my plate at dinner.
It was late by the time we'd scraped our plates and drained our margarita glasses. In pitch black, Sonja led the way to my room, which was actually a blue-hulled houseboat in dry dock under a palm tree, about 10 feet from the water. Sonja said she and Armando never got around to making it seaworthy, so they turned it into the lodge's funkiest suite.
It had easy chairs on the deck and two plywood-lined rooms, one a bath with a sink and shower dispensing hot and cold water. The sleeping chamber had generator-fed electric lights, louvered windows, a cooler of purified water and a double bed regally draped with mosquito netting. I read by flashlight, slept lightly and dreamed bizarrely. At night, the wind usually kicked up, moaning through the palms, and it rained hard off and on. But my little ship always weathered the storm, basking in first-day-after-creation sunshine by the time I awoke.
Early the next morning, I walked around the village, which was quite spread out. It has a primary school, a basketball court overlooking the water, an open-air church, offices of fishing collectives and a handful of small shops, all peaceful and good-natured. Even the stray dogs looked healthy. It struck me as a good, safe place to raise a family, though Sonja later said that Punta Allen attracted a strange crew of gringos, including the occasional on-the-lam American felon.
At breakfast, I met my fishing guide, Carlos. He was 31, with a wise look beyond his years, had a Maya grandma and had just married a gringa who had worked for a time at Cuzan. Carlos had already loaded fishing tackle and a lunch cooler into the boat, which bobbed by the pier. He started the quiet four-stroke engine and we shot south, past the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula and across the mouth of Ascension Bay, banging against big waves all the way. I kept one hand on my hat and the other on my sunglasses, which, besides sun block, were all the gear I needed, because Carlos supplied the rod, a No. 9 line WT Redington, and the flies, Crazy Charlies and crab patterns.
Soon we were on the wide, placid bay, flying Indiana Jones-style through narrow channels between mangrove islands. Then we got into skinny water, utterly transparent shallows that are one to two feet deep, where bonefish swim in tight V-formations and root, leaving the impressions of their snouts on the bottom. Carlos turned off the motor and stood in the stern, slowly and silently propelling the boat with a pole, his eyes glued on the water. Ten minutes passed. I was watching a heron wade through the mangrove and thinking about an article I'd recently read in Smithsonian magazine on the results of experiments that apparently proved that fish feel pain.
Then I heard Carlos say, "Bonefish, 12 o'clock, 25 feet."
This was my cue, but I didn't have my rod ready and couldn't see the prey, so the fish escaped. Later I glimpsed a bone as it swam close to the boat in an arcing flash--the aristocrat of the flats, arrogant and unconcerned that anyone would have the temerity to try to catch it. Mostly, though, I cast blind, to Carlos' directions. When I occasionally put the fly where he saw a fish, he motioned for me to stay still, then to strip, a way of pulling the line in with your hands to make the fly spurt across the bottom, like that favorite bonefish delicacy, mantis shrimp.
Once I hooked a small bonefish but lost it because, concentrating on my casting, I was totally unprepared for its power when it tugged back and ran like 10 inches of silver-coated muscle. After lunch--tuna sandwiches, chips, watermelon and soda--I hooked and lost another.
So it went all afternoon. The sun disappeared, obscuring the view even for Carlos, then came out again, its rays emanating from a break in the clouds as in a Renaissance painting of Christ's ascension. An osprey soared across the water. Everything seemed silver. I zoned in and out but was never bored, caught up in the drama of bonefishing.
Returning to Punta Allen, cruising past an islet where a thick flock of frigate birds nested, we explored bird-viewing platforms on tangled fingers of mangrove. When we got back, there was time for a walk to the lighthouse, where I saw big spiders weaving webs and bats embarking on nocturnal hunting forays.
On the second day, I saw three lemon sharks and a 10-foot crocodile in a channel where I'd innocently gone for a swim. This time, Carlos and I occasionally left the boat to wade in the shallows. The muck at the bottom had the consistency of wet cement and our feet sank to our shins. Carlos helped me land a small bonefish, but it didn't really count because he did most of the work. By then I'd basically given up on catching one on my own and was content to see the sights and go snorkeling out on the reef before heading back to Punta Allen.
Near the end of the third day, I was still wading in the flats behind Carlos, my eyes riveted on the surface, looking for "nervous water," as he put it, that signaled the presence of bones.
Suddenly he stopped. "You see?" he whispered.
"No," I said, scanning the water where he pointed.
"Twenty feet, 1 o'clock. Cast now," he said, "but soft."
I lifted the rod back and let the line fly, utterly amazed because suddenly I saw the tight little V-formation of bonefish he'd spotted.
"They're tailing. Wait," Carlos said. "Cast again, shorter."
I did.
"Strip, strip, strip," Carlos said. "Now stop . . . . "
The line jerked, then tensed, like a game of tug-of-war.
"You feel?" Carlos asked. "You got him. Let him run."
The fish ran three times to the far side of the flat, but somehow I played it right this time, reeling in with the grip of the rod propped against my hip. After five interminable minutes, Carlos was removing the hook from what he estimated to be a six-pound bonefish. He took a picture while I cradled it in my arms, then released it to make more silver crescents in Ascension Bay. I hoped that the hurt, if it existed, would pass and that the fish, if it could remember, would think of our encounter without regret.
Then I raised my arms and yelled in unadulterated joy. But it wasn't just the fish. It was the lost and lovely place--Sian Ka'an. Sonja says it's unlikely they'll ever pave the road. I hope she's right.
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i have a little question:
in the filezilla server interface, you can setup users. there, under "shared folders" you can enter the directiories which should be accessible for the chosen user. You can add several dirs, in my example:
C:\personal files\pics
you can chose one as homedirectory. this dir will then appear connecting to the server e.g. with IE. but how can i get to the other (..\pics) folder?
And what is the meaning of the "aliases"? how to use them? i didn't really understand the hint there.


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Used Car Standards
Twice what's required
When it comes to buying a used car, you can find a wide range of quality in what you are being sold. At Thomas, we abide by a set of standards that every used vehicle we offer for sale must measure up to.
Among these are the minimum tread depth and the minimum brake pad thickness that we will accept on our cars and trucks. In both cases, they must be at least double the state requirements. We also require that a state certified technician sign off on every used vehicle inspection that the car or truck meets all state specifications before we will offer it for sale.