text:
Special Feature
"I just like the roar of the crowd, and people pay money to see us fight and I want to be as exciting as possible." - Matthew Riddle
Expect to see the mean mugging left at home when smiling welterweights Matthew Riddle and Chris Clements open up UFC 149's Pay-Per-View main card on Saturday night in Calgary. But that's not bad news for those expecting plenty of bang for their buck; these two will slug it out, it's just that they'll do with wide grins on their faces. Yeah, it's odd, but not to Riddle.
"I just like the roar of the crowd, and people pay money to see us fight and I want to be as exciting as possible," he said. "I look at every fight as like I'm not trying to win on points. I'm trying to finish you. I want to knock you out, I want to hurt you where you don't want to fight me anymore. That's how I fight, and I get joy out of that. When you get in those exchanges and you're banging back and forth and going for takedowns, it's a good time."
It's not a gimmick either. Ever since he first slammed onto the MMA radar on season seven of The Ultimate Fighter, Riddle hasn't stopped smiling, even through the usual ups and downs with not only being a fighter at the highest level of the game, but of fighting your entire career under the brightest of spotlights. That's an admirable trait in and of itself.
"I just have fun with what I'm doing, and I've got a lot of good things going on right now," he said. "I've got two kids and I just stay happy. The only thing that does stink are the injuries. After my last fight I broke my hand and then I had a fight coming up and I hurt my ribs, so the injuries do suck, but other than that, it's great."
That may not be what some veterans of the fight game want to hear. They would like to paint Riddle as a kid with a sense of entitlement due to the fact that he didn't make his way to the UFC through the local circuit. But that assessment couldn't be further from the truth. Riddle has had to pay his own set of dues growing up in public, so to speak, and he knows that he is fortunate to have bypassed some of the pitfalls his peers haven't.
"Because of my lack of experience on the regional circuit, I was basically treated like gold from Day One," he admits. "I talked to a lot of fighters who have had 30 pro fights and haven't set foot in the Octagon yet, and they've talked about the horror stories of not getting paid and not getting medical treatment or anything. And I've been taken care of since Day One."
Yet while this may be true, the UFC isn't running a charity here, so to stay, you have to earn your keep, and the 26-year old has done that, going 6-3 in the Octagon, including a hard-fought split decision win over Henry Martinez in February that prevented Riddle from a three fight losing streak. After the victory, Riddle healed his broken hand and began working in a gym in Del Rio, Texas, Fidelis MMA, and though the rib injury scrapped a June 22nd bout with Luis Ramos, when he got back to business and received a late notice call to fill in for Siyar Bahadurzada against Clements, he jumped at the chance.
"I think I would have taken anybody, and also the opportunity to fight on a main card of a Pay-Per-View, that was also a great opportunity that I really didn't want to pass up," he said. "I had the fight with Luis Ramos in Atlantic City and then I got hurt, so this was honestly great timing. I was already training for that fight and then I was coming back slowly, so I was already training a couple times a day as I was running a gym down in Texas, and I got the call, so I came up to Vegas, did a couple weeks here, and then I'm heading out to Calgary."
Riddle has made the travel rounds in his career, from his native Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Arizona and Texas. But Las Vegas, where his wife and twin daughters live, is still home. And with a third bundle of joy on the way, Riddle may still look like a happy go lucky kid, but he's grown up.
"The one thing now that's a lot different from before is that I could relax," he chuckles. "I didn't worry about when I had a fight. I'd have four months, five months off and I wouldn't care. But now I've got two kids and I got bills and all sorts of stuff, so I like to fight more often and get more opportunities."
After four years of service in the Octagon, Riddle is feeling that he's just about ready to start making his move toward the elite.
"I am," he said. "I feel good, I feel confident. I go into all the gyms and I usually work everybody. When I first started, that wasn't necessarily the case. I was good, but now it's a different level from where I first was. I had one amateur fight and then I went straight to The Ultimate Fighter and then the UFC. But the good thing is, I always had world-class training partners right after The Ultimate Fighter."
Now it's time to put that hard-won experience to the test beginning Saturday night, and his plan is to leave 2012 with the momentum needed to make even more noise in 2013.
"I think I get a nice victory over Chris Clements, hopefully injury-free, and then get one more in for November-December, or maybe even sooner depending on how I feel after this fight, and rack three in a row."
Sounds like a plan for MMA's happiest man.
Power Slap

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Associated Press
As Tammy Duckworth sees it, her path to Congress began when she awoke in the fall of 2004 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was missing both of her legs and faced the prospect of losing her right arm.
Months of agonizing therapy lay ahead. As the highest-ranking double amputee in the ward, Maj. Duckworth became the go-to person for soldiers complaining of substandard care and bureaucratic ambivalence.
Soon, she was pleading their cases to federal lawmakers, including her state's two U.S. senators at the time — Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama arranged for her to testify at congressional hearings. Durbin encouraged her to run for office.
She lost her first election, but six years later gave it another try and now is one of nine veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who will serve in next year's freshman class in the of House of Representatives.
Veterans' groups say the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is welcome because it comes at a time when the overall number of veterans in Congress is on a steep and steady decline. In the mid-1970s, the vast majority of lawmakers tended to be veterans.
For example, the 95th Congress, which served in 1977-78, had more than 400 veterans among its 535 members, according to the American Legion. The number of veterans next year in Congress will come to just more than 100. Most served during the Vietnam War era. In all, 16 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, not all in a combat role.
"We're losing about a half a million veterans a year in this country," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America. "We are not going to be in a world where a significant plurality of people spent some time in the military, so to have 16 men and women who fought in this current Congress is incredibly significant."
Tarantino said he recognizes that the 16 Iraq and Afghanistan vets have wide-ranging political views. But at the end of the day, he said, their shared experiences make it more likely they'll put political differences aside on issues like high unemployment and suicide rates among returning veterans, or in ensuring that veterans get a quality education through the post-9/11 GI bill.
Their election victories also provide a sense of assurance to veterans.
"The biggest fear we have as veterans is that the America people are going to forget us," Tarantino said. "When you have an 11-year sustained war, the fight doesn't end when you pull out."
Duckworth carries the highest profile of the incoming vets. She was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade landed in her lap, ripping off one leg and crushing the other. At Walter Reed, she worried about what life as a double amputee had in store. But during her recovery, she found a new mission — taking care of those she describes as her military brothers and sisters. That mission led her to a job as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs during Obama's first term.
"Had I not been in combat, my life would have never taken this path. You take the path that comes in front of you," Duckworth said from a wheelchair last week as she and her fellow freshmen went through orientation at the Capitol. "For me, I try to live every day honoring the men who carried me out of that field because they could have left me behind, and they didn't."
Duckworth is one of two freshmen Democrats who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The other is Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who served near Baghdad for a year and was a medical operations specialist. Gabbard said she hopes the two of them can be a voice for female veterans and the unique challenges they face.
About 8 percent of veterans are women. They tend to be younger on average. Nearly one in five seen by the Department of Veterans Affairs responds yes when screened for military sexual trauma.
Seven Republicans served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Most had backing from tea party supporters who share their views that the size and scope of the federal government should be curtailed.
—Ron DeSantis of Florida was a judge advocate officer in the Navy who deployed to Iraq as a legal adviser during the 2007 troop surge.
—Brad Wenstrup of Ohio was as a combat surgeon in Iraq.
—Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan served in an administrative capacity with an artillery unit in Iraq and retired after suffering a neck injury. He also served as an infantry rifleman in Vietnam.
—Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma was a combat pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan.
—Scott Perry of Pennsylvania commanded an aviation battalion in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.
—Doug Collins of Georgia was a chaplain in Iraq.
—Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Harvard Law School graduate, was an infantry platoon leader in Iraq and then was on a reconstruction team in Afghanistan. In between, he was a platoon leader at Arlington National Cemetery.
Cotton said the reason he ran for Congress is the same one that led him to enter the Army after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I felt we had been attacked for who we are — the home of freedom," Cotton said. "And I worry now our liberty is threatened at home by the debt crisis we face, which in the long term will mean less prosperity and less opportunity, and therefore less liberty."
Cotton said he could easily see himself working with Duckworth and Gabbard on veteran's issues. "They've carried a heavy load and we owe them a great debt," he said.
At the same time, it's clear the freshmen veterans have clear differences of opinion over policy matters. For example, Gabbard is a strong critic of the war in Afghanistan. She says the United States needs to get out as quickly and safely as possible. Cotton opposes setting timetables for withdrawal.
"We're trying to win a counter-insurgency war where we can put a friendly, allied, stable government in place," Cotton said. "It's certainly been a long and somewhat winding road, but on the whole, America and our interests in the world are much better off for having waged the war in Afghanistan."
There also will be differences over spending priorities. Cotton is reluctant to trim spending on defense as a way to deal with the deficit.
Duckworth said certain programs need close examination, particularly in the area of government contracts. She said she "can actually stand up and talk about defense spending in a way that will be realistic without being attacked for lack of patriotism or not being strong on defense."


text:
First things first: Go right over to those links to the right and join up in my four football prediction competitions – two NFL and two CFB. The group name for all of them is the usual: Daily Quickie Readers. Hope you join in. Winner of each gets to write a guest-post on DS.com. (Or, alternatively, maybe a prize that is perhaps a little more enjoyable.)
Next: Click this link to read my Jaguars season preview on Deadspin. As many of you know, I picked up the Jags as my favorite NFL team before last season began. I'm back for Year 2. Consider yourself appropriately appalled.
Madden 08 released today: As I pointed out in the Daily Quickie (I believe in last year's edition on the day Madden 07 was released), the release of Madden has become one of the biggest days of the sports year. It's arguably bigger than any single NFL weekend except the Super Bowl. And it arguably tops any single day's event in any other sport, with the exception of the first two days of March Madness (which, coincidentally, are two days of all-consuming attention, not unlike the first two days you have Madden out of the box).
Vick Watch: Now the other two guys are cutting deals, too. Vick is SO screwed. Doesn't even matter HOW he's screwed. He just is.
Should Vick himself take a plea deal? He probably should, simply to get this behind him (and understanding that he's in a ton of trouble, whether he feels like he did anything wrong or not). Here's the priority: Avoid any association with gambling (which could get him banned from the NFL for life), avoid jail time, take the NFL's punishment (even if it's a year) and, for cripes sake, rehab his image.
How could Vick rehab his image? Once the legalistics are behind him, he can admit how wrong he was, display contrition and become the poster guy for animal care – in particular, being a spokesperson against dog-fighting and other cruelty issues. Give money. Give time. Give celebrity. Create and star in a documentary about it. Write a book about it. Despite the current loathing towards him, I suspect that fans WANT to forgive him – he simply needs to (sincerely) give fans something to hang their forgiveness on.
Related: In an interesting NYT/CBS poll, 36 percent of fans who know about the case think that Vick is receiving preferential treatment. Wow: If what he's getting is preferential treatment, I don't want to see what "throwing the book at him" looks like. Did the local prosecutor bumble the case? Yes. Have the Feds been deliberate? Yes, but that's called "building a case." Has the NFL been lenient? Considering they suspended him indefinitely on nothing more than the indictment alone, not particularly.
MNF Preseason Debut: Last August, on the day of Tony Kornheiser's debut, I suggested he was the best thing to happen to Monday Night Football since Howard Cosell. Unfortunately for all of us, I was a wee bit off. (Cripes: When you make as many boldly superlative pronouncements as I do, you can't be right ALL the time.)
I acknowledge that glaring error in the hopes that you'll forgive me a second straight year of hyperbole, because I was off by one year: Ron Jaworski is the best thing to happen to Monday Night Football since Howard Cosell. "Is it Monday yet?" was brilliant, but here's my 2007 MNF slogan suggestion: "We've put the 'football' back in Monday Night Football."
Broncos 17, 49ers 13: Who's with me that Jay Cutler feels like a late-round steal in your fantasy draft? (Alex Smith will be a late-round bargain, too.)
Bonds Watch: Is 2008 his last year? Needless to say, I don't expect there to be a "Retirement Tour" around the league... although there should be. And any team that wants to juice attendance (home AND road) should sign him. Much like his Home Run Chase, most fans can say they want no part of Bonds, but if you've never seen him in person, you'd be crazy not to attend at least one of his games next season, if only just to tell your kids you did.
Meanwhile, Bonds was greeted with cheers last night in
MLB Stud: Welcome back, Richie Sexson.
Cal Ripken's new job: He's "special sports envoy" for the State Department. I hope administration spin czar Karen Hughes doesn't simply use Ripken for attempted political gain. But, overall, I really like the idea.
NFL Coaching: Here's to Lane Kiffin's quick and complete recovery from whatever viral infection has got him down right now. Gotta show solidarity for an NFL coach who is younger than me.
Pat Riley to coach another three years: I'll take the under.
Sonics relocation to
I feel badly for fans in
So the logical question: How soon can the NBA get a replacement team in
I'm late on this, but... Mark Cuban approves of tanking: It's nice to see him affirm a position I've held for years. Tanking isn't just OK, but in many cases is optimal.


text:
Nizoral is used for treating fungal infections. Nizoral is an azole antifungal. It kills sensitive fungi by interfering with the formation of the fungal cell membrane.
Use Nizoral as directed by your doctor!
- Take Nizoral by mouth with or without food.
- Do not take an antacid within 1 hour before or 2 hours after you take Nizoral.
- If you are also taking an anticholinergic (eg, hyoscyamine), an H2 antagonist (eg, famotidine), or a proton pump inhibitor (eg, omeprazole), take Nizoral at least 2 hours before the H2 antagonist, proton pump inhibitor, or anticholinergic.
- To clear up your infection completely, take Nizoral for the full course of treatment. Keep taking it even if you feel better in a few days.
- Nizoral works best if it is taken at the same time each day.
- If you miss a dose of Nizoral, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use Nizoral.
Store Nizoral between 59 and 77 degrees F (15 and 25 degrees C). Store away from heat, moisture, and light. Do not store in the bathroom. Keep Nizoral out of the reach of children and away from pets.
Active Ingredient: Ketoconazole.
Do NOT use Nizoral if:
- you are allergic to any ingredient in Nizoral
- you have a fungal infection in the brain membranes (fungal meningitis)
- you are taking an aldosterone blocker (eg, eplerenone), astemizole, cisapride, conivaptan, dofetilide, an ergot alkaloid (eg, ergotamine), erythromycin, midazolam, nevirapine, pimozide, a quinazoline (eg, alfuzosin), quinidine, rifabutin, rifampin, terfenadine, triazolam, or a 5-HT receptor agonist (eg, eletriptan).
Contact your doctor or health care provider right away if any of these apply to you.
Some medical conditions may interact with Nizoral. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have any medical conditions, especially if any of the following apply to you:
- if you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or are breast-feeding
- if you are taking any prescription or nonprescription medicine, herbal preparation, or dietary supplement
- if you have allergies to medicines, foods, or other substances
- if you are allergic to other azole antifungals (eg, itraconazole)
- if you have low stomach acid (eg, hypochlorhydria)
- if you have a history of liver disease, regular alcohol use, alcohol abuse or dependence, or blood problems (eg, prophyria).
Some medicines may interact with Nizoral. Tell your health care provider if you are taking any other medicines, especially any of the following:
- Many prescription and nonprescription medicines (eg, used for infections, HIV, seizures, anxiety, sleep, heartburn, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, high blood pressure, allergies, irregular heartbeat, pain, blood thinning, asthma, migraines, mood or mental problems, cancer, prostate problems, immune system suppression, erectile dysfunction, urinary problems, or contraception [birth control]), multivitamin products, and herbal or dietary supplements may interact with Nizoral, increasing the risk of serious side effects
- Nevirapine, rifabutin, or rifampin because they may decrease Nizoral's effectiveness
- Astemizole, cisapride, dofetilide, erythromycin, pimozide,quinidine, or terfenadine because the risk of severe heart effects may be increased
- Midazolam or triazolam because their actions and the risk of their side effects may be increased by Nizoral, resulting in increased risk of sedation and breathing difficulties
- Aldosterone blockers (eg, eplerenone), conivaptan, ergot alkaloids (eg, ergotamine), quinazolines (eg, alfuzosin) or 5-HT receptor agonists (eg, eletriptan) because the risk of their side effects may be increased by Nizoral.
This may not be a complete list of all interactions that may occur. Ask your health care provider if Nizoral may interact with other medicines that you take. Check with your health care provider before you start, stop, or change the dose of any medicine.
Important safety information:
- Nizoral may cause dizziness or drowsiness. These effects may be worse if you take it with alcohol or certain medicines. Use Nizoral with caution. Do not drive or perform other possible unsafe tasks until you know how you react to it.
- Rarely, Nizoral may cause a severe allergic reaction right after you take the first dose. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the eyelids, face, or lips; or rash or hives. If this happens, seek medical care at once.
- Use of alcohol with Nizoral has rarely caused symptoms such as flushing, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, nausea, and headache. Talk with your doctor before drinking alcohol while taking Nizoral.
- Do NOT take more than the recommended dose or use for longer than prescribed without checking with your doctor.
- Nizoral only works against fungi; it does not treat viral infections (eg, the common cold) or bacterial infections.
- Be sure to use Nizoral for the full course of treatment. If you do not, the medicine may not clear up your infection completely. The infection could also become less sensitive to this or other medicines. This could make the infection harder to treat in the future.
- Diabetes patients - Nizoral may increase the risk of low blood sugar from your diabetes medicine. Check blood sugar levels closely. Ask your doctor before you change the dose of your diabetes medicine.
- Hormonal birth control (eg, birth control pills) may not work as well while you are using Nizoral. To prevent pregnancy, use an extra form of birth control (eg, condoms).
- Lab tests, including liver function tests, may be performed while you use Nizoral. These tests may be used to monitor your condition or check for side effects. Be sure to keep all doctor and lab appointments.
- Nizoral should be used with extreme caution in children; safety and effectiveness in children have not been confirmed.
- Pregnancy and breast-feeding: If you become pregnant, contact your doctor. You will need to discuss the benefits and risks of using Nizoral while you are pregnant. Nizoral is found in breast milk. Do not breastfeed while using Nizoral.
All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects.
Check with your doctor if any of these most common side effects persist or become bothersome:
Nausea; stomach pain or upset.
Seek medical attention right away if any of these severe side effects occur:
Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); bloating; dark urine; decreased sexual ability; depression; irregular heartbeat; fever, chills, or persistent sore throat; loss of appetite; numbness or tingling of the hands or feet; pale stools; severe or persistent nausea or stomach pain; swollen or tender abdomen; thoughts of suicide; unusual bruising or bleeding; unusual tiredness or fatigue; vision changes; vomiting; yellowing of the skin or eyes.
This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur. If you have questions about side effects, contact your health care provider.


text:
Esteban Loaiza (1-2) vs. Jeff Francis (0-2).
COMMENTS: SoSG will be representin' on the Loge level (free caps!) as the Dodgers try to complete the sweep of Colorado—unlikely given that Rockies ace (and pride of Vancouver, BC) Francis is going up against nominal Dodger starter Loaiza, and that the Dodgers have not yet won three in a row. Strangely, yesterday's 10-run first-inning outburst may cost the Dodgers today, as Rockies manager Clint Hurdle forced Mark Redman to serve penance for another five innings (in which he ironically held the Dodgers scoreless). Now the Rockies bullpen will be rested for today's game.
As for the bats, the only starter without a hit yesterday was...wait for it...Andruw Jones, who did draw two walks to beef up his OBP and whose glove continues to pay dividends. If Matt Kemp hasn't earned a spot in today's starting lineup after his first career grand slam yesterday, then there is no justice in the world. As Erin from Beantown West noted, Kemp's five RBIs in the first inning were "more than Jones has had all year."


text:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Above Ground "Dungeons"
The main difficulty of using a vast ruined city as the basis for a "dungeon" is that it's not constrained geographically. That is, players can very easily move around the edges of the ruin to avoid any tricks or traps the referee might have placed in one area. Now, on one level, that's solid old school thinking there and ought to be rewarded. On the other hand, it's perhaps a bit too easy. Consequently, planning a dungeon of this sort takes some forethought. The simplest approach might simply be to use a ring-like structure, with the outer portions of the ruin corresponding to the topmost levels of a traditional dungeon, while the inner portions correspond to the deeper levels.
Even this approach raises issues, particularly once magic starts increasing player mobility. My general rule, when encountering seeming difficulties, is to embrace them as opportunities. Yes, players will eventually gain access to spells like fly and dimension door that might enable them to "skip" certain encounter areas. Rather than fret about that, why not give them something else to do with such spells? In my campaign setting, the Eld and the Thulians are the two primary sources of ancient ruins. Both were masters of magic, so it stands to reason that their once-great cities were built and maintained using magic, magic that lingers still after all these centuries.
So, I'm thinking my ruined city will have several floating islands associated with it -- former wizard towers and research facilities and other such arcane treasure troves. These will be magnets for mid to high-level adventurers who have access to magic and magical items that enable them to move around more quickly and easily. No, this won't prevent PCs from "upsetting the balance" of the surface ruins, but that's fine. Dungeons are made, after all, to be kicked over and looted by adventurers. The trick is to ensure that, no matter what, the process of kicking over and looting is challenging and that requires a referee who can think on his toes and respond appropriately. That's why I'll probably be a bit looser about the inhabitants of the inner ring of the ruins, so I can change them up as needed. I won't leave the area blank entirely -- that's just a recipe for disaster -- but their strength and numbers can be varied, as can their tactics and level of magical support.
I've often wondered why there aren't more examples in D&D of vast surface ruins as outdoor "dungeons." Other than Ed Greenwood's Myth Drannor, I can't think of any off the top of my head. I feel like I'm missing some obvious ones, though. Can anyone think of some I might have forgotten?
33 comments:
The mid-'80s Pool of Radiance PC game from SSI employed this idea to some extent. The ruined city of Phlan was one big dungeon with various humanoid and other monster factions controlling various parts. Not sure if the AD&D Ruins of Adventure module was similar or not. PoR remained my favorite computer game for a long while, and you might have put your finger on why. I think it's a great idea, and seems to allow for a more complex "ecology" than a straight dungeon setting, if you're into that sort of thing.
ReplyDelete- AnonymousDecember 2, 2008 at 2:05 PM
The best example of a "ruined city" dungeon is Pavis, but that's for Runequest, so I don't know if that counts for the purpose of your discussion.
Pavis was an ancient city built by giants and over time repopulated & ruined & re-ruined by various culture/races. The giant sized city walls enclosed miles of ruins with several region controlled by elves or trolls with wandering monsters and various dungeon local inside the city. Outide the old city a new city has grown up - in large part serving the needs of adventurers looting the old city. The new imperial overlords even license and tax looting of the old city.
Not D&D but definately an extensive take on the concept.
see here for further info:
http://www.glorantha.info/runequest/chaosium/pavis/pavis.html The Nameless City, Leng, Pnakotus - they've probably not been explored in D&D, but they've been covered in some way in the various supplements for Call of Cthulu.
I like your ideas and definitely adding this post to the list of things to Remember. I'd be very interested in seeing how this turns out!Not sure if the AD&D Ruins of Adventure module was similar [to Pool of Radiance] or not.
I was a fan of PoR back in th'day, and have the module RoA too. I even tried to run it as a pick-up game for a couple friends back then.
IIRC, they more or less translated the computer game to the printed page, even down to the square chunks of city. It didn't yield a sterling tabletop experience, but I highly recommend the computer game, though.
I agree, though, the ruined city as dungeon has great legs. Some of the issues mentioned above can be easily handled. For instance, perhaps players employing flying magic could risk a couple rolls on a special flying encounter chart (and natural fliers will almost always be at an advantage to those using magic).Bad Archeology is just a damn good time! Who hasn't been inspired by tales of Egyptian pyramids, or other lost city-structures built by the ancients of fact and fiction? There is just so many cases of this happening, and to let players experience something like that for themselves, is a most generous offer (not to mention great fun to create).
Find the door is an old role-playing staple, and what better way to hide it then in a grand setting such as this?A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity takes place in a ruined city, and informs the game master that many adventures could be had in the city itself. The temple could be described as one "level" of a ruined city dungeon in that respect.
The dungeons that Conan enters in the REH stories are frequently long abandoned cities. The Slithering Shadow and Jewels of Gwahlur particularly stick out in my mind.Another problem with cities is increased visibility such as from flying straight up and mapping the whole city from above, or just from being on rooftop.
Maybe that can work for you if most of the major locations also be landmarks; the red tower you can see from everywhere, the golden-domed temple by the river, the plumes of smoke rising from the humanoid-infested hill. Obvious places that scream "here there be loot". Then exploration can proceed somewhat like a wilderness adventure but with a few important locations already known.
Of course with an underground city of tunnels and large caverns you can have the best of both worlds.a ring-like structure
I'd plead against anything so simple: one of the joys of cities is the variety of neighbourhoods, and I don't see why a ruined city would lack this. Instead, what about cities-within-the-city? Rabbit-warren covered souks, caravanserais, slums, citadels and cloisters forming their own pockets of dunegon-ness? Oh, and underground reservoirs, natch.
spells like fly and dimension door that might enable them to "skip"
Might I suggest adding a near-ubiquitous flying threat? This would not only discourage flying spells, it would make open squares and courtyards threatening environments, encouraging PCs to stay in the relative safety and shelter of alleyways and buildings, snatching map-enabling glimpses of the whole city from tower windows - it might give you a nicely claustrophobic vibe that dungeons generally lack. Coupled with a really tight urban fabric, it might make flying not that much of a shortcut. The threat then acts as a gauntlet, restricting your flying towers to higher level explorers, and adding a logistical challenge on dungeon exit: how to get back with all the loot, when the flyers know you're there?
I was always looking for a decent city setting book and I never found one, although plenty of people tried: I think the problem is the scale - it requires a more procedural approach - advice/tools for making city regions with minimal start information, rather than fully mapped environments, which I think also explains the charm of the dungeon from a publishing perspective: it's a very concrete, specifiable environment."Dwellers" is about all I can remember off-hand. It even solves the containment issue by dropping the city right into a big crater, thus restricting access through the populated tradiitonal dungeon areas - although you could always take a swing on the Big Tree!
If you get serious about this, take a look at the article "Ruin" from Dragon #54. I've used that in the past for fleshing out a ruined city and it comes in very handy when the party starts wandering into un-detailed territory....sorry, the "citadel" link above was supposed to take you to the Bukhara Ark, a bloody great fort-city in the middle of the city of Bukhara, and yet, obviously separate from it.
ReplyDeleteI like Richard's take, but you could always restrict the availability of flying spells and items til you're ready for the adventurers to have them. Fly may be a 3rd level spell, but nobody says that the MU has to find a copy once he hits 5th level.
But again, I really like Richard's way of making open spaces scary. How about using pterodons--too big and ungainly to crawl into doorways, but always flapping about int he air, looking for an easy meal.The only RPG I can think of that worked around a massive ruined city was an experiment by GameWorkshop to explore a small corner of the WH40K universe - in the hive cities of planet Necromunda. This was a number of issues from White Dwarf in the early 90s, and it was called Confrontation. By the mid-90s, the game was end up a skirmish-level wargame called Necromunda. I remember reading the rules books, and being inspired by the art and the idea of exploring dense, urban environments. As a skirmish-level wargame, Necromunda is the best place to fight in. But as a RPG, it can be fun with its dense 3D environments, limited visibility, and lots of nasty, unforeseeable hazards - its like the dame world is one big ass megadungeon!
I know Necromunda is not really a fantasy RPG (being more of a Mad-Max cyberpunk with elements of westerns and horror), but it was a major influence with my other games at the time.
If you what a game book that gives good ideas about making and exploring ruins, then I recommend reading The Ruins of Hyboria, by Vincent Darlage. It maybe a d20 book, but its for the Conan RPG, and such books has ideas that goes well beyond rules - often throwing out a lot of cliché high fantasy elements out the window!Darlene's Greyhawk map lists large ruins scattered across the Flanaess, which I had always assumed were ruined cities since they're located in the former Suloise and Baklunish lands (along with Blackmoor, and the southern jungles). The lost city of the Suloise in the Suss Forest is also hinted at in the folio and boxed set, and is further developed by Gygax in his novel Artifact of Evil.
Other adventures not mentioned yet include Caverns of Thracia (a ruined city in a jungle sits atop its dungeons) and Necromancer Games' Lost City of Barakus. I can't think of any other specific adventures offhand, but have the lingering impression that some MERP and Harn supplements covered ruined cities quite a bit (Osgiliath, Minas Ithil, and others)??
Oliver Dickinson's Griselda fiction set in Pavis and The Big Rubble is probably the gaming fiction standard for ruined cities. Also worth checking into is J. Eric Holmes' "In the Bag" short story from Dragon 58, which takes place in a ruined city in/under a forest.
Allan.I tend to buy every 'lost city' I can. Barakus is just a dungeon. Thracia is a sketchy ruined city over a well-done dungeon. One not mentioned is Lost City of Gaxmoor, a genuine ruined city which uses the concentric circles approach, and has a very nice map. Its 3e stats are wonky but it would make a good old-school (eg 1e) rules ruined city adventure.
ReplyDeleteDwellers of the Forbidden City? It's a little under-developed (as are many things from that era), but I would think it counts.
I feel silly for not citing this one, as it's a favorite of mine. You're absolutely right, although the way it's presented in the module, the impression is that most of the ruins are very sparsely settled as opposed to the somewhat more riotous idea I have in mind.I think most of the gaming ones have been hit on above; meanwhile, one of my favourite fantasy cities has always been Nessus from The Book of The New Sun - a city of such size and age that the inhabited part of the city has moved upstream over the millenia, leaving miles and miles of ruins outside - some merely creepy places to visit, some downright dangerous.
ReplyDeleteGaxmoor - at current prices it's definitely worth getting, if only for EGG's enchanted statues! As a 3e module it's flawed*, but there's a ton of good stuff in it. Re-statted for OD&D, 1e or C&C it could be great. Potentially a very nice above ground 'sand box' dungeon for mid-level PCs.
*The final villain's stats are hugely OTT. He killed dozens of PCs IMC.Going from Big Rubble experience to trying to do something similar for D&D, I think the big hangup for me was in trying to think of it as a "dungeon."
The above-ground ruined city (like the underworld of the Drow modules) is really more of a "wilderness," I think. The degree of difference depends chiefly on how big (especially horizontally)and how ruined it is.If it's really heavily and anciently ruined it might initially be mistaken for wilderness. These days Merv (once a city of several hundred thousand persons) looks like some oddly regular hills, but the urban fabric is still there, just under the surface, and walking around it you get these weird glimpses into little rabbit-holes in the ground that you suddenly realise lead into rooms and stairwells. The few standing structures have a distinct otherness about them: each one looks like the gateway to, well, a dungeon.
ReplyDeleteI've continued to think about this lo these weeks. I don't have anythign brilliant, but it did occur to me that you could establish the levels by having the city built on a hill (or multiple hills). The poorer outer quarters, nearest the walls, are the lowest. As you approach the middle, you have to climb the hills--maybe using the ruins of antique, grand, public stairs or maybe having to climb--that signals that you are approaching the harder levels as much as descending in the typical dungeon.
Also, I'm thinking that pterodactlys haunt the skies, always looking for an easy meal, thus forcing the PC's to hug the walls and avoid the open spaces.I've been chewing on this for a while too. I love the idea of a city as a mega-dungeon.
To deal with some of the inherent 'problems' how about:
* City is in the style of Machu Pichu. Steppes and plateaus on the sides of an incredibly steep mountain side. Some caves are possible.
* City is located in the river-run canyons of the desert lands, with tall, sheer cliff-sides and narrow corridors. Like in Indiana Jones & Last Crusade (end part)My thoughts on fly is instead of restricting it, how about enhancing its use. You want your city to previously be home to wizardly types so arcane research labs and stuff floating in the sky above the ruins would be a way to differentiate between the level of encounters you find as well as letting you stock the place with better gear that would tempt player to get there. The floating buildings can also be a way to lead the players to the city by having a crashed building in a town nearby it and tales of the powerful magic found within.


text:
Working With Images
If you just want to get an image on a page, simply upload the image file (using the 'Attachments' link). Then use {{attachment:image-name.png}} (where image-name.png is the name of your file). Wherever you plop that code is where the image will be. If you put it within a paragraph, it will be part of the flow of the paragraph. For tiny images, this might be fine, but be careful with big images, or your page will look odd.
For example, if you put large image {{attachment:duckie.png}} into the middle of a paragraph, like this , then that's exactly what you'll get. However, be careful, because as you can see, the graphic can adversely effect your paragraph layout. But, a small image, like this fish [], does not.
Page Alignment
This example uses a chair image that's aligned left. Notice that paragraph text flows around it, so you can (for example) stagger images on the page. Here is the code: {{attachment:chair.jpg||align="left"}}
This example uses a clock image that's aligned right. Notice that text flows around it. Here is the code: {{attachment:clock.jpg||align="right"}}
Getting the image positioned on the page (and relative to your paragraphs) will take a bit of playing. I find placing the image-code above the paragraph gets it aligned perfectly with the paragraph in question. If you view the source of this page, you'll see that I have both image-codes at the start of this section.
Baseline Alignment
Using a pineapple as an example, the following are examples of aligning an image on inline within the text baseline:
This is top: |
{{attachment:pineapple.jpg||align="top"}} |
This is middle: |
{{attachment:pineapple.jpg||align="middle"}} |
This is bottom: |
{{attachment:pineapple.jpg||align="bottom"}} |
Image as a Link Button
Here's an example of using an image as a button. Or, in this case, a button as a button. As you can see from the example code, this link will open in a new window. If you don't need it to, simply eliminate the |target="_blank" part. Alternatively, you can even replace the HelpOnEditing part with any valid link, including external URL's.
Thumbnail of an Image
If you have a large image that you don't necessarily want/need to display at once, create a thumbnail preview. When the reader clicks the image, they'll get the original enlarged version. You only need to specify either width or height, and the image will automatically scale in proportion.
The code: [[attachment:Grand_Tetons.jpg|{{attachment:Grand_Tetons.jpg||width=100}}]]
Title Text
Optionally, you may add an title text to any image link, and it will display when you hover the mouse over the image (the image being rendered or not). To do so, simply put the text in the second argument: {{attachment:fish.jpg|A little tiny fish!}} to generate .
Title Text can be combined with any of the examples described on this page. Simply put it between the double pipe (||) in the link. Borrowing from the example above, here is the clock again with an added description: {{attachment:clock.jpg|old alarm clock|align="right"}}
Combining Options
You can easily combine multiple options separating them with commas. For example, if you want to change both the custom width size and the alignment you should use something like this:
{{attachment:clock.jpg|old alarm clock|width=49,align="left"}}


text:
A Juneau, Alaska, woman wants to give her daughter an awesome middle name. Literally.
Lisa Flores is seeking court approval to legally change her daughter's middle name to Awesome.
The Juneau Empire reports Awesome would replace the given middle name of Contea for 2 1/2-year-old Viviana Flores.
Mom allowed her 11-year-old son to initially pick out his sister's name. Dominic wanted her first name to be Danger, something Mom vetoed. He came back with Awesome for a middle name, but Lisa picked "Contea" at the last minute.
She now wants the name changed to honor her son's wishes and to thank Dominic for all he has done to help her.
He says the "cool" name will allow her to tell people all her life that she has an "Awesome" middle name.


text:
Obama Administration Opens Review Of Its Deportation Policy
The Obama administration is reviewing its deportation policies in an effort to conduct enforcement more humanely, according to the White House. As part of the effort, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is listening to recommendations from a range of groups.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
And I'm Audie Cornish.
The Obama administration is reviewing its deportation policy. According to the president, it's an effort to conduct enforcement more humanely. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is leading the review, meeting with numerous groups, ranging from agricultural workers to religious leaders to members of Congress. Many organizations have been weighing in with ideas of how they'd like to ease the rules. Those rules led to some two million deportations under the Obama administration. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.
BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: Greisa Martinez came to this country with her parents from Mexico when she was two months old. Her parents were undocumented. Her father was deported in 2008, she says, after he failed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign in Carrollton, Texas. She says she's not seen him since.
GREISA MARTINEZ: My sister graduates this May 9th, and this is going to be the second college graduation that he misses. And one of my sisters is about to get married and he won't be able to walk her down the aisle.
NAYLOR: Martinez says both she and her mother are undocumented, and so the threat of deportation is very real.
MARTINEZ: This issue of deportations is one that hits home because I know the fear of thinking that my mom might be taken away, too.
NAYLOR: Martinez is a field organizer with United We Dream, one of the many groups that has reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Johnson, hoping to influence the administration's future policy on deportations. Martinez says among other things, her group wants the administration to broaden its deferred action program in which those brought to the U.S. as children are not sought out for deportation.
MARTINEZ: The ability that someone that receives that deferred action to be able to travel back to Mexico. So I could travel, go back and - to go see my dad. Or my mom could travel to go back and see my dad. And we could have the wedding in Mexico, right?
NAYLOR: United We Dream says the administration should implement policies that re-unify families that have been torn apart by the immigration system. A policy change advocated by the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have a similar effect. John Sandweg thinks the agency should relax its policy on detaining and deporting undocumented people caught re-entering the nation, so-called repeat entries.
JOHN SANDWEG: What you find is there are large numbers of individuals who were previously deported, oftentimes years ago. They return because they have families and they've lived here in the United States continuously for several years.
NAYLOR: Sandweg says focusing on them diverts resources from other more serious threats such as removing violent criminals. The AFL-CIO has also weighed in. The labor federation's Kelly Fay Rodriguez says their top priority is affirmative relief with a work authorization. In other words, DHS would give some undocumented people legal permission to remain in the U.S. and to work here without fear of arrest.
KELLY FAY RODRIGUEZ: It's really hard to address it once you're in detention. You - it's much harder to get legal help, to get your family to help. Oftentimes, family have trouble finding even where people are detained. And so this affirmative relief will allow people protection before they're even put into the, you know, the criminal justice or sort of the detention system.
NAYLOR: The Senate approved a comprehensive immigration overhaul last June, but so far the House has not acted. Fay Rodriguez says the administration could make changes through an executive order and prosecutorial discretion without congressional authorization. She admits it's a big ask, but says it's justified.
RODRIGUEZ: We're in an unprecedented situation and a crisis that really deserves a strong response by the administration.
NAYLOR: Fay Rodriguez says the administration should also end programs such as Secure Communities that partner with local police and sheriff's departments to enforce immigration laws. What effect any of these recommendations will have on the administration is not clear. A senior official who asked not to be identified said Homeland Security Secretary Johnson is open for business and listening to all kinds of groups.
He's also been meeting with those within the government charged with implementing immigration policies, including Immigration and Customs, Customs and Border Protection, even the Coast Guard. Homeland Security says there's no timetable for completion of the review. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


text:
- Home
- Claim Forms
Claim Forms
CMS 1500 Forms (formerly HCFA 1500 forms), UB 04 Forms (formerly UB 92 forms) and envelopes
Medical Coding .Net carries only the highest quality paper forms at excellent prices including FREE SHIPPING.
Our forms are the officially recognized and accpeted forms for Medical Billing on paper. These forms are printed in a special OCR-scannable red ink.
Click on the plus sign next to Claim Forms (on the left hand side menu) to quickly navigate the type of product desired.
Please call us at 1-888-288-2043 if you have any questions. Do leave a message if we are busy on the phone helping another customer.
Thank You for making us your preferred partner for your coding needs!


text:
China and the United States, the world's dominant producers of carbon emissions, have adopted aggressive programs to reduce oil imports, create new clean-energy industries and jobs, and generally improve the environment. But the environment that will be most critical to making or breaking the two countries' efforts to curb the dangers of global warming could well be the market that they jointly create in pursuit of their aims. Unless the two work together to provide the scale, standards, and technology transfer necessary to make a handful of promising but expensive new clean-energy technologies successful, momentum to curb global warming could stall and neither country will maximize its gains in terms of green jobs, new companies, and energy security.
The risk is real. Electrified vehicles, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and concentrated solar power, among other emerging "green tech" sectors, will need massive investment, infrastructure, and research to get off the ground. While the Chinese and US governments, along with private investors, are pursuing all of these technologies, they cannot achieve separately what they could jointly.
For a more in-depth look at these three clean-energy technologies and how China–US cooperation could make them economically feasible, launch this interactive exhibit, a collaboration between McKinsey and frog design.
Whether collaborating formally or informally, China and the United States working as a group of two (or G-2) dedicated to climate change would boost these technologies and deliver benefits that would accrue to all nations. Clean-energy solutions are critical for reducing the amount of harmful greenhouse gases produced not only by the two highest-emitting nations but also by countries worldwide. For instance, if the majority of vehicles on the world's roads by 2030 were hybrids and battery-powered vehicles, they would generate 42 percent fewer emissions than if all cars continued to run on today's gas and diesel engines.1 But such reductions won't occur—won't even come close to happening—unless China and the United States lay the groundwork to make it so.
A global electric-car sector must start in China and the United States, and it must begin with the two countries jointly creating an environment for automotive investors to scale their bets across both nations. Private companies in China and the United States will most certainly compete to make the products, including electric-drive (or hybrid) vehicles, batteries, charging stations, and so on. But the two governments can no doubt create the conditions for both of them to succeed—for example, by setting coordinated product and safety standards across the two markets, funding the rollout of infrastructure, sponsoring joint R&D initiatives in select areas (such as new materials for car parts), ensuring that trade policies support rather than hinder the development of a global supply chain for the sector, and providing consumers with financial incentives to buy the new models. More immediately, the two governments could pick matching cities in China and the United States for electrified-vehicle pilots that could be used to collect standardized data on real electrified-vehicle consumer adoption, infrastructure costs, and driving conditions that could then be shared with companies in both nations.
This new sector will require scale to succeed—more scale than could be found any time soon in either country alone. Electrified vehicles may one day become a viable market within both nations, but that day will arrive much more quickly if the two countries collaborate to create a market that is bigger and more attractive. In building this market, China and the United States would also ensure that the companies and jobs associated with it would be created in both countries sooner. Oil consumption will fall more quickly as well: today, about 50 percent of China's oil imports—and 80 percent of America's—are used to fuel vehicles. In other words, one plus one would equal three. Such momentum would also likely spark Europe into competing in a global electrified-vehicle industry faster.
CCS is another technology whose success needs the scale that only China and the United States can create together. Adapting CCS technology to coal-fired plants to capture the emitted greenhouse gases is expensive. CCS technology also uses a lot of energy to capture the emissions, thereby making plants less efficient. And fundamental questions about how the captured emissions are to be stored still need addressing. Neither nation is pursuing this expensive, uncertain emissions reduction technology quickly, but they would improve their chances and their options if they pooled costs and knowledge.
Together, the two governments could fund demonstration plants in China and the United States, jointly evaluate technologies available from vendors, set standards, and drive down costs. By using the pilot plants as research labs to learn more about the challenges CCS faces and how to overcome them, the governments could share the information with companies entering the CCS business, advancing learning in this industry at a quicker pace. Assuming engineers find solutions to the technical and storage hurdles, we estimate that by 2030 this technology could "clean" 17 percent of coal power in the United States and 30 percent of China's coal power, reducing total combined emissions by as much as 7 percent—a significant benefit to both nations and to the world.
Concentrated solar power (CSP) might not even have a future without joint action by China and the United States. As an emerging technology, CSP requires both technical progress and massive investments that only the largest economies can support. CSP technology uses sunlight to create and store steam power to drive turbines that transmit electricity on a larger scale more easily than they could using photovoltaic technology (which uses flat-screen receptors that turn sunlight into power). If clean concentrated solar power is scaled to generate 22 percent of total power in China and the United States by 2030, it could create over half a million jobs in each country. Setting common standards, coinvesting in pilot projects and R&D, and undertaking other joint initiatives are the way to get this started.
There are other benefits to joint action on clean energy besides reducing oil imports, cleaning up the air, and creating jobs. Cooperation on tangible actions that result in positive improvements for each country could help to foster trust between governments that have real differences on other political and economic issues. In addition, meaningful reductions in oil consumption by the world's two largest importers of oil could ease pressure on future global supply and demand imbalances of the fossil fuel.
It won't be easy for countries and companies to work in common to make these technologies real. The challenges to cooperation are numerous. Companies in both nations will be wary about what information they share with partners and competitors. Real cooperation between the two countries on technology initiatives is limited, so both sides will have to work hard to build relationships. In addition, they will need to create institutional frameworks for implementing and managing projects, as well as cofinancing mechanisms, partnership rules, and governance models. US companies will be concerned about protecting the intellectual property (IP) technologies that they use in pilot projects in China. The two governments will need to cleanly separate bilateral initiatives on clean-energy development from broader, multilateral agreements on emissions reductions. The list goes on.
But none of these challenges are showstoppers. Negotiations between the two countries could address nearly all these issues comprehensively. Even the thorniest—IP protection—is manageable. Because companies from many nations would contribute to making these three big technologies a success, IP agreements should be international. On that front, China will need to improve its ability to enforce global IP rules. Most critical, however, is the leadership that will be needed to surmount these obstacles. A commitment at the top levels of both governments to set a joint course for making these technologies real would be the signal of a real beginning. From there the impulse for collaboration may well filter down through the public and private sectors in the two countries to make research, investment, and policy a cooperative agenda.


text:
At a Paley Center event Wednesday night, Ryan Murphy confirmed that Season 6 will be the final one for "Glee." He also revealed that Cory Monteith's death has forced him to come up with a completely different ending for the show.
"The final year of the show, which will be next year, was designed around Rachel and Cory/Finn's story," he told reporters. "I always knew that. I always knew how it would end. I knew what the last shot was. He was in it. I knew what the last line was, she said to him.
"So when a tragedy like that happens, you have to sort of pause and figureout what you want to do. So we're figuring that out now." Murphy said he does have a general idea of how he would now like the show to end.
"I'm going to tell the studio and the network (in a week) how, after Cory's unfortunate passing, we can end the show that I think it very satisfactory and kind of in his honor, which I love."


text:
There's news from South Carolina that's beginning to get attention because of headlines like this:
-- "Judge Sentences Woman To Read Bible For Drunk Driving Conviction." ( CBS Local in Charlotte)
And that's generating outraged comments like these from the liberal-leaning Indecision blog run by Comedy Central:
-- "I guess this is what creeping Sharia looks like."
We suggest, though, reading this story byThe Herald in Rock Hill, S.C. There, you'll find that:
-- After Cassandra Belle Tolley "pleaded guilty to driving drunk and crashing into a car, seriously injuring two people," Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles late last month sentenced her to "eight years in jail followed by five years of probation and substance abuse counseling."
-- Then, with Tolley's consent, he added this assignment: She "must read the Old Testament book of Job and write a summary."
As New Vision Free Will Baptist Church Rev. Daggett Duncan tells the Herald, "I think (Nettles') faith and his compassion led him to use the book of Job. Job made it through, and he wants her to know she can too."
Tolley's attorney tells the newspaper his client has started working on the assignment. And Kenneth Gaines, a professor of law at the University of South Carolina, says Nettles couldn't have added that task to her sentence unless Tolley "was in entire agreement with it. ... You can't just arbitrarily add anything you want to a sentence."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Hey guys...
Always wondered about throwing a tennis ball on the courts.
So after a Joe'sSpecial breakfast, headed to my courts for a toss test.
Had 3 old DunlopHDHardCourtChamps, and one really old Penn (like 4 months).
Back fence is just over 25' behind the baseline. Height is just around 19'.
I get into service position, feet aligned like serving, front foot behind the baseline and let fly the first one... line drive maybe moonball height, lands 4' up the backfence.
Second one, a slight height adjustment, lands mid fence.
Third one, I think....twist serve motion... clears back fence by about 5'.
4th, I remember to close my eyes on the toss, and it goes maybe 8' above the fence.
Some guy gets his interest piqued, and tosses me another ball, a wet Wilson that is all hard and no fuzz. Of course, that one cleared the fence behind the fence behind my court, about the width of a tennis court farther, but about the same height.
Every toss, feet land inside 18" of the baseline, farther back than my normal serves.
Try it, but don't toss too many. The tennis ball is too light for your rotator cuff to handle.


text:
Two reports on troubles with lithium ion batteries aboard Boeing's 787 Dreamliner:
In Japan, where a battery on an All Nippon Airlines 787 overheated and began smoking on Jan. 16, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing, the Transport Ministry released a report Wednesday saying it found that the battery in question had been improperly wired.
The Associated Press, citing the Transport Ministry report, said the ANA 787's auxiliary power unit was incorrectly connected to the main battery that overheated. The incident prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and authorities in other countries to ground 787s worldwide.
According to the AP, on the ANA flight, the Japanese Transport Ministry noted:
Flickering of the plane's tail and wing lights after it landed and the fact the main battery was switched off led the investigators to conclude there was an abnormal current traveling from the APU due to miswiring.
However, the ministry said it still needed further investigation to determine exactly what caused the main battery to overheat.
In another report, the Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed source said to be "familiar with [Boeing's] plans," said the aircraft maker had determined that the solution to the overheating problem was to increase the gaps between the battery's individual cells, but the report gave no other details.
The Reuters story also quotes Kiyoshi Kanamura, a professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, who has been involved in battery research, as saying that the "logical solution" for the battery problem is to install ceramic plates between the cells and add a vent to the battery box, presumably to dissipate the excess heat.
The Dreamliner is a revolutionary airliner that is the first to make extensive use of lighter-weight lithium ion batteries, which are more prone to overheating and catching fire.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
KUALA LUMPUR — Ten days after a Malaysian jetliner disappeared, Thailand's military said Tuesday it saw radar blips that might have been from the missing plane but didn't report it "because we did not pay attention to it."
Search crews from 26 countries, including Thailand, are looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished early March 8 with 239 people aboard en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Frustration is growing among relatives of those on the plane at the lack of progress in the search.
Aircraft and ships are scouring two giant arcs of territory amounting to the size of Australia—half of it in the remote waters of the southern Indian Ocean.
Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the US 7th Fleet, said finding the plane was like trying to locate a few people somewhere between New York and California.
Early in the search, Malaysian officials said they suspected the plane backtracked toward the Strait of Malacca, just west of Malaysia. But it took a week for them to confirm Malaysian military radar data suggesting that route.
Military officials in neighboring Thailand said Tuesday their own radar showed an unidentified plane, possibly Flight 370, flying toward the strait beginning minutes after the Malaysian jet's transponder signal was lost.
Air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn said the Thai military doesn't know whether the plane it detected was Flight 370.
Thailand's failure to quickly share possible information about the plane may not substantially change what Malaysian officials now know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense data. At a minimum, safety experts said, the radar data could have saved time and effort that was initially spent searching the South China Sea, many miles from the Indian Ocean.
"It's tough to tell, but that is a material fact that I think would have mattered," said John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
"It's just bizarre they didn't come forward before," Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co., said of Thai authorities. "It may be too late to help the search … but maybe them and the Malaysian military should do joint military exercises in incompetence."
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:40am March 8 and its transponder, which allows air traffic controllers to identify and track it, ceased communicating at 1:20am.
Montol said that at 1:28am, Thai military radar "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal, of a plane flying in the direction opposite from the MH370 plane," back toward Kuala Lumpur. The plane later turned right, toward Butterworth, a Malaysian city along the Strait of Malacca. The radar signal was infrequent and did not include data such as the flight number.
When asked why it took so long to release the information, Montol said, "Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country." He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia's initial request for information in the early days of the search was not specific.
"When they asked again and there was new information and assumptions from [Malaysian] Prime Minister Najib Razak, we took a look at our information again," Montol said. "It didn't take long for us to figure out, although it did take some experts to find out about it."
The search area for the plane initially focused on the South China Sea. Pings that a satellite detected from the plane hours after its communications went down eventually led authorities to concentrate instead on two vast arcs—one into Central Asia and the other into the Indian Ocean.
Malaysia said over the weekend the loss of communications and change in the aircraft's course were deliberate, whether it was the pilots or others aboard who were responsible.
Malaysian police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, but have yet to say what they have uncovered.
Investigators had pointed to a sequence of events in which two communications systems were disabled in succession—one of them before a voice from the cockpit gave an all-clear message to ground controllers—as evidence of a deliberate attempt to fly the plane off-course in a hard-to-detect way. On Monday, they backtracked on the timing of the first switch-off, saying it was possible that both were cut around the same time, leading to new speculation that some kind of sudden mechanical or electrical failure might explain the flight going off-course.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said some sort of problem aboard the plane was not out of the question, although he noted it still was intact enough to send a signal to a satellite several hours later.
As further confirmation that someone was still guiding the plane after it disappeared from civilian radar, airline pilots and aviation safety experts said an onboard computer called the flight management system would have to be deliberately programmed in order to follow the route taken by the plane as described by Malaysian authorities.
"If you are going to fly the airplane to a waypoint that is not a straight … route to Beijing, and you were going to command the flight management computer and the autopilot system, you really have to know how to fly the airplane," said John Gadzinski, a US Boeing 737 captain.
"If you were a basic flight student and I put you in an airborne 777 and gave you 20 minutes of coaching, I could have you turn the airplane left and right and the auto throttle and the autopilot would make the airplane do what you want," he said. "But to program a waypoint into the flight management computer, if that is what they flew over, is a little bit harder."
Investigators have asked security agencies in countries with passengers on board to carry out background checks.
China said background checks of the 154 Chinese citizens on board turned up no links to terrorism, apparently ruling out the possibility that Uighur Muslim militants who have been blamed for terror attacks within China might have been involved.
"So far there is nothing, no evidence to suggest that they intended to do harm to the plane," said Huang Huikang, China's ambassador to Malaysia.
A Chinese civilian aviation official has said there was no sign of the plane entering the country's airspace on commercial radar.
A group of relatives of Chinese passengers in Beijing said they decided to begin a hunger strike to express their anger over the handling of the investigation.
One relative displayed a sign reading, "Hunger strike protest. Respect life. Return my relative. Don't want become victim of politics, Tell the truth."
The search for the aircraft is among the largest in aviation history.
The US Navy said P-3 and P-8 surveillance aircraft were methodically sweeping over swaths of ocean, known as "mowing the grass," while using radar to detect any debris in the water and high-resolution cameras to snap images.
Australian and Indonesian planes and ships are searching waters to the south of Indonesia's Sumatra Island all the way down to the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Huang said China had begun searching for the plane in its territory, but gave no details. When asked at a Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing what this search involved, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said only that satellites and radar were being used.
China also was sending ships to the Indian Ocean, where they will search 300,000 square kilometers (186,000 square miles) of sea.
The area being covered by the Australians is even bigger—600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles)—and will take weeks, said John Young, manager of Australian Maritime Safety Authority's emergency response division.
"This search will be difficult. The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge," Young said. "A needle in a haystack remains a good analogy."
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron telephoned his Malaysian counterpart to offer the UK's help in the first direct contact between the two since the flight disappeared, according to Downing Street.
Cameron did not offer specifics on what particular military or civilian assistance could be provided, the prime minister's spokesman, Jean-Christophe Gray, said Tuesday.
"It was very much inviting any specific requests from the Malaysians," Gray said. "Prime Minister Najib said he would think about that and let us know if they have any specific requests."
Doksone reported from Bangkok. AP writers Ian Mader, Jim Gomez and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Joan Lowy in Washington, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney and Scott Mayerowitz in San Diego contributed to this report.


text:
ROUSH Announces 2013 ROUSH RS Packge
"Engineered on the track, Refined for everyday", ROUSH® Performance is excited to introduce a new offering for the 2013 Ford Mustang V6.
All new for the 2013 ROUSH Ford Mustang lineup is the ROUSH RS or "ROUSH Six" package. The ROUSH RS is based on the 3.7L-V6 Ford Mustang and receives an array of ROUSH engineered styling and handling components. Gary Jurick, General Manager of ROUSH Performance, states "The RS opens a new niche for ROUSH Performance, offering great fuel economy, a good level of power, at an economical price, while still embodying ROUSH's spirit of performance." The RS package starts at $4,000, pushes out 305 horsepower and gets up to 31 mpg highway.
Chassis improvements for the ROUSH RS Mustang include 19" premium painted aluminum wheels and tires, the same wheels and tires found on the factory Ford Mustang GT with Brembo brakes, and ROUSH lowering springs with progressive rate jounce bumper which will lower the car approximately one inch in the front and rear, thus reducing the car's center of gravity and providing quicker steering response and a better feel of the road. Enhancements to the RS body incorporate many of the R6 aerobody components featured on the ROUSH Stage vehicles including the high flow upper and lower grilles, front chin splitter, side rocker splitters and rear decklid spoiler.
The ROUSH RS Mustang comes with the distinct "R" fender badges and the "R" ROUSH faux gas cap. Also on display is the ROUSH windshield banner. Optional hood scoop, rear quarter window louvers, RS exterior side and hood graphics are also available.
Interior ROUSH RS Mustang upgrades include ROUSH embroidered floor mats, billet performance pedals and a ROUSH center console badge/button. Optional RS interior upgrades include GT charcoal leather seating or ROUSH sport leather seating along with white or black shifter ball and the suede wrapped performance steering wheel. ROUSH door sill plates are available with ambient lighting.
"We (ROUSH) are excited to offer a ROUSH package for all levels of the Ford Mustang line up," says Tim Wheeler, VP, Sales and Marketing of ROUSH Performance. "The RS will address the Mustang V6 owner that is looking for the ROUSH touch off the showroom floor." Great fuel economy, great price point, great fun, the ROUSH RS Mustang.
Published Dec 7th, 2015


text:
We offer a Free quote and design service, get in touch today.
Thanks for visiting Running Tracks, our team of expert installers can offer advice on choosing the best surface types for your athletics track construction to ensure you get a perfect facility. Are you looking for a professional running track installer in Ansdell Then you have found the right place.
As running track construction UK specialists, we have built a huge variety of outdoor IAAF approved facilities such as -
in Ansdell FY8 4 The running track surfacing for these facilities can be installed in a number of different specifications including structural spray polymeric, sandwich system and needle punch synthetic turf surfacing.
Each of these surface types has great performance qualities for different athletics events but the needle punch surfacing is more popular with primary schools as it provides a softer surface for younger kids using the running track. Our team will be able to create a bespoke running track design in Ansdell FY8 4 which allows you to make the best use out of your new facility and its surrounding area.
Get in touch with us today if you would like to talk to one of our experts and receive all the information you will need. You can find out more regarding the design here http://www.runningtracks.co.uk/design/lancashire/ansdell/ or simply fill out the contact form provided.
The running track construction for these different facilities will begin with excavating the existing area to the required depth and then preparing edgings and putting in a geotextile membrane to prevent any weeds or plants growing up into the surface. Next, a porous stone sub base will be put down, this creates a strong and durable foundation which is also permeable to allow for good water drainage so the facility can be used in all weather conditions and will not flood.
If the athletics track construction is a needle punch surface, this can sometimes be laid directly onto the stone sub base. However, if the running track surface is in polymeric rubber flooring, this needs to have a macadam base installed onto the stone sub base, and then the polymeric surfacing can be applied onto this macadam layer. Once installed, both of these different specifications are durable and long-lasting against heavy use for recreational or professional purposes.
The costs for each running surface installation project in Ansdell will vary as different factors have an effect on our price; however, we aim to help you keep costs down so we can give you a quote which meets your budget requirements. As an experienced athletics track construction company, we can guide you through the design process to assess whether there are any aspects of the installation which we can alter to help reduce the price.
The different types of athletics surfacing in Ansdell http://www.runningtracks.co.uk/surfacing/lancashire/ansdell/ which all come at different prices so the one you opt for the will, of course, have an effect on the final costs. Choosing smaller surface dimensions can help keep the costs down, as well as making changes to any extra equipment you have included with the project like long jump sand pit covers.
We specialise in the construction of various track and field facilities closest to you in Ansdell FY8 4so we'd be happy to answer any questions you have on athletics tracks, long jump runways, high jump surfaces and other sports facilities that we commonly install.
Get in touch with us through our contact form if you have any enquiries for a running surface installation or if you require maintenance to an existing area and we'll get in touch with some further information and a price quote for the works. It is our aim to give great value products and services for all of the projects we undertake so don't hesitate to contact us if you're in need of any advice in regards to athletics track construction for your local school, club or leisure centre.
Various facilities will be installed in a number of schools and colleges throughout the UK due to the launch of the sugar tax and its facility funding. Running tracks are one of many constructions which may be carried out with money funded by the sugar tax.
The installation of these compact sporting facilities also helps to reduce obesity in young people, which is the main reason that the sugar tax was set up. Since these facilities will be installed in -
lots of young people will have access to the sports areas creating an increase in children's participation in sports.
A new release of cost-effective and maintainable outside activity features which offer a stepping-stone into club establishments are getting developed in Ansdell to increase participation levels. A number of schools are unable to get facilities renovated, meaning that kids could miss out on sports chances.
In most cases, educational institutions can't afford to renew their sports areas, which is why the introduction of the sugar tax is so important, as the extra money can go to funding these facilities. In a number of nearby establishments, compact facilities are also being created and installed in a smaller size to fit in more compact areas. By using these, youngsters are capable of bettering their running, jumping and even throwing skills that are part of the FUNdamental steps of enhancement.
If you would like to learn more about the sugar tax and how it can benefit your facility, get in touch with us today. Our team are happy to talk you through the process and maintenance service http://www.runningtracks.co.uk/maintenance/lancashire/ansdell/ and can give you all the information you need.
Constructing compact facilities can be a very important process to ensure that children are able to get the best athletics equipment they require. Educational institutions in Ansdell facilities are meant to better the child's running, jumping along with throwing, together with multiple activity participation into sports and athletics. Running circuits, jumping run ups and even throwing circles are a few of the favoured activities which may be fitted.
To make a multiuse sporting area, a simple 60m long-jump track could also be used for running, baton races and hurdles to help make the most out of the space. For schools with a small space or funds, this can be the best alternative to a full-sized running track. One reason why getting a multiple sports space set up is useful for young people is simply that it enables them to take part in various events and find one which they enjoy, that may guide them to additional possibilities later on.
One problem which is having an effect on young children's engagement in athletics is a lack of facilities which are targeted at beginners plus entry level athletes. It's been suggested that these sports activities need to be made available to youngsters from as small as primary school KS1 up to Key Stage Four. A whole new set of criteria has been created by UKA to make sure that sports and athletics areas are more widely available to young people.
The plan provides educational institutions with smaller sized, leisure quality features that could be made with a brightly coloured, appealing appearance for younger people.
Considering that the spec and design of compact athletics facilities in Ansdell are able to be modified, pretty much any club or institution may have one installed.
are amongst a few of the more popular aspects of these recreational surfaces. When there is a shortage of space, we can decrease the dimensions and style of particular sports and athletics facilities.
Compact sports and athletics facilities are versatile, which enables them to be utilized for a number of organisations. Current sports activity and play provisions in -
could be made better by setting up the compact sporting facility. By participating in different athletics events, young people from KS1-KS4 all can better learning and physical fitness abilities.
A lot more children will be inspired to participate in the new sporting events if there are high quality and attractive facility accessible for them to make use of. If a school is looking to get a more cost-effective entry-level product, the compact facilities are ideal for decreasing costs if you just need a recreational space. Regarding the FUNdamental skills of sports, more kids are capable of learning and practising running, jumping and throwing by way of a variety of activities.
UKA wants to enhance the desire for sports and bringing out accessible facilities for youngsters in Ansdell FY8 4 is a large step to this objective. This is developed even more by holding IAAF and IPC World Championships within London in 2017. By allowing children to make use of the compact facilities and its surrounding areas, there is a higher opportunity for athletes to better their abilities and transfer to professional clubs as a result.
The Amateur Athletic Association may also be labelled as AAA within the athletics sector. AAA was the official body in charge of athletics prior to UK Athletics. Rather than governing athletics, AAA now stands for the volunteer section. The AAA work in many institutions in the United Kingdom such as schools, colleges along with athletics clubs. Many competitions and activities are available to young sports athletes by the AAA to help them better their sporting skills.
The AAA has created these athletics events to behave as development tools for grassroots as well as to assist young children to improve in later life.
One other responsibility that's presented to the Amateur Athletic Association is safeguarding the historical past of the sport. Elite sports athletes are often rewarded with outstanding and historical trophies by the AAA. The initiatives for the sports and athletics market are to grow enthusiasm and to support in the progression of young athletes.
In schools and colleges, National Championships are operated by AAA to encourage young children to participate in sports and athletics. Sports and athletics products and sponsorships are often financed by the AAA because they give money to competitions like the National Championships whenever they can. UKA and British Athletics are the governing authorities to this sport but AAA stand for the volunteering part.
The AAA has a Standards Scheme that grades athletes on track and field activities concerning times or distances. These standards will depend on the performances of past years and generate four different grades that the very best sports athletes get classified into. The performance requirements for the sports and athletics activities are compiled by databases of information collected throughout the years and this is revised every couple of years.
Certificates and badges are awarded to young children that conform to these particular standards. England Athletics, as well as the AAA, make an effort to boost the number of people who take part in sporting activities by giving out plaques and rewards to children accomplishing Grade One. Small grants or loans are available to young people looking to start a career in sports and athletics by the AAA Charity for the Young.
If you are interested in more information regarding running track construction in Ansdell FY8 4 make sure you send us your details using our enquiry form. As experts, we can answer all of your questions and can give you any advice and information that you need to complete your running track construction.


text:
Americans who ate a diet rich in animal protein during middle age were significantly more likely to die from cancer and other causes, compared with people who reported going easy on foods such as red meat and cheese, fresh research suggests.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism, was based on an analysis of data from NHANES, an ongoing federally funded study that surveys Americans about their eating habits and behaviors.
In this particular study, researchers tracked about 6,000 older adults included in the survey to find connections between dietary patterns, death and disease.
"The research shows that a low-protein diet in middle age is useful for preventing cancer and overall mortality," wrote co-author Eileen Crimmins, the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the University of Southern California, in a release about the paper.
But here's the catch: The researchers also found that for older people, ages 65 and up, there may be a benefit to eating more protein. In this age group, higher levels of protein seemed to be protective against cancer and premature death.
So how might these age-dependent effects be explained? Well, Valter Longo, the director of the Longevity Institute at USC, who led the research, points to changes in the growth hormone known as IGF-I.
When we're young, IGF-1 help promotes growth, which is good. But as we age, too much protein in our diets may lead to overly high levels of IGF-1, which may contribute to aging and DNA damage, Longo explains.
Then, after 65, when IGF-I levels trail off, our bodies may benefit from more protein in the diet to help fend of frailty and decline.
"We've suspected that this is the case," Longo tells The Salt. In his view, most middle-aged Americans are eating too much protein.
The findings, he says, build on previous research he's done on IGF-I, including a study that looked at a group of Ecuadorians who had low levels of cancer and diabetes due to a genetic mutation that lowered levels of IGF-I.
In the new study, Longo and his colleagues found that high-protein foods derived from plants, such as beans and nuts, did not have the same effect on mortality as did high-protein foods from animals.
Singling out the effects of protein in the diet is hard to do. For starters, our diets are complex, and sussing out the independent effect of any one component is tough. What's more, surveying people on what they have eaten, as NHANES does, and then trying to figure out how that influences their health years later is a tricky business. So there are still lots of questions about how to interpret these findings.
In an age when advocates of the Paleo Diet and other low-carb eating plans such as Atkins talk up the virtues of protein because of its satiating effects, expect plenty of people to be skeptical of the new findings.
That said, as we've previously reported, several other studies have found a link between a high intake of red meat — especially processed meats like bacon and salami — and other animal proteins and an increased risk of mortality.
But could eating meat and cheese really be as bad for you as smoking, as the university news release describing the new Cell Metabolism paper suggested?
Well, that may be an exaggeration, according to Dr. Frank Hu, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health who studies the links between health, diet and lifestyle.
"The harmful effects of smoking on cancer and mortality are well-established to be substantial, while the harmful effects of red meat consumption are modest in comparison," Hu wrote to us in an email.
For instance, in a study Hu authored, people who ate a serving of red meat every day had a 13 percent increased risk of mortality, compared with those who ate little meat. By comparison, people who swapped out red meat for alternative sources of protein cut their risk of premature death. Choosing chicken and other poultry decreased the risk by 14 percent, fish decreased the risk by 7 percent and legumes decreased the risk by 10 percent.
So the debate about how much protein is ideal — and from which sources — will go on.
In the meantime, if you're feeling confused, consider the one strategy that almost all experts agree on: moderation.
The simplest way to maintain a healthy body weight and cut the risk of so many weight-related diseases is to limit calories.
So eat what you enjoy. Upsize servings of greens and other vegetables. And downsize servings of meat, cheese and other high-calorie foods.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
I love cookbooks. I think anyone who loves to cook does, even if you don't use them all the time. I rarely cook a recipe as written, but I love reading cookbooks, which are great for inspiration. I used to have well over 500 cookbooks, but a few years ago, I weeded through them, keeping only the ones I adored or used. Since then, I've amassed a few more, but it's nowhere near the amount I used to have.
DK Publishing partnered with the Culinary Institute of America to produce this book, Spain and the World Table, and let me just say 1 word - Wow! If you only get it for the pictures, it's well worth it.
Every year, the CIA selects a nation's cuisine to highlight during their "Worlds of Flavor" conference and festival. Spain was an obvious choice, and this book is full of all sorts of mouth-watering recipes. There's an entire chapter dedicated to tapas, which I absolutely adore. There are also notes throughout the book, providing information on pairing wine and sherry, selecting Spanish cheeses, and choosing Spanish olive oils. There's a few recipes I have my eye on, such as the Spanish Fig Cake, Hazelnut-crusted Halibut with Spicy Romesco, and Valencian Seafood Rice.
Wouldn't you love to add this book to your library?? Well now you can! Simply leave me a comment with your favorite appetizer recipe or idea, in honor of all the great tapas recipes in the book. It can be something you love to make or tell me your favorite appetizer you love to order at a restaurant. Leave your comment by midnight on Tuesday, May 6th. I'll be drawing the winner on Wednesday morning.
Good luck!


text:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Thanks to Arian Foster, the Houston Texans are still undefeated - but they very nearly let this one slip away.
Foster ran for 152 yards and a touchdown, and the Texans are 5-0 for the first time and defeated the New York Jets for the first time in team history, hanging on for a 23-17 victory Monday night.
With a chance to lead the Jets on a winning drive, Mark Sanchez was intercepted by Kareem Jackson on a pass that tipped off the hands of Jeff Cumberland with 1:51 remaining.
"You got to give yourself a chance to win and we did that tonight," Sanchez said.
The Texans (5-0) joined the Atlanta Falcons as the NFL's only teams without a loss.
Debate: Time for a QB change?
Which starting quarterback most needs to hit the bench? Our analysts debate, with Russell Wilson's name coming up. **More ...**
"Arian stepped up and played huge," quarterback Matt Schaub said. "We're very excited to be 5-0 and get a win on the road."
The Jets (2-3) were heavy underdogs after coming off a 34-0 loss to San Francisco last week, but made a game of it. Backup quarterback Tim Tebow got the crowd fired up at times throughout the game, including running for a first down on a fake punt, but had little impact otherwise.
Houston overcame a 100-yard kickoff return by Joe McKnight that cut the Jets' deficit to 20-14.
Schaub was 14 of 28 for 209 yards and a touchdown to Owen Daniels, winning his ninth straight game - the longest active streak in the NFL - dating to last season. Daniels finished with four catches for 79 yards for the Texans, who have just their second five-game winning streak in team history.
"It's definitely our best start," Daniels said, "and a big part of that is it doesn't matter on this team about stats or individually what is going on. It's great to be a part of something like that."
The enthusiasm was tempered, though, by a left knee injury to star linebacker Brian Cushing that coach Gary Kubiak said he was "very concerned" about.
"I don't know what happened," Kubiak said. "They tell me he cut on a play and his foot might have got stuck in the turf."
"I honestly thought we were going to drive down the field and score a touchdown" on the last drive," wide receiver Chaz Schilens said. "It's not going the right way."
Sanchez hit Cumberland for 24 yards on first down, and then Jeremy Kerley for 36 yards two plays later. Then, Tebow came in and took the direct snap -- with Sanchez lined up as a wide receiver -- and rumbled up the middle for 13 yards to make it first-and-goal from the 3. The crowd at MetLife Stadium went wild, sensing a chance at Tebow's first touchdown since being acquired by New York in March.
Tebow stayed in but was stopped for no gain. Then, Sanchez -- who has been under fire with many calling for Tebow to take his starting job -- had a pass tipped by J.J. Watt and it was incomplete to Schilens in the end zone on third down.
Foster walked untouched into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown to give the Texans a 14-7 lead with 11:11 left in the first half. He gained 42 yards on three straight carries on the 67-yard drive, and had 100 yards on the ground at halftime on just nine carries.
The Jets threatened late in the half, but Sanchez's pass was tipped by end J.J. Watt and went off Kerley to Brice McCain, who ran back the interception 86 yards before Kerley caught him at the New York 9.
Shayne Graham made a 27-yard field goal as the half ended to make it 17-7. He added a 42-yarder late in the third quarter to make it 20-7.
McKnight got the Jets right back into it with his 100-yard kickoff return -- his second of his career -- to cut the Texans' lead to 20-14 with 4:38 left in the third quarter. McKnight sped up the middle, cut to his left and ran out of a shoulder tackle attempt by DeVier Posey and dived into the end zone.
New York attempted an onside kick, but the ball went through Schilens' hands and Shiloh Keo recovered, giving the Texans the ball with good field position.
Schaub hit fullback James Casey for 30 yards to quiet the crowd, but the Jets' defense held the Texans to a 22-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in the quarter.
The Texans opened the game by scoring on an efficient 8-play, 85-yard drive capped by a 34-yard touchdown catch by a wide-open Daniels less than 4 minutes in. Daniels, who earlier gained 14 yards on a screen pass, got wide open behind the secondary as New York's safeties both bit on a play-action fake by Schaub.
New York then went three-and-out, an all-too-common series for the Jets this season -- as chants of "Tee-boww! Tee-boww!" started after Sanchez's first incomplete pass on second down. Tebow made his first appearance on the Jets' fifth play from scrimmage and, to a wave of cheers, threw a pinpoint deep pass to newcomer Jason Hill. But the receiver dropped it, Tebow departed and Sanchez missed Clyde Gates on third down, bringing on a chorus of boos.
Jets coach Rex Ryan promised his defense would be sturdier than in last week's rout at the hands of San Francisco, and after Houston's scoring drive, it was. Cromartie stepped in front of Andre Johnson and picked off Schaub's poorly thrown pass on the Texans' third possession, then gave the ball to his wife in the stands.
Four plays later, the Jets tied it for their first points in two weeks -- a 27-yard TD catch by Cumberland.
Sanchez zipped a pretty pass to Clyde Gates on first down for a 27-yard gain on the scoring drive. After a 2-yard run by Bilal Powell and McKnight got 1 yard, Sanchez threw yet another terrific toss to Cumberland, who caught the ball over Glover Quinn, bobbled it and tucked it in as he fell to the turf in the end zone to tie it at 7 with 4:07 left in the opening quarter.
Tebow got the crowd going when the Jets went for it on fourth-and-1 at their 24 on the first play of the second quarter. The do-it-all backup quarterback took the snap and ran off left tackle for 3 yards. But the drive fizzled with three straight incompletions by Sanchez.
NOTES: Cromartie held Johnson to one catch for 15 yards and Johnson also had a drop. ... Jets C Nick Mangold left early in the third quarter with a left ankle injury, but returned later in the period. Jets backup receiver Clyde Gates injured his left shoulder and his arm was in a sling after the game. Linebacker Josh Mauga had his right arm in a sling afterward. Jets defensive tackle Kenrick Ellis injured in a knee in the fourth quarter.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press