text:
Towers says changes likely after loss
Padres GM says team's dismal start reflects on everyone
By Corey Brock / MLB.com
"We're bad, no question about it," Towers said Monday. "You can't just say it's early in the season. I haven't seen any signs in the last couple weeks that lead me to believe or our fans to believe we're going to turn this thing around.
"It's up to the guys in this clubhouse. I am certainly not going to watch this for four more months."
On the day before the Padres put reigning Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy on the 15-day disabled list with swelling and strained muscles in his right elbow, Towers talked with reporters candidly about a team that dropped to 16-30 following an 8-2 loss Monday to the Cardinals.
Last season, the Padres didn't suffer their 30th loss until June 21, when they were perched atop the National League West Division. But following their loss to St. Louis, the Padres' 24th loss in the last 32 games, they have the worst record in the Major Leagues.
"You're looking for even a little bit of progress," Towers said. "It's like Groundhog's Day, over and over."
Towers not only talked honestly about the shortcomings of a team that was expected to contend for the NL West title, but addressed team morale, the team's shortcoming and what might be done to fix it all.
"I guess I'm holding out hope the light will go on," Towers said.
So far, it hasn't.
The Padres rank at or near last in about every pertinent offensive category. Towers said that other than Brian Giles (.311 batting average) and Adrian Gonzalez (11 home runs, 34 RBIs) the rest of the offense has been sub-par. But that wasn't all.
"We've not run the bases very well, played shabby defense. We're 0-23 trailing after the seventh inning," Towers said. "I'd like to see guys bouncing on the plate for once [after a victory]."
The Padres have already made some moves with hopes of improving the team, such as releasing veteran outfielder Jim Edmonds. Towers all but promised Monday that more new faces could be on the way.
That could mean outfielder Chase Headley gets recalled from Triple-A Portland, though Towers essentially said that any subsequent moves might resemble wholesale changes more than just one particular move.
"We've got young players down the road looking for an opportunity," Towers said. "They may eventually get it. I think if we make those changes, we'll bring a group. You bring one particular player, so he's looked at as the savior who is going to turn things around."
Towers said the possible moves wouldn't just be players who are deemed prospects, but possibly players from Triple-A Portland who might be Minor League veterans but who are having success offensively. Possibilities there are infielder Brian Myrow (.345, five homers, 30 RBIs) or outfielder Chip Ambres (.268-8-28).
Towers also addressed team morale.
"I hear morale is good, but I can't believe it's good," he said. "When you hear the morale is good, then we've got major issues. If morale is good, then they have no expectations of getting better. That's not what championship ballclubs are about.
"Morale should be horrible right now."
Towers said the team's dismal start is a reflection on everyone, himself, the front office, the coaching staff and the players. He talked about playing for the name on the front of the jerseys and about pride.
"To me when I wake up and look at the box score and see San Diego at the bottom, that hurts," Towers said. "Seeing where we're at in the standings, it's a reflection on all of us. I just hope we all have the same feeling when we wake up and look at the box score. If we don't, then you shouldn't be here."
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Wellemeyer will compete for job
As players began to report to Arizona for spring training, Giants manager Bruce Bochy indicated Tuesday that non-roster invitee Todd Wellemeyer will be allowed with 20-year-old Madison Bumgarner and others for the team's No. 5 rotation spot.
"It makes it more competitive when you sign a guy like Wellemeyer, I
think it's fair to say. There are no givens here," Bochy told the Associated Press. "We think
a lot of Madison, but you always want depth. It is always good to have
Hmmm, perhaps Bochy was reading posts on moresplashhits.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Women's hockey opens season at Vermont
Women's hockey opens season at Vermont
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Nittany Lion women's hockey team will open its second season where it opened its inaugural season: at Vermont. Penn State faces the Catamounts on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. UVMathletics.com will have free live streaming and live stats of both games from Gutterson Fieldhouse.
|PENN STATE (0-0-0, 0-0-0 CHA) at VERMONT (0-0-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East)
|Games 1-2: Oct. 4-5, 2013 • Gutterson Fieldhouse • University Park, Pa.
|Gutterson Fieldhouse (4,035)
|Live Stats
|SERIES RECORD vs. UVM
|Tied, 1-1-0
|LAST MEETING vs. UVM
|Oct. 7, 2012; Vermont, 3-1 at UVM
|Oct. 11-12 at Quinnipiac
• Penn State opens for the second straight year at Vermont, site of program's first game and first victory
• Vermont went 8-21-4 last season in coach Jim Plumer's first season at helm
• Nittany Lions return 24 of 27 letterwinners from last season, 99 percent of scoring
• Sophomore forward Shannon Yoxheimer led squad in scoring last season
• Senior Nicole Paniccia was second in NCAA Division I in saves during 2012-13
• Senior Taylor Gross serves as team captain for second straight year joined by assistants Jordin Pardoski, Lindsay Reihl and Jenna Welch
The Vermont Catamounts enter the second year under Jim Plumer following an 8-21-4 season in 2012-13. The season was a major improvement as the squad doubled its overall (8) and conference (6) win total from the year before Plumer's arrival. Vermont defeated the Nepean Wildcats, 5-1, in an exhibition on Sept. 28.
UVM returns its top three scorers from last season led by junior Brittany Zuback. She appeared in all 33 contests, scoring a team-high 14 goals, 12 assists and 26 points. Zuback recorded a hat trick in the win over Nepean. The most dangerous Catamount is USA Hockey member Amanda Pelkey, also a junior, who missed the beginning of last season with an injury, but returned to score nine goals, 11 assists and 20 points in 25 games. Rounding out the trio of Catamount junior forwards is Klara Myren who tallied 18 points on five goals and 13 assists.
In net, Roxanne Douville made 25 appearances last season and posted a 5-15-4 record with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. Douville is 13-43-15 all-time for the Green and Gold with six shutouts and a 2.90 GAA. Freshman Madison Litchfield looks for time in the crease for the Catamounts following a successful season in the JWHL where she was voted goalie of the year. She was ranked as the No. 2 goaltender at USA Hockey's National Development Camp.
Penn State women's hockey made history on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 at Vermont's Gutterson Fieldhouse by winning its inaugural game, 5-3. The Nittany Lions scored five goals from three freshmen making their respective debuts as junior goaltender Nicole Paniccia made 31 saves in her PSU opener. Shannon Yoxheimer and Micayla Catanzariti each scored twice for the Nittany Lions.
Down 2-1, Penn State was not to be deterred, reeling off three straight goals to take a 4-2 lead midway through the third period. Despite a Vermont goal with 6:34 left in the third, Birdie Shaw scored an empty-net goal to seal the Nittany Lion victory. Junior captain Taylor Gross made her Penn State debut known with two assists and was named the first star of the game, Yoxheimer was second.
On Oct. 7, 2012, the Nittany Lions again took the lead over the Catamounts on a Shaw tally. Unfortunately, Vermont scored the next three and split the weekend series with a 3-1 victory.
Penn State had a varsity team debut for the first time since 1994 (women's soccer) when the women's hockey team defeated Vermont, 5-3 on Oct. 6, 2012. The successful debut was the first since 1977 when the men's volleyball team defeated East Stroudsburg. The Penn State men's hockey team made its debut a week later than the women, but fell 3-2 to AIC in overtime. The Nittany Lions beat AIC the next night, also in overtime.
Game: Oct. 6, 2012 at Vermont, 2:00 p.m.
Win: Nicole Paniccia, Oct. 6 at Vermont, 5-3
Goal: Shannon Yoxheimer
Multi-Goal Game: Micayla Catanzariti
Game-Winning Goal: Shannon Yoxheimer
Assists: Taylor Gross, Emily Laurenzi
Multi-Assist Game: Jess Desorcie
Faceoff: Emily Laurenzi
Faceoff win: Emily Laurenzi
Save: Nicole Paniccia
Empty-Net Goal: Birdie Shaw
On Sept. 6, Mortensen Construction turned the keys over to Penn State and its new $90 million home, Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions host 17 games in the state-of-the-art arena that seats 5,782 beginning with a series vs. Union (Oct. 18-19). That kicks off an eight-game home stand over 23 days.
Penn State brings back 24 of its 27 members from last year's team. In those 24 student-athletes, Penn State returns its top 14 scorers and almost 99 percent of its offense along with every member of its stout goaltending corps.
Leading the team in scoring last season was Shannon Yoxheimer, a left-handed forward. Yoxheimer buried 14 goals with 17 assists for a grand total of 31 points, all team highs. She led College Hockey America in shots (169) and put away three power play goals as well as a team-high three game-winning goals. Yoxheimer's numbers ranked her in the top 10 nationally in goals, points and assists for rookies. The CHA coaches named Yoxheimer to the All-Rookie team.
Senior goaltender Nicole Paniccia excelled between the pipes for the Blue and White last year, stopping 1,028 shots with a 92.8 save percentage. Paniccia's save tally was second in all of NCAA Division I, topped only by fellow CHA upstart Lindenwood's Nicole Hensley. Paniccia was in net for six of PSU's seven victories last year as well as both of Penn State's ties.
Sophomore forward Jill Holdcroft was lethal on the power play last season, scoring six of her 10 goals last year on the advantage. Despite missing the CHA playoffs at RIT, Holdcroft still ranked second on the team in scoring (10 goals) and added two assists for good measure.
Penn State's record of 7-26-2 last season is a little deceiving when considering how close the Nittany Lions were in many of their losses. In fact, 12 of the 26 losses were decided by two goals or less. This year, the Nittany Lions look to change their fortunes in spite of a 1-6-2 record games decided by less than a goal.
Senior forward Taylor Gross once again leads Penn State as its first captain following her first year with the letter in 2012-13. Gross was second on the team in points (22) and assists (15) last season with 34 appearances. The University of Connecticut transfer appeared in 48 games for the Huskies before joining Penn State's club side in January 2012. Senior forward Jenna Welch and Lindsay Reihl, a graduate student defender, reprise their roles as assistant captains this year. Joining the veteran trio is Jordin Pardoski, a vocal sophomore defender who is a first-year assistant captain.
Four freshmen join the Nittany Lions for the 2013-14 campaign. Minnesota forwards Laura Bowman, Amy Petersen and Sarah Nielsen provide an instant dose of goal scoring from their high school success. Defender Kelly Seward of New York is the tallest Nittany Lion blueliner.
A 1991 graduate of Penn State, head coach Josh Brandwene is the first to lead the Nittany Lions. Brandwene compiled a 7-26-2 record last season with 17 freshmen on the team. A four-year hockey player at Penn State, Brandwene brings 20 years of coaching experience to Happy Valley.
Seven members of the current varsity team played for the women's club team at some point. Graduate student Lindsay Reihl along with juniors Cara Mendelson, Katie Murphy, Madison Smiddy and Tess Weaver played all of the 2011-12 season for head coach Josh Brandwene in Penn State's last year at the club level. Taylor Gross and Jess Desorcie joined the five aforementioned players midway through the season in preparation of the 2012-13 season.
Penn State travels to Quinnipiac, home of the 2014 NCAA Women's Frozen Four, for a two-game set against the Bobcats on Oct. 11-12. Game times are set for 7 p.m. and 4 p.m.


text:
Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Shaw, Apr 15, 2009.
i have never seen/heard those names before.
He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. Born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland and he is still alive. He is immortal. For six hundred years he's been a warrior, a lover, a wanderer, constantly facing other immortals in a combat to the death...
Duncan: Look, I'm serious. Starfleet is important to a lot of people, to a lot of races.
Methos: (laughing) Oh I'm sure it is.
Duncan: I'm enlisting, and that's all there is to it. You mind telling me what you find funny about this?
Methos: Not exactly funny, but pretty entertaining, yeah.
Pike: Just what is so entertaining?
Methos: MacLeod running off to be a hero again, another uniform, another peacekeeping force, the same old story again and again.
Duncan: You know there are times I really don't like you.
Methos: That's OK, sometimes I don't like myself.
new Captain Macleod...
Captain Macleod's XO... Lieutenant Lehane...
they're taking over!!!
*right click* *save*
lmao... Borg vs Cybermen...
i'd put money on the Borg any day of the week
they're teaming up in a new comic...
Right click...save.
lol thanks... need to redo that one at some point actually, still not happy with the hair or phaser hand reflections...
You know you're gonna have to have Connor MacLeod as his Spock, and Fitzcairn as his McCoy.
Hi, can somebody, anybody do a pic of Happy Tree Friends characters in First Contact uniforms on the Enterprise-E bridge.
The idea for this just popped into my head the other day.
I used the Starfleet Bold Extended font for the letters. Made entirely with Paint.NET.
That is fabulous, Chris3123!
That. Is. AWESOME!
^ I love it!
Brilliant! But shouldn't Q be...well, Q?
Separate names with a comma.


text:
Compact and versatile Wi-Fi® speaker featuring AirPlay®, DLNA® Wireless Direct and HTC Connect™
- Update: Spotify® Connect now available
- AirPlay built in as well as iPhone/iPod/iPad Digital Connection via USB (Playback and charging)
- Dual 77mm woofers, 20mm tweeter, and dual 10w + 10 w amplifiers
Wireless entertainment simplified.
Introducing the Pioneer A1 Wireless Speaker.
We're living in a wireless world. Which is good news for music lovers, because it means now, you can wirelessly enjoy your music wherever you are. And since the smartphone has become the most essential wireless device in your day-to-day life, it was only a matter of time before someone introduced a Wi-Fi™ speaker with the broadest smartphone connectivity ever. That someone is Pioneer. And that speaker is our new A1 Wireless Speaker: the most convenient source for bringing high fidelity and powerful bass sound to you anywhere you go.
Comprehensive connectivity.
In the wireless world, there are many ways to connect and play, and the A1 connects to virtually all of them:
AirPlay® is a revolutionary way of enjoying your music anywhere in your home, and the A1 is AirPlay compatible right out of the box. Wirelessly stream music from your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod® touch, or your iTunes-running Mac or PC directly to the speaker. Plus use your iPhone or iPad device's familiar controls to change the volume and switch songs.
HTC Connect™ is for Android® owners who, until now, have constantly asked, "What about me?" The good news is your speaker has arrived. A Pioneer exclusive, the A1 proudly supports HTC Connect, compatible with HTC One series phones. HTC Connect makes it easy to wirelessly stream your favorite music straight from your HTC One phone. There's no need for a separate app; HTC Connect is built right into your phone's music player.
DLNA 1.5 certified, the A1 connects seamlessly to all other DLNA compliant devices.
Here's why Wi-Fi.
We've never cared much for limits, especially when it comes to your audio experience. That's why instead of Bluetooth, we designed the A1 to be a true Wi-Fi speaker. Wi-Fi's higher bandwidth carries more audio signal, giving you higher audio quality. Not to mention far better range unobstructed by things like furniture or walls. Easy to set-up and pair, Wi-Fi gives you the portable audio experience you've always wanted.
Wireless Direct.
With Wireless Direct – a Pioneer exclusive - You can enjoy wireless music far beyond your home's wireless network. Wireless Direct allows for a direct wireless connection between your smartphone and the A1 speaker, without the need for a wireless router.
Tuned personally by Andrew Jones
The A1 has been developed from the ground up by none other than Andrew Jones, our world-renowned Chief Speaker Engineer. Having personally chosen the dual 77mm Woofers, 20mm Tweeter and dual 10W+10W amplifiers, and driver network, the sleek and contemporary A1 not only enjoys a distinguished pedigree, it also offers the clear, natural and powerful audio experience you expect from Pioneer.
Spotify® Connect
Spotify Connect is a Premium feature that lets you play and control Spotify on your devices. Choose music on one device and listen on another. At home, hit play on your mobile and hear high fidelity sound on your wireless speaker. You can also control the music from your mobile phone. Update your Wireless Speaker
Pandora® and vTuner® Internet Radio
Expand your audio entertainment options with an endless playlist of your favorite music and access to more than 10,000 internet radio stations from across the globe. Pandora and vTuner Internet Radio are now built right into the A1, and are designed to help you discover and enjoy new music.*
Pioneer ControlApp
In addition to full control functions, ControlApp for Pioneer's Wireless speakers allows you to access your favorite Pandora station or tune into thousands of radio stations from around the globe with vTuner Internet Radio. Use ControlApp's Push Player feature to access your mobile device's music library directly from the app to create playlists that can stream wirelessly to your Speaker.
Click here for more info!
Maximum sound. Minimalist look.
Before you hear the sound, the first thing you notice about the A1 are the clean, minimalist lines of this extraordinary speaker. Its enclosed gloss black body means a fuller, less distorted sound. The timeless look of its black metal grill adds to the streamlined look, as does the perfectly integrated matte black Capacitive Touch Control Panel.
By taking advantage of Pioneers audio heritage, as well as the latest technology, our new, portable Pioneer A1 Wi-Fi Speaker puts the key to wirelessly enjoying your music wherever you are right where it belongs. In your hands.
Key Features
- Wireless Speaker
- 2 Way
- 1"
- 3" (x2)
- -
- Front
- USB/AUX-In/LAN
- 12-5/8 x 7-1/8 x 5-3/4 inches
- 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Quickstart Mode A1, A3, and A4
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Connecting Using Safari
Pioneer Wireless Speakers: Connecting to a WPS Router
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Pandora andvTuner Firmware UPDATE
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Connecting Using Windows
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Wireless Direct
Pioneer SMA Wireless Speaker: Connecting With iPhone, iPod, or iPad
Steps for Updating Your Wireless Speaker
Please Note, this firmware update enhances your Wireless Speaker with Spotify Connect, Pandora, and vTuner Internet Radio services
Step 1: Connect your SMA speaker to your wireless network
Step 2: Access your speaker's Web Control menu by doing the following:
Windows 7® or Vista users: Click the Start icon on your Desktop and select "Network". Your SMA speaker will appear as an icon in the explorer menu on the right. Right-click it and select "View Device Webpage". The Web Control Menu will open in your default browser.
Windows XP® Users: Click the Start icon on your Desktop and select "My Network". Click on, "Display icons for UPnP devices connected to the network" and your speaker will appear as an icon in the explorer menu. Double-click on the speaker icon and the Web Control Menu will open in your default browser.
Safari Users: Open your Safari browser and click on the Bookmark icon on the upper left side of the screen. Click on "Bonjour List" and select your speaker from the list.
Step 3: Download the firmware and change history files.
Firmware Zip File Change History File
Unzip the file and save it to a place on your computer that you'll remember.
Step 4: From the Web Control Menu, click on "Firmware Update" and click "Start". Within 2 minutes, the firmware update screen will open.
Step 5: Click the "Choose File" button and find the unzipped file that you just saved on your computer.
Step 6: Click "Upload" and then click "Yes" on the confirmation screen. The update will begin and you can watch its progress from your computer. Once the update finishes, follow the instructions on your computer and unplug the power cord from your speaker.
Spotify Connect Update
Spotify Connect is a Premium feature that lets you play and control Spotify on your devices. Choose music on one device and listen on another. At home, hit play on your mobile and hear high fidelity sound on your wireless speaker. You can also control the music from your mobile phone.
Download the Spotify App
Click here for more Spotify Connect compatible models
Click here for Spotify Instruction Manual
Pandora and vTuner Update
Expand your audio entertainment options with an endless playlist of your favorite music and access to more than 10,000 internet radio stations from across the globe. With a firmware update, Pandora® and vTuner® Internet Radio are now built right into Pioneer's line of SMA wireless speakers and are designed to help you discover and enjoy new music.
Downloading ControlApp
Open the App Store or Google Play on your device and search for "ControlApp" to download. You can also click on the applicable badge below:
(if you already have ControlApp installed on your device, you will automatically be asked to download the latest version)
The firmware is compatible with the XW-SMA1-K, XW-SMA3-K and XW-SMA4-K only. Your SMA speaker and your wireless device must be on the same network in order for Pandora and vTuner services to function properly. Specifications and features subject to change. PIONEER and the Pioneer logo are registered trademarks of Pioneer Corporation. Pandora and the Pandora logo are registered trademarks of Pandora Media, Inc. vTuner is a registered trademark of Nothing Else Matters Software, Ltd. Apple is a trademark of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Safari is a trademark and The App Store is a service mark of Apple, Inc. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc. Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. See the App Store and Google Play for details regarding device compatibility.
*Firmware upgrade needed. Information about this upgrade can be found on the firmware tab
Specifications and design subject to modification without notice.
PIONEER and the Pioneer logo are registered trademarks of Pioneer Corporation.
"Made for iPod," "Made for iPhone," and "Made for iPad" mean that an electronic accessory has been designed
to connect specifically to iPod, iPhone, or iPad, respectively, and has been certified by the developer to meet Apple
performance standards. Apple is not responsible for the operation of this device or its compliance with safety and
regulatory standards. Please note that the use of this accessory with iPod, iPhone, or iPad may affect wireless
Spotify is the registered trade mark of the Spotify Group. Compatible digital mobile devices and premium subscription required where available, see pioneer.eu/spotify
Apple, AirPlay, the AirPlay logo, iPhone, iPad, iPod and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S.
and other countries. AirPlay works with iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (4th, 3rd and 2nd generations),
iPad 2, iPad with iOS 4.2 or later, and iTunes 10.1 (Mac and PC) or later.
DLNA, the DLNA Logo and DLNA Certified are trademarks, service marks, or certification
marks of the Digital Living Network Alliance.
HTC, the HTC logo, and HTC Connect are trademarks of HTC Corporation. HTC Connect is defined as interoperability
testing of music streaming performed between HTC Connect-enabled Smartphones and HTC Connect-enabled Home
AV products using the HTC Connect Music Application. Third party music applications (apps other than the HTC
Connect-enabled smartphone's native music player) may not work with HTC Connect. HTC One X and HTC One S will
be enabled for HTC Connect after installation of firmware update, available 3rd quarter 2012.
Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance
For details on iPod compatibility, visit http://pioneer.jp/homeav/support/ios/na


text:
i LOVE writing poems...when I'm not writing HP related poems I'm either reading more HP related poems or James and Lily romance fics.
Here's a bit more about me:
My favourite book would be the prisoner of azkaban. My favourite movie would be the goblet of fire because I think it has the best special effects. My favourite sport would be...quidditch...nah just kidding netball. Yes, I'm a girl ;)


text:
Some observers argue that a rudimentary version of world culture is already taking shape among certain individuals who share similar values, aspirations, or lifestyles. The result is a collection of elite groups whose unifying ideals transcend geographical limitations.
One such cadre, according to political scientist Samuel Huntington in The Clash of Civilizations (1998), comprises an elite group of highly educated people who operate in the rarefied domains of international finance, media, and diplomacy. Named after the Swiss town that began hosting annual meetings of the World Economic Forum in 1971, these "Davos" insiders share common beliefs about individualism, democracy, and market economics. They are said to follow a recognizable lifestyle, are instantly identifiable anywhere in the world, and feel more comfortable in each other's presence than they do among their less-sophisticated compatriots.
The globalization of cultural subgroups is not limited to the upper classes. Expanding on the concept of Davos culture, sociologist Peter L. Berger observed that the globalization of Euro-American academic agendas and lifestyles has created a worldwide "faculty club"—an international network of people who share similar values, attitudes, and research goals. While not as wealthy or privileged as their Davos counterparts, members of this international faculty club wield tremendous influence through their association with educational institutions worldwide and have been instrumental in promoting feminism, environmentalism, and human rights as global issues. Berger cited the antismoking movement as a case in point: the movement began as a singular North American preoccupation in the 1970s and subsequently spread to other parts of the world, traveling along the contours of academe's global network.
Another global subgroup comprises "cosmopolitans" who nurture an intellectual appreciation for local cultures. As pointed out by Swedish anthropologist Ulf Hannerz, this group advocates a view of global culture based not on the "replication of uniformity" but on the "organization of diversity." Often promoting this view are nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that lead efforts to preserve cultural traditions in the developing world. By the beginning of the 21st century, institutions such as Cultural Survival were operating on a world scale, drawing attention to indigenous groups who are encouraged to perceive themselves as "first peoples"—a new global designation emphasizing common experiences of exploitation among indigenous inhabitants of all lands. By sharpening such identities, these NGOs have globalized the movement to preserve indigenous world cultures.
Another group stems from the rise of a transnational workforce. Indian-born anthropologist Arjun Appadurai has studied English-speaking professionals who trace their origins to South Asia but who live and work elsewhere. They circulate in a social world that has multiple home bases, and they have gained access to a unique network of individuals and opportunities. For example, many software engineers and Internet entrepreneurs who live and work in Silicon Valley, California, maintain homes in—and strong social ties to—Indian states such as Maharashtra and Punjab.
Underlying these various visions of globalization is a reluctance to define exactly what is meant by the term culture. During most of the 20th century, anthropologists defined culture as a shared set of beliefs, customs, and ideas that held people together in recognizable, self-identified groups. Scholars in many disciplines challenged this notion of cultural coherence, especially as it became evident that members of close-knit groups held radically different visions of their social worlds. Culture is no longer perceived as a knowledge system inherited from ancestors. As a result, many social scientists now treat culture as a set of ideas, attributes, and expectations that change as people react to changing circumstances. Indeed, by the turn of the 21st century, the collapse of barriers enforced by Soviet communism and the rise of electronic commerce have increased the perceived speed of social change everywhere.
The term local culture is commonly used to characterize the experience of everyday life in specific, identifiable localities. It reflects ordinary people's feelings of appropriateness, comfort, and correctness—attributes that define personal preferences and changing tastes. Given the strength of local cultures, it is difficult to argue that an overarching global culture actually exists. Jet-setting sophisticates may feel comfortable operating in a global network disengaged from specific localities, but these people constitute a very small minority; their numbers are insufficient to sustain a coherent cultural system. It is more important to ask where these global operators maintain their families, what kind of kinship networks they rely upon, if any, and whether theirs is a transitory lifestyle or a permanent condition. For most people, place and locality still matter. Even the transnational workers discussed by Appadurai are rooted in local communities bound by common perceptions of what represents an appropriate and fulfilling lifestyle.
Research on globalization has shown that it is not an omnipotent, unidirectional force leveling everything in its path. Because a global culture does not exist, any search for it would be futile. It is more fruitful to instead focus on particular aspects of life that are indeed affected by the globalizing process.
The breakdown of time and space is best illustrated by the influential "global village" thesis posed by communications scholar Marshall McLuhan in Gutenberg Galaxy (1962). Instantaneous communication, predicted McLuhan, would soon destroy geographically based power imbalances and create a global village. Later, geographer David Harvey argued that the postmodern condition is characterized by a "time-space compression" that arises from inexpensive air travel and the ever-present use of telephones, fax, and, more recently, e-mail.
There can be little doubt that people perceive the world today as a smaller place than it appeared to their grandparents. In the 1960s and '70s immigrant workers in London relied on postal systems and personally delivered letters to send news back to their home villages in India, China, and elsewhere; it could take two months to receive a reply. The telephone was not an option, even in dire emergencies. By the late 1990s, the grandchildren of these first-generation migrants were carrying cellular phones that linked them to cousins in cities such as Calcutta (Kolkata), Singapore, or Shanghai. Awareness of time zones (when people will be awake; what time offices open) is now second nature to people whose work or family ties connect them to far-reaching parts of the world.
McLuhan's notion of the global village presupposed the worldwide spread of television, which brings distant events into the homes of viewers everywhere. Building on this concept, McLuhan claimed that accelerated communications produce an "implosion" of personal experience—that is, distant events are brought to the immediate attention of people halfway around the world.
The spectacular growth of Cable News Network (CNN) is a case in point. CNN became an icon of globalization by broadcasting its U.S.-style news programming around the world, 24 hours a day. Live coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and extended coverage of events surrounding the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, illustrated television's powerful global reach. Some governments have responded to such advances by attempting to restrict international broadcasting, but satellite communication makes these restrictions increasingly unenforceable.
Since the mid-1960s, the cost of international flights has declined, and foreign travel has become a routine experience for millions of middle- and working-class people. Diplomats, businesspeople, and ordinary tourists can feel "at home" in any city, anywhere in the world. Foreign travel no longer involves the challenge of adapting to unfamiliar food and living arrangements. CNN has been an essential feature of the standardized hotel experience since at least the 1990s. More significantly, Western-style beds, toilets, showers, fitness centres, and restaurants now constitute the global standard. A Japanese variant on the Westernized hotel experience, featuring Japanese-style food and accommodations, can also be found in most major cities. These developments are linked to the technology of climate control. In fact, the very idea of routine global travel was inconceivable prior to the universalization of air-conditioning. An experience of this nature would have been nearly impossible in the 1960s, when the weather, aroma, and noise of the local society pervaded one's hotel room.
Modes of dress can disguise an array of cultural diversity behind a facade of uniformity. The man's business suit, with coloured tie and buttoned shirt, has become "universal" in the sense that it is worn just about everywhere, although variations have appeared in countries that are cautious about adopting global popular culture. Iranian parliamentarians, for example, wear the "Western" suit but forgo the tie, while Saudi diplomats alternate "traditional" Bedouin robes with tailored business suits, depending upon the occasion. In the early years of the 21st century, North Korea and Afghanistan were among the few societies holding out against these globalizing trends.
The emergence of women's "power suits" in the 1980s signified another form of global conformity. Stylized trouser-suits, with silk scarves and colourful blouses (analogues of the male business suit), are now worldwide symbols of modernity, independence, and competence. Moreover, the export of used clothing from Western countries to developing nations has accelerated the adoption of Western-style dress by people of all socioeconomic levels around the world.
Some military fashions reflect a similar sense of convergence. Rebel fighters, such as those in Central Africa, South America, or the Balkans, seemed to take their style cue from the guerrilla garb worn by movie star Sylvester Stallone in his trilogy of Rambo films. In the 1990s the United States military introduced battle helmets that resembled those worn by the German infantry during World War II. Many older Americans were offended by the association with Nazism, but younger Americans and Europeans made no such connections. In 2001, a similar helmet style was worn by elite Chinese troops marching in a parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Chinese fashion underwent sweeping change after the death in 1976 of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong and the resultant economic liberalization. Western suits or casual wear became the norm. The androgynous gray or blue Mao suit essentially disappeared in the 1980s, worn only by communist patriarch Deng Xiaoping and a handful of aging leaders who dressed in the uniform of the Cultural Revolution until their deaths in the 1990s—by which time Mao suits were being sold in Hong Kong and Shanghai boutiques as high-priced nostalgia wear, saturated with postmodern irony.
The power of media conglomerates and the ubiquity of entertainment programming has globalized television's impact and made it a logical target for accusations of cultural imperialism. Critics cite a 1999 anthropological study that linked the appearance of anorexia in Fiji to the popularity of American television programs, notably Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210. Both series featured slender young actresses who, it was claimed, led Fijian women (who are typically fuller-figured) to question indigenous notions of the ideal body.
Anti-globalism activists contend that American television shows have corrosive effects on local cultures by highlighting Western notions of beauty, individualism, and sexuality. Although many of the titles exported are considered second-tier shows in the United States, there is no dispute that these programs are part of the daily fare for viewers around the world. Television access is widespread, even if receivers are not present in every household. In the small towns of Guatemala, the villages of Jiangxi province in China, or the hill settlements of Borneo, for instance, one television set—often a satellite system powered by a gasoline generator—may serve two or three dozen viewers, each paying a small fee. Collective viewing in bars, restaurants, and teahouses was common during the early stages of television broadcasting in Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, and many other countries. By the 1980s video-viewing parlours had become ubiquitous in many regions of the globe.
Live sports programs continue to draw some of the largest global audiences. The 1998 World Cup men's football (soccer) final between Brazil and France was watched by an estimated two billion people. After the 1992 Olympic Games, when the American "Dream Team" of National Basketball Association (NBA) stars electrified viewers who had never seen the sport played to U.S. professional standards, NBA games were broadcast in Australia, Israel, Japan, China, Germany, and Britain. In the late 1990s Michael Jordan, renowned for leading the Chicago Bulls to six championships with his stunning basketball skills, became one of the world's most recognized personalities.
Hollywood movies have had a similar influence, much to the chagrin of some countries. In early 2000 Canadian government regulators ordered the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to reduce the showing of Hollywood films during prime time and to instead feature more Canadian-made programming. CBC executives protested that their viewers would stop watching Canadian television stations and turn to satellite reception for international entertainment. Such objections were well grounded, given that, in 1998, 79 percent of English-speaking Canadians named a U.S. program when asked to identify their favourite television show.
Hollywood, however, does not hold a monopoly on entertainment programming. The world's most prolific film industry is in Bombay (Mumbai), India ("Bollywood"), where as many as 1,000 feature films are produced annually in all of India's major languages. Primarily love stories with heavy doses of singing and dancing, Bollywood movies are popular throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East. State censors in Islamic countries often find the modest dress and subdued sexuality of Indian film stars acceptable for their audiences. Although the local appeal of Bollywood movies remains strong, exposure to Hollywood films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and Speed (1994) caused young Indian moviegoers to develop an appreciation for the special effects and computer graphics that had become the hallmarks of many American films.
Food is the oldest global carrier of culture. In fact, food has always been a driving force for globalization, especially during earlier phases of European trade and colonial expansion. The hot red pepper was introduced to the Spanish court by Christopher Columbus in 1493. It spread rapidly throughout the colonial world, transforming cuisines and farming practices in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It might be difficult to imagine Korean cuisine without red pepper paste or Szechuan food without its fiery hot sauce, but both are relatively recent innovations—probably from the 17th century. Other New World crops, such as corn (maize), cassava, sweet potatoes, and peanuts (groundnuts), were responsible for agricultural revolutions in Asia and Africa, opening up terrain that had previously been unproductive.
One century after the sweet potato was introduced into south China (in the mid-1600s), it had become a dominant crop and was largely responsible for a population explosion that created what today is called Cantonese culture. It is the sweet potato, not the more celebrated white rice, which sustained generations of southern Chinese farmers.
These are the experiences that cause cultural meaning to be attached to particular foods. Today the descendants of Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hakka pioneers disdain the sweet potato as a "poverty food" that conjures images of past hardships. In Taiwan, by contrast, independence activists (affluent members of the rising Taiwanese middle class) have embraced the sweet potato as an emblem of identity, reviving old recipes and celebrating their cultural distinctions from "rice-eating mainlanders."
While the global distribution of foods originated with the pursuit of exotic spices (such as black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves), contemporary food trading features more prosaic commodities, such as soybeans and apples. African bananas, Chilean grapes, and California oranges have helped to transform expectations about the availability and affordability of fresh produce everywhere in the world. Green beans are now grown in Burkina Faso in Central Africa and shipped by express air cargo to Paris, where they end up on the plates of diners in the city's top restaurants. This particular exchange system is based on a "nontraditional" crop that was not grown in Burkina Faso until the mid-1990s, when the World Bank encouraged its cultivation as a means of promoting economic development. The country soon became Africa's second largest exporter of green beans. Central African farmers consequently found themselves in direct competition with other "counter-season" growers of green beans from Brazil and Florida.
The average daily diet has also undergone tremendous change, with all nations converging on a diet high in meat, dairy products, and processed sugars. Correlating closely to a worldwide rise in affluence, the new "global diet" is not necessarily a beneficial trend, as it can increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. Now viewed as a global health threat, obesity has been dubbed "globesity" by the World Health Organization. To many observers, the homogenization of human diet appears to be unstoppable. Vegetarians, environmental activists, and organic food enthusiasts have organized rearguard actions to reintroduce "traditional" and more wholesome dietary practices, but these efforts have been concentrated among educated elites in industrial nations.
Western food corporations are often blamed for these dietary trends. McDonald's, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), and Coca-Cola are primary targets of anti-globalism demonstrators (who are themselves organized into global networks, via the Internet). McDonald's has become a symbol of globalism for obvious reasons: on an average day in 2001, the company served nearly 45 million customers at more than 25,000 restaurants in 120 countries. It succeeds in part by adjusting its menu to local needs. In India, for example, no beef products are sold.
McDonald's also succeeds in countries that might be expected to disdain fast food. In France, for example, food, especially haute cuisine, is commonly regarded as the core element of French culture. Nevertheless, McDonald's continues to expand in the very heartland of opposition: by the turn of the 21st century there were more than 850 McDonald's restaurants in France, employing over 30,000 people. Not surprisingly, many European protest movements have targeted McDonald's as an agent of cultural imperialism. French intellectuals may revile the Big Mac sandwich for all that it symbolizes, but the steady growth of fast-food chains demonstrates that anti-globalist attitudes do not always affect economic behaviour, even in societies (such as France) where these sentiments are nearly universal. Like their counterparts in the United States, French workers are increasingly pressed for time. The two-hour lunch is largely a thing of the past.
Food and beverage companies attract attention because they cater to the most elemental form of human consumption. We are what we eat, and when diet changes, notions of national and ethnic identity are affected. Critics claim that the spread of fast food undermines indigenous cuisines by forcing a homogenization of world dietary preferences, but anthropological research in Russia, Japan, and Hong Kong does not support this view.
Close study of cultural trends at the local level, however, shows that the globalization of fast food can influence public conduct. Fast-food chains have introduced practices that changed some consumer behaviours and preferences. For example, in Japan, where using one's hands to eat prepared foods was considered a gross breech breach of etiquette, the popularization of McDonald's hamburgers has had such a dramatic impact on popular etiquette that it is now common to see Tokyo commuters eating in public , without chopsticks or spoons.
In late-Soviet Russia, rudeness had become a high art form among service personnel. Today customers expect polite, friendly service when they visit Moscow restaurants—a social revolution initiated by McDonald's and its employee training programs. Since its opening in 1990, Moscow's Pushkin Square restaurant has been one of the busiest McDonald's in the world.
The social atmosphere in colonial Hong Kong of the 1960s was anything but genteel. Cashing a check, boarding a bus, or buying a train ticket required brute force. When McDonald's opened in 1975, customers crowded around the cash registers, shouting orders and waving money over the heads of people in front of them. McDonald's responded by introducing queue monitors—young women who channeled customers into orderly lines. Queuing subsequently became a hallmark of Hong Kong's cosmopolitan, middle-class culture. Older residents credit McDonald's for introducing the queue, a critical element in this social transition.
Yet another innovation, in some areas of Asia, Latin America, and Europe, was McDonald's provision of clean toilets and washrooms. In this way the company was instrumental in setting new cleanliness standards (and thereby raising consumer expectations) in cities that had never offered public facilities. Wherever McDonald's has set up business, it rapidly has become a haven for an emerging class of middle-income urbanites.
The introduction of fast food has been particularly influential on children, especially since so many advertisements are designed to appeal to them. Largely as a consequence of such advertising, American-style birthday parties have spread to many parts of the world where individual birth dates previously had never been celebrated. McDonald's and KFC have become the leading venues for birthday parties throughout East Asia, with special rooms and services provided for the events. These and other symbolic effects make fast food a powerful force for dietary and social change, because a meal at these restaurants will introduce practices that younger consumers may not experience at home—most notably, the chance to choose one's own food. The concept of personal choice is symbolic of Western consumer culture. Visits to McDonald's and KFC have become signal events for children who approach fast-food restaurants with a heady sense of empowerment.
Central to Huntington's thesis in The Clash of Civilizations is the assumption that the post-Cold War world would regroup into regional alliances based on religious beliefs and historical attachments to various "civilizations." Identifying three prominent groupings—Western Christianity (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism), Orthodox Christianity (Russian and Greek), and Islam, with additional influences from Hinduism and Confucianism—he predicted that the progress of globalization would be severely constrained by religio-political barriers. The result would be a "multipolar world." Huntington's view differed markedly from those who prophesied a standardized, homogenized global culture.
There is, however, considerable ethnographic evidence, gathered by anthropologists and sociologists, that refutes this model of civilizational clash and suggests instead a rapid diffusion of religious and cultural systems throughout the world. Islam is one case in point, given that it constitutes one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States, France, and Germany—supposed bastions of Western Christianity. Before the end of the 20th century, entire arrondisements arrondissements (districts) of Paris were dominated by Muslims, the majority of them French citizens born and reared in France. Thirty-five percent of students in the suburban Dearborn, Michigan, public school system were Muslim in 2001, making the provision of ḥalāl ("lawful" under Islam) meals at lunchtime a hot issue in local politics. By the start of the 21st century, Muslims of Turkish origin constituted the fastest-growing sector of Berlin's population, and, in northern England, the old industrial cities of Bradford and Newcastle had been revitalized by descendants of Pakistani and Indian Muslims who immigrated during the 1950s and '60s.
From its inception, Christianity has been an aggressively proselytizing religion with a globalizing agenda. Indeed, the Roman Catholic church Church was arguably the first global institution, having spread rapidly throughout the European colonial world and beyond. Today, perhaps the fastest-growing religion is evangelical Christianity. Stressing the individual's personal experience of divinity (as opposed to priestly intercession), evangelicalism has gained wide appeal in regions such as Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, presenting serious challenges to established Catholic churches. Following the collapse of Soviet power in 1991, the Russian Orthodox church began the process of rebuilding after more than seven decades of repression. At the same time, evangelical missionaries from the United States and Europe shifted much of their attention from Latin America and Africa to Russia, alarming Russian Orthodox leaders. By 1997, under pressure from Orthodox clergy, the Russian government promoted legislation to restrict the activities of religious organizations that had operated in Russia for less than 15 years, effectively banning Western evangelical missionaries. The debate over Russian religious unity continues, however, and, if China is any guide, such legislation could have little long-term effect.
In China, unauthorized "house churches" became a major concern for Communist Party officials who attempted to control Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist religious activity through state-sponsored organizations. Many of the unrecognized churches are syncretic in the sense that they combine aspects of local religion with Christian ideas. As a result they have been almost impossible to organize, let alone control.
Social scientists confirm the worldwide resurgence, since the late 20th century, of conservative religion among faiths such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Shinto in Japan and Sikhism in India. The social and political connotations of these conservative upsurges are unique to each culture and religion. For example, some sociologists have identified Christian evangelicalism as a leading carrier of modernization: its emphasis on the Bible is thought to encourage literacy, while involvement in church activities can teach administrative skills that are applicable to work environments. As a sociologist of religion, Berger argues that "there may be other globalizing popular movements [today], but evangelicalism is clearly the most dynamic."
Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis assumes that the major East Asian societies constitute an alliance of "Confucian" cultures that share a common heritage in the teachings of Confucius, the ancient Chinese sage. Early 21st-century lifestyles in Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong, however, show far more evidence of globalization than Confucianization. The reputed hallmarks of Confucianism—respect for parental authority and ancestral traditions—are no more salient in these cities than in Boston, London, or Berlin. This is a consequence of (among other things) a steady reduction in family size that has swept through East Asian societies since the 1980s. State-imposed restrictions on family size, late childbearing, and resistance to marriage among highly educated, working women have undermined the basic tenets of the Confucian family in Asia.
Birth rates in Singapore and Japan, in fact, have fallen below replacement levels and are at record low levels in Hong Kong; birth rates in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major Chinese cities are also declining rapidly. These developments mean that East Asia—like Europe—could face a fiscal crisis as decreasing numbers of workers are expected to support an ever-growing cohort of retirees. By 2025, China is projected to have 274 million people over age 60—more than the entire 1998 population of the United States. The prospects for other East Asian countries are far worse: 17.2 percent of Japan's 127 million people were over age 65 in 2000; by 2020 that percentage could rise to 27.
Meanwhile, Asia's "Confucian" societies face a concurrent revolution in family values: the conjugal family (centring on the emotional bond between wife and husband) is rapidly replacing the patriarchal joint family (focused on support of aged parents and grandparents). This transformation is occurring even in remote, rural regions of northwest China where married couples now expect to reside in their own home ("neolocal" residence) as opposed to the house or compound of the groom's parents ("patrilocal" residence). The children produced by these conjugal units are very different from their older kin who were reared in joint families: today's offspring are likely to be pampered only children known as "Little Emperors" or "Little Empresses." Contemporary East Asian families are characterized by an ideology of consumerism that is diametrically opposed to the neo-authoritarian Confucian rhetoric promoted by political leaders such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Hong Kong's Tung Chee-hwa at the turn of the 21st century.
Italy, Mexico, and Sweden (among other countries) also experienced dramatic reductions in family size and birth rates during the late 20th century. Furthermore, new family formations are taking root, such as those of the transnational workers who maintain homes in more than one country. Multi-domiciled families were certainly evident before the advent of cheap air travel and cellular phones, but new technologies have changed the quality of life (much for the better) in diaspora communities. Thus, the globalization of family life is no longer confined to migrant workers from developing economies who take low-paying jobs in advanced capitalist societies. The transnational family is increasingly a mark of high social status and affluence.
Anti-globalism activists often depict the McDonald's, Disney, and Coca-Cola corporations as agents of globalism or cultural imperialism—a new form of economic and political domination. Critics of globalism argue that any business enterprise capable of manipulating personal tastes will thrive, whereas state authorities everywhere will lose control over the distribution of goods and services. According to this view of world power, military force is perceived as hopelessly out of step or even powerless; the control of culture (and its production) is seen as far more important than the control of political and geographic borders. Certainly, it is true that national boundaries are increasingly permeable and any effort by nations to exclude global pop culture usually makes the banned objects all the more irresistible.
The commodities involved in the exchange of popular culture are related to lifestyle, especially as experienced by young people: pop music, film, video, comics, fashion, fast foods, beverages, home decorations, entertainment systems, and exercise equipment. Millions of people obtain the unobtainable by using the Internet to breach computer security systems and import barriers. "Information wants to be free" was the clarion call of software designers and aficionados of the World Wide Web in the 1990s. This code of ethics takes its most creative form in societies where governments try hardest to control the flow of information (e.g., China and Iran). In 1999, when Serbian officials shut down the operations of Radio B92, the independent station continued its coverage of events in the former Republic of Yugoslavia by moving its broadcasts to the Internet.
The idea of a borderless world is reflected in theories of the "virtual state," a new system of world politics that is said to reflect the essential chaos of 21st-century capitalism. In Out of Control (1994), author Kevin Kelly predicted that the Internet would gradually erode the power of governments to control citizens; advances in digital technology would instead allow people to follow their own interests and form trans-state coalitions. Similarly, Richard Rosecrance, in The Rise of the Virtual State (1999), wrote that military conflicts and territorial disputes would be superseded by the flow of information, capital, technology, and manpower between states. Many scholars disagreed, insisting that the state was unlikely to disappear and could continue to be an essential and effective basis of governance.
Arguments regarding the erosion of state sovereignty are particularly unsettling for nations that have become consumers rather than producers of digital technology. Post-Soviet Russia, post-Mao China, and post-Gaullist France are but three examples of Cold War giants facing uncertain futures in the emerging global system. French intellectuals and politicians have seized upon anti-globalism as an organizing ideology in the absence of other unifying themes. In Les cartes de la France à l'heure de la mondialisation (2000; "France's Assets in the Era of Globalization"), French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine denounced the United States as a "hyperpower" that promotes "uniformity" and "unilateralism." Speaking for the French intelligentsia, he argued that France should take the lead in building a "multipolar world." Ordinary French citizens also were concerned about losing their national identity, particularly as the regulatory power of the European Union began to affect everyday life. Sixty percent of respondents in a 1999 L'Expansion poll agreed that globalization represented the greatest threat to the French way of life.
Anti-globalism organizers are found throughout the world, not least in many management organizations. They are often among the world's most creative and sophisticated users of Internet technology. This is doubly ironic, because even as NGOs contest the effects of globalization, they exhibit many of the characteristics of a global, transnational subculture; the Internet, moreover, is one of the principal tools that makes globalization feasible and organized protests against it possible. For example, Greenpeace, an environmentalist NGO, has orchestrated worldwide protests against genetically modified (GM) foods. Highly organized demonstrations appeared, seemingly overnight, in many parts of the world, denouncing GM products as "Frankenfoods" that pose unknown (and undocumented) dangers to people and to the environment. The bioengineering industry, supported by various scientific organizations, launched its own Internet-based counterattack, but the response was too late and too disorganized to outflank Greenpeace and its NGO allies. Sensational media coverage had already turned consumer sentiment against GM foods before the scientific community even entered the debate.
The anti-GM food movement demonstrates the immense power of the Internet to mobilize political protests. This power derives from the ability of a few determined activists to communicate with thousands (indeed millions) of potential allies in an instant. The Internet's power as an organizing tool became evident during the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle, Washington, in 1999, in which thousands of activists converged on the city, disrupting the WTO meetings and drawing the world's attention to criticisms of global trade practices. The Seattle protests set the stage for similar types of activism in succeeding years.
For hundreds of millions of urban people, the experience of everyday life has become increasingly standardized since the 1960s. Household appliances, utilities, and transportation facilities are increasingly universal. Technological "marvels" that North Americans and Europeans take for granted have had even more profound effects on the quality of life for billions of people in the less-developed world. Everyday life is changed by the availability of cold beverages, hot water, frozen fish, screened windows, bottled cooking-gas, or the refrigerator. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that these innovations have an identical, homogenizing effect wherever they appear. For most rural Chinese, the refrigerator has continued to be seen as a status symbol. They use it to chill beer, soft drinks, and fruit, but they dismiss the refrigeration of vegetables, meat, and fish as unhealthy. Furthermore, certain foods (notably bean curd dishes) are thought to taste better when cooked with more traditional fuels such as coal or wood, as opposed to bottled gas.
It remains difficult to argue that the globalization of technologies is making the world everywhere the same. The "sameness" hypothesis is only sustainable if one ignores the internal meanings that people assign to cultural innovations.
The domain of popular music illustrates how difficult it is to unravel cultural systems in the contemporary world: Is rock music a universal language? Do reggae and ska have the same meaning to young people everywhere? American-inspired hip-hop (rap) swept through Brazil, Britain, France, China, and Japan in the 1990s. Yet Japanese rappers developed their own, localized versions of this art form. Much of the music of hip-hop, grounded in urban African American experience, is defiantly antiestablishment, but the Japanese lyric content is decidedly mild, celebrating youthful solidarity and exuberance. Similar "translations" between form and content have occurred in the pop music of Indonesia, Mexico, and Korea. Even a casual listener of U.S. radio can hear the profound effects that Brazilian, South African, Indian, and Cuban forms have had on the contemporary American pop scene. An earlier example of splashback—when a cultural innovation returns, somewhat transformed, to the place of its origin—was the British Invasion of the American popular music market in the mid-1960s. Forged in the United States from blues and country music, rock and roll crossed the Atlantic in the 1950s to captivate a generation of young Britons who, forming bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, made the music their own, then reintroduced it to American audiences with tremendous success. The flow of popular culture is rarely, if ever, unidirectional.
A cultural phenomenon does not convey the same meaning everywhere. In 1998, the drama and special effects of the American movie Titanic created a sensation among Chinese fans. Scores of middle-aged Chinese returned to the theatres over and over—crying their way through the film. Enterprising hawkers began selling packages of facial tissue outside Shanghai theatres. The theme song of Titanic became a best-selling CD in China, as did posters of the young film stars. Chinese consumers purchased more than 25 million pirated (and 300,000 legitimate) video copies of the film.
One might ask why middle-aged Chinese moviegoers became so emotionally involved with the story told in Titanic. Interviews among older residents of Shanghai revealed that many people had projected their own, long-suppressed experiences of lost youth onto the film. From 1966 to 1976 the Cultural Revolution convulsed China, destroying any possibility of educational or career advancement for millions of people. At that time, communist authorities had also discouraged romantic love and promoted politically correct marriages based on class background and revolutionary commitment. Improbable as it might seem to Western observers, the story of lost love on a sinking cruise ship hit a responsive chord among the veterans of the Cultural Revolution. Their passionate, emotional response had virtually nothing to do with the Western cultural system that framed the film. Instead, Titanic served as a socially acceptable vehicle for the public expression of regret by a generation of aging Chinese revolutionaries who had devoted their lives to building a form of socialism that had long since disappeared.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin invited the entire Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party to a private screening of Titanic so that they would understand the challenge. He cautioned that Titanic could be seen as a Trojan horse, carrying within it the seeds of American cultural imperialism.
Chinese authorities are were not alone in their mistrust of Hollywood. There are those who suggest, as has did China's Jiang, that exposure to Hollywood films such as Titanic will cause people everywhere to become more like Americans. Yet anthropologists who study television and film are wary of such suggestions. They emphasize the need to study the particular ways in which consumers make use of popular entertainment. The process of globalization looks far from hegemonic when one focuses on ordinary viewers and their efforts to make sense of what they see.
Another case in point is anthropologist Daniel Miller's study of television viewing in Trinidad, which demonstrated that viewers are not passive observers. In 1988, 70 percent of Trinidadians who had access to a television watched daily episodes of The Young and the Restless, a series that emphasized family problems, sexual intrigue, and gossip. Miller discovered that Trinidadians had no trouble relating to the personal dramas portrayed in American soap operas, even though the lifestyles and material circumstances differed radically from life in Trinidad. Local people actively reinterpreted the episodes to fit their own experience, seeing the televised dramas as commentaries on contemporary life in Trinidad. The portrayal of American material culture, notably women's fashions, was a secondary attraction. In other words, it is a mistake to treat television viewers as passive.
Local culture remains a powerful influence in daily life. People are tied to places, and those places continue to shape particular norms and values. The fact that residents of Moscow, Beijing, and New Delhi occasionally eat at McDonald's, watch Hollywood films, and wear Nike athletic shoes (or copies thereof) does not make them "global." The appearance of homogeneity is the most salient, and ultimately the most deceptive, feature of globalization. Outward appearances do not reveal the internal meanings that people assign to a cultural innovation. True, the standardization of everyday life will likely accelerate as digital technology comes to approximate the toaster in "user-friendliness." But technological breakthroughs are not enough to create a world culture. People everywhere show a desire to partake of the fruits of globalization, but they just as earnestly want to celebrate the distinctiveness of their own cultures.


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I am reading a version The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma jewel platform sutra : with the
commentary of Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society.
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/P ... 0Sutra.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In the introduction it says this:
How can affliction and Bodhi not be different when affliction causes suffering and Bodhi does not?While still in India, Patriarch Bodhidharma sent two of his disciples, Fo T'o and Yeh She, to China to transmit the sudden enlightenment Dharma door. But no one, not even Chinese Bhikshus, would speak to them. So they went to Lu Mountain where they met the Great Master Yüan Kung, who lectured on mindfulness of the Buddha.
Master Yüan asked, "What Dharma do you transmit that causes people to pay you so little respect?" Fo T'o and Yeh She could not speak Chinese, so they used sign language instead. Raising their arms in the air, they said, "Watch! The hand makes a fist and the fist makes a hand. Is this not quick?" Master Yüan replied, "Quick indeed." "Bodhi (enlightenment) and affliction," they said, "are just
that quick." At that moment, Dharma Master Yüan became enlightened, realizing that originally Bodhi and affliction are not different, for Bodhi is affliction and affliction is Bodhi. He made offerings to Fo T'o and Yeh She, and shortly thereafter, the two Indian Bhikshus died on the same day, in the same place. Their graves may still be seen at Lu Mountain.


text:
Rage developed the Chisel Tip for the bowhunter who wants the devastating wound channel of a Rage broadhead, but prefers a chisel style point. This broadhead combines the proven rear blade SlipCam technology of a Rage with a new bone crushing chisel tip. Customers requested a Rage broadhead with a more durable chisel point, and the engineers answered with the Rage Chisel.
Technical Information
- SlipCam rear blade deployment
- 2" cutting diameter
- Chisel tip
- Practice point included
- Massive wound channels
- Field Point accuracy
Technical Information
- Broadhead Type:: mechanical
- Number of Blades: 2
- Cutting Diameter: 2"
- Ferrule Material:: aluminum
- Blade Material:: steel
- Replaceable Blades:: Yes
- Quantity:: 3


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On this web site I have seen in the Tai Chi info section the following question: Which weapons are part of the original Yang family tai chi?
The answer is provided by Master Yang Jun, and it says: "The traditional Yang style actually doesn't have many weapons...The short weapons are the 67-move sword and 13-move sabre. Now the long weapons. We used to include the long spear (or Yang style 13-move spear), but later for safety reasons removed the spear head so that it became a long staff. The techniques for the staff remain the same as the original spear form..."
I have been wondering: Does anybody know if The Yang Family is still teaching long staff form to the public? Will there be a seminar about it some day? I would really like to know that.


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Re: Fantasy Football
I'm in
Bedrock Messageboard
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
I'm in
Am I right in thinking you can no longer see each others teams???
Am I right in thinking you can no longer see each others teams???
I think once the first game is done and dusted, then its fair game to retrospectively see what they have. Seemed that way last year.
Fair enough.
Amps wrote:
Am I right in thinking you can no longer see each others teams???
I think once the first game is done and dusted, then its fair game to retrospectively see what they have. Seemed that way last year.
This would be correct. You can only see the previous weeks team. Which makes sense really.
Yep, once gameweek 1 is complete you can see other people's team.
Tough choices this week trying to guess who will and won't start.
I kept forgetting about it last season and dropped untold points, more attention needed this year, I have a full £5 at stake in one league.
So Amps... which team is yours? If you have gone in on the Bedrock League that is?
Big Red Balls
Just tried to log on and there server is down...
I'm told that EA Sports have taken over the running of the Fantasy Football part of the site.
It appears they are hosting it on an old lap top, shoved under someone's stairs.
It has been an absolute shambles this morning.
Good thing my team was pretty much done and dusted by last night
Right lets fecking av iiiiiiiittttt. I can see me using my wild card after week 1 as usual
Back of shit that new site. No update of points during the game or shortly after.
And all players are still on last years points.
Basically, it's been massive clusterfuck.
I want last years' things to be going on.
Note to people on websites... only update things if THEY FUCKING WORK!
They've truly fucked up if you don't get realtime points scoring.
It has been an absolute shambles this morning.
Good thing my team was pretty much done and dusted by last night
Shambles doesn't even come close to describing it....down from 10pm, if not earlier, on Friday 'til way past the deadline Can see the wildcard coming out early for this one!!
My points don't seem to tally up, it says 35 in a big blue box in "data view" yet in the next column my gameweek points are 29? is this because it hasn't finished processing or some shiz?
Not sure. They have made a complete hash of it. I shall be emailing in my complaints later.
I may even start an e-petition to Downing St. Failing that, a Facebook group to express my disgust.
Not sure. They have made a complete hash of it. I shall be emailing in my complaints later.
I may even start an e-petition to Downing St. Failing that, a Facebook group to express my disgust.
Looks like they've been listening...
Fantasy Premier League - An Apology
A statement has been issued regarding the Fantasy Premier League game.
As some of you are aware, many fans trying to access Fantasy Premier League on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning will have experienced problems logging in or registering teams prior to the Gameweek 1 deadline.
While the demand reached unprecedented levels on Saturday morning, we fell short of the standards you expect from the world's biggest fantasy football game and make no excuses for what was both a frustrating and disappointing experience ahead of the new season. For this we apologise unreservedly.
Our technical teams have been working throughout the weekend to ensure the technical issue that led to the problems experienced by users are dealt with. Work also continues to improve the quality of your experience with additional steps taken in the game itself that enable you to:
1. Receive unlimited transfers
No points will be deducted for any transfers you make up to the Gameweek 2 deadline (11:30 BST on Saturday 20th August 2011). If you have already made transfers and had points deducted, these will be restored to your overall total by midnight on Tuesday 16th August 2011. If you have already opted to play your wildcard, this too will be restored at the same time.
2. Opt to start mini-league scoring at Gameweek 2
The option is available to all mini-league administrators to start the scoring from Gameweek 2. Go to 'Leagues' > 'League name' > 'Administer' > Select 'Gameweek 2' in 'Scoring Starts' drop-down menu and click 'Update league details'.
3. Win a VIP trip to watch Man Utd v Chelsea
The manager of the team that accumulates the most points in Gameweeks 2, 3 & 4 will win a VIP trip for two to watch Man Utd v Chelsea on Sunday 18th September 2011 . The prize includes all transport, two nights' accommodation, match tickets, pre-match hospitality and £250 spending money. If there is a tie between teams, the team with the fewest transfers between Gameweeks 2-4 will win the trip. In the event of a further tie, the winner will be selected at random.
4. Win a new monthly prize - iPad2
Each monthly winner of Fantasy Premier League 2011/12 will be able to choose between receiving an iPad2 or the current monthly prize (replica shirt, iPod nano & digital camera). The runner-up will then receive whichever prize is not claimed by the monthly winner.
Having monitored many of the comments that have been posted on message boards, via blogs, in forums and on social networks, we hope the following additional points will also help clarify some of the queries raised:
∙ Fantasy Premier League is still run by the same provider. A redesign was required in order to incorporate new features and in order to maintain consistency with the next version of the Premier League's official site but the problems are not related to the new look.
∙ EA SPORTS sponsor the official match statistics across the Premier League website and were not involved in the rebuild of this season's Fantasy Premier League game nor responsible in any way for the issues suffered by users over the weekend.
∙ The login/registration system had to be upgraded during the summer - this service is delivered by a new third party provider and is the most significant change from previous seasons.
∙ The live updates will be functioning for Gameweek 2.
∙ All league standings will be updated after each points update as per previous seasons. The single update for Gameweek 1 was an isolated case.
∙ If you have problems logging in, please try resetting your password by entering your email address on this page: https://users.premierleague.com/Premier … word.html. You'll be emailed a new password to use that you can change to something more memorable once you've logged in by visiting 'My Account'. If you are not receiving the password reminder, please check your Junk folder in your email inbox and add firstname.lastname@example.com to your Mailing List to ensure that the email arrives in your inbox.
∙ Please continue to email email@example.com with any issues you experience on the site with login, points updates etc.
Again, we are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused and diminished enjoyment of Fantasy Premier League.
We are confident that the measures in place will prevent any repeat of the issues players of Fantasy Premier League encountered at the weekend and hope you are looking forward to another exciting season as much as we are.
Aye. Seen that. They better have it fully sorted and working by the weekend.
If anyone's wondering about player price changes this week; they are all frozen.
The live updates will be running from game weeks 2.
Bullshiiiiiiiit - they've locked it out again. Cunts
aguero out
dzeko in
massive headslap
I've bossed it this week Aguero as captain, all my defence had a clean sheet apart from terry who scored, my other striker scored. I'm fucking ace at this
Last edited by Pumper&Dumper (Saturday Sep 2011 17:17:53)
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The service advances an operational model Maersk unveiled last year entitled "Absolute Reliability," introduced first into the container shipping line's Asia-Europe service. "This model based on total transportation time and cargo arriving at a promised delivery date, every single time, effectively streamlines supply chains and improves time to market. Now, Maersk Line takes another step toward achieving 'Absolute Reliability' by offering this new Flagship service, powered by BNSF Railway, in North America," Maersk said.
Maersk Line's Flagship service offers five products: Chicago Flagship, Dallas Flagship, Houston Flagship, Memphis Flagship, and Northwest Ohio Flagship. Each features dedicated, non-stop rail service that arrives at an agreed time, every time in each key market location. Flagship trains bypass connecting points along the route, allowing for what Maersk calls "unmatched service velocity."
Maersk said the inland North America investment by both companies "has the potential to create a healthier, more balanced U.S. import and export system. With regular non-stop inland rail service, greater reliability and equipment availability, this new intermodal offering will help increase and advance U.S. export growth. The five markets represent the initial implementation of this Flagship service with possible expansion to follow."
"We are extremely excited to introduce this highly reliable and innovative new Transpacific Flagship service to our dry and reefer cargo customers. While we understand that having a competitive transit is important, speed is not the essence of this service, being on-time is. With Flagship service and intermodal leader BNSF, we'll further support shippers in North America to optimize their supply chains," said Timothy O'Connell, senior director, Trade and Marketing, Maersk Line North America. "Absolute Reliability is not about being faster. It's about being absolutely reliable based on time."
"BNSF is pleased to collaborate with Maersk Line, a long-term customer, to once again bring next generation intermodal solutions to customers around the world. We look forward to delivering the best on time performance levels and service reliability to help shippers achieve superior supply chain performance," said Steve Branscum, BNSF group vice president, Consumer Products Marketing.


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Bullpen, clutch hits lead Nats to 'Twin' bill victory
WASHINGTON -- Rafael Soriano untucks his shirt after every save. But after Sunday's split doubleheader against the Twins, the scene of the Nationals closer ripping his jersey from his waist was particularly fitting.
The Nationals played more than six hours of baseball on Sunday, recording 24 hits, 12 runs and a handful of defensive gems. But at the end of a long, hard day, only one number mattered: two, as in the number of games the Nationals had won after a 5-4, come-from-behind victory in the nightcap.Full Game Coverage
WASHINGTON -- Rafael Soriano untucks his shirt after every save. But after Sunday's split doubleheader against the Twins, the scene of the Nationals closer ripping his jersey from his waist was particularly fitting.
The Nationals played more than six hours of baseball on Sunday, recording 24 hits, 12 runs and a handful of defensive gems. But at the end of a long, hard day, only one number mattered: two, as in the number of games the Nationals had won after a 5-4, come-from-behind victory in the nightcap.Full Game Coverage
"When I see signs of better approaches, more aggressive [hitting] -- that's the way you win ballgames," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. "We're relaxing and we've got tomorrow off. And boy do we need it."
The Nationals cruised in Game 1, pounding out five runs in the fifth inning to follow Jordan Zimmermann's stellar outing to a 7-0 win. The second game unfolded much differently, but the result was the same.
In a game that lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours and featured a 12-minute rain delay, the Nationals stayed within striking distance and sneaked ahead in the seventh inning. Adam LaRoche raced to a one-out double, sliding headfirst into second base, before Ian Desmond hit a double of his own to bring home the winning run.
The Nationals came back from a three-run deficit on Sunday for the first time all season.
"It was a good feeling when you're behind and you keep chipping away, you don't give up. This was probably our best ballgame," center fielder Denard Span said. "Normally early on in the season when we would get behind, we would just fold and give away at-bats. [Today] we just kept fighting and having good at-bats."
Span missed Game 1 of the doubleheader after fouling a ball off his foot on Saturday night, but he came back strong in Game 2. Playing against his former team for just the second time, Span smoked a triple into the right-field corner in the sixth inning to tie the game at 4. The man who scored that run, second baseman Anthony Rendon, also saved a run in the top of the inning.
With a 4-3 lead and two outs in the sixth, Twins third baseman Jamey Carroll hit a screamer above Rendon's head. Eduardo Escobar, who was on third after a leadoff triple, started running home. Rendon, who played in just his fourth game since being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse earlier in the week, leaped and made an acrobatic catch to end the inning.
"He doesn't talk much," Span said of Rendon. "But [with] his play today and his play so far … his presence was known. You felt it."
Starter Nathan Karns was pulled after just three innings in the shortest start of his first Major League stint. He gave up four runs on five hits while walking three and striking out two. Karns also gave up a two-run shot to shortstop Pedro Florimon, the fifth home run he has allowed in 12 innings with the Nationals.
"You can't keep putting on one or two runners every inning and expect to come out with zeros," Karns said. "I fell behind, they took advantage and when you keep doing that, they're going to break through. And that's what they did."
It started in the second inning, when the Twins drew back-to-back walks and capitalized on them with a two-out, two-RBI double by Chris Herrmann. Minnesota tacked on two more runs in the third when Florimon's homer landed in the right-field seats, chasing Karns from the game at the end of the inning.
In most doubleheaders, an early exit by a starting pitcher is worrisome. But thanks to seven strong innings from Zimmermann in Game 1, Johnson had a solid stable of relievers to choose from in the nightcap. Craig Stammen, Erik Davis, Fernando Abad, Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen and Soriano combined to allow just three hits over six scoreless innings.
"We threw just about everything we possibly could at them," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We thought we hit it better than the runs out on the board, but it didn't come out that way."
The Nationals' defense also showed some life on Sunday night. LaRoche made a pair of backhanded stops at first base, including an unassisted double play in the seventh inning, and Span's on-target throw after a fly ball in the first inning kept the Twins off the board early.
"It was a good game all-around," Desmond said. "Hitting's always up and down, but pitching and defense have to be there for us to win the games that we expect ourselves to. We're taking steps in the right direction, and today was a huge step."
With a pair of much-needed wins on Sunday, the Nationals returned to .500 (31-31) and moved back into second place in the National League East. A three-city road trip looms, but so do the healthy returns of a few important players, including starting pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Ross Detwiler and possibly outfielder Bryce Harper.
But all of that, Desmond said, is for another day. On Sunday night, the Nationals overcame a rough start on the mound, picked up their 11th come-from-behind victory of the season and untucked their shirts on the way out, a fitting end to a long but satisfying day.
Tom Schad is an associate reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_Schad.


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Im new to ZAEX and I would like to know how do I "tell" ZAEX which Email addresses I wish it to monitor for spam etc? I get my Email on Outlook 2007 and have a few ~~snip~~ addresses I would like ZAEX to monitor. I am running Windows 7
Thanks again
Im new to ZAEX and I would like to know how do I "tell" ZAEX which Email addresses I wish it to monitor for spam etc? I get my Email on Outlook 2007 and have a few ~~snip~~ addresses I would like ZAEX to monitor. I am running Windows 7
Thanks again
Last edited by GeorgeV; August 13th, 2010 at 12:03 PM. Reason: removed Email sample
ZA will filter/check all the e-mails automatically coming into your "inbox" regardless of the origin (note that if you have automatic rules to move folders out of the inbox these will not be inspected). To mark a message as unsolicited/spam just push the ZA button "junk". After a bit of training it will work fine.
To block specific a sender, select the message and go to ZoneAlarm option (in outlook), and choose "block sender". This will add the sender to the blocked list. Actually blocking senders can be done directly via outlook 2007.
Last edited by fax; August 13th, 2010 at 10:38 AM.
I dont have any ZA button on Outlook. After being in touch with Tech Help they seemed to give up and told me problem was with Outlook. Sounds like a cop-out to me. Sorry but Im left wondering how many more bits of Zone Alarm dont really work
Works perfectly fine here and in all PC I have. Surely a problem on your end or an issues with Outlook. If ZA support has given up helping I am afraid we surely can't help you here (as users). May be ZA is not for you or your PC? Its good that you trialed it. Sorry.
Yes, maybe the problem is at my end but when I see the others with same type of problem on this forum page with ZA/Outlook I think maybe the Tech boys at ZA need to have a look at this matter. There appears too many people reporting problems for the problem just to be at users end. What do others think?
Sorry this is not a discussion forum or a place to ask for opnions. Its a user platform to try to resolve ZA common issues. In here you can find all kind of problems to identify with. Not the best reference for knowing if something works or not.
Since it seems the issue cannot be resolved I will close soon this thread. If you have another ZA product related issue please do not hesitate to open a new thread.
If you find a resolution to your problem do not hesitate to PM to have the thread re-opened and the solution posted.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)


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Best move is no moves at all in Brewers' sixth
By Thomas Harding / MLB.com
But Brewers pitcher Randy Wolf, whose effectiveness made Roenicke's choice the right one, was so deep into pitching ultimately his most important career outing -- seven innings to beat the Cardinals, 4-2, to even the National League Championship Series after four games -- he was oblivious to his skipper's strategic options.
"To be 100 percent honest with you, I don't even remember that situation," Wolf said. "All I thought about was going back out there and pitching, and I was going to go out there until Ron took the ball away from me."
Outside of two opposite-field home runs, when the ball was carrying to right like few had seen at Busch Stadium, Wolf was repeatedly thwarting the dangerous Cards. Wolf finished with six strikeouts, and although he gave up seven hits, most of the time, he saved his best pitching for when runners were on base.
Before Wolf's effort, no starter in the NLCS had lasted beyond five innings. But Milwaukee entered the sixth with a 3-2 lead, and Roenicke was tempted to make moves at the bottom of the order to push for more runs. The wheels turned furiously when Rickie Weeks singled and Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled to put runners at second and third against St. Louis reliever Mitchell Boggs to open the sixth.
There was no consideration to remove No. 7 hitter Yuniesky Betancourt, who had driven in a run earlier with a single. But when Betancourt grounded out and the runners didn't advance, Roenicke was faced with the decision whether to replace No. 8 hitter George Kottaras, Wolf or even leadoff hitter Nyjer Morgan.
All the way to decision time, Roenicke admitted leaning toward going with stronger offensive options.
"There was a lot going on there," Roenicke said. "We decided that if we had a great opportunity with Wolf's spot, we would probably hit for him."
But the idea was never implemented. Here's how the inning unfolded:
The Cards went to left-hander Arthur Rhodes to face the left-handed-hitting Kottaras, the starting catcher. Roenicke could have gone with righty-swinging catcher Jonathan Lucroy. That move would have all but guaranteed Wolf's removal with Milwaukee pinch-hitting right-handed-hitting Corey Hart. Kottaras has caught Wolf 22 times this season, to Lucroy's three, and Roenicke saw no reason to disrupt that.
Had Roenicke gone with Lucroy and Hart, there likely would have been another decision. Cards manager Tony La Russa would likely have walked Hart, Roenicke said, which would have given Rhodes a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Morgan. Had Roenicke switched to a right-handed option, such as Casey McGehee, St. Louis had righty Octavio Dotel warming up.
The non-moves meant the Brewers were going to protect, rather than build.
Defensive replacements Carlos Gomez in center field and Craig Counsell at second base entered in the bottom of the seventh.
Roenicke also had his entire bullpen available for two innings. Francisco Rodriguez threw a perfect eighth. John Axford gave up a hit in the ninth before inducing a grounder from Rafael Furcal to complete his second save of the series. And Roenicke was able to use Lucroy to catch the relievers.
"I don't know why we decided to leave it as is," Roenicke said. "We were already up one run, which had a lot to do with it."
Even without going to the offensive options, the Brewers managed a run in the sixth inning. Kottaras knocked a slow roller that Cardinals second baseman Ryan Theriot fumbled for an error, and Hairston scored. Wolf dropped a sacrifice bunt, but Morgan struck out. It turned out Milwaukee didn't need any more runs.
Seeing Wolf continue lifted the Brewers.
"It was huge," Kottaras said. "He was pitching great all night."
"He didn't get rattled," Hairston said. "He kept us in there and we were able to fight and fight back and get a win."
Wolf admitted smarting over a bad outing while losing Game 4 of the NL Division Series against the D-backs (seven runs, eight hits in three innings), so much so that he admitted Thursday, "I didn't eat or shower" the following day. He made up for that, as well as an 0-1 record and 9.00 ERA in three previous playoff starts, by showcasing the form Thursday that helped him go a solid 13-10 with a 3.69 ERA in 33 regular-season starts.
"He gives you a few quality outings, which he did all season for us," Axford said. "Once in a while a bad one might jump in there, but Randy's a professional. He can forget about that so easily."
After coming through Thursday -- especially with his manager trusting him to pitch one inning longer than planned -- Wolf left with a feeling of accomplishment that no one can wash away.
Thomas Harding is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Hardball in the Rockies, and follow him on Twitter @harding_at_mlb. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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I was doing today a routine security check on my system. I tend to do these things once a month or so, time permitting. I discovered a Comodo Firewall security hole associated with Port 0.
A little background:
Port 0 was supposed to be a non-existing port. An invalid port, or at best a reserved port. However manually made networks packets were always considered well-formed even if targeting or originating from port 0. This because, I think, the original idea was to use port 0 as a wildcard port. Meaning any connection targeting port 0 would allow the client machine network interface to choose any available port "Hey, I have this packet here. It specifies port 0. You choose which port you want this to come in. Just sign here."
Of course, good intentions have been paving the road to hell. And Port 0, while remaining an obscure, and unsupported in most cases, feature is a real port.
Today at least one application actively uses Port 0 based connections for what it is not intended for. That application is iTunes (another security and system stability nightmare people like to install and thus ruin their quiet lives. All because they can't listen to their music anymore on a music player, or at least rip their own music).
Back to Comodo:
Port 0 is a valid (if reserved) port. If I have no application on my windows machine actively listening on this port, it will report as being closed to anyone scanning my ports.
And therein lies the rub. A port scan on my machine that includes port 0 will identify my machine and ruin the idea behind stealth ports (closed ports that don't answer back when scanned). So, while Comodo says it offers full stealth mode, it fails doing so on port 0.
Imagine a Radar on your screen. On every sweep of the radar, the hacker is looking for a bunch of IP addresses and scanning their ports. All is silent for a while. The Radar sweaps on your green screen in that circular fashion only radars know how to. It's moments like this that make the internet look like a very lonely place. But suddenly... a very faint bleep. It was my computer saying "Hey! I'm here".
This happens because Comodo Firewall isn't allowing you to set Port 0 in your firewall rules. Despite what it says, you cannot create a rule based on port 0.
The only exception are range-based rules. If you create a rule where you limit access to a range of ports and that range starts at 0, the rule will take effect as intended. But you can't do that most of the time. Port numbers are more often defined individually.
What's worse, Comodo Firewall apparently also ignores port 0 incoming or outgoing connections if a rule doesn't exist blocking it (and the only rule that could was a range-based rule). That is, you will not get a popup on any connections involving Port 0.
To make sure of this, I used ShieldsUp Port Probe. You can also use ShieldsUp to scan all your ports and witness with your own eyes Port 0 "closed" stats, instead of "stealth".
If you are using Comodo Firewall like me, or have also confirmed your firewall doesn't support Port 0 based rules, you can try and setup your modem/router firewall, if it comes with a firewall. Many home users on ADSL and Cable modem/routers do come equipped with firewalls and many of them allow you to set port-based rules.


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+ Thanksgiving holiday trash schedule affected
There will be no town trash collection on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 22. The alternate garbage pickup will be Friday, Nov. 23, and trash should be curbside by 7 a.m. that morning. There will be no change in the Wednesday, Nov. 21 yard-waste collection or the Monday, Nov. 26 solid-waste and recycling collection.
Town Hall and its various departments will be closed Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 23 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Meetings & Agendas
• Police Officers' Pension Board Quarterly Meeting — 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28
• General Employees; Pension Board Quarterly Meeting — 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28.
• Firefighters' Pension Board Quarterly Meeting — 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28.
• Town Commission Regular Meeting — 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3.
All meetings take place at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road, unless otherwise noted.