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This rock was brought to me recently, hope you can help!
Many thanks
Fine-grained, massive (no obvious layering), dark purplish... Could be volcanic, but can't rule out sedimentary, especially a metamorphosed sedimentary rock. The lighter veins don't help much.
You'd really need to look at the structure under a microscope, though you might just see enough with a hand lens. If you can see distinct grains with a cement holding them together, that suggests sedimentary, or lightly-metamorphosed sedimentary. If you can't, you're really none the wiser - because it could be sedimentary but with cement and grains made of similar stuff. Under a microscope, viewing a thin section of the rock, you'd be able to see the crystals (and identify them) and how they are arranged (with or without a cement, with or without minerals indicating alteration or metamorphosis, and microstructures such as twinning or cleavage).
It is all about petrography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrography).


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Welcome to your weekend. Now judging from yesterday's poll you all want Michael Jackson to be the new focus of a "Glee" episode. And evidently, the all-Madonna show was such a hit they're putting together a sequel right now! On to Baby News. Congratulations to lovely Amanda Peet, who starred in TV's "Studio 360" (unfortunately canceled) and now stars in the upcoming Please Give (about to open in theatres & it's awesome). Amanda and her husband just welcomed their second child, a baby girl. Heather Locklear's gotten into a bit of a scuffle with the law – again. Seems she hit a No Parking sign and evidently didn't, em, park (or even stop for that matter) and fess up. She's going to have to appear in court. Now let's talk about movies, because there are three opening today. Each geared towards a different audience. We have The Losers, a shoot-em-up about a band of misfits bent on revenge, with Zoe Saldana — from Avatar — wearing what appears to be even less clothing in this film. The movie's based on a DC Comic and also stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Grey's Anatomy") plus Chris Evans (hot, just tapped to star as the new Captain America ). Then we have a new RomCom opening: The Back Up Plan, starring J.Lo and Alex O'Laughlin (we're guessing Gerard Butler was busy) about a single gal who gets preggers right when she meets the man of her dreams. The final movie in theatres – and this one's for the whole family – is Oceans, a documentary that feels like a thriller, narrated by Pierce Brosnan (isn't almost anything better when it's narrated by Pierce Brosnan?) and starring our oceans and everything that dwells in and around them. Really good word of mouth here. Finally, some casting news. This is very preliminary and there are no other details yet, but thought you might be interested to note that Robert Downey Jr. has been cast as the Wizard in a new Disney film that's being a described as the prequel to The Wizard of Oz. Sounds like a pretty momentous undertaking. Naturally we'll want to know who you think should be cast in the other roles. But for now, let's just get back to the original; voice your choice in today's featured poll and tell us which is your favorite Wizard of Oz character?
1) Dorothy
2) Scarecrow
3) Cowardly Lion
4) Tin Man
For the latest pop culture news and voting, make sure to sign up for the People's Choice newsletter!

subset: commoncrawl


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LINK offers professional development opportunities via ABRCMS, ASMCUE and distance education technologies. Training experiences are created in the context of an interdisciplinary work environment and focus on developing skills for effective communications, relationship and team building, project management, career planning, teaching and mentoring, and ethics – topics that are often ignored or informally addressed in doctoral training programs.
The list below includes professional skills topics organized around six overarching themes for developing science career competencies:
1. Communications
- Defining and defending ideas (argument)
- Scientific presentations and publishing
- Proposal writing
- Communicating with policymakers, media, and lay audiences
2. Relationships and team building
- Group and team work
- Networking and collaborations
- Negotiations and empowerment
- Intercultural competencies and emotional intelligence
3. Project management
- Setting goals and managing expectations
- Managing time, resources and data
- Supervising and managing people and teams
- Balancing personal and professional time
4. Career planning
- Writing resumes and CVs, interviewing for and negotiating positions
- Establishing and sustaining a lab
- Managing employer and employee expectations
- Balancing independent, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research
5. Teaching and mentoring
- Institutional missions, programs, and students
- Course design and assessment
- Student-centered learning and undergraduate research
- Effective advising and mentoring
6. Ethics
- Research ethics
- Use of human and/or animal subjects
- Use of data in science and publishing
Once accepted to participate in ABRCMS and/or ASMCUE, NSF mentors commit to the following activities:
- Immersing themselves in a four-day conference with educators and trainees
- Discussing their research while highlighting NSF opportunities
- Participating in conference sessions such as (i) science and education, poster and papers; (ii) networking meals and events; and (iii) LINK-specific orientation and briefings
- Brainstorming and exploring opportunities to collaborate with and mentor educators, fellows and/or students
- Working alongside and forming collaborations with mentees (e.g., educators, fellows or students), and if applicable, submitting a proposal for the LINK Mentorship Award
- Engaging in the LINK community of practice by discussing and brainstorming thoughts, identifying and forming partnerships, and jointly developing proposals to advance knowledge in the interdisciplinary sciences that provides transformative approaches for addressing emerging issues in the molecular, cellular and microbial sciences
For more information, contact email@example.com.


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Bobbie Joe Klebe:
Kris, I have about 35 lbs of alpaca to spin and a king size afghan to crochet.
Kris, I have about 35 lbs of alpaca to spin and a king size afghan to crochet.
Ooh you do your own spinning. How cool. A lady just opened a shop down the street and I'm considering taking a class with her.
I love it! But then again I also tat, crochet, knit(kinda), battenburg lace, sew.....
You should check into it. I even got my daughter and niece spinning now.
Patricia Faye:he Bees & Fields block was very easy. The Snow Churn block did not square up to 12" so I had to add an outside border to make the 12".
Nice work Patricia. Pretty blocks.
Bobbie Joe Klebe:
I love it! But then again I also tat, crochet, knit(kinda), battenburg lace, sew.....
You should check into it. I even got my daughter and niece spinning now.
I crochet and I'm learning to tat. I learned to knit but I'm not good at it.
Thea... thank you for taking the intimidation factor out of pp. I will attempt that block tomorrow in a better fram of mind.
happy quilting
Great tutorial Thea! I love your fabrics - batiks are so yummy! You block is beautiful!!
Thea-thank you for the tutorial with pics! I think that I am going to try snow blossom again. If not, I will be ready for the next PP pattern that comes up. :)
Piece, Love, Quilt
What excellent instructions! Thank you so much for taking the time to share those with us.
Jan in Rochester NY
Everyone -- you are more then welcome for the tutorial! I hope if it helped out a little it helps you to like Paper Piecing more then you did before... I never used to like it and it is one of my least favorite types of quilting but it is very precise which is the best when you need a precise piece with tons of pieces that are difficult to piece any other way.
I didn't mention - I have been using regular printer paper lately but I do like a vellum paper that is thin and see through but strong and able to go through the printer too... I used to know the name of the paper but the label has been long lost.
I do not use or like Carol Doak's paper piecing paper... it is expensive and not worth it IMHO... you can buy cheap paper for your printer that works better and for way less... the vellum I buy you get a rheam of 500 sheets for what you spend on 100 sheets of CD's...
2nd thing I remembered that I didn't mention - I set my Janome on 2.2 stitches - when I turn the machine on that is the normal setting - my Pfaff turns on at 2.5 and I reduce it to 2.0.
3rd thing - when I am folding the paper at the beginning - I crease those lines both directions which makes it so much easier to remove the paper later... I do pull from the center and work my way out.
That is all I can think of at the moment - if I think of anything else will let you know...
Oh and someone asked when I take the paper off... if only making one block paper pieced for a quilt like this block then when I am done I will remove the paper - when the whole block is done... if I am making lots of pp blocks for a quilt - then I leave the paper on till I sew all the blocks together - having that line there does help with the precision of sewing the blocks together... and gives stability to bias edges on your fabric.
If I take the paper off like I will for this block, I will starch it - a light starch but enough that it won't distort because of the bias edges...
I really like the blues in this one.
Okay, I finished my pp, I have to redo part of it. But, it isn't bad for the first try!
I will post better pictures later.
Good job Bobbie Joe! I like the fabric you chose...makes it look like a spring blossom instead of a snow blossom :D
Bobbie this is so beautiful. I love your colors. I have a question about pp if anyone or you can help me...do I trim the two halves before i put them together or after?


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Amazon's stance on the collection of sales tax
on goods sold over the internet has been clear from day one: it's not going to
happen. But a new
law in the state of California may change Amazon's mind
real fast, or cause it to cut ties to the state.
In the recent past, we've seen the online retailer
cut ties with states like Texas, where Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs
charged Amazon $269 million in unpaid sales taxes, and Illinois, where Sen.
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced a bill called the Main Street Fairness Act,
which would force Amazon to collect sales tax.
Last month, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill
that would require websites that forward shoppers to Amazon to collect sales
tax in California. The law is expected to generate $200 million in revenue, and
prompted Amazon to threaten to leave California-based affiliates.
Now, Amazon is asking California voters to repeal
the new law. The attorney general's office received a petition last Friday,
which will require 434,000 voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. The
attorney general's office will put together a title and summary for the
Amazon has said that it does
not have to collect sales tax because of a 1992 Supreme Court decision that excuses
Amazon and other remote sellers from having to collect taxes in U.S. states
that do not have the company's employees or warehouses operating within those
states. But between states looking for ways to offset large financial deficits
and brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy complaining about Amazon being unfair
competition, Amazon is being pushed between a rock and a hard place.
Website operators are already feeling the effect
of the new law. Ken Rockwell, who operates a photography site called
www.kenrockwell.com in California, said online retailers have stopped
doing business with him because of the new law.
"I'm trying to figure out some other payment
scheme," said Rockwell. "That business model went away. I've got to
look for new business models."
Currently, Amazon only collects sales tax in Kansas,
Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington.


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(credit: Ash Newell)
Taylor Swift set out on tour earlier this week, and with just two RED Tour shows under her belt with opener Ed Sheeran, it has already been an eventful jaunt.
The pair kicked it off with a sold-out show in Omaha, Nebraska, but things did not go according to plan for Sheeran, who fell off a speaker in the middle of his set. Like Justin Bieber and Olly Murs before him, the singer misjudged an on-stage stunt that left him tumbling but with no serious injuries.
Sheeran bounced back and brushed it off, even returning to the stage during Swift's set to perform their RED duet, "Everything Has Changed".
Read more at Radio.com


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This magnificent 1907 Colonial Revival mansion has fantastic architectural details and grand style. Highlights include stained and leaded glass, mahogany doors and woodwork, high ceilings, fireplaces in many rooms, chef-inspired kitchen, wine cellar, walk-ins, huge master bath, billiard room, pool and beautifully maintained grounds. Neighboring a golf course and near walking trails, this 2.58-acre property is also very convenient to major routes.
Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her flower-filled, Venetian-style Fenway Court in 1903. Writer Edith Wharton set the scene when she constructed The Mount in Lenox in 1902. And, in 1907, G. Albert Morin built his own grand home at 215 South Ave. in Weston.
It was, as Wharton would later write, "The Age of Innocence," when small details were paid attention to, industry was on the move and so, too, were Americans, whose homes reflected their increasing wealth and interest in the decorative arts.
Today, this lovely Colonial Revival still reflects the Arts and Crafts movement that was well underway at that time, with its emphasis on quality design, balance and the use of the best materials.
The expansive five-bedroom mansion, which has seen just three owners and has been substantially renovated and restored, has a classic pebbled stucco exterior, is situated well back from the road and was made for entertaining guests of yesteryear and today.
Ascending the sweeping front porch, we can imagine it as the scene of a large party with an eclectic guest list or a grand wedding with the bride wearing a filmy white gown. As we enter the foyer, an Arts and Crafts influence is immediately apparent, with leaded and stained glass windows, mahogany millwork and a granite floor punctuated with tile accents. Did Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh have a hand here?
To our left is the 17-by-23-foot dining room with a coffered ceiling and its original white-and-fern green tiled floor, and we are reminded of Mrs. Gardner's enchanting courtyard. Seat 24 or more guests for a holiday dinner - with room to spare - and keep warm by the stone hearth fireplace.
A door from the dining room leads to more recent addition, a 19-by-21 family room, which the current family uses for watching television and relaxing. Step through another doorway and we discover the billiard room, with a herringbone pattern brick floor and a huge fireplace created using smooth river stones, yet another Arts & Crafts accent. A small powder room is also located here. A small butler's pantry with a sink and dishwasher has built-in storage to make entertaining a breeze.
An expansive 26-by-19-foot chef's-style kitchen is a bright space, grounded with a ceramic terra cotta tile floor. Large yet inviting with off-white custom Metropolitan cabinets and top-of-the-line appliances, it sports a Gaggenau dishwasher, double Thermador ovens, a trash compactor as well as a Sub-Zero refrigerator and other built-ins. There's a granite-topped island with breakfast bar seating, and a pot-filler over the stove makes it easy to cook even the largest of meals. Next to sliding glass windows, the kitchen's dining area, with seating for eight or more, is a gathering space for casual dining. A floor-to-ceiling stone hearth hints of Tuscan style.
From the kitchen we could head up the back stairs to the second floor, but there's still more to see on the first. An 11-by-18 mudroom has plenty of storage and a rear breezeway foyer leads to a new three-car garage. These rooms and the kitchen create an interior courtyard – perfect for a children's play area or just relaxing on a summer's evening.
The 23-by-13-foot library, on the east side of the home, has heart of pine flooring and five large leaded windows. This space could be used as an office or display space for an interesting collection. There's a small patio off this room offering a separate entrance. The 17-by-23-foot formal living room has pine flooring as well, and a brick fireplace. Two leaded glass door flanking yet another fireplace lead to the sunroom.
As we return to the foyer and ascend to the second floor, we look up and see a surprise: a colorful stained-glass skylight, which is weather-protected on the exterior by a more modern enclosure.
Off this center hall, there's a laundry room and three huge bedrooms, each with an en suite bath. The largest, 15 by 22, has a fireplace and would be considered the master bedroom in many homes. Additionally, a smaller 10-by-15 bedroom has incredible built-in storage original to the home.
Then we discover the real jewel of this home: the master suite. Accessed off the hall, it can be closed off, creating a private retreat. Upon entering, we step into an 11-by-14-fot sitting/dressing room with his-and-hers closets on either side. Another door leads to the 17-by-23-foot master bedroom with a romantic fireplace, plenty of additional storage, and its own 14-by-14 bath with marble and granite on nearly every surface, a whirlpool tub, a huge glassed shower with sunflower showerhead, multiple sprays and a European toilet/bidet that is tricked out with electronic options Edith Wharton could never have imagined..
On the home's lower level there's a workshop, a game/exercise room, a cedar closet, as well as a bath with a shower and a large storage area and a small potting room. Bring your wine collection, too – there's a 9-by-6-foot climate-controlled, copper-ceiling cellar with space for 800 bottles.
With 2.58 acres, the grounds are an oasis with well-kept perennials, a custom patio and inground heated pool with a waterfall, a hot tub, fencing, a stone-walled vegetable gardening area and woods with a walking trail. Additional amenities include a new roof, seven zones of gas heat, two zones of central air and a security system as well as a built-in gift-wrapping station. Close to Boston and very convenient to major routes, this house has everything for modern living while improving the best of yesterday.
Jared Wilk of Benoit Mizner Simon & Co. Real Estate is marketing the home for $3,450,000. Contact Wilk at 617-817-3827 , email him at email@example.com. Visit 215SouthAvenue.com to see more photos of this beautiful home.
215 South Ave., Weston
Home size: 9,084 square feet
Rooms: 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths
Lot size: 2.58 acres
Year built: 1907, renovated
Annual taxes: $26,195 (2012)
Asking price: $3,450,000


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Denver, Tebow wearing teams down
God, at 6:48 p.m. ET on Sunday: "Can you cherubim and seraphim hold it down over there? I'm trying to watch the Broncos game."
The new York Giants looked finished when they took possession with 5:41 remaining on the road at Dallas, trailing by 12. But never underestimate the ability of the Dallas Cowboys to display low football IQ! Last week, Boys coach Jason Garrett cost his team a game by icing his own kicker. this week Dallas shifted to a two-man rush on the final Jersey/A drive, giving Eli Manning ample time to scan the field. Dallas showed the infamous prevent defense, which prevents only punts. Texas is the center of football culture: Why is the Cowboys' football IQ so low? after nonstop boasting by Rob Ryan, the 'Boys defense allowed 510 yards at home. Ye gods.
And the Denver Broncos looked really, really finished when they took possession with 4:34 remaining in regulation, trailing by 10. Denver hadn't scored in the game. Tim Tebow had misfired on 11 consecutive forward-pass attempts. despite having the league's No. 1 rushing offense, Denver coaches ordered punts on fourth-and-1, fourth-and-1 and fourth-and-2.
But look up into the stands — nobody has left the stadium. The sellout crowd sensed yet another Tebow comeback. seven consecutive completions for a quick touchdown made it 10-7 near the two-minute warning, after the Chicago Bears switched to a very soft prevent look. Chicago recovered the onside kick and again Denver, out of timeouts, appeared finished. then Bears tailback Marion Barber casually ran out of bounds, stopping the clock. Perhaps they don't teach football IQ in Illinois, either. Denver gets the ball back, three more quick completions, and the Broncos can't seriously tie the game on a 59-yard field goal on the final snap! The Bears fumble in overtime, and the Broncos can't seriously hit two consecutive 50-yard-plus, do-or-die field goals!
Obviously one aspect of the string of Denver fourth-quarter comebacks is that Tebow is a special player. Equally important, since football is a team sport, is that other members of the Broncos squad are performing well. But there is a football-tactics aspect, too.
Denver has become the NFL's top rushing team, and the running game often starts slowly. In the first half the defense is fresh, and may stop the run. by the fourth quarter, the front seven is tired and becomes vulnerable. Denver is hammering opponents with rush after rush in the early part of the game, and seeming not to accomplish much. then the Broncos switch to attack mode in the fourth quarter, when the defense is tired.
Denver's use of the high-school-style zone-read option also forces defenses to defend all 11 Broncos players on rushing downs. Usually in the NFL, on a rush down the defense defends only 10 players. against the Broncos, all 11 offensive players must be defended. by the fourth quarter, defenders are more winded than they would be against a standard offense. Tebow carried 12 times versus Chicago, and there were many other downs on which he ran out zone-read fakes, forcing the defense to account for him. That's a lot of snaps on which the Bears' defense had a more tiring task than it would have had against most of the NFL's teams. by late in the fourth quarter, Chicago's defenders were visibly sucking air — the high altitude didn't help either. On Denver's touchdown drive that began with 4:34, the Bears' defensive line got no push — merely brushed the offensive line, then stood there watching Tebow.
So it's not just craziness in these Denver comebacks, though craziness surely is a big factor in the entertainment value. It's tactics. Denver is using tactics that are likely to result in an explosion of yardage late in the game. Opponents need to realize this, and "roll" their defenses — bringing personnel out to rest — from the first quarter on.
In other sports news, right now big-time collegiate athletics couldn't look worse: scandals at Ohio State, the University of Miami and elsewhere, plus allegations of crime in the football facility at Penn State. The law-abiding part of collegiate athletics doesn't look so great, either. The NCAA recently announced what it billed as a major initiative to put the student back in student-athlete. What's the bold, visionary goal? That 50 percent of Division I football and men's basketball players graduate. and the rule doesn't take effect for five years!
TMQ CHEAT SHEET Gregg Easterbrook on
Worst is the continuing institutional outrage of big-college football and basketball programs using up African-American players and throwing them away. Last year's BCS title team, Auburn, graduates only 52 percent of its African-American players. The previous year's title team, Alabama, graduates 62 percent. The current NCAA men's basketball champion, Connecticut, graduates 14 percent of its black players, a figure that is horrendous regardless of early departure for the pros. (Find any Division I college's graduation rates here; choose "FGR" for the ethnic breakdown.)
Yet despite all the problems, big-deal sports is great for college! Genuine reform is needed, and is systematically avoided by the NCAA, the conferences and most university presidents. But even taking into account the avoidance of genuine reform, sports is still good for college.
Sports mania is among the reasons nearly all the top colleges and universities are in the United States — though Europe started building universities centuries before America did. In my 2009 book "Sonic Boom," I listed the world's elite colleges and universities. Eighty-nine are in the United States, 11 in the rest of the world combined. The book says, "Technology, science, military power, movies, resources, space exploration, traffic jams — the United States leads in many arenas. But in no arena is the U.S. lead as high as 10:1, roughly the American advantage, compared to the rest of the world, in first-quality colleges." Ben Wildavsky, author of "The great Brain race," a book devoted to educational globalization, seconded that view recently in Foreign Policy.
Why has sports mania helped American higher education? by raising enthusiasm about college. Big-deal football and basketball cause colleges to be seen by young people as exciting institutions to attend. Sports provide pizzazz to the life of a campus — much more than do music and theater, though they also are important to the campus experience. Sports events make state legislatures want to fund colleges, make donors want to give to schools, make alumni want to stay in touch. Sports puts the names of colleges in newspapers daily.
The enthusiasm generated by sports events on campus surely is one reason 50 percent of American 18- and 19-year-olds are enrolled in college. and that excitement need not stem from a top-25 football game. Check this photograph from Pittsburg State University of Kansas. even low-cost, small-scale athletics can generate campus animation.
Consider the comparison to the European Union, where colleges generally do not have team sports. In Europe, most athletic events either are professional, or oriented around clubs that operate independent of educational institutions. European universities are seen as preserves of learning, and nothing more. maybe that view is philosophically correct, but inevitability limits general enthusiasm for college. In Europe, fewer students attend compared to the United States. Private donations to universities are rare. and adults sure don't walk down the street wearing Imperial College hoodies or SciencesPo baseball caps, the way large numbers of adults wear college-loyalty apparel in the United States.
According to this 2010 study by the College Board, 40 percent of American citizens hold at least an associate degree, compared to 32 percent of citizens of the United Kingdom — the nation most similar to the United States. Broadly across the European Union, college achievement is lower than in the United States. Some 32 percent of Danes hold at least an associate degree, 27 percent of French citizens and 24 percent of German citizens.
American success with spreading higher education to huge numbers of people — to "the masses," as a European might say — is especially striking when one bears in mind that college almost always costs more in the United States than in the European Union. yet very large numbers of Americans are inspired to attend. The campus excitement generated by sports is among the reasons.
Consider a simple thought experiment: if American universities abolished sports, would the higher education be better off? Alumni support for most colleges would decline; enrollments almost surely would decline; public interest in colleges would decline. Swarthmore can be an extremely successful college that inspires admissions lust without having a football team, but how many colleges are Swarthmore? for most colleges and universities, loss of sports would be a major step in the wrong direction.
The many faults of the collegiate athletic scene are not new, and existed during the same period American universities and colleges expanded dramatically in attendance and quality. In 1905, the University of Wisconsin faculty declared its desire to end the football program, stating, "Football has become a business supported by levies on the public." A 1929 Carnegie Foundation report characterized college sports as out of control and declaimed "the costly varsity sweaters and extensive journeys in special Pullman cars." In 1939, the University of Chicago ended its football program, president Robert Hutchins saying football "has the same relationship to education as bullfighting has to agriculture." an attempted 1940s college sports reform actually was called the Sanity Code (it failed). In 1961, the Ohio State University faculty voted not to accept a Rose Bowl invitation, feeling an athletic scandal had tarnished the school. Many more such examples can be found in the invaluable new book "Pay for Play," a history of financial and academic shenanigans in collegiate athletics, by Penn State historian Ronald Smith.
Yet though scandals have plagued college athletics for a century — and faculty control of athletics has nearly vanished, replaced by quasi-independent athletic departments run like businesses stamped with the college brand — in the same period, American higher education has expanded in an historically unprecedented way. Sports mania helped. Collegiate athletics need genuine reform, not the sort of sweep-under-the-rug changes that the NCAA specializes in. But sports themselves, and American colleges, were made for each other. College life should reflect society, and American society is sports-mad. It's who we are!
And in other NFL news, by the third quarter at Green Bay, the Packers led Oakland 43-7. That means if the game had been played under National Federation of High Schools rules, the timekeeper would have switched to "running clock" in which the clock almost never stops, shortening the contest. The running clock, used when the margin is 35 points or more, is the most common mercy rule found in high school football. The Packers reached it in the third quarter!
Stats of the Week No. 1: against Chicago, Tim Tebow was 3-for-16 for 45 yards in the first three quarters, 18-for-24 for 191 yards after that.
Stats of the Week No. 2: Houston has won seven straight; the Buccaneers have lost seven straight.
Stats of the Week No. 3: Green Bay's 57 touchdowns are more than twice the total touchdowns of 10 NFL teams (San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, Tampa, Washington, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Kansas City and St. Louis).
Stats of the Week No. 4: In the first half at Jersey/B, the Chiefs gained four offensive yards.
Stats of the Week No. 5: Final score of the past four Tennessee Titans games: 23-17, 23-17, 23-17 and 22-17. Noted by reader Jon Meindersma of West Boylston, Mass.
Stats of the Week No. 6: Born in Ohio, Ben Roethlisberger is 13-1 as a starter versus the Cleveland Browns.
Stats of the Week No. 7: Buffalo and San Diego opened the season a combined 8-2 and since have gone a combined 3-13.
Stats of the Week No. 8: The last time the Indianapolis Colts held a lead was on Oct. 9.
Stats of the Week No. 9: The Bears went six consecutive quarters without a third-down conversion.
Stats of the Week No. 10: Defending champion Green Bay not only has won 19 straight games, the Packers have not trailed in the fourth quarter for 19 straight games.
Indianapolis ColtsLauren of the Colts: will she be cheering for Andrew, Matt, or perhaps Robert?
Cheerleader of the Week: Reader Liam Bradley of Huntington Beach, Calif., writes, "We Colts fans don't have much going for us this season. we should be able to win something, so I nominate Lauren M. of the Colts as cheerleader of the week." According to her team bio, Lauren's favorite childhood memory is "being stepped over by an elephant in Asia." Bradley notes, "She says her favorite quote is about dreams coming true, hopefully that means Andrew Luck coming our way." Assuming Indianapolis gets the first selection of the draft, what makes everyone so sure the Colts will choose Luck?
Sweet Play of the Week: Carolina opened sweet against favored Atlanta. Reaching first-and-goal at the Falcons' 6, the Panthers lined up empty, with tall tight end Jeremy Shockey in a slot position. Cam Newton started a quarterback draw, and stopped, leapt into the air and threw to the uncovered Shockey for six. later, DeAngelo Williams took a textbook toss 74 yards to the house behind a perfect pull block by undrafted tackle Byron Bell.
Then it was Atlanta's turn. Trailing 23-10, the Falcons had second-and-6 on the Carolina 31. Matt Ryan executed a perfect "show" fake, holding the ball out as if to hand off to 5-6 tailback Jacquizz Rodgers, and making sure the defense saw the ball. then Ryan rolled right as if to bootleg; a tight end had gone into the right flat, as if he were the primary receiver. Rodgers ran a "wheel" route out of the backfield up the left sideline, covered by a linebacker. Ryan made the difficult back-across-his-body throw, touchdown. Atlanta went on to win, probably because of Ron Rivera's ski apparel — see below.
Sour Redskins Plays of the Week: "He held the ball too long." That's what every TV commentator said of quarterback Rex Grossman, who was sacked in the end zone for a safety by former teammate Andre Carter in the new England at Washington collision. Time the play — Grossman was starting his throwing motion at three seconds. The problem was not that he held the ball too long. The problem was that undrafted free agent emergency left tackle Willie Smith, filling in for the megabucks Trent Williams (suspended for failing drug tests), did an "olé" block, all but stepping out of Carter's way. if the offensive line can't give the quarterback three seconds, don't blame the quarterback. and don't blame the undrafted emergency left tackle. Blame Williams, who took $11 million from the Skins for this season, then seriously messed up.
New England tight end Rob Gronkowski came into the game with 13 touchdown receptions, close to the record for his position. So you'd think the defense would have paid some attention to him. You'd think wrong.
Flying Elvii on the Skins 11 in the first quarter, Washington lined up in the rare Cover Zero — no high safety — for yet another of the all-out blitzes that have consistently backfired on the Redskins in the past two seasons. Across from the huge Gronkowski was the inexperienced, 5-foot-11 DaJon Gomes. Gronkowski did a quick "swim" move on the befuddled Gomes for an easy-looking touchdown reception.
Later, score tied in the third quarter, new England faced third-and-12 on the Washington 37. You don't need a sack here — the Patriots are already out of field-goal range. nevertheless, Washington big-blitzed. Gronkowski ended up covered by linebacker Ryan Kerrigan, catching another easy-looking touchdown catch to set the single-season record for touchdowns by a tight end. Just to prove this was no fluke, on the play, Washington corners Josh Wilson and DeAngelo Hall just stood there watching Gronkowski run the final 10 yards to pay dirt.
Later, Wilson intercepted Tom Brady in the end zone. He celebrated wildly, doing a Lambeau Leap into the stands. Not only had Wilson not scored a touchdown — the Redskins were trailing at the time.
Sweet 'N' Sour Playoff-Clinching Plays of the Week: The Houston Texans had never made the playoffs. Trailing Cincinnati 19-13 with 18 seconds on the clock, out of timeouts, third-string quarterback T.J. Yates at the controls, Houston faced third-and-10 on the Bengals 23. Incompletion. But Cincinnati corner Adam Jones, who grabbed a receiver during his route, did a theatrical hands-in-the-air gesture, meaning "I didn't commit a penalty." Then the flag flew — Jones talked the officials into penalizing him! as TMQ points out, football players should never make the hands-in-the-air "I didn't do it" gesture. this only notifies the zebras you did, in fact, do it. always act nonchalant! very sour.
Now the Texans have second-and-goal on the Cincinnati 6, eight ticks showing. Houston lines up empty with two wide receivers on each side and a tight end right; twice-waived Kevin Walter is farthest outside on the right. On that side, the tight end and slot man run "drive" routes to the right of the end zone, dragging defensive backs with them. Walter hesitates, then simply cuts underneath. Backup linebacker Brandon Johnson moves to guard Walter, but falls down; touchdown. an uncovered receiver scoring as the clock expires to put Houston into the postseason for the first time: sweet. Cincinnati had six defensive backs on the field, yet none even tried to cover the opposition's possession receiver: sour.
TMQ's Christmas List: I am hoping to find an Mforcer marshmallow launcher in my stocking. as reader Luke Ormand of Patchogue, N.Y., notes, the disclaimer warns, "Do not shoot into mouth … do not eat marshmallows after shooting."
Last week's Christmas list included an "authentic replica" of Harry Potter's wand — an "authentic" replica of something that does not exist. Why not get that certain someone on your list some "genuine faux pearls"? we guarantee they are fake — accept no substitutes!
Bowl-a-Rama: this year there are 35 Division I bowls. That means 35 of the 120 Division I football programs — 29 percent — end their years on a high note with a nationally televised postseason victory. In the Darwinian world of the NFL, one of 32 teams — 3 percent — ends its year with a postseason victory.
Here are the major bowls that pair schools without winning records:
Tuesday Morning Quarterback still hopes to sponsor a Fiasco Bowl, which this year would pit 1-11 Florida Atlantic vs. 1-11 Akron. Indiana and new Mexico, also 1-11, would miss the Fiasco Bowl based on strength of schedule. It is some small comfort that no Division I school went winless in 2011. Every college player should have at least one day on which to celebrate.
Wacky Whiskey of the Week: The new York Times had tasters rate high-end single-malt Scotches, finding them possessed of flavors of "smoke, wax, citrus and fruitcake" or of "butter cream" or "flowers and butterscotch" or "soy and saline." one whiskey was described as "richly medicinal," which makes it sound like the buyer would spit out stuff that cost $45 a bottle.
Last year when TMQ mocked the highfalutin flavor claims of wine tasters — notes of "buttered toast" was my favorite — oenophiles protested that tasting terms don't mean a drink actually tastes like toast or fruitcake, they signify the presence of flavors that aficionados recognize. maybe. I still doubt most wine snobs could tell a merlot from a cabernet in a blind tasting, let alone identify "aftertaste of pomegranate."
But if it's true that tasting terms have meaning, here's my proposed test. Bring The Times panel back together. place 10 glasses with samples of the 10 whiskeys before them. See if anyone on the panel can do better than chance in matching the article's descriptions with the correct Scotch. That whiskey described as "multidimensional and oceanic" — my guess is no one can taste which it is.
Why Are Bowl Games Tax-Exempt? Some months ago the Fiesta Bowl fired its "CEO" — the title is absurd — and released this investigation. The report found that John Junker had been paying himself $600,000 per year plus memberships in four country clubs, though as a nonprofit, the Fiesta Bowl is supposed to serve the public, not be a pretext for self-enrichment. The report further found that Junker had charged to his expense account $33,000 for a birthday party for himself, and charged $1,200 to his expense account for visiting a strip club. He asked assistants to donate $47,000 to Arizona politicians, then used expense accounts to reimburse the assistants. two weeks ago, Junker was indicted on charges of filing false income tax returns — corporate reimbursement of political donations is illegal. Junker also is accused of channeling gifts to Arizona politicians without declaring them. Undisclosed gifts to politicians can be regarded as bribes under state and federal law.
For a bowl committee to have a "CEO" is absurd enough. A bowl committee stages one football game per year — this scarcely requires a "CEO." The glorified term is used to rationalize high pay and perks for someone who struts around as though he were running a significant economic enterprise, when mostly what he does all year is play golf and attend social events with politicians.
Equally absurd, and of concern to taxpayers, is the nonprofit status of bowl games. here is the 1972 IRS letter calling the Fiesta Bowl exempt from federal income tax. this letter was written when bowl revenue was a tiny fraction of today. Why has the Internal Revenue Service not revisited the tax status of bowls?
According to the Fiesta Bowl's own report, the $1,200 tab at a strip club was listed as "security site planning," to make it sound like a business meeting. Visiting a strip club is a legal activity — what's wrong is that a business masquerading as a "nonprofit" organization claimed a $1,200 tax deduction for lap dances. had exotic dancing been paid for by a customer's own money, it would be nobody's business. Public subsidies via tax exemption are extremely offensive.
The strip-club tab got the media attention, though much larger sums were involved in tax deductions for other events. The associated Press reported of an annual junket for assorted big wigs: " The Fiesta Bowl pays for hotel expenses, two dinners, two rounds of golf, and offers spa certificates to certain participants. Spouses' expenses are picked up as well." The AP noted the Fiesta Bowl report said at least $1.3 million in junket charges were claimed as questionable deductions. The name of the annual junket, which masqueraded as a business meeting, was Fiesta Frolic.
With the national debt growing each day, the mollycoddling of well-off insiders becomes more offensive by the day. Division I football bowls are business enterprises, not community service organizations. Bowls should be taxed, not subsidized by typical American households.
Unified Field Theory of Creep: Megan Lorenz Heller of Cincinnati reports, "Last week I got an email allowing me to preview the Target 'Almost Last Minute' Christmas sales, which were good till Dec. 10. Now Dec. 10 is 'last minute' for Christmas shopping."
Weasel Coach Watch: Kevin Sumlin joins Randy Edsall, Rich Rodriquez, Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino and other recent weasel coaches who walked out on their promises. Weasel coaches are promise-breakers who care more about money in their pockets than their commitments or word of honor. TMQ's immutable Law of Weasel Coaches holds: when you hire a coach who's only in it for himself, you get a coach who's only in it for himself. if a weasel coach shafted his last employer and last group of players, why won't he shaft you too?
Saban and Petrino have been successes at Alabama and Arkansas. Rodriquez was a disaster at Michigan, and so far Maryland boosters wince when they hear the name Edsall. That leaves recent weasel coaches at .500. How long till Aggies' faithful wish they had never heard the name Sumlin?
Ten days ago the University of Houston needed just one victory for its first-ever BCS bid. In the run-up to the game, Sumlin's agent was negotiating with schools who were offering more money — though Sumlin had only recently signed a contract extension with Houston till 2015, and had been telling recruits that he would not leave. Houston lost the game and the BCS bid; as TMQ noted last week, the Cougars seemed ill-prepared, and Sumlin distracted. Now Sumlin has walked out on Houston for more money at Texas A&M. Sumlin broke his promises at Houston — Aggies, why do you suppose he will keep his promises to you?
Decembers to Remember: everyone knows the San Diego Chargers turn it on as the holidays approach, and they are 34-17 in December in the past decade. But the team that owns Christmas month is the new England Patriots, who are 42-7 in December in the same span. Possibly this is because while other NFL teams move to their practice bubbles when the weather turns nasty, the Flying Elvii continue to practice outside. The worst Decembers of the past decade are Detroit (13-37) and Oakland (16-35). Detroit is always indoors at home, Oakland's home offers ideal weather. both teams fold when it's cold outside. Detroit and Oakland meet next week. Let's hope one of them wins!
Buck-Buck-Brawckkkkkkk: Reaching fourth-and-goal on the Pittsburgh 2 on the first possession of the game, Cleveland kicked a field goal, and TMQ wrote the words "game over" in his notebook. It was Browns 3, Steelers 0 early in the first quarter yet the game was so totally over! Cleveland went on to lose 14-3.
The situation as the contest started was that the Browns, a losing team for many seasons, entered on a 1-10 streak in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers have been a winning team for many seasons. That made the Steelers the champs, and the Browns the chumps, in this situation. You can't dance with the champ — you have to knock him down. Cleveland had an opportunity to score a touchdown on its first possession or, failing that, to set an aggressive tone while pinning Pittsburgh against its own goal line. Instead, Browns' coach Pat Shurmur used a passive strategy, and now Cleveland is on a 1-11 streak at Pittsburgh. It is an indicator of how irrelevant the Browns have been in recent years that the above is the first time the words "Pat Shurmur" have appeared in TMQ this season.
When Pittsburgh faced fourth-and-goal on the Cleveland 1 in the same contest, the Steelers went for it. They were denied, but so what? this set an aggressive tone, and pinned the Browns against their own goal line. The contest was a perfect test case for TMQ's contention that often it is better for go for it and fail than to launch a mincing fraidy-cat kick. at the goal line, both teams faced the same choice. The team that did the "safe" thing lost and the team that took a risk won, even though the risk failed.
Cheer-Babe Professionalism Watch: Now that the weather has turned cold, cheer-babe professionalism comes into play. Professionalism in this sense means skin or at least skin-tight: this propitiates the football gods. The new England at Washington and Indianapolis at Baltimore games were played 30 miles apart, in the same weather. The Ravens cheerleaders sported bare-midriff outfits, and the Ravens won. The Redskins cheerleaders wore track suits with jackets, and the Redskins lost.
In the Atlanta-at-Carolina contest, Panthers coach Ron Rivera wore a heavy parka and ski cap — for a kickoff temperature of 43. He violated the TMQ immutable law, Cold Coach = Victory. and yea, verily, it came to pass that the Panthers lost.
More good News Buried: I said the mainstream media were making it seem as though the country was backtracking on air pollution control, but were not mentioning that smog has been in steady decline for 30 years. Martha Wilton of Los Angeles writes, "The picture is even better than you noted. The Obama administration promulgated regulations that require the average gas mileage of new cars and light trucks to double by 2025. this not only will reduce demand for imported oil — less gasoline burned means less air pollution." The MPG standards, which passed with little controversy, will do more to reduce smog than the proposed EPA rules that got all the talk radio and newspaper attention.
The new MPG standards are one of government's most important achievements in the past decade. Since the story is positive, you don't read or hear about it in the MSM. Raising the MPG levels of new cars and trucks will make them a little more expensive to purchase, but more than pay back the cost in fuel savings. Americans need to start think about fossil fuels in "life cycle" terms — not what is cheapest to buy up front but what is cheapest to buy and then operate for a number of years. if you think this way, you'll purchase compact florescent or LED lights; high-efficiency air conditioners and furnaces; high-MPG or hybrid vehicles. if public utility commissions thought this way, they would insist that utilities build combined-cycle coal gasification power plants, not pulverized coal power plants (a 1920s engineering concept). All these cost more up front but cost less to own because they use less fuel in the long run.
Why wait for 2025 when you can purchase a large, comfortable high-MPG vehicle right now? Ford's impressive new Mustang has a 305-horsepower engine yet gets 31 MPG on the highway. Volkswagen's impressive new Passat clean diesel is quite stylish and gets 40 MPG on the highway plus does zero to 60 in a spry 8.6 seconds. I just bought a Honda CRV, a midsize SUV — built in East Liberty, Ohio — and got 29 miles per gallon on a trip, with a car that is roomy and comfortable.
Hybrid technology offers high fuel efficiency right now, as does clean diesel. American buyers think of diesel cars are dirty, slow and hard to start. That was true in the 1970s. at a European airport, I rented a Ford clean-diesel model and found it ran smoothly, started on the first twist of the key ("glow plugs" are history in cars) and had plenty of pep. Kicker: I did this 15 years ago! The European Union keeps its petroleum imports down partly by widespread use of clean diesel cars. It's time the United States did the same.
Lend me a Tight End! Four NFL teams — Green Bay, Houston, new England and new Orleans — routinely use multiple tight end sets. their combined record is 43-9. Why does the rest of the league not notice? P.S.: It's working for Stanford, too.
A Cosmic Thought: Last week astronomers announced the discovery of the closest thing yet to an Earthlike world in another star system. The planet, christened Kepler 22b, orbits a sunlike star, Kepler 22, that is about 600 light-years away — "nearby" in galactic terms, an unfathomable distance to current technology. at the fastest speed achieved by a spacecraft, reaching Kepler 22b would take about three million years.
The newly discovered planet is significant because it orbits its star in the Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold — the distance from a star that makes liquid water possible. Kepler 22b may have surface temperatures similar to Earth's. All other "extrasolar" planets found so far are so close to their stars surface water would boil, or so far away they would be snowballs. Kepler 22b is more than twice the mass of Earth, and nothing is known about its composition. But at last, men and women have looked far into the heavens and glimpsed another world at least somewhat like ours.
In his fine new book "The Life of Super-Earths" — don't be put off by the odd title — Harvard astronomer Dimitar Sasselov estimates there could be 100 million habitable planets in our galaxy. He further supposes that while star formation in the universe either has already peaked or will peak "soon" in cosmic terms, the business of forming planets barely has begun. Sasselov estimates that only about 2 percent of the original material of the firmament has been converted (by supernovae) from the light element hydrogen into heavy elements needed for planets. Most of the worlds that will exist haven't even formed yet, he supposes.
It seems only a matter to time until a true Earthlike planet is found beyond the solar system. then the questions will be: Is its sky blue? Because oxygen is highly reactive, an oxygen-rich blue atmosphere probably could exist only on a world where some living process makes oxygen. The other question will be: On the side of the planet that's in darkness, are there artificial lights?
Perfection Watch: Green Bay has become so efficient on offense it's almost spooky. It took the Packers just five snaps to go 84 yards on one touchdown drive versus Oakland, the defense looking confused by Green Bay's rapid no-huddle pace although every citizen of Wisconsin knew it was coming. Results of the first five Green Bay possessions: touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown.
Just as at this juncture last season, the Packers need to get over their allergy to rushing. Leading 31-0, Green Bay reached goal-to-go on the Raiders' 4 and went incompletion, incompletion, interception. In that situation they should have shortened the game by rushing three times and, if foiled, kicking a field goal.
And what was backup quarterback Matt Flynn doing retreating into his own end zone to attempt a pass when Green Bay led 46-7? TMQ has noted before that the Packers keep their starters on the field too long during blowouts. Star receiver Greg Jennings was injured in the third quarter, when Green Bay led by 31 points. Why was he even in the game?
More Reasons to love CEOs: Last week, former U.S. senator and new Jersey governor Jon Corzine told a congressional committee he had no idea, absolutely no clue, what happened to the $1.2 billion that vanished from the appropriately named MF Global, the brokerage firm Corzine ran until its bankruptcy. Really, the money was here just a minute ago! nobody would ever dream of stealing $1.2 billion from customer accounts, that couldn't happen!
Though Corzine was both CEO and chairman of MF, he claimed not to have been informed what the company was doing. "I was never informed" is the standard dodge of politicians and CEOs who want the money and perks that come with power and then, caught, claim to have been powerless. It's not yet known how much MF paid Corzine for his 18 months at the helm: the two men he replaced were paid about $6 million in their final year. Corzine, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, was hired by MF Global for his financial expertise, and now claims he knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about the company's finances.
If only such corporate nonsense were rare. Transocean, the drilling company that owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon rig (BP held a lease) that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, killing 11 people and causing the Gulf oil spill, without giggling declared that in 2010 it achieved "the best year in safety performance in our company's history." Transocean CEO Steven Newman was paid $5.8 million for 2010, a lavish reward for a year in which his company had 11 employees killed on the job.
Over at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CEOs Charles Haldeman Jr. and Michael Williams received $17 million in bonuses for 2009 and 2010 — years in which the companies lost $153 billion, passing the losses along to the taxpayer. A House bill may suspend the bonuses. Fannie's and Freddie's books were gimmicked to make it appear the CEOs brought in lots of new capital, thus justifying lavish pay.
The new capital actually was a federal bailout, which the two CEOs did nothing to "earn." if the Fannie and Freddie CEOs had reached into the till for $17 million, they'd now be in jail. Because they laundered the money by awarding it to themselves as bonuses, so far they've kept the cash.
One reason business executives CEOs get away with big rewards for doing a bad job is that the money is called "compensation," as if CEOs were philanthropists performing some exalted service to humanity. Fortune 500 firms call what they give workers "pay," and call what they give CEOs "compensation." Politicians and boards of directors play along, using the lofty word "compensation," as if the CEO had honored the firm by boarding the private jet. The media play along too. this new York Times article on the federal report blasting subsidized CEO bonuses used the word "compensation" 12 times.
Why do CEO pay themselves outrageous amounts for poor performance? Usually the answer is: Because they can. Public companies need boards of directors to protect shareholders, rather than rubber-stamping management greed. Subsidized companies such as Fannie, Freddie and General Motors should have their top management pay voted on by Congress, to force the people's representatives to go on the record about giveaways. Journalists and professors of economics should stop using the silly euphemism "compensation" and start referring to "CEO pay."
Disclaimer of the Week: Reader Tim Cors of St. Louis reports, "My wife and I were excited to get our new Calphalon cookware, one of the extravagant gifts on our registry. after being sold on its features, in particular the advertised 'dishwasher safe' care and lifetime warranty, you can imagine our surprise when we dug into the box and read the owner's manual — only to find that dishwasher use will void the warranty."
Untouched Touchdown run of the Week: First-and-goal from the Kansas City 1, Jersey/B quarterback mark Sanchez executed the naked bootleg so convincingly that he not only jogged into the end zone untouched — not a one of the 11 Chiefs defenders realized he had the ball.
TMQ Readers know Too Much: Last week I noted that if the Packers beat Oakland, they would advance to a 19-0 streak; new England in the 2007 season was stopped at 18-0. The Packers' 2011 streak began in 2010. Dan Magazu of Somerville, Mass., writes, "If you're going to count wins from a previous season, the Patriots went 21-0 from 2003 to 2004, so the Pack still has a few wins to go to reach uncharted territory."
Unhappy Hour in Hell's Sports Bar: at Unhappy Hour in Hell's sports bar, the holiday decorations were out, and eggnog was free. But the eggnog was made from raw ostrich eggs. Patrons in Hell's sports bar did not see any of the Denver Broncos' hard-to-believe comeback. But patrons did see, over and over again, winless Indianapolis, trailing Baltimore by 17-0, kicking a field goal on fourth-and-goal. then trailing 17-3, punting on fourth-and-1. They saw, over and over again, 2-10 Minnesota, trailing 31-14 with 20 seconds remaining in the first half, kneeling to kill the clock from midfield.
'Tis better to have rushed and Lost than Never to have rushed at All: Arizona leading San Francisco 21-19 with 2:14 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Squared Sevens, one of the league's best rushing teams, faced third-and-1 near midfield. San Francisco went incompletion, incompletion, game over. On the day, the forty Niners averaged 4.3 yards per rush and 3.4 yards per pass attempt. Why, with the game on the line and just one yard to gain, not rush?
Detroit leading 34-28, Minnesota had the ball on the Lions' 1 yard line with 9 seconds remaining, out of timeouts. Backup quarterback Joe Webb executed a zany rollout play that ended up losing 42 yards as the clock expired. Detroit's DeAndre Levy should have been called for facemasking Webb, which would have given the Vikings another try. The lack of a facemasking call on a game-deciding down was the biggest officiating blunder in the NFL this season.
But why were the Vikings trying to execute a zany rollout in the first place? Webb was already all the way back to the 12 when facemasked. On the day, Minnesota rushed for 269 yards. Detroit had two defensive linemen on the field at the snap. Why sprint backward instead of a little misdirection, then a power rush?
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisA share of Packers stock. It is completely worthless, and people can't wait to buy.
Perhaps Wisconsin Residents Would Like to purchase Some Greek Bonds: The Packers, the NFL's sole publicly owned team, last week sold $47 million worth of new shares, with the capital to be used for stadium renovation. The shares are essentially worthless to the holder — they confer no dividends, can't be resold and don't help you with the 93,000-person waiting list for season tickets. They are purchased mainly for novelty reasons, as something to frame and hang on the wall. Basically the shares represent a gift from the citizens of Wisconsin to the Packers. and the price is not tax deductible although the Packers are, absurdly, on paper a nonprofit entity.
Adventures in Officiating: what happened in the second quarter at Arizona? First San Francisco, facing third-and-18 on the Cardinals 43, threw an 11-yard pass, setting up fourth-and-7. Arizona challenged, but the replay equipment wasn't working, voiding the challenge. On fourth-and-7, San Francisco ran a fake field goal attempt, converting for a first down. then officials said the field goal fake was void because the replay equipment had come back on, and now the Arizona challenge was being entertained. then officials said the Arizona challenge was void and it was fourth-and-7 again. then San Francisco missed a field goal, and went on to lose by two points. TMQ watched the replay three times and still does not know what happened.
At Washington, Tom Brady scrambled, ran up the middle then started a hook-slide; London Fletcher hit Brady before he was down. Fletcher was called for unnecessary roughness, though Brady was not down when the hit happened. this gave the Flying Elvii first-and-goal on the Skins' 10. Referee Jeff Triplette announced the penalty was for "a forearm to the head." There was no forearm blow; Fletcher hit Brady square in the chest, exactly the clean contact the league wants. Just two plays later, Brady scrambled again. this time the Washington defenders pulled up — and Brady did not hook-slide. if a quarterback can't be hit simply because he might slide, how are defenders supposed to play?
Bolts Sigh with Relief — It's Finally December: Philip Rivers, who leads the NFL in turnovers with 22, nevertheless is 24-2 on his career from Dec. 1 on. The Bills, hot early in the season, now have not won in the United States since early October. In the Bills-at-Bolts contest, Harvard's Ryan Fitzpatrick had a quarterback rating of 31. if every pass a quarterback attempts falls incomplete, his NFL rating is 39.6. when Buffalo was hot early, Bills management rewarded Fitzpatrick with a lucrative contract extension. Before the new contract, Fitzpatrick had 12 touchdown passes versus six turnovers, and the team was 4-2. Since the new contract, he had eight touchdown passes versus 12 turnovers, and the team is 1-6. How long till the Bills are looking to unload Fitzpatrick? Perhaps February.
Short-Yardage Follies: TMQ law of short-yardage holds: do a Little Dance if You Want to Gain That Yard. yet NFL teams continue to run simplistic dive plays on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, rather than use misdirection. against Philadelphia, the Dolphins were stuffed on a straight-ahead no misdirection third-and-1. Houston, normally clever about play design, appeared finished when it was stuffed on a simplistic third-and-1 rush, then sacked on fourth-and-2. new England, normally clever about play design, was stuffed on a simplistic straight-ahead try on third-and-1. The Giants lost yardage on a simplistic straight-ahead try on third-and-2. The Titans were stuffed with a simplistic play on third-and-1. A man in motion, a lineman pulling away from the point of attack — do a little dance if you want to gain that yard. here is a soundtrack for short-yardage plays.
Obscure College Score of the Week: Mount Union 28, Wesley 21 (Division III semifinal). Located in Dover, Del., Wesley College offers a major in "drama and theater." They're different?
Bonus College Score: Wisconsin Whitewater 20, St. Thomas 0 (Division III semifinal). Located in St. Paul, Minn., the University of St. Thomas lists 45 people on its Board of Trustees. Perhaps they meet at the basketball arena!
These two games set up yet another rematch of Mount Union versus Wisconsin Whitewater in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. these two schools have, between them, won eight of the past 10 Division III football titles.
Next Week: Weasels object to being compared to Rich Rodriguez and Kevin Sumlin.
• Uni Watch: NBA 2011-12 season preview • Phillips: Could the Eagles actually win it all? Pfeister: Page 2 unveils Guacamole Bowl! Page 2 Podcast: Macho holidays
Denver, Tebow wearing teams down


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In Puebla, Mexico, the Volkswagen de Mexico S.A. de C.V. plant churns out new Jettas and Beetles at a rate of about 2,000 vehicles per day—36 hours from sheet metal stamping to a final test drive and quality check. VW relies on a JIT (just-in-time) supply of parts and subassemblies. A huge storage facility within VW's massive assembly complex holds 11,500 vehicles waiting for shipment to Mexican dealerships and export destinations. About 20% of the cars produced in Puebla are for domestic consumption within Mexico, so 80% of the vehicles are for export—50% to the U.S. and Canada, 30% globally (primarily Europe and South America).
VW intends to ship an increasing number of export vehicles by rail, and following an extensive evaluation process, its railcar of choice is Greenbrier's adjustable-deck, two-unit-articulated, tri-level Auto-Max®, specifically, the Auto-Max II. This latest-generation Auto-Max® features improved safety and security and weight-saving features like tight-sealing composite doors with inside access ladders, integral bridge plates, composite decks, and a stainless-steel-reinforced neoprene bellows at the articulation point. In its "Gamma" (equalized deck setting) configuration, which accommodates vehicles as tall as 72 inches, the 145-foot-long Auto-Max II can hold 24 Jettas, or 20 Jettas and 5 Beetles, while providing a loaded weight savings of 1,500 pounds per vehicle over a traditional, fixed-deck tri-level autorack. At the Puebla complex, five loading tracks, each about 1,300 feet long (400 meters), accommodate nine Auto-Max cars each.
VW, which exports automobiles to several distribution points in the U.S. and Canada, wanted the best shipping cost per vehicle, but more important, improved logistics. "We've been competitive with our products, and we are constantly looking to improve our logistics and make it more competitive," says Manager-Transport Planning Alfonso Gutierrez. VW, which is a member of AMIA (Associación Mexico Industrial Automotive, Mexico's auto industry trade association), held a workshop in early 2008 involving eight railroads—Kansas City Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Ferromex, Ferrosur, and Chiapas Mayab—to explain its material and vehicle distribution processes including quality objectives and inviting the railroads to analyze VW de Mexico's Logistics and the participation of railroad in the inbound and outbound process. Within this workshop it was requested that all rail companies seriously assess Auto-Max equipment and submit their proposals to VWM; therefore, this workshop is considered the beginning of Auto-Max era for VW Mexico.
Following several tests with the Auto-Max to evaluate storage, loading, and security factors, VW awarded a three-year contract to KCS and BNSF to transport vehicles to a mixing facility in Houston. There, the vehicles are off-loaded, combined with imported Volkswagen models, reloaded, and sent to U.S. and Canadian destinations.
The Auto-Max, according to KCS Vice President-Intermodal and Automotive Brian Bowers, "is a critical part of our automotive strategy. It's the right car for this service. It offers lots of flexibility in terms of vehicle dimensions. You don't get that with a traditional autorack. The autorack fleet is sub-optimized, because there were many configured as bilevels when SUVs and light trucks were in demand." The market quickly shifted to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers, and bilevels have come up one deck short.
Ferromex is also enjoying some success with the Auto-Max for joint movements with BNSF to the West Coast , according to Subdirector-Automotive Carlos Lerma. Feromex has a pool of 72 dedicated cars for domestic service and across the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border crossing. The fleet is expected to grow to as many as 350 cars, long term. "Many auto manufacturers in Mexico are asking us to use the Auto-Max," Lerma says. "One reason why the demand for these cars is increasing is because we encounter far fewer situations with security and safety of the Auto-Max than with autoracks."
Greenbrier firmly believes that it's time that new technology move into the motor vehicle market. "The autorack is a 50-year-old technology," says Vice President, Marketing Bill Bourque. "It no longer addresses the needs of the automotive industry and the changes taking place. Fuel price increases have changed consumer preferences toward passenger vehicles that need to be transported three high. At the same time, we are transporting newer, higher profile vehicle designs that combine fuel efficiency but afford greater headroom. Many of these new designs, which traditionally were loaded in tri-levels, now have to be loaded in bi-levels. Automobile manufacturers have moved toward more flexible manufacturing that combines SUVs and passenger cars in the same plant, which requires both bi-levels and tri-levels. Shifting between the two car types is not efficient equipment utilization. The solution is to introduce a single, versatile technology that accommodates all of these vehicle combinations—like the Auto-Max.
For the railroads, the Auto-Max also provides improved fuel economy, reduces their carbon footprint, and better utilizes existing line-haul and terminal capacity."


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front page
List of Americans Abroad
Beasley finally gets starts and he responds for Rangers in big way.
Howard stops penalty kick, rallies slumping Everton to victory, draw.
Dempsey finds net twice, Fulham blanks Blackburn 3-0 in EPL.
Setback in recovery from shin injury casts doubt on Jones joining U.S. team.
Dempsey runs his EPL scoring streak to three games, helping Fulham tie Wigan 1-1.
Mönchengladbach, Bradley experience improved play in Bundesliga.
Dempsey regains scoring touch, helps Fulham drop Liverpool.
Davies improves, but faces several surgeries, long road back.
Dempsey, injured in England, will miss at least one U.S. qualifier.
Injury problems continue for DeMerit who hurts eye in accident.
Bradley spends time on bench for Mönchengladbach, but plays in Cup match.
Altidore gets start up top, but Hull City is blanked by visiting Birmingham.
Dempsey excels in Fulham's 2-1 triumph over Everton and Howard.
Benfica sends Adu to Lisbon rival Belenenses on loan.
Davies scores twice in his first three games with Sochaux.
Altidore impresses in his first two outings with Hull City.
Howard stunned in goal, his Everton falls 6-1 to Arsenal.
Bradley goes distance, Mönchengladbach saves Bundesliga future with draw.
Bradley, Mönchengladbach again face relegation worries after 5-0 loss.
Fulham fans fete Dempsey; Reading says farewell to Hahnemann.
Hahnemann, Reading come up short to Burnley in promotion playoffs.
Bocanegra scores, but Rennes is upset by Guingamp 2-1 in Cup final.
Hahnemann, Reading fall short of Premier League promotion, get second chance.
Hahnemann posts two shutouts, Reading has Sunday shot for promotion to Premier League.
Howard saves in tiebreaker lead Everton past Manchester United in FA Cup semifinals.
Reading finally scores, but Hahnemann concedes lead in 2-2 draw with Blackpool.
Dempsey scores twice, adds assist to spark Fulham past Manchester City.
Edu scores first goal, Beasley injures rib in Rangers victory.
Friedel is sent off from Villa's 5-0 rout at hands of Liverpool.
Howard, Everton are on the upswing in English Premier League.
Americans Abroad
(Thursday, December 24, 2009) -- United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel recorded three more clean sheets, running his shutout streak to four as Aston Villa challenged for the lead in the English Premier League.
Villa (10-3-5, 35 points) has won four in a row and is unbeaten in seven (5-0-2) as it is tied for third place, six points behind league-leading Chelsea (13-3-2). Villa trails Manchester United (12-5-1, 37) and is even with Arsenal (11-4-2), though Arsenal holds a game in hand.
On Saturday, Friedel did not need to make a save in a 1-0 defeat of visiting Stoke City. He did get some help from the referee when Mamady Sidibe headed home a cross from Matthew Etherington in the 32nd minute, but the Stoke striker was adjudged to have fouled Stephen Warnock when challenging for the ball and the goal was disallowed.
On December 15, Villa cruised to a 2-0 decision over Sunderland. Friedel was called on for just a pair of stops; his best a kick save on Andy Reid. Three days earlier, Villa slipped past host Manchester United 1-0 with Friedel coming up with five saves, giving his side its first victory at Old Trafford since 1983.
U.S. keeper Brad Guzan continues in his role as Friedel's backup.
U.S. keeper Tim Howard and Everton tied their last two outings, On Saturday, Everton drew 1-1 with visiting Birmingham City at Goodison Park.
Everton took 24 shots, but only six were on goal and only an early strike by Diniyar Bilyaletdinov found net. Howard was not credited with a single save as a strike by Sebastian Larsson beat him in the 22nd minute with the only shot on target
The match contrasted greatly with the previous game, a 3-3 draw at Chelsea. Howard had four saves, but could not deny Didier Drogba a pair of goals and Nicolas Anelka one in a match that featured some loose defending by both teams.
American keeper Marcus Hahnemann is making the most of an opportunity to start with Wolverhampton Wanderers, registering clean sheets in two consecutive games. On Saturday, he had five saves in a 2-0 victory over Burnley.
A week earlier, he made seven saves in a 1-0 shutout of host Tottenham Hotspur. Hahnemann made fine saves on Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe, prompting Wolves manager Mick McCarthy to say, "Marcus Hahnemann's been diving around making saves everywhere. I expect my keeper to have to make saves when we go to Spurs."
The two triumphs followed a 3-0 loss at Manchester United where McCarthy did something odd, starting mostly reserves. Hahnemann made eight saves.
On Saturday, U.S. midfielder Clint Dempsey went the distance, assisting a pair of goals in helping Fulham register one of its most satisfying wins at Craven Cottage in a while, soundly defeating visiting Manchester United 3-0.
That followed a 1-1 draw at Burnley.
American striker Eddie Johnson did not dress for Fulham for either match and he has been listed as available for transfer when the window opens in January.
U.S. forward Jozy Altidore seems to be the odd man out for Hull City these days. On Saturday, he was not dressed for a 3-0 loss to Arsenal with Daniel Cousin returning from injury and replacing Altidore.
In the preceding match, Altidore came on for the final 26 minutes of a 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers. In the 75th minute, Altidore went down in the Rovers box, but instead of earning a penalty kick, Altidore was booked for diving.
U.S. defender Jonathan Spector also is a bit out of favor with West Ham United. With Matthew Upson back from injury, Spector did nor dress Sunday for a 1-1 draw with Chelsea. Spector sat on the bench for a 1-0 loss away at Birmingham and 3-1 home setback to Bolton Wanderers.
In second-tier League Championship, U.S. defender Jay DeMerit is back to full-time duty going 90 minutes in a pair of Watford losses, 2-1 to Peterborough United Saturday and 1-0 to Derby County a week earlier.
American defender Frank Simek remained on the bench during Sheffield Wednesday's 2-0 loss to Swansea City Saturday, a week after he did not dress for a 3-0 loss at Leicester City.
American striker Mike Grella scored his first goals for Leeds United of the third-tier League One, recording a pair of tallies in a 5-1 win over visiting Kettering Town of the Conference National in a second-round FA Cup replay at Elland Road.
Leeds will next face Manchester United, a long-time rival when both teams were in the Premier League.
Grella did not play in Leeds' 1-0 decision over Southampton or a 0-0 draw at Brentford.
In France's Ligue 1, U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra was on the bench for Stade Rennes in a 1-0 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain.
Prior to that, he also sat when Rennes was surprised 1-0 by Monaco. That followed him sitting out a yellow-cards suspension when Rennes defeated Nancy 2-1.
In Germany's second-division 2. Bundesliga, American keeper David Yelldell injured his knee in the 59th minute of TuS Koblenz's 3-0 loss to FC Kaiserslautern. That led to him not dressing for last weekend's 1-0 setback to FSV Frankfurt.
American attacker Matt Taylor dressed, but did not play, for Frankfurt against Koblenz. He also sat for a 0-0 tie with Ahlen.
American Luis Robles was in his usual role as backup keeper for Kaiserslautern.
Do you have a comment on this story or something to say about soccer in general? Send us a letter.


text:
New African Fossil Confirms Early Human Variations
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
The cover of the August 9, 2012 issue of the journal Nature featured the reconstructed face of newly-discovered human-like fossil bones described by Meave Leakey and colleagues in their report.1 Three new human-like fossil face parts from Africa have given evolutionists another opportunity to reiterate their confusing philosophy, but the data don't match their story very well.
What was their first task upon discovering the fossils? According to long-time African hominid fossil expert and anatomist Bernard Wood who summarized the Leakey finds in a short article in the same issue of Nature, "The task of palaeoanthropologists is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the period between our species, Homo sapiens, and the ancestral species we share exclusively with chimpanzees and bonobos."2
So much for objective science, which would entail evaluating the fossils against evolutionary and competing tenets, not force-fitting them into evolutionary preconceptions. After all, a century of searching has failed to produce one fossil that can wear the undisputed tag of "ancestral species."
Wood said the three new fossils challenge a view that he had published in 1992. Back then, he attributed a large lower jaw to a fossil human variety named Homo rudolfensis whose identity has been contested for decades.3 The two new lower jaw fossils, found near the same rock outcrop and having the same general shape as the lower jaw he once attributed to H. rudolfensis, now look like poor fits for H. rudolfensis.
They may, instead, belong to yet another "species" or extinct variety of true humans. According to the Nature authors, the new fossils support the idea that multiple varieties of humans lived at the same time and place in Africa.
Wood's brief summary about these new fossils reshaping old ideas mirrors whole careers spent arguing over fossil fragments—whether they fit an ape, human, or something in-between (or a pig)4; which kind or variety of ape or human; and who gets the glory and funding from naming it. Confusion and revision even characterize the constantly changing ages assigned to these fossils.5
And now, evolutionists have to explain why these African rock beds that are supposed to represent the cradle of human evolution fail to show a series of fossils in anatomical progression. Why don't these rocks display ape-like creatures morphing to man-like creatures in a well-established continuum upward in geological position? Evolutionists should also explain why there appears to have been three or more varieties of mankind whose remains were buried alongside the very ape-like remains that were once considered human ancestors.
Hominid remains can all be categorized as extinct ape varieties, extinct human varieties, or as too fragmentary or too poorly reconstructed to discern—or as exposed frauds. The evolutionist's task of unraveling their own stories, which incur new knots with almost every discovery, is unenviable. And according to Wood, that task promises to worsen! He wrote, "Researchers will view our current hypotheses about this phase of human evolution as remarkably simplistic."2
On the other hand, the Bible's origins account is compatible with discontinuous fossils like these, since it says that God created people to reproduce after their own kind, not between kinds. Scripture says that "the son of Adam, which was the son of God" was not the son of an ape.6 It follows from this that no undisputed ape-to-human transition will ever be discovered. If these new human-looking fossils really do represent human varieties, then they only reinforce the biblical and scientific observation that humans can and did rapidly express widely differing variations in form and features.7
- Leakey, M. G. et al. 2012. New fossils from Koobi Fora in northern Kenya confirm taxonomic diversity in early Homo. Nature. 488 (7410): 201–204.
- Wood, B. 2012. Palaeoanthropology: Facing up to complexity. Nature. 488 (7410):162-163.
- Some researchers have stated that representatives of H. rudolfensis do not even belong to the human genus Homo, but instead to an extinct ape kind. One even wrote that the flat, human-like facial structure of the most famous H. rudolfensis fossil skull KNM-DR 1470, described by Richard Leakey in 1974, was due to its facial bone fragments (that came from at least four different individual creatures) having been glued to an already human-like backer mold. See Bromage, T. 1992. Faces from the Past. New Scientist. 133(1803): 38-41.
- Parker, G. 1981. Origin of Mankind. Acts & Facts.
- Gish, D. 1974. Richard Leakey's Skull 1470. Acts & Facts. 3 (2).
- Luke 3:38.
- See articles listed under All People Descended Recently from a Single Family. ICR.org. Posted on icr.org.
Image credit: Copyright © 2012 Nature Publishing Group. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on August 13, 2012.
Evidence for Creation › Evidence from Science › Evidence from the Life Sciences › Man Was Created by God › Man Was Created Distinct from Apes
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text:
Credulity strains
As the expert explains
That the human remains they have found
Are the bones of a saint,
Which I think is just quaint–
You can't prove that they ain't, they expound.
In a similar search
Through the yard of a church
Come some bones that may smirch someone's name
Searchers saw, with a start
There's a stake through his heart!
That's a posthumous part of his shame
So anyway… Big News in Bulgarian bones this week, both stories featuring the lovely town of Sozopol, an ancient and beautiful place surrounded by the tackiest tourist traps imaginable.
The one that has hit the headlines is the recent non-refutation of John the Baptist's bones–that is, carbon dating (which suddenly biblical archaeologists find useful) and DNA analysis fail to show that the bones are not those of JtB.
The relics found in a small marble sarcophagus two years ago on a Bulgarian island called Sveti Ivan, which translates as Saint John, also included a human tooth, part of a skull and three animal bones.
A research team from Oxford University dated the right-handed knuckle bone to the first century AD, when John is believed to have lived until his beheading ordered by king Herod, the university said in a statement.
And scientists from the University of Copenhagen analysed the DNA of the bones, finding they came from a single individual, probably a man, from a family in the modern-day Middle East, where John would have lived.
So it's consistent with the story. As are many other JtB claims, I would imagine. That's the thing about relics: they are miraculous.
Many sites around the world claim to hold relics of the saint, including the Grand Mosque in Damascus which says it has his head.
The right hand with which the prophet allegedly baptised Jesus in the River Jordan is also claimed to be held by several entities, including a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Montenegro.
And now, these relics are being shown in Sozopol, at a museum I have visited and have fond memories of. I hope it helps their budget.
But for my money, the big draw is going to be the skeleton, unearthed in Sozopol but being exhibited in Sofia, of a vampire! Well, ok, not a vampire, but someone who would very probably turned into one, had they not, as a precaution, pulled out his teeth and driven an iron stake through his heart. After death.
The ancient skeleton of a man, pinned down in his grave in order not to turn into a vampire, piqued interest in Bulgaria this week, where vampire tales and rites still keep their bite even nowadays.
The 700-year-old skeleton — unearthed in the necropolis of a church in the Black Sea town of Sozopol earlier in June — was stabbed in the chest with an iron rod and had his teeth pulled before being put to rest.
Anti-vampirism rituals were behind the find, archaeologists said, making this potential vampire and another one found at his side an instant media hit.
"These were most probably intellectuals who outgrew the moral ideas of their 14th century (…) They were feared and buried outside town walls," their discoverer, archaeologist Dimitar Nedev, told AFP.
A separate story claims the skeleton was identified as that of a pirate, the mayor of the town. The details are worth reading.
Apparently, this sort of treatment was actually not that uncommon, a sort of precautionary treatment just in case the dearly departed are going to come after you. From the first story, again:
The Sozopol "vampire" was pierced through the chest with a ploughshare, while another centuries-old skeleton found in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo was tied to the ground with four iron clamps and burning embers were placed on top of his grave.
Six more potential "vampires" from the 4th-5th century unearthed near the village of Debelt, near Sozopol in eastern Bulgaria, in 2004 were buried exceptionally deep and nailed down by the skulls, arms and legs, their finder, archaeologist Petar Balabanov, said.
Remnants of these pagan anti-vampirism rituals can be found even nowadays in some village funeral rites in Bulgaria.
"After the death of my husband four years ago, my sister did this anti-vampirism thing at the grave — prodding the soil with a spindle and chanting something so that the spirit does not turn into a vampire," said retired teacher Zara Dimitrova from the northwestern village of Novo Selo.
"I remember we also had to keep mum on the way home to prevent him from following us," she added.
"My aunt tied the legs of her dead husband by the shoe-laces when they put him in the coffin so that he cannot rise as a vampire," Valia Ivanova, a Sofia interpreter, also recalled.


text: I decided to test the thermostat in my 1990 K75 while doing some other services. It passed fine, but the old gaskets could stand to be replaced. There are two: a special sized O-ring which seals the thermostat cover/retainer (which is available from BMW), and a grooved square-sided gasket which covers the edge of the thermostat "disk" and seals it in the thermostat housing (therefore it must be exactly the right dimensions). THAT gasket appears to only be available with a new thermostat ($55.00!!) according to the on-line BMW parts listings! Does anyone have a known source for a replacement thermostat body gasket? Thanks.


text:
As I've mentioned previously, I am the not-so-proud owner of a Graco Metrolite stroller. It does work well with the Graco SafeSeat , and I would have been content to use it as our only stroller for the infant carseat. But we have two cars, and living in Los Angeles, we pretty much drive everywhere. So after the second time we forgot to switch the Metrolite to the car we were driving and arrived at our destination without a stroller, we decided to get another stroller. I suppose we could have used the Graco Quattro we already own, but if you've read my post about the Quattro versus the Metrolite, you know that I loathe its weight and size. Not only would Marc and I dread taking the Quattro out of the trunk, we wouldn't be able to fit much else in there.
Enter the Graco Snugrider. Since Graco didn't make a stroller frame when Alex was born, I had used the Babytrend Snap-n-Go with his infant carseat. So, keeping in mind that my reference point is a Snap-n-Go purchased in 2005 (and that some changes have probably been made to it since), here is a comparison of the Metrolite, Snugrider, and Snap-n-Go.
First, the Metrolite. Unlike the Snugrider and Snap-n-Go, this is a "regular" stroller, i.e., it's not limited to use with infant carseats. My favorite part about it is the double-canopy effect with the infant carseat. I can never see Tyler through the little plastic window due to glare or bad lighting, but I love that I can block out almost all light and discourage nosy strangers. Plus he seems to sleep really well in this stroller. The basket is reasonably accessible when the infant carseat is in place, though you have to lower the top part. The ride seems smooth and the stroller is relatively easy to load and unload from my car. My complaints about the Metrolite are: (1) the need to lock the front wheels before folding (I actually have managed to fold it without locking the wheels but it doesn't always work); (2) the way the seatback bar can get caught under the basket bar when you open the stroller; (3) the lack of a storage compartment on the handlebar; and (4) that the netting on the end of the canopy isn't removable. My single biggest complaint about the Metrolite is that the seat buckle is ridiculously difficult to put together – it's a five-point harness but the shoulder straps detach from the side straps so you need both hands free in order to do the buckle. But this obviously isn't a problem when you're using the stroller just for the infant carseat.
Second, the Snugrider. This stroller frame is about half the price of the Metrolite, lightweight, and easy to use. Most importantly, the infant carseat fits securely. I have mixed feelings about the automatic locking mechanism – I like that the stroller doesn't fall open on its own, but I find unlocking it very awkward. I miss the double canopy but it's easier to look at Tyler without it (if he's sleeping, I use a blanket to block out his surroundings – but getting the blanket to stay when it's windy is difficult). The basket is easily accessible, but I couldn't get a paper grocery bag in there when I was at the market. There is one cup holder and one small tray but no storage compartment. All in all, I like this stroller but it could use a few improvements.
Lastly, the Snap-n-Go. The Snap-n-Go's pros are similar to the Snugrider: relatively inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to use. If I recall correctly, the Snap-n-Go's basket was not only easily accessible, it held a lot. And I think the gap between the carseat and the top of the basket was bigger than on the Snugrider, so a paper grocery bag probably would have fit. As with the Snugrider, I used a blanket if Alex was sleeping, but again, getting it to stay in place was tricky. If the infant carseat fit as securely in the Snap-n-Go as it does in the Snugrider, I would have gotten another Snap-n-Go without hesitation. But I was always a bit uneasy about having to secure the carseat with a buckle.
To sum up: If money is a major issue, go with the Metrolite (or another regular stroller) since you can use it with the infant carseat and as a regular stroller when your child outgrows the carseat. However, the Snugrider and Snap-n-Go are handy and worth it if you want a second stroller for your infant. The Snap-n-Go is $10 cheaper than the Snugrider, so if you're comfortable with security of the buckle, go for it. The Snap-n-Go would also be a better buy if you think you might use it with non-Graco carseats since it accommodates other brands.
Note: I no longer had the Snap-n-Go when Tyler was born. If I had, I would have happily used it and not gotten the Snugrider.


text:
Shimano® Sellus Spinning Shakeyhead Rod.
With 24-ton graphite blank construction, the Sellus Rod collection has the kind of excellent, long-term durability you've come to expect in Shimano® gear!
Low-profile aluminum oxide guides and a custom Shimano reel seat are top-quality components; sure to help you reel in the BIG fish! A custom-shaped, split-grip cork handle won't slip and slide when you're fighting to finish off the catch. Has a multi-purpose hook keeper too, to keep sharp ends from flying around when they're not in the water.


text:
Tall Deco Cuff
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Tall deco cuff machined from solid aluminum. Features softly filleted contours on the rounded ends. Measures 2 1/2 inches tall and has an Antiqued Aluminum finish. Hand crafted so no 2 are alike. Made in the USA.
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text:
Large frame in team white/turquoise (of course!) bought new by me in Feb 09. I've only used it for on/off road commuting and light xc riding. It's a great frame in good condition - there are a few little paint chips but nothing serious, it looks great when built up! The frame has canti mounts but I've replaced the studs with m:part blanking plugs. Canti studs are also included. I applied Helicopter Tape at strategic points from new, which has helped to protect the paint. Cable rub marks are also at a minimum because I used the cool little Yeti cable covers (which I'll include, too). I'm looking for £350 for the frame. Email me for more details & pics - oomi_damon AT hotmail DOT com
Classifieds - For Sale
FS: Yeti ARC Frame
Posted 7 years ago #
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies.


text:
Community Day
426 East K St.
Benicia, CA 94510
- Compare with other schools in Benicia
- Compare with nearby schools
- School Type: High School
- District: Benicia Unified
- Website: www.beniciaunified.org
- Ranking compared to similar schools:
- Teachers with Full Credentials: 100%
- Teachers with Emergency Credentials: 0%
- School Schedule: Standard
- Grades: 7-12
Student Information:
- GATE students: 0%
- English learners: 10%
- Reclassified as English proficient: 0%
- Migrant education program participants: 0%
- Eligible for free/reduced price lunch: 20%
- Special education within past two years: 0%
Parent's Education:Overall Average Education4: 2.90
(based on the 100% who responded)
|Graduate School
|College Graduate
|Some College
|High School
|Not a High School
Student Ethnicity:
|African American
|Pacific Islander
Testing Issues (flags):
In 2013, this school had fewer than 11 valid 2013 STAR test scores. No reliable API can be calculated with so few scores.
Median Home Price (Zindex) for zip code 94510:
Related Schools:
Benicia High rank: 8 in Benicia
Benicia Middle rank: 8 in Benicia
Community Day rank: in Benicia
Joe Henderson Elementary rank: 9 in Benicia
Liberty High rank: A in Benicia
Mary Farmar Elementary rank: 8 in Benicia
Matthew Turner Elementary rank: 10 in Benicia
Robert Semple Elementary rank: 6 in Benicia
- The State Rank is determined by a school's API Score in comparison to all other schools in California. (1 is the worst, 10 is the best). An equal number of schools occupy each rank. * This rank comes from the 2013 California Academic Performance Index (API) Growth report.
- The API Score is a number between 200 and 1000 that reflects a school's performance on statewide student assessments administered in 2013.
- Alternative Schools receive APIs but do not receive ranks
- Parent Education is the average of all responses where "1" represents "Not a high school graduate" and "5" represents "Graduate school."
- More information: 2012-13 Academic Performance Index Reports Information Guide (PDF; 629KB; 65pp.)
- "Conditional admission" is admission based upon either documentation of having received some but not all required immunizations and of not being due for any vaccine dose at the time of entry or upon documentation of a temporary medical exemption to immunization in accordance with Section 6050. Continued attendance after conditional admission is contingent upon receipt of the remaining required immunizations in accordance with Sections 6020 and 6035.
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