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I've been taking a lot of portrait shots of our kids lately with my husband's DSLR (Canon EOS 20D) and I've noticed that on some shots that I take the backgrounds is all soft and out of focus while in others it is completely clear. I'd like the soft background more but as I've been shooting in Auto mode I don't know how the camera did it before. Can you give any suggestions? – submitted by DPS reader Sandra
Thanks for the question Sandra. You're right about the soft blurry backgrounds in portraits – in most cases they are a great way to highlight your main subject and get rid of any distractions in the background.
There are a number of things you might like to try. I'll start with the easy ones:
Note: we've since created a more comprehensive guide to controlling depth of field that you may find useful.
One of the easiest things you can do is position the subject you're wanting to photograph as far away from any objects behind them as possible. If they are standing right in front of a wall you'll probably end up with it in focus no matter what else you do – but if they're standing 100 meters in front of that same wall it's going to be a lot more blurry. Of course this will only get you so far – you'll need to do some of what's coming next as well.
The Canon EOS 20D has a little wheel on top of it (on the left) with lots of little icons on it. One of those icons is a little head. This icon is the symbol for portrait mode and if you're not confident with changing apertures (we'll discuss this below) it's a good mode to switch to as it will do some of the work for you. Portrait mode chooses a large aperture (a small 'f' number) which will make the depth of field (the amount of your shot in focus) smaller.
If you're feeling a little more adventurous switch the wheel to 'A' which is Aperture Priority Mode (go on, you can do it). I've written on this mode before but to recap – this mode lets you choose the Aperture (the size of the hole in your lens) and tells the camera to choose all the other settings. This semi-auto mode is a great way to control depth of field as it will ensure your images are well exposed. For shallow depth of field and nice blurry backgrounds choose a large Aperture (the smaller the number the larger the aperture). Try taking a few shots at different apertures and see how it affects the background of your shots – this is the best way to learn how to get more creative control in your shots.
I'm not sure what lens you have on your 20D but if you're like most people these days it will be a zoom lens with different focal lengths. Many zooms will have different maximum apertures at different points along the focal length spectrum. For example if it's an 18-55mm kit lens it will have a maximum aperture of f3.5 at 18mm and a maximum aperture of f5.6 at 55mm. Many see the bigger aperture at the 18mm end of the range and think that that would be the best focal length for blurry backgrounds. The problem with this is that 18mm is a very wide angle and for portraits it can mean you need to get in really close to your subject and it could distort their facial features (not really desirable).
Instead I find that shooting at the 55mm end of the lens is best. This means you can stand further back (making your subject more at ease and pushing your background even further away from your camera). You'll probably still get nice blurry backgrounds if you use the fastest aperture available.
The other good thing about zooms is that they enable you to really fill up your frame with your subject which can give it more prominence and your background less.
This is an 'easy' solution in some ways, but hard if you don't have the budget. Different lenses have different maximum apertures. Those with larger ones are called 'faster' and one of the impacts of having a fast lens is that you can make your depth of field smaller (another is that you can shoot in lower light situations without needing the flash). A good option for Canon DSLRs is the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. It's very fast, it's a good focal length for portraits and it is one of the most affordable lenses Canon make.
Hi guys, we just took the family up to pikes peak for the 4th and I brought my 18-55 and 55-250 with my t3. Both served me well but if I'm taking a photo of a flower or my wife I tend to use the 55-250 and zoom or stand further back. I love a more shallow DOF and usually leave apature at 4 when possible but should I just be using my smaller lens and move forward ?
Also I'm trying a shot where I have her lean against a brick wall and ill stand back maybe 15 ft and get a shallow DOF and focus on her. The DOF became more in focus about 7 ft or so before it got to her. Is that be wuss aperture wasn't small large enough? I.e F2 F1etc?
Hi I am struggling with my Nikon d3200 getting a picture where it's blurry in back ground :/ I am setting it on all right settings but it just keeps taking a sharp shot. So frustrating. Please help :( x
Can you suggest a budget digital camera (point & shoot) having depth of field control feature?
Hello guys,
I hope I can help someone with a free LensTutorial application that I've done for iPhone/iPad crowd.
It can show you effects of shallow dof along with angle of view, so you can plan your photographic settings in advance choosing right lens, camera, distance to model, focal length and aperture.
Or just use it to get more visual intuition about complex math between focal length, aperture, angle of view and depth of field.
Check it out here: www.lenstutorial.com
Drop me a note if you have suggestions or feature requests.
Responding to Pablo, wouldn't you achieve larger appreture and therefore a shallower debth of field by lowering the iso not raising it?
Admittedly I am just starting out, but I wasn't sure what Apreture Priority mode was. Well, now I do! Thanks for this post.
Steve @ Art Gallery
Why would anyone pay $500 for some face-to-face photography course when this website offers such great info? Love it, great work. Basics for photography beginners explained simply.
Very nice,
I mostly shoot at ISO 100 and I totally ignored a faster shooter would create a smaller DOP.
So i think i could shoot at ISO 200, faster shooter speeds and i should get smaller DOP
Being a professional photographer does not mean I cannot use ocassional mentoring once in awhile. I find this site extremely valuable for any photographer and shall contribute my own "blogs" on occassion or if asked for advice
Richard "Rick" Ohman
San Ramon Alajuela
Costa Rica
more importantly, i have the 20 d, with a 17-85 mm lens, would that suffice in-order to get a shallow depth of field?
Photonoob, every heard of the iphone? it lets u go online, even when our not @ home....
I've noticed that the DOF is thinner for the fastest aperture (f/5.6) at 55mm than it is at the fastest aperture (f/3.5) at 18mm.
Also have a bower fisheye 0.16x 58mm
Just bought a cannon 7d and was going to take a photography class but I broke my kneecap in three pieces. What settings should I use for shallow depth of field. I have a 28-135,a 70-300is 1:4-5.6 and a 70-200mm 1:2.8 L and on the first one a macro 0.5m/1.6ft
It sounds like you are going the wrong direction in Aperture priority. You will want to get it down to f2.8, f3.5 or the smallest number available for your lens. If the shutter is staying open too long then most likely you went the opposite direction "smaller opening" F11, F16 etc
Do yourself a favor and buy the relatively inexpensive 50mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.4 if you have a little more to spend.
With these lenses depth of field "Blurry background" is a given since you will be shooting at f1.8 and these lenses are very fast even in low light. This should be your second lens after the kit lens.
It sounds like you are going the wrong direction in Aperture priority. You will want to get it down to f2.8, f3.5 or the smallest number available for your lens. If the shutter is staying open too long then most likely you went the opposite direction "smaller opening" F11, F16 etc
Do yourself a favor and buy the relatively inexpensive 50mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.4 if you have a little more to spend.
With these lenses depth of field "Blurry background" is a given since you will be shooting at f1.8 and these lenses are very fast even in low light. This should be your second lens after the kit lens.
I have a sony alpha 330 and I normally use the portrait setting if I wanna make the background blur. However I don't get the effect as much as what is shown in the picture above. I tried messing with the Aperture Setting but I come to find that when I click the shutter button it'll take a while to process the picture and everything in my picture will be blurred. I'm still learning how to use this camera so any info would be great! Thanks!
Thank you for explaining this in plain English. I have read about this concept so many times on different photography sites only to leave scratching my head and not quite feeling like I "get" it. Suddenly after reading this page, I had an a-ha moment! It finally made sense. Excellent post!
what shutter speed should you be at to take a shallow dof shoot?
I have to do a project and need an answer quick!
thanks a million!
I want to focus on a moving subject with a comlpletely blurred background. I tried using a macro lense, but the close distance needed to maintain a blurry background is not enough to accommodate the size of the subject, and the shots end up looking cropped. Any suggestions?
very helpful , step-by-step lesson in portrait shooting , thank you very much
how about my sony a380y?
Nice...just also wanted to say your words "Aperture Priority Mode is a great way to control depth of field as it will ensure your images are well exposed." is a little off. Alignment that is. Great article!
thanks Darren. Your site really informative and practical especially for newbie.
50mm 1.4 thats kinda shallow
If Aperture is actually f/x then does f/5.6 @ 55mm actually give you a more shallow DOF than f/3.5 @ 18mm? (since 55mm/5.6 = 9.82mm and 18mm/3.5 = 5.14mm).
Shutter speed won't do a lot for your depth of field.
F22 equals no depth of field in Portrait unless you are doing Macro which will create shallow depth of field even at F22
The trick is set it for your widest Aperture (F2.8 - F4) and shoot with your 55-250mm set at 100-200mm and get a bit of distance from your subject to fill the frame.
You can then play around and adjust your shutter speed and exposure compensation to achieve the correct exposure after that.
Hi i can't get dept of field correct. Please help! i'm a student. I own a Canon 450 D EOS, Lenses 18-55mm and 55-250. With one could i use to get the depth of field correct. I am clueless. please help it's an assignment that must be in on monday. I don't understand why i can't get this right!
they want your camera on manual mode, lense on manual focus. What is the correct shutter speed for f22?
If Aperture is actually f/x then does f/5.6 @ 55mm actually give you a more shallow DOF than f/3.5 @ 18mm? (since 55mm/5.6 = 9.82mm and 18mm/3.5 = 5.14mm).
A friend uses an older Minolta 85mm F1.4 prime lens and swears by it.
There are some 135MM as well I think.
Thanks Doug,
Is there any more versatile lens that I can use to achieve this effect.. problem for me is when I go out, i often don't want to use the tele lens, way to bulky for family activities which is when i try to get some good portrait shots. I will practice with the 300 mm this week.. thanks for the feedback. Toni
It's not the camera but rather the lens. The 300mm will work well.
Just position yourself around 15' back and set your F stop open to say F4
Give that a try.
I am also having trouble obtaining consistent blurry backgrounds for portraits on my sony alpha 350. I am able to get a pretty good blur using the macro (flower) setting when taking close ups of flowers, but am not doing as well with people. Wondering if i need a new lens? I also have a telephoto lens (300mm) but don't usually use it, but wondered if the technique works better with that lens? any feedback from others, especially sony users?
Cambridge World Subcategories: Cameras
is best camera
OH my goodness. One thing you said rang so true and I never realized it. Honestly, it was a light bulb moment for me. I have a shoot today and I am excited now!!
One of the easiest things you can do is position the subject you're wanting to photograph as far away from any objects behind them as possible. If they are standing right in front of a wall you'll probably end up with it in focus no matter what else you do – but if they're standing 100 meters in front of that same wall it's going to be a lot more blurry
I was missing this totally.
Chantal, glad you found the site, but please be assured, us women members here are fabulous, intelligent, talented, vibrant, and very relevant...the word 'mere' cannot be used to describe us, as it should not you! Welcome :)
Hi Darren, Thank you thank you thank you!!!! I have finally found a site where I, a mere woman, can understand and learn from. I have been searching for a course to learn my digital camera for ages and never found anything suitable until I stumbled onto your site, so once again, thank you! My aim is to learn for an hour a day and at long last it is becoming clearer!!!!!!At long last I have grasped the concepts of ISO , aperature and shutter sheed. Hoooraaaayyyyyy!
sorry I meant 1-2 minutes not seconds....
Im no expert but I believe that due the available light, the shutter speed is being set to 1-2 seconds by the camera cause the apeture you have chosen is a high number.
Try reducing your aperture, increasing the ISO on the camera (or using a flash?)
i got totally confused with aperture. But I'm, good at it now
I have tried experiementing with aperture priority as mention by Darren. There is a 2-3 minute pause before the camera takes the picture which getts frustrating.That means my subject has to remain still until the camera snaps the picture( i hope am making sense). I also have to use a tripod otherwise my image goes blurry. What am I doing wrong? Am using a Nikkon D90(aperture 5.6). Somebody please help!!!
Hi Great article and you write quite well. Enjoyed.
I own a canon 1000D now. Earlier I had a canon AE 1 with 50mm 1.8 lens. My current lens is 18-55mm.. what is the difference between my AE 1 50mm and 1000D 55mm.. the latter is much more tele...
"using a telephoto lens (anything above 50mm) won't push the background away–it'll bring it closer. Telephoto lenses compress the depth of the image; wide angle lenses expand the depth of the image."
That is the DUMBEST thing i've read in a long time. Wide angles have far greater depth of field, hence fisheyes have pretty much infinate dof. Your statement is utterly false.
can i create sofy blurry background with my normal dogital camrera canon s3IS?
Reading through these posts got me thinking about the confusion I had with F-stops and what they did so I've been thinking of yet another analogy for it.....I'll just run this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes !
Your camera is actually a garage and the aperture is the roll-up garage door.
F-stop tells you how far the door has closed.....
Fully Open Closed a bit Closed a little bit more Almost shut Just a very small gap !!
Lots of light going through Not so much light Very little light
so needs fast shutter speed Needs slow shutter speed and tripod!!
Now the Depth of Field is how much of the roll-up garage door is visible......
Small sliver of door Very big sliver of door !!
Shallow Depth of Field Large Depth of Field
Hope this helps........also have a peek here....
Happy snapping !
You are an awesome teacher!! It is a gift. You have a wonderful way of breaking down the intimidating aspects of a camera into manageable bites for people to consume. Anyone who reads your instructions can understand. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
A lot of detail is helpful when you are trying to learn online, because you can't be there to ask questions as you go along! Good article for newbs!
What lens would you suggest for a Nikon D60?
I have been trying to figure out my camera for a YEAR now and your simple, extremely helpful instructions are exactly what I needed!!! I almost cried when I finally realized what I needed to do..partially from fumbling around all this time trying one thing after another..but I guess you explained it just how my mind needed to see it. I cant wait to go out and take some more portraits!!
Love this site!!!!
My husband has a Nikon D90 and I wanted to start having some control over my own photos but didn't want to go DSLR as well so I just recently bought a Canon D990 IS, the only compact point and shoot that has a limited manual mode. Needless to say, when doing side-by-side tests, he gets better "blurriness/shallow depth of field" than I do. After much research, including on this site, I finally understand the factors that affect depth of field and the Nikon is better because of longer focal lens length than mine (and larger sensor size).
I now know to get closer to my subject, use as low f-stop as possible, and zoom in as much as possible to get a shallower field depth but I'm wondering if there is a better point-and-shoot style camera that will give me shallower depths easier (camera with longer lens focal length). The SD990 IS has a 7.7 - 28.5 mm lens (f2.8 - 5.8).
Any suggestions without going to too large a camera? Is the SD990 IS considered the best for what I'm wanting?
It worked for me. BUT, i cant keep the camera from shaking. Makes me sad.
Aperture (f/1.4 ... f/22) is the hole in front of the film / sensor to control the amount of light that comes in. The larger the hole (f/1.4 is the largest in the above range), the more will be the light. Roughly, on a 50 mm f/1.4 lens, the aperture full wide will be 50 / 1.4 = 35 mm or so.
To get the right amount of light on the film / sensor, we can control the amount of time the shutter is open. Another way is to control the ISO of the film / sensor. The lower ISO numbers (ISO 100, etc.) will need more light (read larger aperture or slower shutter) to capture the picture than their higher counterparts (ISO 1600, etc.).
The other effect of wide open (large / 1.4, etc.) aperture is the depth of field (DOF). The wider the aperture, the shallower the DOF. The DOF becomes shallower with focal length also. A 28 mm focal length will have a much larger DOC compared to a 300 mm focal length, provided the aperture is the same.
Clicking any photograph is nothing but a careful choice of these controls. Basically, you decide what is the most important thing for you - if shallow DOF is important, set the aperture as wide as you can, increase the focal length as much as you can, and then play with the shutter speed till you get the exposure (total amount of light) right.
There are a few other factors affecting DOF, such as distance between the camera and the subject, but I guess I have created enough confusion for a first post ;-)
strongly suggested by the author are hints everyone can readily try and apply.. either on hobby shoot or commercial photoshoot.. well appreciated, sir!
Hi Maggie,
The whole aperture/hole/f-stop measurement thing can be confusing. The way I remember, is to recall that it's actually a fraction. So think of f/22 as 1/22. And f/3 is really 1/3. That way it is easier to rationalize, that 1/22nd is a smaller piece of pie than 1/3rd. Which is why f/22 is a smaller hole than f/3.
Once that piece is clear, the next step is simply to remember that a smaller hole increases DOF, and a bigger hole decreases DOF. The way I remember this, is that for folks who need glasses for distance, if they actually took a piece of cardboard and put a pinhole in it, they could focus farther than usual (though they'd look a little awkward). This is actually the same reason folks will squint if they can't see something in the distance--their body is naturally trying to making a smaller hole for their eyes, so that they can increase their focus over longer distances.
Hope that helps!
I may have got my previous post the wrong way round (shows you how confused I am, honestly!). My tutor has said the larger the f stop the smaller hole = smaller depth of field. I do not understand!
After years of taking mediocre photographs, I have just embarked on a photography course. This website is so helpful. I love it!
That said, whilst I understand DOF in a practical sense, mentally I am lost on the terminology and I wonder if anyone here can help me.
You say "For shallow depth of field and nice blurry backgrounds choose a large Aperture (the smaller the number the larger the aperture)." I understand the smaller the number, the large the hole. But if you have an aperture of say f22 or f11 for a landscape image then aren't you going to have a big/wide depth of field, ie everything will be in focus?
Cedric, I have the same kit lens as you are and I can achieve the bokeh effect (blurred background) by either being quite close to the subject with f1.8 or zoomed to the subject as much as possible with f5.6.
The maximum you can set with ur kit lens when zoomed is f5.6.
To Jemma: The only reason the 50mm lens might work better than your 18-55mm lens, is if it has a larger maximum aperture. The lens barrel and the box will both list the maximum aperture: it's labeled as "f/5.6", "f/1.8", or something similar. The lower the number, the larger the aperture. So if the 50mm lens has a lower number than your 18-55mm, it will be better for shallow depth of field. You may want to take your camera to shop, test it out the 50mm lens, and see what results it gives you.
To Cedric: The maximum aperture you can use is usually limited by the lens itself, not the camera body. And when the lens is zoomed all the way in, the maximum aperture (a.k.a. f/stop) will not be as wide as when zoomed all the way out (however, zooming in is better for achieving shallow depth of field). To experiment, I would try setting your camera to Aperture Priority (usually marked as "Av" on the setting dial), zooming all the way in, finding a subject in your viewfinder that has nothing behind it, make the aperture number as low as it will go (sounds like f/5.6 in this case), focus, snap a picture, and see what happens. This basically puts all the factors in your corner, and should work.
I am new to photography and shooting with the D40X. I Bought the 200mm lens but this effect just WILL NOT WORK for me no matter what i do, I have the camera on fully Manual, but it will not let me lower the FSto below 5.6. What am I doing wrong?
Just got a nikon d40x, will the 50mm Af lens work with this camera? I have the kit lens 18-55 and I can't seem to blur the background at all =(
To Douglas Porter: The "A-dep" setting on your Canon Rebel XT is short for "automatic depth of field". On this setting, the camera will survey the auto-focusing points, and make sure to select an exposure (aperture + shutter speed) which will keep multiple subjects in focus. E.g., if you have a group of people who are at different distances from the lens, the camera won't select one focus point and keep that person in focus while throwing the other individuals out of focus.
To Evan: I currently have a Canon S3 and have a difficult time getting shallow depth of field, despite the fact that the camera's aperture can go as low as f/2.7. After reading up on it a bit, I learned that the tiny size of the sensor meant that my effective focal length was very low, thereby increasing my DOF in general. (The 35-432mm zoom range is really 6-72mm in 35mm terms.)
Depth of field is affected by: 1) distance from the subject (the closer you are the shallower the DOF), 2) focal length (the more you are zoomed in the shallower the DOF), and 3) aperture (the lower the aperture the shallower the DOF). What I wasn't realizing, is that although I could achieve a low aperture, it was being offset by the fact that the focal length was short, and unfortunately there's not much I can do about it.
I had the same problem. I purchased the Nikkor Zoom lens 55-200 mm and that works fine. The lens in the kit doesn't work too well re: shallow of depth of field for headshot type photos. However there is a smaller lens (about $300 or so) that does a great job, but you would have to be good at focusing the camera yourself (especially if you have a Nikon D40 - not sure about the D40X..probably the same.) If you have the Nikon D80 you're in luck. Hope helps, (even tho I see Jacob's post was back in June!)
Thanks for the tips...But you just recommended the Canon 50mm for better learning shots. What do you recommend for Nikon 40X etc.. products. I currently have just started SLR photography (Nikon 40x, 18-55mm Kit) and having problem obtaining the blurry background with a good clear focal point.
I've recently purchased a Canon 400D and just started getting more interested improving my photgraphy. This is an excellent website and I have found the tips to be a great help to my understanding of the basics. Everything is very clearly and simply explained and I feel encouraged to go out and try the techniques for myself. Thanks again for such a great website
The H2 is indeed capable of some very impressive shots, including "blurred" background images. I bought mine several weeks ago and just today figured out how to achieve this effect. Here's an example shot of this effect in action:
It's possible to further increase the effect as this wasn't the ideal situation for it.
Dear Friends,
I want to buy a Sony DSC-H2 or Canon-S3. My primary goat is to get a very shallow depth of field in my photos. Will I be able to get a good Shallow depth of field in H2 or S3.
"Locking the focus" is not explained, Which is very relevent for potraits.
Ref: Kodak Top 10 Tips
Gr8 Tip...Useful,basic nd pretty simple 2 understand!!
To prevent camera shaking....hold your elbows in close to your body.
i think this foto is fantastic.the amount of volume and prestivious attitude towars the lense is amazing!
Greate tips guys...go on...
I have a basic digicam, sony cybershot 5 Megapixel, would like to hear anything about portriat photography feature of this cam.
John--> Leaning your elbows on something steady is the best way but if that is not an option then try to get down on one knee and leaning one elbow on the other knee. I've managed to get some decent exposures this way. Bear in mind though that a tripod really makes ALL the difference. As soon as the lighting is bad or if you are zooming in on something in the distance there is no technique that will match a tripod.
To John,
I have a Sony DSCH2 with 12x zoom, I had problems holding the camera steady - not helped by my arthritis. The solution was to use a miniature tripod with the legs folded, which then became a handle for me to both hold and stabilise the camera, it works a treat !
bob wiseman.
This site helped me a lot just by reading the answers of others!! Great job I Love it.
To John.
There are techniques, but none have really helped me, now I'm not a professional by any means. I have a small camera, so its operable with one hand, i find i can steady the shot holding the wrist. However this can still be somewhat awkward. Also leaning on something (if there is the option to) this can help greatly and as long as your comfortable, this method is almost guaranteed to work, but there is not always something to lean on something because of where the shot takes place. You should try holding your wrist and see how it helps first, if you find that you can steady yourself enough to take clear pictures, then it may seem pointless to try other methods that may be difficult etc.
Hope this helps.
Been looking @ at number of photo sites lately. Yours is def' the best. Cheers.
Great tips, many thanks.
sorry if this is a bit off topic but does anyone know of any good tips on how to hold a camera steadily to avoid any camera shake when not using a tripod.
thanks again.
simple explanation yet very basic and useful. nice way to explain these things.. :)
My Canon Digital Rebel XT also has a setting called A-dep. Can someone explaing that, I think it has something to do with what we're talking about.
Great articles. I'm still rethinking the leaf taped to the window idea and am eager to try it. I started photography with the Nikon Nikormatic and then the F2 almost 40 years ago, but these type of tips knock my socks off..Thanks
I have and love the Canon 50mm f/1.8. Everyone suggests it to me all of the time.
I relly like your letter's they are very usrfull indeed
thank you. I look forward to reading them every week.
i meant by zoom lens, a lens with focal length over 100 mm.
designosaur, but have we not been taught that a zoom lens makes the background blurred when used with a large aperture and the camera to subject distance is kept as short as possible? pls enlighten me?
It may be true that a telephoto lens will compress the apparent distance between images. This effect isn't as apparent if the focused image is close and the background far away because the limited depth of field/focus will make the background softer. My 12x zoom handles this nicely for tightly cropped head shots. You may have trouble trying to achieve this effect with the 3x zooms found on the most basic of digital cameras.
Good post... I'll second the recommendation for the Canon 50mm. It's amazing what an improvement it is over the kit lens. I took two sets of pictures in the same room with both the kit lens and the 50mm, and all the pictures with the 50mm had much better exposure, were sharper, and generally had the subject more in focus than the background.
Very simply explained, easily understood. Thank you so much :-)
Very useful tips simply explained in relation to SDOF. All tips are welcome ; this one is very good
Some of us appreciate the detail. I'm learning from the ground up, and the more detail the better; it helps me learn not only what to do, but *why* - and knowing the 'why' makes it easier to understand, and thus easier to remember when I'm out in the field and don't have a computer handy to reread the blog ;)
Great entry, but seems like a lot of info for a very simple concept. :-)
Depth of field is controlled by 2 things: aperture (F stop) and focal length. Shallow DoF (blurry backgrounds) = low F stop, long focal length (telephoto). Deep DoF = high F stop, short focal length (wide angle).
Also, using a telephoto lens (anything above 50mm) won't push the background away--it'll bring it closer. Telephoto lenses compress the depth of the image; wide angle lenses expand the depth of the image.


text:
Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker
FLDG Dishwasher
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Achieving Wine Immortality
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Portland, OR
Wild and Crazy Guy
Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:20 pm
Chapel Hill, NC
Hoke wrote:And another one bites the dust.
Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:55 pm
Compassionate Connoisseur
Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:32 pm
Dobbs Ferry, NY (NYC metro)
Jenise wrote: acquire fellow grocery chain Harris Teeter for $2.5 billion. Harris Teeter—which operates 212 stores across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.—had revenues of $4.5 billion last year]
FLDG Dishwasher
Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:45 pm
The Pacific Northest Westest
Dale Williams wrote: I understand that there are "strategic" reasons behind such decisions,but as some stores will be in same markets, I would guess that at least in short term those revenues would fall (if a small city or area has a HT, a Kroger, a Publix and a Walmart, and the HT closes, not all the shoppers will go to Kroger).
Wine guru
Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:36 pm
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Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:55 pm
Wine guru
Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:36 pm
Way Down South In Indiana, USA
Karen/NoCA wrote:There is no excuse for a dirty store, and the other issues you mentioned. Who manages this store, anyway? Or maybe I should ask if it is locally owned and by whom? In our area we have a few small stores our local police call stop and robs, and they are as you describe and are owned by a certain ethnic population. I avoid them.
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Praise for
For anybody who wants to understand the growing public role of American religion, this is a book to reckon with.
—The New York Times Book Review
—The Nation
Important in assessing a fanaticism on the intellectual right.
An engaging and invaluably informative account of the roots of theoconservatism.
THE THEOCONS is a beautifully researched book on a vitally important yet underappreciated development in our governance and intellectual life.
—Steven Pinker, Harvard University
The fact that a former editor of the religious right journal FIRST THINGS has taken pen in hand to detail the movement's attempts to fashion what he sees as a theocratic governing philosophy for the United States gives THE THEOCONS a particular urgency. As Damon Linker further argues, too much of this has been ignored by the mainstream media.
—Kevin Phillips, author of
American Theocracy
THE THEOCONS is invaluable as firsthand research, alarming in its implications for the future of American freedom, and devastating as a critique of the theocratic ambitions of those who now control the Republican Party.
—Andrew Sullivan
One of the most necessary and admirable polemics I have ever read. Linker handles ideas, and their collision with politics, with uncommon skill.
—Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic
THE THEOCONS constitutes a major step toward reclaiming the liberal heritage that has made America great.
—Alan Wolfe, author of
The Future of Liberalism
This is a surprising and important book. With the rise of the religious right and its newfound influence in Washington, most attention has focused on evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants. But, as Damon Linker shows, the influential intellectual strategy for reshaping American society along theological lines has been mainly developed by Catholic conservatives. Sharply but with care, Linker lays bare the development of this strategy and the challenge it poses to a liberal understanding of our constitutional and social order. THE THEOCONS is required reading for anyone interested in the American political scene today.
—Mark Lilla, author of The Stillborn God
What a story Damon Linker has to tell in THE THEOCONS. His insights into the attack on America's secular politics come from a former insider and they are scary.
—Isaac Kramnick, Cornell University
Linker's literate, reasonable chronicle and assessment of the theocons . . . is one of the most enlightening critiques of the Religious Right to date.
—Ray Olson, Booklist
A former editor of the principal 'theocon' journal First Things, now an apostate, warns that the religious zealotry of his one-time colleagues is a danger to American democracy. [Linker] takes us through the theocons's involvement in (and reaction to) some current social issues and events -- the Terri Schiavo case, stem-cell research, the Darwin debate, gay marriage and their central concern: abortion. [T]he theocons . . . envision a sort of fantasy '50s world in which men are in charge, women stay at home, gays go to therapy, everyone attends church on Sunday and Christian principles pervade the marketplace and the corridors of power.
—Kirkus Reviews
arresting and honest writers of his generation
on the subjects of faith and politics.
—Andrew Sullivan


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Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes
American Idol The Hollywood rounds continue with group and solo performances. 8 p.m. Fox
Melissa & Joey Mel (Melissa Joan Hart) invites Joe (Joey Lawrence) to a work dinner, but regrets it when he shares their opinions on various issues with the media, resulting in bad press in this new episode. 8 p.m. ABC Family
Nova Billed as a mystery to rival the construction of the pyramids, this new episode ponders how the Duomo — the enormous dome atop Florence's Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence, Italy — was built. 9 p.m. KOCE
Super Fun Night Work gets in the way of Kimmie's (Rebel Wilson) Valentine's Day celebration with her new boyfriend, James (Nate Torrence), in this new episode. 9:30 p.m. ABC
Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond In Part 3 of this four-part miniseries, Fleming is asked to write a blueprint for the CIA. 10 p.m. BBC America
Men at Work A book publisher (Jane Seymour) takes an interest in Milo (Danny Masterson) — but not for his writing. With Ed Asner, David Krumholtz, Michael Cassidy, James Lesure. 10 p.m. TBS
Bravo's Top Ten Dinners From Hell Highlights (or lowlights) from unscripted series are featured in this new special. 8 p.m. Bravo
CBS This Morning Mary Anne Potts, National Geographic Adventure; Bill Murray. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS
Today Shani Davis; the 138th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC
Good Morning America Karina Smirnoff. (N) 7 a.m. KABC
Good Day L.A. Lupita Nyong'o; Brigid Coulter; Greg Kinnear ("Rake"); Charlie Wilson; Kevin Costner ("3 Days to Kill"). (N) 7 a.m. KTTV
Rachael Ray Clinton Kelly. (N) 8 a.m. KCAL
Live With Kelly and Michael Alan Cumming (Broadway's "Cabaret"); Carly Rae Jepsen. (N) 9 a.m. KABC
The View Guest co-host Josh Elliott; Mariah Carey; a performance from "Cirque du Soleil: The Beatles Love." (N) 10 a.m. KABC
The Talk Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson; Lisa Ingrassia. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS
The Ellen DeGeneres Show Eva Mendes; Chris Paul; monster-truck driver Rosalee Ramer. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC
The Dr. Oz Show Myths that stop one from losing weight; extreme cases of cosmetic surgery; heart disease. (N) 2 p.m. KABC
Dr. Phil A woman says her ex enables their 23-year-old daughter's addiction by giving her money to use for drugs. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS
Katie The mother of Avonte Oquendo, a 14-year-old autistic boy who went missing; Randy Fenoli. (N) 3 p.m. KABC
The Doctors Food fixes; a woman says dietary changes helped cure her chronic bowel disease; parenting. (N) 5 p.m. KCAL
Between the Lines 9 p.m. KLCS
The Arsenio Hall Show T.I.; Rocsi Diaz; Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson perform. (N) 11 p.m. KTLA
Tavis Smiley David Hyde Pierce. (N) 11 p.m. KOCE
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Joel Kinnaman. (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central
Chelsea Lately Alison Brie. (N) 11 p.m. E!
Conan Singer-songwriter Jhene Aiko. (N) 11 p.m. TBS
Charlie Rose (N) 11:30 p.m. KOCE , 11:30 p.m. KVCR
The Colbert Report Director Godfrey Reggio. (N) 11:30 p.m. Comedy Central
Late Show With David Letterman Andy Samberg; Michael B. Jordan; Ellie Goulding performs. 11:35 p.m. KCBS
Jimmy Kimmel Live Nathan Fillion; Abbie Cornish; Naughty Boy and Sam Smith. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC
The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Kurt Russell; Aimee Garcia. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS
Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC


text:
GETRPCENT(3) BSD Programmer's Manual GETRPCENT(3)
getrpcent, getrpcbyname, getrpcbynumber, endrpcent, setrpcent - get RPC entry
#include <rpc/rpc.h> struct rpcent * getrpcent(void); struct rpcent * getrpcbyname(char *name); struct rpcent * getrpcbynumber(int number); void setrpcent(int stayopen); void endrpcent(void);
getrpcent(), getrpcbyname(), and getrpcbynumber(), each return a pointer to an object with the following structure containing the broken-out fields of a line in the rpc program number database, /etc/rpc: struct rpcent { char *r_name; /* name of server for this rpc program */ char **r_aliases; /* alias list */ int r_number; /* rpc program number */ }; The members of this structure are: r_name The name of the server for this rpc program. r_aliases A zero terminated list of alternate names for the rpc program. r_number The rpc program number for this service. getrpcent() reads the next line of the file, opening the file if neces- sary. setrpcent() opens and rewinds the file. If the stayopen flag is non-zero, the net database will not be closed after each call to getrpcent() (ei- ther directly, or indirectly through one of the other "getrpc" calls). endrpcent() closes the file. getrpcbyname() and getrpcbynumber() sequentially search from the begin- ning of the file until a matching rpc program name or program number is found, or until end-of-file is encountered.
A NULL pointer is returned on EOF or error.
rpc(5), rpcinfo(8), ypserv(8)
All information is contained in a static area so it must be copied if it is to be saved. MirOS BSD #10-current December 14, 1987 1
Generated on 2017-04-03 16:26:17 by $MirOS: src/scripts/roff2htm,v 1.88 2017/01/29 00:51:06 tg Exp $
These manual pages and other documentation are copyrighted by their respective writers;
their source is available at our CVSweb,
AnonCVS, and other mirrors. The rest is Copyright © 2002–2017 The MirOS Project, Germany.
This product includes material provided by mirabilos.
This manual page's HTML representation is supposed to be valid XHTML/1.1; if not, please send a bug report — diffs preferred.


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#32 wrote:migya wrote:Dun and Murphy are weak at their current position! Dun will have to outquick his opponent and shoot well from the outside to have a chance of being an asset. Murphy will have to shoot well and try his best to outwork his opponents for him to be an asset
Great. If Dunleavy shoots around 35%, he'll be above most 4's from the arc.
And Murphy's always been one of the Warriors hardest workers.
This sounds like a great idea.
Well ofcourse it does Broe...... I mean #32
But if we want to win, let's put them on the bench!


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The top Senate negotiators on the effort to prevent the government from going over the "fiscal cliff" offered a pessimistic assessment Sunday, barely 24 hours before a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every American worker. But negotiations continued, with Vice President Joe Biden taking on a new role.
With the two sides differing on the income threshold for higher tax rates and how to deal with inheritance taxes, among other issues, talks between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to have broken down. A McConnell spokesman said the Kentucky Republican reached out to Biden, a longtime friend, in hopes of breaking the impasse.
Republicans withdrew a long-discussed proposal to slow future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as part of a compromise to avoid the cliff. Democrats said that proposal had put a damper on the talks, and Republican senators emerging from a closed-door GOP meeting said it is no longer part of the equation.
Aides said the two sides remained at odds over the income threshold for higher tax rates, tax levels on large estates and whether Democratic demands for new money to prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors and renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed should be financed with cuts elsewhere in the budget. The aides demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
At stake are sweeping tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the turn of the year. Taken together, they've been dubbed the fiscal cliff, and economists warn the one-two punch – which leaders in both parties have said they want to avoid – could send the still-fragile economy back into recession.
Reid said he's been in frequent contact with President Barack Obama, who in a televised interview blamed Republicans for putting the nation's shaky economy at risk.
"We have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over," Obama said in the interview that was taped Saturday and aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."
"The mood is discouraged," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats. He said he would be shocked if there was a deal Sunday. "The parties are much further apart than I hoped they'd be by now."
The pessimistic turn came as the House and Senate returned to the Capitol for a rare Sunday session. Reid and McConnell had hoped to have a blueprint to present to their rank and file by mid-afternoon.
"I'm concerned with the lack of urgency here. There's far too much at stake," McConnell said. "There is no single issue that remains an impossible sticking point – the sticking point appears to be a willingness, an interest or courage to close the deal."
Reid said he is not "overly optimistic but I am cautiously optimistic," but reiterated that any agreement would not include the less generous inflation adjustment for Social Security.
"We're willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced, comprehensive agreement, but we'll not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement," Reid said.
McConnell and Reid were hoping for a deal that would prevent higher taxes for most Americans while letting rates rise at higher income levels, although the precise point at which that would occur was a major sticking point.
Obama had wanted to raise the tax rate on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. In talks with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, he offered to raise that threshold to $400,000.
The estate tax issue was particularly tricky since several Democrats, including veterans like Max Baucus of Montana, disagree with Obama's proposal to increase the top estate tax rate from 35 percent to 45 percent.
Republicans said Democrats pressed to turn off more than $200 billion in the across-the-board spending cuts over the coming two years. This so-called sequester is the punishment for last year's deficit "supercommittee" to strike a deal.
Hopes for blocking across-the-board spending cuts were fading and Obama's proposal to renew the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut wasn't even part of the discussion.
Obama pressed lawmakers to start where both sides say they agree – sparing middle-class families from looming tax hikes.
"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff. It avoids the worst outcomes. And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy, create jobs," Obama said in the NBC interview.
Gone is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart on a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.
Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.
Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.
"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.
Boehner disagreed, saying Sunday that the president had been unwilling to agree to anything "that would require him to stand up to his own party."
The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.
But the deal in the works Sunday was not meant to settle other outstanding issues, including more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government agencies. The deal also would not address an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.
That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.
Meanwhile, a senior defense official said if the sequester were triggered, the Pentagon would soon begin notifying its 800,000 civilian employees that they should expect some furloughs – mandatory unpaid leave, not layoffs. It would then take some time for the furloughs to begin being implemented, said the official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the internal preparations.
Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar matters. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.
« Obama says Immediate Action needed on Fiscal Cliff Hillary Clinton hospitalized with Blood Clot »


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Arizona returning to gold rush roots with bill making gold legal tender
Arizona is returning to its gold rush roots with a bill that would make precious metals legal currency.
The GOP-led Senate gave final approval Tuesday to the bill that could make Arizona the second state in the nation to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. If signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer, the measure would take effect in 2014.
The state Department of Revenue opposed the measure. It passed in the House only after an amendment was added to exempt the department from having to accept gold or silver as tax payments.
The measure reflects a growing distrust of government-backed money amid the declining value of the dollar, according to proponents. Republican Rep. David Livingston of Peoria, a financial adviser who ushered the legislation through the House, said his clients were eager to tap into their gold and silver reserves.
But Democrats, who voted against the measure in the Senate and House, said it sends a false message to constituents that gold and silver are safer than traditional currency.
"This is too extreme," Democratic Sen. Steve Gallardo of Phoenix said. "We don't need it."
Democratic Sen. Steve Farley of Tucson said the measure is unnecessary and would create long lines at businesses as store clerks inspect and weigh the gold and silver. The measure would allow the use of precious metals as money only when businesses agree to take them.
"Businesses are not clamoring for this, to say the least," Farley said. "This is basically growing the size and scope of government to create an entirely new currency system."
Farley noted that the price of gold saw a significant drop in early April, its biggest one-day plunge since 1983. He said allowing gold and silver as legal payment at grocery stores and other businesses would prove too unpredictable.
"Anybody who thinks gold or silver is a safe place to put your money had better think again," he said.
The Senate had previously passed Senate Bill 1439, but it was sent back for final approval after the House amendment passed.
Utah became the first state to allow gold or silver payments in 2011. Lawmakers in Minnesota, North Carolina, Idaho, South Carolina, Colorado and other states have debated copycat laws in recent years. The Maine Senate and House recently rejected a similar measure.
Gold-backed money fell out of favor during World War I because the U.S. and many other countries needed to print more cash to pay for the war. President Richard Nixon formally abandoned the gold standard in 1971.


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Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies need to effectively sense demand and quickly bring to bear new products through fast, effective innovation. Products need to reach the physical and digital shelves at the right time and place. Furthermore, today's consumers are hungry for customized, connected, cross-channel experiences—and they expect you to deliver them.
We help CPG companies bridge the gap between analytics aspiration and analytics ability through Accenture Perfect CPG Analytics, a set of end-to-end services that is designed to equip clients with information to drive growth. Our analytics-as-a-service model gives you access to a broad range of talent on demand so you can quickly align resource needs with business priorities—all at a fraction of the cost of the traditional model.


text:
I get a few dozen emails a week from fans and newbie writers, and I find myself answering the same questions time and again. Which means more than one person is interested in the answers.
In case any of my blog readers are interested, I'll repeat some of the most asked questions and answers.
Q: When is the next Jack Daniels book coming out?
A: I'm flattered that Jack has so many fans. The sixth Jack book, CHERRY BOMB, came out in hardcover in July, and the paperback version will come out next June. I'm working on a 7th Jack book called SHAKEN, but I'm buried with other projects and have put it on hold.
SHAKEN is not under contract. Hyperion, the publisher of the other six, dropped their mystery line, me included. But I do plan to complete SHAKEN sometime in 2010, and will either search for a new publisher, or release it as an ebook. If you'd like to read the first few chapters of SHAKEN, they're in my ebook collection PLANTER'S PUNCH.
Q: Will you do a sequel to THE LIST? Will you do a sequel to ORIGIN?
A: Again, I'm flattered people are enjoying my early technothrillers, which are available for free on my website as ebooks, and elsewhere for cheap wherever ebooks are sold. THE LIST in particular seems to have struck a chord with people, and it has sold over 10,000 copies on Kindle alone.
Those who have read these ebooks know they've never been traditionally published. These were the books that helped me land my agent, but they never sold.
It seems pretty silly to write a sequel to books that never sold, and yet I do have an idea that would serve as a sequel for both THE LIST and ORIGIN. It's called THE NINE, and would feature characters from both novels. I don't know when I'll have time to work on this, but I do plan on writing and releasing it within the next year or two.
Q: What's the status of TRAPPED?
A: TRAPPED is a semi-sequel to AFRAID, written by my pen name, Jack Kilborn. There's an excerpt from TRAPPED in the back of the AFRAID paperback. I wrote two versions of TRAPPED this year, and my publisher didn't like either of them, so they passed on it.
TRAPPED is a very intense, gritty, and horrifying book, so I can't say that I really blame them. But TRAPPED will come out, eventually. I just don't know when. In the meantime, Jack Kilborn is almost finished with another horror novel called ENDURANCE which is pretty nasty, and is on track to be released in 2010.
Q: Who is Joe Kimball?
A: I'm Joe Kimball. That's my pen name for a science fiction series I'm doing for Ace. The first book, TIMECASTER, is sort of a Buck Rogers type of novel, with lots of sex and violence and even Harry McGlade. (The hero of TIMECASTER is Jack Daniels's grandson.) It will come out in 2010, with a sequel to follow.
Q: Should I forsake finding an agent and a print deal and release my book as an ebook?
A: I get asked this a lot. I've done pretty well with ebooks, and my sales aren't slowing down. But I also have a known name (two known names if you count Kilborn) and this is no doubt helping my ebook sales. So while I'm able to pay my mortgage with my Kindle profits, I don't know of many other ebook writers who can say the same.
Right now, the best way to pursue a writing career is to find a good literary agent and sell the book to a well-respected print publisher. In other words: DON'T DO IT ON YOUR OWN.
Are there exceptions? Of course. Before you pursue a writing career, you need to clearly define your goals, and decide what you want in order to be happy. If you want your book in stores, you need to go the traditional route.
If you've already gone the traditional route, and gotten rejected, I think ebooks are something you can try ALONG WITH continuing your agent/publisher search, not instead of.
Then again, if your goal is to simply have your book available, and to maybe make a few bucks, then visit Smashwords.com. You can upload your ebooks for free, set your own price, and they'll upload them to Amazon, B&N, and Sony. I recommend keeping your price under $2.
Q: How can I make my ebook available for free on Kindle like you did with SERIAL?
A: Go to Smashwords.com and upload your book, setting the price as free. It will be uploaded to Amazon for free. You can also go to Mobipocket, upload your book there, and charge 1 cent, and it will appear on Amazon for a penny.
Q: Will there be any movies based on any of your books?
A: My novel AFRAID is currently under option with Principle Entertainment. The directors attached are the Dowdle brothers, who made a kick ass horror movie called QUARANTINE and another kick ass horror movie called THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (which is a lot like WHISKEY SOUR, where a serial killer makes snuff films.) It's a good match and things are moving forward.
Options for my other books are currently available. Contact my agent, Jane Dystel, if you'd like to make an offer.
Q: I read you sent 7000 letters to libraries, signed at 600 bookstores in one summer, toured 100 blogs in a month, and got over 500 rejections before you sold your first book. Those numbers are insane. How am I supposed to do that?
A: You don't have to. You should never compare yourself to any other writer. We all have our own paths to follow, and we all decide what we can and can't do.
Q: I'm a new writer. Will you critique my story?
A: I'd love to. But I can't. I'm ridiculously busy these days. My advice is to join a writing group. Every big library, bookstore, and college has them.
Q: Why haven't you replied to my email?
A: If you've emailed me and I haven't responded, I am still having email issues. Since I have 10,000 people on my newsletter mailing list, certain spam bots have marked my IP as a spamming address. Which means there are some ISPs that don't get the emails I send them. It's annoying, and there's nothing I can do about it until I buy another computer and get a new IP. But I do still love you. I promise. :)
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
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text:
Min lived in many countries in her life: England, the Philippines, Cuba, Texas (yes, Texas thinks of itself as a separate country), gathering experiences for her writing along the way. She earned Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees from Texas Tech University and The University of Texas at Austin in Anthropology/Archaeology with minors in Art, Geology, and Geography, but spent her early career as an Archaeological Illustrator of some renown.
Min's journey continues today in Downeast Maine, Pheasant Cove Farm, surrounded by woods and the sea. Every day she writes and dreams in the office of her 178 year old house, the sounds of creaking beams and wind whistling through the cracks her sound track. She published her first two novels, Stone Bay and Stone Cold, in 2014. She hopes to begin 2015 with more in the Stone Bay Series of Contemporary Romances.
You can follow Min and her books on her Amazon page Here or visit her website at www.minedwards.com


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NHL Competition Committee recommends changesby Dan Rosen
NEW YORK -- The NHL Competition Committee met for five hours Monday and agreed to make several recommendations for changes to the NHL Board of Governors and the Executive Board of the National Hockey League Players' Association.
The Board of Governors meets June 26 in New York. The Executive Board meets July 16-19 in Pebble Beach, California.
The recommendations include changes to the rules for overtime, faceoffs after icings, amendments to the separation of the hash marks outside faceoff circles and increasing the size of the trapezoid behind the net.
If the recommendations pass the Board of Governors and Executive Board, the changes would go into effect next season. However, the five players and five executives who comprise the Competition Committee did not make a recommendation to expand video review to include goals scored off plays that potentially involve interference with the goaltender.
The players represented on the Competition Committee are Mike Cammalleri (Calgary Flames), Daniel Winnik (Anaheim Ducks), Kevin Shattenkirk (St. Louis Blues), Ron Hainsey (Carolina Hurricanes) and Cory Schneider (New Jersey Devils). The executives on the Competition Committee are Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider and general managers Don Maloney (Phoenix Coyotes), David Poile (Nashville Predators), Ken Holland (Detroit Red Wings) and Peter Chiarelli (Boston Bruins).
NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell and NHLPA Special Assistant to the Executive Director Mathieu Schneider are non-voting members of the Competition Committee.
The worry among the group in the meeting is expanding video review in any manner could do more harm than good because of the accompanying expectation of getting the call "right" on what, by its very nature, is a subjective call.
"I think [NHL Commissioner] Gary [Bettman] said it best in the meeting when he said, 'Once we go to video review there's an expectation that we're going to get these calls right all the time,'" Schneider said. "You can have two reasonable people sitting in a room watching the same video and have two very different opinions on that video. It becomes, like Gary said, very complex. The feeling is right now we're not at the point where we could get a meaningful video review that would have a 100 percent outcome."
Campbell said the topic of video review on potential goalie interference plays will be discussed again by the general managers during their meeting in New York on Wednesday. He also said they will further discuss other forms of video review to potentially include a coach's challenge.
If there is still no consensus on video review for goalie interference plays, Campbell said the League will provide more education in the form of video examples to the players, officials, media and fans about what is and what isn't goalie interference before next season. Campbell and Schneider said education about the rule will be paramount in the future.
"I know we're in agreement as to what the rule is in the book and how we view it, but I think the education process is what's going to be most important for the officials, for the players," Schneider said. "The education process is going to be key, and to have certain telltale signs. When you used to hear Brendan [Shanahan] talk in his video explanations — telltale signs of what was a legal or an illegal hit -- I think we need to do that same thing for goaltender interference."
As an example for the debate, Schneider said the room was divided when it discussed Los Angeles Kings forward Dwight King's goal in the third period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
King's goal was allowed to stand by referee Dan O'Halloran despite complaints from New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist that he was interfered with on the play and was not allowed the proper room in his crease to make a save.
With no element of video review allowable, O'Halloran's call on the ice stood.
"We've talked in our [situation] room in Toronto many nights and we'll debate it ourselves, [and] we'll disagree," Campbell said. "No, the defenseman didn't push him in. Yes, the defenseman did push him in. No, the puck wasn't past him. Yes, the puck was past him. No, the goalie's embellishing. No, this goalie plays deep in his crease, the player can come in there, there's some blue paint available."
The Committee, working off recommendations made to it by the NHL general managers, is recommending that overtime rules be changed to require teams to change ends after regulation in order to foster the long-change element which exists in the second period.
In the second period, teams have to defend the goal furthest from their bench. Historically, there have been more goals scored in the second period of games because of defensive breakdowns and difficulty getting tired players off the ice because of the distance they need to travel to make a line change on the fly.
In addition, the Competition Committee is recommending the arena ice crew dry scrape the ice before overtime. The goal is to give the players clean ice to play on during the five-minute overtime session. Currently the ice crew does a dry scrape before a shootout.
"The theory is to increase goal scoring within regulation or 4-on-4 -- trying to not allow teams to play to get to the shootout is the goal here," Schneider said. "We're trying to end more games 5-on-5 or 4-on-4 in overtime."
The Competition Committee is recommending the hash marks on the outside of the in-zone faceoff circles be extended from 3 1/2 feet to five feet apart, which is the dimensions used by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
"There's a feeling that this will create more offense, that forwards on a won draw in the offensive zone will have more time to make plays, more room to make plays," Schneider said. "On the flip side, it's going to reduce the amount of scrums that we have on faceoffs by separating those players a little more."
In addition, the committee is recommending that only one player is eligible to take a faceoff after an icing. He would be allowed one faceoff violation, but a second violation would result in a two-minute bench minor penalty for delay of game (Rule 76.6).
"What you're seeing now is a trend that's emerged that on the icing faceoffs, a winger will go right in there and crash right through to get the extra 10 seconds rest and then the center iceman will go in [to take the faceoff]," Campbell said. "The two-minute penalty is now in the books, but we are stressing that penalty should be called more often."
The trapezoid, which is now 18 feet along the goal line, would be increased to 22 feet along the goal line if the recommendation from the Competition Committee passes.
Schneider said the dimensions of the trapezoid along the end boards (28 feet) would remain the same, but adding two feet to each side of the net will give the goaltenders more room to play the puck.
"It will allow the goalies a little more room to go out and give their defensemen some help," Schneider said.
Campbell also stressed that the NHL will start issuing more warnings and fines to players guilty of embellishment. He said punishments could extend to coaches and the organization as well.
"We feel embellishment in the game is a real problem today," Campbell said. "We understand players are trying to draw penalties. We feel it's out of control."


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Interesting link
Speaking of deserted buildings, ghost towns, and the like, Keely's friend Taurus sent me an interesting link a couple of weeks ago.
20 Abandoned Cities from Around the World: Deserted Towns and Other Derelict Places
The article has interesting photographs and a short summary of each city's history. These places were abandoned, despite having many more residents than Duff, Nebraska, (or Rose, Nebraska, an empty set of buildings near Duff) ever did.
Unrelated Notes
1. Please check out the Hangman game at the bottom of this page and post a comment if it doesn't work for you or if it looks strange in any way. To begin playing, just type a letter into the box.
2. We have a lot going on at our house right now. The main bathroom is all torn out and we're showering at the Y. All in all, the disruption is absorbing a lot of my free time. Things will be back to normal in a couple of weeks, whereupon Prairie Bluestem will resume its normal pace.


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Professional Awards
Professional Awards
Each year, the Association for Library Service to Children recognizes the contribution of its members and member libraries through a series of professional awards and grants. Every year, more than $82,000 is given away through ALSC's professional awards and grants, and scholarships.
Each year the ALSC office receives almost 3,000 newly published books, videos, audiobooks and recordings from children's trade publishers for award and notables consideration. At the end of the year, after the awards have been given out, ALSC selects three libraries to receive a Bookapalooza collection of these materials (estimated to be worth $10,000 each) to be used in a way that creatively enhances their library service to children and families.
Louise Seamen Bechtel Fellowship
This fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend to allow a qualified children's librarian to spend a month or more reading at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, which contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children's literature published mostly before 1950.
ALSC/BWI Summer Reading Grant
This $3,000 grant provides financial assistance to a public library for developing outstanding summer reading programs for children.
ALSC Distinguished Service Award
This award honors an individual member who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library services to children and ALSC. The recipient receives $1,000 and an engraved pin at the ALSC Membership Meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.
The Penguin Young Readers Group Award
This award provides a $600 stipend, provided by Penguin Young Reader's Group, for winners to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Applicants must have less than 10 years of experience as a children's librarian and work directly with children.
The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award
This $4,000 award was established with funding from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, in honor of Maureen Hayes, to bring together children and nationally recognized authors/illustrators by funding an author/illustrator visit to a library.
For more information visit the ALSC Web site.


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I was shocked when I learned that not just one, but four of my great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland during or right around the years of the Great Famine, suffering through their childhoods with what must have been constant hunger pains. It is a miracle that they survived and that I am here today. Perhaps the most amazing survival story of the four belongs to my great-great-grandfather Frank McCue, who was born in the month of February during Black '47 itself and survived infancy during that deathly year.
Frank made it through childhood and eventually out of Ireland, immigrating to the United States and becoming a citizen in 1876. He married Catherine Rogers and worked as a teamster in Boston, Massachusetts to support he and Catherine's six children: Rose, James, Frank, Thomas, Catherine and George (born between 1871 and 1885). The family lived in Boston's South End in various homes within the old "New York Streets" neighborhood.
|"New York Streets" neighborhood map courtesy of Mark of the And This is Good Old Boston blog
Sadly, Frank died on October 15, 1899 at the age of 52 after suffering from Pulmonary Tuberculosis for four months. Today is the 114th anniversary of his death. He is buried alongside family members (including his wife Catherine) in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts.
This tribute to the life of Frank McCue has been posted in honor of the anniversary of his death and also as a contribution to Tombstone Tuesday. For more information about Frank, stop by his Find A Grave memorial page. For more of my family members' (and others') tombstones, visit the "Laid to Rest" board on my Pinterest page.


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Big South Tournament PreviewPosted by rtmsf on March 2nd, 2010
Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.
- Coastal Carolina 15-3 / 26-5
- Radford 13-5 / 18-11
- Winthrop 12-6 / 16-13
- UNC Asheville 11-7 / 14-15
- High Point 10-8 / 15-14
- Liberty 10-8 / 15-15
- Charleston Southern 7-11/ 13-16
- Gardner-Webb 5-13/ 8-21
- Presbyterian College 2-16/ 5-26
Top Storylines
Tournament Time. The Big South races resolved themselves, the seeds have been set, and it's time for the second season. At the top, Coastal Carolina held its lead and held off all comers to win the regular season title with a remarkable 15-3 and 26-5 record. Preseason favorite Radford defeated Winthrop in the season's last game to settle the issue of seeds number two and three, while Asheville narrowly edged out High Point and Liberty for the right to be the final home team in the tournament's first round. At the other end of the line, VMI had the tiebreaker edge over GWU for the eighth and final tourney position.
Award Winners. The Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the Big South were each well-deserved repeats of the previous season: Art Parakhouski of Radford and Mantoris Robinson of Winthrop, respectively. Coach of the Year went to Cliff Ellis of Coastal, naturally, for his remarkable season with the Chanticleers. Jeremy Sexton of CSU took the Freshman of the Year honor, while Phillip Martin of Radford earned the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
Big South All-Conference. The First-Team All-Conference list matched four of the six (due to a tie for fifth) named in the preseason:
- C Art Parakhouski-RU
- F Joseph Harris-CCU
- G Nick Barbour-HPU
- G Jamarco Warren of CSU.
The new name to the squad was Harris' Coastal teammate, F Chad Gray. Of that lineup, Parakhouski and Harris are seniors, Gray and Warren are juniors, and Barbour is the lone sophomore.
Looking Ahead
The first-round match-ups look like this:


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And What I Think About It...
As we did some sightseeing over the weekend, we found ourselves standing in line near a couple with two cute blonde children. They were speaking another language and a man nearby apparently thought it was German.
He asked the little girl, "Sprechen sie Deutsch?" Her father answered in English, rather cooly, "She speaks Estonian."
The lesson to this little story is that if you must know what language people are speaking, it would be better to ask forthrightly than to guess wrongly.
German lords (the Teutonic Order, their descendents, and other German settlers) were the land-owning class in Estonia for centuries. Estonia finally achieved real independence from the Germans, Swedes, Russians, etc. in 1920, but the nation was taken over by the Russians, then the Germans, and then the Russians again in World War II. Thus, Estonians could definitely have some animosity against Germans.
On the other hand, Germany is allied with Estonia nowadays for defense and as a trading partner, so maybe the bad old days have been forgotten.
Here's the important thing though -- irregardless of past history or current events, no one wants to hear their native tongue called something wrong. Please take my advice and try not to do that to people, OK?
Map of Estonia courtesy of the CIA.


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Alice Cooper Says Dick Wagner Was 'One of a Kind'
Alice Cooper has issued an emotional farewell to his late collaborator Dick Wagner, calling him "irreplaceable." Wagner, who co-wrote 'Welcome to My Nightmare' with Cooper and played guitar on 1972's 'School's Out,' died today (July 30) at 71 from respiratory failure.
"Even though we know it's inevitable, we never expect to suddenly lose close friends and collaborators," Cooper said via Billboard. "Dick Wagner and I shared as many laughs as we did hit records. He was one of a kind. He is irreplaceable. His brand of playing and writing is not seen anymore, and there are very few people that I enjoyed working with as much as I enjoyed working with Dick Wagner. A lot of my radio success in my solo career had to do with my relationship with Dick Wagner. Not just on stage, but in the studio and writing. Some of my biggest singles were ballads what I wrote with Dick Wagner. Most of 'Welcome to My Nightmare' was written with Dick. There was just a magic in the way we wrote together. He was always able to find exactly the right chord to match perfectly with what I was doing. I think that we always think our friends will be around as long as we are, so to hear of Dick's passing comes as a sudden shock and an enormous loss for me, Rock N Roll and to his family."
Wagner struggled with his health for years, having suffered a massive heart attack in 2007, and then lapsing into a weeks-long coma. His latest setback followed heart surgery, which led to a lung infection earlier this month. He died while in intensive care at a Phoenix hospital.
Wagner also co-wrote Cooper's 'Only Women Bleed' and 'I Never Cry,' among others, while performing on albums like 'Goes to Hell,' 'Hey Stoopid' and 2011's 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare,' which included a final collaboration called 'Something to Remember Me By.'


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A Stun Gun Built Right Into Your iPhone Case [VIDEO]
Forget everything you knew about pepper spray, car panic alarms and that police whistle. You can now put 650,000 watts of electricity into a would-be robber and call the cops at the same time. A company by the name of Yellow Jacket has now made a stun gun right into your iPhone case for your protection. Its available in pink, red, blue, green, and grey, and will cost you around $150.00 bucks. It's also a phone charger and protective case. Check out the video to see how it works.
Here is someone actually brave enough to test it out, you can hear his pain.


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Experis is the global leader in professional resourcing and project-based workforce solutions. Our suite of services range from interim and permanent recruitment to managed services and consulting, enabling businesses to achieve their goals. We accelerate organisational growth by attracting, assessing and placing specialised professional talent.
On behalf of our exclusive client, Hilti, voted as one of the 'Best Workplaces in Switzerland 2017', we are looking for an IT Specialist - Product Lifecycle Management in Buchs, St Gallen, Switzerland. Are you looking for a new and exciting challenge within an international environment? Do you want to work for one of the best large companies in Switzerland?
If yes, then please have a look at the details below:
Main responsibilities:
The skills and experience needed for this position are:
The successful applicant will be rewarded with some fantastic benefits including:
And many more, please contact us for more information.
Hilti also supports change through basic and advanced training of its employees and therewith contributes decisively to the development of core skills.
Do you want to know more about Hilti? Please visit: https://www.experis.ch/hilti
If you wish to apply, kindly send us your CV today through the link in the advert. However should you have any questions please contact Angelo Scalia on +41 44 229 99 36.
For an overview of all open IT positions at Hilti, please check out https://www.experis.ch/hilti-vacancies or contact us directly. You also can have a look on my personal page and connect with me on LinkedIn.


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Now that processors and motherboards in server-class PC workstations have become so powerful, they are contending for some of the most demanding real-time embedded applications. But integrating these cost-effective platforms with the open architecture board-level products required for mainstream government and military applications poses significant challenges for system designers. One critical need is for adequate cooling of these power-hungry boards to assure reliable system operation.
Server-class workstations offer the benefits of high-end processing, fast data links, efficient power management, deep and fast memory, low latency, and capable network interfaces -- all in a larger desktop or rack-mount chassis. Powerful CPUs like Intel's multi-core Xeon or Core i7 processors are tightly coupled to advanced chipsets for PCIe expansion slots, multi-channel DDR3 memory, and 1-Gbit Ethernet network connections. These key factors offer specific benefits to real-time applications, where high-rate, continuous, sustained data transfers between system components must be guaranteed.
Driven by the extremely large markets for enterprise computing, Web and file servers, and cloud computing, prices for these systems are extremely competitive, compared to alternative embedded-system architectures like VME, cPCI, and VPX. However, unlike these more traditional chassis, PC servers fail to provide the forced air or conduction cooling facilities necessary to remove the 40 W to 80 W of power typically consumed by boards containing DSPs, FPGAs, and analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, all essential to many real-time embedded systems.
Instead, server motherboards rely on custom heat-sink assemblies often coupled through heat pipes to active-cooling finned radiators to remove heat from the CPU and chipsets. Hot-swap disk drives mounted in front-panel accessible bays are cooled by mid-chassis fans that pull air in from the front. Power supplies contain one or more thermostatically controlled fans to maintain safe operating temperature limits. Two or more rear-panel case fans help to evacuate hot air from inside the chassis.
But the site for expansion card slots in the left rear quadrant of a server chassis has no standard provision for cooling. Furthermore, the rear PC panels of the slot cards act as barriers, blocking air from the mid-chassis fans that might otherwise flow across the card surfaces. Indeed, this region of the server chassis acts as a closed box, trapping heat and causing unsafe temperatures for components on the cards.
Cooling by design
One of the first steps in evaluating any cooling solution is accurate measurement of its effectiveness. Motherboards often include extensive temperature monitoring facilities of the CPU and other critical components as part of the BIOS and system driver software. Disk drives report temperatures through SATA and RAID controller software utilities.
Likewise, embedded board vendors should incorporate several temperature sensors at key locations around the board to ensure that no hot spot is missed. Also, many high-dissipation devices like DSPs and FPGAs include junction temperature sensors as part of the silicon die. Monitoring these chip sensors is essential to ensure sufficient cooling for maintaining junction temperatures within the manufacturer's limits.
As an example, Figure 1 shows the Pentek 71760 quad 200-MHz, 16-bit A/D card with nine temperature sensors, including junction sensors for the Virtex-7 FPGA and the PCIe switch. A software utility reports all nine sensor readings to help score different thermal-management techniques during system integration and testing. After deployment, independently programmable threshold settings allow alarm notification to the system through a PCIe interrupt and a front panel LED if any sensor exceeds a pre-determined temperature. This is extremely valuable as an alert to end users of a fan failure or airflow blockage during operation.
XMC and PMC, both industry-standard mezzanine modules for embedded systems, can be adapted to PC servers by using PCIe adapter cards that bring a module's PCI or PCIe interface down to PCIe edge fingers for the motherboard card slots. In these modules, most of the heat is dissipated on a module's inside surface, facing the adapter card. One effective solution, shown in Figure 2, is to provide a wraparound copper or aluminum structure for the XMC module that pulls heat from the hotter inner components, dissipating it on the outer surface of the module where more airflow is available.


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2008 One-and-Dones – Was It Worth It?Posted by rtmsf on July 1st, 2008
Happy Fiscal New Year, everyone!
Along with the turn of the fiscal calendar, July 1 also represents the turn of the academic calendar. This is particularly appropriate for hoopheads, as the NBA's season has ended and the draft madness that dominated bandwidth for the last two months after the Mario Miracle has died down to a whimper (well, there's always 2009, right?). All there really is to look forward to until October is the Ego Known as Kobe Bryant's attempt to restore American hegemony in the international (read: Olympics) hoops realm. That comes in August.
So now is as good a time as any to take a look back at the 2007-08 season and once again review how the NBA's one-and-done rule worked out for the schools that enabled it. You might recall that we took a look at this last year and concluded: Ohio St., UNC, Texas… good. Georgia Tech, Washington… not so good. We also mentioned that several schools – Stanford, Tennessee, Arizona and Kansas included – were hanging onto players who could have been one-and-dones, but weren't. With the exception of the often comatose Arizona team, the other three as a result had fantastic squads last year.
To start it off, let's refresh ourselves with who the Rivals Top 20 recruits were coming into 2007-08. As you can see below, we added a few columns that outline the player's freshman numbers (pts/rebs/assts or blocks) and his team's record as well as whether he went into the draft or is returning next season.
So was it worth it? Our takes:
Kansas St. – Well Worth It. K-State rode the best.freshman.ever Michael Beasley and sorta-but-not-really one-and-done Bill Walker (he was a medical redshirt in 06-07) as far as it could, which included a third-place finish in the competitive Big 12, a second-round NCAA tournament appearance and the first home win in twenty-four years over its rival and eventual national champion Kansas Jayhawks. In other words, K-State's best season in a generation. The important aspect of Beasley and Walker's one-and-dones for KSU head coach Frank Martin is to capitalize on future recruiting from the good will and national notoriety mustered by these players while on campus. If he does not do so, and it's soon back to the bottom of the Big 12 barrel for K-State, then the potential positive impacts of these stars passing through Manhattan, KS, were missed.
Memphis – Well Worth It. This too is a no-brainer. #1 overall pick Derrick Rose converted a competitive yet incomplete team that would consistently flame out prior to the Final Four against other elite teams into a team that probably should have won the national title. Rose led Memphis to a 38-2 record and had the Tigers in the argument for the most dominant season in the post-Wooden era before its epic free-throw meltdown in the championship game. Even only as a runner-up, a Memphis fan would be hard pressed to find much else wrong with the 07-08 season, and as such, the one-year stopover by Derrick Rose was well worth it.
Memphis Would Take A Rose Every Year (AP photo/Seth Wenig)
UCLA – Worth It. This was a tough one, because UCLA came into the 07-08 season already having been to the last two Final Fours. Anything short of that measure was going to be a disappointment (although Bruin fans might argue anything less than a national title is a disappointment). We'll argue, however, that Kevin Love brought a toughness and star-quality to Westwood that had been lacking on Ben Howland's previous teams. Not to mention that UCLA last season at 35-4 was simply a better team than the ones led by backcourt players (Afflalo and Farmar). More than anything, Love's presence solidifed UCLA again as a marquee destination for top-notch recruits, as Howland has penned five of the Rivals Top 50 in the Class of 2008.
Arizona – Worth It. It's quite possible that Jerryd Bayless last season saved Arizona from breaking its NCAA Tournament streak of 24 consecutive appearances. Arizona certainly didn't have a great year amidst all the Lute Olson divorce and feud with Kevin O'Neill turmoils, but with a final record of 19-15, you have to figure that Bayless' fantastic freshman year was worth a few wins that put the Cats back into the field of 65. But that's about all it was worth. It certainly didn't make Arizona into a contender of any kind, and it's doubtful whether there will be any residual effects from Bayless' time in Tucson.
Indiana – Worth It. Eric Gordon's arrival in Bloomington was worth it if for no other reason than it gave Hoosier fans something to be excited about for approximately three months (Nov-Jan). Now that the wheels have come completely tumbling off of the Indiana program, we have to wonder just how long their fans will covet and remember the halcyon days when IU was 16-1 and ranked #7 in the AP Poll. Of course, E-Giddy was partially responsible for Indiana's subsequent collapse (18.2 ppg on 37.2% FG/25.3% 3FG shooting in the last 13 games (8-5)), but we put most of that on the ultimate dismissal of Kelvin Sanctions whereupon the entire team simply quit playing. So in our view, this one-and-done represents the last great season that Indiana will have for a while. Too bad it couldn't have worked out better for everyone involved.
Gordon Left More than a Bloody Tooth in His Wake (photo credit: Bloomington Herald-Times)
USC – Not Worth It. For a while during the season, it appeared as if the OJ Mayo one-and-done situation might just work out for Tim Floyd and the Trojan Nation. Similar to K-State, USC hadn't seen this much hoops attention in years – with Mayo as the headliner, USC played numerous national television games, beat UCLA at Pauley, and ended up tied for third in the rugged Pac-10. Of course, the wheels came off when USC failed to show up to its hyped battle against K-State in the first round of the NCAAs and the propriety of Mayo's eligibility was called into question by ESPN soon thereafter. Throw in Davon Jefferson (a one-and-done from the Class of 2006 who went to prep school for a year before enrolling at USC) and his foolish decision to enter this year's draft (undrafted) and we're not sure just how successful USC can claim 2007-08 was. After all, the 2006-07 edition of the Trojans, led by Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt, also finished third in the Pac-10 but had a better overall record (23-11) and played into the second weekend of March Madness (giving Carolina all it wanted in the process). Finally, with another uber-recruit, Demar DeRozan, coming to USC next year, Floyd needs to be hyper-vigilant about those nefarious agents and runners in light of the Mayo debacle because more eyes will be watching.
NC State – Not Worth It. Hey, remember all the preseason talk about how NC State was the third best team in the ACC, and a definite NCAA Tournament team? Yeah, we don't either. Actually, we do, and few of the pundits will own up to the fact that it was a terrible prediction. For the record, NC State ended up 15-16, but the Wolfpack were 4-12 in the ACC (worse than the previous year's 5-11 campaign that inspired such foolishness) and lost their last nine games. So what did JJ Hickson's presence in Raleigh bring to the team? Other than team chemistry problems, of course? It doesn't appear that he brought much else than an ability to get himself drafted. NC State will likely be significantly better without him next season.
What Chemistry Problems?
LSU – Not Worth It. While we're in the business of ripping bad teams with one-and-done players, we shouldn't overlook the LSU Tigers. LSU seems to have one of these guys about every other year anyway, so it probably doesn't matter much in terms of long-term effects, but a 13-18 record with a loss at Tulane calls into question the value of Anthony Randolph's tenure on campus in Baton Rouge. Certainly the mail-it-in coaching style of Mr. Misty Champagne didn't help things out much, but even with John Wooden coaching that team, we're not sure how much Randolph could have lifted the Bayou Bengals.
Others. These teams all had one-and-dones of questionable efficacy. Put another way, these teams probably wouldn't have been much better nor worse had these players gone elsewhere. Exhibit A is Texas A&M's DeAndre Jordan. TAMU was a tourney team anyway, led by Joseph Jones and Josh Carter, and it's doubtful that Jordan's four double-figure points games and two double-figure rebounds games in the Big 12 had much of an effect on A&M's successful season. Not Worth It. Syracuse fans may disagree with us here, but despite Donte Greene's exceptional first-year numbers, we find it hard to believe that the Orange would have been any less average than they already were last year (21-14, 9-10 Big East). After all, Jim Boeheim could take five schoolgirls and make them competitive – he just wouldn't win the title with them (unless Carmela Anthony was on the team). The question is whether Syracuse fans are pleased with a third-round NIT appearance, and we all know the answer to that – a resounding no. For a school with multiple F4s and a recent championship banner, missing the NCAAs completely is a failing season, no matter the reasonable expectation. Not Worth It. Finally, we look at Ohio St., who took Kosta Koufos to replace last year's one-and-donest, Greg Oden. The answer here once again comes down to the question of expectation vs. reality of the situation. Without Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook, it wasn't realistic for Thad Matta to make another run at the F4; but the bar has been raised so high at Ohio St. under Matta that a 24-13 season leading to an NIT championship must necessarily be viewed as less-than-stellar. Winning the Capital One Bowl doesn't match the Rose Bowl, does it, Buckeye fans? We'll call this one a Push.
Final Thoughts. With so many freshmen leaving this year from the top 20 Rivals list, we'd guess only Florida with Nick Calathes and Chandler Parsons returning may be a team to really watch closely next year. Otherwise, keep an eye on UCLA, Wake Forest and UConn, each of which has multiple top twenty players coming onto campus next year.