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June 30 Permalink
I don't like the new Capitals jersey. I actually liked the swooping eagle, but would have been satisfied with a recoloring to red, white and blue. The new typography is re-working of the old typeface. It's not a retro restatement or modernization. It just takes the concept of all lower case letters and changing the "t" into a hockey stick and re-presents it. It's pretty weak and doesn't pack much punch at all.
While fan protest fizzles, Pirates dazzle in beating Nationals. This was over pretty early with the Pirates scoring six runs against Bergmann in the seventh.
June 29 Permalink
It's been a couple of weeks since the BrownO's fired Sam Perlozzo in favor of Dave Trembley, at least on a temporary basis. I don't know why Baltimore wanted Joe Girardi, given his history of conflict with Florida owner Jeffrey Loria. Similarly, given that history of conflict, why would Girardi want to get involved with Angelos?
And Trembley has won three minor league Manager of the Year awards along with two minor league titles. That's an impressive resume and he doesn't have a huge salary or ego.
Snell rebounds from poor start as Bucs rally past slumping Nats. Chico blanked the Pirates for six innings, but quickly tied the score on Rivera in the seventh.
Rauch went into the ninth pitching his second inning. He could have recovered from the single to Paulino and Wilson's sacrifice bunt, but the game unraveled with a passed ball. Castillo went in to run for Paulino. After two walks, Bautista drove Castillo home with a sac fly.
June 28 Permalink
Watched the Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Planet". The TARDIS lands on some deep space base complex and the Doctor and Rose encounter squid-headed aliens who repeat,"We must feed, we must feed.." right into the opening credits. When the show returns, we realize the aliens had malfunctioned somehow and wanted to say,"We must feed you if you are hungry."
The aliens are Ood, a low-intelligence, telepathically-linked servant race. Operated by humans, the base is on a planet in synchronous orbit around a black hole. The planet generates a gravity field to balance the pull of the black hole that also generates a funnel through which the expedition traveled to reach there.
The crew want to know what could be generating such power so they are drilling into the planet's core to determine its source. Meanwhile a seismic event has caused the section where the TARDIS had been left to fall into a crevasse.
Archeologist Toby Zed is possessed by whatever spirit is trapped beneath the planet, but sounds an awful lot like Satan in his many incarnations. Maintenance trainee Scooti Manista sees Toby outside on the surface without a spacesuit, his face covered in runes. He gestures towards and the glass breaks, sucking her out and into the black hole.
The drill stops because it has reached the core. Toby reappears dazed and runeless. The Doctor and science officer Ida Scott get into spacesuits to explore what's at the bottom of the drilling shaft. The Ood advance, attacking the humans, possessed by the Satanic spirit. There is circular door in the pit and opens with more shaking as the episode ends.
A belated congratulations to Sunderland for winning the Coca-Cola Football Championship and advancing to the Premier League for next season. They will do their off-season training in Ireland this year, owing to the nationalities of Chairman Niall Quinn and manager Roy Keane.
However, I think that's pretty wimpy place to train in the cool summer. They should toughen themselves up in triple-digit heat, where the humid air is thick as vichyssoise in the American Southeast. Anywhere between Miami and Baltimore will do.
Watched the Bones episode "The Priest in the Churchyard". A water main has broken on the grounds of St. Agatha's Church, causing corpses to empty out of coffins. Although the latest of the bodies was buried fifty years ago, there is a body no older than five years with no corresponding coffin.
Montenegro draws a face from the unidentified and skull and a former altar boy identifies him as Father McCourt who disappeared, with a note saying he was leaving the priesthood. Meanwhile, the lab has been exposed to a rare fungus and everyone must be vaccinated. Hodgins discovers recent damage on the bones and corpses, indicating there was a grave robber looking for gold jewelry, probably the same person who broke the water main with a shovel.
So for suspects, we have Enzo, a parishioner who admits to robbing the graves; James, the altar boy whom Father McCourt may have been molesting; Father Donlan, the old school pastor; and Father Sands, the young wrestling coach, among other duties. But church administrator Lorraine Bergen looked awfully guilty from the beginning. She was an orphan who'd been raised in the parish, fiercely loyal to Father Donlan. She thought Father McCourt was molesting boys so she gave him a heavy dose of poison, along with bashing him in the head with the chalice. Now it appeared to her that Father Sands was threatening Father Donlan's job so she was poisoning him as well.
June 27 Permalink
Candy cigarettes may lead to the real thing:
The slim, pink-tipped sweets made of candy or gum are typically sold in boxes resembling cigarette packs. In the United States, candy cigarettes are available in supermarkets and convenience stores, according to the report in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.
Klein's team wondered if kids who pretended to smoke using the treats were any more prone to smoking as adults. To find out, his group surveyed almost 26,000 adults regarding their smoking habits and whether or not they had played with candy cigarettes as children.
They found that 12 percent of the people who said they had never eaten a candy cigarettea kid were current or former smokers today.
In contrast, 22 percent of those who said they had eaten candy cigarettes either smoked often today or were former smokers. Just 14 percent said they had never smoked. In addition, the more often a child had consumed candy cigarettes, the more likely he or she was to become a smoker, Klein said.
I've always felt uncomfortable that a certain national high school championship tournament director offers chocolate cigarettes as the prize for sweeping a 60-seconds category. Maybe he has a massive portfolio investment in tobacco securities. In previous years, I brought stuff I bought from the dollar store. I didn't do that this year and I just may be encouraged by this article to resume that practice.
Chipper backs Smoltz with four RBI as Braves whitewash Nats. Pretty much a disaster all the way around getting beaten 13f-0. Ka-Bowie finally ran into a buzz saw and Billy Traber took one for the team, giving up five runs in two innings. Batista pinch-hit for Zimmerman in the 8th. Eight hits and a walk were not enough for the Nats to score a run.
Watched the Numb3rs episode "Money for Nothing". A tractor trailer carrying medical supplies and several million dollars in cash to Zambia is hijacked in Los Angeles. First of all, I didn't know you could drive to Zambia from California without passing through the Arctic. The shipment is guarded by two aid workers. A charity in the real world contracts a delivery company and takes out insurance in case the shipment gets lost or stolen. As for the cash, that would be delivered electronically. The only time they might need a courier for cash would be for tranportation personally through warlord country.
To complicate this is a vulture capitalist who purchased $30 million of African bonds for 7 cents on the dollar. For some strange reason he thinks he has a physical claim on the medical supplies and cash because of this. Real vulture capitalists would have nothing to do with physical assets and leave the battles to their lawyers. They'd had also have such a huge portfolio that one particular asset would not be worth sending bounty hunters for.
So anyway, the shipment is hijacked by a team consisting of gangbangers and career criminals working for a pharmaceutical company. Charlie uses his math to plot out their escape routes and when they're not found, Alan makes a crucial breakthrough that they're staying put. They've hidden the tractor trailer in a trailer park as just another double wide.
June 26 Permalink
Dave Del Grande thinks cutting Milton Bradley was racially motivated:
I'm not saying Bradley should be starting ahead of Travis Buck. But, when healthy, ahead of Shannon Stewart and Bobby Kielty? In a heartbeat....
This wasn't even a financial decision. This was a matter of Bradley being ... well, black. Tell me it's not as simple as that.
It's not as simple as that. Shannon Stewart is black. Milton Bradley is frequently injured. He's Albert Belle with all of the baggage but none of the performance.
I wonder if Don Sutton is thinking of this guy everytime he he starting catcher's name. Probably not. He never pitched against Oakland or California in 1985, the only year both he and Sutton were in the majors.
A. Jones breaks out of slump as Braves defeat Nationals. Not a great night for Bacsik and the Nats bats were cooled by the immortal Buddy Carlyle. At least the Nats hung there in the ninth to force Wickman to come in for a save situation.
June 25 Permalink
Jack McCaffery says:
The tighter, 14-team, D.H.-rich American League is becoming the varsity, while the diluted 16-team National League is making like the water boy...
Baseball is in its 10th season under the 16-14 league imbalance. Even with one of the two 1998 expansion teams, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, joining the A.L. while Bud Selig's Milwaukee Brewers dutifully shuffled to the N.L., could no one have forecast that a league with 50 more players would sacrifice stature? That's roughly two extra would-be minor-league players per diluted roster. And the league with the two bonus teams is also the one without the designated hitter, requiring rosters to include an additional pitcher, perhaps two. No wonder N.L. teams have trouble scoring against the A.L.; they don't have enough hitters. Conversely, the A.L. gets to pound away at those additional entitlement-job N.L. pitchers.
This idiot thinks the AL-NL imbalance is caused by more teams in the NL. He must believe that the entire player is split in half before it's divied up between the teams.
McCann snaps Braves' five-game slide with homer vs. Nats. It was an unlucky night for the Nats who outhit the Braves 9-7. It pretty much came down to Traber grooving it to McCann. Bergman looked decent in his 76 pitches.
June 24 Permalink
The Israel Baseball League has started.
Our games are seven innings in duration and in the most exciting innovation of all, if games are tied after seven innings, they are decided by a Home Run Derby!
So finally, a baseball league has sunk to the level of soccer/hockey shootouts. I've liked the suggestion that soccer should have a standard 10-minute golden goal overtime. After that, each team must take out a player every ten minutes until somebody scores.
Nationals 3, Indians 1. Simontacchi recovered from the Detroit blowout and Cordero recovered from last night's late inning homer. Flores drove in two and teh Nook was nowhere to be found.
I saw the second half of the Gold Cup Final. Feilhaber's winner was beautiful and utterly undefendable.
June 23 Permalink
Totally forgot about the full moon May 30-June 1 when the Nats went 2-1, making them 6-24 all time. Next full moon games - the weekend series in Pittsburgh.
Indians 4, Nationals 3. This felt like a full moon game, complete with a Chief gopher ball. At least Cordero didn't precede it with a couple of walks. What can you say about teh Nook? There's a reason the Tigers are in first place and let him go just for cash.
And the soccer team was pretty embarassing, too. Meanwhile, eleven-year-old girls at a sleepover are an experience.
June 22 Permalink
Watched the Doctor Who episode "The Idiot's Lantern". The Doctor had planned to arrive in New York for the appearance of Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show to find themselves in North London the day before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. There seem to be a lot of televisions and antennas on Florizel Street because Mr. Magpie of Magpie Electronics is selling them for just five pounds.
Mr. Magpie has been enslaved by an alien being called the Wire who travels down electrical wires and appears on the television as a BBC continuity announcer. She uses the television to take the souls of humans watching, apparently also taking their faces in the process. Rose herself becomes a victim of the Wire. The alien hopes to enslave many millions of people glued to the television for the coronation.
On the day of the coronation itself, Mr. Magpie climbs to the antenna on the top of Alexandra Palace, hoping to attach a device that will enhance the Wire's power. With the help of a young teen named Tommy, the Doctor is able to stop the Magpie and the Wire. The Doctor traps the Wire inside a Betamax tape.
The Washington Post article on Chris Marrero notes that he has an older brother Christian in the White Sox system. Could he also have sisters named Christine and Christina?
I'm just glad his father didn't call him Bladimir Marrero, Jr. or else he'd have the shadow of living up to ghost of Vladimir Guerrero. Vlad is one of the spirits hanging over the Nats. If only the Expos moved a year earlier, Guerrero might be playing right field in RFK today. Over on Chris Creamer's board, Washington baseball concepts for four years usually employed Vlad's 27 to display the back of the jersey.
Watched the Cold Case episode "Torn". In June 1919, suffragette and brewery heiress Francine Stone dies of a fall from the upper landing of the mansion she lived in. Today, her great-great niece Emma brings in a locket and some letters to re-open the case.
Both Francine's mother Elizabeth and her father Ambrose are suspects because, making their money from alcohol, giving women the right to vote might lead to prohibition. The only problem is, prohibition had already been enacted with the ratification of the 18th amendment - five months earlier!
The only person left is Audrey, the daughter of one of the housemaids. In the closing montage over Hoagy Carmichael singing "Stardust", she sees the ghost of her mother, along with Nancy Pelosi on the television. The confession comes from a vinyl recording made by Elizabeth on the day the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.
Nationals 4, Indians 1. A ball bounced into the front of the neck of Zimmerman's jersey and lodged inside his shirt. That'll be shown on bloopers for years to come. Ryan Church was ready to catch a Grady Sizemore foul pop when a fan reached over and caught the ball. Sizemore was called out on fan interference, but the fan seemed to get a stern warning instead of an ejection.
In the second game after his call-up, Brandon Watson drove in runs with both hits including a double. Brian Schneider failed to get an RBI on an out when Da Meat Hook scored on a double play. My Ka-Bowie didn't get out of the fifth, but the six pitchers, including Luis Ayala making his first appearance since 2005, allowed only three hits and no walks thereafter.
June 21 Permalink
What do the two players pictured at the right have in common? They're both named Ryan Zimmerman. For the sake of reference, the Nats' one is named Ryan Wallace Zimmerman and the Rays' farmhand is named Ryan George Zimmerman. Ryan George Zimmerman will be in Aberdeen tonight. One of my bizarre collecting goals would be a baseball autographed by both Ryan Zimmermans.
Because it's easy to pick on Mike Greenberg and because there isn't a game today:
Johan Santana last night threw a complete game shutout against the Mets in which he threw only 92 pitches. It's the fewest for a pitcher throwing a complete game shutout this year. … He didn't strike almost anybody out: it's the first shutout in Major League Baseball with one or fewer strikeouts since Chien-Ming Wang did it last year. I'm telling you right now, the strikeout in most ways is the most overrated stat in baseball. Your object as a pitcher is not to strike people out, it is to get people out. If you can get out of a game throwing only 92 pitches and allowing zero walks, you have done your job as good as it can be done. Short of a perfect game, I don't know if you can suggest a no-hitter is a better performance than this.
I wouldn't make a pitcher strain to get an out via a strikeout, rather than another method, but a strikeout has everything to do with the pitcher. The more outs generated by strikeout, the fewer batted balls can sneak in for hits and errors. Santana's game score was 90. The fact that he allowed only four hits has to be credited to his defense.
June 20 Permalink
Rangers owner Tom Hicks dropping hints about Juan Gonzalez and steroids:
During a wide-ranging taped interview with Channel 11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg last week, Hicks was asked about the Rangers' deals he most regretted making.
First he mentioned wasting $65 million on pitcher Chan Ho Park. Then he referenced the two-year, $24 million deal the Rangers gave Gonzalez to come back to Texas in 2002.
"Juan Gonzalez, for $24 million, after he came off steroids probably... we just gave that money away," Hicks told Laufenberg.
In Washington, Laufenberg is a quarterbacking legend, for his great pre-season games.
Tigers 8, Nationals 4. Despite the score, the Nats were still in it with the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 8th. I don't wanna be all Screech's Best Friend here, but this series WASN'T THAT BAD.
The most comparable shellacking was at the hands of the Red Sox last year when Boston outscored the Nats 26-9. That's a Pythagorean percentage of .107. It felt really bad. The Red Sox looked like the best team in baseball. They ended up finishing only .500 and allowing more runs than they scored. This Tigers team outscored the Nats 32-13 for a .142 Pythagorean percentage, so the Nats looked better this time around. Despite being overmatched, the Nats alomst won game one and were in a position to win game three.
June 19 Permalink
Watched the Doctor Who episode "The Age of Steel". As the Cybermen close, the Doctor zaps them with his power cell. They escape into the van driven by Preacher Mrs. Moore. Pete reveals himself as Gemini, a spy on Lumic for the Preachers.
Lumic sends a message via the earpods to send humans to the Battersea Power Station for upgrade to Cyberman status. The good guys split up for the express purpose of getting Ricky killed. Lumic's henchman Crane asks for an upgrade as a reason to get close to Lumic and disconnect his wheelchair. This gives the Cybermen the excuse to upgrade Lumic and make him the Cybercontroller.
They will attack the Battersea Poer Station, above, middle and below, just like in the episode "The Five Doctors". Jake and Mickey will go high to take out the transmitter in Lumic's zeppelin. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore will go below and entire through the cooling tunnels. Rose and Pete will enter through the front door with false earpods.
Mrs. Moore is killed while, the Doctor, Rose and Pete are brought before Lumic as the Cybercontroller. Mickey and Jake watch from the security monitor in the zeppelin as the Doctor drops hints about the security code necessary to disable the emotional inhibitor on the cybermen. Mickey discovers the code, transmits it to Rose's cellphone, which the doctor transmits to all the Cybermen, which drives them mad.
Everyone escapes onboard the zeppelin. Mickey decides to stay in the parallel universe. The TARDIS can't return because there are no more Time Lords. This origin of the Cybermen is different from the origin in our universe.
An article on the ex-Expos from Montreal, with an unfortunate slip:
Only nine players to appear for the Expos during that final year in 2004 still remain with the club while scouting director Dana White is one of the few baseball people to survive the move and regime change.
To set the record straight, the Director of Scouting is Dana Brown.
Tigers 15, Nationals 1. This one was never in doubt. Billy Traber might have been a bright spot by pitching two scoreless innings.
June 18 Permalink
Depending on which calculation you look at the Nats look good for 65-70 wins.
Guillen, Sheffield help Tigers edge Nats in barnburner. Saw the game with John Cooper and Rich Potter. Chico was a disaster, but the bullpen held the Tigers scoreless for four innings. After being down 9-1, the Nats scord four runs in the sixth and three in the ninth. Tigers were ahead by one, the Nats had runners on first and second with nobody out. I thought the Nats could pull one out, but Todd Jones was able to get the last three outs with no further damage.
After "Take Me Out to Ballgame," they sang "Heart" during the seventh inning stretch. Cooper was impressed that I predicted the Schneider would get an RBI without getting a hit, in this case a sac fly. I like that the Nats don't seem to quit.
I haven't felt the place rock like this all season. Granted I've only been there for one win, but the Orioles game was subdued.
The Tiger fans only got into specific cheers after they stopped scoring. This riled up the Nats fans who got really loud. Every eruption of "Let's Go Nats" in the ninth inning and most of the sixth was totally spontaneous and not instigated by the scoreboard. The stadium was plenty loud in the ninth even with less than 10,000 people left.
June 17 Permalink
Big Hurt becomes DH homer king but Blue Jays fall. Suddenly, things went well. Ka-Bowie went six innings. The bullpen retired all nine hitters they faced. Zimmerman homered and even Tony Batista got an RBI.
Brian Whiting's solution for the RocketPod didn't seem to work. I can hope for a sudden power surge to make it better or theoretically install it inside the next desktop computer.
Watched the CSI: Miami episode "Triple Threat". As Miami's beuatiful go to a mansion for a party, one of the arrivals looks suspiciously like Brian Schneider. Ashley Whitford is host for this benefit for the children's hospital and just as the champagne corks pop, her husband Dominic, stricken from a gunshot, tumbles over the balcony and impales himself on an ice sculpture.
The body of Dominic Whitford shows signs of a heart attack, cocaine addiction and plastic surgery. He was actually a double and the real Dominic is at a construction. As he tries to escape police, his vehicle is stopped by a dead body buried in shallow soil. This victim is Mia Graham, one of his employees, but she was killed by his assistant Josh Brockner.
Meanwhile, we discover Ashley has an identical twin Cayla who may have killed Dominic's double while Ashley was outside toasting the festivities. One of their ex-boyfriends, Neil Massey, is a trust fund baby who can never get his accent straight. Massey admits to taking a potshot at Dominic and Ashley at a polo match when he discovered he'd been conned.
Natalia is trying to figure out who is the mother of the Whitford child Noah. Ashley doesn't have a Caesarian scar and Cayla was in Africa at the time. That's when Beth, the third triplet appears to admit being the mother. A blood drop at the crime scene reveals antigens related to immunization identifying Cayla as the killer. Beth was at the gym during the murder as Cayla's alibi.
So a husband didn't know his wife was a triplet and probably had sex with all of them at one time or another, while the wif(v)e(s) didn't know the husband had a double. I think was meant to be film noir-type thriller with surprise twists, but came off as just a silly parody.
Went on to the Criminal Minds episode "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank". Jane has escaped from Frank and he wants her back. Thinking Gideon has her, Frank kills Sarah, an old college friend of Gideon's who is visiting.
He kills her in Gideon's apartment and the BAU visit the crime scene, staying out of the way of the metropolitan police while surreptitiously taking cellphone photos. Hotchner doesn not want to tell the DC Police where Gideon is because they will focus on him and stop looking for Frank.
Frank has gotten a hold of Gideon's book where he keeps pictures and contact information of people he's saved through his work. At this point, I have no idea why the FBI doesn't immediately race to protect everybody in Gideon's book within reasonable driving distance. So they make a phone call to Rebecca Bryant, but Frank is already there posing as Gideon.
Frank kills her and gets away while Gideon hides out in a Smithsonian executive office with Garcia. Frank kidnaps a child name Tracy Belle whom he promises to return in exchange for Jane. The BAU retrieve Jane from the DC Jail and she tells him Frank says his mother's name was Mary Breitkopf. Gideon connects this to a seemingly random story Frank told about a woman who died in her Manhattan apartment, but nobody noticed she was dead.
Mary Breitkopf was in fact a prostitute, which explains some of Frank's psychosis and why he didn't kill Jane - because she was a mother figure to him. Reid and Jarreau go to New York and find the decomposing body of Mary Breitkopf on a bed in her apartment, as well as Tracy Belle, tied up, but safe in a closet.
The final confrontation with Frank comes in Union Station, which looks nothing like the Union Station I see everyday. As the SWAT team closes in, they allow Jane to get close to Frank. He takes her hand and pulls her with him into the path of an oncoming train.
If the law enforcement officers went to all the trouble to bring in the SWAT team, they aren't going to let any trains get near at all. Hotchner's supervisor Erin Strauss gives hima dressing down. I agree with her that he and Gideon make be greay profilers, but they're lousy managers. Strauss brings Prentiss and orders her to undermine Hotchner.
June 16 Permalink
Wells backs Marcum (11 strikeouts) as Blue Jays down Nats. Has midnight struck for Levale Speigner? Manny says he may be relegated to the bullpen. He couldn't get out of the fourth, allowing seven runs. Shaun Marcum pitched like he was Roy Halladay. Da Meat Hook and Jeri Lynn hit solo shots.
Watched CSI:NY episode "Sleight Out of Hand". Criss Angel plays illusionist Luke Blade who has himself cut in half with a giant circular saw in public. At the same time, Vienna Hyatt, a former assistant to Luke, is cut in half with a hand saw.
Danny believes Luke's stunt engineer Austin Cannon may be responsible for her death because his bloody bootprints are found at the crime scene. Before Cannon can be arrested, he is burned to death while Luke is simultaneously setting himself on fire continuously for four hours. Looking at recordings Stella figures out Luke could have left the illusionist scene and let an assistant take his place when the flames were being replenished.
Research into Luke's childhood reveals he was put up for adoption by a career criminal father. He was adopted by Sylvia Walker who returned Luke when he started showing signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. Luke binds her in a straitjacket and dumps her upside-down in a tank, just like Harry Houdini, before the police arrive to stop him. It's never made clear, but we are supposed to assume Cannon killed the first victim.
In the other plot, Lindsay testifies at a trial for a multiple shooting she witnessed as a teen. Danny flies all the way out to Wyoming and we assume the relationship has restarted.
Kenny Albert said today that only the Chicago Cubs have not played a game in Fenway, but they have.
Watched the CSI episode "Ending Happy". Ex-boxer Lorenzo "Happy" Morales is found floating in the swimming pool of a brothel. Happy was there by the generosity of brothel owner George "Binky" Babinkian. Morales was supposed to be training for a comeback and Binky doesn't quite realize the incongruity of housing a boxer with a tendency to over-party at a whorehouse.
As you can guess, Happy was not really a friendly presence around the brothel. Prostitute Dreama Little and bartender Connor Foster injected Morales with snake venom, putting in two puncture points to make it look like a real snake bite. Connor dumped Happy in a culvert, but he couldn't stay dead. The flashbacks make Morales look like Tor Johnson from the Ed Wood films.
From here, Happy wandered into the clutches of Binky's wife Doris who performed oral sex. She had recently eaten shrimp and Morales was allergic to shellfish so he went into anaphylactic shock. Connor took a shot at Happy with a crossbow which ended up giving him a makeshift tracheotomy that actually prolonged his life.
He wandered back to Dreama's room and, surprised to see him still walking, hit Happy in the head with a hammer. Still quite woozy this entire time, Morales sits on a lawn chair by the pool. The chair breaks and he falls in. There are are many potential suspects, with no evidence to convict any of them.
June 15 Permalink
Teresa Nielsen Hayden has some suggested disclaimers for fan fiction:
The BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and associated companies. The story itself belongs to me.
None of these characters belong to me. Only the words do.
What's Joss Whedon's is Joss Whedon's, and the same goes for Mutant Enemy; but what's mine is mine, including the original elements in this story and the words I've used to tell it.
Tonight I treated the extended family to dinner at Ruby Tuesday for Miranda's birthday. Viola's two sisters Corky and Rosie also came along. Afterwards, Victoria and Ian slept at our house and frosted the cake. It was overkill on the decoration, and not really worth eating at that point.
Glaus, Lind gang up on lowly Nats to lift Halladay, Jays. Bacsik couldn't get out of the 5th and neither Abreu nor Traber went unscathed. The Nats got two runs off Halladay, which was the standard 2007 performance versus a staff ace. What didn't happen was the replacement starter being possessed by spirit of Walter Johnson long enough to get the win.
June 14 Permalink
Watched the Doctor Who episode "Rise of the Cybermen". The TARDIS lands in alternate universe where zeppelins cruise above London and Rose's father Pete is a successful soft drink manufacturer. Both Rose and Mickey want to investigate their alternate existences and given the choices, the Doctor tags along with Rose.
Pete and Jackie Tyler never had a child, but their little dog is named Rose. Mickey's grandmother is still alive, but her grandson is Ricky, the leader of an underground anti-technology movement called the Preachers. Nearly everyone has EarPods, products of the Cybus Corporation, a device that allows communication and downloads directly into the brain. Rose and thr Doctor notice everyone on the streets stopping all at once as they receive their daily download.
Meanwhile, John Lumic, President of Cybus Industries, a Davros-like character confined to a wheelchair has discovered a way to sustain the human brain inside a metallic shell - the Cybermen. He orders a roundup of homeless people to be the first of his Cybermen army. Lumic presents his ideas before the President of Great Britain who rejects it immediately.
The Doctor and Rose infiltrate Jackie's birthday as servants. The guests include the President of Great Britain. The Preachers load up on weapons to assault the party and kill Lumic. The Cybermen invade the party first and force the President to "upgrade" an gunpoint. he refuses and is "deleted". The episode ends with the Doctor, Rose, Pete and Preachers Mickey, Ricky and Jake about to be killed by the Cybermen.
Miranda had her fifth grade promotion ceremony which was held at Clarksburg High School. She won a Presidential Academic Fitness Award. Afterwards, Whitlock and I took herm Alyssa, Eileen and Helen to Lakeforest Mall for an afternoon of shopping.
Nationals 3, Orioles 1. Tonight the MASN scoreboard read "NATS" and "BAL". Although I'm glad that MASN has recognized that when Carpenter or Sutton are broadcasting, Washington is the home team, not Baltimore, but the "NATS" in the corner feesl unprofessional to me. Simontacchi pitched seven good innings, allowing only one run. Jeri Lynn hit the game-winning RBI and Langerhans hit an insurance double.
June 13 Permalink
I'm not sure if the worst fielding outfield of my lifetime is the 1990 Tigers of Lloyd Moseby, Larry Sheets and Gary Ward or the 1990 Rangers with Jack Daugherty, Pete Incaviglia and Kevin Reimer.
Nationals 9, Orioles 6 (11 innings). The Nats had a 4-2 lead going into "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" when Chico, Colome, King and Rauch allowed three runs. Immediately in the 8th, Lopez, Zimmerman, Kearns and Church answered with two runs. In the bottom of 9th, Cordero couldn't hold the lead as the Orioles tied the score with a bunch of dinks. FLop blew the game wide open in the 11th with a bases-clearing double, earning Billy Traber his second win of the year.
June 12 Permalink
Nats come on strong, swat past O's with three home runs. After all the outcry when the MASN scoreboard on the Washington feed read "WSH" and "O'S", tonight's scoreboard read "WSH" and "BAL". Bowie went six innings as Church, Zimmerman and Schneider all homered.
June 11 Permalink
On an off day, some material from Ken Levine's blog. First a comment on Saturday night's game:
Ken, the Nationals beat the Minnesota Twins again tonight, 3-1, as Levale Speigner (a former Twins farmhand and Rule 5 selection) outdueled Johan Santana, helped by a three-run homer from Ryan Zimmerman. I bring this up because two folks you probably know were at the game -- the telecast showed that Rob Reiner (whom we all know is an avid baseball fan) was on hand at the Metrodome, and filling in on MASN play-by-play (Bob Carpenter has the weekend off) was Johnny Holliday, whom you may know both from his Top 40 work in the sixties (I believe he was the final jock on WINS in New York before it went all-news in April 1965) and his decades of sportscasting work (ABC radio, University of Maryland). He was his usual professional self.
And from Ken himself on writing for the Tony Randall Show:
But happily he liked the script… and us. At the time I was single, bringing dates to filmings (hoping that might help me get lucky) and after the show I would always introduce them to Tony. He would praise me to the heavens, how they couldn't do the show without me, etc. All total bullshit but the girls were impressed. Say what you will about Tony Randall, he was the best Wing Man I've ever had.
June 10 Permalink
Today is the birthday of Matt Chico. As noted here, Chico played for USC and Palomar Junior College. His best game was probably this past Thursday against the Pirates went he went 7 innings and allowed two runs.
Twins perk up, salvage series finale against Nationals. Gardenhire talked the umpires out of granting Dmitri Young a homer. Bacsik had a lousy game the umpires allowed the Nats to have only one extra-base hit.
Torii Hunter said in reaction to Sheffield:
I do agree that, you know 10 years from now you'll see no blacks, at all.
Soccer is not exactly a black sport, but somehow Cobi Jones, Zach Thornton and DeMarcus Beasley made it as pros. Ten years from now, there will still be African-Americans playing major league baseball. They'll just be upper-class blacks from the suburbs, or more likely, sons of former major leaguers.
Our old friend Brian Whiting came over to try and fix a problem with an external hard drive. Afterwards, we order some Chinese food.
Watched the Numb3rs episode "Under Pressure". An Islamic terrorist cell is planning to release sarin gas into the Los Angeles water system. Charlie figures out who the central figure of the terror network is, but he was killed four months ago in Afghanistan. Captain Adams, the Army Intelligence Officer on the case admits that he found the dead terror leader's plans and allowed them to continue to prove how vulnerable the United States is. Funny, how the real terrorists are outnumbered by Americans who are making a point about vulnerability.
Adam planned to stop the conspiracy before it had a chance to actually be carried out. Unfortunately, the terror cell started to act independently. Alan uses his knowledge of the Los Angeles municipal infrastructure to figure out exactly where the terrorists would strike.
June 9 Permalink
Last night the Devil Rays jumped out to an 8-2, but lost 14-8 to the Marlins anyway. Upton got injured his quad running out a grounder in the first. Dioner Navarro got hit in the throat with a pitch in the dirt. He seemed to have difficulty breathing and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. Scrappy ex-Nat Josh Wilson ended up pitching a scoreless 8th inning to finish out the game for Tampa Bay.
Watched the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates the Substitute". While Ms. Morello has either gone to Africa or Harlem, Orlando Jones plays Mr. Newton, the long-term substitute teacher. He gives Chris a B-, which Chris is willing to settle for, but Mr. Newton will have none of it.
Mr. Newton then puts Chris through tutoring which at one point parodies An Officer and a Gentleman. Mr. Newton accepts a permanent position at Corleone and Chris decides he must get rid of him somehow. Chris has Mr. Newton's resume and gets him a position at Lamont Sanford Jr. High.
Went on to the How I Met Your Mother episode "Columns". Barney, Ted and Robin find a nude portrait Lily painted of Marshall back when they were in college. They extract maximum embarassment for Marshall by displaying it behind the bar.
Still, Barney admires Lily's artwork and asks her to paint him nude. Like Indecent Proposal, he's paying her $5,000 so they can spend their honeymoon in Scotland. Suddenly, Marshall appears to get cold feet about his fiancee seeing another man naked, but it's just a ruse to get Barney to pony up more cash for a nicer hotel in Scotland.
Once Lily is sure Marshall has Barney's check, they run away leaving Barney to see the painting for the first time. Lily has omitted his member and Barney is left lamenting it as he holds the portrait. But Barney's rich. I'm sure he could get some starving NYU student to paint it in.
In the other plot, Ted continues to plan his Spokane bank skyscraper. His former boss Hammond Druthers now works under him, making snide remarks about Ted's ideas. Ted gets approval from a senior partner to find Druthers, but just as he's getting ready to sack hi, a surprise birthday party turns up for Druthers.
Not wanting to pink slip a guy on his birthday, Ted holds off and returns to the office after hours to find Druthers sleeping there. He's going through a messy divorce so Ted takes him to his apartment to sleep on the couch. Still, Druthers continues to be a jerk which the bank tower is discussed.
Ted is about to fire Druthers yet again when another surprise birthday party erupts for the benefit of firm members who were out of town for the last birthday party. Ted fires Druthers anyway who immediately suffers a heart attack from which he recovers.
The Nats have a strange ability to defeat top-flight pitchers. John Smoltz and Jake Peavy preceded tonight's victim Johan Santana. Essentially he made only the mistake of allowing baserunners before the three-run homer to Zimmerman. What was more amazing was former Twins farmhand and Rule 5 selection Levale Speigner who allowed just the home run to Morneau. Sister Cristian has succedded way beyond Nate's Guzmania fantasies and puverized his old team with seven hits so far.
Watched the Bones episode "The Boneless Bride in the River". A ornate box is found in the river with the boneless corpse of a woman inside. All of her bones have been removed and her flesh was stitched back together. Montenegro thinks the victim may be Asian from her hair.
We learn of a rural Chinese practice called Minghum where a never married man is buried with a young woman who died first so he has a bride in the afterlife. In this case, the woman may have been murdered specifically for this purpose. Through Angela's drawing and a database of missing persons, the victim is identified as Li Ling Fan, who came to the United States from China to marry American Drew Harper. She also had a genetic bone defect called Fong's Disease.
Harper is a fence with a fascination for Asian culture. Although he's a prime suspect the marriage broker, PerfectBride, had a money back guarantee, so it was the marriage broker that was out its fee. They were they ones who had Li Ling Fan killed and her bones removed in partnership with a mortuary. PerfectBride sold her bones to the family of William Chang who died of cancer two years ago.
In the other plot, Sully asks Brennan to sail the Caribbean with him. She turns him down and pretty much everybody including the audience thinks this is a bad idea.
June 8 Permalink
Jon Weisman believes hitters are harder to scout than pitchers. Certainly, when you show up to see them, all you may get are four plate appearances and the hitter you are scouting may just walk four times.
Not even the highest level of the minor leagues provides much of a clue. Although AAA offers some transition to major-league pitching -- hurlers who can throw hard and/or spin off a sweet curve -- rare is the pitcher who can do so consistently at that level. (If they could, they wouldn't be down in AAA -- not for long, anyway.)
Still, it is possible to project a AAA hitter to the majors. Even if there aren't many pitchers in the International League who hurl smoke or knee-buckling charlies, your typical AAA pitcher has the same talent as a borderline major leaguer. If a AAAA hitter can't hit the Cy Young winners, they can still fatten up their stats on replacement level talent.
The Nats drafted another Zimmermann. We should all note the additional "n" at the end. He's a right-hander from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, home of the world's largest trivia contest. The video of Zimmermann showed him pitching in driving snowstorm.
Young stays hot as Nats beat Twins in Mauer's return. The Nats jumped out to an 8-0 lead and Simontacchi worked into the 8th.
Earlier in the day, Torii Hunter said the following about Mauer:
"I think some people take pain in different ways," Twins center fielder Torii Hunter said. "Some people have to play at 100 percent, and Joe may be one of those guys. I've seen it happen. Joe is a good player, and he wants to perform at 100 percent, not at 80 percent.
"Me, I grew up in a different time. I'm ready to play no matter what - broken toe, hamstring, groin, back - and that's the mentality I've grown to have."
I guess Joe Mauer is missing that fire in the belly.
June 7 Permalink
Pirates 3, Nationals 2. Again, the Nats took an early lead with a two-run homer by Da Meat Hook. Freddy Sanchez answered with a homer in the third. And Cordero gave the winning homer to Jason Bay in the 9th. Apparently, Manny Acta took FLop out of the game for not hustling on ground balls.
But it seemed most of the thoughts of the Nats fans were on the draft. They took Missouri State left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler with their first pick and the 6th overall. In his first interview on ESPN, he admitted to having a hard time gaining weight. Just hang around Ray King and Dmitri Young long enough and that could change.
June 6 Permalink
Nationals 6, Pirates 5. The Nats broke out to a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the 5th on a Jack Wilson error and a Schneider single. Unfortunately, Rauch and Traber let the Pirates get back in the 8th with a Bay sac fly and a three-run homer by Adam LaRoche.
Salomon Torres looked terrible in the 9th. Once he walked Kearns to load the bases with two outs, I knew it would end in a crazy way. I was guessing either a wild pitch or another walk and it ended up being the WP.
June 5 Permalink
Bryan Curtis explains why guys love fantasy baseball. He got paid to say what I said for free more than two years ago.
Pirates 7, Nationals 6. Went to this game with Chris Pendley and his girlfriend Jessica Simpson. Okay, not THAT Jessica Simpson.
The talk was about Tony Batista running through a stop sign and getting thrown out at home. Church had two doubles but Paulino and Jack Wilson both homered.
June 4 Permalink
The Washington segment of the National Academic Championship was won today by Harrison High School of West Lafayette, Indiana, beating Torrey Pines High School of San Diego.
Over the weekend Buzz Bissinger wrote a story about pitchers that had a great profile on Kerry Wood. Unfortunately, it also stated as a truism that 400 innings of minor league ball are necessary for major league longevity. I immediately thought of Mike Mussina who, from my cursory research, had just 189 innings in the minors. I think scouts should not underestimate the importance of intelligence in the development of a pitcher. Jared Park has a more complete response than I have:
Pitcher, Minor League Innings (numbers courtesy of The Baseball Cube)
Steve Carlton, 306
Nolan Ryan, 287 (and quoted by Bissinger in the piece)
Don Sutton, 249
Tom Seaver, 210
Jim Palmer, 129
Bert Blyleven, 123
And a few current players with no durability issues:
Johan Santana, 334
C.C. Sabathia, 232.7
Mike Mussina, 178
Finally, in yet another act of deception, in the paragraph that begins with the 400-inning rule of thumb, Bissinger writes:
"Francisco Liriano, in his first full season with the Minnesota Twins in 2006, went 12 and 3 and seemed destined for greatness, but he will miss the entire 2007 season after undergoing ligament replacement surgery - the so-called Tommy John procedure - on his elbow last November."
Liriano, 484.3 minor league innings pitched. I wonder why that wasn't mentioned.
And on the Boog Sciambi show, Bissinger got pwned.
June 3 Permalink
Worked with Jason Russell today. For the preliminary rounds, the players are permitted to use pseudonyms. One team used various related terms but in all cases, their girl uses a term that was also a euphemism for breasts, i.e., tomato, eggplant, carrot and melon. In the end I enjoin.
The Ithaca team had a player who called himself Schmithaca so I ended up calling out,"Ithaca, Schmithaca." That same Ithaca team had a bonus where we gave them a country and a state and they were to identify the largest city with the same name in both jurisdictions. For example, for France and Texas, the answer would be Paris. The Ithaca team thought the biggest city with the same name in both Greece and New York was Syracuse. Unfortunately, Syracuse is in Italy.
Both PACE luminaries David Bykowski and Tom Chuck were around observing the competition and introducing themselves to players, coaches and teams they had previously known only on the internet. Jason didn't like them hanging around, going to somebody else's tournament, luring them away. If Roger Goodell wanted to attend a game in Mark Cuban's UFL, what would be the problem if he just enjoyed the competition? We both agreed that if Chip showed up at PACE or NAQT, he'd been drawn and quartered all across the internet.
The customers of the current quizbowl market are the players and coaches, who want a lot of games and quality questions, which some can argue NAQT and PACE provide better. Chip actually makes a living at this and targets his flashy product at administrators, sponsors and ultimately television. The arguments I hear on both sides are sometimes just talking past each other, making essentially irrelevant criticisms from their points of view.
Padres 7, Nationals 3. So apparently RFK was a quagmire today. David Wells complained a lot, maybe about the size of the buffet. Simontacchi gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning and again in the fifth. The Nats scored all their runs in the third with a n.000K single, a Belliard double and a homer from Jeri Lynn.
June 2 Permalink
Today is the birthday of Junior Spivey. The Nats traded Tomo Ohka to the Brewers for him in June 2005 until he broke his wrist hitting off a batting practice tee. He hit a home run just after the Mariners brought in the infield in back during his first weekend with the Nats.
Today I worked with Ernie Anderson. After one squad's "A" team finished up a lackluster victory, a member of the "B" team screamed,"You suck! That's unacceptable!"
In the evening, Ernie hosted "Who Wants to Be a Game Show Host?" which was won by Kim Nguyen of Lamar High School in Houston. She's on the list to be called back by Chip next year to be a moderator. As one of the judges for the festivities, I hadn't done anything like this since an air guitar contest back in grad school. Jason Russell felt it was uncomfortably like a job interview.
Padres 11, Nationals 3. This was pretty much a loss cause by the time I checked the score. Speigner gave up six runs in the first inning when eleven batters came to the plate. He did managed to last four innings.
June 1 Permalink
Worked with Chip this morning. Most interesting bit of trivia was finding out that Samuel L. Jackson was the voice of God in a new audio version of the Bible. All of I could think of was,"I have had it with these motherf- snakes in this motherf- garden."
One game had to run through six questions in overtime before we got a winner on a Yoplait question. The losing team didn't wait to let me finish on the bounceback of a Planck's constant question.
The funniest wrong answer of the day was to identify the source of quote,"Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in." Although the incorrect guess of Yogi Berra was logical, the subsequent response of Wilt Chamberlain was funnier.
Nationals 4, Padres 3 (10 innings). The Nats had a 3-1 lead going into the 6th when Adrian Gonzalez and Bard doubled him home. Abreu relieved Chico and Nats trivia answer Terrmel Sledge doubled home Bard.
In the 10th, FLOp flied out and Sister Cristian followed with a single. Jeri Lynn singled him to third. Then Belliard grounded to Marcus Giles who was trying to start a double play, but just couldn't handle the ball and Guzman scored.
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Little changes make a big difference over time.
It is only natural to be a little shaken up by big negative events. The financial crisis of the last couple of years has erased trillions of dollars in value from investor's accounts, resulted in millions of job losses and left the world with more uncertainty than most of us are comfortable with. When faced with traumatic events it is not uncommon for the fight or flight instincts to kick in and for you to respond with dramatic adjustments in an effort to either counter or shield yourself from the dangers presented.
Panic moves however are rarely the best course of action.
I encourage my clients to think like Lance Armstrong and his team did during their seven year Tour de France winning streak. Make small adjustments and analyze how they will add up to big wins over time. Watch this clip below from The Discovery Channel's "The Science of Lance Armstrong" or add the full feature to your Netflix queue.
Sure Lance is one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known but remember he had to survive cancer before he went on to win those seven tour titles. No one would have blamed him if he retired from cycling after his victory over cancer but instead he chose to continue to pursue his goals. In order to win, Lance and his team didn't look for a single magic bullet but rather looked to small improvements in as many areas as they could.
Over the course of the 2,000 mile race, during which Lance would spend some 90 hours on his bike, the gap between first place and the rest of the field usually comes down to only a minute or two. Gaining a mere second per stage on his rivals would be a huge improvement. So, as you see from the clip they went to work on riding position, aerodynamic, frame weight, and even the shape of screws to gain every second they could. In the end all those little changes added up to pay huge dividends.
Take the same approach with your financial life.
Look at all facets of your financial life, all of your goals, all of the variables within your control and see what making small adjusts does to improve your chances for success. What if you saved 1% more than you are now? What would happen if you pushed out your planned retirement age by 1 year? What if you adjusted your planned spending to a staggered approach instead of a straight line assumption?
If you are in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, you are likely looking at an investment plan that spans some 30 to 50 years. Imagine how little changes will add up over that amount of time.
What small changes have you made so far? How are they adding up? I would love to hear your story.

subset: commoncrawl


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Outfit details: Derek Lam 10 Crosby pants (also here or very similar Zara pair here), Forever 21 floral blouse (similar), earrings from Nordstrom Rack, Glossier tote bag, Theyskens' Theory boots
Today's outfit post is brought to you by this giant blue wall. Thank you, building designer, for making the perfect outfit backdrop. I recently picked these Derek Lam trousers up on a super sale at Nordstrom Rack... I've been having such good luck shopping lately. I thrifted a vintage Issey Miyake two piece skirt and top set, eBay-ed the coolest lion head earrings, and found a crazy Opening Ceremony patent leather jacket on clearance.
It's that time of year where I'm itching for change and reinvention, from rearranging furniture to overhauling my wardrobe, or – gasp – getting bangs again. I've been Pinterest-ing madly to come up with inspiration. Cheers to new beginnings.


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Yvana Ahdab
Yvana is PhD student in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, working on batch reverse osmosis systems for water desalination. She completed her SM at MIT on the minimum energy requirements for groundwater desalination in the continental United States. Prior to attending MIT, Yvana received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the effects of chemical treatment and ocean currents on oil dispersion and worked on the development of an energy harvesting cooling device.
Alexandre Tuel
Alexandre is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. He joined the Eltahir Group in 2016 to work on a project focusing on climate change in Morocco and the Mediterranean. He is trying to explain why the Mediterranean is such a climate change hotspot, and what different dynamics are at play in this large region to reduce precipitation in climate models. Prior to coming to MIT, Alexandre obtained a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering from École Polytechnique.
Aarti Dwivedi
MIT Water Summit Co-Director
Aarti is a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. Prior to attending MIT, she completed Integrated Masters in Technology in Geophysics at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Her research is in crustal deformation, and she has done field work and studied hydrological systems in Antarctica, and St. Lucia.
Janelle Heslop
MIT Water Innovation Prize Co-Director
Janelle is a Leaders for Global Operations Fellow at MIT, pursuing an SM in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an MBA. Before MIT, Janelle was a Senior Associate at Veolia, a leading global water services company, where she managed a large-scale transformation program for NYC's water utility. Previously, Janelle was a management consultant at GreenOrder, advising Fortune 500 companies on their sustainability strategies. In 2013, The Guardian named Janelle one of twitter's "30 most influential sustainability voices" and in 2016 she was named one of Greenbiz's 30 Under 30 emerging sustainability leaders. She graduated with distinction from Columbia University, receiving a B.S. in Earth and Environmental Engineering. Janelle is passionate about ideas at the intersection of water innovation and prosperous communities.
Rajlakshmi De
MIT Water Innovation Prize Co-Director
Raj is a second-year MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management. Her interests include international development, sustainability, technology and analytics. She completed her undergraduate degree in economics at Duke University, and spent three years as a researcher at Stanford Law School and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As a researcher, Raj studied water infrastructure, health, and education in Malawi, innovation in Kenya and Uganda, and financial instruments in rural India. She has also worked with LinkedIn to measure gendered differences in professional self-promotion. At Sloan, Raj plans to help develop technology products that provide improved access to health, water, and sanitation around the world.
Andrew Bouma
MIT Water Night Co-Director
Andrew received his bachelor's degree in engineering with a mechanical concentration from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his S.M in mechanical engineering from MIT. He is now working on his PhD at MIT, studying the energy efficiency and thermodynamics of desalination and brine concentration technologies. "I've enjoyed working with all the passionate and curious people involved with the Water Club. Thinking about and working on water issues that go far beyond the scope of my research topic has helped me to better understand the bigger picture and context in which I'm working and helped me to make valuable connections outside my own research area."
Ana Guedes
MIT Water Night Co-Director
Ana is a Civil Engineer and has recently finished her master's degree in hydraulics and sanitary engineering at the São Carlos School of Engineering – University of São Paulo (Brazil). Her research is focused on groundwater mechanics and concerns a theoretical and small-scale experimental study of a high permeability vertical barrier to encapsulate contaminated areas in aquifers.
Anselmo Cassiano
Lunch & Learn Chair
Anselmo Cassiano holds an MBA in corporate communication FIA/USP. He is a specialist in negotiation, mediation, crisis emergency and business continuity at MIT. He has worked in conflict management at Princeton University and in strategy, conflict and cooperation with the Harvard Economics Department. Previously, he served as 1st Lieutenant while working in the UN Peacekeepers Force in East Timor.
Anselmo loves sports. He is currently captain of the MIT Shotokan Karate and the Triathlon Teams. He volunteers with the MIT co-ed sailing and tennis programs. Finally, as a Brazilian, Anselmo is crazy about soccer.
At MIT, he studies as a Research Affiliate in Water and Climate Change. Specifically working with the WASH-Env Water Sanitation Hygiene Environment Innovation program in developing countries.
Quantum Wei
Webmaster, Marketing
Quantum is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, studying energy-efficient water desalination. His current work focuses on batch reverse osmosis systems. He is also interested in science & technology policy and public outreach. He earned his SM and SB at MIT in mechanical engineering.
Zona Liu
MIT Water Innovation Prize, VP Growth
Zona is a first-year MBA candidate at MIT Sloan. Prior to Sloan, she has led the business development team at HAX (SOSV), the world's largest hardware accelerator-based venture capital fund, working closely with IoT startups across sectors, including consumer, healthcare to industrial robotics. Before HAX, she has spent five years in Principal Strategic Investment team at Goldman Sachs, driving FinTech venture investments in Asia Pacific and structuring strategic partnerships. Zona graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Hong Kong, earning a Bachelor of Economics & Finance as well as Minor in Mathematics. In her spare time, Zona is an enthusiastic scuba diver and has been certified as PADI Divemaster as part of her journey in exploring the blue.
Javier Renna
MIT Water Innovation Prize, VP Partnerships
Javier is a first-year MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management. Javier started his career in investment banking at JP Morgan in Argentina and New York, where he covered clients in the retail and consumer space. After four years, he decided to follow his passion for water sports and sustainability, and partnered with a friend to build a startup making bags and backpacks out of reused kitesurf and boat sails. At MIT, Javier wants to get involved with the water community and find innovative startups that are helping to solve different problems in this space. He graduated with distinctions from McGill University (Montreal, Canada), receiving a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Javier loves the outdoors and has a passion for water sports, mainly surfing and waterskiing.
Jeffrey Tedmori
MIT Water Innovation Prize, VP Business Development
Jeff is a first-year MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management pursuing the Sustainability Certificate. Prior to Sloan, Jeff was living in Southern California, working for Patagonia in various functions including accounting, Finance, and most recently Corporate Development. As a member of the Corporate Development Team, Jeff was conducting due diligence and managing deal flow for Patagonia's Corporate VC, Tin Shed Ventures. At MIT, Jeff plans to focus on impact-driven startups in the water space that address global issues related to fisheries and marine plastic pollution. Jeff is an avid outdoorsman with a passion for backpacking (John Muir Trail, 2018) and all hobbies related to the ocean: fishing, diving, surfing, and sailing. Jeff's internal mission is to use business to preserve the world's oceans.
Somesh Mohapatra
MIT Water Summit
Somesh Mohapatra is a current PhD Candidate at Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his BTech courses in 3 years in 2017, and tried his hands at Bioinformatics in Okinawa (Japan), a government job at UIDAI, and algorithmic trading in Singapore, before diving into the PhD program in the Summer of 2018. Apart from the labs, he can be found on the squash court, sailing on the Charles, cooking in the kitchen or immersed in a discussion on contemporary relevance of spirituality and philosophy at MIT.


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Published on 03 July 2018
Grab an Ultimate School Holiday Pass these School Holidays and have an action-packed holiday!
You can get your pass from Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō or Levin Aquatic Centre.
Limited Tickets Available. Valid for the duration of the school holidays and available for children aged 4-15 years.
By purchasing an Ultimate School Holiday Pass these School Holidays, you are in to win 1 of the following Horowhenua prizes:
To enter this competition, you just need to submit the form on the back of the pass into the Ultimate School Holidays Pass box at any Horowhenua library.
06 368 1953
06 366 0983
[email protected]


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The Wind (2019)
The Wind (2019)
You're seconds away from watching The Wind. You will be asked to register, it's totally free, safe and secure. After registering you'll have full access to download or stream The Wind.
You'll also receive access to over 100,000 movies including brand new Hollywood releases and all the classics.
A supernatural thriller set in the Western frontier of the late 1800s, The Wind stars Caitlin Gerard as a plains-woman driven mad by the harshness and isolation of the untamed land. - The Wind
Release Date: June 6, 2019
6.6 / 10
- Language: en
- Runtime: 86 min


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|Mahabharata character
Ashvatthama uses Narayanastra
Ashwatthama (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थामा, Aśvatthāmā) or Ashwatthaman (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थामन्, Aśvatthāman) or Drauni was the son of guru Drona and the grandson of the sage Bharadwaja. Ashvatthama is a mighty Maharathi[1] who fought on the Kaurava side against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War. Ashvatthama is considered as avatar of one of the eleven Rudras and one of the seven Chiranjivi. Along with his maternal uncle Kripa, Ashvatthama is believed to be a living survivor of the Kurukshetra War.[2] The deceptive plot of his rumoured 'death' led to the beheading of his grieving father Drona, who was incapacitated while meditating for his son's Ātman. Ashwatthama was appointed as the final commander-in-chief of the Kauravas in the Kurukshetra War. Ashwatthama, overcome with grief and rage, manifests his latent powers as a Rudras. He slaughters most of the Pandava camp in a single night offensive. When Arjuna defeated Drupada of Panchala, Drona said that Ashwatthama is new king of panchala kingdom. After that dronacharya gave half kingdom of panchala to drupada.
According to The Mahabharata, Ashwatthama means "the horse-voiced".[3] It is so called because when he was born he cried like a horse.[4]
Birth and Life Prior to the War
Ashwatthama was the son of Dronacharya and Kripi. Drona did many years of severe penance to please Lord Shiva in order to obtain a son who possesses the same valiance as Lord Shiva. Born a Chiranjivi, Ashwatthama was born with a gem in his forehead which gives him power over all living beings lower than humans; it protected him from hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Though an expert in warfare, Dronacharya lived the simple life of a Brahmin, with little money or property. As a result, Ashwatthama had a difficult childhood, with his family unable to even afford milk. Wanting to provide a better life for his family, Drona goes to the Panchal Kingdom to seek aid from his former classmate and friend, King Drupada. However, Drupada rebukes the friendship, claiming a king and a beggar cannot be friends, humiliating Drona.
After this incident, and seeing the plight of Drona, Kripacharya, invited Drona to Hastinapur. There, he came upon the attention of his co-disciple Bhishma. Thus, Dronacharya became the guru of the Pandavas and of the Kauravas in Hastinapur. Ashwatthama was trained in the art of warfare along with them.[5]
Role in the Kurukshetra war
Siding with the Kauravas
Ashwatthama is a notable figure in the war and engages in many battles, though not scoring any significant kills until after his father's death.
Night of 14th day of the battle
On the 14th day of the war when battle continued after sunset, He killed an Akshuhani of Rakshasa and when Anjanaparvan created illusions he penetrated it by Vajra and Vayavya Astra. He also killed Anjanaparvan
Death of Drona
On the 10th day of the war, Bhishma falls, and Drona is named the supreme commander of the armies. He promises Duryodhana that he will capture Yudhishthira, but then he repeatedly fails to do so. Duryodhana taunts and insults him, which greatly angers Ashwatthama, causing friction between Ashwatthama and Duryodhana. Krishna knew that it was not possible to defeat an armed Drona. So, Krishna suggested to Yudhishthira and the other Pandavas, if Drona were convinced that his son was killed on the battlefield, then his grief would leave him vulnerable to attack.
Krishna hatched a plan for Bhima to kill an elephant by the name Ashwatthama while claiming to Drona it was Drona's son who was dead. Ultimately, the gambit works (though the details of it vary depending on the version of the Mahabharata), and Dhristadyumna beheads the grieving sage.
Enraged, Ashwatthama unleashed the Narayanastra, a weapon gifted to him by his father, on the Pandava army. Krishna tells the Pandavas and their warriors to drop their weapons and lie down on the ground so that they all surrender completely to the power of this weapon. Though some like Bhima resist, Krishna and the others manage to restrain or pacify the dissenters, and the weapon is rendered ineffective.
According to the Chaturdhar compilation, the Narayana Astra destroyed one Akshauhini of Pandava army completely. After the use of Narayana Astra, a terrible war between both armies took place. Ashwatthama defeated Dhrishtadyumna in direct combat, but failed to kill him as Satyaki and Bhima covered his retreat. Terrible war took place between the warriors of both sides as Ashwatthama forced both Satyaki and Bhima to withdraw.[6] In his fury, Ashwatthama manages to kill King Nila of Mahismati. Ashwatthama made Arjuna unconscious on 16th day but at last it was Arjuna who defeated Ashwathama .. Ashwatthama again made Arjuna unconscious on 17th day but later Arjuna defeated Ashwathama and made him flee from battlefield .
Becoming commander
After the death of Dushasana, Ashwatthama still suggested Duryodhana that he make peace with the Pandavas, keeping in mind the welfare of Hastinapur. Later, after Duryodhana is struck down by Bhima and facing death, the last three survivors from the Kaurava side, Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritvarma rush to his side. Ashwatthama swears to bring Duryodhana revenge, and Duryodhana appoints him as the commander-in-chief.
Attack on Pandava Camp
On the night after Duryodhana's defeat, a very disturbed and restless Ashwatthama was sleeplessly strategizing under a large tree. An owl ambushing a group of crows caught his attention. This gave him the idea of attacking the Pandava camp at night. The three surviving warriors proceeded to the Pandava camp. Kripa and Kritavarma guarded the exits while Ashwatthama proceeded into the camp.
At this point, there are different versions of the story. According to the analysis done by the scholar Chatahurdi, once arriving at the Pandava camp, they found a Bhairava blocking their entry. So Ashwatthama worshiped Lord Shiva for the fulfillment of his desires, offering himself as an oblation.
This offering pleased Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati; Shiva and Parvati in her most ferocious Kali form appeared before Ashwatthama with their gana's. Also, there appeared millions of Kali Sakthis, Kalika Nityas and Kalika Yoginis. They eagerly awaited the impending massacre.[7] In this version of the story, Shiva enters the body of Ashwatthama, granting him a polished sword. Kali and all of their ganas, Kalika Nityas, Sakthis, Yoginis, and other henchmen join in on the attack. It is Ashwatthama's possession by Shiva that explains his prowess.
Ashwatthama first kicked and woke up Dhrishtadyumna, the commander of the Pandava army and the killer of his father Drona.[8] Ashwatthama strangled the half-awake Dhrishtadyumna to death as the Panchal prince begged to be allowed to die with a sword in his hand. Ashwatthama proceeds with slaughtering the remaining warriors, including Shikhandi, Yudhamanyu, Uttamaujas, and many other prominent warriors of the Pandava army. Those who tried to flee from Ashwatthama's wrath were hacked down by Kripacharya and Kritavarma at the camp's entrance.
At this point, there are numerous different versions of the story. In some, Ashwatthama mistakes the sleeping Upapandavas as the Pandavas and kills them. In others, he knows he is killing the Upapandavas and does so because he cannot find the Pandavas.
After the slaughter, the three warriors go to find Duryodhana. Again, the story has many versions at this point. In some, they find Duryodhana already dead and, mourning, they perform the cremation rites. In others, they find Duryodhana alive; Ashwatthama knows he hasn't killed the Pandavas but lies in order to give his friend some happiness in death. Alternatively, Ashwatthama doesn't know he actually killed the Upapandavas and just reports what he thinks is the truth. In a final version, Ashwatthama tells Duryodhana that he killed the Pandava's children as the Pandavas were not there. There is more divergence; in some versions, this makes Duryodhana happy, as that means the Pandava lineage would die out. In others, this depresses him, as now the entire Kuru line will be defunct. [9]
In all stories, after Duryodhana dies, the trio cremates his body.
Aftermath of the Attack
The Pandavas and Krishna who were away during night, now returned to their camp the next day morning. Hearing the news of these events in the morning Yudhishthira fainted and the Pandavas become inconsolable. The Pandavas, along with Krishna, went searching for Ashwatthama to sage Vyasa's ashram. On seeing the approaching angered Pandavas, Ashwatthama as a last resort, devised a Brahmashirsha astra from a blade of grass and invoked it against the Pandavas and Krishna. Arjuna invokes the same astra, which he received from Drona himself, towards Ashwatthama.
On seeing the two powerful astra's heading for a head on cataclysmic (catastrophic) collision that would result in the total annihilation of the entire Earth, Vyasa stopped these divine weapons from colliding with each other by using his yogic power. He asked both these warriors to withdraw their respective weapons. Arjuna was able to withdraw his Brahmashirsha astra, while Ashwatthama could not do so as Drona did not teach his son how to withdraw it, thus limiting the power of Ashwatthama to use the astra for only one instance. Ashwatthama was given the option of deviating his weapon towards an uninhabited place, so that the astra could explode harmlessly. Out of rage, Ashwatthama instead directed the weapon towards the womb of the pregnant Uttara in an attempt to end the lineage of the Pandavas. The angered Pandavas wanted to kill Ashwatthama, but Sage Vyasa reminded them of the deceitful tactics they had used against the Kauravas.
As a punishment, Ashwatthama was asked to surrender the gem on his forehead. Krishna then cursed Ashwatthama for 3000 years that he will roam in the forests with blood and puss oozing out of his injuries and cry for death. Since he had no fear of death during war, death would not meet him. He will have neither any hospitality nor any accommodation; he will be in total isolation without any contact of physical communication from mankind and society. The wound caused by the removal of this gem on his forehead will not heal and his body will suffer from a host of incurable diseases forming sores and ulcers that would never heal for 3000 years.
- ↑ K M Ganguly (1883–1896). The Mahabharata, Book 5 Udyoga Parva, Section CLXVIII sacred-texts.com, October 2003, Retrieved 2014-02-11
- ↑ Pilot Baba. Pilot Baba and Maharishi Aswathama Retrieved 2015-02-15
- ↑ http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07193.htm
- ↑ http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=azvatthAma&direction=SE&script=HK&link=yes&beginning=
- ↑ K M Ganguly(1883-1896). The Mahabharata,Book 5 Udyoga Parva,Section CLXVIII sacred-texts.com,October 2003,Retrieved 2013-11-14
- ↑ K M Ganguly(1883-1896). The Mahabharatha Book 7: Drona page 478-479 Aswathama defeated Satyaki, Bhima, Drishtadyumna, October 2003, Retrieved 2015-01-13
- ↑ K M Ganguly(1883-1896).The Mahabharata Book 10: Sauptika Parva section 7 Ashwatthama praying to Lord Shiva, October 2003, Retrieved 2015-04-17
- ↑ K M Ganguly(1883-1896). The Mahabharata Book 10: Sauptika Parva section 8 Ashvatthama killing Dhrishtadyumna, October 2003, Retrieved 2015-04-17
- ↑ Dharmakshektra
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ashwatthama.
- Original text online (in Sanskrit)
- GRETIL etext (Muneo Tokunaga)
- Mahābhārata online
- History: Encounters with Ashwatthama


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03 Nov 2017 06:12
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The album is not without surprises, including the partial presence of Boston's George Garzone who gives a lesson or two on the way to bring tenor saxophone into play, as well as former Phil Woods trombonist Hal Crook, who brings along the electrified trom-o-tizer. Both musicians act as catalysts for the core group to play even harder on the few tracks on which they appear.
Karadonev's style is most reminiscent of McCoy Tyner, with a turbulent yet lyrical style that percolates with excitement on the opening title track. The pacing and variety of the disc can be heard on Cole Porter's "Night and Day," followed by Bulgarian music and Karadonev's "Rondo a la Bulgare." Garzone appears on Coltrane's "Like Sonny" and his stimulating solo prods the group into even more intensive performance without crossing into any outside jazz flourishes.
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Nurses and midwives from the Sydney Adventist Hospital held a public protest for the first time in the hospital's 110-year history to push for a better agreement
An "insulting" pay offer led Sydney Adventist Hospital nurses and midwives to mount a strong community campaign, including the first protest rally in the hospital's long history.
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AHCL sought to cut 100% salary sacrificing by half – in effect withholding half the tax benefit from salary packaging – and to abolish the laundry allowance.
"That really fired everybody up," Julia said. "We realised we had to protect 100% salary sacrificing by getting it written into the agreement. It is worth quite a bit of money to us and we knew other facilities like the Mater had it in their bargaining agreement."
The branch also decided to push for parental leave to be paid in full up front instead of the hospital's archaic practice of withholding half the payment until staff returned to work.
AHCL's move to cut allowances and fringe benefits prompted the NSWNMA branch to launch a campaign to win support from the local community. It featured t-shirts and badges, a petition that garnered almost 800 signatures, and a series of reports and letters in local papers.
More than 200 nurses and supporters attended a two-hour protest rally opposite the hospital, which drew enthusiastic support from passing motorists.
"Nurses who attended said the rally was uplifting – it demonstrated our capacity to stand up together and not be taken for granted," Julia said.
As branch secretary Julia was particularly pleased by a big jump in union membership as the campaign wore on. This built on a substantial membership increase during the previous bargaining round two years earlier.
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Julia said the final offer still left San pay rates behind comparable hospitals, such as St Vincent's and the Mater, "but we are creeping up there."
Employees were voting on the AHCL offer as The Lamp went to press.
The offer included:
You'll automatically become a member of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation


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I'm squeezing in some time to thank everyone for an amazing launch of "The Long Game." Yes, there have been mixed reviews. I'm not unhappy with the comments. I find that each reader, after reading 18 books, has a path in mind where they want PEEPs to go. But I have to write the book that is inside me, so as long as everyone is still enjoying the series, it will continue.
I've started book 20. There's no firm title as of yet. It's going to be an interesting book to write. I have two investigators who are either ready to give birth or are several months pregnant. But we women can do just about anything, so I have confidence in the PEEPs team. I have a big surprise at the beginning. I won't spoil it for you, but I'm grinning ear to ear at the moment. For those guessing, it's not Audrey giving birth, try again.
Cid the first novel of Cid Garett P. I. is in editing. The Red Pen hasn't growled at me yet, so I'm thinking she likes it. Crossing my fingers.
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