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Editor's note: With the 2013 Lakers' season imploding within the implosion of the already-imploded season, Grantland's Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons finally caved and started exchanging e-mails about it. To their credit, they resisted the urge to do this for 10 solid weeks. Here's what transpired.
Lowe: So, the Lakers are 17-24.
Simmons: What??? Is that true? Why has ESPN been ignoring this story? What the hell?
Lowe: They're 12-19 since Mike D'Antoni got behind the bench. Their defense is allowing 105.3 points per 100 possessions, which would rank D'Antoni's Lakers about 27th overall (for the season, they rank 19th overall). Dwight Howard has been bad, both by his standards and by those of most good big-man defenders, but the Lakers overall have been much better defensively — about league-average — when he's on the floor.
Simmons: How sad is it that you're complimenting the Lakers for being "much better defensively" when Howard plays, even though they're only league-average? Remember when we were calling him the best defensive center of his generation? Just four years ago, we watched a half-decent Magic team surround him with 3-point shooters and ride his defense and athleticism to the 2009 Finals. Now he's part of the phrase "league-average"? I know this dumbfounding Lakers season is juggling about 39 different inexplicable subplots, but for me, Howard's decline from "third-best player in basketball" to "borderline All-Star" (which is what you called him in Tuesday's All-Star ballot column, and by the way, I totally agree) has been the single most staggering subplot. We're now 13 weeks into the 2012-13 season and Howard doesn't look any more or less mobile/spry/athletic/bouncy than he did on Halloween. He doesn't have the same hops. He's laboring. I watched him in person on Thursday night — he moves just as stiffly as Emeka Okafor does. He plays like a guy with a bad back. It hasn't gotten better. The fact that he's putting up solid numbers is kind of amazing.
Lowe: I think you're a little harsh on Dwight, considering it might take better than league-average individual defense to drag this roster to league-average defense, if that makes sense.
Simmons: You're right. Still, remember last summer when we were assuming Howard would fix whatever problems they had? Everyone thought he'd revert to being 2009-2010-2011 Howard eventually. And that just hasn't happened. There is no evidence that 2009-2010-2011 Howard is coming back. None.
Lowe: I've already written that on some nights, he looks more like Carlos Boozer (sorry, Booz!) than Howard's old self — he's slower on his feet, not as good at positioning himself to cut off pocket passes, and often swiping with his arms instead of sliding his feet to get into proper position. Shoot, Marco Belinelli turned the corner on him in crunch time Monday night in Chicago. His back-line help defense has been slower than usual, and he and Pau Gasol just haven't nailed down any defensive chemistry. He's also been a part of L.A.'s god-awful transition defense — as has Kobe (always gambling for steals in that split second of offense-to-defense chaos after a turnover) and everyone else. He's just slow, basically.
Simmons: Hold on, we have to wait for the Orlando Magic fans to stop high-fiving.
Lowe: By the way: I (fake) voted Howard MVP in 2011 and thought he was the second-best player in the league after that season. Kevin Durant would have passed him by now regardless, but Howard was that good.
Simmons: Yessir. After the 2011 season ended, you could safely say three players guaranteed you 46-plus wins if you gave them 11 average teammates — LeBron, Howard and Durant. Now? It's a two-man list. And I don't think people realize how young Howard is he just turned 27 years old. He's two months older than Rajon Rondo! For everyone saying, "Well, he just has to play himself back into shape," um how do we know for sure? Maybe he's never going to be the same. I remember when Larry Johnson was battling a herniated disk in the mid-'90s, he had the surgery and everyone said, "He'll be fine, he'll be the old LJ soon." Never happened. He lost his explosiveness, stopped being the same rebounder, and reinvented himself as an outside shooter. Check this out
Larry Johnson, age 24: 40.5 MPG, 22.1 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, 53% FG, 18.9 PER
Larry Johnson, age 29: 34.4 MPG, 12.8 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 2.3 APG, 51% FG, 15.8 PER
Larry Johnson, age 30: 33.4 MPG, 12.0 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 46% FG, 14.6 PER
So for anyone saying, "Howard just needs to play himself back into shape," what evidence do we have that it will happen?
Lowe: It's tough to find equivalency between injuries, only because each case is specific to each player's injury, age, recovery tendencies, genetics, etc. Players have managed back issues before — including Steve Nash for several years in his mid-30s and beyond — and Howard is still pretty young. But I suppose it's possible he never regains 100 percent of his peak. Hard to know either way.
Simmons: The red flag for me: Howard isn't a physically overpowering presence like, say, Shaq was. His athleticism was what made him overpowering, no different than LeBron, Russell Westbrook or even Serge Ibaka (on some nights, anyway). Athletically, Dwight was on another planet. He could jump three times before everyone else jumped twice. He lived above the rim — you literally couldn't keep him away from it. Now you can. So would they consider dealing him? That question ballooned into a legitimate news story last night after ESPN.com reported that Dwight was unhappy: Suddenly, if you're the Lakers, maybe you should consider keeping Gasol and trading Howard (someone who might be leaving next summer, anyway) over dealing Gasol for 45 cents on the dollar. They've botched Gasol's trade value so badly, it just seems like they'd get more value for Howard, right?
Lowe: I just can't see them trading Howard unless he demands it (and who knows, maybe we're headed that way). As you say, there is a degree of uncertainty over his recovery from back surgery, but one end of that uncertainty has him rediscovering his peak form in short order. If he does that, you have to keep him around, especially since the other All-Star center whom you traded for him only makes news for growing his hair out and taking stand-still 3s in practice at this point. But the iffy chemistry going on in L.A. right now at least leaves the Howard free-agency door open. Dallas and Atlanta must be itching to pitch him.
Simmons: It's going to hinge on the team's level of desperation. If you're Dallas, you just blew a title defense AND the tail end of Dirk Nowitzki's prime. You're in NBA no-man's land — fringe lottery, fringe playoffs — without a single under-27 player to build around unless you overpay O.J. Mayo. You're also owned by someone who despises the word "irrelevant" in anything he's doing, someone who took a pretty calculated risk allowing Tyson Chandler to leave that totally backfired. (Semi-related: How nice would Chandler be as a trade chip for Howard right now? Whoops.)
Lowe: Chandler is a nice example of injury-related uncertainty, by the way. He's one of the 15 best players in the league now and couldn't even start for the Bobcats in the 2010 playoffs.
Simmons: Very true. That's why the Mavs would roll the dice on Dwight no matter what. Either way, it's going to be the best episode of Shark Tank ever. I don't know about Atlanta or Houston. The Lakers could offer Dwight to Atlanta for Al Horford and Kyle Korver right now and I think the Hawks would say no. (Imagine reading that sentence two years ago.) But Howard for Omer Asik, Chandler Parsons, Terrence Jones, Carlos Delfino and expirings? I think Houston says yes and the Lakers probably say no.
Lowe: The Lakers definitely say no to Houston there. The general Horford-for-Howard thing is interesting, but Horford is a fantastic asset to surrender in exchange for a guy who has been unreliable and immature for the past two years — a guy who could really use Stan Van Gundy right about now. I mean, Howard is making noise about "playing inside-out," according to our ESPN colleagues, by which he presumably means he needs more post-up attempts. Does he just not understand that centering an offense on pick-and-rolls is playing inside-out, since it is based upon the idea that Howard rolling through the lane is going to draw perimeter defenders, um, inside? Does he not like that inside-out strategy as much as straight post-ups, since the latter by definition amounts to passing him the ball, and a pick-and-roll could be designed to free Kobe for a 3?
Simmons: This is just one of many reasons why I don't see Dwight going into coaching after he retires. Acting, yes. Infomercials, yes. Professional wrestling, yes. Joining the cast of Sesame Street, yes. Coaching, no.
Lowe: Back to the Hawks — they'll have cap room this summer, they know Howard's back is still bothering him, and Horford is a great all-around player. I'd pass, but doing so would make me sweat a bit if I were Danny Ferry.
Simmons: It's just a shame the Lakers can't get Nikola Vucevic, Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington and Mo Harkless for Dwight. (Sorry, I had to.)
Lowe: Ouch. To your other point: Howard has definitely lost a lot of "leaping at the rim" explosiveness. Go back and watch all the Nash/Howard pick-and-rolls from the Chicago game. They literally lead nowhere. Joakim Noah dropped down to cut off Nash as Kirk Hinrich went over the Howard screen, and Noah was able to basically stop Nash while staying within arm's length of Dwight. Why? In part because Howard's rolls to the rim were so slow, and so late, that Nash (looking old, by the way) didn't really have any chance to pass him the ball.
Simmons: Glad you brought up Nash, whose possible decline has been the ninth-most fascinating Lakers story this season, one spot above Robert Sacre's otherworldly bench celebrations and one spot below Antawn Jamison's enthrallingly boring quest to pass 20,000 points. (He's 493 away, if you care.) The Nash fan in me is hoping, "His leg hasn't healed yet, he's playing hurt, that's why he's a step slow. He'll get it back; he's Steve Nash." The Laker hater in me is hoping "Steve Nash is washed up, or headed that way and he has two years left on his deal after this year!" He's a step and a half slow right now. We've been down this road with great NBA players before — they don't "lose it" as much as their bodies just start to break down. Too early to say if it's happening with Nash, but we're not off to a good start.
Lowe: Yeah, I mentioned the state of Nash in Tuesday's column. It's probably a combination of factors, at least some of which can change over time — his recovery from a broken leg, his team-first instinct to feed everyone, the feeling-out process he has with a new roster, etc. But some of it is certainly age-related, and that won't change.
Simmons: I have enjoyed the Nash-Kobe bonding stories, though. Supposedly they've been breaking down tape for hours and hours like they're Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels. How many times do you think Kobe has said, "Steve, seriously, what the f— is wrong with Dwight?"
Lowe: Another reason why Howard hasn't thrived for the Lakers: The Lakers can't space the floor around that pick-and-roll play with him and Nash. The guys guarding Earl Clark and World Peace have a step in the lane basically by the time Nash crosses mid-court, and the other defender is not exactly treating Bryant like Ray Allen. As we'll get to later, this is one reason I'm not sure why the Lakers are in such a rush to bench Pau.
Simmons: I'm glad we finally got to Pau. Here's a good rule of thumb: If you're a professional basketball coach and your system is telling you, "I should play Earl Clark more than Pau Gasol," you need a new system.
Lowe: Here's something interesting: L.A.'s theoretical best five-man lineup — Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Howard — has played just 132 minutes together all season. The same lineup with Earl Clark in Pau's spot has already played 71 minutes! The Pau five is about plus-2 overall, but they've been horrid defensively — like league-worst horrid, giving up about 109 points per 100 possessions. Has D'Antoni sort of short-circuited this lineup too quickly, given all the roster and injury turmoil the Lakers have faced? I mean, we're talking about Earl Clark!
Simmons: I like how you went Iverson right there. Totally warranted.
Lowe: Earl Clark is a nice athlete, helpful on defense and on the boards, but he's not going to space the floor for Howard pick-and-rolls — which haven't been all that effective on their own, anyway.
Simmons: You left out "And someone who shouldn't be playing as much as Pau Gasol." There are two types of coaches
1. A coach who looks at his players and says, "How can I put these guys in the best position for them to succeed?"
2. A coach who looks at his players and says, "How can I use these guys to make my system succeed?"
Now, think about the mind-set driving Coach No. 2: He's basically saying, I'm here only because of my system. I can't actually coach. If you give me the wrong players for my system, it doesn't matter — I will keep using the system anyway, because Plan B would be coming up with a more inventive way to coach these guys. And I can't do that. I'm not good enough. So if it's OK with you, I'd like to go down in flames with my system.
That's what D'Antoni did in New York (cut to Knicks fans nodding vigorously), that's what he's doing with the Lakers right now, and that's what he'll be doing when he's coaching the Minnesota Lynx in three years.
Lowe: I'm generally a fan of D'Antoni. I defended the hiring, and I consider him a very smart basketball person whose teams in Phoenix played much better defense — about league-average defense — than commentators who don't factor in pace would understand.
Simmons: I defended the hiring as well, mainly because I thought for sure he'd learn from his mistakes in New York. Nope. Instead, it's almost like he blew those mistakes out into a much fancier sequel — a little like how Mike Myers blew out Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, added new characters and beefed up Dr. Evil's backstory. I always thought D'Antoni grabbed the money in New York. He knew that wasn't the right roster for him, he knew Chicago was a better fit but he couldn't walk away from that fat paycheck. Now it's happened twice. He's obviously a coach who can succeed only with a certain type of roster and certain types of players. Stick him on Miami or even Houston and he'd look like a genius again. He just picked the wrong team. Twice.
Lowe: It's fitting that we're discussing this stuff right after the Lakers lost to a Chicago team giving heavy minutes to Nate Robinson. Do you think Tom Thibodeau, defensive perfectionist and no-nonsense soul, actually likes Nate Robinson's game? Heck no. But he needs Robinson's offense, so he's using him. D'Antoni didn't like Robinson in New York, so he buried him at the end of the bench, unleashing him now and then out of desperation for the inevitable Nate-Rob explosion. Which is to say: If D'Antoni has flaws as a coach, one of them might be a certain kind of stubbornness that affects his rotation choices and strategy. Connected to that: It just feels like he's overthinking it with this team, which is why I brought up the fact that his "best five" lineup has barely played.
Simmons: You just came up with the perfect title for Jack McCallum's next D'Antoni book: A Certain Type of Stubbornness. Isn't it Mike D's job to figure out how to play his best players as much as possible? The Lakers have some pretty obvious strengths: They're bigger than everyone else, they're blessed with three high-IQ hoop guys (Gasol, Kobe and Nash), and it's pretty easy for them to score. Their weaknesses are also pretty obvious: They're a painfully slow team, it can be clumsy having two low-post guys, their transition defense is horrific, and they can't guard anyone on the perimeter.
Guess what? If those are your weaknesses, you shouldn't be playing at the second-fastest pace in the league (which is what they're doing right now). The Lakers should be playing at such a slow pace, we should be having 'Nam-like flashbacks to Mike Fratello's excruciating Cavaliers teams. Instead, they swung the other way because I'M MIKE D'ANTONI AND THIS IS HOW I COACH BASKETBALL! It's seriously one of the dumbest things I've ever watched. I hate the Lakers and even I'm offended by this — purely as a basketball fan, it's insulting to watch good players being criminally misused like this.
Lowe: It's pretty hard to defend having Earl Clark, a journeyman who can't shoot, starting over Pau Gasol. And look at how weird the matchups are at times when the Lakers are on defense. Bryant is sometimes guarding opposing point guards because (a) Nash has to hide somewhere, and (b) Bryant's off-ball defense has been so irresponsibly lazy, D'Antoni has to give him something to do at all times. It's like putting a (very smart) student in study hall instead of giving him a free period. Metta World Peace is playing power forward, and though he's tough down there, teams are going to attack him in the post if they can. That leaves Clark to chase around speedy 2-guards, and in the last few days alone, he's had to defend DeMar DeRozan and Rip Hamilton. Clark is quick for his size, but not so quick that he should be chasing 2-guards around off-ball screens. And then, when Jamison comes in for World Peace, D'Antoni at times has been shifting Clark down to defend big guys, which means Jamison has to defend wings out on the perimeter.
Simmons: Something he couldn't do five years ago, much less now.
Lowe: Jimmy Butler and Hamilton both burned Jamison on cuts Monday night. I watch the Lakers now and think, Basketball really shouldn't be this complicated, even with the Gasol/Howard fit issues.
Simmons: Everyone arguing that Gasol is washed-up (or close to washed-up) is taking crazy pills. He's a conventional center who likes playing down low. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. When they made the 2008 Finals and won the 2009 and 2010 titles, it happened with Gasol playing center, Lamar Odom playing power forward and Bynum either wearing a suit or carrying the second team's offense. Here, look:
2008 Playoffs: Gasol, 39.7 MPG
Odom, 37.4 MPG
Bynum, 0.0 MPG
2009 Playoffs: Gasol, 40.5 MPG Odom, 32.0 MPG Bynum, 17.4 MPG
2010 Playoffs: Gasol, 39.8 MPG Odom, 29.0 MPG Bynum, 24.4 MPG
Game 4 of the 2009 Finals swung that series: Lakers 99, Magic 91 (overtime). Gasol played 49 minutes, Odom played 28 minutes, Bynum played 16 minutes.
Game 6 of the 2010 Finals (backs to the wall against Boston): Gasol played 41 minutes (17 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists), Odom played 28 minutes, Bynum played 16 minutes.
Game 7 of the 2010 Finals (L.A. beats Boston in final minute): Gasol played 42 minutes (19 points, 18 rebounds), Odom played 35 minutes, Bynum played 19 minutes.
In the 2011 playoffs? Bynum jumped to 32 minutes per game. The following year, he averaged 35.2 minutes in the regular season and 37.6 minutes in the playoffs. Suddenly Gasol wasn't a traditional low-post center anymore — no wonder his numbers suffered. He's not Dirk Nowitzki, and he's not going to thrive playing 20 feet from the basket. I've said this 10 times on television already, but I'm saying it again: I went to the 2012 Summer Olympics and watched three of Spain's games in person, when they revolved everything around a high-low game with the Gasol Hermanos (Marc up top, Pau down low). Nobody could stop them. In the gold-medal game, he was ripping up Team USA's double-teams and doing whatever he wanted. So you can't say his skills atrophied, or that he's washed-up, because there's absolutely no evidence that he's not still a franchise low-post center if you use him like a franchise low-post center.
Lowe: You're on point bringing up Odom. What we're really seeing here is the long-term trickle-down effect of Odom losing his game and the Lakers eventually dealing him away.
Simmons: I applaud you for having the strength to avoid a Kardashian reference there.
Lowe: I'm proud to barely have any idea who/what the Kardashians are. In 2010-11, Odom's last season in L.A., Gasol played 867 minutes with Bynum on the floor and 2,170 with Bynum on the bench. In 2009-10, the split was 906 minutes with Bynum/1,497 without him. You can read this a few different ways. On the one hand, the Lakers were successful regardless of which alignment they used. Gasol's shot selection drifted away from the immediate rim area when he played with Bynum, but nowhere near to the degree it's happening now. In 2011, about 42 percent of Gasol's shots came in the restricted area when Bynum sat, with the share dropping to 35.5 percent when Bynum played next to Gasol, per NBA.com. Today? About 41 percent of Gasol's shots come in the restricted area when he's the only big on the court, but just 28.8 percent come that close to the rim when Howard's also out there. More damaging: Gasol has taken more shots from outside 15 feet than from inside the restricted area during those Howard minutes, and he's shooting about 35 percent on those long shots. Gasol's shots from outside 15 feet never outnumbered his restricted-area shots like this under Mike Brown or Phil Jackson — not even when Bynum was clogging the lane.
Simmons: Allow me to interject for a second HE'S THE BEST LOW-POST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE! This is ridiculous!!!!!!! OK, keep going.
Lowe: I don't think that's true anymore, but I'll get there. The easy way to read those shot-selection numbers is to criticize D'Antoni for misusing Gasol, when Brown and especially Jackson (via the triangle) found ways to make the two-bigs thing work in a plurality of Laker minutes. And there's something to that. I'll repeat something I wrote about the Knicks drama last season: There are 90-95 possessions in an NBA game; you should be able to split those up while keeping everyone happy and playing enough to everyone's strengths.
Simmons: Case in point: Durant and Westbrook. That's a situation that, historically, doesn't work (two first-class alpha-dog scorers on the same team), but OKC figured out how to make it work.
Lowe: On the other hand, Gasol's shot selection became more perimeter-oriented last season under Brown, and he's shooting well below his standards this season regardless of lineup context. Gasol is still shooting only 49.5 percent when Howard is on the bench, even though he's taking more shots at the rim — and making those shots at a solid clip, if not a dominant one. He's struggling badly on short hooks just outside the restricted area. He doesn't have the same lift, and his defense, never a strong suit, has declined. Maybe he's just not the same player, after the Olympics, plantar fasciitis, more serious tendinosis, etc.
Simmons: That's it, I'm e-mailing the great Kirk Goldsberry and asking him to slap together a before-and-after Pau shot chart. Hold on. (Sending e-mail.) OK, I'm back. Not to sound like a Pau apologist, but I do believe many of his issues are mental. Fans and media members have been picking him apart for years, he's been forced to play out of position, he's always in trade rumors, he's taken more than a few public shots from Kobe (and God knows how many behind the scenes) I mean, what's fun about being Pau Gasol other than having a smoking-hot Spanish girlfriend and making $19 million a year? He needs a change of scenery. Desperately. That's why I would trade for him. And look, I'm not saying Pau is perfect or anything. He's definitely been a little too sensitive at times, and he can't be defended for no-showing the 2011 Dallas series no matter how many minutes Bynum was playing.
Lowe: He was also pretty "blah" against New Orleans in that postseason; Carl Landry outplayed him for long stretches, and there were all sorts of rumors about various off-court/mental issues dogging him then.
Simmons: And he didn't exactly light up the 2012 playoffs, either. I am conceding those points. Still, D'Antoni's biggest mistake with the Lakers — and he's made a few doozies, so this is a strong statement — was how ignorantly he handled Pau's situation from the get-go. You can't come out of the gate benching Pau in a fourth quarter. As soon as that happened — coupled with all the other Pau-related slights over the years — everyone who follows this team closely knew that (a) Pau wasn't going to play hurt for him, and (b) Pau was going to check out emotionally. When you have a four-man team, you can't lose one of those four guys within the first week. Which is what D'Antoni did. So Pau took his sweet time to recover from "knee tendinitis" — which is code for "EFF YOU!" — and it's just never been the same.
Lowe: It was a little strange how quickly he put his foot down on Pau — and, again, I'm a moderate D'Antoni supporter. Watching these Lakers, I'm also reminded of a section from Seven Seconds or Less, Jack McCallum's fantastic book about the 2005-06 Suns, in which then-assistant Alvin Gentry declares in a coaches' meeting during the conference finals that he can no longer track what defense the Suns are supposed to play in various situations. Sound familiar? The Lakers don't handle side pick-and-rolls with any consistency; sometimes they try to force them toward the baseline, and sometimes they don't do this at all, letting non-threats like Kirk Hinrich get into the middle. They defended Jose Calderon on Sunday in Toronto as if he were actually a threat to turn the corner, sending poor Gasol to blitz him on high pick-and-rolls. And then they just gave Calderon jumpers on side pick-and-rolls. It was maddening.
And then on one of the very first possessions of the Chicago game on Monday, the Bulls ran a play they use often enough that even a dope like me saw it coming (and wrote about it — see item no. 8 — as it was happening. The Lakers, and Howard especially, reacted so late it was as if the Bulls had sprung the Statue of Liberty on them. I mean, as you say: What's the plan here?
Simmons: The best part is that the Lakers have something like 19 assistant coaches and they're still poorly prepared. They're the only team that needs two rows of seating to fit all of their assistant coaches behind their bench — they look like CNN's set on election night.
OK, here's the fun part: Unless Howard pushes his way out of town in the next few weeks, we know they're definitely dealing Pau even though they've murdered 50 percent of his trade value. But we also know they're vehemently opposed to adding any non-Howard salary beyond the 2013-14 season because their delusional legacy-kid owner, Jimmy Buss, wants to make a run at LeBron James. (And if you didn't know that, well, I just told you. And it's true.) That makes Pau extremely tough to trade and rules out some of the usual suspects (Andrea Bargnani, Amar'e Stoudemire, Zach Randolph, Ersan Ilyasova, Carlos Boozer, Ryan Anderson, etc.), and that's before we get to his price tag ($19 million this year, $19.3 million next year). I'm also ruling out Chris Bosh just because he knows where all the 2010 Decision bodies are buried and there's no way Miami would ever trade him. And I'm ruling out Boston just because Paul Pierce is retiring as a Celtic (at least I hope so).
We also know they'd have to take back about $15 million in any Pau trade to make the salaries work. Which leaves us with the remaining possible suitors: Indiana: Danny Granger (expires 2014) Denver: Andre Iguodala (expires 2013) Dallas: Shawn Marion (expires 2013) and O.J. Mayo (expires 2013) and
Wait, we're done? I guess we're done. An Iguodala/Timofey Mozgov package from Denver makes the most sense; the Nuggets could easily replace Iguodala's minutes with Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari, and Gasol would fit in pretty nicely with everything Denver is doing. Lawson, Chandler, Gallinari, Faried and Gasol at crunch time? Yikes. For the Lakers, Iguodala solves the "Who's guarding [fill in the best perimeter player]?" issue, allows them to play smaller, gives them some much-needed speed and sets up a dramatic "Who can make a more absurd underbite face after a big shot?" contest between Kobe and Iggy. Everyone wins. Why can't that trade happen, Zach Lowe?
Lowe: It could. You can bet Denver has thought about it, and they clearly need another consistent big man. That's why I called them my favorite unlikely Josh Smith destination. Gasol for Chandler/Iggy would also save them a bit of money, both this year and next, and that matters to the Nuggets. Denver has had a lot of roster turnover in the last couple of years, and they'd probably prefer to cool off a bit and let these guys develop. But stick another competent big man here, and this team could be really, really dangerous. Dropping Iguodala would really hurt them defensively, though. It's an interesting proposition, but unless Denver sees something more from Gasol in the next few weeks, they'd be wary. And Iggy doesn't solve the Lakers' perimeter shooting issues, though he could take minutes from Clark/Jamison.
Simmons: Wow, you just talked yourself in and out of my fake trade in the course of one paragraph. That was amazing. Wait, how are we approaching 5,000 words and neither of us has brought up Kobe Bryant yet? How much longer can someone in his 17th NBA season score 30 points a game while defending the other team's best perimeter player? What kind of coffee is this guy drinking? And where can I get some?
Lowe: Germany? Is there such a thing as German-style coffee? Kobe has been fantastic given his age/mileage, but his shooting has fallen off over the last month, and his defense has been bad all season — to the point that one solid game against a 40 percent shooter (Brandon Jennings) drew actual headlines/news stories. But Kobe is still Kobe — a great all-around scorer who doesn't quite optimize his decision-making on offense, conserves energy on defense, and can hurt teams in a lot of different ways. He's not as great now as Kobe fanboys would argue, and not nearly as "bad" as Kobe haters would suggest. He's probably somewhere in the no. 6–no. 10 range in player-by-player rankings, and that's pretty damn amazing considering his age.
Simmons: He's also reinvented himself on Twitter and Facebook, given a few compelling interviews and established himself as the premier "I don't give a shit, I'm old, I'm gonna be gone soon, I'm just saying what I think" athlete in sports. Big year for Kobe. Going forward, it's going to be fascinating to see what matters to him more — retiring as a lifelong Laker with five rings and somewhere between 35,000 and 38,000 points, or chasing that sixth ring somewhere else (and matching Jordan).
I don't think he will win another ring with the Lakers, and here's why: They're an absolute mess behind the scenes. Jimmy Buss is like James Dolan 2.0 — it's like the Dolan Experience all over again, only if Dolan had even fewer credentials and couldn't stop feuding with other members of his family. You know why that Phil Jackson situation was handled so poorly last November? Because Jimmy Buss has an enormous complex about Phil and his sister Jeannie, that's why. For one thing, Jeannie is well respected around the NBA as a sharp thinker; people always assumed that Dr. Buss would turn the Lakers over to her. But apparently, Buss wanted one of his sons to assume control because of the always-frightening reason of Jeannie already has something for herself, I want one of my sons to have something, too.
That's how Jimmy Buss ended up in charge of the Lakers. You can't even find decent information about him on the Internet. Seriously, surf around online and try to figure out what Jimmy Buss has been doing since college, or even if he graduated from college. It's murky. He's not nearly as accomplished as his sister and that's an understatement. Now he's running the Lakers instead of Jeanie, to the utter confusion of just about everyone. So what happened when his sister's boyfriend positioned himself as the savior of this year's Lakers team, and Lakers fans were clamoring for him to come back? Not only did Jimmy Buss swerve against the grain and pick a different coach, he had GM Mitch Kupchak call his sister's boyfriend late at night to drop that bomb on him presumably as his sister was lying in bed next to him! This wasn't a coaching hire as much as a rejected plot from Parenthood.
Zach, I will leave you with this: If we've learned anything from professional sports over the years, it's that nobody can inflict more damage on a franchise than an incompetent owner. Just look at how the Maloofs destroyed basketball in Sacramento, or what James Dolan did to the Ewing era, or what Donald Sterling did for his first 25 years with the Clippers. There's a really good chance that Jimmy Buss might be THAT bad. And if that's the case, I guarantee Kobe is already coming up with an exit plan. We will see.


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|The White House
President George W. Bush
|Print this document
For Immediate Release
August 24, 2006
Q Ari, in an era of bipartisanship after the war, when it comes to judicial nominations, Senator Daschle basically told the President yesterday that it was his way or the highway. When is there some sort of compromise going to come? Does the President expect in the next couple of months, maybe after the appropriations bills are passed, that there will be some meeting of the minds here about going forward? And what sort of message does this send in case there, for example, was a Supreme Court vacancy at this time?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the Senate did, yesterday, pass four judges and I believe they also passed -- I believe it was 14, perhaps 18 U.S. Attorneys.
Having said that, the traditions of the Senate, going back many a year, are that in particularly a President's first year in office, almost everybody that the President has nominated up to the August recess has been confirmed. And that is a long-standing tradition. And given the fact that there are -- numerous judicial emergencies have been declared, that there is a shortage of judges on the benches, given the importance of winning the war on terrorism and avoiding bottlenecks in the courts as federal cases are brought, the President does think it is terribly important for the Senate to take action on the judges before they adjourn.
Q And how about the nomination of John Walters to be drug czar? That was made a long time ago and he's still waiting.
MR. FLEISCHER: That, too, is a priority for the President. He is hopeful that the Senate will take action on John Walters as the drug czar. Afghanistan happens to be one of the largest producers of drugs in the world, and the President thinks it would be very productive to have the drug czar put in place.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Double tap to zoom
Rugged and Durable
All tillage tools need to be built to handle the stress of the fast paced industry of today. However, deep tillage machines with depth capacities well below the normal operating depths need to be especially tough. In many instances these tools will be operating in profiles that have never been touched by a tillage tool before. The Zone Commander has what it takes.
The Frame
Built with 6" x 4" structural steel tubing, the robotically welded frame is the foundation for the heavy-duty Cat. II, III or IV three-point hitch. The robust frame is the anchor for the lead coulters that start the tillage process. The rear bar of the frame supports the Zone Commander's shank assemblies.
The Shank Mount
The Zone Commander shank mounts are built to withstand the rigorous torture that operating in unknown soil profiles can dish out. The auto-reset shank assemblies allow for 3,500 lbs. of point load and 17" of trip height. Rigid shear bolt models are also available for areas with minimal soil obstructions.
The Shank Leg
The heart and soul of the Zone Commander is the shank leg, which cuts a narrow slot into the soil profile. The geometry of the shank leg and the shape of the point combine to lift and lower the soil between the slots and develop a network of horizontal cracks and breaks between the shanks. This slot along with the cracks and breaks created in the growth profile allow water and oxygen to infiltrate the soil to enhance plant growth for the next season. The depth of the slot is determined by how deep and thick the compaction layer is. This process is instrumental in keeping the biological environment favorable for residue decomposition.
Versatility in Options
The Zone Commander can be equipped with either auto-reset shank assemblies or rigid shear bolt shanks. Shank leg options include the 1 ¼" straight leg, the 1 ¼" parabolic leg, or the ¾" low disturbance shank. Spring cushion lead coulters with different blade options cut the residue and slice the upper layers in the soil profile ahead of the shanks. Easily adjustable gauge wheels allow for quick, positive depth changes for different conditions. The Zone Commander is available in 3 to 7 shank non-folding models and in 7, 8 and 9 shank folding models.
Your Investment
The Zone Commander is more than just another ripper. The Zone Commander can be an integral part of almost any type of cropping scenario. Even though these machines were initially designed for deep in-line tillage, some customers use the Zone Commander for incorporation practices such as sludge and manure application. Others have utilized the parabolic shank leg option for more disturbance on the soil surface. Still others have opted for the low disturbance shank legs for the absolute least amount of surface disturbance. From true no-tillers to conventional tillage aficionados, the Zone Commander and its concept of compaction management is a yield enhancement investment.
The Brillion Zone Commander…one machine…widely diversified…your investment.
Extra Tough Features For Deep Tillage
•6" x 4" Double Bar Frame
•Cat. II, III Narrow Three-Point Hitch for Narrow Non-Folding Models
•Cat. III, IV Three-Point Hitch for Standard Non-Folding Models and Folding Models
•40 ½" Under Frame Clearance
•Maximum Working Depth of 20"
•Heavy-Duty Coulter Assemblies with 22" Smooth Blades
•600 lbs. of Down Pressure on Coulter Assemblies
•Coulter Assemblies - 6" Trip Height
•Screw-Type Adjustable Gauge Wheels with 20.5 x 8-10, 8 Ply Tires
•Parking Stands
•Powder Coat Paint
•LED Warning Lights & SMV Emblem
Versatility & Reliability
•Auto-Reset or Rigid Shear Bolt Shank Assemblies
•Choice of Straight Leg Shanks, Parabolic Shanks or Low Disturbance Shanks
•Variety of Points and Wearstrips Available
•17" Trip Height on Auto-Reset Models
•3,500 lbs. of Point Load on Auto-Reset Models
•Options Available for Coulter Assemblies
|Approximate Weight
|4,120 lbs. (1,869 kg)
|Working Width
|15 ft. 0 in. (4.6 m)
|Transport Width
|14 ft. 2 in. (4.3 m)
|Frame Type
|Standard Non-Folding
|Frame Structure
|6 in. x 4 in. (152 x 102 mm) Double Bar Frame
|Frame Construction
|Laser Cut Components; Robotically Welded
|Frame Extensions
|12 in. (305 mm) Bolt-On
|Coulter Assemblies
|Number of Coulters
|Coulter Blade Diameter
|22 in. (559 mm) Smooth Blade (Standard)
|Coulter Protection
|Adjustable Spring Cushion
|Coulter Down Pressure
|600 lbs. (272 kg)
|Coulter Trip Height
|6 in. (152 mm)
|22 in. Ripple Coulter
|22 in. Pyramid Coulter
|Number of Shanks
|Shank Type
|Rigid Shear Bolt
|Shear Bolt Size
|0.625 in. x 5.5 in. (15.9 x 140 mm) Grade 5
|Shank Leg Type*
|1.25 in. x 5 in. x 36 in. (32.8 x 127 x 914 mm) Straight Leg Shank
|1.25 in. x 4 in. (32.8 x 102 mm) Parabolic Shank
|0.75 in. x 6 in. x 36 in. (19 x 152 x 914 mm) Low Disturbance Shank
|Shank Spacing
|30 in. (762 mm)
|Maximum Shank Working Depth
|20 in. (508 mm)
|Under Frame Clearance
|40.5 in. (1.0 m)
|Points for Straight Leg Shanks
|2 in. (50.8 mm) V-Shaped Cast C.A.D.I. Point (Standard)
|Wearstrips for Straight Leg Shanks
|C.A.D.I. Reversible Wearstrip (Standard)
|Points for Parabolic Shanks
|2.375 in. (60.3 mm) V-Cap C.A.D.I. Point (Standard)
|7 in. (178 mm) Wing Point (Optional)
|Wearstrips for Parabolic Shanks
|C.A.D.I. Wearstrip (Standard)
|Points for Low Disturbance Shanks
|2 in. (50.8 mm) V-Shaped Cast Point (Standard)
|Wearstrips for Low Disturbance Shanks
|0.75 in. (19 mm) Wearstrip (Standard)
|Gauge Wheels
|(2) Standard
|Gauge Wheel Type
|Adjustable Screw Type
|Gauge Wheel Hubs
|Gauge Wheel Tire Size
|20.5 x 8-10, 8 Ply Tires
|Three-Point Hitch
|Cat. III, IV
|Coverboard Kit
|12 in. Offset Shank Mounts
|Rear Hitch
|Berm Tucker/Closing Wheel Assembly
|Parking Stands
|Powder Coat Paint, Red
|LED Warning Lights & SMV Emblem
|Horsepower Requirements
|30 to 40 HP (22 to 30 kW) Per Shank
|Recommended Operating Speed
|3 to 5 MPH (4.8 to 8.0 km/h)
Copyright © 2023 - All Rights Reserved - EquipmentLocator.com


text: International Relations,Japan,Taiwan | October 22, 2013 Written by Misato Matsuoka & Michal Thim. There is a lot of buzz about U.S. rebalancing policy, but at the end of the day it is not a massive policy change from the U.S. perspective and neither is it one from the perspective of U.S. allies and partners, old and emerging ones, in the region. The increase of a U.S. military presence has been rather symbolic so far (e.g. deployment of U.S. Marines in Australia or new radar and reconnaissance drones in Japan). The U.S. interest in developing closer economic ties and removing existing barriers is not that new either. Negotiations (at times quite controversial) between the U.S. on the one side and Japan, Korea, or Taiwan on the other, regarding removal of trade barriers have been going for years and all these economies plus China are already major trade partners to the U.S. The relatively new element of the U.S. economic engagement is the intent to use the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), formerly an organization consisting of rather small economies from both sides of Asia-Pacific, as a vehicle for moving towards a massive free trade zone. What is new in this respect is the changed dynamic that came along with China's rise as economic and military power holder. U.S. rebalancing is to a large extent a reaction to this development as well as the acknowledgment of the increasing prominence of the whole region. However, in terms of capabilities it stands on long-present U.S. security and economic commitments in the region. Thus, rebalancing is about strengthening existing and developing emerging alliances and partnerships and as such it is to a large degree a reaction to demands of regional stakeholders who are worried about recent Beijing's posturing in South and East China Seas. The case of the complex web of relations among the U.S., Japan and Taiwan is a good example of the flexible approach of the U.S. rebalancing policy, combining official defence ties with Japan, unofficial partnership with Taiwan, and the convergence of interests in Taiwan-Japan relations. If we were looking for arguments as to why the U.S.-Japan-Taiwan triangle is a relationship to follow closely, the 3rd Taiwan-U.S.-Japan Trilateral Security Dialogue forum (hereafter trilateral forum or forum), held in Taipei on 15 October, provided more than a handful of ideas. The event was organised by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the Tokyo Foundation and Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At this forum, the Taiwan side, as organizer, expressed interest in furthering the relationship between Taiwan, the U.S. and Japan. One of the broader issues discussed during forum was the TPP, and the U.S. and Japan's interest in Taiwan's participation. Kurt Campbell, an architect of US President Barack Obama's rebalancing policy and strong supporter of enduring U.S. commitment to Taiwan, stressed that Taiwan should have political ambition in diversifying its economy and join the TPP, bringing up Vietnam as a country that took the steps to liberalise its economy in just a year and a half. Campbell's comment is in line with the stance of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who expressed his support for Taiwan's entry into the TPP during his meeting with Taiwan's former Vice President Vincent Siew on the sidelines of the APEC economic leaders' summit in the early October. Naturally, controversial issues were not absent when Taiwan's representative Timothy Yang reiterated that the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands are (ROC) Chinese territory during the forum, claiming that the disputed islands are an "inherent part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of China". However, this statement should not be taken at face value. While both sides of Taiwan's political arena insist that the islands belong to Taiwan (for different reasons), the real issue is not about actual sovereignty as much as it is about the exercise of fishing rights. In this respect, Tokyo and Taipei reached a fisheries agreement last April in in an extraordinary exercise of pragmatism on both sides. Current Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's role in reaching out to Taiwan and concluding long-stalled talks was instrumental. Yang's statement is thus mere lip service to Taipei's claim and does not represent major problem in developing bilateral cooperation. After all, Yang was pretty clear when he expressed that the Taiwan-Japan fisheries agreement "serves as a good example of the spirit of the initiative, with Taipei and Tokyo entertaining the possibility of expanding the pact to other areas of mutual concern". According to Yoshiyuki Ogasawara, an expert on Taiwanese politics at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, the fishing agreement is not merely a fishing pact but a first step towards stabilizing the East China Sea. In this sense, the agreement is fully in line with U.S. efforts and Taipei and Tokyo demonstrated that both sides can make a direct contribution to regional stability. This has not been unnoticed by the U.S. participants at the trilateral forum. Dan Burton, a former member of the US House of Representatives, praised Taiwan for trying to resolve the fishing rights issues with Japan "in a very responsible way" despite the ongoing territorial tensions over the islands. The proverbial elephant in the room is Taiwan's extensive economic interdependence with China. Beijing is Taiwan's largest trading partner and its bilateral trade has expanded more than tenfold since 2000 and intensified further after the enactment of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a quasi-FTA. During his meeting with participants from the trilateral forum, President Ma admitted that maintaining good relations with the U.S., Japan and China at the same time "has been the biggest challenge". Randy Schriver, Former Deputy Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under the Bush Administration, also acknowledged that Taiwan may be in a difficult position with "its most important economic partner, China, and its most important security partner, the U.S.–Japan alliance" at times when support for eventual independence in Taiwan is increasing. Praise for the improvement of cross-Strait relations is the standard mantra for addressing efforts of Ma's policy towards the PRC and it was not different during the forum when the "Cross-strait rapprochement" was applauded by Kurt Campbell. However, the current state of affairs between Taiwan and China should not be taken for granted. Ma Ying-jeou could not proceed with elevating economic dialogue with Beijing to political level because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue and massive preference among Taiwan's population for the status quo. As Xi Jinping's recent remarks indicate, China's patience with Taiwan's stalling on the political talks issue may be over rather sooner than later. Since no leader in Taipei will have a mandate to pursue political talks (which equal talks about re-unification in the PRC's thinking), Taiwan would be better off to reach out to the U.S. and Japan. The trilateral forum that is co-organized by Taiwan's foreign ministry is a demonstration of the increasing awareness thereof. In the case of U.S.-Japan-Taiwan ties, it is converging interests, apart from official ties demonstrated by the U.S.-Japan defence treaty of 1960, which represent strong foundations for the development of trilateral partnership. Irrespective of Japan's policy on 'One China', Taiwan under the control of the PRC would be a security nightmare for Tokyo, particularly when tensions between Japan and China are high due to Beijing's pressure over the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai/Senkakus and the East China Sea in general. In a stark contrast to relations between China and Japan (and Korea and Japan), relations between Japan and Taiwan are generally in very good shape, enabled by extraordinary people-to-people relations. Taiwan's citizens' individual donations made Taiwan the top donor to Japan after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami in 2011. This has been returned on many occasions by Japanese citizens' expressions of sympathy through donations or support during sports events. The development and strengthening of Japan-Taiwan relations is beneficial to the U.S.' rebalancing efforts as one element is increasing capabilities of the regional partners, so they would not have to rely solely on the presence of U.S. forces. The U.S.-Japan link in the trilateral partnership is easier to examine because of the existence of formal diplomatic relations and a bilateral defence treaty. Japan-Taiwan and U.S.-Taiwan relations benefit and at the same time suffer from the intentional (strategic) ambiguity that is a necessary component due to the peculiar political status of Taiwan. It benefits because it enables a certain degree of creativity in the absence of formal agreements, it suffers because of the lack of demonstration of the partnership to third parties, namely the PRC. Thus, one shall not expect much clarity in the trilateral dialogue but that does not mean there is not great room for cooperation and convergence of strategic interests. Misato Matsuoka is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Research interests cover the U.S.-Japan alliance, neo-Gramscianism and regionalism in Asia-Pacific. Michal Thim is a PhD candidate in the Taiwan Studies Program at the China Policy Institute, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham. Michal blogs at Taiwan in Perspective and tweets @michalthim. Chinese Political Warfare in the 21st Century China's struggle with soft power


text:
Crypto name, wallet, ens, token address...
Ethereum Ecosystem
Finance / Banking
Ethereum Ecosy...
Live Trades
About MCO MCO
Crypto.com, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, seeks to accelerate the world's transition to cryptocurrency. The MCO Token Sale was conducted in May-June 2017 and raised US$26.7 million. MCO Card is a Visa-branded debit card that draws from a cryptocurrency-funded bank account. Since it's a Visa card, you can use your MCO Visa card just like you would any other card. The card and bank account are free for holders of cryptocurrency. In order to open an account, you simply sign up, verify your identity, and transfer any of the various accepted cryptocurrencies to your account. At this time, the Visa card is available to customers in Asia. They also have a waitlist for European customers. Customers in the United States does not have access to it at the moment. However, there are plans to change that. Solving the problem of everyday payments has the potential to be huge for cryptocurrency. However, MCO Visa card is not the only project attempting to create crypto-backed debit (or prepaid) cards. Other projects, such as TenX, are working on the same issue. All of these projects run into challenges implementing such cards in a large scale, compliant manner. Crypto.com hopes to crack the code, ultimately getting cryptocurrencies and popular payment methods to play nicely together. Crypto.com was founded in June 2016 in Switzerland and rebranded from Monaco on 6th July 2018. Their first prototype was developed in October of that year. In February of 2017, they were accepted into a Hong Kong Government backed Cyberport incubation program, where they developed their platform until they were ready to launch their token sale in 2017. The sale closed in June with $26.7 million in funding. Their app became available to pre-registered users in August 2017, followed by the official partnership with Visa in October. The team consists of seasoned veterans in the fin-tech space, most of whom have experience in Asia, where Monaco Cards have first been made available. Since MCO Visa cards are backed by cryptocurrency, they don't have border issues like fiat currencies. As a result, you can use your card anywhere you go. The card will automatically default to the local fiat currency when you make a purchase. The low fees and exchange rates also apply in other countries. Transactions take place at the exact exchange rate that Crypto.com receives as an institutional trader. In contrast, when you use your debit card across borders with most banks, they'll add an additional percentage to the exchange rate or include a transaction fee. Crypto.com has connections with eight of the top ten international foreign exchange banks to facilitate currency conversion. The MCO Visa card is a compelling option for anyone looking to make everyday purchases with cryptocurrency. It also makes sense for cross-border travelers. However, we can expect the rollout to take a long time and hit a lot of bumps along the way. The financial industry is highly regulated and cryptocurrency-backed payments is a complex issue, even if Crypto.com's solution seems to make it simple and user-friendly.
MCO (MCO) Price Data
MCO (MCO) price has decreased today.
MCO price today is $2.0150 with a 24-hours trading volume up by -- %. MCO price is down in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply is 15.7M MCO coins and a total supply of 31.5M.
What is the highest price for MCO?
The all-time high price of MCO is $22.018 on Aug 28, 2017.
What is the lowest price for MCO?
The all-time low price of MCO is $0.2805 on Aug 2, 2023.
Core Actors
Core Actors
Similar Assets


text:
May 25, 2023
July 24, 2023
August 31, 2023
Join us on campus September 29-30! Register today and get ready for a weekend full of Big Red spirit.
We're here to help you stay connected to Cornell: update your contact information, request transcripts, get email forwarding, get your NetID, and pay class dues.


text:
Aboriginal Elder and Woman, photographed with a short lens, up close
Profile of a Wurundjeri Elder
Young Indigenous Australian with an ear ring, outdoors and looking at camera
Attractive Aboriginal Woman with a Brown Hoodie
Aboriginal Man Taking a Break from Busking
This video tells the story of an Aboriginal Elder, Dootrule, whose brother was separated from his family from birth by Welfare Authorities, as was often the case in the 1960s. His brother, Rob, tearfully describes his reunification with Dootrule when he was 17. Dootrule and others describe the alcoholism that he experienced for much of his life, his recent 10 months of sobriety, and how he stumbled upon traditional art making and the role this played in his recovery. His partner of 30 years speaks of her admiration of his strength, the disintegration of her own family as a child, and her continuing battle with her own alcohol dependancy.
Indigenous Australian Girl sucking a lollipop
Two-year-old Indigenous Australian Dancer
Two-year-old Indigenous Australian Dancer. This boy was between sets while performing at the Melbourne launch of GenerationOne (generationone.org.au).
This photo shows a five-year-old Aboriginal boy in an urban setting in the Greater City of Melbourne, Australia. The photo was made in the playground of a housing estate. He is climbing on a piece of playground equipment.
Smiling Indigenous Australian woman in her late twenties holding her baby of six weeks
This photo shows a four-year-old Aboriginal girl in an urban setting in the Greater City of Melbourne, Australia. The photo was made in a housing estate.


text:
By adding another spectator and a few more moves, Richard Turner elevates the Signed Card Routine to new heights. Imagine an effect where two spectator's autographed cards, one from a blue deck and one from a red deck disappear, only to have both cards appear and reappear over and over again. The amazement of the audience escalates with each appearance of a signed card; from the performer's hat, under a mat, from a spectator's hat, a wallet, torn and restored, and from a sealed deck of cards. Titillating as it may already seem the grand finale explodes when the sealed deck is opened to expose the spectator's signed cards -- and it is the same card!!
Richard Turner's startling Double-Signed Card Routine is for the true sleight of hand artist. It can be incorporated into your existing show or utilized as part of a standup act or a close-up routine.
In addition to the double signed card routine, Turner reveals his long held secret -- Turner's Key Card. With Turner's Key Card, you will be taught how to locate a selected card, by touch only, after a spectator has shuffled it into the deck.
Also Included are recently found photos, letter, and quotes from Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Charlie Miller, Michael Skinner, Fred Robinson, Larry Jennings, and a 1987 interview with Dai Vernon.
Additional Moves Taught by Richard on this DVD include:
Do you own this product? Write a review.


text:
Monday, February 10, 2014
51 comments:
Oh BOLLOCKS!!ReplyDelete
That dont sound good :(
Love, Light, Victory Now!! Liberation Now!!
It must SOUND OK:Delete
The workings of the MATRIX:
Reality is Scalar:
Its link to physics, the modified Max Planck´s equation:
Adolfo, thx for the info much appreciated ;)Delete
Thank you so much for the material Adolfo, powerful proof that new science has been around for more than 100 years.Delete
Hmm..PHX APR= Operation phoenix? P501= Project501?ReplyDelete
If that's what it is, accelerating operation phoenix isn't that bad.
Just finish this already before I have to dig a hole all the way into the RM base and push the button myself!
permission grantedReplyDelete
Gratitude, Cobra and RM! Sending you all the positive energy I have left to 'help you out'!;))ReplyDelete
The liberation job is not that easy. And now perhaps things will accelerate additional.ReplyDelete
Accelerate APR PHX, clearance given. 501 modulation in process. Midas Package 11214. Execute PHX2.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 10, 2014 at 4:42 PM
OMG! This encoded message freaked me out this morning! I hope everything is okay or will be okay soon. Victory to the Light!!ReplyDelete
Oh, so this is why I have been feeling uneasy before coming to check on any status updates here.ReplyDelete
At least I can put my mind into a bit more ease now that I'm aware something went wrong on the other end of things.
all the timeline scenarios get a little confusing but give those bastards hell guysReplyDelete
a failure may lead to a major success soon!ReplyDelete
Ok these updates are getting weird.... posting stuff I have no idea what the heck you are talking about..ReplyDelete
Cabal fighting back? Etheric and astral planes complex.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 11, 2014 at 5:20 AM
I love the updates. They're the only emails I really care about and the first ones I read. I wish I was as brave as the RM. Although I don't understand the codes, the comments help. I am not the one bravely fighting the evil that is on this earth at this time so I will simply watch and wait until it's my time to o something. Other than doing what I can through meditations and visualizations, intention, etc.ReplyDelete
May the Event happen before summer....that's my wish. Why before summer? Because I'm so tired of it all, but I want to give the RM time to take care of the setbacks that can occur, such as security breaches. I just wish I was brave enough to help out.Replies
+1 for I would fight bravely and with all of my skill and discipline if I were able to assist. I do so now with my meditations and visualizations. Together our intentions have incredible power.Delete
Why isn't there a call for the weekly meditations like so many other groups? More people would come if there were a community built around it. Couldn't be that hard to FB and Tweet ourselves to a group 144000+ strong.
Dear C. Wenz:Delete
Your words are wonderful in their honesty...so thank you for posting them.
I think that it is important that you can start by talking with others about how to discern truth. For the past several weeks, I have been collecting tests for truth. This is the list so far:
1. What is true will be good for seven generations (this is based on the Knowledge of N.America's First Nations)
2. A lie limits. The truth is limitless. (This is based on the teaching of Anastasia in the Ringing Cedars of Russia books - incredible books)
3. When you hide the truth, the truth becomes your enemy. When you reveal the truth, the truth becomes your weapon.
4. When you first learn the truth, it can be very upsetting. Then the truth will set you free.
5. The truth must be lived.
Hope this is helpful.....blessings to all.....Livinglitely.
I'm with you, C Wenz..I so want to be brace and courageous....hopefully we will be when the time arises. love/light to you and yours. <3Delete
What about this?ReplyDelete
Some intel on this ?ReplyDelete
Perhaps the RM trying to exploit weakness of the internet to take-over-control after The Event?
Cobra mentioned the internet was invented by RM for the purpose of planetary liberation. Of course the official version is somewhat different...Replies
you think we will be able to still play online games after the event?Delete
because there is a lot people doing it with passion :)
- AnonymousFebruary 11, 2014 at 11:32 PM
wake up call st germain through nancy tate feb 11 2014Delete
this posting is similar to courtney browns announcement
to happen in febuary
I don't think that the Resistance Movement created the internet. The beings in charge created the WWW to keep an eye on us. Facebook & other Social Media Sites are used to spy on humanity. They want to check on our progress.Delete
For any1 who wonders whats going on :)ReplyDelete
You either believe there are ET's, or not... "I would if", is the same as, "I just can't right now".ReplyDelete
This has been going on for way too long for us to make it without their help... So after they help us out, we should all be trusted with a better transport system to hang-out any place on the planet... if they gave you just a portable power source to make... glass bricks from sand... would you have time for video games (how many places on the planet could you have a glass house)..?
Video games are a big part of my life as a model that shows me what it's like to be in one place and change what I want to be real in another... this body is not who I am... when the cells stop splitting here, I re-spawn back into the game another place... I can just sit still to power-up, but every night I need to exit the game for a short while, or I lose control (no sleep= mental break-down)... So death is just a dream world with a new place in the game to come back to (no memory is the only thing making it more than a game).
The only 2 reasons I want to be here for the Event is to know my son won't have to live like this (the whole planet as well)... and to see justice for all the injustices of the past.
Be the Portal.Replies
- AnonymousFebruary 12, 2014 at 2:58 AM
The problem I see with video/computer games is that the cabal wants all our minds uploaded to the computer one day (I believe it was the CEO of Google who admitted this quite gleefully) and we are inadvertently helping them by a) becoming so involved in the game we "become one with" the game, b) we unknowingly allow ourselves to be influenced by the subliminal messages that are rampant in TV/movies/computer games and apps, and c) our computer becomes so much a part of our lives that we become it and it becomes us. How much of a stretch do you think it would be for the masters of mind control through scalar and EMF waves to draw us so much into a computer game that we want to play it more and more, and get mad or depressed if we can't play it?Delete
There is an old Japanese art named Bunraku (Boonrahkoo) in which a wooden puppet/face is built/carved by those who will operate it, and during its display the puppeteers must "project" their living force to the puppet. And, believe it or not, it really and surprisingly, actually happens, but not only that but the puppets retains/keeps such "in-fluxed" spirit.Delete
Shekinah against Cabal. Portal Organic engaged. Matrix entrophy.. Lady of the PleadianReplyDelete
Beloved Cobra & RMReplyDelete
Did the mini event you mentioned in your interview (between the 7th-11th) happen & we didnt get "wind" of it?
Love, Light, Victory Now!! Liberation Now!!
Unfortunately no.Delete
- AnonymousFebruary 12, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Wow Cobra you are so cool!! Can I come with you on your next space flight?Delete
- AnonymousFebruary 12, 2014 at 5:10 AM
@George, I love your posts! They are always so positive! I will give you my input about this because I am somewhat sensitive to energies...not to the extent of others because I try my best to block negative things out.Delete
Anyway, something financial was supposed to happen between the dates of February 7 to 11 because that is after the Chinese New Year's Holiday. Chinese New Year happened on Friday, January 31st. So they thought the Chinese markets would start up a week later. ;-) Uh, no. They don't understand how flexible Chinese holidays are (I know because I live in Taiwan). The Chinese New Year Holiday can last from a few days to almost two months! (it is their only ONE holiday per year!). So,this year, the Chinese holiday has been a bit more extended...but it is starting to thaw now. I expect that next week things will start to move again...and very likely the announcement.
And I think its all about GOLD, baby! :-))
@Mitchell, this is very useful intel. Thank you!Delete
Regarding the post, here......which at first appears not good... but......Fear not and don't be discouraged.......Here is what all we 'civilians' can do: In our daily meditations (and we all need to daily meditate for stress, calm, our own energy, and to get to know ourselves), at the end of our 20 - 25 minutes, when our energy is highest and most centered, do the following: ..... Send energy to all our positive good guys and gals.... who are out there trying to help in this wonderful endeavor...... some of them probably read these comments...... Anyway: visualize them with high energy, making the right decisions, thinking the right thoughts, using their laser-like precision to do what they need to do....... they are quickly correcting mistakes, finishing up, being smart, being protected themselves by their own light and by their own guidance..... Visualize everything unfolding and happening perfectly and soon....... Visualize the ones who aren't so wonderful, also known as the negative ones, as being moved over to the side of the road for pickup and removal to the place they are supposed to go and I have no idea where that is.......This posting above by Cobra is merely a small setback to give somebody information so they can next time do the right thing...........Then, visualize yourself in a huge (mile radius, at least) bubble of love, to keep your own light strong and give yourself energy...... We are making it happen, people and stay positive. And hey, look, you may not believe this, but you ought to do it, just in case..... We each need to evolve higher anyway..... Thanks...to everyone working on mankind's behalf....ReplyDelete
Beloved Cobra & RMReplyDelete
What are your thoughts on the The Office of International Treasury Control? Good guys or bad guys?
Love, Light, Victory Now!! Liberation Now!!
Because of HAARP and the snow, the Event is happening right now here and there in USReplyDelete
Russia is now on high alert over the conflict in Ukraine. NATO will support Fascists efforts to control Ukraine (a western project). After the info war, US ships will deploy in that area, then the operation by land, sea and air which will trigger an all out war between Russia and the US. The Cabal is on the move and will do anything to derail all efforts for peace. Can the RM prevent this? We'll see. If I were you Cobra, I would relocate to a safer area.ReplyDelete
Hi Cobra,ReplyDelete
Are they having a Space War? That affect the weather, doesn't it?.
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
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To quote Benjamin Fulfords latest update, there is a financial war going on between the Queen, Vatican, Russia and China. Who will be the leader?ReplyDelete
If they cannot come to some kind of concensus the alternative is to start WW3.
As it comes to Ukraine, the US would face a very strong opposition of Russian and Chinese troops. It would not be the very best idea due to i think no one would win but all loose. But the last thing is always true if it comes to war.
And regarding Cobras place. There is no clear evidence where he resides or what nationality he has. Nevertheless it simply doesnt matter. If we take the last thing so seriously how will we behave with extraterrestrials? Every kind of racisms is absolut obsolet.
Its very confusing right now and the only thing i rely on at the moment is the light forces will not let the hole thing blow off!
Cobra! If the RM can remove all the gold from the planet, why can't they stop the chem trail planes from spraying usReplyDelete


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Hemp Seed Bath + Shower Gel Skinny Dip Scent
Ditch your skin-drying soaps and experience the luxury of our hemp seed oil bath & shower gel. This unique, moisturizing formula gently cleanses the skin, leaving every inch of your body velvety soft and sensually smooth.
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- Nourishes and protects skin
- Moisturizing and refreshing
- Helps skin feel supple and look youthful
Size: 8 oz
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Product Review
Our Hemp Seed Shower Gel, Skinny Dip Scent, enhances the refreshing feeling of a shower. With the unique scent of Vanilla & Cotton Candy, you're bound to find the right scent to fill your bathroom and transport you to the oasis of your choosing. The mix of natural oils and extracts further enrich your skin with a gentle formula that nourishes with nutrients and proteins while washing away the day's dirt.
Our Hemp Seed Shower Gel, Skinny Dip, doesn't leave behind any residue or overdry your skin, so you're left with soft, smooth skin. Follow with our Hemp Seed Skin Butter for an extra bit of moisturization that will leave your skin looking youthful and glowing.
Explore Our Scents
Check out some other interesting scents we have to offer here.
Giving Back
As part of our commitment to the planet, Hemp Seed products are 100% Vegan, Cruelty-Free, and made in a solar powered facility in California. A percentage of every sale is donated to the nonprofit, Get Together Foundation, to help further their efforts in helping the homeless community and doing their part to help make the world a better place.
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A result of cold-pressing hemp seeds, Hemp Seed Oil, or often referred to as "hemp oil", boasts several benefits when applied to skin, including excellent ability to moisturize and soothe. Additionally, hemp oil has anti-aging properties and is said to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
– Key Ingredients –
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Nourishing oil that conditions and soften skin, with no greasy feel.
Soothes skin.
Hydrolized Wheat Protein
Hydrates, protects and softens skin.
Comfrey, Dandelion, and Orange Peel Extracts
Pure botanical extracts that cleanse and protect skin.
– Ingredient List –
Water/Aqua/Eau, Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinte, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Fragrance, Sodium PCA, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Panthenol, Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Symphytum Officinale (Comfrey) Leaf Extract, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Chamomile) Extract, Trifolium Pratense (Red Clover) Flower Extract, Taraxacum Officinale (Dandelion) Extract, Sambucus Nigra (Elder Flower) Extract, Foeniculum Vulgare (Fennel) Extract, Pyrus Cydonia (Quince) Seed Extract, Althaea Officinalis (Marsh Mallow) Root Extract, Ulmus Fulva (Slippery Elm) Bark Extract, Porphyra Yezoensis (Nori) Extract, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Orange Blossom) Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Extract, Viola Tricolor (Pansy) Extract, Prunus Persica (Peach) Kernel Extract, Oenothera Bienis (Evening Primrose) Extract, Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Extract, Carum Petroselium (Parsley) Extract, Viola Odorata (Violet) Flower Extract, Galium Aparine (Cleavers) Extract, Capsicum Frutescens Fruit Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, PEG-150 Distearate, Sodium Chloride, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol


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CPS committed to spend $60 million more on the proposed expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Project at its Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, which brings the city utility's total expenditures on units 3 & 4 to $267 million.
The construction and operating license still languishes at the NRC, almost a year and a half after being submitted.
Somewhat lost amid the honorings, approvals, and statements of the Board meeting was the fact that STP 3 & 4 ranking for DoE's loan guarantees has slipped from #1 to #3 (out of 14). Updated rankings will be out in March. 3rd seems respectable. It's a bronze medal, right? Well, there's only $18.5 billion slotted for loan guarantees and each reactor can cost $6-who-knows-how-many-billions.
Gschwartz's piece on this week's Board of Trustees meeting sums things up pretty well on SA Current's Queblog. The Express-News touched on it here and here.


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Innovative, global and close to customers – those with vision should join the Adam Hall Group.
Our mission is to amplify emotions through event technology. Wherever humans come together we enable them to share their passion and enjoy great moments. Every day.
As a continuously growing, globally oriented company we are aware of our responsibilities – to our customers, our business partners and naturally also to our more than 200 employees. The music and event technology industry has its own specific requirements and needs. As a manufacturer and distributer with more than 40 years of experience, we live and help shape this world every day – always on the basis of interpersonal relationships with our customers and partners. This includes values such as authenticity, reliability, fairness, integrity and team spirit. The purest expression of these fundamental values is our comprehensive service concept, which we apply not only to our company headquarters in Neu-Anspach, Germany, but also to our international service centres in Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain and Singapore. Trend: rising!
What characterises the quality of a company? At Adam Hall Group our top priority is the high quality of manufactured and distributed products. However, quality is a basic expectation – especially for products with the quality seal "Design & Engineering Made in Germany". In addition, as a consequence of global manufacturing and trade structures, companies are decreasingly distinguished by pricing. That's why we, as a manufacturer and distributer, focus on the feedback of our customers, offering integrated service-oriented solutions that create clearly recognisable added value for our customers:
Whether it's portable audio systems, creative LED and laser effects, robust cable protectors or flexible stands, the products and brands of Adam Hall Group are innovative and unique. At the same time, they are always part of the overall brand and corporate identity: social and communicative with each other, dynamic and intelligent in product development, friendly and agile in their service, purposeful and strong in their brand and company management. These characteristics distinguish us as a company, manufacturer and distributer, as well as all of our brands. And you, as a customer, can rely on this – whether you need just a cable, a DI box, or complete stage or fitting equipment from a single source.


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Sequels are by nature redundant and superfluous. They extend conceits far beyond their logical ending points for commerce's sake, and recycle ideas until they've lost whatever novelty attracted audiences to them in the first place. But it's rare for a sequel to extensively acknowledge its own pointlessness, let alone make the unnecessary nature of its existence a recurring theme, the way Scream 4 does. Then again, the Scream franchise has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to deconstructing itself and the rules of the slasher genre. Fifteen years in, the series now looks more than ever like a Möbius strip that reflects on itself in a perpetual loop. But meta-arbitrary is still arbitrary.
Neve Campbell returns as a battle-tested survivor of previous massacres, having now channeled her trauma into a memoir that brings her back to her hometown. Emma Roberts co-stars as Campbell's cousin, a teenager reliving Campbell's nightmare when a chatty slasher who has been keeping abreast of recent trends in horror movies begins hacking through the town's hormone-crazed teens in a manner that echoes the bloodbaths of years past.
Returning screenwriter Kevin Williamson is considerate enough to put the most trenchant criticism of the film in his own characters' mouths, like when a character complains that the deaths in slasher sequels have little emotional weight, since the characters are so thinly developed. Sure enough, the slasher-bait here functions as little more than interchangeable cogs in an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that pumps out red herrings, cheap shocks, and twists at a steady clip, but provides little actual suspense. Scream 4 goes about its bloody business with impersonal, impatient proficiency: a reasonably clever script, game cast, and assured direction make it only as good as it absolutely has to be. Scream 4 doesn't justify its existence creatively, but it's cynical enough to scoff at the notion that it would even need to do so.


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Adler To Join Forces With Kiss On The Kiss Kruise
Adler, the new band led by former Guns N Roses drummer Steven Adler has been added to the lineup for The Kiss Kruise. The second KISS Kruise is setting sail October 31 – November 4, 2012 from Miami, FL to Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas onboard the Norwegian Pearl. No other Hallows' Eve celebrations can compare!
The Kiss Kruise will mark the first ever live performance of Adler. "I'm really excited to debut my new band by playing with Kiss" states Steven Adler. "Kiss has always been one of my favorite bands and they are all great guys. The cruise is sure to be an amazing time!"
Adler is comprised of Steven Adler, frontman Jacob Bunton (Lynam, Mars Electric), guitarist Lonny Paul (Adler's Appetite), and bassist Johnny Martin (Chelsea Smiles). "I'm really looking forward to playing live with this band" states Bunton. "We just finished an incredible record and are looking forward to taking it on the road".
Adler just finished recording their debut record in Los Angeles with producer Jeff Pilson (Foreigner, Dokken). The album features guest appearances from Adler's former Guns N Roses band mate Slash and Rob Zombie / ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5. The album was mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour). The first single "The One That You Hated" is out now on iTunes and the video can be viewed on RollinStone.com. The album will be released later this year.
For more information, check out the band's website:


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George Rebane
Debt is an injustice imposed on borrowers by greedy lenders who do not deserve to be repaid - from the liberal mind.
Forbes has identified eleven states that are in an economic "death spiral". These are the pictured states whose taker/maker ratios equal or exceed 1.00, states where takers are the government employees and welfare recipients, and makers are those who are taxed to pay for the takers.
This list of shame reads New Mexico 1.53, Mississippi 1.49, California 1.39, Alabama 1.10, Maine 1.07, New York 1.07, South Carolina 1.06, Kentucky 1.05, Illinois 1.03, Hawaii 1.02, and Ohio 1.00. From this we see that California has 1.39 takers for every diminishing maker in the state. [H/T to regular reader for the heads up on this.]
Victor Davis Hanson is keeping a stiff upper lip as he reports the goings on in the once golden state.
Not just in its finances but almost wherever you look, the state's vital signs are dipping. The average unemployment rate hovers above 10 percent. In the reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, California students rank near the bottom of the country, though their teachers earn far more than the average American teacher does. California's penal system is the largest in the United States, with more than 165,000 inmates. Some studies estimate that the state prisons and county jails house more than 30,000 illegal aliens at a cost of $1 billion or more each year. Speaking of which: California has the nation's largest population of illegal aliens, on whom it spends an estimated $10 billion annually in entitlements. The illegals also deprive the Golden State's economy of billions of dollars every year by sending remittances to Latin America.
For those wanting more than a little depth on this entire issue, Nicholas Eberstadt has written an analysis that pulls together the magnitude of the disease our country is afflicted with in his A Nation of Takers – America's Entitlements Epidemic (2012).
The government statistics he quotes that document our behavior over the last 50 years or so are devastating. Many of them have also been presented on RR, and, of course, duly rejected by our leftwing neighbors. Eberstadt cites that 98% of Americans over 65 receive SS and Medicare payments. But what is more shocking is that in 1960 only 0.65% of 18-64 year olds were receiving SS disability payments, and that number today has swollen to almost 6%. And well over a third of these are getting checks for "musculoskeletal and connective tissue" maladies and "mood disorders" – clearly the nation has discovered and is exploiting a new commons and getting while the getting is good.
The problem, it appears, is that once the government spigot is put in place and turned on, there is little chance of stopping people from demanding more spigots flowing at ever greater rates. Contributor to the book, Yuval Levin notes that "Liberal democracy has always depended upon a kind of person it does not produce." These stark factors that now describe the landscape of American propensities have formed the basis of my own established assessment that we are beyond the tipping point that forebodes failure in the great experiment of our ability to govern ourselves. And by no means is this a solitary vision of our future.
Meanwhile the looney Left denies all of this, and with supermajorities in both houses in Sacramento, you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to taxing and regulating the state's Makers.


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During the month of October, the Fire Department spends Fire Prevention Week visiting classrooms teaching kids about the importance of fire safety. Check out the video our firefighters put together to help kids learn about fire safety!
A fire can be one of the most devastating things a person can go through. Childhood pictures of grown children, pictures and family heirlooms from loved ones past are often destroyed and can never be replaced. The mission of the Shawnee Strategic Services Section is to prevent a fire by being proactive in the community and championing new updated Codes and technologies that fit today's environment. The Shawnee Fire Department believes in three critical parts of fire prevention to help accomplish this:
Engineering: The Fire Department vigorously promotes and seeks out newer technologies that are proven to save lives and property and keeps a family from having to go through such a horrific event. Proven technologies such as residential and commercial fire sprinkler systems, residential wireless interconnected fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and the safest construction techniques are a few examples.
Education: Education is vital to every part of fire and life safety. The Fire Department strives to teach the community ways to prevent a fire from happening and how to survive if one does occur. We believe in a community partnership approach with all the citizens and businesses within the City. A successful outcome to any fire mostly relies on what actions were taken before the fire department arrived. The Fire Department will always remember the lessons from the devastating fires from the past to help prevent them in the future.
Enforcement: The Fire Department will always strive for the newest and best fire and life safety codes that protect the community and also the Shawnee Firefighter. The Fire Department provides fire inspections of buildings within the City and works in partnership with community partners to help prevent a devastating fire from occurring.
If you are a resident or a visitor, please contact Deputy Chief Corey Sands if you have any questions.


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I'm giving a talk tomorrow about a result in computer science which I recently proved. It's a recurrence-transience result on a random process which is related in spirit to a simple random walk. My result works on any bounded degree locally finite graph, and I'd like to discuss the analogy to random walks there as well. Unfortunately, I've never studied random walks on graphs other than lattices. It's easy to define a random walk on an arbitrary locally finite graph (if there are $d$ edges out of $v$ then assign each probability $1/d$). Let's assume a very standard hypothesis: there is a fixed $D<\infty$ s.t. the degree of each vertex is less than $D$. Definitions from Doyle-Snell are given at the bottom of this post.
One thing which is known is Doyle and Snell's Theorem: if $G$ can be drawn in a civilized manner in $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{R}^2$ then the simple random walk on $G$ is recurrent.
Unfortunately, this leaves the question open for graphs which can't be drawn this way. An exercise in Doyle and Snell asks you to find a graph which can't be drawn this way but which is still recurrent. There is some discussion which says if a graph can be drawn in a civilized manner in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and that we can embed $\mathbb{Z}^3$ into a $k$-fuzz of $G$ then $G$ is transient. The rest of their paper gets heavily into the language of flows and I don't really understand it. It doesn't seem to finish the classification.
What's the current state of knowledge on recurrence vs. transience for random walks on a bounded degree locally finite graph? Has anyone figured this out for graphs other than those studied by the papers mentioned here?
I also found a paper by Carsten Thomassen which basically says if a graph grows slower than $\mathbb{Z}^2$ then it's recurrent (due to Nash-Williams originally) and if it satisfies an isoperimetric inequality slightly stronger than that of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ then it's transient. I don't understand this paper at all, but I'd be curious to know if it covers a larger class of graphs than Doyle and Snell's results do.
As my audience in this talk is going to be all graph theorists, I'm mostly seeking a purely graph theoretic characterization of recurrent graphs. So for me, "infinite resistance from any point to infinity" is not good enough. I'd rather have a criterion which doesn't require me to choose an embedding and set resistances. Perhaps there is no hope of getting such an answer, but Vincent's answer below makes me believe this problem has been studied outside the context of electrical networks.
Also, based on Vincent's comment, I'm making the definitions clearer:
Doyle-Snell page 105: $G$ can be drawn in a civilized manner if its vertices can be embedded into $\mathbb{R}^d$ so that for some $0<s$ and $r< \infty$, the distance between any two points is at least $s$ and the length of each edge is $\leq r$. The drawing of such a graph need not be planar.
For any integer $k$, the $k$-fuzz of $G$ is the graph $G_k$ obtained from $G$ by adding an edge $xy$ if it is possible to go from $x$ to $y$ in at most $k$ steps.


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Why should I start a blog and beging "blogging"?
As a professional, the answer is obvious, its a way to create a "live" resume that you can use to showcase you and your engineering tallent.
The top 10 reasons to Blog?
1. To Express Your Thoughts and Opinions
You have something to say, and blogs provide a place to say it and be heard.
2. To Market or Promote Something
Blogging is a great way to help market or promote
A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Although not a must, most good quality blogs are interactive,


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Are stun guns too deadly? Louisiana case adds to debate.
A grand jury will decide whether to bring murder charges against a police officer.
A grand jury in rural Louisiana considers Tuesday whether to bring murder charges against a Taser-wielding police officer in what may become a seminal case in the hotly debated history of stun guns.
No US jury has ever convicted a police officer in connection with a death related to use of an electroshock weapon. But the number of deaths in which the guns have played a role has been growing, along with their use in law enforcement agencies.
Now, the coroner in Winnfield, La., has found the death of one Baron "Scooter" Pikes to be homicide by Taser, intensifying a simmering controversy over the devices and exposing the tense tug of war between police and young black men in rural Louisiana.
After Winnfield Parish police took Mr. Pikes, who is black, into custody one January morning, a white police officer fired a Taser, jolting Pikes nine times in the span of 14 minutes. Pikes never woke up.
Police said the 21-year-old Pikes was on drugs and uncooperative, but coroner Randolph Williams took a different view. In a report last month, he said he found no signs of a physical struggle, of drugs, or of any medical condition that could have exacerbated the jolts' effect.
As police departments across the US look for nonlethal ways to subdue out-of-control people, a big question is whether such devices reduce violence or, in effect, can increase the likelihood of violence, even torture. The Pikes death is just one case, but it appears to show that the combination of simmering racial tensions and insufficient police training can be lethal when injected with a 50,000-volt jolt.
"If the Taser was indeed the cause of death, this could be an interesting case," says Andrew Scott, former police chief of Boca Raton, Fla., who has testified on the behalf of officers in stun-gun cases. "Given the historical corruption of law enforcement in the area, and the fact that the young man was tased nine times, something is definitely wrong with this picture."
Two-thirds of all police departments in the US own at least one electroshock weapon. The guns have played a role in nearly 300 deaths in the US and Canada since their introduction in 1998, Amnesty International reported in June. Yet most wrongful-death lawsuits have gone the Taser's way, with juries finding that factors ranging from hard drugs in a person's system to existing medical conditions were responsible for or contributed to their deaths.
The weapons, also called electronic control devices, are part of a transformation in policing, away from bullets and guns and toward "Star Trek"-like devices that can, from a law-enforcement standpoint, safely and quickly defuse volatile situations.
"We didn't get this [negative] reaction when nightsticks were used to split heads open, but because of the technology and what it does, the media have really exacerbated the issue of the Taser," says Mr. Scott. "The upside of the Taser far outweighs the unfortunate abuse or downside."
But with some 260,000 units in the hands of law enforcement officials, and with no major federal regulation governing their use, stun-gun use in cases like the one in Louisiana is revealing unintended drawbacks of this particular tool of policing, says Thomas Luka, a defense attorney in Orlando, Fla. Used most often before officers are physically threatened, the devices are changing the relationship between police and the populace, especially on the streets.
"We're seeing injuries that wouldn't normally happen on a routine traffic stop, and all of a sudden they're happening," says Mr. Luka.
The American Civil Liberties Union has not called for a ban on devices such as Tasers. But in the light of studies that show potential health effects of getting jolted and a general lack of training, national standards, and federal oversight, the ACLU says the devices have created a troubling gray area for US civil rights.
"The Taser in many cases is going to be safe, but it's those other cases, which actually are prevalent in the population that police interact with, that we have a lot of concerns about," says Mark Schlosberg, an electroshock-weapons expert with the ACLU in San Francisco.
A federal National Institute of Justice study released in June drew this conclusion on devices such as Tasers: "Although exposure ... is not risk free, there is no conclusive medical evidence within the state of current medical research that indicates a high risk of serious injury or death from the direct effects of CED [conducted-energy device] exposure."
Still, the public shows signs of souring on the devices. Seven states have banned their use, and some police departments are reevaluating their stun-gun policies, specifically to wait for an imminent threat of physical violence before resorting to their use and to restrict officers to fewer than three jolts before moving on to hand-to-hand restraint. But for many police departments, critics say, electroshock weapons are routinely and increasingly deployed in a variety of situations, with plenty of room for questionable improvisation.
"Police sometimes do things they're not supposed to do, and if you put the temptation in front of them, if you tell 100 police officers that, 'Here's your Tasers, and you're not supposed to use them to punish,' someone is going to use them to punish. It's predictable," says Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the New York State Police.
The Winnfield Parish case is likely to test all those aspects, highlighting racial tensions between blacks and police evident in many parts of the US. Roughly corresponding to overall crime data, 46 percent of the people who died in stun-gun-related incidents were black and 36 percent were white.
Winnfield Parish, birthplace of famed Louisiana Gov. Huey Long, has a long history of police corruption. The officer who administered the Taser to Pikes, Scott Nugent, was a rookie cop hired by a police chief who served time on a drug charge but was pardoned by former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who himself is now in federal prison.
A first cousin of Mychal Bell – the main defendant in the Jena 6 case that last year sparked the century's largest civil rights march – Pikes at the time of his arrest, on an outstanding warrant, struggled with police and then fell sick, complaining of asthma and the effects of PCP, police said after his death. But bystanders said Pikes, who knew the officers, pleaded with them, "Don't tase me again, please."
The Police Department has admitted no wrongdoing, though the City Council fired Nugent in May. The medical examiner is risking his relationship with the police department by listing the death as a homicide, but his autopsy was sound, according to Mr. Baden, who reviewed the findings.
"This is a major case," says Carol Powell-Lexing, a lawyer representing Pikes's family. "It's significant in the sense it shows how this young officer exceeded his authority and use of force, and it shows how dangerous those Tasers are. The community won't rest until they see appropriate relief in regards to this situation."