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Wendell Barnhouse is a nationally-known and respected columnist who has spent over 20 years covering collegiate athletics. He has reported from 23 Final Fours and more than three dozen bowl games and has written about the Big 12 and its schools since the conference's beginning. Barnhouse will be updating the Big 12 Insider on happenings and behind-the-scenes information about the conference.
April 2011
|Friday, April 28
OU's Rocha vs. UT's Jungmann
Aaron Fitt of Baseball America broke down the pitching match up of Michael Rocha vs. Taylor Jungmann in Friday night's series opener of the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma at Texas.
Two of the four starting pitchers who comprised Baseball America's midseason All-America team will face off in a huge Big 12 rivalry series when Rocha matches up with Jungmann on Friday.
College pitching matchups don't get much better. Jungmann leads the Big 12 in wins (he's 9-0) and ERA (1.00). Rocha ranks second in wins (8-1) and third in ERA (1.19). Both righthanders pound the strike zone: Jungmann has 72 strikeouts and 13 walks in 81 innings, while Rocha has 61 strikeouts and 11 walks in 75 innings. Their pedigrees differ-Jungmann is an elite prospect with a chance to be drafted in the top 10 picks this June, while Rocha is a senior who lacks overpowering stuff-but their results are very similar.
Coming into the season, Oklahoma coach Sunny Golloway compared Rocha to Blake Cooper, South Carolina's senior ace a year ago. Like Cooper, Rocha does not look the part of an elite ace, (he's just 5-11, 209 pounds), and like Cooper, he relies on moxie and competitiveness more than stuff. But Cooper went 13-2, 2.76 to lead South Carolina to the national title last year, and Rocha is a similar stalwart for the Sooners.
"If you're in the other dugout, you'd look at Cooper last year and go, 'Come on,' " Golloway said. "Every team would be like, 'Hey, we're going to get this guy.' Then you look up in the sixth inning and you haven't gotten that guy. We have tremendous respect for him, and that's what Rocha is. The fastball's pretty good, the sinker's pretty good, the slider's pretty good, and they just don't hit him. He's not 6-foot-3, he's not the flavor of the month, he's not pretty standing on the mound, he just gets it done."
A big reason Rocha has steadily improved at Oklahoma (his ERA has dropped from 5.70 to 4.84 to 3.53 to 1.19 over the last four years) is the development of his slider. When Rocha arrived at Oklahoma as a freshman, he threw a slow, loopy breaking ball, but the Sooners don't favor that pitch because the wind is often blowing out in Norman.
"We like to control the break and know where it's going to finish," Golloway said. "There's got to be a defining moment where the slider is different from a hard curve, and instead of the round loop, you're getting that late break-there it was and now it's gone. I've seen him tighten it up. And he's got a good changeup that you've got to respect. He'll be right there anywhere from 88-91 with his fastball, and when he tries to throw really hard, the ball flattens out and it's not good for him. He lives off the ball moving and sinking. He's got as much movement as anybody out there."
Jungmann, of course, was a heralded recruit who will leave Austin this June as one of the most accomplished pitchers in school history. He went 11-3, 2.00 as a freshman to help Texas reach the CWS Finals, then went 8-3, 2.03 as a sophomore. Strikingly, his strikeout rate has actually dropped as a junior-he struck out 9.6 batters per nine innings as a freshman, 9.7 per nine as a sophomore, and has 8.0 strikeouts per nine this spring. But that's a sign of Jungmann's maturity. He has been remarkably efficient, allowing him to average just more than eight innings per start.
"(Pitching coach Skip Johnson)'s philosophy: hit the mitt, don't be afraid to challenge, let the hitter do what he's going to do," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "Throw the ball to the catcher's glove and pitch to contact. He's better now because he's more consistent in his fastball, he has better command of his fastball, he uses it more effectively inside the strike zone when he chooses to and outside the zone when he chooses to. One of the big things is he has a much better breaking ball than he had. It's two-directional, it's later, and it's smaller, but he has better command of it because it's later and smaller."
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Jungmann also has a plus fastball, of course, and the ability to command four pitches that rate as average or better on the major league scouting scale. That package makes Jungmann a premium prospect, where Rocha is more of a 10th-to-15th-round senior sign, as Cooper was (the Diamondbacks took him in the 12th round).
"There's a world of difference between the two guys on the mound as far as draft and projectability," Golloway said of Rocha and Jungmann, "but what they're doing right now, it's a pretty even deal: competing in college, pitching to win on Friday nights."
|Thursday, April 28
One man's opinion on Big 12 hires
Jeff Goodman of FOXSports.com graded the coaching hires in college basketball. Here's what he had to say about the three new men's basketball coaches in the Big 12:
Missouri: Frank Haith replacing Mike Anderson. This hire was criticized, largely because of Haith's inability to consistently get to the NCAA tournament at Miami. However, that's not an easy job - as Jim Larranaga will soon learn - and Haith is a proven recruiter from his days as an assistant at Texas and at Miami. Grade: B-.
Oklahoma: Lon Kruger replacing Jeff Capel. Give Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione credit for being able to lure Kruger from UNLV - especially with an NCAA investigation still hanging over the Sooner program's head. Kruger is a proven winner and is a huge get for Oklahoma. Grade: A-.
Texas Tech: Billy Gillispie replacing Pat Knight. I'm so torn on this one. I'm not a huge Billy Clyde Gillispie fan for the way he has treated people - and players - in the past. However, I do feel as though this is the ideal fit for him. He's well-liked in Texas, has had success at UTEP and Texas A&M and works his tail off. He has also assembled a quality staff - luring Texan Chris Walker from Villanova and retaining Chris Beard. Grade: B.
2 Big 12 teams expected to make 'significant strides
Jason King of Yahoo!Sports.com put together his list of men's college basketball teams he thinks will make "significant strides" next season. Two Big 12 Conference teams made the list.
Baylor: Not many teams in the country will boast as much talent as the Bears, who will feature two potential Top 10 draft picks (Perry Jones and Quincy Miller) in the frontcourt along with another future pro in Quincy Acy. The backcourt - last year's Achilles heel - should be much improved with the addition of freshman Deuce Bello, Cal transfer Gary Franklin, Boston College transfer Brady Heslip and junior college All-American Pierre Jackson. No team in the Big 12 will be able to match Baylor's talent.
Iowa State: It may be time to start calling Iowa State "Transfer U," as Ames has become a landing spot for players seeking a fresh start. Even though their 3-13 Big 12 record suggests otherwise, the Cyclones were pesky and tough to beat a year ago. The addition of transfers Royce White (Minnesota) and Chris Allen (Michigan State) will enable Iowa State to compete with just about every team it faces in 2011-12.
|Tuesday, April 18
Links worth clicking
ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel writes that Oklahoma has a team loaded with talent and expectations - much like the team in 2009 that because of injuries finished 8-5.
So, who is Frank Haith? Steve Walentik of the Columbia Daily Tribune offers some answers in his profile of Missouri's new men's basketball coach.
Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com does an excellent job of explaining why the Big 12 Conference was able to snag its new deal with FOX.
Oklahoma's Casey Johnson is healthy and his improved offensive production has given the Sooners another potent bat in their lineup.
In a role reversal, Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden has been the teacher and new offensive coordiantor Todd Monkey has been the student during spring practices.
Ryann Krais transferred from UCLA to Kansas State and has become a valuable heptathlon athlete for the Wildcats.
|Thursday, April 14
Links worth clicking
Jack Harry of Kansas City's NBC affiliate in his "Jack's Smack" segment gives two thumbs up to the Big 12's new television deal with FOX.
Andy Staples of SI.com puts the Big 12's new television deal with Fox Media Group into perspective.
And David Ubben, who covers the Big 12 for ESPN.com, did a comprehensive job of covering Wednesday's big news.
Texas A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter has been in College Station for a year and he describes that time in three words: "An absolute blast."
Bruce Feldman, who covers college football for ESPN.com, gets some great behind-the-scenes access around the country. He recently wrote about new Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who has a unique way of approaching football statistics.
Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register sat down with Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg for a question and answer session that centered on his first season as the Cyclones' coach.
"Sports Show with Norm MacDonald" - you might remember him from his days anchoring the update on "Saturday Night Live" - made its debut on Comedy Central Tuesday night. One of the highlights was a bit called "Blake Like Me" where McDonald "became" Blake Griffin. The former Oklahoma star was aided by teammate DeAndre Jordan, a former Texas A&M player.
|Tuesday, April 12
Iowa State's Hoiberg wins Shots From The Heart contest
Your Humble Correspondent's basketball activities are limited to solo shooting sessions at the local YMCA. Before the exertion overcomes the cardiovascular system (usually after, oh, 10-15 minutes), YHC likes to work on his free throw shooting. You never know when it will come in handy.
The best that YHC has ever done is make about 20 in a row. That's why YHC shakes his head in amazement and sends a respectful salute to Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg. He is the first winner of the Shots From the Heart event, a free-throw contest with Division I coaches to help raise awareness for the growing problem of heart disease and to benefit the American Heart Association.
The Mayor who is now The Coach is still A Shooter. In the championship match, Hoiberg made all 25 of his free throws to best Arizona coach Sean Miller, who went 24-of-25.
To reach the championship round, Hoiberg defeated Keno Davis (Providence), Billy Donlon (Wright State), Tubby Smith (Minnesota), Steve Alford (New Mexico) and Will Brown (Albany). During the competition, Hoiberg attempted 253 free throws. He made 252. That is not a typo nor a mistake. That's 252 of 253 free throws.That is eye-rubbingly unbelievable.
The former Cyclone star's 10-year NBA career was cut short when it was discovered he had an aneurism in his aortic root. He had open heart surgery in June of 2005 and a pacemaker was installed.
"It was an honor for me to participate in this contest and to help contribute to this cause," Hoiberg said. "For someone who is in the public eye, I feel it is my obligation to talk about heart disease and the benefits of the American Heart Association. I can live a normal life thanks to the efforts of the AHA."
Extra bases, softball category
* Texas Tech's Sandy James tied the school record with eight RBI in Sunday's 16-5 victory at Iowa State. James' 4-for-4 performance included a grand slam, a two-run double and a two-run single. She helped the Red Raiders break the school record for most runs in a Big 12 game - a record they set in Saturday's 15-5 victory over the Cyclones.
* Oklahoma rallied for three runs in the home half of the seventh inning to edge Baylor 3-2 on Saturday. The Sooners had twice loaded the bases earlier in the game but failed to score. OU coach Patty Gasso, though, never saw her players give up. "It was always looking at their eyes and saying, 'This team is going to find a way to do it,'" she said. "And we did. It was probably the most enjoyable game I've been a part of this season."
* Freshman Maddison Ruggeberg jump-started Missouri's offense with a one-out, game-tying double in the Tigers' 6-3 victory Saturday over Texas A&M. Ruggeberg wasn't expected to contribute to a veteran team but she has entrenched herself in the middle of the lineup thanks to a .444 batting average and a .667 slugging percentage. "I think it just stands for the fact that where we have good players and we have a lot of them," Missouri coach Ehren Earleywine said.
* Nebraska freshmen and twin sisters Taylor and Tatum Edwards continue to rip the cover off the ball. Taylor leads the team with a .419 average with 50 RBI plus has hit 15 homers. She joins three-time All-American Ali Viola as the only Huskers to ever hit 15 home runs and drive in 50 runs in the same season. Tatum is hitting .306 with 10 homers and 31 RBI.
* Texas extended its winning streak to 18 games with its 4-3 eight-inning victory at Nebraska Sunday. That followed the Longhorns' 1-0 victory on Saturday. Catcher Amy Hooks hit the game-winning homer Saturday and stole home on a botched squeeze play for the winning run Sunday. A game-winning dinger one day and swiping home the next day is a rare double for any player. Taylor Hoagland's two-out, two-run homer in the seventh inning set the stage for Hooks' steal.
Iowa State assistant Bobby Lutz leaves for North Carolina State
A chance to return to his home state has led Bobby Lutz to resign at Iowa State to join the staff at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack recently hired Mark Gottfried as their new coach. Lutz was hired a year ago to help Fred Hoiberg through his first season as a head coach.
Lutz, though, said that Hoiberg didn't require much help.
"He is already an excellent coach," Lutz told the Ames Tribune. "He really was when he got here. He just became more consistent at everything as the year went on, from practices to game plans. He has a flair for coaching. He has a natural presence for it that not everyone has."
Lutz is a native of North Carolina and the former head coach at Charlotte. The chance to be closer to his family was a major reason he accepted the job at N.C. State. His father suffered a heart attack in February, and his two daughters attend college in the state.
"Being near (my dad) is a big part of this for me," Lutz said.
On schedules
Putting together football schedules is akin to aiming and hitting a moving target at warp speed. Factors include television, the schools involved playing the game, the conference schedule and the availability of the host stadium.
* The Big 12 announced last week that this year's Bedlam game featuring Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in Stillwater will be played on Dec. 3. That schedule change has put Oklahoma State and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. The Class 6A, 5A and 4A high school football championship games are scheduled to be played Dec. 2-3 at Boone Pickens Stadium. Oklahoma State said it will do "everything possible" to host the prep games as scheduled.
* Formula I racing and college football have about as much in common as Charlie Sheen and clear thinking. But there's a new Formula I course near Austin (bet you didn't know that) and it is scheduled to host a race in 2012. If that F1 race is scheduled during football season when UT has a home game, athletic director DeLoss Dodds says the school would consider changing the schedule to avoid a conflict.
* Kansas State will face former coach Bob Huggins and his West Virginia team on Dec. 8 at Wichita's Intrust Bank Arena. It will be K-State's first game in Wichita since playing Wichita State at the Kansas Coliseum in 2002, and its first neutral-site game in Wichita since a 1968 NCAA Tournament game at the Roundhouse.
And furthermore
* Texas Tech and women's basketball coach Kristy Curry have agreed to a new contract that will increase her compensation package by of nearly $1 million. The new five-year, $3.675-million contract will replace her previous five-year, $2.725-million deal. Tech, which reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, went 22-11 last year and 8-8 in the Big 12, both of which were bests for Tech under Curry.
* After her first season at Missouri, women's basketball coach Robin Pingeton had her contract extended by one season through 2016. Her guaranteed salary will remain the same, but her deferred compensation will increase by $25,000 beginning in 2012. The Tigers finished 13-18 overall and 5-11 in the Big 12.
* Iowa State signee Tyrus McGee was named a first-team NJCAA Division I All-American. McGee, who will be a junior with the Cyclones next season, played at Cowley County Community College (Kan.). He averaged 20.1 points and made 115 3-pointers while shooting 48.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Early preseason top 25 rankings for 2011-12 college hoops
Early, way early, too early, extremely early preseason basketball top 25s for the 2011-12 season. Also, note that these were compiled before Baylor's Perry Jones III announced that he would return for his sophomore season.
Considering those disclaimers, click away. SI.com ... ESPN.com ... Rivals.com ... CBSSports.com ... and FOXSports.com.
Lots of other links
New Missouri coach Frank Haith overcame obstacles and challenges along his path to become a Division I head coach.
Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman writes that Texas freshman Alex Silver is playing baseball again four months after being diagnosed with cancer.
Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch delves into how Missouri's search for a basketball coach led to the hiring of Frank Haith.
Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Missouri athletic director Mike Alden is being unfairly criticized by the school's fans, boosters.
Lon Kruger, Oklahoma's new basketball coach, has made his e-mail address public and wants feedback and opinions from Sooners fans.
Phil Bennett, Baylor's new defensive coordinator, brings a wealth of experience to his job with the Bears.
Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden believes he will be even better this season.
|Wednesday, April 6
Blair waiting on Disney World
Texas A&M coach Gary Blair apparently has the national championship game confused with the Super Bowl, where the MVP gets to say, "I'm going to Disney World" after winning the game.
The Aggies coach got no such chance to utter those five words after his team defeated Notre Dame to win the national championship.
"I want to go to Disney World with my family, and nobody on TV asked me," he said. "I want to go there, preferably for free."
Blair is 65. He thinks that Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, who is 68, would make a great travel partner to see Mickey, Minnie and the crew.
"Me and Calhoun can take our grandkids, and it would be a great promotion," Blair said. "Calhoun doesn't know who I am, but I know him."
Championship game fast breaks
* Texas A&M coach Gary Blair recognized our Armed Forces in his opening statement following the Aggies' victory: "Before we talk about the game, let's talk about Aggies all over the country, Aggies all over the nation, I got letters from Afghanistan, from Iraq, and everything today, just telling me how much people were getting up at 4:00 in the morning watching. We've got soldiers fighting in a lot of different places right now, but they're fighting for us to be able to play this little game of basketball and to enjoy the freedoms that we have."
* Notre Dame was playing just two hours from South Bend and appeared to have nearly three-quarters of the 17,473 crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse. "We've definitely been in some heated arenas," A&M senior guard Sydney Colson said. "I think this team, we've adjusted to adversity all year, and I think this team has such a mental toughness and a physical toughness to get through a game like that."
* Danielle Adams' 30 points were the second-most scored in a women's national championship game. Texas Tech's Sheryl Swoopes holds the championship game record of 47.
* Six years ago in Indianapolis, Baylor won the 2005 national title. The Big 12's four Texas schools now own a national title - Texas won in 1986 and Texas Tech in 1993 as members of the Southwest Conference.
* Texas A&M gave long-time trainer Mike "Radar" Ricke quite the present when they won the national championship. Ricke, a 1982 graduate of A&M, turned 51 Tuesday.
* This was the 30th anniversary of the women's NCAA Tournament and Final Four. There was a certain symmetry to Texas A&M winning the title considering that Aggies' coach Gary Blair was at the first Four in 1982 at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va. He was an assistant then with Louisiana Tech, which won the NCAA title that year with Kim Mulkey, now the Baylor coach, at point guard.
* Texas A&M became the seventh No. 2 seed to win the national championship and the first since Maryland in 2006.
* Texas A&M, which shot 68.2 percent (15-of-22) in the second half, finished at 54.7 percent for the game. That's the fourth-best shooting performance in NCAA championship game history.
* The Aggies' offensive efficiency in the second half was stunning. Texas A&M had 35 possessions and scored on 22 of those. The Aggies turned it over nine times so when they were able to get a shot at the basket, the scored on 22 of 26 possessions.
* According to ESPN.com, Notre Dame scored 28 points in the paint over the first 24 minutes, making 14-of-18 shots in the lane (77.8 percent). Over the final 16 minutes, the Irish scored just 14 points in the paint and were 7-of-19 (36.8 percent) on shots in the lane.
* Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw on Texas A&M's Danielle Adams: "We did not find an answer for her. We had a plan. We just weren't able to stop her. ... She's just a great player. She's got a big body and we couldn't get around her."
A triple play of analysis on Texas A&M's victory
Here's how ESPN.com women's college basketball writers Mechelle Voepel, Graham Hays and Charlie Crème analyzed Texas A&M's 76-70 victory over Notre Dame in Tuesday's national championship game.
Graham Hays
Texas A&M knocked off back-to-back No. 1 seeds en route to the championship game without getting stellar performances from Danielle Adams against either Baylor or Stanford, at least by the standards previously established by the All-American. But the Aggies won their first chamapionship because their best player came up big in her final game. On a stage where so many seniors who defined the sport have been met recently with disappointment, including Candice Wiggins, Jayne Appel and Angel McCoughtry in the past five years alone, Adams rose to the occasion.
But more than simply being clutch in scoring 30 points, including 22 in the second half, she almost single-handedly killed off Notre Dame's momentum by devoting herself to the low post. As good as Notre Dame was all season, it didn't have to face a proven low-post threat of anything close to All-American caliber in the tournament (aided by potential future All-American Stefanie Dolson's foul trouble in the semifinals). And while both athletic and tough with Becca Bruszewski, Devereaux Peters and Natalie Achonwa, the Fighting Irish were not especially big -- especially with Achonwa in foul trouble all night off the bench before fouling out in the second half.
Largely giving up on the 3-point shots and mid-range jumpers she hit with regularity during the regular season, Adams owned the block and gave Sydney Colson and Sydney Carter two big numbers to throw the ball to in erasing a seven-point deficit with as little as 16:06 remaining on the clock. Few things are more demoralizing for a defense than watching an unstoppable post presence go to work, and Adams was just that Tuesday night.
Without going back over all the replays (a benefit the officials, of course, are not afforded in real time), it's difficult to cast any judgment on the substance of all the fouls. (Oh what the heck, there were some truly awful calls, including the fourth foul on Texas A&M's Carter to set up a three-point play opportunity for Skylar Diggins with under four minutes to play.) But what can't be argued is that the abundant whistles added a layer of complexity for both teams. Just about every key player had three or more fouls down the stretch. But Colson's ability to stay on the court for the entire second half after picking up three first-half fouls enabled the Aggies to get the ball to Adams and keep the game from slipping away against Notre Dame's toughness and big shots from Diggins.
Mechelle Voepel
Junior forward Tyra White ended up being the X-factor for Texas A&M this entire NCAA tournament. She is a versatile defender who was able to guard both interior players and guards, an important key for the Aggies' defense. White had 18 points in both the national semifinal victory against Stanford -- when she hit the winning basket -- and scored 18 again in the championship game against Notre Dame. Her 3-pointer with 1:07 left Tuesday against the Irish to beat the shot-clock buzzer was the basket of the game, giving Texas A&M a five-point lead.
Charlie Creme
In a wildly intense, back-and-forth game, Texas A&M just made more clutch plays. That will be the theme of the Final Four for the Aggies. It was the same way in the semifinals against Stanford. When a basket needed to be made, Texas A&M delivered. Tyra White did the honors in both games, hitting huge shots in huge moments. She also knocked the ball away from Skylar Diggins with 19 seconds left as the Notre Dame point guard was trying to get off a 3-pointer and re-establish a one possession game. Instead, White grabbed the ball and chipped in two free throws at the other end -- the final nail in the coffin for the Irish.
The Aggies missed only seven shots in the final 20 minutes and even that was just barely enough to beat Notre Dame, which wouldn't go away. The ultimate individual difference was Danielle Adams. Without a truly long defender on Notre Dame, Adams had more freedom on the low block. When her teammates made a better effort to look for her in the second half, she dominated.
What they wrote about the Texas A&M championship
Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News says that Danielle Adams followed through on her prediction of a national championship.
Jerry Briggs of the San Antonio Express-News writes that the Texas A&M victory created quite a hullabaloo in Conseco Fieldhouse.
Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle captures some of the postgame emotions as Texas A&M celebrated their title.
Texas A&M denied Notre Dame's championship bid and made sure that the Hoosier state had its second consecutive night of basketball disappointment.
|Tuesday, April 5
Links for 'Title Game Tuesday'
Texas A&M's All-Sydney back court (Colson and Carter) will spearhead the Aggies' defensive effort against Notre Dame in the national championship game.
Texas A&M and Notre Dame traveled similar paths to reach the national championship game in Indianapolis.
Texas A&M's Tyra White, who made the game-winning shot in the Aggies' semifinal victory, has many nicknames but it's best to just call her "clutch."
Christine Brennan of USA Today names Texas A&M coach Gary Blair as the "greatest feminist" at the women's Final Four.
Mack Brown on agents, OU's tough 2012 schedule
ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel, in his 3-Point Stance feature, has two items of interest to Big 12 Conference fans.
1. Mack Brown doesn't have an agent but in remaking his coaching staff he became a fan of assistant coaches who have them. "Before you even decide whether you call [an assistant] coach," Brown said, "the agent will tell you how much money he makes. The agent will tell you how many years on his contract. The agent will tell you what it's going to take to get him." Because of that, Brown said, he knows that if a head coach calls for permission to speak to one of his assistants, the deal is already done.
2. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is rare among the upper-echelon coaches for his willingness to schedule difficult nonconference opponents. But even Stoops has gulped at the 2012 linep, in which the Sooners are scheduled to play TCU and Notre Dame. With the Big 12 ramping up to nine conference games, the decision to play two powers is a big one. For what it's worth, TCU, which will move into the Big East next season, has no interest in moving the Oklahoma game.
Twitter: Social media (sometimes) at its worst
Twitter is a great mass communication tool but like any tool it can cause damage when in the wrong hands or used in the incorrect manner. (Here's an illustrative story on Twitter misused as journalism tool.)
True enough, Monday night's national championship game wasn't pleasing to the eye. Both teams were playing the kind of defense that in some states would be considered assault and battery. Connecticut had the superior size and strength around the basket and that resulted in Butler shooting just 18.8 percent, the worst accuracy in a national title game.
But according to the media folks - several of whom I consider friends, others mere acquaintances - the game was an unmitigated disaster because of the lack of points. It reminds me of the Russell Crow movie "Gladiator" where his character Maximus roars to the crowd "Are you not entertained?" after swiftly dispatching another gladiator.
Your Humble Correspondent has spent decades sitting along press row and in press boxes. The comments made during games among scribes can be cutting. We're all a bunch of smart alecs (or, another word that begins with "a"). The problem, as YHC sees it, is that Twitter is collecting those comments. Media folks are Tweeting their thoughts and it's like open mic night at The Improv. In 140 characters, everybody tries to be a comedian.
The difference is that what was once a clever/sarcastic/sardonic comment heard by the folks sitting nearby is being Tweeted and becomes viral.
Some examples culled from the Twittersphere:
* Finally, One Shining Moment - which is one more than we saw tonight.
* It would be poetic justice if UCONN has to vacate this championship. Truly, nobody should win.
* Shining Moment video should start with "The ball is tipped ..." then cut to black like the Sopranos.
* Just heard from a friend who said he'd had a higher blood alcohol level than Butler's shooting pct.
* OK, this is brutal. No other way to put it.
* Ugh. That is all.
* Someone tell CBS not to bother saving a spot for this game in One Shining Moment.
* Right about now, Norman Dale would be thinking about punching a player. (YHC comment: Nice "Hoosiers" reference considering Butler's presence.)
* The NCAA may need to stop the game to re-paint the rims. Horrendous. (YHC comment: This Tweet made by someone who played for a team in 1986 that shot 40 percent in the national championship game and lost.)
* Jim Nantz can't wait to get to Augusta National for the Masters. Someone is guaranteed to post a score at least in the 60's.
* (E)erily, eerily quiet here. Folks are stunned by the quality of basketball.
* This game is so bad THE WNBA IS MAKING FUN OF IT
* If this is the future of basketball, I want a cigarette, a priest and last rites.
* It was such a fun tournament pre-title game, but apparently there is such a thing as too many upsets. (BYH comment: This Tweet came from someone who covers college football. The Tweet seems to be disparaging the NCAA Tournament format. There were several other Tweets Monday night referring to football-type scores. BYH seems to remember the BCS title game was a 22-19 final matching teams who had the two most prolific offenses for the season. Dissapointing offense? Great defense? Failure to entertain us properly?)
Right around midnight, YHC read a Tweet that pretty much summed up the night on Twitter: "Tonight's real winner, in a blowout, is snark." Snide remarks ... Twitter wouldn't be Twitter without 'em.
|Monday, April 4
Familiar face, familiar place
The last team to play for the national championship was Baylor. The Lady Bears won the title in 2005 in Indianapolis. The venue is different, but a Big 12 Conference team hopes to cut down the nets in "The Nap."
Baylor won at the RCA Dome (since demolished). This year's Final Four, which will end with Tuesday's championship game between Texas A&M and Notre Dame, is being played at Conseco Fieldhouse. That's the home court for the NBA's Indiana Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever.
Kelly Krauskopf, a three-year letter winner for the Aggies who graduated in 1983, has been the Fever's chief operating officer for the last 11 years and its general manager for the last seven.
"It was a dream come true to see the A&M logo on our building," she said Monday.
Krauskopf, who was assistant commissioner of the Southwest Conference from 1990-94, remembers what it was like when she played at A&M in the early 1980s.
"We had to paint our own locker room," she said. "We went to J.C. Penney's and bought our own travel bags. Now to see Texas A&M in the Final Four and playing for the national championship, it's amazing and thrilling to see it happen."
One woman's opinion
Debbie Antonelli, who is an analyst for Big 12 Conference telecasts, is working the Final Four for the NCAA Radio Network. Here are her thoughts on the Texas A&M-Notre Dame matchup:
* "Both of these teams are known for the physical and mental toughness. Don't think this is going to be a high-scoring game. I think it's going to be a possession-by-possession game."
* "Danielle Adams can be a difference maker. In her last two games, we really haven't seen what she can do. I think Tuesday will be the night when she gets back to being that dominant scorer. It's going to be interesting to see her get in the low post and try to score against Notre Dame, see how Notre Dame tries to defend her."
* "Texas A&M pressed full court a lot against Stanford but I don't think they'll do that as much against Notre Dame. Notre Dame has more people who can handle the ball. I do think Texas A&M's pressure defense in the half court will be crucial. Watch and see how often the Aggies can force a tough shot, force Notre Dame to rush if they get the shot clock below 10 seconds."
Talking a good game
Put Texas A&M's Gary Blair in front of a microphone and you've got a filibuster alert. The man can talk. A word count of his transcribed answers during Monday's Final Four media conference checked in at 7,923. Converted to the printed page, that would fill up an entire page in your morning paper.
As a way of apology, midway through his time on the podium, Blair said, "I'm sorry I'm long-winded, but, folks, this is my moment, and I'm going to seize it."
Tuesday is a 'Maroon Out' in College Station
Texas A&M president Dr. R. Bowen Loftin has declared a "Maroon Out" Tuesday to support the Aggies' women's team as they face Notre Dame in the national championship game. Here's Bowen's letter that was distributed to students:
I'm asking all students, faculty and staff to "Maroon Out" campus-wide to show support for the Aggie women's basketball team as it prepares to play Notre Dame tomorrow evening for the national championship. As you know, the Aggie women won the right to play for the national championship - the first in Texas A&M women's basketball history - after an impressive come from-behind 63-62 Sunday evening victory over a Final Four-seasoned Stanford team that was one of four top seeds in the NCAA tournament selection process. One Dallas area Former Student summed the victory up succinctly: "There's no quit in those girls."
Please join me in demonstrating our pride in the Aggie women's basketball team, both on and off the court, and "Maroon Out" on Tuesday in honor of the team and its coaches as they play for the national championship at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. I'll be proudly wearing my maroon bowtie.
Gig 'em Aggies!
Quote, unquote
Texas A&M coach Gary Blair on Sunday night after his team's victory over Stanford:
"At this level you just learn how to go hard. You get it finished. You go watch the next ballgame, you go home. You see everybody in the lobby there. That took an hour before I could get to Steak n' Shake, took 13 of us over there, my family members, and it was like a zoo. And we were all sober drinking orange freezes and having steak burgers, and it was good. But right now we're all on adrenaline."
Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw on facing Texas A&M:
"In some ways, we're mirror images of each other because we've got great guard play and an outstanding defense throughout the tournament. I thought throughout the tournament, as I watched them, they would be a very, very tough team to play. Be careful of what you wish for because now we've got them."
Texas A&M senior guard Sydney Carter:
"We're never out of a game. We're a team that doesn't give up and we've got to make sure we're doing the right thing at the right time. It feels great. I'm just ready to play again."
|Sunday, April 3
It's Texas A&M vs. Notre Dame for the championship
Two No. 2 seeds will meet for the 2011 women's national championship at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Indianapolis. Texas A&M (32-5) defeated No. 1 seed Stanford 63-62 in the first semifinal and Notre Dame (31-7) shocked top-seeded and two-time defending national champion Connecticut, 72-63, in the other semifinal.
The last time the national championship game didn't have at least one No. 1 seed in the 30-year history of the NCAA women's tournament was 1994 when No. 3 seed North Carolina faced No. 4 seed Louisiana Tech.
Both the Aggies and the Fighting Irish overcame similar hurdles. Texas A&M reached its first Final Four by defeating No. 1 seed Baylor - a that had defeated the Aggies three times previously this season. Notre Dame had lost three times to the Huskies before beating them Sunday night.
Notre Dame is in the Final Four for the third time; it won the national championship in 2001. The Irish reached the Final Four by beating Tennessee in the Dayton Regional. Notre Dame had lost its previous 20 games to the Lady Vols.
Another semifinal, another rally
Texas A&M overcame a 10-point deficit over the last six minutes to defeat Stanford and Notre Dame needed a rally to defeat Connecticut. Two minutes into the second half, the Huskies had a 34-26 lead. The Irish turned that around with a 20-point swing; with less than six minutes remaining, Notre Dame had control with a 59-47 lead.
Notre Dame sophomore guard Skylar Diggins scored 28 points with six assists as the Irish shot 51.9 percent to knock off the two-time defending champions. That was enough to offset 36 points by Connecticut's Maya Moore, the three-time player of the year.
"We had to be poised, I mean, we had to try to make Maya take tough shots, and I think she did," said Diggins, a native of South Bend who led her team to three high school championships in Conseco Fieldhouse. "And at the end we said, 'We have to stay poised on defense and we have to execute on offense.' We showed a lot more poise than we did in the first three games against Connecticut."
In its three losses to the Huskies, the Irish shot a combined 35.3 percent while UConn shot 47.4 percent. Connecticut shot 42.4 percent in the semifinal loss.
Quotes to note
Texas A&M coach Gary Blair:
"This is what women's basketball needs. It needs regional final games and semifinal games and final games like this to be able to sometimes wake up America, to be able to give us credit when credit is due. You saw two very good ball clubs out there, play with their hearts out."
More Blair:
"Everything is happening for a reason. It's because we don't quit. While you all were writing, I guarantee you a lot of you already had your story three-quarters of the way done. And now you're having to change it. Okay?"
Texas A&M's Sydney Carter on her late 3-pointer that pulled the Aggies to within one point:
"Honestly, I didn't even know I was going to shoot the ball, but when I shot it, I think I said a quick prayer, because I was like, 'This better go in or Coach Blair is going to be upset.'"
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer on Texas A&M's game-winning layup:
"We scored, and sometimes you have people on the court that you need offensively to get the ball inside or make plays ... and we didn't have any time-outs at that point. Not that I necessarily would have taken one. We needed just a little more extra effort just to stop the ball and not allow them to get that point-blank shot.
Two Tweets on the Aggies' victory
Texas A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter: "Talk about fanatical defensive effort! I hope the Wrecking Crew plays with that much grit next year. Congrats Coach Blair & the lady AGGIES."
Texas governor and Texas A&M graduate Rick Perry: "The Tree will make fine fuel for the bonfire!!!! Whoop.....Go Aggies!! On the Championship game!!!"
Texas A&M changes baseball game start
The first pitch for Tuesday's scheduled baseball game between No. 5 Texas A&M and Houston at Olsen Field has been moved up to 5:05 p.m. from the originally scheduled 6:35 p.m. start time. The move was made to accommodate Aggie fans wishing to see the Texas A&M women's basketball team play for the National Championship at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday.
|Saturday, April 2
Adams, Griner named All-Americans
Texas A&M senior Danielle Adams and Baylor sophomore Britney Griner were named to the 10-player State Farm Coaches' All-America Team. The announcement was made Saturday at the Final Four in Indianpolis.
During the Aggies' news conference, a student journalist asked Adams to name their biggest achievement. Adams said it was "playing with these girls" - Sydney Carter and Sydney Colson, who joined Adams on the interview platform.
"Did you hear Danille," Texas A&M coach Gary Blair asked after the players had left the podium. "This morning she got the biggest award they can hand out and she said her biggest accomplishment was playing with her teammates and having fun. That's what that kid is all about."
The Gary Blair Show
Gary Blair, Texas A&M's loquacious coach, kept the transcriber busy during his 15 minutes on the interview platform Saturday. Here are some highlights.
* "Texas A&M, which used to be called a football school ... do y'all realize that in 20 sports we're in the top 10? It used to be you would hear about our football team and our band. Now all of a sudden we're a complete university."
* (On recruiting Stanford sisters Nnemkadi and Chine Ogwumike, who attended Houston's Cy-Fair High School): "Every time I flew out of Houston recruiting, I drove right by their high school. We recruited them hard. We lost them fair and square to a great school. But we're winning with the kids that chose us. And after I would pass Cy-Fair High school I would stop at Five Guys restaurant and get a big cheeseburger and it didn't matter by then."
* (After taking a question from a writer from the San Francisco area): "While I'm thinking of it, sir, your Giants beat my Rangers but I grew up a Giants fan. I'm a Willie Mays fan and if you can get me an autographed ball or his rookie card, you and I will have dinner and I'll be your fan for life. But Willie Mays ... and Whitey Ford, he was my other one. So that's what I really need. And then get Lary Bird to come to the ball game tomorrow night. Hey, what a great time I would have."
* (A Connecticut writer then asked if he could get something for Blair and the A&M coach referenced Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma): "Geno's paycheck. His restaurants. His summer camps, everything. I mean, what does Geno not have. ... I:m just another pretty face up here. And Geno's got it all."
* (On Stanford having a complete team): "The only thing we've got better than them, I like my Yell Leaders a lot better than that tree that walks around."
For the record, the Aggies' practice followed Stanford's and Blair posed for a picture with the Cardinal's "tree" mascot.
* Great story and a must read on Texas A&M coach Gary Blair by Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.com.
* This is the 30th anniversary of the women's Final Four. The last time the Final Four was held in Indianapolis, Baylor won the title.
* With its No. 2 seed in this year's bracket, Texas A&M became the first program in NCAA Tournament history to receive a No. 2 seed in four consecutive years. Only two other programs have been seeded No. 2 or higher in each of the last four seasons: Connecticut and Stanford. Both are in this Final Four field.
* Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, who has won 826 games, is more than just a coach. Really. Her position has been funded much like a tenured faculty member. VanDerveer's official title at the school is "The Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball."
* Through March 29, Stanford ranks in the national Top 20 of the following statistical categories: field-goal percentage (49.1, third), scoring margin (+24.6, third), scoring (79.8 ppg, sixth), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.27, fifth), field-goal percentage defense (33.5, fifth), rebound margin (+11.7, sixth), assists (17.77 per game, seventh) and turnovers per game (14.0, 12th).
* Sunday's meeting with Texas A&M will mark the second straight year that Stanford faces a Big 12 team in a national semifinal. Last year, the Cardinal defeated Oklahoma,73-66, in San Antonio to advance to the national title game. Overall, Stanford owns an 8-4 record against Big 12 teams in NCAA Tournament play.
* Stanford's two losses came in consecutive road games in mid-December. The Cardinal lost at DePaul 91-71 and at Tennsssee 82-72 in overtime. Stanford has the nation's longest winning streak at 27 games. The third game of that streak was a 71-59 triumph over Connecticut that ended the Huskies' record 90-game winning streak.


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GT Performance Steering Wheel - Better Grip On The RoadPosted in How To on January 10, 2014
Want to improve your driving experience in your older non-air bag truck or 4x4? Swap out the old factory wheel for a new competition-style steering wheel. Aftermarket steering wheels like this one from GT Performance often have a smaller diameter and usually a thicker wheel. The thicker wheel allows you to get a better grip on the steering wheel, especially for large-handed individuals. The smaller diameter requires less arm movement for the same steering action. But there is a point where the wheel is too small (no need to go handcuff friendly), and you will lose too much mechanical advantage, making the wheel harder to turn.
That's why we chose this 15-inch diameter Competition Style symmetrical steering wheel with a foam grip from GT Performance. Well, that, and we liked the design of it. Besides giving you a little more control of your older ride, a new GT steering wheel can really freshen up an interior look that might otherwise be diminished with some skanky old wheel.

subset: commoncrawl


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James Franco will star in and direct the biopic "Beautiful People" at Jane and Sheppard Productions and LBI Entertainment.
The story follows charismatic playboy and visionary Jay Sebring, a jet-setting hairstylist to the stars and men's grooming pioneer in the 1960s.
He also shared a romantic relationship with actress Sharon Tate. Both Tate and Sebring died violently at the hands of the the cult led by Charles Manson.
Lauren Wild penned the script while Franco, David Bortolucci, Julie Yorn, Miles Levy and Vince Jolivette will produce.
Source: Deadline


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The 2014 Dakar Rally is finally done, after two weeks of hard racing across Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. Despite a slow start to this year's Dakar, KTM's Marc Coma took his fourth career win of the iconic rally raid race, aboard KTM's all new KTM 450 Rally race bike.
Finishing almost two hours clear of his nearest competitor, teammate Jordi Viladoms, Coma took the lead on Stage Five and never looked back. The Spaniard's fourth Dakar win came primarily from consistent riding, which saw Coma slowly rise in the rankings as Despres and Barreda made mistakes and encountered technical difficulties with their machinery.
"Without the right people behind me it would have been impossible to win," said Coma. "We have worked very well throughout the race and also before. Last year I went through a very difficult situation not being able to compete because of injury and I came back to win the race. I think this says a lot about the people I have around me. I am very proud of this victory. What was key to winning the Dakar was not to make any mistakes."
Marc Coma dedicated his win to his late teammate Kurt Caselli, who tragically died during the 2013 SCORE Baja 1000. Caselli filled in for Coma in the 2013 rally, earning himself great praise for his assention in the ranks, and two stage wins. Coma's victory is a fitting tribute to the American rider.


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How do anthropologists view honor killing? Is it a patriarchal mechanism to control female sexuality? Or is it the result of jealousy of men to control reproductive capability of women? Or is it historical-cultural practice to punish violators of social norms? Or is this practice rooted in biology to control and keep genes of a group within the group?
What do you people have to say about this?
Views: 2437
Excellent question. As I see it, such issues can only be understood in relation to a topic woefully neglected in the anthropological literature: tradition. It's dangerous to interpret cultural pathologies in psychological and/or biological terms, because then you wind up concluding that everyone caught up in the same mindset is a sociopath. Tradition is in my view a completely misunderstood aspect of culture, far more powerful than most people realize. To fully understand the meaning of any tradition we must attempt to recreate the conditions under which it was originally established, which is usually very difficult if not impossible to do. And once a tradition is established, it becomes extremely difficult to eliminate or even change. People will give you all sorts of reasons why they believe certain things or act in a certain way but usually it comes down to "this is the way my father did it and his father before him." Traditions are established due to very specific circumstances and then are perpetuated regardless of whether those circumstances still hold. Most anthropologists seem to me very naive in this respect, trying to interpret certain belief systems in functional (or biological) terms, which imo is a huge mistake.
Anthropology, along with the rest of the so-called social sciences, is fixated on class divisions. We bang on about differences of race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, language, social class, work and wealth, while losing sight of what makes us all human. But I believe that three class divisions are more fundamental than all the above, those concerning the inferior status of women, children and animals. There is a case for arguing that all three are rooted in the domestication processes of the neolithic revolution. Certainly Morgan and Engels thought so. Modern capitalist civilization for a time increased the seclusion of women, but for some decades now that has been reversed. Children have been normatively separated from adult life to an unprecedented degree, so that child labour is now considered to be a crime against humanity. Animals have been industrialized as meat, fetishized as pets and exterminated as species, but the line between human beings and other life forms, even objects and machines is becoming blurred. This is reinforced by ecology and postmodern social theory.
Our world is still governed by institutions that evolved during 5,000 years of agrarian civilization, yet the machine revolution has transformed the material conditions of life on this planet in two centuries. Most people are confused about all this, including anthropologists. Some choose to cling to a version of tradition (as Victor rightly points out) that is absolute and unchanging, even as the world changes around them. Women are a target because their situation is changing most rapidly and was central to the old society. Honor killing is one result, but it is not the only violent reaction to times that education and politics have failed to illuminate. Look what is being done in the name of ethnicity in Karachi today.
If there is an anthropological take on these matters, it would be that we should look to contemporary circumstances if we wish to explain developments that appear to rest on very old principles.
Traditions do emerge under certain circumstances, as Victor says, but honor killing is found, more or less, in all the continents and all the societies. The same set of circumstances does not always produce the same tradition in all the societies. Nor do all the societies have gone through the same circumstances. One tradition in one culture might have emerged under one set of circumstances and it is also possible, the same tradition in another culture, might have taken place under entirely different circumstances. I don't think one culture's tradition, under whatever circumstances it emerged, would be the best answer to explain existence, prevalence and continuity of the practice of honor killing in other societies.
honor killing is found, more or less, in all the continents and all the societies. The same set of circumstances does not always produce the same tradition in all the societies. Nor do all the societies have gone through the same circumstances.
What Mohammad says here is hugely important. That feeling betrayed moves men to want to murder women is, one suspects, a human universal. Whether the impulse leads to action and how others respond to the killing is far more variable. The impulse may be repressed and never acknowledged. It may be acknowledged but acting on it prohibited. The action may be seen as justified or condemned as illegal, immoral or both. Condemnation may take the form of shaming, shunning, prison or execution.
"Tradition" is never a sufficient explanation. All traditions turn out, on close examination, to be like other cultural phenomena. Like the wedding dress described in American folklore, they represent a mixture of "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," where by "blue" I mean that they always make someone unhappy. That unhappiness is the driver of the borrowing and innovation that make all traditions only partially reproductions of what has gone before.
One might argue that "honor killing" in the sense in which the term is now used has become a focus of excited interest only because the murders in question are seen from radically different perspectives—one closer to ancient Roman law that gave the pater familias the power of life and death over his dependents: women, children, and slaves, the other based on more recent views that regard all human lives as sacred and celebrate the rights of the individual as prior and superior to all other considerations. In the great muddle of humanity there are endless variations between these extremes. That is where, as anthropologists, we should direct our attention.
Speaking, not as an anthropologist, but instead as a husband and father whose views are closer to the non-ancient Roman extreme, my impulse on reading accounts of honor killings is that these are examples of a particularly heinous form of murder. I may have my doubts about the legitimacy of the death penalty, but in these cases I would like to see the culprits and those accessory to the crime hung, drawn and quartered--very, very slowly. I would not recommend seeing my impulse as solid ground for either public policy or scholarly explanation.
Attempts by males to control females, and access to females is, indeed, a universal, not only among humans but just about all animals of all species. And violent behavior, including killing, associated with access to females is probably equally universal. We find murders of both males and females, motivated by jealousy, in just about all societies everywhere. However, "honor killing" is not simply murder, but part and parcel of a much more general culture pattern, not found among any other animal than humans and in fact not a human universal, but found only in certain societies.
If you check the Wikipedia entry on this topic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing), you'll see that this particular cultural complex is overwhelmingly centered in the Arab/Muslim/Jewish world, and Hindu and Sikh India -- though interestingly it is apparently rare in South India. (The apparent irony of including Jews along with Arabs in the same category should not be surprising, given their common history.) While certainly found elsewhere, notably Africa, Europe, Latin America, etc., such incidents can in almost all cases be traced to the influence of Islam, which has of course been widespread. Many African tribes are now Islamic; certain regions of southern Europe, especially southern Spain Southern Italy, Greece, the Balkans, etc. were dominated for long periods by Islamic societies. And Spanish traditions have clearly influenced Latin America.
In order for honor killing to take place, there must first be a strongly embedded sense of honor, specifically family honor, and whatever else you want to call it, this is most certainly a tradition. To trace the origin of a tradition, we must first examine its distribution, and since in this case we find the overwhelming majority of incidences in the Middle East and India (and their offshoots elsewhere), it is in this region that we should look for an origin.
In order for honor killing to take place, there must first be a strongly embedded sense of honor, specifically family honor, and whatever else you want to call it, this is most certainly a tradition.
Granted—with the proviso that what is claimed here is that tradition is a necessary condition. It is not, however, a sufficient condition. The Wikipedia article to which Victor points us cites a variety of statistics. I note, for example, the statement that,
The loose term "honor killing" applies to killing of both males and females in cultures that practice it.[7] For example, during the year 2002 in Pakistan, it is estimated that 245 women and 137 men were killed in the name of Karo-kari in Sindh[citation needed].
In the Wikipedia page on Sindh, to which I turn for demographic data, I find that as of 1998, the population of Sindh was in the neighborhood of 30.4 million people. Adding 245 to 137 yields a total of 382 honor killings. 382/30,400,000=0.00001258 honor killings per capita. 0.00001258 is only 0.0013%. It would appear that honor killings are, in fact, extremely rare.
Returning to the Wikipedia article on honor killing, I also read that,
according to a poll done by the BBC's Asian network, 1 in 10 of the 500 Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslim surveyed, said they would condone any murder of someone who threatened their family's honor. The poll demonstrated how the notion of honor killings and views of whether they are acceptable and justifiable crosses religion and is more contingent on the family's social culture.
Polls are always suspect, but this one seems to indicate that nine out of ten of the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims surveyed would NOT condone murder of someone who threatened their family's honor. I agree with the proposition that,
To trace the origin of a tradition, we must first examine its distribution, and since in this case we find the overwhelming majority of incidences in the Middle East and India (and their offshoots elsewhere), it is in this region that we should look for an origin.
I remain, however, deeply skeptical that having located the origins of honor killing we have actually learned much about it. On the face of it, the distribution of the practice across both Judaeo-Christian-Muslim and Hindu populations rules out a simplistic appeal to religion as an important variable. The alternative hypothesis that a preference for endogamous marriage (patrilineal parallel cousin in the Middle East, restricted by caste in Hindu India) associated with exaggerated notions of purity as a necessary condition of honor runs into the problem of the South Indian case, where caste is important but, it seems, honor killing not part of local tradition. I am tempted to observe that the geographical region with which honor killing is most closely associated corresponds with what we might call the Muslim conquest zone, the region of Eurasia through which Islam was originally spread by the sword. This suggests that, instead, of jealousy as a motive, we focus on betrayal, the notion that the deepest dishonor of all is, in a very literal sense, consorting with the enemy.
All these speculations, however, run up against the kind of quantitative data mentioned above, which suggest (1) that honor killing is rare and (2) considered acceptable by only about 10% of the people who inhabit the region in question. Why that should be and why, if these conclusions are valid, honor killing should be a hotter-button news item than say, female infanticide, which has had dramatic effects on half or more of the world's total population, remain very interesting questions, indeed.
Very sensible post, John. I don't disagree with most of what you say, but I think we need to look a bit more closely at this phenomenon.
John McCreery said:
"In order for honor killing to take place, there must first be a strongly embedded sense of honor, specifically family honor, and whatever else you want to call it, this is most certainly a tradition."
Granted—with the proviso that what is claimed here is that tradition is a necessary condition. It is not, however, a sufficient condition.
Agreed. However, what I was assuming we were talking about here is a value system that condones and even, in certain cases, demands, such behavior, not the behavior itself. While honor killing is certainly rare, thank God, the cultural contexts in which it would be condoned and in fact protected by law are many. As anthropologists rather than sociologists or psychologists (to invoke another discussion on this site) it seems to me that we are in a better position to consider the former than the latter.
John: Returning to the Wikipedia article on honor killing, I also read that,
according to a poll done by the BBC's Asian network, 1 in 10 of the 500 Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslim surveyed, said they would condone any murder of someone who threatened their family's honor. The poll demonstrated how the notion of honor killings and views of whether they are acceptable and justifiable crosses religion and is more contingent on the family's social culture.
Here too I don't disagree. Only cultural norms are not decided by polls but by social pressure, which can often be exerted by only a few especially influential individuals (e.g., the Ayatollah Khomeini).
John: I agree with the proposition that,
"To trace the origin of a tradition, we must first examine its distribution, and since in this case we find the overwhelming majority of incidences in the Middle East and India (and their offshoots elsewhere), it is in this region that we should look for an origin."
I remain, however, deeply skeptical that having located the origins of honor killing we have actually learned much about it.
Simply locating its origin tells us nothing about why it originated or what it means, granted. But acknowledging that such cultural norms do in all likelihood have a single origin, in a very distant past, and have been perpetuated in the extremely powerful form of ancestrally sanctioned traditions does give us an important clue regarding where NOT to look for answers. I agree very much with your use of the term "betrayal" here. And in two senses. The independent actions of the perpetrators of such "crimes against humanity" (i.e., those women whose actions or fates "invite" honor killing) are seen as betrayers of deeply rooted ancestral values, and the failure of the family to act against such "violators" is also seen as a betrayal. So the power of such sanctions is very strong indeed. Even if they are carried out relatively rarely today, my guess is that they were far more common in the past -- or else the fear of such actions would have had a strongly deterring effect in the past, especially when there were less temptations to violate such norms.
As for meaning, imo we can never really know for sure exactly how or why any deeply entrenched tradition began, but we are certainly free to speculate. And there are certainly clues that can help us speculate meaningfully. Honor killing is of course only one of many traditions associated with the socially sanctioned control of women, so one might want to speculate, for example (and this is only an example, not a theory) that such traditions might have originally arisen in the context of a situation where the female-male ratio was unusually low, females were a rare commodity and were continually being tempted away from their mates by other males. Another possibility is the rise of extremely powerful males who wanted to hoard females for their own purposes and needed strong sanctions to prevent them from running off with other men.
Regardless of what the originating cause or causes might have been, I think it important to recognize that once such a complex of traditions gets started it develops a momentum of its own which becomes almost impossible to stop or even alter, regardless of subsequent conditions. Which is why we need not only sociologists/psychologists but also anthropologists to help us understand the phenomenon and deal with it. The former are in a position to evaluate and treat the individual cases, but only the latter can help us understand the underlying forces that make it so difficult to completely eradicate such clearly pathological behaviors.
I think it important to recognize that once such a complex of traditions gets started it develops a momentum of its own which becomes almost impossible to stop or even alter, regardless of subsequent conditions.
Here we come to the heart of our disagreement. The assumption that a complex of traditions has a momentum that makes it almost impossible to stop or even alter is one of those pieces of conventional wisdom that strike me as utterly implausible. What is written history but a record of ongoing change? Do we live in the Roman Republic where the pater familias had the power of life and death over his dependents? Or in late imperial China where, if the late Joseph Levenson was right, the meaning attached to the fundamental terms in which Confucianism was articulated was being radically transformed? What is it to be an American, the descendant of immigrants who left an old world to remake themselves in a new one? Or a modern German or Japanese, for whom what was seen as national essence a century ago now appears to be, if not nearly utterly alien, criminal nonsense?
Tradition is not a thingie, some sort of immutable substance, let alone one to which the physical properties described by "momentum" have a more than metaphorical relevance. I can still vividly recall Mark Swartz's remarking in one of my first anthropology classes at Michigan State (1962-1966) that no tradition is actually more than one generation old. Nowadays, I'd refine his remark along the lines articulated by Alfred Schutz. No tradition is actually anything more than a consensus maintained by some group of contemporaries. When they pass from the scene, their descendants may or may not adhere to the same consensus. More likely they will modify it. Sometimes the modifications seem trivial, mere shifts in fashion or taste. At other times they will be more radical, leaving only a die-hard minority to maintain the old ways until they, too, are gone. But traditions change. They always do. No parent who raises children anywhere except in a stable, closed small community can expect them to think, believe or act as replicas of themselves. Even then the variability built into sexual reproduction and diversity of individual experience make that expectation dubious.
Traditions with momentum that make them irresistible? Where in today's world can any such thing be found?
Yes, John, we have come to the heart of our disagreement. The topic of honor killing especially interests me because it relates to certain aspects of my own research that I am still exploring. And the essence of my research is a re-evaluation of this very tricky notion of "tradition," especially where traditions come from, what they mean, how they perpetuate themselves and the light they can throw on the culture(s) of the world of today. And yes my take on tradition definitely challenges the anthropological status quo.
Your notion of tradition strikes me as extremely narrow and even naive, though admittedly most anthropologists would in all likelihood agree with you, given the drift of this field over the last 40 years or so.
What is written history but a record of ongoing change?
Anthropologists are not really historians. To the extent that this field is historical it was created to deal with unrecorded history. Your examples give you away. They are in fact extremely short sighted, dealing for the most part with the history of those people who took it upon themselves to record it. Even the Roman Empire should be regarded as relatively recent by the standards of a field that covers the scope of human existence over literally millions of years.
And you appear to have no sense of the manner in which even the traditions of the Roman Empire, and other societies contemporary with it, if not considerably older, maintained themselves in a great many pockets of traditional culture in various parts of Italy and other parts of Europe literally until the 20th century. If we no longer find them there today that is because they have only recently been wiped off the map by the incursions of modern communication and trade. This is a recent development and by no means universal. Which is why honor killing is still an issue.
Traditions with momentum that make them irresistible? Where in today's world can any such thing be found?
Well, we can start with socially sanctioned honor killing itself, which is certainly a tradition and, as we well know, has proven extremely resistant to the tremendously powerful forces of "modernity" attempting to eradicate it. Much of the Moslem world has been up in arms, literally, for a very long time, in resistance to what is perceived as attempts by the developed world to alter or eliminate its most deeply held traditions.
As I believe I've demonstrated, honor killing can be traced back to a time before the Biblical era (since its found in both Hebrew and Islamic cultures) and probably long before that (since we find it still among Hindus and Sikhs). And clearly it is still going strong, despite all the pressures for change that you've invoked.
As I see it, the field of anthropology is currently in crisis because, for various reasons, it has turned its back on its own origins and its own original mandate, which was at one time centered in questions concerning human origins and the origins and evolution of human culture. Which is why we are, elsewhere on this site, discussing the difference between anthropology and sociology, which used to be obvious and is now hardly noticeable.
To simplify our discussion, I'll point you to two segments of my on-line book, Sounding the Depths, where I present my own, admittedly non-traditional, definition of "tradition." First, under "Preliminary Considerations," see the section labeled "Cultural Continuity": http://soundingthedepths.blogspot.com/2011/02/sidebar-preliminary-c...
Secondly, in the final chapter, the section labeled "Tradition!": http://soundingthedepths.blogspot.com/2011/05/chapter-eighteen-lega...
These passages should clarify for you my own take on this issue, and I'd very much welcome your response to anything you find there that appears problematic.
Victor, a question. Does the execution of Anne Boleyn count as an honor killing? If not, why not?
From Wikipedia
Henry had Anne investigated for high treason in April 1536. On 2 May she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury of peers and found guilty on 15 May. She was beheaded four days later on Tower Green. Modern historians view the charges against her, which included adultery and incest, as unconvincing.
Those interested in this topic might want to check out "the honor code", a book by the philosopher Anthony Appiah that broadens the concept of honor considerably:
John, I see no reason to include the execution of Anne Boleyn in the category of "honor killing," at least as this term is usually understood. Of course, any murder in the name of one's "honor" could, in narrowly literal terms, be called an "honor killing," but it was not my understanding that this is what Mohammed was referring to when he raised this issue. Ethnologically speaking, "honor killing" is a cultural practice in which the killing of a person, usually a woman, is justified in the name of family honor, and not only justified but in many cases actually demanded by powers that be within a given culture. When Henry had Anne beheaded, he was in fact violating cultural norms, not bowing to them. Since he was the monarch he was a rule unto himself and had no reason to bow to cultural norms. This is imo one of the few drivers of cultural change, the will or whim of an exceptionally powerful and/or influential individual or group.


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Industry support continues to build for the third annual Central Coast Cotton Conference to be held Nov. 16-18 at the Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach, Calif.
The conference is the only cotton management meeting that focuses specifically on California cotton production and provides continuing education credits for PCAs, consultants, growers and certified agronomists.
"We are extremely pleased with the support and recognition the conference has been receiving," said conference director Lowell Zelinski. "I can't believe how many people have told us they've heard about the conference and that they'd like to get involved."
In addition to the conference's two largest industry supporters – Bayer CropScience and the Western Farm Press – DuPont, Cotton Inc. and Oro PrevAm have joined the growing list of sponsors. Continuing their commitment to the conference and the California cotton industry is Monsanto, Gustafson, BASF, Precision Ag Consulting, MicroFlo, Calcot, Inc. and the California Cotton Growers Association.
Additional support is being provided by faculty from California State University, Fresno; Cal Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo and West Hills Community College.
Zelinski started the conference in November 2003 with the assistance of his wife and business partner, Becky Zelinski. They wanted to build a forum to help cotton industry professionals strengthen their expertise. They both believed they had a great idea and a good plan, but had no idea how successful the conference would become.
Steps to grow
"We've been told by the people in the cotton community that we all need this conference, that they'd like to keep it going and they'd like to see it grow so we've been taking steps to do just that," Becky Zelinski said.
Many people say one of the main reasons for the conference's success is the interactive teaching style Zelinski has applied to the conference. The sessions are presented in a guided-discussion format rather than lecture and Zelinski encourages everyone to get involved. The conference topics are also practical and hands-on, rather than centered on presenting current research.
There will be two major components to the conference this year: the technical sessions and a business management session. As in the past, the technical sessions will include cursory courses on cotton production, including, irrigation, variety selection, plant nutrition, disease management and defoliation. But beginning in 2005, the conference will also include an in-depth session on a pest management issue. This year it will be weed identification to be conducted a weed management specialist. There will also be a one hour course on laws and regulations, providing a much-needed continuing education credit for pest control advisors.
The 2005 special session is "Changing Tides: How to stay Afloat in California's Changing Cotton Industry." A panel of growers and experts will help participants explore the future of California cotton production.
"The California cotton industry is drastically changing," Zelinski said. "This year's special session was developed to help growers, consultants and PCAs figure out how to best deal with those changes, find ways to reduce costs and optimize production and otherwise, just how to stay in business."
The 2005 conference will also feature an expanded exhibit area, golf tournament, live entertainment and a wine country tour. The Cliffs Resort is an ocean view resort facility and offers discounted hotel accommodations throughout the conference and the following weekend.
Exhibit space and sponsorships are still available. For complete details, please visit www.cottonconference.com or call Becky Zelinski at (805) 434-0113.


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|Sesame Street
|Theodore Bikel visits Sesame Street.
|Air date
|May 27, 1971
|Season 2 (1970-1971)
This episode guide has been compiled from materials at the CTW Archives and the NHK episode guides. ⓘ
- Gordon asks Big Bird if he has met folk singer Theodore Bikel yet, and describes what he looks like and what he's wearing.
- Theodore Bikel and Big Bird see a tricycle with chipped paint, along with a paint can, a paint brush, a rag, and a piece of paper. Big Bird tries to guess why they are there--to make a paper glider to tow behind the tricycle? To paint the paper and wrap the tricycle to give to someone? Theodore Bikel suggests that someone is going to paint the tricycle, at which point Big Bird is able to guess correctly. Bob comes along and Big Bird tells him that he knows that Bob will paint the tricycle, and he guessed it on practically the first try.
- Theodore Bikel sings "Eternity"
- Theodore Bikel sings a Zulu song ("Mangwani Mpulele").
- "Clarinet Song"
- Bill Cosby plays twins who count to twenty. (First: Episode 0135)
- Ernie & Bert — Bert is reading a book when Ernie startles him by asking if he wants to play checkers. Bert says, "I thought maybe you weren't here!" Ernie starts to search to see if he can find himself. (First: Episode 0171)
- Story: Bob tells the story, "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World." When a little boy can't find his mother, a village of Anything Muppets ask the boy what she looks like. He replies that she's the most beautiful woman in the world, but the boy rejects all of the beautiful women the village can find. When the boy finds his mother, it is revealed that she is a frail, gray-haired woman -- but in the boy's eyes, she is beautiful. (First: Episode 0138)
- Cartoon: "Imagination O" -- A surreal story about a boy, a goat, and a bulldozer that closes up a hole in a cloud that blows the cold. (First: Episode 0011)
- Speech Balloon: "O" -- Open (First: Episode 0014)
- Cartoon: A man carrying a large "O" in a wheelbarrow recites an "O" limerick with the help of a smaller man. (EKA: Episode 0198)
- In a four-part sketch, Cookie Monster and Ernie demonstrate a short and a long time when Cookie Monster needs to borrow Ernie's phone. (First: Episode 0064)
- Film: A child watches a building "grow", step by step, from a hole in the ground to the roof. (EKA: Episode 0184)
- Sesame Street Animal Films: Pigs (EKA: Episode 0179)
- Gordon and Tom cooperate to build a block tower. (EKA: Episode 0262)
|Previous episode:
|Next episode:
|Episode 0273
|Episode 0275


text: Matt and list: Thanks for pointer to Ceranic et al (1998), a paper which gives clear evidence that spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) and tinnitus are closely related. If SOAEs sound like tinnitus and behave like tinnitus, isn't it likely that they are (in some respect) tinnitus? If we are aiming to pinpoint tinnitus, then SOAEs offer the most direct tool, and Ceranic et al. support this idea. Their Table 5 shows that patients with head injury and tinnitus displayed 4.4 SOAEs per ear, compared to 1.7 with normals and 0.25 with those having head injury without tinnitus. So did the head injury damage the cochlea and generate a tinnitus sensation (via afferent pathways), or did the injury damage the brain, which responded by sending a signal to the cochlea (via efferent pathways)? As you say, that question is still very much open, but it would definitely repay some attention. Andrew. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Andrew Bell Research School of Biology (RSB) The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia T: +61 2 6125 5145 F: +61 2 6125 3808 andrew.bell@xxxxxxxxxx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Further, tinnitus can also be induced by head injury [6]. In > this case, it is possible that the inner ear is damaged and > this causes a peripheral type of tinnitus, which again is a > cochlear amplifier dysfunction. Until we can successfully > trace this cause and develop methods such as cellular > regeneration possibly using stem cells - we can tinker and > experiment using all sorts of procedures to quash the > problem, but they will never be as sophisticated as actually > repairing the biology. > > > > [6] @ARTICLE{ceranic:1998, > author = {Ceranic, B.J. and Prasher, D.K. and Raglan, E. > and Luxon, L.M.}, > title = {{Tinnitus after head injury: evidence from > otoacoustic emissions}}, > journal = {Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery \& Psychiatry}, > year = {1998}, > volume = {65}, > pages = {523--529}, > number = {4}, > publisher = {BMJ} > } >


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News » Discography
For those interested in the following discount offer:
"Tafelmusik celebrates the release of its 78th recording, BACH: Tafelmusik and Daniel Taylor. Until midnight on November 11th, get 30% off any Tafelmusik title with Analekta with the promo code TAFEL. Make your selection now!"
(SE) BIS Records -- New York Polyphony Signs Up (08 Sep 2011)
Male classical vocal quartet New York Polyphony, who received international acclaim with the CDs I sing the birth (2007) and Tudor City (2010), has signed an exclusive recording contract with BIS Records.
(US) New from Harmonia Mundi: "George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 -- Agrippina"
"After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the 'caro Sassone' (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period.
(FR) New CD from ensemble Syntagma: "ROSA E ORTICHA"
(FR) Recently Released from Le Parlement de Musique: "Le Retour de la Paix" (CD, Release date: 13 oct 2011)
Le Parlement de Musique -- Martin Gester
Dorothy Leclair -- Soprano
"Shards and evocation of war - view from the Court, symphonies with trumpets, fifes and drums. Invocation of peace and followed by entertainment to the sound of bagpipes. Delights of the island of Delos, where Apollo's sits surrounded by muses, birds and happy shepherds.
(UK) Chandos Introduces New Plug & Play Collection
(UK) (Re-Post) Early Music discounts from Chaconne Label
(Re-posted as a reminder to our readers who may have missed the Chaconne October discount offer.)
200 Early Music Albums at 25% Off
"This month we are offering over 200 early music albums at 25% off, courtesy of the early music label Chaconne, which is renowned for its broad cross section of early-music repertoire from Medieval to Classical, performed on original or period instruments.
(US) New from Harmonia Mundi: "Down by the Salley Gardens" (Bejun Mehta, countertenorJulius Drake, piano)
19th & 20th Century English Songs (Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Howells, Quilter...)
"This programme offers a vivid and varied cross-section of English song, ranging from the Edwardian aesthetic of Quilter and early Vaughan Williams to the intensely expressive style of Howells and Finzi.
(IT) Il Complesso Barocco New CD Release: Venetian Curiosities (27 sep 2011)
(FR) New Recording : 2nd Recording of Johann Herman Schein (13-17 oct 2011)
(UK) New Chaconne Release: "Chamber Vespers, Miniature Masterpieces of the Italian Baroque" (CHAN 0782)
Faye Newton soprano
Jamie Savan treble cornett • mute cornett
Richard Sweeney theorbo
Steven Devine harpsichord • chamber organ
Clare Wilkinson mezzo-soprano
Gawain Glenton treble cornett • mute cornett
(UK) Early Music discounts from Chaconne Label
200 Early Music Albums at 25% Off
"This month we are offering over 200 early music albums at 25% off, courtesy of the early music label Chaconne, which is renowned for its broad cross section of early-music repertoire from Medieval to Classical, performed on original or period instruments.
(UK) Recently Released by Il Complesso Barocco Christoph Gluck "Ezio" (Review by Andrew Clements, 15 Sep 2011)
Release Date: 29 Aug 2011
Label: Virgin Classics
"Before he changed the course of operatic history with his "reform" operas of the 1760s and 1770s, Gluck was a respected and thoroughly conventional composer of opera seria, almost all of them written to librettos by Metastasio. …
(UK) CD Release:: 'An Innocent Diversion' Music of the era of Jane Austen (c 1770-1820) (Austentation.org)
(US) Harmonia Early Music - Beasts And Bestiaries
(FR) Recently Released: "Per la Vergine Maria" (Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano) (CD - Naïve)
(US) ArkivMusic
EarlyMusicNews.org Weblinks Revisited
"ArkivMusic specializes in the efficient delivery of the broadest selection of classical music titles in the U.S., direct to the consumer. There are currently over 90,000 CD, DVD, SACD, Blu-ray Disc, and 320-kbps MP3 titles in the ArkivMusic database, shipping from over 20 distribution centers around the country. This distribution network allows ArkivMusic to have more titles in stock every day than any other online retailer, assuring the most expeditious delivery and largest selection of classical music.
(BE) Recently Released: "Giuseppe SAMMARTINI, Concertos & Overtures" (Les Mufatti)
Les Muffatti
Peter Van Heyghen
Benoît Laurent, oboe
"In developing this program, we had to choose between sixty concertos and overtures, all works of particularly high quality. We mainly chose works never performed so far, for works that can be performed by our orchestra and for the most representative works of the orchestral body of Sammartini.
(FR) Newly Released: Atys by Jean-Baptiste Lully (Hugo Reyne et la Symphonie du Marais)
Previously, with only one recording of this opera that has revolutionized the iconic baroque movement,
With a young team of lyrical talent, Hugo Reyne, in this new recording, offers with this new production, an aesthetic of the work closer to its nature.
(US) Harmonia Mundi: Music From Colonial America
(US) Recently Released: Sfumato (Ron Andrico and Donna Stewart) (2011 June 22)
(US) Recently Released: "George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 Belshazzar" (Harmonia Mundi DVD) (2011 May)
Coproduction Festival d'Aix-en-PorvenceRené Jacobs - Conductor
Rias Kammerchor - Ensemble vocal
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Chamber ensemble
Kenneth Tarver - Tenor (Belshazzar)
Rosemary Joshua - Soprano (Nitocris)
Bejun Mehta - Countertenor (Cyrus)
Kristina Hammarström - Mezzo-soprano (Daniel)
Neal Davies - Baritone (Gobrias)
This live recording from the Festival of Aix-en-Provence 2008 reveals one of Handel's most gripping dramatic works.
(US) SFUMATO: Musica per voce e liuto del Rinascimento Italiano - new release from Mignarda (2011 June 30)
Pre-order Mignarda's latest CD by June 15th, 2011
and we'll list you as a 21st century Patron of the Arts on our liner notes!
Pre-order now for shipment on June 30, 2011.
Tracklisting and sound clips from this CD
Turmoil and tribulation, disease and death, faith and fraud, passion and pathos describe life in early 16th century Italy.


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A dangerous new strain of bird flu that emerged in South Korea on 17 January has spread nationwide despite efforts to clamp down on the virus. Authorities have culled 2.8 million domestic chickens and ducks since the outbreak began, and the strain has also killed dozens of Baikal teal and other migratory birds. As yet, there are no reports of human infections. Scientists are puzzling over where the H5N8 strain, never before seen in a highly pathogenic form, originated. And researchers are scrambling to keep the virus out of the country's premier poultry research center.
Intensive surveillance of commercial poultry and wild birds had never before detected the H5N8 strain in Korea, says Jae-Hong Kim, a veterinary microbiologist at Seoul National University. Last year, a Chinese group reported having isolated it from apparently healthy ducks at a live poultry market in China. Based on H5N8's sudden appearance in Korea and the genetic similarity of isolates from poultry and migratory birds, a governmental investigative committee has "tentatively concluded that [the virus] was likely to have been introduced by migratory birds," Kim says.
Conservationists are scoffing at that conclusion. "If birds are sick with the flu they are not going to fly thousands of kilometers," says Judit Szabo, science officer for the Seoul-based East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership, a group representing 15 Asia-Pacific nations and nongovernmental organizations. Szabo, a bird conservation biologist, speculates that migratory birds may have carried a mild form of the virus to Korea, where it spread into commercial poultry farms that provide "perfect conditions for a virus to get pathogenic really quickly." She says that on the first infected farms the virus caused only a drop-off in egg production, but then it mutated into a deadly strain as it spread. Wild birds then picked up the highly pathogenic form of H5N8 from farm wastewater, Szabo says. In a statement on its website, the partnership calls wild birds the victims of bird flu, not the perpetrators.
As scientists spar over H5N8's origins, the virus has reached the doorstep of the National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS). A wild goose infected with the virus was found dead on 1 February just 10 kilometers from the institute's Suwon campus near Seoul. The facility houses more than 13,000 hens and nearly 5000 ducks for research on breed improvement and animal husbandry. "If the virus infects the facility, we would cull all of the poultry," says Yong-sup Song, who heads the NIAS contingency team. That would put a serious dent in the center's genetic resources and set back ongoing research programs.
"We are nervous, fighting against the possibility of infection," Song says. To keep H5N8 at bay, all of the center's 263 staff members have been on round-the-clock duty since 2 February, disinfecting facilities, chasing migratory birds away, and controlling human and vehicle traffic.
If those efforts fail, all is not lost. NIAS keeps an equal number of poultry at another campus 50 kilometers away. "We believe there is little chance of the virus simultaneously infecting both facilities," Song says.
With reporting by Mi-Young Ahn.


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For endangered species, critical habitat is the key to survival. In fact, a study by the Center found that plants and animals with this federally protected habitat are more than twice as likely to be moving toward recovery than species without it.
One of the Endangered Species Act's greatest components, designation of critical habitat is required for all domestic species listed under the Act. Strictly defined, this habitat includes specific areas within a species' current range that have "physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species," as well as areas outside the species' current range upon a determination "that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species." In other words, critical habitat must include all areas deemed important to a species' survival or recovery, whether the species currently resides in those areas, historically resided in those areas, uses those areas for movement, or needs them for any other reason.
Critical habitat provides key protections for listed species by prohibiting federal agencies from permitting, funding, or carrying out actions that "adversely modify" designated areas. Designating critical habitat also provides vital information to local governments and citizens about where important habitat for endangered species is located — and why they should help conserve it.
Despite the obvious importance of critical habitat, both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service — the agencies required by law to designate critical habitat — have been hesitant to do so. From the time the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 through the mid-1990s, the agencies, particularly the Fish and Wildlife Service, routinely claimed that critical habitat was either indeterminable or not prudent. After such claims were ruled illegal by a series of court orders, the Center brought dozens of suits to force designation of critical habitat for hundreds of species that had previously been denied this habitat protection.
Unfortunately, the bulk of these critical habitat designations fell to the Bush administration, which did its utmost to ensure that species received as little protection as possible. During Bush's tenure, critical habitat areas were reduced by an average of 49 percent for 67 percent of all species with critical habitat to protect, resulting in the elimination of at least 63 million acres. The administration repeatedly ignored the advice of its own and outside scientists. Of 163 peer reviews of proposed critical habitats analyzed by the Center, for example, 80 called for granting species additional habitat, while only four species received it; in several cases when proposed critical habitat was at the minimum to ensure survival, the Interior Department reduced it anyway. Habitat for the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat, for example, was slashed by 40 percent (22,113 acres) even though four scientists said the original protected acreage must be expanded if the species is ever to recover.
|Oregon silverspot butterfly photo by GaryFalxa/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service