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Jurors have reached a verdict for one of the three former Marines convicted of killing a Riverside County couple five years ago.
But their decision on whether Kevin Cox, 25, will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole will not be revealed until a second jury panel reaches a decision for the two other men convicted in the brutal 2008 murders.
Judge Christian Thierbach sealed Cox's verdict Friday, after the panel of 12 jurors announced they had reached a decision inside the Riverside Superior Courthouse.
Jurors for Miller and John are scheduled to return to court Monday to hear testimony in their portion of the defendant's penalty phase.
On June 5, 2013, Emrys John, 23, Tyrone Miller, 25, and Kevin Cox, were found guilty two counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also also found true the special circumstances of murder during the commission of a robbery, during the commission of a burglary and multiple murders.
Their victims, Marine Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, were found murdered on Oct. 15, 2008 inside their home in the unincorporated community of Winchester. They were bound with tape and had been shot in the head.
Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak was raised in Ontario, went to Ayala High School and was a graduate student at Cal State San Bernardino when she was killed.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon said the defendants went to the home to rob the couple. They forced their way inside, physically assaulted the man, sexually assaulted the woman and then murdered both.
The Riverside County District Attorney is seeking the death penalty for all of the defendants.
A fourth defendant in this case, Kesaun Sykes, 26, is expected to start his trial in August.


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The City of Las Vegas wants you to take in its sights, not its smells.
That's why Jim Gibbons, the governor of Nevada, proclaimed today "Indoor Air Quality Awareness Day." In hopes of creating healthier indoor environments, Las Vegas and other Nevada cities are asking Nevadans not to wear any fragrances that — unbeknownst to many — can cause serious health problems.
Gibbons presented the proclamation to the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation, a Las Vegas based organization committed to supporting anyone who is "adversely affected by everyday chemicals and toxins in our environment."
Air fresheners, cleaning products, candles, hairsprays, potpourri, perfumes and colognes are just some of the fragrant chemicals that can contribute to encephalopathy, which can refer to any disease that alters brain function, the foundation says. While manmade "toxins" are not the only cause of encephalopathy, more and more studies are suggest that they can contribute to such diseases as autism, Alzheimers, ADD / ADHD, and Parkinson's.
Information from the foundation encouraged Las Vegas Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian to support the proclamation of May 26 as Indoor Air Quality Awareness Day. She asks that on this day, people forego using the products above and use less harmful alternatives — like vinegar in lieu of cleaning products, for example..

subset: commoncrawl


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FLORIDA and THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
I'm back from Florida, where I only barely survived, as you can see in this photo. Florida has a lot of indigenous prehistoric reptiles and you have to be careful not to get too close to them. Luckily this one spit me out just after the photo was snapped.
My next stop is a return visit to sassy Saskatoon. The appearances I have lined up there are as follows:
Thursday, March 17:
7:30 pm - Reading at McNally Robinson.
Friday, March 18:
11:30am-1pm -Talk on Sex, Sin and Zen/intro to meditation, ARTS 146 on U of S campus. (Note Room Correction! That's ARTS 146).
2:30pm - meditation at the Multi-Faith Centre at Rugby Chapel, the old church on the west side of St. Thomas More College on College Dr.
7:30pm - introduction to meditation at
Ken Sailor's house, 422 10th St E.
For more information please contact Jan or Ken at 665-3430 or
Those of you with Facebook can check out this page for the events.
Oh and I gotta show you the birthday cake the fine folks in Florida fed me for my f-f-f-freaking birthday. Isn't it adorable? I kept the dinosaur. He's on my window sill now.
What can I tell you? How about I present you an article I put together for Suicide Girls and then decided not to send them? Special thanks to Brian Gilman who sent me a bunch of old articles of mine that I had deleted from my original webpage. This one probably came out less than a year after 9/11/2001. So I updated it a lot.
The Prime Directive
I've been thinking about the Prime Directive lately. For those of you who aren't regular viewers of Star Trek, it's a science fiction TV series set 300 years in the future. In the show there is a U.N. type group called the Federation that governs the activities of the intelligent beings on various planets throughout the galaxy who have developed space travel and enjoy exploring other planets. The Prime Directive is the Federation's law that says that none of these explorers must make contact with, or give advanced technical knowledge to planets whose inhabitants aren't sufficiently developed socially to handle such contact or such technology.
Although it's science fiction, this law makes very good sense. We usually don't think about it this way, but the development of advanced technology is very much dependent upon a society's ability to abandon traditional views based on superstition and baseless speculation, and embrace a more realistic outlook based on straightforward, dispassionate observation of the real world.
On September 11th 2001 a group of religious fundamentalists used jet airplanes to destroy two of the world's largest skyscrapers. For the past ten years we've wondered and speculated about why they did this. Some people have talked about the various elements of economic repression wielded by Big Oil and the anger this creates. I don't doubt that this has a lot to do with what happened. But I'd like to put forth my own speculation, which I think gets more at the heart of the matter.
The very existence of jet airplanes and skyscrapers stands as undeniable proof that the worldview these religious fundamentalists held dear is utterly wrong. In fact the existence of these things is proof that all forms of religious fundamentalism are wrong. It is tangible proof that neither the Qu'ran, nor the Bible, nor even the Buddhist sutras are literally true.
You'll recall from your high school science and history courses that there was tremendous opposition by the Catholic Church towards the scientific theories regarding the Earth's position relative to the sun and stars when they were first proposed. Scientists who supported these new theories did so at the risk of their careers and even their lives. If the traditional view of the cosmos with Hell somewhere underground and Heaven way up in the sky was not true then the Bible, or at least the church's very literal interpretation of it, was wrong. If the population at large accepted such a view the church knew its days of power and influence were numbered. In this at least, the church was absolutely right.
The construction of a jet airliner or a skyscraper takes a very sophisticated understanding of scientific theories that stand opposed to fundamentalist beliefs. Only a society that has abandoned such fundamentalist ideas can produce jets and skyscrapers. The proof that scientific humanism is true is right in front of you. The computer you're using couldn't possibly exist if it were not. Furthermore, only a sufficiently humanistic society can produce the kind of resources needed to justify luxury items like computers. If a fundamentalist terrorist really wants to be true to his beliefs he should never use any type of advanced technology.
For a very long time I embraced the idea that societies around the world are held back by the unfair material and economic resources of the West, that if only they had these advantages they'd be able to stand on their own. I do not believe that any group of human beings are in any way fundamentally more or less intelligent than any other.
But recently I've begun to suspect that the thing that holds many societies back more than any other is their inability to abandon their cherished ideas about the world.
Economics is an important factor, but not the decisive one. One of the reasons Japan can compete with the West on its own terms is that the Buddhist worldview that underlies their society has allowed it to abandon its previously cherished ideas upon seeing that these ideas were mistaken. Sure there was a massive amount American money pumped into that country after World War II. But money wasn't really the key. If money alone was the decisive factor, the oil-rich nations of the Middle East would all be first world countries by now.
This is, of course, a very complex situation. But one really important factor that seems to be overlooked in all the talk about these matters is the inability of most human beings to admit when they are wrong, to admit that reality is at odds with their ideas and to be sensible enough to side with reality instead of fighting it. We'll go to any length, it seems, to avoid owning up to the fact that we've made a mistake.
I have no idea what sort of civilizations may exist on other planets. But I agree with modern scientific thinkers who say the chances are very good such civilizations do exist. It's entirely possible some of them are more technologically advanced than us. If they are it is because they have a worldview that is more realistic than the one our society has. Maybe there are intelligent aliens out there exploring space right now. If so, I hope they have something like the Prime Directive. Whatever technology they use to explore space might be so at odds with our current worldview as to make us a threat to them should they allow it to fall into our hands. We might try and use their technology to destroy them in a futile attempt to preserve our own mistaken ideas. And if we did we'd be as blind to our true motivations as our terrorist friends are.
If you're basically a liberal like me, it's very difficult to think in terms of civilizations here on Earth that are more socially advanced than others. I always want to give everyone their due and be able to see the beauty in any culture. I know that there is much that a society like ours can learn from the seemingly primitive ways of other cultures. I also know that the idea that some societies are more advanced than others has led to all kinds of tragedies, like slavery or the slaughter of the Native American and Australian people just to name a few obvious examples.
But I also feel that humanity as a whole is moving in a certain direction, and that direction is toward a higher and more rational civilization. We have a long way to go. And there are ways in which our own society is very advanced in some ways, yet positively retarded in others. Still, this movement toward rational humanism is real and cannot be stopped.
It is impossible for us to adopt a kind of Prime Directive when it comes to our dealings with cultures on our own planet that have yet to adopt a humanistic outlook. They've already been contaminated. Technological knowledge is spreading across the globe at a rate never seen before in history. It may take thousands of years for a society to develop sufficiently to be able to create a jet airplane. But because human beings are all basically equal in intelligence and ability, a fanatic from a far less developed society can learn to fly one in a week or so.
It is imperative that this un-stoppable spread of technological knowledge be paired with the spread of a more realistic and humanistic worldview. And this worldview is, itself, highly threatening to fundamentalist religions.
Some people get pretty upset at the suggestion that what is seen as the Western worldview should be pushed upon people who have their own worldviews. But I don't really see the humanistic realistic worldview as fundamentally Western. It is the worldview that the West has used to get as far as it's gotten. But it isn't our view. It isn't one viewpoint among equals.
I know some people recoil in horror at the suggestion that any viewpoint is fundamentally better than others. But it seems to be to be undeniably true that some worldviews are actually better. Humanism and realism work because they are more in line with how things actually are than with how we might wish them to be.
Captains Kirk, Picard, Janeway and all the rest of the starship commanders and their crews from Star Trek represent a fictionalized speculation about what a society that has taken the humanistic and realistic worldview several steps further than we have at present. I'm sure they've gotten a lot of details wrong. But I think the producers of those shows are on the right track. Or Trek.


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Now do you remember the story of Asmaa El Sayed who supports the MB and turned to be a fake tweep that does not exist !? Well it seems we got another new sister for Asmaa , Ms. Nilly As'ad. This is a living example as the account is still active.
The simple down to earth unveiled girl that defends MB and Islamists day and night using the old claim that Islamists are unjustly fought politically in Egypt because all the world fights Islam to the end of that talk.
|A screen capture for Nilly´s account.
Well I hate to break the news that this beautiful Avatar
Update :It turns that this is not the photo of Nina , it is the photo of Lebanese MTV host Dolly Ayash !!Great this account is using a photo of a celeb claiming to be her own photo. Here is an image search showing that the photo does belong to Ayash . Here is the photo from some Gulf forum
Here is Nilly whose followers are insulting and attacking me day and night in a disgusting way calling me useless sick retarded with no life.
Nilly is claiming that this is her photo
@ananelbatanoni @zeinobia ايوة دي صورتي واللي عايز يصدق يصدق اللي مش عايز طز بالمناسبة في واحدة اسمها ساندرا وهبي حطاها بعد مانا حطيتها
— Nilly As'ad (@nilly_hanem) January 7, 2013
|Nina´s picture in her blog
I had my own doubts about that account but thanks to amazing Dr.Nermeen Bedair , I found that Nilly is actually Nina !!
I know it may sound silly but I felt that that I needed a living example on these Fake twitter accounts.


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Maple Leafs edge Bruins to force Game 7
Toronto, ON – The Toronto Maple Leafs' first home playoff win since 2004 couldn't have come at a better time.
Phil Kessel's goal at the 8:59 mark of the third period proved to be the difference, as the Maple Leafs took down the Boston Bruins, 2-1, on Sunday to force a decisive Game 7 in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
Dion Phaneuf also lit the lamp in the final frame for Toronto, which stayed alive in this series for a second straight game after recording a 2-1 victory in Game 5 on Friday.
James Reimer made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs, who are 1-13 all-time in best- of-seven series in which they have trailed 3-1. The only time Toronto has come back to win a series from a 3-1 deficit was the 1942 Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings. The Maple Leafs actually trailed that series 3-0 before defeating Detroit in seven games.
Milan Lucic scored the lone goal for the Bruins, who got 24 saves from Tuukka Rask.
Game 7 is set for Monday in Boston. The Bruins had plane problems following Sunday's game and will fly to Boston on Monday morning.
"Late during tonight's game we were made aware that there was a malfunction with our airplane. As a result we are staying in Toronto on Sunday night and the team will travel to Boston on Monday morning," Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said in a statement.
Phaneuf broke a scoreless tie at the 1:48 mark of the third period. Nazem Kadri's shot from the high slot was deflected in by Phaneuf for a 1-0 Toronto lead.
Kessel made it a 2-0 contest just over seven minutes later. Rask made a pad save on Cody Franson's shot from the right point, but Kessel pulled the puck out of a pile in front and scored on a backhander.
With Rask on the bench for an extra attacker, Lucic tipped a shot past Reimer with 24.5 seconds remaining in regulation. The Bruins, however, failed to score another goal in the final seconds.
"We know we're going to go into a hostile building (Monday) night in Boston," said Toronto coach Randy Carlyle. "We know the passion in their market and their fans. We've been there already, we know what we're heading to and we just have to make sure that we play the game to a higher level than we did tonight. Because we know they will."
Reimer's best save of the night came in the early stages of the second period. Boston center Patrice Bergeron attempted a wraparound from behind the goal. Reimer dove across the crease on his stomach to prevent a goal.
Game Notes
Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury ... Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference also missed the game with an undisclosed injury.


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Volunteers at all of our hospitals play a critical role in providing compassionate, patient-and family-centered care.
If you are 18 or older, you can make an impact on the lives of our patients by becoming a volunteer. We also offer the Summer Volunteen program for 15- to 17-year olds.
Our volunteers fill many roles, including:
- Greeters who meet and direct patients and guests entering the hospital
- Information representatives who staff the information desk, assist patients and guests, and provide directions or patient room information
- Patient escorts who assist patients to and from curbside to hospital departments
- Clerical support staff who help with hospital directions and patient room information, answer phones help with office work such as copies and filing
- Spiritual care volunteers who welcome patients in their rooms, offer to connect them with the Spiritual Care department, and provide sensitive, non-denominational spiritual care
- Compassionate companions assigned to designated floors who serve as a link between patients and medical staff
- Hospice volunteers who perform a variety of tasks at the Methodist Hospice Residence. Learn more about becoming a hospice volunteer »
Become a Hospital Volunteer
- Complete the online volunteer application form
You must be 18 years or older to apply. To request a paper copy of the form, call 901-516-7481 or email Sandra Moore.
- Download and complete THREE character references (PDF)
Character references may know you from other volunteer activities, work, or personal friendship. Family members may not act as references. Please return three completed references by mail, fax or email.
Volunteer Services
Methodist University Hospital
1265 Union Avenue, E161
Memphis, TN 38104-3499
Fax: 901-516-7387
Email: Sandra Moore
- Immunizations. For our patients' safety and yours, volunteers undergo many of the same immunizations and screenings required of our paid staff. Volunteer Services will connect you with our Associate Health Department to complete this process. You will be screened for tuberculosis asked to provide proof of vaccination or immunity to chicken pox, measles, mumps and rubella. If you don't have documentation, you may be asked to take a blood test to confirm immunity.
- Interview. You will interview with a Volunteer Services team member. Once your paperwork is complete, we'll contact you to set up an appointment.
More InformationVolunteer Services: 901-516-7481
To become a Le Bonheur Children's Hospital volunteer, visit lebonheur.org/beavolunteer.


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How Cisco helps connect the City of Stratford and Canada 3.0
By Dan Mathieson, Mayor, City of Stratford
Stratford, Ontario, is a city which has continued to grow and be successful even after multiple changes in industry have occurred. Although we are a city renowned for our Shakespeare Festival, we are also becoming a leader in digital media and infrastructure, as witnessed by the hosting of Canada 3.0 for the fourth time this year.
Canada 3.0 is an annual event which gathers representatives from private industry, government and academia, as well as startups, to discuss and exchange ideas around digital innovation in Canada, and more specifically, how to elevate Canada's position in the global digital economy.
We have the ability to host a nationally significant event such as Canada 3.0 as a result of our strategy to invest in digital infrastructure and making it a major priority. Over the past five years, through Rhyzome Networks, a 50 km transmission grid of buried optical fibre has been installed – as well as a city-wide Wi-Fi network – which has made Stratford a leader in digital infrastructure. This has lead to Stratford becoming recognized over the past two years by the Intelligent Community Forum as one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the world.
After hosting Canada 3.0 for three years, some issues with Internet connectivity had become apparent and were threatening the success of the program. With 2,000 tech savvy attendants for the conference, all with at least two devices looking to connect wirelessly, we knew we needed a solution. As a result, Cisco was brought in as the official technology sponsor for Canada 3.0.
Cisco installed new networking infrastructure, wireless and wired, which allowed 40 hard wire connections to vendors on the floor, with 60 more wired outlets throughout the facilities. What was most important though, was the ability for conference attendees to connect via Wi-Fi to this network without any problems.
City of Stratford staff worked hand in hand with Cisco tirelessly throughout the two day event to ensure it was successful. And by the end of the Canada 3.0, we were thrilled with the results – attendees had tweeted Canada 3.0 to the top trending topic for all of Canada, thanks in part to the new network.
Without the assistance of Cisco, the previously dated and low capacity network in Stratford would not have been able to sustain the heavy amount of web traffic from Canada 3.0. By working together, Stratford was able to host an extremely successful event, and at the same time, show the world our capabilities as a leader in digital media and technology, now, and into the future.
For more perspectives and commentary from Cisco Canada executives, customers and partners visit the Cisco Canada English and French blogs.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.
1 Comments
Superb Post!!! Cheers Dan very nice blog.


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You probably already know vegetable gardening is on the rise in the U.S., powered by a shift toward non-GMO, organic and just plain, but delicious, vine ripened produce. If you shop for tomatoes, chives or parsley in your backyard instead of at the market, you're not alone. Here's the scoop on what people are growing and enjoying in their gardens. Although these figures were compiled from a number of sources, they typically cover data and projections from 2014. Enjoy.
Gardening Statistics That May Surprise You
In 2014, nearly 114.6 million people in the U.S. undertook at least some gardening projects. That's up from the 2008 figure of 104.9 million reported by Statista, the Statistical Reporting Portal.
Care to guess whether the average gardener is male or female? If you guessed that the ladies outnumber the men, you're probably right. The National Gardening Association reported that the "average" edible plant gardener is a female who spends five hours a week maintaining a backyard vegetable (herb and fruit) plot.
The average gardener also spends about $70 on prep supplies annually. How much does that investment yield in tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and other produce? That would be about $600 dollars worth.
An average veggie garden size is 575 to 600 square feet or so. To calculate the size of your own plot, the simple formula is: length x width = area.
Tomatoes are by far the most popular vegetable crop grown in backyard gardens with an 86 percent ranking. They're followed by cucumbers (47 percent) and bell or sweet peppers (46 percent). Other popular crops include: beans, carrots and summer squash.
Vertical gardening is becoming more popular around the country, too. Statistics aren't available, but products designed to help gardeners grow crops up (trellised) instead of out are on the rise. This isn't much of a surprise as a significant number of gardeners are working with a median (not average) space of only around 96 square feet.
One big surprise is that all regions of the country are involved in vegetable or food based gardening. Short season or long season, gardeners are still making the most of their landscapes. The South boasts the largest concentration of gardeners at 29 percent, with Midwest garden enthusiasts coming in at 23 percent.
Research conducted by Michigan State University suggests that updating your landscape can increase your home's value by up to 11 percent. Ancillary data is encouraging, too. It implies that landscaping expenditures (within reason) can yield a 100 percent return on investment (ROI).
A Mother Earth News article concludes that nearly three out of four Americans learn to garden from information on the backs of seed packets. Where did you educate yourself about gardening?
According to the GWAF 2014 October Gardening Trends Research Report, if you grow an edible garden, pest and disease control are your biggest concerns at 39 percent and 38 percent respectively.
About one in every four consumers polled in 2014 planned to grow an edible garden during 2015. It'll be interesting to discover how that falls out when the 2015 figures are in.
According to Mark Bittman, the New York Times food columnist, if one in 10 Americans converted their lawn space to edible garden space, the resulting harvests would supply one third of America's fresh produce needs.
Care to guess the fastest growing food gardening age demographic? According to the National Gardening Association, that would be 18 to 34 year olds (millennials).
Whatever you rage, grab a trowel and get to work! Happy gardening.
Courtesy of Flickr User: Ukgardenphotos https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukgardenphotos/6813998355/in/photolist
Bittman, Mark. "Lawns Into Gardens." New York Times. 1/2013. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/lawns-into-gardens/?_r=0
Elements "15 Gardening Facts and Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind!" 3/2014. http://elementsdesignbuildllc.com/gardening-statistics/
Garden Writers Association. "Garden Trend Survey." 2014. http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=gwafoundation/surveys_gardentrends.html
Garden.org. "Food Gardening in the U.S. at the Highest Levels in More Than a Decade According to New Report by the National Gardening Association." 4/2014. http://assoc.garden.org/press/press.php?q=show&pr=pr_nga&id=3819
Master of Horticulture. " Home Gardening Statistics." 3/2014. http://masterofhort.com/2014/03/home-gardening-statistics/
Mercola. "Who Knew Vegetable Gardens Could Be So Revolutionary?" 4/2014. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/07/vegetable-garden-sustainable-agriculture.aspx


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Usherwood Adventures Expansion for OSRIC (A5 layflat)
Paperback, 134 Pages
Price: $11.99
Prints in 3-5 business days
This OSRIC expansion material includes; new character race options (dragon hordling, 2 new half-orcs, and the magically-gifted sarngoch), new character class options (Jack-of-All-Trades, Vermean Bard, and Vermean Monk), 28 new monsters, new magical armor, weapons, and miscellaneous magic items, and new take on psionics. Inspired by the Usherwood Adventures campaign setting, the material contained in the Usherwood Adventures Expansion for OSRIC is completely setting-agnostic, and easily adaptable to your campaign world. 122 pages of new material, much of it never published previously, illustrated with original line art by Peter Szmer and Hugh Vogt, and only to be made available in this publication. This new second edition includes new creatures, new magic spells and items, and new optional rules for OSRIC.
Ratings & ReviewsLog in to review this item
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Product Details
- Copyright
- James D. Kramer (Standard Copyright License)
- Edition
- Second Edition
- Publisher
- Usherwood Publishing
- Published
- March 11, 2013
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 134
- Binding
- Coil
- Interior Ink
- Black & white
- Weight
- 0.56 lbs.
- Dimensions (inches)
- 5.83 wide x 8.26 tall
- Product ID
- 20743641
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Sunday Service
17 Feb 2019
10:00 - 12:00
Grace Church Manchester
Manchester Academy School
Moss Lane East
Moss Side
We don't do anything complicated or mystical. We try and explain what we are doing. On every Sunday we:
- Read the Bible and listen to a talk on that passage
- Pray to God
- Have a time to eat together and chat
- Sing to thank God and to encourage each other.
We do all this to bring honour to the Lord Jesus Christ.


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Is anyone aware of any superstitions or legends, etc related to quarters...quarters balancing on their sides? Coins balancing on sides? i've tried to google but haven't had much success.
As a back story on the house, my partner and i moved into this house 2 months ago and have experienced some strange activity around the house that started about 2 or so weeks after we moved in. its just the two of us living in the home. We have both heard noises regularly, sounds of someone walking down the stairs and even voices on a few occasions. I have also seen unusual shadows of movement around the house and on one occasion saw from the lounge room through the doorway a large shadow move quickly across the bedroom (in the corner that the box is in) although the majority of the activity seems to occur in the bathroom and stairway. Both my partner and myself have lived in homes that definitely would be considered to be "haunted" and such activities don't really bother us unless they feel malevolent, BUT THE COIN THING IS BIZARRE.
Edited by sophieisscared, 05 February 2017 - 05:59 PM.


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Specialized Therapy for Performing Artists
By trade, dancers, musicians and other performing artists are often passionate and exceedingly dedicated to their craft. Therefore, much like athletes, professional and recreational artists have grueling practice schedules and incur repetitive and other injuries. But unlike athletes, performing artists have not had a dedicated rehabilitation team who understand and cater to their unique needs.
That is, until now. Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network recently opened a specialized facility to meet the unique needs of dancers, musicians and other performing artists.
Why should performing artists choose specialized care?
Performers, such as dancers, musicians and fine artists, are predisposed to serious injury due to overuse and repetition. Receiving professional help early on can make a big difference in recovery and the time it takes to return to the craft.
Some of the specialized services offered at Good Shepherd's Performing Arts Rehabilitation Center (PARC) include:
- Orthopedic therapy
- Hand therapy
- Pain management
- Kinesio taping and splinting
- Headache rehabilitation
What makes PARC different from other rehabilitation facilities?
Good Shepherd's state-of-the-art Performing Arts Rehabilitation Center is designed with performing artists in mind. Minor corrections can have a great impact on a performer's health and the quality of his or her performance; therefore, it is important for a therapist who specializes in performing arts rehabilitation to observe artists in action.
For Dancers – The facility boasts a professional dance floor, complete with a ballet barre and full length mirrors. Spacious treatment rooms afford patients the room to practice their routines.
For Musicians – The facility has a piano and a soundproof music room for performers to play their instruments.
Why choose a treatment team that specializes in performing arts rehabilitation?
The PARC team understands the demands of performance and work schedules and will provide therapy to accommodate performance, class and recital schedules.
The treatment team at Good Shepherd's Performing Arts Rehabilitation Center includes a physical therapist who specializes in orthopedics and manual therapy in the treatment of cervical, shoulder and knee injuries and conditions, as well as a physical therapist assistant, Margo Clifford Ging, a dance instructor, choreographer and former professional dancer.
Patients can be referred for physical therapy at Good Shepherd's Performing Arts Rehabilitation Center by their family doctor or specialist. If you don't have a doctor, you can schedule an appointment with a Good Shepherd physician who will medically evaluate your condition to see if you are a candidate for physical therapy.
Interested patients can call Good Shepherd Physical Therapy – Bethlehem/Performing Arts Rehabilitation Center at 610-868-2805 to schedule an appointment or contact us.


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Ok this may not be a very concrete question, and is perhaps subject to taste, yet I'm struggling to get this right so here it goes.
I have a computer.
This computer has linux on it (thank god). Arch Linux to be specific (with
awesome wm).
I am the single user on this computer.
As to good practice I've set up two users: the
root user and the everyday use
romeovs user. This way I only use permissions when needed (using
sudo for example).
Over the years I have been pimping out my software suite, adding a bunch of applications to this computer. Notably:
ufw, ...
Now here is the rub: which of these applications' config files do I use? All of these supply an
/etc-based global configuration file, that affects all users, as well as a local
~/.config (or, sadly,
~/) config options.
I've always worked using the local configuration setups, because this felt more natural. But as I grow more familiar with my computer, I feel this somehow lacks elegance. The contra's to this approach are:
dicrepancy when switching to
rootuser, even with
sudo(e.g. when using
will not always work, e.g. when loading deamons from the arch linux
DEAMONSarray they are run by the
rootuser and thus don't pick up local user configs.
$HOMEdirectory clutter. Sadly there are very few apps that adhere to the
Benefits are:
stuff is local, which feels more in the lines of the permissions splitting between
quick and easy acces to the files. no need to
sudoto edit them.
easier for
gittracking of the config files.
somehow feels safer: a user can screw stuff up without messign with the machine's global settings.
it is more "a-package-update-may-overwite-my-config"-proof
Let's get conrete:
What is the de-facto standard to split configuration on a single user machine, especially for the system maintainer (single-user)?


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Award-winning actor
SJU graduate has appeared in over 75 productions
January 2, 2014
By Mike Killeen
When Dean Holt says he fell into professional acting, he's not far from telling the truth.
After all, the veteran of the Children's Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis and a 1994 graduate of Saint John's University isn't afraid to take a pratfall on stage or use slapstick comedy to draw a response from an audience.
But yes, he really did fall into acting. He transferred to SJU after attending St. Cloud State University for one year.
"I transferred to SJU in my sophomore year and declared theater as my major because the only class I truly enjoyed at SCSU was this intro to theater class," Holt said. "It proved to be serendipitous as I was quickly absorbed into the theater scene at CSB and SJU.
"By my senior year, I was fortunate to take part in Theatre de la Jeune Lune's residency at CSB and SJU, which ultimately led to my work at CTC. One of the company members of Jeune Lune had a twin sister at CTC and recommended me to the theater's professional apprenticeship program. A few weeks after the residency, I received a phone call from the production manager at CTC and shortly after that my first professional theater job.
"Had I not transferred to SJU, who knows where I would be," Holt said.
His one-year paid apprenticeship was "an awesome year where I worked my butt off and would sit in the wings and watch and learn from some truly amazing artists," Holt said. "The theater invited me back the next season as a guest artist and I joined the acting company the following year."
Holt has spent the last 20 years in CTC's resident acting company and has appeared in more than 75 productions.
"It is without a doubt a fun and fascinating place to work," Holt said of CTC. "The people are amazing, the work is always interesting, it's certainly never dull and I share in it all with my wife (Stacy McIntosh, who is a stage manager at CTC) and two boys.
"It is very demanding and you have to keep a balance not to get burned out," Holt said. "We perform six days a week, 10 performances a week, with Monday as our day off. In addition to performances, we rehearse the upcoming show, do readings and workshops of potential shows for upcoming seasons and have various meetings to discuss everything in between."
Holt is currently appearing as the "prettiest step-sister Pearl" in CTC's production of "Cinderella," which closes Jan. 5. It's a raucous production performed in the popular English tradition of Panto, with gender-switched roles (Holt and colleague Reed Sigmund playing the stepsisters) and an "anything goes" attitude.
"It is an absolute hoot to feel like you can do anything in this world, from crazy physical antics, one-line zingers thought up on the spot, audience participation and performing with my best friends," Holt said. "It all adds up to a sure fire recipe for fun onstage and from the audience. There are several moments when we honestly do not know what is going to happen next or what is going to be said. As it is improvised on the spot each performance."
Holt has won two Ivey Awards for acting excellence in the Twin Cities - for "Reeling," a 2006 production based on the work of silent films comedian Buster Keaton, and for "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" earlier this year.
"The show 'Reeling' was both the most physically demanding and most rewarding production I've done," Holt said. "It was definitely one of those 'in the right spot at the right time' sort of experiences for which I feel truly blessed to have been a part of."
"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" ran from June 21-July 21, and Holt played the role of the Mouse, which he originated in 2008.
"This was a remount - or re-mouse, as we called it - of the 2008 production, so many of our original challenges had already been faced concerning how to approach the show from a design standpoint and how to access it physically," Holt said. "The same challenges were present in the forms of the physical demands of the show, lots of slapstick physicality, pratfalls, high energy and knowing how to protect and preserve yourself for 10 shows each week. It doesn't make anything easier by being five years older, too."
Holt said attending SJU and CSB gave him a "tremendous resource on how to understand and appreciate all of what goes into a production.
"You take such a well-rounded series of classes that you can't help but have humility in whatever focus you end up choosing, mine being acting," Holt added. "I think having respect and admiration for the people that you collaborate with, both onstage and behind the scenes, only strengthens your work, your aesthetic and your understanding of the word 'play.' "


text:
|Other Accession
|Gene ID
|Application & Usage
|The peptide is used for blocking the antibody activity of GAPDH. It usually blocks the antibody activity completely in Western blot analysis by incubating the peptide with equal volume of antibody for 30-60 minutes at 37°C.
|50 µg (0.5 mg/ml) in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.2, containing 50% glycerol, 1% BSA and 0.02% thimerosal.
|Reconstitution & Storage
|Background Descriptions
|GAPDH Blocking Peptide is for research use only and not for use in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
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Signing day may be in the rearview mirror, but the Hokies have added one more athlete to their 2017 class.
2017 DE Zion DeBose of Spencer, N.C.'s North Rowan HS committed to Tech in a ceremony at his high school Friday, becoming the 27th prospect to pledge to the Hokies this cycle, according to Mike London of the Salisbury Post.
DeBose, who's rated a 3-star prospect by the 247Sports composite rankings, chose Tech over Missouri, Illinois and Pittsburgh.
The DE originally committed to Appalachian State back in July, but he maintained his interest in VT, visiting for the ECU game in September. He de-committed shortly afterward, and he stayed in constant contact with DL coach Charley Wiles, though Tech only offered him right before Christmas.
"He told me that him and the defensive staff have been watching me my whole senior year, and they've just been watching how great I've been doing and how dominant I've been," DeBose previously told The Key Play. "And they say that's what they've been looking for, for somebody who they want to come up and play for them at Virginia Tech and they pulled the trigger. They told me they've been watching me and they're really excited about how I play the game and how I fit their program and stuff like that."
DeBose took an official visit to Tech on Jan. 27, his final such trip after visits to his other top schools.
But he decided not to make his final decision until now so he could provide a special surprise for his mom's birthday.
"I honestly feel like this is probably my last time spending time with her for her birthday before I go off to college for the next four years, because I won't be home too much," DeBose said. "So I wanted to make it special for her before I end up going off to school."


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Has TV Weather Coverage Become Too Dangerous?
Jun 12, 2013 6:03 AM EDT
The newest extreme sport: covering the weather for TV. In an effort to satisfy the public's appetite for footage of blizzards, hurricanes and, most recently, the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma, reporters as well as professional and amateur ch… Read more


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Well, if the final six games of the season are an audition for Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne for 2013, he might want to consider renting rather than buying.
Henne's first pass as the Jaguars starter was picked off by Titans cornerback Alterraun Verner. Granted, since they're playing the Titans, it didn't hurt that much, but they turned it into a field goal and a 3-0 lead.
Henne came back on his next drive and completed passes of 18 and 23 yards, but later took two straight sacks to turn an opportunity to a fourth-and-27.
They probably wouldn't even give passing mention to Henne for the long-term if Blaine Gabbert wasn't so underwhelming this year, but when you're 1-9 and 0-5 at home, it's the kind of thing you have to talk about.


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This is the kind of bilge guys like Don McLeroy and Ken Mercer would like to see taught in science classes here in Texas, and no mistake. One loses count of the scientifically illiterate creationist poltroons who have claimed to have disproved Darwin over the years, only to faceplant into a briar patch of epic fail. But that hasn't daunted the intrepid folks at San Antonio's Vision Forum Ministries, who have created a 12-episode radio series called Jonathan Park and the Journey Never Taken, spreading, one presumes, the usual McDonald's menu of tepid, reheated anti-science lies. Let's see how they do in their "disproofs"…
"While Darwinism's impact remains far-reaching, its clutch on the culture is beginning to slip," concluded [Vision Forum Ministries president Doug] Phillips. "Programs like Jonathan Park illustrate the growing number of people who reject the notion that the world came to be through random chance and chaos, recognizing instead that the creation speaks forth of a Creator."
Annnnd…FAIL! Let's count the errors, shall we? First, Darwin's theory is not a theory regarding how the "world came to be," and second, nowhere does any model of evolution supported by science make the claim that it is a process of "random chance and chaos". So, wow, right there in an introductory web post, Phillips reveals his utter ignorance of the science he claims his stupid little program disproves. One can only imagine how bad the actual shows are.
Such a sad, dark little life of ignorance fundamentalism requires you to lead. I recently read Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, and it has to be the ultimate in travel writing. Imagine if Darwin had had his own blog during the seminal travels of his life, and you'll get an idea of what's it's like. And if it reveals one thing more clearly than anything else, it's that Charles Darwin possessed a sense of wonder and sheer unbridled awe about the beauty and majesty of life and the world we live in immeasurably greater than any felt by the pitiful creationists at Vision Forum Ministries — or any other creationist institution dedicated to the desperate clinging to the skirts of Bronze Age mythology instead of the real wonders that science and knowledge reveal to us.
They're gearing this crap towards children, in the hopes their natural wonder about the world and hunger for learning will be stifled before it has a chance to form. And all in the interests of maintaining ancient beliefs and the ministries that sell them. This is why we fight. Minds are at stake. Somewhere in the world is a student who will go on to cure AIDS, extend human life expectancy, and solve other ills that befall us, and that student will have to understand evolution. Creationists fear this, and want this destroyed at all costs. Religion doesn't care what destruction it leaves in its wake, as long as it comes out on top in the end.
Addendum: It didn't take long for Pat Roy, writer of the radio show in question, to turn up in the comments to defend his efforts. Game of Pat to show up and comment. I'm replying here as Blogger limits the character length of comments, and my rebuttal goes on at length.
Pat writes, after quoting some writing of Erasmus' Darwin's:
Notice how [Erasmus] mentions the formation of the earth from chaos. And we can show that Charles accepted most of his father's [sic] ideas. Do these statements specifically address biological evolution? No. And that may be your point. However, I believe Mr. Phillip's statements were referring to the theory of "evolution" as many do — from Big Bang to complex humans – which we see very clearly in Erasmus' quote (and many others). So you are wrong on your post, many evolutionists do attempt to explain the formation of the world from chaos.
"Many" at least among scientists and the scientifically literate do not in fact conflate such cosmological theories as the Big Bang with biological evolution, and if your radio show says they do, it is lying. It is the case that scientists who accept evolution also tend to accept such theories as the Big Bang, but to say that they refer to every field of study regarding origins under the all-purpose umbrella of "evolution" is deceptive. It's precisely the kind of little deception that creationists engage in as a matter of course; the idea being that many little deceptions add to a student's mistrust of the reliability of science and the scientific method, until, crack, the proverbial camel's back proverbially breaks.
Can you in fact name these "many evolutionists" who "attempt to explain the formation of the world from chaos"? (Apart from Chuck D.'s grandad, that is? Science has progressed on the question somewhat since his day, you understand.) Because, from the studying I've done, scientists explain the formation of the world as following from known laws of physics. That an accretion disc of dust and nebular materials condensed around a young hot star and formed our solar system using such tried-and-true methods as gravity, and electrostatic and centrifugal forces. Sure, prior to all this going on, the original solar nebula may have been a somewhat chaotic glob of matter. But we wouldn't have gotten a solar system out of it had physics not taken a role. That's not simple chaos, and no respectable scientist would describe it so.
So, I'm sorry, your response so far does not leave me with much confidence in your presenting accurate science to your young audience.
Next, Doug Phillips and a team from Vision Forum have just returned from an amazing trip to from the Galapagos. I read the men's' accounts on their own voyage to these islands. They too, were filled with the awe and diversity of the animals there. They were inspired by the wonder, beauty, and sense of wonder at the islands. As a matter of fact, the VF team marveled at the incredible design of each animal – appreciating the very ingenuity that went into each one — whereas Charles Darwin attributed the beauty to non-intelligent processes. To say Darwin could appreciate the beauty and purpose more than a creationist isn't based on anything other than an emotional response!
Phillips and his team went to the Galapagos and returned with more awe of their God. Darwin found awe in nature, without needing any recourse to the supernatural. This is the distinction I meant. Darwin went to the Galapagos and found himself learning new things and formulating original ideas. Your boys went there pretending to be open-minded admirers of science, all the while simply looking to shore up beliefs they already held.
The "design" evident in the animals of the Galapagos, and the whole world, results from an understood process: that of evolution by natural selection, sometimes called descent with modification. That this process is not "intelligent," not teleological, does not invalidate it. Indeed, there are many problems that begin to crop up in our understanding of biology, and of all the sciences, the minute one tries to shoehorn a magical, all-powerful God into the equation. One is now obliged to explain how and why this God has created things the way he did. One is obliged to reconcile very clear instances of bad "design" in human beings, for instance, our spines curve in such a way as to risk very bad back problems late in life, our knees bend the wrong way for maximal locomotion, and a woman's birth canal is not large enough to admit a baby's head without severe agony and possibly life-threatening consequences for the mother on the part of this supposedly all-knowing and all-powerful creator. Tellingly, the only way creationists and religionists can reconcile these problems is through recourse to myths that, by their very nature, cannot be examined or confirmed: women's birth pains are explained as a consequnce of Eve's "fall," for instance.
To put it
politely, this isn't science. Nor is wandering around the Galapagos going, "Wow, look at that tortoise, isn't God a great designer!"
As far as stifling children… I can say that I have had email after email from children (for many years) that have gotten excited about science and discovering the world around them as a direct result of the production. As a matter of fact, we end each episode with the tag-line, "This is our Father's world. God created it. We can explore it. Now live the adventure." Does that sound like we're "stifling" children, or encouraging them to explore?
It sounds like you're stifling them without understanding how you're doing it. Real science, real learning, is done by withholding conclusions about your findings until you've seen where the evidence leads. Based on your comments here, it sounds like your entire presentation in these shows follows the creationist playbook: Present kids with nature; offer the false choice between "unintelligent, chaotic processes" and "intelligent design"; cast the choice in terms of a "Duh!" moment (after all, who could believe that all this amazing design in nature could possibly be the result of random chance?!!?1!); and voila teh God!
Do you truly, accurately present the evidence for evolution in your series? Do you allow pro-evolution scientists who also happen to be Christians Kenneth Miller, Francisco Alaya, among others to make guest appearances on the show to explain what the evidence actually tells us? I don't for an instant believe you do. And that's not an emotional response. It's rooted in a long history of dealing with creationists and their dishonesty. What actual, scientifically falsifiable evidence do you present to support the claims "This is our Father's world. God created it" (in the way science education provides falsifiable evidence for evolution, I mean)? Or are you just telling kids this? If the latter, then, once more with feeling: That isn't science, Pat, it's simply religion looking for intellectual cred by donning a lab coat.
I don't doubt you've gotten praiseworthy emails from kids, Pat. But that doesn't confirm the content of what you teach is true, only that kids with no prior knowledge of science and no way to verify or disconfirm what you taught them enjoyed the experience. I will admit, in fairness, that you may inadvertently have done some of these kids some good. Some of them may well have gone on to study science as they got further along in their educations. And then they'd have discovered that the actual evidence doesn't quite support what you taught them. Then, some of them may thank you again — if for a very different reason.
Here is the biggest problem with your statement: most of the founding fathers of science were creationists. So to say that creation stifles scientific discovery is just untrue — as proven by history.
Well of course, Pat! Science is about discovery, and developing new theories to supplant old ones when the evidence calls for it. Are you really trying to offer me "Scientists long before Darwin believed in creation" as if it were an argument that validated creation? I mean, you could just as easily say that, because most early doctors were Galenists who believed in the four "humors," this in no way stifles medical discovery.
Of course early scientists were creationists, because, until Darwin, no one had established a theory of evolution with a solid body of evidence behind it. Early scientists can hardly be expected to have held an idea that did not yet exist, let alone have a strong, evidence-backed theory behind it.
When medicine began to be informed by such things as the germ theory of disease, archaic notions like the humors were discarded as no longer useful or factual. If any doctors today still held to Galenism and the humors, they wouldn't be good doctors. By the same token, evolution has been confirmed by such a vast body of evidence, and continues to be confirmed by new discoveries all the time. To hang onto an old idea that denies evolution, despite the evidence, is not good science. Creationists who reject evolution in this day and age are like doctors who are still Galenists, holding onto an outmoded idea and bizarrely defending it by pointing out that this is how people long ago thought!
So, thanks for the friendly response. But I'm afraid I've found nothing in it to think your program is going to be any less rubbish than all the other creationist efforts I've encountered. And if you think my critique was a little on the harsh side, I'd advise you to strap on the Kevlar once actual biologists hear what you're filling impressionable little minds with.


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Calculator + is an advanced, extensible calculator accepting natural (infix) formula notation. There are many built in functions and operators for common scientific and binary tasks. You can easily extend Calculator + with your own functions sets, or download predefined function sets from our website for business, science and astronomy for FREE!
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Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, lying in the northeastern quadrant of the island of Ireland, on the western continental periphery often characterized as Atlantic Europe. Northern Ireland is sometimes referred to as Ulster, although it includes only six of the nine counties which made up that historic Irish province.
In proximity to Scotland and to sea channels leading to England and Wales, Northern Ireland has long witnessed generations of newcomers and emigrants, including Celts from continental Europe and Vikings, Normans, and Anglo-Saxons. In the 17th century, the period of the so-called Ulster plantation, thousands of Scottish Presbyterians were forcibly resettled and English military garrisons built, arrivals that would institutionalize the ethnic, religious, and political differences that eventually resulted in violent conflict.
Since the 1920s, when Northern Ireland was officially separated from Ireland, it has been tormented by sectarian violence. Notwithstanding the peacemaking efforts that began in earnest in the mid-1990s, Northern Ireland is still best navigated by those who are skilled in the shibboleths and cultural codes that demarcate its peoples, governing which football (soccer) team to cheer for, which whiskey to drink, and which song to sing. The complexity of those political markers is captured in a graffito once scrawled on Belfast walls that read "If you are not confused you don't understand the situation." But, Northern Ireland's political fortunes subsequently have changed for the better, and with that change has come a flourishing of the arts, so that increasingly outsiders associate the country not with violent politics but with the poems of Seamus Heaney, the music of Van Morrison, and other contributions to world culture.
The capital is Belfast, a modern city whose historic centre was badly damaged by aerial bombardment during World War II. Once renowned for its shipyards—the Titanic was built there—Belfast has lost much of its industrial base. The city—as with Northern Ireland's other chief cities Londonderry (known locally and historically as Derry) and Armagh—is graced with parks and tidy residential neighbourhoods. More handsome still is the Northern Irish countryside—green, fertile, and laced with rivers and lakes, all of which have found lyrical expression in the nation's folk and artistic traditions.
Northern Ireland occupies about one-sixth of the island of Ireland and is separated on the east from Scotland, another part of the United Kingdom, by the narrow North Channel, which is at one point only 13 miles (21 km) wide. The Irish Sea separates Northern Ireland from England and Wales on the east and southeast, respectively, and the Atlantic Ocean lies to the north. The southern and western borders are with the republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland can be thought of topographically as a saucer centred on Lough (lake) Neagh, the upturned rim of which forms the highlands. Five of the six historic counties—Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, and Londonderry—meet at the lake, and each has a highland region on the saucer's rim. To the north and east the mountains of Antrim (physiographically a plateau) tilt upward toward the coast. They reach an elevation of 1,817 feet (554 metres) at Trostan, with the plateau terminating in an impressive cliff coastline of basalts and chalk that is broken by a series of the glaciated valleys known as glens, which face Scotland and are rather isolated from the rest of Northern Ireland. The rounded landscape of drumlins—smooth, elongated mounds left by the melting ice of the final Pleistocene glaciation—in the southeast is punctuated by Slieve Croob, which rises to 1,745 feet (532 metres), and culminates in the Mourne Mountains, which reach an elevation of 2,789 feet (850 metres) at Slieve Donard (Northern Ireland's highest point) within 2 miles (3 km) of the sea. This impressive landscape of granite peaks is bounded by Carlingford Lough to the south.
The scenery to the south of Lough Neagh is gentler, but the land rises to 1,886 feet (575 metres) in Slieve Gullion near the border with Ireland. West of Lough Neagh the land rises gently to the more rounded Sperrin Mountains; Sawel, at 2,224 feet (678 metres), is the highest of several hills over 2,000 feet (610 metres). The far southwest, the historic County Fermanagh, is focused geographically on the basin of Lough Erne, in a drumlin-strewn area ringed by hills more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) high.
Much of the landscape of Northern Ireland is gentle, and in most low-lying areas it is covered with swarms of drumlins that have played havoc with the local drainage and are interspersed with marshy hollows. Glaciation also gave the land its main valleys: those of the River Bann (which drains Lough Neagh to the Atlantic Ocean) in the north, the River Blackwater in the southwest, and the River Lagan in the east. All these valleys have been important routeways, but none have been more important than the Lagan, penetrating from Belfast Lough to the very heart of Ulster.
Soils are varied. Although much glacially transported material covers the areas below 700 feet (215 metres) in elevation, the nature of the soil is predominantly influenced by the underlying parent rock. Brown earth soils, forming arable loams, are extensive and are derived from the ancient Silurian rocks of the southeast—some 420 million years old—and from the more recent basalts of the northeast. There are peaty gleys and podzols in the Sperrins, and the impeded drainage of much of the southwest gives rise to acidic brown soil. Peat soils are common, particularly in the hollows lying between the drumlins, and hill peat is widespread throughout Northern Ireland. Although it is of no great commercial value, peat traditionally has been a source of fuel for the peasant farmer and is still cut extensively.
Northern Ireland's climate is temperate and maritime; most of its weather comes from the southwest in a series of low-pressure systems bringing the rain and clouds that often lend character to the landscape. Because Northern Ireland is near the central track of such lows, it often experiences high winds. In the north and on the east coast, particularly, severe westerly gales are common. Above the 800-foot (245-metre) level, distorted trees and windbreaks testify to the severity of the weather. Annual rainfall decreases from west to east, although the hills accentuate the amount to some 80 inches (2,000 mm) in parts of the west, and there is as little as 32.5 inches (825 mm) at Lough Neagh and the extreme southeast. A relatively dry spring gives way to a wet summer and a wetter winter. Daily conditions generally are highly changeable, but there are no extremes of heat and cold. The region is exposed to the ameliorating effects of the North Atlantic Current, a northeastward extension of the Gulf Stream. Average January temperatures vary from 38 °F (3.3 °C) on the north coast to 35 °F (1.7 °C) in the east; in July temperatures of 65 °F (18.3 °C) are common. In late spring and early summer the east has slightly lower temperatures accompanied by coastal fog. These mild and humid climatic conditions have, in sum, made Northern Ireland a green country in all seasons.
Plant and animal life
The general features of the vegetation of Northern Ireland are similar to those in the northwest of Britain. The human imprint is heavy on the landscape and is particularly evident in the absence of trees. Most of the land has been plowed, drained, and cultivated for centuries. Above the limit of cultivation, rough pastures are grazed extensively, and beyond them lies a zone of mountain vegetation. Only about 5 percent of the land is now under forest, and most of this has been planted by the state. Young trees in these plantations are economically unimportant, but locally they help to diversify the landscape.
The fauna of Northern Ireland is not very different from that of Great Britain. There are, however, fewer species of mammals and birds. Only two mammals—the Irish stoat and the Irish hare—and three species of birds are exclusively Irish. The region is rich in fish, particularly pike, perch, trout, and salmon; the first is the only fish introduced in historic times.
As a result of ongoing concern with conservation, there are some 40 nature reserves and several bird sanctuaries controlled by the Ulster Wildlife Trust and by the Department of the Environment.
Ethnic groups and languages
The cultural differences that underlie many of Northern Ireland's contemporary social problems have a long and troubled history. The region has had lasting links with parts of western Scotland, strengthened by constant population movements. After the Tudor invasions and particularly after the forced settlements, or plantations, of the early 17th century, English and Scottish elements were further differentiated from the native Irish by their Protestant faith. Two distinct and often antagonistic groupings—the indigenous Roman Catholic Irish and the immigrant Protestant English and Scots—date from that period, and they have played a significant role in molding Northern Ireland's development. The settlers dominated County Antrim and northern Down, controlled the Lagan corridor toward Armagh, and also formed powerful minorities elsewhere.
This situation contributed to the decline of spoken Irish (Gaelic), and it is reflected in the contemporary distribution of religions. The accents with which Northern Irish people speak English are regionally distinctive. The northeastern dialect, dominating the historic counties of Antrim and Londonderry and parts of Down, is an offshoot of central Scottish dialect. The remainder of the area, including the Lagan valley, has accents derived from England, more particularly from Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and southern Lancashire, as well as the West Country counties of Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, and Devon. The towns show more of a mixture and an overlay of standard English.
Northern Ireland's political divisions are partly reflected through language. Although English is near-universally spoken by everyone in the six counties, Irish also is spoken by a small but significant and growing proportion of the population and is an important element of the cultural identity for many northern nationalists (Roman Catholics who support unification with Ireland)—even those with limited knowledge of the language. Unionists (Protestants who support Northern Ireland's status as a constituent element of the United Kingdom), on the other hand, tend to distrust and dismiss Irish as a cultural expression of political divisiveness.
The demographic balance between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland is becoming increasingly delicate. Catholics now make up about two-fifths of the population, and their slightly higher birth rate has led to speculation that they eventually will become the larger of the "two communities." Although Protestants continue to be a majority, they are perhaps best thought of as a "majority of minorities," in that the Protestant community comprises a mosaic of distinct denominations that vary enormously in size. The most substantial Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland, the Presbyterians, makes up more than one-fifth of the population. About one in six people belong to the next biggest Protestant denomination, the Anglican Church of Ireland. The remainder of the Protestant population is fragmented among dozens of smaller religious groupings.
Protestant and Catholic communities are not distributed evenly. During the political violence of the last third of the 20th century, many Protestants moved away from western and border areas of Northern Ireland. As a result, the historic counties of Londonderry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone now have marked Catholic majorities, while the traditional concentration of Protestants in the eastern reaches has increased. One important exception to this rule is Belfast on the eastern seaboard, where Catholics have become the majority. During the "Troubles"—the term used euphemistically to describe the violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland—many wealthy Protestants from Belfast relocated to the pastoral environs of northern Down while their less privileged counterparts moved to the bleak estates that sprung up in the satellite towns that ring the city.
Northern Ireland is also marked by stark patterns of residential segregation. Even when Catholics and Protestants reside in the same part of the region, they tend to live separately from one another. Indeed, about half the Northern Irish live in districts in which nine-tenths or more of residents are drawn from one of the two communities. This segregation, especially evident in Belfast, is even more pronounced in poorer neighbourhoods. The hostilities between adjacent working-class districts composed of different ethnoreligious communities have led to the creation of "peace lines," essentially permanent structures aimed at keeping the warring factions apart. The complex sectarian geography of Northern Ireland places often severe constraints upon the physical mobility of working-class residents in particular and has an important impact upon the manner in which everyday life is organized and experienced. In the interest of self-preservation, young people learn early to recognize the various cues that indicate ethnoreligious identity.
Settlement patterns
The traditional regions of Northern Ireland correspond closely to the main topographic elements, although they are also the outcome of the cultural evolution of the area. In the north and east the influence of the Scots and English has been paramount. West of Lough Neagh and in the fastness of the Mourne Mountains and of Slieve Gullion, as well as in the more distant Lough Erne region, indigenous elements have maintained a distinctiveness. Such relatively isolated pockets as the glens of the northeast coast and Kilkeel on the southeast coast retain a local consciousness that gives colour and interest to the human geography of Northern Ireland.
The predominant impression of Northern Ireland's landscape is of scattered and isolated farms. Occasional relics of tiny hamlets, or clachans, show that peasant crofts once were huddled together and worked by kinship groups in an open-field system. Between the end of the 18th and the middle of the 19th century, most of the land was enclosed and the scattered strips consolidated, partly as a policy of the landlords but finally because of the decline in rural population after the Potato Famine of the 1840s. The end result was the orderly, small square fields that dominate the contemporary landscape. Some landlords rearranged their tenants' land in narrow ribbons, from valley bottom to mountain pasture, giving a characteristic ladder of fields with the farms strung along the road on the valley side. Drumlins also have had an effect on siting; houses are found away from the peaty bottomlands but below the windswept skyline. Most farmhouses are small, and a few are still thatched. The occasional larger farm often has a Georgian house—simple and dignified, a reflection of the age of consolidation.
Small market towns rather than villages are common. Built by the English and Scottish planters or by the landlords of the 18th century, they have a foreign touch of orderliness and urbanity. Many are grouped around a "diamond" (meeting place), which is used as a marketplace. Some of these towns acquired a mill in the 19th century, but in few cases has this changed the essentially rural context.
Few of the market centres have grown into substantial towns. In the western half of Northern Ireland, regional services and administration have enlarged Omagh and Enniskillen. Some towns have grown with the introduction of industry, particularly Dungannon, which specializes in fabrics, and Carrickfergus, now noted for aluminum castings and telecommunications cables. Armagh is an ecclesiastical centre with two cathedrals, while Lisburn, Lurgan, and Portadown, all in the Lagan valley, form an extension of the Belfast industrial complex, their size a product of the textile industry. Bangor is a resort and a residential outlier of Belfast. Londonderry, a centre for shirtmaking, was the heart of the Lough Foyle lowlands until the hinterland that it served was split by the partition of Ireland, but it remains the main focus of the west. The size of Belfast, at the head of Belfast Lough on the northeast coast, underlines its dominance of the region, as well as its significance as an industrial centre and major port. Shipbuilding, linen manufacturing, and engineering have declined in Belfast, but shipping remains a major employer, and the aircraft industry has gained in importance. The city is also the centre of government, finance, education, and culture. Reflecting Belfast's 19th-century origin, most of the streets are inextricably and bleakly mixed with mills and factories, while the reclaimed land at the head of Belfast Lough is given over entirely to industry.
Demographic trends
In terms of population, Northern Ireland is the smallest part of the United Kingdom, and its demographic profile differs from that of Great Britain in a number of ways. Although the Northern Irish birth rate declined over the last two decades of the 20th century, it remains relatively high by British standards. Since partition, emigration from Northern Ireland has tended to outpace immigration. However, the net outflow of people from the region has been relatively small, especially when compared with the mass emigration that has typified Ireland in various periods. The combination of a relatively high birth rate and negligible out-migration has contributed to a gradual rise in the population of Northern Ireland. The population of Northern Ireland is comparatively young in relation to that of the rest of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland's economy is closely bound to that of the rest of the United Kingdom. Although historically the economic links between Northern Ireland and its closest neighbour, the republic of Ireland, were remarkably underdeveloped, trade between the two has grown substantially. Compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, the economy of Northern Ireland has long suffered, largely a result of political and social turmoil. To spur economic development, in the 1980s the British and Irish governments created the International Fund for Ireland, which disburses economic assistance to the entire island, with significant resources going to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland also receives economic assistance from the European Union.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
While agriculture historically played an important part in the economy of Northern Ireland, its significance has declined greatly over recent decades. As in other developed societies, the introduction of new technologies has accelerated a process of consolidation, and there are now fewer but substantially larger and more productive farms. In the process, agriculture has become a relatively insignificant source of employment. At the beginning of the 21st century, less than 5 percent of people in Northern Ireland earned a living from the land, though about three-fourths of the total land area was used for agriculture, forestry, and livestock.
Northern Ireland's frequent rainfall, humidity, and prospect of wet harvests discourage arable farming, but local conditions produce good grass and rich pasture. Nearly all grassland is plowed, and there is little "rough grazing." Mixed farming was traditionally universal, but there has been a considerable movement toward specialization. Nearly half the farms concentrate on sheep and beef, and about one-fifth specialize in dairying. Principal crops include potatoes, barley, wheat, and oats; turnips are grown to feed livestock. The production of grass seed and seed potatoes for export is also important. To the south of Lough Neagh lies a rich orchard country, and apple growing and market gardening are constant features of the landscape. Most of the agricultural land is held by the occupiers in fee simple, but there persists the peculiar feature of conacre, a system of short (11-month) lets, on a portion of the agricultural land. About two-thirds of the farmers are "working owners."
Forestry is not an important industry in Northern Ireland, as much of the native forests were cleared by the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, with about 1 percent of the land forested, the government encouraged reforestation. In 1919 the Forestry Commission was established to develop policy, and afforestation efforts occurred throughout much of the 20th century. By the end of the century, about 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) were forested, with about three-fourths of the woodland administered by the Forestry Service. Most of the limited timber production, which accounts for a tiny fraction of employment and gross domestic product (GDP), occurs on state-owned lands.
Ocean fishing is more or less confined to the northern Irish Sea and is limited to trawlers that operate primarily from the ports of Kilkeel, Ardglass, and Portavogie. Prawns, cod, whiting, and herring are among the main catches. There has been increasing development of marine farming, particularly for oysters. Inland, salmon and eel fishing is traditional, the latter concentrated where the River Bann leaves Lough Neagh.
Resources and power
Northern Ireland is not rich in minerals, and mining contributes little to the economy. Less than 1 percent of workers are employed in mining. Among the minerals found are basalt, limestone, chalk, clay, salt, and shale, and there is some iron ore, bauxite, and coal. Hydroelectric resources are not significant, and peat is used as a domestic source of fuel. There are also limited petroleum and natural gas reserves. In the early 21st century an electrical interconnector with Scotland was built to connect Northern Ireland to the European grid, and the interconnector with the grid in the Irish republic was restored. Indeed, in 2007 the Single Electricity Market (SEM) began operation, providing a single wholesale market for electricity for the whole island of Ireland. The Scotland to Northern Ireland Pipeline (SNIP) transmits natural gas, providing an important industrial and domestic energy source. A gas pipeline completed in 2006 runs from Dublin to Antrim, and another completed in 2004 connects Derry with a point near Carrickfergus.
During the 19th century the counties that would eventually form Northern Ireland underwent a rapid process of industrialization. In the decades before World War I, the Lagan valley formed with Merseyside and Clydeside a network that was the heart of the British imperial economy. Belfast became the site of many linen mills, rope factories, and heavy engineering concerns. For a time the city produced a greater tonnage of shipping than any other port in the world.
The 20th century, in contrast, was marked by a slow though inexorable industrial decline. Although this trend was reversed somewhat by the outbreak of World War II, the structural weakness of Northern Irish manufacturing became increasingly apparent in the decades that followed. In the mid 1960s the government offered inducements to multinational corporations to invest in Northern Ireland, but, while many foreign companies agreed to establish factories there, the new approach failed to stem the collapse of the manufacturing sector in the last decades of the century.
Two principal factors are responsible for the deindustrialization of Northern Ireland. First, the sustained political violence that overtook the region in the late 1960s has undermined local manufacturing. Ultimately, the executives of multinational corporations have proved reluctant to establish branch plants in a part of the developed world that has become synonymous with political upheaval. Second, the industrial collapse of Northern Ireland must be seen in the wider context of the reconstruction of the global economy. Since the oil price rises of the early 1970s, Western corporations have systematically closed factories in developed societies and transferred production to low-wage economies in the less-developed world. Like the economic life of many other developed countries, that of Northern Ireland has essentially become postindustrial. Indeed, many of the factories that drove Northern Ireland's industrial economy at its height now stand idle or await conversion to luxury apartments. The shipyards in Belfast stumble from one threatened closure to the next. At the end of the 20th century the manufacturing sector that once employed more than half the Northern Irish workforce provided work for less than one in five.
Unified fiscally with the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland's official currency is the British pound sterling. The three primary revenue sources include a share of the United Kingdom's revenue from customs and excise, income, value-added, and capital gains taxes, as well as the national insurance surcharge; nontax revenue collected locally, such as rates (contributions toward the cost of government services) and property taxes; and specific and nonspecific payments from the United Kingdom, which have become increasingly important since the onset of political unrest in the late 1960s. At the beginning of the 21st century, subsidies from the British Treasury accounted for nearly one-third of Northern Ireland's GDP.
Most of Northern Ireland's imports come from, and exports go to, other parts of the United Kingdom. The republic of Ireland is Northern Ireland's primary external trading partner and its leading export market. However, Northern Ireland has consistently run a trade deficit with its southern neighbour. Other major trading partners include Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United States. In the first decade of the 21st century, exports generally decreased to the European Union but increased to the rest of Britain, the republic of Ireland, and the rest of the world. Among the country's principal exports are food and beverages; transport equipment; computer, electrical, and optical equipment; and chemicals and chemical products.
As manufacturing dwindled in significance, the service sector emerged as the linchpin of the Northern Irish economy and now provides about three-fourths of jobs. Retailing, financial services, and real estate are particularly important sources of local private employment; however, the growth of the tertiary sector is also largely due to the expansion of public services that began in the early 1970s. Indeed, it has been suggested that as many as two out of three in the Northern Irish workforce are employed directly or indirectly by the state, especially in the fields of health, education, administration, and security. Because of the political violence that plagued Northern Ireland, for much of the late 20th century the tourist industry was virtually nonexistent. With the signing of the peace agreement between nationalists and unionists in the late 1990s, however, the tourist industry became an important job creator and revenue generator. By the first decade of the 21st century, tourism accounted indirectly for nearly 5 percent of GDP and employment. The vast majority of tourists come from other areas of the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a significant number also visit from the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Local trade unions are affiliated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions through its Northern Ireland Committee. Most union members belong both to unions associated with this organization and to British-based unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress.
One of the more noteworthy features of the countryside of Northern Ireland is a close network of well-maintained roads that connects all parts of the region. Public road transport outside the Belfast municipal service has been nationalized since 1935, and since 1968 the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (formerly the Ulster Transport Authority) has also controlled the railways, bus companies, and Belfast airport. The railways diminished rapidly—from 824 miles (1,326 km) to about one-fourth that figure—in the economic reorganization following nationalization. Inland waterways have almost disappeared, although a little commercial traffic still uses the Lower Bann Navigation to Coleraine, and there is some recreational sailing.
Northern Ireland is well connected to the other regions of the United Kingdom by both sea and air. Belfast is one of the major ports in Britain and Ireland and has several miles of quays with modern container-handling facilities. Larne and Derry are the other ports of significance. Coleraine and Warrenpoint handle some freight, and Larne and Belfast handle passenger transport. Belfast International Airport, near Aldergrove, has regular air service to major cities in Britain, Europe, and North America. The smaller George Best Belfast City Airport has become increasingly popular with commuters traveling to Great Britain and elsewhere.


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Smokeout raises important facts
We're going to throw some numbers out, so wrap your mind around these, if you can – an estimated 58.5 million of U.S. adults were smokers in 2012, and of those, 41.6 million smoked every day.
We offer those statistics because Thursday is the 38th-annual Great American Smokeout – a day set aside each year dedicated to helping smokers of all ages to quit smoking. It's a day to put down those cigarettes, cigars and pipes, or don't put a pinch between your cheek and gums.
Here are some other alarming statistics: Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S., yet nearly one in every five adults smokes.
It's not so hard to think about quitting smoking if you consider the alternatives: Lung cancer, lip cancer and cancers of the mouth, throat and digestive tract.
The American Cancer Society has a list of benefits of ending smoking, including:
* A drop in carbon monoxide levels in the blood to normal in 12 hours.
* An increase in lung function within three months.
* A reduction in coughing and shortness of breath and a gain in the body's natural defenses against lung infections within nine months.
* In a year, the risk of coronary heart disease is dropped to half that of a smoker.
If the health statistics aren't enough, calculate the cost of your particular form of tobacco on your weekly, monthly and annual budget. We're sure a savings will be found.
The cancer society has scheduled the smokeout for the third Thursday of November for decades, dating back to an event in California in 1974.
The day isn't just about struggling through a single-day commitment to go tobacco free. It's about learning, and about finding and using tools to reduce and eventually end personal tobacco use. If cold turkey quitting is too much for you, consider the availability of counseling, nicotine replacement products, group support, telephone hotline support, guidebooks and encouragement, including nagging, from friends and family.
Thursday is about making a commitment. Trying to stay away from tobacco for a day is the first step on what is a quick road to a healthier lifestyle. When you're breathing better, when your heart is functioning better, you can be more active, which puts you in better health overall, which leads to a change in mood.
Please, for your own health, commit to quit this year. Just take it one step at a time.


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Russ wrote:Reubins ??? Yummy. Got me thinking now.
Here it is right out of the oven. I'm slicing today! More pics later on!
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Russ wrote:Reubins ??? Yummy. Got me thinking now.
Txdragon wrote:Oh dear.. I forgot sliced pics!!! I guess I'll have to make a Rueben today and snap a pic of that. Lol!
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Before the season, I did a Q&A with the folks at Football Outsiders. For the first time ever, they predicted the Texans would win the AFC South. Their prediction at the time didn't know that Peyton Manning would miss the season, or that the Texans defense would be playing as well as it has.
In the comments in a previous post, commenter "br. ron" asked for a followup Football Outsiders analysis of the Texans progress this season. Great idea. Houston resident and Football Outsiders writer, Rivers McCown (@FO_RiversMcCown) kindly took the time to do a quick Q&A for me on this subject. Hope you like it as much as I did.
Any numbers/charting data you find particularly surprising? encouraging? worrisome?
The most surprising number to me personally is how well the Texans run defense has been performing. They started off the season extremely poorly, getting gashed by Daniel Thomas and the Saints backs in Weeks 2 and 3. Since then, Houston has done a much better job against the run — particularly in Power Situations, where they now rate as the eighth-best team in the NFL by our numbers. They are still a little soft up the middle: our adjusted line yards statistic has them as the fifth-worst team in the NFL on runs there. But considering the numerous questions that Shaun Cody and Earl Mitchell entered this season with, this has to be thought of as a best-case scenario for the defense.
Texans defense. What numbers would suggest that the defense is real and can stand up to offenses that aren't mostly jokes? What numbers are Of Concern.
One of the biggest numbers we have in favor of the defense is just the remarkable job that Johnathan Joseph has done this year. Wade Phillips has tended to anchor his cornerbacks to a side for most of the game, and Joseph often stays on the defense's left, which shows up in our stats as the offense's right. On passes thrown to Joseph's side of the field, the Texans are allowing just 4.08 yards per attempt — best in the NFL. He's been everything the Texans have paid him to be and more.
Here are
Joseph's Houston's numbers based on offensive direction, DVOA and rank, yds/pass and rank
left 6.8% 20 7.2 14 middle 28.0% 23 8.8 18 right -33.8% 2 4.3 1
If you're looking for a reason to doubt the Texans defense, it does start with the teams that they've played this year. Without Peyton Manning around to provide in-house tests in the AFC South, the Texans have only played three NFL offenses in the top-10 of our pass offense DVOA. And in facing the Steelers when their offensive line was in disarray and the Titans without Kenny Britt, there are theoretical reasons to distrust the performances in those individual games.
Against New Orleans, the Texans defense proved that if you can stretch them out and isolate their weaker pass defenders, they can be beaten. Fortunately for Houston, nobody left on their schedule can actually come up with the requisite receiving talent to do that. Anecdotally, Atlanta probably has the best receiving talent of any team they have yet to play, so that game could provide a real test of Houston's defensive statistics.
The Leinart question. Any number thoughts relevant to him starting? Hard to look at Texans offensive numbers at the bye week because it's hard to say how much Matt Schaub will be missed.
I feel like the best arguments for Leinart's success are based in hypotheticals rather than statistics. There's the difference of systems between Arizona under Ken Whisenhunt and Houston under Gary Kubiak, the proliferation of Cover-2 defenses that Doug Farrar has noted are better fits for what he has done on the field so far, and Bill Barnwell's argument for his success is completely focused on Leinart's circumstances rather than his statistics.
Statistically, while Leinart came out with a very high score in our Lewin Projection System, he hasn't really shown much in his first few years in the league. His DVOA in his 2006 and 2007 starts hovered around the low negative numbers, and as much as the Arizona pass offense may not have been completely tailored to his talents, he was throwing to Larry Fitzgerald. There's also the sneaky fact that while some have touted the low number of pass attempts Leinart should have to make with the dominant Houston running game, losing your starting quarterback actually has been conclusively proven to weaken your running statistics.
That doesn't necessarily mean that he'll be a bad quarterback for the Texans. I have optimism that he won't be a total liability for the Texans — but I also don't trust him to lead them to any playoff victories. At least not until I see him perform well in a Texans uniform.
[Steph note: I generally link only to things I think are worth reading. If you haven't read the Farrar Leinart blog post yet, I strongly suggest you do so]
The special teams has had some slippage recently after a good early start. What are the main issues?
The biggest negative so far has simply been Neil Rackers and the field-goal unit. A blocked extra point does them no favors, but the three missed field goals have stood out. Especially against Oakland, where the miss ultimately kept them from being able to send that game to overtime. Amazing how little those missed field goals seem to matter when you're busy crushing inferior opponents, though.
Another issue is that the punt return unit has regressed from it's earlier glory. Of course, Jacoby Jones wasn't going to return a punt for a touchdown every game like he did against the Colts in the opener, but with Andre Johnson injured, he's had to put in a lot of work with the base offense. My observation is that this has taken its toll on his ability to be a dangerous return man.
Anything interesting about the Texans 2011 relative to the rest of the league?
I would say that the most interesting thing to me about the Texans is just how they have been good on both sides of the ball. The reason they went into Week 11 with the No. 1 DVOA ranking is that they are the only team in the NFL to be in the top 10 of our defensive and offensive DVOA. Every other team has a strong side of the ball and a weak side of the ball. That balance has (obviously) served them well this season.
Please thank Rivers.
Blog posts like this one make me happy to be a blogger. Get to find out info I don't already know and share it with friends. Thank Rivers for helping out with this.
I've been asked what the Texans playoff chances would be if Leinart makes the Texans play at a league average level instead of above average. The best information I could find is from Advanced Football Stats. This is what they wrote about Texans playoff probabilities:
As the above shows, even if we assume that a Leinart-helmed Houston is a league-average team, the Texans still have a 73% probability to finish with a better record than Tennessee. In addition, Houston's edge in tiebreakers over the Titans means that a tie result will almost always tip in Houston's favor, giving them a probability of better than 85% to win the South and earn their first ever postseason berth.
This was written before both the Titans and Jaguars lost this weekend. It is good to know.
Your thoughts?