text:
I've never seen Shelby heads before
The pins/rivets, are going to keep those freeze plugs firmly in place
There is a beauty to machined parts
That is a cool procedure, having just a pair of engine builders at most make your engine, and then they put their name on it. That's pride in the work friends.
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/high-performance-engine-building.html for the wallpaper quality photos I thought you might like, and thanks to J Bittle for the open house tour of the JBA machine shop!
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/open-house-tour-for-mustang-club-at-jba.html and for last summer's open house at the Convoy St car shop: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=jba+open+house+


text:
June J. Pilcher, Ph.D.
Alumni Distinguished Professor
Department of Psychology
Honorary member Class of '39
Clemson University
Curriculum vitae (November 2018)
Google Scholar Profile
- PhD, MS: Biopsychology (The University of Chicago, 1989)
- Specialization: Neurosciences (University of Munich, 1985)
- BA: Psychology (University of Southern Mississippi, 1984)
- BS: Computer Science (University of Southern Mississippi, 1984)
Professional Experience
- Alumni Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Clemson University (2009 - present)
- Honorary member Class of '39 (2015 - present)
- Faculty Scholar, Clemson University School of Health Research, Clemson University (2015 - present)
- Affiliated Faculty, Real-Time Intelligence for Smart Electric Grid Operations (RISE) (2015 - present)
- Associate, Human Factors Institute, Clemson University (2014 - present)
- Jefferson Science Fellow, U.S. Agency for International Development (2018 - 2019)
- Faculty Fellow for Global Learning, Office of Global Engagement, Clemson University (2016 - 2018)
- Fulbright Specialist in Public/Global Health, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (Summer 2017)
- Faculty Scholar, Institute for Advancement of Health Care, Clemson University (2012 - 2015)
- Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholar, Social, Cognitive, Affective Neuroscience Unit, University of Vienna & Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria (2011 - 2012)
- Professor, Department of Psychology, Clemson University (2005 - 2009)
- Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Clemson University (2001 - 2005)
- Adjunct Faculty, Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland (2003 - 2010)
- Consultant, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (1997 - 2004)
- Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Bradley University (1998 - 2001)
- Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Bradley University (1992 - 1998)
- Research Psychologist, Captain - US Army, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (1989 - 1992)
- German Academic Exchange Service Fellow (Fulbright U.S. Student Program), Max Plank Institute, Munich, Germany (1984 - 1985)
- Hospital Corpsman, Petty Officer 2nd Class - US Navy, Millington, TN & Okinawa, Japan (1978 - 1982)
Research Interests
- Physical activity and performance, health, and well-being
- Stress, fatigue, and performance in the work place and in college students
- Stress and social/emotional cognition
- Shiftwork
- Attention and self-control processes
- Occupational health, safety, well-being
- Teaching of psychology; motivating student learning
Recent Publications (student names in red)
- Jordan, K. A., Gagnon, R. J., Anderson, D. M., & Pilcher, J. J. (2018). Enhancing the college student experience: Outcomes of a leisure education program. Journal of Experiential Education, 41(1), 90-106. doi: 10.1177/1053825917751508
- Pilcher, J. J., Switzer, F. S. III, Munc, A., Donnelly, J, Jellen, J. C., & Lamm, C. (2018). Psychometric properties of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale: A factor analysis and item-response theory approach. Chronobiology International, 35(4), 533-545. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2017.1420075
- Morris, D. M., Pilcher, J. J., Mulvihill, J. B., & Vander Wood, M. A. (2017). Performance awareness: Predicting cognitive performance during simulated shiftwork using chronobiological measures. Applied Ergonomics, 63, 9-16. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.03.009
- Morris, D. M., Pilcher, J. J., & Powell, R. B. (2017). Task dependent cold stress during expeditions in Antarctic environments. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 76, 1379306. doi: 10.1080/22423982.2017.1379306
- Pilcher, J. J., Morris, D. M., Bryant, S. A., Merritt, P. A., & Feigl, H. B. (2017). Decreasing sedentary behavior: Effects on academic performance, meta-cognition, and sleep. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 11, 219. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00219
- Morris, D. M. & Pilcher, J. J. (2016). The cold driver: Cold stress while driving results in dangerous behavior. Biological Psychology, 120, 149-155. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2016.09.011
- Pilcher, J. J. & Bryant, S. A. (2016). Implications of social support as a self-control resource. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 228. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00228
- Pilcher, J. J., Jennings, K. S., Phillips, G., & McCubbin, J. A. (2016). Auditory attention and comprehension during a simulated night shift: Effects of task characteristics. Human Factors, 58(7), 1031-1043. doi: 10.1177/0018720816654377
- Pilcher, J. J. & Baker, V. C. (2016). Task performance and meta-cognitive outcomes when using activity workstations and traditional desks. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 957. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00957
- Morris, D. M., Pilcher, J. J., & Switzer III, F. S. (2015). Lane heading difference: An innovative model for drowsy driving detection using retrospective analysis around curves. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 80, 117-124. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2015.04.007
- Pilcher, J. J., Callan, C., & Posey, J. L. (2015). Sleep deprivation affects reactivity to positive but not negative stimuli. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 79(6), 657-662. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.05.003
- Pilcher, J. J., Morris, D. M., Donnelly, J., & Feigl, H. B. (2015). Interactions between sleep habits and self-control. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 284. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00284
- Pilcher, J. J., Geldhauser, H. A., Beeco, J. A., & Lindquist, T. A. (2013). Controlled attention and sleep deprivation: Adding a self-regulation approach? International Journal of Psychological Studies, 5(1), 71-83. doi: 10.5539/ijps.v5n3p71.
- McClelland, L. E., Switzer, F. S., III, & Pilcher, J. J. (2013). Changes in decision-making in nurses across a 12-hour day shift. Occupational Medicine, 63(1), 60-65. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqs189.
- Pilcher, J. J. (2013). Sleep and Athletes. In C. A. Kushida (ed.), Encyclopedia of sleep (Vol 2) (pp. 711-713). Waltham, MA: Academic Press.
- Pilcher, J. J. (2013). Sleep and Shiftwork. In C. A. Kushida (ed.), Encyclopedia of sleep (Vol 2) (pp. 714-717). Waltham, MA: Academic Press.
- McCubbin, J. A., Peach, H., Moore, D. D., & Pilcher, J. J. (2012). Decreased cognitive/CNS function in young adults at risk for hypertension: Effects of sleep deprivation. International Journal of Hypertension. doi:10.1155/2012/989345. (special edition: IJH-Perspectives on Behavioral Medicine)
- Pilcher, J. J., Burnett, M. L., & McCubbin, J. A. (2012). Measurement of Sleep and Sleepiness. In M. Wang, R. R. Sinclair, & L. Tetrick (eds.), Research methods in occupational health psychology: Measurement, design, and data analysis (pp. 49-60). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
- Pilcher, J. J., Vander Wood, M. A., & O'Connell, K. L. (2011). The effects of extended work under sleep deprivation conditions on team-based performance. Ergonomics, 54(7), 587-596.
Select Honors and Awards
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society (2019 - 2021; 2016 - 2018)
- Fulbright Specialist Roster Candidate, U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education's Council for International Exchange of Scholars (2015 - 2020)
- Dean's Award for Interdisciplinary Collaboration Teaching/Service, College of Business and Behavioral Science, Clemson University (2016)
- Researcher of the Month, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson University (2016, February)
- The Class of '39 Award for Excellence, Clemson University (2015)
- Inaugural Researcher of the Month, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson University (2014, January)
- Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholar Award; Fulbright Program for U.S. Scholars; University of Vienna and the Freud Museum; Vienna, Austria (2011 - 2012)
- Board of Trustees Award for Faculty Excellence, Clemson University (2011, 2012)
- Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award, Sigma Xi Chapter, Clemson University (2011)
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (2010)
- Master Faculty Address (Keynote speech), New Student Convocation, Clemson University (2010)
- Phil and Mary Bradley Award for Mentoring in Creative Inquiry, Clemson University (2010)
- Douglas W. Bradbury Award, Calhoun Honors College, Clemson University (2009)
- Senior Scholar Research Excellence Award, College of Business and Behavioral Science, Clemson University (2006)
- Best Presentation-Mentor Award, Student Research/Creative Achievement Exhibition, Bradley University (2000, 2001)
- Research Mentor Award, Bradley University (1997)
Research Funding
- External
- Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland: "Metrics for Analysis: Understanding Language Tasks and Performance." Principal Investigator. ~242,500 (2009 - 2010)
- Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland: "Stress, Fatigue, and Language Abilities: Stress Mitigation in the Workplace." Principal Investigator. ~$478,000 (2006 - 2008)
- Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Award, Spartanburg, SC: "State-of-the-Art Patient Room Design Research Program." Principal Investigator. $80,959 (2006 - 2007)
- ION Healthcare Award, Richmond, VA: "Clinical Validation of Sleep Apnea Disease Management Program." Principal Investigator. $47,884 (2006 - 2007)
- Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland: "Stress, Fatigue, and Language Abilities." Co-Principal Investigator (with James A. McCubbin) ~$871,000 (2003 - 2006)
- Internal
- Clemson University, Mentor in University Professional Internship/Co-op Program (UPIC); mentor undergraduate interns for FitDesk Initiative. ~$15,000/year (2014 - present)
- Clemson University, Creative Inquiry Award, Research Initiative with Undergraduates. Principal Investigator. ~$15,000/year (2005 - present)
- Clemson University, CBBS Dean's Excellence Fund Award: Diving into Antarctica: Effects of Cold Stress in the Tourism Industry. Principal Investigator. $8000 (2015 - 2016)
- Clemson University, Global Engagement, Curriculum Internationalization Seed Funding. Principal Investigator with Ellen Granberg and Katherine Weisensee. $6000 (2013 - 2015)
- Clemson University, College of Business and Behavioral Science Award: "Sleep Deprivation, Stress, Performance and Blood Pressure Regulation." Co-Principal Investigator (with James A. McCubbin). $30,000 (2007 - 2008)
- Clemson University, Research Investment Fund Program Award: "Sleep Deprivation, Blood Pressure Dysregulation, and Risk of Hypertension." Co-Principal Investigator (with James A. McCubbin). $26,457 (2007)
- Clemson University, College of Business and Behavioral Science Award: "Sustained Operations Research Laboratory." Principal Investigator. $30,000 (2006 - 2007)
Select Invited Talks and Activities
- Past-President, Clemson University Phi Kappa Phi Chapter #49 (2018 - present)
- Invited speaker, topics on human nature, the human brain, and sleep, The Clemson FIRST Program, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (2011 - present)
- Invited speaker, "Sleep Matters," Academic Success Center, Clemson University (2009 - present)
- President, Clemson University Phi Kappa Phi Chapter #49 (2014 - 2018)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "That Tricky Human Brain." Sigma Xi Chapter, University of Nebraska Kearney, Kearney, NE (2019)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." Quinnipiac Chapter of Sigma Xi, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT (2018)
- Invited speaker, "That Tricky Human Brain." Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University, Greenville, SC (2018)
- Invited speaker, "The Need for Sleep: Issues and Countermeasures." South Carolina Bar 2018 Convention, Kiawah Island, SC (2018)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." Greenbriar Valley Chapter of Sigma Xi, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lewisburg, WV (2017)
- Invited speaker, "Goldilocks and Stress: Influence of Sleep and Exercise." Jackson River Governor's School, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, Clifton Forge, VA (2017)
- Fulbright Specialist invited speaker, "Multifaceted Stress-Related Approach to Performance, Health, and Well-Being." Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Oulu, Finland (2017)
- Fulbright Specialist invited speaker, "Mental and Psychomotor Performance in the Cold." NIVA Education, Human Factors in Arctic Work. Helsinki, Finland (2017)
- Fulbright Specialist invited speaker, "Risky Choices: Circadian Rhythms and Safety." Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Helsinki, Finland (2017)
- Fulbright Specialist invited speaker, "Sleep Deprivation Matters." Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Helsinki, Finland (2017)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." Sigma Xi Chapter, Purchase College, State University of New York. Purchase, NY (2017)
- Invited interview, "Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and High School Students." Introducing Solutions to the Dropout Crisis Magazine, National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, Clemson, SC http://dropoutprevention.org/webcast/introducing-solutions-magazine/ (2017)
- Invited speaker, "Sound Sleep: Tips for Healthy Sleep – Healthy Life." Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University, Greenville, SC (2017)
- Invited reviewer, Fulbright Scholar Review Committee for Psychology, Fulbright Scholar Program, Council of International Exchange of Scholars (2014-2016)
- Member, Phi Kappa Phi National Fellowship Committee (2014-2016)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." Cleveland Science Café, Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland, OH (2016)
- Invited panel interview, "Sleep in the Workplace." The Sound of Ideas, Cleveland NPR, Cleveland, OH. http://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/sleep-the-workplace-elder-care-planning-young-entrepreneur and https://www.ohiochannel.org/video/the-sound-of-ideas-sleep-the-workplace-elder-care-planning-young-entrepreneur (2016)
- Invited reviewer, Fulbright Senior Award and Junior Advanced Research Award, Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission (2016)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer invited interview, "How Sleep Affects Performance, Health, and Well-Being." American Scientist Google Hangout (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xP4HTM_KGM and https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/ct4o7jcvtv0vt8r27m7ir21npmo
- Invited speaker, "Sound Sleep: Tips for Healthy Sleep – Healthy Life." Greenville Science on Tap. Greenville, SC (2016)
- Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." Albuquerque Section IEEE and Sigma Xi University of New Mexico Chapter Joint Annual Dinner. Albuquerque, NM (2016)
- Invited speaker, "Sleep: The Pattern of Life." La Veda Llena Retirement Community. Albuquerque, NM (2016)
- Invited speaker, "That Tricky Human Brain." Youth Learning Institute; Global Connections: Future Scholars Session; Chuuk High School. Clemson, SC (2016)
- Invited speaker, "Lack of Sleep and Decision Making." Academic Minute, WAMC Northeast Public Radio (2016). http://academicminute.org/2016/03/june-pilcher-clemson-university-lack-of-sleep-and-decision-making/
- Invited interview, Clemson TV On the Table - Counting sheep. (2016). http://tv.clemson.edu/counting_sheep/
- Inaugural featured speaker, "Stress: The Good, The Bad, and The Resilient." Tiger Talks, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, SC (2016)
- Invited reviewer, Psychology Review Panel, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (2011-2015)
- Invited speaker, "Grants and Fellowships Workshop." Phi Kappa Phi Chapter #49 and Academic Success Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (2015)
- Invited speaker, "Working while Moving: Low Level Activity in Academic Settings." Cooper Library, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (2015)
- Invited speaker, "Good Night, Sweetheart." College of Business and Behavioral Science Staff Retreat, Clemson University (2015)
- Invited speaker, "Brain Works: Choices & Intentions," Science on Tap, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences and CU Life Sciences Outreach Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (2014)
- Invited speaker, "Once a Fulbrighter, Always a Fulbrighter," Fulbright Leadership and Reentry Workshop, Sub-saharan Africa Countries, Clemson University, Clemson, SC with Sharon Nagy, Anne Lewinson (2014)
- Invited speaker, "Exercise and the Brain: Using FitDesks." Nationwide Lauch of FitStudent Initiative, Nashville, TN (2013)
- Invited interview, "Sleep across the Lifespan." Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University, Greenville, SC (2013)
- Invited radio talk and call in show, "The Science of Sleep." Your Day Program, NPR, Clemson, SC (2013)
- Fulbright Scholar invited speaker, "Arousal, Sleep Deprivation and Self-Regulation." The University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (2012)
- Invited speaker, "Sleep Deprivation and Self-Regulation." Third Joint Sino-German Sleep Research Symposium, Berlin, Germany (2012)
- Invited closing speaker, "The Sleeping Anesthesiologist: Sleep Deprivation, Night Shifts, and Professional Performance." Anesthesia and Perioperative Care Conference, 5th International Erasmus Master Class: The Awake Patient EMCAP 2012, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2012)
- Fulbright Scholar invited speaker, "Sleep and Sleep Deprivation: Effects of Fatigue and Stress in Modern Society." The University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (2012)
- Fulbright Scholar invited speaker, "Consciousness in Modern Society: Life in the Human Zoo." The Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria (2012)
- Plenary speaker, "Spinning Out? Stress and Fatigue in the Work Place and Collegiate Environments." 6th Annual Focus on Creative Inquiry Forum, Clemson University (2011)
- Invited speaker, "Three Brain Tips for Life." Honors & Awards Ceremony, College of Business and Behavioral Science, Clemson University (2011)
- Invited speaker, "Fatigue is the Best Pillow." Sigma Xi Science Café, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (2011)
- Invited interview, "The Need for Sleep." Your Day Program, NPR, Clemson, SC (2011)
- Co-Moderator, Discussion Group: "Active Learning Techniques." Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, (2009 - 2011)
- Invited speaker, "On Being a Student: Prof Tips for Success," Armed for Success, Virtual Campus Web Event (2010)
- Invited speaker, NASA Occupational Health Meeting; "Work, Sleep, and Well-Being." Cleveland, OH (2009)
- Invited speaker, National Security Agency; "Sleep, Performance, and Shiftwork." Ft. George Meade, MD. (2008)
Professional Affiliations
- Association for Psychological Science
- Sleep Research Society
- Society for Occupational Health Psychology
- American Public Health Association
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology

subset: commoncrawl


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Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation in U.S. Community Practice--Results From Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation (ORBIT-AF).
(J Am Heart Assoc, 2015-05-21)
BACKGROUND: The characteristics of patients undergoing atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation and subsequent outcomes in community practice are not well described. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the Outcomes Registry for Better Informed ...


text:
The R-INLA project
Search this site
The home of the R-INLA project
A. The SPDE book
Barrier Models
Contact us, stay updated, get help or report an error
Discussion forum
Examples and tutorials
Case studies and code from papers
N-Mixture models
Small tutorials by Haakon Bakka
Volume I
Volume II
Internal use
Latent models, likelihoods and priors.
Tools to manipulate models and likelihoods
"A gentle INLA tutorial"....
"Bayesian inference with INLA" by Virgilio Gómez-Rubio
1.5 day INLA-course in Oslo, 5-6 November 2014
10th Applied Statistics 2013 International conference, Slovenia
3- day INLA course in St Andrews, June 2nd-4th
3-months position @Imperial College: ....spatial modelling in particular with Bayesian statistical models with R-INLA
A 2 day course on spatial statistics and modelling including INLA
A 5-day workshop on fitting geostatistical and spatial point process models to spatial survey data (St Andrews, Scotland)
A change in the Weibull-likelihood (from version 19.05.17)
A future change for survival models
Advanced mesh creation features and other topics
Alternative Linux builds
An INLA-translation of the 2019 homework of Statistical Rethinking: (2nd edition)
An introduction to INLA and SPDE (Valencia 23-28th June 2016)
Another `gentle' blog-post...
Bayes 2013: An introduction to INLA with a comparison to JAGS (hands on)
Bayesian Biostatistics short course: WinBUGS/SAS/INLA, MUSC May 2012
Bayesian Computing with INLA & Spatial Modeling Using SPDEs, April 8-9th, Minneapolis
Bayesian Computing with INLA: A Review
Bayesian computing with INLA: IWSM2011
Bayesian computing with INLA: short course in Aalborg
Bayesian computing with INLA: short course in Athens
Bayesian computing with INLA: short course in Oslo
Bayesian computing with INLA: The 16th Norwegian Statistical Conference
Bayesian disease mapping course, University of Edinburgh, April 2012
Bayesian Disease Mapping courses: March 10-13, Charleston, South Carolina
Bayesian disease mapping with INLA (GEOVET 2013, London, 19th and 20th August)
Bayesian Disease Mapping with INLA and WinBUGS: June 23rd -27th 2014 University of Edinburgh, UK
Bayesian Statistics with R-INLA (Zurich, 12-13 May, 2016)
Baysian Disease Mapping with INLA: An Introduction (March, 2014)
Binaries are now built on Ubuntu-1804
BUC2: UNAM, Mexico City, 22nd-24th February 2016
Builds for MacOSX
Changes in the build and web-hosting of R-INLA
Code for the report "Improving Bayesian Local Spatial Models in Large Data Sets"
Comparing marginal likelihood estimates
Course announcement: INLA and Spatial Statistics, Medical University of South Carolina
Course in London - UK
Course on Bayesian computing with INLA
Course on Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models using INLA (Jan 24, Netherlands)
Course on GMRF and INLA
Course on INLA and SPDEs (Basel, Switzerland)
Course: Spatial modeling with INLA
EPSRC/RSS GRADUATE TRAINING PROGRAMME 2013 (22-26 July 2013)
Finally, R-4.0
Fitting geostatistical and spatial point process models to spatial survey data
Fractional Gaussian Noise models, are now available!
Free workshop: R-INLA for latent Gaussian models, Lund April 14-15
Funded PhD Studentship: "Modelling seismicity as a spatio-temporal point process using inlabru"
geoENV 2014 Paris
How besag/bym and those models should be defined...
INLA Course 21-22 November, 2012: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
INLA course at ISEC 2014
INLA Course in Brazil
INLA course in Ilhéus, Brazil
INLA course in Lavras, Brasil
INLA course in Montpellier
INLA course in Oslo, 5-6 Nov
INLA Course, February 4, 2013: University of Girona, Girona, Spain
INLA courses in Brazil
INLA goes to Chile...
INLA short course in Belo Horizonte 18-19 August 2014
INLA shortcourse at KAUST: week 8 & 9
INLA Tutorial
INLA Tutorial: Fast Bayesian inference for Geostatistics and other latent Gaussian models
INLA users workshop
INLA webinar
INLA-course at IBS Channel Network Conference (April) 2015
INLA-course in Kenya 4/5th October
INLA-course: University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal, October 3rd - 4th, 2013
INLA-lectures in Florence, 28-29 Jan, 2014.
INLA-SPDE course in Moncton - Canada
INLAcourse Iceland (October 2016)
Introduction to R-INLA for Bayesian Spatial Modeling, Rome 13-15Dec
ISI2011 Dublin, August
Joint survival-longitudinal models
Lectures on 'Disease risk modeling and visualization using R'
Lectures on ``Bayesian computing with INLA''
Lectures on SPDE/GMRF models and associated computational methods, Aalborg University, April 22-24 2014
LGM2012 - Workshop in Trondheim, Norway
macOS 10.15 Catalina
Mercurial -> git && bitbucket -> github
METIS library version 5
Mini-course in Bayesian Computing with INLA
Minicourse on Spatial Models and Related Issues: 20th August 2013, Finland
Minicurso: Advances and Challenges in Space-time Modelling (17-18 June 2013, Lisbon)
Missing links
Missing links to be expected...
Model 'rgeneric' and R-4.0
Model criticism and conflict diagnostics using R-INLA
Multivariate spatial models for lattice data with INLA
N-Mixture models
National Center for Health Statistics & U.S Country teen birth rate
NCSE Summer Workshop 2015: "Flexible spatial (and spatio-temporal) modelling using the SPDE approach "
New book: "Bayesian Regression Modeling with INLA"
New comparison paper: logit mixed models
New features in R-INLA (April 2015)
New paper in applied fisheries ecolgy using INLA/SPDE
New paper in the 'Case Studies'-section
New paper on recent advances in INLA
New Shiny-app for creating and learning about meshes!
New tutorials on spatial models in INLA
New web address for shiny application SSTCDapp
Open PhD-grants
Open PhD-grants!
PhD and PostDoc job offerings: Knowledge based Non-Stationary Modeling
PhD in Tromsø?
PhD Scholarship!!!!
Point patterns help to predict landslides
Postdoc position at KAUST 2020-
Preview of new book: Advanced Spatial Modeling with Stochastic Partial Differential Equations Using R and INLA
Problems with openblas
R version 3.5
R-INLA code repository moved...
R-INLA lectures in Vienna 28th March 2014
R-INLA review (part II)
R-INLA Workshop on Thursday 6th Dec at QUT, Brisbane, Australia
Read paper at RSS 16th March 2011
Seventeenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics
Shiny application for the analysis of spatial and spatio-temporal count data: SSTCDapp
Short course "Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Bayesian Models with R-INLA"
Short course at Duke University April 4th
Short course on INLA, April 10th, Fort Collins
Short course on INLA, April 15th, Santa Cruz
SHORT COURSE – Bayesian computing and spatial modeling with the INLA-SPDE approach (28-29 Oct)
Short course: R-INLA in geoscience
SHORT COURSE: Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Bayesian Models with R-INLA 16-18 Nov
Short-course at the University of Girona, Spain April 24, 2014
Short-courses on spatial modeling using R-INLA
Some changes in the R-INLA package
Space-time INLA workshop
Spatial Modelling with INLA Workshop, 2-4/June, St.Andrews, Scotland
Spatial modelling with R-INLA workshop: 18-20 Sept @Uni-Sheffield
Spatial models in marine science using INLA and inlabru: Copenhagen 4-8th May
Stability issues for Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04
Statsref article about INLA
STORE-i Masterclass; Univ of Lancaster, UK, 26-27 Feb
Testing-version 19.09.15
The 35th Finnish Summer School on Probability Theory and Statistics, June 3rd--7th, 2013
The Fifth Workshop on Bayesian Inference for Latent Gaussian Models with Applications: 14-16 Sept in Bath, UK
The INLA Book: out now!
The useR! conference, July 10-12 2013, Albacete, Spain
The WHO report on Ambient air pollution
Tutorial at Texas A&M: Jan 29th 2015
Two courses in Australia: week 35 & 36
Two day course in Johannesburg, South Africa, 17-18 Nov 2014
Two INLA courses in Brasil, October 2014
Two-day course in Pamplona, Spain, 1-2.12.2015
Two-day INLA course at Imperial College: 30/4 and 1/5-2015
Untitled Post
Untitled Post
Untitled Post
Upcoming INLA course in Zurich in October
Upcoming INLA-related tutorials at useR! and RaukR
Using INLA to fit complex spatial models to ecological data: Lisbon, 1st April 2015
Want to do a PhD?
Want to do a PhD?
Workshop in Bayesian Inference for Latent Gaussian Models with Applications
Workshop in Glasgow
Workshop on Bayesian Inference for Latent Gaussian Models with Applications
Workshop on Spatial Point Process Models for Ecological Survey Data with INLA (20-23 March)
Workshop: BAYESIAN MODELING OF SPATIAL HEALTH DATA WITH INLA AND WINBUGS (June 4th)
XIV Applied Mathematics Meeting and XI Statistics Meeting, Cúcuta, Colombia
Related R-packages
R-package: AnimalINLA
R-package: excursions
R-Package: INLABRU
R-package: ShrinkBayes
Scientific meetings
Short course at Duke University April 4th
29 Mar 2013, 01:29
by Havard Rue
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You Tube
July 6, 2010
Numerous residents from Shasta County have reported multiple tests to the Shasta County Air Quality District that reveal a mass contamination of both aluminum and barium. Aluminum in free form is very toxic to eco-systems and human health.
Residents of the county believe that the source of contamination is from geo-engineering/chemtrail programs that allegedly have been deployed on a mass scale during the past few years. Despite many attempts from concerned residents to get the office to look into this, no action has been taken to date to address this issue.
Watch as Michael J. Murphy and Paul Wittenberger confront Shasta County Air Quality District's Ross Bell on hidden camera about his alleged involvement with the cover-up. After watching, you will find that he has no intentions of addressing this important issue.
Please take a moment to e-mail and call Ross Bell to educate him on the dangers of geo-engineering programs and also to let him know that we will not tolerate a cover-up that is so harmful to eco-systems and human health.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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Is Your Adolescent German Shepherd Limping?
German Shepherd owners often complain that their adolescent German Shepherds are limping. This might be something that can be of real concern for the owners! Both panostitis (pano) or hip/ elbow displasia - two most dangerous genetic disorders, can be the cause, although it's not always true.
Panosteitis in the GSD used to be too common, as for some of the other large breeds like Golden Retrievers, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Labradors, Mastiffs and Great Danes to mention just a few... With the rising awareness and consciousness, the diseases like displasia, panostitis (also called long bone disease, shifting leg lameness and growing pain disease) have brought under control to a great extent through selective breeding. Not to be confused between the two, dysplasia is caused due to looseness occurs in the the hip or elbow joint(s), while panostitis is inflammation of long leg bones. Although with selective breeding and planned breeding programs the chances of having displasia and pano are very rare these days, but still dogs bred by novice, irresponsible and illiterate breeders can produce progenitors with such disorders. If your young or adolescent German Shepherd is limping or exhibiting signs of pain in his bones, chances are their that s(he) is suffering from the shifting leg lameness. It is essential to check out the other symptoms in order to confirm that your GSD has displastic hip or pano.
Symptoms of Panosteitis in your young German Shepherd
Firstly consider the age... the onset of panostitis in GSD is noticed between 6 to 18 months of ages. However middle-aged German Shepherd Dogs may be afflicted to the condition, though not very common. Other symptoms include:
a) pain is acute and noticed suddenly.
b) pain causes lameness
c) pain gets shifted from one leg to the other.
d) your dog may be reluctant to go walk
e) intensity of the pain can be fluctuating
f) your GSD can suffer loss of appetite
g) your dog may have an increase in the numbers of white blood cells. elevated white blood cell, accompanied with fever and sometimes tonsillitis
Symptoms of Displasia in your GSD
a) displasia - both elbow and hip are caused by deformed joint (looseness) and results in arthritic changes in the joints
b) the mobility of your dog will be compromised
c) cause inflammation, accompanied with joint pain
d) the pain is maximum in the morning at the time of rising
e) your dog will have problem during small jumps
f) your GSD will stop eating, causing weakness
These are the most common and talked about inheritable orthopedic conditions, that are of really issue of concern of you, if your GSD exhibits all or most of these symptoms. After the thorough examinations, the vet may recommend the suitable medication. But the prime most important thing is that, physical exercise or work will worsen up the conditions. However, Hydrotherapy sessions can help your GSD puppy recover from the the hip displasia. Check out the other common genetic ailments in German Shepherds.
You may love to read How Intensive Hydrotherapy Session helped German Shepherd Puppy, Fred to Recover from Hip Displasia


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Charges Against 2 Student Journalists Dropped in Atlanta
October 15th, 2012 by and tagged Access, Arrest, Atlanta, first amendment, free speech, journalism, journalist, Legal, Mickey Osterreicher, national press photographers association, NPPA, photographers, photography, photojournalism, photojournalist, police, Student journalists
Charges against two student journalists arrested while covering the Occupy Atlanta protests last year have finally been dropped. College journalists Alisen Redmond of The Sentinel at Kennesaw State University and Judith Kim of The Signal at Georgia State University were arrested by police on November 5, 2011 on charges of "obstruction of traffic," even though both women were standing with a group of other media reporters on a street that police had already closed to traffic.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced the decision to drop the charges on October 13 during a conference held by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. When asked why he had failed to address the matter sooner, Reed responded that "he had not heard anything about it in the press or from his assistants." Upon learning that the charges had been dropped, NPPA General Counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher said, "we applaud the city's actions and hope this incident will serve as an example to others that it is never too late to make sure that justice is served."
Osterreicher had sent Mayor Reed a letter on October 1 asking him to dismiss the charges against the students. Among other things, the letter, written on behalf of The American Society of News Editors, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, The Atlanta Press Club, Cable News Network, Inc., The American Society of Media Photographers and The Student Press Law Center, urged Mayor Reed to "use your good offices to help seek an immediate dismissal of these charges in the interest of justice."
An even earlier letter from The Student Press Law Center's Executive Director Frank LoMonte was sent on November 7, 2011. In that letter LoMonte asked Mayor Reed to "immediately initiate an investigation into the circumstances of these student journalists' arrests, and that you instruct the Police Department to withdraw all charges against the students and against any journalist whose 'crime' consists of standing on public property non-disruptively gathering news."
NPPA has repeatedly pointed out to numerous groups and law enforcement agencies that actions by officers to interfere with and detain those engaged in Constitutionally protected activity under color of law is wrong. The NPPA has also strongly objected to journalists being harassed, intimidated and arrested while covering news stories because they were not considered to be "properly credentialed" by the police.
Posted in Assault on Photographers, Attack Photographers, detained, First Amendment, First Amendment rights, National Press Photographers Association, News Photography, Newsgathering, NPPA, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street Arrests, photographers, Photographers' Rights, photojournalism, Police, Recording Police, Student, students | No Comments »


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Why we love the Dodgers
With apologies to Mr. Scully, in a year that been so difficult, an amazing thing has happened.
The last 24 hours are the ultimate reminder of why we love the Dodgers.
It started around 4 p.m. yesterday when we first touched base with Vin Scully about how he planned to let the masses know he was coming back for 2012. Of course, that's not the sort of secret that stays quiet for very long and you always worry that it's going to leak out on its own. But sure enough, it stayed quiet and he found a creative and classy way to tell the fans directly that he'll be back for another season. Immediately, Los Angeles was buzzing…14 hours later, he's still a trending topic on Twitter and our Facebook post got 4,500 likes, more than anything else all season long. What more can really be said about Vin?
Shortly after that first conversation with Vin, we had another special moment. A woman in our department came up with the idea of having Fernando Valenzuela call Team Mexico before the international championship game at the Little League World Series and it was a memorable moment for both them and him.
Then, of course, there was the game. Trailing 1-0 up until Vin made his announcement, the team turned it on and not only broke out for a big victory, but Matt Kemp reached 30/30 faster than any other player in franchise history — which means faster than Raul Mondesi, the only other guy that's ever done it as a Dodger. The fans went crazy and it was obviously a moment that Matt — or the fans who were here — will never forget.
The night ended with Friday Night Fireworks on the field (set to the Beatles music in honor of tomorrow's 45th anniversary of their show at Dodger Stadium). And then early this morning, we invited our season ticket holders who have had seats here for three decades or more to take part in a photo shoot for the cover of the September Dodgers Magazine. It'll be a keepsake and hopefully a morning that they'll remember for years to come, too.
Making it all even better, yesterday happened to be the day that the winning bidder for ThinkCure spent the day trailing me in my job, so a wonderfully sweet young Dodger fan got to experience it all first-hand and meet everyone from Vin Scully on the day he made the announcement, to Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and so many others.
So sure, things aren't quite where we all want them to be on and off the field. We'd all prefer that we be right in the thick of a pennant race right now. But we've got the game's broadcaster, best young pitcher, best young position player and the best fans around. I'll take that any day.
53 Comments
Things would be fine if Frankrupt were gone! What the Dodgers need is a man of class like Vin Scully to own this franchise and a man or women that can actually afford to own a team and run it properly, not a self serving low life scum bag like McCourt.
hell ya! i could not agree with you any more . vin scully is the dodgers . when will mlb remove frank mccourt aka scumbag ………. dodgers fan 4 life
Someone in the Dodger organization left a voicemail for my firm about the photo shoot. I really wanted to attend, but I figured that it would be best NOT to show up in a "Mark Cuban Save The Dodgers" shirt, even though I loath the McCourts. I love our team…. but won't show support for a scumbag owner that doesn't care about them.
i just jerked off!!!!
go dodgers!!
Somebody clear Frankrupt McC off the board, no call for that junk. He acts like a Giants' fan.
Hi Everybody
The Dodger offense is back from the dead.
Can you believe it, their 62 win?.
Sorry but I was so carried away by this 5 game winning streak and the unfamiliar success of the offense, that I didn't read Josh's column for this thread, before I posted my comment. So let me just say, see how many good things that are taken place lately?
Without or with McCourt, we could always find something to cheer about. It doesn't look like there will be 100 loses unless the Dodgers don't win again this year, since we only need one more win to prevent that.
Way to go Dodgers! A John song for today, also in Mono.
hey mr cwaldell, is it possible that you can change the schedule because a couple of our players are not going to be at school tomorrow? we're team 17. thanks
Love the dodgers! One of the greatest franchise in baseball history. The dodgers gods won't let frank or jamie mccourt do anything to us that would ruin us. Thank you vin scully for one more year, your the best ever, and there's a million people that would say the same about you vin scully.awesome job !I hope to meet you someday. Matt Kemp keep up the good work you are a superstar, an L.A. needs a superstar like you! I will b at the game tomorrow with my kids, go get a win and viva la dodgers!
I would like to say that Ned is an asshole!!! What in the hell is he doing throwing Andre under the bus? Did he not learn his lesson last season with Matt. APPARENTLY NOT!!! Andre has done nothing but good things for this organization. He works his ass off every season (not to mention off-season) so why would he just throw all that hard work away? Manny is the only one who got away with crap like that, and you all loved him. I am just floored that Ned did it again. Well if Andre wanted to stay a Dodger, Ned just convinced him he didn't. If he was thinking it (as some of you claim to be truth), then Ned just convinced me Andre now wants out. Ned is a pathetic excuse forbad human being and a useless, despicable GM.
Ned has to go. Plain & simple. I believe there is a new reservation for a very special spot in hell just for him! I'm trying to hold back my rage on this blog.
Not on the other one though!
i am from turkey/istanbul
and ş love dodgers 🙂 Think Blue…
Ned is messing with the wrong group of fans!! Andre may be struggling as a ballplayer, but it's Andre's compassion for the game, his integrity as a person, and his intensity as a ballplayer that his fans love about him. Ned has questioned all of that, and he expects to not be held accountable. Absolutely shameful!!!! You didn't get away with how you treated Matt, and you aren't going to get away with how you treated Andre either. This Ethieraholic is still pissed!!!
I've got to say I just don't get Colletti. I'm not as down on him as others on here, but he sure as hell will not get a job as a diplomat when his baseball days are done. Why would you let things into the media, such as we've seen last year and this, about your key players. Is Kershaw next?
Should this be a ploy by Ned to get Andre to play better, I would have to say he missed the mark tremendously. This guy should just go away and take his boss with him. I agree with you, VL – there is a VERY special place in Hell for both these . . . I was going to say people, but that wouldn't be accurate.
This is just one more thing for Andre to overcome – and it'll probably be in another uniform. But he will overcome it, I am certain of that.
…..more than ever now!!!!
My L.A. Times was late this morning so I did not see Simer's article until reading posts here and on OTD. I was a bit surprised but then I read the article and I am still puzzled. I usually read Simers with an open mind, knowing full well his goal is to get a rise out of his subjects. I know he is not an investigative reporter and he looks for the angle others will not. He doesn't care what anyone thinks about him and the more his subject reacts to him, the harder Simers is on that subject. So this story about Ethier playing hurt and the Dodgers knowing all of this baffles me because while some have suspected something is wrong with Andre, nothing has been said until now. Andre suggests this problem is not new and the Dodgers know all about it. He now tells us about treatments and yet did anyone every say anything until now about this? We also all know the Dodgers (and other teams) routinely put players on the DL. Are the Dodgers treating Andre differently? I have no doubt there is a lot more to this story than what we know. I am also not too surprised Andre never made an issue out of this. It is just not his style but you would expect others in the media to pick up on this. I agree that Ned coudl have been a lot more careful about his comments. Andre, I wish you well. Even those who have been critical of Andre's performance this season should know he gives it his best just as I believe most players do.
If not for Simers, the story about Andre's situation would never be out. I'm glad for the possible explanation. I too have been mystified about Andre's season and even had the urge lately to wonder what happens if Loney actually passes Andre with his BA and possibly even HR's. One wouldn't expect a team's front office to malign one of its key players, but then again this is the Dodgers 2011 and Ned in the forefront. One could almost forgive a player getting fed up with Frank and Ned and just playing out the season, but Andre has always shown more character than that. If I have to give somebody the benefit of the doubt, I will go with Andre.
I wouldn't blame the franchise if they had a plan and decided that Andre was not in their future. If there was a plan, you would think they would have made some decent trade before the July deadline and at least wound up with a couple of decent prospects for Andre. As has been more typical with Ned, we'll undoubtedly lose Andre at some point soon and have nothing or next to nothing to show for it. Way to go, front office – stick another one up the fans' collective ass.
Fire Ned Colletti's ASS!
McCourt and Colletti can't disappear soon enough for me. McCourt is a lying, scheming, unethical, greedy waste pile and Colletti, an incompetent bully. Memo to Bud Selig. If blowing out McCourt, and by osmosis, his GM stooge, isn't in the "best interests of baseball" in general, and the Los Angles Dodgers in particular, then what the hell does the clause exist for? This farce has gone on far too long. DO SOMETHING, already……..
This is the front office who hired Vladimr Shpunt to heal Jayson Werth's wrist with transcontinental ESP. Is anyone surprised that they'd just hush one of the Dodgers' biggest stars when he comes up with a injury in a season where they need every horse they can to get people to come to the ballpark?
I'll just say this: I'm not in this clubhouse. I don't know any of the players on a personal level, haven't even met any of them at an autograph signing, let alone know anything that goes on in the clubhouse behind closed doors. I don't know what's going on. Neither does Simers.
But with the track record of this team injury-wise since Stan Johnson left as Dodgers trainer, combined with the ineptness of the upper echelons of this franchise in terms of understanding the "baseball operations" of the franchise speak 3 trillion times louder than any PR and Marketing posturing to the fans that, in the past, were more than happy to spend money on the Dodgers win-or-lose, I would not be surprised if they're punishing Andre for statements he made at the beginning of the season, the "I don't know where I'm going to be" interview (that was probably a quotation butchered to crap, just like EVERY QUOTATION butchered to crap by a media that wants to create drama, long before now, long before 45 years ago when an overzealous reporter turned John Lennon's concern over fans taking the band too seriously into a claim that he believed the band "bigger than Jesus").
And if he's really hurt, it's baffling why a franchise that has no problem with DLing players whose numbers are falling off would do this with one of their franchise stars. If Colletti wanted a nice, cushy Chicagoland safety net once Frank decides he needs another head to roll to appease the fans, then this is absolute wrong way of going about it. Keep the laundry in the laundry room. Otherwise, you have failed, especially when you're the one airing the laundry for all to see. This is stuff we should be reading in a book in 20-30 years (like Garvey vs. Sutton), not now. ESPECIALLY not now.
In honor of the upcoming 3rd annual Star Wars night: "IT'S A TRAP!"
T.J.'s an entertaining read, but he's also a member of the Pot-Stirring HOF. I'm sure Ethier didn't say what was written the way that it was written, and Simers laid an unfortunately placed pocket of flatulence in the middle of a 6 game winning streak.
Kinda like when the beach ball falls onto the field when the Giants have runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the 6th, except unlike the distracted fan, T.J. knows exactly what he's doing, the goal not to sabotage Ethier or the Dodgers (though maybe having a little fun with 'em), but to get as many readers as possible, as many people talking about his article as possible. It worked.
Hi everybody
I completely missed yesterday's game, first I lost MLB.TV and my phone service went out and then I lost the PC. Without TWC up I was unable to bring my computer back online, I did catch the last inning on MLB network. I was down for some 20 hours.
Strange it happened about 2 hours after Irene past but it was still a bit windy and might've knock out an already loose cable in the area where others experience the same problem. TWC credited me $10.68 for the day.
Lets hope our ACE can give us another win and his 17th.
Glad you weathered the storm, OBF!
Thank you Sparkleplenty.
Wasn't that a dandy tonight pitched by our ACE Clayton. He actually finished stronger than he started tonight. How about that HR by Loney and Ethier looked more like himself tonight.
We won't lose 100 games this year and August was a winning month. This might be a turning point for the Dodgers. If not this year than next year.
I am testing a theory here. It seems like if I include the url for my blog, the comment would go to Spam. I know that was the case posting to the OTD. But I see I posted something on 8/28 with my blog's link and it was OK so who knows…..
second post had url and it did not post.
Dodgers are the best ever…I have never loved a team as much as them…I have been introduced to different sports but the team closest to my heart will always be my beloved Dodgers
Hi Everybody.
Hope the Dodgers can continue to pile on the victories. I feel we have to focus on winning and hope that the habit comes back, regardless of who owns them.
It does my heart good to see the Dodgers not swing at pitches out of the strike zone. Things are changing. It was also good to see Ethier smack that Grand Salami.
Even with an 8 run lead that win didn't come easy. Phew!!
We love Vin…and HE IS THE VOICE OF THE DODGERS!
Hi ITD
Another win on Wednesday, what can I say. 17-11, that August was some month.
Hi Everybody on ITD.
Well I don't know who else but I for one feel kind of excited over the way this grand old team of ours is performing lately. I'm trying not to let my thoughts get my hopes up too high and set myself up for a big let down.
That said, the month of August was very exciting to me. Another month like that could get us close to the .500 mark at least.
Catching the Giants is really out of our control and I'd prefer not to get into that.
Just take it one day at a time.
Eric, when I first read the article, here was my favorite line:
"There has surely been no greater example of fans giving up something they love to spite an owner they despise."
Looks like Frankie got an offer for $1.2 billion to sell. Frank, don't be like the obnoxious house guest from SNL's, "The Thing Who Wouldn't Leave."
buona sera itntnziautno mi vorrei presentare sono il fratello minore di una delle vittime esattamente di giuseppe coletti io trovo indegno il comportamento dell'imputato giorgio del papa che mi domando con quale coraggio chiede il risarcimento danni ai familiari delle vittime e con quale coraggio può vivere una persona che è stato capace di distruggere ben quttro famiglie tra cui anche la mia dato che io sono il più piccolo per me giuseppe è stato sempre un punto di riferimento si può dire che mi ha tolto una parte della mia vita
Hi there! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone!
Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Carry on the great work!
I am also a Dodgers lover. I was born a dodgers fan. My family has been a Dodger fans for 3 generations. We go for the Dodgers if they are doing bad or good. It is a good time to be a Dodger fan because they are doing the best right now.


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England against Italy feels as though it should be one of football's classic fixtures, a meeting between the motherland of the game and a country that has won the World Cup four times. Yet the sides have met only twice before in major tournaments, never on neutral soil, and only four times in qualifying games for major tournaments. England have won just one of those six competitive fixtures and Italy are one of only four teams (Brazil, Uruguay and Romania being the other three) to have the advantage over England in a head-to-head comparison. It was, though, a game against Italy in 1948 that brought perhaps England's greatest ever victory.
The last competitive meeting also produced a positive outcome for England. They went to Rome in their final qualifier for the 1998 World Cup having lost 1-0 to a Gianfranco Zola goal at Wembley but needing only to draw to qualify for France. Three months earlier, Glenn Hoddle's side had beaten Italy 2-0 in Le Tournoi – that World Cup warm-up in France, notable for Roberto Carlos's free-kick and for England winning the oddly cheap-looking glass trophy after rotating the ball better than they have before or since. In the Stadio Olimpico, England were more Italian than the Italians. They kept the ball superbly, wasted time, feigned injury, generally broke up the play and nearly won it at the end when Ian Wright hit the post.
Eileen Drewery, Hoddle's faith-healer, claimed she'd deliberately steered the ball so as to avoid the possibility of crowd trouble but she'd have been left looking pretty silly if Christian Vieri hadn't put a free header wide moments later. He did, though, and England got the 0-0 draw they needed.
The last tournament meeting came in 1990 in Bari in the third-place play-off at the World Cup. With both sides drained by emotionally exhausting semi-final defeats in penalty shoot-outs, the game was largely a non-event until Roberto Baggio capitalised on a gaffe from Peter Shilton, in his 125th and last international, to put Italy ahead with 20 minutes to go. David Platt levelled with a header but a foul on Toto Schillaci presented Italy with a penalty and gave the Sicilian the goal that won him the golden boot.
The other tournament meeting also came in Italy – in Turin in the 1980 European Championship. England had drawn with Belgium in their opening game and Marco Tardelli's goal, touched in from close range after Roberto Bettega had got the better of Phil Neal, ensured England could not reach the final.
Before that, in competitive terms, there were just the two qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup. Italy won 2-0 in Rome, Giancarlo Antognoni and Bettega getting the goals, a result that placed England in serious danger of failing to qualify for the second successive tournament. By the time of the return at Wembley a year later, Don Revie, recognising he was probably about to be sacked, had departed for the UAE and Ron Greenwood had taken temporary control. He selected a young side in which Peter Barnes, Bob Latchford and Steve Coppell made their debuts. They were superb, winning 2-0 as Kevin Keegan scored with a looping header from a Trevor Brooking cross and then Brooking, laid in by Keegan, slid home a calm finish. It might easily have been more had Tardelli been sent off, as he surely should have been, for a first-half elbow on Keegan but 2-0 was not enough. Italy won their one remaining qualifier 3-0 against Luxembourg and England failed to qualify on goal difference, eliminated, effectively, because they had scoffed fewer goals against Finland than Italy had.
(This is the forgotten aspect of England's dismal seventies: one goal against Poland in 1973 or a marginally better goal difference in 1977 and they'd have qualified; in many ways, 1982 was a far worse qualifying campaign than for either of the two preceding World Cups).
The major consequence of England's win was in persuading the FA that Greenwood should stay on as permanent coach. Brian Clough was interviewed but turned down (a decision that was perhaps not as craven as is often portrayed; at the time, he had won only one league title and two promotions, and had managed to fall out with pretty much everybody he'd ever worked for).
For England's real success, we have to go a lot further back. The first meeting came in 1933, a 1-1 draw in Rome, but it was the return five months later, the so-called Battle of Highbury, that entrenched in each side's mind a stereotype of the other: England tough and brutal; Italy hysterical and cynical. The game turned on what was almost certainly a moment of misfortune in the second minute. Luisito Monti, Italy's Argentina-born centre-half, had booted George Rodger in the testicles after a game on Chelsea's 1929 tour of Argentina, where he had played until emigrating in 1931. This perhaps was his comeuppance, as he took a kick from Ted Drake and fractured a bone in his foot. He moved first out to the left, where he hung around for a time as a passenger, and then had to leave the field entirely.
Italy were convinced the injury had been inflicted deliberately and lost their discipline. "For the first quarter of an hour there might just as well not have been a ball on the pitch as far as the Italians were concerned," said Stanley Matthews. England, "playing the best football it was possible to play", as Drake described it – swept into a 3-0 lead within 20 minutes, and that despite missing an early penalty. Only in the second half, once the red mist had lifted, did Italy begin to play. "Players who had once run wild," the report in the Times said, "began to run into positions." The wildness left Eddie Hapgood with a broken nose and Wilf Copping with a badly bruised thigh; Eric Brook returned to Manchester with his arm in a sling, Jack Barker had a bandaged hand, and Drake's leg was badly cut. The running into positions threatened to embarrass England – and hinted at the problems they would go on to have against other fine passing sides – as Giuseppe Meazza scored two in quick succession around the hour mark. England held on, though, for a 3-2 win over the world champions.
But England's greatest success over Italy, arguably their greatest ever victory, came in 1948. It was the sixth game the front five of Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Tommy Lawton, Wilf Mannion and Tom Finney – surely England's greatest forward line – played together, and the last. Italy had won the previous two World Cups but the war had weakened them. Worse, there was tactical confusion. Seven of the eleven played for the great Torino side that dominated Italian football in the years immediately after the war; they were used to playing the sistema – that is, effectively an English-style W-M.
Vittorio Pozzo, the coach who had led Italy to their two World Cup triumphs, still favoured the metodo – a slightly more attacking system in which the centre-half operated more as a defensive midfielder than a centre-back. "I found myself," Pozzo said, "trying to put together players half of whom spoke one technical language, while half spoke the other. They could not understand one another; two men would be marking the same inside-forward."
A storm on the morning of the game should have cleared the Turin air but it was still humid when the players lined up before kick-off, the teams flanking a pedestal on which the ball sat – "like a pagan ceremony" said Brian Glanville. Italy began ferociously, attack after attack smashing against the English rearguard. But, with four minutes played, Billy Wright won the ball on the edge of the box and laid a short pass to Matthews. He beat two men and laid a pass down the line for Mortensen. He was forced wide but as everybody – including, crucially, Italy's goalkeeper Valerio Bacigalupo, who edged from his line – expected a cross, Mortensen swivelled and lashed a shot at goal, tumbling off the pitch as he did so. The angle was preposterous but, thanks to Bacigalupo's advance, the space was there, and the ball flashed between the goalkeeper's hand and the post and into the roof of the net.
The Italian assault continued. Twice they had goals disallowed for offside, the second controversially. Laurie Scott cleared off the line from Gabetto while Geoffrey Green wrote in The Times that "Swift made two remarkable saves when most other goalkeepers would have been left to pick the ball out of the net. Wright, from first to last, had the game of his life, and one can underline that by saying that he was opposed to the two best Italian forwards, [Valentino] Mazzola and [Riccardo] Carapallese".
"Italy really turned the screw …" Matthews wrote in his autobiography. "Some of their one-touch football was a delight. I remember thinking if I had been up in the stands I would have really enjoyed watching it, but chasing about after blue shirts in 90F heat meant I wasn't fully appreciative of the dazzling array of skills on display." But midway through the half, Neil Franklin dispossessed Guglielmo Gabetto, and set Matthews away down the right, where Alberto Eliani struggled to contain him. Mortensen again made the run and Matthews again slipped a pass to him. As Roy Peskett in the Daily Mail saw it, "the Blackpool dynamo was away on a 60-yard dribble, during which it twice appeared he would be caught. Each time he accelerated," and pulled away, eventually reaching the byline. This time, rather than shooting, he cut the ball back to Lawton, who tucked a finish low to Bacigalupo's right.
Italy renewed the assault and again and again they were thwarted by the excellence of Swift. And then came the greatest controversy, the hosts thinking Gabetto's header had hit the bar and bounced over the line, Swift and the referee disagreeing. "In the 13th minute of the second half," as Peskett described it, "Gabetto finished a bewildering move with a back-header which hit the bar and smashed down on to the line. While the Italians were frantically appealing for a goal, Swift swooped from his height, grabbed the ball with one hand, and flung it far into the crowd. No goal, and England breathed again." Italy protested, as did the photographers behind the goal, but as play continued Swift invited one of them on to the pitch to see the scuff marks he had left – short of the line – in making the save.
That broke Italy's spirit and Finney made the game safe with 18 minutes to go, finishing off a rapid break that had begun with Swift. Two minutes later, Mortensen and Henry Cockburn combined to lay on Finney's second. "England's superior tactics and the individual brilliance of certain members, particularly Mortensen, Swift, Wright, Franklin, and Scott, saw them through their troubles," wrote Green, while Peskett saluted "the refusal of the players to be ruffled by the electric tension, the heat, and the extreme partisanship of the crowd when they were displeased … Why did England win? Because the defence did its job at the right time, and because the forwards knew how to shoot when the opportunity arose."
Any notion that Italy was still the best team in the world had been demolished by the 4-0 defeat. Even worse, the following May, came the Superga aircrash that wiped out the entirety of the Torino squad that had formed the core of the national team.
For England, such a high was not to be repeated until 1966 and that front five never played together again. Lawton, in fact, never played for England again, overlooked after opting to leave Chelsea to join the Third Division side Notts County for a record £20,000 fee. Mannion was left out for a year after going on strike when his request for a transfer from Middlesbrough was denied. By the time of the 1950 World Cup, Swift had retired, Scott and George Hardwick had suffered serious injury and Franklin had been blacklisted for accepting an offer to go and play in the rebel league in Colombia.
The victory in Turin is almost certainly England's greatest result overseas. A win on Sunday for Roy Hodgson's side wouldn't eclipse the victory in Turin but, given their dearth of tournament success, it wouldn't be far off.


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G-Braves get split
The Braves scored eight runs in the first four innings and coasted to a 10-4 victory over the Bisons on Thursday night from Coolray Field. The decision means another split of a four-game series between Gwinnett and Buffalo.
The two clubs have split all three four-game series they've played since Gwinnett entered the International League last season.
The Braves jumped on Bisons starter Dillon Gee early and knocked him out of the game after just three innings. Two runs in the first, three in the second and two more in the third gave Gwinnett an insurmountable 7-0 advantage.
The three-inning night was Gee's shortest outing in 24 career starts at the Triple-A level. The righty has now lost his last four decisions to fall to 6-5 on the season.
The Bisons cut the deficit in half in the game's middle innings. Jorge Padilla's two-run homer in the fourth closed the gap to 7-2. Pitcher Mike O'Connor and Russ Adams drove in runs in the fifth to make it 8-4. However, the Herd had just one hit from the sixth inning on.
Gwinnett's Diory Hernandez had four hits and a pair of RBI in the win. He and Wes Timmons plated runs with singles in the first inning. Timmons also drove home a run in the Braves' three-run second inning. Hernandez led off the third with a single and scored Josh Anderson's ground out.
The Braves played small ball all game, with only two of their 17 hits for the games going for extra-bases.
BISONS NOTES: The Mets recalled catcher Josh Thole just prior to Thursday night's game. New York optioned reliever Raul Valdes to Buffalo, but he has not been added to the club's roster…Mike O'Connor allowed an unearned run in three innings of work. The three innings set a new season high for the southpaw…Lucas Duda had a hit and a runs scored. He's had at least one hit in eight of his first nine games with the club.


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From there, we boarded an aircraft and circled the island. It was so much fun, trying to locate all the things I remember from the air. I got to see Grand Caribe, where nana & papa stayed last time they were down. I saw Grand Oasis, where daddy is having a house built for us. Also, got to see many islands off into the ocean.
After circling the island, we headed for the mainland of Belize. A taxi will be waiting for us when we arrive. Spanish is our taxi driver's name, his wife is a sweetheart. From here, we will go to Chon Saan for lunch. Daddy wants me to try something new for lunch. We will be trying some Chinese dishes, I have never had before. I even got fried ice-cream!
This was a perfect day, and I enjoyed it very much. I was all excited to tell mom about what we got to see, do and eat. I also want to thank Dave Mitchel for allowing me to ride in his airplane. He treats us very nice, and I am very appreciative.


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The above image is a real trophy, available for purchase and customized to your needs here.
I used to have a rule: never trust a critic who likes everything. To this day, there are "film critics" who receive perks from movie studios, and like everything in a way that generates blurbs for advertising. I love the movie ad that says "best romantic comedy of the year", when it's only January. But the internet changes things a bit. I receive my music for free from artists and promoters who hope I will blog about it, but I receive no other compensation. I like everything I blog about, because I wouldn't share it with you if I didn't. When I hear something that is not to my taste, I don't ask the artist to send it. If I like it less than I thought once I have it, I don't post it. (But I also have plenty of wonderful music I just haven't found time for yet. If something you sent me hasn't appeared, don't despair.) All of this is worth mentioning because today I am going to gush. It will be quite unseemly, so consider yourself warned. Here are five albums which I can heartily recommend in their entirety. But each contains a moment, a song, which blew me away even more than the album over all. This post, then, is devoted to those jaw-dropping moments.
Deborah Crooks: Blink
Other Halves is an EP with only four songs. It ends with a cover of Neil Young's Heart of Gold; this has never been my favorite song, but Deborah Crooks does it justice. The EP starts with two original Americana songs that are very fine. But the kicker is Blink. The song opens with just stand-up bass, and the listener is wondering where this will go. Are things about to turn jazzy? But then the drums and organ come in, and things become clear: this is reggae! There are no other instruments on this one, but none are needed. Crooks comes in on vocals, and it just gets better. She sings Blink in a sultry bluesy alto. It may not sound like these pieces should fit together, but do they ever. It doesn't hurt that the lyrics are a beautifully written meditation on the passing of time, but that's just a bonus.
Brady Earnhart: This Time
If you are going to open your album with an original musical setting of a poem by Emily Dickinson, you run the risk of having your own lyrics pale by comparison. Brady Earnhart doesn't have that problem, because he is a fine poet in his own right. He sings in a tenor voice that is both smooth and emotive. There is his acoustic guitar on every song, plus stand-up bass. To that, Earnhart adds wonderfully creative arrangements that can include horns or strings. I'm guessing from the way they are used that Earnhart has a background both in jazz and contemporary classical music. But This Time has only one other instrument besides guitar and bass: a tabla. This trio performance has a jazzy feel, but also a folky one. In that way, it puts me in mind of Pentangle. With just three instruments and his vocal line, Earnhart creates a dramatic tension in the music that really makes this one memorable.
Carrie Wade: Sublime
I am happily married to a wonderful woman. But, if I were available, this song could win my heart. Sublime is built on an arrangement of drums, bass, piano, and accordion. Add flavor with some gypsy violin and some acoustic guitar fills. Then top it off with Carrie Wade's beautiful voice. This is the most sensual song I have heard in a very long time. Elsewhere, this album contains mostly what I would call folk-pop, but Wade adds interesting and unusual instrument touches, and her lyrics are beautifully crafted. I hope she takes more musical chances in the future. Sublime assures me that I want to be around to see what she does next.
Jordan Reyne: The Brave
Jordan Reyne lives in New Zealand, where the story of Susannah Hawes has apparently passed into folklore. Hawes was one of the earliest European settlers, arriving in 1874. The album How the Dead Live is Reyne's telling of the story of Susannah Hawes. Reyne makes History and Death characters in her telling. That is either going to come off as pretentious or amazing. Reyne sings in an alto that is almost a tenor, and she plays acoustic guitar and adds electronic effects. The whole thing has an ancient quality that really makes it work beautifully. The Brave is Susannah's appeal to History to remember ordinary people like herself, not just generals and kings. This sympathy and human spirit really make this album work as a whole, and The Brave is one of the songs that really put it over for me.
The Hannafords: She Grew
Craig and Auriol Hannaford write their songs together, and Craig provides sympathetic backing on acoustic guitar. Producer Hugh McDonald handles the background vocals and plays six instruments on the album Down the Line. So it can sound like a full band, or just a few musician friends jamming. The spotlight is where it belongs, on Auriol Hannaford's voice. Auriol sings in a wonderfully warm folk alto with a bit of smoke in it. As I listened to it on the nicely varied program of songs here, it didn't occur to me to wonder what it would sound like on a lullaby. But, coming almost at the end of the album, that would be She Grew. And this one really hits it for me. I imagine a mother singing this to her daughter over the course of years, telling the daughter what the singer's mother was like at her age, and adding verses of the course of time. It's a brilliant lyrical device, and Auriol's singing makes it completely convincing. Hannaford certainly isn't a Jewish name, but this melody has all of the best qualities of a Yiddish folk song, and that works beautifully with the lyrics and performance.


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Hot Seat: Can Chute Handle the Heat?
Think entrepreneurship is tough? Watch startup guru Vivek Wadhwa, a lecturer at Stanford, Duke and Emory universities, play devil's advocate in this rapid-fire exchange. "Show me how you are different from the Mickey Mouse companies I see in Silicon Valley every day," he says.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... the ... it's nice to meet you guys know Yemeni the bad guy at church ... but it but let me tell us ... I wish it believing that led to another dumb of Mickey mouse to move ... photo sharing app why you better ... share all ... we are his class actually ... millions and his mother which I need to live on one successive ... than the one smut story once it says it is ... somewhat ... different than in the UK not stopping it suits other than that of the day we worked with NBC quite a bit ... and for the two thousand thirteen inauguration they wanted to leverage both on sites that as well as for the community of folks who are protesting election part of that was an installation ever an on site that was a custom mobile app that they use with the disease by their staff so it will be the purpose of this that we thought ... the platform I got the button on stocks were up about some things people places or ... see anyone use it to dry ... campaign to use it to our ... content collection every single day there is real you used to understand consumer math ... this would open the mine will ... know ... you you basically have to have sales people going in ... the closing day of the new jets or ... putting them ... is the based of a party to become of them above the company ... noted by Oracle and string wrapped box ... the ... owners of some access to that or is it the CEOs were sleeping for ... imitation products though that's mission critical software this is up ... photo sharing softened a bit different than them up to play with ... I think that's right that's it that's cheaper than the great characterization of what we do we help businesses war with the leveraging change their their community customers ... to use me in an interesting way of sharing happens amongst users on what we're doing is bridging that gap between ... and that lives across the entire business everything from marketing ... to our indeed a product insights to customer outreach ... and here we are to the Poser app ... the is anything ... in your ... worker states are ... so ... some of us in all the time to knock ... them into management and don't you tell me why it should be a good ... bit instead it's up to a fundamental to sleep now grown midteens or built an organization that has room to store Scale ... Polya director of success which started early on with managed accounts as well as ... our boarding customers ... its sales ... are here and I both are still heavily involved in outside sales process to be willing to be resourceful and responsive when a customer at on the ... especially this early days of our business to make sure that we're creating a product that they that they can't live without the bad ones that agree not to know ... what ... what you need right now is to bring in some ... it's often mirrors ... they actually are is started screaming Sell ... the star status that he is ... on ... right here is your business ... you know I think that is is this is intensively ... and ... I'm ... having enjoyed a sexy as that really the enterprise steers and seamed ... stopped I'm you know Federated media or worse coming down ... it's a tentative but today the hospital ... Niki most of the photo sharing app ... the critical enterprise of fall ... and of all from a distance


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Here is a fun article I came across written by family law attorney, Mindy R. Smith. These are the 10 signs you should watch out for if you think you are headed for a divorce. RED FLAG #10: If your spouse is facebooking with his or her high school sweetheart on a daily basis, you may be heading for a divorce. While I don't personally believe it poses an issue if your spouse has occasional contact with an ex-lover, the contact seems to become a problem when this communication is substituted for communication with the spouse and/or if this communication is hidden from the other spouse. Many people wonder 'what if' when faced with the doldrums of everyday life. It is easy to imagine that your life would be better with that college sweetheart or that high school football star that got away. However, what one fails to realize is that a new relationship brings new issues. RED FLAG #9: If you spouse has gained more than 20% of his or her body weight, you may be headed for divorce. In every marriage, it is important for each spouse to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Part of keeping the passion alive is maintaining the physical presence that attracted your spouse to you in the first place. When one spouse no longer cares about his or her appearance, the other spouse can lost interest quickly. The old adage of "what it takes to get her, it takes to keep her" is actually true. RED FLAG #8: If you spouse is donning sexy new underwear all of a sudden, you may be headed for divorce. If your spouse makes a drastic change in his or her underclothes, you have to wonder why. This is one of the all-time biggest signs of an early stage of a new affair. RED FLAG #7: If your spouse lies around all day and yet house needs cleaning, you may be headed for divorce. Being married is not a time for laziness. Each partner needs to do his or her part to share in the household chores. It is never permissible for one spouse to do everything in the marriage whether that is child-rearing, earning income, or maintaining the home. RED FLAG #6: If your spouse is secretive with his or her cell phone, you may be headed for divorce. In today's society it is very easy for one individual to maintain one persona to his or her spouse and another to others. Cell phone and computer use does not make it any easier. Many of my clients felt their marriages unravel when their spouse began to be overly secretive with cell phone usage. RED FLAG #5: If your spouse makes you write down everything you spend money on, you may be headed for divorce. This is a classic sign of a controlling and emotionally abusive spouse. Marriage is about sharing love and life experiences not monitoring your spouse's every move. Control is never a healthy weapon in marriage. Each person is an individual and must be treated as an adult. RED FLAG #4: If your spouse no longer wants to have sex with you, you may be headed for divorce. Sex in an integral part of a healthy marriage. It provides a way to connect with your spouse on an emotional as well as physical level. Sex is good exercise and promotes healthy well-being. If your spouse no longer shows sexual interest in you, it is imperative to try to find out why and work on the issues. Often lack of sex leads one spouse to resent the other spouse over time. RED FLAG #3: If your spouse spends more time on the tennis courts than spending time with you, you may be headed for divorce. It is very easy for a married person to find oneself completely absorbed in the activities of everyday life. In order for a marriage to have a chance at succeeding over time, each spouse has to put the marriage first. Making time on a daily basis to connect with your partner is an absolute must. If you spend more time focusing on other people or other activities, then your marriage is bound to suffer. RED FLAG #2: If your spouse cruises singles bars after work, you may be headed for divorce. The 'singles scene' should have a danger sign posted at every corner bar. It takes a person of high integrity and moral footing to be able to withstand the singles who do not believe in marriage or respect it. If your spouse is constantly going to singles bars alone, one has to wonder if he or she divulges their true marital status to the other singles out there. RED FLAG #1: If your spouse wants you to swing with your neighbors, you ARE headed for divorce. It amazes me how a seemingly innocent and loving couple gets drawn into this lifestyle which almost always leads to the ultimate demise of a marriage. It begins when one spouse has fantasies of 'swinging' but the other spouse does not. The unwitting spouse gets sucked into this lifestyle by promises of good sex and a happier marriage. It often leaves the less enthusiastic spouse feeling guilty, less attractive, and vulnerable. Whatever the reason may be, if you are headed for a Los Angeles County or Orange County divorce, contact an Orange County divorce lawyer for more information.
Read more detail on Recent Family Law Posts –


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Parts of New York City are in ruins from an alien attack. The damage is severe. Buildings have crumbled. Cars are overturned. In one area of the city, someone is fighting back. His name is Hawkeye, and even though he's surrounded by attackers who look more powerful, he's fighting like a man possessed. I watch as he takes out a few aliens with little hesitation, and then he stabs one of them in the neck with an arrow. It's an awesome move that will leave audiences clapping. Meanwhile, on another soundstage, Tony Stark and Captain America are arguing about Loki. It's clear from their conversation that Loki has caused a lot of damage, and they're not sure how to stop someone with God like powers. As they're arguing, suddenly Stark realizes something, and runs off to a side. Shortly thereafter I hear someone yell cut.
But let me back up a second.
Last June, when director Joss Whedon's The Avengers was filming on soundstages in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I got to visit the set with a few other reporters. While some set visits take place over a few hours on one afternoon, for The Avengers, Disney invited us to spend two full days on set and it was an amazing experience. We got to watch a few scenes get filmed, interview almost the entire cast (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Scarlett Johansson, Marc Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg) and Kevin Feige and Whedon, as well as visit the art department and learn a tremendous amount about the production. While I've been lucky enough to visit many sets, The Avengers visit will be something I cherish forever. Hit the jump for more.
Before going any further, as most of you know, when I do a set visit with Peter from Slashfilm, as soon as we get back from set, we record a video blog. Since we spent two days on set, we decided to record a video blog after each day so we could cover everything in greater detail.
However, since I know some of you just want the highlights of the set visit, I've also listed 35 things to know about The Avengers from my set visit. The list is below the two video blogs.
Finally, at the bottom of the article are links to the eight on set interviews that I got to participate in along with the new images that Disney gave me to run with our coverage. If you've been looking forward to The Avengers, I'm extremely confident that Joss Whedon's film is going to deliver. I really can't wait to see the finished film on May 4.
The Avengers Set Visit Video Blog – Part 1 (with a big thank you to Adam for helping me time index the video blogs!)
- Intros
- :58 Talk about the guarded nature of the set visit.
- 1:27 Steve and Peter talk about how happy they were to be on the set of The Avengers.
- 3:00 Their interview with Chris Hemsworth. Reiterate that everyone was really guarded. Hemsworth revealed that Thor is on Earth when The Avengers begins and he said there are a couple of lines of dialogue that explain why Natalie Portman isn't there.
- 4:15 They learned that every character has a moment to shine in the movie, and all the actors had great things to say about the script.
- 4:46 Hemsworth said when he was working on Cabin in the Woods before he had the role of Thor, Joss Whedon gave him comic books to read to prepare for the audition.
- 5:24 The Avengers is the disaster movie of the Marvel universe. Talk about the amount of destruction in the film.
- 6:12 Their interview with Tom Hiddleston. The actor told a story about meeting with Whedon after he wrapped Thor and spending hours talking about the character.
- 7:08 Hiddleston revealed that Loki has a key scene with nearly every member of The Avengers alone.
- 7:34 Hiddleston said that Whedon made the film about the healing power of being part of a team. Talk about how articulate and insightful Hiddleston was about his character.
- 8:41 Talk about a key scene between Loki and Black Widow where they sort of mirror each other.
- 9:49 Their interview with Kevin Feige, President of Production for Marvel Entertainment. He described the movie as being from the point of view of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- 10:56 Talk about what Feige had to say about the recruitment of The Avengers.
- 11:32 The future of Marvel films. What Feige had to say about how The Avengers will affect the stories in future Marvel movies.
- 12:32 This is the first time the actor playing the Hulk is also doing the motion-capture.
- 12:53 Feige hinted at leading up to a big event movie in 2015.
- 13:18 Talk about the 3D. Feige said on every Marvel movie they've done, it's been up to the filmmaker to either shoot in 3D or post-convert. Joss Whedon shot the tag in Thor in 3D as a test to see if he wanted to shoot 3D for The Avengers, but he wasn't crazy about the filming process.
- 14:16 Whedon did more pre-vis for the action sequences than any Marvel movie they've ever done.
- 14:57 Feige hinted at doing an animated Marvel movie.
- 15:33 The sets. Talk about the helicarrier bridge. Peter says he didn't picture it this big. They fit 75 costumed extras on the bridge.
- 17:03 Talk about seeing a research lab set and the containment chamber.
- 18:24 Tony Stark's NYC penthouse set. They say it was huge.
- 19:02 They filmed for two weeks in the helicarrier and for two weeks in Stark's penthouse.
- 19:32 The lack of romantic subplot in the film.
- 20:04 Closing thoughts.
The Avengers Set Visit Video Blog – Part 2
- Intros
- :46 Talk about going around the art room at looking at pretty much everything from the movie. Talk about the enormity of the helicarrier.
- 1:58 Seeing art from Stark Tower. A lot of the action takes place around that area, and 20% of the movie takes place on the helicarrier. What the Enterprise is for Star Trek, the helicarrier is for S.H.I.E.L.D.
- 2:39 Talk about the change in Iron Man's armor. He's refined the process so that as he lands and walks down the pathway to his penthouse, the armor is taken off. At some point in the film he switches to the Mark VIII armor.
- 3:50 Steve says after learning what he learned about the movie, he was giddy. The action is ramped up a lot from the previous Marvel movies.
- 4:52 Talk about Iron Man, Thor and Captain America talking/fighting in a forest.
- 5:33 They saw concept art of Bruce Banner in Calcutta. He hasn't transformed into the Hulk in a few years and thinks he's gained control back. S.H.I.E.L.D. wants Banner for his brain, not for the Hulk.
- 6:30 Talk about their interview with Mark Ruffalo. The actor implied that Marvel may be moving towards having Bruce Banner able to control the Hulk. His take on the Hulk has a bit more humor.
- 8:28 Wrapping up the production art room.
- 9:03 When filming wrapped, Ruffalo went to ILM for three days for more motion-capture. When he's filming motion-capture, Ruffalo is able to see the Hulk move as he moves. Hulk is gonna be eight and a half feet tall, and Ruffalo called Edward Norton before he took the role.
- 10:29 *MILD SPOILER WARNING* Describe watching a scene between Tony Stark and Captain America.
- 12:41 *MILD SPOILERS END* Talk about how cool it was to watch Tony Stark and Captain America do a scene together.
- 13:20 Talk about watching a scene take place in a train yard. They put green screen all on the inside of a warehouse on a set the size of a football field and a half. It's supposed to be the area outside of Grand Central Station.
- 14:41 In the action scene, they saw Jeremy Renner fighting guys in motion-capture suits. Talk about the crazy action sequence that made great use of Hawkeye's bow.
- 16:07 They learned that there's a ton of second-unit on The Avengers. Whedon likes to shoot everything himself, but the sheer size and scope of the film made it impossible for him to do second-unit.
- 16:37 Talk about the relationship and chemistry between Hawkeye and Black Widow. They've been members of S.H.I.E.L.D. together for years so they have a rapport.
- 17:51 Their interview with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Talk about trying to come up with the right dialogue for the scene when The Avengers actually assemble. Whedon went away for a few minutes and came back with four alternate versions of the scene that the actors could choose from.
- 19:35 The relationship between Tony Stark and Captain America. Talk about the link between Stark's father and Captain America.
- 20:30 Their interview with Joss Whedon. He talked about the creation of the script and how Marvel gave him a basic skeleton outline of the film when he signed on.
- 21:33 Whedon told a story about going on vacation right after he got the job and how he couldn't stop coming up with storylines and dialogue while he was on vacation.
- 22:20 What Whedon had to say about 3D and why he chose to post-convert The Avengers.
- 22:41 Talk about them shooting the film with the ARRI Alexa.
- 23:07 The stakes in the film. Whedon needed to create a sense of danger for the main characters that we know won't die.
- 24:02 Whedon was adamant that The Avengers stand alone as a movie and not be a sequel to Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.
- 24:38 Whedon's reasoning for wanting a classical-sounding score.
- 25:09 Wrap up. Talk about their take-away from the set visit. Peter says the scale is much bigger than the other Marvel movies.
- 26:59 Peter talks about being worried about the action sequences and Whedon's direction, and says he was really impressed by what they saw. Peter and Steve talk about what Whedon will bring to the movie.
35 Things to Know About THE AVENGERS from our Set Visit
- When Whedon was first hired, producers Kevin Feige and Jeremy Latcham gave him a basic skeleton to work with: how they come together, what works, what doesn't work, and how they saw the climax.
- Whedon planned on shooting The Avengers on the RED EPIC in 3D, but after shooting the tag for Thor with the it and losing hours to lens changes and "unknowable camera weirdness", they decided to go with the ARRI Alexa in 2D.
- Joss Whedon wanted the whole cast's thoughts and notes on his first draft of the script in order to fine-tune it. Johansson said the first draft was a bit confusing in that a lot of storylines were cobbled together, but everyone's notes helped streamline it into a cohesive story. He sat each one of them down individually and asked if there was anything they wanted to see or anything they didn't want to repeat.
- At the end of Thor, Whedon sat down with Tom Hiddleston for a long talk about the character of Loki.
- Whedon approached the film as The Avengers: Part 1 instead of as a half sequel to all the previous Marvel movies. We're introduced to all the characters like we've never met them before.
- The Avengers is told from the point of view of S.H.I.E.L.D. Whereas in the other Marvel films S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury randomly pop up, we'll get to see what their day-to-day actions are.
- When Hemsworth was filming The Cabin in the Woods with Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, he was also auditioning for Thor. Whedon and Goddard would give him Avengers comics to prepare him for the Thor audition process, and now it's come full-circle.
- They're looking to replicate the experience of the comics, in that Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 and Captain America 2 won't necessarily feature the other characters from The Avengers; the characters will be returning to their own stories.
- Loki has scenes with most of The Avengers individually, trying to break the team up.
- Around 20% of the movie takes place on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.
- At some point in the film, Iron Man will switch to the Mark VIII armor.
- Whedon did a dialogue polish on Captain America, which he found fun because he got to write '40s dialogue. It also gave him an opportunity to spend time with the Steve Rogers character, whose perspective is crucial to The Avengers.
- Nick Fury and his team are initially after Bruce Banner not for the Hulk, but for his gamma expertise.
- Ruffalo's version of the Hulk talks, but they're not really sentences. They have all the components of a sentence, but it's not quite all there.
- Supporting characters from other Marvel films, like Natalie Portman, don't appear because Whedon wanted to take away the characters' support systems.
- They make mention in the film of why Natalie Portman's character from Thor isn't Thor's focus in The Avengers.
- In the beginning of the film, Thor has returned to Earth because his brother is involved in the chaos happening on Earth.
- Chris Hemsworth knew Loki was the villain in The Avengers shortly after he filmed Thor, but he had to keep it a secret.
- Hemsworth says Thor never saw Hawkeye when the character appeared in Thor.
- Hemsworth says there is definitely some physical tension between The Avengers team members.
- The bulk of Ruffalo's scenes are with Robert Downey Jr.
- Before agreeing to take the part, Ruffalo called Edward Norton and asked for his blessing.
- Ruffalo looked at a lot of gorillas to prepare for the physicality of the Hulk when doing motion-capture.
- When Ruffalo was shooting motion-capture, he was able to see a rough rendering of the Hulk move in real-time with his movements, so that informed his performance.
- There's an implied history between Hawkeye and Black Widow. They've done a lot of missions together.
- For Bruce Banner, Whedon wanted somebody who opened themselves up to the audience and takes them along everywhere he goes. He and Ruffalo talked a lot about the character and wanted him to be someone who is past what happened in the previous films and has internalized what went on.
- Whedon usually directs everything himself, but given the size and scope of The Avengers he didn't film the second-unit stuff.
- The film picks up about six months after the events of the last Marvel film, chronologically.
- The movie will show The Avengers assembling. They won't already be together at the beginning, so Fury has to get the team together.
- Mark Ruffalo is the only actor who has the distinction of playing both Bruce Banner and the Hulk.
- In The Avengers, two years have passed since the events of The Incredible Hulk.
- They wanted to approach the Hulk in Avengers as a throwback to Bill Bixby, where he has a charm in his world-weariness.
- Banner has a tiny semblance of control over the Hulk, but he still doesn't have complete control.
- Ruffalo signed on without reading a script.
- When scenes needed tweaking on the day, Whedon was able to go away and write new pages on the fly.
- Hiddleston says the Loki of Thor is a confused and damaged prince, and the Loki of The Avengers is one who understands his own power.
- Clarg Gregg revealed that Agent Coulson does get to kick some ass in The Avengers and he has a very prominent role in the film.
- As soon as a scene was over, everyone unzipped their costumes and cooling fans were brought in to make everyone comfortable.
For more from our Avengers set visit:
Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Mark Ruffalo The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Chris Hemsworth The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Tom Hiddleston The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Director Joss Whedon The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Clark Gregg The Avengers Set Visit Interview
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige The Avengers Set Visit Interview
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