text:
The Alabama men's basketball team will play its first game of 2014 and its final non-conference match-up of the regular season when it hosts the Robert Morris Colonials on Saturday evening. The Tide and Colonials, who will meet on the hardwood for the first time in series history, are set to tip off at 4:30 p.m. CT.
Click here for the original story.
Welcome to SECTalk.com
|Welcome to SECTalk.com -- The Home of 6 Straight National Titles!
You are currently accessing our site as a guest which means you can't access all of our features such as social groups, sports betting, and many more. By joining our free community you will have access to all of these great features as well as to participating in our forums, contacting other members, and much more. Registration only takes a minute and SECTalk.com is absolutely free, so please join today!
If you have any problems registering or signing in, please contact us.
Latest Topics
Latest News
Top Bettors
Top High Fived
Alabama Closes Non-Conference Slate Saturday Against Robert Morris
Started by Tider27, Jan 03 2014 10:42 AM
Similar Topics
|Started By
|Last Post Info
Pinned Week 1: West Virginia vs. Alabama (in Atlanta, GA)
Started by GAMECOCK_FAN, 14 Aug 2014 In: SEC Sports → Official Game Threads
- Hot 444 replies
- 4,333 views
Alabama Football vs. West Virginia Postgame Notes
Started by Tider27, Yesterday, 04:46 PM In: The West → Alabama Sports → Alabama News
- 1 reply
- 26 views
Damn it, Alabama
Started by NextYearIsHere, Yesterday, 11:56 AM In: SEC Sports → SEC Football Talk
- 12 replies
- 292 views
No. 2 Alabama Football Beats West Virginia, 33-23
Started by Tider27, Yesterday, 04:32 PM In: The West → Alabama Sports → Alabama News
- 0 replies
- 19 views
MSU at South Alabama
Started by MSSTATE_Texan, 05 Aug 2014 In: The West → Mississippi State Sports Mississippi State Bulldogs
- Hot 55 replies
- 699 views
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
You are not logged in.
Wednesday, September 3rd 2014, 8:58am
The Avira Forum will be moved to the new platform Avira Answers soon. We'll make the transition of existing user profiles and threads as smooth as possible.
New visitors are able to log in on Avira Answers with the existing Avira account directly or sign up with a new account.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
'Games People Play' Singer Joe South Dead at 72
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Singer-songwriter Joe South, best known for his own recording of "Games People Play," along with writing such standards as "Walk A Mile In My Shoes," "Hush," "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden," and "Down In The Boondocks," died of an apparent heart attack at age 72 at home in Flowery Branch, Georgia.
The New York Times reported that South, who worked as a session player on Bob Dylan's 1966 Blonde On Blonde collection, is survived by his son Craig and a granddaughter. South's second wife died in the late 1990's. South mainly retreated from show business following the 1971 suicide of his brother and drummer Tommy, but resurfaced in 2009 with the new track, "Oprah Cried."
Your browser does not support script
Internet Explorer Users Click Here To See What's On-Air
Contest Rules
Contact Us
Copyright 2014. Eves Broadcasting Inc.
Site Designed and Maintained by MME
Music News
Search our Music Database
'Like' Us On Facebook
Local News
On-Air Now
Listen Live With Our App


text:
Mike DeFabo
CNHI News Service
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — I'm scrunched behind a 10-foot, plastic blind trying to make myself invisible.
Maybe he won't find me? Maybe if I stay perfectly still, hardly breathing, he won't …
It's no use. I hear the dog panting, rushing toward me. He circles the blind then looks me squarely in the eye.
The German Shepherd snarls. Each powerful bark pins me further in place.
Stay calm, I tell myself. Dogs can smell fear, can't they?
The next thing I know, I'm sprinting down the field with the dog at my heels. Then, with practiced precision, he bites my right arm. I feel it only faintly through a thick, padded sleeve, but the force of the 90-pound animal nearly drags me down.
"Good boy! Get him, boy!" barks his owner, Joe Gribben, a 42-year-old barrel-chested man who still sports the high-and-tight haircut of his days in law enforcement.
Gribben is an imposing figure who looks like he could bench press a car. If not for a gentle smile and quick laugh, he'd be almost as frightening as his dogs.
But, when Gribben speaks, the dogs listen.
"Oust!" he orders.
Jaro releases my arm.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Gribben says.
"I'm just glad I had the sleeve on," I laugh.
'Protection dogs'
That was my introduction to Schutzhund, a sport begun in Germany in the early 20th century as a way to select German Shepherds to breed, and to hone their intelligence and athleticism.
German immigrant Gernot Riedel introduced the sport - its name translates to "Protection Dog" - to the United States in 1957. Its following here has since grown from a single club in California to thousands across the country.
And while German Shepherds remain its most popular subjects, the sport includes other breeds including Rottweilers, Giant Schnauzers and Doberman Pinschers.
Next week, thousands of dogs and their owners will arrive in Philadelphia for the Schutzhund World Championships.
Gribben discovered the sport 20 years ago, as he was starting a career in law enforcement, with a club called the West Virginia Canine College. A dog lover all his life - he had trained the family's Golden Retriever while in elementary school - Gribben and his Rottweiler, named Beck, completed two, three-month training programs with the club.
Gribben spent about 15 years in law enforcement before leaving to be closer to family, he said. Seven years ago he and his wife opened Creekside Kennels in Fairmont. In addition to Schutzhund, he helps dog owners train pets to correct behaviors such as lunging at people or barking at visitors to their home.
More recently Gribben and another trainer started the Mountaineer Schutzhund Club, organized under the American Schutzhund Clubs of America. As a titled club, they can bring in judges and hold trials.
It just so happened that a judge was visiting last Saturday, so they invited me out to check it out.
Three-part competition
Dogs in competitions are judged on a 100-point scale in three phases - tracking, obedience and protection.
During tracking someone walks through an open field and drops items, which dogs will have to use their noses to follow. For obedience, dogs are tested in all of the basic commands: "fuss" (heel); "sitz" (sit); "bleib" (stay); "platz" (down); and "hier" (come).
"Why do you speak to the dogs in German?" I ask one of the dog owners who is sitting on a green plastic chair adjacent to the field, smoking a cigarette as he watches the competition. "Oh, I know, because they're from Germany. It's their native language, right?"
He gives me a puzzled stare. Then he starts to explain that dogs don't speak human languages before he realizes I'm not as dumb as I look and cracks a small smile.
During a break, Craig Groh, a judge visiting from California, explains how he looks for preciseness in the dogs during the obedience phase, as well as expression and drive.
"When you're out here and you see a dog who's happy, he's animated, his ears are up, he's focused on his handler," said Groh.
The final phase is protection - the one I experienced with Gribben's dog, Jaro.
A handful of blinds are set up in a field with a decoy hiding behind one. The dog must search each blind, find the decoy, then keep the decoy in place by barking. When the decoy runs, the dog chases him down and bites the sleeve upon its handler's command.
Groh said he looks for "power but also control." Watching the dogs run through the course, I marvel at the way their owners handle their animals with simple, one-word commands.
Good-natured dogs
But one question lingered: How does a dog know that it's alright to bite a decoy during competition and it's not OK to bite, say, a 6-year-old child?
Gribben said the training in Schutzhund is clear: Dogs are biting sleeves, not people.
"A police dog, we'll teach him it's OK to make contact whether there is a sleeve or not," he said, "but that's not what our sport is about."
Gribben said it's also important to make sure that a dog is "sound" and "clear in the head." Before a dog can compete, it must complete a behavioral test to prove its trustworthiness.
Groh, the judge, said Schutzhund dogs are not "junkyard dogs."
"They aren't attack dogs," he said. "I couldn't give my dog a command to bite you. He knows no such command."
The dogs at Creekside Kennels are social, obedient animals. A testament to their good nature is that many are certified therapy dogs that visit patients in hospitals or residents of nursing homes.
This includes my friend, Jaro.
"Most people just have them as sport dogs," said Groh. "They go home and sleep with them every night."
Mike DeFabo writes for The Times West Virginian in Fairmont, W.Va. Email him at email@example.com or follow on Twitter @MikeDeFaboTWV.


text:
The state of Mississippi is home to two of the SEC's top three returning quarterbacks.
Welcome to Raycom News Network's live blog from SEC Media Days in Hoover, AL.
(RNN) - We approach the sorrowful time of the season where the bent bearers of broken dreams trudge on with nothing left to strive for but the sorry satisfaction of inflicting their own hopelessness and regret on others.
It's the epic search for meaning in a broken world. It's life in the belly of the beast. It's Week 8 in the Southeastern Conference.
On the upside, it's top-notch entertainment. So order a pizza and dig, if you will, the magnificent despair of all humanity - and teams with two or more losses and a half a season to play.
This week, we quote O Brother Where Art Thou? at the conclusion of each game summary. Why?
Because the South, the Depression, trains, Dapper Dan hair pomade, the devil himself and George Clooney, that's why.
The Soggy Bottom Boys: I am a man of constant sorrow. I seen trouble all my days.
Two teams with horrible defenses and nothing to lose promise lots o' points and an excellent reason to get up before noon.
Georgia's season got derailed when Missouri handed the Dawgs their second loss, meaning their national title hopes are now slimmer than Denise Richards.
Aaron Murray has been a warrior through these dark weeks of injury and an unsupportive defense. He has thrown for 1,824 yards and 17 TDs this year, but even the noble Murray can't win SEC games without his war-torn runners, ankle-sprained Todd Gurley and ACL-damaged Keith Marshall. Two of his best receivers are hurt, and so is a starting safety, but the defense is so bad, you can't tell. Missouri turned up the heat on him last week and there wasn't a lot he could do but take shots and get back up.
A cool drink of Vandy's defense might be just the thing - the Commodores are allowing 35 points per game. You don't have to be Vince Lombardi to figure out they'll zero in on Murray, too.
Vandy gave up 51 to Missouri and is on the brink of tumbling into the world of the sub .500s.
Coach James Franklin has yet to win a game against a ranked opponent, which Georgia is. WR Jordan Matthews is one of the league's best with 47 catches for 709 yards, accounting for 45.4 percent of QB Austyn Carta-Samuels' 1,561 passing yards. But he has a bad habit of throwing it to the wrong team at in opportune times.
Delmar: Them syreens did this to Pete! They loved him up and turnt him into a horny toad!
Last week at Arkansas, South Carolina unleashed the sort of ruthless annihilation we've been waiting for all season. The Gamecocks have all kinds of talent, but have been Congress-like in their unorganized, lethargic approach to things.
Offense has not really been the problem. Mike Davis has been a young destroyer from Day 1. Connor Shaw is a good quarterback when he does what he ought to do and the OL is a sparky crew.
And at last, the defense is back in play, because evidently rap superstar sports agent Jay Z told Jadeveon Clowney to Show Me What You Got, be a Monster and Run This Town.
If USC does what it can, this one could get as ugly as those gray uniforms the Tennesseans wore against Georgia.
But then again, maybe not. The wily Vol is nothing if not unpredictable.
Big Dan Teague: Thank you boys for throwin' in that fricassee. I'm a man of large appetite, and even with lunch under my belt, I was feelin' a mite peckish.
This one suddenly got really interesting. Mizzou had tape on its glasses and the tough boys stole its lunch money last year, but now those Midwestern interlopers are a second-year, SEC sensation. After fattening up on a weak early schedule, they romped on Vanderbilt and Georgia and now they're undefeated, leading the East Division and all the girls want to be their girlfriends.
The Tigers got a memorable win over UGA last week, but the amazing James Franklin did something to his shoulder and it looks like he's toast for the foreseeable future. That leaves freshman Maty Mauk to take snaps against No. 22 Florida, whose mortal soul is in jeopardy after losing to LSU.
Mauk's a good hand - just inexperienced. That's not a good thing to be against Florida's defense, which is still pretty stout, even with all those injuries.
The Gators defense needs to be good. The offense is horrid. If Mizzou wins this one, you've got be thinking, "Can these people win the East?"
Homer Stokes: Is you is, or is you ain't, my constituency?
Auburn's going to start Nick Marshall at QB against Manziel and Them. But Jeremy Johnson is going to play, said Gus Malzahn, and he might as well. The kid burned a redshirt last week when he took over for a dinged-up Marshall in a light scrimmage against Western Carolina.
He had a nice game, too - four touchdowns and 201 yards. He gives the Tigers an interesting, new dimension, especially since Marshall has just been adequate, nothing flashy.
Texas A&M eased by Ole Miss last week, with J. Football mounting a big, old comeback in the fourth quarter like he did the year before against the Anarchistic Dusky Ursines. Auburn's got enough offense to light up the wretched Aggie defense.
It would be a major win for rebuilding Auburn, whose ebullient fan base is making noise like the Tigers might yet be a player in the West race. We'll see.
George Nelson: Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers!
[Opens fire on them with Tommy gun]
Delmar: Oh, George... not the livestock.
The other ones: Since bear-baiting is not legal anymore, why not watch Arkansas play Alabama at 7 p.m. on ESPN? And you can flip back and forth between LSU visiting Ole Miss, which kicks off at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, and visualize the West Division showdown to occur in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 9 when the two titans collide.
Big Dan Teague: So long, boys. See you in the funny papers.
Copyright 2013 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
12 East Delano Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36105
(334) 288-1212
FCC Public File
EEO Report
Closed Captioning