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Caravan park operators in Canberra say cheaper fuel prices have not changed booking numbers in the national capital, but campers are happier with the loose change left over at the bowser.
Outside of Canberra petrol prices are at record low levels and could fall further due to Saudi Arabia's decision not to cut oil production. Industry commentators say ACT's petrol prices are higher because of a lack of independent service station owners.
Russell Spencer of Windsor is travelling with his daughter Kerry Spencer and her boyfriend Danny Farnback to visit people in Canberra, where they plan to stay a little longer to see the sights.
"This is the cheapest I have seen petrol prices in a long time," Mr Spencer said. The trio is travelling with two six-cylinder vehicles.
Mr Spencer said he was accustomed to spending $120 filling the car and had never filled to the brim his Pajero V6, fearful of what the cost might be. He stops when the bowser reaches $100, which he says pays for about three hours travel.
Mr Farnback said at North Richmond he had seen the price of petrol fall to $1.05 a litre.
"It's cheaper to come here than go into the city [in Sydney] for the fireworks," Mr Farnback said. "Everything is getting too expensive."
They had camped at Exhibition Park until the start of Summernats and are extending their stay at Eagle Hawke Holiday Park, on the Federal Highway, until January 8.
Richard Schutt and his family spent 13 hours hauling their caravan to Canberra from Mount Gambier in South Australia for Summernats. He generally fills up with premium-priced fuel and appreciates lower prices along the way.
"If you want to go somewhere, you have to ignore the price of fuel, otherwise you wouldn't do anything," Mr Schutt said.
This is his second trip to Canberra for the car festival, and he plans staying for five days. "We will drive around and look for what Canberra has to offer," Mr Schutt said.
Eagle Hawke Holiday Park manager Bill Tilden said the high cost of entry fees to attractions on the Gold Coast caused Queenslanders to come south for cheaper admittance to Canberra's national institutions.
But fuel prices hadn't caused a spike in numbers of people staying at the park. Events like Summernats and Floriade in spring helped fill the park's 90 villas, and up to 550 children a night stayed while attending various events during the school year.
Capital Country Holiday Park manager Bree Curnuck said visitors were quick to discover cheaper fuel prices had not found their way into Canberra.
"They all say, 'luckily we filled up before we came, because Canberra is so expensive,' " Ms Curnuck said.
She did not believe cheaper petrol prices interstate was driving additional business to the national capital.
Ms Curnuck said school tours filled the park's 585 person capacity from February to December. Bookings peaked during winter because schools liked to include a trip to the snow on their itinerary, as did many travellers between Sydney and Melbourne.
Ms Curnuck said Canberra Hot Rod Association had booked out the park in three weeks time for its annual event, helping fill the school holiday void. Another major drawcard was the Anzac Day dawn service, which brought campers to the park from all over Australia.
South Canberra Caravan Park's assistant manager Anne Garvin said lower fuel prices had probably bolstered visitor numbers.
"We are full, absolutely. We have had a lot of tourists in, in campervans and tents and everything," she said.
"We are up on last year. Everytime we have a change of government everything in Canberra dies, 2014 [bookings] was up on 2013."


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Adam Nee
Kiss Me Again
Helmed by William Tyler Smith, this cautionary tale stars Jeremy London and Katheryn Winnick as liberal spouses trying to add zest to their sex life via a ménage à trois. When self-seeking college professor Julian (London) persuades his wife, Chalice (Winnick), to let lovely coed Elena (Mirelly Taylor) share their bed, the physical coupling leads to emotional repercussions. The supporting cast includes Elisa Donovan and Darrell Hammond.

subset: commoncrawl


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Fully ablative resurfacing is the gold standard in my hands for removing wrinkles around the eyes. If the wrinkles are wild to moderate, I have good success with the Fraxel Repair Laser in a single treatment session.
Benefits of Fraxel Laser Under the Eyes?
Doctor Answers 1
For the best results under the eyes, fully ablative resurfacing works best in my hands.
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Learn more: http://gatewaylasercenter.com/LaserWrinkleTreatment.html
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.


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Motorola H800 Bluetooth Headset : Slide into style!
What better way to start the year with a funky bluetooth headset from Motorola - Ello Moto! The Motorola H800 Bluetooth Headset makes turning your bluetooth headset on & off into a fashion statement - has a unique slider switch. Bluetooth 2.0, multi-coloured charging light, lightweight design, intuitive controls and good battery life are some reasons why you should take note of this bluetooth headset gadget.
Features of the Motorola H800 Bluetooth Headset
- Over-the-ear slider headset design
- Elevated speaker rests closer to the ear for loud audio
- Interchangeable hooks to match the ear for a snug and secure fit
- Up to approximately 6 hours talk time or 8 days standby time
- Ergonomic, lightweight
- New iconic on/off slider
- Elegant laser-etched patterns
- Keeps your voice clear with echo cancellation and noise reduction technology
- Intuitive, easy to use controls
- Volume controls can be programmed to remain upright as you switch headset from one ear to the other
- EasyPair for easy initial setup with the phone
- Multicolor indicator light
- MicroUSB charging
- Bluetooth Class 2 offers a wireless connection up to 10 meters (33 feet) away
- Works with any brand of Bluetooth 1.1, 1.2 or 2.0 -enabled compatible phone or device that supports "headset" and "hands-free" profiles
Order your Motorola H800 Bluetooth Headset at Mr.Gadget Australia!
Labels: Bluetooth, Bluetooth Headset, h800, Motorola, Motorola h800


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One of the more exciting avenues of research in cancer treatment is the use of antiangiogenic drugs. Antiangiogenesis attacks tumors by in effect, cutting off their blood supply. Tumors grow much faster than normal tissue, and so discouraging the growth of new blood vessels that fuel their growth tends to shrink the tumors or at least slow their growth.
What is Anti-Angiogenesis?
Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels. While the body may need to repair damaged blood vessels or form new ones to replace clogged arteries, normally the body also has inhibitors to signal a stop to the process.
Angiogenesis is a key part of tumor growth and spread. New blood vessels convey nutrients to the cancer, fueling their abnormal growth and unchecked spread to other areas of the body. Angiogenesis fuels the explosive growth and metastatic phase of cancers. It also means that the tumor can infiltrate the circulatory system and find new sites to invade (Angiogenesis Foundation, undated).
"The first successful treatment of an angiogenesis-dependent disease occurred in 1989, when the drug interferon alfa2a, an angiogenesis inhibitor, was used to regress the abnormal blood vessels growing in the lungs of a boy with a benign disease called pulmonary hemangiomatosis" (Angiogenesis Foundation, undated).
Tumors cannot grow or spread without the formation of new blood vessels, so researchers have begun studying 'antiangiogenic agents'. Advantages of this approach are that this class of drugs show only mild side effects and are not toxic to most healthy cells. Tumors do not seem to develop a resistance to these drugs, even when given over a long period of time. However, some complications could affect wound-healing, blood clotting, the immune system, and with reproduction (National Cancer Institute, undated).
Promising Antiangiogenic Compounds
While over 300 angiogenesis inhibitors have been discovered, only a handful have been formally studied. But with more than $4 billion invested in the research and development of antiangiogenic medicines, something has to come of this massively-financed area of research. Over 10,000 cancer patients have already received some form of experimental antiangiogenic treatment.
Drugs and natural substances being researched in the U.S., Canada, Australia and for their antiangiogenic properties include:
- Bevacizumab, for colorectal cancer, some lung cancers and metastasized breast cancer
- Cannabis (THC), for gliomas
- Curcumin
- Garlic
- Ginseng
- Green Tea Polyphenols
- Licorice
- Mushrooms and other fungi
- Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids
- Quercetin
- Red Wine Polyphenols
- Shark Cartilage, as Neovastat by Aeterna Labs, Canada, for renal carcinoma, lung, prostate cancer
- Snake Venom
- Soy Beans
- Squalamine, by Genaera Labs, PA for some lung, ovarian cancers
- Tetrathiomolybdate copper (very high risk)
- Thalidomide, for gliomas
- Tree Bark
- Vitamin D3
Cancers Under Study
Cancers that have responded positively to Cannabis compounds in controlled studies (as well as macular degeneration) (Guzman, 2003):
- Breast Carcinoma
- Glioma or Glioblastoma
- Lung Carcinoma
- Lymphoma/Leukemia
- Neuroblastoma
- Prostate Carcinoma
- Skin Carcinoma
- Thyroid Epithelioma
- Uterus Carcinoma
Guzman lists possible mechanisms of cannabinoid action:
- Induction of apoptosis (genetically programmed cell death, a normal body process), thru ceramide accumulation by de novo synthesis
- Cell-cycle arrest, by inhibition of growth-factor-receptor signalling
- Inhibition of angiogenesis, by inhibition of vascular-endothelial cell migration and survival?
Most sources recommend combining antiangiogenic drugs with traditional radiation or chemotherapy for a multi-pronged attack on a cancer. This is due to the sometimes disappointing results with some drugs that only stop the cancers from getting larger without reducing their size. But the most exciting suggestion is combining several natural substances. Each herb or other substance has slightly different antiangiogenic chemicals, so combining them into natural 'cocktails' would work on a greater variety of cancers.
Natural 'Cocktails'
According to Raymond Chang, M.D., medical director of Meridian Medical Group, New York, and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, N.Y., there are three main processes at work in angiogenesis: gene expression, enzyme activity and signal processing. Chang agrees that ultimately we will combine natural substances for take advantage of the synergistic effect of different phytocompounds.
I recommend looking up the paper for Current Oncology written by Sagar et al because it has charts for each of three types of promising compounds: one for natural health products with potential direct and indirect antiangiogenic activity, one for natural health products that inhibit COX-2 activity, and one of herbs that specifically inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (such as the red wine and green tea mentioned by Oak et al).
For example, red wine and green tea polyphenols show a strong inhibitory action on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (Oak, 2005). Plus ginger root is showing abilities as a cell-cycle arrestor. One could easily drink red wine with one's ginger seasoned stir fry dinner, or a curry dish, for a moderate and digestible 'medicine'. I could drink to that.
Angiogenesis Foundation, www.angio.org/patients/cancer/cancer.html, undated.
Armentano, Paul, Can Pot Extend Ted Kennedy's Life?, NORML, May 2008.
Guzman, Manuel, CANNABINOIDS: Potential Anticancer Agents, Nature.com, Oct. 2003, http://americanmarijuana.org/Guzman-Cancer.pdf.
Kugler, Mary, RN, Glioma Treatment Research, New twists on traditional treatments: Antiangiogenesis, About.com, June 2006.
Marwick, Charles, Natural Compounds Show Antiangiogenic Activity, Journal of the National Cancer Inst.,Vol. 93, No. 22, 1685, Nov. 2001, jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/93/22/1685.
National Cancer Institute's (NCI), Angiogenesis Inhibitors, http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/angiogenesis-inhibitors, and http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/angiogenesis-inhibitors, undated.
Oak MH, El Bedoui J, Schini-Kerth BV. Antiangiogenic properties of natural polyphenols from red wine and green tea. J Nutr Biochem 2005;16:1-8, http://www.chiroonline.net/_fileCabinet/redwine_greentea.pdf.
Paradigms of Ann Arbor, Cancer Prevention Plan, James Around Thomas .com, 2002, http://www.james-arond-thomas.com/pdfs/a-angiogenesis_protocol.pdf.
Roberts, Dan, Antiangiogenic Drugs Are Stopping Neovascularization in Wet Macular Degeneration, continually updated, http://www.mdsupport.org/library/anti-angio.html.
Sagar, S.M., MD, et al, Natural health products that inhibit angiogenesis: a potential source for investigational new agents to treat cancer-Part 1, Current Oncology 13:14-26, Feb. 2006, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1891166.
Saum, David, Tetrathiomolybdate copper reduction anti-angiogenesis cancer website, Nov. 2006, http://www.infiltec.com/anticopper/ .
Yale Medical Group Health Info, Thalidomide being tested as antiangiogenic drug, ymghealthinfo.org/content.asp?pageid=P07120, Oct. 2005.
Cooke, Robert, Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer, Random House, 2001.
Kirsch, Matthias, and Peter McL Black, Angiogenesis in Brain Tumors (Cancer Treatment and Research), Springer, 2004.


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The Great Wallbased on4571 ratings.
1700 Years to Build. 5500 Miles Long. What Were They Trying to Keep Out?
Origin: UK
Year: 2016
Directors: Yimou Zhang (as Zhang Yimou )
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars: Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe
A mystery centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China.
Recommended titles:


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Year Up Leadership Council Spring Social
Year Up
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 6:30 PM (PDT)
Event Details
Please join the Year Up Leadership Council to mix, mingle and learn about the Bay Area's leading organization bridging the opportunity divide for urban youth. We invite you to enjoy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres while meeting some of Year Up's proud graduates as well as other supporters of this life-changing organization
46 Minna St. (map link)
Wednesday, May 23rd
DJ Vin Sol
Invite-only | Please RSVP
To learn more about Year Up, please view this short video.
Year Up Leadership Council:
|Ime Archibong
|Matt Farron
|Charles Hudson
|Katie Baynes
|Tiffiny Furdak
|Dominique Jones
|Colin Billings
|Mike Ghaffary
|Renuka Kher
|Bakari Brock
|Daniel Hayes
|John Kobs
|Sunil Daluvoy
|Chris Herndon
|Kate Mendillo
|Abby Davisson
|Ross Hoffman
|Rama Sekhar
|Hugh de Loayza
|Ana Homayoun
|Stephanie Ting
Have questions about Year Up Leadership Council Spring Social? Contact Year Up
When & Where
46 Minna St
San Francisco,
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 6:30 PM (PDT)
Add to my calendar
Year Up
Year Up Leadership Council Spring Social
Things to do in San Francisco, CA


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In On Violence, Hannah Arendt warned of the "rule by Nobody," the most autocratic of all political tyrannies, a latticework of bureaucracy "in which no men, neither one nor the best, neither the few nor the many, can be held responsible." Power is decentralized and diffused to manufacture the illusion that there is no power. Elsewhere, Arendt described this state of affairs as "the banality of evil." It's not that the crimes are unremarkable or run-of-the-mill. It's that the practice of evil becomes pedestrian. Tyranny becomes standard operating procedure – business as usual.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more suitable illustration of this humdrum banality of evil than the clip-art leprechaun hat embedded into a U.S. National Security Agency PowerPoint presentation, reprinted – along with much, much else – in No Place to Hide, journalist Glenn Greenwald's book-length untangling of the NSA's bureaucracy. On a slide titled "Special Source Operations: Corporate Partner Access," a picture of a crudely drawn leprechaun's hat (you know, broad brim, with a buckle on the band) accompanies the name of a program called BLARNEY, designed to stockpile metadata from international communications networks.
Bracket, for a second, the invasiveness and blanket disregard for the sovereignty of foreign nations. Now imagine some guy, slumped in a cubicle at the NSA, copy/pasting a creative-commons doodle of a leprechaun's hat into a presentation coolly laying out the extent of this wild disregard, like an entry-level graphic designer revamping the menu at an Irish pub. Evil, as Arendt knew, is not just banal. It's straight-up stupid, roused in the humdrum routine of coercion and ambivalence.
No Place to Hide, a monumentally important book, lays out the extent of the National Security Agency's intrusiveness, both foreign and abroad, providing the content (in the form of presentation slides, charts and internal e-mails) of, and context for, what former NSA director Keith B. Alexander described as the agency's "collect it all" mentality.
The most damning indictments against the NSA – and the government and news media ("guardians of the status quo," Greenwald calls them; one of his more charitable estimations) – came in the summer of 2013, when Greenwald was contacted by 29-year-old whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who provided Greenwald with a trove of documentation of the NSA's collection of the American public's telephone and e-mail data. No Place to Hide wades deeper into Snowden's archive, with Greenwald carefully building a case for the NSA as "the definitive rogue agency: empowered to do whatever it wants with very little control, transparency or accountability."
A constitutional lawyer by trade, Greenwald argues first against the broad illegality of the NSA's warrantless domestic spying program. Using the bogeyman of "terrorism," the U.S. government routinely violates the Fourth Amendment, which constitutionally enshrines "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." With nothing more than an e-mail address, a junior subcontractor like Snowden – "just another guy," as he has described himself – could amass data about any American citizen: e-mails, browser searchers, websites visited, and so on. In one exchange from 2011, an NSA operator confesses to having "screwed up" by accidentally targeting a U.S. citizen instead of a foreigner. The NSA's oversight office responded with a line that typifies the lax, workaday attitude toward such slip-ups: "It's nothing to worry about."
Greenwald gets ahead of the warmed-over defences of such domestic spying programs, launched by the government and other "surveillance cheerleaders" who hold that merely collecting a person's metadata is no big deal, as such information only indexes who you're talking to (and when, and where, and for long) and not what you're saying. "Metadata surveillance can be at least as intrusive as content interception," he writes. "It can create a remarkably comprehensive picture of your life, your associations, and your activities, including some of your most intimate and private information."
Beyond its abundance of shocking eye-openers (e.g., the NSA spies extensively on foreign leaders, and even the United Nations, in order to stack foreign policy in its favour), No Place to Hide makes a robust, convincing argument for why we should care about the surveillance state. It's easy to be apathetic about these programs, shrugging it off, all, "Oh well, if the government wants to listen in on my boring conversations, they can be my guest!" But as Greenwald points out, invoking Orwell's Big Brother (while dutifully noting that citing Nineteen Eighty-Four is "something of a cliché"), "those who believe they are watched will instinctively choose to do that which is wanted of them without even realizing that they are being controlled."
Governments, and even the woollier notions of Power and Authority, count on apathy. They're emboldened by a slumped NSA contractor copy/pasting a Clipart leprechaun hat into a PowerPoint presentation, and by the shrugging citizenry bored with their own liberty. No Place to Hide is a persuasive, thrilling and necessary argument for shaking off this entitled boredom; for holding governments accountable, disentangling the knotty rat king of bureaucracy and pushing back against the rule by Nobody.Report Typo/Error
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Macy's Roosevelt Field Week of Wonderful
Saturday, December 28, 2013 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (EST)
Who's Going
San Francisco, California
London, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Event Details
With New Year's just around the corner, it's time for a new you! Work up a sweat with a Yoga class by Kaley Young of AT THE STUDIO and afterward, check out the latest in activewear and enjoy healthy samples at our Macy's Juice Bar while listening to beats from our live DJ. Plus, score a Macy's Duffel Bag* with any $35 purchase in the Active Department, and be one of the first 25 customers to bring in this ad or our online ad and get a $10 Macy's gift card** to kickstart your shopping spree! Even better? Receive a Helly Hansen washbag* with any $100 Helly Hansen purchase! Space is limited so reserve your spot today!
Event subject to change or cancellation. One qualifying gift per purchase. *While supplies last. **Limited to the first 25 customers who bring in the orginal newspaper ad (no copies) or a printout of the online ad.
When & Where
Macy's Roosevelt Field, Active Dept on 2
630 Old Country Rd
Garden City,
Saturday, December 28, 2013 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (EST)
Add to my calendar


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The 6th Annual NRMA Kennedy Awards – the media's black tie night of nights – will be staged in the magnificent grand ballroom of Royal Randwick from 7pm on August 11.
This is a night not to be missed, as the who's who of Australian news celebrate the talents of our finest journalists. Be quick to secure August 11 gala tickets & tables for our seven-hour event now by CLICKING HERE
This year's event will be hosted by Michael Usher, and feature the talents of guest performer – the sensational Mitchell Anderson.
THE Kennedy Foundation is honoured to announce that for the second consecutive year the Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism will host the presentation of the richest prize in Australian news media – the Coca-Cola Kennedy Award for Australian Journalist of the Year.
As in 2016, our charity's latest major partners Coca-Cola Amatil (Amatil) and Coca-Cola South Pacific (CCSP) are offering the winner of the 2017 Kennedy Award for Australian Journalist of the Year a $25,000 prize.
And the partnership also means the winner of the 2017 Powerade Kennedy Award for Young Journalist of the Year will again receive $5,000.
The inaugural Coca-Cola Kennedy Award last year attracted a raft of outstanding entries from all around Australia with award judges eventually naming Fairfax/ABC Four Corners investigative journalist Adele Ferguson, a previous Kennedy Journalist of the Year, the winner.
The Sydney Morning Herald's Eryk Bagshaw was declared the first Powerade Young Journalist of the Year from a field of some of Australia's finest young media professionals.
Kennedy Foundation chairman, Mr Simon Dulhunty, thanked Coca-Cola Amatil and Coca-Cola South Pacific for their continued generous support of quality Australian journalism and the benevolent fund established to help media colleagues in need.
"The Kennedy Foundation, as Australia's media charity, is honoured that our partnership with Coca-Cola South Pacific and Coca-Cola Amatil has been renewed," Mr Dulhunty said.
"It means we can continue to build on the highly successful launch last year of the richest prize in Australian journalism.
"The generous support we continue to embrace from Coca-Cola And Coca-Cola Amatil is a significant achievement for the NRMA Kennedy Awards, which evolved just six years ago from a modest foothold following the death of outstanding crime reporter Les Kennedy.
"The inaugural awards' ceremony in 2012 – recognising the talents of NSW-based media professionals – has been completely transformed by the superb quality of entries from Australia's leading print, television, radio and web journalists, photographers and artists.
"There is no more shining example of the evolution of the Kennedy's than the success of Melbourne-based Fairfax journalist Adele Ferguson, a two-time winner of the Gold Spirax trophy for Kennedy Journalist of the Year.
"This support of our major award has been a monumental boost to the Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism and has helped consolidate the awards as a major event on the national media calendar."
Mr Dulhunty said that in partnership, CCA and CCSP will also support a $20,000 donation to the Kennedy Foundation to assist past and present news media professionals – and their families – in hardship.
"Coca-Cola Amatil Group Managing Director, Alison Watkins said the Kennedy Awards recognised the critical importance of world-class journalism, across business, sports, community and general news.
"We hear a lot about 'fake news' and infotainment, so it's great to see awards like this which acknowledge fact-based, high-quality reporting. I'm very happy that we were able to support these Awards again, and congratulate all of this year's nominees."
Showing his support for the initiative, Coca-Cola South Pacific Business Unit President Roberto Mercadé said: "Coca-Cola is very happy to support these awards yet again in 2017. Our partnership with the Kennedy Foundation continues to grow and we hope our support of the Journalist of the Year Award encourages some more great journalism this year."
The NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism continue to recognise the country's finest media professionals and those major contributors to the industry.
The Kennedy Foundation has also supported other charities in the wider community including the children's cancer charity Redkite, the Aboriginal Medical Service, the Charlie Perkins Trust for Children and Young People, leading Australian Cancer Clinical Trials Group, ANZUP, and the Aboriginal School of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney.
The winners of the 2017 Journalist and Young Journalist of the Year will be announced at the 6th Annual Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism at Royal Randwick on Friday, August 11. Entries across all categories will be open from May 18 at kennedywards.com.au and close July 1.
Richest Prize in Australian Journalism
ADELE Ferguson of Fairfax Media and the ABC won the inaugural $25,000 Coca-Cola Kennedy Journalist of the Year at the 5th Annual NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
The highly-respected journalist took out the award for her historic investigations of slave labor in the 7/11 chain of convenience stores and the failure of the Commonwealth Bank to pay insurance to sick and dying policy holders.
In collecting Australia's richest prize in journalism, Ms Ferguson thanked her producers Mario Christodoulou, Sarah Danckert and Klaus Toft, who also collected the coveted Spirax trophy in the finance and investigative categories.
The $25,000 prize was presented by special guest of honour, veteran New York Post and Daily Telegraph editor Mr Col Allan, who was joined by 2015 Kennedy Journalist of the Year Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Ms Liz McNamara, representing Coca-Cola Amatil.
Sydney Morning Herald education writer Eryk Bagshaw was named as the first winner of the $5000 Powerade Young Journalist of the Year.
Hunter Burton Capital Sponsors Outstanding Finance Reporting in 2017
Vodafone sponsors coveted Paul Lockyer Award for Outstanding Regional Broadcast Reporting
Australia's media charity, The Kennedy Foundation, is proud to announce Vodafone has become the major sponsor of the coveted Paul Lockyer Award for Outstanding Regional Broadcast Reporting.
The award – to be presented at the 6th Annual Kennedy Awards on August 11, 2017 – recognises the legacy of the late, legendary ABC and Nine network journalist who became nationally known for his passionate and expert coverage of rural issues throughout Australia.
The new Vodafone Paul Lockyer Award will continue to acknowledge superb regional broadcast reporting by media professionals who tirelessly keep the bush and regional centres tuned-in to the latest events impacting on their lives and shaping their futures.
Kennedy Foundation chairman Mr Simon Dulhunty said that since the inaugural awards in 2012 the Paul Lockyer Award had a special place in the heart of the foundation.
"We were seeking a partner for this award with strong links to regional communities and we are delighted to have the Vodafone brand, and its fantastic people, on board with us for next year," Mr Dulhunty said.
"As reporting and broadcasting on regional issues continues to be a major focus of media coverage around Australia every year, the Kennedy Foundation is proud to have Vodafone at its side as the ideal sponsor of the Paul Lockyer Award.
"Regional journalism is the heart and soul of Australian media. Anyone that backs it is backing all people from the bush and giving a voice to the smaller towns. Regional reporting provides a vital link to regional communities just as Vodafone continues to do and we are extremely grateful to have the support of Vodafone in 2017, the sixth year of the Kennedy Awards."
General Manager of External Affairs at Vodafone Australia, Mr Anthony Flannery, said the company was honoured to sponsor the Paul Lockyer Award for Outstanding Regional Broadcast Reporting.
"This award not only recognises the legacy Paul has left behind as an outstanding journalist, but the time he took to raise awareness of the issues faced by people living in Australia's regional and remote communities," Mr Flannery said.
"We are proud that his legacy lives on in this award which acknowledges the contribution of other media professionals who share the same commitment to regional issues as Paul."
Background to the Paul Lockyer Award
The Paul Lockyer Award recognises the skills of a veteran journalist who carved a name for himself as an outstanding commentator and reporter on many issues but his greatest passion was his coverage of rural stories.
Paul was killed in a helicopter crash on Lake Eyre in South Australia on August 18, 2011, along with fellow ABC employees, pilot Gary Ticehurst and cameraman John Bean.
In 2013 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for his coverage of rural issues, particularly the extensive and punishing drought, and was twice awarded the NSW Farmers' Association Mackellar Media Prize for coverage of rural stories.
The Outstanding Regional Reporting Award was first introduced at the inaugural awards in 2012 with The Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga, taking out the category for its coverage of devastating floods that swept through the region.
In 2013 Seven News' Hugh Whitfield won for his coverage of devastating bushfires in the NSW Central West.
In 2014 Amy Phillips of Prime News Lismore won the Lockyer for coverage of CSG gas exploration in the NSW Northern Rivers region.
In 2015 the ABC's 7.30 Report was recognised for its trail-blazing coverage of the ICE drug crisis consuming small communities.
The 2016 Lockyer was awarded to Joanna Woodburn of ABC Regional TV for her stories on lethal asbestos deposits near Orange.
Since 2012, when the first awards were hatched in a pub in Sydney to honour the life of the late legendary Sydney crime reporter Les Kennedy, the Kennedy Foundation has been seeking a new partner with strong links to regional communities to support the Paul Lockyer Award for Outstanding Regional Broadcast Reporting.
The Kennedy Foundation, with Vodafone as its latest partner, will continue to recognise the very best of Australia's regional broadcast reporters at the annual awards – now the most prestigious event on the national media calendar.
The foundation is proud to point out that what began five years ago as the first awards of its kind in New South Wales has quickly evolved into a national event, attracting the cream of Australian media talent.
The Coca-Cola Journalist of the Year carries a $25,000 prize, the richest prize in Australian journalism and its presentation winds-up a night where the skills and talent of our finest media professionals are recognised with the awarding of 33 Spirax Trophies.
The Kennedy Foundation is a registered charity, formed in early 2014, to support media professionals facing hardship, particularly those in regional areas where the tyranny of distance can radically compound a family or personal crisis.
The 2017 NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism will again be staged at the Australian Turf Club's Grand Ballroom, Royal Randwick, on Friday, August 11.
Media contact: Steve Warnock, Kennedy Foundation General Manager
2016 Winners
Les Kennedy Award for Outstanding Crime Reporting – Dan Box (The Australian)
Paul Lockyer Award for Outstanding Regional Broadcast Reporting Joanna Woodburn (ABC TV)
Chris Watson Award for Outstanding Regional Newspaper Reporting – Andrew Pearson (The Illawarra Mercury)
Rod Allen Award for Racing Writer of the Year – Ray Thomas (The Daily Telegraph)
Outstanding Turf Reporting – Andrew Webster (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Sean Flannery Award for Outstanding Radio Reporting – Giselle Wakatama (ABC)
Outstanding Radio Current Affairs Reporting and Audio Blog – Dan Box Eric George (The Australian)
Outstanding News Photo Rohan Kelly (The Sunday Telegraph)
Outstanding Portrait Alex Ellinghausen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Outstanding Sport Photo – Brett Costello (The Daily Telegraph)
Outstanding Online Video – Bill Code (BBC Online)
People's Choice Photo – Gordon McComiskie, (The Daily Telegraph)
Cliff Neville Award – Outstanding Team Player – Phil Kwok
Peter Frilingos Award for Outstanding Sports Reporting – Nick Tabakoff (The Daily Telegraph)
Outstanding Travel Writing –Joe Aston (The Australian Financial Review)
2016 Young Journalist of the Year Eryk Bagshaw (The Sydney Morning Herald)
John Newfong Award for Outstanding Indigenous Affairs Reporting –Ben Hills (SBS)
Lifetime Achievement Award – John Smith (The Daily Telegraph)
Gary Ticehurst Award Outstanding TV News Camera Coverage Cameron Wallis (7 News)
Harry Potter Award for Outstanding Television News Reporting – Robert Ovadia and Chris Maher (7 News)
Outstanding Television Current Affairs Reporting (long form, over 30 minutes) – Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Clay Hichens, Mario Christodoulou (Four Corners ABC TV)
Outstanding Television Current Affairs Reporting (short form) Rebecca Le Tourneau, Allison Langdon (60 Minutes)
Outstanding Finance Reporting – Adele Ferguson, Mario Christodoulou, Klaus Toft Fairfax/Four Corners;
Outstanding Court Reporting – Candace Sutton (The Daily Mail)
Outstanding Consumer Affairs Reporting Sarah Dingle, Joel Tozer, Jaya Balendra (Four Corners ABC TV)
Peter Ruehl Award for Outstanding Columnist – Jacqueline Maley (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Outstanding Online News Breaking Ava Benny Morrison, Lisa Visentin, Nick Ralston (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Outstanding Reporting on the Environment – Peter Hannam (The Sydney Morning Herald)
2016 Scoop of the Year Dan Nolan (A Current Affair)
2016 Vince O'Farrell Award: Outstanding Illustration – John Shakespeare (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Outstanding Investigative Reporting – Adele Ferguson, Klaus Toft, Sarah Danckert (Fairfax/ABC TV)
2016 Jim Oram Award: Outstanding Feature Writing – Trent Dalton (The Australian)
Outstanding Political Reporting David Speers (SKY News)
2016 Coca–Cola Journalist of the Year – Adele Ferguson (Fairfax/Four Corners)
Thanks to our wonderful sponsors
2015 YouTube Coverage of Kennedy Awards Gala
2015 NRMA Kennedy Award Winners
2014 NRMA Kennedy Awards Winners
"It is a sad, sad day when we lose one of our own too early. So it is with Les Kennedy … legendary crime reporter Les leaves a legacy of great public service. He told our readers what was really going on."
Greg Hywood, Fairfax CEO, August 10, 2011
"Les Kennedy's journalistic legacy is right up there with some of the great names of Sydney crime reporting who worked in bygone eras. He was up there with the best and will be sorely missed."
John Hartigan, News Ltd CEO, August 10, 2011
Les Kennedy (Image: Marcus O'Brien)
On Friday, August 10, 2012, NSW's finest journalists gathered to celebrate the memories of six industry legends and their legacies.
Les Kennedy, Cliff Neville, Sean Flannery, Paul Lockyer, Peter Ruehl and Gary Ticehurst were all masters of their craft – dedicated, passionate professionals who entertained, enlightened, and informed millions of Australians over the past five decades.
The idea for these awards was hatched in a pub when Les' close friends combined with his former editors, friends and family in February 2012. They had a plan to preserve Les Kennedy's memory in something far more profound than the beer-soaked sentiment of bar banter.
They realised that unlike the other states and territories New South Wales did not properly recognise journalists doing battle in one of the world's most competitive news markets.
The committee aimed to launch the Kennedy Awards on Friday August 10, 2012, the first anniversary of Les Kennedy's death at the age of 53. It was a tough deadline, not just because of the logistics, sponsors and media support that needed addressing and securing. This was to be a very emotional journey.
There was no looking back after the Premier agreed to present the Kennedy Award for NSW Journalist of the Year. From that point the doors flew open in a remarkably enthusiastic and passionate response from sponsors and hundreds of other colleagues.
On August 10, 2011, more than 250 people gathered at the Kauri Foreshore Hotel in Glebe to farewell the legend who was the inimitable, irrepressible Les Kennedy.
It was to be a last goodbye to Les, but he had died just eight hours earlier. And so it became an extraordinary celebration of a life lived large by one of the true characters in Australian journalism.
At Les' impromptu wake, chain-smoking tabloid warriors rubbed shoulders with the corduroy of broadsheet aficionados, senior cops clinked glasses with lawyers and barristers representing the underworld and many young journalists — mentored by Les – were there, trying to get a firm grip on batons he had passed-on to each and every one of them, and not one schooner hit the floor! Along with the amber fluid flowed myriad tributes. Les' farewell was a truly remarkable gathering – and the inspiration for what happened exactly 12 months later.
As word of the awards spread, close friends and colleagues of five other legends lost in the last year suggested they be honoured in this celebration of quality NSW journalism.
Veteran television producer and newspaperman Cliff Neville is remembered in the Most Outstanding Team Player Award named in his honour. It's finally time to sing the praises of this unsung hero and magnificent team player who was the glue that held Sixty Minutes together
The "most loveable rogue to ever hold a microphone" – Sean Flannery – is honoured in the category of Most Outstanding Radio Report.
Paul Lockyer – a veteran ABC and Channel Nine journalist – a foreign correspondent who came home to his beloved bush to bring us stories about the people who are the heart of Australia. The award of Regional Reporting of the Year is appropriately named after a man who staked a serious claim to the outback as his story.
Peter Ruehl was once described by Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood as a "national institution," and by a former editor as a columnist who "launched a 24-year love affair with Australian readers." Peter is remembered for his wit and wisdom in the Most Outstanding Columnist Award.
Gary Ticehurst was a hero to many after he helped save lives in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart tragedy – and a dedicated helicopter pilot who provided a spectacular platform for hundreds of his ABC camera colleagues to shoot memorable aerial pictures. The award for Most Outstanding TV News Camera Coverage is named after Gary.
By July 2, 2012, the organisers of the inaugural Kennedy Awards had attracted more than 400 entries across 30 categories, judged by a distinguished panel led by former News Ltd CEO John Hartigan, long-serving Nine News director Paul Fenn and Ian Heads, OAM.
By August 10 the Kennedy Awards left the dry dock and set sail for the first time as 460 quality journalists, relatives of those we honoured and special guests filled the room in what would become one of the great nights in the history of NSW journalism.
In 2013 we did it all again and the Kennedy Awards was established as a fixture on the NSW events calendar, with the Chris Watson Award introduced to recognise excellence in NSW regional newspaper journalism.
In 2014 the Harry Potter Award for Outstanding Television News Reporting and the Jim Oram Award for Outstanding Feature Writing were added to the distinguished list of legends honoured by the industry every August.
The Kennedy Awards is organised by the Kennedy Foundation, a registered charity helping media professionals in hardship, with compassion – in confidence – and supporting other community organisations.
Click 2016 Sponsorship Packages or contact Kennedy Foundation General Manager STEVE WARNOCK via email@example.com or phone 0424 407717
Tribute to 2016 Lifetime Achievement Winner John Smith
By Mark Day, published in The Australian
There is a view among old newspaper hounds that we had the best of it. We flourished in the golden years — the 1950s through to the end of the 80s — when newspapers and those who filled them with racy yarns were admired, not vilified.
We used to pride ourselves on getting it first and getting it right. We were full of dash and daring and people bought our products for news that told them what they didn't know.
It's all changed now, of course. Today's generation has good reason to ask what yesterday's men would know about search engine optimisation, data diving or repurposing copy for phones, tablets or Facebook.
So it's nice to see the news men and women of today pay respect to one of the old-timers .
At Friday night's Kennedy Awards in Sydney, the old photographer and Daily Telegraph picture editor John Smith received a lifetime achievement award.
The Kennedys, named after the late crime reporter Les Kennedy, are awards for NSWbased journalists, complementing the Quills in Victoria.
This is their fifth year and John Smith follows crime reporters Harry Potter and Phil Cornford and sportswriter Ian Heads as recipients of the lifetime achievement award.
Smithy is 87 now and a great character. He still has his rapier wit, his conversational zingers, his pet sayings such as "the editor will be pleased" and his raffish charm. I am delighted to call him a friend and I call him from time to time to see how he's doing.
"I'm all right," he says, "but if I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself." Amen to that.
Smithy was 16 when he commenced as a copy boy at Frank Packer's Telegraph in 1946. He started work the same day as Phillip Knightley, who went on to head the London Sunday Times investigative team and expose Britain's Cold War spies.
Smithy was working as the late stop copy boy one night when an escaped convict named Antonio
Martini was involved in a shootout in North Sydney.
"I stole an old Speed Graphic camera from the darkroom and went with the late stop sub to the scene where I photographed a terrified bloke in a phone box with bullet holes in it," Smithy says. "I had four exposures and two flash bulbs, but neither worked, so my pictures were failures.
"The next day I got a telegram at home saying Mr Packer wanted to see me. I thought that would be the end of me for stealing the camera , but Mr Packer said I had done well. He said 'Don't waste your time with the scribblers; I'm going to move you to photographic.'"
That was 1948. Four years later Smithy was in the Korean War frontline, attached to the Australian 3 Battalion, with which his father had served in France during World War I. He documented life in the trenches for Australian newspapers.
Today press photographers can snap a picture and immediately email the shot in a matter of seconds via satphones to anywhere in the world.
"It was different then," says Smithy. "I took a picture of wounded Aussies coming out of the front line on my Rolleiflex, then sent the film back to field headquarters, where it was then flown to Commonwealth Forces HQ in Tokyo, then on to Australia for processing. It appeared on front pages about a week after I took the shot."
Smithy spent most of the 50s on the road. He recalls another encounter with Mr Packer after he lavished a bottle of fine champagne on a young lady after the
Melbourne Cup.
"I was called to his office and I thought, 'I'm on toast here' . Mr Packer said 'Sit down, son,' then talked about the Cup and the tennis for a while. Then he said: 'What's this taking sheilas out on my money?' I said I fully intended to pay, of course, and he said: 'You're a good liar' . That was the end of it."
Another famous Smithy story followed a prolonged drink after covering a royal tour in Canberra with fellow snapper John Jones. The Telegraph's picturegram truck was spotted allegedly being driven erratically through a Canberra backstreet.
Federal police pulled the truck over and demanded names. "I'm John Jones," said Jones, to which one copper snarled: "And I suppose you're John Smith."
Smithy brought his rapier wit and gift for a quick quip into play. He replied: "Yes, officer." Jones produced his press pass and one Fed said: "Hey this one is John Jones."
And when Smithy showed his pass the other incredulous Fed said "And this one is John Smith." Fortunately all parties were amused and they both escaped with a warning.
Smithy took on a desk job in 1970 when he became the Tele's picture editor. When Rupert Murdoch bought the masthead in 1972 Frank Packer cried as he watched his staff leave.
"You can stay here, son," he said to Smithy. "I have a job here for you." Smithy replied that he felt he had to go with his team but asked if he could buy his company car.
"How much?" Packer asked. When Smithy named his price of $1200 Packer said "You're a good poker player. I'll think about it." Two weeks later Smithy was asked to pay $1 for the transfer fee.
It's trite but true: Smithy represents an era passed. We will never return to those days and unhappily it won't be long before the notion of newspapers employing staff photographers is also consigned to the dustbin. That has already happened in many US cities.
Virtually nothing newsworthy happens today without someone, somewhere, capturing the event on a smartphone.
Their pictures or video are grist for the 24/7 television news mill and frequently make the front pages of newspapers.
These shots are not professionally staged or lit, but they carry undeniable impact.
Smithy is the first press photographer to be honoured with a Kennedy lifetime achievement award.
The editor will be pleased, but chances are he'll be the last.


text:
Deal: Budget prioritizes education, transportation investments
Gov. Nathan Deal today released his budget recommendations to the General Assembly for the amended current and upcoming fiscal years. The proposed budgets would bolster resources for education, the state's transportation network, public safety, health care, economic development, and efficiency in government.
"My team and I have worked diligently with our state agencies to produce meaningful recommendations that will resonate in the lives of Georgians," Deal said. "This includes investing in education, prioritizing our transportation needs and continuing to spur economic growth. I look forward to working with the General Assembly to move forward with these priorities, as we balance our budget and store up crucial reserves for rainy days."
FY2017 budget highlights include:
- $23.7 billion in total state appropriations
- $300 million additional funds intended for teacher salary increases
- $26.2 million for Pre-K teacher pay raises
- $825 million in new state general and motor fuel funds for transportation
- Salary increases for state employees
Recommended state appropriations total $23.7 billion for the next fiscal year. If approved, the governor's amended fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2017 budgets would, for example, assist local school systems as they work to provide teachers with raises while keeping students and teachers in the classroom for full calendar years. The additional $300 million for this purpose, combined with other funding, would bring the total additional dollars added for K-12 education over the past three fiscal years to more than $1.5 billion. The governor's recommendations also include significant support for Pre-K teachers who dedicate themselves to setting the state's youngest learners on track for success.
In addition, the proposals would help maintain and improve the state's roads and bridges to keep freight and commuters moving safely and efficiently. Legislation passed last year, House Bill 170, has resulted in over $800 million in additional appropriations for transportation for fiscal year 2017.
The budgets as proposed would also provide for salary increases to help recruit and retain high-performing state employees, including for jobs with large amounts of turnover, to enhance services provided for Georgians; continue promoting reduced caseloads for individuals working to protect the state's most vulnerable children; and advance Georgia's justice reform efforts, which are yielding positive results.
The General Assembly will use the governor's recommendations as a starting point to develop and pass the state's budget, which the governor will then sign or veto. The governor can also veto line items within the as-passed version. The final budgets specify how much state funding various agency programs will receive. The current fiscal year ends June 30, and fiscal year 2017 begins July 1.
Links to electronic versions of the Governor's Budget Reports can be found on the Office of Planning and Budget's website. Highlights from the Governor's recommendations for FY2017 and the amended FY2016 are attached.


text:
Dan Bond wrote:
> Forgive my ignorance, but would FreeBSD run if everything except the
> configuration file was mounted ro? Honest question, because that sound
> very interesting but I can't see quite how that would be possible,
> however you are obviously right, would make turning off totally safe.
Well, I can't imagine it wouldn't run like that. At least I hope it COULD
run like that. I'm only particularly experienced with Linux, but I couldn't
imagine any reason why freebsd couldn't operate in the same fashion. This is
how those Live CD's operate. They don't load the whole of the CD into
memory, they simply mount the filesystem and then create a small ramdisk for
the things that need fast access or that need write access.
There's only a few things on any system that really need to write in order
for the system to run, and they could all be accommodated in a very small
space. Normally this is just the stuff in /var/run (or whatever the m0n0
equivalent is), which tends to be PID's for the running daemons (a few bytes
a piece), and stuff like the dhcpd lease file, etc. In the case of all those
files they'd be pointless after a hard power down anyways.
How many more shell and system debugging tools could you stick on m0n0 if
you partitioned a few meg more of space? Several years ago I could see a CF
card being, well... expensive. It's no longer really the case. Even on
NewEgg, a 512 meg CF is $13 + $5 shipping, which diminishes if you buy more
than 1 piece.


text:
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Best of the Net
Staff Report - Sep 27, 2007
How to tell the sex of a fly?
"What are you doing," she asked.
"Hunting flies," he responded.
Oh, she said. Killing any?
"Yep, three males, two females," he replied.
Intrigued, she asked, "How can you tell them apart?"
He responded, "Three were on a beer can and two were on the phone.
- Submitted by Bill Adragna.
If youve got a funny, internet joke or riddle of your own to share, you can be our next winner.
All you have to do is submit your favorites to our weekly Best of the Net feature.
So keep an eye out for the Best of the Net and send yours to Lifestyles Editor Heather R. Breaux at firstname.lastname@example.com and we just might publish your submission.
Read More Stories at HeraldGuide.com!
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Sawing a piece of wood (with some problems). Some parts can be easily cut and looped.Recorded with Oktava-102 microphone and Behringer UB1202 mixer desk.
just what I need! Thanks!
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February 5, 2007
Hot Potato!
Grossman is who we thought he was…
…an embarrassment.
Attn: Kyle Orton. Get yourself out of Chicago. ASAP! When Lovie lets Grossman start, and even brings in Griese to take the 2nd string spot, after you led the team to 10 wins as a rookie, it's a bad sign. Get out and get to a team with decent management.
January 20, 2007
Torn— Saints vs. Bears
Tomorrow is going to be tough for me. Normally I don't get too deep into NFL Football, preferring instead the college game. But it's always easier to get involved in the playoffs, and now that Purdue has a decade of regularly producing NFL talent, it's always nice to sit back and watch what that talent is doing.
But growing up in Chicago, being 7 years old when the Bears won Super Bowl XX, I've been a fan for years. I still remember the Super Bowl shuffle, can tell you without even looking it up that the Bears beat the Pats by a score of 46-10, that Walter Payton didn't score a TD (although the "Fridge" did), and that the game occurred on Jan 26, 1986 (the fact that my sister was born the very next day helps with that bit of info). I've watched the Bears for years, and there's a bit of fandom in there. But that's waned over the years.
First, Chicago hasn't really ever been known for smart sports management, and the McCaskey family has whiffed many, many years. Then they took a gorgeous historic stone stadium, Soldier Field, and built this weird-looking alien steel monstrosity out of the middle of it. But soon thereafter, they started to revive the team. They built a defense that was again known as the Monsters of the Midway. Then came the final bit. They signed Kyle Orton, Purdue's QB. Early in the season, the starter went down injured and he led the team to 10 wins as a rookie. All of a sudden, I could forgive the years of bad management and the hideous stadium. They had a team again, with a Purdue QB waiting to challenge Rex Grossman.
And then they destroyed it. They decided that the QB who had led them to 10 wins as a rookie wasn't an adequate enough backup to Rex Grossman, so they brought in Brian Griese. The one thing that was tying me back to the hometown team was bringing in Kyle Orton, and then they decided to screw him over.
As for the Saints, I've never really cared much about them. In fact, the little I knew about them was that they sucked. As another Purdue QB, Drew Brees, was getting screwed over in San Diego, I looked at his chances as a free agent going to either Miami or New Orleans. Of course, I felt he'd have a better shot for success in Miami. But he got traded to New Orleans. At the same time, the Saints gave a few rookies, Rob Ninkovich (Purdue DE, currently active but on IR), Brandon Villereal (Purdue DT, currently on Saints practice team), and Ray Williams (Purdue CB, who unfortunately was released) a chance. Not only that, they started having success. Drew Brees appears to be the key to the offense, a solid leader who makes the players around him perform, finishing second in the NFL MVP voting this year.
So it's the hometown favorite from a town that's barely my home anymore, versus following a player that I got to watch sling the rock in person at numerous Purdue games. It's not often these two teams play, and it's even more rare that it's for such high stakes. I'm stuck watching to find out if the Bears get to have a rematch with the team they destroyed in 1986, or whether the Saints, perennial underdogs, shock the world and go to the Super Bowl.
Tomorrow, I'm going to have to fall towards the Saints. I've always been a fan of the underdog, and I've sat and watched as Drew Brees has worked some miracles for Purdue. He's back in the Black and Gold, and he's up for probably the biggest challenge of his career. Drew rises to challenges, so I'm going to be rooting for him and the Saints to knock off the Bears tomorrow.
January 2, 2007
Bobby Knight
Today, Bobby Knight has made history. He's passed Dean Smith's record for career Div I-A coaching wins in NCAA Basketball:
Bob Knight has been the game's orneriest coach forever. Now he's the winningest, too. Knight earned career victory No. 880 the hard way when his Texas Tech Red Raiders blew a 20-point lead but withstood a 3-point miss at the buzzer to beat New Mexico 70-68 on Monday in a game lacking the fanfare of his first attempt.
But to myself, and the rest of the people who endured his temper and his constant presence on opinion pages all through the state of Indiana, he'll be remembered a different way:
Knight – whose temper got him relieved of his duties at Indiana in September 2000 after he grabbed a student on campus who had greeted him with "What's up, Knight?" – is the last of the great bully coaches. And while some decry his methods as crude and outdated, many who have played for him wouldn't have it any other way.
The greatest cost, of course, was the loss of his job at Indiana. Knight, who was so popular in the Hoosier state that he could have been elected governor, was fired after 29 seasons. Though it was his run-in with a student that precipitated the firing, the university saw the incident as the final straw in what had been a series of embarrassing incidents that involved Knight's losing his temper. The most egregious of those was when he was caught on tape trying to choke guard Neil Reed.
I was a student at Purdue back in September 2000, when the story at IU broke. A student who saw Knight on Campus asked him "What's up, Knight?" as reported above. Knight lost control and accosted the kid, grabbed him roughly for "not respecting his elders", and ended up losing his job over it. At the time, the student involved, rather than being seen as the victim in the situation, started receiving death threats from angry IU fans. At the time, I sent off a snarky letter to the editor to Purdue's student newspaper, suggesting that if that student was having trouble at IU, we'd gladly welcome a transfer to Purdue. The letter was printed and was available on the Purdue Exponent's web site up until recently, but unfortunately now even the Wayback Machine can't find it.
This incident, of course, wasn't the beginning. Knight's temper is legendary, and he's been caught on film several times comporting himself in a manner far from professional. In addition the the choking incident reported above, and the recent furor he caused for smacking a player in the chin, few can forget the sight of him throwing chairs around the court.
Knight may have entered the record books, but his personal record will never be clean.
December 1, 2006
Big Ten Network Ready For A Fight
Big Ten watches NFL as it readies network
But if the NFL Network's experience is any indication, the Big Ten's new 24-hour channel might need to enlist its fans for some arm-twisting of cable companies to see games they've had easy access to in the past.
While the Big Ten's best games will still be on CBS, ABC or ESPN, the rest will be televised only by the Big Ten Network. In 2007-08, that will include 35 football games and 105 men's basketball games.
The Big Ten said it made that decision in part because, with costs rising for college sports, it will guarantee each school an extra $7.5 million annually.
But if a cable company doesn't carry the Big Ten Network, the fan who wants to watch, say, an Indiana-Northwestern basketball game is either shut out or must switch to satellite television. That's what is happening with the NFL Network, which is involved in a dispute with Time Warner, the nation's second-biggest cable carrier.
When I highlighted the first news of the Big Ten Network, I was cautiously optimistic. It has the ability to be a very positive change, or it could end up making it harder for me to watch Purdue football, as the trees around my house make it impossible for me to get satellite TV.
If this network takes off, and Comcast picks it up as an affiliate, all will be well. I'll get great Big Ten content that I don't get now. If it stays with only DirecTV, though, I'm going to be spending a lot of fall Saturdays sitting in sports bars watching Purdue. Again, being down here in SEC country, that will entail trying to convince some bartender to devote at least one little TV, maybe in the corner, to a little ol' school like Purdue.
But after this year, I'm not quite as concerned about this. This year, many of Purdue's games were televised on ESPN360 (internet), ESPN Gameplan (pay per view), ESPNU (uncommon ESPN variant) or ESPN Classic (not on basic cable). I couldn't watch a single one of those games at home. I did watch the game televised on ESPN Gameplan at a neighbor's house, but otherwise it was off to sports bars.
So for me, I see this as either a positive thing, if Comcast picks up the network, or neutral. In the linked story, they show that the Big Ten Network will get any game not on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2, so they won't be competing with ESPNU for broadcast rights. Now all I need to do is start emailing Comcast every other day to make sure they'll carry it, and all will be well in the Warbiany household!
November 29, 2006
Was Garry Kasparov Juicing?
Chess players to face anti-doping measures
Chess's world governing body will introduce dope testing at the Asian Games this week, although the sport's top official in Doha said he had no idea how drugs could enhance chess performance.
"I would not know which drug could possibly help a chess player to improve his game," competition manager Yousuf Ahmad Ali said.
"But, yes, there will be official monitors who may demand that players undergo a drugs test after the rounds."
I think we need Congress to investigate this. How much damage will it do to children in this country to find that their favorite chess heroes are using performance-enhancing drugs?
Just what did Bobby Fischer's parents have him taking?
October 31, 2006
Politician Uses NFL QB Son as "Prop"
Brees wants no part of mom's campaign in Texas
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has asked his mother to stop using his picture in TV commercials touting her candidacy for a Texas appeals court.
In commercials running on Austin stations, Mina Brees had been using a picture of her son in the uniform of his former team, the San Diego Chargers, to emphasize her ties to football.
"I think the major point here is that my mother is using me in a campaign, and I've made it known many times I don't want to be involved," Drew Brees said Monday.
I've been following Drew Brees' career since the late 90's when he was the starting QB for Purdue, and I was sitting in the stands watching those games. At that time, and since, I have never heard anyone with a negative thing to say about Drew. In fact, he has been routinely praised for the work he does in the community, and with his recent trade to New Orleans, he's very active in helping to revive the city after Katrina.
So my initial thought is to take his side. This is even further the case given what I know about people in politics, who are usually willing to do just about anything to get elected. And with a little more of the back story, it sounds like his mother is blatantly trying to use her connection to a famous football player to bolster her campaign:
She said her connection to football is relevant to her campaign because her father, a successful high school coach, used sports to teach her a strong work ethic that she would bring to the judicial bench.
Drew Brees, who won a state football championship with Westlake High School in suburban Austin, said he got no response from his mother when he first heard about the ads and called her to ask that she stop using them. His agent sent her a letter Oct. 20 threatening legal action, he said.
He called his relationship with his mother "nonexistent" after it crumbled six years ago when he refused to hire her as his agent.
Hmm, it's funny how she wants to show her ties to football and how it has helped her work ethic, and yet gloss over the fact that she's basically estranged from her son due to her past attempts to ride his coattails. People who are threatened with legal action from their children may have a great work ethic, but I'd have to think that some Texas voters would worry about her commitment to "family values".
But one bit of this story made me really angry. Sometimes you can see in certain comments just how duplicitous and conniving people can be, and this quote is a perfect example:
"I love Drew very much, and I'm very proud of him. But sometimes when people are following a career path, they change," she said.
So she says she's very proud of her son, but in the way she makes this statement, it's clear that she's unhappy with the "change" he's gone through. If she's so unhappy with the "change", why is she trying to hype her connection to him?
When you look at that statement again, perhaps she's unconsciously talking about herself. She was probably a good mother, and then when the time came for her son to enter the spotlight, she decided that it was time for her to bring her career in line with his, by becoming his agent. When that didn't work, she pushed ahead to try for elected office, and used her position as the mother of an NFL QB, in a state where football is very important, to bolster her campaign. So who changed while following their career path, Drew or his mom?
With an attitude like that, is it any wonder that Drew describes his relationship with her as "nonexistent"?
October 20, 2006
How Far 'Out Of It' I Am
I was just reading Sunday Morning QB, and he was talking about NCAA ranking poll voters watching the World Series instead of college football. I thought to myself, "There's a World Series game already?"
But that's not the odd part. I had to find out that the World Series was going on by reading a college football blog. I guess that might show you where my sports priorities lie!
August 23, 2006
Oooh… Someone's Jealous!
Something to Chew On: Skipping Dinner With President
Every so often a football coach says or does something that leads most of us to wonder how he can be a functioning member of the world the rest of us live in. The latest case in point is Nick Saban, head coach of the Miami Dolphins, who just the other day turned down a dinner invitation from President Bush. Saban didn't have to fly to Washington. He didn't have to miss a game, seeing as the NFL season doesn't begin for another five weeks. All Saban had to do was drive to Joe's on South Beach. I'm sure somebody would have been perfectly happy to fetch the coach a car and driver.
But no, Saban turned down the president. Why? Because he didn't want to take two hours out of training camp.
So, it's as simple as this: Saban would rather lock himself in a cave and watch film, tinker with schemes, pore over depth charts and sit around with his assistants plotting the exciting intricacies of the next day's practices than have dinner with the president for two hours. Saban said, "It was a really tough decision for us last night to stay here, work with our team, go to the meetings and do what we have to do in camp."
It wasn't a tough decision as much as it was a dumb decision, certainly an arrogant decision. And it wasn't "we" it was he, Saban. I guarantee you he didn't put it to a vote of the assistants and players.
Arrogant?! It's not like the president was offering him the job of Secretary of State, and he said that running a football team was more important. He had an offer to go have dinner in a room where, if he was lucky, he might have a few minutes with the president. This doesn't show arrogance, this shows that Nick Saban considers his responsibilities a few weeks prior to a season, in the middle of training camp, to be more important than a social activity with a celebrity. That celebrity is the president, yes, which makes someone like me consider it a little more of an honor than dining with Paris Hilton. But it's a social gathering, it's not like they're discussing public policy.
I'm racking my brain wondering why the author, Michael Wilbon, is so critical of Saban here. And the only thing I can come up with is that he's a reporter. His job is to report on events, and by god, when you're a reporter, you take every chance you get to be around somebody like the president. After all, the president is a powerful guy, and it's powerful people who you report on. I can only think that Wilbon is jealous. After all, he may not get invites to dine with the president very often, and here goes Saban, turning down the invitation because he's too busy.
You know what I think? I think Saban should be commended for keeping his priorities in line. He's a football coach, and as such, he has responsibilities. Particularly when he's a few weeks away from the start of the season, in the middle of training camp. Those responsibilities preclude him from leaving in the middle of practice for a social gathering. He's not a reporter, and he doesn't have to kneel and kiss the king's hand. He's got his own life to live.
August 22, 2006
NCAA v. NFL Football
Quite a while ago, Dec 2004, in fact, I told you all why I prefer NCAA football to NFL. Given that we're coming up on my favorite season of the year again, when I wake up and spend morning, afternoon, and evening every Saturday watching college football, it's a good time to revisit that post. And to let Ivan Maisel do it much better than I can, when his editors asked for 20 reasons. And as he puts it:
Oh, the sleepless nights of trying to face such a task. Oh, the agony.
Oh, and one other thing: Only 20 reasons? Sure you don't want 40?
A few of my favorites:
1. Passion
The appeal of college football is rooted in the simple notion that your team represents you, your state, your alma mater, your youth. The NFL represents — what, exactly? A bunch of 25-year-old millionaires who will dump your town the minute their agent secures a better offer. There is no loyalty in the NFL. College football is all about loyalty.
2. 25-year-old millionaires
Speaking of which, college football has none. What the game does have, instead, is humility. You want the bling and the talk? Have at it. We'll stick with guys who are still happy to get their names in the paper.
3. Rivalries
Army-Navy. Ohio State-Michigan. Alabama-Auburn. Texas-Oklahoma. Harvard-Yale. Williams-Amherst. No matter the division, there are rivalries that go 365-24-7. You revel in victory and agonize in defeat. What does the NFL offer in comparison? Dallas-Washington? How big can a rivalry be when they play it twice a year?
8. Stadiums
NFL owners hold up their hometowns for state-of-the-art palaces that have as much personality as a downtown skyscraper. Give me old-school (there's a reason that became an adjective) classics like the stadiums at Notre Dame, Ohio State or most any SEC school any day of the week.
And think about this: Which sport has 16 stadiums that average more than 80,000 in attendance? The NFL has one. Which sport has four stadiums that average six figures in attendance? It ain't the Sunday one.
14. JoePa
Joe Paterno has been at Penn State as assistant (beginning in 1950) and head coach (since 1966) for 56 seasons — or seven years before the dean of NFL coaches, Bill Cowher, was born.
And one of my favorites:
20. Eternal youth
How about "eternal co-eds"? I get older, but they stay the same age…
Below The Beltway linked with Football: College vs. The Pros
June 22, 2006
Big Ten Network?
Big Ten college sports in TV deals with ABC, Fox
The Big Ten Conference on Wednesday announced new partnerships to broadcast its college sports programming on ABC and ESPN, as well as on a new cable channel it plans to launch next year with Fox.
"This is the first effort to launch a national collegiate sports network," Big Ten Commissioner James Delany said, adding the agreements were aimed at giving the conference schools more control over their "brand."
The Big Ten's cable channel to be based in Chicago will launch in August 2007 with partner Fox Cable Networks, which is owned by News Corporation Inc..
DirecTV Group Inc. has signed on as the 24-hour cable channel's first affiliate, and negotiations will get under way with cable distributors in markets across the United States with the aim of reaching subscribers to the lowest-cost cable packages, organizers said in a conference call with reporters.
This could be a very good thing for me, or a very bad thing. Obviously, being down here in SEC/ACC country tends to limit my watching of the Big Ten. So anything that helps me to watch more of my favorite teams is a good thing. Especially since Purdue is a mid-level Big Ten team, they're not televised nationally quite as much as Michigan or Ohio State.
But there's a big problem. I can't have DirecTV. I'd love to have it, as I used to back in California. It is cheaper than digital cable (although more expensive than expanded basic analog). And their TiVo is perfect quality, because it's recording DirecTV's pre-compressed stream. But I have trees. Big trees. Trees up the slope behind my house, that will impede any sort of line-of-sight to the satellite.
If this network takes off, and Comcast picks it up as an affiliate, all will be well. I'll get great Big Ten content that I don't get now. If it stays with only DirecTV, though, I'm going to be spending a lot of fall Saturdays sitting in sports bars watching Purdue. Again, being down here in SEC country, that will entail trying to convince some bartender to devote at least one little TV, maybe in the corner, to a little ol' school like Purdue.
For everyone else, this will be an interesting experiment. Much like the Big Ten was the first conference to implement instant replay in the NCAA, other major conferences will be looking at their example to determine if a conference network is viable. The Big Ten is probably the largest conference when it comes to national support, so it will make for a very good test subject.
June 21, 2006
Wear a Helmet…
…or you might end up like Ben Roethlisberger!
June 16, 2006
World Cup Mania!!!
Soccer is for skinny guys who can't throw. 'Nuff said.
Well, this post didn't generate as much controversy as I thought. So let me up the ante. I visited Mike's blog and posted this comment in response to his soccer post. In it, I argue that soccer is anti-libertarian:
Seriously, though, I realize it's a very in-depth game, and for those people who understand it, it can be quite exciting. I don't particularly understand how a game is over in 90 minutes plus "whenever the ref feels like it". And the red card/yellow card thing just seems arbitrary.
Let me tie it into libertarianism a little bit… In American sports we have defined rules, where you know what happens when you break them. In hockey, you're guilty of high sticking? Get in the box for 2 minutes (or it might be 5, I'm not a huge hockey guy). In football, you're guilty of clipping? 15 yards from the previous spot, loss of down. Soccer, though, puts all this stuff in the ref's hands. It's the rule of man, not the rule of law. Definitely more "European" of a sport…
June 12, 2006
It's a Good Thing Big Ben is Rich…
…because he won't be getting women based on looks anymore!
Roethlisberger Injured in Motorcycle Accident
One source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Steelers had not released any detailed information about Roethlisberger's condition yet, said the quarterback had suffered a broken jaw and a broken bone in his sinus cavity. Roethlisberger also lost some teeth and had a significant gash on his head, the source said.
People close to Roethlisberger had heard reports that he suffered injuries to both knees but weren't immediately certain if those reports were accurate. Any knee injuries potentially could be the most serious to Roethlisberger's prospects for playing football this coming season.
One witness told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that Roethlisberger was not wearing a helmet. Pennsylvania's mandatory helmet law was repealed three years ago, and Roethlisberger has said publicly that he does not like to wear a helmet when riding.
Ugh. I was in Florida last weekend, and saw a bunch of riders without helmets. I still hate the idea of helmet laws, but every time I see someone riding helmetless I want to just shake the stupidity out of them. I realize that some folks are not worth the skin they leave on the highway when they crash, but to see this happen to someone like Roethlisberger, with so much going for him, is just a sad, sad thing.
I've been in three crashes on motorcycles. The first was pure novice riding. I was up in the mountains (Hwy 9 in Northern California, between Saratoga & Four Corners), riding with someone I barely knew. He was more skilled than I was, and I was trying to keep up with him. I entered a corner a bit too hot, although nowhere near the bike's limits, and got scared. I got on the brakes, stood the bike up, running off the road. The instant my front wheel hit dirt, the bike came out from under me, and I was face-to-dirt. There's something odd about sliding through dirt a mere two inches from your eye, and being able to see it move past through your visor. But it's a hell of a lot better than leaving your face on the side of the road, which I would have done without a helmet.
The third crash was a real doozy (I'm omitting the second crash, because it's not interesting). I was at my third trackday, at the Streets of Willow. It was my first day to join the "Race" group, which is the faster of the two classifications. I use quotes because there is no actual competitive racing during the track day, it's just the step above the "Sport" group. I was able to get my knee down for the first time, and was really starting to feel my oats. Sure, I was getting passed often by the fast guys, but I was riding faster than I ever had before. One of my sessions, I was going through the bowl, and I had noticed a small bump on track right where I was starting to open the throttle in the corner. On one lap, I even felt the rear end of the bike break traction and "step out" a bit. But, being an idiot, I didn't change my behavior in that corner. Well, the very next session, I was hauling through there, and the rear end stepped out again. The next thing to happen was a classic highside:
Honestly, except for the fact that I'm not a factory-sponsored, world-class motorcycle racer, I expect my crash looked just about identical to that. When something like that happens, things move so quickly that certain portions are a blur. But I remember the initial snap as I lost traction and the bike tossed me. I remember (like Miguel in the video) being above the bike, hands still on the bars, trying to save the crash when it was way too far gone. And I've got a nice scar on my right shoulder from the impact when I finally did hit the ground. But with good protective gear, I was able to get up after the crash (albeit without running over and picking the bike back up, of course!).
Good protective gear that Ben Roethlisberger didn't wear. Ben has said in other interviews that he considers himself a "safe rider". But being a safe rider doesn't protect you from all the other idiots on the road. The early reports of Ben's crash are that it was caused by a driver pulling out in front of him. It's pretty unlikely that he had any chance to avoid it, no matter how safe or skilled of a rider he is. At that point, the only thing you have to rely on is the "just in case" precautions. They say to "Dress for the crash, not for the ride", because you never know when you'll crash.
I can only hope that this will have a silver lining, and more people who choose not to wear a helmet will rethink their choice. After my first crash, I told a close friend about how I'd be missing half a face without a helmet, and he vowed to always wear a helmet after that conversation. That may have saved his life when he crashed at high speed on the freeway a few months later. If a few people see how easily Ben Roethlisberger— a self-declared "safe rider"— crashed, perhaps they'll start wearing helmets. But knowing our current political climate, I fear that more and more people will just start clamoring for a return to mandatory helmet laws.
June 2, 2006
Health is the Issue
Why are we anti-steroids in baseball? Well, Charles Krauthammer thinks we're all hypocrites to support performance increases like Lasik, while blasting Barry Bonds for being pumped more full of 'roids than Teddy Kennedy is of Chivas.
Performance enhancement turns out to be disturbing only in the narrow context of competition, most commonly in sports. And the objection is not cheating nature, but cheating competitors. It's basically a fairness issue.
When everyone has access to technological improvements (graphite tennis rackets, titanium drivers, more tightly wound baseballs) the sport may be transformed, but the playing field remains level. When technology is enhancing the equipment, fans become quickly reconciled to the transformation. (And it can be radical: the transition from bamboo to fiberglass totally changed the pole vault.) But when technology enhances the physiology of the athlete, we tend to recoil.
Interestingly, however, not always. What about Lasik surgery? Tiger Woods had it and said it made his game stronger than ever. I have yet to see a banner at the Masters saying: "Nicklaus did it by squinting."
Vision enhancement is even more helpful to baseball players trying to follow the flight of a ball approaching at 90 mph. Hitting requires hand-eye coordination. Bonds turns his arms into tree trunks, and boos rain down. Change the physiology of the other part of the equation — the eye — and no one cares.
Why? Because Lasik is legal, common and available to all. Steroids are not.
Krauthammer is impugning us all as using the Appeal to Authority argument. But, at least for me, that's not what this is about. I'm not worried about technological advancements. I'm not worried about the fact that better knowledge of physiology allows athletes to train better and become stronger naturally than they used to. And I'm not worried about things like Lasik, where baseball players are paying to enhance their vision beyond 20/20, in an effort to be able to better compete. More natural "steroids", such as creatine, also don't rankle me.
Why do I accept all those competitive things, but I'm against steroids? Because steroids are dangerous. Lasik is widely regarded as being a safe medical procedure, with no known long-term side effects, and very low risk of damage. Natural "steroids", such as creatine, likewise appear to have little long-term health benefits, it's just a way of helping the body convert fuel to muscle. Not so for steroids, though. Steroids have all sorts of unwanted side effects, and are widely considered to be a good way to shorten your lifespan.
I'm not willing to support a sport where we have to tell athletes they need to seriously impact their health by taking dangerous substances to be able to compete. When medical science creates a safe (within relative levels of safety, of course) steroid, I've got no issues with it. But until then, I fully support MLB taking every step they can— short of looking to the US Senate— to stop the practice.
March 2, 2006
What Happened to Vince Young?
Don't pass on Young because of Wonderlic score
You'll have to pardon my confusion. It's just that I recently emerged from a seven-week hibernation that began the day after the Rose Bowl, and I can't figure out how, in that time, Vince Young went from being the nation's reigning football hero to a plummeting draft prospect who supposedly can't run, can't throw, can't catch, can't dress himself, can't sing, doesn't know the Dewey decimal system and, based on last weekend's combine Wonderlic bombshell, can't read or write, either.
And that was before Young got to the dreaded Wonderlic. There are only about eight billion conflicting reports out there right now as to what exactly took place in Indianapolis this weekend — that Young scored a disastrous 6 out of 50, retook it and got a 16, that the first test wasn't graded properly, that his agent inexplicably failed to tell him about this part of the combine, that the first score was legit and the retake was part of an NFL cover-up of its embarrassment at letting the score leak in the first place. Either way, 6 or 16, Young bombed. There's no sugar-coating that. While plenty of elite prospects over the years have done similarly poorly and not had it affect their draft status, the NFL cognoscenti say they hold quarterbacks to a different standard. They're understandably reluctant to hand their playbook over to a guy who can't figure out which is the ninth month of the year.
All of a sudden, Vince Young's draftability is in question. Not like he'll be anything other than a top ten pick, but people are wondering if he's still 1st or 2nd pick material.
Now, the Wonderlic is a difficult test. It's 50 logic questions in 12 minutes, which means you have to know what you're going into before taking the test. It would be very, very easy for someone to get flustered by one hard question, spend a minute and a half on it, and then suddenly realize that they have no time to complete the rest of the test. I find it hard to believe that anybody capable of scoring high enough on the SAT to qualify for an NCAA scholarship is dumb enough to score a 6 on the test, if there aren't extenuating circumstances.
Frankly, I think that Vince Young has shown in his consistently amazing performance from the Rose Bowl against Michigan through the Rose Bowl against USC, that he is a truly special player. He understand the game of football, and I think he's a future hall of famer. If Vince Young is truly this much of a liability, it's an indictment of the University of Texas for admitting him in the first place. Something doesn't add up, and at this point, I'm willing to give Vince the benefit of the doubt, and assume he was having a bad day.
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[np_storybar title="Runners frustrated by timing of decision to cancel New York City marathon" link="http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/runners-frustrated-by-timing-of-decision-to-cancel-new-york-city-marathon/"]
Many of the runners who had descended on the city from all over the globe worked out their frustrations with a jog Saturday through Central Park, site of a finish line that will never be crossed after the cancellation of the New York City marathon. Some scrambled to rebook return flights. Others made sightseeing plans for the unexpected free time.
Whether from Europe, South America or elsewhere, their sentiment was the same. Sympathy for the victims of Superstorm Sandy. Understanding of why city officials cancelled Sunday's race. But bitterness that the decision was made Friday instead of earlier in the week, before they boarded planes.
Read more…
NEW YORK — Never mind the cancellation. Here comes the marathon.
Thousands of runners poured into New York City's Central Park on Sunday morning to do what they…
View original post 825 more words


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text:
This decision made both Northern and Southern agents anxious and the latter took steps further to becloud the status of the Rams.
These only becloud, they do not help to point the way of safety and honor.
An arrow wound was more disabling than a bullet wound; and arrows did not becloud the vision with smoke.
It is not my purpose to becloud this narrative with mystery.
You have seen the cuttle fish attempt to becloud the water and elude the grasp of his pursuer.
He even dared to hope so when the doubts did not becloud his vision.
Anxiety about his son did much to becloud the last years of his life.
What had happened to becloud her gaiety in the short time which had since elapsed?
A sudden doubt came out of this glory to becloud Barney's master mind.
It was an effort to becloud and stamp out the intellect of the Negro!


text:
Man sentenced in terror plot against Danish newspaper
CHICAGO — A former Chicago businessman was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison for his involvement in one of the most significant terrorism cases ever brought in Chicago.
Tahawwur Rana was convicted by a federal jury in 2011 of aiding in a plot to behead employees at a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons stirred outrage among Muslim world.
Rana faced up to 30 years in prison. He let a friend — who was scouting out the newspaper office in Denmark's capital, Copenhagen — use the cover that he was traveling in connection with Rana's immigration business. The attack was aborted.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber made rulings that lowered the maximum faced by Rana to 14 years under federal sentencing guidelines.
Two of Rana's adult children expressed relief following the sentencing.
The federal jury that convicted Rana in connection with the plot acquitted him of an even more serious charge —that he aided in the planning of the 2008 terrorist attacks that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, India's largest city. He would have faced life in prison if he had been convicted of that offense.
Rana's attorneys had argued for a sentence of seven to nine years in prison, saying that Rana was not a terrorist and was a minor player in the Danish newspaper conspiracy that involved influential terrorist leaders.
Rana, a Pakistani native, immigrated to the United States from Canada. He worked as a doctor before settling into Chicago, where he set up several businesses and raised three children with his wife.
The highly watched trial that drew international media attention included testimony from self-admitted terrorist David Coleman Headley, a childhood friend of Rana. Headly pleaded guilty in both the Danish and Mumbai terror attacks and is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
At trial, Rana's lawyers portrayed their client as Headley's dupe and said the friendship led to Rana's downfall.
In arguing for the maximum sentence, federal prosecutors cast Rana as fully committed to subverting the governments in India and Denmark.
In sentencing documents, they said Rana "engaged in extensive terrorist tradecraft" in the newspaper plot by setting up secret email accounts, passing messages among other conspirators and providing Headley with the cover as an employee of his immigration business so that he could scout the newspaper offices in Copenhagen.
Rana's attorneys argued in their own sentencing papers that there was no evidence that the planned newspaper office attack was part of a broader terror plot. Rather, they said, it was a retaliation against the paper for publishing the cartoons.


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