text:
KANKAKEE, Ill.—I had been haunting Chicago Bliss practices for weeks, and I had yet to see anyone in lingerie.
I had spent plenty of time watching the Bliss stumble through drills late at night at the Bridgeview Sports Dome, an hour in traffic from downtown Chicago and so close to the highway that you could hear the semis whiz by. I had seen the athletes sitting rapt in a badly lit conference room, taking notes as Coach Keith Hac scolded them about some of the "extremely poor plays" from their losing game last season with The L.A. Temptation, which he had on tape. The Bliss play in the Legends Football League, which used to be called the Lingerie Football League. But the rebranding of the league had nothing to do with my failure to see them in their underwear. It was merely a matter of bad timing on my part.
Finally, on February 16, I got to see a little of what they do off the field. The Bliss had agreed to be card girls at the Fire Extreme cage fighting event at the Kankakee County Fairgrounds Exposition Center, and I made the drive from Chicago to watch them.
It was still the raw Midwestern cold that settles into your bones. Hardly anyone was on the road. The sun was setting and the scenery flew by flat, empty, and bleary, relieved by the occasional grey farmhouse and the skeletons of winter trees.
After about an hour, I passed a KFC and Taco Bell on the left. It was getting dark. I turned right off of the two-lane highway onto a small road and into a gravelly parking lot, at one end of which squatted a low building resembling an airplane hangar. A crude sign identified the hangar as the Exposition Center.
Inside, there were not a lot of people. It was still early, hours before the fights. I moved into the cavernous space to inspect the cage where the fighters would be pummeling each other later on. We were told that AC/DC would be played and that this was a PG event with no swearing. As I looked around the ring, four players from the Chicago Bliss burst in. Although there were no cameras, they stood there for a moment, as if posing, or perhaps channeling the Gladiators they dreamed of being.
The postcard advertising the Fire Extreme Fighting event, which the Bliss put up on Facebook, promised anyone who read it that they would "Meet In Person" the Bliss. In the photo on the postcard, three of the Bliss posed in their 2012 uniforms—blue and orange bikinis, reminiscent of the Chicago Bears only in color. Orange and blue ribbon chokers were tied with lacy white bows at the throat. The players' cleavage spilled out of the Uniform bras, which looked like Victoria's Secret push-ups. A white lacy bow festooned the front of the bra and the front of the bikini pant, daring anyone to tug at it. Garters dangled from the bikini and each player wore a garter belt on her right leg, the kind the groom tears off at a wedding. The players stood arms akimbo and they seemed to be posing in front of a wind machine, their hair flying back. They reminded me of Charlie's Angels, casting come-hither looks into the camera.
One thing you cannot see from the postcard is the ruching on the back of the bikini bottom, whose purpose seemed to be to draw the audience's eye to the curve of the players' asses.
But if anyone had come to Kankakee hoping to see the Chicago Bliss in the photo, they were going to be disappointed. The Bliss' costume this evening included high heels (one player wore cool, black suede wedges), jeans, and white wife-beater T-shirts with the league's re-branded, gender-neutral slogan on the back, "Legends of the Gridiron." They could have been sorority sisters.
After having eaten a dinner of beef sandwiches at one of the players' mom's houses nearby, the four members of the Bliss now planned to spend some of Saturday night as ring girls between rounds, generating interest in the team, and hopefully selling tickets to their first game on April 19.
The women gathered behind a table on one side of the Exposition Center to get ready. Someone took out a stick of eye-black and passed it around so that everyone could apply a line of greasy black make-up to their cheekbones. Someone else fanned out business cards and postcards advertising the team on the table. And they waited.
A short man with a beefy face approached.
Could the Bliss serve beer, he asked, gesturing to the back of the arena, where someone had set up a makeshift bar.
"Who could refuse you?" he leered.
Two of the players wandered off in the direction of the bar. They weren't back there for long. The players didn't think that the LFL should serve beer, one whispered in my ear. Maybe before the rebrand they would have served beer. But the LFL was trying to change its image. Taking the word Lingerie out of the League was supposed to desexualize it. The rebrand was supposed to announce to the world that the women were sports heroes, not lingerie models, as the media so often portrayed them. As one player in a tank top and black booty shorts screamed at me the first time I saw the Bliss practice months earlier:
"It's not about lingerie, it's about football."
Bridgeview Sports Dome is a pleasant facility in the Western suburbs of Chicago. It has a well-lit bar and an even better-lit conference room, and an enormous field paved with AstroTurf. Fans and parents can watch from an area chaired and tabled with lawn furniture. It is all PG.
Over the last few months, at Bliss practices, which generally take place between 8 and 11 in the evenings, after children's soccer has finished, and in interviews with the players and their families, I have seen and heard things that strike me as unique to the LFL.
"I smell like a stripper," said Lauren Carter, 30, who was put on injured reserve and left a few months ago.
Asked about her pre-game rituals, Kimberly Anderson, 33, a veteran of two seasons and the team's "market manager," at first denied she had any. But then she admitted, laughing: "I have to have lip gloss."
The photo of her in her bikini on her navy blue business card is too small for me to see if she is wearing it then, too.
Once, a player bellowed the phrase "double d's," which I always thought referred to determination and drive in sports, but all of a sudden, another player was joking about her cup size.
"I'm a 32B," she screamed, grabbing her tits.
Everyone else doubled over with laughter.
Hair is big. A lot of blond. Some natural, or more natural anyway, some peroxide. At least five players wear extensions. Some wear buzz cuts or half buzz cuts. Most of the players wear makeup on the field: lip gloss and mascara and fake eyelashes and French tips. All of this goes with eye-black, so that the result is Riot Grrrl Tough.
To practice the Bliss wear shorts, Lululemon yoga pants, cropped T-shirts a la Flashdance, sports bras, pajamas, fingerless gloves, and cleats. Spandex is king, layered, worn over sweatpants, or solo. Once I saw a player who had forgotten her practice gear strip down to a turquoise bra and raise her arms in the Victory sign as she danced around the indoor practice field.
Like all the teams in the LFL, the Bliss is diverse. About half of the players are African American and some are mixed. The women are mostly in their twenties, although a few are in their thirties (some won't say how old they are), and I was told that once there was a player on the Seattle team in her forties.
The players' day jobs are diverse also. Of the Bliss players, one is a stewardess for Southwest Airlines, one is a public school teacher, one works for a handbag company. One is a nanny. One is in dental school. Most live nearby but a couple commute from out of state to the bi-weekly practices.
Heather Furr, 28, the only three-year veteran, works at Murphy's Bleachers, the sports bar near Wrigley Field, and is a personal trainer. Two-year veteran Laura Peterson, aka Styxx, 23 years old, is a plumber's assistant, assistant firefighter, EMT, and in nursing school. This slim everywoman of the Midwest grew up playing Peewee football.
The Bliss, in other words, are your sisters, girlfriends, and daughters. To make the team is not easy. An original field of 150 applicants became a team of 20.
As in the NFL, injuries bench players. Every time I visit practice, a couple of women are benched from fractured bones, torn ligaments, jammed fingers, and once, a chipped tooth. Some complain about nasty burns from hitting the indoor turf hard wearing underwear.
"There's a concern with padding," said Kimberly Anderson. Plus, "You can't protect joints."
Besides padding scarcity, an obvious and significant difference between male and female football is that the LFL is an amateur league. One year, the LFL paid its players teensy percentages of profits, but it abandoned that in favor of covering travel expenses, which can be high.
The game is seven-on-seven, arena-style football on a 50-yard field. The players wear smaller-than-regulation shoulder pads, knee pads, (some players forego them) and hockey-style helmets. They throw smaller balls: the ones used before the rebrand had the silhouette of a naked woman on them. They don't punt, or attempt field goals, although after a touchdown they can go for extra points. Each team plays a four-game season. There are six teams in each conference. The Western Conference includes Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minnesota, and Green Bay. But the LFL is adding teams all the time all over the world.
There are 20 players on the final team and 14 dress and are eligible to play in each game. The head coach, Keith Hac, is constantly reminding the Bliss that if a good player walks in off the street, she could replace anyone at any time. The players toss Hac's warning around, as if to console themselves for the insecurity they feel about a game that some of them have just started playing.
"It may sound harsh but it motivates you," said Anderson.
Other customs, which may be standard for organized sports, somehow seem more harsh because the players are women. The LFL insists that news organizations turn over all photos. Contractually, the players are forbidden from saying anything negative about the league, which may explain why several of them seemed so frightened when I asked if they had insurance. (They don't.)
By far the oddest thing is that the LFL gives players their uniforms—which are all one size—on game day, because, according to Tyler deHaven, an LFL spokesman whose voice mail still identifies him as working for the Lingerie Football League, "we have had problems in the past with girls losing or forgetting the uniform…."
To some LFL critics, this is evidence of the league's paternalism—paternalism that sets back women's football and even women.
"I am sure the LFL girls have a lot of different pieces to keep track of so I can see why they do that! Wouldn't want to show up to the game without your jersey bra!" joked Katie Sowers, wide receiver for the Women's Football Association, a fully clothed pay-to-play league.
Sowers, who is to the LFL what Occupy Wall Street is to Jamie Dimon, complained that the LFL only allows its players to "high tackle," in other words to bring players to the ground by grabbing them above the knees.
"Is tackling low only a risk to women…? In my opinion it is another example where the gender trumps the sport in the LFL," she said.
In an email, Hac disagreed: "Low tackling can lead to serious head and leg injuries."
Nell Gelhaus, another LFL critic, a linebacker who plays for the Women's Football Association, noted that although seven-on-seven is a faster game, it eliminates positions such as linebacker that are best filled by players with some bulk.
"Those girls aren't going to be running around in their underwear," she said, laughing.
In an era of third-wave feminists, slutwalks, and The End of Men, is it surprising that the LFL would appear? It has been seven years since Ariel Levy wrote her groundbreaking book, "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture," documenting how women were adopting traditionally male behavior.
But the league's appearance poses interesting questions: Is LFL retro, a kickback to the Rat Pack era, some sort of sports version of Mad Men? Is it an advance for women, like equal pay and equal military service? Or is it an offshoot of Girls Gone Wild?
I think LFL is an unprecedented creation, a mix of old-fashioned shill and Vice Magazine's porn-4-all approach. If Playboy Magazine were trying to reach Millennials, it would do well to feature the LFL.
I am told many times that there are three requirements for the LFL player: athletic ability, looks, and football knowledge. But the hierarchy of these criteria is unclear: I am told that a player was once benched for being too pale, and this was deemed a justifiable move because tanning salons sponsor the teams. I am told there is a difference between what the coach wants (good players) and what the league wants (hot players).
But some critics argue that by featuring undressed women playing football, the LFL gets around one stumbling block the clothed version of the sport has faced: the perception that female football players are gay. The comments on YouTube videos of the National Women's Football Association include plenty of anti-gay slurs such as this one: "The dude on the left looks like a dude and the other 1 is a dyke for sure." By contrast, comments on LFL videos frequently mention the players' looks, regardless of their sexual orientation. "HOT HOT HOT" would be just one plainly worded example. In an era in which the president of the United States has to apologize when he describes a female attorney general as "the most attractive," there is something retro about these comments.
Mary Jo Kane, a sociologist and the director of the Tucker Center for Research for Girls and Women in Sports at the University of Minnesota, explained to me that the more women engage in team combat sports, the more likely they are to face accusations of not being a real woman, i.e. gay. Women in lingerie playing football, she added, do not pose a threat but rather reinforce the worst stereotypes about what a woman can or should be. "This is about lingerie, not about football," she said.
But the Bliss players don't see anything wrong with making their looks part of the package. Asked about the uniforms, Heather Furr, the starting quarterback describes them as "unforgiving." As game day approaches, she works out for two hours a day, "eats clean," foregoing alcohol and carbs. Other players do hundreds of sit ups. Furr, like many on the team, repeats the line that the uniform is a way to attract fans and to show the body beautiful.
Alli Alberts, 26, a wide receiver, also didn't mind: "I've been wearing spandex my whole life."
The uniform, players agree, is no more revealing than what Olympic beach volleyball players wear.
But, as Mary Jo Kane pointed out, beach volleyball players don't try to grind each other into the turf.
Furr, an accomplished athlete in many other sports, shrugs off this kind of criticism. She told me over coffee that the Bliss players see themselves as "pioneers."
In the month before game day, the pioneers are busy. The coach adds extra practices, but the Bliss are also doing promotional events at monster truck rallies, dodge ball tournaments, car washes, bar crawls, wrestling bouts, on the field at a White Sox game, at viewing parties, and at "Mounted Memories," a sports memorabilia convention at the Rosemont, where they sign and sell photos of themselves.
One way to look at all this promotional activity is to say that the history of women's football in America—women's sports—suggests its necessity: Four of the six women's football leagues that have formed since 1999 have folded due to money issues and a lack of interest. But scholars argue that the promotion also has something in common with the skimpy uniforms: it highlights the double-standard for male and female athletes.
Mary Jo Kane says that for football players to perform as card girls, for example, sends a message that "women are there for titillation, they're objects." She notes a paradox: The women are participating in a sport identified with masculinity, but they're only allowed to do so while flaunting their femininity. In other words: "It's OK that you're going to be in this sport as long as we can see your breasts."
I don't know whether Kane is right. When I began reporting on twenty-first century female sports teams playing in their underwear—there are now teams in nearly every sport that do—I started with the Bikini Basketball League. I called the manager of the Chicago Desire, as the franchise here was known.
"This could be a reality TV show," Donovan Price said, chuckling, the one time I got him on the phone. "We're having trouble getting girls," he added.
I never caught up with Price again. Later, I read that he had been fired after an unnamed player filed charges of "sexual misconduct" against him and the Chicago team was being reorganized.
In contrast to the Bikini Basketball League, the LFL runs like a machine. Asked about the League's role in American sports, players and management repeat a sentence from a 2010 Business Week feature like a mantra. "They're a rarity in women's sports—a women's league that is actually growing."
"Yeah, how's that working out for them?" asked Mary Jo Kane. "Why are they changing their brand if they're hitting it out of the park?"
Kane's research shows that sexualizing women's sports does not draw audiences—competency does.
"Sexualizing female athletes alienates the fan base," she says, adding: "We have the data—sex doesn't sell sports, it sells sex."
Mitch Mortaza, the founder and commissioner of the LFL, disagrees. In fact, he is betting that sex, even the toned-down version he's selling with the league's rebrand, will attract fans. The rebrand is comprised of the swapping of the words, "Lingerie" for "Legends," increasing the size of and heft of the shoulder pads, and switching non-performance materials for what talent agent Tyler DeHaven called "non-silky" performance material "that breathes."
But coach Hac adds that new rules of the game implemented in August make the LFL more like men's football, taking away restrictions that made the game too easy, such as requiring passing two out of every four downs. There are also safety rules, like the "horse collar rule," which prohibits pulling by the neck to tackle a player.
Mortaza is betting that this is the moment for real women's full tackle football.
The history of Mortaza, like the history of so many things in our country, is a mixture of chance, personality, and timing. Mortaza was able to leave his job working for an Internet service provider, PSI Net, in 2000.
He initially conceived the LFL as a pay-per-view halftime stunt in 2004. Things did not go smoothly. Before the debut, the LFL's main sponsor, Dodge, "got a little nervous," as Mortaza put it on ESPN that year. Mortaza exchanged the car company with PartyPoker.com and a couple of others, including Miller Coors.
But ultimately, the LFL event was so successful that, in 2009, Mortaza launched the league's first season. Games were broadcast on several channels, including MTV2. It was a success. (It switched to YouTube and pay-per-view).
Mortaza said he hopes to pay players "soon," which he clarified as being when the League is on solid financial footing.
But many players don't seem to care whether they get paid. Kimberly Anderson, the former player and market manager, said she was just excited to play a game that challenged her. The LFL had given her opportunities she would have never had otherwise.
"It would be nice, but I'm OK where it's at."
It's not clear where that is. When I ask who attends games, the Bliss is quick to correct my idea that fans are the same guys writing crude comments on Facebook and YouTube. Last season, at home games, Furr estimated that there were 5,000 or 6,000 fans.
"Lingerie [gets] the guys in their seats, football keeps them there," Kim Anderson's husband, James, who attends practice to support his wife and helps her memorize plays, tells me one night at Bridgeview.
Fans are not just "gross, sex-starved guys," says Furr. But several of the Bliss do not want the particulars of their other employers mentioned in this article, and when pressed, decline to say why.
The majority of media coverage about the Bliss is not on the sports pages. The only journalists I've seen at practices are the LFL staff. Deadspin has ridiculed the league. When I told a sportswriter I respect that I was working on a piece about the LFL, he furrowed his brow. "Get in and get out in 1,000 words," he said.
And yet, when you see the Bliss on the field, there is no question about their dedication to football and their hunger to play the game. These ripped athletes cruise down the field with style, grace, aggression, and six-pack abs. They are intimidating. They are badass. They are ambitious, trying to learn—including combinations—more than 100 plays. (By contrast, L.A., according to Bliss players, learns under ten plays.) "Under new rules, there will be more variations," says Hac.
But it's not clear if the new rules will save the Bliss from being, along with other Chicago teams, the underdog. In season one, they made it to the championship and then lost to the L.A. Temptation. Season two, they went 3-2. Last season, they went 1-3.
Heather Furr, the starting quarterback, dubbed by the League "Rock Starr Furr," for her swagger, serves as team captain. In an early practice, she moves over center, screams "hut-hut-hut," and throws it long and hard the length of the field—about fifty yards. She repeats this over and over during practice, barely breaking a sweat. It is elegant and ferocious at the same time.
"I'm checking the defense, beginning my cadence, calling motion if necessary, and then running the play correctly," she writes in an email when I ask what she is thinking on the field. "On pass plays I have to check down on the routes…if I'm optioning the ball I have to read the defense, and on most run or toss plays I have blocks to make. So I'm not just thinking about one thing in particular…my mind is constantly going 1,000 miles a minute."
Coach Hac likes Furr's cadence, which she delivers as smoothly as Morse Code. Hac started as a player—"old school," as he puts it—but has spent most of his adult life coaching amateur football in the Chicago area. He coached the Chicago Slaughter of the Intense Football League for a while before he joined the LFL in 2009. He quit after his first year, in 2010, over disagreements with the League, and returned in 2011.
"There was an understanding that things would be different," he said, declining to elaborate.
Hac is hardly easy to please. He does his fair share of screaming at the players: "Wrong, wrong, wrong."
Once, I saw Hac get down on one knee to school a player after she botched a play. "You missed my whole point," he said. "You need to use your hands, keep moving, you need to use your hands."
Practice is messy, loud, violent, spirited, and occasionally full of grace. Women crash into each other, fall down, and get up.
Early on, the team high-steps down the field backwards, they do mirror drills and meat grinders, they hurl themselves against the padded tackle dummies. There is also a lot of standing around. But at the last practice I go to, there has been a transformation. The players seem angry and riled up. I see one reverse play that is, like a good game of Three Card Monte, so fast that I don't even see the ball when it is handed off. A player throws up and sits on the sideline with her head in her hands, but minutes later she is rushing back onto the field. Another player runs so fast to catch a pass that she slams into the wall and bounces off. When she gets up, she is grinning, like a video game avatar of herself.
Playing for the Bliss is a huge commitment. Anderson, after several years of spending more than 15 hours a week studying plays, said she stepped down a few weeks ago because she was "emotionally spent with the league."
When I have been at practice and men have been watching, there is a moment when the ogling changes to murmurs and grunts of astonishment at how good the women are, how agile, yet also how strong. At one of the last practices I saw Laura Peterson, aka Styxx, wearing a black Jack Daniels headband, her mouthguard half in her mouth, come out from behind a scrum with the ball and zip down the field before anyone could tell what had happened.
A guy next to me mutters to his friend, "You couldn't cover her."
But I also see scenes that make me uncomfortable. There's a lot of roughhousing, with coaches fooling around with players, trying to trip and tackle them. That might, you could say, demonstrate easy camaraderie, except that here the players are hot, young chicks and the coaches are beefy, middle-aged guys.
The story most of the Bliss team tell about why they wanted to play is one of heart-warming ambition: Their fathers or brothers played. Their dads coached. Kimberly Anderson was a gymnast in high school and missed the camaraderie.
"I have always loved football," said player Alli Alberts.
Meredith Mulford, a rookie, saw LFL on MTV and was transfixed. Mulford, a wide receiver, makes the four-hour commute from Coralville, Iowa, to biweekly or—at the end—triweekly practice. The self-described small-town Catholic girl who volunteers at her church, injured her meniscus in December but continued to attend practice, sometimes with her mother.
"It's not unbearable," she says.
The Mulfords stay with teammates or with relatives, while Meredith, who studied broadcast journalism in college, holds down several nanny jobs in Iowa.
"This generation runs around half naked anyway" says Jill Mulford, Meredith's mom, 53, a nurse. "She's 23 years old. I feel like I raised her with morals and values and she needs to make those choices."
The uniforms are an issue. According to a 2010 news story, the LFL contract included a clause telling players that "accidental" nudity was something they had to deal with as part of the job. It also said they could be fined $500 for wearing underwear beneath the uniforms.
"I don't read the contract," said Kimberly Anderson, asked if that clause still existed. She added that she didn't see how such a clause would matter since all the players get their uniforms checked before games, especially if they don't fit.
But the uniform is not the only proof of growing pains since the league was founded. The 2009 Lingerie Bowl was canceled after Mortaza and Caliente Clubs, the nudist resort where he planned to hold the game, disagreed over how much clothing the audience had to wear. "We wouldn't want to expose our brand to that environment," said Mortaza.
The same year, the Smoking Gun published an email reportedly from Mortaza to a player who had complained about chaotic practices.
The email read: "Let me give you a little advice and this goes for any other player creating unnecessary drama. Simply SHUT UP and play football."
In 2010, the Broward Palm Beach New Times reported that Mortaza had arrests for drunk driving and public intoxication, and that he had in the late '90s, appeared as a contestant on an episode of the reality TV show Blind Date, where he said that his nickname was "Razor" and his biggest turn-on was "toe rings."
In 2011, according to news reports, a group of Canadian players left their newly formed League because of a dispute over equipment, coaching, and health insurance.
"The only reason they brought that up was they wanted to mandate who coached that team," said Mortaza, who said their story was not true.
And after a group of former players protested that the league reneged on covering their medical bills, league lawyers sent a threatening letter: "Evidence gathered indicates that you have all participated in the posting of false and defamatory internet posts regarding the Lingerie Football League, its current players, and league staff… These posts give rise to a cause of action for defamation, among other things."
Today the LFL encourages players to buy their primary medical insurance once they have signed their contracts. The LFL has medical groups in markets, and covers some medical procedures through a secondary policy. The players do not get insurance during the months-long tryout phase.
"We provide a better insurance than any other tackle league. And we do not make a nickel on it," said Mortaza.
A number of teams have folded or some teams withered away, and at least one city—Oklahoma City—barred Mortaza from opening a franchise there.
Mortaza is not only the founder, he is the commissioner and he owns all twelve teams in the league. The model is Major League Soccer or the so-called "single-entity formation."
Although the LFL publicity machine trumpeted the rebrand—which swapped the word "Lingerie" for "Legends"—as a win for women, the mainstream press largely ignored it. Asked about the rebrand, the Bliss players downplay it. "Some people thought there would be big changes, but it changed less than people thought," says Heather Furr.
In January, eight days before the rebranding, I attend a practice at the Bridgeview Sports Dome held specifically for Mitch Mortaza, who has flown in from company headquarters in Las Vegas. Wearing light blue suede loafers, a blue shirt with French cuffs, and a serious tan, Mortaza seemed more dressed for the Vegas strip than for Chicago in winter. He has a boyish air. He has come here to evaluate the team, which he describes as having "blue-collar aggression."
When I tell this to Hac, he laughs. "He always says that," he says, acknowledging there is some truth to the stereotype.
Mortaza tells me that the League's appeal is "a fast-paced brutal game played by models," which sounds like David Strathairn describing the Fleur de Lys prostitutes in "LA Confidential"—"beautiful girls cut like movie stars."
Asked why the rebrand now, Mortaza says he's "concerned the word lingerie gives people the wrong idea."
All around us, the Bliss are warming up in Day-Glo orange sports bras, spandex shorts, and blue T-shirts.
Asked about the lace on the old uniforms, Mulford, the rookie, described them as tacky. "I didn't care for that," she said.
Kimberly Anderson, the market manager and veteran who stopped playing this year, hoped that the new uniform would be "cute lace-up pants and sports bra."
But that was not to be. The uniforms are now made by Rawlings, the sportswear manufacturer. The shoulder pads are slightly bigger, but the bras are still cut low to emphasize the players' breasts. The cutesy frills are gone. But the uniforms are still bikinis.
The Bliss reminds me of the traveling girl burlesque troupes from turn-of-the-century popular theater. There is backstage camaraderie, and there is peripatetic spirit. The players seem afraid of management.
Until I started going to LFL practice, I knew nothing about football. My main qualification for writing this article was that my first book was about the history of striptease. I had to ask what eye-black was. I had to ask what nearly everything was. I was a rookie, much like many of the Bliss players. Nevertheless, to see the women running down the field was thrilling. To see them throw the ball hard in tight spirals was inspiring. And I do care about equity in sports, as I care about it in all things.
But women playing football in other leagues are angry that the LFL is getting all the attention. Katie Sowers, the Women's Football Association League wide receiver, began playing football five years ago because it was "totally against what society views what female should act like. Not nurturing, not cheerful and polite."
In December, 2011, Sowers grew tired of people asking her if she played for the LFL, especially after she heard Mortaza talking about how few opportunities there were for women to play football. She made a protest video about the LFL with her sister Liz.
"We play real tackle football. Not in our bras and underwear," a card Sowers holds up says.
"To Mitch Mortaza," she writes, in another card held before the camera, "maybe you just haven't noticed us with our clothes on."
Mortaza, who thinks that some of the Women's Football Association players have "unhealthy body types" will not concede that any one YouTube video impacted him. But he was moved by the general disapproval to "empower the women and put more impact on the sport than the sexuality."
This is really the issue: few people will pay to watch women playing football with their clothes on. The WFA begs for an audience while the Chicago Bliss attracted thousands of audience members at the home games last year.
It is about a month before game day and the team has moved to Ho Chunk Sports and Expo Center in Chicago Heights, across the Little Calumet River, more than an hour outside of the city. If Bridgeview is suburban, Ho Chunk is a little decrepit, with the forlorn air of a ghetto supermarket. The sports bar is dark and apparently closed. When I get there, a little before 8 p.m., some LFL staff people are conducting a photo shoot of the team. The Bliss mug and vamp near deflated bouncy castles. One has Snow White on it.
The helmets and practice pads have finally come in, and they're lying out on a table, but there aren't enough to go around and a lot of them are the wrong size. Hac, who is wearing a pre-rebrand LFL baseball cap and a Notre Dame T-shirt, is irritated.
But after the photo shoot, the team gathers around the table trying on the pads, which strap in like seat belts. Heather Furr walks around and helps out newbies, fixing their straps and chin cords.
"Is this supposed to hurt?" one player asks. Another is rubbing moisturizer on her tanned stomach in circular patterns.
But after dress up, they trek to the field and are transformed. They have stopped doing drills and they break up into two teams and play against each other, which reminds me of reading about girls dancing with each other at single-sex schools.
But they are not just dancers. They are athletes again, moving quickly and smoothly.
Furr screams: "Watch the ball, not the quarterback."
Some reporters have found it disturbing to watch women tackling each other and howling for blood. And scholars remain skeptical of the whole enterprise.
"The question that I'd like to see addressed," says Cheryl Cooky, professor of sports sociology at Purdue, "is why is it that LFL comes into existence at this moment? Why do women have to take off clothes to enter public consciousness?" The answer, she says, may tell us something about what the world expects from women in 2013."It's existing," she says, "as a joke."
The Bliss don't care about such proclamations. They had their first game of the season Friday night at the Sears Centre Arena, against the league's three-time champions, the L.A. Temptation. There were about 1,000 fans on hand.
It was a close game for three quarters, marked by physical play, a few fights, and at least one concussion. In the fourth quarter, the Temptation pulled away for a 31-18 victory.
"We beat ourselves," Ali Alberts said. "Take away the mental mistakes, and it would have been a totally different game."


text:
Rand Paul and Pandering to the Paranoid
Part of the problem with the Internet age is that it's difficult to have anything approaching a nuanced discussion anymore. This is especially true when virtually everyone, regardless of their intellect, expertise, or judgment, has access to a repository of perfectly reasonable-sounding people who will say anything. If you type "are vaccines safe" into your preferred Internet search engine, you will find that there are | Read More »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Imagine walking into a restaurant with a large buffet, or approaching a table at a church supper laden with starchy and sugary foods. Now imagine that you don't really care about the pasta, the potatoes au gratin, or the cakes. You glance briefly at these foods, then zero in on protein and vegetables. Believe it or not, you can cultivate this state of mind, and once you do, having success on your low carb diet becomes much, much, easier. Here are four strategies to get you to this state of mind:
1. Stay Away Until Your Body Adjusts
One of the best things about the low carb diet is that after awhile (usually 1-2 weeks) people find they just don't have the hankering for carbs that they once did. I remember very well when I was on my first low carb diet about 17 years ago. About a month after I'd started the diet, someone brought an Oreo birthday cake to choir practice. I was astonished that I had absolutely no reaction at all! I stared and stared at this cake in amazement, waiting for some sign that I wanted a piece, or even a bite. I couldn't really believe that I didn't want any, but it was true! This is part of the magic of low carb eating, and, especially, of finding the right amount of carboydrate for you.
The more dangerous time is before you get to this point. Your urge to eat carbs may be even stronger than before, so it's a good idea to give yourself at least a two-week window where you stay totally out of temptation's way.
After you reach this point, you still have some work to do. There will still be voices in your head saying things like, "Oh, but it's Janice's birthday, and she would be hurt if I didn't have a piece of cake." Managing those voices will be much easier, but the voices won't stop yakking for quite awhile, so be prepared.
2. Make the Decision Beforehand
It has been said that one of the purposes of adopting a set of ethical standards in our lives is that it is a way of making a decision before you are in a tempting situation, which makes it easier to live according to your values. For example, if you have determined that you don't take office supplies from work for your personal use, you won't find it tempting when you have to fetch some paperclips from the supply closet. You just aren't the type of person who takes stuff – it's built into your self-definition. Your mind just doesn't go there.
The same mental setup can be used to make decisions regarding food. If you know that your body doesn't react well to carbs, cultivate an identity as a person who doesn't eat starchy and sugary foods. I like to compare it to someone with a serious wheat allergy. Such a person isn't tempted to order toast with breakfast. They just don't do it — it doesn't cross their mind. Get it into your head that your body is similar – it just doesn't handle carbohydrates well, and that is that.
On the other hand, you will sometimes choose to deviate. Here again, the trick is to plan it ahead of time, including the amount. If you are waking up in the night with dreams of french fries, plan that at a certain time you will have a reasonable portion of fries, if that makes it easier (for some it actually makes it harder, so pay attention to your reactions). When I visit my family in Vermont each summer, I know sometime during that vacation I will consume a) a piece of corn on the cob, dripping with butter, and b) a scoop of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. (Interestingly, this year I found that the ice cream was too sweet, and I enjoyed it more when mixed with peanut butter.)
3. Cultivate a Negative Attitude Towards Starchy and Sugary Foods
My husband says "There are little islands in the supermarket where there is food that won't poison me." He goes to those islands and avoids everything else. I think of processed foods (most foods in packages) as "not real food" – like styrofoam or cardboard. So much in the supermarket is just a background of refined starch with a foreground of artificial flavorings – not really all that appealing. Find ways to think of starchy and sugary foods in a negative light.
4. The Real Secret to Dealing with Temptation
You may have noticed something about these strategies: they aren't really about resisting temptation. They are about rigging your brain and your life so that you aren't tempted in the first place. See Willpower And The 'Slacker' Brain. This is because once you enter into the realm of temptation, you make it much, much harder on yourself. You give your brain extra work to do, and emotionally-charged work at that. Consider this psychology experiment: Subjects were told to memorize a number. Half were given a seven-digit number, and half a two-digit number. They were to go down the hall to another room and report the number. Along the way, there was a table with food, and they were given a choice between fruit and cake. The people who were remembering a 7-digit number were almost twice as likely to choose the cake! It doesn't take very much to tie up our brains and make it more difficult for us to make good decisions. So do everything you can to make those decisions before your brain gets caught up in whatever is going on at the moment.
Related Resources:
- One Thing to Do to Help Your Resolutions Stick
- How to Change from a "Diet" to a "Way of Eating"
- How to Get Through the First Week of a Low-Carb Diet


text:
This Recovery Map is a really slick interactive map mixing Google Maps with USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) data, showing ARRA(American Recovery Act of 2009) funding by state. Click on a state and county levels to zoom in and projects appear at the local level. The map looks like a great resource for people who want to hook into funding. As for map-makers, I am still trying to reverse-engineer it! Shouldn't there be freedom of information on how to do this?
Another such map about DOE (Dept. of Energy) projects was made by ace cartographers at Axis Maps in Madison Wisconsin. This illustrates various techniques for communicating data on a static map. Axis Maps also posted a super video (with a beautiful musical accompaniment composed by one of the map-makers) showing 106 10-minute steps used to create a meticulously-crafted custom printed map. Nice!


text:
A shooting Saturday night in Engelhard has landed two people in the hospital and another in jail.
Hyde County deputies say they were called to 146 Cooper Lane around 10:45 p.m. There they found two victims, one a 10-year-old boy, shot with a 9mm pistol.
Mack Mann of Engelhard is now charged with attempted first degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. The 47-year-old Mann is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Deputies say both victims were taken to Pitt County Memorial Hospital and they are expected to make a full recovery.


text:
Looking for Straight Truck Bodies? www.hotfrog.com showcases more than 9 businesses grouped by Straight Truck Bodies within US. To find more businesses related to Straight Truck Bodies, and to filter by locality, use the left navigation menu.
Allvan manufactures Curtainside Straight Truck bodies. We convert flat trailers up to 53' to curtainsides. We sell replacement curtains. We manufacture Moving bodies for straight trucks for movers across the United Stat…
Park Ridge, NJ
…that service both the national and international markets Today, MAC Trailer has grown to be the nation's foremost manufacturer of dump, flatbed and transfer trailers, straight truck bodies and now pneumatic tanks
alliance, OH
Regardless of design, application or price, your business depends on a trailer that will give you peak performance, no matter how tough the job or aggresive load, and MAC Trailer stands ready to be tested
New Castle, PA
The World's Finest Dump Body and Trailer Equipment
Vincennes, IN
Small Business Hub
Sharing tips, ideas and advice to help grow your small business
Hotfrog AdVantage
Hotfrog AdVantage ads appear above the rest in Hotfrog feature pages. By upgrading today your ad will appear in front of potential customers before they notice your competitors.
Create your free Hotfrog business profile
Follow Hotfrog on:
Share on:
Hotfrog Small Business Hub


text:
A Patient Perspective on the New Health Records Regulations
February 28, 2012 in health care costs, Member Stories, News
The federal government has been busy trying to get doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records (EHR) and to make appropriate access to the records easier. They do this by issuing regulations for EHRs linked to tens of $Billions in incentives. Stage 1 of this effort began a few years ago and has had almost no visible effect on care coordination and patient access to records. Stage 2 is about to turn up the heat. If things stay on track, by the beginning of 2014 patients will have vastly increased access to their own information and will have a secure email system to communicate with their doctors.
HHS released the proposed Meaningful Use Stage 2 regulations last week. I've abstracted the 455 page document to less than 4 pages of items that directly impact patients. My preliminary conclusion is that Stage 2 is a huge leap toward coordinated, patient-centered care and makes unprecedented efforts toward patient engagement.
By mandating comprehensive structured summaries be available to patients for download as well as on-line viewing, Stage 2 enables patient-directed health information exchange as an alternative to hidden provider-provider transactions that characterized earlier HIE efforts.
Although not mentioned by name, the implied use of Direct secure messaging for physician-physician and patient-physician communications will hopefully finally cause all EHRs to communicate with all other EHRs and PHRs without costly interfaces.
Also, new requirements for accessible imaging should eliminate the hassle of CDs for patients and doctors alike and make referrals and second opinions easier than ever.
All of these privacy, transparency and accessibility enhancements come none-too-soon as ACO payment reforms implicitly drive providers to keep patients in their particular network. Effective patient access to both cost and medical data is essential to preserving informed choice, reducing fraud and enabling the independent assessment of quality.


text:
KTM Freeride 250 R: 204lbs Of Accessible Dirt Bike
Following the theme set by the four-stroke Freeride 350 , this new two-stroke KTM Freeride 250 R aims to make dirt riding extremely ... Read more >>
Following the theme set by the four-stroke Freeride 350 , this new two-stroke KTM Freeride 250 R aims to make dirt riding extremely ... Read more >>
There is apparently a time in your life when, according to a famous 20th Century author, you simply have to "put away childish ... Read more >>
Every September for the last three years, hundreds of mopeds have gathered in Switzerland to tackle the mountain passes there. This ... Read more >>
The first product of a new bike manufacturer from Indiana, this Janus Halcyon was designed to look like a record-breaker from the ... Read more >>
On paper, it's a dream bike. How cool would it be to ride around on an incredibly light weight trials bike with a seat? In the real ... Read more >>
In 1975, this motorcycle, the 7th Suzuki RG500 XR14 ever made, was imported into New Zealand where it was raced by a privateer team. ... Read more >>
"I thought it would be cheeky to show up to Sturgis with some silly two-stroke racer and see how the big American Harley biker dudes ... Read more >>
Conceived in Siberia after an unfortunate encounter with a dentist's ultra-sound machine and 100 days of 'medicinal purpose' Vodka, ... Read more >>
Could an old two-stroke that still holds land speed records in the 350cc class be converted to practical transportation for the ... Read more >>
For 2012, Husaberg is updating its enduro range with improvements both mechanical and aesthetic. While it's the yellow frame you'll ... Read more >>
For years the maker of custom all-wheel drive conversions, Christini is launching its own brand of production bikes. Two models will ... Read more >>
In his article about Throwing The One Motorcycle Show , Thor Drake described a burnout performed by Drake McElroy on his CR250 road ... Read more >>
Ignacio Chivers has a dream. He wants to become the first Spaniard to complete The Dakar rally on a two-stroke Spanish bike and he's ... Read more >>
Is there any device in the entire world which evokes a more direct man/machine relationship than a kick starter? That's what the 2011 ... Read more >>


text:
Game 47: BlueClaws (27-19) vs West Virginia (18-29)
Hard to believe we've reached game 47 already…After tonight it's off to Greensboro, NC for an interesting eight-game trip…four at Greensboro and four at Delmarva, the third and second place teams in the SAL North.
Up 1…The BlueClaws are a game up on Delmarva, who scored a run in the 7th, 8th, and 10th to beat Hickory 3-2 last night. Greensboro is playing three games today. They finished a suspended game, a 5-1 loss at Lake County, and will play a DH tonight.
LWD- Jason Knapp (2-4)
WVA- Duke Welker (0-5)
On Knapp…The second round pick from last year's draft is 2-4, 4.86 on the season, but has an 8.18 ERA in May. He gave up two runs and five walks at West Virginia on 5/19.
Go Go Gose…Anthony Gose leads MiLB with 30 steals (in 35 attempts). He stole three last night, the second time this year he has stolen five bases in a game.
Game notes…Audio…Rest below the fold.
5:36: Weather has turned around. It's a great night for baseball. Tarp has been off the field since this morning.
5:42: Troy Hanzawa is 15 for his last 36 and Jim Murphy 13 for his last 31.
7:25: Lakewood on the board…Jim Murphy continues his hot hitting, an RBI double…1-0. Knapp had a 1-2-3 first.
7:43: Gose grounds out to short with 2nd/3rd to end the 2nd…still 1-0.
8:05: Knapp has faced the minninum through three and the BlueClaws havnt done enough with 6 walks in the game…still 1-0 top 4.
8:20: Knapps first trouble spot of the game he allowed a leadoff double to Greg Picart who scored on a broken bat single…1-1 as the BlueClaws cant muster anything in the fourth.
8:33: WVA takes the lead on a line drive double off the LF wall by Quincy Lattimore…Knapp has allowed four hits through his first five, all in the last two innings.
8:47: Two more left on base for the BlueClaws as Collier flies out to right to end the inning…9 LOB tonight for Lakewood, as they trail 2-1 to the 6th.
9:25: Not much doing for either team..The BlueClaws are still looking for a run to tie, theyll have six more outs to do so in a 2-1 ballgame in the top of the 8th.
9:29: 6 outs left…down 2-1.
9:51: Harold Garica misses a GW HR by about a foot, but instead ties the game with a SAC fly in the 9th and we're going to extra innings.
10:05: Winning run at 2nd base…d'Arnaud reaches on two-base E5…nobody out in the 10th…Murphy up.
10:06: Murphy gets hit…not that bad for WVA becuase it sets up the DP.
10:11: The Cardiac Claws strike again…Jeremy Hamilton a GW single and Lakewood wins 3-2!


text:
Sniegowski Named UICFlames.com Student-Athlete of the Week
Nov. 21, 2012
CHICAGO – UIC volleyball player Aubrey Sniegowski has been selected as the UICFlames.com Student-Athlete of the Week for the period Nov. 12-18. Sniegowski led the Flames in total kills (38) and attacking percentage (.380) through two Horizon League Tournament games last week.
The senior tallied a career high of 20 kills in UIC's semifinal win against No. 3 seed Valpo last Saturday, posting an attacking percentage of .375. In Sunday's title match versus No. 1 seed Cleveland State, Sniegowski piloted the Flames in kills once again with 18 and a .385 hitting percentage.
The UIC volleyball team reached the Horizon League Championship match for just the second time in school history and the first time since 2006. Their 10 conference wins stands as the second-best total in program annals and 19 overall wins serves as the best mark since 2002.
This marks the sixth occurrence that the volleyball team has won the UICFlames.com award, more than any other sport, and Sneigowski is now the fifth member of the team to be recognized.


text:
Thursday, November 7, 2013
The University of West Georgia has joined a nationwide grass-roots effort to honor American service men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade. On Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013, campus and community volunteers at more than 80 colleges and universities across the nation will read the names of military men and women who died during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, called Operation New Dawn.
Each campus participating in Remembrance Day National Roll Call will organize its own reading of names and will observe at 2 p.m. EST a simultaneous nationwide minute of silence. Currently, 85 schools in 33 states have agreed to participate in the event.
The Remembrance Day National Roll Call is sponsored nationally by the Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. NASPA is a 12,000-member association for the advancement, health and sustainability of the student affairs professionals. The Veterans Knowledge Community mission is to advocate for best practices to help student veterans' transition to college and succeed. The National Roll Call began in 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of the post Sept. 11, 2001, conflicts.
"We want to rally campus communities across the nation to send a message to the troops currently serving - that we, as a national body of students, have not forgotten their sacrifices or those of their fallen brethren," said Dr. Brett Morris, a retired Army officer and the National Roll Call coordinator.
This year at the UWG event, the reading of names will take four hours and will be narrowed to the southern region and include the states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia. An additional 30 minutes of the event will be dedicated to individuals on campus honoring any military veterans, whether living or deceased, by including his or her name on the list and reading the name. Nationally, the reading of the names will take nearly eight hours to complete as readers announce the names in chronological order.
The pre-ceremony will begin at 9:00 a.m. with the reading of the names beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m. in front of the University Campus Center at the fountain. A table will be set up for students, faculty and staff to write letters of encouragement to military personnel currently serving.
The National Roll Call is grateful to iCasualties.org for the steadfast recording of the fallen over the past 12 years, from which the names of the fallen have been derived. This year's Remembrance Day National Roll Call is being coordinated on the UWG campus collaboratively by the Student Veterans Association and the Counseling & Career Development Center.
For information about the University of West Georgia's Roll Call events, contact SVA Advisor, Dr. Michael Keim, at email@example.com or CCDC Assistant Director of Outreach, Dr. Donjanea Williams, at email@example.com.
For more information about the National Roll Call effort, contact Brett Morris at firstname.lastname@example.com or visit va.eku.edu/rollcall to see a list of participating schools.


text:
Hi, I just installed GTA 4, everything went fine but when I actually start the game the graphics are screwed up.
It's like fuzzy blue grey is covering everything.
My video memory is 781 mb but it says its only 123 mb and that i've exceeded it even when i take everything down the lowest it can go.
I don't understand how to fix it, other high graphics games have worked perfectly fine on my computer.
What can I do?


text:
Ear Force X31 Digital RF Wireless Game Audio + Xbox Live Chat - X31
Sold Out
Customer Reviews Write a Review
Be the first to review this item and earn 25 Rakuten Super Points™
Product Overview
The Ear Force X31 is our third generation of wireless headsets for the XBOX 360. Like the X3, the X31 combines XBOX live chat with wireless game sound so you can hear the game sound and the voices of other players in the headset. In other words, it replaces your XBOX communicator headset and external speakers. By hearing the XBOX Live chat in the center of your head rather than in one ear, you can communicate better online. By eliminating speakers you can turn up the game without disturbing others. And, by having the game sound right on top of your ears, you can hear even the softest sound cues that are impossible to hear with speakers. For example, you can hear when someone is quietly sneaking up on you and react faster. That means youll have a totally immersive gaming experience while becoming a better player. Just like the X3, the X31 includes a headset and small transmitter. As you can see, the colors have been changed so its easy to see its a new model. What is different, however, is that we made the headset more comfortable by increasing the size of the ear cups so they sit around your ears rather than on top of them. We also replaced the vinyl ear cushions with these soft, fabric mesh cushions that let your ears breathe. The most significant improvement is that the X31 uses digital 2.4 Giga Hertz Radio Frequency wireless technology. This new digital RF technology is a huge improvement over analog IR because it delivers CD-quality sound with no background hiss, no interference from plasma TV screens and no line of sight restrictions between the transmitter and headset. Sound quality is improved with new 40mm speakers that use the same design as our high-quality X41 50mm speakers for better frequency response and improved clarity in the game sound. Inside the headset is a digital signal processor for bass boost and stereo expander effects, which can be turned on by pressing this button. This makes the expander more dramatic than the X3.Stereo ExpanderThe X31 headset incorporates a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that spreads the stereo game signal to provide a "wider" sound field. This results in a richer, fuller sound than conventional stereo sound - almost as if it originates from outside of the headphones.Bass Boost The X31 headset DSP also lets you turn on a Bass Boost feature that produces deep, rich bass tones by increasing the volume of low frequency sounds - just like turning up the volume on the sub-woofer on your home theater system. Bass Boost improves your gaming experience by kicking-up the sound level of explosions, gun shots and other deep-bass sound effects, making them even more dramatic.Microphone Monitoring It's hard to hear yourself speak when a headset is covering your ears. The X31 corrects this annoyance with its microphone monitoring feature. The X31 adds a portion of the microphone signal into the headset signal, so you can hear some of your voice along with incoming chat and game audio. Microphone monitoring not only keeps you from talking too loud, it also eliminates that annoying "clogged ears" feeling when talking while the headset is covering your ears.Independent Chat/Game Volumes Separate volume controls let you adjust the game and chat levels, so you can easily balance them and never have to worry about missing a cue from your teammates.Advanced Battery Booster Circuitry The X31 has a battery booster circuit that squeezes every last bit of power from the batteries and assures high quality sound until theyre completely dead. This allows a pair of AAA Alkaline batteries to last for as long as 25 straight hours of game play. You can also buy standard rechargeable batteries in place of Alkaline batteries.Powered By USB The transmitter is powered by a single USB port on your XBOX, or from a nearby PC or laptop. So there is no need to fuss with a separate AC power adapter.
|Mfg Part#
|Chat boost
|Digital RF Wireless USB Powered Analog Stereo Inputs Adjustable Mic Boom
|Headphone Speaker Size 40mm Battery Auto Shut-Off Battery Life more than 20hrs; Range up to 30
|Independent Game Volume Independent XBOX Live Chat Volume Amplifier
|Mic Mute Switch Bass Boost Microphone Monitor Oversized Ear Cups Stereo Expander
Sold Out
Sorry, you missed the deal!
This product is currently not available.
Promotions & Offers (1)
- 5% Back* Sitewide with Promo Code REWARDME *See page for details


text:
If you like us, please share us on social media or tell your professor. Consider building or adopting a Wikitext for your course like Prof. Dianne Bennett from Sacramento City College demonstrates in this video.
The equilibrium constant expression is the ratio of the concentrations of a reaction at equilibrium. Each equilibrium constant expression has a constant value known as K, the equilibrium constant. When dealing with partial pressures, \(K_p\) is used, whereas when dealing with concentrations (molarity), \(K_c\) is employed as the equilibrium constant. Reactions containing pure solids and liquids results in heterogeneous reactions in which the concentrations of the solids and liquids are not considered when writing out the equilibrium constant expressions.
We are going to look at a general case with the equation:
\[ aA + bB \rightleftharpoons cC + dD \]
No state symbols have been given, but they will be all (g), or all (l), or all (aq) if the reaction was between substances in solution in water. If you allow this reaction to reach equilibrium and then measure the equilibrium concentrations of everything, you can combine these concentrations into an expression known as an equilibrium constant.
The equilibrium constant always has the same value (provided you do not change the temperature), irrespective of the amounts of A, B, C and D you started with. It is also unaffected by a change in pressure or whether or not you are using a catalyst.
Compare this with the chemical equation for the equilibrium. The convention is that the substances on the right-hand side of the equation are written at the top of the \(K_c\) expression, and those on the left-hand side at the bottom. The indices (the powers that you have to raise the concentrations to - for example, squared or cubed or whatever) are just the numbers that appear in the equation.
There are two different types of equilibria (homogeneous and heterogeneous) separately, because the equilibrium constants are defined differently.
A homogeneous equilibrium has everything present in the same phase. The usual examples include reactions where everything is a gas, or everything is present in the same solution.
A heterogeneous equilibrium has things present in more than one phase. The usual examples include reactions involving solids and gases, or solids and liquids.
\(K\) is the universal equilibrium constant for reactions. There is also \(K_c\) and \(K_p\), however \(K_c\) applies to reactions involving solutions, whereas \(K_p\) applies to reactions involving gases.
Because \(K\) has no units, we relate the concentrations for \(K\) as activities. For the following reaction at equilibrium:
\[ A\;(aq)+4B\;(aq) \rightleftharpoons 2C\;(aq)+3D\;(aq) \tag{1}\]
The equilibrium constant expression would be:
\[ K= \dfrac{(a_C)^2(a_D)^3}{(a_A)(a_B)^4} \tag{2}\]
\[ K_c= \dfrac{[C]^2[D]^3}{[A][B]^4} \tag{3}\]
Notice how each concentration of product or reactant is raised to the power of its coefficient. For example, the concentration of D is raised to the power of 3 since it is 3D in the balanced reaction (eq. 1).
If the reaction involved partial pressures instead of concentrations, then the equilibrium constant, now \(K_p\), would follow the same formula except with the pressures of the gases written in. In that case, \(K_p\) is only applied to reactions involving gases. Recall the equation relating \(K_p\) and \(K_c\):
\[ K_p = K_c (RT)^{Δn} \tag{4}\]
Pure solids and liquids are not included in the equilibrium constant expression. This is because they do not affect the reactant amount at equilibrium in the reaction, so they are disregarded and kept at 1.
For the following reaction reaction at equilibrium:
\[ 2A\;(s)+2B\;(aq) \rightleftharpoons C\;(l)+3D\;(aq) \]
\[ K= \dfrac{(a_C)^1(a_D)^3}{(a_A)^2(a_B)^2}\]
Remember that the activity, a, of any solid or liquid in a reaction is equal to 1. So, the activities of A and C will be set equal to 1.
aA(s)=1, aB(aq)= [B], aC(l)=1, aD(aq)=[D]
\[ K= \dfrac{(1)^1(a_D)^3}{(1)^2(a_B)^2}\]
\[ K_c= \dfrac{[D]^3}{[B]^2}\]
This is the more straightforward case and applies where everything in the equilibrium mixture is present as a gas, or everything is present in the same solution. A good example of a gaseous homogeneous equilibrium is the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide at the heart of the Contact Process:
\[ 2SO_2 \; (g) + O_2 \; (g) \rightleftharpoons 2SO_3 \;(g) \]
A commonly used liquid example is the esterification reaction between an organic acid and an alcohol:
\[ CH_3COOH \; (l) + CH_3CH_2OH \; (l) \rightleftharpoons CH_3COOCH_2CH_3 \; (l) + H_2O \]
|Example 1: Esterification
A typical equation of the esterification reaction equilibrium might be:
\[ CH_3COOH \; (l) + CH_3CH_2OH \; (l) \rightleftharpoons CH_3COOCH_2CH_3 \; (l) + H_2O \]
There is only one molecule of everything shown in the equation. That means that all the powers in the equilibrium constant expression are "1". You don't need to write those into the Kc expression.
As long as you keep the temperature the same, whatever proportions of acid and alcohol you mix together, once equilibrium is reached, \(K_c\) always has the same value. At room temperature, this value is approximately 4 for this reaction.
It is really important to write down the equilibrium reaction whenever you talk about an equilibrium constant. That is the only way that you can be sure that you have got the expression the right way up - with the right-hand substances on the top and the left-hand ones at the bottom.
|Example 2: Hydrolysis
The equilibrium in the hydrolysis of esters is the reverse of the last reaction:
\[ CH_3COOCH_2CH_3 \; (l) + H_2O \rightleftharpoons CH_3COOH \; (l) + CH_3CH_2OH \; (l) \]
The \(K_c\) expression is:
\[ K_c = \dfrac{[CH_3COOH] \, [CH_3CH_2OH]}{[CH_3COOHCH_2CH_3][H_2O]}\]
If you compare this with Example 1, you will see that all that has happened is that the expression has been reversed. Its value at room temperature will be approximately 1/4 (0.25).
|Example 3: The Contact Process
The equation for the Contact Process equilibrium is:
\[ 2SO_2 \; (g) + O_2 \; (g) \rightleftharpoons 2SO_3 \; (g) \]
This time the \(K_c\) expression will include some visible powers:
\[ K_c = \dfrac{[SO_3]^2}{[SO_2]^2[O_2]}\]
Although everything is present as a gas, you still measure concentrations in mol dm-3 (M). There is another equilibrium constant called \(K_p\) which is more frequently used for gases. You will find a link to that at the bottom of the page.
|Example 4: Haber Process
The equation for Haber Process equilibrium is
\[ N_2 \; (g) + 3N_2 \; (g) \rightleftharpoons 2NH_3 \; (g) \]
and the \(K_c\) expression is:
\[ K_c = \dfrac{[NH_3]^2}{[N_2][H_2]^3}\]
A heterogeneous equilibrium is more complicated than homogeneous examples discussed above and has species present in more than one phase. Writing an expression for \(K_c\) for a heterogeneous equilibrium is similar to homogeneous reactions, with the important difference that you don't include any term for a solid in the equilibrium expression. Taking another look at the two examples above, and adding a third one:
|Example 5: Gas-Solid Equilibria
The equilibrium established if steam is in contact with red hot carbon. Here we have gases in contact with a solid.
\[ H_2O \, (g) + C \, (s) \rightleftharpoons H_2\, (g) + CO \, (g)\]
The equilibrium produced on heating carbon with steam
\[ H_2O \, (g) + C \, (s) \rightleftharpoons H_2\, (g) + CO \, (g)\]
Everything is exactly the same as before in the equilibrium constant expression, except that you leave out the solid carbon.
\[ K_c = \dfrac{H_2][CO]}{[H_2O]}\]
|Example 6: Solution-Solid Equilibria
If you shake copper with silver nitrate solution, you get this equilibrium involving solids and aqueous ions:
\[ Cu \, (s) + 2Ag^+ \, (aq) \rightleftharpoons Cu^{2+} \, (aq) + 2Ag \, (s)\]
Both the copper on the left-hand side and the silver on the right are solids. Both are left out of the equilibrium constant expression.
\[ K_c = \dfrac{[Cu^{2+}]}{[Ag^+]^2}\]
|Example 7: Gas-Solid Equilibria
The equilibrium produced on heating calcium carbonate is only established if the calcium carbonate is heated in a closed system, preventing the carbon dioxide from escaping.
\[ CaCO_3 \, (s) \rightleftharpoons CaO\, (s) + CO_2\,(g)\]
The only thing in this equilibrium which is not a solid is the carbon dioxide, which is all that is left in the equilibrium constant expression.
\(K_c = [CO_2]\)
Pure solids and pure liquids have activities that are equal to 1.
There are all sorts of calculations you might be expected to do which are centered around equilibrium constants. You might be expected to calculate a value for \(K_c\) including its units (which vary from case to case). Alternatively you might have to calculate equilibrium concentrations from a given value of \(K_c\) and given starting concentrations.
1) What is \(K\) and \(K_p\) for the following reaction at equilibrium: \( 3A\;(g)+B\;(s) \rightleftharpoons 2C\;(g)+4D\;(s) \)
2) In a chemical reaction, one part chemical A(s) forms one part chemical B(s) and 2 parts of chemical C(aq). Find the concentration of C present at equilibrium. The reaction can be written as \( A\; (s) \rightleftharpoons B\;(s) + 2C\;(aq) \) with \(K_c = 4.5 \times 10^2\)
3) At equilibrium, the following reaction takes place: \(2A(aq)+ 3B(l) \rightleftharpoons C(aq)\). The concentrations of A and C are 0.2M and 0.4 M respectively. What is Kc for the reaction?
4) The equilibrium constant, \(K_p\), of the decomposition of \(CaCO_3\) (solid limestone) into solid quicklime (CaO) and \(CO_2\, (g)\) at 1200 K is 1. What must be the partial pressure of \(CO_2\, (g)\)? Find \(K_c\) for the reaction.
5) Aqueous solution A is added to liquid B to form aqueous solution C and aqueous solution D. At equilibrium the solution is written as A(aq) + B(l) \(\rightleftharpoons\)C(aq)+D(aq). The molarity, at equilibrium, of A is 0.0250 M and \(K_c= 3.8 \times10^{-4}\). Find the concentrations of C and D.
Solution 1: Remember to raise the activities to the power of the respective coefficients. The equilibrium constant expression should be written in terms of activities
\[K= \dfrac{(a_C)^2(a_D)^4}{(a_A)^3(a_B)^1}\]
Since B and D are solids, their activities are equal to 1. So,
\[ K= \dfrac{(a_C)^2}{(a_A)^3}\]
Substitute the partial pressures for the activities.
\[ K_p= \dfrac{(P_C)^2}{(P_A)^3}\]
Solution 2: Since A and B are both solids, their activities are equal to 1. So, the equilibrium constant expression would be,
\[ K_c= \dfrac{(1)[C]^2}{(1)}\]
\[ 4.5 \times 10^2= [C]^2 \]
\[ \sqrt{4.5 \times 10^2}= [C] \]
Solution 3: The equilibrium constant expression can first be written in terms of the activities.
\[K= \dfrac{(a_C)}{(a_A)^2(a_B)^3}\]
Since B is a liquid, then it's activity is equal to 1 and it may be left out of the equation.
\[K= \dfrac{(a_C)}{(a_A)^2}\]
Substitute the concentrations to obtain an expression for \(K_c\).
\[K_c = \dfrac{[C]}{[A]^2}\]
Substitute the given concentrations at equilibrium.
\[K_c= \dfrac{0.4}{0.2^2} = 10\]
Solution 4: The reaction can be written \( CaCO_3\;(s) \rightleftharpoons CaO\; (s) + CO_2\; (g) \) with \(K_p= 1\)
\[ K= \dfrac{(a_{CaO})(a_{CO_2})}{a_{CaCO_3}}\]
Since the limestone and quicklime are both solids, their activities can be set as 1. Therefore the partial pressure of CO2 should equal \(K_p\). 1 atm= Partial Pressure of CO2
To find Kc of the reaction, we use the formula
Kp= Kc(RT)((Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Products)-(Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Reactants))
(RT) is raised to the power of the ((Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Products)-(Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Reactants)). There is 1 of each molecule in the reaction: \( CaCO_3\, (s) \rightleftharpoons CaO\, (s) + CO_2\,(g)\). So, (RT) will be raised to the power of (1-0)= 1
Kp= Kc(RT)((Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Products)-(Sum of Coefficients of gaseous Reactants))
1= Kc((0.08206 L atm mol-1 K-1)(1200 K))1
\[ K_c= \dfrac{1}{(0.08206)(1200)}\]
= 0.010155171 or 1.02X10-2
Solution 5: Begin by writing out the equation accompanied with an ICE table.
\[ A\; (aq) + B\;(l) \rightleftharpoons C\;(aq)+D\;(aq)\]
C -x +x +x
E (0.0250-x) x x
Set up the equilibrium constant expression.
\(K_c\) = 3.8x10-4= \(\dfrac{(x)(x)}{(0.0250-x)}\)
3.8x10-4(0.0250-x)= x2
9.5x10-6-3.8X10-4x= x2
0= x2+3.8X10-4x-9.5X10-6
Use the quadratic formula:
\(\dfrac{-b+ \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}\) and \(\dfrac{-b-\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}\)
\(\dfrac{-3.8x10^{-4} \pm \sqrt{(3.8x10^{-4})^2-4(1)(-9.5x10^{-6})}}{2} \)
\[ \dfrac{-3.8X10^{-4} \pm \sqrt{3.81444x10^{-5}}}{2}\]
\[ \dfrac{-3.8x10^{-4} \pm (0.0061761153)}{2}\]
The appropriate solution comes out to be x=0.0028980577 or 2.9x10-3 = concentrations of C and D
Unless otherwise noted, content in the UC Davis ChemWiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at firstname.lastname@example.com. Questions and concerns can be directed toward Prof. Delmar Larsen (firstname.lastname@example.com), Founder and Director. Terms of Use


text: So this could be interesting… Time will tell right? But regardless, Amazon has dove head first into the gaming industry with the launch of their shiny new game studio, aptly named Amazon Game Studios. Reportedly, AGS will be the developing body for all Amazon gaming projects from here on out. The first game up? A Facebook title named Living Classics. The description of Living Classics is as follows: From Alice in Wonderland to ancient Greece, play dozens of colorful, lively scenes. In this new style of game, find all the moving objects. Looks like Amazon is sticking to its reading roots for gaming ideas, for now. Living Classics looks to be a social,object finding game that takes place in many famous literary themed world, places like Wonderland and Treasure Island to name a few. Check out the trailer below. No word on yet on whether Amazon Game Studios will push into the more core gaming areas as well as console gaming development but we wouldnt be surprised. We think it's pretty safe to assume that Amazon has the financial backing to make pretty much any type of game they want. Stay tuned. local_offer PC View comments (0)


text:
Restore Deleted Photos
von: Witnion | 5
Alle Android Anwendungen-Kategorien
von: Witnion | 5
Restore deleted pictures - can undelete and recover lost photos and images from your memory card or internal memory.
Whether you accidentally deleted a picture, in your memory card without any quality loss.
Photos and Videos Recovery lets you restore lost pictures from Android devices however, you'll need to download a photo recovery program.
**Easy Step by Step**
this app will be covering these issues;
- How to Restore Deleted Files on a SD Card
- How to Recover Deleted Pictures From an SD Card
- How to Retrieve Deleted Photos From an SD Card. SD cards store images
- How to Recover Deleted Pictures From an SD Card.
- How to Restore Accidentally Deleted Photos on a SD Card.
Restore and saving to your locally or email.
von 5 Bewertungen
Herunterladen Restore Deleted Photos
Kostenlos - V1.0 - 7M
Tut uns leid ...
Weitere Aktionen


text:
Trending Story
Archive for Business Buzz
Bill Gates Once Again the Richest Man Alive – Going to Donate 95%18 May, 2013 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
As the recent stock surge worked for Microsoft, the co-founder Bill Gates is once again the world's richest man. He hasn't been the richest man..
MULYANKAN 2012: N.L. Dalmia's National Level B-School Competition As Well As Seminar On 'Cross-Border Acquisitions'9 October, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
N.L. Dalmia is organising National level B-School Competition as well as Seminar on 'Cross-Border Acquisitions'. "N.L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies & Research, ranked amongst..
Business and Family-Modern Oil and Water: By Heather Sahli12 August, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
The U.S. has a wonderful, rich history when it comes to family businesses. There are the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Hill families that come to mind..
5 Tips To Cut Down Your Cellphone Bill And Reduce Your Expense22 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
It seems that the data plans offered by cellular operators are becoming more expensive.In addition, some companies have decided to reduce the connection speed of..
The Crisis In Europe Causes Decline In Sales Of Automobiles22 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
Few places illustrate the problems of the European automotive industry as the plant Mirafiori Fiat SpA, Turin, Italy. On Thursday and Friday, the factory became..
What Should You Do When You Win The Lottery: How To Invest Money14 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
Chris Kemper thought she was dreaming when she learned that her grandmother had inherited $ 6 million in 2010. But his excitement quickly turned into..
The OECD Calls On European Measures To Curb The Spread14 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
The European Central Bank should increase efforts to eliminate fears of contagion from the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, said Wednesday the chief economist..
Chance Of IMF Intervention In Over Valued Yen Is Increasing14 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
The risk of an intervention in the yen is rising. With few signs of a serious surge of the yen during most of this year, and..
Why To Invest in Gold: Gold May Become A Haven For Investors14 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
Gold may regain its status as a refuge by the end of the year, analysts say, although investors should expect more volatility in prices in..
Apple vs. Google – The Fight Of The Century Gets Intense10 June, 2012 by Jay Thadeshwar 0
Since joining in 2007, the iPhone and Google Maps seemed the perfect marriage. The Google Maps service that lets Internet users find shops, check traffic..


text: Come and take advantage of the department's only session on the MPP Statement of Purpose. This workshop will offer tips on how to write an effective and compelling SOP for the MPP program. Find out how the SOP fits into the admissions process. Review examples of both productive and ineffective SOP's. Session runs from 6pm - 7:30pm in the Public Policy Building.


text:
Bobbin, London, SW4
1-3 Lillieshall Road, Lambeth, London, SW4 0LN
Hidden down a quiet residential street just off Clapham Common, The Bobbin is a warm and friendly place to meet, drink and eat the very best seasonal food. Lunch Fri, Sat and Sun. Dinner every evening. Quiz evening every Wednesday - £1pp entry
Tel: 0207 7388953 actions +


text: this builds on a question i asked a few weeks ago... if my bike has 135 rear spacing, i've been told that i can get a hub designed for 120 and space it out if the axle is long enough... easy. if it's not long enough i can change out the axle for a longer one? is this easy? are axles pretty much all the same or what do i need to watch out for? i've taken apart my surly hub before to replace the bearings, so i know HOW to do it, provided i have the right parts.


text:
to the circle
Subscribe to Purim Heroes 2011
First Name
Last Name
Confirm Email
Confirm Password
Create a Donor Circle
First Name
Last Name
Confirm Email
Confirm Password
FAQs & Resources
Our Achievements
About (created on Mar 3, 2011)
Gift of Life "Be a Hero" Booth at the Beth Jacob Purim Carnival!
Please bring your kids for "be a hero" facepainting and bring your checkbooks to give generously!
The celebration of Purim revolves around life and survival. We are commanded to eat, drink, and be merry while fulfilling the mitzvah of giving to charity. This year, we have chosen to dedicate our Purim tzedekah to Gift of Life.
Recently, we learned about the Galena family and their mission to find a match for their1 year old daughter, Ayelet, who suffers from a rare bone marrow failure disorder. The Galenas have been working with Gift of Life to raise money to sponsor new donors and enter them into the registry.
In addition to the Galenas, we have also learned about the Finemans. Since the fall of 2010, Robin and Evan have been trying to find a match for their 2 year old son, Ezra.
Our goal this Purim is to be heroes andhelp fund some recent drives that have been run in the hopes of finding perfect matches for Ayelet, Ezra, and the many other patients who are searching every day.
Statistically, one in every 1,000 donors on the registry saves a life. If a donor typically remains in the registry for 30 years, and it costs $54 to process each kit, then every $1,800 saves a life!
Currently, there are 10,000 potential bone marrow donors that have already been tested and their kits are waiting to be sent to lab once funding is received. If you are unable to join us at the Purim events we are holding around town, please consider making a contribution today.
In loving memory of Rabbi Zachary I. Heller z"l and Alan J. Stern z"l
Matches and Transplants
Thank You For Your Contribution
On behalf of the patients we serve around the world, thank you for supporting the life-saving mission of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Your secure online contribution will grow our donor registry and cord blood bank, giving the gift of hope to countless children and adults in desperate need of life-saving transplants. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law in the United States and Canada.
We know there are many outstanding charities that are worthy of your support. We are honored that you chose to include Gift of Life in your charitable giving, and will do our utmost to meet your expectations through quality service and measurable results.
Recent Activity
Sep 11, 2015
New match in Purim Heroes 2011
A donor sponsored by Purim Heroes 2011 has matched a 52 year old woman battling Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Jul 28, 2015
New match in Purim Heroes 2011
A donor sponsored by Purim Heroes 2011 has matched a 45 year old man battling Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Feb 19, 2015
New match in Purim Heroes 2011
A donor sponsored by Purim Heroes 2011 has matched a 62 year old woman battling Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.


text:
She was born April 22, 1955, in Refugio.
Mason was preceded in death by her father, George Linney.
Survivors include her mother, Kathaleen Linney of Woodsboro; husband, Stephen Edward Mason of Woodsboro; one daughter Jessica Escamilla of Sinton; one son, John Mason of Spicewood; maternal grandmother, Maude Hale of Woodsboro; two brothers, Mike Linney of Refugio; and Frank Linney of Woodsboro.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, July 23, at 3 p.m. at the Church of Christ in Woodsboro.


text:
What is the distance between B and G?
The distance formula is .
The distance between B and G is about 13.3 units.
Is B the midpoint of AC?
Does B satisfy the midpoint formula for A and C?
No, B is not the midpoint of A and C.
What is the distance between A and F?
The distance formula will be your best friend.
The distance between A and F is about 11.2 units.
Is D the midpoint of CH?
Are the coordinates of D the averages of the coordinates of the other two?
Yes, D is the midpoint of CH.
How far away is E from the midpoint of BH?
Time to use both midpoint and distance formulas. Or is it?
The midpoint of BH is (0, 3.5), and E is 7.5 units away from it.
Make it rain.
The who, what, where, when, and why of all your favorite quotes.
Go behind the scenes on all your favorite films.


text:
School threat charges waived to county court
An 18-year-old accused of writing threats that led to two evacuations of Crestwood High School this spring waived his preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Charges against Richard M. Seiwell were forwarded to Luzerne County court rather than proceed with the hearing that had been scheduled before Magisterial District Justice Ronald Swank in Mountain Top.
Seiwell remains free on $25,000 bail while awaiting a formal arraignment scheduled for Sept. 27 at the county courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
As a condition of bail, Swank ordered Seiwell to avoid the Crestwood High School campus, where he was a senior when arrested on May 15.
Seiwell faces 12 charges, including felonies of threatening to place weapons of mass destruction and making terroristic threats.
On April 18, the high school dismissed early because a message saying "Bomb in the school" was written on a wall of a boys' restroom.
Students waited outside for about 45 minutes on May 9 while police with dogs searched the high school after a threat about ricin, a poison, was written on a restroom wall.
On May 8, students also were evacuated during a search conducted after a bomb threat was written on the wall of a boys' restroom at the Crestwood Middle School, located on the same campus as the high school.
Seiwell only has been charged for making the threats at the high school, but a probable cause affidavit filed against him says an analysis of handwriting from his school papers showed similarities to the writing on the restrooms in the high school and the middle school.
Seiwell is also charged with intimidating a witness and was ordered not to contact students who provided information in the case.
To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.
Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.


text:
See All Contributors »
Courtesy: Iowa State University
Release: 02/21/2007
<A HREF="http://www.cyclones.com//share/ViewPhoto.dbml?&ATCLPID=&ATCLID=802291&DB_MENU_ID=&SPSID=46657&SPID=4251&IN_SUBS CRIBER_CONTENT=&DB_OEM_ID=10700&LOAD_IMAGE_ID=403611&LOAD_IMAGE_SIZE=400"> link = ''; document.write(link); Courtesy: Iowa State University
Lauren Cummings (left) and Erin Boeve will be trying out for spots on the USA Women's Volleyball National Team.
AMES, Iowa Iowa State volleyball players Erin Boeve, Lauren Cummings and Kaylee Manns will be among the best players in the nation when they attend a tryout at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center for the womens national teams, Feb. 24-25.
The trio played a key role in helping Iowa State earn a berth in the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1995. The Cyclones finished the season with a 21-11 overall record and a 12-8 mark in Big 12 play.
Boeve, a rising senior from Steen, Minn., was a first-team all-Big 12 selection and earned Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors from the league. The middle blocker averaged 3.20 kills and 1.61 blocks en route to earning AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors. She hit a career-best .294 and led the team with 29 service aces.
Cummings, a senior from Ankeny, Iowa, had a major impact in her first season as a Cyclone. Cummings, who transfered to Iowa State from Northwest Missouri State before the season, hit a team-high .317 and averaged 2.96 kills and 1.06 blocks.
Boeve and Cummings are trying out for spots on the USA Womens Volleyball National Team and its affiliate programs, including the 2007 World Championships and the US Open Championships.
Manns, a setter from Topeka, Kan., broke the single-season school-record with 1,433 assists while directing the Cyclones offensive attack. Manns helped improve the Iowa State hitting percentage to .230, a year after the team hit .198. Her 12.91 assists per game was fourth in the league. Manns will be competing for a spot on the junior national team.
Great job ladies
Good luck at the try outs!
Forum Rules
All content owned by CycloneFanatic.com - All rights reserved 2005-09. By viewing this website you agree to the Terms of Service, Site Rules and Legal Disclaimer. The words, views, images and opinions expressed or provided by users do not reflect the opinions or views of CycloneFanatic.com or Iowa State University. The names, words, symbols, and graphics representing Iowa State University are trademarks and copyrights of the University protected by the trademark and copyright laws of the United States of America and other countries and are used on this web site under license from the University. Original site design, premise & construction by Jeremy Lind.


text:
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie looked as though she was still trying to process what she had seen.
The No. 3 Blue Devils surrendered almost all of a 15-point second-half lead, hit a few clutch free throws in the waning seconds and held on to beat Virginia Tech 74-70 on Sunday, and McCallie almost seemed at a loss for words.
"They're the best 0-4 ACC team I've ever seen, for sure," McCallie said of the Hokies, but her gushing ended there.
"We fell asleep and they woke up," she added. "It was terrible for us. You don't give up 47 (second-half) points, get outrebounded and give up shots like we did. We didn't play with the same intensity. I think we thought it was a 20-minute game."
- Students seeking sugar daddies for tuition, rent
- Seattle-based seafood company shuts down
- What's the top spelling 'mistake' in Washington state? The answer could make you sick
- UW receiver Isaiah Renfro opens up about depression, announces he's leaving team
- Dead whale found on bow of cruise ship in Alaska
Most Read Stories
Tricia Liston scored 22 points, and Alexis Jones had 19. The Blue Devils (18-1, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their eighth straight, beat Virginia Tech for the 20th consecutive time and extended the Hokies' losing streak to five games.
But they sure let it get interesting.
Uju Ugoka scored 29 points, including a putback with 14.5 seconds left the pulled the Hokies to 71-68. Liston then made a pair of free throws, and after Monet Tellier made two free throws for the Hokies, one more by Liston finished the scoring.
UConn runs streak to 25 games
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Bria Hartley scored a career-high 30 points and Breanna Stewart had 23 to lead top-ranked Connecticut to a 94-64 win over No. 23 Rutgers.
UConn (19-0, 6-0 American) has won 25 straight games, the sixth longest streak in school history.
The Huskies raced to an 18-6 lead in the game's first five minutes. Stewart had eight of the team's first 18 points. UConn extended the advantage to 41-20 on the 6-foot-4 sophomore's layup with 4:58 left before Rutgers closed the half with a 9-2 burst to trail 43-29 at the half.
Rutgers (13-4, 4-2) cut it to 12 before UConn put it away behind Stewart and Hartley.
Freshman Tyler Scaife scored a season-high 22 points and Kahleah Copper had 20 for the Scarlet Knights.
Other Top 5 game
No. 5 Louisville 81, at South. Methodist 66
Antonita Slaughter had two three-pointers in a go-ahead 11-0 run for Louisville early in the second half, and the Cardinals stretched their winning streak to 11 games.
The slow-starting Cardinals (18-1, 6-0 American Athletic) went ahead to stay by scoring the 11 consecutive points in a span of only 79 seconds.
Slaughter finished with 17 points and four three-pointers, her first made shots from behind the arc in her four games since missing six games with a blood clot in her lungs. The senior guard had five three-pointers in the second game this season, and twice in her career had seven in a game.
Tia Gibbs had 20 points to lead five Cardinals in double-figure scoring.
• Chelsea Gardner scored 28 points and Natalie Knight had 18 as host Kansas upset No. 7 Baylor 76-60.
The loss ended Baylor's 44-game winning streak in Big 12 regular-season games and was the Bears second straight loss overall after they fell to No. 1 Connecticut last week.
Odyssey Sims scored 31 points for the Bears (14-2, 4-1), but she was held to 10 points in the second half.


text:
Sania Mirza is the latest tennis player to be signed to the adidas brand. The Indian sensation, who was formerly sponsored by Lotto, had a very successful 2007 US summer hardcourt run in which she reached a career high No. 27 after reaching the final of Stanford, a Tier II tournament. Sania had this to say about her new partnership with adidas:
"I am extremely happy to be part of such a distinguished family of players and brand ambassadors. I have been associated with the brand as a junior and I believe adidas` experience and expertise will be a key part of my on-court performance. I am really looking forward to wearing the stylish 3-Stripes for many years to come."
(via women's tennis blog, image via AP Photo)


text:
Mobile App
Get the Old National Insurance Mobile AppThe great service you expect is now available on your smartphone.
Old National not only brings you the right insurance for your life and budget, we now offer outstanding customer service via your smartphone.
Mobile services for you:
Additional mobile services for employees and businesses:
Download our mobile app today!
Old National provides links to third-party websites as a convenience for our online visitors. We have no control over linked sites and make no representations about content, products or services available at these locations. Such sites may have privacy, security and accessibility standards that differ from those at oldnational.com. When you access another party's website, we recommend that you review their terms and conditions and privacy and security policies.
Questions about our mobile services? Talk with your local Old National Insurance advisor or email us.


text:
We envision a clean and progressive community with a sustainable forest resources that provides abundant supply of wildlife and none polluted water flowing down the creeks to water our rice fields that is teeming with aquatic life and the people enjoying the component leadership of our upright leaders.
"To attain economic stability through increase production by improving our irrigation systems, improve our pathways and footbridges for convenient access to transport our produced from the farm to the market and enhance our health through the improvement of our domestic water system for a portable water supply."
Basic social services are delivered, health and educational status and improved.
Positive cultural values, indigenous knowledge systems practices are strengthened and advocated.
Poverty is alleviated through increased production and livelihood activities are enhanced with available support from credit institutions.
Natural resources conserved and utilize wisely through proper observance and implementation of environmental protection law.
Sufficient support service are delivered by dependable and transparent local official and line agencies.
BARANGAY Losad is one of the 15 barangay of the Municipality of Sabangan, Mt. Province. It is bounded on the Barangay Supang and Otocan, Bauko; East by Bayyo and Talubin, Bontoc; North by barangay Poblacion and Lagan south by Barangay Gayang and Bun-ayan.
The Barangay can be reached by a six hours via the Halsema Highway from Baguio City, and a 600 meter walk from the nearest National road if one stops at kaaligan junction.
Oral accounts traced that first settlers of BArangay Losad came from Tinongdon (upper Sabangan), Gonogon, Bontoc and Poblacion Sabangan, with the increased of population, Losad became a separated Barangay on February 23, 1970 by virtue of Republic Act. 3590, otherwise known as the revised Barrio chapter.
The Barangay has five sitios namely: Liwang, Osong, Sa-o, Apa, and Dagiwdiw where the first letters of the places mentioned were derived to form Losad. The height of the insurgency and a companionship in the early eighties forced the residents of Apa and Dagiwdiw to move the BArangay proper, thus the creation of Ameyeo and Passawan.
Barangay Losad has a population of 657 residents group in 129 households, 141 families. The population is composed mostly of the young generation with ages 15 to 19 years old.
Labor forced is about 63% of the total population comprising the economically active individuals with ages ranging from 15 to 64 years old. From the total household, 64% are engage in farming which is the major livelihood. Out of the 409 economically active individuals, there are about 248 dependents. The ratio between the labor forced and the dependents is thereof 1;2 meaning one economically active individual support two dependent person.
The major problem of the barangay is low income primarily due to low agricultural production. With farming is the main source of income, low rice production is attributed to insufficient irrigation system compounded by infestation of rats, bird, and lizard on farm lots. Averages of six sacks of rice are purchased during the lean months because rice produced for one cropping is not enough until the next harvest.
Livestock production is one of the major sources of income of the Barangay. However, the low income profile of hog raisers was identified as one problem due to high cause of feeds and low cause of live weights hogs due to household income, lack of capital makes families face difficulties in engaging in other livelihood activities.
To augment their income, households sell their products during market days on Saturday. Products usually traded or bananas and legumes.
As to social services, Barangay Losad lacks facilities, example, and no Barangay clinic. A temporary weighing post located at the Multi-purpose building being utilized as a center for the Municipality provides services with the assistance of the Barangay Health workers.
The Barangay has Daycare center for children located below the Multi-Purpose building. The community has two Elementary schools within the area. As a secondary education, students have to travel two kilometers from the Barangay. To reach Sabangan National High School or hike some 500 meters to reach San Alfonso High School at Poblacion Sabangan.
Generally, infrastructure and utilities in the Barangy are considered poor due to insufficient government funds. For one, there is a need for the construction of footbridges an improvement of existing pathways to ease transportation of farm products, minimized travel time and ensure security of passerby most especially during rainy days when pathways become slippery. There is also a need to improve drainage canals. It was observed that pi manure is being directed to drainages canals that causes flooding and siltation aside from creating unsanitary conditions. Construction of Biogas facilities is seen as the ultimate solution of this problem.
The Barangay has its own Baranagy hall or multi-purpose building in the community. Said building constructed will serve as avenue for meeting and other community activities, aside from serving as an office for the Barangay officials.
Barangay Officials
Barangay Captain: Benjamin Bello Victoriano
Barangay Kagawads: