text:
"Somehow we have developed this large contingent of know-it-all baseball fans who bay like wounded coyotes at any mention of wins, losses, RBI or batting average. I never know whether I should blame myself for this or not.." (Bill James)
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Eighth Inning Turning Point
He threw 32 pitches, and had trouble keeping them down; the Pirates were saved from a big inning when they caught an out call on a stolen base that looked to be a good swipe. But Lincoln, a self-described strike thrower, has to learn to get the ball down and use all three pitches; his heater isn't that great to be his bread-and-butter pitch.
Justin Masterson, with a slider and sinker, came in with a rep as a ground ball machine, and that's what he was in the first. His problem was nobody could catch and throw with much success.
Jose Tabata started off with a soft roller to third that went for a single and error when the throw eluded Russell Branyan at first. Neil Walker rolled a grounder through the right side, putting runners on the corners.
Andrew McCutchen chopped one to the mound, but Masterson's throw got by Branyan. Garrett Jones then rifle a shot up the middle, and the Bucs had runners on first and second, no outs, and a 2-2 count on the scoreboard. But we know how these promising innings end, hey?
Masterson then took things into his own hands, K'ing Lastings Milledge on three sliders and a sinker, and then punching out Pedro on another sinker. He finally got a grounder to go his way 37 pitches later when Jason Jaramillo rolled into a 6-3 inning ender.
The same duo bit Lincoln again in the third, and much in the same way. He hit Choo on a 1-2 pitch, and Santana roped a doubled into right center to bring him home.
Bad Brad dodged a bullet in the fourth, when the 7-8 hitters singled and doubled with one away. The pitcher hit a fly to medium right, and Milledge threw a laser home to nail the tagging runner and keep the score at 3-2.
Masterson and Lincoln both left after six. The Bucs had two runs on five hits and a walk off the righty, along with seven K's. Lincoln gave up three runs on eight hits, with a walk, hit batsman, and a pair of whiffs. Lincoln mixed his pitches much better after the early going, but was still upstairs too much; he only got five ground outs in six frames.
Javier Lopez came on in the seventh, and did what no other pitcher has done this series: retire Carlos Santana. He had five hits and three walks in his previous eight plate appearances this series, and Lopez caught him looking.
The Pirates had another golden opportunity in the seventh, and did manage to milk a couple of Tribe miscues into the tying run. Jaramillo singled, and a Bobby Crosby bunt was thrown wildly to first, putting runners at first and second.
Andy LaRoche laid one down to get the guys to second and third, but Tabata tapped back to the mound for the second out. But a pitch in the dirt got away from Santana, who tried to pick the ball instead of smothering it, and JJ came in to make it 3-3.
Brendan Donnelly started skating on thin ice immediately in the eighth, when he was smoked for a single and double to start the frame. The 29,800+ fans got a little entertainment when JR was ejected for arguing the double, claiming it was foul (although it hit the chalk).
But a short fly into center, a roller to second with the infield in, and a grounder to short was enough to keep the score tied. The Bucs caught a break with Austin Kearns being the lead runner instead of one of the Tribe's speed merchants; a faster runner may have taken a shot at home.
The Pirates charged into the eighth. McCutch walked and Jones singled him to second. A Milledge bunt put runners at second and third, and set the table for Pedro. The Indian's brought in lefty Tony Sipp, and he quickly got ahead 0-2 on a pair of hooks.
But he hung the third one, and Alvarez ripped it to the track in right for the go-ahead sac fly. A walk and Crosby single put the Bucs up 5-3 with three outs to go.
Octavio Dotel didn't need the insurance run; he breezed through the ninth, striking out the last two hitters. For once, the Bucs took advantage of opportunity; let's hope it becomes a habit.
The Pirates are off tomorrow, and then go to Texas, where Austin native Ross Ohlendorf will face Tommy Hunter Tuesday night.
-- Bobby Crosby started again at short. At first, we thought it was just a message being sent to Ronny Cedeno, but it may a changing of the guard. We'll see if Crosby's stick plays well enough to win him a starting gig. Of course, there's always the chance that he's being showcased, too, with Andy LaRoche replacing him the new jack-of-all-trades.
-- Garrett Jones extended his hitting streak to a personal best eleven straight today with his first inning single.
-- Steve Pearce is tearing it up on rehab at Indy; he is en fuego going 5-for-7 with an RBI, 4 runs scored, three walks, a double, and a stolen base. That makes for a logjam when he returns to the big club. If Milledge or Milledge/Church become the RF mainstays and Jones gets a full-time gig at first, Pearce is the odd man out. Let the dealing begin!
-- The Pirate bullpen has made 211 appearances, just over 3 outings per game. They're pitching at about the same rate as the train wreck year of 2008, when the relievers also appeared 3+ times per game (it was 2.82 outings/game last year).
JR has made calls to the pen that seem odd at first blush, but so far he's done a good job of spreading out the work so that the guys aren't too burned out when the dog days roll around.
He has six pitchers who have made between 24-33 appearances, so nobody is in line to see 90 outings this year, a credit to him and the pen's depth. Now if the starters could get into the eighth or the bats pile up some runs...
-- Bradenton SS Brock Holt has a torn MCL, according to Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald. He's expected to miss six weeks and probably will need surgery. The 22 year old, a ninth round draft pick in 2009 from Rice, was injured in a collision with second baseman Anderson Chourio. He was hitting .351 before the head-on for Bradenton.
There may be hope; other reports say it's not torn and requires rest, not the knife. So we'll see how it plays out.
(Will and Ron wish all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day...and hey, shouldn't it be celebrated every day?)
4 comments:
- WilliamJPellas said...
What IS it with our minor league middle infielders??? How many of them just in the past couple of years have had really serious injuries? I'm beginning to think they've caught whatever our first round pitchers used to get. (Still get?)
- June 21, 2010 at 9:55 AM
- Ron Ieraci said...
Yah, it does seem like a curse, Will. Holt, Brian Friday has been out since 6/9 with a sprained ankle; Jarek Cunningham is just coming back after missing 2009 to knee surgery...but on the bright side, Jimmy Negrych, in a small sample, is tearing up at Indy. And Clement is getting his eye back.
Still, no immediate help, and the injury list does clog the pipeline. Of course, when you bring up 3/4's of your AAA infield, Alvarez, Walker, and Pearce, it doesn't leave much at Indy but a vacuum.
- June 21, 2010 at 8:37 PM
- WilliamJPellas said...
I still say Negrych is a major league hitter, though a man without a position and one who won't hit for much power. But man, oh man, can he ever rip line drive after line drive after line drive. Jim Leyritz lasted many years as a "bat off the bench"; I think Negrych is cut from the same cloth.
Maybe the Bucs would consider Negrych at 3B if Pedro eats his way off the bag and moves to first? (In that scenario Jones would stay in RF). In any case, I think the team needs to make some kind of effort to find some role for Negrych somewhere. He's too good a hitter to waste.
- June 21, 2010 at 10:44 PM
- Ron Ieraci said...
Delwyn Young hits arbitration next year, Will; that could be Negrych's opening.
- June 22, 2010 at 9:14 AM


text:
Best Marketing agencies in Berkenthin
Which one is the best for your company?Find my agency
100% free - Fee is charged to agencies willing to collaborate with you.
Best Marketing agencies
No Time?
We select the best agencies for you!
Want to be listed here?
Sign up for a free Sortlist account and create your profile to get exposure to thousands of companies looking for an agency like yours.
Launch your marketing project today!
How we guide you to the right agency.
Define your needs
We help you find the right words to describe your needs by asking you the right questions.
Other agencies
Find other agencies accross the globe that might be interesting for your project.
Agencies nearby
- Marketing agencies in Itzehoe
- Marketing agencies in Hemmingstedt
- Marketing agencies in Flensburg
- Marketing agencies in Kiel
- Marketing agencies in Bad Bramstedt
- Marketing agencies in Timmendorfer Strand
- Marketing agencies in Eddelak
- Marketing agencies in Lübeck
- Marketing agencies in Haselau
- Marketing agencies in Rellingen
Four agencies were introduced to us and we quickly realized that three of these would be perfect for the mission. The selected agencies all had the same quality, the same professionalism and the same interest for who we are. But one agency was really standing out from the crowd because they totally understood our DNA.
Chantal Charbonnier
Marketing Consultant at Oniryx
Let us guide you to the best agency
From web design to advertising campaigns, we guide you to the right agency fitting your needs and budget.
Then, compare and hire the one that's right for you.

subset: commoncrawl


text: TheyCallMeGunny Report post Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) This is a Comcast exclusive: Only available to rent through Comcast, available nowhere else. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8tKBHvCz_0 More an overview than a review: But I can DEFINITELY recommend this to others. I love having everything in one solution. This is considered a "Wireless Gateway" by common definition, which is both of the following: DOCSIS 3.0 modem Wireless B/G/N Triple Band Router w/ Internal Antenna Hardware Specifications: 400MHz internal CPU 128MB DRAM 32MB Flash Internal Battery with front panel display meter. Features: 4-port ethernet output. 2-port phone output. 1-port USB output. WPS ready. Smooth piano black finish. Firewall Suite Built-In, with easy to use GUI. Self-Updating, Self-Activating. Sorry for choppy audio, my SD Card is shot, so I had to borrow the one from the Wii (which has too slow write speeds to record HD properly.) As for me having trouble speaking: I'm exhausted. Try recording with a 5 year old within 3 feet of you, it takes about a hundred attempts. Edited May 8, 2012 by dragonsdontfly Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Please sign in to your FIFA.com user account below. This will allow you to make the most of your account with personalization, plus get access to commenting tools, exclusive games, the chance to win cool football prizes and much, much more.
Don't have an account yet?
We use "cookies" to collect information. Click here to read more.
FIFA.com chose twelve of the best goals from Bahamas 2017 and you have voted in your thousands to pick your favourite to be crowned Goal of the Tournament. Incredibly, it was the opening goal of the tournament that won the award!
Comprised of 700 islands scattered across more than 100,000 square miles of Atlantic Ocean, the Bahamas, with its pristine coastline and stellar beaches, is a perfect destination for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.


text:
Trip Part 14 - Final!
Our trip up the west coast of New Zealand was aimed at seeing the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. We remembered this area very well from our trip here when we were children and the main difference seemed to be lots more tourists viewing the area and lots more barriers to stop people from foolishly getting too close to danger at the edge of the rocks.


text:
Welcome To The Future: The EXODesk First Look!
"EXOdesk is part of a new products line to be build by selected partners in 2012, focusing on pricing and user experience. The HTML5 multi-touch development kit and the bi- directional application store allows a wide range of exciting applications involving productivity and creativity."
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text: Britain's greatest 20th century composer had a long and fruitful relationship with Decca. All of Britten's major works were recorded either under his supervision or with Britten as conductor or pianist. In addition, Britten's work as a conductor of other composer's music is also well documented. He was a deeply sympathetic Mozartian and he brought a freshness and vitality to baroque music which has rarely been matched since.


text:
Late gestation nutrition has a large impact on multiple aspects of the cow's productivity after freshening, says Charles T. Estill, VMD, PhD, Dipl. ACT, Oregon State University. "The health and viability of the neonate are directly affected," Estill says, speaking at the 2011 Western Veterinary Conference. "In addition, colostrum quality and quantity are influenced by prepartum nutrition. Early lactation milk yield and milk components are largely a reflection of prepartum nutritional management." Estill adds that the incidence of metabolic and infectious disorders can be minimized through proper nutritional management of the transition cow. Fertility of the dam is strongly correlated with late gestation and early postpartum nutrition.
The start of the transition period begins three weeks before anticipated calving date and ends three or four weeks after freshening. "Protein intake must be adequate to support fetal growth and maintenance of the dam," Estill explains. "As a monitor, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) can be examined and should be 9-12 mg/dL. In general, absorbed protein should be +200-400 g/d (Spartan Ration Balancer)." The nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) concentration should be at 30-35 percent to stimulate microbial protein synthesis and rumen papillae development. Papillae development is stimulated by propionate (from fermentable starch) and takes about four weeks to occur. It is also very important to avoid excessive NSC or fatty liver will result.
There are several serious consequences of low protein/energy intake during the close-up dry period. "Insulin concentrations will decline leading to increased protein catabolism and reduced protein synthesis," Estill says. "Somatotropin concentration will be elevated which increases protein synthesis but redirects protein away from muscles toward other tissues such as the conceptus and mammary gland which results in a depletion of body protein reserves." It is important to avoid extremely high fiber diets during the close up dry period because DMI will be reduced due to physical fill and reduced transit time. Very high energy diets resulted in a substantial decline in DMI prior to calving and should also be avoided.
General guidelines for a close up dry cow ration are:
- 12-15 percent CP (14 percent min if heifers in with close up cows) – increase RUP to 35-38 percent
- NEL,Mcal/lb 0.68-0.72
- 33-35 percent NSC
- 35-40 percent NDF
- Forage >70% of diet
- Ca≤6 percent or ≥1.3 percent if feeding anionic salts, Mg 0.35-0.40 percent
- Increase trace minerals 20-50 percent above NRC and force feed
- Consider chromium propionate at 500 ppb for heifer diets
- Increase omega-3 fatty acidcontent of feed but do not raise overall lipid concentration to over 3-4 percent
- Vitamin E 1000-2000 IU/day
- Niacin 6-12g/hd/day


text:
What do you need help on? Cancel X
nail'd is all about eschewing boring realism for over the top arcade fun. It's a racer that challenges everything from player reflexes through to the rules of physics. Riding on ATVs and motocross bikes with powerful boost controls, players will race down near-vertical courses of incredible jumps, stunts and obstacles. The brutal challenge of the Yosemite National Park is but one of the places they'll learn the meaning of verticality.
Game News
Game List Statistics
Now Playing
0 Users
Wish List
2 Users
Hot List
0 Users


text:
Glide along @CB_Connector from #CincyCyclones Stop 1 @TheBanksCincy to #FindlayMarket and #OTR and back again. Pa… https://t.co/Bt3rB8ws3b
Neil Luken started working at Findlay Market at age 12, when his brother Mike opened Luken's Fish and Poultry in 1978. When it came time to go to college he studied accounting and worked as an accountant for three years. But he came back to the Ma...read more


text:
Now, I have tended to argue that McGrath is the best of his era and I don't think many people would have a problem with that. However, from my own memories of the 90s, I used to think the most devastating and dangerous bowler was Allan Donald. While McGrath was likened to a metronome, Donald was fire and brimstone. For me, Donald had everything to be the best and lately I have been looking at his record, comparing it with other bowlers, and find it troublesome how underrated he is. I looked at both his record and McGrath's, home and away, and I think it shows the disservice he has endured with regards to comparisons. I have separated their stats into home and away.
Donald - Home:
McGrath - Home:
When comparing both at home, Donald has been castigated for his under-par record against the Australians, yet McGrath has an equally bad record against S.Africa. I find this misconception a perpetration of facts; that McGrath simply succeeded everywhere. Not only that, but McGrath also has another glaring record against New Zealand which is just as bad as his S.Africa figures. Other than that, they've both pretty much been superlative everywhere; while Donald, probably, a tad better. And before someone brings it up; yes, I am disregarding Donald's 1 test against Zimbabwe which I treat as an aberration.
Donald - Away:
McGrath - Away:
Donald also seems to have a better record away. The only blip are his two tests against Pakistan, which really is not a big enough sample IMO, yet still better than McGrath's record against Pakistan - who also isn't too hot against Sri Lanka but one could also make the sample-argument for him there too. Again, both superlative everywhere with Donald a tad better than McGrath overall.
So, just a short analysis, nothing in-depth but I just thought I'd raise the question and have people look over it again. IMO, Donald's record is more complete than McGrath's overall - and while comparable, I'd say Australia were harder to face than S.Africa (in terms of Donald v Australia and McGrath v S.Africa). Not only in a home and away basis, but overall having a better combined strike-rate and average.
In pondering why McGrath is almost automatically deemed better than Donald, I would say a lot of it has to do with longevity. People marvel that McGrath bowled for so long, kept such a high standard, especially as pitches flattened out. I think that has to do with their type of bowling, but I really don't have much doubt about Donald also succeeding had half of his career been in the 00's. I am not sure about others; hence the thread. Or maybe there are other considerations?


text:
T-shirts are a regular part of every man's wardrobe. T-shirts are one of the most versatile items that can be used classically alone with a nice pair of pants, or underneath a shirt. At Bertoni we got you covered with the best cotton t-shirts, which are stylish and can be used for casual wear.
Bertoni's t-shirts for men are perfect for an effortless look that looks stylish and relaxed. At the same time our t-shirts are designed with a tight fit.


text:
Top Pa. officials eligible for 2.2 percent raises
Pennsylvania's top officials are in line to receive automatic pay raises of nearly 2.2 percent.
The Patriot-News reported (http://bit.ly/SN454y ) that the raises required by a 1995 state law reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. They take effect Dec. 1.
Top legislative leaders will see their salaries rise from about $128,000 to $131,000, while rank-and-file lawmakers' salaries will increase from about $82,000 to $84,000.
Gov. Tom Corbett will be entitled to a $187,000 salary starting Jan. 1, but his spokesman says he'll continue to refuse the raise and keep his salary at $175,000 -- the level in effect when he took office in 2010.
Spokesman Kevin Harley says Corbett also will insist on keeping salaries for his Cabinet members at the 2010 level.


text:
Meals on wheels
Food trucks can be found all over the world, but the hype began in Portland, Oregon, where even gourmet chefs prefer to serve food on the street
Their love story could have been written by the city itself. Genevieve Rades and Scott Fitzsimons met ten years ago in a food cart serving Carolina barbecue. Four years later, they set up their own barbecue cart. Now they get up at dawn to prepare the ingredients before heading off to their second jobs and opening at 11 a.m. for smiling, hungry Portlandians. "We're still crazy about each other. Thank God! I have to see him every day," says Rades. Their pulled pork burger melts in your mouth – must be all the love that goes into it. Portland is known as the city of indie, hipster and alternative lifestyles. But it is also a kingdom of culinary delights – and where the current food truck movement started. It all began at the foot of Mount Hood against a backdrop of fall foliage in the U.S. state of Oregon.
In Portland, congregations of food carts are called "pods." The largest one, on 10th Street between Washington and Alder, consists of more than 60 carts. Secure a spot here and you're made – in the foodie hierarchy, at least. No wonder Rades and Fitzsimons are so cheerful. Serving food out of trucks can be traced back to the chuckwagons that accompanied the settlers traveling West along the Oregon Trail in the mid-19th century. Pods, the legitimate successors to a group of circled wagons, have been around since the 1980s, when the first gourmet cooks starting working out of carts. Since "business in the right of way" was prohibited by law, they gathered on parking lots instead of streets, and turned their counters to the sidewalk. At first there were not many, but soon their number grew and the idea became a trend, spreading throughout the city. Since then, over-eating become the norm. With so many different foods to choose from, there's always something to tempt you, even if you're not hungry.
Best of food trucks
Heading out of town, we spot a white 1970s Chevy by the Willamette River. We slam on the brakes and go across to see what's cooking. Street food in this no man's land of railroad and pylons? Really? Luis Ochoa has this culinary stage all to himself and is preparing traditional Mexican food for – wait – for whom? He considers, then grins: "For the guys who look, slam on the breaks and ask." A buddy of Ochoa's owns the tire company and the premises, so Ochoa can park here. The mechanics are some of his best customers, in fact. Ochoa once worked as a maître de cuisine and a sous-chef, but something was missing. "In my Chevy, I'm cook, waiter, cashier and dishwasher all in one," he says, "and you know what? I love it!" It may sound a little delusional, and lots of people talk like that in Portland, but perhaps it's really true. Ochoa doesn't have a license for the city, so he plies the industrial zone with tortillas, empanadas and Mexicola instead. (A couple of weeks later he will get his license and move to the Montgomery Park office complex in town.)
The general ambition of chefs around the world is to run a restaurant kitchen. In Portland, many former chefs become food truck vendors, go from top to bottom, rather than the other way around. Top and bottom are relative, a matter of perspective; in Portland, wherever you are happy is the top.
If you work hard and know how to cook, you will always land on your feet in Portland
Rick Gencarelli is familiar with both sides. He now has three outlets for his sandwich shop, Lardo, but he used to own a food truck. You can tell by the way he still treats customers: the buddy-buddy banter you only learn on the street. The likeable, full-service caterer with 120 employees has changed since those days, but remained true to himself. A year ago, he bought back his cart and now rents it out daily as a pop-up stage for cooks who wish to test their food-cart concept. "That way, they find out whether people like their idea. And, more importantly, whether they do themselves," he says. Gencarelli wants to be a mentor, to help launch the next generation of street kitchens. While making sandwiches years ago, he used to ask himself what he really wanted to do, and then realized that was it: making sandwiches, the best in the city. He invented dressings, remembered his Italian roots, and created massive, juicy pastrami sandwiches. The lesson he learned: "If you work hard and know how to cook, you will always land on your feet in Portland." He would never move away. Impossible, he says; and you can understand it.
Falling in love with Portland is like falling in love with a wonderful woman. You fall head over heels and your love never fades because you're constantly discovering something new. Of course, Portland is becoming gentrified. Rents are rising and big companies are crowding out small businesses. Some call it the "new Seattle." But Monocle magazine voted Portland the USA's most liveable city. You have to fight for true love, and those fighting the hardest here are the cooks. They venture, fail, succeed; they are the engine that keeps Portland moving.
Liz Crain has to agree. We meet her at the Tasty n Alder – fine fingerfood, high prices. Crain used to be a waitress; today she's a blogger and author. She wrote Food Lover's Guide to Portland, organized the Portland Fermentation Festival and is the person to ask if you want to understand the hype. On the menu: focaccia, Korean chicken and pimientos in sea salt. The secret to Portland, according to Crain: First, anyone can operate a food cart because it doesn't cost much. Second, everything grows in the Willamette Valley, so the location is perfect. Third, quality of life and social ties are the main reasons people eat. Fourth, Porlandians tend to avoid big chains and prefer to support the hardworking man on the street. "New restaurants, bars, cafés and carts open up here evey day. It's an explosion!" Crain says loudly, startling a couple of nerds bent over a ricotta pancake.
To fully understand Portland's food movement, you have to follow the ingredients. Portland has 23 farmers' markets spread out across its districts, with at least one open almost every day of the week. Freshness is paramount, and access to it is a basic right. On a rainy morning in Shemanski Park, the place is packed with people buying lunch. There are Babel-like towers of cabbages and carrots, gleaming ripe tomatoes and melons the size of medicine balls. Joshua Gulliver, standing behind the Gathering Together Farm's stand in his checkered shirt, looks like he was born into the job. Every Wednesday, he drives in from Philomath with seven pallets and drives back home again with two. The 300 kilometers at the wheel are worth it. "We have a unique public here, lots of cooks stocking up for the evening," he says. Following his gaze, we spot a large number of chef's hats bobbing in the crowd. Gulliver hails from Massachusetts originally, but he moved out west to Oregon because people here farmed the way he dreamed of doing it: growing seasonal, organic produce without pesticides and with a good conscience – and because Portland is one long party without the hangover the morning after. Kinda laid-back, kinda nutty. All options open but nothing a must.
And so here we are at Tidbit, enjoying a beer at the end of the day, which means nothing because we already had one this afternoon. Tidbit is the city's after-work village. A meeting place for carts, craft beer and folk, the holy trinity of hipsters. Orders float hither and thither on the later-summer air: pizza for Al Pacino! Thai for Britney Spears! Name games are practically a national sport. It would be fun to watch and listen and drink forever, but then suddenly I hear: "Octopus for Mick Jagger!" Gotta go, dinner's ready.
Portland tips
Hopworks Brewery
Beer and bikes – At Christian Ettinger's craft brewery they go together perfectly.
St. Johns bridge
The view from the bridge is divine, and Cathedral Park is nice, too.
Ace hotel
Hipster's dream: A centrally located hotel in industrial design with a café and bar.
Powell's books
Late-night shopping: More than a million new and used books. Open until 11 pm.
Our city tips are on Foursquare, too
Moritz Herrmann
Moritz Herrmann, travel reporter, is from the city of Hamburg, where he attended the Henri Nannen School of Journalism. He lived in India for a year without finding his center, so he moved on, traveling to Las Vegas, Cuba, Brussels and Portugal for Lufthansa Magazin. He likes to bring home beverages from each country he visits, but never shares them with anyone in the editorial office. Moritz writes long articles for other magazines, too, on society, washed-up characters and sports.
Malte Jäger
Malte Jäger is a Berlin, Germany based professional photographer. In his work, he is mainly searching for human nature. What drives people to live their life the way they do? That's what he tries to find out, understand and share with others. He started taking photos neither for technical reasons, nor because photography was his hobby ever since: He's been using the medium photography to get the chance to look behind curtains which wouldn't be opened for him if he wasn't using his camera. And of course, he loves to meet and learn to know people. Since human behavior is what he is interested in, you will certainly find faces in almost all of his images.


text:
Arrive combines a versatile selection of desks and storage with a mix of materials to fit any office environment. The rich veneer surfaces are hand-selected and slip-matched to ensure consistency, then finished with a multi-step process to highlight and protect the natural grain. With superior craftsmanship and an abundance of storage options, Arrive makes a stunning impression while keeping you organized and productive. All at a surprisingly affordable price.
Arrive doors are available in three styles; wood, frosted with wood frame, or frosted with Silver frame.
Filing, bookcases, stack-on storage and wall-mounted units, personal storage cabinets — Arrive has it all.
Handles are available in Black and Matte Chrome (Shown).


text: Celebrity Juice is a tabloid focused quiz show based on the nation's obsession with all things celebrity. Hosted by Keith Lemon - Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton will go head to head as team captains. Each team will consist of those with their finger on the pulse, whether this is a comedian, celebrity or showbiz journalist.


text:
The major problem now is dealing with corruption. Joshephat said a city officials came by again yesterday and try to extort money. It's like the policemen Paula, Dan and I encountered in Zimbabwe. They threatened to throw us in the back of the truck and take us to jail if we didn't give them US dollars. I was proud of Joshephat for standing up to them. He actually put the fear into them by threatened to report them to the anti-corruption commission. Corruption has become such a way of life that those who are involved in it don't even see it as stealing. This new anti-corruption commission is helping somewhat. Fortunately, the people are getting fed up.
A personal example of the daily corruption faced in Kenya: Yesterday I got on the matatu bus to go to Kayole and when I got off at the intersection of Jogoo Road to transfer, I pulled a bunch of coins from my pocket and counted out the fare, 20 shillings (there are two guys on the matatu-one drives and the other takes fares and calls out the stops). Well, the guy who takes the fares got greedy. He said he needed 50 more shillings. On principle, I told him that I wasn't paying a shilling extra because I had been riding the route for almost three years and knew the fare. However, he didn't budge and insisted that before I could get off I had to give him another 50 shillings. He stood in front of me and blocked my exit and we passed my stop. I told him that he could take me all the way downtown and back but I wasn't giving him one extra shilling.
Fortunately the driver saw that I meant business so he let me out and I had to get another bus back. You're probably thinking, "why didn't you just give him the extra 50 shillings?" Because I see this as trying to steal from me and the amount wasn't important. This is just one of the little things that keep life here exciting.


text:
Published at Saturday, March 14th, 2020 - 04:31:05 AM. Bedding. By Tiphaine Escoffier.
There are many factors to keep in mind while designing a bedroom such as bed and bedding, furniture and fixtures, lighting, flooring and color combinations. But the most important factor to decide is the bed. Select the bed as per the size of the room. Think upon the shape, comfort and storage. Today markets offer designer beds with the facility to store inside the drawers, side boards and foot boards and also beneath the bed. You can store your stuffs such as pillows, blankets, rugs, bedding's and much more to save space. Keep unwanted stuff out of your eyes by storing it tactfully and smartly. A Shelf or a simple cabinet for books can also enhance the look of the bedroom. Minimum display of things in the bedroom can make it look more spacious and clean. Sofa cum bed is a new and distinctive idea for small bedroom. Go for compressed furniture and fixtures.
Air beds use a mattress that is air-inflated. In many cases they also have a small electric air pump that allows one to change the firmness of the mattress. This type is not to be mistaken for the well known portable air mattress which is used as a travel bed or to sleep temporary guests in a house.
Fresh Posts
Tag Cloud
About ▪ Contact ▪ Terms of Service ▪ Privacy Policy ▪ Cookie Policy ▪ Copyright ▪ Sitemap
Any content, trademark's, or other material that might be found on the Equaliserfootball.com website that is not Equaliserfootball.com's property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Equaliserfootball.com claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.


text:
|Started snowing at 11:00 am
The sun has been shining today and is above freezing, so some of it has started to melt. I guess when the it gets colder tonight it will freeze again. What happened to the Ground Hog? I thought he said we were to have an early spring? Maybe we should have ground hog season ?.I just worry about all the jonquils that were popping up all over the garden. I guess under a snow blanket, they will be fine. I sure hope so,
It was beautiful, I love a fresh fallen snow.Last night when Sissy and I went out, it just glistened like diamonds, with the ice on top. But we soon took care of that ,as we plowed our way through. Maybe this will be Mother Natures last gift. I sure hope so, cause even though we have had a mild winter, I for one, have had enough. Come one spring and warm weather. I long for the flowers, spring is my favorite. I can smell the lilac as I type.
You all come visit me any time. I will leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will always meet you with a jump and a kiss. The walks are clean and so is the parking lot.Be safe and be warm and pray for spring and pretty flowers. Richard
|Middle afternoon, river is beyond the sign and gazebo roof, where did it go!
|10 inches when I went home at 5:00.


text:
Hilary Duff is on the set of her new music video shoot today for her newest single "Sparks". The video will be directed by Hannah Lux Davis who has previously shot videos for Ariana Grande, Paris Hilton, Fifth Harmony, and Tinashe. Hilary's make up will be done by Adam Breuchaud, hair will be done by Etienne Ortega, and she will be styled by Brett Allannelson with clothing designed by The Blonds.
For the past few weeks Hilary has been hitting the dance studio in Los Angeles and it was revealed today that she is working with choreographer Amy Allen. Hilary has said in recent radio interviews that the video will be high concept with bright pops of color and that she believes her fans will be surprised when she drops it.
"Sparks" is available on iTunes now as well as Vevo and Spotify. The song will be sent for radio adds on Hot AC on April 27th according to All Access.


text:
That's right…cardboard! I used cut up pieces from an empty 12 pack of soda. Are you interested? Yes, then crab some cardboard and thin yarn or embroidery floss and make some of these cuties yourself!
First, I must mention that the final product will not be as solid as hard plastic or metal bangles. No, these pieces will by bendable, but if you use several pieces of cardboard tapped together, they will be more sturdy. Here's what you'll need.
Flexible cardboard (an empty 12 pack container works best)
Embroidery floss, thin yarn or ribbon
Super or Gorilla Glue
Step 1: Cut your cardboard to whatever size you want your bracelet to be, width and length. Make sure to wrap the cardboard around your wrist and pull it over your hand so the opening is big enough for you to slide it off and on. Cut your ends as close together as possible so you don't have too much overlap as you want your final taped together piece to be as even and symmetrical as possible.
Step 2: Use at least two pieces of the exact same size cardboard and tape every inch of them together.
Step 3: Tape the ends together to form a circle like so.
Step 4: Pick your floss, yarn or ribbon.
Step 5: Tape the edge of your floss, yard or ribbon like shown below. If you are using more than one color floss, yarn or ribbon it's good to tape your material as far to one side or the other a possible because as you move through the project it will allow you to tape your new color as close as possible to where you left off.
Step 6: When you finish with one color and want to change to another, cut your material close to the inside of the bracelet and tape it on the inside as shown below. Then start your next color right on top of the piece you just taped making sure you cover all the taped pieces once you're finished.
Step 7: When you come to your final thread-over, use some Gorilla or Super Glue before you lay down the final thread. Do the same for underneath as well.
And you're done. I made these on one rainy afternoon and they're so fun! Super light to wear too…and you know how much I hate jewelry that weighs down 😉
Here are all the pieces I made. Cute, huh?
Give 'em a try and let me know what you think!
Thanks for stopping by!


text:
Anthony Weiner Has Brilliant New Campaign Strategy — Get Into Shouting Match With Jewish Voter [VIDEO]
If Anthony Weiner takes on the problems plaguing the Big Apple like he does constituents, then maybe New York City should vote him into office.
The embattled mayoral candidate found himself in a war of words with a Jewish voter while campaigning after the voter said Weiner should end his campaign.
Weiner – who is in Carlos Danger of becoming an afterthought in the race, thanks to plunging numbers (sorry, had to do it) – lets his rage fly.
Making it even better? Weiner goes on the offensive with a Jewish person right before Rosh Hashanah begins, marking the beginning of the holiest period of the year for the religion.
Way to go, Anthony. At least you're not in the headlines for sexting again.


text:
Taco Bell's ground beef is the latest food to be implicated in the horse meat scandal sweeping Europe and the U.K.
Taco Bell's ground beef is among the four new products found by the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency to contain more than one percent horse meat, the BBC reported.
The restaurant chain only has three locations in Britain, and said all affected products have been removed. The products came from a European supplier, the company told the BBC.
At least 95 percent of Britain's chain restaurants have now been tested for horse meat, according to the BBC.
The horse meat was first discovered in January in frozen burgers in the U.K. and Ireland. Since then, testing has revealed that many processed food and beef products contain it.
Burger King in Ireland admitted that some of its burgers contained horse meat. Ikea meatballs in Europe were also affected.
Taco Bell sent us this statement to stress that the finding wouldn't affect its U.S. business:
"Our domestic restaurants have not been, and will not be, impacted because we do not use any meat from Europe. We stand for quality and we use 100% premium beef. Like all beef in the United States, ours is USDA inspected and then passes our own 20 quality checkpoints."


text:
|Version 13 (modified by nichot20, 8 years ago) (diff)
FFmpeg Filtering Guide
FFmpeg has access to many filters and more are added on a regular basis. To see what filters are available with your build see ffmpeg -filters. Refer to the libavfilter documentation for more information and examples. This wiki page is for user contributed examples and tips. Contributions to this page are encouraged.
Starting with something simple. Resize a 640x480 input to a 320x240 output.
ffmpeg -i input -vf scale=iw/2:-1 output
iw is input width. In this example the input width is 640. 640/2 = 320. The -1 tells the scale filter to preserve the aspect ratio of the output, so in this example the scale filter will choose a value of 240. See the libavfilter documentation for additional information.
Speed up your video
Increase the speed of a 20 minute video to fit 1 minute output. 1 minute / 20 minutes = 0.05.
ffmpeg -i input -vf setpts=0.05*PTS output
Note that this method will drop frames to achieve your desired speed.
Filtergraph,Chain,Filter relationship
What follows the -vf in an ffmpeg command line is a Filtergraph description. This filtergraph may contain a number of chains, each of which may contain a number of filters.
Whilst a full filtergraph description can be complicated, it is possible to simplify it for simpler graphs provided ambiguity is avoided.
Remembering that filters in a chain are separated by commas "," chains by a semicolon ";" and that if an input or output is not specified it is assumed to come from the preceding or sent to the following item in the chain.
The following are equivalent:-
ffmpeg -i input -vf [in]scale=iw/2:-1[out] output ffmpeg -i input -vf scale=iw/2:-1 output # the input and output are implied without ambiguity
As are:-
ffmpeg -i input -vf [in]yadif=0:0:0[middle];[middle]scale=iw/2:-1[out] output # 2 chains form, one filter per chain, chains linked by the [middle] pad ffmpeg -i input -vf [in]yadif=0:0:0,scale=iw/2:-1[out] output # 1 chain form, with 2 filters in the chain, linking implied ffmpeg -i input -vf yadif=0:0:0,scale=iw/2:-1 output # the input and output are implied without ambiguity
Escaping characters
As described in the documentation, it can be necessary to escape commas "," that need to appear in some arguments, for example the select filter:-
ffmpeg -i input -vf select='eq(pict_type\,I)' output #to select only I frames
However an alternative, which also allows for white space within the filtergraph, and which may assist in clarity of reading complex graphs, is to enclose the whole filtergraph within double quotes " " thus:-
ffmpeg -i input -vf "select=eq(pict_type,I)" output #to select only I frames ffmpeg -i input -vf "yadif=0:-1:0, scale=iw/2:-1" output # deinterlace then resize
Note that the examples given in the documentation mix and match the use of "full quoting" and "\" escaping, and that use of unusual shells may upset escaping.
Burnt in Timecode
PAL 25fps non drop frame
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/DroidSans.ttf: timecode='09\:57\:00\:00': r=25: \ x=(w-tw)/2: y=h-(2*lh): fontcolor=white: box=1: boxcolor=0x00000000@1" -an -y out.mp4
NTSC 30fps drop frame
(change the : to a ; before the frame count)_________________________________________________________ \ ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/DroidSans.ttf: timecode='09\:57\:00\;00': r=30: \ x=(w-tw)/2: y=h-(2*lh): fontcolor=white: box=1: boxcolor=0x00000000@1" -an -y out.mp4
Scripting your command line parameters
If building complex filtergraphs the command line can get very messy so it can help to break things down into manageable pieces. However one needs to be careful when joining them all together to avoid issues due to your shell and escaped characters.
The following example shows a sample bash script containing a filtergraph of one chain with three filters; yadif, scale and drawtext.
#!/bin/bash # ffmpeg test script path="/path/to/file/" in_file="in.mp4" out_file="out.mp4" cd $path filter="-vf \"yadif=0:-1:0, scale=400:226, drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/DroidSans.ttf: \ text='tod- %X':x=(w-text_w)/2:y=H-60 :fontcolor=white :box=1:boxcolor=0x00000000@1\"" codec="-vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 700k -r 25 -maxrate 700k -bufsize 5097k" command_line="ffmpeg -i $in_file $filter $codec -an $out_file" echo $command_line eval $command_line exit
Note that the double quotes " around the whole filtergraph have been escaped \" and the filtergraph spans more than one line, the echo command shows the full command as it is executed. Useful for debugging.
The eval invocation of the $command_line variable is required to avoid loss of the embedded escaped quotes which occurs if it is absent. Other shells may behave differently.
List of Filters
Filters bundled with libavfilter as of 2.50.0:
Filters: aconvert Convert the input audio to sample_fmt:channel_layout:packed_fmt. aformat Convert the input audio to one of the specified formats. anull Pass the source unchanged to the output. aresample Resample audio data. ashowinfo Show textual information for each audio frame. earwax Widen the stereo image. pan Remix channels with coefficients (panning) volume Change input volume. abuffer Buffer audio frames, and make them accessible to the filterchain. aevalsrc Generate an audio signal generated by an expression. amovie Read audio from a movie source. anullsrc Null audio source, return empty audio frames. abuffersink Buffer audio frames, and make them available to the end of the filter graph. anullsink Do absolutely nothing with the input audio. blackframe Detect frames that are (almost) black. boxblur Blur the input. copy Copy the input video unchanged to the output. crop Crop the input video to width:height:x:y. cropdetect Auto-detect crop size. delogo Remove logo from input video. deshake Stabilize shaky video. drawbox Draw a colored box on the input video. fade Fade in/out input video fieldorder Set the field order. fifo Buffer input images and send them when they are requested. format Convert the input video to one of the specified pixel formats. gradfun Debands video quickly using gradients. hflip Horizontally flip the input video. hqdn3d Apply a High Quality 3D Denoiser. lut Compute and apply a lookup table to the RGB/YUV input video. lutrgb Compute and apply a lookup table to the RGB input video. lutyuv Compute and apply a lookup table to the YUV input video. mp libmpcodecs wrapper. negate Negate input video. noformat Force libavfilter not to use any of the specified pixel formats for the input to the next filter. null Pass the source unchanged to the output. overlay Overlay a video source on top of the input. pad Pad input image to width:height[:x:y[:color]] (default x and y: 0, default color: black). pixdesctest Test pixel format definitions. scale Scale the input video to width:height size and/or convert the image format. select Select frames to pass in output. setdar Set the frame display aspect ratio. setpts Set PTS for the output video frame. setsar Set the pixel sample aspect ratio. settb Set timebase for the output link. showinfo Show textual information for each video frame. slicify Pass the images of input video on to next video filter as multiple slices. split Pass on the input to two outputs. transpose Transpose input video. unsharp Sharpen or blur the input video. vflip Flip the input video vertically. yadif Deinterlace the input image buffer Buffer video frames, and make them accessible to the filterchain. color Provide an uniformly colored input, syntax is: [color[:size[:rate]]] mandelbrot Mandelbrot fractal renderer movie Read from a movie source. mptestsrc Generate various test pattern. nullsrc Null video source, return unprocessed video frames. rgbtestsrc Generate RGB test pattern. testsrc Generate test pattern. buffersink Buffer video frames, and make them available to the end of the filter graph. nullsink Do absolutely nothing with the input video.
Other Filters
Other filters created by users:
- https://github.com/indiefan/FFmpeg-Filters an updated vf_fade filter.
Attachments (1)
- multiple_input_overlay.jpg (22.3 KB) - added by llogan 8 years ago.
Download all attachments as: .zip


text:
When I run it, it encounters a division by zero in the routine PLASMA_xplgsy.
Debugging it is tricky because of the preprocessor functions which confuse the debugger, but I'm fairly certain that the problem with the example is that the matrix is too small. There are no calls which set the tile or group size in the main program like there are in the ones that work so I assume they get set to defaults.
In the routine which converts from tiled to LAPACK formats (PLASMA_xgecfi_async) the future culprit of the division by zero is computed - a variable called 'oml'. This variable is computed from:
- Code: Select all
oml = (m/omb)*omb
Where m and omb are arguments to the function. M seems to be size of the matrix. omb's value is always 120. I can't confirm, but this looks like it may be the tile size because 120 seems to be its typical size throughout the examples.
So in conclusion is seems that in the example the matrix size is set to be small at 10, but the tile size is 120 so bigger than the whole matrix! I set the matrix size to be >= 120 and the program runs successfully.
Can you confirm that this is the case on your end also? I spent the whole afternoon thinking that it was some evil bug in the way I compiled it.


text:
|Ricardo Santos by ©Getty Images
Santos celebrated the 40th anniversary of The European Tour one week late by becoming only the second Portuguese player to win on the International Schedule – exactly 20 years after Daniel Silva became the first by capturing the Jersey Open.
Born in Faro in 1982, Santos, raised in a home adjacent to the Oceânico Victoria Golf Course in the Algarve, fulfilled his boyhood dream by winning on Portuguese soil with a superb final round of 63, which was the lowest final round by a winner during the 2012 season and was watched by many of his family including brother Hugo, who also played in the Madeira Islands Open.
Santos had notched seven birdies before – to a hero's welcome – he rattled home a 40-footer at the 17th, then drilled an approach to two feet at the last to become, appropriately, the first Rookie winner on The 2012 European Tour International Schedule. Santos' claim to succeed Tom Lewis as the winner of the award was strengthened by the fact that none of his fellow rookies subsequently won on The European Tour in 2012, which ultimately swung the vote in the 30 year old's favour.
Santos, who dedicated his win to his wife, Rita, and their daughter, Victoria, was naturally thrilled to learn that he had become the 48th recipient of The Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award, which was launched in 1960.
He said: "It's an honour to become the first Portuguese player to win the Rookie of the Year award. When you look at some of the players who have won the award in the past, it's a real privilege to see my name next to theirs on the trophy. It's been an amazing season, and to end it be winning the award is more than I could have dreamed of.
"Winning in Madeira has brought me more recognition in Portugal, and being named Rookie of the Year will get my name known even more, here at home and across Europe. But the award is not just for me – it's also for my coach, Almerindo Sequeira; my fitness coach, David Moura; my sports psychologist, Gonςalo Castanho; and for my wife, Rita. Our daughter Victoria is probably too young to understand at the moment, but when she grows up I'm sure she'll be proud of her father for winning this award.
"The goal for 2013 is to win again on The European Tour, and to play my first Major. This award has given me the confidence to go and achieve my goals – although you only have one chance to win the Rookie of the Year, hopefully I can win many more titles in the future."
Prior to turning professional in 2006, Santos won the Swiss Amateur International Open Championship and the Portugal Amateur Order of Merit, in addition to representing Portugal in the Eisenhower Trophy and the Continent of Europe in the St Andrews Trophy.
He graduated to The European Tour by finishing fourth in the Challenge Tour Final Rankings in 2011 – when he also played alongside brother Hugo in the World Cup for Portugal – after springing from the pack with a closing round of 66 to win his maiden title in The Princess by Schüco at the PGA of Sweden National.
George O'Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: "We congratulate Ricardo on an outstanding season capped by becoming the first Portuguese winner of the very prestigious Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. I'm sure Ricardo would have been a very popular choice with Sir Henry himself, as he had a great affinity with Portugal after designing the Championship Course at Penina Golf & Resort.
"Ricardo followed success on the Challenge Tour by gaining his maiden European Tour victory. These triumphs will unquestionably increase interest in the game in Portugal and encourage other players from the country to emulate his achievements."
Santos follows many of golf's greatest names such as Sir Nick Faldo, Tony Jacklin, Sandy Lyle, José María Olazábal and Colin Montgomerie in addition to, more recently, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Matteo Manassero, Ian Poulter and last year's winner Tom Lewis in winning The Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award, which is judged by The R&A, the Association of Golf Writers and The European Tour.
The judges considered four main contenders, but Santos became the 11th winner from Continental Europe ahead of England's Matthew Baldwin and Tommy Fleetwood and Spain's Jorge Campillo, who all also graduated from the 2011 European Challenge Tour.
Source: European Tour


text:
Straight tooth Slot Cutters cut not only along the face of cutter but on both sides of the teeth. Used for side + face milling, for cutting slots + straddle milling. Excellent quality British Made to BS-122 (Staggered tooth also supplied - ask)
Click on Side and Face Slot Cutters Inch to buy sizes from 2-1/2"to 10" diameterOR view CUTTERS - shank type for Endmills, Slot Drills, Ball Nose, T-Slot, Corner Rounding, Dovetail, Inverted Dovetail, Woodruff KeyseatingOR view CUTTERS - bore type for Cylindrical Mill, Involute Gear, Single Angle, Equal Double Angle, Convex, Concave, Side and Face Slot Cutters- View what customers say about Us Satisfied customers include Rolls Royce, British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil Chemical, British Airways Avionics, Scottish Power Energy, etc


text:
We at Kiwi.com take your privacy very seriously. Currently, we comply with the Regulation No. 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation, also known as GDPR, which sets the highest privacy and data protection standard in the world. In this Privacy Policy we explain what data we collect from you, why we collect it, how we use it and with whom we might share it. It also explains what rights you as a data subject have and how you can fulfill them.
This Privacy Policy applies to any data processing done by us in connection to the use of our services, both through our website lastminute.kiwi.com (the "Website") and through our mobile applications for iOS and Android (the "App").
We, as the Data Controller, are the company Kiwi.com s.r.o., ID No. 29352886, with a registered office at Palachovo náměstí 797/4, Starý Lískovec, Post Code 625 00 Brno, registered in the Companies Register administered by the Regional Court of Brno, file no. C 74565, Tax ID No. CZ29352886.
Personal Data: any information relating to a directly or indirectly identified or identifiable natural person. That means that if we possess means to identify either you or even the device you're using, any information that we can connect to you will be treated as Personal Data.
Data Controller: someone that determines the purposes and means of processing Personal Data. For example, we are a Data Controller when we process your Personal Data for the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy. If you choose to book a ticket through our website or app, we will be sending your Personal Data to another Data Controller – the carrier or the provider of other services – who will again use your Personal Data for its own purposes. Each Data Controller (to whom the GDPR or similar legal regime applies) should have a Privacy Policy such as this one where you can learn about how your Personal Data is processed. You can see the full list of Data Controllers we might share the data with below.
Data Processor: a third party that only helps to achieve the purposes determined by the Data Controller. For example, we as a Data Controller use many third-party services to which we outsource some parts of our activities that we don't do ourselves for various reasons such as cost efficiency. A Data Processor is only allowed to process your Personal Data according to our documented instructions, and the GDPR obliges us to have a strict formal contractual relationship that ensures a truly sufficient protection of your privacy.
Third Countries: countries in which the GDPR regime is not applicable. Currently, by Third Countries we mean all countries that lie outside of the European Economic Area.
For every purpose for which we need your Personal Data, we only process data that are necessary for us to fulfill it. Depending on the given purpose, we may process:
Mainly your name, surname, nationality, IP address, ID number, and other identification information that you might give us. Additionally, we will assign you some unique identifiers for our use, such as the booking ID or, in some cases, unique promotional codes.
Your email address, phone number and other contact details that you might give us in non-standard situations.
We will remember what choices you make so that we can apply the same settings when you come back to us. If, for example, you decide to opt-out of using cookies for some reason, we will try to remember that and make sure we don't store those cookies during your next visit to our website.
We will gather data about the order itself and its payment and we will keep your past orders for the purposes of the Provision of our services, and to a limited extent, for Marketing purposes also (we will never use any data about your payment for Marketing purposes).
When you use our website or mobile application, we track what you do on it and use this for the purposes of Improving our services mainly to enhance the user experience. We may also use this data to resolve your complaints as part of our customer support services. For example, we monitor which pages you visit, what you click or tap on, or where your cursor is, and based on this, we analyze if certain features on our website or mobile application need improvement. Also, we remember some info that you fill into our booking forms for the purpose of reminding you that the order wasn't actually completed as a part of the purpose of sending personalized offers.
If you book a ticket or order another service, we will gather some data about you so that we can tailor our offers just for you and your needs. This includes information about your device (software and hardware), your IP address, general information about your location (such as timezone or general area), identification and contact information.
When you send us email, contact us through chat or when you call us, we will store your contact details, booking ID and all the information that you give us during the contact, including the messages or the call itself. We will then use it to:
The main reason we collect and use your Personal Data is to conclude an agreement with you and then to provide you the services that you've ordered. Depending on the extent in which you use our services, we will process your Personal Data in a way that is necessary to enter into and fulfill our Service Agreement as described in Article 2 of our Terms & Conditions. The services that we provide include, primarily, the brokering of a contract of carriage and related services between you and the selected carrier. We may also process your Personal Data for this purpose when providing you with service of enforcement of your claims against carriers.
To achieve this purpose, we need to share your Personal Data with the carriers with whom you will enter into a contract of carriage and in some cases also with operators of ticket marketplaces, such as the Global Distribution Networks. Additionally, to pay for the tickets, we will use your name and surname to generate a single use virtual payment card which we use for the financial settlement with the transport provider.
If you order additional service Special assistance or when you ask us to get a refund due to health issues, we will process your Personal Data concerning health and in case of the Special assistance service, we will share it with the air carrier of your choice. During the ordering process, you will be asked to give your explicit consent with the processing of this Personal Data. You can always withdraw your consent through this form: lastminute.kiwi.com/privacy/rights. However, please note, that if you withdraw the consent with the processing of your personal data for the purpose of the Special Assistance additional service, we won't be able to provide you with any subsequent support related to this service.
It may also happen that you choose to order another service that we or our partners offer on our website or in our app, such as insurance or accommodation. We will process your Personal Data as required to enter into a contract with you, to provide you with the ordered service or (if the service is provided by our partner) to enable you to enter into the contract with the service provider and to do our part in the contractual relationship between you and the third-party service provider. This will include the transfer of your data to this third-party service provider. You can find the complete list of third-party Data Controllers that we might share your data with here.
As with the previous example, we are allowed to process your Personal Data for this purpose based on a legal ground of necessity for conclusion or performance of a contract.
Customer support is a huge part of our services. We will record all of our communication through all channels, such as email, chat and phone calls, in order to provide you with the service that you require. Part of our customer support is also helping our customers with potential legal issues with the air carriers (in case of missed flights and similar situations). For this, we have partnered with a third-party service provider. When you have a legal problem, we will send this provider your email address and you will be contacted with an offer to help you exercise your claims. You can learn more about the sharing of your personal data with third-party data controllers here.
Again, we are legally allowed to process your Personal Data for this purpose based on a necessity for the conclusion or performance of a contract.
If you used our service through one of our partners' websites to order a transport ticket, we shall inform the partner about any emergency that might impact your journey, such as a natural disaster or bankruptcy of the transport provider. This is to ensure that the information reaches you as promptly as possible. That way, if you reach out to the partner with a question or complaint, they will be able to help you without having to refer you to our customer support.
This transfer of Personal Data shall be carried out based on your legitimate interest.
If you want to register a Kiwi.com account, we need to process your Personal Data such as your email address, password and other information necessary to provide you with this service. We are legally allowed to this based on a necessity for the conclusion or performance of a contract.
When you book a ticket or order any other service through our website or app, during the payment transaction, we use a third-party service that helps us prevent fraudulent behaviour. This is a very common process that happens nearly every time you order something online. For this to be possible, we will transfer your Personal Data momentarily to a third-party Data Processor. However, this is not something to worry about, the whole transaction is completely secure, and we use one of the best and most common fraud-prevention tools. You can learn more about the Data Processors we use here. Furthermore, to prevent attempts for fraudulent chargebacks, if you report fraudulent purchase through your bank, we might check your social media to see, whether you have some sort of connection to the person who ordered the ticket to make sure that it is not an attempt to get the money for the ticket back by fraud. We will only process limited information about your connection to the person, who ordered the ticket, and whether you by any chance haven't published some information connected to the journey (e.g. photos from the airport taking a flight).
We need to prevent fraudulent behavior to protect our business and our property. This protection against fraud is one of the strongest legitimate interests recognized within the EU. Therefore, we process your personal data for this process on the legal ground of the legitimate interest.
To provide you with the best offers and to maximise our marketing efficiency, we process your Personal Data for the purposes of direct marketing (email offers and related processing activities). Besides your contact details, we also keep data like your transaction and travel history, travel preferences and other data about your interaction with us that help us with customer segmentation and personalisation of these offers. For example, we might tailor a special offer just for you based on your previous orders.
Additionally, when you provide your information during the booking process or while ordering another service, we may send you an email to remind you of any unfinished orders that are still incomplete. We will only keep your Personal Data collected in this way for 30 days.
We can send you offers and other commercial communications based on a legitimate interest in direct marketing. At any time, you can object to this and we will immediately cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose. However, this means that we will no longer be able to send you any offers.
We will never share your contact details with other Data Controllers without your knowledge and we will only contact you with offers that are linked to our main business. You can always unsubscribe and check your subscription status through the links below every newsletter that you get from us.
To improve our marketing campaigns in general, we also perform analysis to help us see which campaigns work and how they contribute to our conversion rates. To secure the maximum effectiveness and best outcomes of such analysis, we use third-party Data Processors. You can see the full list of third parties that we use and therefore share your Personal Data with here. In all cases, we remain the Data Controllers of your Personal Data and these third parties can only use them to fulfill our purposes.
For this purpose, we also process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest of market research. At any time, you can object against this processing. We will then assess whether we can prove that our legitimate grounds for the processing override your individual interests, rights and freedoms. If not, we will cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
We want to make sure that you don't miss out any special offers that we have. Because of this, we send website and app push notifications (with your consent) and we also display ads on Kiwi.com and third-party websites that are tailored for you according to your past orders. It might, therefore, happen that you'll see ads offering booking of transportation via Kiwi.com elsewhere on the internet.
We can send you notifications and display ads based on our legitimate interest in direct marketing. At any time, you can object and we will immediately cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
If you have a friend with a Kiwi.com account, it may happen that he/she will refer you to us and provide us with your email address even if you have never visited our website or even heard about Kiwi.com before. You will then get an informational email with a link. If you use it to make a booking on our website, both you and your friend will get a financial reward in the form of credit that can be used as discount when paying for flight tickets or services.
For this purpose, we process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest of direct marketing. At any time, you can object against processing and we will immediately cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
If you give us your consent, we'll share some of your data with our partners. These partners use this data to create a profile containing your preferences for the purposes of showing you relevant third-party ads. We will never share any data which would allow your direct identification with these partners. These profiles created by our partners, therefore, do not contain any information which could be connected to you as an individual. It can only be connected to your device based on an artificially created identifier saved in a cookie on your device. Any sort of connection to your device may, therefore, be prevented by deleting this cookie.
Along with using cookies to share this information with our partners, we also use the technologies of pixel tags and app events.
For this purpose, we process your Personal Data based on consent. You may always withdraw this consent by turning off the "Third-party marketing cookies" in your cookies preferences here.
As with any other business, to improve the way we do things, we need some data about you, our customers. To this end we use third-party services that allow us to record and analyse your behaviour. Thanks to this, we can see trends and patterns which help us improve many areas of our business activities.
You can see the full list of third parties that we use and therefore share your Personal Data with here. In all cases under this purpose, we remain the controllers of your Personal Data and these third parties can only use it to fulfil our purposes.
For this purpose, we process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest in improving our services. At any time, you can object against this processing. We will then assess whether we can prove that our legitimate grounds for this processing override your individual interests, rights and freedoms. If not, we will cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
If you call us on our customer support line or contact us through email or chat, we will record the phone call or the messages for the purpose of improving our services. These recordings will be then sorted, and we will only keep those in which our staff made some sort of mistake when dealing with your requests. These recordings are subsequently used during training sessions so that we can make sure these mistakes don't happen again.
For this purpose, we also process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest in improving our services. At any time, you can object against this processing. We will then assess whether we can prove that our legitimate grounds for this processing override your individual interests, rights and freedoms. If not, we will cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
We also store and process your Personal Data for the purpose of establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. Whenever you book a ticket or order any other service, we will keep all relevant data for potential future legal claims that you or we could have, especially in judicial and other proceedings and when recovering or selling claims you assigned to us. Similarly, if you send us a data protection request, we will also be storing all the data you give us and the data about our handling of the request for this purpose.
Generally, we will keep your data for this purpose for 4 years which is the maximum length of the statute of limitation (the maximum time in which you can file a lawsuit against us) set by the Act No. 89/2012 Coll, the Civil Code. We will never use your Personal Data for any other purpose when it is stored solely for this purpose.
For this purpose, we process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest in the protection of our legal rights. At any time, you can object against this processing. We will then assess whether we can prove that our legitimate grounds for the processing override your individual interests, rights and freedoms. If not, we will cease to process your Personal Data for this purpose.
We need to process some of your Personal Data to be able to fulfil certain legal obligations that are applicable to us. Because this is a legal necessity, we don't need to obtain your consent for it. For this purpose, we will process your identification and contact information and information about your bookings. The main legal obligations we need to do this for arise from Act No. 89/2012 Coll, the Civil Code, Act No. 634/1992 Coll, on the protection of consumers, Act No. 235/2004 Coll, on Value Added Tax and Act. 563/1991 Coll, on Accounting. If you send us a data protection request to fulfil one of your rights under the GDPR, we will ask you for some personal data which we will then process for the purpose of achieving compliance with the GDPR.
In general, we will process your Personal Data until we won't need it for any of these purposes. The maximum data retention length will generally be 4 years, which covers the general statute of limitation in the Czech Republic (the purpose of establishing, exercise or defense of legal claims).
The exception from this is the processing for the purpose of Sending personalized offers. Under this purpose, you will periodically get email offers from us, and in every email, there will be a clear and easy way to unsubscribe and therefore object to this type of processing. Therefore, we will keep and use your Personal Data for this purpose, until you unsubscribe.
We want you to always be in control of your Personal Data. To this end, you have certain rights that allow for it. Under certain conditions, you may:
You can exercise your rights by sending us an email with your request through this form: lastminute.kiwi.com/privacy/rights.
Please note, that in order to ensure the safety of your Personal Data, we will only comply with the requests that are sent from the email address used during the booking or ordering of a service. If someone else did the booking for you, we will request that you provide additional information to us (Booking ID, etc) to ensure that you are really the owner of the Personal Data in concern.
Learn more
At any time, you have the right to ask us whether we process your Personal Data and to get the following information:
Also, on your request, we will provide you with a full copy of all the Personal Data about you that we're processing. The first copy is for free. However, for any further copies we may charge you a fee to cover our administrative costs.
You can also request your data in a commonly used format for the sake of data portability.
You have also the right to have your data completely deleted (or more precisely, irreversibly anonymised) if one of the following situations applies to you:
However, you don't have the right to request the deletion of your Personal data, if the processing is necessary for:
If you feel that any Personal Data that we're processing about you is not accurate, you can let us know and we will do our best to correct it.
Please note, that we cannot correct the data in our databases that are connected to your ticket. If we would do that, it wouldn't change it on the part of the carriers or providers of other services and we couldn't pair it together. If you want to change the details on your ticket, you can always do it in the Manage My Booking section on Kiwi.com.
Under certain conditions, we will restrict the processing of your Personal Data. This means that we will make sure that they are not being processed for any other purpose than to archive it or to move it to a secure archive. You have the right to request this restriction if:
You can object against any purpose for which we're processing your Personal Data based on the legal ground of legitimate interest. When you object against processing for any Marketing purposes, we will stop using your Personal Data for this purpose immediately.
If you protest against any other purpose based on a legitimate interest, we will stop processing your Personal Data for this purpose, unless we can prove that our legitimate grounds for processing it override your individual interests, rights and freedoms.
Lastly, you have the right to obtain your Personal Data processed for the purposes of Provision of our services (or any other purposes where we process your Personal Data based on either consent or necessity for a conclusion or performance of a contract) in a commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller of your choice.
If we need to, we may transfer your Personal Data outside of the EEA. This will happen when you want to book a ticket with a carrier from a Third Country or when you order a service from a provider based in a Third Country. Naturally, we need to transfer your data to these third parties because without it, the provision of ordered services would not be possible. We may also transfer your Personal Data outside of the EEA to Data Processors located in Third Countries.
For transfers to recipients in countries where we cannot rely on the decision of the adequate level of protection according to Art. 45 of the GDPR or appropriate safeguards according to the Art. 46 of the GDPR, we will transfer your Personal Data based on the exception in the Art. 49 Para. 1 Lett. b) of the GDPR. Each selected carrier or service provider will treat Your Personal Data in accordance with its own Privacy Policy (which is published on every carrier's website). Disclosure of Personal Data to other service providers will be done in accordance with the applicable Personal Data laws and regulations.
Data Protection is a serious matter and the rules are quite difficult to implement correctly. No one is perfect, and it may happen that we make a mistake. If you feel that we mishandled your Personal Data, please turn to us first and we promise that we will try our best to resolve the situation. You can always approach us with any privacy or data protection related issue through this form: lastminute.kiwi.com/privacy/questions.
Nevertheless, at any time, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. If you are from the EU, you can complain at the authority in the member state of your residence, in the member state where you work or in the member state of the alleged infringement.
Generally, the complaints will be handled by the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection. You can learn more on http://www.uoou.cz.
For all matters concerning privacy and data protection, you can always contact us through this form: kiwi.com/privacy/questions. To exercise your rights under the GDPR, you can use this form: kiwi.com/privacy/rights.
With regard to all issues related to processing of your Personal Data and to the exercise of your rights under the GDPR, you may also contact our Data Protection Officer.
View contact details.
Oliver Švolík
Data Protection Officer of Kiwi.com
[email protected]
As our business evolves, the way we process Personal Data might change as well. In case of such changes, we will also update this Privacy Policy to comply with the principles of transparency. If future changes affect you, we will notify you via email.
This Privacy Policy is effective from 1.7.2019.


text:
"Somehow we have developed this large contingent of know-it-all baseball fans who bay like wounded coyotes at any mention of wins, losses, RBI or batting average. I never know whether I should blame myself for this or not.." (Bill James)
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Hill To Climb
Everything seemed to be in order. But as that crafty vet, Scotsman Robert Burns noted "The best laid plans of mice and men go oft' astray." And boy, astray they went.
First, Hart couldn't beat McCutchen out of camp. Ohlie got hurt in early April; he wouldn't return until May 11th. McCutchen got bombed as a starter; so did Morton. Hart had labrum surgery. Veal had Tommy John surgery. Jose Ascanio, a potential starter, still hasn't pitched this year after shoulder surgery at the end of last season.
The dominoes started falling. Karstens become more than a long relief/spot starter; he rejoined the rotation. Lincoln was called up and sent back down. Brian Burres, Chris Jakubauskas and Dana Eveland all got starts. Duke went on the DL.
Alderson was demoted a level, and is still getting creamed as the Pirates try to defunk his motion. And as of today, the Pirate brass are consulting their ouija board for a fifth starter. Aye carumba!
The starters have an ERA of 5.42 and an 18-52 record. And next year doesn't promise to get much better.
Veal and Hart will be of no help; it will be the summer before they get to throw in a game again. Lincoln may be ready in 2011, if he's absorbed his lessons - keep the ball down, avoid the middle of the plate, and manage a game to keep out of the big inning. That's a lot of schooling.
Alderson, Bryan Morris, and Jeff Locke won't impact the MLB staff next year, if ever. Rudy Owens should be going to Indy soon; he has a puncher's chance of making the 2011 rotation at best. And all the young turks are toiling at the lower levels of the system. It'll be 2013 before any of them even are a thought to take the hill at PNC.
Ohlie, Duke and Maholm will form the backbone of the 2011 staff. Ohlendorf will be entering his first arbitration year, Duke his third (he's making $4.3M in 2010), and Maholm will be in the final year of his contract, with a 2012 team option.
Morton returning to MLB caliber is key for Pittsburgh. He doesn't hit arbitration until 2012, but this season was his last option year, so it's play him or lose him in 2011. The last starter? It's a Chinese menu; pick among Karstens, Sean Gallagher, McCutchen, and Lincoln.
So we think the 2011 rotation will be Maholm-Ohlendorf-Duke-Morton-Lincoln. Kinda like this year's staff, hey?
The system isn't devoid of arms, but between visits to the chop shop and drafts that have emphasized high school players, the timeline for in-house help is down the road.
Most MLB clubs leave room for a pitching pick-up when the free agents hit the market, and the Pirates should be looking that way. One veteran guy that's above-average - not elite; those contracts are beyond Pittsburgh's means - is something this team needs badly, a Jon Garland type of guy.
But a quick peek at the FA list for 2011 isn't promising; it features a lot of arms of the quality Pittsburgh already possesses.
So it looks like more of the same in 2011; let's hope the staff is a year wiser from this year's experiences - and the lower levels don't blow out as many arms.
2 comments:
Well, I think it's really going to come down to whether or not the team thinks that its bats are ready to make a run in 2011. If so, I'm torn. While a Jon Garland-type would be a safe bet, I would love to see the Pirates take a big gamble and go after a couple of guys who can instantly change the complexion of the rotation. I'm talking about Brandon Webb and Brad Penny. Both will be coming off of major injuries. However, that might drive their prices down low enough that the Pirates can take a stab at them (perhaps $7 or $8 million a piece). If one or both regain their form, a mediocre rotation turns into a very strong one. However, if both flop, the Pirates will never it the end of it from their grumpiest fans and they'll be out quite a bit of cash.
- July 26, 2010 at 4:00 PM
- Ron Ieraci said...
Not a bad idea, Ryan. I know this much; they better upgrade the rotation if they want to reverse the culture of defeat that's almost inbred in the franchise now.
- July 26, 2010 at 11:45 PM


text:
Friday, October 29, 2010
Spooky Sunday - Ghosts from my Past in an Album of Unknowns
I am blessed to be in possession of a wonderful album of pictures that include the two above. I got into genealogy while I was stationed in Hawaii and was even more blessed to have my aunt and two uncles retired out there with me. My family and I were staying with my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Jeff as we prepared to leave paradise for good, and I stayed up late into the evening scanning the pictures from this scrapbook. I was hungry for pieces of family history (some things never change!) and when she showed me this album I couldn't not get a copy of it.
Since scanning it (the original is safely tucked away in paradise still!), I have intermittently pelted my mother, aunt and uncle with questions regarding the various people in it. Who were they? No one knew. What we did know was that the album came from the Quirk side of the family and that there was a picture of my grandmother at the end of the book in what appeared to be a high school graduation picture. So the book was tied to her...Mary Ann Quirk.
A few years later I was looking at the pictures with my mom back home in Pennsylvania. She pointed to a man and said that it was her grandfather, Edward Quirk. I suppose the fact that she knew Edward as an adult and the picture was of him as an adult, albeit much younger than she was used to seeing him, made it a pretty solid identification. My aunt and uncle agreed that it did look like their grandpa Quirk. So we got one step closer to identification...
The little girl in the mask above is the common denominator throughout this scrapbook. She appears more often than any other person in the scrapbook, but who was she? Reviewing so many of the other pictures in the book...a convention of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union in Kingston, men at the shore, men and women in some pretty neat swimsuits....all illustrated what the creator of the book held dear. Events in her life that she wanted to capture, which included gravestones. Gravestones of family and people in mourning clothes...and I recognized the gravestones! I had pictures of them too. My pictures were 80 years later, while theirs were freshly covered. Graves of their parents and their grandparents.
We began going over the pictures again. This time concentrating on the ladies that appeared throughout the scrapbook, almost as frequently as the little girl above. So we asked...could the women in the pictures be Edward Quirk's sisters? Fondly referred to by my mother and her siblings as "The Aunts". They agreed that there was a resemblance, but so much time had passed since the last of "The Aunts" had died that it was hard to tell which aunt was which. More time passed and we finally came to a realization as to who this little girl was. It fit so perfectly that it was incredible we hadn't come to it sooner. The little girl was my grandmother, Mary Ann Quirk.
It all fit. Her graduation picture in the back of the scrapbook. Her being doted on by "The Aunts" throughout the scrapbook. The few appearances of Edward Quirk (her father) made almost solely with this little girl. It felt wonderful to realize that we had made some headway in identifying the pictures, but there was still a feeling of emptiness. I wish I knew what they had been experiencing when the pictures were taken. Pictures were not taken as casually as they are today. There was a deeper significance to them and the expense was greater. These pictures were important to the owner, but what was she trying to say?
There was an appearance of a little baby in the scrapbook about midway through. A baby that I can't identify, but something tells me I know who it is. Edward had 8 siblings. Five made it to adulthood. Only one other married....Bessie. Bessie died days after a c-section performed back in 1918. I can't even imagine a c-section back then! Instinct tells me that this baby in the pictures is her child, but I have no proof. She would be the only other Quirk relative in my line, but we completely lost track of her. Bessie died, and her husband, Dennis Dugan, moved and eventually remarried. The baby girl is found in the 1920 census living with him and his new wife and then never seen again. I don't know if she died or was sent off to live with other relatives. What I do know is that she isn't with her father and step-family in the 1930 census.
Each time I flip through the pages of this scrapbook, I remember that I need to ensure my pictures are labeled. It needs to be done as soon as they are developed or transferred from the camera to the computer. We think that we'll always remember the events and the people in these pictures. I'm 38 years old and I am already getting hazy about many of the details in old pictures. Someday I'll be gone, and my children and grandchildren will inherit my pictures. No doubt they will want to know the story my pictures tell. The events that are commemorated in them. Who is family in them. If we don't keep up on this task of labeling our pictures, we are destined to pass on many albums like the one I scanned from my aunt, and the images within become nothing more than ghosts from the past. Nameless. Not remembered...and to a genealogist THAT's a scary thought!
Posted by Cherie Cayemberg at 3:59 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Labels: Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, Quirk
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
The Boss was all about winning…or else. It was the "or else" part that brought out the worst in him as he ruled by fear, intimidation and humiliation. It is impossible for me to forget–let alone forgive–his cruelty in the pursuit of success (though it's easy to laugh at some of his antics now, "hey, remember the time he got into that 'fight' in the elevator in L.A…"). But the Boss is an appealing figure because he was more than that. Vicious and generous, an ogre and a sentimental slob, an earnest patriot. Oh, and he was funny too.
I watched most of the George Steinbrenner special on YES last night and thought they did a nice job. I especially liked hearing some of John Sterling's stories (and it made me reconsider Sterling again; how do I ever let a guy who is this funny get me upset?). The thing I noticed most was Yankee players–from Derek Jeter to retired players like Paul O'Neill–talking about Steinbrenner's generosity. Financial generosity, that is. David Cone was candid in a phone interview and said that the Boss helped Ron Guidry out of financial problems after Gator retired.
Once you took his money, you were open to his abuse. But for the most part, no matter how ugly things got, once a player retired or left the Yankees, Steinbrenner usually invited them back, wanted them "part of the family." He brought them back with money and attention. Guys who hated the Boss when they played for him, Nettles, Gossage, Gamble, they all hang around the Yankees these days, go to fantasy camps, they get paid.
Money equals love, or something close to it. And speaking of which, because of a tax-law, the Steinbrenner family gets off easy in George's death. If not for this bit of fortunate timing, who knows, perhaps they'd have to sell a part of the team.
The New York Post has a terrific tribute to Steinbrenner today, including a funny column by Larry Brooks, and an insightful one by Fay Vincent.
Up in Boston, as usual, Charlie Pierce nails it.
[Drawing by Larry Roibal]


text:
Adam Tihany, the creative mind behind many of the world's most beautiful four-star restaurants and hotels, attributes his career to a bit of serendipity — "like all the good things in life." The 66-year-old designer, known for his attention to detail, was one of the first in this country to focus specifically on hospitality. "It's not just the room or the lighting or the furniture. It's also the linen, the china, the uniforms, the graphics," Tihany says. "You make sure they all tell the same story and that they're all tied into the same idea." Tihany has done dining rooms for Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck, Sirio Maccioni, and Boston's Lydia Shire. "I view restaurants as theaters. They're not just places to eat. They're places to experience events and emotions," Tihany says.
Born in Romania, Tihany grew up in Jerusalem, studied in Milan, and has lived in New York since 1975. Stories of some high-profile designs are in a new coffee table book, "Tihany: Iconic Hotel and Restaurant Interiors," which includes Le Cirque, Per Se, and Daniel in New York, Apsley's and Dinner in London, the Westin Chousun Hotel in Seoul, and the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas (for which he acted as a design consultant for Adamson Architects).
Q. How did you get your start in New York?
A. Early on I recognized that people here specialized. After starving a certain number of years, I happened to meet somebody who asked if I was interested in designing a restaurant. La Coupole was the first grand cafe in New York. We opened to a huge crowd in the middle of [a] snowstorm. Andy Warhol couldn't get in. I did the architecture. I did the lighting, designed the menu — all the things I wanted to do. After that, I bought a sign that said "Adam Tihany: Restaurant Designer."
Q. You write that designing a restaurant for a famous chef is like painting a portrait.
A. It's no different than making a custom suit. A custom suit fits you and only you. Every seam, every space has to do with your body, your movement, your persona. When a great chef walks into a restaurant, it has to fit like a custom suit. I have to get into the head of whomever I'm doing this for. It's a very personal process, an intense journey.
Q. How do you do that?
A. It is very simple. I ask them to cook. Don't tell me what the restaurant should look like, show me the food. I taste the flavors, look at how the plate is constructed. I ask myself what kind of room would I like to sit in to consume this meal? You want to create places that are classics, that have longevity and are not trendy. I try to seek out the operators and chefs who are not trying to create a hit every night, but a solid reliable place year after year. Not everyone thinks that way.
Q. How did operating your own restaurant, Remi, change the way you design?
A. I definitely became a better designer. The biggest revelation I had was how important it is to balance the front of the house with the back of the house. There is no way you can have a successful operation without everybody being comfortable, especially the people who work there every day. As the restaurant became more known and respected, other chefs would see me as a colleague and not just a designer. I was no longer just the person who wanted them to spend a lot of money on a lot of things they didn't need.
Q. Many restaurants are so loud that it's hard to hear across the table. Is that intentional?
A. To a restaurateur, noise means life, success. Lively is good, but overly noisy is no good. It's something you can very simply and easily correct with certain materials and surfaces. There is no magic to this. The truth is that in cities like New York and Boston and Chicago, real estate is very expensive. Therefore, the operators try to maximize the value of real estate by cramming in as many chairs as they can.
Q. Are there design trends you are ready to see retired?
A. In my world, trendy is a dirty word. I was judging one of the major restaurant and hotel awards, and I would not exaggerate to say 70 or 80 percent of the projects were reclaimed wood, exposed bricks, and Edison lamps. Whether it was a neighborhood trattoria or a chef restaurant, they were indistinguishable. Why would a humble pizza place in Brooklyn look like a fancy restaurant in Norway?
Q. What advice do you have for people at home who want a better dining space?
A. I can only say two things: Hire a waiter and get a chef in your kitchen. Home is the most personal thing. It's your castle. One of the biggest regrets I have is that no one invites me home because they're afraid I'm going to criticize something. They always say, "Let's go out."
Interview was edited and condensed. Michael Floreak can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
McPherson Opera House docents planned for a busy month of tours in May during a recent meeting.
McPherson Opera House docents planned for a busy month of tours in May during a recent meeting.
Free tours will be available for individuals wearing the official 2013 All Schools Day button following the parade until 2 p.m. May 10. Those All Schools Day tour participants also will receive a coupon that will allow individuals to buy a ticket at full price and receive a second ticket free for the 2013 performance of Don Pasquale by the Wichita Grand Opera May 17.
McPherson Middle School seventh-grade students will tour the Opera House on May 15. This has become an annual event for the students, which provides an opportunity to see the many features of the Opera House and learn of its rich history. Docents are preparing to host the 186 students during morning and afternoon tours.
Docent Chairman Glee Nelson reported during the month of March 59 individuals toured the Opera House.
The next meeting of the McPherson Opera House Docents will be May 15 during the lunch hour during the McPherson Middle School tours at the McPherson Opera House.