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Introduction to the GoldenEar Triton Seven Home Theater Speaker System
GoldenEar Technology has been making some fairly dramatic waves in the loudspeaker market over the past few years. Co-founders Sandy Gross, formerly of Polk Audio and Definitive Technology, and Don Givogue, also from Definitive, have used their combined experience to help develop a well-regarded product line that could cover most of the needs that a home audio or theater enthusiast might have. Their design philosophy is summed up by a quote from the company's website: "We hear very well and we care enough to set the same sonic goals for every loudspeaker we create, whether it is our least or most expensive. We don't feel that having less to spend means that you are looking for lesser quality. We lavish the same kind of care, expertise and experience that is usually reserved for the highest-priced high-end speakers on every GoldenEar speaker that we create. We do it because we can – and because we know that you will enjoy and appreciate the result."
That brings us neatly to the surround system that we are here to review. Anchored by the Triton Seven stereo loudspeakers for front left and right channels, the rest of the system consists of the SuperCenter XL center channel speaker, the ForceField 5 subwoofer and two pairs of SuperSat 3 bookshelf speakers for side and rear surround duty. This makes a full 7.1 channel home theater speaker setup with an MSRP of about $4200. That's definitely not home-theater-in-a-box money, but it's actually a reasonable sum to spend for someone who cares about getting good sound. So….let's see how these babies stack up!
Mains | Triton Sevens
- Design: 2-way Floor-Standing, sealed loudspeakers with passive radiators
- Drivers: One HVFR™ High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter, Two 5.25″ High-Definition Cast-Basket Mid/Bass Drivers, Two 8″ Planar Sub-Bass (Passive) Radiators
- MFR: 29 Hz – 35 kHz
- Efficiency: 89 dB
- Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
- Dimensions: 39.75″ H x 5.75″ W (Front) x 7.25″ W (Rear) x 11″ D; Base – 10.5″ W x 14.5″ D
- Weight: 32 Pounds/each
- Finish: Black Cloth Surround with Gloss Black Top Cap and Base
- MSRP: $699.99/each USD
Center | SuperCenter XL
- Design: 2-way, Center Mount with Passive Radiators
- Drivers: One HVFR™ High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter, Two 5.25″ Cast-Basket Mid/Bass Drivers, Two 6.75″ x 8? Quadratic Planar Low-Frequency (Passive) Radiators
- MFR: 36 Hz – 35 kHz
- Efficiency: 91 dB
- Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
- Dimensions: 5.75″ H x 29″ W x 11″ D
- Weight: 21 Pounds
- Finish: Black Cloth Surround with Gloss Black Side Caps
- MSRP: $799.99 /each USD
Surrounds | SuperSat 3
- Design: 2-way Wall Mountable, Sealed Bookshelf Loudspeakers
- Drivers: One HVFR™ High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter, Two 4.5″ High-Definition Cast-Basket MVPP™ Mid/Bass Drivers
- MFR: 80 Hz – 35 kHz
- Efficiency: 92 dB
- Nominal Impedance: 8 ohms
- Dimensions: 12″ H x 4.75″ W x 2.75″ D
- Weight: 5 Pounds/each
- Finish: Gloss Black with Magnetic Grille
- MSRP: $249.99/each USD
Subwoofer | ForceField 5
- Design: Front-firing Active Driver with down-firing Passive Radiator
- Drivers: One 12″ Long-Throw High-Output Bass Driver, One 13″ x 15? Quadratic Planar Infrasonic (Passive) Radiator
- Amplifier: 1,500 watt ForceField Class D Amplifier
- MFR: 12 Hz – 250 kHz
- Inputs: Hi-Level Speaker Binding Posts, LFE RCA
- Outputs: Hi-Level Speaker Binding Posts
- Dimensions: 14.6″ H x 15″ W x 18″ D
- Weight: 46 Pounds
- Finish: Matte Black Enclosure with Cloth Grille
- GoldenEar Technology
- SECRETS Tags: GoldenEar, Home Theater, Speakers, Surround Sound, Triton
- Where to Buy: GoldenEar Website
The Design of the GoldenEar Triton Seven Home Theater Speaker System
In discussing the Triton Seven's development with Sandy Gross, he made it clear that in order to get this model made at the price point that they wanted; the design team knew that they had to forgo some of the complexity and expense of the powered bass drivers used in the pricier Triton Two and Three models. So (paraphrasing here) they started with a clean sheet of paper and concentrated on the basics of tried and true speaker design, refining the details, taking the time and using the technology in the smartest and most resourceful manner in order to achieve their goal.
The Triton Sevens themselves are a rather elegant looking pair of speakers. They are of a modest height, barely reaching my waist when I stand beside them. They have a thinner width in front and are wider in back giving the speakers a wedge shaped cross section. That shape, combined with having a larger base area and a smaller slanted top means that none of the speaker's surfaces are parallel to each other. This along with having a gentle swept back rake to their design (intentional for aiming the sound of the tweeters to arrive at your ear level) makes for a very striking look. The towers are covered with a black fabric "sock" which is not meant to be removed, save for a service technician. The fabric is meant to provide extra damping to the speakers and, working in conjunction with the narrow front baffle, results in what GoldenEar calls "The Seven's precise and totally box-less image characteristics."
The Triton Seven's main driver compliment consists of a rather interesting High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter placed between a pair of 5.25″ mid/bass drivers. This is commonly referred to as an MTM design or D'Appolito array named after its initial developer, Joseph D'Appolito. The internal pressure created by the mid/bass drivers during their operation is channeled to the base of the speaker where it couples with and excites the two opposing 8″ passive radiators. These radiators exist in place of more commonly seen tuned ports and help to create what is essentially a fully sealed speaker design with unexpectedly robust and accurate bass reproduction.
The High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter or HVFR™ as it is named by GoldenEar, is similar in design to an Air Motion Transformer or Heil type tweeter. What are the benefits of such a driver you may ask? Well, whereas a more common dome or ribbon tweeter projects it's sound by vibrating a diaphragm back and forth, the HVFR™ looks and acts more like an accordion, pressurizing the surrounding air and launching the sound out at an extremely fast speed. The folded design of the diaphragm means it has more surface area and that subsequently more air can be moved than a competing dome or electrostatic tweeter of the same size. The increased surface area allows the accordion's movements to be very small to move a given amount of air, resulting in inherently low driver distortion. While originally developed in the early 70s and used on some high end speakers of the day, these types of drivers are still not in widespread use currently, although some manufacturers like Emotiva and Legacy are incorporating them in some of their offerings. In general, this driver type is said to require great care and attention to both cabinet and crossover design to achieve the best results. Obviously GoldenEar must feel like they are on to something good here, as they use the HVFR™ across their entire speaker line.
The 5.25″ mid/bass drivers are also unique to the Triton Sevens. These rigid cast basket drivers were custom engineered to work in tandem with the twin passive radiators. These drivers were developed to have an extra-long throw without generating any additional distortion and they use no phase plugs to ensure that the Triton Sevens remain completely sealed so that the passive radiators can operate effectively.
The 8″ passive radiators are installed in an opposing configuration at the base of the Tritons Sevens to help cancel out any unwanted vibrations while they operate. In its simplest form, a passive radiator is like a speaker driver without a magnet and motor assembly. It's a precisely weighted membrane that is excited by the internal forces in the speaker cabinet generated by the other drivers, usually a bass or a mid/bass driver. Passive radiators can be used in place of tuned ports in speaker or subwoofer designs to help generate the lower frequencies. The advantages being that sometimes ported speakers can exhibit "chuffing" sounds as air exits the port. Passive radiators generate no such unwanted noises and they can also be used in smaller speaker and subwoofer designs where longer tuned ports would be impractical to use.
The main downside to passive radiators is that it is more expensive and complicated to design such a system over a similar one using a tuned port. Sandy described the interaction between the mid/bass drivers and the passive radiators this way: "I had a discussion with Bob Johnston, our head of engineering, to go over the bass loading in more detail, as it seems to have worked out extremely well. He told me that they worked 3 months on getting it right. Basically, it has what I am going to call, Frequency Differentiated Damping or FDD. What Bob explained to me is that the cabinet has a fairly dense fill of a special hollow polyester fiber in a very specific configuration (less fill behind the upper driver, quite dense down to just above the passives, which have no damping between them and then damping at the bottom of the cabinet). This functions much like a well damped transmission line down to about 80 Hz (which loads and controls the drivers really well) and then becomes much more acoustically transparent below 80 Hz. This allows virtually all the internal bass energy generated by the 5.25″ drivers inside the box to be effectively coupled to the two 8" passives down on the bottom on the sides where they effectively couple the bass energy to the room. Also, since they are opposite each other, their inertia is effectively cancelled, which we call "Inertially Balanced". I think this is another example of utilizing and incorporating technology which has clear acoustic benefits which doesn't necessarily cost more to do (well actually the fiber is relatively expensive, but not crazy) but just requires knowledge, experience, time and caring to get it right. Basically a hallmark and cornerstone of what we do."
Moving on to the accompanying speakers, both the SuperCenter XL and the SuperSat 3 share the same HVFR™ tweeters as the Triton Sevens. They also share the same type of High-Definition Cast-Basket Mid/Bass Drivers with Multi-Vaned Phase plugs, 5.25″ diameter on the center speaker and 4.5″ diameter on the satellites respectively. The center speaker also has a pair of oblong shaped passive radiators on its top side, again like the idea on the main speakers, these are meant to extend the low frequency reproduction beyond what you might expect of from a speaker of this size. Like the Triton Sevens, it also wears a matching non-removable fabric covering and is finished with glossy black end caps on either side.
I was initially concerned that the SuperCenter's driver layout may limit placement flexibility for some users as you'd want to keep some measure of breathing room around the passive radiators up top. However, Sandy indicated that: "In reality, the center channel only needs a couple (2) inches of clearance, as what is coming out is actually a very low frequency pressure wave and the added slot loading (from an AV rack shelf) actually improves things slightly, rather than causing any problems or boominess."
The SuperSat 3's design is very stylish and svelte at only 2.7″ deep and 12″ tall. These speakers feel very solid when you hold them in your hands. I originally mistook them for all metal or aluminum construction, but according to GoldenEar's literature, they are in fact made from "a rigid, non-resonant marble powder infused polymer." They also come with easily removable curved magnetic grilles and both a small bracket, which acts as a stand for shelf placement, and built in keyholes for wall mounting.
The ForceField 5 subwoofer is a stout looking little affair. Comfortably sized at roughly 15″ wide by 18″ deep by 14.5″ high, it wears four rather large (palm sized) nubby-rubber isolation feet on its underside. Jammed inside this small trapezoidal package is a full on 12″ long-throw subwoofer driver mounted in front, a 13″ by 19″ oblong passive radiator in the bottom and a built in digital amplifier rated at 1500 watts.
Weighing in at 46 pounds, the ForceField 5 feels very dense, both when you rap your knuckles on the cabinet and try to it pick up. The user controls are fairly standard for a powered subwoofer. There is a Low Pass Frequency dial, a Gain dial, an LFE input jack and High Level Inputs and Outputs. There is also no on/off toggle switch as this little guy is strictly auto signal sensing.
I personally wish there was some sort of parametric EQ feature, even just a single band. While I know auto room correction systems in most modern AV receivers take care of a lot of room issues when properly implemented, they can't always tame every dip or peak in every room. If you're the kind of person who likes to tweak your settings (guilty!) and go through the extra effort, it's nice to have this little extra measure of adjustment for difficult rooms or if your subwoofer placement options are limited.
Setup of the GoldenEar Triton Seven Home Theater Speaker System
My intention with this review was to listen to the Triton Sevens in a purely stereo setup (with no subwoofer) at first in order to gauge their music reproduction abilities. Later, I would set them up with the supporting speakers in our basement home theater to put them through their cinematic paces. In our conversation, Sandy Gross made no bones about how proud he was of the Triton lines ability to reproduce music well and be a satisfying choice for audiophiles as well as home theater fans. I was only too happy to put this opinion up for examination!
For two-channel listening, the Triton Sevens were set up in my studio space which is a large basement room measuring 24 feet wide by 35 feet long by 7 feet high. The speakers were positioned just over 8 feet apart and my main listening position was just over 8 feet away as well. The speakers were toed-in such that the focus of the speaker's sound would intersect at my head position. Normally I would aim the speakers so that the sound travel would intersect just behind my head but Sandy had mentioned that he feels the Sevens sound best when they are aimed right at you. After some initial experimentation I tended to agree. The speakers were also placed well away from any side walls. Associated equipment includes: Sony XA7ES CD player, Onkyo DV-SP1000 Universal player, Onyx DAC 25, Bryston BP-25 preamplifier, Sony XDE-F1HD Digital Tuner, Carver TFM-55x power amplifier, Panamax M5400-PM Power Conditioner and Blue Jeans Cable speaker wire and interconnects.
For cinema evaluation all the speakers were installed in our basement home theater room as a full 7.1 channel setup. The room's dimensions are 13.5 feet wide by 18 feet long by 7.5 feet high. The Triton Sevens were placed about 7.5 feet apart and toed in towards the center listening position. After some experimentation the sub was placed along the front wall behind the main speakers about a third of the way in from the right corner. A pair of SuperSat 3s were mounted on the sidewall above and a little behind the main seating area and the other pair was installed in the back of the room on some built in shelving at roughly the same height as the side speakers. The SuperCenter XL was installed on top of our AV stand just below our plasma TV. All listening was performed with Audyssey MultiEQ calibration done and crossovers set to 60 Hz for the mains and center channel, while the surrounds were crossed to the subwoofer at 120 Hz.
Associated equipment included a Pioneer KURO 50″ Plasma TV, Denon AVR-2310CI, Panasonic DMP-BDT220 Blu-ray Player, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Panasonic LX-900 Laserdisc Player, Motorola DCH-6200 Cable Decoder box, APC H-15 Power Conditioner and Blue Jeans Cable speaker wire and interconnects.
The GoldenEar Triton Seven Home Theater Speaker System In Use
Stereo Music Listening
I began my stereo listening with Holly Cole's "It Happened One Night" on CD. Even though it is a few years old, I've always considered this concert to be one of the better recorded live CD's that I've come across. From the opening notes of "Get Out Of Town", I knew the Triton Sevens were going to do well with this material. The speakers rendered the slow burn of Holly Cole's voice with utmost detail and delicacy. You could easily make out all the subtlety of her whispering the lyrics and breathing between words as the song gets going. As her voice gets louder and her range expands, the Triton Sevens handled the dynamics of her vocals beautifully. The speakers floated her image dead center between them with the reverb of the theater wrapping itself around me.
There was also no sense of harshness or grain to her vocals as her notes got higher, just clean and light throughout the whole song. Another thing that became imminently clear was the quality and quantity of bass the Sevens put forth. It just plain floored me! Again, this was listening to the speakers alone with no subwoofer. The stand-up bass solo on this track was just marvelous, rendered pitch perfect with plenty of depth, detail, weight and decay. I have not heard this level of bass reproduction from speakers of this size and price before. And it's not your typical overbearing, sloppy "One-Note-Boom-Box" style bass either. It was textured.
Further evidence of this was heard in the next song "Cry If You Want To." You could still make out the detail of the hand slaps on the drum skins while you felt the impact of their sound on you. The kick drum hits in the middle of the song had plenty of weight and authority to them and then of course the previously mentioned stand-up bass just continued to impress. Her cover of Tom Wait's "Train Song" is another stand out track. It showcased the speaker's ability to balance that impactful bass power, against the detailed renderings of the maracas and haunting vibrato guitar that weave in and out of that song.
Continuing along the jazz theme but with a twist, I decided to load up "The Best of Paolo Conte." The Italian jazz pianist and composer has such a distinct gravelly sound to his voice that is not easy for many speakers to do justice to it…..but the Triton Sevens did! Listening to "Sotto Le Stelle Del Jazz", the grit, detail and texture of his voice comes through in spades. Certain speakers I've heard can make Conte's voice sound too thin even when he sings deep and low. The Triton Sevens reproduced his vocals with the appropriate weight but without masking any of his vocal detail. And while we're on the subject of weight, few things bother me more, musically, than hearing poorly a reproduced piano. Too often I'll hear piano music played back somewhere and it inevitably sounds thin and empty, the notes lacking any sort of substance or dimension. Even when played softly, live piano music has a body to the sound that is very difficult for speakers to capture. The Triton Sevens were more than up to the challenge here. Using their impressive dynamic range and significant bass capability, they rendered Mr. Conte's piano with all the weight and density necessary to give his key strikes wonderful musical life.
Stringed instruments can often be a challenge for some speakers to get right without sounding edgy or harsh at the top end. Vivaldi's "The 4 Seasons" is a great standby for testing the abilities of both the tweeter itself and how it transitions into the midrange. This particular version featuring Gil Shaham on violin with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is an excellent example of this classic work. Now this review is the first time I've had a chance to extensively listen to the style of tweeter that's fitted to the GoldenEars and if I could sum up its qualities in just one word, it would have to be smooth. Smooth, without lacking in any of the musical details and I was particularly happy for those qualities here. As the mass of strings swelled to the higher notes, the sound was admirably light and airy, devoid of any of that cringe-worthy edginess strings can get on some speakers. The midrange clarity was also very good with this music. The sound was detailed and quick as the tweeters handed off to the mids pretty seamlessly. Then as the music worked its way down the scale, the mass of strings became more solid and the weight of the cello and bass became almost palpable. The "Summer Presto" movement (Track 6) shows these skills off particularly well. All this with a soundstage that makes you feel like you're in this particular performance and not just watching it from the outside. Good stuff indeed.
Slide guitar master Sonny Landreth is a regular staple in my CD playlist and "Grant Street", recorded live in a Louisiana dance hall, has just a great amount of atmosphere that is captured on the disc, along with that searing guitar. The Triton Seven's dynamic range was put to good use here as it reproduced all the impact of a hard driving Cajun/blues band which begged to be played at a fair volume. The speakers, being rated nominally at 8 ohms impedance, are a pretty easy load to drive for most amplifiers and receivers, but they appreciate being able to tap into some good available power reserves with music like this.
My Carver amp is rated at 385 watts into 8 ohms and as the volume got louder the speakers showed no audible signs of discomfort or strain. Sonny's vocals and guitar were imaged front and center with his band clearly placed around him. Kick drum impacts felt solid, almost visceral. Bass lines were detailed and easy to follow without sounding smeared. The slide guitar had great bite to its sound with just the right amount of edge while not sounding irritating or fatiguing. The capper for me though was how the Triton Sevens reproduced the sound of the venue.
As the second track "Broken Hearted Road" starts up with a heartbeat bass line and the slide guitar, you also are well aware of the ambience of the Grant Street Dance Hall. You hear and feel the reverb off the walls, the talking patrons, the clinking of beer bottles, etc. A good pair of speakers should render this soundstage so that you'll hear these sounds on this track all around you fairly convincingly, wrapping you up in the environment. The Triton Sevens did all that and more. As a matter of fact, the effect on this track was almost the best that I've ever heard it, practically holographic. It was actually borderline eerie how well they cloned the space.
I listened to several other types of music during my time with the Triton Sevens and they handled everything I threw at them with aplomb. The synergy of these speakers from top to bottom is really, really good. And, again, the amount and the quality of bass that they are able to muster from their modestly sized, stylish cabinets is pretty darn remarkable. Impressive enough I think that unless you were looking to hear that last bottom octave from your collection of pipe organ recordings or you want to feel the lowest of the lows in the Tron Legacy soundtrack, these speakers should meet most people's needs exceptionally well.
I should also point out that the amount of bass you're going to get with these, or any speaker, is going to be dependent on placement in your room. I think I was fortunate enough to get the speakers to couple pretty well with my studio and therefore the bass showcased itself enviably. Your mileage may vary. If I could level any sort of complaint against the Triton Sevens, it would be that, for me, you have to really stop what you're doing and listen to these speakers to really appreciate them. While there are some speakers out there that will still sound really good when you are sitting way off axis or doing something else in the room, the Tritons are not those speakers. They sound best when you are near their general listening window.
For example, my drawing desk is closer to where I would sit and listen to the speakers normally and as such music sounds great when I'm drawing. My computer workstation is off to the right of the room and from there I hear a noticeable drop off in treble energy and detail. A similar situation happens if I am standing up and painting. Things don't sound quite as good unless I am closer to the sweet spot and sitting down. Now, to be fair, this has more to do with my listening habits and environment than is an issue with the speakers at large. But I think it's worth noting if you plan on a lot of casual listening while doing other things.
Home Theater
Once everything was set up and tuned in our home theater room, the first movie into the Blu-ray player was Pacific Rim, an absolute bass-fest of a film from the word go. The 7.1 DTS Master Audio soundtrack was suitably powerful, dynamic and engrossing. The Triton Sevens did an excellent job of establishing the soundstage with a sonic image that was wide and deep. The SuperCenter XL was excellent at keeping the dialog clear and intelligible while still effectively rendering the sound effects and score parts it was tasked with.
The SuperSat 3s proved themselves to be true champs in surround duty. They were equally capable at picking up all the subtle nuances of whirring gears, clicking switches and other background ambience along with all bombast of explosions, crunching metal and roaring alien monsters without any signs crying uncle. I initially had my concerns that such small surrounds crossed to the subwoofer at 120 Hz, as per the speaker manual and Audyssey's recommendation, (the front 3 channels were all crossed at 60 Hz) would result in some unevenness in the sound between front and back.
I typically like to keep the crossover levels of all the speakers in my existing surround system at close to the same level with no more than a 20 Hz deviation between any of them. But I heard no noticeable difference or unevenness. Sonic pans seemed just as consistent front to back as they were going from side to side. The little ForceField 5 sub proved itself to be an overachiever, fully capable of rattling the walls, doors, picture frames and anything else not suitably tied down.
I do confess to raising the gain dial just a touch on the sub's back panel after Audyssey had finished its work. I typically like to run the bass a touch hot for action movies and this subwoofer seemed to have plenty of headroom to flex its muscles. "Season to Taste" you could call it. The ForceField 5 showed no signs of strain as it hit hard with solid, impactful bass in a room that has not been known to be bass friendly. Every Jaeger and Kaiju footfall, every punch was heard and felt and then my mind started to wonder, "What I could do with two of these babies!"
Switching it up a little, the Blu-Ray of Eric Clapton's latest Crossroads Guitar Festival Concert was up next. Shot on film over two nights at Madison Square Garden last year, the production values looked like something more akin to a high brow, well edited documentary as opposed to just another concert video. The sound quality also did not disappoint. With that unique folded tweeter and closely matched drivers throughout the whole system, everything sounded cohesive, balanced and natural.
On Earl Klugh's performances of "Mirabella" and "This Time", the resonance and harmonics of his acoustic guitar just echoed through the room with such clarity and sweetness. Gary Clark Jr's powerful one-man-band performance of "Next Door Neighbor Blues" was raw and intimate as the speakers placed me front row center. I could make out almost every scratch of the slide down the neck of his steel resonator guitar; its distinctive, metallic echo came though cleanly rendered by the mid-range drivers. Kick drum hits were solid and tight being easily felt in the chest. And while it may not seem like much, the ambiance of the crowd coming through the surround speakers was also notable in that it didn't sound like just a diffuse mass of sound. I could easily pick out all sorts of little details from the audience and for me it just adds to the believability of the whole presentation.
Two other stand out songs, "Walking Blues" and "Duck Diving Blues," were sung by Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo', two guys with really distinctive and powerful voices. The SuperCenter XL showcased all the power and grit in the bluesmen's pipes and it made the case for having a good sized and capable center speaker very convincingly. No harshness or stress was detectable no matter how loud their voices got.
Lastly, I wanted to hear some well recorded surround music without any visuals so I elected to go with a selection of string pieces by The Fry Street Quartet. This 4 channel SACD recording of the talented string ensemble is engineered by Ray Kimber using his "IsoMike" technique. Playing this disc using the Dolby IIx Music mode on my receiver to expand the sound to all seven channels was just breathtaking.
I have played this music many, many times and I have not ever heard these strings sound so achingly beautiful in this room before. Not a hint of edge or grain coming from any of the speakers, those matching folded tweeters doing their "thing" and imbuing the highs with just a natural and appealing ease to the sound. The notes of the violins and viola danced quickly through the air sounding balanced and sweet all around me. The cello was shown off perfectly with all of its textures precisely rendered and it also had the proper weight and heft as it played down to the lower registers.
The subwoofer sounded completely musical with the material, not sounding overbearing or loose with the low cello notes. It struck me somewhat funny that this system could reproduce music so sweetly when it was only a few days earlier, engaged in marathon video gaming rounds with my kids and their friends. From upstairs, we could hear explosions, magical spells and something called "Boss Battle" victories eliciting squeals of joy out of the younger set doing their level best to break in the system. My son's friends were not used to hearing such dynamics out of their video game systems. Surely plaintive conversations would ensue at various dinner tables in the future if they hadn't already. The thought of annoyed and slightly envious parents aside, in the end none of that really mattered. All I could do at that moment was just sit there and smile, completely surrounded by lovely music. I was enjoying the heck out of this.
Conclusions about the GoldenEar Triton Seven Home Theater Speaker System
In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I really enjoyed my time with the Triton Sevens. What GoldenEar has on their hands here is nothing short of impressive. The entry level speaker to their Triton line doesn't come off as any sort of value play or afterthought in the range but is, in fact, a well-rounded performer in its own right. It incorporates some of the same technologies from its larger brothers as well as some bespoke drivers and ideas that give it an identity of its own. They convey a sonic personality that is smooth, musical and impactful. All this in a package small enough to strain the definition of what we commonly consider a tower speaker. On their own, they make an excellent anchor for a two channel hi-fidelity system. The Triton Seven's quality midrange reproduction does justice to all manner of vocals it encounters, while the unique tweeter lends a smooth and effortless sound to most instruments, particularly strings. And its bass capabilities are enough to satisfy most critical listeners save for those that are certified "bass-a-holics." When combined with the SuperCenterXL, ForceField 5 and surrounding SuperSat 3s, you have one hell of a home theater system whose overall performance is far more than just the sum of its parts. Its sound will stun your friends, frighten your pets and make your children giggle with excitement. All this without having your spouse regard you crossly at your system's visual excess. Hat tip to you Mr. Gross and your merry band of speaker makers. Carry on with your fine works.


text:
Some players are injury prone. Some players aren't necessarily injury prone, but they're contact prone. And the challenge for any skill-position player is to find legitimate ways to avoid or at least minimize contact.
Whether it's running out of bounds or sliding at the right moment or, as Barry Sanders used to do, knowing instinctively when to go down to the turf, the best way to stay healthy is to limit the number of hits that the body absorbs.
Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III explained on Wednesday that injuring his knee via a hit from Haloti Ngata that looked in real time as if it would destroy it has helped Griffin learn how to play safely.
"The injury has shown me a lot – just from a quarterback perspective," Griffin told reporters. "This game is not easy, but [the injury] did show me some things I can do to make the game easier for myself, easier on my body. Ironically, I've done a better job of protecting myself since the injury – sliding, getting down, getting all the possible yards I can and getting out of bounds. Sometimes, things have to happen like that for you to really, really grasp that. It's shown me a lot. I don't think I've ever rushed for 10 yards a carry in a game and I did that in this past game."
To work over the long haul, the effort to avoid contact must become second nature. For Griffin, the sooner that happens the better equipped he'll be to remain healthy more often than not.
And for now he has a constant reminder to be careful, thanks to the bulky brace that is protecting his right knee. "Not a lot of people talk about the limp with the brace, but any time you wear a brace like that, it's to protect you," Griffin said. "So, it's going to cause a natural limp. You're not going to be able to bend your knee normally. It restricts your flexion and your extension. It's just to protect the ligaments in there, so there'll be a natural limp in there. At the same time, you can still generate power."
He'll generate more if he can shed the brace, something he joked about doing this weekend against the Seahawks.

subset: commoncrawl


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Posted by Editor on 08/9/09
The 2009 Kokanee Crankworx Festival in Whistler, BC, opened Saturday night with the Dual Slalom. Jill Kintner and Kyle Strait won the women's and men's Pro categories at the front of strong invitational fields.
Slopestyle heavyweight Kyle Strait, back on the race scene this year, upset Brian Lopes to win the 2009 Kokanee Crankworx Dual Slalom. The gates dropped to fast-paced action and big crashes, proving once again the Dual Slalom is a crowd pleaser.
With Strait having only a slight lead going into the final lap, it was anyone's race. When the dust settled and it was all over, Strait had the upset, continuing his comeback and proving he is both a top racer and freestyler.
"I just rode as fast and as smooth as I could. You can't think too much about the race, you need to just ride," says Strait. "It's awesome to get a good result like this."
Now in its third season at Kokanee Crankworx, the Dual Slalom and its head-to-head format with riders pumping through rhythm sections and ripping through tight berms, makes for non-stop action from start to finish.
In the Pro Men category, Kyle Strait took first place, Brian Lopes took second place, Johannes Fischbach took third and Neko Mullaly took fourth.
In the Pro Women category, Jill Kintner finished first, Fionn Griffiths finished second, Canada's Micayla Gatto finished third and Melissa Buhl finished fourth.
The Dual Slalom kicked off opening day at Kokanee Crankworx 2009. Day two of the eight day Crankworx Festival includes the Monster Energy Garbanzo Downhill and the Ken Quon Cross-Country Event as well as a massive village wide demo and expo for all to enjoy.
Note: Crankworx sent revised results for the Pro women, with Micayala Gatto now third, ahead of Melissa Buhl.
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Since there doesn't seem to be a thread and I wanted to comment a page:
Plot: Woman gets pulled into a parallel universe where super powers are quite common. She wants to get home, but of course she gets involved in the things happening there. (Btw I always find it surprising how different everything looks when you go back to the beginning of many webcomics.)
So short plot description done.
http://supernormalstep.com/?p=1458 I found the plan amusing, but I didn't expect them to begin implementing it.^^
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�Damn Yankees� will make its New Bern debut Thursday on RiverTowne Players� stage at the historic Masonic Theatre.
�Damn Yankees� will make its New Bern debut Thursday on RiverTowne Players� stage at the historic Masonic Theatre.
It is described as a light, fast-paced and clever comedy and musical.
To add to the baseball park atmosphere, RiverTowne has scheduled tailgate parties in the Masonic Theatre parking lot Thursday and for the two matinees on Sunday and July 28. Fran�s Family Hot Dogs will be serving up traditional baseball fare: nachos and cheese, hot dogs, sausage dogs, chips and drinks. The audience can bring lawn chairs and get in the spirit for a show about America�s favorite pastime.
The tailgates are at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and again on July 28.
Shows at 8 p.m. are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, along with July 25, 26 and 27. Matinees are at 3 p.m.
RiverTowne�s performance venue is the historic Masonic Theatre at 514 Hancock St.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door, $10 for students with valid school ID. Tickets are at the Council of the Arts� temporary location, 308 George St., New Bern. Call 638-2577.
On the web: rivertowneplayers.com
It is the story of a middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd, who trades his soul to the Devil for a chance to lead his favorite team, the Senators, to victory against the New York Yankees.
As young baseball sensation Joe Hardy, he transforms the hapless Senators into a winning team, only to realize the true worth of the life � and wife � he�s left behind.
It is directed by John Van Dyke, with music direction by Brandon Banks and choreography by Jaclyn Pugh. Lori Favre is the assistant director and producer, and Linda Roach is executive producer. Van Dyke has amassed a very large cast. The show is produced with special arrangements with Music Theatre International and sponsored by The Local Book.


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Air Suspension Parts at 1A Auto
The basics of an air suspension system and its parts
Air suspension, also sometimes referred to as air ride suspension, uses air pressure rather than spring force to maintain vehicle ride height. Air suspension has long been used in large shipping vehicles, but today it is used in many trucks, SUVs, and luxury cars. Air suspension systems have certain advantages over coil spring suspensions for these applications. First, air suspension can be adjustable, which allows it to change vehicle ride height and suspension stiffness for different loads, road conditions, and vehicle speed. This is useful in towing applications, and it can provide a smoother, more comfortable ride, which is why it's preferred for many luxury cars.
Typically, the front of the vehicle uses an air shock, which consists of an air bag that surrounds a shock absorber. The air shocks take the place occupied by struts or coil springs. In the rear of the vehicle, air suspension systems use air bags rather than springs to maintain vehicle ride height. The ride height or stiffness of the suspension is adjusted by air pressure.
The air is pumped into the air system by the air suspension compressor. This part compresses outside air for use in the air ride suspension. The compressor may be found underneath the frame of the vehicle, in the trunk, or in the engine compartment, depending on the model. Since moisture in the air can damage the air springs, the compressor must be used in conjunction with a drier. The drier passes the air through a desiccant, an absorbent material similar to the silica gel used to pack sneakers, in the packet labeled "do not eat."
How do I know if any of my air suspension parts need to be replaced?
One disadvantage that an air suspension system has compared to traditional coil spring or leaf spring suspension is that air suspension parts are more likely to need replacement. The rubber that the air springs are made out of is very tough, but it can wear out for a number of reasons. As mentioned before, it can be susceptible to damage from moisture. Extremes of hot and cold can also damage the rubber. Drivers in hot or cold climates are more likely to experience air spring failures than those in mild climates. The rubber could also be punctured by road debris. Any of these problems can cause the air spring to leak air which will make the suspension sag causing the vehicle to sit uneven or, if the leak is sever enough, the vehicle may not reach proper ride height. Air spring and air line leaks are the most likely cause of problems with the air ride suspension system. The compressor will pump constantly to try to compensate for the air being lost, which can lead to compressor failure.
Because air suspension parts are susceptible to damage and can be expensive to replace, 1A Auto offers kits on some vehicles to convert your vehicle from air suspension to coil spring suspension, if so desired. Although the ride will not be as smooth, the parts will be more durable and more reliable.
Can I replace air suspension parts myself?
Replacing air suspension parts will take some work, but can be done by a do-it-yourselfer. Replacing air springs is fairly similar to replacing normal shocks or struts, and will not be substantially more difficult. As a safety precaution, you will want to ensure that the air compressor is off and depressurize the air suspension system before removing any air suspension parts.
To replace air springs, you will have to disconnect the air lines that run to them, and unbolt them from the steering knuckle and the chassis. You can then install the new air springs, or replace them with coil springs from your conversion kit. You will want to replace air springs in pairs to ensure a level ride.
If you are converting to coil springs, you will need to deactivate the air compressor. Otherwise your dashboard suspension warning light will remain on. Coil conversion kits come with a set of instructions for deactivating the warning light.
To replace the compressor, you'll have to disconnect all the air lines, as well as the wiring harness that connect to it. Then, you can simply unbolt it and bolt on the new one. If the compressor is mounted underneath the frame, it will be easily accessed. If it is in the engine compartment you may have to remove nearby parts to access it.


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The Hope College Flying Dutchmen have been awarded the top-seed among North Region teams for the national tournament of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) when it is held in Holland from March 9-12.
Hope won the regular season Blue Division championship of the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference and as champions will advance to nationals without having to compete in the regional qualifying tournament.
The national tournament will be held at The Edge on Holland's north side. There will be 16 teams from across the country competing, first in pool play and then championship/consolation play.
Hope will open pool play against the University of Colorado (#2 from the Pacific Region), and then face the #3 seed from the Atlantic Region and then the #4 seed from the South Region. Game times are to be determined.
A year ago Hope finished second at the national tournament bowing to conference rival Saginaw Valley in the championship game.


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By MEGAN JAMES
MIDDLEBURY — Sometimes when Sue Schmidt and her sons are shopping for groceries, a stranger will come up to them and ask if she can touch the boys' hair. Schmidt's sons are both adopted — one is African American, the other biracial — and the soft dreadlocks on the younger 6-year-old attract a lot of attention.
Schmidt's answer is always the same — no — but she tries to use the interaction as an opportunity to bring up a topic often overlooked in Vermont, where according to the 2006 U.S. census, 96.7 percent of the population is white.
"We don't talk about race in Vermont, as white people we have the privilege to not talk about race," she said. "My children don't have that privilege. They will never have it."
In her own family Schmidt, who works as Middlebury's Agency of Human Services Field Director, seizes every opportunity to discuss the issue with her sons, whether it's in the grocery store or on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"My youngest son, earlier this month, said, 'What means assassination?' So I explained it. You have to make sure he understands the world that he's living in," Schmidt said. "But there was also part of me that was really sad… because I don't want him to be afraid."
Schmidt is a panelist in an upcoming community discussion on race following a screening at Middlebury College of the Vermont film, "Living on the Fault Line: Where Race and Family Meet."
The documentary, which explores the emotional costs of racial discrimination and white privilege as it plays out in the privacy of trans-racial Vermont families, starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, in Twilight Hall.
By CYRUS LEVESQUE
ADDISON COUNTY — As Green Up Day nears, students at Middlebury Union Middle School are keeping their eyes open for a visit from a local superhero. Captain Green Up, clad in a costume made from the green plastic bags distributed on Green Up Day, has led the charge to pick up litter and trash around the school for several years now, and this year probably will be no different.
"He always seems to be there when they need him," said social studies teacher Peter Brakeley, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the superhero.
Brakeley, who helps organize Green Up Day activities himself at the school but mysteriously has never been photographed with Captain Green Up, has recently taken a leave of absence for medical reasons. However, he said that he will still be able to take part in Green Up Day activities this year. "I should be able to keep my involvement," Brakeley said.
At MUMS, Brakeley helps mobilize about 300 middle school students to help clean up the area on the annual day when Vermonters help clean up roadsides and public areas.
Green Up Day began in 1970 to promote the stewardship of the state's natural landscape, according to Green Up Vermont, the nonprofit organization that has coordinated efforts since 1979. Held on the first Saturday of May, over 40,000 bags of trash are collected annually with the help of more than 250 volunteer coordinators and over 15,000 participants.
This year Brakeley said middle school students will begin work on Friday, May 2, at around 2:15 p.m. The students are eager to help out, partly to get out of the classroom on a spring afternoon and partly just to help their community.
"I think it's important to get students involved with community service," Brakeley said. "There's a lot we can do for our community, especially an energetic group of 10- to 14-year-olds."
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY —Middlebury selectmen will hire a consultant to assess the current space woes besetting the local fire, public works and municipal offices, and determine whether some of those services could be accommodated on the former wastewater treatment plant property off Seymour Street.
The former wastewater treatment plant, now relegated to a pump station, sits on 12.5 acres of town-owned land. It currently hosts the Middlebury Police Department and a small cluster of buildings — including a garage — that are no longer used by the sewer department and are now falling into disrepair.
Town officials want to determine whether any of those former treatment plant buildings can be salvaged for storage of municipal equipment, and whether it would make sense to consider some kind of new structure there to alleviate the space crunch some town departments are now experiencing.
The consultant will also look at the potential of other town-owned land, and perhaps private property, that could meet municipal space needs, according to Middlebury Town Manager Bill Finger.
Middlebury has $35,000 set aside in its capital budget to pay for the study, Finger noted.
"We want to take into account the space needs of the town and look at the potential to accommodate those needs on property already owned by the town, then look elsewhere," Finger said.
Middlebury's fire department needs are already well documented. While there is decent meeting space in the department's headquarters at 5 Seymour Street, the building is having an increasingly tough time housing the force's vehicles. Fire Chief Rick Cole explained the northern section of the building was erected during the 1930s, while the southern portion was added during the 1970s. Planners back then could not have envisioned the size of today's firefighting vehicles.
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The Your Money or Your Life telecourse started last night (you can still sign up) and I had the brilliant idea that I would tackle one of my daily life unconscious resource flows… mess. Mess isn't clutter. It's more like "dirt" combined with what my old housemates called "Vicki trails" – papers and dishes and things at the top of the stairs (for weeks) waiting to go down.
I can now testify to the power of the practices I assign to others. My mind is going crazy. Judgments. Promises to be good – later. Defiance. Wheedling. I say "daily life" is a perfect object of meditation. Isn't meditation for calming the mind? Of course, but achieving "calm mind" in the face of irritated mind, that's the fast track to ultimate peace. Okay to calm on the cushion, but calming in daily life. Whew.
So I do invite you to join in this powerful ride to mastery of your daily muddle – to liberate all that energy for the loving and serving that is at the top of all our real and honest lists.
And what's the point of all our meditating anyway? To be steady in the midst of it all. You'd agree that the "it all" is heating up, in both thrilling and terrifying ways. We live in times of change. Egypt shows up that all is not lost even when what oppresses seems so solid it will never move. Climate disturbances show us that none of us escapes the consequences of our collective choices, even with all the money and influence we may have. I really believe clearing out the obstructions to our capacity to be awake and resourceful is a crucial task and great service.
So again, I unabashedly encourage you to join in this 7-week 'crash course' in not crashing but staying the course. Click here to do so.


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International combat operations in Afghanistan, now involving mostly U.S. troops, are to come to a formal end at the close of 2014, at roughly 13 years by far America's longest-running war.
The families of the returning troops will be delighted to see them come home; the rest of the country seems largely to have forgotten about them. Let us not forget that we still have 68,000 troops there, battling the Taliban, including Taliban infiltrators in the regular Afghan army we are struggling to train.
The Obama administration is said to want to keep 10,000 troops there after 2014 to continue training Afghan regulars and to conduct anti-terrorist measures. Published accounts say that the 10,000 number was a split-the-difference figure between a high of 15,000 and a low of 6,000 recommended by Gen. John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan who is shortly due to be rotated out.
Whether the U.S. troops stay depends on signing a treaty with Afghanistan's mercurial president, Hamid Karzai. His freedom to maneuver may be limited by the April 2014 presidential elections, only the country's third such ballot. Karzai is term-limited and says he will abide by that limit.
But the narrow time frame raises the question of whether his successor would feel bound by any agreement that Karzai signed with the U.S. Already there is a major sticking point. The Afghans want the U.S. military to be subject to Afghan courts, an absolute deal-breaker as far as Washington is concerned. It's exactly the reason we no longer have a presence in Iraq.
Assuming the legal technicalities can be worked out, there's the question of how much good a residual force of 10,000 or even 15,000 troops can do. The actual training would be limited; it's unlikely our NATO allies would be of much help and some number of those troops would be committed to protecting the U.S. presence.
True, it would be good to have Special Operations units already on the ground, but given the situation in North Africa and the Mideast, and what is likely to be a much tighter Pentagon budget, there is also the question of whether these units could be deployed more usefully elsewhere.
It may require more focus than the U.S. is accustomed to, but given the lack of attention from Congress and the public, our departure from our longest war could be sloppy and inconclusive.
Dale McFeatters is a syndicated columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service.
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Analyzing Sports Streakiness with Texas Tech Professor Alan Reifman........................................................................(See twitter.com/alanreifman for more frequent postings)...................................................................................
Friday, March 14, 2014
Team Scoring Runs in College Basketball -- Revisited
Using the 10-0 criterion and voluminous data from recent seasons, Pomeroy examined, among other things, the probability of teams going on a run, depending on whether they were winning or losing (and by how much) or tied. He found small, but steady, differences, comprising an unmistakable trend. The more a team was behind, the higher its probability of going on a 10-0 run, and the more a team was ahead, the smaller its probability. A team trailing by 10 points had approximately a 1.86% chance of going on such a run, a team trailing by 9 points had roughly a 1.76% chance, a team 8 points behind had roughly a 1.72% chance, and so forth (the reason these percentages are approximate is that the exact values are not listed and I am estimating them visually from the heights of bars on a graph). In a tie game, a team has about a 1.24% chance of a 10-0 run. A team with a 1-point lead had around a 1.20% chance, one with a 2-point lead had roughly a 1.16% chance, and so forth. Finally, a team up 10 had approximately a 0.88% chance.
In my 2012 book Hot Hand, I also examined team runs, in this case in the 2004 NCAA men's basketball tournament. My aim at the time was simply to document the number of runs in the tourney, using the criterion of a 10-point margin, but not requiring a shutout during the run. A margin such as 12-2 or 16-3 would have sufficed, for example. As I wrote in the book, "Nearly three-quarters of the games (47 out of 64) featured at least one major run" (p. 27). Many of the games included multiple runs, so the number of total runs was 67. Unlike Pomeroy, I did not initially seek to correlate the occurrence of runs with whether the team that went on the run was ahead or behind (and by how much) at the time of the run. However, play-by-play sheets from the 2004 tournament are still available online (by going to a given team's schedule page at ESPN.com, as in this example, and then selecting 2003-04). Thus, I could go back and try to replicate Pomeroy's analysis.*
Whereas my horizontal axis was structured the same as Pomeroy's, depicting how many points behind (negative values) or ahead (positive values) a team was right before launching its run, I used a different measure of run intensity on the vertical axis. As I noted above, he looked at probability of a 10-0 run. Instead, I plotted the margin of a given run (e.g., outscoring an opponent 16-3 during a run would be recorded as +13). The graph appears below, the background ranging left-to-right from darker red for larger deficits to darker green for larger leads. You may click on the graph to enlarge it.
Each dot represents a particular scoring run. Three of the dots are annotated to provide examples of what all the dots represent. The downward-trending line, known as the best-fit line because it is close to as many of the dots as possible, shows the same pattern as Pomeroy's findings. The further behind a team was, the greater its tendency to outscore the opponent by a huge margin. For those of you with some statistical training, the correlation between initial deficit/lead and margin of outscoring the opponent during the run was r = -.24, on the cusp of statistical significance at p = .051.
Teams that were way ahead rarely went on a big scoring run. One exception, noted in the graph, is that Kansas, already leading 85-64, went on a 12-0 run against the University of Alabama-Birmingham to expand the Jayhawks' lead to 97-64. One reason teams with big leads rarely go on new scoring runs presumably is that they often take out their top players, both to rest them and to avoid the appearance of "running up the score" on the opponent.
A second, more statistically based reason for why trailing teams are more likely than leading teams to go on runs is the concept of regression toward the mean. Regression toward the mean tells us that, even absent any intervention, both extreme low performers (i.e., the trailing team) and extreme high performers (i.e., the leading team) tend to return toward more average performances. An extreme low performer has nowhere to go but up, and an extreme high performer has nowhere to go but down.
In conclusion, Pomeroy's and my investigations are very clear that trailing teams are far more likely to go on scoring runs than are leading teams. Psychological factors suggested by Pomeroy (e.g., motivation on the part of the trailing team and the desire to conserve energy by the leading team) and regression toward the mean are likely explanations of the basic finding, but it is difficult to know the relative importance of the two explanations.
*In revisiting the play-by-play sheets from the 2004 NCAA tournament, I noticed a few slight discrepancies with what appeared in my book. For example, a game article on the Mississippi State-Monmouth contest stated that, "The 15th-seeded [Monmouth] Hawks shot their way within four points late in the first half, but Mississippi State pulled away by controlling both ends of the floor. The Bulldogs tore off a 22-5 run in less than 10 minutes, and cruised to their largest margin of victory of the season." Based on the game article, I listed Mississippi State's run as 22-5 in my book. However, the article's qualifier "in less than 10 minutes" was more important than I realized at the time. If one looks at the play-by-play sheet, one sees that Mississippi State indeed outscored Monmouth 22-5 in the roughly 10:00 window of time from 4:47 left in the first half (MSU up 36-32) to 15:23 left in the second half (MSU up 58-37). However, what I did not notice until revisiting the play-by-play sheet for today's analysis is that Mississippi State added 6 more unanswered points beyond the 10-minute window, making the full run really 28-5.Small discrepancies such as this were corrected for today's analysis.
3 comments:
Your regression toward the mean argument does not seem right to me.
It would only be true if you knew the final score of the game and you knew that both teams, the ones that were behind and the ones that were ahead, ended up scoring the same number of points, on the average.
In fact, from a purely statistical perspective, the teams that are behind should have less of a chance of going on a run, not more, because they are worse teams on the average.
- alan said...
Thanks for the comment. I agree that trailing teams should tend to be worse than leading teams. However, even superior teams can fall behind and when they mount a come-from-behind run, the case for regression toward the mean is presumably stronger. I looked over the 2004 seedings and several teams that made comeback runs were the higher-seeded team in the game:
St. Joe's (East 1) falls behind 12-21 to Texas Tech (E8), before going on a 24-2 run.
St. Joe's (E1) trails 8-17 to Wake Forest (E4), then goes on 13-1 run.
Wisconsin (E6) falls behind 29-42 to Richmond (E11), then goes on 34-8 run.
Kentucky (Midwest 1), down 46-56 to UAB (MW9), goes on 11-0 run.
Gonzaga (MW2) trails 3-10 to Valparaiso (MW15), takes off on 12-2 run.
Georgia Tech (MW3), down 36-43 to Nevada (MW10), unleashes 17-6 run.
Xavier (South 7) falls behind 39-53 to Louisville (S10), before going on 36-10 run.
- Michissippi said...
Alan, I too am unsure about the the regression toward the mean argument. Let's say each team moves back toward their season averages in offensive production. If this tends to decrease the margin, that suggests that the leading team tends to be the luckier team, i.e., a team scoring above their season average. While this may be true, it seems it would be particularly true for games with small margins, and as the margin increased, the tendency for the leading team to be the luckier team would decrease since the worse team will require much more luck to take the lead. We actually see the opposite trend. This leads me to believe the psychological argument more, but obviously this whole topic could use more research. Thanks for the though provoking analysis!


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There are many reasons investors enter the movie business. "Enticed by Charlie Sheen" isn't usually one of them.
On a vacation to Los Angeles a few years ago, Joe Newcomb, a Texas entrepreneur who has made millions in the fertilizer business, accepted an invitation from a mutual friend for lunch at Sheen's home. The two got to talking, and the actor said he was looking for a backer on an idea he had for a new "Major League" movie.
Though the project didn't come off, the conversations put Newcomb in touch with several people in the movie industry. So when the financially troubled AIDS drama "Dallas Buyers Club" was looking for funding just weeks before it was set to start shooting in fall 2012, the white knight turned out to be Newcomb and his partner Joe Notargiacomo, who put up the approximately $2 million the Matthew McConaughey movie needed to get made.
"To get into a new industry is very difficult," Newcomb, the founder and chief executive of a company called Truth Chemical, said by phone from Texas last week. "I didn't really know independent film existed, but once I did it excited me." (The friend who introduced him to Sheen, incidentally, was an equally unlikely figure — Chicago White Sox player Adam Dunn, a friend of Newcomb's.)
Outside financing is nothing new in Hollywood, and recent years have seen the advent of players like Megan Ellison — the daughter of Silicon Valley mogul Lawrence Ellison and financier of 2014 best picture nominees "Her" and "American Hustle" — who have put up millions for risky, adult-oriented projects the studios would rather avoid.
But with dollars growing increasingly hard to come by, this year's Oscar-season favorites are funded by particularly far-flung parties. They include the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), a former NBA player ("Lee Daniels' The Butler"), an heir to a banking and Minnesota Twins fortune ("12 Years a Slave") and Newcomb's fertilizer money in "Dallas Buyers Club."
The largest nontraditional investor in an Oscar nominee is Red Granite Pictures, a young company founded by the previously unknown Kentucky native Joey McFarland and Riza Aziz, whose stepfather is Malaysian leader Najib Razak. Red Granite underwrote the entire $100-million budget for "Wolf," with Paramount coming in only as a distributor on the Martin Scorsese film. The movie had trouble landing financing until a few years ago, when McFarland and Aziz said they would front money others wouldn't put up.
McFarland and Aziz have been vague about the source of their capital, saying that it comes from Middle Eastern and Asian investors. Some critics—particularly the U.K. blogger Clare Rewcastle Brown—have questioned whether it has ties to Razak's fortune. Red Granite, in turn, has fired back with legal threats demanding she retract her posts. (Through a spokeswoman, the company declined to be interviewed for this story.)
Bill Pohlad, the son of the late billionaire banker and former Twins owner Carl Pohlad, is the veteran of the bunch.
Initially, Pohlad was strictly the money man on movies such as 2005's "Brokeback Mountain." But in recent years he became more involved creatively, including on Terrence Malick's 2012 best picture nominee "The Tree of Life." It was the relationship with Brad Pitt formed on that film that led to Pohlad putting money into the best picture favorite "12 Years a Slave" (Pitt is a producer and one of the costars in the movie).
These personalities fill a need, say filmmakers. "Outside money allows these movies to happen, even if it's money that's really outside," said "Butler" director Lee Daniels at the time of the film's release. During production, Daniels repeatedly had to make the rounds among deep-pocketed types, eventually securing money from such outsiders as NBA player Michael Finley and the consultancy kingpin and anti-poverty crusader Earl Stafford. "A drama that was seen as 'only for black people' couldn't get any support even from traditional independent financiers," Daniels said.
With many of these films landing Oscar nominations, their backers are eager to take their place in the award-season limelight. Aziz and McFarland were both given Producers Guild of America nominations, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' producers branch only gave McFarland a slot and left out Aziz in determining best picture nominees.
Newcomb, meanwhile, has pulled strings with "Dallas Buyers Club" creative producers to secure a ticket to the Sunday awards ceremony even though he is not a nominee. He noted that some of his friends will be flying in from Aspen, Colo., so they can join him in a "celebratory cocktail."
"We'll make a night of it for sure," said Newcomb, who also runs an oil-field services and architecture firm. (His baseball buddy Dunn, meanwhile, was contemplating a trip to Los Angeles for the weekend; Dunn wound up with a cameo in the movie.)
Smaller independent-type films such as "Dallas Buyers Club" might seem like the least likely genre for these outliers, who would otherwise be expected to invest in more commercial pictures. But because such art house movies require a smaller investment and also come with passionate A-list stars, they are attractive to newbies.
"It seems like it shouldn't be this way, but it's actually a much safer bet to do an art house movie than a wide release, where it's much harder to understand the mathematics," said Cassian Elwes, an independent producer and money-raiser who helped wrangle the funds for both "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Butler."
Still, Elwes notes, "You have to understand what you're doing or you'll be out very quickly."
Indeed, the stories of off-the-radar outsiders in Hollywood often turn into cautionary tales
Five years ago, upscale Hollywood's go-to oddball financier was Sidney Kimmel. The billionaire apparel magnate had jumped in to bankroll difficult pictures such as "The Kite Runner" and "United 93." But after several flops, Kimmel retreated, and now mostly concentrates on decidedly non-awards fare like the recent "I, Frankenstein" and the Jason Statham shoot'em-up "Parker.
These partnerships can also lead to tension. On "Butler," Elwes describes marathon conference calls on which "everybody had a different opinion."
The convergence of far-flung finance and insider entertainment worlds can also lead to unintentionally comical moments. To announce their formation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, Red Granite threw a splashy party featuring a private performance by Kanye West. At one point during the set, West finished a song and then shouted "Red Granite foreva," an odd refrain given that the company had in fact yet to make a movie.
Those coming from these outside businesses, though, say they are trying to educate themselves. "They call it show business for a reason — it's a business and many fundamentals are the same," said Newcomb, who has formed an entertainment unit to review other scripts. "The important thing is that we have a solid business plan. It's 'let's get the business out of the way so we can get to the magic.'"


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CLUSTERING WITH SDUSD — The La Jolla Cluster Association will host a discussion on a clusterwide partnership agreement with San Diego Unified School District on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Muirlands Middle School, 1056 Nautilus St. The agreement focuses on teachers and principals seeking more local control over public schools.
FETE CHINESE NEW YEAR — The San Diego Chinese Academy, located on the campus of La Jolla Country Day School, is celebrating the Chinese New Year — along with the school's 25th anniversary — on Feb. 24 from 1:45 to 4:30 p.m. The celebration will include a festive "Lion Dance," class performances, a Chinese Sichuan opera, cultural activities, food and games. The free event takes place at 9490 Genesee Ave. For more information, visit sandiegochineseschool.com or call (858) 205-7322.
PHOTO OP — Students from La Jolla Elementary School will host a photo booth at the Children's Pool on March 3 from 1 to 3 p.m., where visitors can have their photos taken as a mermaid or surfer for a suggested minimum donation of $5. All proceeds from the photo booth will benefit the Beautification of Coast Boulevard improvement plan.
CLOTHES FOR CHANGE — La Jolla High School seniors Miranda Ciesol and Arden Kreuzer are coordinating a clothing collection at LJHS from Feb. 19-22. Ciesol and Kreuzer serve on the board of directors of My Girlfriend's Closet, a nonprofit that aims to improve the lives of young women between 13-22 who are in foster care, homeless or otherwise disadvantaged.
For more information, visit www.mygirlfriendscloset.info.


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Foreign exchange solutions for your business
No matter what your business does, if you need to make just one payment, set up payments to lots of people, protect a favourable rate for the future or want to do more to protect your business from currency fluctuations then look no further - we'll find the right product to suit you and your business' needs and appetite for risk.
Spot contracts
If you need to make an international payment straight away (or with very little notice) then a spot contract could be the one for you. We would offer you a rate based on the live exchange rate on the day and you can make a payment there and then. They're great if you just need to get it done.
Forward contracts
If you want to lock in a rate but aren't ready to make a transfer - fix it up to 3 years in advance. The great thing about this is that you'll know exactly how much you'll get when you're ready to transfer.
You might need to pay an initial deposit, then the balance will be due at the end of the contract. If the rates move against you, you may need to top up the deposit. Your dealer will explain and discuss this with you before you book your forward.
Firm orders
If you know the rate you want or know the rate you definitely don't want but don't have time to keep tabs on what's going on, just tell us. If the rate gets to where you want it - we'll take action and book it for you. And if it gets to where you don't want it - we'll do the same again. We'll strike while the iron's hot to make sure that you get the best deal possible or protect yourself if the markets move against you.
That way you can sleep easy. So whether it's all going up, down, left or right we'll have you covered.
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Sounds like an oxymoron, right? But if you have loads of international payments to make, we can help. There are 3 options. The first is that you can keep making them manually. Or you can choose to bulk upload the details to our online platform and make the payments. Easy. Or we can work with you to come up with a fully automated solution so everything happens all in one place. Even better.Get started Back to homepage


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Nation & World
Taliban attack CIA compound in latest Afghanistan violence
Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the Kabul offices of the CIA early Tuesday in a coordinated attack in one of the capital's most heavily fortified neighborhoods, which is also home to Afghanistan's presidential place and the main headquarters for the U.S.-led international military coalition.
There was no word on damages to the CIA offices or casualties to its guard force, and it was uncertain whether the CIA had been the main target of the attack. The Taliban, claiming responsibility for the attack, said in a statement that the CIA building had been one of its primary objectives, but the presidential palace is also nearby. Three presidential guards died in the attack.
Reporters who were waiting to enter the presidential palace when the attack took place at 6:30 a.m. said the attackers fired at the CIA offices, and smoke could be seen rising from the building, a former hotel, from miles away.
Statements issued by Afghan ministries said no civilians were killed. In addition to the three palace guards who died, several were slightly wounded. Police said there were four or five attackers and that all were killed.
A spokesman for Hamid Karzai said the Afghan president was never in serious danger and was unhurt.
It was the latest in a string of high-profile attacks in the city over the last few weeks, including one on the military side of the international airport and another just outside the country's Supreme Court building. It came as U.S. diplomats and Afghan leaders tried to figure out how get the stalled negotiations with the Taliban over peace talks in Doha, Qatar, back on track.
Ambassador James Dobbins, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had arrived in Kabul from Doha to meet with Karzai.
Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a spokesman for the Afghan High Peace Council, which likely would represent Afghanistan in any peace talks, said that such acts could undermine the chances of talks.
The U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, James Cunningham, issued a statement condemning the attack and praising the rapid reaction of the Afghan security forces in ending it. But he also included an overture to the Taliban.
"All of the attackers were killed, without success in achieving their goals," he wrote. "This again demonstrates the futility of the Taliban's efforts to use violence and terror to achieve their aims. We again call on the Taliban to come to the table to talk to the Afghanistan government about peace and reconciliation."
The attack lasted for more than an hour.
Witness Mohammad Hafiz, whose house is near the presidential palace compound, said that two heavy explosions shook the area, and after that he heard heavy gunfire and more than eight other blasts.
An Afghan solider who was in a guard tower just outside the presidential palace compound when the attack started said that Afghan National Directorate of Security officers in the Pul-e-Mahmmod Khan neighborhood, about a kilometer away from the presidential palace, tried to stop the attackers' trucks as they approached the area, but they barely slowed and kept moving toward the palace compound.
Several of the journalists said one truck stopped in the middle of road that goes to the palace and the CIA headquarters. Several men emerged and start shooting wildly. Guards shouted at the journalists to take cover as the insurgents fired RPGs at various targets, including the CIA compound.
Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said the insurgents' trucks were armored and that they had tried to get their vehicles through security by displaying fake ID cards from the NATO-led coalition and fake vehicle passes for their trucks. But guards recognized the IDs as phony and tried to stop the trucks, which prompted the insurgents to start shooting.
After the attackers were killed, Afghan security officers immediately cordoned off the area. Even police officials and Rangin Spanta, head of the country's security council, were prevented from entering.
Rafi Ferdous, a spokesman for the Afghan Council of Ministers, said that the attack was planned and carried out by an insurgent group that's allied with the Taliban.
"Our information shows today's attack near to the presidential palace and CIA compound was planned by Haqqani terrorist network," Ferdous tweeted hours after the incident.
Video: Taliban Takes Responsibility for Kabul Attack


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July 2008
Recommendations for Utilizing and Building on the Existing Base of Knowledge
Look to established standards for online learning to determine elements of high--quality programs.
Program evaluation has a long history, and its basic approaches can be adapted to fit any unique educational program. The Program Evaluation Standards (1994) from the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation and other guides (see EvaluationMethods and Tools in appendix A) can be helpful to those developing an online learning evaluation.
Don't reinvent the wheel unless you have to—consult the list of distance education and evaluation resources in appendix A and identify program peers you can contact about their evaluation activities.
Participate in the community of evaluators and researchers studying K-12 online learning. Share evaluation tools and processes with others. Make them available online. Consider publishing in professional journals. Seek out networking venues such as conferences.
Use caution when interpreting evaluation findings from other programs, or adapting their methods. Online learning programs "come in many shapes and sizes," and findings about one online program or set of Web resources are not always generalizable. Take time to understand the program being studied and its context before deciding if the findings or methods are relevant and appropriate.
If developing new tools for collecting data or new processes for analyzing it, work collaboratively with leaders of similar programs or experts from other agencies to fill gaps in knowledge.
|Important Questions for K-12 Online Learning Evaluators and Practitioners
In a synthesis of research on K-12 online learning, Rosina Smith of the Alberta Online Consortium, Tom Clark of TA Consulting, and Robert Blomeyer of Blomeyer & Clemente Consulting Services developed a list of important questions for researchers of K-12 online learning to consider.14 That list, which drew from the work of Cathy Cavanaugh et al.,15 has been adapted here for program and evaluation practitioners. Of course, no evaluation can cover all of these questions; this list is meant to provide a starting point for discussing evaluation goals and topics of interest.
Learner outcomes. What is the impact of the K-12 online learning program on student achievement? What factors can increase online course success rates? What impact does the program have on learner process skills, such as critical and higher-order thinking? How are learner satisfaction and motivation related to outcomes?
Learner characteristics. What are the characteristics of successful learners in this K-12 online learning program, and can success be predicted? How do learner background, preparation, and screening influence academic outcomes in the program?
Online learning features. What are the most effective combinations of media and methods in the online learning program? How do interaction, collaboration, and learner pacing influence academic outcomes? What is the impact of the K-12 online learning program when used as a supplement, in courses, or in full programs of study?
Online teaching and professional development. What are the characteristics of successful teachers in this K-12 online learning program? Are the training, mentoring, and support systems for these teachers effective?
Education context. What kinds of programs and curricula does the K-12 online learning program offer? How can the program best be used to improve learner outcomes in different content areas, grade levels, and academic programs? How can it help participating schools meet NCLB requirements? How do resources, policy, and funding impact the success of the program? Can an effective model of K-12 online learning be scaled up and sustained by the program?


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Freeworlds: Tides of War is a Star Wars total conversion, one of the most ambitious mods for the Digital Anvil game Freelancer, released in 2003.


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Caffeine Mug
Add to your caffeine collection
- Your caffeine addiction is totally clear
- Green caffeine molecule on a glass mug
- Holds 8 oz. of your favorite beverage
The now famous caffeine molecule emblazoned on a swell glass mug is the perfect addition to your caffeine collection. This one's got some somewhat calm earl-grey tea in it cuz that's what I was drinking when I took the picture, but feel free to use it for your daily double cappucino with a shot of skyrocket syrup.
8 ounce glass mug with the caffeine molecule printed in lime green.
Not microwave safe. Logo may rub off if put in dishwasher.


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The timely replacement of home filtration products is a lot easier when you know what air filter size you need. When it come time to make a purchase you will be presented so many different air filter dimensions that you might not feel confident finalizing your order. We don't recommend relying only on gut feelings when it comes the correct air filter size you need and we don't want you to feel uncertain in your buying decisions. Quite the opposite, at Filtersfast.com one of our main goals is to create a more informed customer. Really, it is right on the wall of our marketing department.
If the filter is too big you will have to send it back and that is more time you are keeping an old, clogged filter in operation. Never do this! When air flow is constricted 2 things happen. The first is your energy bill will start to look a little ridiculous as hot or cold air becomes trapped behind a wall of particles. The second is you will be running your air conditioning system for much longer because hot and cold air is not circulating properly. If the filter is too small you wind up with air gaps and contaminants just bypass the filter material.
So how do you go about choosing the right air filter dimensions when shopping for home filtration products? Below we outline 3 steps you can take to determine the air filter size your need that will give you more confidence in your buying decision.
- Take it out and look for the air filter dimensions. First, turn off your air conditioning system. When you remove the filter it is easy to knock dirt loose. Depending on where your air filter is installed you will either suck the dirt into the air conditioning system or blow it out into the house. Now look for numbers printed on the filter. Some places don't print dimensions on the filter or you might find they are faded. If that is the case try step 2.
- Take out your measuring tape and get the exact dimensions yourself. These are written as length x width x depth (for example: 18x20x1). Lay the filter flat on the ground and start by measuring top-to-bottom for length, left-to-right for width, and front-to-back for depth. You should have 3 numbers written in inches. Except there is a small hitch to make things more complicated. When shopping for air filters you will see the words 'nominal dimensions' and 'actual dimensions' together. In all likelihood your measurements are not a nice round number , so what should you buy?
The reason for this difference is many air filters are not cut to an exact size. Normally we see air filters being around 1/8″ to 1/4″ smaller than advertised. This guarantees that if your air conditioning system is designed for 18x20x1, if that number is off by even a little bit the the filter will still fit. Except we said earlier that air gaps aren't good, so why would you want an undersized filter? This isn't an issue for 2 reasons: If it was the exact size of your system you might damage the filter trying to install it because there would not be enough space; when air is pushing or pulling the air it will press up against the opening and create a seal. So go ahead and install your filter and we promise you will be happy with the results.
- If all else fails, refer to your air conditioning system product manual or contact the manufacturing directly with your system model number. They can help you figure out the exact specification of your unit.
If you bought from Filtersfast.com before you can access your account and reorder filters you already bought, or contact customer support and they can get you hooked up with everything you need to keep on schedule to make sure your air conditioning system is working at its best.


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As the Cowboys wait for nose tackle Jay Ratliff to return from a groin injury, a new report indicates that Ratliff and owner Jerry Jones recently engaged in a locker-room altercation.
According to Mike Fisher of 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Ratliff and Jones had a heated exchange after last Sunday night's win over the Eagles.
Ratliff has missed seven games this year with various injuries and the last three with a strained groin. Jones said to Ratliff after the Eagles win, "We need you."
Ratliff responded angrily, resulting in a "volcanic" confrontation that included a jaw-to-jaw argument. "They're both passionate men and great men and they want to win, that's all it is,'' one source told Fisher. "But they were in each other's faces. People had to intervene."
According to Fisher, Ratliff physically challenged Jones and made "derisive" reference to his age.


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Check against delivery
2nd meeting of the High-level Dialogue on the Accession Process
Sarajevo, 27 November 2012
Presidents, Your Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,
It is a pleasure to be here in Sarajevo for the 2nd meeting of the High-Level Dialogue on the Accession Process between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The High Level Dialogue remains an important tool for furthering the European Union agenda, despite the initial delays on meeting the agreed timelines. I am eager to hear from you what has been done and how you intend to meet the milestones.
In June, I had hoped that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement could be in force before our second meeting of the High Level Dialogue; and that there could be a credible application for European Union membership still this year. Now, five months later, I regret that the first timeline on compliance with Sejdić-Finci ruling, which was 31 August, could not be met. But I note that initial steps were taken to meet some of the requirements of the European Union Roadmap. By the agreed timeline of 31 October, answers to the list of sectoral questions on public procurement and on the environment were prepared and a working group on the coordination mechanism agreed to general principles for European Union coordination. They go in the right direction but they are not enough for real progress! Later on I will provide comments on the methodology of your replies.
Let me start by making three remarks about the horizontal challenges identified in this year's Enlargement Strategy and how these challenges should be tackled urgently in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
First, regarding the rule of law, during the accession process many changes will be needed in your legal, economic and social system to make it compliant with European Union requirements. The Structured Dialogue on Justice has given you a first insight of the European Union methodology. And the ongoing dialogue since 2008, in the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Process, has continued to work as a consensus building platform. It is now crucial that all competent actors contribute to the revision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council Law, as well as with the adoption of a Law on the Courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina that would reform the state level judiciary through strengthening the current institutional setting and also clarifying prerogatives vis-à-vis other instances. Some deliverables are also more directly in the hands of the Entities' governments. Among others, we rely on the RS government to complete the alignment of the Law on the Courts of RS.
Second, regarding regional cooperation and reconciliation in the Western Balkans, the past year has seen major progress by a number of Western Balkan countries on their path towards the European Union. Croatia is on track to becoming the 28th Member of the European Union on 1 July 2013; accession negotiations have started with Montenegro; Serbia has been granted Candidate Status; Albania is making good progress and even Kosovo1 is taking strides on its European path. Regrettably, the same cannot be said about Bosnia and Herzegovina. I regret that the whole region is moving ahead towards the European Union but that Bosnia and Herzegovina is lagging behind.
Without proper coordination, the implementation of the Roadmap allowing Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue exporting agricultural products of animal origin (such as milk, meat, poultry and eggs) to Croatia and the rest of the European Union will be delayed. This will result in serious economic losses for your exporters. Bosnia and Herzegovina has just as much potential as any of its neighbours. For several years, we have provided expertise and warned that serious preparations ahead of Croatia's accession were needed but to no avail.
I have held a trilateral meeting in Brussels in September and another one is planned for December. In between, several technical meetings were held. It is now key to get a reaction to the interpretative note.
Third, regarding economic and social challenges, the difficulties in the Eurozone and the global financial crisis have shown how interdependent national economies are inside the European Union and beyond. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is high time that concrete action is taken to address pressing socio-economic issues so that your most vulnerable citizens can also be covered by social safety nets. It is unfortunate that associations of disabled citizens have to come to Brussels to get their voice heard!
A functioning electricity transmission system is of high importance for the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina's electricity market in the energy market of South-East Europe and the internal market of the European Union. The countrywide electricity transmission company TRANSCO is finally being made operational but the planned investments have to take place. This will facilitate foreign investments in a key sector of your economy.
Ladies and gentlemen,
There were also some positive signs at the start of 2012 when the newly elected Chair of the Council of Ministers, Mr Bevanda, declared that "2012 will be the Year for Europe in Bosnia and Herzegovina". But, the subsequent breakdown of political consensus meant that the main timeline in the European Union Roadmap agreed by representatives of the main political parties at the June High Level Dialogue has not been met.
What is the European Union asking for? Let me be clear: what the European Union Roadmap agreed last June remains valid. The tasks will not change:
For the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a proposal, based on political agreement, needs to be submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly to amend the Constitution for compliance with the Sejdic Finci ruling;
For a credible membership application, the Parliamentary Assembly needs to adopt the amendments to the Constitution, as a result of a consensus building process. Moreover, a satisfactory track record in implementing obligations under the Interim Agreement is a key element for a credible membership application to be considered by the EU.
Above all, establishing coordination mechanisms for engagement with the European Union and for the effective use of pre-accession assistance remains a key priority. Following a membership application, when the challenging period of the accession process starts, functional institutions are needed for progress on the European Union path. But even today, effective coordination between all levels of authorities is needed for European Union matters, for an effective use of the European Union pre-accession assistance and for meeting obligations from the Interim Agreement. Let us not forget that the Interim Agreement's trade provisions are to be respected in a spirit of reciprocity and not protectionism.
The Pilot Census just completed demonstrated that coordination between the State-level and entities requires strengthening. Full cooperation between the 3 Statistical offices is a requirement under the Census Law itself. Therefore, efficient coordination is also needed to get a true statistical picture from the Population Census [to be held in spring 2013] – which in turn is needed for socio-economic development purposes.
To conclude, the Roadmap remains possible to fulfil: the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and the submission of a credible membership application remain realistic prospects provided there is sufficient political will to reach consensus and to realise the European Union aspirations of your citizens through concrete actions.
The European Union will continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina on its path towards European Union membership with expertise and financial support and through its reinforced presence on the ground. But the country's political representatives have to play their part by firmly anchoring the European Union agenda at the heart of the political process and translating it into concrete action. Therefore I expect to hear from the leaders gathered here today on how and when the Road Map tasks will be completed. This is the way to move the European Union agenda forward. The doors of the European Union are open to Bosnia and Herzegovina but it is for you, as the main political representatives, to decide how quickly the country will go through these doors. The time to move the European Union agenda forward in Bosnia and Herzegovina is now.
Thank you.