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Withey, Kansas slip past Western Kentucky in NCAA second round
Kansas City, MO – Jeff Withey posted 17 points, seven blocks and six rebounds, as Kansas snuck past 16th-seeded Western Kentucky, 64-57, in a second-round matchup in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament at the Sprint Center.
Travis Releford and Ben McLemore each registered 11 points for the Jayhawks (30-5), who became the first team in NCAA Division I history to win 30 or more games in four straight seasons.
With the victory, Kansas advances to Sunday's third round, where the top- seeded Jayhawks will take on No. 8 seed North Carolina.
"We're happy to advance, but certainly not pleased on how we played," Kansas coach Bill Self admitted. "Certainly we know we'll have to play a lot better on Sunday."
Jamal Crook led Western Kentucky (20-16) with 13 points and nine rebounds, while T.J. Price poured in 12 points for the Hilltoppers, who earned their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance after claiming the Sun Belt crown.
Both teams shot 48 percent from the floor in a tightly-contested first half that featured six ties and 11 lead changes, with the final one coming with under a minute left on Crook's jumper that sent the Hilltoppers into the break holding a 31-30 advantage.
Kansas put the clamps on defensively in the second half, as the Jayhawks held WKU to just 20.5 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes, including a dismal 2-for-14 mark from beyond the arc.
"Sometimes the ball doesn't go in for you," Crook said of his team's shooting woes in the second half. "I thought we had some good looks. I thought we had some great looks. They just didn't fall for us."
The Hilltoppers connected on just two field goals over the first 10-plus minutes of the second half, allowing Kansas to build a 43-37 edge after Kevin Young split a pair of free throws near the midpoint of the frame.
O'Karo Akamune finished back-to-back layups around two free throws from Withey to bring WKU within four with 8 1/2 minutes left, but the Hilltoppers went the next five minutes without a field goal to watch their hopes of an upset all but evaporate.
Kansas finally created some separation as Western Kentucky struggled to find the bottom of the net, with Withey pouring in five points in an 8-1 Kansas spurt that gave the Jayhawks a 53-42 lead with just over three minutes left.
Crook quelled the WKU drought with a three-point play and then added a pair at the stripe following an Elijah Johnson turnover to trim the margin to six.
Releford responded with a layup, but Price buried a trey from the top of the key at the other end to bring WKU within 55-50 with 1:57 to play.
However, Kansas was able to seal the outcome from the charity stripe, as the Jayhawks knocked down 9-of-10 from the line over the final 46 seconds to hang on for the victory.
Game Notes
WKU shot 31.8 percent from the field overall, despite going just 3-for-20 from 3-point range ... Kansas finished 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, marking the first time since Feb. 9, 2008 that the Jayhawks were held without a 3-pointer ... Kansas leads the all-time series with Western Kentucky, 4-1 ... Aleksejs Rostov and George Fant finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Hilltoppers.


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They like You, they really like You
Critiquing Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" choice has been an annual sport since the feature began in 1927. Judging from its controversial choices, it's obviously not a popularity contest: 1938's winner was Adolph Hitler and 1939's was Joseph Stalin; Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini won in 1979. But this year's "person" may be the magazine's most controversial choice yet -- partly because, in this humble blog's occasionally-esteemed opinion, it's a total cop-out.
The winner? "You." As in the "You" of YouTube and the implied "You" of MySpace, Wikipedia and all the social networking/"You"-ser generated content sites that have transformed the internet in the past year or so.
"It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes," says Time magazine's Lev Grossman. "It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter."
Time's criteria for choosing their annual person (or "person," in this case) is that "who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill." So, hmm -- under those criteria, perhaps "You" could be considered a legitimate contender. But really, in a year so filled with horrible, world-rocking tragedies, they picked ... the internet?

subset: commoncrawl


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Editor's Note: Gabriel Schoenfeld is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., a policy research center that describes itself as working to promote national and global security and freedom. He is the author of "Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media and the Rule of Law," published by W.W. Norton in 2010, and "A Bad Day on the Romney Campaign: An Insider's Account" published earlier this year by Penguin. Follow Schoenfeld on Twitter: @gabeschoenfeld.
Story highlights
Gabriel Schoenfeld: Manning admitted guilt, unlike supporters who call him innocent
True, he was held in inhumane conditions, may have helped Arab Spring, he says
But he put many in grave danger, and his supporters are interested in blackening U.S.
It was not his decision to release material, he trampled on a democracy by doing it
For passing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning has been found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, but he was acquitted on the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy," a capital offense. Has justice been done?
In some quarters in the United States the question remains a burning one, and even more so in Europe where a movement of supporters has been active in his defense, decrying the conditions under which he was imprisoned while awaiting trial in a Quantico brig, and generally arguing that Manning is a whistleblower who they believe has done nothing more than expose American wrongdoing in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.
It's true that for a period of time, Manning was held in less than humane conditions for reasons that have never been convincingly justified. And there is no question that some good came out his revelations. After all, some of the documents he revealed about Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt may well have helped to ignite the initial hopeful phase of the Arab Spring.
More generally, it is hard to argue that we are not all better informed by our ability to pore through hundreds of thousands of documents detailing the inner workings of American foreign policy.
But such benefits are completely beside the point. The United States, like every country, depends to a significant degree on secrecy in conducting diplomacy and defending itself in a dangerous world. But we are also a democracy. Our procedures for determining what should be kept secret and what should not have been developed by institutions that, whatever their flaws, are under the people's control, funded and overseen by the people's representatives in Congress and directed by an elected president.
In a democracy, individual soldiers cannot be permitted to make decisions with such far-reaching consequences. When they do take such decisions into their own hands, they are trampling on the workings of a democracy and usurping a power that properly belongs to the American people.
This is something that Manning himself seemed to recognize when he pleaded guilty to a series of lesser charges earlier this year. Pressed by the judge on that occasion about how he reconciled his claim of doing something positive with his acknowledgment of wrongdoing, Manning explained, "Your honor, regardless of my opinion or my assessment of documents such as these, it's beyond my pay grade – it's not my authority to make these decisions."
Manning was right. And he was also right on that occasion to accept the legal consequences of his actions. In that respect, he has been more consistent than many of his supporters, who have continued to profess his innocence and acclaim him as a hero even after Manning himself pleaded guilty and acknowledged serious wrongdoing.
Some of those same supporters, perhaps because their agenda is not really governmental transparency but blackening the name of the United States, are eager to ignore the high costs of Manning's actions. In a typical vein, one such supporter, Chris Hedges, formerly a reporter for The New York Times and now an activist at the Nation Institute, complains that Manning has been muzzled from talking about "crimes, torture and killing" committed by the United States and that the conditions under which he has been prosecuted, "familiar to many Muslim Americans tried in the so-called war on terror, presage a future of show trials and blind obedience."
Those spewing such left-wing anti-Americanism are eager to pass over the fact that many of the documents Manning passed to WikiLeaks were dropped onto the Internet by Julian Assange and contained the names of individuals around the world who had met with American diplomats or cooperated with American forces. Some of these individuals were simply innocent civilians in places like Iraq and Afghanistan who tried to help our soldiers. Others were dissidents and underground writers in repressive countries. Through Manning's actions, the lives of every one of these individuals was placed at risk.
Just to take one example of many, back in 2011 the Globe and Mail reported that leading Chinese academics and human rights campaigners were "attacked as 'rats' and 'spies' after their names were revealed as U.S. Embassy sources in the unredacted WikiLeaks cables that have now been posted online."
Among other things, the real names of a number of Chinese bloggers, previously only known by their screen names, were contained in some of the cables that Manning distributed. The Globe and Mail report comments: "The repercussions could indeed be dire in some circumstances, particularly for Tibetan and Uighur activists exposed as having passed information to Washington."
Is this kind of exposure the work of a legitimate whistleblower? The indiscriminate mass leaking that Manning engaged in was recklessness of a high order. However much one wants to temper justice with mercy when a young person commits a crime, it is Manning's recklessness that demands he face a harsh sentence.
By the same token, it is right that Manning was acquitted of the charge of "aiding the enemy." His crime did not aim so much at giving enemies an advantage as injuring the United States. Our government is acting fully within its rights and with justice on its side when it punishes someone who betrays his oath, abuses his position of responsibility in a way that weakens our country and imperils friends and allies around the world.
Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.
Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gabriel Schoenfeld.


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Dry Cleaners and Laundry Service Expands Capacity and Services
Sudsies Dry Cleaners & Laundry has announced the expansion of its services with the opening of a second location in North Miami. Located at 12711 Biscayne Boulevard, the 8,000 sq ft space will act as both a customer storefront and processing facility. Coupled with its original location in Miami Beach, Sudsies offerings span Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
"We're continually striving to enhance the quality of our work, and this new location helps us do just that," says Founder and President Jason Loeb. "Now, our customers can expect and enjoy even more services and faster response times."
With the location expansion also comes the expansion of the Sudsies team. Its fleet of vans offering free pick-up and delivery is expected to double in size to enhance infiltration across all corners of the South Florida market, while new cleaning experts and equipment bring with them new operational and managerial techniques to increase production capacity and turnaround times. While primarily a processing facility, a storefront component allows for customer pickup, drop-off, alterations and general cleaning consultations. Both Sudsies locations incorporate EPA-sanctioned green cleaning initiatives including wet cleaning processes, gentle detergents, water-conserving machinery and recyclable hangers and packaging.
Sudsies' many core services include ecofriendly dry cleaning, laundry, alterations, restoration and preservation, couture work, on-site home cleaning and complimentary pick-up and delivery across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Hightech facilities, in-depth skills and expertise and customer convenience are a part of the Sudsies S.M.I.L.E. mantra to provide friendly, impacting experiences for its clientele. More information about Sudsies and its many offerings can be found at www.sudsies.com or by phoning 1.888.898.SUDS (7837).
Miami Beach-based Sudsies is a fullservice dry cleaning company dedicated to clean clothes, clean service and a clean environment. An industry pioneer for South Florida home pick-up and delivery services, the Sudsies fleet of bubbly blue and yellow vans offers prompt service to every nook and corner across the tri-county area, while a team of highly-trained specialists cares for garments and customers with a smile. The vast range of services includes ecological dry cleaning and laundry processes, alterations and tailoring, clothing restoration, bridal gown storage or alteration and knowledge of specialty items such as couture garments. At Sudsies, customers look and feel their best, while sister company Rugsies Carpet & Drapery ensures customers live in their best with on-site home or office cleaning for carpets, drapes, furniture and other home items. For more information about Sudsies, call 1.888.898.SUDS (7837) or visit www.sudsies.com.


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For over 100 years music has been a vibrant part of MIT's culture. On this site you will find in-depth interviews with faculty, staff, and former students about their musical experiences at the Institute, as well as their professional careers in music or other fields.
All interviews are accessible through streaming audio or video, with concurrent transcripts as well as downloadable audio files and written transcripts. Printed transcripts, audio CDs for most interviews, and further related archival background research material (upon request) are available in the Lewis Music Library.
Index of interviewees
Find interviews of current and retired MIT music faculty, staff, former students and visiting artists.
Search all interviews
Find individuals, events, places, musical works and more mentioned in interviews.
About the project
Through in-depth recorded audio and video interviews, the MIT Oral History Project is preserving this valuable legacy for the historical record.


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Cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, Reagan's ambassador to Austria who heads the World Jewish Congress, recently demanded that Israel be admitted to membership in NATO.
This proposal has been raised over the past decade in academic and in political circles but the rapidly changing situation in the Arab world, and in the Middle East, gives it a sense of urgency for Zionists around the world seeking protection for the "Jewish State".
The "Israel as NATO member" concept was promoted at the neoconish Hoover Institution in 2005. Well established at Stanford University, Hoover received special attention in the George W. Bush administration owing to its close links to former Secretary of State George Shultz and to then Secretary of State Condi Rice.
In 2005, the concept was presented in a paper for Hoover's publication, Policy Review. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ronald D. Asmus and Bruce P. Jackson wrote the piece entitled "Does Israel Belong in the EU and in NATO?" Jackson, who has close ties to the Bush family, was a leading advocate of the war against Iraq and worked closely with George Shultz to promote it behind the scenes.
Asmus and Jackson concluded that: "…we believe there is a compelling strategic argument why Israel should explore the option of building closer ties to the Euro-Atlantic community. As noted, we are living in a moment of strategic fluidity — both across the Atlantic and in the Middle East. The future contours of the Euro-Atlantic community are likely to settle in the years ahead. The question is whether they will come to an end on the northern edge of the wider Middle East and stop with Turkey and the Black Sea region — or whether they will reach down to embrace a democratic country like Israel as well. In the Middle East itself, we may be entering a new phase of strategic fluidity as well …"
In February 2006, the concept was introduced at the prestigious and influential annual Munich Conference on security. No less than neoconish Jose-Maria Aznar, Spanish Prime Minister (1996-2004), advocated it and featured it in a special report on NATO expansion prepared by his own foundation in Spain. Aznar has good relations with Shultz and others at the Hoover Institution and one would expect some coordination.
Conveniently, a piece then appeared in the Washington Post on 21 February 2006 entitled "Israel as a NATO Member" by Ronald D. Asmus.
For his part, Aznar breathlessly pushed the idea again in an op-ed for the Times (London) on 17 June 2010:
"Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down."
Ronald Lauder this year, during the annual Herzliya Conference in Israel, pushed the concept again. For the Euros he wrote an op-ed for the major German newspaper Die Welt published 8 February. According to the Jewish Telegraph Agency wire story promoting the piece globally:
"Writing in an editorial published Tuesday in the major daily Die Welt, Lauder said current events in Egypt, Tunisia and other Muslim countries show both the forces of "freedom, democracy and economic participation" at work as well as "how unpredictable developments in the Middle East are. If NATO is to continue upholding "our basic principles and our Western way of life," then Israel, "the only democracy in the Middle East," deserves guarantees for its peace and security that membership in NATO would help provide, Lauder wrote."
Given the rapidly changing situation in the Arab world, and the overall situation in the Middle East, increased pressure by the global pro-Israel Lobby for closer NATO-Israel relations should come as no surprise.


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I started my exposition of the random forest in the last post with the first simple idea necessary to making it work, the decision tree. The video clip I linked there has a nice description at a high level, but leaves a lot of details as exercise for the reader.
One such reader, possibly to be mentioned by name, writes:
Question (I hope you knew you were getting yourself into my rabbit hole of questions): Does order matter? The way everyone's description of a decision tree goes, they draw the thing sequentially (we start from the first branch/leaf, then narrow it down with the second branch/leaf etc). But it seems to me that as long as every branch is considered, it doesn't matter which question came first or last; it's basically just a huge string of conditional statements. Yes?
You can pretty much convert a decision tree to a huge string of conditional statements, an "or of ands" if the labels happen to be true and false! This brings it dangerously close to conjugate normal form for boolean formulas that used to preoccupy so much of my time as a graduate student. But, the order does matter, and matters quite a lot, because (the hope is) representing the decision tree as a tree is going to be much more efficient than representing it as an "or of ands".
This order-matters part becomes clear when you start really trying to build a decision tree, which I will now do twice. First, I will do it using Milk, a Machine Learning Toolkit for python. Then I will do it again, looking at the Milk sourcecode.
Version one is in this notebook, which you can clone for yourself and play around with. It includes the huge list of conditional statements that correspond to a simple example.
In version one, all of the machine learning action is in the code block that says
learner = milk.supervised.tree_learner() model = learner.train(features, labels)
What is this actually doing? You can dig into it by browsing the Milk source (thanks open source movement!). The code for the tree_learner is pretty minimal, see it here. It pushes off all the work into a function called build_tree, which uses recursion, but is not overwhelming either. The precise choice of how to split at each node of the tree is handled by a function called _split, which is also relatively readable.
Should that paragraph count as version two? What I really want is a narrated movie of stepping through this code in a debugger.


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Panaji: Union Defence Minister A K Antony will commission MIG-29 K fighter planes into the Indian Navy on May 11 in Goa.
The squadron, named INAS 303 Black Panthers, will be commissioned on May 11 by the Defence Minister at INS Hansa Naval base in the state, Indian Navy PRO said.
The aircrafts were inducted in the force on February 19,2010.
The MIG-29K (K stands for 'Korabelny' meaning "Carrier Borne" in Russian) is a carrier borne fighter, which, once integrated with 'INS Vikramaditya', will bolster the Navy's punch with its multi-role capability, the PRO said.
The aircraft, armed with its arsenal of weapons, including advanced anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles, precious bombs and sophisticated systems to support weapon delivery, will not only be able to dominate the air in all-spectrum of conflict but simultaneously project power to meet the nation's military objectives.
This lethal fighter aircraft will enhance Indian Navy's capability to exercise air superiority in its area of influence, he said.
It will also decisively enhance the core of Navy's striking power. The last three years since the induction have seen the men and their machines attain full operational status and the squadron is now ready to undertake any mission assigned.
He said that the men and machine have successfully completed all tasks and trials assigned and established its role worthiness, and the MIG-29K squadron is now ready to be commissioned into front line unit of the Indian Navy squadron.


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Nothing says class and modern charm like building speakers into furniture, and the UK Sound Sofa by CSL isn't going to miss this trend-wave. For just $1,500, you can own (and nap on!) the world's worst idea.
Fifteen hundred bucks is sort of bizarrely cheap for a giant sofa—which means it's probably a shitty thing to sit on in addition to a shitty thing to listen to, with its 2.1 speaker system buried beneath tacky fabric. You'll finally be able to listen to music the way the artists wanted: with the speakers both underneath your ass and facing away from you. It'll be just like being backstage! Just look at how much fun that Brit is having—lounging, listening to her favorite music without pants on, an eerily giant glass of some bright red liquid within reach. Perhaps she's just listening to white noise turned up as high as possible.
If you had to pawn your iPod to buy this sofa, you can still blast butt jams by inserting an SD card or hooking up a Bluetooth stream, because those are respectively the worst alternative ways to listen to music. Or here's the best alternative of all: you probably already own a couch of some sort, so spent a fraction of the cost of the Sound Sofa and buy real speakers. [CSL via BornRich]


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JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it . . . Steve from Nashville, TN:
How does the coach feel about the Seahawks' victory?
John: Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley was pleased with and proud of the Seahawks' victory, which makes sense because he had close relationships with many of those players for three or four seasons. Many Jaguars fans have been excited about the Seahawks' victory, believing the Jaguars are following that model. How much that will be the case remains to be seen, and it's important to temper that enthusiasm; teams can rarely mimic another's process. But Bradley's happiness is on a more personal level, and as a coach, how couldn't he be happy with his former players' success?
Esko from Finland:
Forget those big ugly men you're constantly talking about and tell us something that really matters: Is Whitney going to be a Jags' cheerleader in '14 season, too?
John: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Steve from Nashville, TN:
Looking at the 2014 away schedule, with only one game west of the Mississippi and of course, London, the wear and tear on the team will be a lot less than 2013?
John: The wear and tear should be a bit less next season. The team won't have to stay a week in Fremont, Cal., between road games, so that should give the '14 season a slightly more normal feel. But in terms of wear and tear, you can't discount the London game. Even with the game coming just before a bye, it's a long trip that is just plain different from a normal road game.
Darrell from DWTD and Section 204:
Had a blast at the fan forum Thursday; got to meet and get pics with Dave, Gus and, most importantly, you. Really class job by the team. Thank you. The multimedia PowerPoint delivery seemed like something he would do with the players, too. As far as you've seen and heard on the inside, would that presentation we saw (the energy, the anecdotes, the slides, etc.) also be how he usually brings his message to team meetings?
John: Yes. Bradley's a big PowerPoint Guy, and he uses the format to communicate with the team.
Brian from Mandarin, FL:
I just wanted to start the draft talk with kudos to Cameron Bradfield and Austin Pasztor. Both exceeded expectations by far. Undrafted FA kudos to Gene Smith and David Caldwell. Thanky.
John: You have to have players develop who you didn't obtain in first-tier free agency or early in the draft. Pasztor certainly fits the profile, because he's projected to be the Jaguars' starting right tackle next season, and Bradfield appears to have the ability to be at minimum a solid NFL backup tackle. So, yeah, kudos on those two.
Marcus from NYC via Jacksonville:
Austin Pasztor is an exclusive rights free agent. So I know the Jags can keep him around fairly inexpensively. Should we expect to see that done in the next few weeks? Will they pay him as little as possible or according to his performance?
John: An ERFA is not technically under contract, but he also is not allowed to negotiate with another team. In fact, an ERFA is so far from a free agent that they are rarely discussed as such. His team can make an offer at the minimum salary and he must sign or not play the following season. I'd guess that Pasztor will sign in the next few weeks.
George from Savannah, GA:
Appreciate the Fan Forum by the Jags and their staff for allowing those of us out of town to keep in touch with current events. Great job!
John: Thanks. I deserve a lot of credit, but I got a lot of help.
Joe from Jacksonville:
The fan forum was great. Man, can Gus take over a room or what! Now, Dave said he would entertain moving back for picks, give us an idea of what someone might offer and can the offer be for say two years down the road?
John: It's impossible to answer your question because what people would offer would depend on where they are in the draft. It's a dramatically more expensive proposition to move up from say, No. 20, to No. 3 than it is to move up from No. 4 to No. 3. The former might cost a team a future first-round selection or even two whereas moving up one notch might earn no more than a third or fourth-round selection during the current season.
Phillip from Brunswick, MD:
With MJD being allowed to test the market, could the Jaguars being looking to do a little shopping of their own?
John: They undoubtedly will be doing some shopping at some position in free agency. I highly doubt if they are in the market for a free-agent running back – unless it's Jones-Drew himself.
Don from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL:
There is no reason to keep dragging Blaine around as a total bust. He is smart, works hard, and has extreme arm skills. He can get better and all is not a lost cause. All the coaches, scouts, players, and people who work with never say bad things about him. Maybe a fresh start would help. I hope the team keeps him though! He has so much talent to let walk.
John: Hey! How about that? One fer Blaine!
Andy from St. Augustine, FL:
Can we puh-lease stop with all of the comments about the fact that we passed on Russell Wilson and took a punter instead? While taking a punter in the third round is a very debatable selection, it's not as if Wilson was a can't-miss prospect. EVERY NFL TEAM passed on him and selected someone else - not just once but twice and in some cases three times. The draft is not an exact science - you can redo it every year and say we should have taken this guy or that guy (I'm partial to that guy myself). No matter where he was selected, Bryon Anger is on the team and is a Jaguar - let it go people!
John: Well, it's "Bryan," but aside from that, "Yes!"
John from Elizabeth City, NC:
I keep hearing parity is the NFL's goal, and while there is far more of it than other major sports, I can't think where the parity really is? The playoff teams are typically the same year in and year out. Occasionally you get a team that sneaks in there but they all have a very good quarterbacks and there are only about ten teams with said quarterbacks.
John: I'm not one who sees all that much parity in the NFL, either. You have a lot of years when teams reel off eight or nine victories in succession, and when that happens, it's not parity. When the power teams such as Denver and Seattle played the weaker teams this past season, it was tough to imagine the weaker teams winning – especially if the weaker team lacked a franchise quarterback. Compared to say, EPL soccer, where it's assumed that one of a handful of teams will win every year, yes, there's parity in the NFL. But in terms of every team having a realistic chance to make the playoffs or compete with the elite teams, no the NFL is not about parity. And that's OK. Parity, frankly, can be sort of boring.
Myles from York, England:
Don't get me wrong: I like the Seahawks. But there is certainly something to be said for the decorum with which previous teams and winners have conducted themselves, the Green Bay Packers being a prime example. You're in/just won the Super Bowl why attention-grab and trash-talk? Or indeed conversely, in the case of Marshawn Lynch, why refuse to do an interview? Why is he so special that he should be exempt from the normal rigmarole of being an NFL player? And at that, a player who was about to play in a Super Bowl? There is a lot to be said for the balance that previous teams have found.
John: I don't have a real heartfelt answer on this one. The Seahawks'behavior rubbed some people the wrong way, but the Seahawks have every right within league rules to act as they want. If they get outside those rules, they get fined, so that's NFL's way of dealing with it. I wish I had a better answer, but player behavior just isn't something I worry about a whole lot either way. These guys are performers on a stage and the world asks them to entertain us and hold our interest. Some guys and teams do that in different ways than others, and we can choose to watch or ignore at whatever level we like.
Kyle from Riverside:
Just remember that a guy making $5 million a year with the Seahawks is gonna make a hell of a lot more money in endorsements than a guy making $10 million with the Redskins.
John: As is the case with many bold statements of absolute nature, this one is not necessarily true.
O-Zone: Absolute reality
JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it . . . Steve from Nashville, TN:


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Chapter 1
Going beyond reporting the data
Why sophisticated data analytics is key to driving reporting insight
The expectations on corporate reporting are changing as the volume and velocity of data increase and stakeholders increasingly expect higher levels of technology sophistication from business functions.
The impact of fast-changing technology is echoed in our research. When we asked respondents to identify the major external challenge to corporate reporting — ranging from "the pace of regulatory change" to "satisfying differences in reporting standards" — they identified "changes to technology" as the number one challenge they faced.
When we look deeper at the specific technology challenges that organizations face, we find teams struggling with systems that do not talk to each other, lack of automation and reporting systems proliferation.
To address this gap between the tools that reporting teams have at their disposal, and the innovative technology they need, three areas are key:
- Investing in more agile technologies, such as cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP), which can help increase integration and automation without the need for complex rationalization of on-premise systems
- Finding and building the technology and data analytics skills necessary to exploit the potential of innovative IT
- Exploring the future of reporting technology, including blockchain, robotic process automation and AI, exploiting the ability of new technologies to pull data from disparate systems
Chapter 2
Fine-tuning the reporting operating model
Why the reporting operating model is ripe for design
Reporting teams are expected to deliver granular reporting information quickly, and with zero defects. This insight is critical to allow reporting's stakeholders to interpret, and make sense of, a fast-changing world. Ad hoc requests are common and expectations are high, putting a strain on already stretched teams.
Playing this role requires a transformation of how reporting is delivered. Reporting teams that have suboptimal operating models — fragmented processes, complexity and unclear governance, duplicative efforts, time-consuming manual workarounds — will likely not succeed. While operating model transformation represents a significant effort that will consume considerable leadership time, it is now a strategic priority.
In our research, three themes emerge:
1. Organizations are increasingly using more streamlined and centralized operating model arrangements for reporting, and a further wave of transformation is expected in the near future.
CFOs and senior finance leaders have been transforming the function's operating model through arrangements such as shared services and outsourcing for many years now. By moving transactional finance processes into arrangements such as shared services, organizations have driven greater efficiency and effectiveness and freed their best people to focus on higher-value tasks. Today, however, organizations are looking to increase the functional scope of operating model change, transitioning additional activities into these arrangements.
More than 40% of organizations around the world say they are currently using either centers of excellence (CoEs) or onshore and near-shore shared services centers (SSCs) to support corporate reporting. Organizations are currently less likely to use more remote arrangements to support corporate reporting today.
While today the focus of operating model transformation in reporting is on arrangements with a degree of close control, this will likely change in the future, with a new wave of activity. Over the next two years, 55% of finance leaders around the world expect to make a significant or very significant increase in the use of outsourcing to support reporting. Group CFOs are particularly bullish about increasing the use of outsourcing and managed services.
2. Operating model change is seen as key to generating forward-looking insight, cutting through complexity and delivering a more responsive approach to reporting.
More than half of finance leaders worldwide — 56% — say that changing the corporate reporting operating model is key to providing forward-looking insight, rather than reporting the past.
Joon Arn Chiang, Asia-Pacific FAAS Leader, EY, points out that managing data in more centralized entities can allow organizations to ask different questions about how to get value from that information. "When data is centralized, you can ask ,'How can we transform that raw data into valuable nuggets of insight that the business has never had before, because all the data was never housed under one roof?' You can manipulate the data much more cost effectively and much more easily, because it's all sitting in a common, consistent format in your shared services center."
In addition, 56% say that transforming the corporate reporting operating model is essential to managing the increased complexity of today's matrix organization.
3. Organizations are using operating model transformation as an opportunity to drive process excellence and harmonization, and warn against a pure "cost play" transformation.
Operating model transformation will often have a cost reduction element, as finance leaders seek the efficiencies of moving processes into arrangements such as offshore shared services. However, reporting's stakeholders are not just looking for a team that is cost efficient.
Key stakeholders are expecting greater value: better data, sophisticated analysis, strategic business partnering, exemplary consistency and control. Operating model transformation becomes an opportunity to eliminate redundant processes, streamline critical processes, achieve global consistency and automate more transactional activities.
This is a view that resonates with Ron Kapusta, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller at Johnson & Johnson. "For a public company, external reporting is about your communications to the various stakeholders that either invest in your company, regulate your company or otherwise have a stake in your company," he says. "Therefore, while the cost is important across our entire value chain in finance and accounting and the business in general, you're not going to cut your way to greatness."
Chapter 3
Overcoming the IT and organizational barriers
The need to streamline and centralize the reporting operating model runs up against a significant technology barrier
Balancing central control and local needs: key actions
Support effective communication and engagement with key stakeholders to build an understanding of how more streamlined and centralized models can serve their needs.
Create a pool of finance business partners who can provide an effective interface between the services provided by centralized reporting functions and the needs of business unit leaders, ensuring the services provided are tailored to local needs and compliant with the local regulatory environment. However, finding enough business partners to fulfill that role is an ongoing challenge.
Of course, a more centralized and streamlined operating model is not necessarily in opposition to the desire to meet local needs and regulatory requirements.
Our research shows that reporting leaders will need to manage a range of challenges in the path to more responsive reporting:
- Fifty percent of respondents are concerned about the complexity and cost of tackling the legacy IT environment.
- Forty-two percent of respondents are concerned about striking the balance between central control and the need to devolve reporting for the local regulatory and compliance environment.
Tackling the legacy IT environment
The need to streamline and centralize the reporting operating model runs up against a significant technology barrier. Devolved business units will have bought or built discrete reporting systems and tools, leading to significant IT fragmentation. The idea of dealing with multiple ERP systems, legacy applications and non-integrated architecture can seem daunting.
However, innovative new technologies offer a means to overcome these problems. For example, smart robotics tools can pull data from different systems into a single federated data set, including pulling data from different ERP systems or providing a bridge between a single enterprise ERP and important legacy systems.
Striking a balance between central control and local needs
More than 40% of respondents are concerned about the need to strike a balance between central control and the need to devolve reporting so it is attuned to local needs. This suggests a tension between two forces:
- The desire to centralize the reporting operating model for greater effectiveness and agility
- The desire to have a devolved organizational structure, facilitating reporting that is tailored to the local regulatory environment
Today, the dominant organizing principle for corporate reporting is "highly centralized, with everything controlled from head office."
According to our survey, a third of organizations around the world (33%) currently adopt that organizing principle. However, when we asked respondents how reporting should be organized, the picture changes.
Balancing central control and local needs: key actions
Support effective communication and engagement with key stakeholders to build an understanding of how more streamlined and centralized models can serve their needs.
Create a pool of finance business partners who can provide an effective interface between the services provided by centralized reporting functions and the needs of business unit leaders, ensuring the services provided are tailored to local needs and compliant with the local regulatory environment. However, finding enough business partners to fulfill that role is an ongoing challenge.
Of course, a more centralized and streamlined operating model is not necessarily in opposition to the desire to meet local needs and regulatory requirements.
Chapter 4
Keys to the future of reporting
Three essential areas in creating a new age of more responsive reporting
We believe there are three essential areas in creating a new age of more responsive reporting:
Strategy and vision
Operating model change creates uncertainty, particularly for internal stakeholders as well as the finance staff who will be affected by changes. Therefore, a strong and compelling strategy and vision are more important than ever to create certainty, secure the buy-in and engagement of key stakeholders, and provide the foundations of a business case. The optimal operating model for reporting will clearly vary according to a variety of factors, but there are a number of areas to consider focusing efforts:
- Design a target operating model that sets out what reporting services will be retained at headquarters and which will be provided by other arrangements, from physical SSCs to virtual shared services
- Put in place a clear and centralized governance and ownership model for data in the new structure
- Exploit the potential of smart technologies to automate processes and replace manual workarounds, which are time-consuming and expose the organization to the potential of costly data errors
- Prioritize process effectiveness over process efficiency: cutting through complex and bureaucratic processes, removing processes that are redundant, and streamlining and automating existing processes
Innovative technology and data
Today, reporting teams are simply expected to provide complex data quickly, and change course at speed as markets change. But this will happen only if reporting teams have access to the right data and to the right tools. There are a number of areas where action may make a significant impact:
- Exploit agile and flexible technologies, including cloud and software as a service (SaaS). SaaS applications, for example, can help reporting teams keep up to speed with new data analytics tools.
- Future-proof reporting technology by experimenting with emerging technologies and getting outside perspectives on the disruptive technologies that are emerging on the horizon. Pilot programs that explore the use of emerging technologies — such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) — provide use cases and begin to build skills and capability in the reporting team.
Reporting teams will need to complement deep financial management and reporting knowledge with new skills in the future, from predictive analytics to scenario modeling to the intersection of AI and finance. Reporting leaders need to reimagine their approach to talent acquisition and skills development. There are a number of priority areas where reporting leaders can focus their efforts:
- Develop a broader talent management approach for the different profiles in tomorrow's reporting function. As well as corporate reporting professionals, you will have new team members, such as data scientists, who will require a different career path and reward structure.
- Build a consistent enterprise-wide understanding of the business partnering role in reporting and set clear expectations for what success looks like in the role.
- Rethink your approach to hiring talent beyond the traditional reporting profile, actively recruiting different profiles from different backgrounds, thereby introducing fresh perspectives and new skills, from advanced analytics to digital know-how.
- Build understanding of how smart machines will interact with, and complement, the abilities of talented reporting staff, and provide reassurance at a time when people will be concerned about the impact of robotics and AI on their jobs.
By focusing on new technologies and a flexible operating model, reporting leaders can prepare for a world that continues to accelerate.


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The words "environmentalism" and "military" are not typically found in the same sentence. Yet ideas about our vulnerability to environmental change are directly linked to military plans for a third world war.
Scientists planned to fight an unconventional war using the potential threats of the natural environment, calling it "environmental warfare". Envisioning major threats to populations all over the world, it is from this historical chapter that our ideas about environmental security developed.
While some saw horror in natural disasters, others saw opportunity. In 1960, when a massive earthquake rocked Chile, most commentators noted how helpless humans were to the whims of Mother Nature. But creative military thinkers at NATO thought differently. They saw a frightening future, using hydrogen bombs to manipulate the natural environment.
These detonations could be made thousands of times the size of the ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They were poised to act as triggers for larger geophysical events. If scientists could find areas of instability in the earth's crust, a well-placed hydrogen bomb might unleash more quakes. That would send tsunamis across the ocean. Such a bomb could also be used to alter the path of a hurricane, or redirect an ocean current.
NATO explicitly called it environmental warfare. Scientists partnered with the military to work on radiological contamination, biological weapons, and weather control. Other ideas were enormous in scope: nuclear detonations to melt polar ice caps, raising global sea levels and drowning coastal cities. They imagined setting fire to huge expanses of vegetation to change local climates, or targeting vital links in enemy ecosystems.
Today we might regard these ideas as if coming from the delusional Dr. Strangelove, like mad scientists playing with the forces of nature. Yet they had a peculiar logic, given how the strategic bombing of cities at the end of World War II had become an accepted practice. Admiral William Leahy pointed out in the late 1940s that, in a third world war, civilians would be drawn into conflict more than ever before. He and other officers expected to target population centers.
Formerly classified materials document the future they expected. It was a future of global war, of planetary contamination, and of epic struggles to survive an apocalypse. A new "total war" might include the ancient scourges of humankind, such as bubonic plague. Or they might include new ones, such as radioactive contamination.
While imagining a horrific future, scientists and war planners began to ask an important question. Could humans make drastic and long-lasting alterations to the earth?
With today's concerns about climate change, it is easy to assume that only scientists' discovery of global warming, combined with public environmental concerns, led us to believe humans were heading toward catastrophe. But as I discovered researching my book, Arming Mother Nature, this is a simplification. It runs the risk of ignoring those who thought the most deeply about vulnerabilities to environmental change.
Boundaries between military questions and environmental ones were hazy throughout the Cold War. Sometimes the same scientists who worked on military questions then turned their expertise toward peacetime environmental issues. For example, Oxford botanists who published on biodiversity also advised on agricultural defence, and helped British military commanders in Malaya kill enemy crops. The US Air Force worried their reliance on technology made Americans more susceptible to disease and starvation, which could be exploited by the Soviets.
Several of the biologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric scientists who advised governments on the 1977 treaty to ban military uses of environmental modification (the ENMOD convention) also helped craft the first studies of anthropogenic climate change. Many of these scientists had spent years trying to imagine whether large-scale catastrophic changes were really possible. They also developed ideas about the long-term consequences of human action.
As scientists, military leaders, and diplomats tried to figure out how realistic environmental weapons were, in doing so they fundamentally shaped conversations about peacetime changes to the environment.
The collaboration between scientists and the armed forces during the Cold War created a worldview obsessed with environmental change and vulnerability. For nearly half a century, military establishments supported research on environmental warfare. They kept up global surveillance of the atmosphere and oceans. They made it their mission to assess the vulnerabilities of their homelands and those of others.
As environmental scientists were trying to harness the power of nature against their foes, they discovered how vulnerable humanity was to a changing environment, even in the absence of war.
By Jacob Hamblin, Oregon State University. Jacob Hamblin has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.


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Use two fingers to move the deck plan
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Zoomable Deck Plans Instructions
To view the yacht General Arrangement / Deck Plans in more detail use the Zoom Tools + / - buttons to 'zoom in' or ' zoom out'.
To navigate around hold down you mouse and drag to look around or for touch use two fingers to pinch and drag.
To zoom with the mousewheel hold CTRL/⌘ and use the mouse wheel or use two fingers to scroll on an Apple touch pad.
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Michigan economy in 5th year of modest recovery
The Associated Press
Experts say Michigan's economy is seeing modest growth and is starting a fifth consecutive year of a turnaround.
University of Michigan experts told state lawmakers Friday that Michigan had the fourth-highest private-sector job growth from 2010 to 2012. The state's economy is doing better because of the national economy, stronger auto sales and a rebound in the housing sector.
But a projected seven-year recovery through 2016 will only replenish slightly more than half the jobs lost between 2000 and 2010, when Michigan was decimated with job loss.
Legislators are meeting to get an update on the economy and an estimate of how much more tax revenue is coming in before they work on the next state budget.


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New Year. New You.
Let Shelley Wilson help you keep to your New Year Resolutions
Week 1 – Reviewing 2016 and looking forward to 2017 http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-9BO
Week 2: Power words for 2017 http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-9BX
Week 3: Setting 2017 Goals http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-9C0
Week Four: Motivational Guest Post – Planning for a Perfect Year
When I was planning out my resolution challenge for How I Changed My Life in a Year, I had a year to view wall-planner where I could plan out my challenges and assign a day/date for all the relevant blog posts. At a glance, I knew exactly what I was going to be working on that week. Any panic or anxiety about the content I needed for a particular blog post disappeared once I looked at my planner.
I received feedback from hundreds of women across the globe following the publication of How I Changed My Life in a Year, and among the emails I got were several readers who felt the urge to start their own blogs. Where possible, I followed their sites and commented on and shared the posts. Some of them are still going strong, but others have fallen away into the blogger-graveyard. Why? It's down to planning. Blogging was new to me when I wrote that first post back in 2013, but the entire challenge, my goals, expectations, and basic content was prepared in advance.
To plan the perfect year I pictured my big goal – complete my list of twelve New Year resolutions by the end of the year and blog about it – then I broke it down into smaller, monthly chunks, then I reviewed and updated each theme as I moved through the year. You can't trek up Machu Picchu without a plan!
Planning isn't just key for blogging, but it's an important personal development tool for life. The key to achieving success in anything we do is being organised. Every woman I know has a knack for multitasking in some way. Whether that's juggling home and kids, or managing a career and lifestyle, or perhaps they deal with a mix of all of the above. Organising your life and your goals takes away that bubbling panic and scatty brain fog that accompanies your overwhelming thoughts. Have you ever wanted to do something but can't quite verbalise your idea? Do you find there are too many thoughts whirling through your brain and you find it difficult to ground yourself? Organisational techniques are vital to helping us calm the nerves, and rationalise our feelings, allowing us to continue with our day, achieve our goals, and live a productive life.
Three of my favourite planning tools include:
Meal Planning – Writing out a week's worth of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), so I don't have the 6 o'clock panic of 'what's for dinner?' is a life saver. Shopping online is another favourite tool for saving time (and money!).
Household Chore List – I have a chalkboard in my kitchen with daily household chores listed. The kids choose a chore every day from the list and do it to get their pocket money. The house gets cleaned, I get help, and the kids learn how to run a home.
De-Cluttering – My favourite hobby! I'll take it a room at a time (or a shelf/drawer/cupboard if I need to break it down further), and fill three cardboard boxes with bin it, donate it, and keep it items.
Do you have a favourite planning tip to share? Add a comment below and share your thoughts on planning for success.
I hope you've enjoyed reading these guest posts and taken a little bit of inspiration and motivation for the year ahead. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Rosie for allowing me to invade her lovely blog and share my personal development tools.
If you'd like to read more about Shelley's work, then join her on her motivational blog http://myresolutionchallenge.blogspot.com
or author blog http://www.shelleywilsonauthor.com.
You'll also find Shelley on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/ShelleyWilson72)
and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/MotivateMeBlog).
All Shelley's books are available on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shelley-Wilson/e/B00G5KPMJI


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|GOOD, LAURA - University Of Wisconsin
|Vadas, Peter
|PANUSKA, JOHN - University Of Wisconsin
|BONILLA, CARLOS - Universidad De Chile
|Jokela, William
Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/2012
Publication Date: 11/6/2012
Citation: Good, L.W., Vadas, P.A., Panuska, J.C., Bonilla, C.A., Jokela, W.E. 2012. Testing the Wisconsin P index with year-round, field-scale runoff monitoring. Journal of Environmental Quality. 41:1730-1740.
Interpretive Summary: The Wisconsin Phosphorus Index (WPI) is a computer model that estimates the risk of phosphorus loss in runoff from agricultural fields. It considers many factors that contribute to phosphorus loss, including soil phosphorus concentration, applied manure and fertilizer, erosion, runoff, soil type, topography, and tillage and crop management. We compared WPI estimated phosphorus loss to actual annual phosphorus loads measured in surface runoff from crop fields and pastures throughout Wisconsin. Because WPI-estimated erosion and runoff are based on average annual weather, it predicts relative, not actual, amounts of phosphorus loss from fields. But when actual soil erosion data was entered into the model, the WPI accurately estimated actual annual phosphorus loads. This shows that the WPI model is a reliable tool because it accurately predicts phosphorus loss when the unknown erosion factor is removed from the equation. This information greatly increases the validity of the WPI so it can be used with confidence when making nutrient management plans.
Technical Abstract: The Wisconsin Phosphorus Index (WPI) is one of several P indexes in the US that uses equations to describe actual P loss processes and estimate field-scale dissolved P (DP) and particulate P (PP) loss risk in units that can be directly compared to measurements. The WPI calculations use soil P concentration; applied manure and fertilizer P; and estimates of average annual erosion, frozen soil runoff, and rainfall (non-winter) runoff based on long-term precipitation patterns, soil, topography, and planned management. We compared WPI estimated P losses to annual P loads measured in surface runoff from 86 field years on crop fields and pastures. As the erosion and runoff generated by the weather in the monitoring years varied substantially from average annual estimates, the WPI and measured loads were not well correlated. When measured runoff and erosion for each field year was used in the WPI field loss calculations, however, the WPI accurately ranked annual TP loads with a Nash-Sutcliffe Model Efficiency (NSE) of 0.87. The DP loss estimates were not as close to measured values (NSE = 0.40) as the PP loss estimates (NSE = 0.89). Some errors in estimating DP losses may be unavoidable due to uncertainties in estimating on-farm manure P application rates. The WPI is sensitive to field management that affects its erosion and runoff estimates. Provided that its methods for estimating average annual erosion and runoff are accurately reflecting the effects of management, the WPI is an accurate field-level assessment for managing runoff P losses.


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Propaganda programs hard to justify, Panetta says
- Defense secretary says propaganda can serve a purpose but has dangers
- USA TODAY investigation found the Pentagon spends hundreds of millions on campaigns
- The Pentagon relies heavily on contractors to produce the propaganda
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he is skeptical of the benefits the Pentagon's propaganda programs provide and added that the military struggles to gauge their effectiveness.
Propaganda can also be dangerous, he said in an interview with USA TODAY, referring to the smear attack against the newspaper by the owner of the military's top propaganda contractor.
"It's always been tough to quantify, frankly," Panetta said. "I've always been a little skeptical about how much good you can get out of that. There are instances where it can serve a purpose, and it can help as a way to defeat our enemies if it's used effectively. I think there are dangers associated with it, that you just have to continue to be very vigilant about, because it can be misused as we saw take place in your area. That's the kind of thing that we just have to be very careful about."
An investigation last year by USA TODAY found that the Pentagon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on propaganda campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, much of it on poorly tracked marketing campaigns that the military refers to as "information operations."
The programs include leaflets and billboards encouraging Afghans to support their government. Millions are also spent on radio and television broadcasts and advertisements whose U.S. sponsorship is often hidden from Afghans because, military officials acknowledge, the information wouldn't be trusted if Afghans knew the source of funding. The Pentagon relies heavily on contractors to produce the propaganda, and has allowed the private firms to grade their own work.
Micah Zenko, a national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, said the military must inform the public about its actions openly and honestly, not market them through contractors.
"The Pentagon has an obligation to the American people, and the world, to provide information and tell its story — if nothing else to counter myths and misinformation," Zenko said in an e-mail. "But it should only do so in an open and transparent way. Using third-party contractors to shape public opinion is dishonest and unethical."
USA TODAY found that the owners of the top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan, Leonie Industries, had failed to pay $4 million in federal taxes on time despite earning more than $200 million in contracts from the government. Their tax bills were paid after the story was published.
Shortly after USA TODAY made inquiries about the tax bills, fake Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as phony fan club websites, were set up to disparage USA TODAY reporters. The co-owner of the company, Camille Chidiac, admitted to setting up some of the sites but said he did not use company resources in doing so. He had been suspended from receiving federal contracts because of the campaign, but the military lifted the suspension late last year.
The Pentagon's inspector general has launched a criminal investigation of Leonie and its owners. The company continues its work in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon, meantime, continues to struggle to understand what value its propaganda programs provide, Panetta said.
"Whatever we do, if we're using taxpayer money, I think we've got to be able to show the American taxpayer that we're getting something back for the dollars invested, which means that I've got to be able to quantify what is it we are getting back for the dollars that are spent," Panetta said. "I have to tell you in this area it's tough to quantify."


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I don't know how this happened, but somehow I have a book coming out in April 2016! I wrote it between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am, mostly, after the girls (and my day job) were asleep. It was … Continue reading
A funny thing happened on the way to SynBetaBio
Last week Jim Thomas, of the ETC Group sent out mass email went out suggesting that I was colluding with the synthetic biology industry. He'd seen the agenda of a conference where I'd been invited to speak organized by a … Continue reading
Where to find me
Hey there, thanks for coming all this way, with traffic an everything. It's been ages since we talked, sorry about that. I've been busy, I'm teaching at the Berkeley J-school this fall and I'm writing about food and the environment … Continue reading
Is wild food toxic?
A few people have asked my opinion about this article including Melissa (below), because my book included a thought experiment on vegetable toxicity. The point of that chapter was to demonstrate that, because we know so little about plant chemicals, it's easy to construct a narrative that makes veggies look very scary.
As always with me, I'm of two minds about this – it's complicated! This, by the way, is why there's an asterisk in the title of my book; Basically I think that Jo Robinson is right.* Continue reading
Fluoridation Fails in Portland
The Firehole River is full of pure, naturally occurring fluoride 12 mg/L, a truly dangerous level. Photo by Larry Grant
I have a familiar set of feelings totday, as I go over the reactions to Portland's voters turning down a measure to add fluoride to their drinking water. On the one hand I'm sorry the measure failed. On the other, I can't help but feel offended when I hear people sneering about those benighted, anti-scientific wingnuts who appeal to nature and want water that's and "pure." Hey, that's me you're talking about, and I'm on your side. But the real reason this stings is that this measure lost because fluoridation activists failed to understand and respect people like me. It would be nice to see some humility and soul searching in response to this loss, rather than more of the insolence that brought it about. Continue reading
A couple lovely reviews
Tanya Tolchin of The Lettuce Edge summed up my angle in "All Natural" this way: He is not the conservative child of hippies rejecting how he was raised, but he looks critically at each piece before he decides how he … Continue reading
Bad Internet Diagnosis
I currently have a sore throat. Here's something I found when I searched the Internet for "sore throat." Continue reading
Who's buying that book?
I'm not really a sucker for celebrity news, but I am a huge terrible sucker for news about me. So the fact that this arm belongs to a movie star matters a lot less to me than the fact that it's holding the book I wrote. Continue reading
Eat organic, live longer young midge
You probably know the confused state of affairs: There are individual studies showing that organic food is nutritionally superior to industrially produced foods , but an analysis of all the evidence available suggests that it's not. There's no consensus. Now people are buzzing about a fun little study out of Southern Methodists University that takes on this issue from a new angle. Continue reading
Protecting nature to death
TED just discovered Allan Savory. I hope a lot of people check this out. I learned about him when Michael Pollan lent me his book a few years back. (Image below: Mexico, efore holistic management).
It's a fascinating read if you want to go beyond the video. (After holistic management: note the hill with the blue line)
Savory starts with his own story as a ecologist managing parks in Africa: "No sooner did we remove the hunting drumbeating people to protect the animals, then the land began to deteriorate." Continue reading


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures deepened losses and were set to wipe out the previous session's gains on Friday, as a string of companies delivered disappointing earnings.
Earnings news weighed on premarket trading for Mattel Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and MasterCard Inc., among others, as a rough January for investors comes to an end.
Shares of Zynga Inc. soared after its own results and acquisition news.
Fears of deflation in the euro zone prompted selling earlier while better-than-expected U.S. consumer spending data did little to provide relief.
Extending earlier losses, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average US:DJH4 fell 160 points, or 1%, to 15,574, while futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 index US:SPH4 dropped 17 points, or 1%, to 1,764.20. Strategists have been focusing on the 1,770 level as key support for that index. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index US:NDH4 fell 15.5 points, or 0.4%, to 3,486.50.
Shares of Mattel
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
The losses for stock futures come a day after Wall Street indexes recouped nearly all the territory lost since the start of the week. The Nasdaq Composite
"It is month end, and portfolio managers are looking to limit exposure, [and] so limit the damage from 'Jaundiced January'," said Stephen Pope, managing director at Spotlight Ideas. "I am not too anxious as I see dips like this as opportunity."
The S&P 500 index
Speaking on CNBC on Friday, James Paulsen, chief investment strategist of Wells Capital, appeared equally sanguine.
"The fact that there's so much negative sentiment around, it looks like a buying opportunity to me," said Paulsen.
Sentiment took a further dent after the rate of euro-zone inflation unexpectedly dropped to 0.7% in January, triggering an extension of losses for European stocks. It also raised fears of deflation as well as speculation that the European Central Bank may cut interest rates or use non-conventional policy measures. How to invest if Europe flirts with deflation
Investors showed little reaction to the latest data on the U.S. economy. Consumer spending rose sharply in December for the second month in a row, but Americans had to dip into their savings to pay for their purchases. The incomes of Americans, however, were unchanged in December and they fell after adjusting for taxes and inflation. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a smaller gain in spending but a slight rise in income.
Also closely watched, the University of Michigan's consumer-sentiment survey for January, due at 9:55 a.m. Eastern Time, is expected to show a slight uptick. Spotlight on the economy: consumer spending seen edging up
Ahead of the bell, Chevron
MasterCard Inc.
Zynga US:ZNGA shares surged 19% in premarket action after the games maker said it would cut its head count and buy NaturalMotion, a mobile videogame company, as it announced results late Thursday.
In other markets, oil fell while gold inched higher and the dollar held on to recent gains. In Asia, Japanese stocks eased.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
Emerging-markets turmoil's set to buoy gold, sink oil
Bond-market short squeeze makes it cheaper to get a mortgage


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by Sir Jon Fitz-Rauf O.L., O.P., R.C.A., R.C.Y.
The Fitz-Rauf combat arrow is an attempt to improve the safety and accuracy of the SCA combat arrow while increasing its durability and reducing its cost.
The tapered shape of the blunt reduces turbulence and drag which slow down an arrow in flight. The light weight of the UHMW and the weight relief holes which further reduce the weight of the blunt allow a greater initial velocity. This increase allows a flatter trajectory making aiming easier and increases the maximum range.
The UHMW and fiberglass improve safety by eliminating the chance of injury due to a splintered shaft or the shaft punching through the blunt. The HTM ABD nock reduces the chance of an arrow nock entering the visor slot or bars of a helm and greatly reduces the chance of injury due to a bounce back.
The initial low cost and durability of the materials lower the repair and replacement costs.
When tested for maximum range this design went approximately 23% further than the same shaft, fletch and nock with a Baldar blunt, shot from the same bow, for a average distance of 79 yards.
The arrow: blunt, shaft and nock, except for the feather fletch is virtually indestructible. A side benefit of the long taper is that the arrows pull easily from your quiver without hanging up on other blunts.
This combat arrow consists of a 1/4 inch fiberglass shaft, a 2 & 1/2 inch tapered UHMW blunt, five inch feather fletches and a HTM anti-bounce back device nock. The blunts cost about 40 cents depending upon where you buy your UHMW, padding material, tape and glue. The shafts cost can cost about 80 cents to a dollar, again depending on your source. The feather fletch is about 20 cents to 75 cents depending upon length and supplier. And the HTM blunt for the ABD nock cost about 80 cents to a dollar. This, with the tape for the shaft, adds up to about $3.30 for the complete arrow.
You should first determine the length you need for the shaft, allowing for both nock and blunt, this will be about 29 & 3/4 inches. An indelible marker is best for marking the fiberglass. The maximum draw length of the arrow is twenty eight inches from the bottom of the nock slot to the bottom of the blunt, but your shaft will be longer than that by the length of the shaft that is inside the blunt and as well as the length of shaft in the nock.
In cutting the fiberglass, you need to take care to avoid breathing the dust or getting it in your eyes. It is not toxic, but can cause a sore throat and itchy eyes. Cutting should be done outside to avoid build up of dust in the air inside. If you wear a dust mask and goggles, you can reduce the chance for irritation. You should also wear gloves to help avoid skin irritation.
After you have cut the rod to length, you will need to sand the full length of it with some medium grit sand paper. The rod has a very slick surface that needs to be roughened to make a better surface for both gluing on the head and fletching or applying the tape. Remember, avoid the dust while you are sanding. You can also remove the slick surface by wiping the surface with an acetone dampened rag.
I use five inch feather fletch on the shafts. It is more forgiving of a poor release than plastic vanes. Fletchtite does not seem to work as well as 3M Super Strength Adhesive or Duco cement. Fletching tape also works very well, all of my current fletches were first attached with fletching tape and then glued and none have come off.
In order to use a fletching jig for the arrows you will need to use a 1/4 inch slip on nock on the end of the shaft. Do not glue it in place and then remove it when the arrow is fetched and then reuse it on the next arrow.
After the fletching has set, I run a bead of the glue down both sides of the base of each fletch and a drop at both ends. If you want, you can also wrap the ends or the whole length with thread as well for greater security and a more period appearance. Because of the size and weight of the blunt head, I prefer to use a five inch fletch to help stabilize the arrow in flight more quickly. But shorter fletches, with less drag, may be used to increase the maximum range.
You can tape the shaft with whatever tape is required in your kingdom. However I have found that a good quality electric tape such as 3M works best. It sticks well and goes on smoothly. Since the arrow will not break, heavy tape is not needed. Some of my combat shafts are almost three years old and still have their original tape. If you carefully run the tape parallel to the shaft it produces a smoother covering than using a spiral pattern. There are less leading edges to peel up an create drag. You should run the tape from the front of the fletching to at least one inch up onto the blunt. You will need to run two strips of 3/4 wide tape, one is not wide enough to cover the full circumference of the shaft.
First cut off the thin 1/4 long section of the HTM blunt, so that it is shorter. Then using two or three hacksaw blades bound together, depending on the diameter of your bow string, you cut a slot in the center of the face of the blunt. Make sure that the slot is centered and perpendicular. You can cut the slot a 1/4 to 5/16 inch deep.
Another method of mass producing them that I have used is to use a router and router table with a jig to guide the blunts. A 1/8 inch veining bit can cut the slots. I used a length of wood the width of the blunts to push them through the jig. The string should slide easily into the slot, but will not fall out. You can use a small flat file to adjust the nock slot to the correct fit. It should just hang on the string, but fall off if you tap the string. If the nock is too tight it can cause erratic flight. If you have a small round file you can enlarge the bottom of the slot making a form of snap nock. If you taper the mouth of the slot in to a "V" shape it will be easier to guide the string into the slot.
Make sure the nock is a snug fit on the shaft then remove and glue it in place. For 1/4 inch shafts you can build up the diameter with electrical tape or with heat shrink tubing. You need to make sure the nock is aligned correctly with the fletching. Then glue it in place.
When the glue has set you can add an indexing point to make it easier to locate your shaft on the string when nocking your arrow. This is done by inserting a short length of 1/8 inch diameter fiberglass or shatter proof plastic rod into a hole drilled about a half of an inch below the face of the HTM through the HTM and part way through the shaft. It should protrude so that your thumb can feel the rod, then you fit the arrow to the string so that your thumb would end up on top of the bow string.
To do this you clamp the shaft near the HTM and drill a 1/8th diameter hole through the HTM and about half way through the shaft. Then remove the dust from the hole and squeeze a drop or two of glue into the hole and insert the 1/8th inch rod. When the glue has set you use a small flat file to file back the front side of the rod so that it slopes backward and then you round off the remaining edges. Finally you coat this with glue to help round things off. This is done to prevent the edge of the rod from scratching any exposed skin that it might hit.
To make the tapered blunts you will need more tools and a somewhat higher skill level than for the simple cylindrical UHMW blunts.
The finished shape of the UHMW section of the blunt is that of an ice cream cone. A 1/4 inch thick 1 & 1/4 inch wide disk set on top of a 2 & 1/4 inch wide by 1 & 1/2 inch long truncated cone with 1/2 inch wide tip. The padding becomes the ice cream scoop on top.
To make the tapered blunt you will need a means of grinding or shaping the taper. An open mesh grinding/cut off disk works well. This should be backed with one of the solid disks that come in the same package to make it more rigid. I mounted it on my small bench grinder. But it could also be mounted on a heavy duty drill motor mounted in a vice, etc. Or it can be mounted in a table saw. If you plan to use a jig for guiding the rod at the correct angle for the taper, the table saw is an easier way to go. The blunt is then mounted on a drill motor which rotates it against the turning grinding surface and shapes the taper.
1) Cutting to length.
The fastest way to cut your 1 1/4 inch diameter UHMW to the 2 and 1/2 inch length is to use a table saw with a guide and stop for the rod. You must first make sure that the blade is vertical at 90 degrees and that your guide is holding the rod 90 degrees to the saw blade. If your cuts are not square and true, you will have problems later in grinding, drilling and in the flight of the arrow. You should ran a few test samples and check them with a square to be sure they are cut correctly.
2) Marking the center.
In order to keep your blunt from wobbling when grinding or in flight, the shaft hole must be centered and straight. To do this you can use a center finder to mark the center of the blunt. A center finder is a tool used for marking the center of rods and other round items. It looks like a 'V' with a small bar dividing it exactly in half at the junction. You place the rod in the 'V' and using the bar as a guide, take a fine point indelible marker pen and draw a line all the way across the face of the blunt. You then turn the blunt 90 degrees and draw a second line intersecting the first at 90 degrees. This intersection is the center of the blunt where the shaft hole will be drilled. You should now take a punch or awl and make a dimple at the center. Then repeat the process on the other end, the four radii lines are the guides for locating the weight reduction holes.
When you have marked the center, then measure down a 1/4 inch from the face on the sides and mark a line around the blunt, this will be the top guide for the grinding.
3) Drilling. Jig construction.
For the drilling operation you will need a drill press, a jig for holding the sections of rod perpendicular to the drill bit and sharp drill bits. This is important for the grinding of the blunt as well as final accuracy.
I used a simple jig made of a six inch length of 1 by 4 with two pieces extending 2 inches above the top of the base board. The side pieces were glued and screwed to one side and the end of the board. You need to make sure that these side pieces hold the rod at 90 degrees to the top of the base board on which they are mounted. This jig will be secured to the base of your drill press with bolts, clamps, etc., so that when it is positioned it will not move accidentally, but will still be able to be adjusted when needed.
4) Drilling - jig alignment.
Before you secure your drilling jig, you need to place a blunt, with the center marked, in the jig and line up the 15/64th drill bit over the center mark. When you have the bit centered, then you may secure the jig. Now if your drill press has a depth stop set it for one inch or mark the bit with tape, etc. You can hold the blunt in place with a clamp if you wish. But, I held mine in place with my gloved hand.
5) Drilling - shaft and weight reduction holes
You may now start drilling the shaft hole, making sure that the blunt remains unmoved in the jig. Now remove the blunt and measure to be sure the shaft hole is centered and is perpendicular. If it is, then drill all your shaft holes, checking every so often to be sure they remain centered.
You now replace the 15/64th bit with a 3/8th bit and loosen the jig. You will need to place a center drilled blunt, face up, in the jig and center one of the radius lines for the reduction holes under the bit. The reduction holes should all be located between the center and the outer edge of the blunt on the radius lines. You then secure the jig, set your depth gauge to 1 inch and drill the four reduction holes.
You do not need to move the jig for drilling the four reduction holes. Just rotate the blunt 90 degrees to the next line. Drill all your holes, checking to make sure they remain properly located.
6) Grinding the taper.
First set up your grinder, table saw or drill motor with the grinding disk. If you are using a drill motor then set it up so that there is a surface to rest and steady your arms upon when grinding.
If possible the drill motor you use for rotating the blunt should be a variable speed motor.
Now take a 3 inch long 1/4 -20 bolt and cut off its head. You then secure it firmly in the drill chuck. Take the drill motor in one hand and the blunt in the other and place the bolt into the 15/64ths shaft hole and start the drill... slowly. The blunt will be screwed onto the bolt. Be sure the bolt goes in the full one inch. If you have done the proceeding steps correctly, there will be little wobble to the blunt as it rotates at full speed.
Before you start grinding, make sure you are wearing glasses or goggles and if you wish a dust mask. The particles that fly off are not sharp or toxic (UHMW is a form of paraffin, similar to that used in candles). But, there is a great deal of residue from grinding for you are reducing the rod by almost half its volume. This can make a real mess of your work space, clothing and hair. It brushes off, but is a real nuisance.
You now turn on your grinder and drill motor to full speed and place the bottom edge of the blunt against the disk at the angle that would be formed by a line going from 1/4 inch below the face of the blunt to within an 1/8 of an inch of the edge of the bolt where it enters the blunt. You press the blunt firmly against the grinding disk until all the excess material is removed. Then using the disk, slightly round off the leading edge of the blunt. You can now unscrew the blunt from the bolt. Take care for the blunt will be hot from the friction of grinding.
You should drill a glue relief hole using an aprox 1/16th drill bit in the blunt intersecting the bottom of the shaft hole. This allows the excess glue to leave the hole when you insert the shaft.
7) Seating the blunt.
You can now take a indelible marker and make a mark one inch back from the end of the shaft, this is a depth mark for inserting the shaft into the blunt. Then put a few drops of glue into the shaft hole. Crazy glue seems to work well. The shaft should have its leading edges slightly rounded off for ease in insertion. Now grasp the blunt and shaft in either hand and force the blunt onto the shaft as far as you can, this will not be very far.
Next nock the arrow to your bow and point it at the floor from about a foot away. You should be sure that the shaft is perpendicular to the floor when you release. Come to a quarter draw and then release and repeat until the blunt is seated all the way onto the shaft. The one inch mark on the shaft will help determine when it is fully seated. The UHMW has a little give to it which allows a tight force fit.
8) Taping the Blunt.
You may now cut your foam. The minimum thickness is one half inch, there is no maximum. I have had good results with some soft Neoprene rubber. It has not packed down under impact and the bounce back seems to be less. Do not use a foam that does not spring back after impact. You should test a piece of the foam by placing it on a hard surface and striking it several times with a hammer, it should rise back up. If it stays flat do not use it. If you have an 1-1/4 inch hole punch, use it to cut out your foam. If not use scissors to cut a 1-1/4 inch square. You should glue the foam to the blunt using contact cement, 3M adhesive or similar cement and let it dry. When the glue has set you can trim the square of foam round with scissors.
I am currently experimenting with the use of two different types of foam to see if combining different materials can lessen the bounce back.
At this point if you want a flat face you are ready to tape the head on. But, if you wish a 3/4 thick or thicker rounded face blunt, you need to trim it round. (Note: The striking face of a blunt may be rounded to no less than the radius of the blunt. e.g. A 1-1/4 inch blunt may be rounded to a radius of no less than 5/8's of an inch. This rounding rule is at the choice of each kingdom.)
To cut this radius you can make a template, with the correct radius cut out, to use as a guide. You turn the shaft with one hand, while you trim the foam with the scissors and check the final shape with the template.
At last you are now ready to tape the blunt onto the shaft. I used four strips of 3M electrical tape about 9 inches long. You center your first strip of tape over the face of the blunt and then, while stretching it slightly, run it down the sides of the blunt and onto the shaft for about an inch. Repeat this with the second strip laying it at ninety degrees to the first. The third and fourth strips fill in the spaces between the first two. Then take an approximately four inch long strip and wrap it around the base of the blunt onto the shaft covering the four strips of tape on the
shaft. You should try to make all the taping as smooth as possible. Non-smooth surfaces cause drag and drag slows down the arrow.
The last step is to identify your arrow using an indelible marker. This serves three purposes. 1) It identifies the maker of the arrow, if the arrow is incorrectly made. 2) It aids the return of lost arrows. 3) And when you make that long shot kill at 80 yards, your victim can learn who hit them. Your arrows should be clearly marked with your SCA name and local area. For inter kingdom wars, you should include your kingdom as well. You can also use colored tape to crest your shafts for easy identification at a distance or when inspection and sorting arrows.
If you should make any of the arrows and test them and then find any way to improve the design or make the construction easier, please let me know so that the improvements may be put in the final article.
Sir Jon Fitz-Rauf
For questions related to this article please contact the author: Sir Jon Fitz-Rauf
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