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"Four words to live by: prepare, prepare, prepare, improvise."
Lights Film School recently had the opportunity to connect with Noah Wagner, a New York City-based film and music video director as well as producer at HBO.
Having wrapped a healthy festival run, Noah's thesis film for NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Fortissimo, just launched on Vimeo – we were taken by its whimsical spirit, documentary undercurrent, and centrality of its sound design to its story.
Before we dive into the interview, let's give Fortissimo a watch (and listen)!
Hello, Noah! Thanks for catching up with us here at Lights. Fortissimo tells a story starring Richmond Shepard, the world's oldest mime. When the film opens, the sun is setting on our hero's career. Consequently, he abandons miming to explore a more popular line of work – until he meets someone who appreciates his life's calling and wants to help him re-embrace it.
First, I'm curious to hear how you developed this concept. What drew you to it? At what point did you meet Richmond Shepard?
I wish I could say that I was inspired because I grew up in a mime troupe, but sadly that did not happen.
I tore my Achilles my freshman year of film school. This was also during a semester in which I took a course on the principles of sound design. Suddenly with a lot more time on my hands, I spent many hours in the sound lab, where I quickly came to appreciate the value of what sound can do for a film.
Flash-forward to senior year, and I knew I wanted sound to play an important role in my film. I also knew I wanted some sort of tragic, underappreciated character at the core of the story, and that I wanted to do something very tonally different from many of the dark, brooding student films I had seen in the past.
From there, the idea of an old mime stuck out. While perhaps a clichéd caricature on the surface, I was drawn to the challenge of trying to humanize that character for a contemporary audience. There was also a clear role for sound to play… and frankly, I had just never heard of an old mime before (sorry, puns were plentiful on our set).
I wasn't sure how we were going to cast it – I assumed we'd find an older actor and perhaps teach him how to mime. But first I had to pitch the project to my class, which required a powerpoint… which required photos. So naturally, I Google-image-searched "old mime" and up popped a high-res photo of this old man in mime make up. Upon clicking, I learned that he was the oldest mime in the world. But even crazier – he taught mime class on Saturdays, 20 blocks from my apartment. It was fate.
So my casting director and I took his delightful class, asked if he'd be interested in being in our film, and the rest is history.
Very cool! How did Richmond influence the writing/storytelling throughout the making of the film? Did you intend to walk the line between narrative and documentary from the very beginning?
This film could have only worked with Richmond. Since he himself is an old mime in a world that perhaps doesn't fully appreciate his craft, that insight affected the authenticity of his performance immensely.
His input was also integral to the mime performance sequences. In some places, the film's writers (Max Nicoll and Matt Stephenson) would have very specific screen direction, such as the Ride of the Valkyries sequence, which worked great. But in other places we weren't sure what was "mime-able", such as the ending, where the original script just read:
"His performance is more magical than we've ever seen".
For these sequences, Richmond would show me a number of different routines he had perfected over the years. The surgery one stood out to me the most, since it encapsulated our theme of revival.
Interesting. Your decision to weave Shepard's story into your own lends Fortissimo a feeling of authenticity, even as it flirts with magical realism. How did you get the archival footage that opens the film, Noah? How many minutes/hours of documentary material did you have to work with in the editing room?
For me, the opening match cuts between Shepard's performances create a feeling of success, so that the reveal at 01:16 comes as a surprise – his golden years led to this? I especially love your decision to change aspect ratios, here, as if a curtain is drawing back to reveal the stage of the present. It's a wonderful way to transition us out of the archival footage.
Can you talk a bit about your editing workflow for the opening sequence? Did you know what you wanted when you began work with the archival footage, or was it more of a gradual process of discovery?
It's funny you ask that. When we went into production, there was a whole storyline involving flashbacks to a Young Stanley, for which we cast a younger actor. We even filmed this storyline, which our actor nailed. But once we got into the edit, it didn't feel right. It was the same issue for the nightmare sequence, as well as the final mime performance – none of them leaped off the screen the way I was realizing they needed to.
So a few months into post-production, my editor (Adrian Carey) and I sat down for dinner and I popped in this hour-long documentary I'd been meaning to watch about Richmond. This is where we discovered the archival footage – stuff that had already been transcoded from old film reels spanning the entirety of Richmond's 60-year mime career. And Adrian just goes, "You've been sitting on this footage for how long!?!".
So we ripped the DVD, pulled the material into our edit, and Adrian went to town on that opening montage. And it completely transformed the film – further ingraining Richmond's DNA in the story.
Since it was being taken from an existing piece, we used the pre-edited "selects" that the documentarian had used – we used no raw footage ourselves, as it would have been too expensive to get it all re-transcoded from the original film reels. There were probably 25 minutes of pure archival material in total.
This taught me a very valuable lesson, one that I will always stick to. The filmmaking process is as follows – you write one movie, shoot another movie, and edit a third movie.
In other words, whatever the movie is in script form, that's only the foundation. That isn't to say you're not striving to achieve what's scripted – that's absolutely your goal. But there are so many variables and decisions that come into play throughout a film's creation; it's naïve to expect your film to end up exactly, 100% as you read it on the page. But therein lies the beauty of creative process – as your film evolves and solidifies over those three phases of creation, there are many opportunities to have discussions with your collaborators and think of ways to make your film even better. In my case I didn't really have a choice; necessity was the mother of invention.
"You know there are many ways of telling stories without words…" This line, presumably excerpted from the archival footage, kicks off the film. This is no accident – in fact, there's no further dialogue throughout the film's thirteen minute running time! Instead, you tell your story with images and sound design.
The girl who befriends the mime has a magical ability to produce sounds with her every touch. Quite simply, the story wouldn't work without this. Some of the most magical moments revolve around sound, too; I'm thinking especially of the mime's aural awakening at 05:55.
Was this deep involvement of sound a part of the original creative vision, Noah? Why or why not? At what point did you bring your sound designer and mixer, Arjun Sheth, into the collaboration?
Oh, absolutely – sound is a character in the film unto itself. We actually did a test screening with only temp music and sound design, and it went terribly. I had naïvely assumed people could imagine where we would be going with it in the final version, but I was very, very wrong. Because this is a film that's so reliant on its soundscape, to outsiders this unfinished version's pacing seemed clunky and slow, and even worse, the story wasn't totally clear.
Which is why both Arjun and our music composer Gabriel Gall were absolutely integral to the film's success. Every sound needed to have character and texture, and in many ways, needed to be more explicit than in your average film, where dialogue props the film up. Sound design was our dialogue.
And let's not understate the importance of music – that too is a character in the film. Gabriel and I discussed at length the fact that the score needed to influence both how the audience should feel about a scene, but also reflect how the characters felt. There was a lot of diegetic/non-diegetic interplay. It was also important to me that we stray away from relying too much on canned, computer-generated imitations of instruments in the score. Whimsy can teeter on the edge of cheese if not done right, so I felt like a score primarily consisting of real instruments was essential to successfully maintaining that suspension of disbelief.
In working with both Arjun and Gabriel, I had two very clever minds who brought a ton of their own personality to the film. Which highlights another important lesson I learned – surround yourself with collaborators you respect and admire, invite them to play in your sandbox, so to speak, and then trust them to do their thing. This applies to any creative head on your team – from your actors to your sound designer. Often times they'll surprise you with better ideas than you could have ever imagined, and that was definitely the case on Fortissimo.
Well said! What does a screenplay look like when there's not much dialogue involved? Speaking of collaborators, how did your writers, Maxwell Nicoll and Matt Stephenson, break up the action lines to ensure the reader wasn't overwhelmed by big blocks of text?
There's definitely no avoiding the fact that you're going to have a whole bunch of scene description and action lines in a script like ours. Here's an example from the scene where we first meet our hero:
As you can see, Max and Matt did a great job of infusing it with language and pacing that made it fun to read, and very much informed the tone, style, and other creative choices we would make throughout the filmmaking process.
I'd love to hear about your experience navigating the writer/director relationship – what did that process look like?
For me, this was the first time I had ever collaborated with other writers. But I also had the mindset of wanting to put as much focus on the actual directing of the film as I could. I did try to write what turned out to be an incredibly different, horribly melodramatic version of the film, but the process of writing it just didn't tickle me the way directing does. Fortunately I had friends who did feel that way about writing, so I enlisted their help.
What I brought to them was by no means a fully-formed concept – I just knew who my main character was, and how I wanted to tell the story. We talked a lot about different ways we could attack the story. While doing a film without dialogue definitely provided challenges, Max and Matt smartly devised the character of Blue – the girl with the magical ability to produce sound with her every touch. That was ultimately the key that unlocked how the story took shape.
Once you had your production draft finished and ready to go, what were your next steps? What had to happen in order to get you from locked script to Day One on set?
Pre-production is where much of the magic happens, so a lot transpired. First thing I did was build my core team – my producers Claire Brooks, Ryan Spears and Deanna Urciuoli – who really are the ones who made this film happen. We divided producing responsibilities into fundraising, logistics, and on-set help. There was a lot of crossover, but it helped to have defined roles.
From there, we created an Indiegogo campaign to crowdfund, and partnered with an organization called Fractured Atlas to make any donation tax-deductible. We also set out to find our locations, and we held a casting call for the rest of the cast beyond Richmond, which included the girl character, Blue.
Meanwhile, I worked with my production designer and cinematographer to more concretely decide the look of the film, and went on location scouts with my core team to map out every shot I had planned for the film. I also shared this list with my Assistant Director, David Ketterer, who created a shooting schedule for the production.
There are so many moving pieces, which is why it's essential you build and empower a great team around you. All told I think we had at least 50 – 60 people work on this film.
Wow! Your river location is great. I love how the relative emptiness communicates the mime's fall from grace, and how the patterns and long lines around the location (1) echo the mime's costume, and (2) if we're really reading into things, suggest he's imprisoned by his seeming irrelevance. Did you have to get a film permit to shoot here? What were you looking for when scouting for your exterior location?
This brings up another huge lesson I learned, and is something one of my directing professors Ron Daniels once said in class: "Four words to live by – prepare, prepare, prepare, improvise!" This is true for all facets of life, and even he was only referring to rehearsing with actors. But it also applies to this river location.
To answer your permit question, yes – we had to go through the city of New York to get a permit to shoot in a public park, which was a 3-week process. My director of photography, Mingjue Hu, and I spent a great deal of time on-location for this scene, mapping out how each shot would work in the context of that specific environment. We wanted it to feel urban but magical, full of depth, interesting angles, color, and people-watching, so that Richmond would seem even more isolated from his surroundings. We had a great plan and a permit for the exterior location. The trouble was, all of this was for our original exterior location – the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.
About 48 hours before the first day of filming, we learned that a substantial Walk for Breast Cancer would be filtering into the Bethesda Fountain area on one of our shoot days. The permit office hadn't warned us about this. So unless we wanted 10,000 people in pink hats in our scene, we'd have to change locations.
So the day before filming, our associate producer Robin D'Oench recommended we check out Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side – it's where Spike Lee had filmed parts of 25th Hour. Ming and I went up there, and over the course of an hour, transposed months of shot planning into our new location. Meanwhile our producer Ryan had to make a case to the park department as to why they should issue us a new permit on such short notice.
In retrospect, it's clear to me that this location was infinitely better for the film than Central Park would have been, even without the pink hats. But even this river location wouldn't have worked if I hadn't been both prepared and open-minded to what the film gods were throwing me. I do believe everything that happens on a film set happens for a reason, even when things go wrong. You just have to maintain the bigger picture and work with the cards that you're dealt, when push comes to shove.
I'm especially intrigued by your decision to cover the majority of the action in this exterior location in single shots. Rarely do we see the different parties – ie., the mime, the musicians, and the girl – connected to each other via Wide Shots or camera movements. What was your thinking, here?
This was partly by design, as I wanted to promote a sense of isolation for Richmond – this is Richmond's world and the audience is living in it. But it was also partly out of our control, as actors' schedules and weather cut down on the amount of time we had to shoot scenes. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wanted a few more shots linking various parties in certain scenes – but once again, especially at our budget level, those were the cards we were dealt.
The nightmarish dream sequence beginning at 04:42 really struck me: the production and costume design create a feeling of antiquity and decadence that's amplified by the warbling music, belittling laughter, and trippy editing effects. How did you source such intricate props and costumes? Where did you shoot the scene? Was it storyboarded, did you discover your shot interactions during the edit, or was it a bit of both?
Yeah that was one of my favorite scenes to shoot – I saw it very clearly in my head, and I always love when I'm afforded the flexibility of abstract music video logic.
The props, costumes and make up – all the credit goes to our production designer Divya Gadangi, art director Deirdre Jernigan, costume designer Elexa Cangelosi, and make up artist Ana Perdita. I think since this scene was such a suspension of disbelief, our whole team could let their imaginations run wild have more fun with it.
The location itself was at this awesome bar in Williamsburg called Pete's Candy Store. They have this quaint little train car theatre used for open mics and music performances usually – that's where we shot it. We'd looked at a wide range of theatres, including some really, really ornate huge ones, but ultimately we decided that scaling down and building a sense of claustrophobia was better for the story (and the budget).
We did one pass at storyboards for the entire film, but I must admit that I didn't invest too heavily in that part of the process. Going forward I plan to do a bit more storyboarding, but on Fortissimo I limited my shot list to very specifically-worded descriptions. I'm not a great drawer, but moreover, I could see it in my head, felt confident in my ability to articulate that, and I didn't want to limit my collaborators' imaginations.
As for shot interactions, it felt okay when edited together, but it was definitely missing something, just like in the opening scene. So when we found that archival footage, it allowed me to break up the action that was happening in the nightmare, thus not locking us into a concrete logic.
I'd love to hear more about how you approached Fortissimo as the director. Everything feels exaggerated; actions and expressions are big, almost theatrical. Why did you decide to treat the material in this way? How did you communicate your vision for this treatment to your team?
To me, it's what the material asked for. Especially without dialogue, I felt that we needed to telegraph at times what characters were feeling and what was going on. At the same time, I'm a big fan of films that make you think and provide structured "vacuums" into which you as the audience can project your own interpretation. Fortissimo isn't difficult to digest, but I did want it to ask audience members to engage, rather than be purely spoon-fed. It was all about striking a balance.
Of course, the guiding philosophies and sensibilities for this film weren't developed in such specificity overnight. I had broader feelings about how we should tell this story when we started. But it was through discussing the material with my core creative team, and being asked lots of questions over time, that I came to better understand my own sense of the film. And it was because of that consistent dialogue with my team that the vision was organically disseminated. I may have had the final word on most creative decisions, but the film was very much a product of many peoples' visions.
Speaking of camera movements, I'm a big fan of the tracking shot at 07:22. What gear did you use to accomplish this?
Thanks! That was shot using a steadicam.
What camera did you use on Fortissimo? What lighting equipment did you have on-hand at both your exterior and interior locations?
This dates the production a bit, but we shot on the RED MX camera, using, I believe, RED Pro Prime lenses. For movement, it varied between a tripod, steadicam, and Fischer Dolly, depending on the shot.
I can't remember offhand all the different types of lights we used, but Ming (our DP) had a nice assortment. I vaguely remember him using heavily diffused kinos for the interior quite a bit. Outside, the sun was our main source of light, and we would strategically use bounce boards and flags to get the desired lighting.
The visual effects associated with the girl's magical touch are subtle but effective. How did you bring them to life?
I was chatting with a production designer friend of mine about Fortissimo early in pre-production, and they told me to imagine the film as if it had no sound at all. How would we get everything across? I had also just seen Avatar and liked how the trees would emit this glowing ripple as Jake Sully and Neytiri's feet touched them – a great example of synesthesia.
So I worked with a number of visual effects artists to figure out how to achieve that. Ultimately, the lead VFX artist, Brian Magarian, I think used a combination of After Effects and Nuke to pull it off, and had to do a fair amount of rotoscoping.
You directed Fortissimo several years ago. Is there anything you'd change if you could go back and make it again? If so, what, and why?
Honestly, probably not – but not because there aren't things that I could have done better. I like to think of each film, music video or other project as a sort of time capsule for how I saw things and creatively problem-solved at the time. Much healthier to let those "mistakes" remain etched in stone, learn from them, and apply that experience to the next film.
If you don't mind my asking, Noah, what was the film's budget? How did you raise the money? As you know, financing is one of the biggest challenges facing we indie filmmakers, and we're always eager to hear how people solve this piece of the puzzle!
I don't think there's one single way to raise money for a film, and it's definitely something I'm still eager to learn more about myself. For Fortissimo, the initial budget was around $16,000, but we didn't account for post-production or festival applications and transportation – those all ended up having to come out of my own pocket.
To raise that amount, we tried to create a vivid crowdfunding campaign that outlined our vision for the film, made an account on Indiegogo, and asked everyone we knew if they might be willing to donate.
Any words of wisdom for filmmakers looking to get their projects off the ground? What about for filmmakers who are turning their sights to the festival circuit?
This could be a whole interview unto itself, but I believe if you're passionate enough to get your film made, you'll get it made. That's not meant to oversimplify how hard it is to make a movie – it can be grueling. But ultimately, especially if you're just starting out, you need to be the driving force behind your film. As Mark Duplass once said, "the cavalry isn't coming". Every film starts somewhere, with one person. You've got to be the person who starts with a single snowflake and starts rolling it downhill. If you want it bad enough, you've got to be resourceful, patient and tenacious enough to make it happen.
But you can definitely do it if you want to! And above all, always remember that at the end of the day, you're really just playing with toys in a sandbox. Don't take the process or yourself too seriously, keep a sense of humor, and you'll get it done.
Well said. Thanks for the encouragement – and for this inside look at making your film, Noah! We're excited to see what you develop next.
For more from Noah, head on over to his website.
Michael Koehler, with
Want help getting started with the three phases of the filmmaking process? Check out our affordable online filmmaking course – more curated than a blog, more interactive than a textbook, more flexible than traditional film school.


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|© AFP/Getty Images/File Spencer Platt
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of jobs generated by the US economy plunged in May and inflation continued to erode workers' incomes, deepening the challenge to the Obama administration, official figures showed Friday.
The economy added just 54,000 net new jobs in May, only one-quarter of the February-April pace, while the unemployment rate edged up to 9.1 percent, the Labor Department said.
The private sector, expected to drive the economy as governments slash spending, added a measly 83,000 positions, one-third of the rate of the previous three months.
With downwardly-revised figures for employment in the previous two months, Friday's report confirmed the sharp slowdown in economic growth since the beginning of 2011, despite government efforts to power up a job-creating recovery.
The bad numbers could in part be blamed on the impact on US manufacturers of Japan's March 11 earthquake-typhoon disaster, as well as the jump in oil prices, economists said.
But they were likely to fuel the raging political battle over government spending and how to repair the economy while nearly 14 million people remained unemployed, more than a year after the country's deep recession ended.
Underscoring the challenge to President Barack Obama as his campaign for reelection in 2012 gets underway, Republican House leader Eric Cantor blamed the White House's poor policies for the high jobless rate.
"It is astounding that despite the warning signs and economic indicators, President Obama and congressional Democrats still have failed to offer any concrete plan to create jobs, reduce our debt, or grow our economy," he said in a statement.
The chairman of the White House's council of economic advisers, Austan Goolsby, played down the report.
"There are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years," he said.
"The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision," he said. "Therefore, as the administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.
Friday's numbers were poor all around. Hourly wages rose 0.3 percent, but were still being eaten away by higher prices: in the year to May, wages were up 1.8 percent, compared to an inflation rate of 3.1 percent.
While the country generated a large number of jobs in the mining sector in May — driven by jumps in oil and mineral prices — the manufacturing sector, which had expanded solidly in the first part of the year, lost 5,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the public sector at all levels, from federal to local, cut 29,000 jobs.
Some economists had forecast that tornado and flood disasters in the south and midwest would push employment figures down.
But Labor Statistics Bureau commissioner Keith Hall said those were not an important factor.
"While there is no question that some workers in the devastated communities may have been at least temporarily displaced from their jobs, we found no clear impact of the disasters on the national employment and unemployment data for May," he said in a statement.
"Overall, this is horrible," said Ian Shepherdson, US economist for High Frequency economics.
But he said it was likely a short-term dip.
"We think it is largely a reaction — an overreaction we would say — to the rise in oil prices, and a very real hit to autos and tech from the Japan earthquake."
© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license
linkwithin_text='Related Articles:'

subset: commoncrawl


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Seared Ahi Tuna Steaks
"This is an elegantly simple way to cook tuna that any restaurant would be jealous of!"
- 2 (5 ounce) ahi tuna steaks
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
- Season the tuna steaks with salt and cayenne pepper.
- Melt the butter with the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the peppercorns in the mixture until they soften and pop, about 5 minutes. Gently place the seasoned tuna in the skillet and cook to desired doneness, 1 1/2 minutes per side for rare.
source : allrecipes.com


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Lowongan Kerja Channel Account Executive PT. Core Media Indonesia
Staff (non-management & non-supervisor)
Grosir / Ritel
Sarjana / S1
As Channel Account Executive, you will be responsible of designing solution, maintaining and establishing relationship with current and potential clients, identifying ways to grow our market, and look for opportunities to grow the business
Tanggung Jawab Pekerjaan :
– Designing solution that meets customers requirements.
– Establish and Maintain strong relationship with existing and potential clients.
– Hunt for potential organizations and establish communications with those businesses.
– Achieve sales target and business objective.
– Prepare and do presentation / product demo to potential clients.
– Identifying business opportunities.
Syarat Pengalaman :
Keahlian :
– Proficient in English and Bahasa
– Proficient with computer
Kualifikasi :
– Bachelor's Degree
– Good presentation, negotiation, and communication skills
– Quick learner, self motivated, & discipline


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The Driver Vehicle Agency (DVA) in Northern Ireland has suspended all MOT testing for cars and light vehicles with immediate effect.
The suspension comes after inspections uncovered lift faults in MOT centres.
The DVA stated: "Following thorough inspections of lift faults in MOT centres, the contractor did not provide sufficient assurance to DVA on the evening of 27 January on the effectiveness of the ongoing repairs. To ensure the health and safety of staff and customers and as a precautionary measure, DVA has suspended all MOT testing for cars and light goods vehicles with immediate effect."
The DVA says it is working to urgently find a solution for customers with taxis and four-year-old cars with imminent MOT expiry dates. Tests on heavy goods vehicles, motorcycles and buses will continue, as scheduled.
See the DVA website for further details and detailed customer information.


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2019 San Diego Multi-Cultural Event
The 2019 Pentecost multi cultural event was held at Cathedral Catholic High School in Delmar on June 8th. The new venue was selected to accommodate the growing number of participants numbering approximately 2200. A total of 22 communities came together to celebrate this event presided by Bishop Robert W. McElroy. The Indian community was present in their finest traditional attire to participate in Mass as well as cultural and food exhibits. The cultural exhibit booth provided information on various christian religious traditions, churches within India as well as some of the festival articles used in religious celebrations. Traditional entertainment in the form of Margamkali (South India , Kerala) was performed by children from St Michael's ,Poway. The food exhibit provided exquisite samplings of Sorpotel (Goan culinary) with bread. With the help of the various core members of the San Diego Indian Catholic Community, this event was completed successfully.
Come and experience the 2019 Multi-Cultural event on the Pentecost weekend. Be a part of the Indian community that will participate along with the various other communities in San Diego. We plan to have a cultural exhibit , a food exhibit and also perform in the entertainment. We invite you to join the Indian community in this celebration and get to know your community members from various other parishes.
Contact us: firstname.lastname@example.com


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- Forum >
- Subiect: English >
- Concerning the English > Roma…
Concerning the English > Romanian course :)
Dear contributors, dear Romanian aficionados! :-)
I'm writing to seek some update on the progress (if any) of the EN>RO course! The last update in the Incubator dates back to 4 months ago and my eagerness to learn the language has remained unaltered! On this last update you guys said you were looking for contributors, but interested people like SebastianMolin still don't appear in the list of contributors. Is Duolingo staff responsible for choosing who contributes, or do they leave you the freedom to choose your co-contributors? Also, RO>EN has graduated from beta, but does it still require a lot of work from you guys, in terms of answering to users' suggestions and improvements? I suppose Duo staff expects you to polish the RO>EN course before actively engaging in the EN>RO course.
I know that the Incubator's remaining days calculator is completely unreliable because it's based on the number of completed words, and that this number is highly dependent on the list of words chosen for the course (Hungarian has been going up and down for the past weeks). However Romanian has been stuck at 6% for the last two months (to the extent that some redditers declared both this course and English to Polish as being officially "in Incubator limbo" ). Even Esperanto, which was added 2 months ago, already boasts an impressive 36%.
So I would like to know, if possible (I know it can be difficult to estimate), the status of this course. If the Incubator's estimation were to be accurate, I'd totally understand if you guys are having trouble at finding time to develop the course (it takes a time, and after all you're doing it for free! -for which you're absolutely awesome btw :) ), but if it gets too difficult to the point that the course development comes to a stalemate, it might be beneficial for everyone to notify Duolingo staff that you unfortunately can't deliver, and to pass the torch to others.
I'm eager to hear your opinions!
Thank you again for the awesome work, we're indebted to you!
Best regards,
9 comentarii
Alright, to answer your question...
I have officially joined the Romanian for English Speakers Incubator team, and because you guys are eagerly waiting for feedback, iv'e decided to give you some!
1) The course is "in the works", and you will see day by day progression from now on. I have made a commitment to work daily for a few hours, and I plan to do just that.
2) It's status... the course is as it seems, we are working to get more and more done, but it's far from finished, just as the percentage shows.
I will make a progress update, probably after a week or two of being in the incubator, because I want to get used to all it's features first!
Those are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G news. Really. It's so great to know that there's someone motivated on board. The question remains as to why it took them so long to welcome you in the team, but what matters now is the future!
I know I can't be of much help, but if you need anything, please ask!
Also, does this mean the Memrise course you started will stay as it is right now?
Good luck with everything!!
Haha, no, I will add things to the memrise course from time to time, but I want this course to progress, so I will work in it more :)
In the last AMA on Reddit, someone asked Luis Von Ahn himself:
Redditer: - Hello Luis! Do you know what happens when languages in the incubator are created but seem to never start development (example: Romanian for English, Polish for English)? Luis: - They become sad. We become sad. It's just sad.
WHAT is this answer supposed to mean? It's a non-information, we don't know if they stopped developing it or anything :/
Same here, profoundly interested in the course and I would like to know what it's the current status :)
Thanks for the hard work!
No one is answering, I don't know what seems to be the problem...it's very frustrating


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A Conversation About Gender Roles and Cycling
Lately, Steve and I have been riding with him on the mountain bike and me on my road bike. This evens out the playing field some, since riding a mountain bike on the road is slower, which is probably good for the health of our relationship. But it also makes us look pretty recreational, since he's sort of dicking around on the mountain bike instead of all being decked out in his fancy gear like usual.
This past weekend, we were riding and a guy with a backpack and a bell sprinted to pass us, after we passed him at a light, and then slowed down right ahead of us. Steve and I basically had this conversation then:
Steve: That was weird.
Me: That doesn't happen to you? Happens to me all the time.
Steve: No. I usually get respect.
Me: Yeah, well, middle-aged weekend warriors always feel the need to sprint past me. The problem is it's just enough work to beat them that it's sort of hard. On the other hand, though, cars don't harass me as much since I look little and female.
Steve: It's a trade-off.
Everyone's been passing around this NYT story about why our legal system makes it ok to kill cyclists. And, I really just want to pass it on to some editors who said I was making this up. I wasn't.
The Armstrong Lie
Changing a Bike Flat Tire Without Hands
I'm pretty sure this is how long it takes me to change a flat with hands.
Dying Kittens, Biking by Myself and Hearing Alarms
Friday afternoon this is where I rode my road bike (not mountain bike) — this + the Shoreline Trail, which is much more challenging and rutted and rocky and hilly. I get bored of riding my road bike on long rides by myself. Sometimes I love it. But, sometimes I just can't spend any more time in my own head (not a good sign with 8 more month of training…). So, instead, Friday I took my road bike and hit the trails. This isn't aerobically challenging, but it's technically hard, because your road bike simply isn't designed for the trails. You have to focus to not fall over or get a flat or accidentally stick your skinny tire in a rut. And, the whole thing shakes your body constantly, every bump, shattering your boredom.
This is actually about three miles from our condo. You just ride past the mall, under the freeway and beyond the water treatment plant. And, then you keep going until you've gone far past all the recreational bird-watchers. The trail goes all the way out into the middle of the marsh that covers the blurry line between land and the Bay. You go until suddenly you're standing on top of a marsh, surrounded by nothing, all by yourself.
I didn't ride as far or as long as I wanted. I could say it's because I had to take Biggie to the vet, but I was just bored. I just didn't want to.
I did take Biggie to the vet, though. And, they said the problem wasn't just stress from Tupac or the new situation. They said he has the same 100% fatal illness Floyd had (F.I.P) and he's going to die just like Floyd did. Yes, it's an extremely rare disease. Yes, it's weird they both got the same mutation. Yes, it sucks.
I want to have a better way to say that. I want to make it mean something and have a point or a lesson. Isn't that what writers are supposed to do? Take our own small pains and make them bigger, make them matter to other people, make them something. Instead, I cleaned. I cleaned the whole house Friday night. Because the only thing that'd be worse than having two cats die would be having the third one get sick too from a kitten that we only got to keep him company. If this was literature, there'd be a word for that.
We had to leave for a wedding Friday, after I finished cleaning. What do you do with a dying kitten when you're leaving? One who has an infectious disease? We brought him with us. He's not moving much, so it wasn't hard. He just slept on the bed, walked around the room a little, enjoyed Carmel. And, we went to a wedding. We danced and partied and drank and then came back to the room and sat with the sick kitten. Then, we took him to the beach.
I tried to take a video of him running with Steve across the sand, but I accidentally took a video of what I thought I wasn't taking a video of and didn't record what I thought I was recording. Of course.
When we got home I went for my two hour run, barely beating the sun setting. It was ok, in that I never felt worse than I already felt. But, near the beginning, as I ran through a neighborhood and into the woods, an alarm inside one of the houses was going off. And, for ten second I wondered if it was my alarm, if I was asleep and I'd just been dreaming all this. I didn't feel very awake; it seemed possible. I actually did a whole body check, tried to feel my pillow under my head if I was really in bed dreaming. But, I wasn't. This was all real and that wasn't what my alarm sounds like anyway.
Cycling in the Dark
It sucks. I hate it it. It's the worst. I do not do it — unless I am stranded and the alternative is hitch-hiking, which I really do not do because my fear of crazy rapists in cars outweighs my fear of crazy rapists lunging at me from dark street corners.
At Cal, there was a guy on the triathlon team, a grad student who was pretty fast, who did all his cycling in loops around the Oakland Airport at night. Until that point it had literally — actually literally, not figuratively literally — never occurred to me that people would ride bikes in the dark. After that it appeared only crazy people rode their bikes at night. Why? Because you need to SEE to ride your bike and you can't see in the dark.
I don't know what riding in the dark looks like to all the early morning commuters and late night athletes, but this is what it looks like to me most of the time:
Things that suck about biking in the dark:
- Not being able to see what you hit before you hit it
- Not being able to see potential murderers or bears that lurk in the shadows
- Not being able to see the skunk before it tries to spray you
- Getting a flat, but not being able to see to fix it
- The cold
- The dark
Things that don't suck about biking in the dark:
- Getting where you need to go (hopefully)
When we lived in Sacramento after college I didn't drive, so I biked everywhere. In the winter, I routinely biked three miles on the dark, unlit bike path through the woods from the pool/gym to our house. It was shorter than biking on the road, but way, way sketchier. One time, on my way home, a helicopter with search lights started circling overhead looking for a missing fugitive/alleged murderer. After that I took the longer route on the lit road.
This morning I got up at 5:45 to bike to the ferry, take the ferry into the city, and bike from the ferry to work. Apparently, it's been a month since I biked to the ferry at 6:25 a.m. Apparently, it's dark at that hour now. And, apparently, if you accidentally close the garage with your gloves inside as you try to find lights so that you can bike in the dark, you should take the two extra minutes to go back upstairs and re-open the garage and get the gloves, because it is cold in the dark at 6:25 a.m.
Pretty much everywhere that has tips about cycling in the dark says: wear warm clothes (sort of check), make yourself visible (sort of check), have lights (check), look straight ahead — otherwise your lights point at not what you want them to point at (check), don't do anything sudden or stupid — cars can't see you in the dark either (god, I hope, check).
Every now and then someone asks me to go mountain biking in the dark, which sounds like a terrible idea and always makes me think of the Ben Stiller story about night mountain biking. Amazing:
Training Week: Sept. 23-29
(Yeah, this is a day late. But, well, tough shit. It's not like y'all are editors who are going to stop giving me jobs if I miss a deadline. So. Priorities.)
Last week was very easy. This week I was trying to get in more solid training before switching more to marathon training. It didn't exactly work that way, but life doesn't exactly work that way.
Swam 3,000y at Masters. Lots of 50s and 100s and IM sets. I swam terrible and was in a terrible mood, but it's possible that's just because I was annoyed I was swimming so terrible. Apparently I had planned on going to a strength class in the evening and forgot. I went to trivia instead.
Biked two hours with 2 x 10′ at 175W (half-Ironman pace) and actually felt pretty good. Not great, it was still heavy legs and it was originally supposed to be 3 x 10′,0 but "coach" said to cut that short. You have to listen to Coach.
Ran about 7 miles easy with the high school kids. We went up and up and up.
Ran 8.5 miles with drills and strides, then the 4 x [3′ at 6:20, 1′ rest, 30″ hill sprint, 3′ recovery] workout. It was hard and I had to work after, but couldn't really do much of anything.
Did not swim in the evening. Went out for dinner instead. Yes, Steve is in his off-season already…
Biked 14 miles easy from work, to practice, home.
Ran 6 miles with the high school kids that was really primarily 12 x hill repeats. Did about 4 of them easy, 4 medium and 4 hard (one crazy hard just to see if I could keep up with the Varsity high school boys — I can almost, barely, but it's really a bad idea). Then, 15′ of core. I did have the whole brief almost-fainting spell after practice. That meant I did not swim in the evening. With the whole heart episode I just had to lay on the couch all evening and recuperate.
Had planned on swimming, but I was still such a mess from the shitty episode the day before.
Easy 25′ run and 1200m swim, with hard pick-ups and some race pace. At least, I hope this pool was meters, because otherwise I was swimming pretty slowly.
Santa Cruz Triathlon.
OK, time for marathon training. Which will sort of look the same, but it'll feel different in my head.
Things I Saw on My Bike Ride
- Llamas
- Tar stuck to my bike wheel
- Lots of cows
- The new bike path that ends (or starts, depending on your point of view) at the back of a seedy motel parking lot
- A car flipped on its side
Training: Sept. 9 – 15
Saturday I raced Pacific Grove. My lifelong dream of two-and-a-half months was to win Pacific Grove. I did that. And, then I still had to go to work today and clean the house yesterday. This doesn't seem right. I definitely feel like there should be more of a reward/break/general acknowledgement from the world of my awesomeness. People as I walk down the street should be like, "YOU, how can you perform mundane chores like buying a new shower curtain! You are a doer of dreams! You should go home and eat cookies!" This is probably why I got tired of triathlon: because there's something to be said for achieving a set achievement, then laying on the couch and watching Law and Order, not going back to training.
Which is a long way of saying that this past week was very light on the training but that was the point and it was worth it. Then, this upcoming week (after I can move again) it'll have to be back to the grind. More lifelong goals of multiple weeks must be achieved.
Rode 25′. That is all. Felt like that was "recovery" from the race on Sunday.
Swam 2,000y in the morning with four hard 50s and then three 100s on a tempo pace.
Ran 4 miles or so easy with the high school kids, with a uptempo section in the middle.
Rested from all that easy training. (Except I had to walk a bunch at the beach and it was tiring.)
Ran 4.5 miles quite easy + 15′ of core with high school kids.
PRE-RACE: Swam 1,100y with four HARD 25s and a race pace 100y. Then, rode 7 miles with five 10″ sprints and 90″ of race pace. I do these sprint bursts and hard 25s like REALLY hard the day before a race. It sort of reminds me that going fast is painful?
Pacific Grove Triathlon. Duh. 2:20:58 — I think they call it a 1,500m swim, 24 mile bike, 10k run. Plus: mile running warm-up and maybe 100-200y of swimming warm-up. No cool down, which was stupid.
Swam 1,000y. It was painful.
You thought I was kidding about taking it light? Hah. I never kid about taking it easy.


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Gimme Gimme Gimme
From LGBT Archive
Jonathan Harvey, who developed the series with Kathy Burke. The first series (1999) was shown on BBC2; series 2 (2000) and 3 (2001) were on BBC1.
The main characters are Linda La Hughes (played by Kathy Burke) an unattractive middle-aged woman, and Tom Farrell (James Dreyfus) a gay wannabe actor. The two share a flat, and both are desperate to get a boyfriend.


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Hello everybody! Rite, I have four case fans and a nexus fan controller, but it only has 3 pins, the same ones a motherboard uses. I need something to get the 4 pin power connector from the psu and give me a 3pin fan, but a female one, eg. not the one you will find on a motherboard but one you will find on a cpu cooling fan.
I can't find any Please help! It's noisy !


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Veneziana : Tights, Pantyhose, Leggins, Stockings and more
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Sunday's Watch (27/10/2019).
Direction: Long
Entry price: >304.55
Stop Loss: < 298.20
Buy reason: Ascending Triangle breakout.
* IVV is an S&P 500 ETF, the Average true range (ATR) might be low and it depends on the blue chips stocks earnings this week..
Direction: Long
Entry price: >79.05
Stop Loss: < 76.90
Buy reason: Ascending Triangle breakout, after a false breakout, the price came back to test the breakout area again.
* Earnings on 31/10 so be careful *
Direction: Long
Entry price: >24.25 (wait for the price to find support on one of the Fib levels).
Stop Loss: < 23.97
Buy reason: Fibonacci retracement .
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Diego Godín
How much is Diego Godín worth? – Wondering how wealthy & rich is Diego Godín? Or maybe you're just curious about Diego Godín's age, body measurements, height, weight, hair color, eye color, bra & waist size, bio, wiki, wealth and salary?
Diego Roberto Godín Leal (Rosario, Uruguay, February 16, 1986) is a Uruguayan soccer player who was nationalized in Spain in 2011. Central defense plays and his current team is Club Atlético de Madrid. the Santander League.
He debuted with Club Atlético Cerro in 2003 in the First Division of Uruguay. In 2006 he was signed by Nacional and only a year later he made the jump to Europe signing for Villarreal CF. After three seasons in the yellow club he signed for Atlético de Madrid, with which he won the European Supercup in 2010 and 2012, the Europa League in 2012, the Copa del Rey in 2013 and the Spanish League and the Spanish Super Cup in 2014 .
He debuted with the Uruguayan National Team in 2005, with which he participated in the World Cup in 2010 and 2014, in the Confederations Cup in 2013 and in the Copa América in 2007, 2011 -year in which he won the title- and 2015. < / p>
More Facts about Diego Godín
The Diego Godín's statistics like age, body measurements, height, weight, bio, wiki, net worth posted above have been gathered from a lot of credible websites and online sources. But, there are a few factors that will affect the statistics, so, the above figures may not be 100% accurate.


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Prairie Ridge grad Jeff Jenkins steps away from Iowa football
Jeff Jenkins no longer will play football at Iowa.
Jenkins, who was the Hawkeyes' backup center last season as a redshirt freshman, announced via Twitter on Thursday, "Excited to start this next chapter of my life!"
The 2018 Prairie Ridge graduate said Friday he is not sure what that chapter will entail but is certain it no longer will involve Iowa football.
Jenkins' return to Twitter on Thursday signified he had left the Hawkeyes. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has a strict no-Twitter policy for his players.
"That's going to be over with," Jenkins said. "I have a couple weeks here where I have to make a lot of decisions on what I want to do. I really don't know what that's going to be yet. There's a possibility I'll go somewhere else and play football. There's also a good possibility that I say, 'I've had enough. I lived out my dream of playing college football, and I want to move on with my life.'"
Jenkins (6-foot-3, 266 pounds) was a three-time Northwest Herald All-Area first-team selection as an offensive lineman. He was one of five, four-year varsity players and the leader on the offensive line for the Wolves' Class 6A state championship teams in 2016 and 2017.
Jenkins went to Iowa on a football scholarship with former Wolves quarterback Samson Evans, the only player to be named Northwest Herald Football Player of the Year three times. Evans was a redshirt freshman running back in 2019.
As backup center, Jenkins played in two games and traveled with the team to every game. The decision was something Jenkins had been mulling for a while. He told the Iowa coaches two weeks ago and is not enrolled this semester at Iowa.
Jenkins is living in Iowa City and working at a construction company where a friend's father is a foreman.
"There's a lot of different factors that go into it," Jenkins said. "It wasn't just something that, after our bowl game, I was going to make this decision. There's a lot of things. It's hard to do, the mental side, the football side, school, having a social life."
Although Jenkins did not suffer any debilitating injuries in high school or college, he still feels the wear and tear.
"I wake up and my back hurts, my neck … I can't move my neck some mornings," he said. "Your knees never feel good. The whole head thing has become a really big thing. Is it really worth it playing football anymore if you don't necessarily love playing football and you don't have your heart in it? Is it really worth it?"
So Jenkins is taking a break, working and considering whether he wants to give football a shot at another school. If he decides to make a return, he can sign up on the NCAA transfer portal, where prospective schools can contact him about transferring.
"You have to want to play football," Jenkins said. "That's the big thing. It's hard to play Division I football at this high of a level if your heart's not in it anymore and your head's not in it. I have to sit down with my dad (John) and talk to him about it. There's definitely a lot of different roads I could go at this point in my life. We'll see what happens."


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Abu Dhabi, UAE – Jerome Goutières appointed Managing Director for JCDecaux activities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
Following the award of the 10-year exclusive contract with Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), starting August 1st, 2013, Jérôme Goutières has been appointed Managing Director for Abu Dhabi, effective November 16th, 2013. Based in Abu Dhabi, he will report to David Bourg, Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East.
Jérôme Goutières, 42 years old, who graduated from Ecole Superieure de Gestion, began his career in 1995 at Carrefour France within the Food Business Development department before joining Smithkline Beecham S&H in 1996 as Merchandising Research Executive. In 1998, he was promoted to Account Manager at the company Trade Marketing Services.
Jérôme Goutières joined JCDecaux Publicité Lumineuse in 2001 as Key Account Manager. In 2002, he joined JCDecaux Airport France as Account Director and was later promoted to Key Account Director. In 2007, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer at JCDecaux Airport Thailand.
Since March 2011, he was promoted to Sales Director of JCDecaux Airport Paris.
Jérôme Goutières will remain Sales Director of JCDecaux Airport Paris until November 15th, 2013.
- Disclaimer - News, data, and statements included in this release are intended exclusively for general information purposes. Talent4Boards does not guarantee that news is accurate or about the correct person and accepts neither liability for the consequences of the reader's reliance, nor responsibility for the accuracy of the information. Nothing in this release should be considered for decisions about referred securities. Products and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.


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La Manga del Mar
Oct 14, 2009
|Todays drive was interesting- more greenhouses growing tomatoes we think, interspersed with orange groves. We were going to stop at Cartegena but instead followed signs to la Manga del Mar- a beach town, well thats an understatement. It is actually an 18km stretch of sadnspit covered in huge blocks of apartments, decidedly worse for wear. Many shops are closed, and it took awhile to find a hotel open, but managed to get a one bedroomed apartment each for E55, overlooking the sea. This place is virtually open only for 3 months during the summer period. Spooky and very like a ghost town, but also managed to find a german restaurant serving a mixture of german and spanish food. Tomorrow Valencia!


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Barbara Alexander began receiving services from OAK Tasmania at OAK Lifestyle Choices in Daly Road, Lenah Valley, after leaving Willow Court in the 1990's.
When Barb began at OAK she was a very proud woman who always liked to look her best and therefore often took part in 'pampering' programs. Barb had a lot of personal goals aimed at achieving a higher quality of life. Some of the goals included community integration, making friends, overcoming some hurdles in regard to mobility, and maintaining relationships with friends and family.
Barbara worked hard toward these goals. There are many stories floating around the organisation about the times Barb used to go out for Coffee Club with her new friends and there are plenty of photos of the days when she used to access the wider community for a picnic or to see a show. Another thing Barb loves is music. Her Fridays were usually full of music and at any chance she had she would steal the stage and belt out a solo for everyone to witness.
Barb has been described as the matriarch of OAK, very much a Mother or Grandmother figure to the many people that attended Community Access over the years. She formed a strong relationship with everyone she met. She was a loving woman who liked to make sure everyone was okay and that things were done right. However, if Barb was upset with you for some reason she had no shame in telling you so. One staff member describes her first encounter with Barb. "Barb presented as the sweet little old lady until someone asked her if she would do something she didn't want to do, then she got fired up and all these cuss words flowed freely from her mouth, enough to make your hair curl."
Toward the end of 2015 Barb began transitioning into an aged care facility. She didn't want to leave OAK altogether as she had so many friends here, this way she had the best of both worlds. In June 2016 after much consideration Barb decided that the aged care facility better suited her needs and she decided to transition out of OAK altogether. Her last day was an extremely emotional one and there wasn't a dry eye in the building.
OAK Tasmania staff were invited to celebrate Barb's 90th birthday in August, 2016. It was a great opportunity to see Barb again and meet some of the people she crossed paths with in her busy 90 years. One hundred people RSVP'd and once word got out about the celebration even some local politicians wanted to join in on the fun. Barb in her usual style sat up the front of the room, took hold of the microphone and rather than thank everyone for coming, belted out "Road to Gundagai".
Barb is greatly missed at OAK. Her smiling face and happy nature made everyone's day just that bit better.


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Oldham schools to use Oaks Day as makeup
Oldham County Schools will hold classes on May 2 — Oaks Day — to make up for classes canceled Monday because of snow, the district said Thursday night.
Upon recommendation by Superintendent Will Wells, the board approved using May 2 as the make-up day for Monday's cancellation, said Tracy Harris, the district's spokeswoman.
Using Oaks Day as a make up for classes missed Monday keeps Oldham's last day of school for students at June 6. The board will likely set a graduation date at the March 24 meeting, Harris said.
Run the Friday before the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks has been a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike. Jefferson County Public Schools made Oaks Day an "in-service'" training day for teachers in 1979, and other area school districts have done the same since.
"We know this decision does not come without obstacles, but after much discussion, this was determined to be the best solution," Harris said in an email.
Pending legislation could affect the district's schedule, Harris said. House Bill 410 would call on Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday to waive up to 10 instructional days at a district's request, but the bill hasn't passed out of committee.
Individual schools will disseminate this information to parents beginning Friday about the revised schedule, Harris said. Staff member were notified of the change Thursday afternoon.
Reporter Patrick T. Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4335 or on Twitter by following @CJ_PSullivan.


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Q fever is a zoonotic disease that is caused by Coxiella burnetii, a gram-negative coccobacillary bacterium. Human infection primarily occurs following the inhalation of aerosols containing C. burnetii. The infection can either present in an acute or chronic form. The three main presentations are flu-like syndrome, atypical pneumonia, and hepatitis. Chronic Q fever mainly affects the heart where the disease manifests as endocarditis. In this case report, the patient was born at term with congenital heart defects, namely double outlet right ventricle (DORV), ventricular septal defects (VSD), and coarctation of the aorta. He underwent coarctation repair and pulmonary artery binding. At the age of three years, he presented with palpitation, sudden high-grade fever, myalgia, and dyspnea. Endocarditis was suspected due to a history of a surgical repair of congenital heart defects. Blood cultures were negative, however, a diagnosis of Q fever endocarditis was confirmed based on serologic titers.
Q fever endocarditis is a challenging diagnosis since the echocardiography findings are often nonspecific. Moreover, Q fever can present as negative-culture endocarditis with low sensitivity of blood and tissue polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for C. burnetii. Hence, the modified Duke criteria has considered phase 1 immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers of 1:800 or more as diagnostic for infective endocarditis. Although uncommon, physicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for Q fever endocarditis, especially among patients with pre-existing structural heart disease and associated symptoms and risk factors such as animal exposure.
Q fever is a zoonotic disease that is caused by Coxiella burnetii, a gram-negative coccobacillary bacterium. This organism typically infects certain domestic animals such as goats, sheep, and cattle [1]. The most common site of high concentrations of the organism is the placenta and amniotic fluid, though it can also be present in urine, feces, and milk of the infected animals [2]. Human infection primarily occurs following the inhalation of aerosols containing C. burnetii. Other rarer modes of disease transmission are through ingestion of raw milk, tick bite, and person-to-person transmission. This infection can either present as an acute form, where the antibody response to C. burnetii phase II antigen is predominant and is higher than the response to the phase I antigen, or it can present in a chronic form after months or years of the initial infection and it is associated with a rising phase I immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer. The acute illness has an estimated incubation period of one to three weeks. This phase presents with various clinical features that vary from patient to another. The three main presentations are flu-like syndrome, atypical pneumonia, and hepatitis [3]. Moreover, symptomatic patients might be ill for weeks or months if untreated. The chronic Q fever mainly affects the heart where the disease is manifested as endocarditis in 60%-80% of all cases of chronic Q fever worldwide [4]. It occurs in up to 5% of all infected humans and is associated with a high mortality rate if left untreated [5]. In Saudi Arabia, there have been five reported cases of endocarditis due to Q fever [6-9]. In this case, we present an 8-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with endocarditis as part of chronic Q fever, along with a detailed review of the previously reported cases.
Case Presentation
An 8-year-old boy, who is the first child of healthy consanguineous first-cousin Saudi parents, underwent coarctation repair and pulmonary artery binding soon after birth, followed by Yasui procedure with right ventricle to pulmonary artery (RV-PA) conduit size 14 mm. Afterwards, he was being followed up with the diagnosis of double outlet right ventricle (DORV), ventricular septal defects (VSD), and coarctation of the aorta at the National Guard Hospital - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the age of three years, the patient presented to the emergency room with palpitation, high-grade fever reaching 40o C that lasted for two months, myalgia, and dyspnea. Therefore, he was admitted to the pediatrics department. The family lives on a farm with exposure to animals. The father is a soldier and the mother is a housewife. There is also a history of goat milk ingestion. On physical examination, the patient was oriented and not in respiratory distress. There were no signs of dehydration, jaundice or rash. Throat examination showed enlarged tonsils that were not congested. Chest auscultation revealed bilateral clear, equal air entry with no added sounds. Cardiovascular exam revealed that there was a median sternotomy scar; S1 and 2 with pan-systolic murmur. His electrocardiogram (ECG) showed normal sinus rhythm, right axis deviation, RSR pattern in V1 indicating right bundle-branch block (RBBB), possible left ventricular hypertrophy, and nonspecific T wave abnormality (Figure 1). His echocardiography showed no residual VSD patch leak, patent Damus-Kaye-Stansel (DKS) anastomosis, no residual coarctation of aorta, good biventricular systolic function, mild mitral and tricuspid valve insufficiency, and mild supra-valvular conduit stenosis at conduit anastomosis with distal main pulmonary artery. Moreover, large vegetation was also observed. Abdominal ultrasound revealed hepatosplenomegaly. Neurological examination was grossly intact and developmental milestones were appropriate for his age.
Laboratory tests revealed white blood cells (WBC): 10900/mm3 (lymphocyte 5.69, neutrophil 3.5), hemoglobin: 12.9 gr/ld, platelets: 284 x 103/mm3. Hepatic function test was normal. C-reactive protein was 24 mg/dl and erythrocyte sedimentation rate was found to be 14; Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) IgM was positive. Cytomegalovirus (CMV), multiple blood and urine cultures were all negative. Viral serology for toxoplasma was negative. Chest X-ray was normal. Q fever endocarditis was suspected due to persistent high-grade fever, hepatosplenomegaly and the fact that the patient had cardiac abnormalities as well as animal exposure. Therefore, Q fever infectious serology was ordered. Meanwhile, the patient was started on vancomycin 180 mg Q6hrs and gentamicin 15 mg Q12hrs; gentamicin was discontinued after 15 days. The patient was recommended to complete the vancomycin for four weeks. After four weeks, the echo was repeated and still there was small vegetation. The Infectious Disease team recommended completing it for two more weeks. Later on, Q fever infectious serology revealed that C. burnetii phase II IgG titer was measured to be 1:64000+, IgM titer was measured to be 1:4096+, phase I IgG titer was 1:16000+, IgM phase I was >1:64000+ and this was compatible with chronic infection.
The diagnosis of infective endocarditis was confirmed and the treatment was switched to oral doxycycline with the plan of at least 18 months of therapy. However, ciprofloxacin was added on later as the patient had a minimum response to doxycycline and high liver function tests. The patient is doing well and is responding to this treatment.
Q fever infection can result from inhalation, ingestion or contact with contaminated farm animals with C. burnetii infection [10]. Negative-culture Q fever endocarditis can develop following months or years of acute Q fever infection [11]. The initial presentation includes unexplained illness with low-grade fever in patients with aneurisms, valvular heart disease or vascular prosthesis [12]. In 1937, Q fever was recognized as a new clinical entity [13]. Thirty years later, Q fever was recognized as a public health problem in Saudi Arabia [7]. To our knowledge, there are five Saudi cases of Q fever published in the literature [6-9]. Two cases were pediatrics - ages 11 and 13 years; they presented with Q fever endocarditis in pre-existing valvular disease. The index patient presented at three years old with Q fever endocarditis.
Q fever endocarditis is a challenging diagnosis since the ECG findings are often nonspecific. In addition, Q fever can present as negative-culture endocarditis with sensitivity of blood and tissue PCR for C. burnetii of 50%-60% [14]. Hence, the modified Duke criteria has considered phase I IgG titers of 1:800 or more as diagnostic for infective endocarditis [15]. However, clinical correlation with a serological test is important to establish the diagnosis. Guideline from the Dutch Q Fever Consensus Group considers proven Q fever diagnosis if positive blood or tissue PCR of C. burnetii or phase I IgG titers ≥1:800, positive endocarditis in the modified Duke criteria or imaging studies of a large vessel or prosthetic infection [16]. However, the diagnosis of chronic Q fever endocarditis can be extremely difficult because vegetative lesions are visualized by echocardiography in approximately 12% of patients [17]. Our patient had phase I IgG antibody titer >1:800 for C. burnetii and evidence of endocardial involvement which is the large vegetation that was detected on echocardiogram.
The optimum treatment of Q fever endocarditis includes doxycycline (100 mg/bid) and hydroxychloroquine (200 mg/bid) for the duration of 24 months. Furthermore, it is recommended to establish a goal of therapy of phase IgG titers less than 1:800 by maintaining doxycycline serum concentration 5 g/ml. Since photosensitivity and eye toxicity is problematic in the Q fever regimen in the pediatric popultion, literature recommended alternative treatments. Children younger than eight-year-old with Q fever endocarditis can be given trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole as an alternative therapy of doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine. A case of three-year-old boy with intractable Q fever that was unresponsive to several antimicrobial therapies, has improved after the addition of interferon gamma three times a week [18]. The index patient was treated with doxycycline 35 ml twice daily. However, ciprofloxacin was added on later as the patient had a minimum response to doxycycline and high lever function test.
The prevalence of Q fever endocarditis in Saudi Arabia remains undetermined. In a study conducted in the central region of Saudi Arabia, on patients with fever of unknown origin, 18 (35.2%) patients out of 51 were positive for phase II C. burnetii specific IgG antibodies [19]. It is important to consider the diagnosis of Q fever endocarditis in patients with chronic fever and history of cardiac surgery. This case adds to the existing limited literature in Saudi Arabia regarding Q fever endocarditis as the third pediatric reported case.
In conclusion, Q fever endocarditis is a challenging diagnosis since the ECG findings are often nonspecific. Moreover, Q fever can present as negative-culture endocarditis with sensitivity of blood and tissue PCR for C. burnetii of 50%-60%. Hence, the modified Duke criteria has considered phase 1 IgG titres of 1:800 or more as diagnostic for infective endocarditis. This case reaffirms that physicians should maintain a high index of suspicion of Q fever infective endocarditis, especially among patients with pre-existing structural heart disease and associated risk factors.
- Gürtler L, Bauerfeind U, Blümel J, et al.: Coxiella burnetii - pathogenic agent of Q (query) fever. Transfus Med Hemother. 2014, 41:60-72. 10.1159/000357107
- Anderson A, Bijlmer H, Fournier PE, et al.: Diagnosis and management of Q fever—United States, 2013: recommendations from CDC and the Q Fever Working Group. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2013, 62:1-29.
- Honarmand H: Q fever: an old but still a poorly understood disease. Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis. 2012, 2012:1-8. 10.1155/2012/131932
- Million M, Thuny F, Richet H, Raoult D: Long-term outcome of Q fever endocarditis: a 26-year personal survey. Lancet Infect Dis. 2010, 10:527-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70135-3
- Maurin M, Raoult D: Q fever. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1999, 12:518-553.
- Saginur R, Silver S, Bonin R, Carlier M, Orizaga M: Q-fever endocarditis. Can Med Assoc J. 1985, 133:1228-1230.
- Ross P, Jacobson J, Muir J: Q fever endocarditis of porcine xenograft valves. Am Heart J. 1983, 105:151-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-8703(83)90293-4
- Angelakis E, Johani S, Ahsan A, Memish Z, Raoult D: Q fever endocarditis and new Coxiella burnetii genotype, Saudi arabia. Emerg Infect Dis. 2014, 20:726-728. 10.3201/eid2004.131603
- Al-Hajjar S, Hussain Qadri S, Al-Sabban E, Jäger C: Coxiella burnetii endocarditis in a child. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1997, 16:911-913.
- Fournier PE, Marrie TJ, Raoult D: Diagnosis of Q fever. J Clin Microbiol. 1998, 36:1823-1834.
- Brouqui P, Dupont HT, Drancourt M, et al.: Chronic Q fever. Ninety-two cases from France, including 27 cases without endocarditis. Arch Int Med. 1993, 153:642-648. 10.1001/archinte.1993.00410050074010
- Houpikian P, Raoult D: Blood culture-negative endocarditis in a reference center: etiologic diagnosis of 348 cases. Medicine. 2005, 84:162-173. 10.1097/01.md.0000165658.82869.17
- Derrick EH: Q fever, a new fever entity: clinical features, diagnosis and laboratory investigation. Rev Infect. 1983, 5:790-800.
- Kampschreur LM, Wegdam-Blans MCA, Wever PC, et al.: Chronic q fever diagnosis—consensus guideline versus expert opinion. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015, 21:1183-1188. 10.3201/eid2107.130955
- Li J, Sexton D, Mick N, et al.: Proposed modifications to the Duke criteria for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis. Clin Infect Dis. 2000, 30:633-638. https://doi.org/10.1086/313753
- Wegdam-Blans MCA Kampschreur LM, Delsing CE, et al.: Chronic Q fever: review of the literature and a proposal of new diagnostic criteria. J Infect. 2012, 64:247-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2011.12.014
- Gunn TM, Raz GM, Turek JW, Farivar RS: Cardiac manifestations of Q fever infection: case series and a review of the literature. J Card Surg. 2013, 28:233-237. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocs.12098
- Morisawa Y, Wakiguchi H, Takechi T, Kurashige T, Nagaoka H: Intractable Q fever treated with recombinant gamma interferon. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2001, 20:546-547. 10.1097/00006454-200105000-00018
- Almogren A, Shakoor Z, Hasanato R, Adam MH: Q fever: a neglected zoonosis in Saudi Arabia. Ann Saudi Med. 2013, 33:464-468. 10.5144/0256-4947.2013.464
Q Fever Endocarditis in a Saudi Child: A Case Report and Literature Review
Ethics Statement and Conflict of Interest Disclosures
Human subjects: Consent was obtained by all participants in this study. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.
Article Information
Cite this article as:
Alzahrani A, Alqarni T, Alsalmi M, et al. (December 08, 2019) Q Fever Endocarditis in a Saudi Child: A Case Report and Literature Review. Cureus 11(12): e6322. doi:10.7759/cureus.6322
Publication history
Received by Cureus: November 08, 2019
Peer review began: November 14, 2019
Peer review concluded: December 06, 2019
Published: December 08, 2019
© Copyright 2019
Alzahrani et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 3.0., which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Q Fever Endocarditis in a Saudi Child: A Case Report and Literature Review
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Cory's Corner: Honesty And Versatility Are Hallmarks
Brian Gutekunst is entering his second NFL Draft as the Packers general manager. It's refreshing to see a Green Bay GM be open and candid with media on draft week and not holed up in his office.
Something I thought was interesting was how Gutekunst addressed how to sift through all the misinformation. "I think if you've done your work ahead of time, you know if you've really put the work in, you can kind of sniff out the stuff that is false information and the stuff that has some legs to it," Gutekunst said during his Monday pre-draft press conference. "I think you kind of address each thing as it comes, like most people say, 90 percent is false information at this time."
The Packers had 28 players come to Green Bay on pre-draft visits this spring. Each team is allowed 30 visits and Gutekunst explained what factors lead to the Packers inviting players to visit.
"Certainly there's a medical part of it," he said. "There's a bunch of guys that were not at the Combine that we needed medical grades on. A lot of it is just trying to get to know guys maybe a little bit more. If there's some unanswered questions that came out of the Combine or Pro Days that we feel like we didn't have answered. And then sometimes, there's just some subterfuge thrown in there as well."
What did he just say? Did he just admit that the Packers bring in guys to Green Bay to throw other teams off? Obviously this isn't news that the Packers do this, but it's refreshing to hear that he is willing to own it. I actually raised my eyebrows a little when I heard this because this would've never come out of the old Packers regime. You remember, that was the time when no tangible information was allowed to leave 1265 Lombardi Ave.
Gutekunst just gets it. Hiding in your office isn't going to endear himself to anyone and he needs to build a layer of transparency while tearing down the wall of lies.
Do I think Gutekunst will have an excellent draft? I have no idea. You can check out the assortment of mock drafts to quench your pre-draft thirst. But I really like how Gutekunst is pulling back the curtain of the Packers.
"This is what you work all year for," Gutekunst said. "This is what I know, this is what I love."
And if you really want a hint in terms of whom the Packers might be leaning, it all starts and ends with versatility. Teams win with that word in today's NFL and Gutekunst knows it. "We're looking for really good football players that are versatile enough to handle most schemes," Gutekunst said.
So who are those guys? My favorites are Josh Allen, Ed Oliver, Jonah Williams, T.J. Hockenson and David Montgomery.
Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on "Clubhouse Live" and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn
Comments (56)
April 23, 2019 at 06:35 am
Pain, Sweat , and Blood work better for me. You can have your versatility. TT failed at it. Gute will too. Strength, execution, Grit, and players that have sand do better. Versatility? Mathews ,Peppers, Cobb, Perry, etc. all had it. And in the end they came up short. And those that didn't have grit or sand ended up on the trainers table. Versatility doesn't mean you can execute. it doesn't measure the players heart. It isn't about commitment. It's a jack of all trades. You pay the best, for being the best. You pay versatility jack shit. If versatility is what you seek. You don't have the heart to win it all.
April 23, 2019 at 06:58 am
Peppers, Matthews and Cobb.. what a lineup of rejects
April 23, 2019 at 07:58 am
I dont have the sliggtest idea what you are are trying to say CJ.
Peppers ,Matthews and Cobb rejects? I hope you were being sarcastic. If not, that may be the dumbest statement ive ever read here. That would be hard to do with the amount of manure that Dash penned here.
April 23, 2019 at 08:13 am
He was, I'm pretty sure.
I was going to write something similar, but I think stockholder's original text is just a little jumbled there (can you tell I've been grading student papers?), and he's trying to give those players their due, but still saying it wasn't enough for the Packers to get over the hump.
April 23, 2019 at 08:56 am
100% sarcasm. Apologies for the confusion, Demon
April 24, 2019 at 08:19 am
You are new here. Note that CJ used this symbol, "~~~" after his comment. That's something that started on the Packers official site by people in the comment section to indicate sarcasm. Using one or more "~" after your comment is code for sarcasm. Just an FYI. :)
April 23, 2019 at 07:21 am
Outside of Perry what else you want from players? Your judgment makes me glad you don't have anything to do with Packer drafts now or then!
April 23, 2019 at 07:30 am
I want winners! Favre was a winner. He played with Pain, heart, strength, and leaadership. Yes players move around for the good of the team. But the good ones don't make excuses. They don't become fat cats. Versatility is not a weakness. But it's not the answer either.
I want tough guys with strong character because that's what wins in December when you're cold and hurt and getting screwed by the refs on the road. Some guys are better at fighting through adversity than others, and those are the guys I want.
April 23, 2019 at 12:27 pm
I want Intelligent football palyers that can grasp the whole concept, beat their guy to the ball, make the coreect read, and understand to word, TEAM.
April 24, 2019 at 02:26 pm
Cobb was lauded as one of the toughest to come along, being a smaller guy going over the middle and taking those hits. Every one of those guys you named played with grit and played through pain and injuries. And they are all winners. Matthews holds the GB record for sacks.
If you have a problem with the grittiness on the roster, those aren't the guys to name.
April 23, 2019 at 07:40 am
Wow, you should be on their payroll. So Mathews, Peppers and Cobb were busts. Glad you let us know
Sarcasm confuses people.
April 24, 2019 at 02:22 pm
Since Peppers is a Hall of Famer and was really productive in GB in limited snaps, Matthews was 2nd in voting for DPOY (should have beat Polomalu), Cobb led the league in total yards early in his career, and Perry was an impact guy when healthy, I think these are sand and grit players that get the job done. Even while being able to do more than one job. All of them played through injuries and all of them made an impact when healthy.
April 23, 2019 at 06:37 am
We will have to wait a few years to know whether he nails the draft or not. But in the mean time it is still refreshing to have a GM that is willing to talk with the media and explain things. While he still didn't really tell us anything it was still nice listening to him.
Now I just can't wait till the draft. Hoping that Gutey is becoming one of those Masters of the Mystic Arts. The way he moved around in the first round last year, getting the 2nd 1st round pick for this year was a thing of beauty. Can't wait to see what he does this year!
April 23, 2019 at 09:47 am
Actually, secrecy doesn't bother me at all. Why on Earth would you want to blab about what you were thinking? Is that how you play poker?
Thompson never lied.....he just didn't talk about it. If Gutekunst is going to talk about it, I at least hope he's lying some of the time. Maybe most of the time.
In the military, the common practice is that you just don't talk about classified stuff outside of the SCIF. I hope the Packers treat their War Room the same.
April 23, 2019 at 07:20 pm
I agree Old School.....never show your hand. I read another scoop of Gutes where he all but admitted some of the players he had come in for interviews we're nothing but a smokescreen. Of course he didn't identify those players rightfully so and therefore left doubt across the league of his intentions. I look forward to the draft and Gutes gamesmanship in the trenches...
April 23, 2019 at 11:44 am
RCPackerFan ,
Yes , we will not know the true value of last years draft for a couple more years, but we did have rookies playing last year. That says something.
All teams have draft busts. You name the round. We/they will have more.
What impressed me the most, as a rookie GM, his confidence to move around. Maybe as you say, "Masters of the Mystic Arts." It seemed to me he had a plan in place, and executed it.
With a year under his belt, does he get better or worse??
My vote is better.
April 23, 2019 at 01:34 pm
Honestly I was really happy with last years rookie class. Alexander looks like a pro bowl level player. Josh Jackson Improved and was really playing well at the end of the season. Burks is one of the guys to really keep an eye on. He was playing well until he got hurt and never really recovered. Moore might be a guy that makes the most improvements. Cole Madison has returned and may provide a huge boost to the OL. JK Scott could be our kicker for a decade (or could flop. its a tough position). MVS impressed me the most. If he gets more consistency and more in sync with Rodgers he could be the deep threat we have been missing since Nelson got hurt. EQ much like MVS could be one of our top weapons this year. Both of these WR's I think will take big jumps in year 2. Also a new offensive scheme should help a ton. Bradley will likely be the LS for a while. Looney and Donnerson will have to take a big step to compete.
Also to add to this list we have the UDFA's with Lancaster who was really, really good. Tony Brown really impressed and could have a future. They also brought in Allen Lazard who could be a guy to watch. Natrell Jamerson was a 5th round pick who played in a scheme very similar to what Pettine runs. Could be a surprise player.
The group of 2nd year players as a whole is quite impressive.
But we won't know officially how good they are for a couple of years.
Correct, all teams have busts. Even the best GM's have busts.
After listening to him yesterday it sounded like they had the deal in place (pending on who was on the board) to trade back. But he had to work his way back up. I wouldn't be surprised to see him making some more moves in this draft.
Hence the "Masters of the Mystic Arts" comment. Which for those that don't know is a reference to Doctor Strange.
I agree that he gets better. I thought he did better in FA this year. I think he will do better in the draft as well
April 23, 2019 at 07:28 am
Well it makes me wonder what has been subterfuge. Bringing in Drew Lock seems like the most obvious, or all the top O-lineman in a defense heavy draft. It is important to remember that last year he showed no interest in Jaire Alexander before drafting him. Most of the visits have been for late round players especially ILBs. Who he is eyeing in round 1 is anyones guess.
April 23, 2019 at 09:20 am
Packer's Predraft Visit List:
OL Andrew Dillard
Washington State OL Johnah Williams
Alabama OL Kaleb McGary
Washington OL Greg Little
Ole Miss OL Tytus Howard
Alabama State OL Nate Herbig
Stanford QB Drew Lock
Missouri EDGE Montez Sweat
Mississippi State ILB Curtis Bilton
Oklahoma ILB Ulysees Gilbert
Akron EDGE Kaden Elliss
IdahoEDGE E.J. Speed
Tarleton State TE Jace Sternberger
Texas A&MFB/TE Andrew Beck
Texas TE Kahala Warring
San Diego State WR Deandre Thompkins
Penn State WR Jeff Smith
Boston College DT Greg Gaines
Washington EDGE Randy Ramsey
Arkansas DE Jesse Aniebonam
Maryland DT Trysten Hill
UCF CB Sean Bunting
Central Michigan CB Ka'Dar Hollman
Toledo QB/FB John Lovett
Princeton LS John Wirtel
April 23, 2019 at 09:56 am
If it looks like subterfuge it either isn't, or it was poorly done.
If you take the list of visits at face value, then it looks like we talked to a lot of the OTs that are predicted to go in the Top 75. Most of the Edge guys are guys that are predicted to go on the last day. Same with the WRs . They didn't interview any last day prospects at QB, or RB other than that last guy. They didn't interview any of the first round DL.
The two TEs are both mid-round projections.
As I've mentioned earlier, the Packers have a history of drafting guys that they bring in for visits. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we got some of the guys on that list.
April 23, 2019 at 10:05 am
We know a few of the people they talked to at the Combine, as well. Remember that Jaire Alexander was not brought in for a visit last year, but they did talk with him at the Combine.
To add fuel to your fire, here's last year's list of pre-draft visits. Note the WR position.
Several of those guys were UDFAs and/or brought in after the draft or during the regular season.
April 23, 2019 at 10:53 am
Another key indicator, under Gutekunst's mentor, Thompson, was if they had made in impression at the Senior Bowl in Memphis, because it gave them a chance to see these guys against other aspiring pros.
Not to pick on Josh Allen, but most of his snaps have come against guys who aren't as good as David Bakhtiari. So it's nice to see him, for example, going against top tackles who'll be drafted early.
So, cross reference the Visits List with the Senior Bowl Standouts List and take a hard look at the guys who are both lists.
April 23, 2019 at 11:46 am
ShooterMcGee ,
"Well it makes me wonder what has been subterfuge."
Isn't that the point?
April 23, 2019 at 03:34 pm
There is no subterfuge taking place. Think about something else.
April 23, 2019 at 03:51 pm
Old School,
This is a very curious comment.
Subterfuge in the draft, or your name of choice, has been going on way back in the old school days.\
Surely you know this. Sarcasm maybe?
April 23, 2019 at 04:04 pm
Well, if there were no subterfuge, people would say "there is no subterfuge".
But if subterfuge were taking place, they would deny that it was happening. So the answer is the same: "There is no subterfuge".
April 23, 2019 at 07:33 am
Cory wrote a good article about what Gutsey sees in players he wants. For the most part BB at NE has been doing that for years and not a bad blueprint. JoWil, can play any position along the oline. I don't know if the same can be said for the other 1st round OTs. A guy like Oliver...people see as an inside rusher, outside contain (not his best work) or even dropping back as a zone defender for a pass (remember Raji's int. during the NFC game against the Bears).
So yeah these aren't bad traits with talented players.
April 23, 2019 at 10:34 am
Cory always writes good articles. My point was that in the end. THE VERSATILE PLAYER " WILL COME UP SHORT." //NOT THAT Mathews and Peppers Weren't GOOD PLAYERS. // Was Raji good when they moved him? No, Was Datone Jones Good at elephant? The versatile Player doesn't always fit. Forcing players into others positions because of their versatility, is putting a square into a round hole. Did TT draft Spriggs to play LT or anywhere? They come up short of the goal. And more then likely will bust out now.
April 23, 2019 at 11:35 am
Stockholder, you are indeed correct in saying a versatile player isn't enough. My example is when you are comparing like rated players: Jonah Williams verses Jawaan Taylor that you pick the guy who can play different positions. I wasn't comparing Raji to Oliver as players but in their capabilities. Oliver can do a lot on the Dline including dropping in coverage like a LB. Versatility is the tie breaking trait on like rated players.
April 23, 2019 at 11:58 am
Sometimes (seems) yearly, to get our best 11 players on the field, they get moved around a little. Not ideal, but neither are injuries. But there is usually a reason. (I am not talking about drafting a player to play out of position)
I didn't take "Guty" wanting "versatile" as exclusive, but ON TOP OF medical, grit, pain, blood, want to, character, heart and all the measurables.
April 23, 2019 at 12:30 pm
Seems we just had a coaching staff who always plugged players into their system with no regards to what their strengths were. Hopefully that changes with our new staff and maybe versatility is just what is needed.
April 23, 2019 at 12:56 pm
New Orleans has a QB (not Brees) they use in many ways to capitalize on his strengths/versatility. (others players too)
I'm sure the Pack has plenty of film they can watch to understand the concept. :-)
April 23, 2019 at 07:40 am
This year will go very far in showing how successful last years draft was.
April 23, 2019 at 09:07 am
Great point!
While we still won't truly know how good last years draft class was, we will really start to get a better feeling for who was a good pick and who wasn't.
April 23, 2019 at 08:05 am
"This is what you work all year for," Gutekunst said. "This is what I know, this is what I love."
The Draft is what he works all year for? Well, there are 31 other coaches and GM's who work all year for the Lombardi Trophy.
April 23, 2019 at 08:40 am
Can't win a Lombardi Trophy with bad players. Where do you get the best players? In the draft.
This is where the whole thing starts. Starts with the draft.
April 23, 2019 at 10:56 am
Gutekunst was Director of Scouting and then Director of Player Personnel. For them, the draft IS the Super Bowl, since it's up to the coaches to win games with the players you provide.
He's the GM now, but he still is more involved in personnel than he is in the week-to-week winning games thing.
I would also opine that the talent difference between an 11-5 team and a 5-11 team isn't that great. I think it's more about execution than talent, personally.
April 23, 2019 at 01:55 pm
Exactly right. The draft is what they spend months and months of researching and scouting on. Its the single biggest day where they add the future of the team.
The GM has to get the best players. Every year we see busts. It happens for various of reasons. Some of it is due to the team reaching for needs.
There usually are many different factors in why a team is 5-11 vs 11-5. But one of the main reasons is due to teams missing on draft picks.
Look at the Packers this last season. They finished poorly. Now look back at their 2015 draft and you can see why. That draft was a flop. Set the team back.
The draft is the start of the future of the team. Nail it and nail the future!
April 23, 2019 at 01:40 pm
Injury is a big part of it. You can't win a Lombardi Trophy with all your best players on IR.
April 23, 2019 at 01:57 pm
There are a lot of factors in winning a Lombardi Trophy. The start of it though is drafting the right players.
Draft the right players, having the right coaching staff to develop them and knowing how to use them are some of the biggest keys.
But getting the best players in the door is where it starts.
April 23, 2019 at 02:15 pm
Back in the day, it was possible that a team could just consistently out-draft others. The Cowboys did it in the 60s. But now, in the digital age, with massive and well funded scouting staffs, with the open combine and Pro Days...….I just don't think so.
I'd bet that there is significant agreement among all the teams in the NFL who the top 75 players or so are. Teams would rank them differently according to what their goals were, but it'd be pretty much the same bunch of guys.
Then, you throw in free agency and guys leaving and moving around...I just don't think it's possible to out-talent the rest of the league. I think you have to execute as a team.....that's not just a talent thing.
And Lare is right about the injuries. If you've got your best players on the field after Thanksgiving, it's an advantage. By my count, we were mostly or completely without the services of Daniels, Clark, King, Wilkerson, or Perry.....all opening day starters...….by the end of the season.
April 23, 2019 at 01:49 pm
I think Christian Wilkins will be a versatile player to watch. He can play all along the defensive line, with the ability to rush the passer. Mix that with his leadership skills and he may become a surprise pick, earlier than most think in the top half of round one to somebody.
April 23, 2019 at 05:39 pm
....I want to see each and every player execute with reckless abandon....for far too long....these players have looked lackluster....visibly showing lack of effort...missing tackles, avoiding tackles, not running accurate routes, lack of aggressiveness.....this must be improved NOW......
April 23, 2019 at 06:43 pm
I understand the sentiment, but not the reality. There are always questions everywhere, especially in the media, but these guys play for each other and for their families ($$).
No performance, and the organization says good-bye. (Ha Ha)
Their responsibility to each other is stronger than most of us can fathom.