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DAK LAK — Wild elephants could disappear from Viet Nam's Central Highlands permanently as deforestation has destroyed their habitat and source of food needed for survival.
Their survival in the country remains doubtful as plans for a preservation project remain only on paper and forests continue to be cut down for rubber, coffee and cassava plantations.
In 2006, the Prime Minister approved an action plan for elephant conservation in the three provinces of Nghe An, Dong Nai and Dak Lak.
In the Central Highland province of Dak Lak alone, around 100 wild elephants live in districts of Buon Don and Ea Sup.
The province's People's Committee signed a project in 2010 to preserve elephants in the province through 2015, with the total budget of VND61 billion (US$2.9 million).
Nevertheless, between March 26 and 31, police and forest-protection forces from the province's Ea Sup District found three dead elephants.
A 150-kg elephant was found in Cu M'Lan commune, and six days later, the bodies of two other elephants, one weighing 400-500 kg and the other two tonnes, were found in the same commune.
Vice director of the province's Agriculture and Rural Development and head of Forest Protection Division, Y Rit Buon Ya, said that several elephants in the area had been hunted as food, and others had died of accidents or eaten inappropriate food.
The illegal killing of wild elephants for their tusks and tails is common in some provinces.
Y Rit said that last year, the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Centre was established as part of a protection plan expected to assist local people with nursing their domesticated elephants, as well as to oversee and protect wild ones.
However, so far, the projects has yet to provide any intervention.
Huynh Trung Luan, director of the centre, said that a budget and staff shortfall have delayed the project.
The centre received VND350 million ($16,800) out of the VND61 billion ($2.9 million), but the money is not enough to pay the salaries of the centre's six officials, according to Luan.
The centre was planned to be built on 200ha, including 100ha for breeding the animal and planting food for them. The other 100ha would contain an elephant medical centre.
The province has asked to use 163ha of Yok Don National Park to build the centre, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development rejected the proposal.
According to the ministry, the land located in the area needs to be strictly protected.
The province is considering using 200ha of protected forest in Don Village to develop the centre.
Central Highland University's associate professor and Dr Bao Huy, a consultant in the elephant preservation project, said that conservationists and authorities should be aware of their responsibility for elephant deaths regardless of the cause.
According to a survey by the project consultancy group, in 2009, the province had 61 domesticated elephants and about 80-110 wild elephants. The project targets three main pillars: healthcare and reproductive health assistance to domesticated elephants, preservation and expansion of the wild elephant population, and conservation of elephant culture in Central Highland.
Huy said that besides complicated administrative procedures and fund shortages, insufficient human resources posed a difficulty to project implementation.
Moreover, nearly all the urgent actions recommended in the project study had not yet been carried out, Huy said.
"A drastic measure to protect wild elephants would be to make the forests where elephants live completely protected conservation areas," he said, adding that the elephants needed huge spaces to live and grow.
Meanwhile, domesticated elephants should be taken in for medical assistance and for male and female elephants to breed, rather than live separately and over-serve local tourism. — VNS


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List of schools included in Wis. voucher program announced
Forty-eight private and religious schools operating in 33 Wisconsin communities registered to be a part of the state's newly expanded voucher program, the state Department of Public Instruction said Wednesday.
To view the list of schools, click here and view pages 3 and 4 of the release.
The voucher program, which lets public school students attend private schools with a taxpayer subsidy, currently operates only in Milwaukee and Racine. But Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature expanded the program across Wisconsin in the state budget passed last month, at a cost of about $10.5 million.
The 48 schools that registered by the July 26 deadline include those with just one building and other systems with multiple locations in a community. About 11 percent, or 90 out of 824 individual private or religious schools, registered to accept voucher students.
The most interest came from Green Bay, with six schools or systems registering there. The second-highest interest came from Sheboygan, where four registered. Two applied in Kenosha, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Waukesha and Wisconsin Rapids. Others interested were spread throughout the state including one each in Appleton, Beloit, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Rhinelander, Stevens Point and Wausau.
Supporters argue the voucher program gives parents whose children are in underperforming schools an alternative, while opponents say the private schools are unaccountable, take valuable resources away from public schools and are part of a broader agenda to defund public education.
Under the expansion, up to 500 students can enroll outside of Milwaukee and Racine next year. The following year the cap is 1,000. The enrollment period begins Thursday and runs through 4 p.m. Aug. 9.
If more than 500 students apply, only the 25 schools with the most applicants will be allowed to participate. Each of the 25 schools will get 10 students each, with the remaining 250 seats filled randomly among the 25 schools.
Nine schools operating in the Milwaukee voucher program also applied to be a part of the statewide expansion. If more than 500 students apply, those schools would not be allowed to be a part of the statewide program.
The voucher program has a long history in Wisconsin. It began in Milwaukee in 1989 and was the first of its kind in the country. In 2011, the program expanded to Racine and income eligibility levels for those two cities were increased to 300 percent of the federal poverty rate.
Income eligibility is tighter under the statewide program. Only families earning up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $43,752 for a family of four, are eligible. Married couples with two or more children can earn up to $50,752 and still qualify.
The vouchers are $7,210 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and $7,856 for those in high school.

subset: commoncrawl


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Secret report warns US spy mission distorted by 'war on terror'
March 22, 2013 1 Comment
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
America's concentration on the 'war on terrorism' has distorted the mission and scope of its Intelligence Community, according to a secret report commissioned by the White House. The classified report was compiled by the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, which counsels Barack Obama on intelligence matters. It cautions the President that the intelligence output of organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency has been disabled by tunnel vision and operational fatigue in the pursuit of al-Qaeda. The study also states that the overwhelming focus on Islamic militancy has distracted US intelligence from focusing on state actors such as China, and has hampered the success American intelligence operations outside Muslim regions of the world. The Washington Post, which disclosed the existence of the report on Thursday, said the team of 14 advisers that produced the report was led by "influential figures" on Capitol Hill, such as Chuck Hagel, Obama's new Secretary of Defense. The paper added that, based on comments made by senior Obama Administration officials in recent months, it appears that the classified study, which was authored last year, has been adopted by the Obama White House as a major policy directive. The Post suggested that the report prompted comments earlier this year by John O. Brennan, the CIA's new Director, that he planned to reevaluate the Agency's "allocation of mission" as a matter of priority. However, countering the operational fatigue caused by the nearly 15-year long 'war on terrorism' will take time, and it remains unclear whether agencies like the CIA can ever shed the paramilitary role they acquired under the Administration of US President George W. Bush. Read more of this post


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I have HTC Desire HD and installed an official update of the system: Android 2.3.5, HTC Sense 3.0, system 3.12.405.1.
After the update my phone runs very slowly and reboots every 2 minutes. If I remove the memory card it runs well. If I change the memory card to another empty one then everything is also good.
But I have a lot of apps and other data on that card and I don't want to format it.
I looked at a log, there are a lot of mistakes like this:
W/ResourceType(13907): Failure getting entry for 0x7f0200df (t=1 e=223) in package 0 (error -2147483647)
Link to the beginning of the log (250kb):
Full log (3.3Mb, phone rebooted several times while writting this log) is here:
I don't understand anything in programming or Android. Can you help me? Maybe I should just remove one of the apps and problem would be solved?


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Giant offers three different SyncDrive motor options for its various E-bike models. Each one is engineered and tuned to support specific riding styles. From daily commutes to recreational and high-performance road and off-road riding, there's a SyncDrive motor for every E-bike adventure. Here's a look at the three levels of SyncDrive.
SyncDrive Pro
SyncDrive Pro powered by Yamaha is designed for high-performance E-bike riding. Giant tuned the motor to make it more powerful, producing a performance-oriented riding style. The lightweight, compact SyncDrive Pro motor is used primarily on Giant's high-performance E-bikes including the new Trance E+ SX Pro and Trance E+ Pro off-road models.
SyncDrive Sport
SyncDrive Sport offers five support modes and is equipped on E-bikes that are used for both everyday riding and more demanding off-road riding. This small mid-drive motor delivers a powerful 80Nm of torque and is widely acclaimed for its performance and reliability. It delivers instant motor engagement and smooth power delivery that feels like a natural extension of a rider's own pedaling power.
SyncDrive Life
SyncDrive Life is the ideal solution for E-bikes with low step-through frames. This compact, mid-drive motor ensures perfect weight distribution, which makes the E-bike more stable and balanced. Centralized mass leads to a natural weight balance while riding and while stopped, so it's a great choice for recreational E-bike riders. It delivers a maximum 60Nm (Newton Meters) of smooth torque, letting you conquer hills and greater distances with ease.


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Antenex/Laird Technologies Mobile Load Coil Antennas for Land Mobile Radio
Standard as well as wideband and elevated feed models available.
Available in a variety of frequency bands, finishes (chrome or black), gains
(unity, 3dB, 5dB), phasing coils, ground plane and spring options. If you don't
see the combination you require please contact us.


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Sunday Supper: Portuguese Baked Eggs With Chorizo and Ricotta
Cooking projects for people who'd like nothing more than to spend a sunday afternoon surrounded by the wonderful aromas of the kitchen.
Editor's note: Each Saturday afternoon we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
Get the Recipe
This dish was inspired by a Bon Appétit recipe cooked in a cast iron skillet, but I like to give mine a boost with some smoky Spanish chorizo. Left to simmer so the flavors can meld, the bold pepper and tomato sauce forms the foundation for an oven-baked meal starring eggs atop ricotta. If you're feeling extra-ambitious, consider making the ricotta from scratch. Otherwise, use the real-deal kind you find at an Italian deli—it's drier and more crumbly that supermarket standbys.
Be forewarned that the sauce is spicy; if you're sensitive to heat, then remove the seeds from the serranos or use a single jalapeño (again, with seeds removed) in their place. You can also cut back on the smoked paprika or look for a sweet version instead of a picante variety. Either way, you should feel free to make the sauce up to a day in advance. Store it in the refrigerator, but be sure to warm it before proceeding to the next steps—otherwise, the eggs will take too long to cook.
Do these eggs work for brunch, too? You bet. But they're prefect for a cozy dinner. Just add some crusty bread and a crisp, green salad in an acidic vinaigrette and you're golden.


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My longest absence was six-year gap from '08-'14, and speaking from experience, the new Magic Band technology (and reserving all your Fastpasses online six weeks ahead) will take a lot of getting used to....GOOD, but takes getting used to.Ben wrote:The other plan is that we finally make it to Disney World in 2018 instead, having been to California twice but - gasp! - never Florida (some in the family have done that twice, I've been waiting until I can really do it right and well), so that might be on the cards instead. But right now I'm putting together the mother of all home theaters and that's sucking up major holiday moolah at the moment, so maybe even 2018 is optimistic!
Oh, and for those who used to be able to walk Fantasyland blindfolded, even just on California geography, Florida's changed the geography around a bit, four years ago.


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I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
No one in the town of Lobo's Nod wants to believe that the dead girl in the field was the victim of a serial killer.
Jazz knows better.
Spying on the cops and crime scene tech gathering evidence, his father's words echo in Jazz's mind.
Most of these guys, they want to get caught. You understand what I'm saying? I'm saying most of the time, they get caught 'cause they want it, not 'cause anyone figures 'em out, not 'cause anyone outthinks 'em.
Anything that slows them down—even if it's just by a few minutes—is a good thing, Jasper. You want them nice and slow. Slow like a turtle. Slow like ketchup.
Always check the hands and feet. And the mouth and ears. You'd be surprised what gets left behind.
And Jazz is sure that, despite the sheriff's insistence otherwise, Lobo's Nod has another serial killer on its hands. After all, Jazz knows the signs, knows how serial killers think—because his father was the most notorious serial killer of the century, and Billy Dent liked to share his wisdom with his young son.
Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers is one twisted, yet morbidly compelling, book. (Especially for one that was "accidentally" created!) The mystery aspect of tracking down the serial killer is very good, but what really elevates the book is Jazz and all his contradictions. He has a couple of troubling, misogynistic thoughts, yet it's easy to see why, with Billy Dent as his father and teacher, he might think in such a way. Jazz knows how to read people and how to manipulate them, and takes advantage of this—just like his father. Even though he fears that most people think he'll end up like his father. And deep down, he's afraid they're right.
Other readers have compared this book to the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsey (which I haven't read or watched) and Dan Wells' John Cleaver series (only read the first book), but I really think I Hunt Killers has a ton of appeal to fans of Chelsea Cain's Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell series. (Speaking of which, Cain's newest book, Kill You Twice, is coming out next month.) I mean, the charisma of Billy and Gretchen, the grotesqueness of their crimes and their perverse genius, Jazz and Archie's inner turmoil and the fact that their connection to Billy/Gretchen is public knowledge…
But getting back to I Hunt Killers, many of the crimes are gruesome and disturbing, and described as such. Not in a sensational way, but serving in part to emphasize how Jazz's childhood—brainwashed into being an assistant of sorts to his serial killer father—continues to affect him.
Book source: public library.
Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.
August 8, 2012 10:42 am
The series by Chelsea Cain sounds good, especially because I really liked I Hunt Killers, there's just something about being creeped out that I enjoy while reading.


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Are you tired of not getting the results you hoped for on your projects, or never improving on them? With this course, you will learn an innovative methodology that focuses on setting goals and meeting objectives, allowing you to improve results and keep your project expectations always within reach.
With this course, you will learn to:
- Set objectives that are consistent with the needs and context of your company and your projects.
- Set define firm and precise goals at the individual and team level, channeling all of its skills and potential towards common objectives.
Through practical activities, you will be able to:
- Recognize and underscore specific actions that can be taken by work teams to mobilize their full human and professional potential, with an eye to improving results and procedures in the working environment.
- Build effective strategies for organizing and managing the virtual work team, providing you valuable tools to improve results, quality and work conditions.
- Identify different ways to fix projects objectives to real goals and achievable planning, starting with the general objectives, and moving to specific objectives that involve both the team objectives and individual objectives. You will learn to recognize efficient and valuable tools to get your work team straight to its objectives using a human, proactive, participative and efficient approach.
Through this course, you will learn a new scheme that rethinks work from a human approach and encourages that all set goals and objectives be met. The power of a united team is what puts it in a position to achieve the impossible.


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Little Ongava
Little Ongava is the super-luxurious, exclusive sibling of Ongava Lodge and sits within the same private 300km2 reserve on the southern boundary of Namibia's Etosha National Park. Set on the crest of a hill the lodge commands stunning views of the reserve which is home to a wide range of wildlife, including lion and rhino.
Continue reading our full report on Little Ongava
Our view of Little Ongava
The three opulent suites here offer very high levels of comfort, and make Little Ongava a great choice if you are looking for a very luxurious safari experience. In fact, the rooms are so lavish that we found it hard to tear ourselves away to go on a game drive – even if, in the end, it was worth leaving for the pride of lions that we found, as well as the variety of other game spotted.
Read the Owner's description of Little Ongava
Little Ongava: Traveller ratings
Little Ongava is the more luxurious sister property to Ongava Lodge...


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To search start typing
With the brand's Italian roots, it's unsurprising that Superga releases consistently sleek, stylish trainers and sneakers. Over a century of footwear manufacturing, Superga have innovated their styles over and again with plenty of cool, unique designs, including our personal favourites, the 2790 flatforms. What's not to like? This combination of a casual plimsoll and a platform shoe are the perfect mix of chic and comfortable for smart casual events.
For men and women who love that classic look - and like their kids to rock it too - the 2750 heritage style looks great with almost everything - particularly in crisp white or black - and can be machine washed at 30 degrees to give this tennis shoe a vintage look.
We have a wide selection of Superga trainers at Offspring and our exclusive offerings are constantly on point - so why shop the brand anywhere else? Browse the whole range and find your ideal pair today - that's a Superga decision you definitely won't regret!


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Venue Information
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer usher at the Center, please contact Jane Cox at 708.235.2811 or submit a form online here.
If you are interested in renting the Center for an event, please contact Theater Manager Jon Cobb at 708.235.2237.
Audio and visual reproduction of any kind is prohibited. Please refrain from bringing cameras and recording equipment to the theater. Please turn off all electronic devices that produce sound or light and that may interrupt the performance.
An elevator serving the balcony is located at the east end of the main floor lobby.
Restrooms are located in the Celebrity Gallery in the Main Foyer. Additional restrooms with changing tables are located in B wing next to the Box Office.
Special seating areas for wheelchair accessibility are available. Please contact the Box Office in advance to secure a seat in this area. Audio amplification is available for the hearing-impaired free of charge. A driver's license or other identification is all that is required for deposit.
Emergency exits may be found outside each door to the hall and are marked accordingly. The lighted "Exit" sign nearest your seat is the shortest route outdoors. Do not use the elevator for an emergency exit.
All sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges on single ticket or group sales. More detailed information can be found here.
If your donor listing is incorrect, please let us know. We do our best to ensure accuracy and we would be grateful for your assistance if an error has been made. Please contact Jane Cox at 708.235.2811 or email@example.com.
All children must have their own tickets. We suggest children under the age of one year not attend performances.


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Looking for some of the hottest porn around? Check out all of the amazing fucking here at this site, where every chick looks amazing, and they all spread their legs open to masturbate and get fucked.
Have you ever seen such a collection of sexy sluts who love to get off in front of the camera like at this site? They've got the best looking babes that the world has to offer, all at one place for you!
Dirty girls like these babes at this site don't know how to be nice, and that's why we like them! They may look innocent, but once they get their clothes off and sit on a big cock, they're as nasty as can be!


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Our supplier recently had a fresh import of the finest Huso Dauricus Sturgeon, branded as River Beluga Caviar ®, this River Beluga is the closest high quality Caviar comparable to Caspian Beluga, the Huso Huso Sturgeon.
Processed by SHILAT specialist and Salt Master Toufani, this Caviar maintains a bold firm and large pearl, smooth buttery flavour, and a creamy texture that is most distinct in high grade Caspian Caviar. This River Beluga Caviar ® Ranks as one of our favorite and most exquisite selections; exclusive, scarce, and supreme. Serves 2-4 people.
* Caviar orders must be placed 24 hours in advance during the holiday season to ensure next day shipping. An order placed by Noon EST on Monday will ship on Tuesday.


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New blood has brought new ideas about economic development in Northwest Florida.
New blood has brought new ideas about economic development in Northwest Florida.
Economic development organizations in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties conducted nationwide searches for new directors earlier this year after they found themselves without permanent leaders. The searches resulted in the hirings of Shannon Ogletree as Santa Rosa County�s director of economic development May 9; Steve Jaeger, who started as director of the Walton County Economic Development Alliance on May 20; and Nathan Sparks, whose first day as director of the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council was June 24.
While the counties have collaborated on some economic development projects in the past, the new directors are working together to bring jobs to the region.
�I think the three counties and the three agencies are going to take a regional approach to this,� Jaeger said. �My hope is we�ll be working closely in concert with each other and certainly not view our counties as competitors, but all pulling with the same chain and trying to do things right.
�We attack this on a regional basis,� he added. �There is absolutely no point in one county trying to outmaneuver the other.�
Before coming to Walton County, Jaeger was the executive director of TransPORT, the port authority in Peoria, Ill.
Sparks previously worked at The St. Joe Company and helped start the 16-county regional economic development group Florida�s Great Northwest. Prior to coming to Okaloosa County, he was executive director of the Brunswick and Glynn County Development Authority in Georgia.
Ogletree worked at TEAM Santa Rosa, the public/private partnership that oversaw economic development in Santa Rosa County for 20 years before it was shut down last year. He served as the county�s interim economic development director for more than a year before he was hired as the permanent director.
Ogletree said the increased teamwork between the counties started following the announcement that Airbus will build its A320 airliner in Mobile, Ala. Its suppliers are expected to be located within 200 miles of the plant, and those are the companies Northwest Florida is targeting.
�I think we�ve all realized that what�s good for one community is good for all of us,� Ogletree said.
The three new economic development directors call the new partnership a �cooper-tition.� All three counties will market the region to prospective businesses. If a firm wants to locate in the area but hasn�t decided where, each county will make its pitch.
�I think Northwest Florida is very fertile ground for partnerships because we have so many common interests, be it the military, tourism, the natural resource we enjoy with the Gulf,� Sparks said.
�We�re ultimately competing for our own individual communities,� he added. �The bottom line is I want Okaloosa to do well. I want jobs and investment to come to Okaloosa County, just as Shannon Ogletree wants jobs and investments to come to Santa Rosa County and Steve Jaeger wants jobs and investments to come to Walton County.�
One challenge the new directors hope to address is the number of trained and qualified people in the workforce. Ogletree said some Santa Rosa County companies already have had issues finding qualified employees locally and have had to bring people in.
He said solving the issue will take a regional approach to identify where the gaps in the workforce are and what companies need.
�That�s going to be a challenge, training what the companies need,� Ogletree said.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.


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Check out the latest RPG news | Podcasts | Twitch Streams
Additionally it's not like there will be a character-story to be had either. Laharl's already developed to his maximum as Japan will allow. He's a tsundere who spent the whole first game learning to accept his dere side. Flonne's pretty much been undeveloped since day one and if later installations in the series hold up she's pretty much turned into the closest thing Disgaea can have to a Mary Sue (she always gets what she wants, everyone but the villain comes to love her, hell she's pretty much the Archangel now despite being a fallen angel). Etna already hit her character development cap too, which really wasn't so much development as much as exposition about her past to garner some sympathy.Don't get that critique wrong, I love the first game but the way the writing style in Disgaea works they can't modify those archetypes any further without the characters ceasing to be 'what' they are and what the audience expects (and if there's anything Japan constantly does in their entertainment media it's milk a loved cow into evaporation with the mantra 'Keep things relatively the same'). Any issues the characters have to overcome personally will pretty much be superficial and irrelevant. More than likely they'll just be tag-alongs for some new character to work out their issues.
Unless they make up a new level of evil there's not really any titles you could spend the game fetching either (really I think you literally can't create anything higher than Devourlord anymore; the only thing 'higher' would be an entity literally capable of having powers that extend outside the game world, a literal impossibility).
...Kidding aside, I loved Soul Nomad because it was a 'shorter' Disgaea. I just don't have the time for a real Disgaea game =|So that's likely to be another pass like every other Disgaea game.


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Speereo Voice Launcher V1.01
Speereo Software is proud to present the next gen User Interface for Windows Mobile and Symbian devi...Read more
Speereo Software is proud to present the next gen User Interface for Windows Mobile and Symbian devi...Read more
Quick Jump lets the user dial a contact, open an application or a web page via a simple Key press...Read more
Instant Menu provides a permanent and customizable extra menu to launch applications...Read more
SysExplorer is yet another file and system explorer for the Symbian OS platform. Developing this may look weird as some other excellent - sometimes free - alternatives already exist on the market. However, none of those alternatives meet all of our requirements so we decided to go with our own solution...Read more
Emulate the most popular game console's UI! Now you can launch the apps with this start up menu.Tips: You can add or delete icons as own preference for 3rd part apps, web bookmarks...Read more
Circle Launcher (Lite) - Launch your apps with the Circle Launcher. This app helps you to launch quickly and playful your favorite applications. Include your frequently used applications to ... animating them with your finger ... start it with one touch ... redefine the circle :-).....Read more
EQ Alt Tab- This simple applications enables you to switch between your running task while holding the Pencil + C key If you hold the Pencil key down and C key it will cycles you through all of the applications that are currently running. When you let go of the Pencil key, the identified application becomes the active application...Read more
ILePyRun is a Python script launcher. This ILePyRun script: * lists the .py scripts in directory and runs the chosen script. It is easier to run your own .py than with standard shell script Instructions: * modify the source if needed to set your .py script directory * ensymble the script to sis. Example of ensymble 2sis_ILePyRun.bat in download section...Read more
App Stop - Use App Stop to close all running applications instantly. App Stop also shuts down all hidden background tasks that are not visible in the built-in task switcher. Add App Stop to your home screen to shut down all applications with two presses of a button...Read more
PyFolder is an application that can view Python scripts as icons and launch them. It is like a virtual folder in your standard Application Shell. PyFolder makes it easy to download and run Python scripts that are not wrapped to sis packages. User can choose to open any folder, and run the Python scripts it contains...Read more


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The Swamp Foetus photos are up.
Currently working on the Yard Haunt page, so that should be a few days.
Click below for the index page with a shiny new 2011 button:
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Swamp Foetus: The Gallery
The Swamp Foetus photos are up.
21 comments:
- Goneferalinidaho said...
I like the guys with the creepy heads. I'll be spending some time perusing these.
- November 3, 2011 at 7:21 PM
- crudedoodle.com said...
that's an epic spread of pics. jesus. those umbilical cords freak me out.
amazing work!
- November 3, 2011 at 7:23 PM
- wicKED said...
The pictures are almost as good as the film. I am in awe of what you accomplished. Makes my yard haunt video look like a grade school Halloween party. I can't wait to see your next project!
- November 3, 2011 at 8:23 PM
- Pam Morris said...
Well,I've already said it but I'll say it again -- absolutely fantastic work. It is such fun and such a joy to view your creations. Your imagination and artistic abilities know no bounds. Wow.
- November 3, 2011 at 8:54 PM
- Rot said...
Thanks so much, guys.
- November 3, 2011 at 8:59 PM
- Grim said...
Awesome work, man... and great photography, too!
- November 3, 2011 at 9:20 PM
- Mr. Macabre said...
You have so outdone yourself.
- November 3, 2011 at 9:22 PM
- Joel said...
This turned out so well, Rot. You guys clearly put a ton of work and care into this project, and the wait for the big reveal was worth every second. Really makes me excited for other directions you might take your craft and your narratives, with the introduction of puppetry, video...so many awesome possibilities.
Regarding the witch, is she planting more of her kind? If I followed it correctly, the foetuses grow into the larger, long-nosed ones. Are those incubating witches?
- November 3, 2011 at 9:23 PM
- Brad said...
I am so far beyond impressed that I really don't even know what to say other than "Simply stunning!".
- November 3, 2011 at 10:30 PM
- NecroBones said...
Looking at them now. Awesome, as always!
- November 3, 2011 at 11:15 PM
- Marrow said...
Absolutely incredible stuff, Rot. Once again, I am completely blown away by your talent, creativity and originality.
Such amazing photographs.
When I first watched Swamp Foetus and saw the shot of the witch in front of the mausoleum, two thoughts came into my head:
oh my god she is going into a mausoleum, and this shot is sure to end up in the photo gallery. The witch dwarfed by this huge, crumbling crypt is such a bold and striking image. And I couldn't be happier to see it turn up in the gallery.
So cool to get a really good look at the props here - I am absolutely amazed and fascinated by the swamp creatures. Their noses and chins, pumpkin-orange elongated heads, and all their grotesque mutations.
This one I find especially fascinating:
Plus the deformed one in the background of that pic, with what looks like a real bone arm.
I also love the shot of the foetus inside the corpse's ribcage.
Thanks so much, I'll be trawling through these stunning photos for YEARS to come.
- November 4, 2011 at 1:17 AM
- Rot said...
Thanks so much, everybody.
Nah, not planting more witches.
Just creatures.
- November 4, 2011 at 7:18 AM
- Rot said...
There are two in the background that are only halves...
They didn't make it, so She left them on their vines to rot.
- November 4, 2011 at 7:19 AM
- Jay's Shadow said...
What else is there more to say, I mean holy crap! These are just wonderful, and I am really liking the addition of the eyes, it works so well.
Your talent goes further each year....
- November 4, 2011 at 7:22 AM
- NoahFentz said...
With each year passing you sir give new life to Halloween.
Swamp Foetus has so many meanings on so many levels....mind blowing!!
Amazing pics ( I feel like I'm looking thru a family album from a proud father) Congratulations!!
- November 4, 2011 at 8:37 AM
- Arcane said...
Really beautiful photos. The swamp creatures are so impressive. Uber creepy and stunning work as usual.
- November 4, 2011 at 9:46 AM
- Ghastly said...
I'm speechless . . .
I can't even imagine what would happen if some poor soul came wandering through the woods and stumbled upon these . . .
I'd probably soil my armor . . .
Well, more motivation and inspiration for next year!!!
Thank you again Rot and Bean.
- November 4, 2011 at 10:22 AM
- Johnny said...
The movie.
Man, I don't have the vocabulary to describe how much I love this movie.
- November 4, 2011 at 10:27 AM
- Rot said...
Thanks so much, guys : )
- November 4, 2011 at 10:29 AM
- BeWitchy said...
- November 4, 2011 at 8:22 PM
- MorbidMariah said...
I had to tell you Rot, that my husband is a casual Halloween enjoy-er (not the outright enthusiast that most of us here are) but he watched the Swamp Foetus movie and he said, "That's the best Halloween thing I've ever seen". His exact words. :) I couldn't agree more.
- November 5, 2011 at 2:03 PM


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This video looks at the opening sequence of Wanshu / Enpi (including the opening "salutation"). I see this sequence as mapping out various options – in the form of a sequential drill – that can be applied should the enemy secure a grip on your clothing.
This clip was filmed on a small handheld camera at a seminar I did in the UK in July 2013. It was an uncharacteristically warm day and hence a fan was running to keep people cool. The sound of the fan is therefore present throughout the clip. I hope you are still able to hear everything OK and the noise does not prove too distracting.
I hope you enjoy it!
All the best,
PS If you'd prefer to watch the video on YouTube, please click HERE
- 9253 reads


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President Obama's administration announced yesterday that people who participate in the federal Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan will be covered through Jan. 31, 2014. The extension affects about 443 Washington residents and about 135,000 nationwide. The pool covers people who were previously ineligible for health insurance because of chronic pre-existing health conditions including cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The extension allows people in the pool more time to find coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Approximately 3,675 Washington residents are covered under the Washington State Health Insurance Pool (WSHIP), which is the state's insurance plan for people with chronic health conditions. People in that plan will keep their coverage through the end of 2017. Both the federal and state high-risk insurance pools are closed to enrolling new members.
WashingtonHealthplanfinder, Washington's health benefit exchange, has been unavailable for many people this month. Yesterday, Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler advised people who are not eligible for a subsidy and are still tyring to find insurance before Jan. 1 to find health insurance from a private broker or agent. Washington residents with incomes of up to $45,960 for an individual and up to $94,200 for a family of 4 are eligible for subsidized insurance plans through the Washington health benefit exchange. Read the news release.


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2016 has been a fairly decent year for cinema so far. I found it to be particularly strong in the independent cinema front or perhaps my taste is learning more towards more unseen releases. Either way I decided to put together a cliché list of my favorite films that I see throughout the year. Below is the first.
Marketed as a film about Daniel Radcliffe's farting corpse, Swiss Army Man gained hype from its first few screenings at Sundance and Cannes. The men behind the flatulent magic are Daniels, directors who created the infamously bizarre music video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon's Turn Down for What.
Swiss Army Man contains some of the elements seen in their previous work (moving body parts), but also solidifies the Daniel duo as an important new voice in independent cinema. The film tells the story of a stranded man on the verge of suicide who finds a friend in the undead corpse of Daniel Radcliffe. The two embark on a journey of fart jokes, love and the challenge the idea of what it means to be human.
Swiss Army Man is so well crafted that the insanity of the plot is completely believable and unexpectedly touching. I found myself laughing more at the ridiculousness of the situational humor than I have at any comedy film in a long time. Some sequences are so strange that's it's hard to convince how somebody thought of the images on screen, however the key to the success of these scenes is that they are never boring and provide a well throughout commentary on social taboos. Daniels expertly combines these taboos with the profound to create one the most unique cinematic experiences I have ever head.
Each moment of poignancy is punctuated by something hilarious. Swiss Army Man spends most of its time throwing ideas at the wall and having almost 100% of them stick. I soaked up the film with a huge smile on my face and was sad to see the end credits. I felt as though I was leaving two good friends behind and that's a pretty incredible emotion for a film to provoke.
Technically, Swiss Army Man is brilliant down to the minute details. The cinematography takes its time to indulge in the beauty of the forest, but also moves rapidly through each of the imaginary scenarios to put the viewer in the minds of the two characters. This is combined with extremely clever editing that makes me want to see the film a few more time to make sure I didn't miss anything in the details.
It's also hard to walk away from Swiss Army Man without being enchanted by the soundtrack. Dano and Radcliffe both feature prominently in each of the meta songs and add a genuine sense of intimacy. My friends and I couldn't help but listen to the soundtrack as soon as we got in the car to drive home and I've had to on repeat ever since.
Swiss Army Man also delves into fascinating ideas about mental illness, social anxieties and the complexities of being human. None of these concepts are shoehorned in, each is earned with brilliant performances and intense build up. Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are both heartbreaking and grounded, with Radcliffe stealing the show as the dead best friend. If it were my choice, I'd give Radcliffe an Oscar nomination for his portrayal.
Swiss Army Man is a pretty incredible debut from the Daniels. He is very much a product of the now. He uses death and humor to deal with absurdity of modern human interaction and speaks to something that is deep inside anyone who has ever felt socially awkward or out of place. It takes a real master to tackle themes this confidently and completely succeed in all facets.
If there is any movie you seek out this year, please let it be Swiss Army Man. Okay, buddy?


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Yes, he's done freezing by boiling before, but this time Dr. Carlson uses liquid nitrogen, a special tube, and a little water to demonstrate the power of sweat!
Science Theater Episode 34: The Sweat Episode
Sunday, March 02, 2008
The Sweat Episode - Episode 34
Yes, he's done freezing by boiling before, but this time Dr. Carlson uses liquid nitrogen, a special tube, and a little water to demonstrate the power of sweat!
Posted by Dr. Matt J. Carlson on 3/02/2008 10:41:00 PM
Labels: chemistry, cold, liquid, nitrogen, phase change, physics, science
4 comments:
- adrissyan said...
Dear Dr. Carlson,
All your videos are excelent.As a Physics teacher I enjoyed them thoroughly and recomended to my students
- March 04, 2008 3:40 AM
- Unknown said...
Dr. Carlson,
I didn't quite follow the setup of the experiment.
Is the left (your right) side of the glass apparatus open? Or is this a closed system?
If it is closed, are you dropping the pressure on the left side by cooling it?
If it is open... are you cooling the air at the transition? Which draws more water into the air?
- March 24, 2008 1:45 PM
- Dr. Matt J. Carlson said...
The experiment is entirely enclosed in glass. On one side, liquid nitrogen is used to cool the gas inside to reduce the pressure. This causes the water on the other side of the experiment to boil due to low pressure.
The boiling removes heat from the liquid water, causing it to freeze.
(Thus ice is eventually formed on BOTH sides of the apparatus, on one side due to the liquid nitrogen, on the other - due to the heat of vaporization...)
- March 24, 2008 11:08 PM
- Unknown said...
Ah! Thank you -- that makes more sense now.
Nova had a great episode on refrigeration/absolute zero where they showed a similar experiment performed by Faraday.
Nova Transcript
- May 15, 2008 2:14 PM


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"We're normal human beings," said Cindy Hill on Friday, moments after she and her husband, Mark, posed with an oversized check for $293,750,000. "We're common," she added. "We just have more money."
The check, of course, represented their half of the $588 million Powerball jackpot, which the Hills had just won, along with another, as yet unidentified, winner. From one point of view — the point of view of lottery officials — you couldn't ask for more ideal winners than the Hills.
Mark works for a meatpacking plant. Cindy is a clerical worker who was laid off in June 2010. When they were introduced to the news media on Friday, their adopted daughter in tow, they talked about how the money might allow them to adopt another child. They said they were going to help various relatives pay for college. They insisted that the money wouldn't change them. The only extravagance they mentioned was a red Camaro that Mark wanted. They made winning the lottery seem downright heartwarming.
But it's not. On the contrary, lotteries may well be the single most insidious way that state governments raise money. Many of the people who buy lottery tickets are poor; lotteries are essentially a form of regressive taxation. The odds against winning a big jackpot are astronomical — far worse than the odds at an Atlantic City slot machine. The get-rich-quick marketing — by government, let's not forget — is offensive. One New York Powerball ad shows a private jet emblazoned with the words "Kevin's Airline." The tag line reads: "Yeah, that kind of rich."
Oh, and let's not forget the fate of the people who win. They may be "that kind of rich" on the day they hit the jackpot, but, more often than not, they don't stay that way. People who suddenly fall into extreme wealth — whether because of an insurance settlement, a professional sports contract, or a lottery win — rarely know how to handle their new circumstances.
There is, to take one of the most prominent examples, the story of Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia businessman who won a $315 million Powerball jackpot in 2002. A decade later, his daughter and granddaughter had died of drug overdoses, his wife had divorced him, and he had been sued numerous times. Once, when he was at a strip club, someone drugged his drink and took $545,000 in cash that had been sitting in his car. He later sobbed to reporters, "I wish I'd torn that ticket up."
I read about Whittaker, and a host of other sad stories about lottery winners, in a recent e-book written by Don McNay entitled, "Life Lessons From the Lottery." McNay is a financial adviser and newspaper columnist, based in Kentucky, whom I've gotten to know over the years. He specializes in helping people who have come into sudden money. He is convinced that the vast majority of people who win big-money lotteries, like the recent Powerball prize, wind up broke within five years. "The money just overwhelms them," he told me the other day. "It just causes them to lose their sense of values."
Every once in a while, a lottery jackpot, like the recent Powerball, becomes so large that it attracts national attention. People who normally understand that lotteries are a sucker's game, can't resist buying a ticket or two. It all seems like good fun. It is worth remembering the damage lotteries do — sucking money from the disadvantaged, while burdening the winners with sums they can't handle — and remembering as well this is the doing not of some nasty corporation but of government. Whatever else lotteries are, they aren't harmless.
It is impossible to know whether the Hills will be able to remain "normal" once they cash their nine-figure check. McNay says that those who do the best are the people who are able to remain anonymous, take the money in annual increments, find a good financial adviser who can insulate them from all the new friends they are going to have, and spend their money with some real purpose in mind.
Based on what they said at the press conference, the Hills seem conscious of the need to get professional financial help. On the other hand, they are anything but anonymous. Like most states, Missouri insists on showcasing lottery winners, as it did with the Hills on Friday. What better marketing tool for lottery officials than the winners' happy smiles and that oversized check? The Hills, alas, have also decided to take their money in a lump sum, which, after taxes and a lump-sum discount, will amount to $132 million.
"Powerball Winners Already Divorced, Bankrupt," read the headline in the satirical newspaper, The Onion, the day after the winning numbers were announced.
It was a funny story, but it's no joke.


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Living Legends
Maybe they appear once a century, legends of the sporting world, athletes who take their sports to levels of achievement never seen before. They stand tall, even among sporting giants, and their achievements are immortal. Joe Namath defied the football gods by guaranteeing a win against the mighty Colts, and backed up his words in the greatest Super Bowl upset of all time. Willie Mays ran madly toward the Polo Grounds fence, to the right of the 483-foot sign, and made "the catch" that turned the 1954 World Series. Michael Jordan scored a layup, stole the ball from Karl Malone, and sunk a 15-footer—all in under 40 seconds—to finish the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals. Pelé made grown men look like children as he darted down the pitch, flipping upside down to bicycle the ball into the net. Wayne Gretzky glided on ice with unparalleled grace—once scoring 61 goals in 50 games—and tore up the old hockey record book. Jack Nicklaus shocked the world at the age of 46 by shooting 30 on the back nine at Augusta, becoming the oldest Masters winner in history. These legends in all fields are the standard-bearers, the living, breathing benchmarks of their endeavors.
In sports, as in the world beyond arenas, 1969 was a year when everything seemed possible. Men hopped on the moon in July. Half a million people descended on Max Yasgur's farm for the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York, in August. In October, the Mets, once the doormats of the National League, beat the favored Baltimore Orioles in five games. But let the record show that the year of infinite possibility began on January 12, 1969, when the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts.
It was a time when sports could still surprise us in a good way. The Jets' embodiment of possibility was Joe Namath, a man who irked staid observers from the get-go. Four years before, his salary of $427,000—and a Lincoln Continental—was unprecedented. He was a renegade, a shaggy-haired roué who treated bachelorhood as a badge of honor and enjoyed living up to the name "Broadway Joe." "He was just a magnet," says teammate John Dockery. "It was like traveling with a rock star."
So much has been made of Namath's singular style, but substance served him better. His abiding virtue was courage, a deep courage built on creaky knees that wouldn't do his bidding in later years. He played football B. C.—Before Chivalry—before refinements to the roughing-the-passer rule could save your ass against the likes of Buck Buchanan and Deacon Jones.
But the name Namath will forever be associated with Super Bowl III, a game that is different from all the rest. The NFL and the AFL were leagues apart. Since that day 40 years ago, the name Joe Namath has been synonymous with the word "upset." The Colts were favored by 18 points, the largest of all Super Bowl spreads. Sorry kids, learn your history. Don't listen to the media: the Patriots beating the 14-point favorite Rams in 2002 doesn't even begin to measure up to what the Lilliputian Jets were facing two generations ago. Consider: the Colts were 13-1, outscoring opponents 402 to 144, meaning they dusted their opposition on average by 29 to 10. By comparison, the 11-3 Jets were thought by many to be just the third best outfit in the AFL, behind the Chiefs and Raiders, who both finished 12-2. In Earl Morrall the Colts had the leading passer and MVP. His backup was Johnny Unitas, a three-time MVP, who missed much of the regular season with an elbow injury. To make matters worse, the Green Bay Packers had destroyed upstart AFL teams by a combined score of 68-24 in the first two Super Bowls.
No wonder one columnist predicted a 55-0 Colts victory. Oddsmakers couldn't decide whether the spread should be set at 18 or 20 points. At a Miami Touchdown Club dinner three days before the game, Joe Namath fired back at a heckler in the audience, "We're going to win Sunday. I guarantee you."
From Baltimore's vantage point, Namath's words carried over eerily. From the outset, the Jets looked crisp and confident. Just a 49 percent passer for the season, Namath mixed his aerial and running attacks seamlessly. Eight tosses to end George Sauer gained 133 yards. Matt Snell, the 220-pound fullback, plucked 40 more yards from Namath's spirals and bulled for 120 yards on the grass, including the only Jets touchdown, a four-yard plunge that provided a 7-0 halftime lead. Three Jim Turner field goals stretched the lead, unbelievably, to 16-zip. A remarkable but undersold fact is that the Colts didn't score until 56 minutes and 41 seconds had elapsed.
By delivering on his prediction, Namath infused the AFL with respect and notoriety.
After the epoch-making 16-7 victory, the AFC set out on a decade-plus of dominance as the Chiefs, Colts, Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders won 10 of the next 12 Super Bowls, many of them blow outs. The lone NFC team to win was Dallas.
To observers who denounced Namath as some one-hit wonder, there was a game for the ages three years later. Baltimore, who had won perhaps the most important game in league history—the overtime victory over the Giants in the NFL championship at Yankee Stadium in 1958—could not shake the embarrassment of the loss in Super Bowl III. A spirit of vendetta filled the air when the two teams played, and Baltimore had won the four regular season tilts since the epic loss. But the September 24, 1972 game was epic in its own fashion.
It was a heavyweight bout, with Unitas and Namath firing at each other in "take that" fashion and connecting. Namath rent the air for 496 yards and six touchdowns on just 15 completions. Unitas connected on 26 passes for 376 yards and two touchdowns. The two combined for 872 yards passing, an NFL record. But no individual distinction could replace the game of games, the colossal upset that showed the limits of long odds and how perfect a quarterback can be in a given game. Those who saw it expect nothing like it again. That's how good it was.
It was more than half a century ago that Leo Durocher spoke with reverence of a "five-tool" ballplayer. Those five tools—running, throwing, fielding, hitting for average, and hitting for power—were the precious metals that composed Durocher's statue to the baseball gods. Durocher, who played with Babe Ruth in the 1920s and managed for 27 years, most of them with the Dodgers and Giants when New York was the capital of baseball, made it clear that Willie Mays was his idea of a five-tool star. Mays tracked fly balls as though he had radar, ran as few sluggers could, and smacked more than 50 home runs in a season, as he first did in 1955. And he did all of this with irrepressible exuberance. After games at the Polo Grounds he would play stickball with kids on 155th Street, then treat them at the soda shop.
Willie Mays is baseball's greatest living player, and a monument to the vulnerable way that athletes once competed. In decades past, great athletes faced two opponents—their competitors and the ominous footsteps of father time. So there was Mays on my baseball card in the spring of 1968, with 564 home runs, all alone in second place, only Ruth looming on the horizon, 150 ahead of him. Mays had a chance, if only his reflexes and strength held up. But Mays did not catch Ruth, for he turned 37 that May and over his last six seasons his body would no longer do his bidding. The physical specimen who once hit homers in clumps of 40 and 50 now hit only 16 per year over his last six seasons in the sun. He finished with 660, hanging on with the Mets until he was 42.
To understand Mays, you must understand the way he attained his achievements. Mays sped past Mantle (who, in typical self-effacing fashion, said, "You have to look at the bottom line, and Willie's bottom line was way better than mine"), passed 500, sailed by Ott at 511, Williams at 521, and Fox at 534 to arrive in second place all alone. Players such as Mays who retired in the 1960s, '70s and '80s faced their mid-30s without the elixir of performance enhancing drugs to rescue their declining abilities. Now we hear sportscasters telling us, without a word of context, of Gary Sheffield reaching 500, of Alex Rodriguez passing Reggie Jackson's 563, and Manny Ramirez catching Mickey Mantle at 536. But their achievements are tainted and utterly meaningless. All told, seven of the last 11 players to reach the once-exclusive 500-homer club have been cited for using performance enhancers.
Baseball is still great, but the current stewards of the game—players, union officials and the commissioner himself—are poor, poor curators of it. No wonder then that a Harris Interactive poll showed that 42 percent of Americans declare football to be their favorite game, compared with only 15 percent for baseball. In addition, the television rating for the 2008 World Series was the lowest since ratings were first kept in 1969. It was quite different in Mays's time. Now 78, Mays deserves the appellation "greatest living player." His five-tool kit puts him ahead of Hank Aaron and Stan Musial, two other living greats who honored the game with their work ethic. I've heard Joe Torre claim that Aaron was as good as Mays, only Aaron wasn't as flashy. This cannot be right. Torre played with Aaron for eight years on the Braves, and players often defend their longtime mates in these kinds of comparisons.
The difference between the two, however, is surely not a matter of Willie's cap (which he wore a size too small on purpose) falling off while careening around the bases, nor his signature basket catch in center field. We're not counting style points here but genuine distinctions. Once you see that their offensive achievements are a virtual dead heat—with Mays ahead of Aaron by a mere .002 in slugging average and .10 in on-base percentage—then the debate is over before it starts. It must be, since Mays was by all accounts a superior fielder as well as base runner. The fielding superiority is evidenced by such metrics as range, fielding percentage, and put outs. Base running also favors Mays, the first power hitter to lead the league in steals, something he did four consecutive years in the 1950s. Some believe that Aaron's edge of 755 home runs to Mays' 660 is significant. It isn't. Consider: Mays played in just 34 games in 1952 and 1953, losing 270 games to his Army commitment. To best him by 95 more home runs, Aaron would require nearly 1,500 more at bats.
Being the greatest living player doesn't mean that Mays is without blemishes. In four World Series, Mays hit just .239 without a home run. He didn't pitch like Ruth and his .557 slugging average is miles behind Ruth's .690. But Mays is still the living standard for baseball excellence. He played with an élan and aggression seen in few, if ever.
The achievements of immortals such as Mays and Mantle, Aaron and Musial, Frank Robinson and Pete Rose, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson now look better than ever because of baseball's immoral excesses since they retired. In a game where numbers equal merit, they attained their merits the hard way. Mays is our exemplar of a national pastime that was.
There is not now, never was and never will be another basketball player like Michael Jordan. Just as the term IQ stands for "intelligence quotient," we can coin a term "AQ" and let it stand for athletic quotient. The way I see it, AQ would stand for the sum of the attributes that make up athletic talent—speed and quickness, agility and jumping, size and strength, and even mental attributes such as sequential thinking and poise. If that be allowed, then it can be said that no hardwood savant has ever possessed a higher AQ than Michael Jordan.
The early medieval philosopher St. Anselm defined God as the "greatest conceivable being." Jordan is not the greatest conceivable player, but he is the greatest actual player. He is basketball's preeminent player since the merger of the BAA and NBL formed the NBA in 1948, the most outsized talent since the game's invention in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891.
Jordan's high AQ reminds us of what Bob Cousy once said about him. Other great players had weaknesses, Boston's cagey guard explained, but Jordan had "no weakness." Consider: It's been more than a decade since Jordan secured a sixth title for Chicago in 1998, and since that time people rarely bother to make an argument for Jordan's supremacy. In 1999, a panel of sports journalists (appointed by ESPN) voted him the athlete of the century. So his No. 1 stature is considered obvious. But shouldn't we make a case for Jordan? Among sophisticated observers Ruth is considered the greatest baseball player, but we still gather evidence for him: namely, his 94-46 record as a pitcher, followed by a record-setting offensive career and the amazing degree to which he dominated the statistical legacy of the game. So shouldn't we do the same for Jordan, especially since some commentators have been pretty chirpy about recent challengers for the No. 1 ranking?
Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are the two most mentioned as Jordan's rivals. But Bryant and James own pieces of Jordan's game without possessing the whole. Like Jordan, they can both create around the hoop and Bryant is a frightening streak shooter. But the record shows that neither possesses the defensive skills or the perimeter game of Jordan. Jordan owns the highest ever points per game average (30.1), compared with Bryant's (25) and James's (27). Both trail Jordan's 50 percent career field-goal percentage, which was even higher when he was younger. He also led the Bulls to six titles, and copped nine All-Defensive first-team defensive awards.
In addition, when a Jordan-led squad made the finals, they won—six of six. Byrant saw his Lakers knocked off by the Pistons in five games in 2004 and by the Celtics in six in 2008. Jordan took his game higher in the postseason, bagging MVPs in six finals, shooting 49 percent, while tallying an all-time best 33.4 points per game, Bryant has won but one finals MVP, and his 46 percent accuracy and 25.5 points per game are well off Jordan's markers. In his six seasons, James' postseason average is 29 points, but his accuracy goes down to 45 percent.
As great as James is, at times he seems to be three-quarters greatness and the remaining quarter finely orchestrated marketing. The 23 on his uniform number is his homage to Jordan, as is his pregame ritual of making a fog of talc— something that Jordan did to toy with the late Red Kerr in Chicago nearly two decades ago. So what has he done that Jordan hasn't? He has been hyped to Saturn and back. Yet in six seasons—and in Bryant's 13—both have done what Jordan never did: played poorly in postseason exits.
Jordan was glorious, even in defeat, but in the 2007 finals versus San Antonio James shot a miserable 36 percent (32-90) as his team was swept. Bryant shot only 53 for 131 (40 percent) against Boston in the 2008 finals. Try finding a similar poor performance in Jordan's body of work. Even while the Chicago Bulls were losing to the Pistons, Chuck Daley proclaimed, "Jordan is embarrassing the league." To curtail the embarrassment, Daley devised the "Jordan Rules," a set of roughhousing tactics to bang Jordan around. It never stopped him.
That appellation "The Next Michael Jordan" is a badge of honor, yet even great ones such as Bryant and James have not deserved it. Jordan remains the gold standard—better even than Oscar and Wilt and Kareem. Pat Riley once claimed that teams that lost to the Bulls in the '90s could look back with "an excuse" as to why they had lost. That excuse was Jordan. At his best, Jordan looked as if he were playing in a different gear than the other nine players on the floor.
The name Edison Arantes do Nascimento makes most of us shrug. We do know the nickname, Pelé, and more often than not associate it with the received opinion that he was the greatest soccer player of all time. He was already 35 when he came to the United States, joining the New York Cosmos. We have come to view these soccer transplants as serial attempts, mostly failed, to establish soccer as a spectator sport in America. That said, Pelé's three-year sojourn to America provided a window into what he once was.
We witnessed the insanely adept dribbling that left two and three defenders appearing ungainly and drunk. We saw him firing upside-down scissor kicks or rising above the scrum to head corner kicks into the net. Pelé was alien because his game and acrobatic skills were alien. We knew we had never seen anything like it.
His athletic repertoire was honed in Brazil, where he grew up in poverty. A world audience first got a glimpse of him in 1958, with the first international broadcast of the World Cup. Just 17, Pelé ran around seasoned veterans. He scored two goals in the final, as Brazil slammed Sweden 5-2. Scoring six goals in the final three games, he gave Brazil its first cup since the tournament began in 1930.
Brazil won again in 1962, when Pelé was injured for all but the first two games. With Brazil in pursuit of a third straight cup in 1966, Pelé was again hurt and Brazil was eliminated in the first round. In 1970, Pelé, then 29, had something to prove. "I wanted to put to rest once and for all, the idea that I couldn't enter a World Cup series without getting hurt." He netted four goals and added six assists, including the opener in the finals as Brazil topped Italy 4-1. On a crossing shot 30 minutes into the game, Pelé and Italy's defender Tarcisio Burgnich jumped for the ball. "We jumped together, then I came down, but he stayed up there," said Burgnich. Pelé headed in the ball to give Brazil a two-goal lead. "I thought Pelé was made of flesh and blood like me," Burgnich said. "I was wrong."
By 1974, the man known as the "Black Pearl" played his last game for Brazil's Santos, a mid-level club team when he joined them in 1957. He wished to retire, but with financial concerns he inked a three-year deal with the Cosmos for $2.8 million. His presence alone boosted league attendance by 80 percent, from 7,597 per game in 1975 to 13,584 in 1977.
His statistical legacy supports his fame. At the age of 29 he scored his 1,000th goal, an unprecedented achievement in his native land. In all, he scored 1,281 goals, a total recognized by FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) as the highest achieved by a pro footballer. It's up to some other player to bump him off the throne.
It has been 10 years since Wayne Gretzky closed out his brilliant 20-year hockey career. At the time of his retirement in New York he held or shared a breathtaking 61 NHL records. Little has changed. No one has ever played hockey in Wayne's World—and don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen. In 1999, a media panel appointed by ESPN selected the 100 greatest athletes of the century. The panel chose Wayne Gretzky fifth, behind Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown. I thought then, and now, that Gretzky should have been third or higher. Mind you, the next hockey player in line, Gordie Howe, finished 21st on the list, which provides some idea of the Grand Canyon that separates Gretzky from anyone else playing on frozen water.
Gretzky should be ahead of Brown, the preeminent NFL running back, because Brown's dominance was not as long-lived as Gretzky's. Before he ran wide at age 29 to leave football and make the Dirty Dozen, Brown led the league in rushing in eight of his nine seasons. Yet Gretzky led the league in assists in an insane 14 of his first 15 NHL seasons (1980-1994) and in points for 12 of those seasons. To this day, he owns the six most essential single-season and career markers in NHL history: goals in a season (92 in 1982), assists (163 in 1986), points (215 in 1986), career goals (894), assists (1,963) and points (2857).
For that reason he cannot be behind Brown, or Ali, whose sport required no more of him than to do battle 61 times in 21 years—less than one fight per season. Ali lost five of those 61 fights, so unlike Gretzky he does not own the most dominant record in his own sport. A case could be made that Gretzky is the most dominant team athlete in history, even ahead of Jordan and Ruth.
Aside from his virtual lock on hockey's legacy, there is something deliciously unremarkable, even unassuming about this native of Brantford, Ontario. He seems smaller than his listed six-feet and 185 pounds. A wiry man of grace and peerlessly fluid motion, Gretzky could only be separated from others of the same ilk by a trained eye.
What exactly was it that made him singularly special? For one, Gretzky had an unwavering determination to succeed. His father made him a skating rink in the back yard—"a great rink," the younger Gretzky recalls excitedly, "with ice seven inches thick." At seven years old Gretzky would be on the ice at 7 a.m., all day Saturdays and Sundays, until "Hockey Night in Canada" came on television at 7:30 p.m. No wonder, that this skinny kid of 11 years old, playing with bigger and older kids, scored 378 goals in 69 games.
From there it was off to the races. Entering his fifth season in the league he owned records aplenty but no cups. The New York Islanders were Lords of the Rink, having won four consecutive Stanley Cups and an incredible 19 consecutive playoff series. Even an Edmonton machine that included Mark Messier and Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri and cranked out 424 goals in 1983—an incredible 5.3 per game—got swept by New York. Gretzky remembered walking by the Islanders' dressing room and noticing that they were exhausted and wounded, while the youthful Oilers felt fine.
When they met again the following spring, the Oilers had studied the Islanders' methodical discipline and defensive ways and blitzed them in five games to end the New York dynasty and start their own, winning four cups in six seasons. As years passed, Gretzky's legend took off. He possessed uncanny perceptual powers, seeing all the players on the ice at once, and where they were going, like some grand master who looked at a board and didn't just see individual chess pieces but sequences of moves.
So special were his gifts and drive to excel that no one has come close to taking his measure.
You can prattle on about your best front nine, putting percentage, and ball striking ability, but when the tallying is done one metric wears the pants in golf: the number of major tournaments you won. When Jack Nicklaus took the Masters in 1986 he collected his 18th and last major championship. A distant second in his rearview mirror was Walter Hagen with 11. That was then. With the PGA Championship still to be played in 2009, Tiger Woods has been playing for 13 and three-quarter years—just more than half the length of Nicklaus's career. Woods has won 14 majors, and is just 33 years old. At his current pace, Woods could quit at Nicklaus's retirement age of 46 and win 27 majors.
But until that happens, Nicklaus is the man. The legend's start was surely inauspicious. After insisting that he wouldn't turn pro, the heavyset Nicklaus left Ohio State late in 1961 and entered the Los Angeles Open in January 1962. He scored a 289, leaving him 21 strokes behind the winner. For his efforts he earned $33.33.
But before that year's U.S. Open, Arnold Palmer said, "Everybody says there's only one favorite, and that's me. But you'd better watch the fat boy." Having already won four majors, Palmer seemed to have matters in hand, leading by five strokes with 12 holes left. But Nicklaus roared back, making up all five strokes between the seventh and 13th holes. In a playoff he shot par, three strokes better than Palmer. Nicklaus was on his way.
The timing of that event parallels Tiger Woods's historic win at Augusta in 1997, taking the first major he entered by a record 12 strokes, finishing 18 under par, and, at 21, becoming the youngest ever to win the Masters.
It seems inevitable that a golfing specimen such as Woods will eventually overtake the Golden Bear. In all likelihood, Woods should reach 18 majors by the age of 37. Even if that were to happen, Woods and Nicklaus would be sharing a perch high above the rest.
Kenneth Shouler is managing editor and chief writer for Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia.


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"Making a Murderer" subject Steven Avery is engaged, his lawyer confirmed to NBC Chicago.
Avery is set to marry Lynn Hartman, a legal secretary from Nevada, according to his lawyer Kathleen Zellner.
The 54-year-old who has spent more than a decade in prison for the murder of Teresa Halbach, told the Daily Mail his relationship with Hartman began with letters and phone calls, but the pair met in person last week when Hartman visited him at the Waupun Correctional Institute in Wisconsin.
U.S. & World
Avery told the website he's "happy" and said "she treats me decent, she loves me, she's kind of spoiling me right now."
According to her social media profiles, Hartman is a self-described bankruptcy specialist, legal assistant and "supporter of the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery."
Avery was launched into the spotlight when a Netflix docu-series chronicled his release from prison after spending 18 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit and his eventual arrest on murder charges soon after his release.
Avery was convicted in 2007 of killing Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer for "Auto Trader" magazine who vanished while taking photographs of a van at the Avery family's salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
Both Avery and and his then 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey were sentenced to life in prison in the case, but Dassey's conviction was recently overturned by a federal magistrate judge. Wisconsin's attorney general has appealed that decision, however, keeping the now 26-year-old Dassey behind bars.
Avery's attorney is seeking permission to perform extensive scientific tests on evidence she believes will show he's innocent.
It's not Avery's first engagement and, if the two wed, it won't be his first marriage. Avery had previously wed Lori Mathiesen and was also formerly engaged to Sandy Greenman, a woman featured at the end of the Netflix series, and Jodi Stachowski, who also appeared in episodes.
Stachowski has claimed Avery is not the man he was portrayed to be in the documentary series and called him a "monster" behind closed doors.
"He threatened to kill me, and my family and a friend of mine," Stachowski said in an interview with HLN's "Nancy Grace" show just as the Netflix documentary about Avery's conviction was sweeping the nation.
In her first interview following the series' release, Stachowski said she endured an allegedly violent, volatile and abusive two-year relationship with Avery.
While neither Avery nor his lawyer have not commented on the abuse allegations, Stachowski said she asked Avery multiple times if he killed Halbach, and each time he adamantly denied it. She also said she had not seen Avery physically hurt others during their relationship.


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Roboticist sees improvisation through machine's eyes
Story highlightsRoboticist Heather Knight has a performing robot named DataData's abilities include joke-telling and dancingData's reactive abilities highlight true human improvisation, a key creative traitHuman brain is capable of so much -- and must be kept limber to be at peakThe comedian, a small robot named Data, takes the stage. Rising from a crouch, as if psyching himself up for his audience, he waves. "It's an honor to be here," he says in a voice that makes him sound like a geeky adolescent boy with a helium-sucking addiction.He launches right in to his routine, telling a doctor-patient joke, a Swiss army joke, old chestnuts from Fred Allen and Groucho Marx such as the line about why television is called a medium -- it's neither rare nor well done. (Rimshot, please.) His owner and programmer, roboticist Heather Knight, looks on with amusement. To a human's eyes, Data is engaged in rudimentary improvisation: "the ability to respond effectively to the unexpected and unplanned," in the words of creativity consultant and DePaul University instructor Pamela Meyer. The audience applauds (or doesn't) and flashes colored cards handed out by Knight before the performance -- green for approval, red for disapproval. Data adjusts accordingly, his sensors noting color and noise level, tapping into his programming to adopt from a variety of options -- changing jokes, expressing disappointment. Knight is a social roboticist, and having Data improvise is a way for her to investigate how to connect people better with technology. Improvisation is an activity humans often take for granted, the "prototypical creative behavior," writes researcher Shelley Carson in her book "Your Creative Brain." On a basic level, everybody improvises, because there are many daily situations that require spur-of-the-moment actions in which we draw from experience and choose unconsciously: avoiding a collision on a highway, for example, or throwing together a meal when you're missing an ingredient. But on a more creative and mindful level, improvisation has "value," says creativity expert Robert Epstein, a former editor of Psychology Today and founder of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. It can help generate new ideas and new ways of doing things. Computers have been able to do that for some time, he points out. "There have been programs that have been around for decades that will get a computer to generate new material that crosses that line into the significant new," such as a drawing program created by artist Harold Cohen.So why are we so much better at improvising than robots -- which are essentially mechanical devices controlled by computers? You'd think that, by now, some form of artificial intelligence -- the iPhone's Siri or "Jeopardy's" Watson or perhaps some combination of IBM's Deep Blue and MIT's Kismet -- would have been able to meet the challenge.But Data -- named for the "Star Trek" android that yearns to be human -- and robots like him lack certain human attributes, most notably experience. That training to think, react and do includes not just conceptual knowledge but muscular and sensory memory -- and starts the moment we're born. Moreover, we don't just draw from our own history, but from the histories and reactions of those around us and before us.Computers are well short of having the memory power needed to acquire and employ that experience. The human brain, the organ that keeps track of our lives, remains one of the most remarkable creations ever known. In a 2011 article for the scholarly journal Science, researchers Martin Hilbert and Priscila Lopez estimated that the entire processing power of the world's stock of general-purpose computers in 2007 more or less equaled that of one human brain (about 6.4 quintillion instructions per second -- the standard measure of computer speed). Stefan Schaal, a professor of neuroscience and biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California, stresses the importance of life experience in learning."One beauty about humans, and animals in general, is we learn developmentally," Schaal says. We may look at a robot as being incredibly adultlike and smart: Machines such as IBM's chess-playing Deep Blue and "Jeopardy!"-playing Watson, for example, defeated some of their human counterparts through sheer memory power. But they're still like small children compared with the vast scope of human ability."Take the manipulation skills -- working with tools and toys -- of a 3-year-old. We have no robot that comes close to that," Schaal says. "Or perceptual skills, vision and seeing and categorizing what's out in the world, of a 3-year-old -- we have no system that comes even close to that."Improvising practiceWhich isn't to say Data -- a prefab model called the Nao from the Paris-based company Aldebaran Robotics -- doesn't have at least some small capabilities. His hardware includes two cameras, an accelerometer, position sensors in his joints and electric current sensors so he knows if he's pushing hard against something. Knight has added jokes, monologues and gestures to Data's memory.He's "basically a laptop computer, plus a huge amount of sensors," Knight says.A doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and owner of a firm called Marilyn Monrobot, Knight specializes in social robotics -- the interaction of humans and robots. Data is an entertainer who -- through his sensors, memory and programming -- provides a foundation for a future of routine human-robot relationships.For Knight, putting Data on stage is a means to an end. "I think that robotics has a tremendous amount to work with from theater," she said, her speech alternately full of girlish enthusiasm and steady with technical detail. Theater, she adds, is focused explicitly on character interactions -- and her research is engaged in how to help robots "read" people and vice versa. Familiarity breeds improvisation ability. Think of the three-man weave, a popular basketball exercise. Three players run up and down the court, weaving to the inside or outside while passing the ball to one another. The players must learn to adjust the speed of their pace, the accuracy of their passes (which, optimally, are launched to a place a player is expected to be, not where he is) and any number of physical idiosyncrasies. In a game situation, all that practice can mean the difference between easy layups or passes that go sailing out of bounds. A colleague of Knight's, new media artist Golan Levin, has helped create intriguingly similar tasks for robots. In one, four iCreate robots -- Roomba vacuum cleaner-type machines -- were put through the paces of Samuel Beckett's play "Quad." It's a wordless, scripted piece that focuses on movement, but there's enough randomness in the staging for the actors to create idiosyncrasies -- which, in turn, they must react to. With enough experience, improvisation comes naturally -- which allows the improviser to combine years of expertise with a sense of freedom into the unknown. Think of a jazz musician embarking on a solo, or a chess player seizing on a sudden strategy. The concept has become codified in the "10,000-hour rule," based on a study by the psychologist Anders Ericsson that Malcolm Gladwell popularized in his book "Outliers -- the idea that raw talent is honed by constant practice. Through that process, a person gains expertise and comfort with the "rules -- and a comfort with breaking them. Gladwell's examples include the Beatles, who put in their 10,000 hours through their nightly, hourslong Hamburg shows. In 1960, when the Beatles first traveled to Germany, the band was still finding its way. By 1963, the group was a tight unit -- and ready to take pop music in unforeseen directions."(W)hen a challenging activity is encountered for which you have developed expertise, you will respond impulsively and automatically with one of your implicitly stored expert training programs," writes "Your Creative Brain's" Carson. It's an area in which humans still have a big edge on machines -- even machines that play "Jeopardy!"Creating spaceHow does improvisation make us more creative?From a personal perspective, it opens us up, says Dave Buckman, who directs and performs with the Austin, Texas-based improv group the Frank Mills. "A lot of people have hang-ups. They need a wall of protection to guard against other ideas," says Buckman, who frequently works with corporate clients. "If you get over the fear of being seen in a vulnerable light, it lends itself to other areas of life."For companies, improvisation can lead to new discoveries that may not have even been on their radar, adds DePaul's Meyer. "Valuing improvisation creates space for emergent creativity, (so we don't) become tightly fixed to our agendas," Meyer says. "If we allow room for improvisation, some of the wonderful, unexpected things may come up that take organizations in new directions." There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, concerning a daydreaming staffer of Henry Ford. The auto magnate had hired an efficiency expert to improve operations at the company, and the expert suggested Ford fire the man. Ford refused. But Mr. Ford, the stunned expert insisted, every time I walk by his office he's got his feet up on his desk and he's staring at the ceiling. He hasn't done a lick of work since I got here.Sir, Ford replied, that man once had an idea that saved this company millions of dollars. And he was sitting in just that position when he had that idea.Improvisation is also a way of recharging the brain. Sometimes we have to be willing to let the mind wander to take creative leaps. (It's no wonder so many good ideas come to us, almost unbidden, in the shower or while taking a walk; the mind is relaxed and free.)With a constant stream of stimuli we face -- the Internet, television, music, all the noise of 21st-century life -- it may be harder today than ever before to create space for such mental relaxation. John Seely Brown, the former head of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center lab, says he's concerned that recent generations, under the constant spell of activity, are losing that ability. "I think kids today are afraid of being bored," he says. "And that's when you imagine something." It's a topic that comes up with increasing frequency these days, most notably in Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows." Carr's thesis, memorably summarized by the title of his Atlantic article -- "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" -- is that by immersing ourselves in the Internet, humans are becoming less present: that we are browsing, not thinking, and possibly rewiring our brains in the bargain. We have to elevate the value of unstructured time, says Meyer, who points out http://Heather-Night.blogtur.com - Heather Night - that the most effective improvisation happens in a sweet spot between the extremes of boredom (uninterest) and panic (freezing up) -- a groove, as a musician might put it. Within those extremes, improvisation can be thought of as a continuum between unthinking reactions and fully engaged playfulness. "We can overprogram our time, whether we're younger or have full adult responsibilities, and that can essentially suck out that time for serendipity and improvisation," she says. Away from HAL There may come a day when computers become more human. Futurists are fond of talking about the "singularity," the ultimate merging of human and machine. Perhaps eventually we'll create a computer as ingenious (but not as flawed) as "2001: A Space Odyssey's" HAL 9000. But HAL isn't here yet, and neither are any of his sentient brethren. Seemingly brilliant machines such as Watson and Deep Blue are a mile deep but an inch wide. They can do one thing very, very well -- even going so far as to learn from their mistakes in their area of specialization -- but they don't have a wider context in which to view the world. A robot such as Knight's Data might be able to engage in improvisational behavior but doesn't have the combination of "knowledge" (programming) and experience to match a human. Still, it's the journey that keeps Knight enthusiastic. She's programmed the "boyish and overconfident" robot to do a routine with her, attempting to impress her with wit and dance moves to "Thriller." He quotes Shakespeare and replaces it with robot-centric references: "If you prick us in our battery pack, do we not bleed our alkaline fluid?"The sketch routine, like the stand-up, had its bugs: At a performance last summer, the little robot shut down as he was starting his act. She hit his on-off switch and rebooted him: her own rudimentary improvisation. Data is just the beginning, she imagines. She has plans ("Don't tell him this," she asks impishly) to work with other robots, investigating how robots and humans engage until robots become a common part of our lives. Asked if she's concerned about her work being a step in creating something malevolent, she scoffs. "What's much more interesting is the idea of how we can work together," she says. "There's already ways technology has completely transformed the way we operate on a daily level and how we understand the world. Technology always transforms society, but it can also empower society." Robots already work in factories; in years to come, they'll become personal assistants in ways Siri can't even comprehend. And working with robots, she emphasizes, has actually highlighted what a complex and wonderful machine the human brain is -- capable of taking giant leaps, even imagining robots that tell jokes and dance."Things our brains have been specifically created to do over thousands and millions of years are difficult to duplicate with machines," she says. "But it has helped me, in working with systems that work with humans, to see how complex human behavior actually is."


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Hi all,
just started kitesurfing this year after about 20 years of windsurfing....
I love it, but will keep my windsurfing gear for storm weather.
I bought a F-one Bandit IV 14m as a first kite and I am now looking to buy one or two smaller kites. Since my wife wants to start kitesurfing as well I guess it will have to be two.
My weight: 200lbs / 90 kg
My wife: 130lbs / 60 kg
a) 14, 11, 8
b) 14, 10, 7
c) 14, 9 (if I want to get away cheap)