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The Nationals' presidents race has been a fixture at Washington Nationals home baseball games since 2006, and quickly became a fan favorite.
The Racing Presidents
Participants in the presidents race include the four presidents whose images appear on Mount Rushmore, plus three new members that were introduced in later years and raced in DC before being "retired" to the Nationals' spring training home at The Ball Park of the Palm Beachs in West Palm Beach, Florida.
- #1 George Washington, our 1st president
- #3 Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president
- #16 Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president
- #26 Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th president
- #27 William Howard Taft, our 27th president (2013 – 2016, retired)
- #30 Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president (2015 "visiting president," retired)
- #31 Herbert Hoover, our 31st president (2016 "visiting president," retired)
Rules of the Race
There are few rules to the presidents race. In the middle of the 4th inning of every Nationals Park home game, the racing presidents are introduced individually as they enter the park through the center field fence. They run along the warning track, turning for the final sprint along the first base foul line toward a makeshift finish line near the Washington Nationals' home dugout. Starting in 2012, the team started mixing things up by shifting occasional races to the 3rd base side.
Skip below for more fun facts about the presidents race.
Presidents Race History and Records
Most notable among presidents race records is Teddy Roosevelt's winless streak, which lasted from the race's inception on July 21, 2006 through the final race of the regular season on October 3, 2012. Roosevelt lost 525 races before notching his first victory.
2006 Presidents Race – Champion: Thomas Jefferson
In 2006, the presidents raced officially began during a July home stand, just after the Lerner family purchased the team from Major League Baseball. In this shortened first season, the presidents race remained a hotly contested contest between Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln until the very end, with Tom pulling away on the very last game of the season. Teddy Roosevelt did not draw a lot of attention to himself. He simply failed to win a single race.
Final 2006 Standings
|Thomas Jefferson
|Abraham Lincoln
|George Washington
|Teddy Roosevelt
2007 Presidents Race Champion: George Washington
The first full season for the racing presidents was 2007, and it was a bit of a coming out party for Teddy Roosevelt, who stepped up the antics on opening day with a zip line stunt from the roof of RFK Stadium, and began losing in more spectacular ways. The Let Teddy Win movement began to draw attention, but unfortunately for Teddy, the winner's circle continued to be elusive, and as the summer wore on, it became clear that this was to be George Washington's year. Our first president surged ahead, and had the season title easily wrapped up by mid-September.
Final 2007 Standings
|George Washington
|Thomas Jefferson
|Abraham Lincoln
|Teddy Roosevelt
2008 Presidents Race Champion: Abe Lincoln
Many anticipated that Teddy Roosevelt would christen the new Nationals Park with an opening day presidents race victory. Unfortunately, Teddy was caught cheating in the first of many mishaps in 2008 which included among other things encounters with panthers, bananas, and Martha Washington. The big surprise was Abe Lincoln's emergence as a dominant sprinter, leading many observers to speculate whether Abe was juicing. "Honest" Abe had no competition for the 2008 title. Only a final day rain-out curtailed his bid for a 50-win season.
Final 2008 Standings
|Abraham Lincoln
|George Washington
|Thomas Jefferson
|Teddy Roosevelt
Game-by-game results and highlights from 2008 can be found at the Presidents Race 2008 Results & Highlights page.
2009 Presidents Race Champion: Abe Lincoln
Abe Lincoln continued his presidents race dominance in 2009, pulling away from the pack late in the season, and frequently taunting his opponents. Teddy passed the 250 loss milestone in July, and was distracted at various times by clowns, weather, and Twitter. That Cat returned to make several appearances, most notably when getting Teddy disqualified for "unauthorized use of a feline." Teddy mysteriously missed 5 races due to injury late in the season, but his most notorious moment came on the road in Pittsburgh, when he was leveled by a racing pierogie on national television.
Final 2009 Standings
|Abraham Lincoln
|George Washington
|Thomas Jefferson
|Teddy Roosevelt
Game-by-game results and highlights from 2009 can be found at the Presidents Race 2009 Results & Highlights page.
2010 Presidents Race Champion: Abe Lincoln
The 2010 season kicked off with an injury in Teddy's first race, and things went downhill from there, as Abe Lincoln held off furious runs from both Tom and George to lock up another title.
Along the way, things got dirty, with a number of on-field skirmishes, sometimes involving That Cat, the sponsor GEICO Gecko, mascot Screech's mom, or visiting celebrities such as Brian from Family Guy, The Grinch, and Mr Kool Aid, but almost all involving Lincoln.
In July, Teddy let out his frustrations on Abe with a memorable right hook.
Final 2010 Standings
|Abraham Lincoln
|George Washington
|Thomas Jefferson
|Teddy Roosevelt
Game-by-game results and highlights from 2010 can be found at the Presidents Race 2010 Results and Highlights page.
2011 Presidents Race – Champion (tie): Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson
The 2011 season included the debut of new patriotic jerseys, appearances by John F. Kennedy, pro wrestler John Cena, and That Cat, plus lobsters, monkeys, leprechauns, and more. But the season will most be remembered for the campaign of new Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth, who declared his support for the Let Teddy Win movement early in the season, and later took things into his own hands, trying twice to stage a presidents race coup and even winning a race himself before finally giving in to a higher power.
Final 2011 Standings
|Abraham Lincoln
|Thomas Jefferson
|George Washington
|Jayson Werth
|Teddy Roosevelt
Game-by-game results and highlights from the 2011 season can be found at the 2011 Results & Highlights page.
2012 Presidents Race – Champion: George Washington
2012 was a breakthrough season for both the Nationals and for perpetual loser Teddy Roosevelt. As the team soared to the best record in Major League Baseball, pressure grew from all corners to Let Teddy Win. Competing players weighed in, law professors proposed legal remedies, the Orioles' Adam Jones joined the movement, and calls for a Teddy victory came from The Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal to a Ken Burns-narrated video on ESPN.
After The White House issued a statement, the Nats turned the final homestand into a tribute to Teddy, and finally let him taste his first victory on the final game of the regular season. Teddy went on to win all three post-season races.
Along the way, Teddy attacked Pierogies and Birds, and ran into distractions including Batman, lobsters, apple pie, Popsicles and Twitter. The presidents treated fans to an entertaining week of Olympic tributes, and became a YouTube sensation by dancing Gangnam Style. The team briefly experimented with changing the direction of the race based on team wins, but scrapped the idea soon after.
Final 2012 Standings
|George Washington
|Abraham Lincoln
|Thomas Jefferson
|Teddy Roosevelt
Game-by-game results and highlights from the 2012 season can be found at the 2012 Results & Highlights page.
2013 Presidents Race – Introducing William Howard Taft
In 2013, the Nationals introduced a fifth racing president, William Howard Taft. Neither Taft nor Roosevelt tasted victory early on, and they battled for last place in the standings. Meanwhile, the presidents were visited by Teddy's great great grandson Winthrop, HBO's VEEP Selina Myer, The Orioles Bird, The Racing Pierogies, That Cat, a giant cicada, Mr. Kool Aid, the Sharknado, Martha Washington, Sharky, the grounds crew, Teddy's pet moose Bullee, a rally pigeon, and a dozen other mascots from the DC area..
Videos and race-by-race results can be found on the 2013 results and highlights page.
Final 2013 Standings
|George Washington
|Abraham Lincoln
|Thomas Jefferson
|William Howard Taft
|Teddy Roosevelt
2014 Presidents Race – Teddy finally breaks through
The 2014 season got off to an exciting start as Teddy Roosevelt won on opening day. It was the first time Teddy ever held the lead in the presidents race standings, and the Bull Moose really went on a tear after the all star break, maintaining a lead in the standings entering the season's final month, then holding off a late charge by Abraham Lincoln to take his first presidents race season title. Meanwhile, the Nationals finished with the best record in the National League, and had a regular season record of 18-8 when Teddy Roosevelt won. Teddy won all three postseason races before the Nationals were eliminated from the playoffs.
Videos and race-by-race results for 2014 can still be found on the 2014 results and highlights page.
Final 2014 Standings
|#26 Teddy Roosevelt
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#27 William Howard Taft
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
*Includes 3 postseason races
2015 Presidents Race – Introducing Calvin Coolidge
Coming fresh off of Theodore Roosevelt's first winning season in 2014, it appeared early the next season as if Thomas Jefferson might replace Teddy as the team's lovable loser. Jefferson seemed to invent new ways to lose every night as he went winless for almost three months, but then TJ got into the win column when the team celebrated his alma mater. More significantly, a week later the Nationals introduced a sixth racing president on Independence Day weekend. Calvin Coolidge was sponsored by the White House Historical Association and ran in 45 races, winning a respectable 12 of them, before going into retirement at the end of the season.
Videos and race-by-race results for 2015 can be found on the 2015 results and highlights page.
Final 2015 Standings
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#1 George Washington
|#26 Teddy Roosevelt
|#27 William Howard Taft
|#30 Calvin Coolidge
|#3Thomas Jefferson
2016 Presidents Race – Introducing Herbert Hoover
For 2016, visiting racing president Herbert Hoover joined the racing presidents as part of a promotion with the White House Historical Society, and won ten races during the season, but Teddy Roosevelt passed the newcomer in the standings early and never looked back, taking the regular season presidents race crown as the Nationals won the Nationals League East and went to the playoffs for the third time in five years. Along the way, race judge Screech the Eagle crossed the finish line for the first time, and when the Nats made the playoffs, the team attempted to end the curse talk, with mixed success.
Videos and race-by-race results for 2016 can be found on the 2016 results & highlights page.
Final 2016 Standings
|#26 Teddy Roosevelt
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
|#31 Herbert Hoover
|#27 William Howard Taft
|#00 Screech the Eagle
2017 Presidents Race – Back to the Basics
For the 2017 season, the Nationals brought the presidents race back to its roots when they announced that the fourth inning race at Nationals Park would go back to the original "Rushmore Four": George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
The presidents who had been introduced between 2013 and 2016 — William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover — all "retired" to Florida, not coincidentally just in time for the opening of the team's new spring training facility at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.
Taft, Coolidge, and Hoover ran their own 3-man version of the presidents race throughout spring training, while back up north, the original racing presidents renewed their tradition of not letting Teddy Roosevelt win.
Final 2017 Standings*
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#00 Screech the Eagle
|#26 Teddy Roosevelt
*Includes 3 postseason races, all won by George Washington.
Videos and race-by-race results for 2017 can be found on the 2017 results & highlights page.
2018 Season – Lots of rain, but a major draught for Teddy
After winning the first two races of the 2018 season, Teddy failed to win a race for the next four months (including the All Star Game at Nationals Park). Presidential hijinks included races disrupted by double dutch, pet lions, superhero capes, hair styling, "groovy bus" rides, hypnosis, miniature presidents, picnics, selfies, red cards, pet cats, boxer shorts, sword fights, beer interference, garage sales, the YMCA and the electric slide, and a record number of rain delays during the summer of 2018 led the racing presidents to hold an umbrella relay.
Final 2018 Standings*
|#1 George Washington
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#26 Theodore Roosevelt
|#00 Screech
* Standings do not include exhibition wins by George and Tom in the All Star Game and the All Star Celebrity Softball Game at Nationals Park in July.
2019 Season – Teddy's championship journey mirrors that of the Nationals
Teddy Roosevelt's 2019 season mirrored that of the Nationals. The Bull Moose lost the first 8 races of the season, and didn't start his big run until May 24, when the Nationals had one of the worst records in the league at 19-31. By the end of the regular season, the Nationals were in the playoffs, Teddy Roosevelt had run away with the presidents race season title, and remarkably, for the first time, every racing president's wins correlated to a winning team record for the Nationals. Teddy's victories correlated with an 8-game playoff winning streak, though the World Series was a different story, with the Nats losing all three of their home contests. Still, the team came through in Houston, and both the Nationals and Teddy finished the season as champions.
Final 2019 Standings*
|#26 Theodore Roosevelt
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
|#00 Screech the Eagle
|#3 Buster Olney
*includes postseason
2020 Season – Empty Stadium & Presidents on the Street
With the country ravaged by the global COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball operated a modified 60-game season with no fans in the stands, but the Nationals recorded a presidents race, with the presidents wearing masks on streets outside the stadium, and played the video for the handful of players, staff, and media in the stadium during the 4th inning of most home games (and one "road" game played at Nationals Park). There were six games in which the team either didn't run the race, or did not share it on the broadcast or social media.
Final 2020 Standings*
|#26 Theodore Roosevelt
|#16 Abraham Lincoln
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
2021 Season – A Shortened Season and a Shortened Race
When the 2021 season began, the global pandemic was still raging. The Major League Baseball season began on time with strict health protocols. Nationals Park stadium capacity was limited to ten percent, and the racing presidents were not permitted on the field. The team held races outside the stadium, with new rules that included grouping races into "heats." It was hard for fans to follow, and prompted our official retirement of the presidents race standings.
When the stadium reopened to full capacity in June, the racing presidents returned as well, with a new, subtly shorter course. The finish line had been moved from the bottom of section 132 to the gate at the bottom of section 135, presumably to get the presidents off the field more quickly between innings. Teddy Roosevelt lost every race for the first two months back, prompting concerns from longtime followers, but with the team struggling horribly, eventually the Nats relented and let Teddy win.
Final 2021 Standings*
|#3 Thomas Jefferson
|#1 George Washington
| Abraham Lincolnon
|#16 Theodore Roosevelt
More Fun Facts
The presidents race started on video. The predecessor to the presidents race was the PNC Dollar Derby, introduced in the 2005 season as an animated race on the RFK Stadium video scoreboard, featuring famous figures on American currency. Rooting interests were tied to sections of the stadium. George Washington ($1 bill, orange seats), Abraham Lincoln ($5 bill, red seats), and Alexander Hamilton ($10 bill, yellow seats) raced in go-karts around Washington, DC, with one of them always crashing before the end of the race. In 2006, the Dollar Derby was replaced by the presidents race, featuring the four Mt. Rushmore presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt), but it remained a scoreboard-only feature until mid-season.
The first live presidents race was held on July 21, 2006, when the Washington Nationals hosted a "Grand Reopening" of RFK Stadium after the Lerner family had been named as the team's new owners by major league baseball. In a demonstration of commitment to the Washington Nationals fans, the team kicked off a "Paint the Town Red" weekend, during which fans received giveaways and new investments in the fan experience were unveiled. These included a new food court at RFK stadium as well the live-action costumed racing presidents, a brainchild of then entertainment manager Josh Golden. The Nationals defeated the Chicago Cubs 7-6.
The presidents race field was expanded three times, then contracted in 2017. In 2013, William Howard Taft was added to the original "Rushmore Four." A sixth "visiting president" was later added as part of a joint promotion with the White House Historical Association, which honors (and promotes) a different president each year. In mid-season 2015, the first visiting president Calvin "Cal" Coolidge joined the field. In 2016, he was replaced with Herbert "Herbie" Hoover. The sponsorship was to continue through 2017 when the WHHA honored Franklin Roosevelt, but the Roosevelt family was not supportive of a racing FDR.
Racing presidents "retire" to West Palm Beach. In 2017, the Nationals opened the new Ballpark of the Palm Beaches spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the team announced that Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover would "retire" to the new park, where they would hold a presidents race during spring training games. On the day before the park opened, they "retired" William Howard Taft as well, bringing more competition to Florida, and restoring the Nationals Park cadre to the original Rushmore four.
A "presidents belt" was awarded from 2014 – 2016. To kick off the 2014 season, the Nationals introduced the presidents race belt, a wrestling-style trophy handed to the winner after every race. Teddy Roosevelt won the first-ever presidents race belt on April 4, 2014, and it was handed to the winner after every race for three years. The belt was retired after the 2016 season and now the winner is handed the checkered flag to carry off the field.
The presidents race winner is not always predetermined. While some theatrics are occasionally planned in advance, the race more often than not has been real. More than a dozen years after creating the racing presidents, the Nats' former entertainment manager Josh Golden told DCist that the original plan had been to have George Washington win the first race, then leave it to chance, but after four races, when Teddy Roosevelt had yet to win and some fans complained, he decided to "make it a thing"; so from July 26, 2006 to October 3, 2012, there was only one rule handed down by the Nationals: Teddy was not allowed to win.
The racing president costumes were created by Randy Carfagno Productions, a New York City manufacturer of theatrical puppets and costumes. Carfagno's inspiration for the presidents was a giant puppet he'd created for a 1999 Bette Midler concert.
The costumes are fashioned from foam, fabric, fleece, vacuform, netting, and aluminum. When a costume malfunctions, it must be sent back to New York, as happened during the 2009 season. The Nats racing presidents wear regular sneakers instead of cleats during the race, because they spend so much time cruising the Nationals Park stands before and during games.
A second set of presidents was created in 2010. When the Washington Nationals returned from the All Star break and an extended road trip in July, 2010, the racing presidents received a significant facelift. The team declined to comment on the change, but it appeared to be designed to make the presidents look more friendly to the kids. Before the facelift, only Teddy and Tom sported grins, but after the botox treatment, all the presidents were smiling.
The "classic" presidents returned to the field and ran nearly all the races for the 2011 season, with the friendlier, "new look" presidents saved for occasional public appearances. A year later, the 2012 season opened with the "new look" presidents once again taking center stage, where they stayed only through the first homestand, but eventually came back as what appear to be permanent replacements.
Teddy's costume is significantly shorter than the other racing presidents. Teddy is 9′ tall. George Washington is 9'5″. Abe Lincoln is 10′ 0″, and Thomas Jefferson is the tallest at 10′ 1″. As the most top-heavy president, Jefferson tends to fall more often than the others. The height of the newest president, William Howard Taft, has not been disclosed.
The racing presidents' uniforms change daily to match those of the team. The racing presidents wear traditional period costumes on most Sundays, and Washington Nationals uniforms on other days to match those worn by the team on that day. These include home whites, alternate red jerseys, military uniforms, and patriotic jerseys. At least once or twice each summer, usually on a particularly hot day, they forgo uniforms and wear Hawaiian shirts.
Specific presidents are not "operated" by the same person for each game. The many members of the mascot team switch off from day to day. Special guests were occasionally invited to partake in the race during the first season, but this practice was curtailed after the presidents race soared in popularity, presumably to make sure nobody would let Teddy win.
Teddy Roosevelt was disqualified many times. During Teddy's historic losing streak, Nationals fans were teased on several occasions when Roosevelt used illegal tactics to win the presidents race (descending a zip line, riding a golf cart or rickshaw…); however on each such occasion he was immediately disqualified, and his winless streak continued. In the 2008 inaugural game at Nationals Park, Teddy attempted to take a shortcut across the Nationals Park outfield. Nationals mascot Screech, who judges from the finish line, disqualified Teddy in 2008 for cutting the outfield corner and for using a motor scooter. In 2009, he was inexplicably disqualified for "unauthorized use of a feline", and in the 2010 pre-season, it was unnecessary roughness.
Interference by other costumed characters cost Teddy Roosevelt a number of races over the years. "Guest" appearances in the presidents race have been made by dogs, bananas, clowns, lobsters, monkeys, leprechauns, sausages, various college mascots, the Easter Bunny, and John F. Kennedy; but Teddy's most frequent nemesis for several years was a panther who first appeared in April, 2008 and returned two months later wearing a red shirt with Teddy's name crossed out on the back. "That Cat" returned to interfere many times from 2008 through 2013.
There have been 18 presidents race doubleheaders. On the rare occasion that a baseball game extends to 13 innings or more, the racing presidents return to the ball field in the middle of the 13th inning to run another presidents race.
There were three such extra races at RFK Stadium before the team moved to Nationals Park. The first of those was on June 20, 2008, during a 14-inning game against the Texas Rangers. Others occured on September 19, 2008 vs. the San Diego Padres, on April 24, 2010 during a 13-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, on August 26, 2010 during a 13-inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, and on September 17, 2011 during a 13-inning affair vs. the Florida Marlins.
The 2012 season brought three double-headers: during a 13-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds on April 13, 2012, during a 14-inning loss to the New York Yankees on June 16, 2012, and during a 13-inning victory over the Braves early in the morning of August 21, 2012. Two years later in 2014, there were extra races during a 15-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds on May 19, a 13-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves on June 20, and in an epic 18-inning playoff loss on October 4.
2016 brought three bonus races: on April 24 (16 innings), July 1 (13 innings), and July 17 (18 innings). A three-year drought followed, and was finally broken on August 17, 2019, when the Nats took a home game into the 14th inning vs. Milwaukee.
Presidents race bobblehead nights were featured during the 2007 season, and were an instant hit with Washington Nationals fans at RFK Stadium. Attendance on the racing presidents bobblehead nights averaged 33,459 — a 42% increase over that season's average attendance on non-bobblehead nights. The fifth racing president, William Howard Taft, finally got his own bobblehead night on August 17, 2014 and Calvin Coolidge got one on September 22, 2015.
The racing presidents have a 4-2 record on their bobblehead nights. In the 2007 season, George Washington (July 4), Thomas Jefferson (August 4) , and Abe Lincoln (August 18), each won the presidents race on their bobblehead nights, leading many to speculate that Teddy Roosevelt's first victory would finally arrive on his bobblehead night. On September 1, 2007, Teddy was carried in on a throne as the other presidents were held back by secret service agents, but the throne was dropped and George ran by him to keep Teddy's winless streak alive. Taft would later win on his bobblehead night in 2014, but Calvin Coolidge dropped the ball on his bobblehead night in 2015.
The racing presidents have a 3-1 record on their "T-Shirt Tuesdays." In 2008, the Nationals introduced "Free T-Shirt Tuesdays", and gave away racing president t-shirts on selected nights. Again, George Washington (May 20), Thomas Jefferson (June 3) , and Abe Lincoln (July 8), each won the presidents race on their T-Shirt Tuesdays, but Teddy did not come through. On August 12, 2008, Teddy gave up a late lead as he was distracted by a panther that ran onto the field.
The presidents race has it's own Independence Day tradition. In 2009, the Nationals began an annual tradition of hosting an 11:00am home game on Independence Day, and the corresponding presidents race became more of a processional, in which the U.S. flag is carried from wire to wire by one president. From 2009 through 2012, that president was the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who led wire to wire carrying the flag, then issued his declaration. In 2013, George Washington took over flag-bearing responsibilities, and each year since then the presidents have trotted in the order of their presidencies, behind the father of our country. In 2018 and 2019 they passed the flag and exchanging the lead during the race, with George carrying it over the finish line, but in 2021 they returned to the parade-style trot.
GEICO became the official sponsor of the racing presidents in 2006. In 2006, GEICO became the official sponsor of the racing presidents. To kick off the race, a costumed gecko enters the field along with Washington Nationals mascot Screech, and the two characters wait at the temporary finish line for the costumed presidents. The Gecko has rarely participated in the race itself, but it has twice been run over by the presidents at the finish line.
The presidents race route and distance has been changed five times. In 2006 and 2007 at RFK Stadium, they entered the park with a running start from a tunnel in the right field corner. The straight-line race route followed the first base foul line from right field toward a finish line near home plate. With the move to the new Nationals Park in 2008, the presidents were introduced individually, and the race route was lengthened to stretch from center field to the far edge of the Nationals' dugout, after which the racing presidents would exit the field into the stands in Section 127. Unfortunately, the new route lasted through just one homestand. After Major League Baseball complained that the race was delaying the game, the route was shortened and the live introductions of each president was scrapped.
For the last game of the 2011 season, after Nationals players tried twice to interfere on Roosevelt's behalf, the team reversed the course to run along the left field warning track, a route that was repeated for the 2012 season opener. A superstitious plan to switch directions only after the Nationals lost a game was scrapped after two homestands that featured lengthy winning streaks. Ever since, the Nationals have alternated the route to run the "reverse course" a few times each season.
During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, while games were being played without fans, the racing presidents gethered to conduct races outside the stadium on the streets of Washington, DC. The races were recorded, then played on the scoreboard inside the park during the fourth inning.
Finally, when the stadium reopened to full capacity in June of 2021, the racing presidents returned as well but with a new, subtly shorter course. The finish line had been moved from the bottom of section 132, near first base, to the gate in the foul territory up the right field line at the bottom of section 135, presumably to get the presidents off the field more quickly between innings.
The presidents race to music by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Since 2013, the race has been accompanied by Tom Petty's song "Runnin' Down a Dream." In previous years, the team has played Los Lobos 1987 cover of the 1958 hit "Come On, Let's Go" by Richie Valens. As the presidents leave the field, they historically were accompanied by the 1982 hit "I Ran" by English new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. In 2011, the Nationals promised new victory songs which would vary depending on who wins, but it never happened.
The presidents race has twice been named "Best On-Field Promotion" in all of professional sports. GameOps.com, a web site focused on sports entertainment and promotions, recognized the Washington Nationals racing presidents with its Golden Steagle Award for best contest or on-field promotion of 2007. The presidents race was nominated again in 2008, then won the award again in 2009, and again in 2012.
George Washington won the final presidents race at RFK Stadium. At the Washington Nationals' final home game at RFK Stadium on September 23, 2007, many fans expected to see Teddy Roosevelt finally win the presidents race. However, Teddy appeared on the stadium video screen at the new Nationals Park — apparently having arrived for the race at the wrong location. George Washington won easily to complete the 2007 presidents race season and extend Teddy's losing streak into another year.
George Washington won the first presidents race at Nationals Park. On Saturday, March 22, 2008, the Washington Nationals hosted a limited-attendance baseball game for a few thousand fans at Nationals Park between the George Washington University and Saint Josephs University baseball teams. Since this was a "dry run" designed to test all the concessions and in-game entertainment, fans in attendance were treated to the first "unofficial" presidents race at Nationals Park. To the chants of "Let Teddy Win!", Teddy came up short as George Washington was first to cross the tape. Eight days later, at the Washington Nationals' inaugural regular season game at Nationals Park, George also captured the first official presidents race, beating Teddy at the wire.
You can meet and pose for photos with the racing presidents at Nationals Park. The Nationals' stadium offers fans many opportunities to meet and pose for photos with the racing presidents. In 2010, Teddy started greeting fans before the games outside the Navy Yard Metro stop on Half Street NE. Approximately 30 to 60 minutes before the game, all of the racing presidents can be found greeting visitors and posing for photos inside the ticket gates at Nationals Park's main centerfield plaza entrance. After the presidents race is completed in the middle of the 4th inning, the racing presidents return to the Nationals Park concourse behind section 131, where they pose as a group with fans through the 5th inning.


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Introducing Ceili's Cream
Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 10, 2011
Last week I reviewed Ceili's Cream Cappuccino and I found it to be a likable cream liqueur with a nice firm coffee flavour. This week I had a chance to taste another Cream Liqueur from Highwood Distilleries, the lightly flavoured Ceili's Cream. Ceili (pronounced Kay-lee) is an Irish word for a sort of community get-together complete with music, song, dance, and of course, a little food and the drink. Thus Ceili's Cream is produced to be a Cream Liqueur suitable for such an occasion. It is a product of Highwood Distillers, and is a cream liqueur which melds authentic Canadian Whisky with a lightly flavoured cream. It is bottled at 15 % alcohol by volume, and occupies the same market niche as Bailey's Irish Cream, and Kahlua.
Here is an excerpt from my review:
"…The flavour in the mouth is rather sweet with butterscotch and vanilla accented by hints of mocha. The rye influence is very noticeable, and I suspect that some persons will really like this while others would prefer the rye to be more buried in the cream and butterscotch. I also taste a little hint of spice…"
You may read the full review here:
Review: Ceili's Cream
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subset: commoncrawl


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Mohamed Al Fayed has hit back at Felix Magath after the Fulham manager blamed the club's former owner for their demise.
Fulham were relegated from the Premier League in May after 13 seasons and a poor start to life in the Championship saw fans of the club calling for the manager to be sacked.
Magath told the London Evening Standard that Fayed "had not spent money", despite injecting around £200m into the club in 16 years to take them to the Premier League. He also claimed that under Fayed's ownership Fulham "sold the best players and brought in average players. You cannot go on doing that for a long time".
Fayed has described suggestions he is to blame as "absurd" and was keen to point the finger back at Magath and the "absentee landlord" Shahid Khan, to whom he sold the club last year.
Writing in his column for the London Evening Standard on Friday, Fayed said: "What an odd man Felix Magath is. I am not talking about the way he jumps around in the technical area when things go wrong on the pitch and then appeals to the dugout as if the physio and team doctor had caused it.
"No, what's strange is that after losing Fulham's first four games of the Championship season, he has got time to criticise me – someone he has never met – instead of devoting every waking second to putting right his own glaring mistakes.
"There is nothing dishonourable about failure, if you face up to it. Mr Magath isn't the first foreign coach to find the English game hard. What is wrong, and frankly un-English, is to blame someone else instead of taking responsibility for your own actions.
"I sold my beloved Fulham on July 13, 2013. If a week is a long time in politics, 13 months is a lifetime in football. Mr Magath was brought in to stave off relegation from the Premier League but instead presided over a meek surrender.
"It broke my heart. After 16 years at the helm at Craven Cottage, to see my work destroyed in a season was a bitter experience. To be blamed for that failure, is absurd.
"Fortunately, there are 25,000 people who know the truth. The Fulham fans. I am content to be judged by them."
Fayed also said he spent money in the best interests of the club, who saw their best years under his ownership as they reached the final of the Europa League in 2010.
"We played our part in making it the best and most entertaining league in the world. Fulham achieved their highest top-flight finish, seventh," he said.
"We carried English prestige into the inaugural season of the Europa League, taking Atlético Madrid into extra time in the final and within five minutes of a penalty shootout.
"Mr Magath says I bought only average players? So who were the men playing that night in Germany? I'll tell you: titans of the game and every one a hero.
"In football, you cannot be an absentee landlord, as I fear Shahid Khan is most of the time. I went on the pitch before games. I met the fans. I talked to the players. I encouraged them. Yes, they are paid a lot of money but they are still young men who need inspiration. People work for people, not anonymous boards of directors. I gave the players gold chocolate bars from Harrods. If they needed to try harder, I handed out blue peppermints and said they were Viagra. Those players never let me down.
"The personal touch is important. Managers need encouragement too. Every manager I chose tried to take Fulham forward. Two of them became England managers."
He added: "When I was young, there was a cartoon character, Felix the Cat. Whatever happened to him – whether he was run over on the road to Dover or blown up with dynamite – he just kept on walking.
"If Fulham's results do not improve, starting with Cardiff tomorrow, perhaps this particular Felix should follow that cat down the road to Dover and then just keep on walking."


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Today's Music: Moby – Flowers
I got way behind this weekend. Sunday was Easter, so I was planning on doing the cooking for the week on Saturday.
I had to get up early anyway to log in and do some work reconfiguring some servers.
Every weekend, we go through the freezer and come up with three or four dishes to make for the week – big enough for dinner and lunch. Then it sits in the fridge and we just have to heat it when we get home exhausted from work.
Two or three dishes will be meat or poultry, and then the rest usually dairy or vegetable.
So there I am, 8 am on a Saturday, and I think "Might as well start now".
So I chop up the chicken parts, coat them in Shake n' Bake (mmmm), throw 'em in the oven and start on the ravioli. From scratch, of course!
Into the mixer goes flour and eggs. Away churns the mixer!!!
As always, it's a bit clumpy in there, so I use my trusty spatula to keep folding everything under the hook.
Add a bit of water, and voila, dough!
Sort of.
There's always a crumbled amount of dough in the bottom of the bowl that won't fold in.
So onto the counter it goes to be worked and kneaded and deliciousified.
(Mostly. I forgot to add the salt again.)
Then it was 830, and time to get to work. So it got wrapped in plastic, and into the fridge it went.
Until Monday night.
Because I suck.
But Monday night, while my girl was out, I got back to work. Mix ricotta and an egg in a bowl.
Add some Parmesan! How much? Why, as much as I wanted to. (Had to make up for the lack of salt in the dough.)
Cut the dough up into manageable chunks and pound it flat enough to go into my baby.
Seriously, I love my pasta roller!
Roll the dough into nice long sheets. Square them off and cut them in half lengthwise.
Blob on the cheese mixture, and seal a layer of pasta on top.
Voila! Fresh ravioli.
Boil it a few minutes, top it with a bit of tomato sauce from a jar (yeah yeah, I know.) and…enjoy.
Pack it up the same way for lunch.
Go to work.
Watch the clock.
Open the container and be hit with the fragrant pungent scent of…garlic?
Now remember – flour, egg, water. Ricotta, parmesan, egg.
I didn't even remember the salt, for cryin' out loud.
Anyway, eat and enjoy.
Come home. Before I make the mushroom beef barley soup I also didn't make over the weekend, I have to wash yesterdays dishes. Put the plates under the hot water, grab the scrubber, and it hits me – the smell of garlic.
What the hell?!?
About 5 minutes later, I realize "Oh yeeeaaaahhh…the tomato sauce…".
Mystery solved.
I have no idea why my brain doesn't work.
It's not like I don't feed it well.


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Morning Minutes: Jan. 25
Word of the Day
Nosegay NOHZ-gay (noun) A small bunch of flowers - www.merriam-webster.com
Website of the Day
The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
Head to this website today on the birthday of Virginia Woolf (she was born in 1882) to learn more about the writer. The society collects biographical information, has a bibliography, has resource materials and more.
Number to Know
5: Most Super Bowl titles won by a player - Charles Haley.
This Day in History
Jan. 25, 1937: "The Guiding Light" debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until Sept. 18, 2009.
Today's Featured Birthday
Musician Alicia Keys (32)
Daily Quote
"Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title." - Virginia Woolf


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Dunklin Co MO
This site is a AHGP Project which is a volunteer genealogical organization dedicated to the free access of genealogical information. NOTE: If you run across a site thats charges a fee to view these pages, please let me know
This is a free site. There is not a charge to view these pages.
Return To Dunklin County, Missouri MO-AHGP Project


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49ers' Culliver expresses contrition for anti-homosexual comments
NEW ORLEANS - A day after anti-homosexual comments made by 49ers CB Chris Culliver came out, he spoke contritely about what he had said.
"I'm sorry if I offended anyone," Culliver said Thursday to a horde of media members surrounding him right from the start of the players' final session with the media this week before Super Bowl XLVII. "They were very ugly comments. Hopefully, I learn and grow from this experience and this situation."
Head coach Jim Harbaugh echoed a team-issued statement from the day before.
"I reject what he said," Harbaugh said. "That's not something that reflects the way the organization feels (or) the way the rest of the players feel."
Culliver told comedian Artie Lange - a credentialed media member this week - on Tuesday that he would not welcome a homosexual on the team. On Thursday, Culliver reversed field on his comments, saying that he would welcome a homosexual teammate and that "everyone is treated equally in (the 49ers') locker room."
The 49ers did not say whether Culliver would be disciplined for his comments. Harbaugh said Culliver pledged to him that he would learn from the experience.
"I don't do the gay guys, man. I don't do that," Culliver told Lange. "Ain't got no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff."
A nickel back for the 49ers, Culliver is in his second season out of South Carolina. He has started six games this season, playing all 16, and recording two regular-season INTs. His pick against the Falcons in the NFC title game helped spur their comeback and advancement to the Super Bowl.
San Francisco's prominent LGBT community is outraged. The team issued a release Wednesday renouncing Culliver's comments, and he released a statement through the team apologizing.
"The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel," the statement read. "It has taken me seeing them in print to realize that they are hurtful and ugly. Those discriminating feelings are truly not in my heart. Further, I apologize to those who I have hurt and offended, and I pledge to learn and grow from this experience."
Culliver told the media Thursday that the statement were his words and not those of a team official or public-relations employee.
Teammates stood behind Culliver but also recognized his mistake. They pledged not to allow it to distract the team before it takes on the Ravens on Sunday.
"I don't know about their team, but they've got so much stuff going on that's been in the news," 49ers CB Carlos Rogers said. "We just heard about Chris' thing just like you all did yesterday. We haven't paid (any) attention; nobody has addressed it. Coach (Harbaugh) hasn't said (anything) to us.
"I'm pretty sure they talked to Chris, but you know when you continue to talk and say little stuff, it's going to blow up. But it's not going to be a distraction over here."
49ers WR Randy Moss said, "This is not the 1980s or '90s. This is 2013. We should be past this."
But when asked if an openly gay player would be accepted in an NFL locker room, Moss thought long and hard.
"I am not sure," he said. "I am thinking about that right now, and I am really not sure."


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The Mom Stop: Skies are no longer friendly
There was a time when flying was a big deal.
People dressed up. You got real meals while in the air, with real plates and (gasp) even silverware that wasn't plastic. Carrying luggage was free and you didn't have to pay to pick which seat you wanted to sit in.
How things have changed in just the last two decades.
I was faced with this fact when flying with my husband and three young kids across the country last month; it was on an airline that not only charges passengers for checked luggage, but for carry-on luggage, too. If it hadn't been for our two oldest kids carrying their own kid-size suitcases small enough to fit under the seat, we would have paid almost the same amount as a one-way ticket just for our luggage.
Want reclining seats? Not on our 5-hour flight. Our non-reclining seats had minimal padding and tiny trays the size of an iPad mini. Good luck trying to fit any drink on that. Not that drinks are given out for free anymore, anyways. On our particular discount airline, if you wanted anything other than water, you had to pay. And despite having to pay for all that luggage, our one checked bag was lost en route, even though it was a direct flight.
I'd much rather pay more upfront and have basic, expected services while traveling. But it seems that even the major airlines are instituting more fees, as United and American Airlines started charging for carry-on luggage for its "basic economy seats" this month. Delta Airlines, which still allows carry-on luggage for free, has joined United and American in also charging its "economy" customers to choose their seat.
Things have certainly changed.
But things can get worse, and did, when 69-year-old David Dao was bloodied as he was forcibly ejected from his United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, last week. A four-person United crew heading to Louisville needed to be on that flight, which was full. That meant that four paying customers had to be "re-accommodated" as United Airlines put it. When no one volunteered to leave the flight to make room for the United crew, Dao was randomly selected to be booted. When he refused to deplane, stating he was a doctor and had patients to see the next day, he was violently dragged off the plane by airport security.
On a video of the incident posted on April 9, a woman screamed "Please, my God, what are you doing? No, this is wrong. Please look at what you did to him."
The incident has caused national outcry, causing United Airlines' stock to drop as much as 6.3 percent on April 10. CEO Oscar Munoz issued an apology and promised the policies were being reviewed.
"We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off ... to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger; we can't do that," Munoz told "Good Morning America" last week.
I hope United Airlines follows through with their promise to change. I don't blame the pilots or the flight attendants, who are just doing their jobs. Airlines customers may put up with having to pay for their luggage, drinks or in-flight entertainment. But paying customers are not cash cows to be milked for every penny and dime.
Airlines must recognize that its customers are human beings and deserve respect, something that was absent on that United flight to Louisville last week.
-- Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at email@example.com.


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I've tried on lots of mottos over the years. A few that come to mind are:
- Just Do It. Tomorrow.
- Don't cry over spilled milk. Scoop that shit up and put it in your coworker's coffee. (I've never actually done that. See Motto #1.)
- Convince the world that fur is deadly to cats and dogs, so they will shave their pets. Burst onto the market with faux fur coats to keep pets warm. You'll be a hero. And rich. (Again, see Motto #1.)
Frankly, the only one of those three to ever gain any traction was the first one. As evidenced by my lack of success with the second and third options. There have been others, but I don't want to give away all of my
lame brilliant ideas.
My current life motto is something that's sort of been playing on loop in my head for the last few months. You ready for it? This one is for seriouses.
I'll be dead soon.
That's right. My current Life Motto is: I'll be dead soon. It's not nearly as morbid as it sounds (only it kind of is, but only kind of). Let me show you how it works:
Stephanie is trying to lose weight.
Stephanie receives a coupon for $5 off her favorite pizza.
Stephanie exclaims, "I'll be dead soon, anyway!," and orders.
Stephanie is trying to save money.
Stephanie receives a coupon for Mod Cloth.
Stephanie exclaims, "I'll be dead soon, anyway!," and orders.
Stephanie is trying to save money.
Stephanie receives a coupon to a book store.
Stephanie exclaims, "I'll be dead soon, anyway!," and her TBR pile grows.
Stephanie has a raging headache.
Stephanie is suddenly in the mood for hip hop.
Stephanie exclaims, "I'll be dead soon, anyway!," and cranks up the jams as loud as they'll go.
Do you see the problem? Stephanie needs to stop receiving motherfucking coupons, that's what. No? What the fuck do you mean I'm abusing my own motto? Oh, shit. You mean, this?
Stephanie is being bullied at work.
Stephanie thinks to herself, "I'll be dead soon…should probably make a change."
Stephanie is afraid of change and remains in a soul-sucking job that makes her physically ill from stress because she's a fucking pussy. (I really hate that word when it's used like that. But whatever. That's what came out, so it stays.)
Stephanie has doctors who have failed proper diagnoses and treatment of serious problems.
Stephanie thinks to herself, "I'll be dead soon…this is no way to live."
Stephanie is afraid of change and feels strange obligations even to doctors, so she stays and allows her health to diminish.
Stephanie dreams of moving to the Pacific Northwest.
Stephanie thinks to herself, "I'll be dead soon…I should pursue my dreams while I can."
Stephanie is afraid of change and stays put, pining away for greener grass.
So I really am abusing my own motto. I started saying it to myself precisely for the more serious things I need to address. But it slowly shifted to being used for less serious things (that also end up damaging me when I give in), and I continue to give in to my fears and worries. I continue to stagnate and wallow in my miseries and what-ifs.
I need to work on these things. I seriously do. Maybe once I've worked a bit on my mental health, I'll be stronger, more confident and better equipped to tackle things like my hopes and dreams. Hey, you know what? That's something I have actually worked toward!
Stephanie suffers from severe depression, for years.
Stephanie thinks to herself, "I'll be dead soon…why am I content to hate myself and my life forfuckingever?"
Stephanie finally makes appointments with mental health professionals. And has actually kept them so far. And will continue to do so.
In the meantime, perhaps a Motto Upgrade is in order. You know how people say things like, "I'll work on it when I have time?" I'll let Henry Rollins wrap this up for us.
Today's post brought to you by:
The Letter M (for Mottos and Motherfuckers and Mastur…nevermind) and
The Number 99 (ask Jay Z why, since his life is so hard) oh, and also by
Josh, since he told me to get off my ass and write something for fucks sake (I know that sounds like something I would say, but those were his exact words. Get him!) (Also, that's not quite true.) (Get him, anyway.).


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The disappointment over Teddy Roosevelt's Memorial Day loss is still stinging not just the Natosphere, but also the National press, with Yahoo! Sports and even the Philadelphia Inquirer joining the ranks of news media wondering why the Nats haven't let Teddy win.
Which raises the question: After nearly 400 consecutive losses, why were expectations so high on Monday?
The rumors that the Hero of San Juan Hill would take his first victory on Monday appear to have started in the press box. Could it be that the Nationals planted this story as a red herring?
The catalyst, no doubt, came Friday night when outfielder Jayson Werth called for the Nats to Let Teddy Win, and picked up steam on Saturday, when the Nationals' star player started clearly watching the race with anticipation, and disgust.
But something happened on Sunday, and unlike many Nats rumors, this one started in the press room, as newspaper, radio, and TV journalists all started reporting that Monday could be Teddy's big day.
Nationals TV color man F.P. Santangelo guaranteed a Memorial Day victory on the air. Washington Post blogger Dan Steinberg published his ten reasons why Teddy could win on Memorial Day. Teddy's quest was previewed on local news stations around DC, and Danny Rouhier of 106.7 The Fan devoted extensive time during the Nats pregame show to "inside information" suggesting that Teddy might win.
Rumor has it that the inside source was none other than the Nationals PR department. We don't know whether the Nats seriously considered letting Teddy win on Monday, but it's apparent that they wanted the press to think so.
On Tuesday's broadcast, Santangelo apologized. "I got to check my sources," he said, "I was almost sure that Teddy was going to win yesterday. I got some bogus information, partner. Somebody set me up good."
You and me both, F.P.
At least one Teddy hopeful remains undeterred. On Tuesday night, Jayson Werth stayed in the dugout, but watched the presidents race closely. You have to keep the faith:
Video courtesy of YouTube member lfahome


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This Is the Manicure You Should Get, Based on Your Astrological Sign
Beauty Gift Sets So Pretty You Don't Need to Wrap 'Em
Imagine how much easier the holidays would be if you didn't have to spend days wrapping presents. Give these gift sets, and you can skip the paper and ribbon entirely
Older comments
I have to agree here, Most of these a gorgeous!
by HxCookie Monday, February 11, 2013 at 01:22PM Report as inappropriate
great ideas
by LittleBunny Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 10:12AM Report as inappropriate
Sephora had some very awesome sets this winter season. Bite Beauty has a couple of great sets that didn't not require any wrapping. The article was too much fun to look at. It made me want to shop. I really geeked out on the Fresh set.
by Sari Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 02:56PM Report as inappropriate
by Nicole2814 Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 12:28PM Report as inappropriate
i love tarte is my all time favorite line of makeup
by sandyc Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 12:43PM Report as inappropriate
love all josie products they really make your skin soft
by sandyc Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 12:38PM Report as inappropriate
I am a huge fan of packaging!! I love fresh Sugar the glosses slide on soo smooth and they are extremely hydrating, and not heavy!! I love Philosophy but I'm not into "sweet" smells, I would love that gift set if it was in Amazing Grace or Pure, I prefer clean smells. I Love the Too Faced Kit and the MAC Gloss Kit! I especially Love the Tarte Kit! The packaging is beautiful! I love Tarte makeup!! I also like the full fragrance house packing, very unique! And the Lorac Kit! They are all so amazing and pretty! I really like candles, but I hate it when I get them as gifts.
by morgan_ledford Friday, December 28, 2012 at 07:46AM Report as inappropriate
Beautiful slides of these gorgeous products! i would love them all! Happy Holidays!
by rayshaviolet Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 01:25PM Report as inappropriate
With just the packaging alone, I would LOVE all of them! My favorite is the MAC and the Too Faced gift set. I'm afraid if I buy them, I'd end up opening them and using it myself. I deserve it!
by flirtygirl214 Monday, December 17, 2012 at 03:43PM Report as inappropriate
I want all of them!
by andyv1217 Saturday, December 15, 2012 at 10:32PM Report as inappropriate


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The sweet potato was one of a number of crops domesticated in the Andes and, like many of the rest, it became a global crop in the colonial era. But there were some hints that the sweet potato may have already started its global sweep before the Europeans ever took a bite out of one. Some of the early European explorers, including Captain Cook, reported finding it in places like Hawaii. All of which implies that the Polynesians, who managed to spread widely across the Pacific, had made it all the way to South America.
But it was difficult to be sure, given that European travelers later enhanced its spread within the Pacific and elsewhere. This has also created a complex genetic legacy that obscures its origins. Now, researchers have gone back and obtained DNA from museum samples, including some collected by Cook's crew, and find that the DNA indicates that Polynesians made it as far as South America.
Archeological remains appear to place sweet potato cultivation in the core of Polynesia by the year 1200, and it spread with further migrations to places like New Zealand and Hawaii. It's possible that the plant had naturally spread as seeds across the ocean and the Polynesians learned to cultivate it independently. One of the arguments against this is the fact that the Polynesian terms for the crop appear to be closely related to its name in Quechua, the language of the Peruvian Andes. ("Kuumala" and derivatives vs. "kumara" and relatives.)
That, and the fact that the Polynesians made it most of the way across the Pacific, clearly getting as far as Easter Island. Still, reaching South America and then returning with crops is quite a significant step beyond that.
Trying to piece together a model of the sweet potato's spread based on things like historical reports, known human travels, and genetic information, however, has been quite a mess. Even the simplest ideas that are consistent with the data involve the sweet potato entering the Pacific through three different routes, and then potentially hybridizing with the strains already in residence.
It may be complicated, but the new genetic study provides support for this three-pronged (tripartite) assault on the Pacific. The researchers start with a detailed study of the cultivars found in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The researcher team, based in France, found that there are two distinct populations: a northern strain, found in Mexico and the Caribbean, and a southern one, in the Andes, where the crop was first domesticated. (There's also a region of overlap and intermingling in between the two.)
Genetic relatives of the northern strain entered the Pacific via two routes. In the first, trade with the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era brought it there; from that site, it diffused into mainland Asia and to some island strains. But the Caribbean strain made its way across the Atlantic, through Madagascar, and into Indonesia. Its arrival, likely in the 1700s, transformed the agriculture of the New Guinea highlands, which had previously been focused on taro. Cultural changes followed in its wake.
Most modern cultivars are descended from some combination of these two invasions. But samples from museums, including some collected by the earliest European voyagers, show that this wasn't likely to be the case prior to the late 1800s. Before then, most strains were spread directly from initial sources, with very little interbreeding.
The other thing that museum samples indicate is that, prior to extensive European travels in the Pacific, there was another, genetically distinct form of the sweet potato present in Eastern Polynesia. And that appears to have originated from the southern population, focused in the Andes. It was already present in Polynesia before colonists left this region to settle in Hawaii and New Zealand.
Given that we already know Polynesians had the technology to engage in long-distance voyages across the Pacific, the simplest explanation for this is that they did make it to South America, probably somewhere around the year 1000. And, most strikingly, some of them apparently turned around and traveled back halfway across the Pacific.
This, combined with last week's results that showed travelers from India made it to Australia over 4,000 years ago, provides impressive evidence of just how mobile some of our ancestors have been. And they managed to travel all that distance with technologies we'd generally consider primitive. But it's important to consider that, just because you wouldn't hop into an open canoe and head out into the Pacific, it wouldn't have meant certain death for anyone with the right skills.
PNAS, 2013. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211049110 (About DOIs).


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text: Back A Good Walk Can Make You Young What would you do to take 20 years off your age? The answer may be as simple as walking, says Barry A. Franklin, Ph.D. "Starting at the age of 20, we lose about 1 percent of our aerobic fitness each year," Dr. Franklin says. "A walking program can improve that fitness from 10 to 20 percent in three months. That's the same as 10 to 20 years of rejuvenation." Dr. Franklin runs a cardiac rehabilitation program in Royal Oak, Mich. "Walking is one of the best and easiest exercises someone can do," he says. "You don't need any equipment beyond a good pair of walking shoes. It's a great activity to do with others. And it's safe." No complications With almost all other types of physical activity, Dr. Franklin explains, there is some risk for complication involving bones, muscles, heart, or lungs. "But there are almost no reports of complications in adults from walking," he says. That makes walking a great way to fulfill the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation that we spend at least 30 minutes a day in moderate physical activity, says I-Min Lee, M.D., Sc.D., a Boston epidemiologist. "Moderate activity like walking can extend longevity. It can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It's also been associated with a lower risk for certain cancers, such as breast or colon cancer." Moderate, Dr. Lee says, is a relative term. It depends on your level of fitness. "For many people, walking between 3 and 4 miles an hour would be moderate. But for people who haven't been active, 2 miles an hour would be fast enough to get the benefits." The way you can tell whether you're at a moderate level, she says, is that your heart rate will go up and you'll sweat lightly, but you should still be able to talk with someone. Start slow Thirty minutes a day may seem like a lot of walking if you're not used to it. But you don't have to do it all at once, says Dr. Franklin. "Thirty minutes should be a goal, but you don't have to start there," he says. "Just a few minutes each day provides benefits. The idea is to start slow, going at your own pace." "People who don't walk might feel a few aches and pains at first," Dr. Lee says. "But those go away." She adds that even people with arthritis find their joints don't hurt as much after they've been walking for a while. "The important thing is to move and not fret about goals," she says. "Work on enjoying it. If you enjoy it, you'll keep doing it." Both Drs. Lee and Franklin recommend trying to increase what you do a little each week. Trying to walk about 10 percent farther or 10 percent longer each week is reasonable, they say. And if you can't get in 30 minutes all at once, both advise breaking up the time into 10- or 15-minute periods. "Three 10-minute periods," Dr. Franklin says, "will give you almost as much benefit as one 30-minute period." Dr. Franklin also says you shouldn't limit yourself to a formal walking program. "The key isn't to walk 30 minutes and then say you're just going to watch TV the rest of the day. I sometimes recommend getting a pedometer you can wear on your belt. A pedometer counts the number of steps you take. Then, at the end of the day, you can look to see how much you're walking." The average person takes between 2,500 and 3,500 steps each day. Dr. Franklin recommends challenging yourself to increase the average number of steps you take on a weekly basis. "The more you move," he says, "the better you'll feel."


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Tangerine's Kitchen is hosting this month's Bread Baking Day, and the theme is Multigrain Breads. It's been so long since I've participated in & BBD – Nearly a year! Here I am again, with a most delicious Multigrain loaf, appropriately called Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire, from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.
This is the bread that almost wasn't : A lovely, lazy Saturday afternoon and a beautifully shaped boule was proofing in the kitchen, when I heard my daughter crying in her bedroom. A nightmare had woken her up mid-nap so I calmed her down and I snuggled her…and fell asleep! When we woke up 2.5 hours later I found my boule looking more like a multigrain crêpe than anything else!
Determined not to give up I formed a loaf and put it in a bread pan, hoping for the best… and let me tell you, it was indeed the best! The best bread I've made to date! I find myself saying that more and more frequently…I might be getting the hang of this bread baking thing, or The Bread Baker's Apprentice is just brilliant. Or both.
I used amaranth, oats, millet, wheat germ and brown rice, and I also subbed 1 cup Whole Wheat flour for bread flour. The crunchy, slightly-sweet crust and the moist, dense crumb made this an excellent bread for morning toast or sandwiches.
As always, thanks to Zorra for keeping the breads baking around the world! And be sure to check out Susan's weekly Yeast Spotting for more beautiful baked goodness!


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The Group, Inc. believes it has a powerful role to play in strengthening our communities. Our strong culture of service and authentic desire to make meaningful social impact, is the driving force behind all of our community involvement initiatives.
These organizations and many others benefit from the financial support provided by The Group, Inc.
The Group, Inc. provides scholarships for the Colorado State University, College of Business by offering one FULL TUITION scholarship to an area high school graduate.
Students from Larimer County high schools or Windsor High School who have been accepted into the CSU College of Business may apply for a full tuition scholarship from The Group, Inc. This Scholarship Fund was established to recognize excellent students who are interested in business careers.
The scholarship can be applied to tuition and general fees at Colorado State University.
Have graduated from a Larimer County or Windsor high school (private or home school also eligible).
Be accepted into the CSU Business School.
Be an entering freshman upon application.
Have a GPA of 3.4 or higher, and fill out an application.
Colorado State University Business Scholarships
Questions: Pam Johannsen, College of Business – (970) 491-1499
(The Group, Inc. employees and family members are not eligible)


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You celebrate.
We decorate.
Eco friendly balloons.
Customize & Shop Now
Laura, our Chief Balloonatic (with over 20 years of experience with balloons) provides a list of recommended items to create the impact you want for your size and type of space.
There is no obligation to choose us for the actual project. If you do hire us to create the decor discussed in the session, the consultation fee gets deducted from your project and ends up being free.
The balloon demi arch for the dance recital was amazing!
Thanks for making it so convenient to get the arch. The crew brought it already made in a trailer, set it up in a short time. It lasted a long time too.
The balloon columns they created looked great and really helped make our race day atmosphere. From making color recommendations to ensure our columns would look their best. Using Crazy Balloon Delivery was an A+ experience from beginning to end. For great quality and service, highly recommend.
Thank you so much for the Pop Corn Balloons. They were awesome and my daughter was thrilled. Thank you for everything:)
-Eco-friendly: Our helium-free options are more earth friendly. We re-use hardware to reduce land fill waste. Ask for biodegradable latex, which does not kill the rubber tree. Biodegradable latex balloons will break down. And it keeps rubber trees alive that would not otherwise be here.
- We are an online store like Amazon, except your balloon decor does not arrive in boxes. It arrives fully assembled. We inflate it, trailer it and can also rig it for you.
- Removing your worries by engineering and rigging balloon decor, bouquets and favors to perform properly and last as long as you need.
- Convenience: online ordering & local delivery in and around Lansdale, PA.
The balloonatics of Crazy Balloon Delivery, LLC
Balloon decorations & deliveries
Crazy Balloon Delivery, LLC origins:
In 1997, we were walking around South Street in Philadelphia. We saw a sign that said "Free Pizza." We thought that someone must be trying to sell condos. Never having met a piece of pizza we didn't like, we decided to hear their pitch. Instead, it was an entertainment agency showing how to do magic and balloon sculptures. We said "Fun! Gonna do that!" Over the decades, the balloons got bigger and crazier. And some of them got smaller and more adorable (so stinkin' cute you can hardly stand it).
Crazy Balloon Delivery, LLC is a balloon shop that delivers. Order balloons for delivery online, enjoy convenient delivery or curbside pickup. And we can make absolutely anything! Make it gobsmackingly ginormous or small and cute. Add custom lettering. Add custom fillings (candy, teddy bears, anything else that will fit). And use custom colors to reflect your school spirit, your brand or your favorite color.
How we differ from other party stores and balloon stores: We do not sit at a counter waiting for you to come and grab a quick, common, helium balloon. (After all, other stores like Party City and your local grocery store have that covered.) Instead, we craft custom, extraordinary balloons, taking time with the designs, and custom ordering just the right components and colors. It's not a same day, last-minute grab and go thing. It's an amazing custom experience that takes some time to engineer.
Our team: Our team includes our Balloonjineer, Joe (a mechanical engineer with a B.S from University of Maryland), our Balloonstickler, Clair (who excels atsculpting, photography and quality control) Laura, Chief Balloonatic (with an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University) and our network of other local balloon professionals who we tap for big jobs.
Where do you deliver? We deliver to Lansdale, PA and nearby towns. If you are outside our delivery zone, choose curbside pickup (by appointment) in Lansdale, PA.
When can I stop in to pick up a bouquet on a moment's notice? Pretty much never. We are not a retail store, but an etail store. Order conveniently online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in our online store. And schedule your curbside pickup or delivery.
We are always looking for new team members who want a fun job! Apply at the bottom of this page.
We are an e-tail balloon decoration with a delivery zone including Lansdale and adjacent towns. Our studio is in Lansdale, PA.
18 E. Main Street, Lansdale, PA
Online store hours:
24 hours a day, 7 days a week


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Hmmm, I generally play it safe I have to admit – but occasionally I do do something stupid and/or dangerous during my normal activities. This generally happens when I'm out bushwalking, though I find myself being more cautious these days.
Some of the most dangerous situations I have found myself in while bushwalking have been when trying to ascend/descend waterfalls. I have fallen on several occasions now and on one occasion suffered some injuries that required me to abandon the rest of my walk/climb on that day.
On another occasion I fell and landed far too close to what was effectively a spear, right beside by throat.
Some falls like these do tend to lead you to more caution in future times.


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George Will: Obama sidesteps Constitution
"The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate." The Constitution, Article II, Section 2.
When on Jan. 20, 2009, President Barack Obama swore to defend the Constitution, he did not mean all of it. He evidently believes that the provision quoted above merely expresses the Framers' now anachronistic anxieties about abuses of executive power. (Jefferson's lengthy catalog of George III's abuses is called the Declaration of Independence.) So on Jan. 4, 2012, Obama simply ignored the Recess Clause.
He was in his "We can't wait!" — for Congress and legality — mode, as he was when he unilaterally rewrote laws pertaining to welfare, immigration and education. On Jan. 4, he used recess appointments to fill three seats on the National Labor Relations Board, even though the Senate said it was not in recess. Obama's rejoinder was: I decide what "recess" means. Now a court must decide whether the Constitution means what it says.
In 2011, the Noel Canning company, which bottles soft drinks in Yakima, Wash., was negotiating a labor contract with Teamsters Local 760. The union says it and the company reached a verbal agreement. The company disagrees. An administrative law judge sided with the union. On Feb. 8, 2012, after Obama's disputed appointments, the NLRB upheld that decision and asked a federal court to enforce it. Noel Canning is asking the court to declare that the NLRB's intervention in the dispute was unlawful because the board lacked a quorum until Obama made the recess appointments, which were invalid because the Senate was not in recess.
In support of the company, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 41 members of his caucus have filed a brief arguing the recess appointments "eviscerated" two of the Senate's constitutional powers — to "determine the rules of its proceedings" and to reject presidential appointments.
The Recess Clause says the president's power extends only to vacancies that "happen" while the Senate is in recess. This does not describe the NLRB vacancies — or many vacancies filled by many presidents' recess appointments since George Washington made the first ones in 1789. It does, however, describe the problem the Framers addressed: Until the Civil War, travel was slow and arduous, so Senate sessions usually lasted only three to six months. The Framers wrote the Recess Clause to give presidents very limited authority to fill important posts, while preserving the Senate's absolute veto.
For more than a century, it was accepted that recess appointments could only fill vacancies that occurred between sessions, not in recesses during sessions. Of late, however, presidents of both parties have made many recess appointments during short adjournments. To limit this, both parties when controlling Congress have adopted the practice of conducting pro forma sessions so the Senate is not in recess even while most senators are away.
It was holding such sessions every three days when Obama abandoned the settled policy of presidents respecting this practice. He treated the Senate's unwillingness to act on his NLRB nominations as an inability to act, and said this inability constituted a de facto recess..
Because the Constitution unambiguously gives the Senate the power to regulate its proceedings, Obama's opinion that the Senate was not in session, and his assertion that it was in recess even though it held sessions on Jan. 3 and 6, has no force or relevance. And although he is a serial scofflaw, not even he has asserted the authority to make recess appointments during adjournments of three days or fewer.
The constitutional guarantee of congressional self-governance, combined with the Senate's determination that it was in session Jan. 4, destroys Obama's position, which is that he can declare the Senate in recess whenever he wishes to exercise what the Framers explicitly denied to presidents — a unilateral appointments power. Consider this episode when deciding whether on Jan. 20, 2013, he should again have a chance to swear to (only selectively) defend the Constitution.


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Describing it as "the future," Mozilla has been showing off ORBX.js, a video codec roughly comparable to the industry-standard H.264 that can be decoded entirely in JavaScript.
ORBX.js was developed by a company called OTOY. OTOY's major product is Octane Render, a 3D renderer that works exclusively on NVIDIA cards using CUDA. Working with customers including Autodesk, OTOY has developed technology to allow applications such as Autodesk's 3ds Max modelling software to be accessed over the Web without using plugins.
Like most video codecs, ORBX distinguishes between video frames that are encoded in their entirety—"I-frames"—and those encoded as deltas relative to another frame—"P-frames" and "B-frames". I-frames can be decoded independently of one another, but P- and B-frames can only be decoded when their surrounding frames have also been decoded. ORBX, again like most other video codecs, can be used to create video streams made up entirely of I-frames, or streams that use a mix of I-frames and P-frames. I-frame-only modes don't compress as efficiently, but are simpler to decode.
OTOY plans to develop ORBX to make it suitable for a wider range of applications than existing codecs like H.264. The company wants to include features such as support for floating point data, to make it suitable for both high dynamic range imagery and video, and to make it usable for storing 3D data such as depth buffers.
Its encoding efficiency is broadly comparable to H.264—the company says that it's 25 percent "better" than H.264 in some tests, but in others H.264 pulls ahead. The new HEVC/H.265 codec has better encoding efficiency than both H.264 and ORBX (it produces smaller files for a given level of quality), but requires far more computational power to encode and decode.
Being designed for streaming live apps, the ORBX encoder boasts low latency. To prove this point, the company has demonstrated the game Left 4 Dead 2 being streamed to a browser.
Possibilities for ORBX
OTOY describes a number of future ideas for ORBX. One plan is for more powerful remote application support, not merely streaming a video of an application (similar to the way VNC provides remote application support), but streaming the graphical API calls that an application makes, using client-side WebGL to actually perform the drawing. This reduces the load on the server end, and can reduce bandwidth requirements substantially.
Another idea is to use ORBX for DRM-free streaming video. OTOY believes that ORBX's efficient on-GPU encoding makes it practical to embed within each video stream a per-user watermark. Watermarked video wouldn't be DRM-protected, and so would be relatively easy to record and redistribute, but the watermarking would make it possible to determine who released a given video, in turn opening the door to pursuing the original pirates.
Mozilla's interest in ORBX is obvious. Mozilla is aggressively promoting the Web as the platform to replace all other platforms. This is the entire point of its Firefox OS smartphone platform: that rather than developing apps tied to Android or iOS or Windows Phone or BlackBerry, developers should write apps for the Web, using JavaScript, HTML, and related technologies.
Demonstrations of video decoding in JavaScript serve to bolster Mozilla's argument that JavaScript performance is good enough to make it usable for almost every application—even those traditionally regarded as "compute-intensive." Mozilla itself has experimented with JavaScript-based video decoding with its Broadway decoder. This was fast enough to decode H.264 at 30 frames per second in JavaScript alone.
The alternative to DRM is also attractive to an organization that promotes the open Web. DRM capabilities are set to be included in browsers, a decision that isn't universally popular among open Web proponents. The use of watermarking instead of DRM has some precedent—iTunes Music Store, for example, made a successful transition from DRM to watermarks—and could be pushed as a demonstration of the lack of necessity for DRM in browsers.
But is this really "the future" as Brendan Eich, Mozilla CTO, greeted it? That's harder to see.
Challenges remain
ORBX looks very cool for certain applications, but as a demonstration of the power of "openness" it's currently a little lacking. Organizations such as Mozilla may not like H.264's royalty-bearing status, but it's nonetheless an open, documented, published standard. ORBX, however, is none of these things. It's a proprietary algorithm created by a commercial organization. We spoke to OTOY, and the company told us it has no immediate, specific plans to publish it openly. That's not to say that the company is necessarily opposed to doing so; rather, it's not sure how to do without undermining its commercial products.
Even apart from this detail, using JavaScript for video decompression is problematic. After many years of refusal, Mozilla decided last year that it would start supporting H.264 compression in the HTML5 <video> tag.
The company was ideologically opposed to this, due to H.264's patents and royalties, but came to realize that it was a practical necessity, especially for Firefox OS. H.264 video is abundant, and is unambiguously "the winner" of all the current major video codecs. Consequentially, H.264 is widely supported in hardware, enabling battery-efficient hardware-accelerated playback of H.264 video. For Firefox OS to be viable, it had to support this codec and this hardware.
H.264's abundance and hardware support are no less important this year than they were last. Video codecs written in JavaScript may be technically impressive, but they mean eschewing that hardware support. The use of WebGL and shader programs may improve the power efficiency somewhat, but they are still inferior to the dedicated motion video hardware found in all modern GPUs. It's unlikely that mobile users or video distributors are going to be willing to give up this power advantage any time soon.
The viability of watermarking as an alternative to DRM is also speculative conjecture rather than identification of a genuine industry trend. In spite of the changes in the audio market, the video market has remained firmly in favor of DRM. The audio and video markets have significant differences in terms of both production and usage model, and it's not clear that what works in one market will necessarily work in another.
Nonetheless, aspects of the OTOY demonstration probably are indications of what the future will hold. Sony bought cloud gaming company Gaikai last year, and there's speculation that it'll use Gaikai-powered cloud gaming as its backwards compatibility solution for the PlayStation 4. Cloud gaming pioneer OnLive almost went out of business last year, after failing to attract sufficient customers, but a comparable service that's built-in to an existing games platform could fare rather better—though latency problems are likely to be a permanent fixture.
Similarly, streaming applications are likely to continue to remain important to certain niche users, but it's much less likely that they'll ever be the solution to mainstream application demands. Again, latency is one of the insurmountable difficulties.
Listing image by Lee Maguire


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World Bank, running out of money, seeks $800 billion bailout from James Patterson.
Fake Book News posts on One-Minute Book Reviews satirize American literary culture, including the publishing industry. They consist of some of the most popular of the made-up news items that appear on Janice Harayda's FakeBookNews page on Twitter. To read all the tweets in the series, please follow FakeBookNews (@FakeBookNews) on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FakeBookNews.


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Manning sentenced to 35 years for WikiLeaks disclosures
FORT MEADE, Md. — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in one of the nation's biggest leak cases since the Pentagon Papers more than a generation ago.
Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, stood at attention and appeared not to react when military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the punishment without explanation during a brief hearing.
Among the spectators, there was a gasp, and one woman put her hands up, covering her face.
"I'm shocked. I did not think she would do that," said Manning supporter Jim Holland, of San Diego. "Thirty-five years, my Lord."
The former intelligence analyst was found guilty last month of 20 crimes, including six violations of the Espionage Act, as part of the Obama administration's unprecedented crackdown on media leaks.
But the judge acquitted him of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, an offense that could have meant life in prison without parole.
Manning could have gotten 90 years behind bars. Prosecutors asked for at least 60 years as a warning to other soldiers, while Manning's lawyer suggested he get no more than 25, because some of the documents he leaked will be declassified by then.
Manning will get credit for the more than three years he has been held, but he'll have to serve at least one-third of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. His rank was reduced to private, he was dishonorably discharged and he forfeited his pay.
Before announcing the sentence, Lind warned spectators against any outbursts, saying she would stop the proceedings and expel anyone creating a disturbance, as she has in the past.
She had barely stepped out of the room when guards hurried Manning out through a front entrance and some half-dozen supporters shouted from the back of the room: "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley" and "You're our hero."
The native of Crescent, Okla., digitally copied and released more than 700,000 documents, including Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables, while working in 2010 in Iraq.
He also leaked video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters photographer.
A potentially more explosive leak case unfolded as Manning's court-martial was underway, when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was charged with espionage for exposing the NSA's Internet and telephone surveillance programs.
At his trial, Manning said he gave the material to the secrets-spilling website WikiLeaks to expose the U.S. military's "bloodlust" and generate debate over the wars and U.S. policy.
During the sentencing phase, he apologized for the damage he caused, saying, "When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people."
His lawyers also argued that Manning suffered extreme inner turmoil over his gender identity — his feeling that he was a woman trapped in a man's body — while serving in the macho military, which at the time barred gays from serving openly. Among the evidence was a photo of him in a blond wig and lipstick.
Defense attorney David Coombs told the judge that Manning had been full of youthful idealism.
"He had pure intentions at the time that he committed his offenses," Coombs said. "At that time, Pfc. Manning really, truly, genuinely believed that this information could make a difference."
Prosecutors did not present any evidence in open court that anyone was physically harmed as a direct result of Manning's actions. But they showed that al-Qaida used material from the helicopter attack in a propaganda video and that Osama bin Laden presumably read some of the leaked documents, which were published online by WikiLeaks. Some of the material was found in bin Laden's compound when it was raided.
Also, government witnesses testified the leaks endangered U.S. intelligence sources, some of whom were moved to other countries for their safety. And several ambassadors were recalled, expelled or reassigned because of embarrassing disclosures.
Prosecutors called Manning an anarchist and an attention-seeking traitor, while supporters have hailed him as a whistleblower and likened him to Daniel Ellsberg, the defense analyst who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to The New York Times and other newspapers.
That case touched off an epic clash between the Nixon administration and the press and led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the First Amendment.
The Obama administration has charged seven people with leaking to the news media, while only three people were prosecuted in all previous administrations combined.
Among those seven is Snowden, whose leak has triggered a fierce debate over security vs. privacy and strained U.S. relations with Russia, which is harboring him despite demands he be returned to this country to face charges.
In addition, the Justice Department has obtained the records of phones used by Associated Press journalists and emails of a Fox News reporter.
Also, a federal appeals court ruled recently that New York Times reporter James Risen cannot shield his source when he testifies at the trial of a former CIA officer accused of leaking information about a secret operation.
A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Michael Ratner, has suggested Manning's conviction could make it easier for federal prosecutors to get an indictment against Assange as a co-conspirator.
But other legal experts said the Australian's status as a foreigner and a publisher make it unlikely he will be indicted.


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Yesterday, April 6, and today mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee. This battle is significant in several ways, some which are explored in a New York Times article published yesterday. One of my buddies and fellow reenactor attended one of the 150th events last weekend and there is a buzz about them on one of the major reenacting forums. However, this battle is still one that is popular for people to read about and study, though not to the level of Gettysburg, but one of the most studied in the Western Theater.
The battle that began near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, near a small church called Shiloh, which meant place of peace, came to symbolize the carnage that characterized the Civil War. The Union forces were pushing down the Tennessee River towards the rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi. Having achieved two important victories in February against Forts Henry and Donelson, the Union was beginning to take the war to the South, under the leadership of Ulysses S. Grant. It was part of the larger strategy to gain control of the major inland waterways to cut the Confederacy in two. Confederate forces were hopeful of thwarting the Union strategy by delivering a major blow in the West, which reflected the state of the war in the East that was going in the South's favor.
On April 6, General Ulysses S. Grant had established his camp on the bank of the Tennessee River, at Pittsburg Landing, the night before and was not prepared for General Albert Sydney Johnston's Confederate army, which was encamped nearby. The Confederates launched a surprise attack on the Union camp that morning, which sought to drive the Union away and back up the river. Though initially caught off guard, Union troops rallied and fought a bitter fight against the Confederates along a line extending from the river for over a mile to Owl Creek. Part of the Union line engaged in heavy fighting, which became known as the Hornet's Nest, where Union forces held firm. Fighting raged all along the line, with hundreds falling, including General Johnston, who was wounded in the back of the knee and bled to death. Johnston was the highest ranking officer killed on either side during the war.
After the first hard day of battle, a storm raged, with lightning flashing, showing hogs among the dead. Wounded soldiers came to a small pond to drink and bathe their wounds, dying the water pink, earning the small body the name "Bloody Pond". William Tecumseh Sherman approached Grant under a tree, sheltering during the storm after the first day, and said, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant replied, "Yes, lick 'em tomorrow, though."
The second day, April 7 brought bad luck for the Confederates. The Union army was reinforced by General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, which arrived the previous night. Further, the Confederates were disorganized by the loss of Johnston, which placed P.G.T. Beauregard in command, who did not realize he was outnumbered. In addition, Confederate command was rife with problems revolving around personality conflicts and subordinates not following Beauregard well. Facing a Union counterattack, Confederates were forced back from their gains the previous day and withdrew from the field, eventually back to Corinth.
The battle was the bloodiest in American history up to that time, and some claimed more casualties were suffered than all American wars combined to that time. Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing), while Confederate losses were 10,699 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured). In addition to Johnston, Union general W.H.L. Wallace was also killed. Though initially vilified for his handling of the battle and the cost, Grant's career was cemented by this victory. Though rumors circulated that he was drunk and calls for his job were made, Lincoln retained him, saying "I can't spare this man; he fights." Sherman also emerged a hero, and was a trusted subordinate and friend of Grant. This battle is quite important for the course of the war in the West and there are several great books on it, including:
Grimsley, Mark, and Steven E. Woodworth. Shiloh: A Battlefield Guide. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
Sword, Wiley. Shiloh: Bloody April. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Woodworth, Steven E., Ed. The Shiloh Campaign. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009.


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