text:
Jared Cook, St. Louis Rams tight end, says he'd 'absolutely' repeat Ferguson 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' gesture
Members of the St. Louis Rams raise their arms as they walk onto the field during introductions before a game against the Oakland Raiders, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014, in St. Louis. Credit: AP
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 3, 2014 8:45 PM
ST. LOUIS - Jared Cook said he'd "absolutely" repeat the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" gesture he and four teammates made during Sunday's game.
Even if he's receiving threats or it costs the St. Louis Rams some fans.
The tight end was designated spokesman Wednesday for the five-player group that made the gesture before Sunday's win over Oakland. He explained it was not just a show of solidarity for Ferguson protesters but for peaceful demonstrations everywhere.
Asked in hindsight whether the group might have taken a different tack that wouldn't have antagonized law enforcement officials, he answered: "We could have, absolutely. But would we? Absolutely not."
Players met with coach Jeff Fisher and Cook said they weren't asked to refrain from further displays. But he didn't think they'd do it again in the team's two remaining home games.
"I think we kind of got our point across," Cook said Wednesday night. "Especially now, I think the world understands a little more why we did it."
Cook, Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and Chris Givens realize they've become polarizing figures, and that some fans may stay away.
"I understand that," Cook said. "They have to understand that we're ambassadors for them as well as other parts of St. Louis. It's a common place for people to get together and have fun. It's the Edward Jones Dome, baby. The greatest show on turf, baby. How could you not want to have fun and enjoy that?"
The pose has overshadowed the Rams' overpowering showing in a 52-0 rout over Oakland the last few days. The St. Louis Police Officers Association expressed outrage, Fisher said there'd be no disciplinary action and a top team executive denied he'd apologized to law enforcement officials.
Cook said he's "absolutely" received threats.
"It's all on the computer," Cook said. "How can you really tell if somebody's typing keys?"
The player teared up when told a group representing St. Louis black police officers had endorsed the "Hands Up" gesture, saying "that's pretty amazing."
Fisher called the meeting with players a "really, really productive conversation," but declined to elaborate. He's also staying out of the controversy with law enforcement.
"I'm a football coach, OK? So I'm not going to go into detail whatsoever," Fisher said.
The "Hands Up" gesture became controversial in St. Louis long before a grand jury last week declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of unarmed Michael Brown in August. Some witnesses testified that Brown charged the police car and did not have his hands raised, but Cook said it's the symbolism that counts.
"'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' is not just a Ferguson thing, it's a worldwide thing," Cook said. "People are doing it in New York, people are doing it in Florida, people are doing it on the West Coast.
"It's a message worldwide that you can do things peacefully without getting out of line."
The Rams (5-7) play Sunday at Washington, the only other NFL franchise with players who made a similar gesture. Eleven Redskins did it during the preseason not long after the shooting, but with very little public reaction.
"I like the fact that guys are willing to take a stand, one way or another, whether you agree with it or not," Redskins safety Ryan Clark said. "I obviously have my opinions on it, but I don't think what they did should be punished by the league.'
Clark added he thought it was "absolutely absurd that the authorities in St. Louis wanted it to happen."
"So I think it's really cool that those guys felt strongly enough and showed the solidarity among one another, whether you agree with their stance or not, to go out and actually say, 'OK, this is how we feel,'" Clark said.


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Stanford ecologists study how soil fungi respond to wildfire
When wildfires swept through the North Bay in 2017, graduate student Gabriel Smith saw a unique opportunity to study how fire affected his research subject: soil fungi.
In the wake of the 2017 North Bay fires, the golden hills of Santa Rosa, California, were unrecognizable. Smoky, seared and buried under ash, the landscape appeared desolate, save for some ghostly, blackened – but still alive – oak trees. For Stanford University graduate student, Gabriel Smith, whose family lives in Santa Rosa, the devastation was heartbreaking, but it also offered a unique scientific opportunity: a natural experiment on the effects of wildfires on the microbes that live in soil, which Smith studies in the form of fungi.
Oak and evergreen trees in Hood Mountain Regional Park and Preserve in Santa Rosa in August 2019. (Image credit: Gabriella Selva)
So, Smith and his mother spent his winter break collecting soil samples from burned areas near trees in Santa Rosa's Trione-Annadel State Park and Hood Mountain Regional Park and Preserve. For comparison, they also gathered samples from unburned locations.
"I wanted to know how these ecosystems that, on the outside, looked so burned and so destroyed might have been affected at a level that is not so obvious – the soil fungi that I study," said Smith, who is a member of the lab of Kabir Peay, an associate professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Most people know soil fungi by their fruit – mushrooms – but there's much more to these organisms, both physically and functionally. Working alongside plant roots and other microbes that live in the soil, soil fungi play important roles in their ecosystems, including helping trees grow and aiding in decomposition.
The research, which was published Dec. 9 in Molecular Ecology, focused on two ecosystems in these parks, oak woodland and mixed evergreen forest. As the researchers expected, analysis of dozens of soil samples established that, among the areas that had not burned, the ecosystems contained a different mix of soil fungi. The analysis also showed that, when comparing burned and unburned areas, the oak woodland soil fungal community was less altered by the fires than those in the evergreen forests. This aligns with the fact that oak woodlands depend on regular fire to thrive, whereas evergreen forests are less dependent on fire to survive. The researchers have continued this work by planting seedlings in some of the soil samples – those results will be detailed in a future paper. They are also hoping to find out more about the physiological mechanisms that could explain the responses of the fungi.
"There has been renewed interest in how climate change is influencing the frequency of fires and how that's going to affect fire-mediated ecological processes in California going forward," said Peay, who is senior author of the research. "So it's important to have specific details about how changes in the fire regimes in California, and the West Coast in general, are going to be influencing ecosystems."
Looking deeper
Oak woodlands benefit from fire to the extent that many parks, including Trione-Annadel, are treated with prescribed burns to keep their oaks healthy. Fire clears leaf litter and dead branches, creates improved conditions for some seeds, and controls insects and pathogens that might otherwise cause disease. Most importantly, fire can prevent other trees – such as those found in evergreen forests – from invading the oak forests. While mature evergreens can survive, and even benefit from, fires, encroaching seedlings may not.
To understand how the 2017 fires altered soil fungal communities in these two ecosystems, Smith and his mother dug up the top 10 centimeters of soil from 12 sites in Trione-Annadel and six at Hood Mountain, with guidance from the California Park Service. While Smith was home for break, the samples had to be temperature regulated.
"We ended up filling not only my parents' fridge but also my grandmother's fridge and my aunt's fridge. We also rigged a top-loading chest freezer to keep the right temperature," said Smith, who is lead author of the research. "There was a great deal of family support that went into this research."
Back at the Stanford lab, Smith and Lucy Edy, a co-term student in earth systems who worked on this project as part of the Stanford Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Program, determined what fungi resided in each sample through DNA analysis. What he found suggests that how fungal communities respond to fire belowground mirrors how other parts of their ecosystems respond to fire above ground.
"There was a much greater difference between the burned and unburned points in evergreen forests than there was in the oak woodland communities," said Smith. "We predicted there would be a difference between the two ecosystems, but the extent of that difference was actually more than we expected."
It will take additional research to understand why this is the case, but the researchers hypothesize that part of the reason may be that the soil fungal community "resets" when it burns. This would mean that the soil fungi associated with the oaks have less time between fires to change from its reset form, and the evergreen soil fungi have longer, leading to the greater differences seen in the soil of burned and unburned evergreen forests.
The future forest
For much of the history of studying fungi, researchers had to depend on what they could see above ground, including mushrooms. But increased access to DNA sequencing has opened up the field, helping scientists detail the complex relationships between various soil microbes, plants and ecosystem functions. Still, many questions remain concerning the effects of microbial diversity in the soil – for example, the consequences of losing half the population of one microbe versus two-thirds or all of it, and the net impact of losing microbes that could cause disease in certain plants in addition to losing microbes that benefit those plants.
"As fire regimes increase in intensity and frequency with climate change, we must understand the ecological responses of these ecosystems in order to determine our necessary responses in relation to them," said Edy, who is a co-author of the paper. "Fungal ecology is perhaps outside the realm of first consideration when people think about the impact of wildfire, but these below-ground microbial interactions fuel and sustain entire ecosystems."
This project, born from terrible circumstances, will likely produce many more studies, like the seedling experiments, and further investigations into how the fungal communities in the oak woodlands withstand fire.
"This was not originally part of Gabriel's PhD project. He had the foresight to recognize that this is not just something that was interesting on a personal level, but also that there's nice intellectual potential here," said Peay. "Works like this can advance our understanding of how the changes we see in the soil might then play a role in changing what future ecosystem types look like."
Peay is a senior fellow of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and a member of Stanford Bio-X.
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Sonoma County Mycological Association, the Stanford Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Program Fellowship and the US Department of Energy Office of Science.
Taylor Kubota, Stanford News Service: (650) 724-7707; [email protected]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Flask url_for() with multiple parameters The Problem:
I have an a input button in a form that when its submitted should redirect two parameters , search_val and i, to a more_results() function, (listed below), but I get a type error when wsgi builds.
The error is: TypeError: more_results() takes exactly 2 arguments (1 given)
html:
 <form action="{{ url_for('more_results', past_val=search_val, ind=i ) }}" method=post>
    <input id='next_hutch' type=submit value="Get the next Hunch!" name='action'>
 </form>

flask function:
@app.route('/results/more_<past_val>_hunches', methods=['POST'])
def more_results(past_val, ind):

    if request.form["action"] == "Get the next Hunch!":
        ind += 1
        queried_resturants = hf.find_lunch(past_val) #method to generate a list
        queried_resturants = queried_resturants[ind]
        return render_template(
                               'show_entries.html',
                                queried_resturants=queried_resturants,
                                search_val=past_val,
                                i=ind
                               )

Any idea on how to get past the build error?
What I've tried:
Creating link to an url of Flask app in jinja2 template
for using multiple paramters with url_for()
Build error with variables and url_for in Flask
similar build erros
As side note, the purpose of the function is to iterate through a list when someone hits a "next page" button. I'm passing the variable i so I can have a reference to keep incrementing through the list. Is there a flask / jinja 2 method that would work better? I've looked into the cycling_list feature but it doesn't seem to able to be used to render a page and then re-render it with cycling_list.next().

A: Your route doesn't specify how to fill in more than just the one past_val arg. Flask can't magically create a URL that will pass two arguments if you don't give it a two-argument pattern.

A: It's also possible to create routes that support variable number of arguments, by specifying default values to some of the arguments:
@app.route('/foo/<int:a>')
@app.route('/foo/<int:a>/<int:b>')
@app.route('/foo/<int:a>/<int:b>/<int:c>')
def test(a, b=None, c=None):
   pass

A: try to serialize your kwargs with json.dumps() like this
<form action="{{ url_for('more_results',kwargs=json.dumps({"past_val":search_val,"ind":i} ) }}" method=post>

On the flask side,
@app.route('/results/more_<kwargs>_hunches', methods=['POST'])
def more_results(kwargs):
   kwargs = json.loads(kwargs)
   past_val=kwargs['past_val']
   ind = kwargs['in']

alternatively, you could use flask.session or flask.g to manage these variables with the context of the session or request eg.
assign the value to a session['past_val'] = search_val and use the session attributes anywhere including with Jinja template like so {{session['past_val']}}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home Skeptillaneous Sports Fandom and Soccer
Sports Fandom and Soccer
By Cuneiformist
Why don't Americans like soccer? (Hint: What sports media pundits have been telling you is wrong.)
"If Landon Donovan scores a goal and
no one in the US cares, is it still a goal?"
UEFA's Euro 2012 has just ended (sorry, Italy fans…). For those not in the know, we're talking about soccer and, in particular, the European championships. For most of the world, this is a big deal. After all, soccer is king in Europe — as it is in most of the world — and with all due respect to Brazil and Argentina, it is in Europe where the bulk of soccer's supremacy lies.
In the United States, though, it's a different story. While viewership for major events like the World Cup and the Euro have steadily grown over the years, soccer remains a fringe sport. Indeed, its (along with Canada's) domestic league, the MLS, draws only a sliver of the TV ratings of football or basketball. Even major international events — generally heralding more famous players (e.g. Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo or England's Wayne Rooney) and pedigreed nations (e.g. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, etc.) — such as the aforementioned Euro don't command the same sorts of numbers as basketball or football.
Given soccer's huge popularity throughout the world, it bears asking — both from a philosophical standpoint, as well as for reasons of pure marketing — why the sport has failed to catch on in the US (or Canada). Unfortunately for soccer fans, most of the major voices in sports media in the past few decades have pointed to the wrong reasons, and in doing so, they have almost certainly succeeded (deliberately or not) in poisoning a generation's interest in the sport. Ironically, of course, this has no doubt robbed those same outlets of opportunities to financially capitalize on the popularity of a global sport.
"Too Boring"
Conventionally, when sports media figures talk about America's lack of soccer interest, they refer to one or more of the following things: the lack of scoring, the ties, the obtuse rules, the inability to use your hands, and of course, the constant dramatic dives. One need only peruse a few articles from major newspapers to see such arguments expressed. For instance, American "super" sports agent Leigh Steinberg was quoted in a New York Times soccer blog that "soccer doesn't fit the taste of the American sports fan, who likes a finite chance of success or failure on every play … it doesn't have the type of pacing, like a lot of scoring. There is continuous play without scoring and the game is not susceptible to commercial breaks. Americans like fast burst of action and scoring." Likewise, NFL football player Eric Winston wrote in a Sports Illustrated piece, "I think if soccer wants to get big in America, it needs to do what every other American sport has done: Cater to the offense. … My suggestion for soccer? Make it ten-on-ten. By taking one guy off, it will allow for the skill guys to have more space to do the amazing things that on occasion you see them do."
As the US Men's National Team began playing in the 2006 World Cup, sports media legend Frank Deford was quoted in a piece by Marco R. della Cava for USA Today saying, "[s]occer in America has had every chance. We reject soccer, that's fair to say … [t]here's not enough scoring, and ties make no sense." He went on to add, "there's really a lack of proficiency in the game. God didn't intend for us to use our feet and our heads. Though what soccer players do with their feet and their heads is extraordinary, it is in the same way that spinning plates is extraordinary."
The above comments are hardly out of the ordinary among America's sports media elites. Moreover, they're commonly echoed by those who post to sports message boards or call in to local sports radio programs.
Moreover, it is worth noting that these sentiments aren't limited to soccer. When writing about the NHL lock-out that ended the 2004-05 season, Kevin Maney argued in USA Today that "[t]he game lost the creativity and scoring of the Gretzky-Lemieux era. In 1987, the NHL averaged 7.4 goals per game; in 2003-04, the average was 5.1 goals per game. Even stars such as Brett Hull complained that the game had gotten dull." Moreover, according to Maney, "the TV networks saw other problems. Hockey is the only major sport that has a sizable number of tie games." According to one media executive, "The U.S. audience doesn't buy into ties."
Thus, when the NHL resumed play, several new rules were implemented. These included a new way for dealing with ties after regulation to ensure that every game ends with a winner and loser, as well as outlawing the two-line pass, in the hopes of making it harder to defend the neutral zone and, ideally, increase scoring opportunities. Ostensibly, then, NHL and sports media executives believed that one of the main causes of the NHL's decline was due to its low scoring and ties.
"Sweet! We tied!"
Tired of Ties?
But is any of this true? Can it really be the case that things like low scoring and the potential for a tie game makes a sport less interesting for Americans? While this may make sense superficially, a more rigorous and thoughtful application of reason and logic suggests otherwise.
Let us first consider if it even makes sense to reasonably suggest that there is such a thing as a monolithic "American" mindset. In a country of over 300 million people and spanning a huge geographical swath — a country with a heavy influx of first- and second-generation immigrants, a country with a diverse and complex racial history — is it really possible to say that we all agree to a great extent about how we view the end result of a sporting event? Let's not forget that there isn't even a uniform consensus on what to call cola. Can we really imagine that there is a vast majority opinion on ties or scoring?
Moreover, consider for a moment the dialog below:
Fan 1: Hey — wanna catch the soccer game today?
Fan 2: Nah.
Fan 1: Why not? The local team is playing its biggest rival. Winner makes it into the play-offs!
Fan 2: Yeah, but what if there's not a winner? What if it ends in a tie?!
Fan 1: Uh, well…
Fan 2: Right. Exactly. So you can just keep your soccer.
While this conversation is admittedly made up, can anyone imagine for a second that people really think like this — think that because a game may end in a tie, it is not worth watching?
One might also wonder why this same logic doesn't apply to NFL football. After all, the NFL — by far the most popular professional sport in America — is the only one among the major sports that still allows for the popularity of a tie. And while ties are admittedly rare in the NFL, you never hear people voicing concerns that it is at least a possibility that thus makes something like Monday Night Football not worth watching.
"Crap. If he doesn't score, I'm going to sleep."
Not Scoring
What about scoring? Anyone who has ever watched a sporting event will of course know that a score generally results in lots of cheering and celebrating (at least among fans of the scoring team). If we make the rather simplistic association that "cheering" equals greater fan excitement and interest, then it's easy to conclude that more scoring will mean more cheering and therefore more excitement for the American fan.
But is this a valid conclusion? Consider the following scenario: In a big NFL game, Team A has the ball on Team B's four-yard line. It's first and goal. Team A is down by four points, meaning that they need a touchdown to win. Moreover, it's the fourth quarter. Team A has no time-outs and just 90 seconds are left in the game.
On first down, Team A tries to run up the middle. Team B is expecting this, and they stop Team A's running back for a short gain. It's now second and goal from the three, with the clock continuing to tick.
On second down, Team A runs a play-action pass, hoping to fool Team B's linebackers into stopping the run so that they can complete a pass over them in the end zone for a touchdown. Team B doesn't bite and instead applies a lot of pressure to Team A's quarterback. Moreover, Team A's receivers just can't get open. After a few seconds, the Team A quarterback rolls out of the pocket and, seeing no open lanes to run, throws the ball out of the end zone. The play is wasted, but the clock is stopped, at least.
Now there is just under a minute left. It's third and goal from the three. Team A lines up in a spread formation, hoping to flood the end zone with receivers and get at least one in a position to catch a pass. However, after the snap, the quarterback drops back and then hands off to the running back for a draw. The back — seeing open lanes — scampers forward. Team B's defensive tackle sees the play develop, though, and manages to separate himself from his blocker and make an ankle grab, stopping the back before he reaches the end zone.
And now it's fourth down and goal from the one. Only seconds remain in the game. Team A lines up…
I won't continue this scenario, but anyone who has watched enough football (at any level — high school, college, or the pros) would be familiar with it. And for those people, if the scenario ended with Team A scoring (and thus winning), we can be sure that fans of both Team A and Team B would agree that it was an exciting game. Indeed, even casual fans would have agreed that on that.
More importantly, though, it is also almost certain that if Team A hadn't scored — if they were stopped on fourth and goal — fans of both Team A and Team B would agree that the game was exciting. Likewise, casual observers would agree with that sentiment as well. In other words, the notion that scoring equals excitement or interest is false. No one leaves a 14-10 football game saying "that was an OK game, but it would have been way better if it had been 20-14."
Fan 1: Why not? The local team is playing its biggest rival in the championships.
Fan 2: Yeah, but the score is going to be like 1-0, or 2-1 at best. Maybe if I knew that there would be four or five goals — you know, 3-2 or something, then I'd go. But with just one or two goals, it's not worth it.
Does anyone really think like this? Of course not.
These sorts of mock scenarios help to make a point, but it's also valuable to actually look at the data. Let's look at scoring data for MLS soccer — the major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada, for instance. In 2009 (a recent year taken more or less at random), the MLS saw its 15 teams score 571 goals in 30 games averaging just 1.3 goals per team per game. This is a rather small number when compared to the 2009 season of Major League Baseball (MLB), where there were a total of 22,419 runs scored among its 30 teams over the course of 162 games. This average of 4.5 runs per team per game dwarfs the number of goals in a soccer game. If scoring is directly related to the popularity of a sport, then it is easy to see why soccer cannot compare to baseball.
But what about football? Unfortunately, the picture is not so clear. In the National Football League (NFL), there are two primary ways to score: touchdowns and field goals. The latter are worth three points, while the former are generally worth seven (they can be worth six or eight, depending on how things go). In the 2009 NFL season, the average team scored 343.4 points over the course of the season, or 21.4 points per game. It's difficult to break this down into touchdowns and field goals, but it is a safe bet to say that a team scores on average fewer than three touchdowns in a game.
If we assume that the touchdown is the highlight of scoring in the NFL, then it is reasonable to assert that fans can expect to see from four to six scores per game (i.e. 2-3 per team). This is somewhat greater than soccer's two to three scores per game — about twice as much. However, it is less by at least 33% than what is seen in baseball's major leagues, where we see about nine scores a game. If there's some direct correlation between scoring and interest in a sport, then the NFL's popularity over soccer makes some sense (though, not as much as we might expect).
Moreover, given that we see even more scores in MLB games, we should expect baseball to be king in America. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. For instance, in looking at the top television programs of the 2011-2012 television season (N.B. It used to be that network programs in the U.S. began in the fall and stretched into the late spring of the following year. Thus, television ratings are calculated in a similar way, even though the conventional format is becoming less and less common), we see that the number one program has been NBC's Sunday Night Football. Indeed, when looking at the top individual broadcasts of 2011, only one non-NFL program — the Academy Awards — even makes the top ten. Conversely, national broadcasts of MLB games cannot compete with re-runs of television sitcoms.
Indeed, the true king of professional sports in this country — if we're assuming that Americans like scoring and detest ties — should be basketball. After all, a typical NBA game will see each team score 80 or more points a game. Since basket can be worth one, two, or three points (with the majority being of the two point variety), it's safe to say that a typical game will see upwards of 40 scores in a game for just one team!
Of course, while the NBA (and its college counterpart) are quite popular in the US, they don't touch the NFL (or college football, for that matter). Clearly, then blanket statements like "Americans like sports that feature lots of scoring" are untenable given the available data, and another answer must be sought when trying to answer the question of why soccer (or any other sport) is (or isn't) popular.
"Cheer! I'm pretty sure something just happened!"
Preemptive Rebuttal
Before attempting to provide an alternative answer to this question, I'd like to preemptively address a likely counter-argument regarding scoring and fan interest. For those on the "Americans like more scoring" side, a compelling (superficially, at least) piece of evidence in support of their claim can be found in the most-recent college football season. In November, LSU played Alabama in a much-anticipated regular season game. But while the game ended up being a close one — LSU won by only three points — there was limited scoring as the final was just 9-6. (In overtime, no less!)
This result led to quite a bit of hand-wringing among sports media pundits. Thus, while everyone agreed that these two teams were among the best — if not the best — two teams in the country, they also agreed that the low-scoring affair was a result of sloppy play. More importantly, though, as a potential championship rematch loomed, a number of fans expressed concern that the game would be another boring low-scoring contest. Indeed, even Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy — in trying to lobby for his team to be inserted into the championship game — argued that "people have to decide whether they want to see a 9-6 game or a 39-36 game," suggesting that more scoring would lead to a more entertaining game.
Fans expecting a low-scoring game in the LSU-Alabama rematch weren't far off the mark, as Alabama won the game 21-0, with the only touchdown being scored in the final few minutes of the game. The following days saw much consternation about the lack of offensive production, and one writer even quipped that "there were certainly a lot people who may have preferred a different style of game, as the 14-percent dip in overnight ratings from last year's Auburn-Oregon title game attests." In other words, the writer ascribed the low rating (compared to last season's championship game) for the LSU-Alabama game entirely to the fact that fans wanted a contest that featured more scoring.
But I would argue that in fact, the outcry over the two games is just an example of not meeting what I'd term the "expected scoring range". Every sport has a set of rules and anyone familiar with the sport has some idea of what is expected in a game in terms of scoring. As noted above, an average NFL team is scoring around 21 points a game — including several touchdowns. When a fan tunes into a game on Sunday afternoon, she or he is expecting both teams to reach the end zone a few times, and for the final score for each team to be in the range of 14-28 or so. College football — due to a variety of factors — feature even more scoring on average. Thus, when fans see a game with a lower-than-expected score, they are naturally going to be disappointed. According to the more-scoring crowd, this is evidence that fans perceive low-scoring games as boring, and desire more offense.
The flaw in that argument, however, is that particularly high-scoring games receive criticism just like low-scoring games do. In this past season of college football, for example, the best teams in the Big XII conference routinely feature prolific scoring. Yet, this wasn't something that sports media elites celebrated as being "fun" or "exciting". Instead, it was proof that those teams had poor defenses. Indeed, in a recap of the recent college bowl season, one writer lamented all of the scoring, noting that "[i]t all started New Year's Day when Oregon and Wisconsin laced up their sneakers for the 98th Rose Bowl. A track meet broke out as the run-and-shoot Ducks were as defenseless as Daffy on the first day of 'Duck Theason' but still quacked out a 45-38 victory in the highest scoring game in the 'Granddaddy Of Them All' of all."
The same holds true for other sports. While sports pundits would certainly decry an NBA game with a 60-55 result, they'd similarly have problems with one featuring a 140-135 result. Similarly, a baseball game with 40 combined runs would likely be derided by sports media pundits as one devoid of quality pitching and defensive play.
If it's true that things like ties or scoring have no real bearing on whether a person has an interest in a sport or not, then what does? As I have argued above, the answer has nothing to do with game mechanics. That is, no amount of rules-tweaking is going to make, say, curling or cricket America's next "national pass-time." Instead, it is clear that interest in a sport depends almost entirely on cultural, social, and historical factors.
Consider, for a moment, a typical sports fan in the state of Nebraska. Odds are, his (let's assume for the sake of the argument that the typical sports fan in Nebraska is a male) favorite sports to watch — and the one he occupies himself with the most in terms of reading about on-line, watercooler/bar-room discussions with friends, etc. — is college football and, in particular, Cornhusker (the mascot of the University of Nebraska) football. Other sports he might follow are professional football (the NFL), college basketball and perhaps college baseball. Otherwise, there's likely not much he's going to devote his time to — including hockey (on all levels), professional basketball and baseball, and of course, soccer.
Conversely, if we consider a typical sports fan in the state of North Carolina, we're going to get a different profile of interests. King for this fan is the sport of college basketball. Football (both college and pro) are behind, but not by much. Professional basketball is, perhaps surprisingly, less popular by a not-insignificant margin over its college counterpart. Other sports (e.g. hockey, soccer, etc.) hardly register for this fan.
Anyone familiar with the sports scene of the United States would read the above and find it to be rather banal. After all, the Cornhuskers have had a wildly successful college football program for generations — obviously people in Nebraska are going to take interest. Similarly, the incredible success of basketball programs at both Duke University and the University of North Carolina make them obvious focal points of sports interest in that region.
But while this may seem like a rather mundane observation, it gets to the point of my argument: fans don't care about things like points scored or if a sport has ties or not. They care about a sport because it is culturally significant to their larger community. It's what people talk about at work and school. It gets the most coverage on the news. It's what your dad watched on the weekend when you were growing up.
J. Jonah Jameson Frank Deford
tells us why lacrosse rules.
Lacrosse: The Textbook Case
If you grew up in — or otherwise spent significant time in — that region of the United States that includes northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, eastern Upstate New York, southern Ontario, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, then you're probably familiar with the sport of lacrosse. For the sake of brevity, we'll call this the "Lacrosse Zone" or even just the "Lax Zone" for short. You may have heard of lacrosse even if you haven't spent much time in the Lax Zone, but you certainly haven't experienced the sport in the way that a person who grew up in, say, Baltimore or Syracuse has.
Outside of the Lax Zone, lacrosse is just some odd sport that maybe has something to do with Native Americans, where people run around with sticks tossing a ball around. But inside the Lax Zone, lacrosse is a premiere sporting event, rivalling only basketball among college sports fans. (I'll talk about professional lacrosse in a bit.) When major lacrosse powers play — say, Johns Hopkins vs. Princeton, or Syracuse vs. UVA, etc. — it gets front page coverage. Indeed, local TV stations will air highlights of high school games on the news. In this Lax Zone, going to the park and seeing kids tossing a ball with their lacrosse sticks is not an uncommon sight.
When thinking about lacrosse and the popularity of sports, an important question to ask is why it hasn't caught on and spread to other parts of the country. After all, lacrosse has relatively high scoring games (scores of the NCAA Men's championships for the last six years have been: 9-3, 9-7, 6-5, 10-9, 13-10, and 12-11) and there are no ties. If the Americans-like-scoring crowd is correct, the popularity of lacrosse should be spreading like wildfire. Indeed, several years ago Frank Deford — a Baltimore native — noted in an NPR piece that it is "now the fastest growing in the land — participation up 300 percent in a decade." He went on to add that while "lacrosse is compared mostly to hockey and soccer … it offers much more scoring than either of these sports. That and its manual dexterity makes it more appealing to American audiences than soccer." (Deford's ludicrous sentiment that accurately being able to dribble and kick a soccer ball is little more than a parlor trick, but tossing a small rubber ball around using only a stick with a small net at the end is something to be admired is a telling indicator of his own sentiment-driven agenda.)
Unfortunately, in the six years since his NPR piece, there's been little evidence to Deford's claim that lacrosse is taking the country by storm. While the college game remains popular, it does so largely in the Lax Zone. To be sure, some schools, such as Duke University, have seen success in the sport, but a quick glance at its roster reveals that it is populated with kids who grew up in Maryland, New York, and New Jersey. Moreover, the professional league has failed to gain a foothold and Major League Lacrosse (or MLL) has contracted from ten teams at its height down to six, and has only recently expanded to eight. The two new expansion teams (the Charlotte Hounds and the Ohio Machines) join the Denver Outlaws as being the only ones that are outside of the Lax Zone.
What is curious about the above — namely that lacrosse has, in general, failed to emerge as a major sport across America (Deford's comments notwithstanding) — is that, as I noted, it should. Or at least, it should if you believe in the Americans-love-scoring narrative that sports media pundits like to put forward on a regular basis. That it hasn't suggests that other factors — other more important factors — are at work.
On the other hand, its lack of unbridled nation-wide popularity makes perfect sense when one considers that interest in a sport is due entirely to cultural, historical and social factors. Lacrosse may very well become a major sport in America. However, it will only do so once a generation (or more) of Americans move from places like Baltimore, northern New Jersey, Upstate New York and so on, to other parts of the country, and continue to maintain their interest in the sport, passing on that interest to their children, working to develop local lacrosse leagues, etc.
"Man, I hope this aluminum bat brings in more fans!"
College and Professional
This notion that social, cultural and historical factors largely dictate interest in a sport has great explanatory power — one that the Americans-like-scoring crowd lack — when considering the divide in popularity among some professional and college sports. For instance, Deford argued in his NPR piece on lacrosse that the sport seemed less like soccer or hockey (to which it is often compared) and more like basketball, with its fast-pace (and higher scoring), adding that "major league lacrosse counts two points for a long goal and has a possession clock." The point seems to be that the professional version of lacrosse should be more exciting than even the college version. And yet it's clear that the professional MLL is struggling — while Johns Hopkins often sells out its 8,500-person capacity stadium for lacrosse games, the fledgling MLL has a league-wide average attendance of much less, and only one team — the Denver Outlaws — draws more than 10,000 a game on a regular basis.
If scoring and fast-paced action are supposed to make a sport more appealing to fans, then why doesn't MLL draw more attention than its college counterpart? The answer, of course, is that things like scoring have nothing to do with the interest one has in a sport. Instead, they care because they have an emotional attachment to a team and a league built up over years and generations.
While this isn't the place to get into the history of the sport of football in the U.S., it is well known that the NFL in the 40s and 50s hardly held the appeal that it does today, and indeed was less popular than its college counterpart. This changed over time to the point where, at present, the NFL is by far the most popular sports league — college or otherwise — in the country. But these changes in fan interest can hardly be ascribed to major rule changes. Instead, they can be attributed to things like demographic shifts, media coverage and so on.
Without question, the biggest discrepancy between college and professional popularity is with baseball. While both college and professional football and college and professional basketball enjoy wide popularity, college baseball is scarcely on the sports radar when compared to the major leagues. However, this shouldn't be the case if we subscribe to the Americans-love-scoring argument. After all, college games feature far more scoring than MLB games. As noted earlier, major league baseball teams typically score just over four runs a game. As we approach this year's All-Start break — the half-way point in baseball's 162-game season — major league baseball teams have scored on average about 332 runs. Conversely, at the conclusion of the Division-I NCAA baseball season, 332 runs puts you at approximately 97th place (out of 291) on the list, with no NCAA team having played even 70 games. Indeed, the three teams that scored 332 runs this season (Arkansas State, James Madison, and Texas Southern) played between 53 and 57 games, meaning they averaged over six runs a game. If fans really cared about scoring, they should be tuning in each week to see high-scoring college baseball far more than the rather dull professional version.
But of course, fans don't care about high scoring. They care about what has cultural significance, and about what is relevant in their social circles. A person living in Georgia may care about Georgia Tech athletics, but he or she almost certainly cares more about the Atlanta Braves more than Georgia Tech baseball, even though the college team far outpaces the professional one when it comes to runs scored.
If the above analysis is true (and let's be clear: it is), then where do we go from here? What does a MLL or MLS executive do with this? What does an ESPN higher-up do? Unfortunately, there aren't easy answers. After all, becoming culturally and socially relevant in the sports landscape of a large, diverse country isn't easy — especially when some sports have a firm grasp of huge pieces of the pie.
Nevertheless, there are options. I'll save my own answers for, perhaps, a different article or let others discuss them. However, whatever one does, that person must do so realizing that they must be in for the long haul. Part of the appeal of the Americans-like-scoring (or don't like ties, or whatever) argument is that it meant there was the potential of a quick fix — if you just tweaked the rules a little bit, people would suddenly have interest in your sport, and you'd save it! But the reality is different. Eliminating ties didn't suddenly launch hockey to the sports forefront and adding two-point shots in professional lacrosse isn't going to turn it into America's next major sport — much to Frank Deford's chagrin. Instead, one has to consider other factors — factors that involve time, money, and, ultimately, a more sophisticated understanding of why people like what they like in the first place.
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Daveine Hewlett, 79, died at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, where she was taken following the fire at her rancher home on Bailey Avenue, police said Saturday.
MAPLE SHADE — A township woman has died from injuries she sustained in a fire last week that also claimed the life of her husband.
Daveine Hewlett, 79, died at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, where she was taken following the Tuesday morning fire at her rancher home on Bailey Avenue, police said Saturday.
Firefighters were able to rescue her from the burning house, but her husband, William Hewlett, 81, died in the fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene after firefighters located and removed his body.
The blaze is believed to be the third fatal fire in Burlington County this year. The first was Jan. 11 at a Lamont Road home in Burlington Township. The second was Jan. 25 at a home in Riverside and involved an air mattress that caught fire while a guest was sleeping on it. The guest sustained severe burns and was later pronounced dead at a Philadelphia hospital. A resident of the home was also injured, according to police.


Harton Low Staiths, serving Harton, St Hilda, Boldon, Whitburn and, eventually, Westoe collieries were built on the site of the Cookson's Plate Glass Company quay, opening in 1904. In addition to serving colliers they were frequently used as a lay-by berth for many of the Tyne's tugs.
Tynesider & Marsden, April 1964. Note the charred timbers - evidence of the fire that virtually destroyed the staiths in January 1914.
Westsider & Alnwick, 8 August 1971, with Quaysider and George V at the ferry landing in the background.
Seasider & Wearsider, 10 May 1994.


Mehserle, 28, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009.
Hundreds of people staged a protest the night the verdict was announced.
The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, named Gerald Dugas, of Castro Valley, and Oakland residents Paul Rousseau, Raquel Sharp and Terry Williams as defendants.
Rousseau and Sharp were arrested after Oakland police officers filmed them spray-painting graffiti on public property, according to the lawsuit.
Rousseau also tried to punch an undercover officer and attempted to steal the officer's camera, according to an Oakland police report cited in the suit.
It also alleges that in the midst of the protest, a crowd broke through the security gate at JC Jewelry at 1940 Broadway, kicked in a window, punched one of the owners in the face, and made off with more than $50,000 in property.
The suit says the jewelry store's owners "suffered economic and emotional harm" and feared physical harm as they tried to fend off a crowd of more than 200 people.
According to Oakland police, Williams was seen looting the store with other suspects, and both Dugas and Williams were caught with gold jewelry stolen from the store.
The lawsuit seeks a total of $100,000 from Dugas and Williams and unspecified punitive and graffiti-related damages from Rousseau and Sharp.
City Attorney spokesman Alex Katz said the four defendants have already been charged with criminal offense but are also being sued by the city.
"It's a way for us to stand up for the business owners in town and people who want to come here and engage in peaceful protest," he said.
California law allows the city to bring the lawsuit action to protect business owners' rights to exclusive possession of their property, City Attorney John Russo said. Any recovered penalties will be awarded to impacted businesses.
Although many people engaged in looting and vandalism on the night of the protest, the city is only suing the four defendants at this point because it has the strongest evidence against them, including videotapes, Katz said.
He said the city is concerned that people wanting to engage in peaceful protests in the future might be dissuaded from participating if they fear that the protests will spiral out of control and result in looting and vandalism.
"When people use a protest as an excuse to destroy property, it has a chilling effect on dissent," Katz said.
Russo said in a statement that Oakland has a long tradition of non-violent protest and dissent, but on July 8, some people "disrespected that tradition" and treated the city like a "lawless playground."
"The individuals who set fires, assaulted journalists, robbed local business owners and incited chaos were not here for justice," he said. "Sadly, it appears they were here for no other reason than to get an emotional rush from destruction of property, theft and lawlessness. Oakland will not tolerate this disrespect."
Alameda County District Attorney spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said Williams, 33, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of violating his parole for a previous conviction for possession of marijuana for sale. She said he was sentenced to probation, including one year in the county jail.
Drenick said Rousseau would have a preliminary hearing on Monday on a felony attempted robbery charge.
She said Dugas faces a felony commercial burglary charge, and Sharp faces a misdemeanor vandalism charge.
Mehserle is scheduled to be given a sentence next week ranging from probation to as much as 14 years in state prison.


The body structure of the Nissan Skyline saw considerable alteration after 1995, which accorded the car a trendier look. An upgraded engine, a new exhaust, and improved suspension gave it a better ground clearance. Although the interiors are nothing much to boast about, the seating is extremely comfortable with a spacious boot area. The colour scheme has been changed from grey to black and overall, with a speed of around 200 mph, it can be seen that the Skyline has been in the news for all the right reasons. Driving a Skyline around is really pleasurable in the face of its impressive engine that is extremely reliable. With a power output of 280 bhp in a standard model, the high levels of technical expertise employed in the vehicle seem to have definitely hit the mark. The safety factor has also been taken into consideration by the makers of this vehicle, and it looks like the Skyline will be here for a long time to come.


text:
Economic Disparities a Growing Concern for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
7-Mar-2017 1:00 PM EST
Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO)
Dr. Antonio Giordano
WHO Cancer Fact Sheet
Cancer, Environmental Health, Pollution, Poverty, Public Health, Children's Health, Local - Pennsylvania, Local - Philly Metro
The most recent global cancer data from the WHO highlights the growing differences in mortality rate among regions of the world bearing very different economic circumstances. Given that cancer has been globally responsible for the death of 8.8 million individuals in 2015 and that the number of new cases is expected to rise by about 70% over the next two decades, these new figures are cause for concern looking at the rise of Cancer among economically weak regions.
See the WHO Cancer fact sheet, updated in February 2017, here. In fact, according to the most recent reports, about 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low and middle-income countries. Furthermore, only 35% of low income countries carry pathology services generally available to the public sector while treatment services are available in less than 30% of low income countries as compared to 90% of high income countries. "It is not surprising that only one in five of these low- and middle-income countries have the necessary data to drive cancer policies and health interventions," comments Prof. Antonio Giordano, Director of Sbarro Health Research Organization, a cancer and biomedical research institute based at Temple University in Philadelphia.
"This problem," adds prof. Giordano, "is a major driver for the expected increase of cancer cases and deaths, especially among children and children-bearing women in these countries also due to the higher risk connected to specific infective agents for which there are no widespread prevention programs as well as limited access for women and children to what we now consider basic care in other parts of the world." "The Limited access to sustainable diagnosis and treatment in economically weak regions disclosed by these reports," states prof. Pierluigi Scalia, director of ISOPROG Onlus, an Italian non profit research organization, "is not only restricted to third world countries, but it is likely to be witnessed within countries with higher income when comparing different regions of the same country." "For example," says prof. Scalia, "we could expect the same trend due to lack of access to basic sustainable care when comparing large cities to the peripheries such it can be seen throughout the US and as it is still a problem in countries like Italy between the northern and the southern regions. In all these cases, the incidence of cancer in children and economically weak part of our society is expected to rise."
"Research as well as new social entrepreneurial models to manage healthcare," concludes prof. Giordano, "are desperately needed to face this growing problem."


One of England's iconic coastal locations.
Part of the Lulworth Estate and famous for the Durdle Door Arch, the beach is a narrow strand of mixed shingle, gravel and sand. The eastern end (Durdle Door Cove) is protected by the arch, while the rest of the beach is partially sheltered by a submerged offshore reef.
Durdle Door East Beach is on the Purbeck Heritage Coast and the Jurassic Coast, and adjacent to the South West Coast Path.
The tide at Durdle Door East Beach is currently rising. High tide will be at approximately 10:33 PM, and the next low tide will be at approximately 3:04 AM tomorrow.
Summer pay parking at cliff top car park at Durdle Door Holiday Park. Small free winter car park located at entrance.
Visitor information for Durdle Door East Beach, Dorset, England. Weather, tides, visitor comments, beach facilities, photos, nearest postcode, beach information and nearby accommodation.


Excludes crates. Click here to choose and add crates to your basket.
This 4 Division 1 Column Pigeon Hole Unit is both funky, and functional.
You can also choose to have this unit in 4 Division 2 Column Pigeon Hole Unit making it wider and lower. The price is the same, but please note that in your order at checkout if you would prefer this variation.
It provides plenty of extra storage space when crates are added or can be used as a display unit. Crates are available in different colours. See crate prices here.


Anti-Frozen Terracotta Cladding Wall Tiles are using one of the most durable and beautiful material in the world-natural clay, which has more advantages in durability, thermal shock, pressure strength and insulation etc.
4 The movement of wall tiles are in rails on the floor. Forklifts working energy can be saved.


Clean a stain as soon as you notice it on your couch. Always test each step on a small and inconspicuous area of the couch cover to ensure that it will not damage your couch. Never use harsh chemicals or leather cleaner that is not specifically designed to clean suede.... kuudesign.com - The 4 Best Ways To Clean Suede Shoes - Wikihow How to Clean Suede Shoes. How To Clean A Suede Couch Cushion A lot has changed since Elvis sang, "You can do anything, but lay off of my blue suede shoes."
Decoration Washing Couch Cushion Covers Cleaning Medium Size Of Cleaning Couch Cushions Clean Suede How To Clean Microfiber Sofa Plus Couch Cleaning Products Best Cleaning a microfiber couch all you need to know one beautiful home budget cleaning tips how to clean a microfiber couch and carpeted how to clean microfiber with professional results classy clutter 551 east how to clean …... Examine your furniture to determine if you own real or synthetic suede cushions. This step is vital in determining how to properly clean your suede cushions.
It's hard to match the beauty of a suede couch with other popular materials. Your couch made out of suede probably looks sophisticated and suave. how to make a killer usb drive Clean a stain as soon as you notice it on your couch. Always test each step on a small and inconspicuous area of the couch cover to ensure that it will not damage your couch. Never use harsh chemicals or leather cleaner that is not specifically designed to clean suede.
What Are The Best Ways To Clean Microfiber Couch Cushions?
14/06/2018 · Cove Sofa Cushion. C Chair. Sofa Cushion Co. Cush Sofa. C Sofa Sheet. Sofa Cushion Cov. Silver Sofa. Sofa Covers. Sofa Server. End Table C. Modern Sofas. Furniture Molteni C Chair. Sofa Cushion Co. Cush Sofa.
This is a guide about cleaning candle wax on microsuede furniture. The texture of microsuede can make cleaning melted wax off upholstery a bit tricky. The texture of microsuede can make cleaning melted wax off upholstery a bit tricky.
kuudesign.com - The 4 Best Ways To Clean Suede Shoes - Wikihow How to Clean Suede Shoes. How To Clean A Suede Couch Cushion A lot has changed since Elvis sang, "You can do anything, but lay off of my blue suede shoes."
When reattaching the sofa, replace the seat cushions and invert the seat cushions so that the seat cushions are the same everywhere. Protecting a new sofa If you just bought a suede sofa you can avoid headaches and make it easier to clean the furniture while protecting it.


The Weitz Company delivered a unique project on the University of Denver campus.
When The Weitz Company acquired Al Cohen Construction in 1986, it brought a wealth of experience in the Colorado market under its umbrella. Already a consistent fixture in the Midwest construction market since 1855, The Weitz Company entered the Colorado market shortly before the acquisition and has been there ever since.
Today, The Weitz Company is one of the largest and most respected builders in Colorado, and the company continues to burnish its reputation with high-profile projects like the one it recently completed on the campus of the University of Denver. Executive Vice President Troy Garrett says the company's work on the Anna and John J. Sie International Relations Complex is another example of the company's dedication to the finest possible construction.
Portzen Construction prides itself on its ability to self-perform most aspects of a project.
Portzen founded the construction firm in 1983 with a few employees and incorporated six years later. The company began its life doing housing rehabilitation projects, but has since morphed into a general contractor capable of a wide range of jobs, from high school football stadiums to swimming pools, streetscapes and waste-water treatment facilities.
One of New Jersey's largest public universities is looking to general contractor TN Ward Co. to meet its growth needs.
TN Ward Co. in July 2015 began work on a $70.6 million building on the Rowan University campus in Glassboro, N.J., that will serve as an expansion of the school''s Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering. The project is anticipated to conclude in January 2017.
Monarc Construction Inc. is planning for its next generation of family leadership.
Prior to starting Monarc Construction, Inc., John D. Bellingham, the president and majority owner of the Falls Church, Va., based company, worked as the property manager for the British Embassy buildings in Washington, DC from 1974 to 1977. One achievement during Bellingham's time at the embassy was his role to design a security entrance for the property as a result of the IRA terrorist bombings that occurred in 1973.
Now 43 years later, Monarc Construction, Inc. was selected in a competitive bid process to renovate the original security entrances Bellingham designed. However, this time the work was under the supervision and direction of Bellingham's son, Mark A. Bellingham.
"Maybe, in 40 years time, my grandchildren will renovate the entrance again," he notes.
Rucon Inc.'s construction management approach makes it a valuable partner to contractors as well as to its school district clients.
Dennis Russo's more than 30 years of construction industry experience have given him a strong sense of what he feels is the most effective way to lead a project.
Hunt Construction Group, An AECOM Company, overcomes many challenges as it builds the replacement hospital for Houston Methodist on the Texas Medical Center campus, known as the North Tower.
The Hunt Construction Group team strives to do the best work with the right people.
One of the company's latest ventures is the North Tower for Houston Methodist Hospital, which is more than 10 years in the making. Pre-construction for the new 980,000-square-foot hospital began in March 2014. The new hospital will be ready for initial occupancy by the end of 2017 and become fully operational by the third quarter of 2018. During 2018, Hunt will demolish and renovate interior spaces of the existing buildings once the hospital moves into the new facility, as well as complete the build out of shelled spaces.
Stuart Olson seamlessly coordinates the construction of the Edson Healthcare Centre that is expected to improve access and quality of care in the community.
Stuart Olson brings more than 100 years of construction management experience to the development of healthcare projects across Canada. Having built its reputation on being a trusted advisor over the years, Alberta Infrastructure selected the company through a public tender to coordinate the construction of the Edson Healthcare Centre.
The University of Kansas' EEEC project will enhance geology and other scientific research.
The University of Kansas' science program will soon receive a major boost thanks to a state-of-the-art academic and research facility now under construction.
General Contractor Turner Construction started work last September on the university's $80 million Earth, Energy and Environment Center (EEEC). When it opens in December 2017, the center will offer faculty, staff, students and researchers laboratory and classroom space as well a conference center with collaborative spaces. Groundbreaking was last September.
geology, physics, and chemistry. "The EEEC will promote the kind of cross-disciplinary research that has the ability to shape our energy- and water- hungry future," the university says.


Chart is provided for an understanding of color relationships. RGB monitors and printed materials cannot reproduce the full gamut of the color spectrum as perceived in human vision. The color areas shown only depict rough categories and are not precise statements of color.


text:
Marcinki – osada leśna (leśniczówka) w Polsce położona w województwie wielkopolskim, w powiecie ostrzeszowskim, w gminie Kobyla Góra.

Zobacz też: Marcinki

Przypisy

Bibliografia
 TERYT

Kobyla Góra (gmina)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I'm on my annual beach holiday, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Thus my silence, I'm enjoying the one time a year that I can turn off a bit. And realizing how European I've become in loving my two week beach holiday!!!
I'm walking on the beach a great deal and cooking many interesting things. Like things that require Velveeta. And jalapeños. God bless America!
My big move today went remarkably well–from one flat to another, from a place that was offered to me to a place that I chose. The movers were professional and efficient. They showed up perfectly on time and wearing uniforms of their company. They were prepared, not just for the move, but had brought their own implements for making tea for their mid-morning break. (! Oh this is when I love you, England.) The whole thing took about 2.5 hours less than had been scheduled. In the grand scheme of things, it's hard to see (unless there is an utter disaster when I go to unpack) how this could have gone any better. Which seems remarkable for a moving day. A day when Murphy's law seems to take over. My (American) (temporary, for a year due to someone else's maternity leave) secretary whispered to me–when I appeared in the office this afternoon before the close of business when no one expected to hear from me today–"were they British?" We had a laugh in the way expats do. We love it here, we are not slagging off the locals. They were British. But the expectation was probably not that they would be quite as efficient, and, well, as "American-like" as they were. I've heard horror stories from around my town. But for the record, I used a local, family run company and one that I chose solely on the basis of the fact that they responded to my request for a quote faster than anyone else, and I kind of didn't shop around on price, as much as on response time. For me, today, this strategy paid off. They were amazing and if anyone who knows me in my area wants a recommendation for movers, I'm all there. And maybe you do get what you pay for and that is okay.
I have never had full-on professional movers before today. The closest I'd come was when I relocated to the UK, and a moving company handled the overseas shipment and delivery of my goods. But then I had packed the boxes all myself, and in fact things had been in boxes in storage because I didn't know I was moving to England until I actually did move to England. (I thought I was taking a junior position on the East Coast of the US after travelling in Europe for two months. But I interviewed for my current position early on during that Europe trip and I ended up taking the job in the UK and shipping all my clearly marked "self-packed" boxes through customs.) But the crazy last few weeks with the whole (1) finding the flat and committing to taking it sight-unseen from the US, (2) dealing with my work commitments including trips to Newcastle (UK), Munich and Singapore and (3) preparing for my trip to the US literally tomorrow meant that I needed some professional help.
All other previous moves in my life had involved a rented truck of the U-Haul sort. (I have no idea what the British equivalent even is. I didn't consider it.) Sometimes I even got to drive the truck, which I think more women should do 🙂 And these previous moves always featured me doing all of the packing. I can see now how this never could have worked in the current scenario; I did not have the days needed to do the packing that was accomplished by four professionals in four hours. And my wonderful sister was not here to help me! I most certainly did not have the local knowledge needed to figure out how to park a truck (lorry) in the city centre on a one-way street during daylight hours on a busy weekday. Oh yes, in England. There is that. The complications of doing something rather difficult in another country really could have been stressful, if I had not thrown caution to the wind and hired actual professional movers.
The movers cost me almost exactly an additional month's rent. Add that to the deposit on the flat (1.5 months rent) and all the incidental one-off charges associated with the move, and it was about three months extra of rent that I've paid in the last few weeks in order to facilitate this move. And as I sit here in the new place, planning for my suitcase packing and departure for America tomorrow, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. I've hit some strange place where, after living in England almost four years, most of which were in some ways rather uncomfortable, I'm completely delighted at the fact that I ate into my savings but got me and all of my worldly possessions out to the new flat with a minimum of fuss on my part.
Even better, I tipped these guys (as far as I can tell) more than they are used to. It was totally in my nature to thank people who did a job well, fast, and orderly. (NB occasionally I tip well when a waiter flirts with me, but that's a different story.) And there is in this case the instance where tipping is actually fun, as opposed to obligatory: when you really want to reward someone for a job well done. It's not the same as giving a Boston cab driver more than what reads on the meter but still being berated for not tipping enough (as has happened to me in the US.) I actually wanted to thank these guys for being pleasant to work with and professional and fast. It was utterly voluntary. I was unclear of the etiquette and so played up my American card, and just asked the leader of the moving crew (when I was making out the cheque for the formal cost of the move) if it was okay to tip them. He said something like, "well, you don't have to but it's much appreciated" and so I did. Perhaps extravagantly. Call me American. (It took the total from just under a month's rent to just over, and I am so very OK with that!) Notice how happy I am at how well this all went. Said moving crew leader made a sweet comment about taking the guys out to the pub tonight (especially since they were done at my place at 3 pm!) and I felt happy and at one with the world.
The deeper meaning of this move has not escaped me either. I did not incur that additional three months' rent worth of charges to have done this temporarily. My several years in work-subsidized but not exactly comfortable housing was very economical. In the last few weeks, I have made a significant investment in my life in England. Not that I claim that I will be here forever, I still don't have a long-term plan. But I do think now that I will have to start working on that application for permanent residency.
Permanent. Now there's a scary word.
The good thing, on my end, is that my new flat is making me very happy. It being flush with modern conveniences, my time is no longer spent bemoaning the British propensity towards two tap sinks and refrigerators sans freezers. I've been quite happily cooking up a storm, both due to the ultra-modern kitchen facilities and the enormous Tesco within ten minutes' walk. I've realized over the last few weeks that local opinions on grocery stores are as strong as they are on newspapers, and for some reason (that I don't really understand) people really love to hate Tesco. I don't even know where to begin with trying to understand that one. For me, it's a large and well-stocked "superstore" as it says on the road sign, that happens to be the shop closest to my new digs. So for me, it's working just fine and I don't know what more to say about the politics of whether it is or is not PC to admit one shops at Tesco. This is where being foreign is fantastic, I plead ignorance!
When in the US, I'll likely be "off the grid" for a while, as the beach house I've rented the last few years did not have internet access when last I was there (although one could sometimes sponge off the neighbors and pick up a signal at random). I'm sure I'll be a very happy girl when I return from this trip, as I have the prospect of several months with no travelling lined up, the move will be done and I can continue with the business of settling into the new flat. Until then, I'm continuing to be harried and frazzled and in all likelihood rather sleepless.
It was, as of a few weeks ago, ten years ago that my grandparents died in a car crash. Ten years ago, that my world ended but didn't. Ten years ago that I stopped getting phone messages from my beloved grandmother even though we were technically not in the same area code and thus long-distance. I last heard her living voice right before the trip they went on, that ended badly. I went on and kept living, but some of the most important people in my life didn't continue to be after some date approximately ten years ago. I managed to stay busy in the anniversary of this accident, and I was working and attending conferences in Newcastle and Singapore. And I didn't let loose and feel the grief until tonight, when it suddenly hit me, without warning. So if I've ignored you when I should have been your friend, please forgive me. I've been dealing with my own pent-up grief. I can't believe it's been ten years, in some ways. And I can't believe it's only been ten years in others. I miss them so much. At the time, one of my aunts mentioned that I should keep track, that I would be unlikely to attend a double funeral again in my lifetime. I can be happy that this has not happened again, without wanting to ever be in a place where two people that you love are in coffins at the same time.
As an American working in Engineering in the UK, I am often asked if I was a student at MIT. Although I attended some very good engineering institutions in the US, I was never registered at MIT. It was a childhood dream of mine (geek confession, I had an MIT sweatshirt aged 10 and I thought my life plan was set) but it never happened formally. However, when I was in the last months of finishing my PhD, through a collaboration I had a chance to spend 11 days at MIT. In visiting Singapore, I have found that my life boils down to two, maybe three, degrees of MIT. Not six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Eleven days does not sound like much in terms of building a career. But I have found that, when I attend conferences of the sort that I am at now, in Singapore, the people with whom I hang out are people that I met during those eleven days at MIT. Or, at very worst, people who I met through one person that I met during that time. I can sort my entire professional life into either two or three degrees of separation from MIT.
Clearly those who attend MIT are more likely to exist in my world of research, compared with those people I know from my own undergraduate or graduate days at Big-10 schools in the midwest. I could guess this based simply on the number of my MN high school facebook friends who are still in Minnesota, compared with my work friends who are from everywhere. My MIT friends are from all over the world and have been willing to travel all over the world for employment, which is similar to my own circumstance.
But, I have to admit, I never thought those eleven days at MIT would play such a strong role in my life over five years later. In the end, the collaboration for which I was there did not even yield a publication (critical in my world of science), but just a Master's thesis. I now enter into collaborations with other universities more aware of the potential results of the long-term benefits from having been associated with each other, although I honestly think MIT is an island unto itself and not following any pattern or mould associated with other engineering institutions.
I have one more very full day of work to do before I leave on the near-midnight flight back to the UK tomorrow. I've enjoyed this Singapore trip more than my previous two, if only because I've had so many interesting meals with interesting people (all who I know through my MIT connections). I've talked on this blog before about professional friends , and the longer I am in my job, the more convinced I am by the need to attend out-of-town events either with someone from my own group or in serious meeting-up-with-professional-friends mode. I've had a great time this trip, because I had three different friends (who did not necessarily know each other, despite the MIT connections) to have food and drinks and conversations with. So I leave Singapore knowing that this trip was worth it, and that the worth was mostly in the connections I've strengthened through our common interests in science and in which we might all have just managed to mentioned MIT in passing. I have no degrees from MIT, but I do have a strange connection. And I adore my "professional friends" in their second and third degrees of separation from a marvelous institution.
Singapore, Qantas and Indian Food, Oh My!
Greetings from Singapore, where I arrived just over 12 hours ago after a long night not sleeping very well on a Qantas flight due for Sydney. This was entirely the fault of me, who did not remember to bring my travel pillow (that U-shaped thing that goes around your neck and works amazingly well) because of the fact that I was packing from my new place, where most of my things are not. Said pillow was at the old flat. An additional thing that did not make the trip, most frustratingly, was the mobile phone charger for my American phone. It's back at the old flat also, I know exactly where it is. So I had to, yet again, head off on my first day in a foreign city in search of a mobile phone store to find an appropriate charger. Admittedly, I did not have a second charger for this phone, nor did I have one for the UK (just an American one with an adaptor, since it is my American phone) so it was not an entirely huge waste of money or time (unlike the trip last month in which I bought my umpteenth USB-to-iPod/iPhone adaptor, when I have a drawer full of them).
First things first, I love Singapore. I love that it costs only S$1.90 to get from the airport to the center of town if you know the awesomeness that is the Singapore subway system. I love that there are three different chain restaurants devoted to coffee and toast on my way from my hotel to the convention center. (And admittedly, I love that I have stayed in this hotel before, for a conference in the same convention center, such that I know my way around. This is true in Boston as well, and I admit that I prefer these conferences when I get to be in "familiar" surroundings compared with the stress of going somewhere new and needing to start over.) I love the convergence of cultures here, and the huge variety of food available. I had a local speciality kaya toast for breakfast, Chinese food for lunch and Indian food for dinner, and I have a bag of Aussie snacks (cheese Twisties) in my hotel room. After having been in China a few months ago, I'm feeling much more interested in the local food, and much more bold in trying it on my own, so today on my explorations I found both a Taiwanese restaurant (perhaps of the same chain I visited with my sister in China?) and a hot pot place that I have to try (although I might stick with vegetables…). This year I doubt I'll repeat my performance from my last trip to Singapore, where I obsessively hung out in a local (i.e. close to the hotel) restaurant with an Italian/Aussie-ish vibe. So far I have not been able to ascertain whether said restaurant still exists, as it was boarded up today–but also much of Singapore was, given the Sunday-ness.
I'm happy to be here, because it's fun to come back to a place that you've visited before. I find this is true the more I travel: I'm happiest to return to Boston, Orlando, Munich, Singapore, the places that I've been to on three or more occasions, because these places start to feel like a home-away-from-home. If you are going to have my life, and live out of a suitcase and spend no more than three weeks at "home" at any given time (which is my new calculation for how silly 2010 has been for me–I think this is true and shows how dumb I've been!) you should at least enjoy the places where you are spending your time.
Flying Qantas to get here made me both happy and sad. I love flying on Qantas, but it was the first time that I had flown with them to get to someplace that was not Australia. So I indulged in my minor Aussie obsession while travelling, reading about interesting Australian art exhibits in the in-plane magazine and listening to the best of modern Aussie music on the headphones on the trip, but I knew full well that I would not quite make it far enough on this trip to actually get to the sunburnt country itself. I don't know when I'll be back to visit Australia either, which made for a sad moment or two in transit. Last time I was in Singapore, I was heading to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney for an adventure of a lifetime (aside from the previous adventure of a lifetime, when I had been there six months earlier).
Travels are funny, that way. This blog makes for a great record of these trips, and when I look back at the archives from my visit to Singapore (and then Australia) a year and a month ago, I have mixed feelings. I'm glad I did what I did then, and on this trip I'm sort of glad that I'm going home to England after a mere four nights in Singapore. Especially with the new flat to settle in to, my wanderlust is perhaps damped a bit at the moment. There are many places I'd like to see, in Asia, Australia, and beyond, but on this trip my overwhelming feeling is one of a desire for home, and in this funny case home is my new flat in the UK, not something in the US at all. Confusing, yet comforting, that my existence has settled down a bit to be based in one country only. The confusing part comes because that home is in England, which is not what I would have expected five years ago.