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Meet Pelican, our new tool for assessing the quality of open contracting data
By James McKinney / 28 Jan 2020
We've made significant progress in our approach to the quality of Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) data, since our last update in early 2018. We'll give an update on what we've been up to, and then introduce our new data quality tool, Pelican.
Where we started from
The overarching hypothesis to our data work is that impact can result from OCDS data being published, regularly used and iteratively improved. As such, we want to see OCDS publications that at first meet a minimum level of quality, to then see those publications improve over time, and to see evidence of OCDS data being used to address real problems.
In terms of helping publishers to improve, until recently, we were focused on giving publishers feedback on any structural issues in their OCDS data, using results from the Data Review Tool. There were other types of quality issues we wanted to help publishers to correct, but the effort to measure and report on these was too intensive. We needed new tools.
Outlining a solution
We first sought a consultant to scope a new software project for measuring and reporting the
quality of data that follows the OCDS. We selected Datlab, given their experience working with large volumes of procurement data and their familiarity with its quality issues, in particular as part of Digiwhist.
The result was a report in late 2018 that categorized types of quality, described a high-level architecture for the project, mocked up a dashboard for reporting quality, proposed a roadmap and estimate, and backed it all up with user stories based on conversations with OCP's program managers and OCDS Helpdesk.
Building a solution
We couldn't immediately put the report into practice, because we first had to complete work on a few of the project's dependencies. First, Kingfisher is our internal tool for downloading, storing and pre-processing all publicly available OCDS data. By March 2019, it was ready to be used to feed data into the quality tool. Second, by May 2019, OCDS 1.1.4 was released, which better clarified some quality checks that OCDS data should pass.
We were then ready to launch a competitive process to hire a development team to define specific quality checks, and to write the software for measuring and reporting on them. We again worked with Datlab, and over the following months a list of over 100 quality checks was prepared (building on prior work by the OCDS Helpdesk) and the software was developed, with most checks implemented.
Some technical background
Before we discuss the solution in more detail, it's useful to recap a few concepts in OCDS.
As you might already know, OCDS includes the concept of a "compiled release," which expresses the current state of a contracting process. A compiled release is a JSON document that discloses information about the contracting process through field-value pairs. For example, here is a fictional excerpt of a compiled release, where status is one field and "complete" is its value:
"tender": {
"id": "ocds-213czf-000-00001-01-tender",
"title": "Planned cycle lane improvements",
"mainProcurementCategory": "works",
"status": "complete"
There are tens of millions of these compiled releases across all OCDS publishers, each of which might contain hundreds of fields, occupying about a terabyte of disk space (and growing). As such, our system was designed to handle large volumes of data, without exhausting computational resources. A message broker was used to coordinate data processing, with many workers each checking the quality of small amounts of data at a time.
Our quality checks are segmented into four groups: field checks, compiled release checks, collection checks and time-based checks.
Field checks
Here, we primarily check whether a field is present or missing. If a field is missing, a user will be limited in what they can do with the data. For example, if data isn't available on the number of bidders, then a user cannot analyze the competitiveness of the procurement market.
We perform a few other checks on individual fields. For example, if a field value should be a phone number or email address, we check that it is valid. If a field value should be a date, we check that it is not too far into the future (after 2050, e.g. 20019 is likely a typo for 2019) or the past (before 1970, e.g. 1019 is likely a typo for 2019).
The results of all field checks are reported on a summary page. Here is an excerpt of the first three fields in a compiled release.
Each check has an individual page, through which users can preview data that passes or fails the check. Metadata is provided to describe any failures.
Compiled release checks
Here, our unit of analysis is an individual compiled release. There are three types of checks:
Coherence: The data should make sense. Examples of incoherence include:
A time period has its start date after its end date
An unsuccessful award has associated contracts
An award date precedes bid submissions
A sole source procurement has multiple bidders
Here is an excerpt of the summary page for the results of all compiled release checks. Like with field checks, users can click through to get more detail on any check.
Consistency: If the value of one field implies the value of another field, the values should be either identical or commensurate. Examples of inconsistencies include:
The procuring entity isn't assigned the role of 'procuringEntity'
The name of the procuring entity is different in different fields
A time period's duration isn't the difference between its start date and end date
A contract's value is less than the sum of its related transactions' values
Reference: Within a compiled release, some fields refer to others using identifiers. There is a quality issue if an identifier doesn't match any target. For example:
A contract's awardID doesn't match the id of any award.
Many other data quality tools stop at this unit of analysis, but we go a couple steps further.
Collection checks
Here, our unit of analysis is an entire collection of compiled releases. 'Collection' is the term we use to describe a data source at a single point in time: for example, all compiled releases from Colombia Compra Eficiente as of April 1, 2019. There are two main types of checks:
Distribution: The distribution of a field's values should suggest no omissions or inaccuracies. For example, if all procurementMethod fields have a value of 'open', then the collection either omits or misreports other procurement methods; if all tender.status fields have a value of 'active', then the collection either omits or misreports non-active statuses.
Repetition: The repetition of a field's values should suggest no data entry or data mapping issues. For example, if the contract value is $0 10% of the time, there might be an issue in how the data in the source system was mapped to OCDS.
There are a few less common types of checks:
Uniqueness: Some fields' values should be unique across the collection.
Availability: A random sample of URL values should return no HTTP responses with error codes.
Related processes: A related process reference field should have a valid target within the collection, and its title should be consistent with the target's tender.title.
Time-based checks
Here, our unit of analysis is a dataset of compiled releases across time. Entire collections are compared to each other.
For now, we check that compiled releases remain available, and that newer compiled releases have at least the same number of stages as older compiled releases.
To cap it all off, an overview page for each collection highlights key facts and check results. For example, this visualization gives a quick idea of which contracting stages are covered.
Over the coming months, we will test and refine the tool internally, and integrate it into our existing processes for giving feedback to publishers. Based on input from colleagues and the OCDS Helpdesk, we will prioritize new features to implement in the new year, at which point the project will be made open-source.
The most exciting feature we are looking forward to is a report of the degree to which each dataset supports different use cases. Our Lead Data Analyst Camila has already started work to identify the information requirements of use cases like diagnosing the performance of a procurement market. Being able to indicate the purposes for which a dataset is suitable will provide both an incentive to publishers to improve quality in specific areas, as well as a guide to users to help them decide which datasets to use.
We look forward to sharing more frequent updates on our progress. If you have any questions about this work, please get in touch.
OCDS data standard data quality Pelican
Your comments? Thoughts? What do you think?
Share your thoughts on social media or join our discussion groups.
engage@open-contracting.org
Open Contracting Partnership,
641 S Street NW, 20001 Washington, D.C., USA
This work by the Open Contracting Partnership, unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Open Contracting Partnership 2021 Terms


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Key Pieces of Biden's National Security Team Moving into Place
One critical piece of U.S. President Joe Biden's national security team came into place Thursday, while the White House and top lawmakers pushed for the swift confirmation of more key nominees to help take on growing international challenges. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines became the first of the president's picks to take office. The first female DNI, she was sworn in early Thursday, less than 24 hours after being confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 84-10. Shortly after her swearing-in, Haines took part in the president's daily intelligence briefing and reached out to members of the country's intelligence agencies, saying in a statement that their work "has never been more vital to our nation's security or prosperity." NEW: Avril Haines takes the reins at FILE – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Jan. 19, 2021."I am pleased my Senate colleagues joined me in swiftly confirming Director Haines," Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement before the final tally was in. "Our adversaries will not stand by and wait for the new administration to staff critical positions." FILE – Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Jan. 28, 2020.The committee's top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, also praised the bipartisan effort to confirm Haines, saying her role as the nation's top intelligence official is of "critical importance." "After being deliberately undermined for four years, the intelligence community deserves a strong, Senate-confirmed leader to lead and reinvigorate it," Warner said. There was also movement Thursday on the nomination of retired General Lloyd Austin, former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia (U.S. Central Command), to be Biden's secretary of defense. Austin would be the first Black secretary of defense. Both the House and the Senate voted to grant Austin a legally required waiver to serve in the civilian post less than seven years after retiring from the military, with the Senate setting a final confirmation vote for early Friday. FILE – Secretary of Defense nominee Lloyd Austin, a recently retired Army general, speaks during his conformation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Jan. 19, 2021."Even as power changes hands from one administration to the other, the work of keeping our nation safe must not be paused or be disrupted," new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told fellow lawmakers Thursday, urging them to move with haste on the nominations for the top posts at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury. "Foreign adversaries will seek to exploit this period of transition, and we cannot allow America's military, intelligence and national security policy to be disrupted by staffing delays." The Senate is also expected to move on other key nominees, such as former Ambassador William Burns, tapped to run the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington's premiere spy agency. NEW this morning: @Transition46@JoeBiden picks Amb. William Burns to head up @CIABurns "shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect" per Biden statement pic.twitter.com/i8ziwwX27W— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 11, 2021Russian threatsAlready, the Biden national security team is facing some key challenges, from both the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. adversaries. The Biden administration announced Thursday that it was seeking a five-year extension of New START, one of the last remaining arms control treaties with Russia. The treaty, which limits the U.S. and Russia to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and puts limits on the missile delivery systems, is set to expire in February. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also confirmed Thursday that Biden was asking the intelligence community for assessments on suspect Russian actions, including the SolarWinds cyberhack, interference in November's presidential election, the use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and alleged bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. NEW: @POTUS issuing tasking to intelligence community "for its full assessment of the #SolarWinds#cyber breach, #Russia|n interference in the 2020 election, its use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexi Navalny & the alleged bounties of US soldier in #Afghanistan"— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 21, 2021Haines, a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a former White House aide, told lawmakers during her confirmation hearing Tuesday that Russia's use of influence operations, in particular, was a concern. "I've certainly seen Russia's use of active measures in a variety of campaigns to exacerbate the divisions in this country and to promote extremism, in a sense," Haines said. In his confirmation hearing Tuesday, Austin also warned about the Kremlin, saying that although Russia is a power "in decline," it can still do "a great deal of damage" in cyberspace. Looking inwardBoth Haines and Austin also told lawmakers that much of their focus would be inward as they seek to help restore trust and confidence in the intelligence community and the military. "To be effective, the DNI must never shy away from speaking truth to power. Ever. Especially when doing so may be inconvenient or difficult," Haines said. For his part, Austin said he would make it a priority to stamp out extremism and illegal behavior within the military. "The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies, but we can't do that if some of those enemies lie with our own ranks," he said. "This [extremism] has no place in the military of the United States of America," Austin added, describing it as part of a broader battle. "I will fight hard to stamp out sexual assault, and to rid our ranks of racists and extremists, and to create a climate where everyone fit and willing has the opportunity to serve," he said. VOA's Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Michelle Konstantinovsky is a loud and proud San Francisco native and freelance writer. She writes about everything from health and wellness to music, movies, and design for outlets like Cosmo, Seventeen, O! The Oprah Magazine, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, Popsugar, and more. Check out her work at michellekmedia.com and tweet her a nice message @michellekmedia.


Vox has published a very helpful primer on all the new House committee chairs. I highly recommend that you take a quick look to see just how different things are going to be in this session. They may not be able to get the Senate to pass legislation or get the president to sign it, but they are going to do some oversight, goddamit, and not a moment too soon.
Here are just a few. Click over for the whole list.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has already become well-known as Devin Nunes's rival and foil atop the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But once he becomes chair, Schiff will be one of the most important figures setting the Democratic House's investigatory agenda on Russia as well as other intelligence-related topics.
Schiff plans to use his subpoena power to more intensely probe Trump's ties to Russia, since Democrats think their GOP predecessors' investigation of the subject was incurious, and concluded far too quickly. And one particular interest of his is in following the money.
"One of the issues that has continued to concern me [is] the persistent allegations that the Trumps, when they couldn't get money from US banks, were laundering Russian money," Schiff recently said on the Lawfare Podcast. "If that is true, that would be a more powerful compromise than any salacious videotape or any aborted Trump Tower deal." To that end, House Intelligence Committee Democrats are trying to hire money laundering and forensic accounting experts, the Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff and Spencer Ackerman reported.
Schiff also thinks the administration's North Korea policy is ripe for some oversight, and has questioned Trump's rosy assessment of Kim Jong Un's intentions. "The president keeps telling us that we can sleep well at night because North Korea is on the path to denuclearization, but I see no evidence of that," he recently told Vox's Alex Ward.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the House's main watchdog for the executive branch. But for the past two years, the Republicans running it have spent little time on oversight of Trump's appointees.
With incoming chair Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), that's about to change.
Cummings has a mountain of potential subjects to investigate in the Trump administration, from Trump and his family's own business entanglements with foreign governments to allegations of corruption and a revolving door in his administration.
Over the past few years in the minority, Cummings and his staff have filed well over 50 subpoena requests for the Trump administration to Republicans — but because, they were in the minority, Democrats remained powerless to issue these subpoenas themselves. These involved investigating the administration's response to Hurricane Maria, locating migrant children separated from their families by the Trump administration's policies, investigating the ethical issues of Trump's former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, and more.
If President Trump were to be impeached, the process would start in the House Judiciary Committee — which will be chaired by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY).
For now, Nadler plans to investigate what's been going on at the Justice Department since Attorney General Jeff Sessions's sudden firing and replacement with Matthew Whitaker. And he's indicated he may reopen questions related to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
His committee also intends to take the lead on oversight of Trump's immigration policy. Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security is fragmented, but the Judiciary Committee has pretty broad jurisdiction over Trump's enforcement of immigration law. Given how aggressive the Trump administration has been in changing executive branch immigration policy, and how opaque or slapdash some of those moves have been, there is more than enough for Nadler to take up.
Democrats' questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in December offered some hints about where Nadler and his committee would like to go, including the widespread family separations of late spring 2018 and the treatment of unaccompanied children in the custody of Health and Human Services.
Nadler's Judiciary Committee will also likely lend some investigative heft to Democratic appropriators' efforts to cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and detention. Immigration detention has exploded over the past two years despite Republican appropriators' efforts to limit spending on it — so Democrats will likely ask questions about who is being detained, for how long, and why.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) hopes to get his hands on President Trump's tax returns. He's just not yet sure how or when, exactly, he's going to do it. "Our staff is working on it," Neal said in December.
The Ways and Means Committee is one of the most powerful in the House, with jurisdiction over broad swaths of tax and health care. And Neal intends to scrutinize Trump administration policies about the Affordable Care Act, protections for preexisting conditions, and prescription drug pricing.
But it's the long-running mystery of what's in Trump's long-concealed tax returns — which he promised to release during the campaign and then didn't — that Neal is asked about most often.
That legal case may hinge on an obscure law from 1924 that says the Ways and Means Committee chair can request to the Treasury Department to review any individual's tax returns in closed session.
And even if and when the request is made, don't expect Trump's tax returns to be handed over right away — Neal has said he expects a court battle over the matter, and there are further questions about how exactly he'd be able to make informations in the tax returns public.
As chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) will have an opportunity to scrutinize broad swaths of the financial industry and agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She's also indicated she plans to target the megabank Wells Fargo and the credit score company Equifax.
But, of course, she'll also take aim at President Trump. In a letter to colleagues after the 2018 midterms, Waters said she intends to follow the "Trump money trail," starting with Deutsche Bank — one of the few banks that still lend money to Trump and also does business with his son-in-law Jared Kushner — and "suspicious activity reports" filed with financial crimes officials.
As ranking member of the committee, Waters sent letters asking about Trump's financial ties with Russia and asked then-committee chair Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) to subpoena information on his ties to Deutsche Bank. As committee chair, she'll have the ability to conduct investigations — and issue subpoenas — on a number of matters related to the Trump administration and Trump family's finances, including potential ties to Deutsche Bank, Citibank, and Russia.
Under Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Foreign Affairs Committee plans to dig into Trump's connections abroad and whether his business interests might be influencing the administration's policies.
In addition to the obvious topic of Russia, the committee hopes to obtain more documents about the Trump Organization's property in Panama. Earlier this year, Trump's company appealed directly to Panama's president to stop its eviction from the building as managers. Some say that episode shows a clear conflict of interest between Trump's duty as president and his ties — since severed — to his namesake company.
Greater oversight of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The committee is particularly interested in looking into reported "loyalty tests," where officials are vetted for their loyalty to Trump.
Updating authorizations for the use of military force abroad, which have remained untouched since 2002.
Ending America's support for the war in Yemen, a move for which there is has been growing congressional support.
They are going to be very busy.


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Porter Novelli names McKinsey's David Bentley CEO
The role had been vacant since Brad MacAfee left in December.
Porter Novelli has named David Bentley CEO, effective immediately.
The agency said in a statement that he will continue its focus on helping clients "find, live and tell their purpose."
The CEO position at Porter had been empty since mid-December, when Brad MacAfee stepped down. MacAfee had led the firm since 2016 when he took over as CEO from Karen van Bergen, who was named chief executive of the then-newly created Omnicom Public Relations Group.
Van Bergen left Omnicom PR Group shortly before MacAfee's departure from Porter to become dean of Omnicom University, a management-development program established by the holding company in 1995. John Doolittle, president of Omnicom's DAS Group of Companies, has been leading OPRG while the holding company searches for van Bergen's replacement.
Porter global president Jennifer Swint also left the agency in October when her position was eliminated.
Before joining Porter, Bentley was VP of digital at McKinsey & Company, held leadership roles at AKQA in North America and Europe and ran his own consultancy. Porter did not immediately respond to questions on whether McKinsey's work for clients such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conflicts with the agency's positioning as a purpose consultancy and other questions. Porter won Agency of the Year and other statuettes at the 2019 Purpose Awards.
McKinsey declined to comment on Bentley's exit.
Porter's revenue was up 1% in 2018 to $150.5 million, according to PRWeek's Agency Business Report. OPRG, which also includes firms such as Ketchum and FleishmanHillard, posted a Q4 revenue drop of 2.5% to $358.3 million and a decline of 2% for the whole year to $1.3 billion. The unit hasn't reported a revenue increase since 2018.
Omnicom CEO John Wren said on the holding company's most recent earnings call that "the profitability of the PR division has been and remains very strong."
"So the opportunity is a marketplace opportunity; it's not anything structurally to do with the business at the point," he added.
david bentley
John Harrington
Porter Novelli CEO Brad MacAfee departs
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Melinda Po is Mediabrands' first Greater China CEO


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Retro Movie Review: Dr. Who & The Daleks
By Dr. Geek, Ph.D. | Thursday, August 13th, 2015 at 5:00 pm
With Doctor Who starring Peter Capaldi set to return to television screens for Season 9 of the revived series, it seems like a good time to go back in time about 50 years and revisit some lesser known aspects of the series' beginning. Though Doctor Who began with a historical serial now commonly known as "An Unearthly Child," it rocketed into the national consciousness with its second serial, now called "The Daleks." In a show much known for its monsters, the Daleks were the originals. They put the show into a format that we recognize today. They also caused a craze in Great Britain that came to be known as Dalekmania and brought the series audience figures of over 9 million viewers a week. It has only periodically equaled those numbers in the 50 years since.
The story of the Daleks was told in three different ways, with two different Doctors. First, there is the teleplay by Terry Nation. Being part of a weekly adventure series, it tells the story of how the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright arrive on the radioactive world of Skaro and meet the Daleks. The Daleks are mutated survivors of an atomic war who hate any creatures who are not like themselves. This is original version and, excepting certain accommodations for budget and pacing for a half hour television serial, it is the best. It is also canonical.
Next, there is the 1964 novel written by then Doctor Who story editor David Whitaker that is nearly as good. This is the original Doctor Who novel, of which there eventually would be hundreds. While it clearly is the same Doctor as the teleplay, it is decidedly not canon in several aspects for interesting reasons. Since Doctor Who is hardly the institution it is now, it does not assume any knowledge of the television show format and skips over the television origin story. Instead, it spends its first three chapters talking about the meeting of Ian Chesterton, unemployed engineer, and Barbara Wright, teacher and private tutor, with Susan Foreman and her grandfather, the Doctor, at an automobile wreck on a foggy Barnes Common. It then tells an expanded version of the story of the teleplay in the first person, from Ian's point of view, using a few additional ideas that were discussed for the serial but could not work within the budget, like a glass Emperor Dalek.
Finally, there is the movie Dr. Who & The Daleks with a screenplay by producer Milton Subotsky (and uncredited help from David Whitaker). It tells much the same story as the teleplay and the novel, but it is neither canon nor really the same Doctor. It and a movie sequel exist in their own Who Universe, to the point that there are Doctor Who fans today who say "The Doctor is the character played by twelve actors the BBC since 1963; Dr. Who is played by Peter Cushing in two Dalek movies in the 1960s." This is the story of human inventor Dr. Who (Cushing) and his two granddaughters, Susan and Barbara, who go on a seriocomic adventure with Barbara's new boyfriend, Ian. Though not awful, it is the worst of the three adaptations.
The root of the film's failures can be traced back to the original intentions of the film's Producer and Screenwriter Milton Subotsky. The goal was to produce broad family entertainment, and doing that required constructing something like a live action Disney film of the period that relies on spectacle. Suffice to say, Milton Subotsky is no Walt Disney. As Subotsky told Kinematograph Weekly in April 1965:
We've taken Terry Nation's first seven episodes of the tv serial and re-written them into a screenplay, at the same time injecting a considerable amount of comedy. On tv, they take themselves so deadly seriously. This is all action, excitement and comedy. We intend to full use of the colour, spectacle, and action that make the difference between large and small screen entertainment. One of the things we have to make it different and better is splendour.
Injecting comedy into a story that's fairly hard science fiction with overtones of a Dalek master race and nuclear Armageddon less than a generation after World War II and shortly after the Cuban Missile crisis requires a deft touch. In the hands of Subotsky, the story loses a lot of its narrative guts and becomes something much more generic. Producer Verity Lambert and script editor David Whitaker felt you could create a popular children's television entertainment without talking down to them. This film takes the same plot and some of the same dialogue and produces something that is strictly lowest common denominator.
It completely emasculates the character of the Doctor. In the series, the Doctor is not yet the leading man anti-hero he would eventually become. That character is years away. He's a trickster and a force of nature. He's effectively kidnapped two schoolteachers against their will and cannot or will not return them home. He is an abrasive old man one minute, and something that could turn into the hero we see today the next.
In recent days, the show has said "Rule #1: the Doctor lies" with the understanding that the Doctor is ultimately good and sometimes does what he must. There is no such understanding here. In this story, the Doctor lies and puts himself and all his companions in real jeopardy to satisfy a selfish whim. William Hartnell plays this with gleeful gusto in the TV serial. The look he shoots the camera as he deceives his companions and fakes a malfunction of the TARDIS is masterful.
Peter Cushing is a terrific actor. He's played Sherlock Holmes, Victor Frankenstein, and Grand Moff Tarkin; he can be the hero, the villain, and both at the same time. If there is anyone who could give a more layered interpretation of what William Hartnell did in 1965, it would be him.
Yet, he is given nothing. In the hands of Milton Subotsky, Dr. Who is merely an eccentric, sometimes absent-minded human scientist and inventor. To be fair, the back story of the Doctor is an open question at this point. There is no Gallifrey and there are no Time Lords, much less the Doctor having two hearts and the ability to regenerate. One of the original concepts of the character gave the Doctor a human origin, albeit from far in the future.
There are still dramatic possibilities to be found in that premise, but the screenplay explores none of them. It's Dr. Who in the living room, Dr. Who meeting his granddaughter Barbara's pratfall-prone boyfriend Ian, Dr. Who showing Ian his latest invention called TARDIS, and the adventure begins. We get nothing particularly dramatic about Dr. Who here.
Peter Haining is kind to Cushing in his book Doctor Who: A Celebration: Twenty Years Through Time And Space. He calls Cushing's Dr. Who "The Forgotten Doctor." He also attributes to Dr. Who many of the warm, gentle characteristics that people would eventually see when Patrick Troughton took over the role.
That is only sort of true. He has less rough edges, yes, but he's also got less of pretty much everything. What he does have is more of the hero's role. Some bits of business that fall to the younger, more dashing Ian in the teleplay and the novel are now given to him. The title role in the film is more central and conventional, and that is a direction the character was only starting to take on television at the time.
That's the role, but what of the performance? Cushing does a good job with what he's given. He generates a decidedly distinct physical performance from what Hartnell does on TV; his bent over gait, his mannerisms, his way of moving through a scene is completely his own. There is some wonderful, childlike curiosity. The malfunction of the TARDIS also plays out as more of a child's fib than anything with real menace. Yet when it becomes clear that the Daleks must be fought, the leading man core in Cushing's performance is there.
Aside from all that, there is pink plastic. A LOT of pink plastic. As Milton Subotsky also told Kinematograph Weekly in April 1965:
Our real star of the film is Bill Constable, who designed the sets.
It's probably the world's first plastic set — it's all plastic, but it looks metallic. We used all sorts of new materials.
How metallic the set looks is debatable. The goal of the production design is not; where Doctor Who is low resolution black and white video at home, it's bright Technicolor and Techniscope here. Color production stills of the BBC Dalek city show that the set was primarily metallic gray, and that the Daleks themselves were primarily in blue and gray livery. Here, the Daleks are a number of different colors, nearly all of them bright and shiny, and their movie city is predominantly pink.
If that is the bad of this film, what is the good? The film operates on a budget that the television show can only dream of. The original BBC serial only had four real Dalek props and scenes calling for more than that used cardboard cutouts in the background to make up the difference. The movie used the same prop company (Shawcraft) as the BBC to manufacture eight "hero" Dalek props, and then contracted with the Shepperton studio plaster shop for another 10 Dalek "extras". This creates more genuinely dramatic opportunities for the Daleks to interact, because there are enough props for rooms in the Dalek city to look populated. This something that fans of the show would only see in TV21 comics for some time to come.
Beyond that, things fall apart pretty quickly. Comparing the visual design of the serial and the movie show how the designers and producers at the BBC were masters at doing more with less. The design of the movie TARDIS control room is a vastly inferior mess compared to the iconic BBC design. Yes, the petrified forest of the movie is bigger but the action in it is less effective. The pink city and the lava lamps (yes, there are lava lamps) make great use of the Technicolor palate, but date the look of the film quickly. Cutting the running time of the story from eight 24-minute episodes to an 83-minute film removes some of the tedium of the Ian and Barbara's journey over the mountains with the Thals, but also gives less screen time to the Daleks. That's a mistake, because the bright, shiny, colorful Daleks are the real stars of the show here.
I think this film has significance because it was a visual record of the Hartnell era show when no other records were widely available. Prior to the 1989 release of "The Daleks" on VHS home video, there were only three ways to see William Hartnell stories: either go to a Doctor Who convention, see the special event repeats of old episodes and serials on the BBC or hope that whatever local station that plays Doctor Who (outside the UK) actually bothers to show serials from the 1960s. I fell into none of these categories from about 1979 to 1986, and was enjoying Doctor Who somewhat vicariously through novels and issues of Doctor Who Magazine. Yet, I was able to first see this film in the mid-1980s on late, late night television. With the film getting a Blu-ray remaster in 2013 and the BBC serial "The Daleks" now available on Hulu, we truly live in privileged times.
Consciously or not, I believe this film and its sequel also have significance because they created certain ideas about how the Daleks should be shown that can never completely go away. If you look at Steven Moffat's Dalek re-design at the end of "Victory of the Daleks," you get four very tall, brightly colored new Daleks with large bumpers and dome lights. According to online sources, Moffat intentionally created them with the movies, not television, as a reference point.
Aside from that, there can only be memories and unanswerable questions. As soon as I saw that John Hurt was cast as the War Doctor, I could only wonder what Peter Cushing would do with that role. Cushing died in 1994, at the age of 81. Yet, if any actor associated with the role of the Doctor needed to be brought into the canonical fold, it is him. With those piercing eyes and his dramatic gravitas, he would have been marvelous. Peter Haining's book relates that Cushing himself was glad he took on the role; so much of his film work in those days was straight up horror and the Dr. Who films gave him a role where children welcomed him with open arms, not scared uncertainty. That reaction has the real character of the Doctor written all over it.
Topics: Movies, Reviews, Spinoffs, Television
Tags: BBC, David Whitaker, Doctor Who, Dr. Who, Dr. Who & The Daleks, Kinematograph Weekly, Milton Subotsky, Patrick Troughton, Peter Capaldi, Peter Cushing, Peter Haining, Steven Moffat, Terry Nation, William Hartnell
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Researchers treat heart attacks with new gene therapy based on telomerase enzyme
by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas
High magnification image of the heart. Green cells represent cardiomyocytes targeted by the gene therapy. Telomerase reactivation confers cardioprotection after acute myocardial infarction. Credit: CNIO
The enzyme telomerase repairs cell damage produced by ageing, and has been used successfully in therapies to lengthen the life of mice. Now it has been observed that it could also be used to cure illnesses related to the ageing process. Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have for the first time treated myocardial infarction with telomerase by designing a very innovative strategy: a gene therapy that reactivates the telomerase gene only in the heart of adult mice, thus increasing survival rates in those animals by 17 % following a heart attack.
Christian Bär and Bruno Bernardes de Jesús, researchers in Maria Blasco's Group at CNIO, have worked alongside several Units from the CNIO Biotechnology Programme and the teams of Fátima Bosch (the Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Kai Wollert (Hannover Faculty of Medicine, Germany). "Our work suggests that the activation of telomerase could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent heart failure following myocardial infarction," say the authors of the study published today in Nature Communications.
"We have discovered that following a myocardial infarction, hearts that express telomerase show less heart dilatation, better ventricular function and smaller scars from the heart attack; these cardiac events are associated with an increased survival of 17 % compared to control animals," they say.
Furthermore, everything points to cardiomyocytes—the cells responsible for heart beating—being regenerated in those hearts with telomerase, a long searched-for goal in post-heart-attack therapy. The regeneration of heart muscle would counter the formation of scars as a consequence of the heart attack, a tough tissue that hinders cardiac function and increases the likelihood of heart failure.
"One of the aims of cardiology when treating myocardial infarction and preventing heart failure is efficient cardiac regeneration, but up until now there have not been any significant advances in this sense," explain the authors.
They remind us that heart failure is the most common cause of death and illness in the world, and that one of its main risk factors—of cardiovascular disease generally—is ageing: the process not only causes changes to the heart that make it more likely to fail, but it also reduces its capacity to regenerate itself.
Gene therapy in adults
The study published today is part of another in which the same CNIO Group developed a genetic technique, in 2012, to reintroduce the telomerase gene in an adult organism. It was then shown that thanks to their renewed capacity to synthesise telomerase, mice lived 40 % longer. Now the authors explore the hypothesis that, if telomerase delays ageing, it may also combat diseases related to ageing, like heart attacks.
Telomerase is able to reset a cell's biological clock by rebuilding telomeres, the protein hoods that protect the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres progressively shorten every time the cell divides, until they reach a critical length, at which point they cannot carry out their protective function. Then the cell stops dividing and ages. At the whole-body level, telomere shortening leads to ageing-related diseases, including cardiac dysfunction in both mice and human beings.
Telomerase prevents this shortening of the telomeres, but in the vast majority of cells in the body it only does so before birth; adult cells, exceptions aside, do not contain telomerase.
The authors of the study inoculated adult mice with a modified virus that contained telomerase gene between viral genes, so that adult cells could express telomerase once again. In their seminal work in 2012, the reintroduced telomerase gene was perfectly expressed throughout the body. But this time, researchers have infected only the heart and, when they have been sure that the animals were expressing telomerase in the organ, they have induced a heart attack.
"These results show that the activation of telomerase in the adult heart is beneficial for survival in model mice that have suffered acute myocardial infarction, an effect that coincides with cardiac myocardial cells having longer telomeres and the activation of several pathways associated with cardiac protection and regeneration," conclude the authors. This study provides "proof-of-concept for the development of innovative strategies based on the activation of telomerase to treat chronic and acute heart failure," and it opens new avenues for the treatment of other age-related diseases.
The authors of the study—with the help of cardiologist Francisco Fernández-Avilés, Head of Cardiology at the Gregorio Marañón General Hospital—hope to soon be able to test this gene therapy in pigs as a prior step to human trials. Fernández-Avilés said: "this study is impressive due to its ingenuity and methodology, and totally disruptive from the clinical point of view, given that it opens doors we've never explored before to treat heart disease. It is crucial for two reasons: it demonstrates that natural mechanisms for preserving genetic information are involved in myocardial protection and regeneration; and it teaches us that those mechanisms can be reactivated using therapeutic approaches applicable to patients."
Researchers uncover new cancer cell vulnerability
Provided by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas
Citation: Researchers treat heart attacks with new gene therapy based on telomerase enzyme (2014, December 18) retrieved 15 January 2021 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-12-heart-gene-therapy-based-telomerase.html
Delivering stem cells into heart muscle may enhance cardiac repair and reverse injury
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PopStar Guitar é um jogo de video game musical para o PlayStation 2 e o Wii.

O jogo
Em PopStar Guitar, os jogadores se tornam guitarristas que querem se tornar o maior sucesso da música pop. Os jogadores aumentam seus níveis de acordo com que os desafios são conquistados.
No modo carreira o jogador começa como membro de uma banda de garagem. São disponibilizado 12 personagens  (6 masculinos/ 6 femininos) para escolher, os jogadores pode ainda personalizar os personagens e os instrumentos.

O modo de jogar de PopStar Guitar é similar a outros jogos do gênero, onde os jogadores devem apertar os botões de acordo com a nota que esteja na tela. A versão do PlayStation 2 suporta guitarras, enquanto a do Wii disponibiliza um acessório chamado AirG que simula os botões da guitarra ao ser conectado do Wii Remote e Nunchuck.

Músicas
O jogo disponibiliza 60 músicas, o que inclui músicas de artistas pop e rock. Algumas das músicas incluidas como:

Referências

Ligações externas
 Site Oficial
 PopStar Guitar na GameStart

Jogos eletrônicos de 2008
Jogos eletrônicos musicais
Jogos para PlayStation 2
Jogos para Wii
Jogos musicais de guitarra

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package dream.quqiongyou.fuckticket.view;

import java.util.List;

import dream.quqiongyou.bean.PostBean;

/**
 * Created by SomeOneInTheWorld on 2016/10/7.
 */
public interface FuckticketView{
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    void showPostBeanList(List<PostBean>topList,List<PostBean>normalList);
    void showErrorMessage(String message);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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You are at:Home»Quiz»Quick quiz: DPD's expanding EV fleet
Quick quiz: DPD's expanding EV fleet
By Helen Norman on	 October 30, 2019 Quiz
DPD has announced that it is to grow its current EV fleet of 139 vehicles to how many by the end of 2020?
Helen Norman, editor-in-chief
Helen has worked for UKi Media & Events for nearly a decade. She joined the company as assistant editor on Passenger Terminal World and since progressed to become editor of five publications, covering everything from aviation, logistics and e-commerce to meteorology. She has a love for travel and property and has redeveloped three houses in three years. When she's not editing magazines, she's running around after her two boys and their partner in crime, Pete the pug.
Quick quiz: Supporting Wuhan
Quick quiz: IPC Interconnect growth
Quick quiz: An Post's new hub


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Earlier this year railway adventurers Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall set out to visit all 2,563 railway stations in Great Britain, completing the ambitious journey in 14 weeks, six days, eight hours and 22 minutes.
From Penzance on May 7 to Wick on August 19, the pair filmed a documentary on what Britain's railways look like in 2017, as an aged system transports more passengers than ever before.
1. Railways and railway stations have featured in music, film and TV for decades. At Cromford station we recreated the single cover of Oasis's 'Some Might Say'.
2. Yes, Britain's railways can be cute! Like the wonderful Parry People Mover which operates between Stourbridge Town and Stourbridge Junction. Definitely the cutest train we've ever seen!
The words "love thy neighbour" feature in various languages on the mural. Credit: All The Stations.
3. Art. It's not just about the trains. Lots of stations and station staff work together with their local community. At Smethick Rolfe Street they recently unveiled a new mural created by young local artists, reflecting the vibrant and diverse cultures of the area.
4. The history and heritage of Britain's railways are evident almost everywhere. In Bridlington we were in awe of their amazing refreshment room full of incredible railway ephemera, it was like stepping back in time.
5. Britain's railway signs reflect the incredible diversity of languages spoken across the country, from Punjabi in Southall (West London), Arabic in Oxfordshire (Bicester Village) to Welsh (all stations in Wales) and Gaelic (all stations in Scotland).
A ladybird climbing a railway bridge at Streatham South Junction. Credit: All The Stations.
6. It's not just humans that want to catch a train. In all corners of the country animals and the railways live side by side.
Photo taken at Dorridge station. Credit: All The Stations.
7. Travelling on the railways is not always about moving, there are lots of spaces to pause and waiting rooms can offer that perfect moment of reflection.
Photo taken at Shippea Hill, Britain's least used station. Credit: Roger Newark.
8. There are currently 147 request stops in Britain. If you've never flagged down a train we highly recommend finding your nearest request stop to have a go, it's lots of fun, especially if the driver toots the horn in recognition!
9. Don't forget to look up, or step outside at stations to enjoy the amazing architecture of the buildings. Often features are not simply decorative but actually help with wayfinding, like the incredible curved structure of Wemyss Bay.
10. The type of train you travel on can really change your experience of the journey. On the Isle of Wight we were excited to discover that original 1938 London Underground Tube trains serve the national rail network between Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin.
A view from the Kyle of Lochalsh line, Scotland. Credit: All The Stations.
11. There is no better way to see the changing landscape of Britain than by train. From rolling hills to dramatic coast lines you can see it all.
12. We discovered there are almost as many castles in Britain as railway stations! Many of them are not that far from the railway, like Harlech Castle in Wales, which looks impressively over the nearby Harlech station.
13. Each train operating company has its own distinct livery, staff uniforms and moquette (seating fabric) which helps to identify the services you're travelling on. Throughout our journey we collected them all, though we do confess London Midland was our favourite.
14. Railways can take you to some of the most remote places in the country. At Berney Arms in Norfolk the railway is the only method of transport available to reach the same location.
To find out more about the All The Stations project, visit their website by clicking here or re-cap the journey on YouTube.


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"I overestimated the media. My profession is no longer a trusted arbiter of the truth, which means the country lacks a common set of facts around which to argue."
It is such a blessing to know a way of existence wherein the direct and unmediated experience of inshining Light itself is sole arbiter without regard to any outward social or civic professions whether political, religious, or economic. To witness the indwelling Light itself illuminating the conscious and conscience is to know freedom from all "common set of facts," that outward professions struggle to lay over against the mystery of a faith held in pure conscience. There is a different way to exist on this earth that is open to all people. A way that is no longer anchored in outward forms, traditions, practices, and institutions ... a way that is not sitting down into outward instrumentalities.
Thank you Keith and Forrest. This is the first thing I read and engaged my mind on this morning upon waking. Both of your remarks are so beautiful and meaningful. Your statements represent the life lived by Jesus because this type of life is the only true reality - and he knew it. He so wanted this living reality for all who would listen.


Don't fib, Sarah! Countless are the times I've seen you sneering, smirking, sniggering, curling your lip, throwing daggers with your eyes, and generally making like Veronica Lodge from the panel dais.
Absolutely. Levi's account is foolproof. I remember very well the reconstructive surgery shortly after last year's BEA and the pain that shot through my body for the next three months. I won't go into the details. You, Sarah, know them too well. Needless to say, I have been terrified of eating cake since that fateful week. And I will have an entourage of trained assassins accompanying me at all times while in Washington DC this May.


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Three Filipino Frontliners Among First to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
Home News Three Filipino Frontliners Among First to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
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By Kyle Fuego News 22nd December 2020
Riza Raquion, Richie Gil, and Leo Quijano are among the first Filipino frontliners who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination.
The United States of America and the United Kingdom have recently rolled out the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use to address their spiraling cases. Several Filipino frontliners took part in receiving the first dosage of the vaccine.
Riza Raquion, a 53-year old registered nurse in Chicago, stated that "It's my duty as a health care provider to be a good example to protect my patient, my family, and my community."
After volunteering, Raquion was administered the vaccine on Friday, December 18 at the Amita Health Resurrection Center in Chicago, Illinois. Upon hearing the news that the hospital was going to begin rolling out vaccines, she expressed how she had to prepare herself mentally before deciding to volunteer.
She expressed, "When you work at the hospital bedside as a nurse, you will see the struggle. You will see how [COVID patients] cope to get better. It's very hard and I've seen them. It breaks my heart to take care of these patients and I don't want them to die in front of me again. I've witnessed it and it's so depressing. You'll cry when you see them intubated [and] when you see them transferred to the ICU."
Richie Gil, a critical care nurse at the University of Chicago Medicine, was prioritized to receive one of the first shots for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Currently, Gil is assigned to the hospital's Perioperative Services and Post Anesthesia Units, which is considered as one of the COVID-19 battlefronts for medical frontliners.
He stated, "I have long been waiting for this moment to come after enduring 10 months of risking our lives being exposed to COVID-19 patients. The daily uncertainty made me and my wife, who is also a nurse, accept the fact that it is just a matter of time before we get infected."
Leo Quijano, a Filipino nurse working in one of the major hospitals in Brighton, England, had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus after contracting it from one of her patients during work.
On June 1, Quijano's COVID results showed that she was positive for the virus and was hastily placed in the hospital's Red Zone, an isolation area for COVID-19 patients. Luckily, Quijano recovered after two months of isolation.
After the UK government announced the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination, Quijano was among the first who availed of the vaccination.
Quijano stated, "Being a victim of COVID-19 myself, I did not hesitate. I am positive about the vaccine which has shown 95% efficacy in the study and that is really good."
The frontliners experienced little to no side-effects days after receiving the vaccine. At most, they only suffered a sore arm from where the vaccine was administered but later recovered after a day of well-deserved rest.
This type of vaccine is made from a special RNA vaccine where one needs to have two injections. The second injection must be administered after three to four weeks from the first shot. The vaccine also guarantees 95% effectiveness.
COVID-19 VaccinePfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
Kyle Fuego / About Author
Kyle Leonard Fuego is a Junior Digital Copywriter for Kittelson and Carpo Consulting. He produces content for news articles, blogs, and infographics. He is also an avid reader and a passionate writer.
More posts by Kyle Fuego
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Jan Albertse was born in Europe during the early 1630s. He was brought to New Netherland by his parents, Albert Andriesse and Anna Barents Bradt, in 1637. He grew up on the family farm along the Normanskill at at other Bradt properties in what became Albany.
His wife was Brazillian native Maria Post. Their family was large but not entirely accounted for in the baptism records of the Albany Dutch church where both parents were members.
In 1679, Jan Albertse Bradt was identified as an Albany householder. In 1683, a list of contributors to the Dutch church stated that he lived "outside the north gate."
He probabaly died just after witnessing a baptism in May 1697 as his widow was identified as the head of their household on a census document taken just a month later. She re-married in 1699!
Sources: The life of Jan Albertse Bradt is CAP biography number 4188. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.


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A new quarterly recruiting challenge for all ASA members and state associations is giving the chance to win prizes like an Amazon Kindle Fire, iPad Mini or Sony Flip video camera.
Any member who recruits or renews 10 members during a quarter will be entered in a drawing to win the quarterly prize.
For every additional 10 members recruited in the quarter, the recruiter receives an additional entry.
ASA will conduct a drawing and notify the winner by e-mail or phone.
Jan. 1–March 31: Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9"
ASA also wants to issue a challenge to its affiliated state associations. ASA knows the success of its membership growth is the result of hard work and dedication by its state affiliates and wants to recognize them for their efforts.
This year, ASA will award $500 each to the state association with the highest overall membership increase and the state association with the highest overall percentage increase for a quarter.


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Artists may even really feel pressured by reviewers and themselves to go into a deep stasis and reinvent themselves to only emerge again when they're a newly revamped and retooled model, as opposed to just capturing the time in a bottle and providing more to their catalog.
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Coach tours, camel tours, bushwalking and camping tours, and ballooning tours – there are countless ways to get out and about in Alice Springs.
Coach tours, horse and camel tours, bushwalking and camping tours, ballooning tours – you name it, there are countless ways to get to know Alice Springs.
Take an Aboriginal cultural tour and explore the art, stories and history of the Arrernte people, the traditional owners of Mpwante (Alice Springs). Spend a day visiting the Two Women Dreaming Track, or camp in The Hinterland with an Aboriginal guide who'll introduce you to local communities and their culture and customs.
Adventure fiends can get pointed in all the right directions by experienced guides, whether hot air ballooning or taking a helicopter joyride over the MacDonnell Ranges. Get closer to ground level quad-biking across the open desert landscape or trekking through rocky chasms and cooling off in natural waterholes.
Occupied for over 30,000 years and right in the centre of Australia, Alice is a hotspot for history and heritage. Take a tour exploring the rich heritage of The Alice: from ancient stories of the Arrernte people to one of Australia's greatest engineering feats, and the European settlement that followed.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly arid landscape – take a nature and wildlife tour of Alice to discover the unique desert ecology. Visit the award-winning Alice Springs Desert Park, and get up close and personal with snakes and lizards at the Territory's largest reptile display – the Alice Springs Reptile Centre.
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Q: TFS Loses History when Merging Both Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2005 and 2008 lose history (check-ins + comments) on files when they branched and merged back. So e.g. if changes in a branch are made then merged back to the root branch, none of the changes made in the branch are visible in the root branch. The only thing visible in the history states that a merge occurred.
Does anyone know if there is an option which can be set to retain the history, or a different way to do the merge which keeps the history?

A: TFS Branched History plugin for VS2010 is now available from Microsoft Gallery:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7d4f37b6-f9a4-44c6-b0a0-994956538a44
This plugin is just query history from different branches and make union of the records.

A: *

*You are correct that TFS does not track history by default when merging.  There is a powertool, however, that allows you to do so (see History Command under TFS Power Tool Commands).

*See this comment for more details:

"If TFS would only maintain the history of branched files, rather than starting them from scratch every time a branch is done, then a similar safe merge would be possible between branches"
You can install the Power Tools and then use the /followbranches flag to retrieve the history information: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718351.aspx
History Command
Use the history command to display the revision history for one or more files and folders. The /followbranches option returns the history of the file branch's ancestors.
There is also a codeplex project to enable the option in the GUI:
http://www.codeplex.com/TFSBranchHistory

A: The TFS Branched History plugin from Microsoft Gallery only works with VS2010.
For those using Visual Studio 2008, here is a plugin that provides the same functionality.
After you install it, open up VS2008 and  go to the TFS Source Control window.

*

*Right-click on an item and you will see a new option in the context menu called "Branched History".

*Click on this to get the history of the item in all previous TFS branches. Give it a few seconds if you're on a slow machine.

In the "Branched History" window you can also View or Compare file versions just as you can in the regular "History" window.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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A-Rod in right state of mind this October
The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez celebrates with teammate Freddy Guzman after hitting a solo home run against the Angels' Brian Fuentes during the 11th inning of Game 2.
PUBLISHED: October 19, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: August 30, 2017 at 11:09 a.m.
NEW YORK – With runners on first and second in the 12th inning early Sunday, the "A-Rod!" chants started swelling at Yankee Stadium. Only thing is, All-Star Mark Teixeira was still at the plate.
My how things have changed for Alex Rodriguez.
In postseasons past, New York Yankees fans were merciless as Rodriguez foundered. Now they're fawning over him – even while an MVP candidate is taking his swings.
So far, this October belongs to Rodriguez, and the Yankees have ridden their troubled slugger within two wins of his first trip to the World Series – and New York's first since 2003.
"I know you guys are probably looking for something profound," Rodriguez said. "I mean, I'm just in a good place. I'm seeing the ball and I'm hitting it. I mean, that's about it."
Rodriguez's latest feat: a tying homer in the 11th inning in Game 2 of the AL Championship Series. The Yankees went on to win the wet, sloppy game, beating the Angels, 4-3, in 13 innings to take a two-game lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is today in sunny Anaheim with the Yankees' Andy Pettitte and the Angels' Jered Weaver getting the start.
"I just kept yelling, `He did it again! He did it again!"' Teixeira said of his reaction from the dugout.
Teixeira is right. Rodriguez keeps doing it. The homer was his third of the playoffs, all coming in the seventh inning or later and all tying the game.
After going 8-for-59 (.136) in the playoffs dating to 2004 – 0-for-18 with runners in scoring position – A-Rod has quashed the questions about his mental makeup for another postseason in New York.
Much like Barry Bonds, who had a breakout October for the Giants in 2002 with eight homers and a World Series loss to the Angels after years of glaring failures, Rodriguez is on a tear.
He has at least one hit and an RBI in all five games this postseason, all New York victories, and has played superb defense. Rodriguez went 5-for-11 with two homers and six RBIs in a three-game sweep of the Twins in the division series.
While he has only two hits in the LCS, he still appears comfortable at the plate, driving the ball the opposite way.
"He's getting hits, that's the bottom line," Derek Jeter said. "He's basically taking what he did in the regular season and carrying it over to the postseason."
Rodriguez's season got off to a dreadful start and that might have been the best thing could have happened to him.
"I think going back to me in spring training. It was a rough one," Rodriguez said. "I thought making things simple was the best thing for me."
After admitting to steroid use and holding a bizarrely orchestrated press conference, Rodriguez had hip surgery that kept him away from the team until early May. But he returned with a new outlook that has kept the drama on the field.
He hit a three-run homer on his first pitch of the season May 8 and hit a grand slam on the last to give him 30 homers and 100 RBIs.
"It's almost to the point we know he has it," Nick Swisher said of his late-inning hits. "This is 2009. He's having a great year."
If the Angels are going to rally from the 2-0 deficit, not only are they going to have to figure out how to stop Rodriguez, who has 37 homers and 82 RBIs in 349 at-bats at Angel Stadium, but they are going to have to get back to playing the sound fundamental baseball that helped them win 97 games.
The Angels made five errors in two games in chilly New York, the most glaring being Maicer Izturis' error in the 13th that gave the Yankees the win. They are also batting .154, with Chone Figgins, Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero a combined 3-for-27 (.111) with one RBI.
"That's very uncharacteristic of this team. This is not our baseball. We're not playing up to our capabilities right now," Torii Hunter said. "Offensively and defensively, man, we need to come through a little more."
Manager Mike Scioscia said he is confident the Angels can turn it around.
"We're going back home," he said. "The momentum in this series can swing in a heartbeat."
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Rams hire Mike LaFleur as new offensive coordinator


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Zelda Williams misses dad Robin Williams 'like crazy' on his 65th birthday
Zelda Williams has shared a family photograph and touching message for her late dad on what would have been Robin Williams's 65th birthday. Alongside a black-and-white snapshot showing Robin with Zelda and her brothers Zach and Cody, the 26-year-old wrote, "Still not really sure what to do on days like this."
Robin tragically took his own life on August 11 2014 at his home in California. In her message, Zelda said she had found a way to honour his memory; by donating to causes close to his heart.
TAP TO VIEW GALLERY
Zelda Williams shared a heartfelt post on Instagram in honour of Robin's birthday
"I know I can't give you a present anymore, but I guess that means I'll just have to keep giving them in your name instead," she wrote. "This year I tried to help three causes you care about in one; rescue dogs, people suffering from disabilities, and our nation's wounded veterans, so I donated to freedomservicedogs.org.
"They rescue puppies from shelters and train them so that they can be paired with someone in dire need of their help and companionship. Thought you'd get a kick out of furry, four legged friends helping change the world, one warrior in need at a time," she continued.
"Happy birthday Poppo. Shasha, Zakky, Codeman and I all love you and miss you like crazy. XO."
Robin pictured with his wife Susan Schneider
Next month will mark the two year anniversary since Robin's death. At the time his publicist said that the comedian had been battling depression for some time, but his widow Susan Schneider later revealed that the Oscar-winner was suffering from Lewy Body Dementia.
LBD shares symptoms with both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and can cause hallucinations, memory loss, depression, problems with movement and delusions.
"Depression was one of, let's call it, 50 symptoms and it was a small one," Susan told People. "I know now the doctors, the whole team, was doing exactly the right things. It's just that this disease was faster than us and bigger than us. We would have gotten there eventually."
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