EASTTOWN – There are 111 local qualifying sites in 43 states for next month’s U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, but for West Chester native Jeff Osberg, there was really only one choice.
Osberg, 28, knows Waynesborough Country Club as well as he knows any golf course. His father, Rick, was the head golf pro there for more than a decade.
“It’s a comfort level I have here,” he said. “I enjoy the course. I love the layout. It always plays difficult. When I looked at where the U.S. Open (local qualifying) sites where going to be this year, I was excited to see it here.”
All that local knowledge helped Osberg, an amateur who now lives in Manayunk, place in a tie for third in a field of 122 vying for just seven qualifying positions on Thursday. His 1-over-par 72 was just a single stroke behind mini-tour professional Mikel Martinson of Charlotte, N.C., and amateur Oliver White of Lower Gwynedd.
Another local golfer – West Chester’s Chris Gallagher – is among the other four qualifiers who now advance to 36-hole Sectional qualifying. Amateur and former Ches-Mont champion Braden Shattuck (Aston), Travis Howe (Charlotte, N.C.) and Mark Summerville (Jupiter, Fla.) also advanced.
A professional who currently competes on the eGolf Tour, Gallagher sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a seven-man sudden death playoff to grab his spot after carding a 74.
Osberg, a Huntingdon Valley Country Club member, also had some challenges to overcome. Just six months removed from back surgery, he bogeyed three of his first 10 holes.
“It’s really been the last few weeks that I started to hit it again,” Osberg said. “I spent a lot of time in the rough (Thursday). I struggled putting. I wasn’t in trouble a whole lot, though. I was very pleased with how I hit it.”
Osberg began his late surge by nearly driving the 339-yard, par-four 12th, and then added another birdie at No. 15 following a well-executed flop shot to get to even-par. He missed a tricky downhill slider to save par at the 17th, but finished with a par at the finishing hole.
Osberg will head to Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. for Sectional qualifying on June 3. He smiles at the notion of setting foot on Merion for the U.S. Open on June 13-16.
“It would be unbelievable,” Osberg said. “I love the golf course, but it would be nice because you have family and friends (rooting for you) as the hometown person.”
Naylor is medalist at Mid-Am Qualifier
Willistown resident William Naylor shot a 1-under-par 70 to grab a share of medalist honors at a Golf Association of Philadelphia Middle-Amateur Qualifier on Monday at French Creek Golf Club in East Nantmeal. A member at Applebrook Golf Club in East Goshen, Naylor topped a field of 135 and earned one of the 39 qualifying spots for the Philadelphia Mid-Am, set for May 22-23 at Fieldstone Golf Club.
Naylor attributed his effort to consistent ball-striking. He hit 13 fairways and 15 greens in regulation. The 39-year-old insurance consultant carded bogeys on two of the first eight holes, but went 3-under over the final nine holes, including birdies on Nos. 11, 16 and 17.
“I started to get a feel for the greens,” he said.
During the winter, Naylor spent time in Naples, Fla., and joined Calusa Pines Golf Club. He said it made a big difference in his game.
“The (Calusa Pines) course is so hard,” Naylor explained. “It kind of taught me what good scores mean. I’ve become a lot more relaxed playing golf. I’m starting to enjoy it a lot more.”
Other local qualifiers include: Loch Nairn’s Freddy Henriquez (T5, 74), Chester Valley’s Joshua Isler (T8, 75), Kennett Square G&CC’s Michael Zieg (T11, 76), Stonewall’s Jim Simmons and Kennett Square’s John Gosselin (T19, 77), and Whitford’s David West (T31, 79).
West is runner-up in Philly Am Qualifier
Two days later, West shot an even-par 72 to share runner-up honors at a Golf Association of Philadelphia Amateur Championship Qualifier on Wednesday in Yardley. Finishing just one stroke off the lead, the Whitford member grabbed one of 29 berths into the 113th Philadelphia Amateur, set for June 18-20 & 22 at Aronimink Golf Club.
The only other local qualifier was Downingtown Country Club’s Kevin Delaney, who tied for 27th with a 77. There will be two more qualifiers, including one May 18 at Broad Run Golfer’s Club in West Bradford.
WCU golf outing to debut June 18
The inaugural Golden Ram Golf Team Invitational is slated for June 18 at Penn Oaks Golf Club in Thornbury. Proceeds will benefit the West Chester University Men’s and Women’s Golf Scholarship Fund.
The Edwin B. Cottrell Trophy will be awarded to the low gross winner and the WCU President’s Cup goes to the net champion. Registration and lunch begin at 11:30 a.m., and a 1 p.m. shotgun start is planned. An open bar, hors d’oeuvres and dinner will follow golf.
Cost is $150 per person or $550 for a foursome, and includes cart, gifts and prizes. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information, contact Kelly Erisman, Assistant Development Director, Athletics, at 610-436-2405 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
PSU-Great Valley outing at Applecross
The second annual Penn State-Great Valley Golf Tournament will be held May 21 at Applecross Country Club in East Brandywine. The outing supports community programs and scholarships for students in the new, regional undergrad engineering program.
The program begins with lunch at 11 a.m., and a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start. Dinner, cocktails and a silent auction follows at approximately 5:30 p.m. Cost is $200 per person.
For more information, contact Alex Pratt, assistant director of development and alumni relations, 610-892-1253 or email@example.com.


Editorial: Job well done with Christmas decorations
November 30, 2016
Anyone who has recently taken a drive down Legion Avenue in Whitehall will have noticed the numerous holiday decorations.
Simply put, it looks awesome!
Last Saturday, members of the BY's and Ag Cats 4-H Clubs, Whitehall Chamber of Commerce members, town employees and local residents came together to decorate the town for Christmas.
The Ledger would like to thank each and everyone who took time to participate, and a special kudos to the 4-H members that helped decorate. These kids are learning at an early age the importance of taking pride in where you live and how you take pride in it. Wh...


What's best, bottles or cans?
Posted on February 17 2020
It's a personal thing, this can vs. bottle debate
Which do you prefer to drink from? Pour from? Be seen with? Is there really a taste difference? A variation in fizz, perhaps?
Oskar Blues brewery in the good ol’ U.S. of A. started the canning trend back in 2002. In the UK, it was a whole 11 years before Camden Town picked up on it, followed by Beavertown in 2014. Now there’s no escaping the cans – and shops and fridges have been hugely more colourful as a result.
Beyond aesthetics, what’s the difference?
A lot is merely perception. We tested it, running a blind-tasting with a crowd of beer lovers (the same beer – one packaged in a can, one in a bottle – both poured into and served from a glass) and found no-one noticed a difference.
What about a metallic taste, you say? If you have to lick the outside of the can first, then maybe you’ll get that hint of metal, but we wouldn’t recommend that! It’s certainly not coming from the inside of the can, since 1935 cans were given a very thin polymer lining, putting a halt to that metallic taste.
So that puts to bed the argument of taste difference. However, there are reasons for favouring a can over a bottle …
On an environmental level
Cans are 100% recyclable and the metal can be used again and again, with no loss of quality. Recycling a can takes just 10% of the energy required to make a can from scratch. As for glass, it’s more expensive to recycle and loses quality every time it’s recreated.
What’s more, cans are lighter (just 20% of the weight of a 330ml bottle), making it easier to transport from brewery to drinker.
Cans are much more sensible for the festival-goers or picnic-enjoyers among us. No-one wants to lug heavy bottles around … and you’re less likely to smash a can too. Plus, a can requires no additional instrument and no huge dentist bill when you stupidly think your teeth are up for the bottle-top challenge (we’ve all been there).
And it can’t be just us that realises that cans are easier to stack in the fridge!
Many brewers (but certainly not all) prefer cans for their beer because there’s no chance of light-damage. UV rays can cause a reaction in beer dulling the character of the hops or creating an unpleasant raw-onion aroma and flavour. Yuck. Tucked away in a can, there’s no chance of that.
Are there any positives for the bottle?
Yes – bottles stay cooler longer. A can will warm up more quickly in your hand. But a can also gets cooler quicker. So, actually, no…?
I guess the real difference is down to you. What do you prefer putting to your lips? Personally, we always pour our beers in to a glass!


Zimbabwe have won the toss and opted to bat first in the final ODI of the three-match series at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Green Shirts have an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series and are aiming for a whitewash while the visitors are looking to finish the series on a high.
Pakistan have made four changes in their squad. Hard-hitting explosive batsman Khushdil Shah makes his ODI debut. He has replaced Imad while Faheem , Haris and Abid Ali sit out. Mohammad Hasnain, Wahab and Fakhar make their way into the final playing XI.
Zimbabwe makes one change, Donald Tripamo comes in for Carl Mumba.
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A Co-Fellow Conversation: Perspectives on Eliminating Malaria
Stacey Naggiar and Chipasha Mwansa are 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellows working to address malaria with PATH in Zambia. In honor of World Malaria Day, they interviewed each other to highlight their perspectives on malaria elimination.
A year ago, neither of us expected to have the word malaria in our job titles. And yet here we are, a Zambian and an American working for the NGO PATH, alongside the Zambian government, to take on the bold task of eliminating malaria.
Growing up worlds apart in Lusaka and New York, our experiences with malaria have been different, running the gamut from completely commonplace to totally foreign. Yet we both found our way to malaria eradication work through a similar belief that everyone has the right to access quality healthcare.
As Global Health Corps fellows, we entered into our roles with the Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) project at PATH not fully aware of this unique moment in time for Zambia and malaria elimination. This World Malaria Day, the Zambia Ministry of Health has announced the National Strategic Plan to Eliminate Malaria by 2021. We are humbled by the opportunity to be part of the fight and to have a front row seat to history.
If a year went by without any of us getting malaria we would be surprised…
Stacey: Chips, my first question for you is… have you ever had malaria?
Chipasha: (laughs) Yes, more times than I can count. As far back as I can remember, malaria in my home was a very normal thing. If a year went by without any of us getting malaria we would be surprised and it’s something that would even invoke conversation if we didn’t suffer from malaria.
Stacey: Many of our readers might not understand what that’s like. Can you tell me a bit about what it’s like to have malaria?
Chipasha: I would have a fever and be throwing up, no appetite, no sense of taste, and a terrible headache. Even without going to a hospital or confirming what it was, we would all just know — “This is malaria.” I have taken chloroquine, quinine, Fansidar, and Coatrem, trying to find a medication that worked for me. Sometimes I would even have reactions. And malaria would do the rounds — if one person in the house had malaria, everyone would go through it. I took it as anyone would take any other disease like a flu or a cold. It was a part of my childhood and even into my early adulthood.
Stacey: When was the last time you had malaria?
Chipasha: I think the last time I had it was five years ago. And when I look at my community, it’s also become much less common in recent years. Even when you go to a health facility within Lusaka and say you think you have malaria they will ask if you traveled out of town. This shows that malaria in Lusaka is decreasing, though there are still imported cases in people coming from malaria-ridden districts. Prior to joining PATH, I really did not pay much attention to malaria but I recall hearing announcements on local media saying that Lusaka was declared malaria-free. It’s clear the malaria burden has significantly decreased across the country.
Stacey: Fast forward to the present day — tell me about your role as a malaria surveillance officer.
Without evidence from the field, we cannot know that we’re moving towards elimination. That’s what this job is all about.
Chipasha: My role as malaria surveillance officer is to analyze data that comes in from the field reports of community health workers and facility staff. These reports are used for decision making, so I follow up as needed to make sure everyone involved reports on time. I’m also involved in training community health workers in malaria case management, testing, and treatment. Without evidence from the field, we cannot know that we’re moving towards elimination. That’s what this job is all about.
Chipasha: Stacey, what about you, what does your role at PATH entail?
Stacey: My job is two-fold. One aspect of it involves working with teams like yours to develop training materials like videos and brochures to educate both community health workers and community members receiving malaria prevention services. The other role is to bring stories about progress against malaria to a larger Zambian audience and the world.
One thing I didn’t know before working on MACEPA is that when you reach low levels of malaria transmission, as Zambia has done in the Southern Province, it becomes more difficult to measure, see, and communicate success. That’s why I think it’s incredibly important to tell these stories. If we take our foot off the gas now, so close to the finish line, interest and funding to end malaria might stop and we could end up right back where we started. It’s a no-brainer that people should not suffer or die from a preventable disease.
Chipasha: Me too.
If we take our foot off the gas now, so close to the finish line, interest and funding to end malaria might stop and we could end up right back where we started. It’s a no-brainer that people should not suffer or die from a preventable disease.
Stacey: From where you sit, is elimination possible?
Chipasha: It is. We have evidence of eliminating malaria in some districts including Lusaka. All that’s needed now is concerted effort from all players working towards elimination. This includes community members themselves because one of the biggest challenges we’re up against is that people often don’t use the tools that are available, like sleeping under mosquito nets or allowing their homes to be sprayed. These particular challenges are behavioral, traditional, and cultural.
What about you, Stacey? From the work that you’ve been doing, taking part in village meetings, witnessing campaigns like mass drug administration and indoor residual spraying, do you think malaria elimination is possible?
The bottom line for me is always that malaria is preventable and curable… countries need to fix problems with much larger systems in order for malaria to be gone for good.
Stacey: For the same reasons you mentioned, yes, I think it’s possible. There was a time when malaria was endemic in the U.S. but I grew up not even knowing about malaria. Also, last year Sri Lanka was certified as malaria-free by the World Health Organization. The bottom line for me is always that malaria is preventable and curable. But we know that infectious disease is also influenced by poverty and poor education. So I think countries need to fix problems with much larger systems in order for malaria to be gone for good. That’s a huge and complicated task. I also worry that the investment we have seen from foreign countries is at risk given the current political climate. This means national governments, especially those heavily dependent on aid, need to increase their financial commitments to health budgets. It’s also an opportunity for the private sector to get involved. To sum it up, I’m concerned but yes, I do believe it’s possible.
Let’s switch gears. Looking back over the last nine months of the fellowship, what has most surprised you?
Chipasha: What has surprised me most has been the amount of work taking place behind the scenes. The community health workers who are doing a big part of this work are volunteers who don’t get paid. That just shows how committed people are to seeing malaria be eliminated. People have put earning an income aside to do this noble work. I hope they are not forgotten.
Stacey: I’ve also been blown away by the effort on the side of PATH and the Zambian government to train thousands of community health workers to find every last case of malaria. And by the community health workers themselves who have stepped up to make a change. It’s really powerful to see how much pride they have in learning these skills and serving as role models in their communities.
Chipasha: So Stace, what are you going to do after the fellowship?
Stacey: One thing at a time! I don’t know yet. You?
Chipasha: I don’t know yet either. But if we eliminate malaria, we can do anything.
To learn more about PATH’s malaria eradication efforts, check out this video.


Design and architecture shape our world. On DnA: Design and Architecture, host Frances Anderton talks to designer, users and critics about the latest in products, fashion, architecture and more, in Los Angeles and beyond. Photo credit: Marc Goldstein
October 11th, 2016
Episode 156 of 224 episodes
The LAPD Academy in Elysian Park has undergone a makeover, as the department adapts to an era of community policing. An MIT freshman has created what's believed to be the first fingerprint-enabled smart gun. And a French artist finds inspiration in the cracked concrete of the Los Angeles River.


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A Joint Administrative Order between the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) and the Department of Health (DOH) was released on Monday providing a guideline on the conduct of physical and sports activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meaning, the 12 teams in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the six squads in the Philippine Football League (PFL) can now start their conditioning as early as August 3.
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial clarified that resumption of practices will only begin six to eight days after the swab testing.
PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez expressed relief that the JAO has been finalized after over a month of collaboration with both agencies.
“We all recognize the importance sport plays in building one’s strong immune system, what we just wanted to ensure was that they keep safe and away from the virus while they are doing it,” explained the sports chief.
Ramirez, signed the joint issuance along with GAB Chairman Abraham Mitra and DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III. It covers non-professional sports under the jurisdiction of the PSC, professional sports under the GAB, professional and non-professional persons in sports like athletes, coaches, trainors, promoters and other parties involved in the conduct of sports like venue management, local government units, schools and workplaces.
Conditions and requirements for the conduct of sports are given for five risk severity ratings we now observe from high risk (enhanced community quarantine) to areas considered low risk or those classified under the Modified General Community Quarantine.
At present, the PSC is mid-way its online consultations with the different national sports associations (NSAs) to help them craft a guideline this time for the return of training of the national team, specifically those who are gunning for, or have qualified for the Olympics.
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It’s been a while since I posted a trailer and today a couple of them caught my eye. One of them is one of my most-anticipated holiday releases and the other is one I hadn’t even heard of before but the subject matter intrigued me!
So let’s start with the one coming out on Netflix first…
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
So the Rian Johnson-created detective Benoit Blanc is surely giving Agatha Christie and Sherlock a run for their money! It’s making Johnson and its star Daniel Craig plenty rich too, with Netflix outbidding Apple and Amazon to acquire the rights to this one and its sequel for a whopping $469 mil! The first one released by Lionsgate grossed over $311 mil on a $40 mil budget, no small feat for an original whodunnit movie not based on original IP.
This time, Blanc travels to Greece for his latest case, specifically a private Greek island where tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites his friends for a getaway. The Grecian scenery is perfect for a December release as I know I’ll be dreaming of an island getaway all Winter long. Joining Craig and Norton is a fantastic ensemble cast: Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.
The trailer looks like a lot of fun! I’m actually hoping there’ll be a theatrical press screening for this before it drops on Netflix on December 23.
Today is the first time I learned that there’s a movie being made about Joseph Bologne aka Chevalier de Saint-Georges! If your first reaction is ‘who?’ well, that’s all the more reason a movie about him ought to be made. I had the privilege of seeing The Anonymous Lover, a romantic comedy Opera performance by the Minnesota Opera last February, as part of a celebration for black composers.
Per Wiki, the movie chronicles the rise and resurgence of Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a French-Caribbean violinist and composer who rose to fame through his musical prodigy. But a complicated love life and the racism of the ancien regime lead to a falling out with Marie Antoinette and Saint-Georges realizes that things must change.
Chevalier has plenty of accomplishments in addition to being a musical genius that inspired Mozart himself (per this article). He was apparently Queen Marie-Antoinette’s music teacher and confidant, an elite musketeer of the King’s Horse Guard; a master swordsman and Europe’s fencing champion, a military hero who championed the French Revolution, as well as being quite the ladiesman.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. has been on a roll starring in music-themed movies. He was in Cyrano (where he displayed his singing prowess), as well as in Elvis as B.B. King. I like both of his performances and am glad to see him as the lead this time around. He’s a charismatic actor with looks and talents to spare. He’s surrounded by a great ensemble cast: Minnie Driver, Samara Weaving, and Lucy Boynton as Marie Antoinette. Unfortunately I’ve got to wait until April 7, 2023 for its release.
6 thoughts on “Double Trailers Spotlight – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery + CHEVALIER”
Now those are 2 films I totally want to see. Chevalier looks more interesting of the two in terms of period pieces and such but also a look into someone many might not know about.
Yes exactly, Steven! It’s great they finally highlight a black composer whose astounding work is barely known to the world.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery does look fun, hopefully it delivers! I read that Netflix plans to release it theater for about a month before it hits their service in late December.
Yeah I’m hoping there’ll be a press screening at the theater for Glass Onion!
‘I fully agree about the ‘unfortunately’ part regarding Chevalier. Trailers don’t tend to make us wait six months anymore and I got a little too used to that, I guess. As for Glass Onion, it looks great but I can be patient. 😁
Yeah, I didn’t expect to have to wait THAT long. I thought maybe it’ll be released around Christmas time. Oh well, I know I’ll be watching!


San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is expected to miss Sunday's season opener against the Chicago Bears with a groin injury, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kittle suffered the injury during practice on Monday and has been sidelined since.
However, there was some optimism that he would play after he told reporters Friday he was feeling "significantly better" than he did earlier in the week and would do everything possible to play against the Bears.
Kittle previously missed 11 games over the past two seasons due to injuries and hasn't played a full season since 2018. He missed eight contests in 2020 and three more last season, failing to perform up to his typical standards as he played through pain.
The 28-year-old caught 71 passes for 910 yards and six touchdowns in 14 games last season.
Ross Dwelley and Tyler Kroft will get more work with Kittle out of the lineup. Wide receivers Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings should also see a heavier workload.


An extinct porpoise has been discovered in San Diego, California.
While out monitoring the site of a new Chula Vista development San Diego Natural History Museum paleontologist Richard Cerutti noticed something was out monitoring the site of a new Chula Vista development when he spotted a pointed object that was poking out of the dirt. It was precariously close to a large bulldozer. Cerutti explained heavy equipment has to be watched to avoid accidents.
He explained: “We keep them from backing up. They sometimes hit fossils.” That was back in 1990. Had Cerutti not been keeping an eye on things, the skull would very likely have been buried if not accidentally destroyed.
Cerutti, however, knew immediately he’d discovered a special specimen. Upon closer examination it resembled a common dolphin skull. Still it had a pronounced underbite. The lower jaw extended outward similar to a probe. That particular feature is not common to any type of porpoise alive today.
The skull was placed on display as part of the museum’s “Fossil Mysteries” exhibit where it would remain a mystery for 20 years. This week, after two decades, researchers have finally determined that the skull in question once belonged to what is now an extinct porpoise that lived off the California coast approximately three million years ago when scientists state a great deal of San Diego County was still underwater.
The San Diego Natural History Museum’s curator of paleontology and one of the authors of the new study, Tom Deméré, said: “This is something new, something brand new. Not only new but bizarre. In the sense that this animal we found has a structure in the lower jaw that’s not represented in any living dolphin or porpoise.”
The research chose to name this extinct porpoise Semirostrum ceruttii after the paleontologist who discovered the skull. Cerutti was honored to have the new species named after him. He said: “I was really surprised. When you’re in this business, this is kind of the reward after years and years of finding fossils.”
(Image courtesy of Bobby Boessenecker)


Read more about this case:
The New York Times: Freelance Writer Accuses The Atlantic of Defamation
The Washington Post: Ruth Shalit Barrett sues Atlantic for $1 million over retraction of viral article, allegations of inaccuracies
Law360: The Atlantic Accused of Defaming Writer of Story it Retracted
We look forward to hearing from you.


Yes, she is a bit younger than the Rachael Ray you see on the Food Network, and she does have golden blond hair. But if you dare to question 10-year-old Rachael Ray of Fremont about her identity, you are likely to get an earful.
“I AM Rachael Ray. I have a birth certificate to prove it!”
Not only does she have proof of her name, she also has a snapshot of the day she met the brown-haired Rachael Ray face to face.
“It was so funny. She writes, ‘To Rachael Ray,’ then she realizes it’s her own name,” Rachael says with a giggle. “She looks up, and she goes, ‘Shut up! Is that your real name?'”
Since Rachael was born years before the cooking show host hit the big time, she definitely wasn’t named after Rachael Ray, and she’s used to getting yak-back about her name. Thankfully, our Rachael is a fan of the cooking show host. When she was 7, she even had a Rachael Ray birthday party. Guests dressed as chefs and got little cookbooks filled with family recipes for things such as cheeseburger soup.
And since she is a cook, when the new “Rachael Ray Yum-O! The Family Cookbook” ($22.50, Potter Books) arrived, it made perfect sense to appoint our East Bay Rachael to cook up a handful of the recipes to see if the book is worth the money.
Assisting in her Fremont kitchen are friends Alasha Dunn, 9; Megan Liebig, 11; and Isolina Zambrana, 9, all seasoned cooks who have made more than a few yummy things to eat in their own kitchens.
The afternoon starts out with a giggle and a lot of silliness, but then hunger sets in, spurring our young chefs to action. Rachael divides her workers into teams and assigns recipes. It looks like a great plan.
“Where’s the chicken broth? What is chicken broth?” asks Megan.
“What is a skillet?” asks another.
After a little deciphering and decoding, the four are on track. Two are quickly dumping ingredients into a pan for soup while the other two clatter for pans to cook up their That’s Shallota Flavor Spaghetti. They put some water on to boil, then stare at the shallots, puzzled.
“So we cut these all up and put them in the pan?” Rachael says, semiconvincingly. She’s not quite sure what a shallot is or how to cut it, but she’s game — until she cuts into the first one.
“Eeeew. Oh. Uh!! This smells. This is. Oh,” she says. “How many of these do we have to cut?” Rachael forges ahead, haphazardly chopping tiny bits of onion away from the whole. Her partner Isolina does the same, but with a bit more gusto. But three minutes into the job, they are overwhelmed.
“Uhhhh. I can’t do this! Ow, ow, ow,” says Isolina. Her eyes are stinging with tears. Rachael is so skunked out by the smell of raw onion that she’s backed across the kitchen.
“We. Need. Help,” she bellows to the others, who are quite busy redecorating the entire kitchen with shreds of cheese meant for their taco soup.
“Here, you hold (the grater) and I’ll push the cheese,” Megan suggests. She pushes and a tiny bit of cheese comes out of the holes. “This is not working!” Megan exclaims, waving the shredder in the air for emphasis — sending cheese bits flying.
“OK, I’ll hold it and you try,” Alasha offers. It works, except that the shredder isn’t exactly centered on the dish. Oblivious, the team continues to grate — with the bulk of their cheese falling to the floor — until one of our chefs takes a step closer to the counter. “Yuk! That’s where our cheese went!” Megan says. “This is so gross. I’m stepping on cheese. It’s sticking to my feet!”
Cheesy feet, however, doesn’t stop this team, which has completed one recipe, and is ready to start another. They abandon their cheesy mess and head to a clean spot in the kitchen to start prepping berries for their parfaits.
As they whack nearly a third off the top of each strawberry — Who needs a huller, anyway? — and dice up the remains, they glance at the continuing distress from the shallot corner and offer assistance.
“Here, put these on your eyes. It feels good,” Alasha tells them, offering strawberry ends. The shallot team giggles but gives it a try. “It works! It really does!” Rachael says. There remains one small problem, however. If their hands are busy pressing strawberries to their eyes, they have no hands left to complete their shallot caper.
The hungry team brainstorms. “Sunglasses!” Rachael says, grabbing a pair and putting them on. “I look cool!” Even better, Rachael’s mom, Lisa Ray, emerges with a set of swim goggles.
Goggles in place, Isolina takes the lead, reducing the mound of purple of shallots to bits as our young Rachael disappears into the other room, overwhelmed by the chaos. Being a kitchen star is tough work.
Meanwhile, the breakfast parfait-taco soup team shows signs of weariness. “Hey, we’ve done two recipes and you guys haven’t even done one,” Megan throws out. When she gets no response, she just keeps talking.
“Here’s a quiz!” she shouts to the team. “What attracts water more? A wet sponge or a dry sponge?” She pauses, then offers the answer. “A wet one because water attracts water.”
Shallots are finally headed toward the pan — but not without a teamwide chant and ceremonial dousing of what the girls call “eeee-vuuuu!”
It’s two hours into the cooking adventure and the team has one last recipe to tackle — chicken fingers.
Megan and Alasha take on the mammoth task of grinding 3 tablespoons of garlic flakes. One holds the spoon over the sink, the other grinds the flakes. Even though half the spice is falling into the wet sink, the two forge on, undaunted.
“Man, this is taking a long time,” Megan exclaims, trying to be patient with Alasha’s persistent twisting of the grinder. “It doesn’t look like we are going to have enough,” she says, halfway through the task. “What are we going to do?” A hungry bystander can’t bear to keep her mouth shut any longer. “Do you think maybe you should do that over a plate?” The suggestion is welcomed and the task completed in about 2 minutes.
Tenders make their way to the oven as the team begs Rachael to approve a few shortcuts — they nix the onions for the dip, decide carrot sticks will be carrot chunks. And the celery ribs? Never mind.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Megan says. “These aren’t 30-minute meals!” After about 2½ hours of cooking, the four are seated at the table, ready to evaluate their work — and the other Rachael’s recipes. First, they dig in to the soup. It’s a hit.
“This was the easiest one and it’s so good. I’m making this again,” Isolina says. Second up is the pasta. The girls take two bites before Isolina heads into the kitchen for more cheese. “It just tastes plain. Like noodles. This is not my favorite thing.” The tenders are devoured, the parfaits downed top to bottom.
Tummies full, the young cooks sneak out of the kitchen into the backyard, hoping the explosion of strawberry hulls, cheese, bits of shallot and spatters of yogurt will be magically cleaned up. Much to their disappointment, it doesn’t happen.
“Do we have to do the dishes?” they ask. Yes, they must, and they do, with Alasha taking the lead, plowing through countless dirty pots, pans, plates, cups and more.
Reach Jolene Thym at 510-353-7008 or at email@example.com.


Jordan Davis' mother doesn't want the killing of her son to be looked at as a hate crime. The 17-year-old Davis, a black teenager, was shot and killed on 23 November by a 45-year-old white man named Michael Dunn, after what has been called a dispute over loud music.
According to reports, Dunn pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store where Davis and his friends were sitting in their car. The man asked the teens to turn their music down, at which point he and Davis exchanged words. Allegedly, Dunn then pulled out his gun and shot at the vehicle eight or nine times, hitting Davis twice.
Davis's mother, Lucia McBath, doesn't want to interject race into the case of her son's killing – because she wants justice. She and the rest of Davis' family know full well the divisiveness that comes when you start throwing the term "racist" around.
We're barely nine months past the period when the killing of Trayvon Martin dominated the news, and already the deaths of the two teenagers are being compared. Both happened in Florida, both at the hands of men identified as white, and neither of the teens was armed with anything more than his blackness. In both cases, the shooter says he felt threatened and, because of this, has the potential to walk because of Florida's controversial "stand your ground" gun law.
The ambiguity of the definition of "threat" under the law grants so much latitude that it isn't hard to see why George Zimmerman, Martin's killer, would argue he felt threatened by what he described as a black man wearing a hoodie who appeared – to Zimmerman's limited knowledge – to be on drugs. Or that "four black men" (the prerequisites for a gang, if you ask some) in a car posed an imminent threat to Dunn's life, even though the police have not recovered the shotgun (or any weapon at all) that Dunn claims he saw before shooting. "Stand your ground" sets the bar incredibly low for what constitutes as a threat, and when deadly force can be deployed to neutralize that threat, men like Dunn and Zimmerman are emboldened to act as vigilantes.
There are, however, important differences to note in these cases. Dunn, unlike Zimmerman, was arrested almost immediately and there doesn't appear to be the same type of gross incompetence on the part of the police handling his case as there was with Zimmerman. The main thread connecting the two still holds, though: a 17-year-old black teen is dead.
For me, another name came to mind when I heard the news of Davis' death: Oscar Grant. It's not an exact comparison by any means, but I think of Grant, the 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed by Oakland police officer Johannes Mersehle, because of when he was murdered. It was New Year's day 2009, a little less than two months after the election of President Barack Obama. Jordan Davis was killed the day after Thanksgiving 2012, not even three full weeks after the re-election of the nation's first black president. While a country celebrated its achievement, the deaths of these young men offered bloody reminders of just how far we haven't come in the battle against racism.
Every few months, another young black person makes their way into our lives as a news headline as a result of racist violence, and still, we manage to look the other way. We yet lack the collective will to call it what it is. Whether it's Davis, Martin, Grant, Rekia Boyd, Ramarley Graham, Wendell Allen, or any of the other black people who lost their lives as the result of extrajudicial killing – one for every 36 hours in the first half of 2012.
We keep looking at their deaths in a vacuum – as the result of one unhinged killer, a lone actor who, once locked away, will eliminate the problem. When do we stop lying to ourselves?
We have deluded ourselves into thinking that the post-civil rights/Obama era is one in which racism either doesn't exist or is waning to the point of irrelevance. Whether or not things are "better" starts to feel inconsequential when "better" still means young black people aren't safe in their own skin. We haven't come to grips with the fact that America is a fundamentally racist society. Racism built this country into what we know it to be today. It takes more than observing a Martin Luther King Jr holiday and electing a black president to unwind such deepseated bigotry. We can't eradicate it if we can't name it, and so long as we refuse to name it, more Jordans, more Trayvons and more Oscars will die. Their blood is on our hands, and we've become so self-satisfied, we don't even bother to wash it off. We keep moving as if they never existed.
That's the heart of the problem: for so many, they don't exist. Racism renders them invisible, their lives disposable. The best they can do is become a cause, a talking-point or a symbol. But what good are symbols if they don't portend action? What use is a symbol to a family in mourning?
I understand why Davis' mother would like to avoid the media spotlight and not allow her son's death to become yet another talking-point. Still, we have no choice but to take the lesson of his death forward with us, because the reality is this will happen again. Our charge is to keep calling it what it is until everyone gets the hint.


Tim Jones explains whyIF GERMANY and its long-term monetary allies decide to keep Italy out of the first wave of European single currency members, they will have plenty of ammunition to help them to do so.
Of course, current media chat has it that this will not happen. The Italians will be welcomed into the euro-zone from January next year, they say , holding firmly to a view which looks remarkably like the exact opposite of last January’s fashion.
But the fact that the French government wants the Italians in to eliminate the threat posed by the lira to its car and textiles industries and to give Paris an anti-Anglo Saxon ally is neither here nor there.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will decide who joins and his aides claim that they will only know his mind when he sits down at the summit table in May.
The truth is that powerful figures in Germany and the Netherlands are very, very worried about admitting a country which has still not seriously addressed the painful distortions to its economy and public finances created by 50 years of post-war mismanagement.
The claim that Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm was about to resign rather than let Italy into euro-land was a heady brew of electioneering by his Liberal VVD party and the now customary sensationalist tone of much current reporting on EMU, but it does show that the Italian story is still far from over.
First, there is the good news. Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his Olive Tree centre-left coalition have done a remarkable job since they took office in May 1996, albeit building on work carried out under the Amato, Ciampi, Dini and even Berlusconi governments.
Only three years ago, the annual rate of consumer price inflation was 6%. Now the talk is of keeping it under 2%: the figure which according to US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan defines the monetary Holy Grail of price stability.
The budget deficit – the gap between the government’s revenues and its spending – has narrowed from 55 billion ecu ten years ago to 27 billion ecu today, and is now worth less than 3% of gross domestic product – the key to qualifying for EMU.
Although reliable figures will not be made available to the European Commission until late February, the Italian treasury has already revealed that the value of the deficit probably narrowed to 2.7% of GDP last year, an amazing four percentage points below the 1996 figure.
If qualifying for EMU were only about meeting the deficit target in 1997, which many people still believe it is, then Italy would be home and dry.
Unfortunately, it is not. Under the terms of the Maastricht Treaty, applicants for the euro-zone must also achieve sustainable convergence of their economic performance. This means that measures taken to get government finances under control should preferably be sustainable over a period of more than one year.
In this regard, Italy’s great burden is the size of its backlog of public debt. In absolute terms, at more than 1,000 billion ecu, it is enormous. It even dwarfs the country’s GDP, which measures the money value of all the goods and services produced in Italy in a year.
EMU applicants are meant to shrink the debt-to-GDP ratio towards 60% at a satisfactory pace. In Italy, it was steady at 122% of GDP last year, and although the treasury came up with a plan last week to halve this by 2009, the Germans remain sceptical.
The costs of servicing the debt run up by incompetence, corruption and cowardice are huge. Interest payments make up 11% of all government spending – money which could be used for something a little more useful.
Indeed, once the interest Italians are paying on old debt is taken into account, it transpires that the government is actually running a budget surplus worth 6% of GDP.
If it had not been for the mistakes of the past four decades, Italians would now be making an informed and casual choice about EMU entry.
What they have done instead is rushed through a raft of budgetary measures – many of which were genuinely reformist but many of which were not – with the sole aim of getting that deficit under the magic 3% barrier.
Prodi managed to push through two budget-cutting packages in 1996 worth a massive 40 billion ecu, but which included the notorious Euro-tax: a low-cost loan from the people to the government, levied in 1997 but due for repayment once Italy is safely tucked into EMU.
The report from the EU’s monetary committee presented to finance ministers this week found numerous examples of short-term budgetary measures designed to shrink the deficit-to-GDP ratio, but storing up problems for the future.
The most serious short-term threat to financial stability has to be the residui passivi. These funds for hundreds of state agencies voted through by parliament but withheld by the treasury to keep the 1997-98 figures down are estimated by the independent think-tank Centro Europa Ricerche (CER) to be worth 150 billion ecu, or 15% of GDP. Needless to say, this frightens the Germans since this deferred spending could suddenly kick in under EMU.
In addition, Italy’s pensions crisis is still not solved. The budget deal reached in October between Prodi and the Rifondazione Comunista leader Faustino Bertinotti undermined the government’s declared aim of defusing the state pension time bomb. This is no exaggeration. Every country in Europe has a pensions problem, but Italy’s is uniquely scary.
Spending on pensions, which people as young as 52 can claim, is worth twice the EU average at 14% of GDP. More frightening still, the number of pensioners is forecast to equal the size of the workforce within just 30 years.
When they informed their EU partners about their pension reform plans in June last year, Prodi and his veteran Treasury Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pledged to slice 5 billion ecu off the bill in 1998. But by the time the draft budget was published, this target had slipped to 2.5 billion ecu in total welfare savings, of which 2.3 billion ecu would come from pensions.
In the end, the Bertinotti-blessed budget deal was expected to save 2 billion ecu, at most, from the pensions bill.
As the price for his support, Bertinotti won a government commitment to introduce a law cutting the working week to 35 hours by 2001 and concessions designed to slow down the privatisation drive.
Giorgio Fossa, the head of employers’ union Confindustria, got it just right when he said of the 1998 budget: “It may be enough to get us into EMU, but it won’t be enough to keep us there.”
All this is giving members of the Bundesbank council sleepless nights. In the same week that Ciampi began a newspaper interview and speech-making campaign designed to win over German financial opinion, Bundesbank council member Klaus-Dieter Kuehbacher decided to speak out.
Identifying a “series of good reasons to be critical” of Italy’s membership bid, he claimed that Italy’s budgetary convergence over the past year depended too much on the declining cost of servicing its debt through interest-rate reductions and not enough on real structural measures.
This could put the whole single currency project at risk, he claimed. “If long-term interest rates had to rise so as to control inflation in the EMU-zone, then Italy could have difficulty keeping its deficit and debt levels under control,” said Kuehbacher. “In that case, Italy would have to put pressure on other EU national central banks not to raise interest rates.”
On this, the Bundesbank is mistaken. Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio holds no torches for his government. He has become famous back home for forcing the government to beg on its knees for any interest rate relief.
Fazio summed up his philosophy during parliamentary hearings in October. “As the economy picks up, I am willing to ease monetary policy, but I will not push the economy; that would be a grave error,” he said. “I will not drug the economy but, if the economy picks up, I am willing to move with it.”
Whether the Bundesbank and its supporters are mistaken or not, the fact is that they believe their fears to be justified. Kohl could still vote ‘no’.


Three video reports, the first two by Press TV and the third by Al Jazeera
Tubas mosque razed
Source: Ma'an News Agency
TUBAS (Ma’an) -- Israel's Civil Administration demolished a building in the Tubas area on Thursday which villagers use as the only mosque in the small town.
Residents of Khirbet Yarza, a village of less than 200 residents, said Israeli bulldozers entered the Jordan Valley area early in the morning and tore down the mosque, saying document indicated that it was demolished because it lacked a proper permit.
Local spokesman delegated by the PA Ahmad As’ad said villagers had papers proving the mosque was legal, and that it was built before 1967, when Israeli forces occupied the West Bank.
A Civil Administration official said the building was demolished along with eight sheds which were built without permits in an area that Israeli forces had declared a firing zone.
"The extension on the building which workers said could have been a mosque was unsafe," he said, refuting claims that the structure had been in place for as long as villagers claimed.
"They got the evacuation order three months ago and the demolition order after that, they had a chance to appeal it in the court," he added.
The spokesman from the village, whose residents depend on small-scale farms and livestock raising for their living, did not indicate that the issue had been taken to the Israeli courts.
Since 1967, Israel has designated close to 18% of the West Bank a closed military zone for the purposes of military training, according to UN documents.
"Israel's planning regime in Area C directly contributes to poor living conditions confronting many Palestinians in the West Bank," a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs said.
According to Israeli officials, "citizens have the time to arrive and appeal at the civil administration offices," but according to the UN, few appeals succeed, being unable to satisfy severely restrictive policies.
Most recent demolitions echo similar incidents which prompted a December 2009 UN report, which notes that "Palestinian construction is effectively prohibited in some 70 percent of Area C, while in the remaining 30 percent, a range of restrictions virtually eliminate the possibility of obtaining a permit."
The OCHA report noted that some 39% of the West Bank falls under the category of "state land," noting that the area is "four times more than the territory taken up by the built-up are of settlements." The issue was particularly acute for residents of the Jordan Valley, the report said, "where almost all of the area falls under the jurisdiction of two Regional [Settlement] Councils."
In practical terms, the UN office has noted, "in almost the entirety of the Jordan Valley, Palestinian construction is prohibited."
[Wake up] Israelis demolish another Palestinian mosque [Nov 25, 2010]:
"multioym | November 25, 2010
Israelis demolish Palestinian mosque
Israeli forces have destroyed a Palestinian mosque in a small town in the occupied West Bank, violating the primary rights of Palestinian people.
The attack took place in Tubas early on Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Villagers said that the mosque was built before the 1967 Israeli occupation.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops demolished at least seven Palestinian structures in the eastern part of the occupied West Bank.
The soldiers also destroyed a number of shelters used to house cattle in Abu al-Ajaj, a small village in the Jordan Valley.
Witnesses say Israeli forces attacked the residents who tried to defend their properties and arrested several Palestinians.
Israel occupied the West Bank during the Six-day War in 1967.
Israel demolishes Palestinian mosque in West Bank - PressTV 101125:
"newsupload2010 | November 25, 2010 | 1 likes, 0 dislikes
Israel demolishes mosque:
"AlJazeeraEnglish | November 25, 2010
Israeli forces have demolished a mosque and several other buildings in the northern Jordan valley.
They say the structure was built without a permit but residents say the mosque was built before 1967 and was recently renovated.
The Palestinian government has condemned the action as state destruction, while Israel continues to fight for Israeli settlers.
Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports from the Jordan Valley.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog
- ***Alnakba [The Catastrophe] - [P1] The Threads of the Conspiracy [P2] Crushing the Revolution
- ***Alnakba [The Catastrophe] - [P3] Ethnic Cleansing [P4] Nakba Continued
- **Al Nakba [La Catástrofe] - [P1] Los Hilos de la Conspiración [P2] Aplastar la Revoución
- **AlNakba [La Catásrofe] - [P3] Limpieza Étnica
- *A Palestinian Woman
- *Azmi Bishara - Interview:
- *Azmi Bishara on Israeli Apartheid
- *Azmi Bishara: The Last Colonial Question
- *Blood & Religion, Unmasking the Israeli State
- *De Facto State of Lawlessness
- *Drying up Palestine
- *Edward Said - On Orientalism
- *Edward Said: Lecture The Myth of 'The Clash of Civilzations'
- *Edward Said: Memory, Inequality and Power: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights
- *Edward Said: Palestine, Iraq and U.S. Policy
- *Francis Boyle - Palestinians and International law
- *From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State 1 - Diana Buttu"
- *From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State 2 - Amira Hass"
- *George Bisharat - Ending the Palestinian Nakba
- *Ghada Karmi at Yale
- *Ghada Karmi: Why Israel is a Failed State
- *Ilan Pappe - Interview
- *Ilan Pappe - Israel's 1967 Plan for the West Bank and Gaza Strip
- *Ilan Pappe on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
- *In the Spider's Web
- *Interview: Ghassan Andoni
- *Israel's Secret Weapon (Israel's WMD)
- *Jeff Halper - Israeli Apartheid and the Paths to a Just Peace
- *Jeff Halper- The United States, Israel and the American Jewish Community
- *Jenin Jenin
- *John Pilger - Palestine is still the issue
- *John Pilger - The War on Democracy
- *Landscapes of Occupation in Palestine
- *Muhammad Jaradat & Eitan Bronstein: 1948 and the Right of Return
- *Noam Chomsky - Middle East Crisis
- *Noam Chomsky on Gaza - MIT
- *Norman Fikelstein - The Israel-Palestine conflict: what we can learn from Gandhi
- *Norman Finkelstein speech at Columbia University (3 parts video)
- *Occupation 101
- *Off The Charts - If Americans Knew
- *Palestine Street -1- The Lost Bride
- *Palestine Street -2- The Bride in exile
- *Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict
- *People and The Land: The Story of a People Under Occupation
- *Phyllis Bennis - "Dual Occupations: Iraq and Palestine in Bush's Empire"
- *Rachel: An American Conscience
- *Rashid Khalidi - Palestine: 40 Years of Occupation, 60 Years of Dispossession
- *Rep. Paul Findley Dares to Speak Out -- Again! AIPAC exposed
- *Salman Abu Sitta: Atlas Palestine
- *Salman Abu Sitta: The Geography of Occupation
- *Secret WMD in Israel
- *Technical Error at Beit Hanoun
- *Tegenlicht ('Backlight') A Documentary on the Israel Lobby -
- *The Bases Are Loaded: US Permanent Military Presence in Iraq
- *The Easiest Targets: The Israeli Policy of Strip Searching Women and Children
- *The influence of the Israel Lobby on American foreign policy
- *The Iron Wall
- *The Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands
- *The Killing Zone
- *The Unrecognized
- *This is Not Your War
- *Wall of Shame
- Watch "If Americans Knew" Videos
- Watch Alternate Focus Videos
- Watch B'Tselem Videos
- watch ISM Videos
- Watch pdxjustice Videos


What? They’re still good! They don’t go bad after six days! Yeesh.
Last week on ComicsAlliance was a fun one, mainly because I got to talk about the story behind one of my favorite covers, from that time when the Joker tried to kill Batman and Robin on the moon! It’s even crazier than it sounds.
Unfortunately, not all stories can still be good when they stop making sense, which is why I wrote an article explaining that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League is one of the worst comics I’ve ever read. It’s the kind of book where I read it, and I’m not even sure I ever liked the Justice League.
Fortunately, there are things to remind me, like the highly enjoyable Justice League: Doom movie, which I also reviewed this week. It was an interesting twist on the source material (“Tower of Babel”) that made for a pretty good time.
Further cementing my hipster status, I’m really excited about The Phoenix, a British weekly children’s comic! It’s not available in America, but if you’re in the UK or you’re willing to pay for International shipping (or if, like me, you’re a cheapo with a good-natured pal in England), it’s worth it.
Finally, in this week’s Ask Chris talks about the single best comic book character ever created: Spider-Man. Yes, Spider-Man. Not Batman. But don’t worry, even though it’s ostensibly about Spidey, I still work 600 words about how Batman works in there.


Things sounded dire when news of Anthony Mason’s condition broke on Wednesday. He had congestive heart failure that led to multiple surgeries — one lasting nine hours — in the last few days and was fighting for his life.
But there is a ray of hope, with the news coming courtesy the New York Times.
Don Cronson, who was Mason’s agent when he played in the N.B.A., expressed slight optimism during the day on Thursday after a member of Mason’s immediate family gave him an update on Mason’s condition. “Right now, it’s day to day, but that’s an improvement from moment to moment,” Cronson said.
He said Mason, 48, who last played in the N.B.A. in the 2002-3 season, had gone to a hospital for a checkup for heart issues and had the heart attack there. Cronson said family members had been told that Mason might need a heart transplant if he survived.
There is no good news here, but if you’re going to have a heart attack the hospital is the best place to do it.
Mason played 13 NBA seasons for a number of NBA teams but is best remembered as a fan-favorite in New York. His toughness, ability to defend multiple positions, and physicality were a big part of the Pat Riley’s New York grinding teams in the Patrick Ewing era. Riley recruited Mason to Miami when Riley went south, and with the Heat Mason was named the Sixth Man of the Year in 1995. He averaged 10.8 points and 8.3 rebounds a game over the course of his career. He made the All-Star Game in 2001.
Our thoughts remain with Mason’s family in this difficult time.


Feb 14, 2012, 11:35 AM EDT
There’s usually a 25-day deadline between a drug test appeal and a decision, but that time frame has come and gone with respect to Ryan Braun. Tom Haudricourt reports, however, that MLB’s decision on whether to suspend Braun for 50 games should come no later than February 24, which is Braun’s deadline to report to camp.
I have no idea what they’re gonna do and have zero insight into the process itself. But part of me wonders if they’re working hard to find a way to clear Braun in such a way as to not throw any future high-profile positive test into a situation where the zero-tolerance, automatic nature of it all is compromised.
- Report: Rangers will pay Josh Hamilton less than $7 million; deal includes opt-out after two years 54
- Suspensions announced for Thursday’s brawl between the White Sox and Royals 66
- Settling the Score: Friday’s results 80
- Report: Angels, Rangers agree on Josh Hamilton trade 66
- Must-Click Link: Alex Rodriguzez: the slugger with a thousand faces 22
- And That Happened: Thursday’s scores and highlights 114
- The Royals and White Sox had a benches-clearing fracas, five players ejected 155
- Bartolo Colon picks off a baserunner. By running him down all by himself. 55
- The early leaders in MLB’s “Franchise Four” thing have been announced (166)
- The Royals and White Sox had a benches-clearing fracas, five players ejected (155)
- Kelvin Herrera gets a five-game suspension; Yordano Ventura fined (133)
- Jose Bautista and the Orioles exchanged some words last night (117)
- Joe Buck has a truly awful suggestion about how to improve MLB broadcasts (116)


Previous President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron, has been enrolled in a swanky private college in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Oxbridge Academy, exactly where Barron is now a university student, was started by William I. Koch, a member of the Koch household, and fees $34,800 to show up at for the 2021-2022 faculty year.
Despite the value tag, the university is not immune to controversy: it was rocked by sexual harassment statements just a number of a long time ago.
In August 2015, bookstore manager Ulle Boshko filed a claim “alleging sexual harassment, a hostile performing ecosystem, and retaliation,” in accordance to the Palm Seashore Submit.
She alleged sexual harassment from the CEO at the time, Robert Parsons. Parsons did not react to prior requests from the Palm Beach front Article for comment with regards to the lawsuit
On the other hand, it was dismissed as “not supported” in October of that 12 months by a regulation business Koch assigned to an additional investigation in 2016 into “firings, large turnover,” and “accusations of sexual harassment,” the outlet pointed out.
In 2017, Boshko submitted a suit alleging she was terminated simply because of her claims of sexual harassment against Parsons, the Palm Beach Write-up documented. The position of that lawsuit is not distinct.
In the end, the New York Moments claimed, that Koch fired the head of school and didn’t renew the contracts of the athletic director and the soccer coach following the next investigation revealed “accusations of kickbacks, quality-changing, excessive spending and violations of the policies governing large university sports.”
The outlet noted that Koch claimed in an job interview that a “power elites group” in the university ran “the asylum.”
“We are discovering alarming points of how income was misspent,” Koch mentioned at the time.
“If men and women feel they’ve bought a honey pot, there’s heading to be a good deal of bears all around it, trying to get it.”
The US Sunlight has attained out to Oxbridge Academy for comment on the investigations but did not acquire a reaction by publication.
Today, Oxbridge Academy seems to have a emphasis on lecturers, and Barron, 15, is now established to graduate with the class of 2024.
The college provides athletics these types of as basketball, swimming, keep track of, and golfing, according to The List.
It also has golf equipment and pursuits pupils can take part in like the Countrywide Honor Modern society and the Rock Paper Scissors League.
All little ones at the school must have an Apple laptop computer. There is also a flight simulator at the college.
Some of the school’s signature systems include Honors Seminar Artificial Intelligence and Computational Modeling and its Cambridge Students plan, according to the Oxbridge Academy internet site.
“We look ahead to welcoming him into our college and group,” the school’s Director of Advancement Scott Siegfried claimed of Barron, in accordance to Persons.
The faculty told mom and dad by way of an e mail of Barron’s attendance at the school and cautioned that the solution assistance will now have a presence on the 54-acre campus.
“They want to have tiny impact on our day-to-working day functions,” the faculty reported of the magic formula assistance.
“They’ve finished this for other former presidents’ youngsters. They are great.”
Barron’s renowned father turned a resident of Palm Seaside at his Mar-a-Lago vacation resort in 2020 soon after he misplaced his presidential election.
The spouse and children has used most of the summertime in Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but it now appears that Barron’s mother, Melania, will at least will spend the faculty yr in South Florida although her son is enrolled at the school.
The school shared that on its looking through list for Upper School learners this summer months was The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Previously, Barron attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal University, a personal academy in Potomac, Maryland, according to The Listing.


Jose Fernandez hit David Peralta with a 97 mph fastball in the sixth inning on Wednesday night. And the Arizona Diamondbacks felt it was necessary to retaliate.
Fernandez was hoping to simply throw a fastball on the inner part of the plate for a strike. The pitch got away and judging by Fernandez's response, he was not intentionally throwing at Peralta. Fernandez stood in front of the plate with his hands on his head until Peralta was standing up. Arizona's dugout was not pleased and hitting coach Mark Harkey was ejected.
Christian Yelich stood in the box in the seventh inning and got hit. He was clearly not phased but wondered why it was necessary:
Christian Yelich pic.twitter.com/mLzvyLwYa8— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) July 23, 2015
The Marlins are very familiar with pitches that come too far inside. After all, Giancarlo Stanton was hit in the face, not the top of the helmet. They retaliated. But that was their franchise player and Mike Fiers also subsequently hit Reed Johnson. It should never be acceptable to hit another player intentionally. But the Diamondbacks took it to another level.
Peralta was not badly injured and Fernandez seemingly was able to settle down. But as FOX Sports' Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton asked: What were the Diamondbacks trying to accomplish? Considering the place Yelich was hit, there is not really any doubt it was intentional. The Diamondbacks do not play the Marlins more than seven or eight times each season. Last night was the final meeting of 2015.
Some might believe pitchers who intentionally hit batters deserve harsher punishments than players who use performance enhancing drugs. Whether that is the case or not, Yelich was hit unnecessarily on Wednesday night.


St. Cloud State, left out in the original formation of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, has now been added to the NCHC. The league begins play in 2013.
The announcement of invitations came this morning, along with word that Western Michigan is also in.
St. Cloud State and Western Michigan have both scheduled press conferences for tomorrow to announce they'll accept the invites.
The conference formed earlier this year with Colorado College, Denver, Nebraska-Omaha, Miami-Ohio, North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth.
There was the belief that Notre Dame and Western Michigan would eventually get on board, and St. Cloud State officials said they were committed to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, but things changed with Notre Dame not making any commitments and Western eager to move ahead.
North Dakota athletic director Brian Faison said in a statement: "Both universities fit perfectly with the established goals of our conference membership."
Notre Dame's delay has been seen by many as an indication that school believes it might be in the Big Ten by 2013 and would then play in the inaugural season of Big Ten hockey.
Roman Augustoviz spends Minnesota's winters covering college hockey, specifically the Gophers, and other University of Minnesota sports. During the summer, he writes about the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, with a dose of U sports sprinkled in. Follow @RomanStrib on Twitter. E-mail Roman.
Plunging deeper into campaign controversy, Donald Trump publicly shamed a former beauty queen on Friday for her "disgusting" sexual past and then — in one of presidential history's more bizarre moments — encouraged Americans to watch a "sex tape" he said would support his case.


Chelsea may swap Crespo for Kaladze
CHELSEA’S first summer signing could be Kakha Kaladze, the versatile AC Milan defender. The Georgia player, speaking on Milan’s official television station, said: “It looks as if it is time for me to move on. And it appears that I will play for Chelsea next season.”
Kaladze, 27, is a talented player who is equally comfortable at left back, in central defence or defensive midfield. He has 43 caps for Georgia and has been at Milan for five seasons, helping the club to win the European Cup in 2003 and the Serie A championship in 2004.
It is understood that he would move to Chelsea in part exchange for Hernán Crespo. The Argentina forward spent last season on loan at Milan but has repeatedly ruled


This Week in Science
Watch These Bears Mimic Each Other’s Facial Expressions
This week in science: sharing a womb with a twin brother could affect women's behavior, humans might be able to detect the Earth's magnetic field, and these bears do something we didn’t know bears could do.
Birth Control Could Make Women Worse at Reading Subtle Emotion
This week in science: the difference between men and women's brains as they get older, how your appearance influences your personality, and how birth control could affect the way women read facial expressions.
We're Getting Closer to Turning People’s Thoughts into Speech
This week in science: genetically modified, drug-producing chickens, the health benefits of being a morning person, and using artificial intelligence to read minds.


Search Results for 'America'
271 results found.
THIS YEAR has seen the emergence of an array of very exciting new indie-rock artists, with female performers - as has been a very noticeable trend in recent years - arguably producing the best music of the last 12 months.
Mixed race Irish people will be celebrated, and questions and ideas of Irish identity examined, in #IAmIrish, an absorbing and thought-provoking photographic exhibition, which opens at the Galway Arts Centre next week.
For Insider, like many people, November 22 will always be associated with events at Dealey Plaza, Dallas, in 1963 on America’s day of infamy. Insider could not help but note that anniversary when considering the latest Brexit drama of the past week which, like the Kennedy assassination, is transfixing people here and has the potential to leave an indelible mark on our country.
KEVIN MCGAHERN, the former host of Republic Of Telly, the man described by Hot Press as “one of Ireland’s quirkiest stand-ups", is making a welcome return to Galway to play the Róisín Dubh's Comedy KARLnival.
My great grandmother, Elizabeth Ellam, was killed on the RMS Leinster when on October 10 1918, exploded and sank following a ruthless German submarine attack shortly after the ship had departed Dun Laoghaire, on her way to Holyhead in Wales. It was practically one month to the day before World War I was declared officially over.
The annual Michael Commins Galway Concerts are rolling around fast with just three weeks to go before the annual gathering which draws friends and country music followers from all over the island of Ireland as well as some from England and America.
SYNTONIC STATE is the title of the 16th edition of TULCA Festival of Visual Art which opens tomorrow, Friday November 2, and continues to November 18, featuring work by more than 20 artists.
INSPIRED BY interviews with current and former soldiers from the Irish Defence Forces, the British army, and survivors of the Bosnian war, Soldier Still, the critically acclaimed new production by Junk Ensemble, is coming to Galway next week.
PAUL CURRIE'S comedy is like few others on the circuit right now. It is a compelling mixture of sketch comedy, theatre of the absurd, puppetry, slapstick, and mime, delivered with great physicality and energy, and usually, without the comic uttering a single word.
‘Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud’ James Brown famously sang, and something of that spirit also fires Gina Yashere who will bring her high-energy brand of comic brilliance to Galway for the Vodafone Comedy Carnival.


THESE giraffes may look like lovers necking — but they are locked in deadly combat.
The 17ft males are using their heads to batter each other for supremacy during mating season in Tanzania, East Africa.
The fight — with half-ton blows — can last for half an hour and even end in death.
With necks like these, let’s hope it’s a tie.
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Source link : https://www.the-sun.com/news/4098428/rival-giraffes-trade-blows-mating-season-tanzania/
Publish date : 2021-11-18 23:16:00


CBS News 60 Minutes
About the Podcast
Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, 60 Minutes is the most successful broadcast in television history. It has won 146 Emmy Awards -- more than any other primetime broadcast, including a special Lifetime Achievement Emmy. It has also won every major broadcast journalism award over its tenure, including 24 Peabody and 18 duPont-Columbia University awards for excellence in television broadcasting. Other distinguished awards won multiple times include the George Polk, RTDNA Edward R. Murrow, Investigative Reporters and Editors, RFK Journalism, Sigma Delta Chi and Gerald Loeb awards. 60 Minutes is also the only show to obtain interviews with every American president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump.
About the Host
CBS News "60 Minutes" Correspondents
Various CBS News "60 Minutes" correspondents investigate and report for the show, including Sharyn Alfonsi, Anderson Cooper, Steve Kroft, Norah O'Donnell, Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker. Bill Owens is the executive editor of the show.


parents, Albert and Marlene, live in Amberley Village.
Shmalo is a graduate of Walnut Hills High School and a student at
Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardoz School of Law in New York
City. He trains in Rockland County, N.Y., a 45-minute drive from his
Battery Park City apartment. He had left the rink Sept.11 with Navarro
and was driving home when they heard radio reports of, first, a low-flying
jetliner, then a crash and a massive explosion, then another crash
and massive explosion.
By that time, nobody knew what was coming next, Shmalo
said. Like everybody else, we were scared. We were approaching
the George Washington Bridge and had to turn around because we heard
a radio report that said all the bridges and tunnels into New York
were closed. When we got back to the rink, we joined the people gathered
around the TV. When the cameras panned around the perimeter of the
World Trade Center, it was an eerie feeling to see my apartment building
Adding to the misery was news that came a day later: the brother of
Joanna Glick, a national-class figure skater who is a close friend
of Shmalo, was one of the passengers who had rushed the hijackers
of the jetliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania, killing everybody
Joanna skated in a tribute to her brother last week at Madison
Shmalo said. She had the best attitude possible. She skated
wonderfully. It made us realize we should shape up a little bit ourselves.
A week after the terrorist attacks, Shmalo's apartment was opened
for a day so residents could gather their belongings. Shmalo hauled
skates, equipment and 14 outfits he keeps his partner's costumes
at his apartment, too in suitcases strapped to his back. It
took an hour, but he walked down 18 flights of stairs like a pack-laden
It was good to have something to focus on (training for the
competition in Austria), because it allowed us to escape for a while
when we were on the ice,
Shmalo said. We were so determined to make this trip. Vienna
was a big priority. We were so excited to be representing America.
It never crossed our minds that it was dangerous. But that's the way
it goes. We understand the decision.
On Tuesday, Shmalo was walking back to his aunt's home in Midtown
Manhattan, where he has been staying since Sept.11, when he saw a
large group of passersby watching a big-screen TV showing CNN.
The news flashed across the screen that the U.S. Figure Skating
Association had canceled our trip to Austria, Shmalo said. I
didn't realize it was big news. The cancellation had an effect on
me, but I didn't think anybody else would care about it.
Whenever Shmalo's life returns to something approaching normal, he'll
still have adjustments to make. The subway stop for his lower Manhattan
apartment was beneath the World Trade Center. His tightly structured
schedule skating practice, law school and getting around New
York will have to be re-juggled to accommodate everything.
I'm like everybody else here with a full schedule, Shmalo
said. I have to patch it back together. I had my routine: I
knew where to park my car, how to get into the city, what time to
skate. Now, all that's changed.
Next up are the U.S. Nationals in Los Angeles in January. He and Navarro
finished sixth in that competition last year. On New Year's Eve, they
skated at a big ice show in Hong Kong.
The opportunity to skate internationally doesn't come up that
often, Shmalo said. We worked so hard in preparation for
the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championship, knowing that if we did well
we might be invited to Vienna. There was also a chance we might be
invited to the Golden Spin of Zagreb in early November. But I can't
imagine (the U.S. Figure Skating Association) sending anybody to Croatia
if they didn't send anybody to Vienna. It's a different world now.


A Sydney street artist has given Mike Baird a spray in a street mural that depicts the NSW premier as "Casino Mike".
Mr Baird has copped criticism over the State Government's controversial lockout laws, which prevent revellers from entering licensed venues after 1.30am.
The laws also require central Sydney venues to serve last drinks by 3am and ban the sale of takeaway alcohol after 10pm.
The laws do not apply to the city's Star Casino at Pyrmont.
The premier is depicted in the mural holding a glass of red wine and a cigarette, with a stack of casino chips and a bottle of Penfold's Grange Hermitage on a table in front of him.
Submissions to the government's review of the lockout laws were due to be available to the public on Monday, but there has been a delay due to the more than 1,800 received.
They will be published later this month, a spokesman said.
Mr Baird became premier after his predecessor Barry O'Farrell resigned over misleading the state's corruption watchdog about a gift of a $3,000 bottle of Grange from a lobbyist.
The mural, painted by Scott Marsh, also has Mr Baird holding a kebab - a dig at the City of Sydney's restrictions on some late-night food vendors in Sydney's inner-west.
Marsh was responsible for the mural of US rapper Kanye West kissing himself.
After the West mural went viral, Marsh said he was offered money by someone purporting to represent the US hip-hop artist to remove it.
Marsh responded by asking for $100,000 and a lifetime supply of West's merchandise before removing the mural.
In a post on Instagram Marsh said he was heading to a Chippendale bar to "drink from the top shelf" with the money from the print's sale.


In her music video for new single “Used to Be Young,” Miley Cyrus wears a Mickey Mouse shirt under a sparkly red corset. The distressed Disney top subtly references her childhood fame on Hannah Montana.
The 30-year-old singer got her start on the Disney Channel series that ran from 2006-2011. There, she played teen Miley Stewart with a pop star alter ego. Her Mickey tank in the video pays homage to those Disney roots.
According to V Magazine, Cyrus’ top was created by Maison Margiela for Disney’s 100th anniversary. It debuted on the runway before she wore it in soft waves for the emotional video about self-evolution.
In a tweet, Cyrus, now known as X, said the song honors the past while feeling joy for the future. She thanked loyal fans for making her dreams reality with their steadfast support.
Cyrus has said she’d potentially revisit her Hannah Montana character in the future. But the pop icon would want to update and revamp her 2008 look. While a return to Disney remains uncertain, her Mickey tee visually embraces that chapter.
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Southampton FC team and transfer news
EXCLUSIVE: Sportsmail can reveal that CITIC Securities — China’s largest investment bank — have drafted the terms of a takeover bid and are set to make a formal approach at the end of this month.
Southampton manager Claude Puel impressed with Manolo Gabbiadini's instant impact ahead of EFL Cup Final
In 163 minutes of football for Southampton since arriving for £14million on deadline day, Manolo Gabbiadini has scored three times in two appearances - vs West Ham and Sunderland.
Theo Walcott is the 18th man to net 100 goals for Arsenal - but how many centurions are there at each of the Premier League clubs?
Theo Walcott sealed victory for Arsenal at Sutton when he netted the second in the 2-0 win over the non-league side. How many centurions does each Premier League side have?
Tottenham's current trophy drought has now exceeded Arsenal's between 2005 and 2014... but how long is it since your club won a major honour?
Tottenham's wait for a trophy has now exceeded the drought their rivals Arsenal suffered between 2005 and 2014. But how does that compare to the rest of the Premier League clubs?
Rangers want a director of football and new manager after the departures of Mark Warburton, David Weir and Frank McParland who are taking legal action against the Ibrox-based club.


Get the latest on research, programs, services, walks and special events.
Have you seen these films and shows yet?
"'Atypical' is not a perfect show, but, is there any show that is perfect, besides Breaking Bad?"
Sounding the Alarm producer opens new eyes to autism.
Thank you. Your subscription to Autism Speaks emails is confirmed.


Weather played spoilsport in Manchester with the first 2019 ICC World Cup semi-final between India and New Zealand ultimately deferred to a reserve day.
The Kiwis were batting at 211-5 in 46.1 overs after skipper Kane Williamson elected to bat first before rain halted proceedings at Old Trafford. They will now resume from the same score on Wednesday although the weather forecast for Wednesday isn’t too promising either.
New Zealand’s start with the bat was a poor and circumspect one with Martin Guptill’s woeful run of form continuing. The Kiwis were able to muster just the 27 runs in the first 10 overs with Jasprit Bumrah accounting for Guptill’s wicket.
Skipper Kane Williamson (67) battled hard once again through partnerships with Henry Nicholls and then Ross Taylor as he brought up his fourth 50-plus score of the tournament.
However, Williamson and the Kiwi batsmen were kept at bay for the most part by a disciplined and probing bowling display by India. Williamson’s gritty stay was ended by Yuzvendra Chahal just when the New Zealand skipper was threatening to up the ante.
Taylor brought up his third half-century of the World Cup campaign as New Zealand tried to regain a foothold in the game but they were pegged back once again with Colin de Grandhomme’s dismissal before rain brought a frustrating end to the play.
India show their bowling might again
It was yet another highly disciplined bowling effort from India with all five bowlers playing their part.
Right from the get go, India’s new-ball duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were on the money with New Zealand’s openers stifled for room with some excellent lines and lengths.
That early intensity was kept up by Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal when they came on to bowl with the Kiwi batsmen finding run-scoring hard to come by.
New Zealand’s struggles against India’s bowling was exemplified by the fact that they played as many as 153 dot deliveries which make up more than 25 overs of their innings.
It was relentless stuff from India’s bowlers and a performance that will please skipper Kohli no end.
The all-rounder was rewarded for his excellent showing in the Sri Lanka clash with a semi-final appearance and he vindicated that decision with a superb bowling display.
His left-arm orthodox spin worked a treat on a slowing pitch and the grip he extracted from the surface had the batsmen in two minds. His delivery to castle Henry Nicholls’ stumps was a peach and the Kiwi opener was completely deceived by the flight and dip on the ball.
He finished with overall figures of 1-34 from his 10 overs in the course of which he bowled a staggering 38 dot balls.
India to go through if no more play
With the weather forecast for Wednesday in Manchester not looking too bright, there is a possibility that no result will be able to be determined even after a reserve day.
In that case, India will advance to the July 14 final at Lord’s due to the fact that they finished higher than New Zealand in the round-robin phase of the tournament. India had topped the table while the Black Caps had finished in fourth spot.
Ben Stokes is treating England’s World Cup semi-final against Australia as the most important game of his career.
The England all-rounder is no stranger to the big stage, turning out for his country on 166 occasions across all formats and memorably stepping up to bowl the final over of the World Twenty20 final in front of 66,000 fans in 2016.
That did not go to plan, with West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite snatching an unlikely victory by clubbing Stokes for four sixes in a row, but Thursday’s game at Edgbaston represents something even bigger for the 28-year-old.
The opposition are England’s oldest and bitterest rivals, the prize on offer is once-in-a-generation game at Lord’s and the trophy waiting at the end is one the national side have spent 44 years chasing in vain.
Asked if the game ahead was the biggest he has experienced, Stokes said: “Yes, to date. Definitely.
“It’s a massive occasion for us as players and as a nation. Playing against Australia is a big occasion– in any sport. The rivalry goes way back and we have the Ashes this summer too. Beating them is that touch better than any other team.”
“I’ve had a few days off and got out of the bubble but when you come back to the team you get those butterflies again.”
England have dominated the last two one-day series against Australia, winning home and away as they established a win-loss record of 10-1 heading into the competition. The form book counted for nothing in the group stage, though, with the visitors landing a 64-run victory.
“Losing to them at Lord’s was massively disappointing so I think there will be a bit of redemption for that, knowing we have the chance to beat them and get to that final,” predicted Stokes.
He is less inclined to see the game as a chance for personal redemption. Having missed the last Ashes defeat Down Under following his well-documented brawl in Bristol – an incident that concluded with his acquittal on a charge of affray – he was welcomed back with warm, unconditional support from his team-mates.
“I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anyone except myself,” he said.
“It opened my eyes up to a lot of things, two years ago, but I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. It’s just showing I can deliver on the biggest stage.
“Winning is the most important thing and if you can help the team out with an individual performance, that’s all that counts. People can say good things, bad things…it just won’t bother me.”
Australia have two players of their own who have had to deal with their share of public comment, David Warner and Steve Smith.
The pair are still just a matter of weeks into their comebacks after year-long bans for the sandpaper scandal and have been on the end of some icy welcomes from the British public. Warner in particular has thrived in the circumstances, scoring three centuries and three fifties in the tournament, while Smith has managed three half-centuries.
“I have huge respect for them for performing like they have coming back, being able to block all that out,” said Stokes.
“Respect to them for dealing with on-field pressures and the crowds, while still delivering.”
Stokes has also been standing tall in the tournament, averaging over 50 with the bat and under 30 with the ball.
Those numbers underline his importance to the side but it is another – an economy rate of just 4.65 making him England’s stingiest bowler – that gives him most satisfaction.
“It’s always nice to get runs but the most pleasing thing has been my bowling,” he said.
“I had a chat with Morgs (captain Eoin Morgan) and a few others in the team to get my head around my role. Being fourth or fifth seamer, I sometimes put too much pressure on myself to influence the game.
“So I spoke to them about not trying to take wickets every ball. That’s helped offer the team more. In the last couple of years it’s probably where I have let the team down.”
Provided by Press Association Sports
Liam Plunkett has warned Australia that England are a “different sort of animal” to their predecessors.
The Ashes rivals meet in a hotly-anticipated World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday, with Australia looking to continue their bid for a sixth title while England hope to stay in the hunt for their first.
In terms of tournament experience, the away side hold all the cards, as well as victories in the last four World Cup matches between the teams, but Plunkett says times have changed.
“They’ve been there and done it before but not against this bunch of players,” he said.
“We’re a different sort of animal compared to our last teams. We’ve played well for the past four years, we’re ranked number one and we feel in a good place. We feel on our day we can beat anyone in the world.”
Plunkett is the elder statesman of the current England squad, making his international bow as far back as 2005 and earning his previous taste of World Cup cricket 12 years ago in the West Indies.
He has had a front-row seat to the evolution of England’s one-day cricket and has never known a better mood.
“We had amazing players (previously) but I never thought we’d win a World Cup,” he said.
“We’ve made it exciting again. I’ve played in teams where we didn’t expect to win. With this squad the public expect us to win games and win series. It would be nice to finish this four-year cycle. This journey we’ve been on, with this group of boys, it comes down to this.”
At 34, Plunkett is unlikely to see service in four years’ time when the event heads to India, meaning the next few days represent the grandest stage of his career.
“I think so,” he agreed. “I don’t think I’ll play another World Cup so for me personally, it’s the biggest,” he said.
Provided by Press Association Sports


The telecom industry is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution. Whether it’s connected IoT devices or mobile entertainment, the modern economy runs on the Internet.
However, the backbone of networking has been running on legacy technologies. Some telecom companies are centuries old, and they have a massive infrastructure that needs to be modernized.
The great news is that this industry is already at the forefront of emerging technologies. Companies such as AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile, DTK, and others have embraced open source technologies to move faster into the future. And LF Networking is at the heart of this transformation.
“2018 has been a fantastic year,” said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager of Networking at Linux Foundation, speaking at Open Source Summit in Vancouver last fall. “We have seen a 140-year-old telecom industry move from proprietary and legacy technologies to open source technologies with LF Networking.”
Read more and watch the complete interview at The Linux Foundation.


During my high school graduation rehearsal, when the rest of my classmates were hung over from their celebratory partying the night before, I was sitting quietly crafting an e-mail to my favorite English teacher, Ms. Dara Bishop.
In the e-mail, I was trying to explain the importance of Forever, a state of being coined by Tavi Gevinson in one of her Editor’s Letters on Rookie Mag. I thanked Ms. Bishop for being a part of my Forever and for pushing me and helping me grow as a writer and as a person. In her response, she commented that my writing style, “mainly sentence construction,” is very similar to Tavi’s. To my 17-year-old self, that was like winning the lottery: being compared to my favorite writer by my favorite teacher.
It was then that I think I really started paying attention to writing styles and the words people use and how people frame their stories. The idea of a writer’s voice became very important to me and with practice, I began shaping my own voice, trying to stay as true to how I would normally speak as possible. When I started reading Michael Azerrad’s Rock Critic Law, I noticed a theme among a handful of the rules regarding the use of words that you would never say in real life.
Rock Critic Law began in 2014 when Azerrad — an acclaimed music journalist, editor, and author — started a Twitter account dedicated to the lazy and uninspired writing he was seeing from colleagues in attempts to fill space or hit a word count. The account was a way to make fun of and expose those music journalism shortcuts, and Rock Critic Law, a book published today in paperback, is a fully-illustrated compilation of 101 of these “laws.”
Among the gems: “Feel free to call something ‘an instant classic’ even though, by definition, only time can tell if something is classic.” Also: “If a band pioneered something, you must say they are ‘seminal.’ That is the Seminal Law of Rock Criticism.” My personal favorite, “Don’t describe the music, just say it’s ‘[band X] meets [band Y].’ If you want to get fancy, say they’re ‘at [Z]’s house.'”
I have written for four different music-based publications, including my own music blog, Got Any Tunes. Obviously, my writing style and voice is going to vary from my personal blog where I’ve published more swear words than have been edited out of band interviews for other publications. Still, I generally try to write how I would speak, give or take some candidness, so that was something I laughed along with Azerrad about. It’s something I do notice in people’s writing now; I’ll wonder to myself if they’ve ever actually said that word or phrase out loud.
When I first started writing about music, I hadn’t read a whole lot about music in the first place. I never sat down in front of the Pitchfork homepage or subscribed to Spin. I did enjoy reading interviews with some of my favorite musicians, but I didn’t branch far beyond that. So, as I read through Rock Critic Law, many of the conventions being ridiculed were ones I hadn’t ever read in a review. That’s not to say I don’t see how gimmicky they sound anyway. For example, records and analog recordings are “warm” and no other adjective is permitted; or, if a new group includes two or more members of a former band, then it is “formed from the ashes” of that defunct band.
One of the rules states that “you may ONLY compare a musician to other musicians of the same gender (except Prince and Joni Mitchell; that’s hip).” I think everyone who has been writing about music for more than two years has probably been guilty of this at least more than once, I know I have.
I’ve become more conscious of how I describe and write about musicians over the past few years, as I’ve started taking music journalism more seriously. After interviewing and personally getting to know many different musicians, I’ve noticed that women most often complain about same-gender comparisons. I completely understand it. As a writer, comparisons are a good thing to throw in for an audience that may not be familiar with the artist you’re speaking about, but artists never like being constantly compared to other people, especially when you’re reducing them to just their gender. Tina Halladay of Sheer Mag gave me an awesome quote about this exact issue in conversation once.
My absolute favorite rule in Azerrad’s book is that “fans may be ‘rabid,’ ‘hardcore,’ or ‘diehard.’ There are no other kinds of fans.” While a lot of these rules apply specifically to rock music, as intended, this one is special because it made me think of my dad and laugh. My dad is a huge metalhead, the ’90s being his prime, and over the course of my lifetime, I have heard so many stories of concerts and mosh pits and lost shoes and bruises and blood and even one about a tent blowing into the Apple River at X Fest. Along with these stories are descriptions of the bands and the fans that make up the audience, and I can’t even count how many times he’s described them as “rabid,” “hardcore,” or “diehard.”
Being a music journalist or a music critic comes with its ups and downs like any job, and you sometimes find yourself falling back on what Azerrad calls “shortcuts, lazy metaphors, and uninspired prose” because writing about music is hard to begin with — but if you aren’t excited about it, it’s even harder. As with anything in life, being able to criticize your own work is very important, and Rock Critic Law is a book that helps us have a light-hearted laugh at ourselves while also thinking about ways to improve. Being young and being in the music industry is fun and exciting, and even if this book began as a lark, I have a feeling a handful of these rules are going to stick with me as my career continues.