Latest updated news about Dolphins, Bucs Start Preseason With Wins from Florida Today
Phillip Livas scored on a 75-yard punt return in the third quarter to help Miami overcome a difficult start by quarterback Chad Henne in the Dolphins' 28-23 preseason victory against the host Atlanta Falcons on Friday night.
Not to be outdone, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went into Arrowhead Stadium and came out with a 25-0 romp against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Dolphins trailed 17-0 at one point in their game. Henne threw interceptions on two of Miami's first three possessions before connecting with Brian Hartline for a 44-yard touchdown pass that made it 17-7 early in the second quarter.
Henne, who completed 4-of-8 passes for 77 yards, did his best work against defensive reserves.
For the Dolphins, who host Carolina at home next week and open the regular season at home Sept. 12 against New England, it was more a matter of who didn't play as coach Tony Sparano decided to avoid injury risk.
Running back Reggie Bush, receiver Brandon Marshall and defensive end Jason Taylor wore uniforms, but not helmets, and stood on the sideline. Left tackle Jake Long wasn't in uniform.
Daniel Thomas started in Bush's place and ran four times for 5 yards. Davone Bess subbed for Marshall and caught two passes for 8 yards.
Miami is coming off a 7-9 season after which Dolphins owner Stephen Ross considered firing Sparano but brought him back when Jim Harbaugh took the San Francisco job.
Freeman, meanwhile, was smooth and efficient while leading Tampa Bay to points on three of the four series he played, and the third-year quarterback helped the Buccaneers take advantage of every bobble and blunder that the Chiefs made.
Freeman was 9-of-13 for 73 yards while playing for the first time at Arrowhead Stadium, just a few miles from where he grew into a high school star. He also ran 5 yards for a score.
Backup Josh Johnson looked like veteran Michael Vick against the Chiefs' backups, completing 7-of-12 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. He also scrambled five times for 57 yards, showing a lot of open-field elusiveness and causing the Kansas City defense fits.
The game figured to be sloppy after the NFL lockout wiped away the offseason. Teams have only been together for about two weeks, and veteran free agents couldn't even practice until last Thursday because of new language in the collective bargaining agreement.
Kansas City had barely worked out in pads, and coach Todd Haley decided not to scrimmage during camp, wary that too much hitting too early might result in unnecessary injuries.
It wasn't much surprise that the Chiefs looked unprepared.
Quinten Lawrence made a poor decision to bring the opening kickoff out of the endzone, getting wrestled down at the 8. The Chiefs went three-and-out on their first possession, fumbled on their next two, and watched backup quarterback Tyler Palko get sacked for a safety on another.
Freeman needed only two plays to turn the first fumble into a touchdown, then led Tampa Bay on an eight-play drive that Connor Barth capped with a 25-yard field goal.
Barth added another field goal later in the half before Palko's safety made it 15-0.
Things didn't improve for Kansas City in the second half.
Tampa Bay marched right down field against the Chiefs' backups, putting together a nine-play, 55-yard drive that resulted in a 3-yard pass from Josh Johnson to Michael Spurlock and a 22-0 lead.
Backup kicker Jacob Rogers added a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth.
Freeman is trying to build on a breakout season in which he threw for 3,451 yards and 25 touchdowns. The tall, strong-armed quarterback has looked sharp all camp, and he certainly carried the momentum right into his first preseason game. Freeman checked off when warranted, eluded a feeble Kansas City pass rush when necessary and deftly managed the offense when he was in the game.
Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris planned to play his starters about 20 plays, so Freeman was done early in the second quarter. But that didn't stop the Bucs from churning out offense.
Just about the only positive for the Chiefs was that none of the starters got hurt.
They didn't have much chance.
Cassel was on the field for four plays and didn't throw a pass. Running back Jamaal Charles, who ran for 1,467 yards a year ago, didn't have a carry. Wide receiver Dwayne Bowe didn't make a catch.
Defensive end Tamba Hali, the Chiefs' franchise player who signed to a five-year, $60 million contract during training camp, looked awfully good standing on the sideline. He was among several players for both teams who did little more than dress for the game.
Showing posts with label world news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world news. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Not Too Late For Meteor Viewing Tonight - Abilene Reporter-News
Latest updated news about Not Too Late For Meteor Viewing Tonight from Abilene Reporter-News
A yearly meteor shower that must have inspired wonder and fear in ancient humans — and led some more modern people to suspect that ETs were in the sky — hit its expected peak before dawn this morning.
The Perseid meteor shower, an annual event that starts in mid-August, often has been described as "fire in the sky" and may have inspired that phrase in the late John Denver's ballad "Rocky Mountain High."
During Friday night's show of the meteor shower, the event was accompanied on stage by two companions — the full moon and the International Space Station gliding far aloft above American towns and rural territory, said Tony Phillips of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"The meteor shower is already under way. Earth is passing through a broad stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, and specks of comet dust are hitting the top of Earth's atmosphere at 140,000 mph," Phillips wrote on NASA's website. "These disintegrating meteors stream out of the constellation Perseus — hence the name 'Perseids.' "
The problem with the full moon is that moonlight and meteor showers don't mix well, for much the same reason that city lights mar the background for viewing the shower.
Susan Feemster, science content specialist for the Abilene Independent School District, said she and her husband had to get out of town the last time they watched the Perseids.
"We went out past Tuscola after dark," she said.
Almost a half-century ago, American astronomer L.V. Robinson was assigned to help dispel concerns that a fiery display in the night sky over England was unidentified flying objects, possibly space aliens.
Robinson, who worked for the U.S. Air Force's Air Sciences Division, reported that to the best of his limited information, "these meteors could be an explanation of some of the sightings observed over Lakenheath and Bentwaters."
The Perseids could be quite spectacular over England, and are at their visual peak between Aug. 11 and Aug. 20, Robinson wrote in his report dated Aug. 14, 1956.
Although the peak spectacle has passed, it's not too late to view the Perseids, said Hardin-Simmons University astronomer Patrick Miller via email.
"The shower does linger around more than a couple days, since the debris stream is a wide one, and the Earth spends a couple of weeks or so crossing it," he said.
A yearly meteor shower that must have inspired wonder and fear in ancient humans — and led some more modern people to suspect that ETs were in the sky — hit its expected peak before dawn this morning.
The Perseid meteor shower, an annual event that starts in mid-August, often has been described as "fire in the sky" and may have inspired that phrase in the late John Denver's ballad "Rocky Mountain High."
During Friday night's show of the meteor shower, the event was accompanied on stage by two companions — the full moon and the International Space Station gliding far aloft above American towns and rural territory, said Tony Phillips of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"The meteor shower is already under way. Earth is passing through a broad stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, and specks of comet dust are hitting the top of Earth's atmosphere at 140,000 mph," Phillips wrote on NASA's website. "These disintegrating meteors stream out of the constellation Perseus — hence the name 'Perseids.' "
The problem with the full moon is that moonlight and meteor showers don't mix well, for much the same reason that city lights mar the background for viewing the shower.
Susan Feemster, science content specialist for the Abilene Independent School District, said she and her husband had to get out of town the last time they watched the Perseids.
"We went out past Tuscola after dark," she said.
Almost a half-century ago, American astronomer L.V. Robinson was assigned to help dispel concerns that a fiery display in the night sky over England was unidentified flying objects, possibly space aliens.
Robinson, who worked for the U.S. Air Force's Air Sciences Division, reported that to the best of his limited information, "these meteors could be an explanation of some of the sightings observed over Lakenheath and Bentwaters."
The Perseids could be quite spectacular over England, and are at their visual peak between Aug. 11 and Aug. 20, Robinson wrote in his report dated Aug. 14, 1956.
Although the peak spectacle has passed, it's not too late to view the Perseids, said Hardin-Simmons University astronomer Patrick Miller via email.
"The shower does linger around more than a couple days, since the debris stream is a wide one, and the Earth spends a couple of weeks or so crossing it," he said.
North Kitsap Options Alumni Return For Hamlet North Kitsap Herald
Latest updated news about North Kitsap Options Alumni Return For Hamlet from North Kitsap Herald
PORT GAMBLE — What began as an after school acting group transformed into a production company dedicated to the works of William Shakespeare. Comprised of North Kitsap Options Alumni, the Changeling Shakespeare Company has brought the works of Shakespear to the North Kitsap community off and on for about 10 years. Starting Aug. 18, the Options graduates will return to the area for a production of “Hamlet,” and hope to take full advantage of the Port Gamble Theater.
“(The company) looked at a couple other places, but it’s exciting that we’re going to be in the newly opened theater,” producer Kendal Peiguss said. “The location is great.”
Peiguss, 21, who will play Hamlet, began acting in the Options program’s drama workshops at about age 10. Though she now studies public relations and marketing at (insert college in Boston), she said the drama program integrated in Options left her with more than fond memories. Learning how to communicate and work as a team was invaluable, she said. Peiguss described herself as “shy,” but after her studies in Options, she left as an “excellent communicator.”
The drama program was built up by Bob Deweese, now retired from the North Kitsap School District. Drama is now incorporated into all Option’s classrooms, each class producing at least one play per year. Peiguss said the production of “Hamlet” is a way to honor Deweese’s work in the Options program. Deweese is also directing the show.
Though the company performs multiple Shakespeare plays, Peiguss said “Hamlet” was chosen because it explores the human psyche and incorporates aspects of human life that most people can relate to. The actors will speak using Old English, but even if audience members do not understand all the language, the stage acting and character interaction will draw them in, she said.
Actors range from ages 14 to 22. The membership of Changeling morphed as students graduated, but this cast is mostly those who have stuck with the production company. Many alumni are traveling from around the West Coast and the country to be a part of the play.
Because The Roving Players are holding “The Mousetrap” in the Theater until Aug. 14, the Changeling crew must make do to rehearse at a private residence. Making rehearsal more difficult was the cast could not begin until everyone could get together. Peiguss said everyone has their lines down, it’s really just the stage acting left to practice.
“We’re doing intensive all-day rehearsals,” she said.
The cast begins rehearsal about 7:30 a.m. and ends in the evening; sometime around 8 p.m.
Not able to fill the theater until Aug. 15, Peiguss said everyone is excited to act in the newly renovated Port Gamble Theater, which reopened this year for the first time in 60 years.
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work in (Port Gamble Theater),” she said. “We’ve done (the play) in small classroom theaters and we’ve managed. So having more space will give us more options.”
PORT GAMBLE — What began as an after school acting group transformed into a production company dedicated to the works of William Shakespeare. Comprised of North Kitsap Options Alumni, the Changeling Shakespeare Company has brought the works of Shakespear to the North Kitsap community off and on for about 10 years. Starting Aug. 18, the Options graduates will return to the area for a production of “Hamlet,” and hope to take full advantage of the Port Gamble Theater.
“(The company) looked at a couple other places, but it’s exciting that we’re going to be in the newly opened theater,” producer Kendal Peiguss said. “The location is great.”
Peiguss, 21, who will play Hamlet, began acting in the Options program’s drama workshops at about age 10. Though she now studies public relations and marketing at (insert college in Boston), she said the drama program integrated in Options left her with more than fond memories. Learning how to communicate and work as a team was invaluable, she said. Peiguss described herself as “shy,” but after her studies in Options, she left as an “excellent communicator.”
The drama program was built up by Bob Deweese, now retired from the North Kitsap School District. Drama is now incorporated into all Option’s classrooms, each class producing at least one play per year. Peiguss said the production of “Hamlet” is a way to honor Deweese’s work in the Options program. Deweese is also directing the show.
Though the company performs multiple Shakespeare plays, Peiguss said “Hamlet” was chosen because it explores the human psyche and incorporates aspects of human life that most people can relate to. The actors will speak using Old English, but even if audience members do not understand all the language, the stage acting and character interaction will draw them in, she said.
Actors range from ages 14 to 22. The membership of Changeling morphed as students graduated, but this cast is mostly those who have stuck with the production company. Many alumni are traveling from around the West Coast and the country to be a part of the play.
Because The Roving Players are holding “The Mousetrap” in the Theater until Aug. 14, the Changeling crew must make do to rehearse at a private residence. Making rehearsal more difficult was the cast could not begin until everyone could get together. Peiguss said everyone has their lines down, it’s really just the stage acting left to practice.
“We’re doing intensive all-day rehearsals,” she said.
The cast begins rehearsal about 7:30 a.m. and ends in the evening; sometime around 8 p.m.
Not able to fill the theater until Aug. 15, Peiguss said everyone is excited to act in the newly renovated Port Gamble Theater, which reopened this year for the first time in 60 years.
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work in (Port Gamble Theater),” she said. “We’ve done (the play) in small classroom theaters and we’ve managed. So having more space will give us more options.”
EPL: Chino Rheem Bests Seidel For First-Ever Epic Ring - Bluff Magazine
Latest updated news about EPL: Chino Rheem Bests Seidel For First-Ever Epic Ring from Bluff Magazine
Rheem had to be escorted to the cage by security
Prior to the start of the Epic Poker League $20,000 Six-Handed Main Event, Chino Rheem was already a notable name in the poker world, both for his poker accomplishments, such as winning a WPT and final tabling the 2008 WSOP Main Event, as well as some personal issues, including a criminal record and an alleged history of owing debts to other players.
The final table of the Epic Poker League event served as a spotlight for both Rheem’s poker skills and his personal struggles. He defeated an all-star line-up of players at the final table to pick up the $1 million first place prize and inaugural Epic Poker win, but the event was marred by controversy and tension as players sweated the action.
The final table began with Hasan Habib, Rheem, and Jason Mercier clustered near the top of the counts, but a slow start to the final table saw the players near the bottom of the counts make up some ground.
The short stack when the final table began was Huck Seed. He managed to gain some ground on his competitors, but he still ended up being the sixth place finisher, heading home when he lost a coinflip holding J
J
to Mercier’s AK
to head home in sixth place.That hand gave Mercier the chip lead, but Rheem didn’t take long before he clawed his way back to the top spot. Mercier fought back by picking up the rest of Gavin Smith’s chips. Smith busted at the hands of Mercier when he ran pocket nines into Mercier’s pocket queens.
Sure, Mercier volleyed, but it only took a couple of orbits before Rheem returned, eliminating Habib in fourth place. Habib moved all-in over the top of a raise from Rheem holding 6
6 and Rheem called with 77. Habib hit the rail and the field was down to three.The early goings of the final table were dominated by Rheem and Mercier, but three-handed play is when Erik Seidel made his presence known. He doubled thru Mercier in a massive coinflip where Seidel’s A
K flopped a king against Mercier’s 55. That hand put Mercier on the shortstack. Seidel got the rest of Mercier’s chips a short while later when Mercier took a stand with 89 and Seidel called with KJ. Mercier failed to improve and Seidel chipped up enough to start heads-up play against Rheem with virtually even stacks.The heads-up battle may have been even when it began, but Rheem quickly pulled ahead, winning pot after pot and doing so with a flourish, bantering back and forth with Seidel as the two took turns showing each other cards. Seidel seemed to be having just as good a time as Rheem was, even though he found himself at a serious chip disadvantage.
On the final hand of play, Seidel took a stand with A
Q and Rheem had him in bad shape AK. The A843T board was no help to Seidel and Rheem picked up the first-ever Epic Poker Championship Ring, not to mention $1 million.Though he won the title, beating a tough, tough field, Rheem was subdued following his victory. The less than overwhelming response to the victory might be explained by the fact that Rheem is rumored to have outstanding debts with a number of pros, several of which were waiting for the tournament to end, ostensibly to collect.
Security escorted Rheem to the cage after he received the Championship Ring from League Commissioner Annie Duke. While Rheem told Duke and EPL host Ali Nejad that he was thrilled to be back in the winner’s circle for the first time since he won the WPT Festa al Lago event in 2008, it certainly was not a stress-free day for the league’s million-dollar man.
Seidel, meanwhile, adds to his already enormous 2011 bounty, increasing his 2011 earnings to more than $6.2 million.
Here are the final table results from the opening Main Event of the Epic Poker League:
1st: Chino Rheem - $1,000,000
2nd: Erik Seidel - $604,330
3rd: Jason Mercier - $360,970
4th: Hasan Habib - $237,560
5th: Gavin Smith - $154,260
6th: Huck Seed - $107,980
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Rodman Shows Off His True Colors - ESPN
Latest updated news Rodman Shows Off His True Colors from ESPN
By Justin Verrier
ESPN.com
Archive
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- It's a shame Dennis Rodman's photo will be drenched in sepia like the rest of the gatekeepers that peer down from the circular ceiling at basketball's hallowed hall.
For the most colorful palette the NBA has ever seen, tie-dye might be more appropriate. Maybe with a few sequins, too.
For the better part of 14 NBA seasons spread across five franchises, Rodman defined excess.
On the court, he grabbed more rebounds than any other player in seven straight seasons from 1991 to '98, and he finished his career with the best rebound rate (23.4) in NBA history. Off the court, he grabbed as many headlines as possible, wearing more outlandish outfits and hair colors than anyone in league annals while throwing his body around nightclubs and the party scene as hard as he would chasing after a loose ball.
But as Rodman stepped on the stage at Springfield's Symphony Hall and into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the persona for which he's been known for so long slowly melted away to reveal the man so long forgotten behind the dark green eye shadow.
Oh, there were outrageous oufits. Plural.
Rodman didn't come dressed in his birthday suit like he said he would years ago. But the garb he did don was certainly no letdown. A silver coat with matching plumage-adorned cowboy hat and boa, the ensemble of his red-carpet arrival was part cockatoo, part astronaut, part Steven Tyler. And sometime during the speeches of the nine other members of the Class of 2011 that came before, "The Worm" managed a quick costume change into a black suit with "Pistons," "Bulls" and his initials, among other designs, bedazzled on the front and back, complete with a scarf so blinged out that not even Liberace would have dared to go there.
But in his 13-minute goodbye to the basketball world, Rodman eschewed all the glitz and glamour that his career stands for to so many and bared his soul for the world to see.
After spending the first two minutes of his speech reading off a long list of names of people who had helped him along the way -- including, of course, comedian Penny Marshall, who's filming his documentary -- Rodman spent almost a minute choking on his tears, all 6-foot-7 of his brawny frame erupting with raw emotion.
"I didn't play the game for the money," Rodman said, his eyes welling with tears as he paused to force out the next words. "I didn't play to be famous. What you see here is just an illusion; I just love to be an individual that's very colorful."
But as Rodman went on, his speech became more confessional than congratulatory.
He reached out to his fellow Hall of Famers, for the struggle he and other poverty-stricken players had to endure to get where they are.
"I coud've been dead; I could've been a drug dealer. I could've been homeless -- I was homeless," he said. "A lot of you guys that are in here in the Hall of Fame know what it's like to be in the projects and trying to get out the projects. And I did that. But it took a lot of bumps along the road."
He reached out to his father, Philander, who he claims cashed in on his fame with a book despite never being a part of his life.
"He made a lot of money, but he never came and said hello to me," Rodman said. "But that didn't stop me from persevering."
He reached out to his mother, Shirley, sitting in the audience, never sugarcoating a troubled past that includes Rodman being kicked out of his home in his early 20s.
"I resented her for a long time," he said. "My mother rarely ever hugged me or hugged my siblings. She didn't know how. But she managed.
"I wasn't like most players in the NBA who say, 'I'm going to take care of my mother.' I was real selfish, because of things she did to me in my life. But as I got older things changed. I haven't been a great son to you the last [few] years, but now we can laugh about that."
And he reached out to his wife, Michelle, and his three children, his young boy sporting a Rodman-esque blue Mohawk hidden behind his dad's fine-feathered hat.
"If anyone asks if I have any regrets in your career being a basketball player, I say I have one regret: I wish I was a better father, " Rodman said.
With the "only man that would ever cry for [him]," Phil Jackson, by his side, Rodman reached a level so seldom seen these days by reaching through the superficial. The same way Rodman said Jackson, Jerry Buss, Chuck Daly and James Rich, who long ago helped Rodman off the streets, once did for him.
This year's induction ceremony was full of memorable moments.
Chris Mullin was smooth and precise, shouting out his Brooklyn roots and his favorite two nuns seated in the audience with equal poise and enthusiasm. Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer was as measured and confident as she is in the huddle, calling upon words from Malcolm Gladwell and telling the tale of how her parents met in Springfield some years ago. Tom "Satch" Sanders -- inarguably the smoothest new member of the Hall -- and Artis Gilmore each went out with style and grace.
The night, however, belonged to Rodman. To his one last chance to put on a show, one last chance to remind us what had us glued on him, even when in the presence of basketball's greatest.
During a recent phone call with my generally basketball oblivious mother, I mentioned my trip down to Springfield to watch Rodman, a player she knows only through his high-profile flings with Hollywood starlets, ride off into the sunset.
"The weirdo with the hair?" she queried, almost in disbelief.
The one and only.
Justin Verrier is an NBA editor for ESPN.com.
By Justin Verrier
ESPN.com
Archive
Just In Time For The New NFL Season, Taptu Brings Fantasy Football ToMobile ... - Washington Post
Latest updated news about Just In Time For The New NFL Season, Taptu Brings Fantasy Football ToMobile from Washington Post
By TechCrunch.com,
From its founding in 2007, Taptu was a startup that specialized in search and touch-based interfaces for mobile, launching a realtime mobile search engine in conjunction with OneRiot back in 2009, for example. In November of last year, the startup made the smart decision to bring its mobile search proficiency into the news reader market, launching Flipboard-like Android and iPhone apps that brought an interesting value proposition to bear on the burgeoning mobile reader market: Users could aggregate more than 5,000 mixed streams — no paltry number, and far more than that offered by the competition.
In April, Taptu launched on the iPad with a sleek and clean design that, again, worked to differentiate itself from competitors like Flipboard, Pulse, Flud (and perhaps Editions) by bringing its proprietary mobile search tech to bear on the aggregation of thousands of news sources, rather than relying on those tired RSS feeds.
As some readers may know, the National Football League had been in the grips of a contentious lockout that put the 2011 season in jeopardy. The owners and players were recently able to come to terms, ending the lockout on July 25th, and allowing the pigskin show to go on. Seeing as football is back on, not wanting to miss out on a golden opportunity to expand their feature set, Taptu is today entering into a new athletic domain with the launch of a NFL fantasy football news stream for Taptu users on both smartphones and tablets. The new stream enables fans to receive updates on every critical stat and news item in realtime, allowing fantasy footballers to field a competitive team each and every week.
As my colleague MG wrote last week, the sports world has largely been underrepresented on tablets and news readers, because ESPN (the behemoth of sports content) has basically been absent from the space — at least in terms of partnering with other developers or startups to syndicate their content. But last week, Pulse dropped a bomb on the news reader tablet market by announcing that it was the first player in the space to receive an infusion of ESPN content, along with existing content from Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports, and so on.
While this was a big win for Pulse, there is still an even more coveted, niche demographic that remains underrepresented on tablets, which would be none other than fantasy sports. Fantasy sports are currently played by over 27 million Americans; it’s becoming an increasingly popular pastime (and money maker). And for those who are involved, or have friends who play, fantasy sports are by and large a rabid group.
Though it depends on the sport, in order to field the best team each week, fantasy sports players have to consume a lot of information about who’s playing well, including what players are injured, or under-performing, etc. Fantasy sports enthusiasts consume a lot of news and statistics, they do their homework, like analysts, or enterprising journalists — obviously a great customer to have if you’re a mobile startup.
Over the next 30 days, loads of football fans will be building out their teams on their desktops and mobile devices in preparation for the start of the season. And now, thanks to Taptu, those fans no longer have to visit multiple websites to get the lowdown on a trade or injury. Plus, Taptu’s fantasy feature lets users mix and match from football’s big publications and blogs into one stream, making the information easy to read and glance over.
And, in a nose-thumbing at Pulse, Taptu will feature breaking news from ESPN, SB Nation, Fox and CBS Sports, among others. To find the app’s fantasy football stream, users simply go to the “Stream Store” and look for the fantasy football icon, click “+”, and the stream will be added to a user’s news collection. As before, Taptu is available for free on iOS (here) as well as Android phones and tablets (here).
Movie Review Final Destination Death Rolls On - Daijiworld.com
Latest updated news about Movie Review Final Destination Death Rolls On from Daijiworld.com
By Satyen K. Bordoloi
Film: "Final Destination 5"; Director: Steven Quale; Actors: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell and Arlen Escarpeta; Ratings: ***
Among all horror films, the "Final Destination" series has an ingenious plot. Unlike your slasher, monster, supernatural killer films, the villain is none other than death itself - a super villain if you can call it that - that can neither be fought nor reasoned with because it's not really a 'living', visible entity. There is thus no postponing the inevitable, only the illusion of it.
The fifth instalment of the movie plays the exact same plot. After a group of people survive sure death in a suspension-bridge collapse due to the premonition of a colleague, they fatefully realise that there's no way to cheat death as it comes for them one by one.
There are seemingly endless ways for people, fragile as we are, to die. The strength of the franchise has not been the originality of the plot or script, but of coming up with the most bizarre and unconventional ways to kill its protagonists.
The idea is to put the invisible man, death, at the helm of this orchestra of killings.
And for this invincible, omnipotent and omnipresent opponent, every little thing counts. Even a little screw has the potential to cause the most gruesome death through a series of events that work like clockwork under death's conducting wand.
Since the adversary - death - cannot be fought, the series can work only in terms of the ways in which the characters die.
This fifth installation does bring out its dose of some of the most inconceivable deaths... during a Chinese acupressure therapy, while getting laser done on the eye, and during a gymnastic routine, among others.
For audiences who like this kind of cinema, the film really works.
It has many elements that make it better than the rest in the series. Compared to the others, this one has a fairly steady pace. The film also introduces a certain way to cheat death -- which works for it.
The visuals and effects work up the horror of the manner of dying and the film does manage to tease the viewers with multiple permutations and combinations to its death.
The scene of the death of the gymnasts illustrates this best. A small loose screw from an AC duct above lies in wait for its victim, so does a loose performing rod nearby while a little gush of water is making its way to an open electrical wire.
The audience, aware that death is inevitable, is at the edge of their seats wondering what will cause it. The way it finally happens is scientifically impossible, but macabre nonetheless.
The film ends on the plane where the first one had begun. And going by the looks of it, this particular film may have ended, but this - one of the most successful horror franchises from Hollywood - is far from its final destination.
By Satyen K. Bordoloi
Film: "Final Destination 5"; Director: Steven Quale; Actors: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell and Arlen Escarpeta; Ratings: ***
Among all horror films, the "Final Destination" series has an ingenious plot. Unlike your slasher, monster, supernatural killer films, the villain is none other than death itself - a super villain if you can call it that - that can neither be fought nor reasoned with because it's not really a 'living', visible entity. There is thus no postponing the inevitable, only the illusion of it.
The fifth instalment of the movie plays the exact same plot. After a group of people survive sure death in a suspension-bridge collapse due to the premonition of a colleague, they fatefully realise that there's no way to cheat death as it comes for them one by one.
There are seemingly endless ways for people, fragile as we are, to die. The strength of the franchise has not been the originality of the plot or script, but of coming up with the most bizarre and unconventional ways to kill its protagonists.
The idea is to put the invisible man, death, at the helm of this orchestra of killings.
And for this invincible, omnipotent and omnipresent opponent, every little thing counts. Even a little screw has the potential to cause the most gruesome death through a series of events that work like clockwork under death's conducting wand.
Since the adversary - death - cannot be fought, the series can work only in terms of the ways in which the characters die.
This fifth installation does bring out its dose of some of the most inconceivable deaths... during a Chinese acupressure therapy, while getting laser done on the eye, and during a gymnastic routine, among others.
For audiences who like this kind of cinema, the film really works.
It has many elements that make it better than the rest in the series. Compared to the others, this one has a fairly steady pace. The film also introduces a certain way to cheat death -- which works for it.
The visuals and effects work up the horror of the manner of dying and the film does manage to tease the viewers with multiple permutations and combinations to its death.
The scene of the death of the gymnasts illustrates this best. A small loose screw from an AC duct above lies in wait for its victim, so does a loose performing rod nearby while a little gush of water is making its way to an open electrical wire.
The audience, aware that death is inevitable, is at the edge of their seats wondering what will cause it. The way it finally happens is scientifically impossible, but macabre nonetheless.
The film ends on the plane where the first one had begun. And going by the looks of it, this particular film may have ended, but this - one of the most successful horror franchises from Hollywood - is far from its final destination.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Premier League - Watch Barclays Premier League Highlights On Yahoo!Eurosport - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Latest updated news about Premier League - Watch Barclays Premier League Highlights On Yahoo!Eurosport from Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Viewers in the UK can watch Barclays Premier League highlights on Yahoo! Eurosport this season and they are better than ever!
From 00:01 UK time on Monday, you can watch 3-4 minutes of action from your side in HD.
At the same time you can also check out all the goals from that weekend in our 90 seconds compilation and you will get the chance to watch the top five goals of the weekend and vote for your favourite in our online poll.
New for this season, we will have a daily lunchtime news bulletin, wrapping up all the big stories in the Barclays Premier League.
On Tuesday mornings, the ever popular Hot or Not will be back on your screens with all the super moments and terrible mistakes from around the top-flight.
And on Tuesday evenings, new for the 11/12 season, top referees Alan Wiley and Steve Bennett will analyse one of the controversial moments from the weekend’s games.
On Wednesday mornings we go ‘Under the Microscope’ where we give an in-depth scouting report on one of the week’s topical players.
Thursday mornings, we will decipher tactics and formations with the help of popular blogger 'Zonal Marking', and give you the moment of the week in stunning HD.
Friday will see us preview the next round of matches with our weekend preview programme, giving you the lowdown on who and what to watch that weekend.
So come to Yahoo! Eurosport all the week for the best Barclays Premier League highlights on the web.
Eurosport
Viewers in the UK can watch Barclays Premier League highlights on Yahoo! Eurosport this season and they are better than ever!
From 00:01 UK time on Monday, you can watch 3-4 minutes of action from your side in HD.
At the same time you can also check out all the goals from that weekend in our 90 seconds compilation and you will get the chance to watch the top five goals of the weekend and vote for your favourite in our online poll.
New for this season, we will have a daily lunchtime news bulletin, wrapping up all the big stories in the Barclays Premier League.
On Tuesday mornings, the ever popular Hot or Not will be back on your screens with all the super moments and terrible mistakes from around the top-flight.
And on Tuesday evenings, new for the 11/12 season, top referees Alan Wiley and Steve Bennett will analyse one of the controversial moments from the weekend’s games.
On Wednesday mornings we go ‘Under the Microscope’ where we give an in-depth scouting report on one of the week’s topical players.
Thursday mornings, we will decipher tactics and formations with the help of popular blogger 'Zonal Marking', and give you the moment of the week in stunning HD.
Friday will see us preview the next round of matches with our weekend preview programme, giving you the lowdown on who and what to watch that weekend.
So come to Yahoo! Eurosport all the week for the best Barclays Premier League highlights on the web.
Eurosport
Friday, August 19, 2011
Video Games: Gateway To Evil Or Mother's Best Friends? - ChicagoNow
Latest updated news about Video Games: Gateway To Evil Or Mother's Best Friends? from ChicagoNow
Video Games: Gateway to Evil or Mother’s Best Friend?
Much to the chagrin of my children, my history of video games is rather brief:
Intellivision ? Atari ? Computer Games ? Handheld Nintendo Game Boy
Sure, it was fun playing Space Invaders, Pac Man, Pong, Centipede and Marble Madness. But I was never the child who spent hours with a controller in my hand, hypnotized by the screen in front of me and shaking with frustration hours later.
After about 15 minutes, I hated the unnatural electronic noises, flickering seizure-inducing screen and protecting my body from the eager hands of my siblings trying to steal my controller. Soon enough, I just stopped playing completely, preferring board games to electronic games.
I will admit that I did experiment with Tetris in my youth, which led to some dark months of addition. I would sneak the Nintendo Game Boy under my covers with a flashlight, lower the volume and play through the entire night. I spent months with the Tetris song repeating in my head, my hands stuck in a claw-like grip and constructing completed lines of peas, carrots and chicken on my dinner plate.
Hormones flooded my body just in time to save me from flunking out of school. Video game rehab was intense and required hours of stolen issues of Seventeen Magazine, innumerable phone calls to other boy-crazy friends and secret notes passed in my classes with one simple question: Do you like, like me? Circle: Yes or No
I was saved by my first kiss, kiss at the end of sixth grade. Thank you to the awkward, clueless boy who smelled like B.O. and tasted like Juicy Fruit gum. I was just as awkward and clueless and really hope that I smelled and tasted better than he did, but I could finally escape my geometric nightmare!
While I clearly was born without the video-gaming gene, my brother was given a bonus strand of Nintendo sponsored DNA. My brother has yet to meet a video game/computer game that he can’t master. Though my parents spent many years envisioning a future with my brother sequestered in his room playing electronic games, he surprised all of us when during his own sixth grade year he programmed his first computer game. (Yes, that was not a typo. Talk about pressure: during my sixth grade year, I was kissing Juicy Fruit/B.O. boy, while three years later my brother was computer programming during his sixth grade year! It is not easy growing up with a younger brother boy genius.)
Needless to say, my brother fluently speaks the video/computer game language. Lightening struck for him years ago, and he has a very successful career computer programming, creating apps, and participating in world-wide competitions. In short, my brother is living the dream. His name is spoken in hallowed whispers amongst gamers all over the world, and my own kids worship Uncle Jim.
Even though the video gaming gene skipped me, all three of my children were definitely born with it. In fact, there are days when I am pretty sure they should see a doctor before their left hands mutate into Nintendo DS’s with styluses morphing from each finger on their right hands. (I promise to post pictures when this happens! I’m already writing headlines for the National Enquirer!)
Computer games were introduced to my children as soon as they could sit on my lap at the keyboard. Jump-start Baby was the gateway game, which led to harder use from Jump-start Toddler, Preschooler, Pre-K, etc. Similar Leapfrog games were introduced, along with some others, but, yes, I was often greeted with grimaces and a great deal of head-shaking when Cassie would ask to play computer games the second I would pick her up from the tony Lincoln Park preschool she attended. Those children were only allowed to play with fancy European toys and Montessori-approved manipulatives.
I do have to admit that it was very hard not to stick out my tongue at those judgmental well-manicured and perfectly-coiffed mothers when the teacher exclaimed how my daughter at age 3 was teaching their children ages 5 & 6 how to read. And, I did really appreciate my hour of free-time each day while Cassie happily sang songs along with the computer.
In the beginning, I tried diligently to limit the time Cassie spent in front of all things that flicker electronically, especially when those reports about Japanese kids having seizures were all over the news. Only 60 minutes a day of either video games or television -- never both in the same day! And I filled the rest of her day with creating art, reading, rhyming, and playing with those awfully-expensive-so-unnecessary-when-all-a-toddler-really-needs-is-an-empty-cardboard-box fancy European toys. It was exhausting.
Phillip's birth changed my rigid view of electronics. Suddenly, the handy kitchen timer collected dust as I bartered a piece of my soul and most of my mommy morals to the electronic babysitting gods.
"Hey, Cass! Why don't we see what is on Playhouse Disney while I nurse Phillip?"
"Mama needs a shower while Phillip takes his nap. You can play another game on the computer!"
Thankfully before the petition could circulate to expel our family from preschool as I'm sure the lengthy handbook explicitly detailed such electronic infractions, we moved to the 'burbs where my meager monitoring (I really hadn't abandoned all of my parental responsibilities) was laughable. As my children didn't have personal computers, televisions or video game consoles in their own bedrooms, I was quickly labeled the strict mom. The label bothered me at first because I surely would have preferred carnival mom or cute mom or mom of great snacks and clean house.
However, I learned to appreciate the label and in one of those cartoon light bulb moments as my own children were whining about how strict I was and that I never let them do anything, I finally realized that I had inadvertently given myself the ultimate currency with my children. I could finally abandon those dreaded marble jars and sticker charts cluttering up my kitchen -- I could bargain with video game/computer/television time! Electronic stimulation had become my children's drug of choice, and I would happily supply them with their fix... for a price.
My life became so much easier, and my children quickly learned how to negotiate. Magically the bedrooms were cleaned, toys were picked up, and behavior was modified. My life shined vivid technicolor, and I learned to tune out the awful background Pokemon video game music.
Not every day is as magical as those early days. As the children get older, they learn new ways to manipulate the system (me). Sure, they still whine and fight and occasionally refuse to put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket until they have absolutely no laundry left and are forced to wear fancy clothes to school, but ultimately when the misbehaving child realizes that his/her siblings are in electronic utopia, the child is willing to change at least until (s)he earns electronic privileges again.
Now, sure, some would call my new form of parenting bribery, but I prefer to think that I am only teaching them life skills in a language their digital culture understands. Good behavior is rewarded with privileges. Exemplary behavior is rewarded with additional privileges. Poor choices/behaviors have consequences.
For those interested in trying this approach, here is a basic synopsis:
Child A has age appropriate expectations, such as cleaning room, making bed, feeding a pet, putting away laundry, using respectful language, etc.
If Child A does these things, Child A gets 1 hour of video games/television/computer time (along with additional privileges such as hanging out with friends, etc.) every day.
Child A can earn additional electronic time and privileges by completing a specific additional task, helping a sibling or parent without being asked, etc.
If Child A is not meeting the basic daily requirements, they do not earn any electronic time nor time with friends, etc.
All children are given only 1 warning each day.
Full disclosure: The above is a very rudimentary outline. This is actually a part of my children's level plan, which works brilliantly, but it is more complex and completely off topic. I finally have a system that totally works for me and my family.
I never imagined all those years ago that I would willingly place a controller in the hands of my child or that video games would be so vital to my life with a teen, tween and 7 year old, who thinks he is a tween, but they are. And I'm okay with that as long as I can finally have some peace in my house, even if it is only for an hour each day.
For more information on my brother's app, which is fun for adults and kids of all ages, please check out sketchclub. It is really brilliant and fun for the whole family!
Video Games: Gateway to Evil or Mother’s Best Friend?
Much to the chagrin of my children, my history of video games is rather brief:
Intellivision ? Atari ? Computer Games ? Handheld Nintendo Game Boy
Sure, it was fun playing Space Invaders, Pac Man, Pong, Centipede and Marble Madness. But I was never the child who spent hours with a controller in my hand, hypnotized by the screen in front of me and shaking with frustration hours later.
After about 15 minutes, I hated the unnatural electronic noises, flickering seizure-inducing screen and protecting my body from the eager hands of my siblings trying to steal my controller. Soon enough, I just stopped playing completely, preferring board games to electronic games.
I will admit that I did experiment with Tetris in my youth, which led to some dark months of addition. I would sneak the Nintendo Game Boy under my covers with a flashlight, lower the volume and play through the entire night. I spent months with the Tetris song repeating in my head, my hands stuck in a claw-like grip and constructing completed lines of peas, carrots and chicken on my dinner plate.
Hormones flooded my body just in time to save me from flunking out of school. Video game rehab was intense and required hours of stolen issues of Seventeen Magazine, innumerable phone calls to other boy-crazy friends and secret notes passed in my classes with one simple question: Do you like, like me? Circle: Yes or No
I was saved by my first kiss, kiss at the end of sixth grade. Thank you to the awkward, clueless boy who smelled like B.O. and tasted like Juicy Fruit gum. I was just as awkward and clueless and really hope that I smelled and tasted better than he did, but I could finally escape my geometric nightmare!
While I clearly was born without the video-gaming gene, my brother was given a bonus strand of Nintendo sponsored DNA. My brother has yet to meet a video game/computer game that he can’t master. Though my parents spent many years envisioning a future with my brother sequestered in his room playing electronic games, he surprised all of us when during his own sixth grade year he programmed his first computer game. (Yes, that was not a typo. Talk about pressure: during my sixth grade year, I was kissing Juicy Fruit/B.O. boy, while three years later my brother was computer programming during his sixth grade year! It is not easy growing up with a younger brother boy genius.)
Needless to say, my brother fluently speaks the video/computer game language. Lightening struck for him years ago, and he has a very successful career computer programming, creating apps, and participating in world-wide competitions. In short, my brother is living the dream. His name is spoken in hallowed whispers amongst gamers all over the world, and my own kids worship Uncle Jim.
Even though the video gaming gene skipped me, all three of my children were definitely born with it. In fact, there are days when I am pretty sure they should see a doctor before their left hands mutate into Nintendo DS’s with styluses morphing from each finger on their right hands. (I promise to post pictures when this happens! I’m already writing headlines for the National Enquirer!)
Computer games were introduced to my children as soon as they could sit on my lap at the keyboard. Jump-start Baby was the gateway game, which led to harder use from Jump-start Toddler, Preschooler, Pre-K, etc. Similar Leapfrog games were introduced, along with some others, but, yes, I was often greeted with grimaces and a great deal of head-shaking when Cassie would ask to play computer games the second I would pick her up from the tony Lincoln Park preschool she attended. Those children were only allowed to play with fancy European toys and Montessori-approved manipulatives.
I do have to admit that it was very hard not to stick out my tongue at those judgmental well-manicured and perfectly-coiffed mothers when the teacher exclaimed how my daughter at age 3 was teaching their children ages 5 & 6 how to read. And, I did really appreciate my hour of free-time each day while Cassie happily sang songs along with the computer.
In the beginning, I tried diligently to limit the time Cassie spent in front of all things that flicker electronically, especially when those reports about Japanese kids having seizures were all over the news. Only 60 minutes a day of either video games or television -- never both in the same day! And I filled the rest of her day with creating art, reading, rhyming, and playing with those awfully-expensive-so-unnecessary-when-all-a-toddler-really-needs-is-an-empty-cardboard-box fancy European toys. It was exhausting.
Phillip's birth changed my rigid view of electronics. Suddenly, the handy kitchen timer collected dust as I bartered a piece of my soul and most of my mommy morals to the electronic babysitting gods.
"Hey, Cass! Why don't we see what is on Playhouse Disney while I nurse Phillip?"
"Mama needs a shower while Phillip takes his nap. You can play another game on the computer!"
Thankfully before the petition could circulate to expel our family from preschool as I'm sure the lengthy handbook explicitly detailed such electronic infractions, we moved to the 'burbs where my meager monitoring (I really hadn't abandoned all of my parental responsibilities) was laughable. As my children didn't have personal computers, televisions or video game consoles in their own bedrooms, I was quickly labeled the strict mom. The label bothered me at first because I surely would have preferred carnival mom or cute mom or mom of great snacks and clean house.
However, I learned to appreciate the label and in one of those cartoon light bulb moments as my own children were whining about how strict I was and that I never let them do anything, I finally realized that I had inadvertently given myself the ultimate currency with my children. I could finally abandon those dreaded marble jars and sticker charts cluttering up my kitchen -- I could bargain with video game/computer/television time! Electronic stimulation had become my children's drug of choice, and I would happily supply them with their fix... for a price.
My life became so much easier, and my children quickly learned how to negotiate. Magically the bedrooms were cleaned, toys were picked up, and behavior was modified. My life shined vivid technicolor, and I learned to tune out the awful background Pokemon video game music.
Not every day is as magical as those early days. As the children get older, they learn new ways to manipulate the system (me). Sure, they still whine and fight and occasionally refuse to put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket until they have absolutely no laundry left and are forced to wear fancy clothes to school, but ultimately when the misbehaving child realizes that his/her siblings are in electronic utopia, the child is willing to change at least until (s)he earns electronic privileges again.
Now, sure, some would call my new form of parenting bribery, but I prefer to think that I am only teaching them life skills in a language their digital culture understands. Good behavior is rewarded with privileges. Exemplary behavior is rewarded with additional privileges. Poor choices/behaviors have consequences.
For those interested in trying this approach, here is a basic synopsis:
Child A has age appropriate expectations, such as cleaning room, making bed, feeding a pet, putting away laundry, using respectful language, etc.
If Child A does these things, Child A gets 1 hour of video games/television/computer time (along with additional privileges such as hanging out with friends, etc.) every day.
Child A can earn additional electronic time and privileges by completing a specific additional task, helping a sibling or parent without being asked, etc.
If Child A is not meeting the basic daily requirements, they do not earn any electronic time nor time with friends, etc.
All children are given only 1 warning each day.
Full disclosure: The above is a very rudimentary outline. This is actually a part of my children's level plan, which works brilliantly, but it is more complex and completely off topic. I finally have a system that totally works for me and my family.
I never imagined all those years ago that I would willingly place a controller in the hands of my child or that video games would be so vital to my life with a teen, tween and 7 year old, who thinks he is a tween, but they are. And I'm okay with that as long as I can finally have some peace in my house, even if it is only for an hour each day.
For more information on my brother's app, which is fun for adults and kids of all ages, please check out sketchclub. It is really brilliant and fun for the whole family!
Lee Gets Playing Time - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Latest updated news about Lee Gets Playing Time from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Browns wide receiver Josh Cribbs is congratulated by fans after catching a touchdown pass.
Twist on Repeat
We are looking for a clever spin on the Packers as they seek to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Cleveland - His position decimated by injury, Green Bay Packers cornerback Pat Lee had a golden opportunity to prove his worth Saturday in Cleveland.
In his fourth season, he's finally healthy. That's what held him back, cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. said.
The verdict is still out. On Cleveland's first drive, Colt McCoy hit Joshua Cribbs for a 27-yard touchdown over Lee's head, but he recovered well. The Packers' secondary was up and down against a Browns passing game that ranked 29th in the NFL last year.
Before the Packers had even played a game, the cornerback position was running on fumes. Sam Shields, who injured his hip at Thursday's practice, walked off the field before the game with a pronounced limp. Rookies Davon House and Brandian Ross remained out with hamstring injuries.
The 34-year-old Charles Woodson got the night off, and Tramon Williams made a cameo.
It all added up to plenty of work for everybody else. The former second-round pick Lee, in the midst of a critical training camp, was in a tough position on Cribbs' score. On an island up the right sideline, he faced a jumpball situation against one of the game's finest athletes.
From there, he saw extensive action throughout the first half and seemed to rebound well.
At times, Lee stepped into run support well to stop Peyton Hillis and Brandon Jackson. He wasn't afraid to close in. Also, on one third and 9 in the second quarter, Lee closed in to wrap up tight end Evan Moore for just 4 yards and force a punt.
Once the walking wounded return, the competition should stiffen.
Strong start:Randall Cobb wasted no time flashing his ability in Green Bay's offense. The second-rounder from Kentucky operated over the middle of the field with Matt Flynn to jumpstart the offense. In the first half, Cobb caught three passes for 60 yards.
On the Packers' nine-play, 89-yard scoring drive at the end of the first half, Cobb caught a 19-yard pass on third and 10 when the Packers were backed up at their own 10. Then, moments later, he had a 28-yard reception.
Rhodes is back: Former Packers head coach Ray Rhodes was on the opposite sideline Saturday. After serving three seasons as the senior defensive assistant for the Houston Texans, Rhodes retired from coaching. But apparently the 60-year-old isn't finished.
Rhodes returned with the Browns as a defensive assistant. He also was Green Bay's defensive coordinator in 1992 and 1993.
Injury update: Several Packers didn't dress in the opener. In addition to Woodson and Shields, tight end JermichaelFinley (glute) remained sidelined. Also out for the Packers were Alex Green (thigh), Brett Swain (hamstring), Brandon Underwood (knee), House (hamstring), Ross (hamstring), Diyral Briggs (hamstring), Chris Donaldson (shoulder), Adrian Battles (Achilles) and Chris Campbell (unspecified).
It's the key: Running backs can't play for coach Mike McCarthy if they can't pass protect.
"Obviously, that's a big part of our offense," said Jerry Fontenot, the first-year coach of the running backs. "You've got to be able to pass protect and know where your checkdowns are. We demand a lot of our guys. That's the way it is."
Green, the third-round draft choice from Hawaii, is receiving a crash course in pass protection.
"The protections that they did in Hawaii were a little bit different," Fontenot said. "He's learning it. It's all about communicating and being on the same page with the line and the quarterback."
Fontenot already has seen enough from Green to say he is physical enough to pick up linebackers.
Last year, Jackson performed as the third-down back, but John Kuhn also was used in that role down the stretch. With Jackson in Cleveland and Kuhn not the ideal athlete for the position, the Packers are hunting for a third-down back.
"To rule anybody out at this point wouldn't be fair," Fontenot said. "You can ask me in two or three weeks and I'll certainly have a better idea. I know we have the guys that can do it."
Missing in action: No one was more disappointed than safeties coach Darren Perry when Underwood suffered a sprained knee a week ago. A cornerback for most of his first two seasons, Underwood is now playing safety.
Underwood did look good in the first week. "He's going to," Perry said. "He's got cornerback skills."
What Perry really wanted to see was how physical Underwood would be.
"Tackling is so important at safety," Perry said. "If you're not careful, you can get fooled watching them run around in shorts and helmets. We don't have a lot of sessions where we've got to get backs on the ground. Is he going to be able to hold up to the physicality playing that position?"
In reality, the Packers haven't done any tackling in camp and won't. The only live contact will be found in the four exhibition games.
"I really was looking forward to seeing him do it in a game," Perry said. "I was happy with his development."
Underwood is expected to miss at least another week.
The elite:Tim Masthay has studied quite a few punters and puts two at the top of his list: Oakland's Shane Lechler and Dallas' Mat McBriar.
"Lechler is the marker for punters," Masthay said. "Just look at the production the guy has had. It doesn't matter what the ball flight looks like."
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Green Bay Packers & Mason Crosby Resumes Kicking Duties - Green BayPress Gazette
Latest updated news about Green Bay Packers & Mason Crosby Resumes Kicking Duties from Green BayPress Gazette
CLEVELAND — Kicker Mason Crosby’s injured ankle on his plant foot wasn’t at full strength but was good enough for him to kick for the Packers in their 27-17 loss in a preseason game Saturday night against the Cleveland Browns.
Crosby had rolled his left ankle while planting his foot on a kickoff in practice a little over a week ago and sat out the Family Night scrimmage the next night. He didn’t return to practice until he worked on a limited basis Thursday night, then two days later handled all the Packers’ kicks against the Browns.
Crosby made his lone field goal attempt, from 31 yards; hit both extra-point attempts; and four kickoffs.
“We’ll see how it is tomorrow when I get up,” Crosby said after the game. “But I feel like I hit the ball well, was able to plant pretty good.”
Crosby averaged 71.7 yards on his second kickoffs, which with the new kickoff point from the 35 meant he averaged hitting the kickoffs almost seven yards deep in the end zone. The Browns returned all of the kicks, but their best starting point was only their 21.
“It was nice to hit the kickoffs the way I did without feeling like I was really trying to go after it,” Crosby said. “So get this thing fully recovered in the next week or so, and then hopefully I’ll be able to get them out of the end zone so they’re not trying to bring them out at all.”
It’s unclear whether Crosby will take off any practice time this week to let his ankle heal more fully. The Packers’ next exhibition game is Friday night at home against Arizona.
“We’ll have to see how it feels in the morning and form a plan for this week,” Crosby said. “But definitely want to get over this so for the rest of the season we don’t have any issues. I’m taking it as it comes and how it responds planting it and getting after it. Was able to get through a game and kick the ball with a minimal amount of feeling it. so that was a good thing.”
Coach Mike McCarthy said the Packers had three injuries of unknown severity in Saturday night’s exhibition opener against Cleveland.
CLEVELAND — Kicker Mason Crosby’s injured ankle on his plant foot wasn’t at full strength but was good enough for him to kick for the Packers in their 27-17 loss in a preseason game Saturday night against the Cleveland Browns.
Crosby had rolled his left ankle while planting his foot on a kickoff in practice a little over a week ago and sat out the Family Night scrimmage the next night. He didn’t return to practice until he worked on a limited basis Thursday night, then two days later handled all the Packers’ kicks against the Browns.
Crosby made his lone field goal attempt, from 31 yards; hit both extra-point attempts; and four kickoffs.
“We’ll see how it is tomorrow when I get up,” Crosby said after the game. “But I feel like I hit the ball well, was able to plant pretty good.”
Crosby averaged 71.7 yards on his second kickoffs, which with the new kickoff point from the 35 meant he averaged hitting the kickoffs almost seven yards deep in the end zone. The Browns returned all of the kicks, but their best starting point was only their 21.
“It was nice to hit the kickoffs the way I did without feeling like I was really trying to go after it,” Crosby said. “So get this thing fully recovered in the next week or so, and then hopefully I’ll be able to get them out of the end zone so they’re not trying to bring them out at all.”
It’s unclear whether Crosby will take off any practice time this week to let his ankle heal more fully. The Packers’ next exhibition game is Friday night at home against Arizona.
“We’ll have to see how it feels in the morning and form a plan for this week,” Crosby said. “But definitely want to get over this so for the rest of the season we don’t have any issues. I’m taking it as it comes and how it responds planting it and getting after it. Was able to get through a game and kick the ball with a minimal amount of feeling it. so that was a good thing.”
Other injuries
Coach Mike McCarthy said the Packers had three injuries of unknown severity in Saturday night’s exhibition opener against Cleveland.
(Page 2 of 3)
Tight end Andrew Quarless injured his groin, running back James Starks his ankle and tight end Tom Crabtree his ribs.
McCarthy said he didn’t know if Quarless’ injury is serious.
“Tomorrow’s evaluation will always tell the story,” McCarthy said, “particularly on those fatigue injuries.”
Starks rolled his ankle but said after the game he had no swelling and wasn’t walking with any kind of limp.
Meeting the president
The Packers’ brief time inside the halls of power on Friday included a glimpse of just how busy a man President Barack Obama is.
Before and during the ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn to celebrate the Packers’ Super Bowl win last February, the team’s traveling party spent 15 minutes, at most, with the president. Team president Mark Murphy, General Manager Ted Thompson and McCarthy met privately with the president for about three minutes before Obama’s speech, and then walked to the podium on the South Lawn with him. After the speech the president shook hands with every member of the team’s approximately 150-person traveling party.
“Intimidating in a way,” said Thompson in describing being inside the White House and on the South Lawn. “You know there’s serious business being taken up, and the president’s an unbelievably busy guy, every minute of his day is accounted for. I certainly think the team, the organization and the players got a kick out of it and knew they were able to do something really special.”
Thompson said Obama’s brief conversation with him, Murphy and McCarthy essentially consisted of the president congratulating them on winning the Super Bowl, and them saying thank you.
“I was very impressed with him as a person,” Thompson said. “He looks you right in the eye, he listens. I know he has to be a politician, but I can see why people like him when they meet him. I was impressed with him.”
The Packers weren’t able to visit the White House in May or June, when most Super Bowl winners do, because the NFL owners lockout prohibited contact between teams and players. If the Packers had visited in the spring, they also probably would have visited the Supreme Court. Apparently the court’s chief justice, John Roberts, is a big Packers fan even though he was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and grew up in Indiana.
(Page 3 of 3)
“I know he called to offer to bring us to the Supreme Court and let us sit on the (bench) and all that,” Thompson said. “And there are other things you’d like to do, so you schedule a couple-day trip, and take everybody, including guys (who signed) with other teams. But it wasn’t to be.”
When the lockout ended, the Packers offered the White House several dates to visit, but Friday was the only one that fit with the president’s schedule. The Packers had to cancel a practice McCarthy had scheduled for Friday.
When asked if he’s concerned about the missed practice and the detour in the team’s traveling schedule, Thompson said: “I don’t think so. But we’ve about put (the Super Bowl) to bed, quite frankly. This was important enough for us to make the effort. We appreciate the White House making the effort, because it’s not easy for them to schedule something like this.”
Saturday night scratches
Cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Sam Shields, and tight end Jermichael Finley were among the 11 Packers players scratched from Saturday night’s game. Woodson by all appearances was healthy and getting the night off to avoid injury and allow other players more time on the field. Shields injured his hip Thursday night in practice, and Finley has been out with a glute injury.
The other scratches were because of injuries: receiver Brett Swain (hamstring), halfback Alex Green (hamstring), safety Brandon Underwood (knee), cornerback Davon House (hamstring), linebacker Diyral Briggs, defensive end Chris Donaldson (shoulder), guard Adrian Battles (Achilles), tackle Chris Campbell (shoulder).
Cleveland’s scratches included two possible starters, safety Usama Young and weak-side linebacker Chris Gocong.
Lineup notes
Frank Zombo started at right outside linebacker ahead of Erik Walden and played both series with the No. 1 defense.
With Woodson not playing and Shields unavailable, the Packers’ starting cornerbacks were Tramon Williams and Jarrett Bush. Pat Lee was the third cornerback in the nickel. With the No. 2 defense, Bush and Lee played in the base personnel, and Josh Gordy was the No. 3 cornerback in the nickel.
The No. 2 offensive line consisted of Derek Sherrod at left tackle, T.J. Lang at left guard, Nick McDonald at center, Caleb Schlauderaff at right guard and Marshall Newhouse at right tackle.
Kimbo Slice Returns To Action Tonight As A Boxer - Yahoo! Sports (blog)
Latest updated news about Kimbo Slice Returns To Action Tonight As A Boxer from Yahoo! Sports (blog)
The last time we saw legendary street fighter Kimbo Slice he was wincing in pain after taking a bevy of leg kicks from Matt Mitrione. The UFC decided to cut bait and release Kimbo after UFC 113. It's been 15 months since the 37-year-old has seen any sanctioned fight action. Tonight, he climbs back in there, but it's in a ring not a cage.
The fighter who cut his teeth on the streets is ready to strap on the big gloves.
Kimbo faces James Wade (0-1) at Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla. He makes his pro boxing debut in a four-rounder. Kimbo is the main event on seven-fight card. Surprisingly, Showtime Super Six participant Allen Green is also on the docket on the undercard.
Slice has high hopes for his boxing career. A 235-pounder, Kimbo says the heavyweight division needs an action fighter.
Former UFC fighter Charles McCarthy mans the mic for this solid sitdown with Kimbo. Part two is here.
The last time we saw legendary street fighter Kimbo Slice he was wincing in pain after taking a bevy of leg kicks from Matt Mitrione. The UFC decided to cut bait and release Kimbo after UFC 113. It's been 15 months since the 37-year-old has seen any sanctioned fight action. Tonight, he climbs back in there, but it's in a ring not a cage.
The fighter who cut his teeth on the streets is ready to strap on the big gloves.
"I'm ready to go baby, my blood is boiling," Slice told the Miami Herald. "I was born to fight and [mess] people up."
Kimbo faces James Wade (0-1) at Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla. He makes his pro boxing debut in a four-rounder. Kimbo is the main event on seven-fight card. Surprisingly, Showtime Super Six participant Allen Green is also on the docket on the undercard.
Slice has high hopes for his boxing career. A 235-pounder, Kimbo says the heavyweight division needs an action fighter.
"The problem with heavyweights now is they don't have that fighting mentality," Slice said. "I am a nonstop fighter. My thing is nonstop aggression. When you fight me, two things are going to happen — I'm going to knock you out or you're going to knock me out."
Former UFC fighter Charles McCarthy mans the mic for this solid sitdown with Kimbo. Part two is here.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Grease Actress Annette Cha Cha Charles Dies, Aged 63 - Daily Mail
Hot news about Grease Actress Annette Cha Cha Charles Dies, Aged 63 from Daily Mail
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:43 AM on 5th August 2011
RIP: Annette Charles passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles
Just over two months after the death of Grease star Jeff Conaway, another cast member has passed away.
Annette Charles, who played racy dancer Cha Cha DiGregorio, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles.
The brunette beauty was 63-years-old and had been suffering from cancer after being diagnosed a few months ago.
A representative for the actress confirmed to TMZ that she died from complications relating to the disease.
Cha Cha was the girl who stole Danny Zucco (John Travolta) from Sandy (Olivia Newton John) on the dancefloor during the school dance and was the on/off girlfriend of villain Craterface (Dennis Stewart).
Her 'hand jive' was one of the film's most memorable dance moves.
In the iconic film ,she was referred to as 'the best dancer at St Bernadette's... with the worst reputation'.
Before her role in Grease, Annette had a highly successful television career appearing in several long running series in the 1970s including Emergency! Barnaby Jones and The Bionic Woman.
After retiring from acting in 1978, she became a speech professor and taught at the California State University in Northridge.
Her co-star Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie, also died tragically, aged 60, earlier this year.
He
was found unconscious in his Encino, California home on May 11 by his
girlfriend Vicki who called an ambulance and had him rushed to hospital.
'The best dancer at St Bernadettes': The actress is most famous for her role alongside John Travolta in the movie GreaseHe had fallen into a coma and died on May 27 after his family chose to turn off his life support.
Conaway had been treating himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in a weakened condition, his manager Phil Brock said.
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:43 AM on 5th August 2011
RIP: Annette Charles passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles
Just over two months after the death of Grease star Jeff Conaway, another cast member has passed away.
Annette Charles, who played racy dancer Cha Cha DiGregorio, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles.
The brunette beauty was 63-years-old and had been suffering from cancer after being diagnosed a few months ago.
A representative for the actress confirmed to TMZ that she died from complications relating to the disease.
Cha Cha was the girl who stole Danny Zucco (John Travolta) from Sandy (Olivia Newton John) on the dancefloor during the school dance and was the on/off girlfriend of villain Craterface (Dennis Stewart).
Her 'hand jive' was one of the film's most memorable dance moves.
In the iconic film ,she was referred to as 'the best dancer at St Bernadette's... with the worst reputation'.
Before her role in Grease, Annette had a highly successful television career appearing in several long running series in the 1970s including Emergency! Barnaby Jones and The Bionic Woman.
After retiring from acting in 1978, she became a speech professor and taught at the California State University in Northridge.
Her co-star Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie, also died tragically, aged 60, earlier this year.
He
was found unconscious in his Encino, California home on May 11 by his
girlfriend Vicki who called an ambulance and had him rushed to hospital.
'The best dancer at St Bernadettes': The actress is most famous for her role alongside John Travolta in the movie Grease
Conaway had been treating himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in a weakened condition, his manager Phil Brock said.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Strategists Stick With 17% S&P 500 Rally On Earnings - Bloomberg
Latest economic nes about Strategists Stick With 17% S&P 500 Rally On Earnings from Bloomberg
S&P 500 profit will rise 18 percent in 2011 and 14 percent in 2012, according to the average per-share analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, talks about global financial markets. Faber also discusses Federal Reserve monetary policy. He speaks from Zurich with Susan Li and John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group, talks about the outlook for global stocks and his investment strategy. More than $4.4 trillion have been wiped out from equity market values worldwide amid a sell-off that drove the MSCI All-Country World Index down more than 10 percent from this year’s high into a so-called correction. Mobius speaks from Tokyo with John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph McAlinden, chief investment officer at Catalpa Capital LLC, Dennis Hynes, chief market strategist at R.W. Pressprich, and Adam Seessel, director of research at Martin Capital Management, talk about today's selloff in the U.S. equity market and investment strategy in the current economic climate. They speak with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., talks about the U.S. debt ceiling compromise passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, the outlook for U.S. tax policy and the state of the economy. Gross, speaking with Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart," also discusses Federal Reserve policy and Pimco's investment strategy in the current climate. (Source: Bloomberg)
Wall Street has never been more sure that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rally in 2011, even after speculation the U.S. economy is heading for a recession prompted the biggest plunge since the bull market began. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Wall Street has never been more sure that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rally in 2011, even after speculation the U.S. economy is heading for a recession prompted the biggest plunge since the bull market began.
Chief strategists at 13 banks from Barclays Plc (BARC) to UBS AG (UBSN) see the benchmark measure of American equity surging 17 percent through Dec. 31, the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Their projection that the index will reach 1,401 hasn’t budged in four weeks, while mounting concern U.S. growth is slowing drove the S&P 500 down 11 percent since July 22, including yesterday’s 4.8 percent tumble.
About $1.8 trillion has been erased from American equities as reports on manufacturing and consumer spending showed the world’s largest economy is slowing. Forecasters at UBS and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) say rising profits mean the S&P 500 deserves a higher price-earnings ratio than the 28-month low reached yesterday. A year ago, strategists also remained bullish after a 14 percent drop, and proved prescient as the S&P 500 rallied 20 percent from its August low.
“I’m reluctant to overreact to some shorter-term weakness, no matter how real it is, because the market has proven to be unbelievably resilient,” Jonathan Golub, the chief U.S. market strategist at UBS in New York, said in an Aug. 3 phone interview. “If you would have been acting that way for the last two years, you would have gotten killed by this market. Companies have done an absurdly good job of managing through this environment.”
Most Since 2009
Golub says the S&P 500 will end the year at 1,425. It fell yesterday to an eight-month low of 1,200.07 amid a global rout, extending a nine-day retreat to 11 percent. That was the biggest loss over the same amount of time since March 9, 2009, when the gauge ended a 17-month bear market. The MSCI All-Country World Index slid 4.1 percent yesterday, the most since March 2009. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell to the lowest level since July 2010, while Brazil’s index sank the most since 2008, as commodities producers dropped.
The S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent to 1,217.77 at 9:35 a.m. in New York after the U.S. Commerce Department said employers added more jobs than forecast in July, the jobless rate fell and wages climbed, easing concern the economy is grinding to a halt.
Fed Action
A year ago, stocks also fell as investors speculated the U.S. economy would contract. Equities plunged until Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke foreshadowed $600 billion in bond purchases meant to prevent deflation and stimulate growth at a Aug. 27, 2010, meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., told Bloomberg Television on Aug. 2 that another asset-purchase program may be announced by the Fed, even after President Barack Obama signed a deficit reduction plan that demands less government spending.
Should a plan materialize, it won’t have the same impact as last year, said Mark Luschini of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which manages about $54 billion.
“The macroeconomic issues are trumping the good earnings picture,” Luschini, the chief investment strategist at the Philadelphia-based firm, said in a phone interview on Aug. 3. For valuations to rise, “we’d have to have better economic conditions than we do at the moment, and that’s not evident,” he said.
Expecting Growth
Strategists say earnings growth will fuel gains. S&P 500 profit will rise 18 percent in 2011 and 14 percent in 2012, according to the average per-share analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. More than 75 percent of corporations in the index have exceeded earnings estimates for the second quarter, with total income topping projections by 5.2 percent.
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) advised investors to buy equities today. Andrew Garthwaite, a London- based strategist at Credit Suisse, reiterated an “overweight” recommendation on stocks even as he cut his year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 1,350.
“Our economists are not forecasting a recession and, indeed, are looking for U.S. growth to accelerate in the second half,” Garry Evans, global head of equity strategy at HSBC in Hong Kong, wrote in a note today. “Investors should look to raise equity risk gradually over the summer.”
Even as companies from Ford Motor Co. (F) to Boeing Co. beat forecasts, the S&P 500 has plunged as investors turned their attention to reports showing slower economic growth. Consumer spending fell 0.2 percent in June, personal incomes grew at the slowest pace since November and an index of American manufacturing sank to a two-year low.
Not ‘Well-Reasoned’
“It’s unlikely I will change my view because we had a bad week or get really excited because we had a good week,” Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup Inc. (C)’s chief U.S. equity strategist in New York, said in an Aug. 3 phone interview. “That’s not a well- reasoned market outlook,” said Levkovich, who forecasts the S&P 500 will end the year at 1,400. “That’s a reactive trader mindset, but that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing.”
The combination of falling prices and rising profits has driven the S&P 500’s price-earnings ratio down 17 percent since Feb. 18, data compiled by Bloomberg show. At 13.2 times profit, the valuation is 20 percent below the average since 1954.
Following the drop in valuations, “our view is growth picks up, and like last summer/fall as the data turn up, they will take the equity market up with it,” Binky Chadha, Deutsche Bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist in New York, said in an Aug. 2 e-mail. He said the index will reach 1,550, the highest projection in the Bloomberg survey.
Last Year’s Rebound
The S&P 500 bottomed in 2010 at 1,022.58 on July 2. Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 2.5 percent and 2.3 percent in the third and fourth quarters. The stock index rallied 10 percent to 1,127.79 through Aug. 9, before slipping 7.1 percent to 1,047.22 by Aug. 26.
At the time, strategists said the index would rise to 1,234 through the end of 2010, according to the average estimate. Three days later, Bernanke said the central bank would “do all that it can” to sustain growth, foreshadowing the bond-purchase program revealed two months later. The August announcement helped catapult the S&P 500 to 1,257.64 as of Dec. 31 and 1,343.01 by Feb. 18, a 28 percent advance.
Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first investors to recommend buying stocks when the bull market began in March 2009, said this week that stocks shouldn’t be abandoned.
More Scotch
“It’s like all these times when you second-guess yourself, and you probably wake up a little earlier than you’re used to, and maybe you put an extra finger of scotch in the glass,” Birinyi said in an Aug. 2 telephone interview. “It’s probably a good idea to have a gut check once in a while, because it makes you review and rethink your process. Our view is that this is still a market of some duration.”
The S&P 500 had the second-best performance in 2011 among the world’s 10 biggest stock markets through yesterday, even after the 12 percent slump since April 29 brought the year-to- date decline to 4.6 percent. China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index did best with a 4.4 percent drop. Japan’s Topix lost 8.1 percent, while the FTSE 100 Index (UKX) of U.K. stocks dropped 8.6 percent.
“Doing this 22 years, to me this has to be the type of bottoming that the U.S. needed to just clean the slate,” Brian Belski, the New York-based chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co., said in a telephone interview yesterday. “A year ago, we were only a couple quarters into the rebound, now we’re further in. There was less belief a year ago because nobody really believed forward earnings growth. Now they’ve proven themselves.” He estimates the S&P 500 will reach 1,325.
No Contraction
Barry Knapp, the New York-based chief U.S. equity strategist at Barclays, said that it’s unlikely the economy will contract even though data show a slowdown. The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index has averaged negative 95.05 since sinking on June 3 to negative 117.20, meaning reports were missing the median estimate in Bloomberg surveys by the most since January 2009.
“If you sell stocks at 1,250, that’s a bet we’re going back to a recession, and we don’t buy that,” Knapp said in a telephone interview yesterday. His year-end projection is 1,450. “The probability of the U.S. going back into a recession is low. These things have a way of running their course.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net; Inyoung Hwang in New York at ihwang7@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net; Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Big Sean Vehemently Denies Allegations -AceShowbiz
Hot celebrity news about Arrested For Sexual Assault, Big Sean Vehemently Denies Allegations from AceShowbiz
The 'My Last' rapper, along with a friend, has been charged with forcible touching, unlawful imprisonment and sex abuse after a woman filed a complaint against them at a New York concert.is denying allegations that he has sexually assaulted a woman during a concert in Buffalo, New York. The G.O.O.D. Music rapper was arrested on Thursday, August 4 at around 9:50 P.M. ET after the woman filed the complaint against him and friend Willie Hansbro at the Artpark State Part where he performed with .
Both the 23-year-old and his pal were charged with misdemeanor counts of forcible touching, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree and sex abuse in the third degree. They were issued appearance tickets and released on $500 bail. They will have to appear in Niagara County Court in the town of Lewiston on September 6.
On Friday, August 5, Sean's lawyer Scott E. Leemon confirmed the arrest. "Last night, recording artists Sean 'Big Sea' Anderson and Willie 'Sayitainttone' Hansbro were arrested and then immediately released by the NY State Police in connection with an allegation made by a female who was at their concert in Lewiston, New York," he said in a statement.
Leemon continued his statement by saying, "Both men were charged with misdemeanors," before taking note that "both vehemently deny the allegations." The attorney added, "I am confident, that after further investigation, both men will be vindicated."
© AceShowbiz.com
S&P Downgrades US Credit Rating - Los Angeles Times
Latest hot economic news about S&P Downgrades US Credit Rating from Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington—
Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating Friday for the first time in history, saying the recent plan worked out to raise the federal debt ceiling "falls short" of what's needed to stabilize the nation's longer-term finances.
The credit rating agency also said the partisan stalemate that put the U.S. on the brink of default this week did not bode well for efforts to reduce the nation's soaring debt.
"The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed," said S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies.
"The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy."
U.S. debt now will carry a rating of AA-plus instead of the coveted AAA, dropping it into the same general category as countries such as Japan, China, Spain, Taiwan and Slovenia.
The downgrade could increase U.S. borrowing costs because its bonds could be considered more risky. The higher interest rates the U.S. Treasury might have to charge for its bonds could spill over into other areas, such as mortgages.
But the impact of S&P's move could be muted because Treasury bonds are still considered a safe haven, particularly in stressful financial conditions. In addition, the other two leading credit rating agencies — Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — decided this week to keep their AAA rating for U.S. debt for now.
Both those firms, however, warned that a downgrade could come if the nation didn't do more to reduce its debt, now at more than $14.3 trillion.
Still, the S&P downgrade was a significant blow to the nation's reputation. And the timing of the announcement, coming late Friday night after a long week of financial market turmoil, "seems like a sucker punch," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo.
"Why would you do this now?" he asked.
Obama administration officials were upset, saying the downgrade was based on a faulty analysis.
S&P initially made a $2-trillion miscalculation in its economic projections, which administration officials noticed Friday afternoon when the firm shared its analysis with them before publicly releasing it, said a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
But S&P would not agree to change its rating or take more time to do a new analysis, the person said.
"A judgment flawed by a $2-trillion error speaks for itself," said a Treasury Department spokesperson.
S&P said it agreed to change the economic projections but that it did not affect the ratings decision.
Shortly after the downgrade was announced, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), blamed President Obama and congressional Democrats for not doing more to reduce the deficit, even though Obama had pushed for a much larger "grand bargain" that included tax increases and cuts to entitlement programs, such as Medicare.
"This decision by S&P is the latest consequence of the out-of-control spending that has taken place in Washington for decades," Boehner said.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the solution would need to include increased revenues.
"The action by S&P reaffirms the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that combines spending cuts with revenue-raising measures like closing taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners," Reid said.
Reporting from Washington—
Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating Friday for the first time in history, saying the recent plan worked out to raise the federal debt ceiling "falls short" of what's needed to stabilize the nation's longer-term finances.
The credit rating agency also said the partisan stalemate that put the U.S. on the brink of default this week did not bode well for efforts to reduce the nation's soaring debt.
"The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed," said S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies.
"The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy."
U.S. debt now will carry a rating of AA-plus instead of the coveted AAA, dropping it into the same general category as countries such as Japan, China, Spain, Taiwan and Slovenia.
The downgrade could increase U.S. borrowing costs because its bonds could be considered more risky. The higher interest rates the U.S. Treasury might have to charge for its bonds could spill over into other areas, such as mortgages.
But the impact of S&P's move could be muted because Treasury bonds are still considered a safe haven, particularly in stressful financial conditions. In addition, the other two leading credit rating agencies — Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — decided this week to keep their AAA rating for U.S. debt for now.
Both those firms, however, warned that a downgrade could come if the nation didn't do more to reduce its debt, now at more than $14.3 trillion.
Still, the S&P downgrade was a significant blow to the nation's reputation. And the timing of the announcement, coming late Friday night after a long week of financial market turmoil, "seems like a sucker punch," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo.
"Why would you do this now?" he asked.
Obama administration officials were upset, saying the downgrade was based on a faulty analysis.
S&P initially made a $2-trillion miscalculation in its economic projections, which administration officials noticed Friday afternoon when the firm shared its analysis with them before publicly releasing it, said a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
But S&P would not agree to change its rating or take more time to do a new analysis, the person said.
"A judgment flawed by a $2-trillion error speaks for itself," said a Treasury Department spokesperson.
S&P said it agreed to change the economic projections but that it did not affect the ratings decision.
Shortly after the downgrade was announced, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), blamed President Obama and congressional Democrats for not doing more to reduce the deficit, even though Obama had pushed for a much larger "grand bargain" that included tax increases and cuts to entitlement programs, such as Medicare.
"This decision by S&P is the latest consequence of the out-of-control spending that has taken place in Washington for decades," Boehner said.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the solution would need to include increased revenues.
"The action by S&P reaffirms the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that combines spending cuts with revenue-raising measures like closing taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners," Reid said.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Early Good Vibes And Expansion Announced - Los AngelesTimes
Latest hot news about Early Good Vibes And Expansion Announced from Los AngelesTimes
The biggest Lollapalloza ever marked its 20th anniversary Friday in Grant Park with birthday cake, a record attendance of 90,000 and plans to further expand internationally.
As the first of more than 130 bands to play this weekend on eight stages began bringing the noise, festival organganizers backstage were glad-handing their new partners in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where Lollapalooza will debut next year. Last April, the inaugural Lollapalooza Chile took place in Santiago.
“This is a landmark festival with an established brand, and it will help us set a footprint in music,” said Leo Ganem, an executive with the Brazilian promoter Geo Events, which is partnering with Texas-based C3 Presents and Los Angeles talent agency William Morris Endeavor to bring Lollapalooza to Sao Paolo.
Lollapalooza will look to expand to a third international location in 2013, said William Morris’ Marc Geiger, who co-founded the festival in 1991 when it first toured North America and helped establish “alternative rock” as a mainstream touchstone. But C3’s Charlie Jones added that there are no plans to license Lollapalooza to any other city in the United States.
“We’ve always said Lollapalooza lives in Chicago,” Jones said.
The festival was effectively dead when Jones and his partners partnered with William Morris and co-founder Perry Farrell to revive Lollapalooza as a destination event in Grant Park in 2005. It has expanded ever since, from a two-day festival drawing about 65,000 fans in its first year to this year’s three-day, 270,000-capacity record-setter. Those figures make Lollapalooza the largest rock festival in America, surpassing even Coachella in California and Bonnaroo inTennessee.
By midafternoon Friday, tens of thouands had already arrived to catch early sets by bands such as Wye Oak, the Vaccines and Young the Giant.
“I love Lollapalooza because it’s the one festival that even my grandparents know what it is,” said Wye Oak singer Jenn Wasner.
To accommodate the bigger crowd, the festival has spread out even farther in Grant Park, from 80 acres in previous years to 115 acres this year, and made some logistical adjustments to reduce bottlenecking and human traffic jams. But the height of the action was yet to come, with headliners such as Coldplay, Muse and, later in the weekend, Eminem and Foo Fighters sure to draw huge crowds.
Some of the congestion on the big stages will be relieved by the Perry’s electronic tent, with 15,000 capacity. The DJ lineup is the single biggest growth area in the Lollapalooza lineup. “It was a cult thing when we started here in 2005, but it just kept getting bigger and bigger every year since,” Geiger said. “Rock is in a drought right now, we’re waiting for two or three more greats to develop in the rock format. But this festival is way beyond what it once was,” when it was exclusively identified with alternative rock.
The food choices alone reflected that. The first Lollapalooza surely didn’t have lobster corn dogs – 15,000 of them, in fact – or torched ponzu aioli on the menu at its concessions stands. Nor did it have a stage devoted to childrens entertainment, a family-friendly oasis in a sea of what Farrell described as “90,000 weirdos.”
The weirdness was at a minumum, though. On a sultry Friday, it was about mostly pleasant musical choices, enlivened by fresh voices such as Le Butcherettes and Kids These Days. With the multitude of bands, it was almost impossible not to find something to pass the time until the big-ticket acts arrived in the early evening. In the words of a track spun by Chicago DJ Lady D, “Music takes me where I want to be.”
greg@gregkot.com
The biggest Lollapalloza ever marked its 20th anniversary Friday in Grant Park with birthday cake, a record attendance of 90,000 and plans to further expand internationally.
As the first of more than 130 bands to play this weekend on eight stages began bringing the noise, festival organganizers backstage were glad-handing their new partners in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where Lollapalooza will debut next year. Last April, the inaugural Lollapalooza Chile took place in Santiago.
“This is a landmark festival with an established brand, and it will help us set a footprint in music,” said Leo Ganem, an executive with the Brazilian promoter Geo Events, which is partnering with Texas-based C3 Presents and Los Angeles talent agency William Morris Endeavor to bring Lollapalooza to Sao Paolo.
Lollapalooza will look to expand to a third international location in 2013, said William Morris’ Marc Geiger, who co-founded the festival in 1991 when it first toured North America and helped establish “alternative rock” as a mainstream touchstone. But C3’s Charlie Jones added that there are no plans to license Lollapalooza to any other city in the United States.
“We’ve always said Lollapalooza lives in Chicago,” Jones said.
The festival was effectively dead when Jones and his partners partnered with William Morris and co-founder Perry Farrell to revive Lollapalooza as a destination event in Grant Park in 2005. It has expanded ever since, from a two-day festival drawing about 65,000 fans in its first year to this year’s three-day, 270,000-capacity record-setter. Those figures make Lollapalooza the largest rock festival in America, surpassing even Coachella in California and Bonnaroo inTennessee.
By midafternoon Friday, tens of thouands had already arrived to catch early sets by bands such as Wye Oak, the Vaccines and Young the Giant.
“I love Lollapalooza because it’s the one festival that even my grandparents know what it is,” said Wye Oak singer Jenn Wasner.
To accommodate the bigger crowd, the festival has spread out even farther in Grant Park, from 80 acres in previous years to 115 acres this year, and made some logistical adjustments to reduce bottlenecking and human traffic jams. But the height of the action was yet to come, with headliners such as Coldplay, Muse and, later in the weekend, Eminem and Foo Fighters sure to draw huge crowds.
Some of the congestion on the big stages will be relieved by the Perry’s electronic tent, with 15,000 capacity. The DJ lineup is the single biggest growth area in the Lollapalooza lineup. “It was a cult thing when we started here in 2005, but it just kept getting bigger and bigger every year since,” Geiger said. “Rock is in a drought right now, we’re waiting for two or three more greats to develop in the rock format. But this festival is way beyond what it once was,” when it was exclusively identified with alternative rock.
The food choices alone reflected that. The first Lollapalooza surely didn’t have lobster corn dogs – 15,000 of them, in fact – or torched ponzu aioli on the menu at its concessions stands. Nor did it have a stage devoted to childrens entertainment, a family-friendly oasis in a sea of what Farrell described as “90,000 weirdos.”
The weirdness was at a minumum, though. On a sultry Friday, it was about mostly pleasant musical choices, enlivened by fresh voices such as Le Butcherettes and Kids These Days. With the multitude of bands, it was almost impossible not to find something to pass the time until the big-ticket acts arrived in the early evening. In the words of a track spun by Chicago DJ Lady D, “Music takes me where I want to be.”
greg@gregkot.com
Monday, August 8, 2011
Remembering Hiroshima Bombing Amid Unfolding Nuclear Crisis - HamiltonSpectator
Latest hot news about Remembering Hiroshima Bombing Amid Unfolding Nuclear Crisis from HamiltonSpectator
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday marked the 66th anniversary of the bombing, as the nation fights a different kind of disaster from atomic technology — a nuclear plant in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami.
The site of the world’s first A-bomb attack observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. Saturday (2315 GMT Friday) — the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, by the United States in the last stages of World War II.
The bomb destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bombing Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted the Japanese to surrender.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan’s promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, whose suffering continues today because of illnesses passed down over generations.
Japan has long vowed never to make or possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it aimed to rebuild and modernize after the war.
Crowds of people clutching Buddhist prayer beads bowed their heads Saturday in commemorating the dead as pigeons were released during the solemn gathering repeated every year before the skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building.
The prime minister, in his speech, also touched on Japan’s more recent nuclear catastrophe at the northeastern Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, where a massive tsunami set off by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 knocked out backup generators that powered the plant’s cooling mechanisms.
Kan repeated a promise to embrace renewable energy and rely less on nuclear power.
“Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch,” Kan said. “I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power.”
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while retierating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.
But he acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged.
“Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy,” he said.
The Associated Press
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday marked the 66th anniversary of the bombing, as the nation fights a different kind of disaster from atomic technology — a nuclear plant in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami.
The site of the world’s first A-bomb attack observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. Saturday (2315 GMT Friday) — the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, by the United States in the last stages of World War II.
The bomb destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bombing Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted the Japanese to surrender.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan’s promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, whose suffering continues today because of illnesses passed down over generations.
Japan has long vowed never to make or possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it aimed to rebuild and modernize after the war.
Crowds of people clutching Buddhist prayer beads bowed their heads Saturday in commemorating the dead as pigeons were released during the solemn gathering repeated every year before the skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building.
The prime minister, in his speech, also touched on Japan’s more recent nuclear catastrophe at the northeastern Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, where a massive tsunami set off by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 knocked out backup generators that powered the plant’s cooling mechanisms.
Kan repeated a promise to embrace renewable energy and rely less on nuclear power.
“Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch,” Kan said. “I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power.”
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while retierating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.
But he acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged.
“Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy,” he said.
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Amid Nuclear Crisis - CTV.ca
Hot news about Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Amid Nuclear Crisis from CTV.ca
Against the backdrop of the Atomic Bomb Dome, paper lanterns float down along Motoyasu River at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. (AP / Koji Sasahara)
HIROSHIMA, Japan — The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday marked the 66th anniversary of the bombing, as the nation fights a different kind of disaster from atomic technology -- a nuclear plant in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami.
The site of the world's first A-bomb attack observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. Saturday (2315 GMT Friday) -- the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, by the United States in the last stages of World War II.
The bomb destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bombing Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted the Japanese to surrender.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan's promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, whose suffering continues today because of illnesses passed down over generations.
Japan has long vowed never to make or possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it aimed to rebuild and modernize after the war.
Crowds of people clutching Buddhist prayer beads bowed their heads Saturday in commemorating the dead as pigeons were released during the solemn gathering repeated every year before the skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building.
The prime minister, in his speech, also touched on Japan's more recent nuclear catastrophe at the northeastern Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, where a massive tsunami set off by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 knocked out backup generators that powered the plant's cooling mechanisms.
Kan repeated a promise to embrace renewable energy and rely less on nuclear power.
"Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch," Kan said. "I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power."
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while retierating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.
But he acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged.
"Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy," he said.
Against the backdrop of the Atomic Bomb Dome, paper lanterns float down along Motoyasu River at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. (AP / Koji Sasahara)
HIROSHIMA, Japan — The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday marked the 66th anniversary of the bombing, as the nation fights a different kind of disaster from atomic technology -- a nuclear plant in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami.
The site of the world's first A-bomb attack observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. Saturday (2315 GMT Friday) -- the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, by the United States in the last stages of World War II.
The bomb destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bombing Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted the Japanese to surrender.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan's promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, whose suffering continues today because of illnesses passed down over generations.
Japan has long vowed never to make or possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it aimed to rebuild and modernize after the war.
Crowds of people clutching Buddhist prayer beads bowed their heads Saturday in commemorating the dead as pigeons were released during the solemn gathering repeated every year before the skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building.
The prime minister, in his speech, also touched on Japan's more recent nuclear catastrophe at the northeastern Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, where a massive tsunami set off by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 knocked out backup generators that powered the plant's cooling mechanisms.
Kan repeated a promise to embrace renewable energy and rely less on nuclear power.
"Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch," Kan said. "I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power."
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while retierating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.
But he acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged.
"Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy," he said.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Bloomberg Deputy Hired With Much Fanfare Steps Down - New York Times
Latest news about Bloomberg Deputy Hired With Much Fanfare Steps Down from New York Times
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ and MICHAEL BARBARO
Stephen Goldsmith, a high-profile deputy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who came under fire for the city’s poor response to a crippling blizzard in December, announced on Thursday that he would leave his position after just 14 months in office.
Mr. Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis, was brought in by Mr. Bloomberg last year with much fanfare: a Harvard professor and expert in innovation poached from the ivory tower to reinvent city government.
But Mr. Goldsmith never seemed to master the day-to-day mechanics of New York’s sprawling government or relish the political intricacies of the job, and dissatisfaction with his performance became widespread in City Hall, according to two aides to Mr. Bloomberg who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering the mayor.
Mr. Goldsmith informed Mr. Bloomberg of his resignation this week. He is being replaced by Caswell F. Holloway, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.
The departure is another setback for the mayor’s effort to bring fresh-faced outsiders — like Mr. Goldsmith and the publishing executive Cathleen P. Black, who briefly served as schools chancellor — into his administration to energize his third term.
In a statement, Mr. Goldsmith said he was leaving the administration to return to academic work and to pursue opportunities in the financial sector, though he has not yet lined up a job. Friends described his resignation as abrupt; he had been scheduling meetings and discussing policy proposals as recently as last week.
Mr. Goldsmith did not respond to interview requests on Thursday. “The change will provide me, at age 64, with more flexibility for me and my family and a secure foundation for our future,” he said in the statement.
Mr. Goldsmith, like Ms. Black, was seen by Mr. Bloomberg as a bold choice who could help shape what has seemed at times to be an unfocused third term. Instead, both of them clashed with those they supervised, struggled to master their jobs and became the subject of open sniping in City Hall.
Mr. Goldsmith’s position, as deputy mayor of operations, made him responsible for the city agencies by which New Yorkers measure the efficiency of their government: police, fire, transportation, sanitation and buildings.
His most visible moment on the job was also perhaps his lowest: he became the face of the city’s lackluster response to the Dec. 26 snowstorm. Many of the top city officials, including Mr. Bloomberg, were out of town during the storm. Mr. Goldsmith had been at his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, and on the evening of the snowstorm, he posted a message on his Twitter feed praising city workers, which many snowbound New Yorkers saw as out of touch. “Good snow work,” he wrote.
At a raucous City Council hearing after the blizzard, Mr. Goldsmith apologized several times and acknowledged wide-ranging mistakes.
From the day he took office in June 2010, Mr. Goldsmith, who regarded himself as a management guru but knew little about New York’s vast bureaucracy, repeatedly frustrated his colleagues, according to interviews with City Hall aides and advisers.
In his first major labor move, Mr. Goldsmith overruled the advice of some longtime city officials by announcing plans to demote 100 supervisors from the Sanitation Department and return them to the front lines.
The decision had two immediate consequences. It infuriated the head of the sanitation workers union, Harry Nespoli, who, as the leader of the powerful Municipal Labor Council, plays a crucial role in the city’s labor relations. And it angered the work force responsible for clearing snow just weeks before the blizzard.
Mr. Nespoli said Mr. Goldsmith had failed to listen to his warnings about low staffing levels and morale in the Sanitation Department. “You don’t come in and say, ‘I was in Indianapolis, and this is what we did there,’ ” he said. “That doesn’t work in New York.”
City Hall aides complained that, in meetings, Mr. Goldsmith emphasized management theory over political pragmatism. As a result, they said, conversations devolved at times into convoluted academic discussions that resolved little.
When City Hall staff members met to discuss the growing public outcry over the reconstruction of a major roadway in the Bronx, which was hurting beloved local trees, Mr. Goldsmith engaged in a discourse about eliminating risk in government. Those in the room were befuddled, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.
In some cases, Mr. Goldsmith’s decisions proved problematic enough that they were overturned, as when he removed financing from the city’s latest budget for new waste management stations. The stations were the linchpin of a citywide trash removal program that the Bloomberg administration had spent years fighting for. After environmentalists and local advocacy groups learned of the budget cut and complained, it was reversed by Mr. Bloomberg.
Some City Hall aides also said they were surprised that Mr. Goldsmith continued to divide his time between New York and Washington, and bought a home in the city just several months ago.
Mr. Goldsmith’s victories included a major consolidation of information technology and real estate operations and the creation of a Web site to allow city residents to submit ideas on cutting costs.
Some city officials found his style refreshing. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. of Queens, who grilled Mr. Goldsmith at the blizzard hearing, praised his directness. “Forgetting about the merits of what happened, he was a very stand-up guy,” Mr. Vallone said. “He took the brunt of our questioning, and he answered honestly.”
With the appointment of Mr. Holloway, 37, Mr. Bloomberg seems to be signaling a return to traditional, hands-on management by the city’s operations chief.
Mr. Holloway worked for four years as chief of staff to Mr. Goldsmith’s predecessor, Edward Skyler, who was credited with deft crisis management during his tenure and widely missed in City Hall.
Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Goldsmith bonded during a meeting in Mr. Goldsmith’s office at Harvard in spring 2010. It was there that Mr. Bloomberg, encouraged by his aides, began to court Mr. Goldsmith, a former adviser to George W. Bush, for a job in the city.
Mr. Goldsmith was immediately intrigued by the challenge, and by all indications, he seemed prepared to stay until the end of Mr. Bloomberg’s third term.
“One has only a small opportunity in life to do things like this,” Mr. Goldsmith said in an interview earlier this year. “Every second you can be doing things, changing things, fixing things. Making life better for New Yorkers is why I’m here.
“I wasn’t invited by the mayor here to have a good time. I’ve been given this opportunity to make a difference, and so I’ve got to slug that out every day.”
David W. Chen contributed reporting.
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