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Friday, November 30, 2012
Gilda's Club name change seen as insult to Radner
Paintings imagining comedian Gilda Radner in recognizable locations in Madison hang on the wall inside the cancer support group Gilda's Club Madison on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in Middleton, Wis. The Madison-area chapter of the national group is the latest to change its name to the Cancer Support Community, a move its director said was necessary because young people don't know who Radner was. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
Paintings imagining comedian Gilda Radner in recognizable locations in Madison hang on the wall inside the cancer support group Gilda's Club Madison on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in Middleton, Wis. The Madison-area chapter of the national group is the latest to change its name to the Cancer Support Community, a move its director said was necessary because young people don't know who Radner was. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
In a May 4, 2012 photo Bonnie Hanson polishes furniture in the "Baba Wawa" room at Gilda's Club in Middleton, Wis. The Madison-area chapter of the national cancer support group Gilda's Club is the latest affiliate to change its name, saying many no longer know who comedienne Gilda Radner was. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, M.P. King.)
FILE - In this Sept. 27, 1983 file photo, actress and comedienne Gilda Radner holds up copies of her book, "Roseanne Roseannadanna's "Hey, Get Back To Work," at a New York bookstore. The Madison, Wis.-area chapter of Gilda's Club is the latest to change its name to the Cancer Support Community, a move its director said was necessary because young people don't know who Radner was. (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis)
A framed image of comedian Gilda Radner hangs on the wall inside the cancer support group Gilda's Club Madison on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in Middleton, Wis. The Madison-area chapter of the national group is the latest to change its name to the Cancer Support Community, a move its director said was necessary because young people don't know who Radner was. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
A June 8, 2012 photo shows the exterior of Gilda's Club in Middleton, Wis. The Madison-area chapter of the national cancer support group Gilda's Club is the latest affiliate to change its name, saying many no longer know who comedienne Gilda Radner was. (AP Photo/The Capitol Times, Michelle Stocker.)
MIDDLETON, Wis. (AP) ? Remember Roseanne Roseannadana? Or Emily Litella? Or Baba Wawa?
Younger generations might not recognize the characters popularized by comedienne Gilda Radner. Nor might they remember Radner herself, an original cast member of Saturday Night Live who died 23 years ago and for whom a national cancer support group is named.
That's troubling to the Madison-area chapter of Gilda's Club, which planned on Thursday to change its name in part because of concern that many don't know who Radner was. The move prompted outrage from some Radner fans, who see it as a slight to a woman who confronted cancer with dignity and humor, and led other chapters across the nation to hastily reaffirm they have absolutely no intention of changing their names.
Lannia Syren Stenz, the Madison-area club's executive director, said her organization decided to change its name to Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin after it realized that most college students were born after Radner died in 1989.
"We are seeing younger and younger adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis," Stenz told the Wisconsin State Journal. "We want to make sure that what we are is clear to them and that there's not a lot of confusion that would cause people not to come in our doors."
Her comments angered some Radner fans, who let loose a storm of criticism on the organization's Facebook page.
"The only educating you're doing is teaching kids that when they die from cancer, their name will be erased from history in 20 years because the next generation doesn't know who they are. Way to give them hope!" wrote Mark Warneke, 44, a full-time college student in Arlington, Texas. He told the AP that taking Radner's name off the foundation was an insult to her memory.
Stenz referred questions from The Associated Press to Linda House, executive vice president of the national group. House said there was no evidence that young people are unfamiliar with Radner and the name change was motivated by the desire to make the organization's mission clear. She called Stenz's comments "not accurate, period."
"Gilda Radner is very much a part of the fiber of this organization," House said. "There has never been an intent and there is no intent to lose Gilda as part of the organization."
Radner, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986, sought support from The Wellness Community in California and wrote about her experience in her book "It's Always Something," a reference to one of her characters' catch-phrases.
Her friends and family started Gilda's Club in 1991 on the East Coast to honor her legacy. The name was inspired by something Radner said after her diagnosis: "Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."
Gilda's Club Worldwide merged with The Wellness Community in 2009, and the joint headquarters in Washington changed its name to the Cancer Support Community. Local chapters were given the choice of keeping their names or switching to Cancer Support Community, House said.
The 56 chapters around the world deliver $40 million a year in free care to about 1 million cancer patients and their families, she said. Of those chapters, 20 are known as Gilda's Club, three are Wellness Community and 23 are Cancer Support Community.
Changing the chapters' names made sense to Ron Nief, a professor at Beloit College in southern Wisconsin who has made a career out of studying how different generations view the world differently. He said it could become harder for Gilda's Club to attract donations as fewer people remember seeing Radner on TV.
"I think we all want to keep our traditions alive," he said, "but there comes a reality in this case of what does this group represent and how do we raise money for it."
Radner's husband, actor Gene Wilder, said he didn't like the name change but he understood it.
He said if he had to break the news to his late wife she might ask, "Do they have to throw me out?"
"I'd say, 'It's not throwing you out, honey, it's getting more money.' And she'd say, 'OK, I guess if they have to, they have to,'" he said. "It's too bad. I wish it weren't so. But I understand."
The Wellness Center where Radner once sought support in Los Angeles was one of the groups that updated its name. Julia Forth, the marketing director of what's now called the Cancer Support Community Benjamin Center, said people who get sick Google the word cancer, so it helps to have that word in the name.
Other organizations were adamant about keeping the Gilda's Club name. LauraJane Hyde, who runs the Chicago chapter, said her group has spent 15 years teaching people that Radner's name was synonymous with cancer support, in the same way people know what Starbucks sells even though "coffee" isn't in its name.
"A lot of people feel very passionately about the name," she said. "We will lose donations if we change it."
Radner remains a strong presence at the Madison-area club even without her name on the building in the suburb of Middleton. Paintings and drawings of Radner line the walls. One depicts her on top of Madison's state Capitol. Another imagines her sitting along the shores of Lake Mendota on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The meeting rooms are named after her Saturday Night Live characters, including New York-street smart reporter Roseanne Roseannadana, out-of-sync editorialist Emily Litella and speech-impeded talk show host Baba Wawa, a parody of Barbara Walters.
___
Ramde reported from Milwaukee and can be reached at dramde(at)ap.org. Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report from New York. Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sbauerAP.
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
California Supreme Court Rules Against Costa Mesa
SUPREME COURT SAYS NO!? TWICE!
In a press release this afternoon the Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) announced that the California Supreme Court today "denied the City of Costa Mesa's attempt to overturn the injunction blocking the City from laying off more than 100 City employees and outsourcing their jobs to the private sector."
"DEPUBLISHING" REQUEST DENIED, TOO
The Court also denied the request to depublish the Appellate Court opinion upholding the preliminary injunction, which apparently means that many California cities now find themselves on the horns of a dilemma.? As we understand previous information on this issue, this may mean that many California cities are now in violation of the law regarding outsourcing city operations.
Both the League of California Cities and the Association of California Cities Orange County had joined the petition to the Supreme Court on the depublishing issue.
CITY RESPONSE NOT AVAILABLE
Calls to city officials had gone unanswered by the time I decided to publish this information.? As I get more information I'll update this entry.? Check back later.
PRESS RELEASE BELOW
The OCEA press release follows:? (click on image to enlarge)
Labels: California Supreme Court, Layoffs, OCEA, outsourcing
Source: http://abubblingcauldron.blogspot.com/2012/11/california-supreme-court-rules-against.html
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Toyota sees November U.S. auto sales at 14.8-15.2 million annualized rate
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The ageing New York Yankees, struggling to inject youth into their roster, appear poised to sign two of their evergreen core members for one more go-round in a drive for a sixth World Series ring since 1996. Left-handed starting pitcher Andy Pettitte, 40, and all-time Major League Baseball saves leader Mariano Rivera, who turns 43 on Thursday, are reportedly on the verge of signing deals for one last campaign. Those pitchers could well be effective in 2013. Pettitte returned from a one-year retirement last season to go 5-4 with an impressive 2. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toyota-sees-november-u-auto-sales-14-8-235237762--finance.html
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
London 'Should Follow New York Airports Model'
London should follow the example of New York by allowing its secondary airports to add new runways to better compete with the capital's Heathrow hub, the head of London's Gatwick airport said on Wednesday.
Heathrow - the capital's busiest airport - is operating close to full capacity after the UK's coalition government blocked development of a third runway, which would have led to a significant increase in the number of planes flying over the capital.
But Prime Minister David Cameron is under intense pressure from business leaders to end years of deadlock and create more airport capacity in southeast England to counter competitive threats from other European hubs.
A commission chaired by former Financial Services Authority head Howard Davies to examine ways to do this will report in the summer of 2015.
"The key decision for Davies is whether to create a competitive airports market in London with a second runway going into Gatwick and Stansted, having three two-runway airports competing with one another," Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's chief executive, told reporters.
"London should follow the example of New York, which has several airports competing with one another, offering more choice to passengers and pushing up service levels."
Gatwick, southeast of London, and Stansted, to the north, are both currently single runway airports.
However, in New York, Newark and LaGuardia airports both have two runways, competing for passengers with the larger John F. Kennedy.
In London, Heathrow believes it should be able to expand because it operates as a hub, with around a third of its customers being transfer passengers. Hub airports allow passengers to change planes easily for travel on to another destination.
Wingate, however, claims Ferrovial's Heathrow has overstated the importance of transfer traffic, citing research from industry body IATA that shows 93 percent of people who travel through the capital start or end their journey in London.
Gatwick is a point-to-point airport, mainly focusing on the leisure market and moving around 34 million passengers a year through its two terminals.
Under a long-standing local agreement that runs to 2019, Gatwick is not allowed to build a second runway.
But bosses at Gatwick, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, are studying options to build a second runway and plan to submit the findings to a government next year.
Earlier on Wednesday Gatwick said its first half profit rose 4.8 percent to GBP?172 million (USD$275.7 million).
Source: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1354147489.html
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Clydesdales visit Smokey Point as part of ?Military Tour?
SMOKEY POINT ? The Arlington Walmart played host to some unique four-legged guests during this year?s Thanksgiving weekend.
The world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales, the symbol of Anheuser-Busch since 1933, had their scheduled public appearance at the Navy Exchange in Marysville on Friday, Nov. 23, rained out, but fairer weather allowed them not only to keep their appointment at the Arlington Walmart on Sunday, Nov. 25, but also to extend their stay from two to five hours.
According to Bob Fiedler of Crown Distributing, the area appearances of the eight-horse hitch, harnessed and hitched to the well-known red beer wagon, are part of the Budweiser Clydesdales? November ?Military Tour,? which will also include a visit to Joint Base Lewis-McChord Nov. 28-30.
?The Clydesdales? appearances in Marysville and Arlington are among hundreds made annually by the traveling hitches,? Fiedler said. ?Canadians of Scottish descent brought the first Clydesdales to America in the mid-1800s. Today, the giant draft horses are used primarily for breeding and show.?
Fiedler explained that horses chosen for the Budweiser Clydesdale hitch must be at least three years old, stand approximately 18 hands (or six feet) tall at the shoulder, weigh an average of 2,000 pounds, and be bay in color, have four white legs and a blaze of white on the face, along with a black mane and tail.
?A gentle temperament is very important as hitch horses meet millions of people each year,? Fiedler said. ?A single Clydesdale hitch horse will consume as much as 20-25 quarts of feed, 40-50 pounds of hay and 30 gallons of water per day.?
Jay Wilson, key account manager with Crown Distributing, elaborated that the Walmart site was chosen because it?s just west of the Arlington Crown Distributing site, along 172nd Street NE, and because its roomy parking lot provides ample space for horses, cars and people to maneuver.
?Everybody wants to see the Clydesdales,? Wilson said. ?They?re beautiful animals, and an iconic symbol of America. They?ve been around for a long time.?
John Haberle of Arlington had never seen Clydesdales up close, so he made a point of arriving early at the Arlington Walmart parking lot to check them out.
?They?re just these marvelous, wonderful horses, and they?ve got this neat little dog, a Dalmatian, sitting up straight right alongside the two drivers in green coats,? Haberle said of the Dalmatian that?s a standard part of each hitch, harkening back to the early days of brewing, when Dalmatians were bred and trained to protect the horses and guard the wagon when the driver went inside to make deliveries. ?I was tremendously impressed. All the animals were very friendly.?
Haberle and Wilson both estimated that several hundred onlookers turned out to snap photos of the horses, who were unloaded from a trailer before they made a circuit of the Walmart parking lot.
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Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/arllifestyles/~3/BCD2R6LLjHA/181212191.html
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To get the best look at a person's face, look just below the eyes
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, to get a real idea of what a person is up to, according to UC Santa Barbara researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matt Peterson, the best place to check is right below the eyes. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"It's pretty fast, it's effortless ?? we're not really aware of what we're doing," said Miguel Eckstein, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Using an eye tracker and more than 100 photos of faces and participants, Eckstein and graduate research assistant Peterson followed the gaze of the experiment's participants to determine where they look in the first crucial moment of identifying a person's identity, gender, and emotional state.
"For the majority of people, the first place we look at is somewhere in the middle, just below the eyes," Eckstein said. One possible reason could be that we are trained from youth to look there, because it's polite in some cultures. Or, because it allows us to figure out where the person's attention is focused.
However, Peterson and Eckstein hypothesize that, despite the ever-so-brief ?? 250 millisecond ?? glance, the relatively featureless point of focus, and the fact that we're usually unaware that we're doing it, the brain is actually using sophisticated computations to plan an eye movement that ensures the highest accuracy in tasks that are evolutionarily important in determining flight, fight, or love at first sight.
"When you look at a scene, or at a person's face, you're not just using information right in front of you," said Peterson. The place where one's glance is aimed is the place that corresponds to the highest resolution in the eye ?? the fovea, a slight depression in the retina at the back of the eye ?? while regions surrounding the foveal area ?? the periphery ?? allow access to less spatial detail.
However, according to Peterson, at a conversational distance, faces tend to span a larger area of the visual field. There is information to be gleaned, not just from the face's eyes, but also from features like the nose or the mouth. But when participants were directed to try to determine the identity, gender, and emotion of people in the photos by looking elsewhere ?? the forehead, the mouth, for instance ?? they did not perform as well as they would have by looking close to the eyes.
Using a sophisticated algorithm, which mimics the varying spatial detail of human processing across the visual field and integrates all information to make decisions, allowed Peterson and Eckstein to predict what would be the best place within the faces to look for each of these perceptual tasks. They found that these predicted places varied moderately across tasks, and closely corresponded to where humans actually do look.
At least for the three important tasks investigated ?? identity, emotion, and gender ?? below the eyes is the optimal place to look, say the scientists, because it allows one to read information from as many features of the face as possible.
"What the visual system is adept at doing is taking all those pieces of information from your face and combining them in a statistical manner to make a judgment about whatever task you're doing," said Eckstein. The area around the eyes contains minute bits of important information, which require the high resolution processing close to the fovea, whereas features like the mouth are larger and can be read without a direct gaze.
The study shows that the ability to learn optimal rapid eye movement for evolutionarily important perceptual tasks is inherent in humans; however, say the scientists, it is not necessarily consistent behavior for everybody. Eckstein's lab is currently involved in studying a small subset of people who do not look just below the eyes to identify a person. Other researchers have shown that East Asians, for instance, tend look lower on the face when identifying a person's face.
The research by Peterson and Eckstein has resulted in sophisticated new algorithms to model optimal gaze patterns when looking at faces. The algorithms could potentially be used to provide insight into conditions like schizophrenia and autism, which are associated with uncommon gaze patterns, or prosopagnosia ?? an inability to recognize someone by his or her face.
###
University of California - Santa Barbara: http://www.ucsb.edu
Thanks to University of California - Santa Barbara for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125495/_To_get_the_best_look_at_a_person_s_face__look_just_below_the_eyes
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Hang Up and Listen: The 138! Edition
Listen to "Hang Up and Listen" with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
Hang Up and Listen is brought to you by?Stamps.com.?Click on the radio microphone and enter HANGUP to get our $110 bonus offer.
Hang Up and Listen is also brought to you by Audible. Get a 30-day free trial by signing up at audiblepodcast.com/hangup. Our pick of the week is?Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era by Gary M. Pomerantz.
In this week?s episode of?Slate?s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the resurgence of Notre Dame football and how the Fighting Irish have stayed so popular in spite of decades of mediocrity. They also speak with Grinnell associate head coach Dave Arseneault Jr. about Jack Taylor?s NCAA record 138-point game and the Pioneers? fast-paced offensive system. Lastly, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey joins the show to talk about Jeremy Lin, James Harden, Royce White, and the state of advanced statistics in professional basketball.
You can read the transcript of the interview with Rockets GM Daryl Morey below.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Notre Dame beat USC on Saturday night to finish the regular season 12-0.
- In August, ESPN?s Rick Reilly told the Fighting Irish to ?go back a grade.?
- In the New York Times, Greg Bishop writes about the power of the Notre Dame brand.
- Notre Dame?s undefeated season has been good for ratings and merchandise sales, writes Howard Bloom in Sports Business News.
- Notre Dame is joining the ACC, but not in football and hockey.
- Fighting Irish senior Manti Te?o wrote a letter to the parents of a dying 12-year-old girl.
- Notre Dame has been criticized for its handling of sexual assault allegations against football players.
- Radio announcer Allen Pinkett was suspended for saying that Notre Dame needs more criminals.
- Grinnell College guard Jack Taylor scored 138 points in a 179-104 win over Faith Baptist Bible.
- Associate head coach David Arseneault Jr. holds the NCAA single game assist record (34).
- Video of Taylor?s 138-point effort, with commentary by Grinnell students Rob Storrick and Daniel Nellis.
- Basketball Prospectus? Kevin Pelton breaks down the 138-point performance.
- CBS Sports? Gregg Doyel says running up the score was ?a bully move? and Deadspin?s Barry Petchesky calls the record ?empty and artificial.?
- Head coach David Arseneault?s system explained.
- An advanced statistical analysis of the system, by Thomas L. Moore, Benjamin Johannsen, and Eric Ohrn.
- Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is a founder and co-chair of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
- Michael Lewis? 2009 New York Times Magazine story on Morey, Shane Battier, and advanced metrics in the NBA.
- In the Economist, Morey wrote about Jeremy Lin and compared NBA teams to ?elephant mothers.?
- The Rockets signed Lin for $25 million this July after waiving him in December 2011.
- Stefan discussed Royce White?s anxiety disorder on NPR.
- Jonathan Hock documented White?s draft day experience on Grantland and discussed it on ?Hang Up and Listen.? (Fast-forward to the 47:45 mark.)
?Hang Up and Listen?s weekly Chekovs:
Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Our intern is Eric Goldwein.
You can e-mail us at hangup@slate.com.
Transcript of interview with Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.
JOSH: The Houston Rockets are, in my professional opinion, the most interesting team in the world. This offseason they signed Jeremy Lin to an offer sheet the Knicks didn?t dare to match. They traded for Oklahoma City guard James Harden when the Thunder couldn?t afford to pay him. And they drafted Royce White, who has struggled with an anxiety disorder and has yet to play this year. The man behind all those moves is Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Daryl came into sports from a background in consulting and also worked for STATS, Inc. before moving to a career in the NBA. Now, in addition to running the Rockets, he?s the co-chair of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Daryl Morey, thanks for coming on the show.
DARYL MOREY: Thanks for having me on.
JOSH: Sure thing, and after buttering you up I?m going to reverse pivot here and note that you?re the guy who cut Jeremy Lin right before he went to the Knicks and Linsanity commenced. You noted on Twitter last February that you made a mistake, and that you didn?t know he was that good and that nobody else knew he was that good either. You then re-signed Lin this offseason, paying $25.1 million over three years to rectify that initial mistake. So can you walk us through each of these decisions and explain how Lin shows what analytics can and can?t tell us about basketball players.
DARYL MOREY: Yeah, Jeremy, obviously someone we were always very interested [in], we thought could be a good player just not nearly as good as he is. You know, Golden State actually should probably get the most credit at the NBA level. After all 30 teams had a chance to draft him and sign him, Golden State gave him the biggest commitment in terms of a guaranteed contract. They waived him, and when they did waive him we pounced on him last year. And after playing very well for us during our preseason and in our abbreviated camp last year, we waived him because we had two very good guards ahead of him in Lowry and Dragic, and we were bringing in the center Dalembert. All that said, if we had known he could be as good as he is, then we would have done some painful things and maneuvered to try and make sure we could keep him at that time.
STEFAN: And Daryl, putting Lin in a broader context, you made a point in a piece you wrote for the Economist?very impressive, the Economist?earlier this year in which you compared baseball to basketball. You said that baseball teams have freedom, the ability to select dozens and dozens of players and nurture them for several years, and have them come through their system, and then determine whether they are ready for the major-league level. In basketball, you said the NBA is more like ?elephant mothers,? who give birth to very few babies and have to gestate them for almost two years. How has analytics helped get beyond that reality and how does that reality figure into your day-to-day thinking about basketball talent?
DARYL MOREY: Well, I do think that is the reality. I?ll give an example of a baseball GM I was talking to. They do get to be like salmon, where they can, you know, spawn thousands and thousands of fish and wait for the ones that make it back. He was excited in telling me about a guy who was playing for like a junior college that no one maybe knew about and was doing these amazing things ? and he probably wouldn?t pan out, but we?re excited to take a shot at him. We got 60 rounds, why not use a pick on him. To your point, we don?t have that. We have 15 sort of precious spots where we have to take our bets on who is going to pan out. And what goes into that is a lot of things, which is not only what we see with our eyes but also, how do we compare them to players who have come before? And the reality is Jeremy is unlike really any player that has come before. Many, many players play at his level in college?which was extremely good?against poor competition. And it?s our job to sort of sift through those. But data is only useful when it applies to, you know, there?s someone currently in the NBA that has either succeeded or failed, that looks like that player in the past. And Jeremy is very unique, so data was helpful, but not extraordinarily helpful, in figuring out whether or not he was someone we should have invested all our resources into and put all our eggs into, you know, that one sort of baby elephant mother basket, as I wrote. And we initially cut him because we felt like there were better ones for us to look at, and obviously that turned out to be wrong.
MIKE: Sometimes the things you realize are about evaluating a player. But in the Lin case ? it seemed like you realized something about contract structure that no one else realized. I was critical of the media, saying, how come no one picked up on the fact that there was this poison pill that really would be so much harder for the Knicks to swallow than the Rockets? Were you sitting there at some point, saying, maybe to your cohorts in the Houston office, Guys, I don?t think that everyone else is realizing what we?re realizing about structuring this contract.
DARYL MOREY: Yeah, his contract structure came into play in both things. So in his release, the other thing we looked at was that he would be a free agent months from now and for us he wasn?t going to play. So, for us, it felt like we would be investing a spot in a guy who is going to be a free agent. Take the flip side, Chandler Parsons, someone we decided to invest in but we had a four-year deal for him. So if you?ve got a long runway, it?s better to choose an investment in something like that. On the other side, when you?re trying to create an edge in your sport, there?s a couple ways to do it. One is, you know hopefully forecasting which players are going to be good, better than your competition, or figuring out how they fit into your context better than the competition. But another way, yeah, is finding hopefully areas within the collective bargaining agreement where you can take advantage. And really all our moves this summer were about that latter one. Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik, both guys who we really believe in, both playing well to this point, they were to your point, a contract artifact where we could structure in such a way that for us, it was a flat eight-million contract, but for the team who held them it was a ballooned contract, and that was, that was something that made it harder for them to keep him than for us to sign them. And then Harden obviously, you know I don?t think Oklahoma City makes that trade unless the collective bargaining agreement was making it very tough for them to keep all their stars at the financial level that they were looking for.
JOSH: So, your strategy before any of these deals was to pursue kind of what the Celtics did before they got Kevin Garnett and kind of clear some room. You amnestied a great player for you, Luis Scola, and what the amnesty does is it allows you to release a player without having their usually large salary apply towards the cap. It seems like this worked out for you as well as it?s worked out for any NBA team. My question is, is this a good thing for the NBA that the Thunder kind of had to get rid of James Harden and that a team like yourself was able to kind of swoop in just due to the rules of the salary cap?
DARYL MOREY: I?ll get to that answer in a second but I would just say that, in general, what you?re on is our general strategy which is to try and take hopefully smart, fairly significant gambles. Not once, not twice, but as many times as possible. So, Omer Asik, the gamble was, how can he play into a bigger role? We thought that was a good gamble. Jeremy Lin, it was, can he play at that all-star level that he did for only a short amount of time. We felt like it was a good gamble at eight million a year because he doesn?t even have to play at an all-star level to live up to that. Harden was someone, you know, is he worth the gamble moving into the number one role from the number three role? Royce White, big gamble. And we feel like, you need to take these gambles. You?re not going to hit all the time because it?s a competition of 30. You?re really not trying to be above average. You?re trying to be the best of 30. So you need to be taking these gambles all the time. And whether or not it?s good for the league, that Oklahoma City felt like they had to move James Harden, you know frankly is not my really my concern. I?m just trying to do the best for the Rockets and wherever there?s opportunity, we?re going to chase it down and try to help our club.
STEFAN: You mentioned Royce White in your list of gambles and you deservedly got a lot of praise for the due diligence and the willingness to draft a player in the first round who had some very serious issues with his anxiety disorder in college, at Iowa State where they became manageable thanks to what was a very rigorous program and close monitoring of him, and he had trouble before that. What influenced you first to pick Royce, basketball and non-basketball, and if you?re willing to talk about the current state of the situation that would be great and sort of enlighten us about what the Rockets? thinking is long-term.
DARYL MOREY: Basketball is sort of an interesting sport that, you know, the top player on your team makes so much more of an impact than the top player in any other sport. Any other of the major team sports, I should say. There?s no other sport where LeBron James can have a team winning three out of four games or 60 games out of 80, and then when he leaves, that basically the same team wins 20 games out of 80. That kind of a swing just shows you the impact. You need these elite talents to win in this league. We think Royce is an elite talent?top five talent in this last draft, which was very deep. Obviously if we?re getting him at 16 in the draft, there?s going to be something wrong, or something that?s a gamble with the player, and really you?re just choosing the gamble. Maybe they?ve got an injury history. Maybe they?ve got a particular part of their game that could be an Achilles? heel that would make them fail. Maybe they?ve never gone against that level of competition. So there?s going to be something wrong, so you?re really just picking among things that are potentially going to derail that player and which ones you?re most comfortable with. Royce was someone who played every game at Iowa State, played it well. So even with his issues, he showed that he is very functional. We knew going in that potentially there could be issues and right now obviously things are bumpy at this point, I?d say, but you know it takes a little time for him to get going at the various stops he?s had in his career to this point. We?re trying to work things through with Royce, and hopeful that we can. That?s sort of the current state.
JOSH: So Daryl, you kind of first came to prominence in the national media in Michael Lewis? New York Times Magazine article about Shane Battier and about how you recognized him as a guy whose contribution to a team was not shown in conventional statistics. Do you think that Shane Battier was the reason that the Heat won the championship, their acquisition of him, did he make an outsized contribution that that we wouldn?t see in the numbers?
STEFAN: And therefore, do you get credit for the Heat?s championship?
DARYL MOREY: I do think Shane was a big part of their championship, and frankly even Shane would be the first to say the biggest parts of their championship were LeBron and Dwyane and Bosh. I mean, those were the three guys that everything hinges around and the other players need to fit around those guys and I think Shane?s a fantastic fit and I was really happy for him for the title. He was just here and showing us his ring. A better person you couldn?t find to win a title. And really his talents fit perfectly with a team like the Heat that?s really close to winning. And we didn?t want to move him but he really didn?t fit the phase we were in at the time and he understood that.
STEFAN: Daryl, the point of that article was largely that it?s difficult to measure the contribution that each individual player makes to such a team sport as basketball. Do you think in the three years since Michael Lewis wrote that piece and in which you stated that someone created the box score and he should be shot, do you think we?re closer at better understanding?do you feel like you?re closer at better untangling?what makes a successful basketball player?
DARYL MOREY: Yeah, I mean we obviously invest heavily in answering that question and really answering the question, what players will get us a higher probability of winning the title? And three years down the road I don?t feel like we have all the answers, but I do think the public domain information has gotten better. A lot of the public domain stuff has been stagnated by the fact that teams are hiring away a lot of the best people that were out there. So it?s sort of, it?s an interesting thing, the development of basketball analytics and the best work is going on within the teams I think. And not just us, there are other teams that are working hard on this as well. Whereas baseball, it?s very clear the history there that the best work is always done external to the teams until recently.
STEFAN: Well, can you give us one or two examples of how you think the thinking has evolved? What do we know now that we didn?t know five years ago?
DARYL MOREY: Great question?hard for me to answer sometimes without revealing too much. You know, I think things like the evolution of understanding the value of like, the corner three-point shot, has been something that?s become pretty public domain and into the coaching world that wasn?t there five years ago.
MIKE: By the way, the huge genius insight is: It?s closer.
DARYL MOREY: Yeah, isn?t that amazing? Honestly whenever you find these insights and apply them and you explain it to someone, they?ll be like, Well, OK, thanks. So it?s better if it?s closer. Or if you put it in the hoop more than the other guy. That?s your insight. Good Daryl, thanks. How much did you work on that? You work on so many things, you don?t know what?s going to pan out. When you find the one that pans out, at the end of the day, often it turns out to be fairly obvious, to your point.
MIKE: You?ve been self-critical saying your teams are good, pretty good, they make the playoffs, but they don?t go far in the playoffs and they?re never bad enough to get a top draft pick. It?s actually not optimal strategy as a way to run a basketball team. But I think there may be a secret there and, you?re right in terms of wins and losses, but the Rockets have been really, really profitable as you?ve pursued your strategy. That?s somewhat because of you but that?s also because of how many luxury suites and things like that are going on. But is that the unremarked upon secret that allows Daryl Morey to keep doing what he?s doing?
DARYL MOREY: Well, we really don?t feel like we?ve accomplished much yet. I mean, I would say if we can turn the corner and get back to being a championship contender, and we haven?t been since Yao [Ming] and Tracy [McGrady] both went down, if we can turn that corner without having to go through a season where we?re really bad, or you know, losing more games than we win?which we haven?t done?that will be the first time that?s done. Now I don?t know if anyone should hold a parade for us because, to your point, the way that it?s been done in the past is a team, either by design or by just because it happens when you lose a star, you know, dropping down and getting a top-five pick, which is really where all these talents that you need to win the title come. We were pursuing a strategy that frankly didn?t have a lot of history, which is, stay competitive and try to turn the corner at the same time. Definitely has a degree of difficulty but, you know, we feel like we?ve got a guy to build around now in James Harden. He did happen to go in the top five in the draft which is where most of these guys go. And, usually these guys don?t move when they?re age 23. So time will tell if we?re right, if James is the guy to build around. But we really think he is, and you know we?ve still got a lot of work to do. We?ve got to add at least one more top-level talent and then fill around that. That?s the overwhelming evidence if you look to the history of the NBA as what it takes to win.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=f989a374e34e27a4a598b714ed47ab01
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Solid Advice To Help You Get Better Dental Care - Health and Fitness
Although everyone knows that dental care is important, many people are simply afraid to visit a dentist or utilize services that can help improve their teeth. Luckily, people who take the time to research the modern options in dental treatment today know that it?s easy to get good dental treatment nowadays. The below article contains lots of great dental care advice.
There are effective and natural alternatives to commercial mouthwash. Just boil a couple of cups of water and then add a pinch of salt, a splash of peroxide and just a few tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide. This is a safe and natural alternative to traditional mouthwash.
When brushing, you should start out brushing your top gums and moving downward, or vice-versa. This eliminates food debris under the gums so they are thoroughly cleaned. It is fine if you brush sideways first, but remember to brush up and down next.
Just brushing your teeth everyday is not sufficient if you want healthy teeth. You must also floss and use an effective mouthwash. Mouthwash is able to get rid of the germs that you miss when brushing, and floss is able to get rid of food and plaque between teeth. Do all three of these things.
A byproduct of good oral health is good breath. Taking good care of your gums, tongue and teeth will help prevent the buildup of a sulfur compound that is quite volatile and can cause bad breath. These are a result of broken down food and bacteria.
If you want to have poor oral health, you should smoke, chew tobacco and dip snuff. These are detrimental to your oral and general health. If you have an ulcer in your mouth, take a trip to the dentist as soon as possible.
Do you like chewing ice? If so, you should immediately quit this habit. Ice is something that can crack and chip your teeth. You may also experience pain when you have more sensitive teeth. Try chewing some sugar-free gum instead. Avoid being tempted, and do not put ice in your drinks.
Many people have a great deal of fear when thinking about visiting the dentist office. However, if these people would just spend a few hours researching all the numerous options that are available, they would realize that their fears are for naught. Anyone who wants quality dental care should feel reassured after reading the above article.
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Source: http://giorgiosantini.com/solid-advice-to-help-you-get-better-dental-care.html
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Source: http://lionel2.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/solid-advice-to-help-you-get-better-dental-care-health-and-fitness.html
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ScienceDaily: Gene News
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/health_medicine/genes.xml
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Schapiro stepping down at SEC, Walter to step in
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, will step down in December after a tumultuous four years in which she tried to rehabilitate the agency's battered reputation.
In a statement issued on Monday, Schapiro said she would leave the agency on December 14.
SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter will serve as chairman-designate on a temporary basis, the White House said. A White House official said President Barack Obama plans to nominate a full-term replacement in the near future.
Candidates rumored to be on the shortlist include Walter, Treasury official Mary Miller and SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami.
When Schapiro took over the agency in 2009, it was lambasted for lax oversight that critics said helped lead to the financial crisis and for its failure to catch now-convicted Ponzi schemers Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford.
Much of her tenure was devoted to trying to reverse the agency's reputation. She also had to fight numerous other fires -- from the 2010 flash crash and losing court battles over SEC enforcement actions, to new challenges to SEC rule makings.
Early in her tenure, Schapiro streamlined the enforcement process by making it easier for staff to issue subpoenas and created specialized units, a new tips database and a whistleblower office.
She convinced lawmakers to expand the SEC's powers and pledge a major funding boost.
In the past two years, the agency logged record enforcement actions, including 735 in the 2011 fiscal year and 734 in 2012, it said in a statement announcing Schapiro's departure.
The SEC brought major cases involving conduct that led to the financial crisis, including a record $550 million settlement in 2010 with Goldman Sachs.
The SEC has also implemented some reforms to protect markets against major swings caused by errant technology, including circuit breakers and the so-called "limit up-limit down" mechanism.
But the agency has also been bogged down with major rules the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulation law required it to write, many of which are still in process.
Business groups have challenged much of the SEC's recent rule-making efforts and won major battles, including convincing a federal appeals court to throw out the agency's "proxy access" rule, which would have empowered shareholders to nominate directors to corporate boards.
Schapiro did not say in her statement what she planned to do next.
REGISTERED INDEPENDENT
Schapiro is a registered independent who has been appointed by both Democrats and Republicans in her career. Yet she was mired in political battles at the agency and unable to get the votes needed on one of her signature issues, reform of money market funds.
She leaves much unfinished business for both Walter and whoever assumes the position on a more permanent basis.
In addition to money market reforms, the SEC is considering additional market structure safeguards and major Dodd-Frank initiatives, including a final version of the Volcker Rule.
"The SEC is stronger, and our financial system is safer and better able to serve the American people -- thanks in large part to Mary's hard work," Obama said in a statement.
Speculation had swirled for months that Schapiro would leave soon after the November election, and the announcement marks one of the first departures of Obama's financial regulation team in the vote's aftermath.
While her tenure at the SEC was marked by some controversy and her departure leaves uncertainty around major initiatives, former SEC officials said Schapiro helped revive a moribund agency.
"I think she saved the SEC, which was close to extinction when she took over," former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Sarah Lynch and Mark Felsenthal in Washington and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Andrew Hay, Tim Ahmann and Dan Grebler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sec-chairwoman-mary-schapiro-step-down-nyt-154441661--sector.html
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