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SGIA 2010: Viva Las Vegas

(January 2011) posted on Wed Jan 12, 2011

Expo broke records, generated buzz, introduced new technologies.

click an image below to view slideshow

By Gregory Sharpless

3M New Media
3M ( introduced an array of new media updates, including:
• 3M Scotchprint Wrap Film Series 1080 is available in four matte colors – black, white, silver, and military green. These pressure-activated, 3.5-mil cast films are designed to provide dimensional stability and durability without the need for an overlaminate. The films feature non-visible air-release channels and 60-in. widths.
• Scotchcal brand Changeable Graphic Film IJ36-20 now features adhesive technology designed to improve removability and pliability in colder temperatures. The film applies easily and removes without heat (some heat may be required in colder temperatures), 3M reports, and is solvent and UV-print compatible; also features a lay-flat liner.
• 3M Wall Decorating Film IJ86E is a 6-mil changeable film designed for interior wall graphics using UV inkjet and UV screen printing. Its adhesive technology provides excellent adhesion but still allows sliding and repositioning of the graphic, the company reports. IJ86E is a non-PVC film made with less solvent and designed for use with UV inks.

Durst’s Rhotex 320
The Rhotex 320 printer from Durst ( made its North American debut. Aimed at the soft-signage markets, the printer is available in 4-color standard or in an optional configuration of CMYKcm+light black and/or spot colors. The Rhotex 320 features Durst’s Quadro Array 30D AQ printhead technology, an inline ink dryer, an automated capping station that covers all printheads automatically when the sled is in “park” position to eliminate evaporation of the printer’s water-based inks, an integrated ink absorbing system to keep inks from penetrating through the media, and more. It offers P-O-P qual¬ity output at up to 775 sq ft/hr (645 sq ft/hr in High Resolution mode) and a top resolution of 600 dpi. See September 2010 for more information.

Neschen SolvoPrint Nolite 175 Media
Neschen ( made its first showing of SolvoPrint Nolite 175, a 7-mil matte polyester media for use with solvent, eco-solvent, latex, and UV-curable printers. Suitable for indoor and short-term outdoor projects, it features 100% opacity to remove shadows and image washout due to backlit conditions, edge-curl resistance, and a scratch-resistant coating. Applications include P-O-P displays, retail signage, tradeshow graphics, and display systems. Avail¬able in 36 x 98-in. rolls.

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Human Population Growth

Lecture Video: http://mediacast.ttu.edu/Mediasite/Play/52d8d4c10b014322accd92829c7c5c991d?catalog=4dc7289a-d3e0-4ae5-8fdc-5b86c027a06b

I have spent a lot of time trying to convince you that exponential growth is an unrealistic model of population growth. Interestingly, human populations have experienced exponential-like growth. How can this be?

What makes humans different from other species?

In other species per capita birth rates and per capita deaths rates are density dependent. However, as human populations have increased there has been no corresponding decline in per capita birth rates or increase in per capita death rates. What makes humans different from other species?

Humans have the ability to alter their environment so that they can avoid the density dependent effects on birth and death rates. 1) Humans have increased food production by improvements in agriculture (e.g., irrigation, fertilization, mechanized farming, genetically improved crops). 2) Humans have been able to decrease death rates by improvements in medicine and public health (things as simple as not pooping in the water you drink helps a lot!). 3) Humans have elimnated most human predators (ocassionally, someone gets killed by a shark or a mountain lion).

Where is human population growth occuring?

The rates of human population growth are not the same in all regions. Today, human populations are increasing in size much faster in developing countries (e.g., Mexico, other countries in Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia) than they are in developed countries (e.g, USA, Canda, Western Europe). The figure at the top of this post shows the patterns of population growth in developed and developing nations.

Thus we see that populations are increasing most rapidly in the countries that are least able to deal with a rapidly increasing population. See "Population Challenges-The Basics" that can be downloaded from the Population Institute's website.

Human Population Growth Problem?

There is a great deal of debate about whether increasing human populations are a problem or not, and if they are what should be done about it. Unfortunately, we don't have time to discuss this issue in very much detail in class. My personal opinion is that we have too many people consuming too many resources and the last thing that we need are billions more people living on the planet. This is an issue that I am always intersted in talking more about if you would like to chat.

Further Reading

The section on Human Population Growth in your textbook is quite good.

Also see the article "Human Population Explosion" from the EoE.

Both of these contain a good discussion of the "demographic transition".

Really Cool Video

Here is a link to a YouTube video on "World Population" The first minute and a half or so is a little boring, so you can skip over it if you wish. However, I think the animation showing when and where human population growth has been occuring is really cool.

Powerpoint Presentation

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- describe patterns of human population growth in developed and developing nations

- discuss some reasons why the pattern of population growth in humans is so different from that in other species

- describe the demographic transition

- discuss their own personal view of human population growth.

Past Test Questions (answers at bottom of post)

1. In developing countries, why have per capita birth rates not decreased as human populations have increased in size?
(a) because we have increased rates of food production
(b) because of the improvements in education of women
(c) because of improvements in medical care
(d) a and c
(e) a, b, and c

2. Why do some people consider the high growth rates of human populations in developing countries to be of concern?
(a) because many people are born into conditions that do not provide them enough food
(b) because many people are born into conditions without clean water and adequate sanitation
(c) because increasing population sizes have led to increasing habitat destruction
(d) a, b, and c
(e) none of the above

answers- 1.d, 2.d

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BioShock Wiki

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Copyright This image was taken from the BioShock video game series or from websites created and owned by 2K Games, the copyright of which is held by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the image are proprietary to Take-Two Interactive and its subsidiaries.

The use of images to illustrate articles concerning the subject of the images in question is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law, as such display does not significantly impede the right of the copyright holder to sell the copyrighted material and is not being used to generate profit in this context.

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  • Leo Hartwig

    Leo Hartwig is a citizen of Rapture and one of the scientists who worked on the Plasmid program...

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BioShock Wiki

aka Matt

159 Edits since joining this wiki
October 29, 2012
  • I live in the End of the World
  • I was born on June 22
  • My occupation is Gaming, Art, Youtube, Wiki Editing
  • I am a man
  • Repain99

    Chat vs. Talk Page

    March 15, 2013 by Repain99

    Chat. It is a good way for people on wikis like this one that are active, to have a conversations about anything. But that is what this Wiki is missing. We most likely need a chat so that it my be easier for people to communicate than doing a talk page. As many other people do, I like instant messaging people. Not having a conversation with someone where I have to refresh the page every five seconds. Just a thought though. Please tell me what you think.

    Read more >
  • Repain99

    Bioshock 2 multiplayer

    December 5, 2012 by Repain99

    Many people say that Bioshock 2 is one really awesome game. I agree with them on that part. Most people get into the nature of Bioshock. How it is constructed, the people you fight, weapons, Rapture in general is one major place that will never be forgotten. One thing I cannot stand is to hear people bang up the multiplayer like it is the worst ever.

    The multi isnt bad actually, you just have to get into it. Leveling up is everything in it, besides the fact that you should stay alive and get kills. People say that it is unbalanced, as if its like everyone is stronger than you, but the makers fixed that with leveling up. Of course it is everything, so when you get killed, your'e going to get ADAM to level you up. Even if you died 100s of tim…

    Read more >

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Environmental Safety

Chemical & environmentally Sustainable Bangladesh

Knitwear industry: BKMEA Initiative

It is estimated that adopting sustainable business practices to manufacture goods in conformity with the natural environment will surely pave the way to the future of Bangladeshapparel industry in the 21st century. The entrepreneurs should, therefore, think of eco-friendly factories in their business planning and applications and BKMEA is asserting more emphasis on these issues to be exerted in appropriate manner.

Bangladesh has gone long forward in becoming a leader in social and economic arena, but in regards to environmental and chemical sustainability for a sound industrial atmosphere, weshould focus on thriving towards center of excellence.Social compliance has already been established as industrial norms, but environmental and chemical sustainability is going to be a core component of sustainable process in industrial management in the days to come in Bangladesh. So, BKMEA is now advocating aChemical & environmentally sustainable Bangladesh Knitwear industry. Moreover, implementing a sustainable program under safety mechanism is a cost-effective decision for a company.BKMEA understands the practicality of the issues and has pressed member factories home to ensure such sustainable safety mechanism across their factory levels for a secure industry belt.

The environmental sustainability is focused on social responsibility and being good stewards of the products the factories produce and the services they provide. “If you’re doing safety effectively in a business world, it’s going to relate to fewer schedule interruptions, which will minimize your costs,” says Mark Steinhofer, facilities lead safety advisor in Safety Management Group’s owner services team. BKMEA believes in the same ethos and has efficiently managed to make the member factories agree to come into the terms with environmental sustainability at their factories. Now BKMEA members are more focused on environmental issues than before!

We also think alternative to save our eco-system for the greater interest of the mankind. At this juncture, eco-friendly factory or green factory can be a mainstream solution by which we could reduce co2 emission in energy production and enhance green efficiency of products.

It is no denying the fact that Environmental sustainability forces businesses to look beyond making short term gains and at the long term impact they are having on the natural world. Therefore, it becomes necessary to consider not only the immediate impact that isimposed on the environment, but the long term implications as well. For example, when manufacturing a product, a factory needs to look at the environmental impact of the products’ entire lifecycle-- from development to disposal before finalizing the designs. It becomes evident that those who fail to comply with the environment issue cannot sustain in business. Realizing this fact the new factory entrepreneurs are very much onto eco-friendly production, which clearly depicts the inner working and the continuous effectiveness of the environmental awareness.

BKMEA believes in educating the existing factory manpower about the sustainability of environment and chemical management. BKMEA has taken many timely initiatives not only to educate them, but alsoto makesure that the activitiesare properly maintained. Numerous publications on the issues of environment and chemical sustainability and safety management have been published regularly to update its member factories. Nosustainable development lingers last without training-based education along with the practical demonstration that assists the factories to have better understanding ofenvironmental and chemical safety issues.BKMEA disseminatesenvironmental knowledge from workers level to top level management in accordance to their role and responsibilities.

BKMEA has started providing consultancy servicesto its member factories on chemical management system, ETP and cleaner production management (CPM). After all, it is our responsibility to understand these interactions and make decisions as a society to protect the environment and also sustain human progress.

Interactions between Industry, Society, and the Environment
Environmental considerations in the manufacturing life cycle :

Inputs and Outputs in the Various Stages of the Product Manufacturing Life Cycle

To pace with the demand of today’s reality in apparel sector, BKMEAhas been in effort tointroduce Chemical safety management specially Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemical (ZDHC), Globally Harmonize System (GHS), Restricted Substance List (RSL) into the factories and reduce carbon emission with a view to promote environment-friendly green concepts among entrepreneurs. We also motivate them to adopt energy-efficient technologies and resource-efficient production technologies.

Our mission is to make the Bangladesh Knitwear industry a chemically and environmentally sustainable sector through the passage of time, which must be green, sound, eco-friendly at the same time!


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Manny Pacquiao Doesn’t Agree With President Obama Stance of Gay Marriage

The Bible says a lot of things.

You know one thing that it says?

“Don’t use the skin of the pig”

So, does that mean we should outlaw football???

I don’t knock anyone’s religion, but any religion can manipulate the Bible or any book to fit their needs. So, while I respect Manny Pacquiao’s opinion, his reasoning is flawed.

“God’s words first … obey God’s law first before considering the laws of man,” Pacquiao said in response to Obama’s support of gay marriage.

“God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other,” he told

“It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”

I am sure if I looked hard enough I can find some things in the Bible that Pacquiao is violating on a daily basis. It is all in the interpretation.  I am 99% sure Bob Arum is not a Holy Man, but he is Pacquiao’s boss.

Once again your beliefs are your beliefs, I don’t look at Manny Pacquiao any differently, but you need a better argument than it is in the Bible.

H/T Larry Brown Sports

  1. I’m proud of him for being bold enough to stand up for his beliefs and it makes me like him even more.

    And Robert, it doesn’t make any sense for you to say that he needs a better argument than what’s in the Bible. Marriage is God’s design so what better source than the Bible? SMH…

    I guess it’s easier to debunk what you don’t know (or understand) and pull Bible quotes out of context.

    • I agree with Manny also. However, people should give a reasonable explanation to any belief they stand on besides, “It’s in the Bible.” some people don’t know the Bible. Also, Manny has tattoos which the Bible outlaws, and most Christians congregate on Sunday rather than Saturday.

    • Marriage is in Gods design…. Ya unless you are married by a secular justice of the peace bro. I can go to the town hall and be married with no religion involved. So why can’t others?

  2. Manny should stick to knocking people out. What does a gay couple in L.A do for you living in Tampa? Nothing. The sanctity of marriage argument was lost when half (even of Christians) marriages end in divorce.

Comments are closed.


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06/01/2017 17:29
The Stars travel east to Usk for their first league encounter of the New Year

The Stars rekindle their rivalry against Usk on 7 January 2017. This is the Stars first game of the New Year after a nice couple of weeks rest. Usk were promoted last season so the 2 teams haven't met for a number of seasons. All the past games have been very competitive however the Stars have not got a very good record at Usks ground only winning one out of the last three games back on 2 April 2011. The Stars players and coaches are confident that they can reverse this trend. The kick off is at 2:30 and the Stars would look as many supporters as possible to travel and support the boys.....

View all News »

Blackwood Stars RFC @BlackwoodStars
04/02/2017 09:37:25
The weather is at it again... another game called off due to a libanus being water logged ☔

Blackwood Stars RFC @BlackwoodStars
28/01/2017 16:01:50
Final score 21-29 good win for the stars

Blackwood Stars RFC @BlackwoodStars
28/01/2017 16:00:44
Try llan 18-29

Club Events:

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BlazBlue Wiki

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Orlando Magic

Free Agency 2012: Dwight Howard Hurts Magic's Leverage with Every Flip-Flop

Ethan Sherwood StraussNBA Lead WriterJuly 1, 2012

Unlike a lot of people, I don't see why the Orlando Magic should be Dwight Howard's concern. Players do not get bonus points for helping their former teams on the way out.

If you leave a franchise, why not cripple it? Any other team is your ostensible competition. Michael Jordan was lauded for wanting to beat everyone

The problem for Dwight Howard is that you can't decide on whether or not he actually wants to leave. In the meantime, he's making it difficult for his (perhaps) future team to do anything productive.

The recent (via ESPN) buzz is that Howard is now requesting a trade to Brooklyn, a team that would have gladly signed the big man had Dwight not opted in for another Magic year last trade deadline.

And then there's this, from the same Chris Broussard piece:

"He feels the Magic blackmailed him into signing the 'opt-in' clause. Howard shared his feelings of being blackmailed by the Magic with the NBA Players Association last week, sources said. He—either himself or through his representatives—approached the union wondering if he might have a legal complaint against the club."

Well, this story is certainly staying ridiculous. This is a tough task for new Orlando GM Rob Hennigan. Dwight's fickle nature is on full display to everybody, which dims the prospect of trading him. If you deal a guy with one year left on the contract, the recipient would at least like to think that a re-signing route might be easy. Howard is flaunting the fact that he makes it hell on teams until the ink dries.

There's also the matter of available options. Brooklyn is signing guys—guys Orlando might not want to trade for. Per ESPN, the Nets are inking Gerald Wallace and pursuing a trade for Joe Johnson (via NESN). These would both be hefty contracts that Hennigan might not want to take on.

And if Hennigan doesn't want any of those deals? Then what are the options, realistically? Howard has poisoned the market, and the only Orlando leverage is that they might trade him to a renter, a scenario that Dwight seems bizarrely scared of.

Meanwhile, in the background, Brooklyn is spending the kind of money that would eliminate them from the Dwight sweepstakes when Howard's deal is up next year. Don't be surprised if these two parties are stuck in this terrible marriage going forward.

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College Basketball

College Basketball Coaches on the Hot Seat After 2013-14 Season

Scott HenryFeatured ColumnistApril 11, 2014

College Basketball Coaches on the Hot Seat After 2013-14 Season

1 of 9

    Eric Francis/Getty Images

    The college basketball coaching carousel kicks into gear during March and April, and the average season sees 30 to 50 jobs come open. Coaches retire, migrate to other positions or are simply dropped unceremoniously onto the unemployment line.

    We can see many of the firings coming long before they happen, as win-loss records head south, and players scatter in all directions. Fan concern turns to fan indignation, boosters begin cutting back on their support of the program and eventually a change needs to be made.

    Some, such as Stanford's Johnny Dawkins or Tennessee's Cuonzo Martin, manage to pull themselves off the canvas with deep NCAA tournament runs. These eight coaches, however, may not be able to bank on that kind of fortune in 2015.

    Not all of these coaches are likely to be out of a job this time next year, but all should have varying degrees of concern about their current status.

Tom Crean, Indiana

2 of 9

    Andy Lyons/Getty Images

    Over the past two years, Indiana has signed seven recruits ranked among ESPN's top 100 in their respective classes. How many still remain on the Hoosier roster?

    While it's perfectly understandable for Noah Vonleh to leave after one season when he's expected to be an NBA lottery selection, other departures are causing more head scratching. Coach Tom Crean has seen four players other than Vonleh bolt during this offseason.

    Crean was unable to develop Indiana natives Austin Etherington and Jeremy Hollowell into consistent contributors for the Hoosiers. Walk-ons Jonny Marlin and Joe Fagan were never expected to be stars; they simply joined the program to keep playing basketball. Marlin left a scholarship at IPFW to pay his own way at IU, but any expectations of playing time were unreasonable.

    This is not even mentioning touted forward Luke Fischer, who bolted Indiana after playing in 13 games.

    Rising junior Yogi Ferrell will be a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate in 2014-15, while Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson showed flashes during their freshman campaigns. Crean continues to pull in highly rated recruits, as scorers James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson also join the Hoosiers this fall.

    With talented recruiting classes, however, expectations don't abate. Indiana failed to even make the NIT this season. IU athletic director Fred Glass sealed Crean's fourth season of six without postseason basketball when he said, "We're Indiana. We don't play in the CBI."

    Glass is correct in his assessment that the CBI should be beneath Indiana, and that a typical Hoosiers season should always end in the NCAA tournament. Crean has only gotten IU there twice, and after the first time, the school was excessively happy about a Sweet 16 berth.

    Indiana's standards are dipping. Indiana high school stars are leaving, and even walk-ons are bolting for some reason. Another season outside the field of 68 should have Crean looking over his shoulder.

Anthony Grant, Alabama

3 of 9

    Butch Dill

    The 2013-14 season was the first losing campaign of Alabama coach Anthony Grant's career. For that reason, he deserved the benefit of the doubt and one more shot next year. Athletic director Bill Battle gave him both in a lengthy press release last month.

    Unfortunately, athletic directors don't issue press releases defending their coaches unless there's something to defend the coach from. Alabama's no Indiana or Kentucky in terms of basketball tradition, but it should at least be able to reach the NCAA tournament from a watered-down SEC.

    Grant's biggest on-court accomplishment aside from the Crimson Tide's 2012 NCAA bid has been a 7-3 record against archrival Auburn. Over the last two years, even that series has been even, and Auburn has raised the stakes.

    New Tigers coach Bruce Pearl has been a thorn in Alabama's side dating all the way back to the 2005 NCAA tournament, when his Wisconsin-Milwaukee team bounced the Tide in the first round. The ex-Tennessee coach's boundless energy has already resurrected one football-mad school's moribund hoops program, and it ought not be surprising to see him do something similar at Auburn.

    Pearl has spent the past three years unintentionally plaguing his Tennessee successor Cuonzo Martin, a man with a personality very similar to Grant's. Much like Tennessee fans, Alabama fans will need to see results to keep backing their man in the face of such a force of nature.

    Now that he's at Auburn, Pearl will be tormenting Grant very intentionally.

Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss

4 of 9

    John Bazemore

    Mississippi's basketball tradition is thin enough to read a newspaper through, and it's for that reason that Andy Kennedy's record in Oxford can't be discounted too readily.

    The Rebels haven't had a losing season in eight years under Kennedy, the longest such streak in program history. However, the previous record string of winning seasons—six, from 1996-2002—boasted five of the school's seven NCAA tournament trips and three of its four victories.

    Kennedy's run has produced exactly one tournament win in one trip. To even earn that, he had to ride scatter-gunning guard Marshall Henderson's shooting and woofing to the school's first SEC tournament title since 1981.

    In 2013-14, Henderson's antics were somewhat subdued after Kennedy hit him with a three-game suspension that included the first two SEC games. Ole Miss' success was similarly quieted, falling short of 20 wins for the first time in five seasons and missing the postseason completely for only the second time in Kennedy's tenure.

    “Last year we broke through and we hoped that was the standard by which we could continue to grow,” Kennedy said to Hugh Kellenberger of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger before the SEC tournament. “We haven’t been able to get that back based on some of our guys playing to the potential that I think is there.”

    Players failing to rise to their potential has become a recurring theme at Ole Miss. It's rare that a major-conference coach can survive for eight years with only one tournament bid to show for it. How much slack will Kennedy receive if the Rebels can't adapt to the post-Henderson era?

Steve Masiello, Manhattan

5 of 9

    Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

    If life had worked out well for Steve Masiello, he'd be finalizing his coaching staff at South Florida by now. Instead, he has to go to classes at Kentucky to keep the job at Manhattan that he was trying to leave.

    Masiello was set to become USF's new coach until a background check discovered that he had never been awarded a degree from Kentucky, as his resume stated. Luckily for him, a statement released by Manhattan's administration wrote off Masiello's error as "poor judgment" rather than an intentional misrepresentation.

    Manhattan has placed Masiello on unpaid leave until he officially finishes his degree at Kentucky with associate head coach Matt Grady running the program on an interim basis.

    On the court, the Jaspers still return some talent next season, but all three double-digit scorers from the 2013-14 team graduate. Manhattan should still be a contender in the MAAC, but if they aren't, Masiello's leash may have been substantially shortened by the CV fiasco.

Matt Painter, Purdue

6 of 9

    Purdue staggered to its second straight losing season under Matt Painter in 2013-14, and it's an unfamiliar sensation in West Lafayette, Ind.

    After all, the last time the Boilermakers finished under .500 in successive seasons was the '04-'05 and '05-'06 campaigns, Gene Keady's final year as Purdue coach and Painter's first. Those were the first back-to-back losing seasons at Purdue since the early 1950s.

    While Purdue's recruiting classes have been well-regardedRivals ranked the 2012 class 20th in the nation and last season's 24thresults have not justified the optimism. The centerpieces of 2012's crop, center A.J. Hammons and point guard Ronnie Johnson, have both offered only flashes of potential.

    Now, Hammons is pondering a jump to the NBA and Johnson is transferring. Johnson blamed a poor fit in Painter's system and "a lot of subbing" when he explained his decision to Kyle Neddenriep of the Indianapolis Star. Considering Johnson started 59 games and played 30 minutes a night, the explanation seems shaky at best.

    Painter has seen five other players transfer out that would have been part of his last two teams. Between the underachieving and the attrition, Purdue could be left with only four experienced scholarship players next season.

    After the season-ending loss to Northwestern, which dropped the Boilers into last place in the Big Ten, Painter took full responsibility for the current state of the program. As reported by the Big Ten Network, Painter said:

    We have to recruit a more unselfish player, we have to recruit a tougher player. We have some of those guys in our program, some guys who don't. And that's my fault. This isn't a school district, I recruited these guys.

    Painter also once recruited a class containing Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, who formed the nucleus of five straight NCAA tournament teams. If the 2014 classranked 28th by Rivalscan't help turn results around, Painter's ties to his alma mater could become tenuous at best.

Oliver Purnell, DePaul

7 of 9

    John Minchillo

    Everywhere Oliver Purnell has coached, he's fixed up programs that had fallen into disrepair. Radford, Old Dominion, Dayton, ClemsonPurnell left all four in better shape than he found them.

    The same could be said about DePaul, but that's a very low bar to reach. Purnell has won 12 games in two of his last three seasons, a mark that the Blue Demons hadn't reached since winning 20 in 2006-07. Still, it's been two decades since DePaul was a perennial tournament team and three since it was making Final Four runs, and progress has been halting at best.

    After four seasons, Purnell's record stands at 42-85 with only faint glimmers of improvement. Freshman Billy Garrett Jr. was named this season's Big East Rookie of the Year with teammate Tommy Hamilton IV joining him on the All-Rookie team.

    DePaul has an opportunity to make headway in the new, smaller Big East, but that improvement needs to come soon. Purnell will return for the fifth year of his seven-year contract, and escaping a seventh straight year with at least a share of last place would qualify as progress.

    A new arena is set to open in Chicago's South Loop in 2016, but can Purnell survive to lead the first team onto its floor?

Craig Robinson, Oregon State

8 of 9

    Ethan Miller/Getty Images

    Every piece written on Oregon State coach Craig Robinson is obligated to mention that he's President Obama's brother-in-law. That's partially Robinson's own fault, because he has yet to snap the Beavers' 24-year NCAA tournament drought.

    In six seasons, only one of Robinson's teams has finished above .500. The 2013-14 Beavers looked bound for another ignominious stagger to the finish after an early-season loss to Coppin State and an 0-2 start in Pac-12 play.

    A funny thing happened from there, however. OSU split its 16 remaining conference games, including victories over eventual NCAA tournament teams Stanford, Oregon, UCLA and Arizona State. That run of form made for a nice story, until the Beavers squandered all that good will in a CBI loss to Radford.

    Considering that Robinson inherited a 6-25 team and improved it to 18-18with a CBI championship, no lessin his debut season, he's shown he can make immediate progress. As this longform piece from Buzzfeed's Joel Anderson discusses, he's become the true mentor to some of his players that all coaches claim to be.

    What he hasn't shown is that he can push a team into the top half of the Pac-12 standings and into the big dance. At this point, it's anyone's guess which will last longer: Robinson's stay in Corvallis or his sister's residence in the White House.

Mark Turgeon, Maryland

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    Grant Halverson/Getty Images

    The last time Maryland went four years without reaching the NCAA tournament was during the transition from Bob Wade's disastrous tenure to a new coach named Gary Williams. That drought ended more than two decades ago.

    Mark Turgeon's first three years have seen no invitations to March Madness, and they join with Williams' final season to form that dreaded four-year famine.

    The class of incoming Terrapin freshmen is ranked ninth in the country by Rivals and includes Virginia guard Melo Trimble, Maryland's first McDonald's All-American since Mike Jones in 2003. That's the good news.

    Maryland's moving to the Big Ten in 2014. That's the bad news.

    Good news: Several Big Ten powersMichigan State, Michigan, Ohio State chief among themwill be dealing with major roster change next season.

    Bad news: Maryland lost the top recruits from each of its last three classesNick Faust (2011), Shaquille Cleare (2012) and Roddy Peters (2013)to transfer earlier this week.

    Good news: Turgeon now has two open scholarships to fill with veteran transfers.

    More good news: The Terps are the only team discussed in this slideshow projected into next season's tournament field by Joe Lunardi's way-too-early 2015 Bracketology.

    There's a lot of good news here. But if the returning players can't improve enough to truly show the newcomers how this college game works, and the Terps are once again left out on Selection Sunday, all this optimism will become an albatross very quickly.

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Ohio State Football

Ohio State Football: Early Game-by-Game Prediction for the 2014 Season

David RegimbalFeatured ColumnistMay 26, 2014

Ohio State Football: Early Game-by-Game Prediction for the 2014 Season

1 of 13

    Patrick Smith/Getty Images

    Ohio State hasn't lost a regular-season game since 2011, when Luke Fickell and the Buckeyes fell to Michigan in the Big House, 40-34. Since then, Urban Meyer has led the Buckeyes to 24 consecutive regular-season victories. Back-to-back postseason losses, though, linger with Ohio State as the 2014 season approaches.

    How far will the Buckeyes' regular-season streak go this season? Can they go 3-of-3 in perfect regular seasons under Meyer?

    Here's an early game-by-game prediction for Ohio State's 2014 season.

2 of 13

    Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

    Ohio State is set to open the season in Baltimore against Navy and its vaunted triple-option offense. This is the second of a two-game series that started in 2009, when the Midshipmen invaded Columbus and nearly knocked off the Buckeyes with a fourth-quarter rally.

    Things shouldn't be as close this time around.

    The Buckeyes will need a quarter to adjust to Navy's option attack, but once they do, they'll take over. Ohio State will turn a 14-7 game into a three-touchdown lead by halftime before cruising to the 21-point victory.

    Braxton Miller will throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns and run for 75 and another score in the easy win.

    Ohio State 41, Navy 20

Virginia Tech

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    USA TODAY Sports

    Ohio State's home opener will be a much tougher game. The Buckeyes will host Frank Beamer and the Virginia Tech Hokies under the lights in the 'Shoe.

    Ohio State is a perfect 3-0 in home night games under Urban Meyer, and it will have to work very hard to keep that streak alive.

    An improved Buckeyes defense will get the job done, though.

    Joey Bosa will have his best game as a Buckeye, recording three sacks as Ohio State gives up just 10 points to the Virginia Tech offense. The Hokies will intercept a Braxton Miller pass and return it for a touchdown to cut Ohio State's lead to four, but a late scoring drive from the Buckeyes in the fourth quarter will ice the game.

    Ohio State 28, Virginia Tech 17

Kent State

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    Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

    The first real snoozer of the season will take place when the Buckeyes host Kent State in Week 3. Without Dri Archer to fuel their offense, the Golden Flashes will have no luck moving the ball against Ohio State's defense.

    On the other side of the ball, the Buckeyes will do what they want. Miller will show off his arm and throw for 290 yards in just three quarters of action. Ezekiel Elliott will set a career high, rushing for 160 yards while adding three scores as the Buckeyes roll to a third straight victory.

    Ohio State 59, Kent State 10

5 of 13

    Al Behrman/Associated Press

    The Buckeyes will want to look forward to their conference slate, but a feisty Cincinnati team will keep them locked in.

    The Bearcats will be looking to build off the momentum they gained last year in Tommy Tuberville's first year, when they won nine games and nearly knocked off Louisville in the season finale. Cincinnati will hang tough early, trailing 17-14 late into the second quarter. That's when the Buckeyes will turn it on, scoring two quick touchdowns before intermission.

    Running back Hosey Williams will provide a bit of a boost in the second half, but Meyer and Ohio State's offense will be too much for Cincinnati to handle. The Buckeyes will enter Big Ten play with a perfect record.

    Ohio State 41, Cincinnati 24

6 of 13

    Nick Wass/Associated Press

    Will this be the game in which Ohio State really feels the impact of missing out on Stefon Diggs?

    The elite playmaker was one of Urban Meyer's top recruiting targets when he took over at Ohio State, but Diggsthen a 5-star prospect, according to 247 Sportschose to play for Maryland.

    Now a junior, Diggs is expected to pace the Maryland offense. He'll be geared up to play for Maryland's first Big Ten game at home, but he won't be able to beat the Buckeyes single-handedly.

    Ohio State's young offensive line will play its best game as the offense overmatches the Terrapins defense. The defense will also surge as the Buckeyes coast to an easy win to open Big Ten play.

    Ohio State 42, Maryland 17

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    John Raoux/Associated Press

    Back at home to face the Big Ten's other new team, Ohio State and Rutgers will square off after a bye week.

    After showing some early rust, Meyer and the Buckeyes will continue to roll the way they did against Maryland.

    The offensive line will flex its muscle as it powers the offense to 325 rushing yards. Miller will only play two-and-a-half quarters and will be pulled when the Buckeyes take a 42-13 lead midway through the third.

    Ohio State 52, Rutgers 16

Penn State

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    Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

    This time around, there will be no rout.

    Ohio State gave Penn State a historic beatdown last season, crushing the Nittany Lions 63-14 in a prime-time game at the 'Shoe.

    Penn State will come out hot under the lights in Happy Valley, scoring the game's first 10 points. Christian Hackenberg will dissect the Buckeyes' new-look secondary early as the home crowd turns into an inferno of electricity.

    The Buckeyes will calm down in the second quarter, relying on the offensive line and the steady running game that surged the previous two games.

    Ohio State will break a 17-17 halftime tie early in the third quarter, and the two teams will go back and forth until Penn State knots it up at 27 late in the fourth quarter.

    With two-and-a-half minutes left, Miller will lead the Buckeyes down the field with his arm, completing five of his six passes and converting a key third down at midfield with his legs. He'll connect with Devin Smith for the go-ahead touchdown.

    Ohio State 34, Penn State 27

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    USA TODAY Sports

    The Buckeyes will get back-to-back night games, but this one against Illinois at home will be much easier than the week before.

    Dontre Wilson will steal the show.

    The speedy playmaker will be having a solid season up to this point, averaging 95 total yards of offense per game, but he'll break out against the Illini. He'll catch eight balls for 125 yards and a score while also breaking out two long runs—both for touchdowns—as he finishes the day with 210 total yards of offense.

    Ohio State's defense will be solid all day, but a late touchdown against the second-team unit will make the score a bit more respectable.

    Following the win, Ohio State will ascend to No. 2 in the polls behind top-ranked Florida State.

    Ohio State 56, Illinois 20

Michigan State

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    USA TODAY Sports

    The game Ohio State has been looking forward to all season won't go the way the Buckeyes want it to.

    Away from home in the unfriendly confines of Spartan Stadium, Michigan State will best the Buckeyes again.

    This game will play out much like the Big Ten title game did last year. The Spartans, who dropped two games early as the defense rebuilt, will be operating at a high level by November.

    Miller will have his worst game of the season, completing just 12-of-22 passes for 180 yards. Elliott and the Buckeyes rushing attack won't have the same success Carlos Hyde did last year as the Spartans hold tough in front of the home crowd.

    Noah Spence will force and recover a fumble deep in Michigan State territory, and the offense will capitalize to tie the game at 24 midway through the fourth quarter. However, a late Michigan State drive, keyed by Connor Cook and the Spartans' pass offense, will get them set up for the game-winning field goal.

    Michigan State 27, Ohio State 24

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    USA TODAY Sports

    Dragging from the first loss of the season and facing a tough Minnesota team, Ohio State will come out listless  on the road against the Gophers.

    Running back David Cobb and the Gophers offense will keep Miller on the sideline as they build a 9-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

    That's when Ohio State will finally wake up.

    The Buckeyes will rattle off two straight touchdown drives to take a 14-9 lead into halftime, and after the break, they'll add on another score to take complete control.

    Minnesota will answer with a touchdown drive of its own, but the Buckeyes will close things out by scoring the game's final 17 points.

    Ohio State 38, Minnesota 16

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    USA TODAY Sports

    For the third straight year, Ohio State will have a hard time containing Shane Wynn.

    For the third straight year, it won't matter.

    The speedy receiver from Glenville High School—Ohio State's biggest instate recruiting pipeline—will catch seven passes for 130 yards and two scores against the Buckeyes. But that will be the highlight of the day for the Hoosiers, who will give up 340 rushing yards to Ohio State.

    Miller will account for 150 of those yards, as well as three rushing touchdowns. Dontre Wilson will return a kickoff for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to squash any hope of an Indiana comeback.

    Ohio State 45, Indiana 20

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    USA TODAY Sports

    The Game.

    Brady Hoke will bring his Michigan team into Columbus with a 9-2 record, hoping for the first 10-win season since his first year with the Wolverines.

    He'll have to wait until the bowl game for win No. 10.

    The Buckeyes will race out to an early 17-3 lead that will ignite the home crowd. Michigan will respond with its first touchdown of the game, but Dontre Wilson will take a screen pass 65 yards to the house just before halftime.

    The two teams will trade touchdowns to start the second half. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Braxton Miller will give Ohio State a 38-17 lead with a 35-yard touchdown run.

    With the game essentially decided, the Wolverines will score 10 points on their last two drives before Meyer and the Buckeyes kill the clock.

    After the game, Penn State will top Michigan State in a 27-23 battle. The Spartans' loss will send Ohio State to the Big Ten title game against Wisconsin.

    Ohio State 38, Michigan 27

    All stats via NCAA.com. All scheduling info via Ohio State's official website.

    David Regimbal is the lead Ohio State football writer for Bleacher Report.
    Follow him on Twitter @davidreg412.

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What Do Sports Mean To The United States?

Micah SecorCorrespondent IJuly 26, 2008

With the Summer Games fast approaching in Beijing, athletes from hundreds of countries will compete in various competitions for gold medals and national pride.

But everyone in America has read plenty on the Olympics through the SI and ESPN magazines, as the hype continues to build.

Don't worry, I'm not going to try to paraphrase half of the Olympic Preview in the SI magazine and post it in this article, like many other writers on Bleacher Report and pretend that I'm something else when it comes to covering the Olympics.

It's a question that arose in my mind when I was in France for the last month.

You could not drive by a couple of streets without seeing a soccer field, and rightfully so.

Soccer is the iconic sport that dominates France, and it holds a deep meaning to the people.

So I began to wonder, What do sports mean to the United States as a whole?

While pondering this simple yet profound question, I had the opportunity to play a couple of baseball games with a team in one of the few city baseball leagues in France.

I greatly enjoyed myself as I played a new style of baseball in France with players who worked their tails off.

You may be laughing right now as you are thinking, "Baseball in France, you've got to be joking me."

That's what I thought when I stepped on the field, but I was quickly proven wrong.

What these ballplayers lacked in talent, they made up for it with hustle and determination.

I came away impressed and enjoyed my time there.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that sports are a significant part of American culture, and they should not be taken for granted. It is a privilege to be able to play sports and enjoy them.

I went on to Paris and gawked at the Eiffel Tower with millions of other tourists there and took in the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame.

For the record, people in America bemoan the gas prices; in France, it costs over $10 a gallon! Don't even get me started on the food prices.

It was then on to Normandy, where I saw the beaches where the Allied soldiers mounted one of the largest invasions in Modern history on D-Day, and the cemetery honoring the soldiers who laid down their life for America.

It was a sobering experience, as over 27,000 American soldiers died in the Normandy invasion.

Next time you complain over some petty little issue and think its not fair, remember that those soldiers died so that you could have freedom in America today.

This includes the freedom to play and enjoy sports.

Sports allow us to decompress and relax after a hard day at work.

In the case of many employed Americans with desk jobs, sports help pass the time at work.

Year after year, millions of fans around the country root for their teams, hoping for that elusive Championship for their beloved club.

Only one lucky team will be left standing, causing the rabid fan base to erupt into a state of euphoria and create lasting memories.

There is the popular trifecta of sports in America that garner the bulk of the attention, football, baseball, and basketball that correspond through the cycle of seasons.

Hands down, football is the most popular. Ask any American and they will say the same thing; it just doesn't get any better than a quality football game on Saturday and Sunday.

The College Football or NFL which-is-better debate can be saved for another day. In my mind, they're both great.

For athletes around America, sports is an escape from the stress of life. The hope of playing professional sports one day captures the minds of all boys.

There are two types of athletes in America: Casual and serious.

Casual athletes play occasionally for fun with their friends at the park and join the basketball team at school to be with their best friends. Rest assured, casual athletes definitely know how to have a good time.

On the other hand are the serious athletes. They use the small hope of playing professionally and their love for the game to fuel them through rigorous training, day after day, week after week, until the long-awaited season arrives. They finally have a platform where their hard work pays off, and they can finally prove themselves.

For me, there is no set favorite sport to watch; I enjoy each sport that comes along with the seasons.

So, next time you relax on the couch, pop open an ice-cold can of soda or beer, dig into the buffalo wings and chips and enjoy a Sunday afternoon football game, take a moment to appreciate the fact that sports are an essential part of our country that everyone can partake of and enjoy.

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FIFA World Cup

World Cup 2018 Announcement: Why Are You Surprised, England?

Don't worry boys, it's not your fault
Don't worry boys, it's not your faultMichael Regan/Getty Images
Karen PatelCorrespondent IDecember 3, 2010

On Thursday, the announcement that World Cup 2018 was to be held in Russia and not England was greeted with disbelief, outrage and a great deal of animosity by most English people who cared.

I, on the other hand, wasn't really that bothered or surprised.

Maybe it's because, for a while now, my contempt for top-flight football is growing—England's poor showing in the World Cup, the downward spiral of my club Liverpool FC, the growing influence of billionaire sugar daddies or players that are as admirable as Pete Doherty in the role model stakes. The night before the announcement Aston Villa and Birmingham City fans indulged in their ritual handbags (I was almost caught up in such a fracas in last month's derby) so is it really a surprise?

It's no use berating the Russians and comparing their stadiums and infrastructure to ours; because to be honest, Russia could do with the World Cup, it will do the country good. And why are people so angry about it? Has everyone forgotten that we have the Olympics coming here in eighteen months' time? For me, that is a bigger deal.

In my opinion, England doesn't deserve to host the World Cup in 2018.  English football is swallowing itself up, and I can only hope that something like losing the bid will be the kick up the backside it needs, because the game isn't in the best state at the moment.  Let me lay it all out on the table—you'll find it's as ugly as the pig brain and fish eye buffet on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!.

In league terms, the money that commercialised top-flight football and reinvigorated the sport is now turning into a poison infiltrating every club.  At one end of the scale you have the teams that don’t have much money and are unable to compete, whilst at the other end Manchester City and Chelsea throw millions around to buy success, which has inflated the market to new heights of ridiculousness. Even Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has to search the bargain basement for gems as opposed to splashing out.

Speaking of Manchester United, they are in an awful lot of trouble off the field at the moment.  The performance of the team seems to be papering over the cracks successfully for now, but one can’t help but think that United will "do a Liverpool" and end up in a club-threatening ownership struggle.  Then what will the Premier League do when its most successful and commercially popular club is in the gutter?

I snooped around a few Liverpool FC message boards at the time of their ownership battle/joke/saga, and the majority of posts were about legalities, finance, injunctions, administration, high court battles and ownership. The fans were so embroiled in the future of their club’s very existence that they forgot about the happenings on the pitch.

That’s not what football is supposed to be about.

Fans are supposed to turn up to the game and support their team without having to worry about whether their club will exist the next day.

At the other end of the scale are Chelsea and Manchester City, who are as rich as the day is long. Man City in particular are shameless in their pursuit for the cream of the footballing crop, yet somehow they end up paying through the nose for second-rate players.

I wonder why that is? Manchester United fans will happily point to the fifty-odd years that City have gone without a trophy to answer that question.

There is no such thing as "unlimited" money, however, and the time will come when either spending is restricted severely or these owners will choose to draw their purse strings. When that happens, it will be the fans that pay the biggest price for the actions of those at the top.  Ask the supporters of Leeds and Portsmouth.

Mismanagement, irresponsible spending and an inflated market have in turn forced clubs to hike ticket prices in to generate more revenue and have any chance of buying half decent players to compete. Those fans that have been forced to worry about the financial state of their club are also being priced out of attending matches.  It is not acceptable, and it is appalling that the people who run the English game have not stepped in.

Back onto the football, there is another worrying side effect to the popularity of the Premier League—the lack of English talent coming through club academies.  I remember about ten years ago when the major topic of discussion was the amount of foreign players in the league and the possibility of them blocking the development of home-grown players, and now we’re seeing those fears manifest.

There’s no denying that the league has been better for its ability to attract the best players in the world, but at the same time the flow of talent coming from youth academies is now a trickle, and it is harder for youngsters to break through into the first team of a top club. Arsenal and Aston Villa are exceptions, with some exciting players coming through from both clubs. A handful of clubs producing talent is not enough however and with this happening, where are the future stars of the England team going to come from, and will they be good enough?

Speaking of England, various players have been feasted upon by the gossip-hungry English media for all the wrong reasons.  I don’t know which was the bigger disappointment, the irresponsible behaviour of the players off the pitch or their incompetence on it.

Rooney in particular has been a great source of headlines, especially with his recent contract dispute with Manchester United.  It is baffling that Sir Alex Ferguson allowed it to happen, but players now have more power than they deserve.  Money, not passion, is what drives them.  You only have to look at the new-found pulling power of Manchester City (a club that hasn’t won a trophy for decades) to realise that.

The Premier League is still regularly championed as the best in the world, with the most enthralling football, the best players and the most unpredictable matches.  To some extent, that is still true. It’s great when a newly promoted team such as Blackpool pulls off some shock results.  In addition, there are still exciting players in the league such as Cesc Fabregas and Didier Drogba.

That does not make the Premier League the best in the world, and despite the star names and hype, doesn't give England the right to host 2018 World Cup.

At the moment, the bad clearly outweighs the good with top flight English football and something will have to give.  Will it be the collapse of Manchester United? (Who is able to buy out their £800m debt?) A mass exodus of top players? Fan boycotts? An England team that fails to qualify for tournament after tournament? Those seem to be the worst-case scenarios, and as each season passes and more trials and tribulations are publicised, those scenarios are becoming more real.

Some effort has been put in to try and stop the downward spiral.  Bans from European competition have been threatened for clubs that report huge losses, which should curb the reckless spending.  UEFA and the Premier League have introduced "home-grown" player rules to make sure squads contain enough players from youth academies.  However, the fruits of all these efforts are yet to be seen.

And how to dampen the over sized (and mostly unjustified) egos of the players? Wage caps should be introduced to take away players’ negotiation power (see Wayne Rooney). Clubs that charge ridiculous ticket and merchandise prices also need to be addressed. The Premier League is extremely competitive financially, but it is the fans that hold it all together and over charging them will take its toll.

So football won't "be coming home" for a while at least, and until English football decides to get up off its arse and clean up its act, the wait may be a very long one.

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Sentinel Solar Announces the AHI™ Wave Energy Storage System for Home Batteries

by Aquion Partner

Aquion Global Partner Sentinel Solar Announces the Wave ESS: Complete Energy Storage System with Integrated Power Electronics for Plug and Play Solar + Storage Applications.

The System Features Industry Leading Inverter Technology and the Safest, Cleanest and Most Reliable Battery Chemistry Ever.

CONCORD, ON, Sept. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Sentinel Solar, a leading Canadian owned and operated solar products manufacturing and distribution company, will unveil its new energy storage system (ESS)–the AHI Wave, at this year's Solar Power International Conference in Las Vegas. Developed in partnership with leading global inverter and energy storage manufacturers, the Wave is a complete "plug and play" system; designed for residential use on new and existing grid interactive and off-grid energy storage applications.

Image: Sentinel Solar

Sentinel Solar's AHI™ Wave ESS is a complete solution that integrates the industry's leading and only Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) Aspen battery technology from Aquion Energy. The system incorporates an inverter designed and developed with world-class technology from Outback Power, including all wiring and communication devices within a fully engineered, robust enclosure.

"Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, have vast potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions in the electric sector but rapid adoption of these sources have been stalled due to the lack of sustainable and reliable energy storage capability," said Adam Webb, President, and CEO of Sentinel Solar. "The AHI Wave's complete energy storage solution addresses the issues faced by varying power demands and intermittent production from renewable energy sources. "

The AHI Wave ESS is designed to make the installation and setup simple with minimal hardware, drop in paneling and simplified wiring inputs. The base unit boasts a continuous output of 4kW with scalable flexibility for future expansion–thanks to its sophisticated system design–the Wave can grow as your energy demands change.

The AHI Wave ESS requires no active maintenance which makes it cost-efficient due in part to the high-performance AHI chemistry at its core. Aquion batteries coupled with leading Outback inverter technology makes the system cleaner, safer, and smarter.

Applications for the AHI Wave ESS transcends residential energy storage by offering solutions such as; peak load shaving, grid stabilization, self-consumption and remote power applications. The AHI Wave ESS closes the loop in the clean energy cycle to create a truly sustainable way of producing, storing and consuming clean and sustainable energy.

"Sentinel Solar designs and manufactures its products with skills and knowledge supported by strategic partnerships with emphasis on product performance," added Adam Webb. "We believe bridging industry leading technology with core Sentinel Solar expertise and engineering, leads to the design and manufacturing of affordable, reliable and durable products. "

"The AHI Wave is the latest product to be developed by Sentinel, and the passion behind it shows in the finished product," said Jason Cohen, Sales Manager at Sentinel Solar. "The Wave was designed with three key drivers in mind; safety, simplicity, and reliability. We strongly believe that not only do the products we produce need to work, but they need to be simple to install, this improves installer efficiency and lowers overall cost to the consumer." contact sentinel solar

About Sentinel Solar
Sentinel_LogoDarkSentinel Solar is a leading Canadian owned and operated distribution and manufacturing company providing solar energy products and solutions for power generation and storage suitable for any grid interactive and off-grid solar energy project throughout North America.

The company has established itself as the benchmark in the Canadian solar industry with its dedication to product excellence and customer satisfaction. Over 20 years' experience in Canada's solar industry, delivering top-quality products and constant innovation is what makes Sentinel Solar the reliable choice as your system provider.

Headquartered in Concord, Ontario and an office in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Sentinel Solar provides innovative solutions at competitive prices for roof, ground and architectural solar installations.

For more information, visit:

Contact:, Phone number: 1-888-950-6601

SOURCE Sentinel Solar

This article first appeared on PR Newswire. You can read the original article here.

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This post was originally written and released by one of Aquion's Global Partners.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

JBoss Drools 4.0 Released

JBoss Drools 4.0 has just been released :) We are really proud of what we have done here. We believe that we now have the best and most powerful declarative rule language, bar none; commercial or open source. The Rule Flow is excellent and I really enjoyed updating the Conway's Game of Life to Rule Flow; sub Rule Flows and milestone support will be coming in a point release soon. The BRMS has long been requested and we put a lot of effort into the ajax based design. The Eclipse improvements for the debug points and guided editor should help reduce learning curves, opening us to new audiences. Of course performance is now much better, especially for complex rules and the new Sequential Mode should be very popular with decision services.

Boss Drools 4.0 can be summarised as:
* More expressiveness.
* More powerful declarative keywords.
* Hibernate ready, with 'from' keyword for evaluating external data.
* Pluggable dialects, with new MVEL dialect.
* New Rule Flow and Eclipse modeller.
* Better Performance.
* IDE Improvements.
* Enterprise Ready with Web 2.0 Business Rules Management Studio.

* Presentation from Skills Matter
* What's new in JBoss Rules 4.0

Enjoy :)
The Drools Team
Mark Proctor, Michael Neale, Edson Tirelli, Kris Verlaenen, Fernando Meyer

Here is a more detailed enhancements list:
Language Expressiveness Enhancements
* New Conditional Elements: from(hibernate ready), collect, accumulate and forall
* New Field Constraint operators: not matches, not contains, in, not in, memberOf, not memberOf
* New Implicit Self Reference field: this
* Full support to Conditional Elements nesting, for First Order Logic completeness.
* Support to multi-restrictions and constraint connectives && and ||
* Parser improvements to remove previous language limitations, like character escaping and keyword conflicts
* Support to pluggable dialects and built-in support to Java and MVEL
* Complete rewrite of DSL engine, allowing for full l10n
* Fact attributes auto-vivification for return value restrictions and inline-eval constraints
* Support to nested accessors, property navigation and simplified collection, arrays and maps syntax
* Improved support to XML rules
* Experimental Clips parser support

Core Engine Enhancements
* Native support to primitive types, avoiding constant autoboxing
* Transparent optional Shadow Facts
* Rete Network performance improvements for complex rules
* Rule-Flow
* Stateful and Stateless working memories (rule engine sessions)
* Support for Asynchronous Working Memory actions
* Rules Engine Agent for hot deployment and BRMS integration
* Pluggeable dialects and and full support to MVEL scripting language
* Dynamic salience for rules conflict resolution
* Parameterized Queries
* halt command
* Sequential execution mode, faster performance and uses less memory
* Pluggable global variable resolver

IDE Enhancements
* Support for rule break-points on debugging
* WYSIWYG support to rule-flows
* New guided editor for rules authoring
* Upgrade to support all new engine features

Business Rules Management System - BRMS
* User friendly web interface with nice WEB 2.0 ajax features (GWT)
* Package configuration
* Rule Authoring easy to edit rules both with guided editor ( drop-down menus ) and text editor
* Package compilation and deployment
* Easy deployment with Rule Agent
* Easy to organize with categories and search assets
* Versioning enabled, you can easily replace yours assets with previously saved
* JCR compliant rule assets repository

Miscellaneous Enhancements
* Slimmed down dependencies and smaller memory footprint


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Announcing a new audio system for Volvo

Bowers & Wilkins in car audio for Volvo

The all-new Volvo XC90 system will be the first Bowers & Wilkins car audio product to feature tweeter-on-top technology

Due to be unveiled later this year, the XC90 is Volvo Car’s all-new SUV, featuring what is being hailed as its “most luxurious interior ever.” The XC90 audio system – the latest in a line of successful in-car systems designed by Bowers & Wilkins – includes tried and tested technologies such as Kevlar drive units. But it also introduces something entirely new for a Bowers & Wilkins car system, in the form of tweeter-on-top design.

Tweeter-on-top is a special feature found in some of our most advanced Hi-Fi speakers, such as the PM1 and the flagship of the CM Series, the CM10. With these models, the tweeter is separated from the body of the speaker and placed on top of the cabinet in its own enclosure. Isolating the tweeter in this way protects it from cabinet radiance and reflection, resulting in a more nuanced, lifelike sound, with a better sense of the detail and “space” around the performance.

While the Hi-Fi benefits of this design are well known, up until now we had never produced a car system that featured tweeter-on-top technology.  The all-new Volvo XC90 system changes that. And the results are quite something, according to our Head of Engineering Stuart Nevill.

“Tweeter-on-top technology has a number of advantages in the automotive environment,” says Stuart. “Fundamentally it increases the ratio of direct to reflected sound, as more of the signal reaches the listener directly from the tweeter, rather than reflecting off the windscreen first. All of this means that the Bowers & Wilkins audio system in the XC90 sounds incredibly tangible and lifelike.”

The full system is comprised of a 12-channel Harman 1,400 watts Class D amplifier serving a total of 19 Bowers & Wilkins speakers: four Nautilus tweeters in the front and rear doors, four Kevlar midrange speakers, four bass units, two 2-way surround speakers and one 2-way centre speaker (with tweeter on top). The speakers have been integrated into the cabin architecture and carefully tuned for optimum acoustics and the most immersive sound possible.

1 Comment

  • Mr E says:

    I’m 99% sure I’ll be purchasing a new Volvo XC90 in the near future. I’m very excited about the Bowers-Wilkins system but want to know if it’s worth the extra $2,600.00. I’ve been to 2 dealerships but neither I nor the 2 salesman could figure out how to fine tune the system. It looks fantastic but I need detailed instructions so I can listen properly and decide if it’s worth the big bucks. I saw a clip on YouTube with a whole list of fine tuning specs to click on but could not find it in either cars at the dealerships. Please help. I want to order my car soon.

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Join Our Online Community

Come join our 1,000+ friends on facebook and our 6,000+ followers on Twitter. We want to hear from you.

Rita said...

Is there anyway to send clean blankets, clothing, etc to places in Japan where people are in shelters? Perhaps it is not a good time to send such supplies -- since there is so much disorder/chaos in areas affected right now -- but just a thought.

Sandra Miniutti said...

Hi Rita,
I certainly understand your desire to help in a tangible way. However, sending supplies isn’t a practical way to help. Even if your package could get to Japan, no one is set up to receive these goods, much less organize and distribute them to the victims. Furthermore, charities are often able to partner with companies to acquire large amounts of in-kind donations such as bottled water and new clothing. Instead of boxing up and sending your old clothing, have a garage sale and turn your used goods into cash and donate that to a worthy charity.


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Beyonce criticized over Grammys performance

(Photo by Dan MacMedan/WireImage)

(Photo by Dan MacMedan/WireImage)

Pop superstar Beyonce has been criticized by campaigners over her risqué performance at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

The singer opened the show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles by performing her song “Drunk In Love” with her husband, rapper Jay Z, but her butt-baring stage costume and saucy dance moves have angered parents’ groups and female equality activists.

Many of her critics claim Beyonce’s performance was inappropriate for children, while others insist a barely-dressed woman dancing with a fully clothed man promotes inequality among the sexes.

Pippa Smith, of SaferMedia, tells Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, “There is something rotten at the heart of this so-called ‘music’ industry when young women celebrities and now a husband and wife start to behave in such an obscenely sexual manner at events popular with all ages. They are doing enormous harm to children’s perception of what is normal behavior.”

Mediawatch-UK spokeswoman Vivienne Pattison adds, “In this footage Beyonce is wearing a really skimpy outfit but Jay Z is not. If girls and women are seen exclusively as sexual beings rather than as complicated people with many interests, talents and identities, boys and men may have difficulty relating to them on any level other than the sexual.”


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Meatless Monday: Monster Mushroom Burger

portobello mushroom burger

Like a burger, but better.

The portobello mushroom burger — the ubiquitous vegetarian summer picnic meal — isn’t really a burger at all. Which is to say it isn’t chopped meat formed into a patty, but rather a food found in nature with a natural hamburger bun size and shape. It’s perfect, really. Thank you, nature, for a food that’s shaped like a sandwich and requires virtually no work to prepare.

Bobby Deen’s Monster Mushroom Burger is one such “burger” that will let you picnic with your pals without having to participate in the pressing together of raw meat into patties. Giant, bun-sized portobello mushrooms are marinated in oil and vinegar, grilled and layered on a bun with a creamy herbed yogurt sauce, arugula, tomato, onion and roasted red peppers. If you’re inclined, add a slice of provolone or a smear of goat cheese and make it a cheese “burger.”

Monster Mushroom Burger
Serves 4

4 large portobello mushrooms caps, wiped cleaned
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek-style yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 lime, zested and juiced
4 large slices whole-grain peasant bread, each cut in half
1 cup baby arugula
1 large tomato, cut into 8 slices
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup roasted red pepper strips, drained

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.

Place the mushrooms in a baking dish or pie plate. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper until blended. Brush the mushrooms with the vinegar mixture; let stand for up to 15 minutes.

Place the mushrooms on the grill rack and grill until tender, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Meanwhile, combine the yogurt, rosemary and zest and juice of the lime in a small bowl until blended. Brush the bread slices with the yogurt mixture. Layer half the slices with the mushrooms, arugula, tomatoes, onions and red pepper strips. Top with the remaining bread slices. Serve immediately.

Get the printable recipe here.

More Meaty-Yet-Meatless Portobello Mushroom Recipes:


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product spotlight: alpha beta® daily glow moisture

Sure, we at the corporate office all love a new product when it launches, but this one is particularly special.

Alpha Beta® Daily Glow Moisture
Alpha Beta® Daily Glow Moisture
I feel like everything out there – and I don’t just mean skincare – claims that everyone can use it or it looks good on anyone. You know what happens when I try a product that’s one-size-fits-all? I end up hating it. Whether it’s foundation that automatically matches your skintone (too dark!), hair oils that are for all textures (too greasy!) and everything in between, I’m often dissatisfied with something that I, along with everyone else, am supposed to be able to use.

But Alpha Beta® Daily Glow Moisture is different.

It really IS good for everyone. After all, we did sell out on QVC last week (more on this later). It’s an oil-free, lightweight moisturizer (love it) with anti-aging ingredients (need it) and it imparts a subtle glow into dull, tired-looking skin (okay, I’m sold!). I look perpetually tired, thanks to my Mediterranean background and my difficulty getting to bed on time, so I’ll take all the help I can get – and the boost that this product gives me is just the trick. This radiance I’m talking about? It’s just a little somethin’-somethin’ added to your complexion – no Oompa Loompa orange or anything, just a healthier, more awake-looking face. My skin looks so good when I use it that I’m finding I need less foundation, bronzer, and concealer – letting me hit the snooze button a few more times in the morning. The compliments I’m getting on my skin don’t hurt, either.

Have you tried Alpha Beta® Daily Glow Moisture yet? What’s stopping you? Check out the QVC sell if you haven’t already, and be sure to let me know what questions you have.

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  1. Robin P

    We are looking forward to learning about this product at our Dr. Dennis Gross training next week in The Boutique Spa at The Ritz-Carlton Washington, DC in Georgetown!

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Here's where we keep you updated on news about parenting as it relates to division of responsibilities, career versus home decisions, work/life balance, and legislative and grass-roots movements toward equality or better choices for families. We'll also throw in our opinions of life as equal parents in a nonequal world, regardless of what's in the news.

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Equality Blog

Sunday, January 25, 2009

ESP Book Review: An Unconventional Family

It's once again time for one of our embarrassingly belated book reviews! While we're dedicated to staying up on what's currently being printed that relates to equally shared parenting, we often take our sweet time getting around to reading some of the classics. One of these is Sandra Lipsitz Bem's An Unconventional Family, published in 1998 by Yale University Press.

Dr. Bem is a professor of psychology, women's studies, and lesbian, bisexual and gay studies at Cornell University. An Unconventional Family is her personal story - her in-depth description of attempting to raise her two children in a gender neutral way with her then-husband, Daryl Bem. The book describes their courtship and the rules they set up for their marriage, one that they hoped would be fully egalitarian, and for instilling feminist values and gender/sexual preference-neutral views in their children.

The book is fascinating, especially the chapters on Egalitarian Partnering and Feminist Child-Rearing. The end chapters evaluating their success are also very enlightening, and include interviews with each of their grown children. And, to us specifically, Dr. Bem's vivid description of how the couple took their messages out into the world via lectures and papers really hit home - they are our foreparents in wanting to tell the world about ESP!

The Bems approached ESP from a decidedly feminist point of view - it's fair, it's right, it's how the world should be. We approach ESP differently, although we certainly believe it is fair and right; we are motivated primarily by how it simply allows us both to live our best lives. And the Bems' equality motives go beyond just ESP into gender neutrality (a stance definitely taken by a subgroup of ESP families). But despite these differences, we heartily recommend reading An Unconventional Family and have added it to our list of Resources.

Now you might have noticed a small detail in the words above. That detail is the 'then' before 'husband.' Yes, sadly, the Bems are no longer married. The book covers why in wonderful detail, and we found their story of separation to be a huge warning to us - and to every ESP couple.

Both Sandra Bem and Daryl Bem (in an epilogue) agree that they started out marriage with full equality. When their children were young, they parented equally and all was well. But they didn't appreciate how they needed to guard this equality with vigilence, and they slowly arched towards Sandra as the primary parent over time. The problem got worse during their children's teenage years, with Sandra gravitating toward the emotional nurturing and Daryl deferring to Sandra's accumulating 'expertise.' Daryl didn't stand up for his co-parent rights; Sandra didn't wait for him to exert them. As Sandra writes, "Over time, this interaction process transformed our family. No longer were we two reasonable happy and well-functioning, even if overlygendered, little subunits. Instead we were a mother-and-kids subunit struggling, sometimes well and sometimes not so well, with problems that required attention, and a husband-and-wife subunit still functioning adequately on the surface but with a new estrangement festering below." Sandra and Daryl, whose marriage was defined by equality, no longer had this core element in their relationship.

An Unconventional Family is an interesting study in gender bending for the non-ESP reader. For the ESP reader, however, it is a wake up call to stay on track with equality. Sandra and Daryl both say that they would not have partnered any other way, even if they had it all to do over. But their experience, so well detailed for us in this important book, can help the rest of us remember that the work of ESP doesn't end after a few years of successful childraising. Like anything different and worthy, ESP must be tended at each stage of the children's and parents' lives.

Thank you, Sandra and Daryl, for your wisdom and your story.

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3:32 AM

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Adiscon LogAnalyzer now supports MongoDB

I just wanted to share the good news that Andre, LogAnalyzer's development lead, today finished implementing a logstream driver for MongoDB. So this nice tool can now also be used to access MongoDB based data. Andre's lab data was created by rsyslog's ommongo output module (you currently need rsyslog git master branch to make this work). The logstream driver is not yet really optimized and we do not make full use of the NoSQL capabilites (like different schemas inside a single collection and all this). However, there is lots of exciting stuff on the todo list and I thought I mention a first successful step - and probably a quite important one if you "just want to use that thing" ;) So: good news for a Friday!

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Social Marketing WIN by Michel-Schlumberger Winery

Social Marketing WIN by Michel-Schlumberger Winery: "

We are so accustomed to reading about FAILS on the internet, there are entire websites dedicated to spotlighting failures. Well I wanted to take a few moments to draw some attention to a WIN that I experienced.

So many businesses are jumping into the social marketing, location based marketing world, because they need to be there. But you see the Internet riddled with the ghost town efforts of so many of them. They think if you build it they (customers) will come. Not the case. Here is tip number one, you need to invest some time and effort into your social marketing efforts if you want to see success. It is not extremely difficult, but you do have to work at it.

Let me give you an example on how it can work.

My girlfriend and I took a weekend trip up to the California wine country, Healdsburg, CA. We arrived on a Friday and checked into our hotel. Now remember I am the customer, even though I am a marketing professional. I also checked in on Foursquare that I was in Healdsburg. Foursquare also automatically updated my Twitter account. A couple hours later I get a Twitter reply from the Michel-Schlumberger winery inviting me to come visit; that they are only 8 minutes away. We already had a list of wineries we wanted to visit and they were not on the list. But....

Because of the invite I went to their website. We were both impressed with the winery and decided to add them to the list of visits on Saturday. WIN!

Fast forward to Saturday. We arrive at the winery and I again check in on Foursquare. I am immediately given a coupon for one free tasting because of the checkin. WIN!

We sit down for our tasting and immediately fall in love with their wines. So much that we decided to have a picnic lunch on their grounds and buy a bottle of wine right then to have with lunch and another bottle to take with us. WIN!

Now guess what. They have two new customers. How much did they have to spend to acquire us? Some time on Twitter and Foursquare and one free tasting. As a marketing professional I will take that CPA any day!

Upon leaving the winery I added a glowing review to Foursquare and immediately told some relatives who frequently visit wine country to make sure they stop at the winery.

That is how simple social marketing can be and how easily you can acquire new customers. If you believe in your product just personally extend a invite, offer a simple coupon and let your product and the customer do all the rest.

Do you want some help in doing this? Let me know and I would be happy to discuss with you how quickly you can get setup to do the same thing.

1 comment:

Jim said...

Michael, Thank you for your kind words about what we do at Michel-Schlumberger. We are a small winery off the beaten track and we simply have to be a bit more clever than most to get people out our way. One to one marketing works very well for us. I have repeated your scenario quite often and have shown significant sales as a result.

Thank you so much for your business and your recommendation to friends. We look forward to seeing you up here again soon.

All the best,

Jim Morris


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Yamaha revealed its 2012 YZ250F motocross bike with a number of updates.

The 2012 Yamaha YZ250F gets several engine refinements including a new 39mm carburetor, compared to the 2011 version’s 37mm carb. The piston and piston pin are said to be lighter, while the connecting rod and counterbalancer are also new. Yamaha says the YZ250F has been optimized to produce more power from 8000 to 12,000 rpm. The new exhaust system has been designed to meet 94dB sound limits.

The 250’s bilateral beam frame has been tweaked, promising increased performance on corner exits and added stability on rough straights.

The front fork has also been tweaked for added torsional rigidity while both front and rear suspension have been optimized for the new frame.

The 2012 Yamaha YZ250F will be offered in two color options, Yamaha Blue and White or White and Red.

2012 Yamaha YZ250F

  • phillip cutrer

    is this bike still for sell

  • ahmed

    how much is this


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Posts filtered on Tag

Tag: Brandeis

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Steele and Brandeis remain near the top of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches in this week’s poll. The Knights remain third in this week’s Class 6A poll released on Monday. An undefeated

Football: Drone captures Brandeis-O’Connor aerial footage

Earlier this week we talked about a drone that made an appearance at the Brandeis-O’Connor game. Well we now know what the drone was up to. Here is the footage the drone captured from Farris Stadium

Football: Brandeis’ backfield expected to play key role for Broncos

Brandeis coach Jeff Fleener knew he had a couple of good backfield options during Tuesday afternoon’s practice at Farris Stadium. He could go with Jaylon Dukes, the small and elusive senior running

Baseball: Reagan assistant takes over at Brandeis

Considering how Reagan Moczygemba was raised, it wasn’t too hard to envision the 27-year-old to coach a team of his own one day. The son of a coach picked up the family profession as soon as he

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Jeff Hamilton wasted no time in getting acquainted with his new job. The day after Hamilton was approved as Bandera’s new football coach, he headed to Kingsville to for the Region IV-4A track and

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When Brandeis hired Jeff Fleener to be its football coach earlier this year, they weren’t just getting Allen’s offensive coordinator and a key piece in the school’s three consecutive titles. Brandeis

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Only a certain kind of job was going to make Jeff Fleener leave one of the state’s most successful high school football programs. So when Brandeis started looking for a coach, Fleener jumped at the

Football: Dallas-area assistant named new Brandeis coach

Brandeis has hired Jeff Fleener to become the school’s next football coach and athletic coordinator. Fleener was previously the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Allen, which won its

Campbell resigns as Brandeis head football coach

John Campbell has resigned as Brandeis head football coach and athletic coordinator, according to Northside ISD athletic director Stan Laing. Campbell became the school’s first coach when it opened in


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Bad decision by Romo

PHILADELPHIA – Tony Romo has looked sharp in the early going, but he made a poor decision by throwing to Roy Williams in the left flat on third-and-1 from the Philadelphia 15.

CB Joselio Hanson smothered the play for a 4-yard loss. Nick Folk salvaged the impressive 15-play, 61-yard march with a 37-yard FG.

The drive, which knotted the score at 3-3 with with 41 seconds left in the first quarter, took 8:58 off the clock.

Romo is 6 of 9 for 36 yards.

Tom Orsborn


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Is He Really The Funniest?

After performing in San Antonio in both 2009 and 2010 (opening for Larry The Cable Guy and Chelsea Handler, respectively), comedian Josh Wolf returns to San Antonio on Friday (August 1) headlining a

Anyone Need Gas Money?

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How I Lost $650,000 on the Spurs

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